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

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
10:02 GMT -4

I stand at parade rest just outside the perimeter fence as the doors of the Gloria McDonald Prison open. First out is one of the wardens, who walks down the steps and makes eye contact with me -I think I see a slight smile- before turning back towards the open door and nodding. Next, Jade walks down the steps, travel bag slung over her left shoulder. She's wearing grey, tight fitting jeans, plain white t-shirt and a green coat. She takes a moment to look over the area on the other side of the fence and I decide that the correct thing to do is grin manically and wave my arms like I'm trying to guide a jet aircraft down.

I think I see her sigh.

She turns to face the warden and says something. I can't hear it from here unaided and I don't want to start off by eavesdropping. A moment later they shake hands and the warden pats her on the shoulder as she turns away and heads towards the outer gate. Huh. She didn't flinch or tense up at all when the older woman touched her. Sounds weird to say this, but maybe the time in prison has done her some real good. I mean, she's always looked fine when I've been around but that's only a few hours a week.

There's a loud buzz as the gate is remotely unlocked. Jade stands still until it's fully retracted and then slowly walks out of the prison, looking slowly around as she does so. I hurry towards her with a slight spring in my step. "Hi Jade!"

"You know, you could have waited inside."

I frown. "No I couldn't."

"You dropped off my clothes fifteen minutes ago."

"I honestly hadn't realised that you only had that sawn off kimono thing until I got your phone call."

She rolls her eyes and looks around again. "I was kinda hoping Artemis or Mom might show up."

"They're busy setting up your 'Welcome to Freedom' party. It's quicker for me to just pick you up and take you there."

"Oh."

I blink. "Oh, Jade, did you-?" I step forwards and wrap my arms around her shoulders, pulling her into my chest. I haven't done this for a while, she usually just complains… She's relaxing. Oh. That's new. She's not exactly hugging me back, but her hands are sort of around my waist. I incline my head slightly. Okay, so how long is 'nice' without being 'creep-'.

She stiffens. "Did you just sniff my hair?"

Um. "Jade, I'm fifteen centimetres taller than you. That's just where my nose is."

She doesn't say anything for a moment, a little of the tension easing out. "I've been using prison conditioner for six months."

"Was that my cue for a prison shower soap joke?"

"No."

"Because I didn't think they'd be funny while you were still inside, but now that you're out-."

She transfers her hands to my chest and pushes me back. "So where's this party happening? Mom's place?"

"Artemis didn't tell you?"

Slight frown. "No?"

"Your grandparents are hosting. But first I though we'd-."

"Grandpa died when I was seven and Grandma lives in a hut."

"Oh! Right. I never said… Okay, that's not true anymore." She gives me a 'not-sure-if-crazy-person' look. "No, he's.. still dead, but I gave Grandma Nguyen's house a bit of an upgrade a few…" I frown. "Um… Just after you transferred here, actually. And we're picking her up, but we're actually going to your paternal grandparents' house."

The first flicker of alarm appears in her eyes.

"No, it's cool! Your grandfather hates your dad even more…" No. "About as much as you do. I haven't met your uncle, your aunt or your cousins yet, but they decided to turn this whole thing into a bit of a family get together."

"My..?" She frowns. "Dad never mentioned-?"

"I know! They had a massive falling out after he left the army and became a mercenary. Oh! Oh! Did you know that his name's actually 'Lawrence Crock Junior'!?"

She stares at me for a moment. "Junior?"

"Yep."

She blinks, eyes not entirely focused. "They call him.. 'Junior'? That's…" She shakes her head. "Are we picking up Grandma right away?"

"I sort of want to talk to you about some stuff first. First off." A beam of orange light illuminates her bag and deposits it in subspace. "Second thing, I'm not sure where you were planning to live now, but I've spoken to a couple of friends of mine in Gotham and they're willing to rent you a room… If you don't want to move back in with Artemis and your mother."

"Mm. Not planning to offer me a place to stay yourself?"

"I live in a superhero base. It's going to be a while before my superiors are willing to give you access."

"I thought you lived in that ice fortress?"

I shake my head. "No, and while you can if you want, it's only really accessible by flight or zeta tube… Using the Justice League's network, so… Same problem. Also, the Spetsnaz boarded it one time…"

"Moving back in with Mom… I don't think that would work. Who are these friends, exactly?"

"A former cat burglar and a travel agent. House is a bit big for them, really, but it was in a good part of town and cheap thanks to the murders."

That last point gets a small smile. "I'll look it over. Anything else?"

"Yeah." I take a deep breath.

"Here we go."

"I had to do this some time. I.. really don't want you to fall back into your old habits, so I'm appointing myself your.. 'sponsor'."

"Sponsor. Really?"

"Really. I've already destroyed the League of Shadows. I can find outlets for your talents that are either legal or.. less illegal. But, I'm worried it won't be enough. So I've decided I'm going to have to whitemail you."

She inclines her head slightly. "White mail."

I beam. "Last time I checked!"

She slowly closes her eyes, exhaling as she does so. Then she breathes in just as slowly and opens them. "Blackmailing someone involves threatening to reveal things they'd rather people not find out about. I already know you've got everything you need to send me to prison for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, funny thing? After Batman and I went through all the stuff we got from the League of Shadows to prepare it for being passed to the prosecuting authorities, two files ended up not getting handed over. Yours, and Talia al Ghul's." I shrug. "He's watching her, I'm watching you. But that's not what I'm threatening you with."

"You're threatening.. not to tell people things?"

"No, come on."

She looks away from me as she tries to work it out. A few seconds later there's a moment of realisation. "I had to be moved from Belle Reve because people knew we were friends. You're threatening to tell people good things about me."

I smile and nod. "Of course, first comes the entrapment. I have to trick you into doing something so good, no criminal will ever trust you again. And then I have to publicise it." I reach out and tap my right forefinger on her left shoulder, the scenery around us flickering as I make contact.

26th March
21:06 GMT +7

We appear in the sky high over Vietnam, the whole of South East Asia spread out below us.

"Tell me: what do you know about Agent Orange?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
21:07 GMT +7

She takes a moment to look at the greenery below us before shifting her gaze to the coastline. Probably trying to work out exactly where we are.

"It's a chemical herbicide the US military used on Vietnamese jungles and farms during the Vietnam War."

"Yep." She glances at me. "Keep going."

"They didn't just use it to attack the North. It also got used on rural areas in the South that they thought supported the Communists to drive people off the land and into cities the US could control."

"That worked pretty well." I blink, and national borders appear in our field of vision as thick orange lines, with thinner ones for provincial boundaries.

"I also know that it causes cancer and birth defects and that there's enough of it still in the soil in a lot of places that people are still being affected."

I fill in the national boundaries with orange intensity corresponding to the level of contamination. "Yep. Vietnam being what it is, it's hard for me to get completely reliable figures on how much, but it's a lot."

"The Vietnam War was bad. I get it. I went to school in America. No one really tries to defend it anymore."

"Ra's did. Batman actually wrote down what he said about it during one of his post-Pit rants. He thought that the longevity of the toxins involved suggested great potential for his whole 'depopulate the world' mission. No, it's not a chemical warfare agent, it's a herbicide. An insecticide. He actually tried to-."

"Are we here for a reason?"

"I was hoping you'd be a bit more annoyed than this."

I get a puzzled frown. "I'm an American. I've been to Vietnam twice my entire life."

I nod. "You know, I have the same problem. Hard to care about things you don't have a personal investment in, isn't it?" I nod, more to myself than to her. "When Klarion split the world... There were a lot of injured children right in front of me, and I could only heal a few of them. If they'd been my friends… One wave of orange, no more problem. People I don't know?" I pause for a moment. "How well do you remember the funeral?"

"I don't remember much. There were a lot of strange people around and I didn't speak Vietnamese very well."

"Do you remember… Artemis called him 'Funny Uncle Hien'? One of your mother's younger brothers?"

She frowns, trying to think back. "I think I remember him. He was looking after the children."

"No, he wasn't. It was just easier for the person looking after him to keep an eye on the rest of you as well." I highlight the -I hesitate to call it this- hospital below us. They do their best, but this isn't a rich country by any stretch of the imagination. Then I create a construct showing his distorted face, his stick-thin and malformed limbs and the ichthyosis on his skin. "Obviously you wouldn't have realised what was wrong with him at that age. The fact that both of your maternal grandparents were exposed to the stuff shouldn't really be a surprise. If anything, the fact that they had unaffected children at all is the odd thing. He's forty five and he has the mental age-."

Jade doesn't look at the image, instead focusing her full attention on me. "And what exactly-" I take hold of John's ring with my left forefinger and thumb. "-do you expect me-" I pull it off- "-to do about it?" -and hold it out to her. She blinks, looks down at it, then back up to my face as her eyes widen.

"I want you to want to fix it. I want you to see the same wrongness in this as I did when I heard that the government of Britain used the same stuff during the Malayan Emergency. And when you feel that, I want you to take this ring-" I wiggle it. "-and fix it."

"Why haven't you?"

"No personal investment at all. The sad fact is, these faces…" I generate constructs of a few cases. Young children for the most part, though of course they won't remain young children. "I could do Malaya because it was Britain… Even though I'm not a British citizen, I feel.. responsible. Britain kept out of Vietnam." I shrug.

"So, what? That's your plan? Get me to join the Orange Lantern Corps?"

"No, this is a one off. Maybe -if you don't find the experience completely horrifying- you could start learning how to use the orange light in a controlled way with a view to eventually joining. For this exercise, a strong impetus to bring about a change is all that is required. The ring-" I wiggle it again. "-has all the data on Human physiology and soil chemistry it needs. It just needs someone who cares. Someone whom I trust to try."

Her eyes go to the ring again. She's definitely nervous about touching it. "I thought those things drove people crazy."

"Definitely a risk. But I'll still have a ring and I'm a much more capable Lantern than you'll be. Unless I've very much misread you, short term exposure -even high intensity exposure- shouldn't cause lasting psychological harm."

"That's reassuring."

I close my left hand and then open it again, John's ring lying flat on my palm. "Well?"

I can clearly see the orange inside her, swirling and churning. I'm certainly not going to tell her quite what the percentage her desire to prove her value to me is of her final decision, but it's in the mix along with her desire for power and purpose. That's fine, empathy isn't what I need. The normal reaction of the Human psyche to such horrific deformity is there, but there's no special connection to the country as a whole. I suppose it was a bit of a stretch to think that she'd regard the people of Vietnam as being hers. She also wants a combat challenge after six months' imprisonment, and this is the closest I could arrange. I'm not putting her in an actual fight with a ring without doing an awful lot of preparation first. There's the ever-present need to defy her father. The final significant factor is the fear she feels, both of the ring and of the radical change in her life I'm forcing on her.

A fear she instinctively reacts against, wanting to overcome it without its existence being noticed by anyone.

She reaches out with her left hand and I pull the ring back slightly. "No, not like that. Call it to you. Focus your mind on your desires, your wants, your needs. Focus your mind on actualising them through this ring. Demand that it appear on your finger."

Her eyes narrow, remaining fixed on the ring as she raises her left hand slightly and spreads out her fingers. Her breathing slows as she puts those mental techniques she learned with the Shadows to use. Inside her I see the confusing blur of lights slow as she makes herself consciously aware of them and imposes structure. Similarly, I still my own mind so as not to crowd out her far weaker grasp.

I feel a very slight vibration from the ring in the palm of my hand. The minutest flicker of orange light running around the inner surface. Everything in Jade that isn't orange fades into the background. The ring is glowing now, not with the brilliant light it has when I use it but she's definitely formed a connection.

She stretches out her left hand once more. "It's mine."

The ring shoots onto her ring finger and Jade is consumed in orange light.

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
21:11 GMT +7

Immediately I shift position, moving behind her, pressing myself against her back and placing my arms under hers. I can't see her, but I can feel her both by the pressure on my skin and by my awareness of the orange light. She doesn't appear to be changing herself in the way I did when I first got hold of the ring. Better self image I suppose. Internally… She looks more or less the same, though the orange light pouring through her is reinforcing her desire structures.

I feel her grab onto my wrists as the lights begin to fade away. She hasn't changed her body but -pfff!- her hair is back to its puffed-up Cheshire mode. The green of her coat has been replaced with dull orange, decorative stitching glowing bright orange to match the sigil in the centre of her chest. Her face is covered in a glowing construct mask.

"H-aaah."

"How do you feel, Lantern Nguyen?"

Still holding onto my wrists, she pulls her arms into her stomach. "Strange. I... No, that's not important. You gave me this ring to do a job. How do I do it?"

"To complete the task, you need precise information on the physical state of those beneath us. Don't try taking it all at once, that will just overwhelm you. Pick a single individual-"

"Uncle Hien."

"-and have the ring show you his body in detail. You don't need to focus on every individual change you need to make, the ring can handle that far better than you can. Focus instead on the objective you wish to achieve. The ring knows what a fully healthy-."

The orange light around Jade flares and a tight bundle of orange cables extrudes rapidly downwards, shooting towards the hospital. I.. suppose that.. would be a bit more instinctive than the filament and orange light pulses I use.

"Do you have a clear idea of what you're doing?"

She pushes gently back into me, leaning a little to the left and turning her head right so she can look me in the face. "Is it like this for you all the time?"

"I imagine in my case it's rather stronger. Can you create a construct to show me what's happening?"

"Can't you see for yourself?"

"I can do lots of things. I want to see what you can do."

An image of Mister Nguyen's room appears in front of us as the cables shoot through the open windows and latch onto him. He struggles for a moment and then a cable attaches itself to his forehead. "Sleep." He relaxes. "I can see everything wrong. It's…"

"Then you know what you have to do, don't you?"

"Skin." The image shows his skin smoothing, though the effect is probably more obvious in colour. "Arms." Bone, muscle, fat and skin flow out of the unfinished end of his right arm, creating a forearm and a hand. Both arms swell as more muscle tissue is added to them and I'm sure other minor defects are being corrected as well. "Legs." The legs are as thin as the arms, joints malformed in a way that makes me wince to examine it. They swell with new muscle and straighten out as Jade fixes them. "Head." His features shift as she goes to complete-. "His brain. Parts just.. aren't there. How-?"

"Don't worry about it. When I healed Mister Huang in Taiwan I didn't have a prior scan of his brain to work from. Add the bits that are missing, the ring can work out what they should look like from his DNA."

"You improved his brain."

"If you don't know exactly what it should look like, why not make it as good as it can be?"

"Then Uncle Hien gets the best brain." He's still unconscious as the cables deposit him back on his chair. "That wasn't so hard."

"You haven't finished the assignment yet, have you?"

"No, I haven't." The image explodes, the light reforming as a three dimensional model of the hospital. I see the cables extend out through the doors of her uncle's room and spread out up and down the corridor. Staff dive out of the way and the cables begin branching and pushing their way into the rooms of the other patients. "Fixed." A girl child with a head that looks like someone squeezed and then twisted it. "Fixed." A youth with no eyes or eye sockets seeing for the first time. "Fixed." Cancerous growths to match any Argonate user, gone. "Fixed. Fixed. Fixed. Fixed. Fixed. Fixedfixedfixedfixedfixed…"

I have the other ring check her work. Aside from the slightly odd way her orange light is pulsing, she's doing a great job. Clearly she's got a much better sense of professionalism than I have.

"…fixedfixedfixedfixedfixed…"

Shame I can't compare this to Richard's situation. I just didn't have the same awareness back then.

"Aaaaagh!"

I glance down to see several members of staff fleeing the building. Didn't want to get their hopes up by warning them, though I did notify someone from the Central Commission of Internal Affairs that I intended to operate in the area. They appeared to still be pretty grateful for all the construction work I did last time so I don't think this will be a problem.

"Fixedfixed… All done." Jade closes her left fist, deleting the cables and the image of the hospital. She's glowing quite brightly. "I want more! What'snext!"

Ah yes, the old crazy/power balancing act. I haven't lost control of the situation yet and this situation does require more power… "Next, is the soil. We need all the residual herbicide gone in order to prevent another generation of cripples being born. Can you do that for me?"

Her grip on my hands tightens. "Yes."

Orange shifts inside her as conflicting desire strains are discontinued-. That actually might be a bad idea. Hm. The glow around us intensifies as the ring feeds her data on the magnitude of the task. One hundred and twenty eight thousand square miles. Goodness knows how many tonnes of the stuff. If I was properly invested, I could probably do it but I've got no idea what the peak output of a rookie Orange Lantern is.

"Hrwaaaagh!"

A translucent orange column blasts downwards, passing through solid objects to get at the ground. I keep watching as the energy radiates out across the province and further, out across the country. Marvelo-. Oh dear, Jade's breathing hard and the activity in her brain-.

"Jade, you've done a good job. You can stop now."

"I'm nearly..! Nearly there!"

No, this is getting to the point where she risks harming herself. I extend my own aura into her and press against the orange strands.

Still.

The blazing orange light dims and disintegrates. She gasps for air, mask construct disintegrating as her grip on my hands loosens. I pull my arms free and drift around to her front. "How was it?"

She bends over slightly in the air, still breathing hard. "That was… I-. I wanted…"

"Yes." I generate constructs, showing before and after images of the people she just healed. "You did a very good job." She straightens up slightly, looking at the images. I hold out my right hand. "Will you please return my ring to-?"

She pulls it off her finger and tosses it back before I can finish asking, and I attach a filament to her before she can plummet to the ground. "I-. That was… Overwhelming. I don't think I'm ready for that."

"I wasn't expecting you to be." I return it to my right forefinger. "But if you do decide to take the training, that's what you'd be letting yourself in for. Now: time for you to take the credit."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
10:37 GMT -5

"I don't think anyone in America will care about that, even if it did get televised."

We're in Ripon, Wisconsin, walking along Newbury Street on the way to the home of Cynthia and Lawrence Crock. Senior. We could have just appeared in front of their house, but I thought that Jade might want to talk about events… Decompress a bit. Missus Nguyen Senior is ambling along in front of us, appearing to be thoroughly enjoying her outing. Haven't told her the good news about her son yet and I don't plan to until I can do a proper assessment of his mental state. Of course, I'm not going to stop Jade doing so if she so chooses.

"Prospective employers will. Working with a known superhero, saving lives with no thought to payment…"

Jade's effort in Vietnam almost completely drained John's ring, conducted biological repairs on about five hundred people and reduced the total soil contamination of Vietnam by about forty percent. An outcome like that -where you can't say that the problem is definitively dealt with- isn't particularly satisfying. Well, I've never found it particularly satisfying. And it would feel strange to have boasted about it in a press conference. As it was, we got a recorded meeting with the Head of the Central Commission of Internal Affairs, parts of which will be played by the state broadcaster as soon as they can finish editing it.

I'm.. probably.. going to feel obliged to go back and finish the job. It'll take me longer, but seeing what that crap does to people firsthand is giving me the motivation.

"You were taking a big risk." She glances at me, then returns her gaze to the pavement in front of us. "Lending me your ring like that."

"My objective is getting you on the straight and narrow. In the pursuit of that objective I am willing to take quite significant risks." I rock my head from side to side. "Though… Unless you flipped out completely-."

"You could have taken it back."

"If you were good enough that I couldn't, you wouldn't have needed me to." I nudge her with my right elbow. "So? Think you'd be interested in learning it?"

"I…" She shakes her head. "No. Not any time soon, anyway." She looks away, taking in the houses on the opposite side of the road. "I think I'm going to just try 'normal' for a little while."

"Really? What brought this on? Was it.. that bad?"

She doesn't reply for a moment, a small frown appearing on her forehead. "You remember Madison? You met her in the kitchen a few times."

"Yes?"

"Apparently her son's been doing much better in school lately."

"I'm glad to hear it?"

"He had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder."

I nod. "It's such a shame that psychopharmacology isn't advanced enough to safely and reliably treat that."

"Stacey's building super fixed their heating about a month and a half ago."

"Good of him."

"About two days after she complained about it when you were there."

"Is that so?"

"Shannon's husband owed money to a loan shark. He's now being investigated by the police."

"Sounds thoroughly deserv-."

She stops suddenly, grabbing my upper right arm with her left hand. "Did you fix everyone's personal problems?"

"No, not everyone. Just anything I could fix through legal mechanisms or by my own labours. Didn't realise there was that much lead paint left in Rhode Island."

"Lending money isn't illegal."

"No, but if you don't have the right licence the debt may be unenforceable. And even if you do have a license, sending a burly bloke around once a week to demand money isn't allowed. The restraining orders and the police investigation should stop things getting further out of hand."

She studies my face for a moment. "You did that… What, so I'd be in a happy prison?"

"Reduced stress, reduced instances of violence, generally more…" I nod. "Optimistic outlook." I shrug. "I'm a little surprised you didn't spot it before, actually. I wasn't trying to hide it so much as not draw attention to it."

She rolls her eyes as she turns to continue down the street. "Some of us only just got your brain upgrade."

..!

"I'm sorry, what?"

She glances back, slightly puzzled. "The amygdala thing you did to Mister Huang? I've only had it for half an hour-."

My eyebrows go up. "Y-you did that?"

"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I? You know how much smarter it made him."

"Yes, but… It alters the way you process information. It pretty much forces you to be more empathic."

"If you've got it then it can't be all that bad."

I shake my head. "Jade, I… I.. didn't do that to myself."

Her eyes widen slightly. "Oooh."

"I've done some work on my brain… Gradual incremental improvements… I did consider adding in new inter-hemispherical connections, but I didn't want to risk doing anything radical in case it became a problem and I couldn't undo it."

"How much of a problem is this going to be?"

"I don't know, I've only ever done it to one person before. It.. shouldn't be a problem at all. I mean, assuming you only did what I did to Mister Huang. If you went beyond peak Human there might be problems."

"Okay." She nods. "You might want to put some kind of warning on that file. Though on the positive side you've got plenty of people to study now."

"A-all of them?"

"Hey, you said-!"

"Yes. I'm not saying that was.. wrong." Could be an invaluable opportunity, actually. I've been a bit nervous about… Call it what it is, Human experimentation. And they are going to need to pick up new skills rapidly… "No, you know what? Good choice. I was just a bit surprised."

"Is it this house?"

We both look over to where Missus Nguyen is standing in front of the Crock residence.

"Yes, that's the one. Sorry, we just got a bit-."

"That's quite alright. I am glad to see little Jade making friends." She pauses for a moment. "When we are inside, I may need one of you to translate for me. I have not spoken English regularly for over fifty years."

Jade and I look at each other. "Table this for now?"

"That's probably best. So, let's meet my family."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
10:41 GMT -5

I press the doorbell and then step back from the door.

Jade gives me a slightly nervous glance. "What are they like, exactly?"

"Your grandfather's a less malevolent grey-haired version of your father. Your gran's just really nice."

"You did tell them what I was in prison for, didn't you?"

"I didn't-."

Missus Nguyen taps her lightly on the arm. "Jade, they are family. If they have invited you here, they do not care."

"Grandma, I don't think it works like that."

"I was once put in prison by the American government. Did you know that?"

"Why? What did they think you'd done?"

"They thought that I was a communist sympathiser because they found me in the wrong village." Missus Nguyen appears to consider this sufficient, returning her attention to the door.

"I'll get it, Grandma!"

"What was that like?"

"I mostly remember it being boring. Plus, it made it very hard to kill them."

Jade gives her gran a look of surprise. "Kill them?"

"I was a soldier in the Vietnamese Army. I killed Japanese,-" For a moment I think she's going to spit. "-then I killed the French and then I killed-"

The door opens and a young man smiles at us. Well muscled chap, though given the sorts of people I usually hang around with I'm getting a bit jaded about that sort of thing. He has a crew cut and an open and honest face, though if you squint a bit you can still see the family resemblance.

Missus Nguyen nods, a bright smile on her face as she looks at him. "-Americans."

"Hey. You must be Jade." He steps out into the front step and holds out his right hand. "I'm Matthew Crock, your.. cousin. Good to meet you."

"Ah. Hi." Jade steps forwards and takes his hand, giving it a brief shake.

"Hey, nice coat. I didn't realise that crazy cake guy was doing merchandising." I didn't meet Matthew Crock during my last visit. As far as he knows I'm just a family friend. This should be amusing. "Did you have far to travel?"

"One fifty seven."

"Yeah, but the traffic was really light. It didn't take long at all."

"Glad to hear it. And you must be Jade and Artemis' grandma on their Mom's side. Oh." He catches himself and then looks at Jade and me. "Can she understand English?"

Missus Nguyen nods. "Yes, I can speak English." She holds up her hands and brings the palms close together. "A little bit."

"I'm sure it's better than my Vietnamese. And you're Paul, right?"

"That's me. Pleased to meet you, Matthew."

"One fifty eight."

We shake hands and then he steps back to lead us into the house. "Everyone's sorta gathered in the living room. My brother Jon couldn't make it but my folks are here." Jade follows him in, followed by Missus Nguyen and with myself bringing up the rear, closing the door behind me. Over the hall table there's a framed piece of embroidery with the words 'God Bless This House' along the top and 'Non Classiarius Fascis Heic' along the bottom. I frown. No.. bundles of wood-?

Oh. Heh.

"Come on, Dad! Nearly there!"

"You must be Jade!"

I turn back in the direction of the living room as Cynthia Crock embraces her elder granddaughter. Jade appears to be a little off-put, but she keeps it under control.

"Mom!" Next to them Paula hugs her own mother.

"Tuyet, it is wonderful to see you in person."

Next to me, Matthew smiles. "Hey, I'm feeling kinda left out over here."

"I can hug you if you want."

"Ah... I'll pass."

Paula gives Jade a hug as well, this one a rib-crusher.

"One fifty nine!"

The huddle around the doorway breaks up a little, allowing me to catch a glimpse of Warren Crock giving encouragement to his red-faced octogenarian father as the older man holds himself off the ground, having completed another push up. Artemis is in a similar pose next to him.

"Is he alright?"

Cynthia notices me watching them and rolls her eyes. "Lawrence can't turn down a challenge. I've tried telling him to act his age, but he won't listen."

"Soon have the girl licked, Cynthia." He turns his head towards Artemis. "Getting tired yet, Arty?"

"As if. Hey Paul, hey Jade."

"Can we place bets..?" Artemis shoots me a look as the two of them lower themselves to the floor. "No, forget I asked."

Matthew turn to me. "I'll bet you dishwasher loading duty."

I hold out my right hand. "Done." He shakes it again. "They let you load the dishwasher? Because my dad was always a bit particular about that."

Warren looks up for a moment. "If he can handle OCS, he can handle a dishwasher. Come on Dad, you can do it."

"If that's the best you can do to motivate me then it's no wonder you never made Sergeant, boy."

"You know Mom would never let me cuss like that inside the house."

"And just you remember it." Cynthia shakes her head. "Honestly."

Jade looks her new relatives over. "Are you all military?"

Cynthia nods. "Army nurse." She gestures to her husband. "Enlisted soldier." To Warren. "Warren served for a while to pay for college, he's a gym teacher now. Jonathan -that's Matthew's brother- he's deployed in Saudi Arabia at the moment. Have you considered a career in the army?"

"Not.. seriously." I suppose she could, though her skills lend themselves more to special forces units rather than normal infantry or officer duty. "I'm not sure they'd take me."

"One sixty!"

"Still alive over there, Grandpa?"

"Army can…" Mister Crock Senior pants for a moment. "Take anyone. Straighten you out."

Cynthia nods. "You should hear about some of the things Lawrence got up to before the judge signed him up."

"So do the Crock men just escalate the competitiveness throughout the day..?"

Matthew shakes his head. "Not if we want dinner. Why, you wanna join in?"

"I'm not really one for physical combat. But if your ego can take it I'm sure Jade will be happy to kick your arse in a spar later."

Jade gives me a look of pure irritation.

"Oh yeah?" Matthew raises his eyebrows at her. "You think you're that good? Army doesn't go easy on officer cadets, you know."

"One sixty one! Going great, Dad."

"Six years, mixed martial arts. And that's in addition to what Mom and… Taught me."

Matthew nods. "Alright, I'm up for that."

"Yeah, just don't let her kiss you."

Jade strikes me in the stomach with the back of her right hand. Matthew looks puzzled. "Why not?"

His grandfather looks around from the top of his most recent push up. "Because you're not some g-." His wife gives him an interrogative glare. "-osh darn hillbilly from deepest darkest Kentucky, that's why."

"What? No, no, Grandpa, I wasn't-."

"Drugged lipstick. She tried that on me once."

Jade rolls her eyes. "I'm not wearing drugged lipstick, Paul. For some reason they didn't let me take that in prison."

"Next you'll be telling me you don't have any concealed weapons!"

"I don't."

I reach over to her left ear with my right hand before pulling it slowly away, revealing the sai I just took out of subspace. "Really?"

In one smooth motion she plucks it out of my hand and conceals it within her coat. "Oh that's where I put it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
12:26 GMT -4

It's interesting, seeing the White House lawns from this view point. So similar to my sojourn to Earth 50 and yet.. totally dissimilar in tone. This time rather than intruding on someone else's ceremony I'm attending my own. I'm wearing a suit rather than glowing yellow armour. I even invited a few guests. Doctor Robbins and Orana have already taken their seats in the audience while A-. While Mister Scott has just been shown through to the backstage area by the Secret Service.

I need to talk to him. I should probably have had this discussion when I returned his lantern, but I was.. busy… Not a great explanation, but a true one. And I had to wait to see exactly how far the League… How far Diana was going to push things. And, yes, this is a better occasion than just turning up at his home or inviting him to my own unfinished one. Really, Genomorphs need an intermediate labourer caste because while G-Trolls are great for clearing debris they don't really have the skills for delicate work. Maybe they could revisit the old G-Promethean design? Or heck, I could offer Dubbilex my services in upgrading the existing ones. I'll run it by him later.

Mister Scott makes eye contact with me. He looks… Old. Worn down. Huh, maybe he and Doctor Robbins can compare notes or something. I nod in greeting and start walking towards him.

"Grayven."

"Mister Scott." I hold out my right hand. "Good of you to come."

"I was.. a little surprised to receive the invite." He watches me for a moment, then reaches a decision and takes my hand. For a man of his generation not doing so would have been a major slight, after all. "I rather got the impression that you didn't want to have anything to do with.. us."

"That's… No, Mister Scott…" Sinestro, sound baffle.

As you wish.

A barely visible yellow barrier forms around us. "I respect you. I admire all your achievements. And I still respect the League."

"You've got a funny way of showing it. They took you in, offered you training and friendship and you just threw it back in their faces."

"Because of their…" Control. Control. Remember your anger management. "I slew the greatest living mass murderer and Diana tried to tell me I'd done a bad thing. This-" I spread my arms wide. "-whole thing is the country saying I was right and they were wrong. Why should I hide? Why should I follow her instruction to sit in a cave while the world celebrates my action?"

"She was trying to help you. And what you did to Hal-."

"That was a harmless joke! And Diana was trying to control me. I could not bear it any longer. That…" I exhale. "That doesn't mean I suddenly forget all the.. good things she does. That the League does. And I certainly haven't forgotten my friends. It just means that wasn't the place for me any longer." I look around. Anyone look like they're trying to lip read me? No. "Besides, it's not as if I did anything you wouldn't have done."

He huffs. "You've got some nerve, saying that."

"Do I? Mister Scott, I'm one of three people alive who know what really happened to Rag Doll." For a second his face shows his shock, then he masters it. "I spoke about the scenario to Diana -didn't mention names of course- and she told me that she thought that the three of you chose wrongly. I -on the other hand- agree with you completely."

"That makes one of us."

"Why? He was a foul and murderous example of humanity who devoted himself to spreading misery and destruction. I mean, it's not like he was the first person you killed-."

"That was in the war. And before you start on how war isn't special, I know. I hadn't ever killed a man before that, and seeing.. all of the death the war involved caused me to never want to kill again. And if he hadn't threatened our families then I never would have."

"So is that alright then? You can kill if it's personal but not if it's a considered decision? Save the people close to you.. but not other people? Mister Scott, no court would have convicted you."

"Maybe. Maybe not. But someone like you might have followed our example. I can't imagine what it woulda done to Jay if Barry had taken that as his example."

"Central City Rogues aren't usually that bad… Okay, Murmur, maybe-."

"That's not the point. You know what a copycat killer is?"

"Of course. But I'm afraid we're all out of Klarions."

"They won't be that specific. By getting away with this, you will inspire other people to murder other criminals. And they won't have your sense of priorities."

"I know. That's why today is so important." I dismiss the yellow bubble. "I need to make it clear to everyone exactly why I did what I did. How I think the law should treat metahumans, what the guiding principles should be. Once I've done that, anyone who claims to be following my lead when they're clearly not is just another criminal." I lay my right hand on his left shoulder. "Please. I got them to save you a seat at the front. Hear me out before rendering final judgement."

He hesitates for a moment and then nods. "Guess I can do that." He turns away, one of the ushers escorting him around to the front of the stage.

I watch him go for a moment, then about face and amble in the direction of President Horne.

"…just the cost, General. Your own analysis shows that it can't maneuver as well as the F-Sixteen, that the next generation radar systems the Russians and Chinese are bringing in can see it as easily as they can regular aircraft and that it isn't mechanically reliable yet. There simply isn't any reason to rush implementation." The air force general looks distinctly unhappy with the President's pronouncement. "And I seem to remember you taking a rather different line last time we talked about the A-Ten."

"Mister President, those aircraft simply aren't compara-."

"I'm sorry to interrupt, General, Mister President, but I'm ready when you are."

"Okay then. Thank you General, that will be all."

"Sir." The General looks at me for a moment before turning away and heading in the direction of the White House.

"Having trouble there?"

Horne bows his head slightly, then shakes it. "I'm a little slower to fund their toybox than some of my Republican colleagues might like. And now there's a distinct possibility they could be stuck with me for another term they're making more of an effort to try to talk me around to their way of thinking."

"Didn't seem to be working."

"PR is no replacement for facts and figures. The case doesn't make sense yet." He half-turns and starts moving in the direction of the steps up to the stage. I follow, mindful of my far greater weight. "Maybe they'll work the bugs out eventually. I don't really want conventional defense to take up too much of my administration's time or energy." He pauses just at the edge of the stage. "You're ready for your speech, right?"

"Of course."

"A few people on my team were a mite annoyed that you wouldn't use our speech writers or show us the text ahead of time. I have to say that I'm a little nervous about it myself."

"Mister President, I've got… About as much riding on this as you have. I'm not going to make a pig's ear of it, but the impact will be all the greater if it isn't trailered."

He nods as we walk up the steps to the rear of the stage. "Were you serious about the other me being a killer robot?"

"It isn't any longer, Mister President."

"I get the impression that's kind of a theme with you."

I shrug. "By the time I usually get called in…"

"I suppose." He nods to himself. "You at least read our briefing material, right?"

"Every bit, Mister President."

"Then okay. Let's get this show on the road."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
12:33 GMT -4

"…not just for acting to safeguard American lives, but the lives of every living thing on Earth. Grayven, it is my very great pleasure to present you with this Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction."

He pauses in the act of holding it out to me in order to let the cameras get a good shot. Even though I know full well modern photographers don't use them in situations like this, I'm still half-expecting flash bulbs. Behind President Horne's podium -and concealed from the audience- is a box, and standing on it he's just about tall enough to put the medallion's ribbon over my head.

"Thank you, Mister President."

Blue… That's going to clash with my uniform. And with my environmental shield. Ah, no, my ring has decided that the gold parts are sufficiently yellow to mean that it's supposed to make them glow. Fortunately, there aren't going to be all that many situations in which I'm going to be expected to wear it.

President Horne holds out his right hand, doing that 'awkward sideways handshake for the cameras' thing. There's no real way for me to disguise the fact that my hand is massively larger than his, but I'm careful with my grip and that appears to work. This whole thing's.. obviously staged, but I find that I'm.. oddly touched. This wasn't part of our original agreement so he clearly… It could be purely political, but the impression I'm getting is that this is his genuine view on the matter.

"No, Grayven. On behalf of America: thank you."

I give it a few more moments, then release his hand and step back slightly.

"Grayven's going to be working with this administration to further develop our policies on how to respond to crises like the one Klarion created last year. Now, to give you some idea of what you can expect, I'm going to hand you over to the man himself. Ladies and Gentlemen, Grayven of Apokolips."

He steps off the box, going backwards and stage left so that the sudden decrease in height is partially concealed by the fact that he's moving away from the audience. I wait a moment for him to choose a place to stand before walking up to the podium and prodding the box underneath it so that I'm just standing on the stage. I take a moment to make eye contact with Mister Scott and… Ah, I see that the Daily Planet sent Mister Kent to cover this. Scott and Barda are a few rows back and I give them a small wave. I didn't actually invite them so I've got no idea why they're here… Don't suppose it matters.

Now, which of the seven or eight possible introductions that I came up with do I want to use? The magnanimous one, I think.

"Well, first, I'd like to thank President Horne and the people of America for bestowing this honour on me. I don't think anyone really becomes a superhero for the material rewards, but it's always nice to know that our efforts are appreciated. I'd also like to thank those in the superhero community -they know who they are- who helped me find my feet when I first arrived on your planet. Without them I wouldn't have been able to achieve a fraction of what I have."

I pause, taking a deep breath.

"Last November a grave crime was committed, not against any one nation but against the whole of your world, the whole of your species. Millions of people -most of them young children, the most vulnerable members of your civilisation- died as a direct result of the actions of the being I slew last month. This is not the first time in the history of Human evil that such an obscenity has emerged from a single diseased mind. What was unusual about it was that -unlike every other mass slaughter in Earth's history- a small group were able to carry it out without wider support. Usually, when a leader turns people against their neighbours it takes a great many people to participate in the killing to make it happen. Mass public involvement in the case of charismatic leaders, bureaucrats to organise, transportation infrastructure to move the target population to places where they may more readily be disposed of…"

I take a moment to look around the audience. "I doubt that anyone here is completely ignorant of the evils of the twentieth century, so let me get to my point. Klarion required none of that. He required the assistance of precisely four individuals and a single mystical artefact which he was able to procure for himself. No one else had any prior knowledge of what was about to happen. There was no mass involvement at all. The first anyone knew of it, it had already happened. This puts Klarion in a different class to all the genocidal statesmen in Human history. You can't simply prevail upon the better instincts of his supporters or work to bring existing communities together because those things aren't relevant. Klarion existed as a force external to your civilisation exerting pressure upon it but not really receiving any in return."

"Since I killed him, I have been asked repeatedly -often by those I consider my friends- if there was not some other approach I might have used to render him harmless. My answer is: no." I solemnly shake my head. "There wasn't. Klarion's arcane abilities make him either immune or highly resistant to most forms of attack. I had precisely one weapon which I was confident could injure him. More than that, there was no realistic prospect that if he were imprisoned he could be persuaded to change his ways. Killing him was necessary to ensure the safety of this planet." I slowly breathe in and out again. "But sadly, he isn't the only person around with that potential for causing mass slaughter."

"I hadn't even been on this planet for a week when Wotan tried to put out the sun. I'd only been on the planet for a few months when thousands died when the 'Injustice League' attacked several major cities with Smilex-infested vines. It is a fact that some types of criminal are capable of inflicting colossal damage upon their fellow man. And the question in this situation is: how should a civilisation confronted with such people deal with them?"

"Felix Faust and William Zard were each known to the police before Roanoke Island. Wotan and Blackbriar Thorn were known to the superhero community, though their crimes were often outside the usual range of mundane criminal activity. Given the danger they posed, my view -and it appears to be the view of a good many other people- is that they should have been executed for crimes committed prior to Roanoke. None of them showed even the smallest amount of remorse for their actions, each of them was a murderer before they signed up with Klarion. I do not believe that I acted wrongly when I killed Klarion. However, I am aware that vigilante killings are very far from the ideal situation."

"So, what do I think should happen in future? Firstly, let me say that there is absolutely no appetite amongst the superhero community in this country for widespread use of lethal force. And I don't think there should be. Your judicial system is at its best when the facts are studied dispassionately and a jury reaches a conclusion on their basis. Most superheroes are unwilling to kill criminals themselves but few have hesitated to hand them over to police in jurisdictions with the death penalty." I lean forwards slightly. "I handed myself over in one."

"What I would like to see… What I think is a sensible step, is a greater use of trials in absentia, and a greater weight given during sentencing to the damage an individual is able to inflict. Ideally, if a person was so malignant that they needed to be slain then those called upon to bring them down would have had a warrant of execution issued by a court in advance, and so would not have to concern themselves with the possible legal fallout in the aftermath."

"Let me be clear that I do not envisage such mechanisms being required when dealing with the vast majority of what many police forces still insist on referring to as 'theme criminals'. Most use whatever metahuman or technological edge they have acquired to commit essentially conventional crimes. In particular, I have observed that despite having a far higher than average supervillain population density Central City and Keystone City actually have lower than average costume murder rates, and at least one incident the police are aware of in which a group of supervillains 'dealt with' one of their own number who'd crossed.. whatever they think the line is. This would purely be used in cases of individuals capable of single-handedly committing genocide."

I reach up to my chest with my right hand, taking hold of the medallion. "I had to become a murderer to get this. The next person who is in my position.. shouldn't. Thank you for listening."

I take a step back from the podium. It takes a moment for them to fully realise that I've finished, then that part of the audience reporting on the event leap to their feet and begin shouting out questions. I raise my right hand in a farewell wave, then turn away to face President Horne. "I do an alright job?"

He nods. "I'd say so."

Someone who I'm going to assume is the White House Press Secretary hurriedly takes to the podium and President Horne and I walk off the stage. He waits until we're definitely out of auditory and visual range of anyone who doesn't work for him before stopping and facing me.

"Is that what you actually want?"

"It's the best idea I've been able to come up with for dealing with the top fraction of a percent of supervillains. I'm not going to go all out to try and force it to happen, this is a decision that would need widespread popular support. And if you can come up with something better, I applaud you for it. But, if that did happen… I would be happy to serve as a court executioner."

"I'll bear that in mind. Keep a hole in your diary for the Senate Judiciary Committee. They're going to want to talk to you at length."

"I think I can handle them. Any probable dates? My calendar is pretty flexible but I'd like to be able to plan around it."

He nods. "Since we're going to be working together, you should probably meet my staff. And now's as good a time as any."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
13:26 GMT -5

"…forty nine?" Marilyn Crock looks across the table at Paula in complete amazement. "How do you manage it?"

Paula shoots a slightly awkward glance at me. "I.. suppose it would be just.. a good diet, regular exercise and favorable genetics."

It.. is sort of noticeable. She hasn't mentioned anyone else commenting on it, but at close quarters with the extended family it was inevitable someone would ask. I didn't ask Paula not to clue them in about who I am but I suppose that she's used to disguising Artemis' vocation, and if I get spotted there's an increased chance she will as well. After LexCorp, pictures of us are out there on the internet and with just wearing one of those mini-masks she is easy enough to recognise. Luckily it doesn't look as though the family Crock are much interested in that sort of thing.

Having struck out with Selina, I.. think I'm not going to bother trying hitting on Paula. Even if she said yes, it would just make things awkward with Jade and Artemis. And I know that she isn't really looking for that sort of relationship at the moment.

Marilyn looks impressed. "You'll have to show me your exercise plan some time."

She met Warren at the school where they both teach and they'll have been married for twenty six years this August. It used to be that in situations like this lunch I'd have no idea what to say, just finding the whole complex mass of cross purpose dialogues confusing. Now -I'm not sure if it's the ring or all the adventures I've been on this year- I have to hold myself back from constantly interjecting. This is about letting Jade -and to a lesser extent Artemis- form social bonds with her family.

"Huh. Maybe you should use Arty's plan instead." Lawrence Senior's right hand shakes slightly as he lifts his bread to his mouth. He's trying to eat while moving his hands as little as possible, forearms resting on the table surface when not carrying food. He lost -obviously- but I doubt many octogenarians can manage as many push ups as he did before Cynthia made him stop. Cynthia notices the shake and as she does so he notices that she's noticed, returning his arm to the table surface as she makes a very small shake of her head.

Matthew rubs his left shoulder where Jade used a shoulder lock on him during their spar. Nice to see her letting her hair down like that, though I think he found it to be a somewhat humbling experience. "Hey, ah… Jade? If it's not too personal a question?"

She shifts very slightly in her seat. "You can always ask."

"That.. organisation you were a member of..? What exactly was it? I mean, was it some kind of terrorist-."

Marilyn shakes her head at her son. "Matthew."

"I'm not saying-."

"It's okay, Missus Crock-."

"Oh, call me Aunt Marilyn dear."

Jade hasn't quite got her head around this yet. I suppose it's her first exposure to a normal family. Her normal family. "I'm-. I was a member of the League of Shadows."

Lawrence Senior frowns. "Wasn't that some kinda crazy supervillain cult the Justice League broke up last year?"

I suppose it makes sense that they'd have heard of it. The attack on Infinity Island was on the news, though interest in the trials and arrests rather petered out after a week or so.

Paula glances at Jade, who goes completely still for a moment. "You.. could put it like that. I'm sorry, my lawyer said that I shouldn't talk about-."

Cynthia pats her hand. "That's fine, dear. Paul, could you pass the salad dish?"

"Certainly." I nearly float it over, but remember myself a split second later and pick it up with my right hand instead to pass it across to her.

Matthew rolls his shoulder again. "Sure did a good job of training you up."

"All the best businesses invest in their people. And the Shadows were really more of a business than a cult. Kobra are the more culty ones."

Cynthia takes the bowl with a certain firmness which I take to mean that the topic is to be dropped. "So Paul, what is it you do?"

"Whatever takes my fancy, really. I suppose the most interesting thing I've been doing recently is, ah… Working with a company called KordTech and a chap from Atlantis to create a weather control system."

Lawrence looks interested. "What sort of weather control are you talking about there?"

"Earlier this week I watched the prototypes create a miniature storm inside a warehouse in New York with three control drones."

Warren frowns. "KordTech. I know that name from somewhere…"

Lawrence leans forwards slightly. "Is that a weapon they're planning on selling to Uncle Sam?"

"No, they're… The aim is to have the system ready for hurricane season, stick them in any major storms that make landfall and.. pretty much turn them off. Ted's not keen on making weapons."

"Why the-" A fraction-second glance at his wife. "-heck not?"

"Plenty of people build weapons, but the only people who've built weather control systems to date have been crazy." I shrug. "What's more important, another very expensive way to kill people or a way to prevent billions of dollars of property damage each year? To say nothing of the loss of life."

He doesn't look entirely happy with my tree-hugger response, but it looks like he's going to let it go for the moment. "KordTech's an American company, yeah?"

"Mostly." I nod. "There are some foreign shareholders, but the company is registered in America and the fellow running it is American."

"Oh, that's it." Warren nods. "Wasn't there some sort of demo back in.. February..? They're working on teleportation, aren't they?"

"The system they've got works, it's just a matter of getting to the point where they can produce enough units to sell as a coherent system."

He nods. Either he's covering it pretty well or he doesn't remember the face of the person doing the announcement well enough to match it with the face he's seeing now.

"Mister.. Crock Senior? May I ask you a question."

He smiles at Missus Nguyen. "Ah heck, you don't need to call me that. Lawrence is fine."

"Thank you. You would have been with the American army during the Vietnam War, yes?"

He nods. "I was serving with the First."

"Where in the country were you stationed?"

"Oh, a bunch of places. Anywhere that had the front line near it, I was probably there sometime." She nods. "You have a lot of contact with the army back then?"

She nods. "Yes, but not with you. I was organizing resistance units in American occupied cities. I was worried that we might have shot at each other, but now I do not think that can have happened."

He stares at her for a moment, before making a small snort and giving her a lopsided smile. "Well if that don't beat all. Finally found a VC."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th March
15:19 GMT -5

Matthew nods over to where his grandfather and Jade's grandmother are poring over a map of Vietnam. "I don't know whether to be surprised or not."

"At least they've found something they've got in common." Lawrence Crock Senior did surprise me by still retaining a little of the Vietnamese he picked up during the war. Not a great range, but he appeared to retain the grammar. Missus Nguyen appeared to appreciate the effort at least.

Artemis looks thoughtful. "I don't think Grandma's ever met someone from the American side of the war before."

"Not to talk to, anyway." Matthew hesitates for a moment. "Did.. Uncle Lawrence meet your mom in Vietnam?"

"Probably? I've never really asked her about it. I know Grandma was the one who taught Mom how to fight."

"Are you allowed to say the 'L' word?"

Matthew shrugs. "I'm not exactly thrilled to find out I'm related to a professional supervillain, but I can't just pretend he's not there."

Artemis looks away for a moment. "Did you..? Know about him..?"

"I… I knew I had a uncle who was a mercenary. I didn't know exactly who he was until you showed up and Grandma told Dad to talk to me about it."

"Is it a problem? For.. the army, I mean?"

He shrugs again. "I don't think so. I mean, no one's said anything and I'm sure my superiors know. I've…" He looks at the ground for a moment. "I've been thinking about… I don't know, not visiting him-."

Artemis shakes her head. "No."

"Yeah, I know he's a bad guy, but he's still family. And it's not like he's going to break out of Belle Reve."

"Again."

"Huh?"

"There was that break out just after New Year."

"Yeah, but that Strange guy was working the inside. Waller would never let something like that happen."

Oh, I know she wouldn't. I've seen the upgrades she's made to the place. She wasn't quite able to get the okay on the collar dead man's switch which would turn the inhibitor collars into decapitation bombs if something happened to the controls, but her political overseers have approved increases in security, personnel and funding in order to get the place sorted out. Having Justice League members speak publically in support of the place probably didn't hurt.

"It's your phone bill-." / "You don't know what he's li-."

Artemis and I look at each other for a moment. Yes, I get why she doesn't want Matthew to have anything to do with Casey Jones. Artemis turns away first. "He's not worth it."

"Yeah, realistically, by the time someone's completed their first few assassinations and started introducing themselves as 'Sportsmaster'-."

"Which is funny, because Dad actually is a sports master."

"He's.. not changing. And I doubt you'll get anything out of talking to him, except possibly getting your phone bugged by the FBI."

Artemis lets out a frustrated exhalation. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Ahhh… Okay?" He looks at me. "How did.. you and Jade meet up?"

"That's an interesting story, actually."

"You did mention poisoned lipstick. Did you.. run into her when she was on a job, or something?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about.. exactly what happened-."

"Oh, come on. I'm not going to report her to the police."

Artemis shuffles awkwardly for a moment, then turns away. "I'm gonna go.. check on.. Mom."

"Right. Um…" How to put this? "I.. was the person who arrested her. I encountered her with two known members of the League of Shadows and detained her pending a full investigation."

"You beat her in a fight? Heh heh." He shakes his head. "Glad I didn't spar with you, then."

Okay, time to ask. "I realise that this is going to make me sound massively arrogant, but do you seriously not recognise who I am? When people say things like that I'm never sure whether they're serious or just humouring me."

He looks me over again, then shakes his head. "What, are you.. some kinda English rock star or something?"

"I did have a Billboard Top One Hundred hit with my rendition of 'New York New York'…" Probably cemented the whole 'Cake Man' thing. I fan out my hands, palms upwards so that the ring sigils are clearly on display. "But as you pointed out, I don't usually do merchandising."

His eyes go to the rings, then back to my face, then to the rings blinking before he takes a step back and looks all of me over again. "I-! They're real?"

"Yes. Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four. Pleased to meet you."

"Ah, whaw. Aaaah, look, the whole 'Cake Man' thing-."

"I'm used to it, don't worry."

"So you mean you met Jade-."

"While she was in the company of two League of Shadow operatives. I mean, she's good at what she does, but I have power rings."

"Poisoned lipstick?"

"She said she wanted to thank me for arresting your uncle."

"You kissed..? Oh man, that wasn't smart." I squeeze my eyes shut and nod. "But you still visited her in prison?"

"Not much point arresting her if I just have to do it again in a couple of years."

"So… Do Aunt Paula and Artemis know?"

"Of course they do. I'm shocked that you didn't."

"Are you.. and Jade.. dating?" I frown. How does he think-? "Or.. going to date?"

"At this point, putting that sort of pressure on her is more likely to make her react negatively than do anything good. I'm going to let her sort her life out a bit before I-."

"Paul! Could you come in here please!"

Matthew and I both look in the direction the shout came from, then look at each other for a moment before we decide to heed Paula's request. I lead the way through into the living room. Cynthia, Paula, Warren and Marilyn are alternating between staring at the television, at me and at Jade, who appears to be trying to disappear into her armchair. Artemis just rolls her eyes at me and shakes her head. What's-?

On the screen there's an image of the night sky, which is suddenly illuminated by a surge of orange light.

"…from Vietnam, where it appears that Orange Lantern has picked up a new sidekick."

The image then changes to one of myself and Jade in conference with the Internal Affairs people.

"Initial reports say that everyone at the hospital -many of whom had crippling congenital disabilities- is now fully healthy."

Huh. That was quick.

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th March
12:33 GMT -5

"What the fuck do you want?"

Leonard Snart doesn't actually sound annoyed as he says it. I hear surprise and curiosity instead, like he can't quite believe what he's seeing.

"I thought it was about time we had a chat, Mister Snart."

He looks at the guard escorting him for a moment, then sits down opposite me. We're in an interview room rather than the normal visitor booths, Waller's opinion of me being good enough to get the occasional favour.

"What, you think you can talk me around like you did Kadabra and the Terror kids?" He leans back slightly in his chair. "Better than you have tried."

"Oh, I don't think we're quite there yet, Mister Snart." The prison diet has taken quite a bit of weight off him, and without access to bleaching agent his hair's gone back to its natural brown. "This is just a trust building exercise, I'm going to try and convince you that cooperating with me is in your best interests."

"Got me out of cleaning the john. Take a shot. Try asking me about my childhood or something, like Doc Quinzel does."

"Mister Snart, I already know about your childhood." No reaction. I didn't ask to see Doctor Quinzel's notes on their sessions together but I have done a fair amount of background reading on the fellow. "Abusive father, absentee mother, your grandfather the only decent adult in your young life.. until his heart attack." No real reaction. He's well aware of his own damage. "Thing is, all that stuff… It's too late for me to do anything about it, or for you to become the person you might be if it hadn't happened. You're.. Captain Cold now, and if you knew me you'd know how much I hate calling people by their code names."

Mister Snart looks at me for a moment. "Good meeting, champ." He gets up and turns towards the door.

"You designed the ice fortresses, didn't you?" He stops. "When we stopped them, I was able to keep one more or less in one piece. Had to drop it in the Arctic Ocean until I could get a new power source… But when I went through the systems… That was your design… I mean, the air freezing systems, wasn't it?"

He turns his head upwards slightly. "I was in here the whole time."

"While Belle Reve was being run by Warden Strange, a known Light stooge."

"That's an interesting opinion you've got there. You planning to charge me with something?"

"No. Doubt I could prove anything. You want to sit down?"

He turns and looks at me for a moment. I hold his gaze. Five seconds pass, then he nods. "Can't hurt." He pulls the chair back, turns it through one hundred and eighty degrees and sits down.

"See, I'm actually a big fan of your work. I've used freeze rays and ice guns based-" There's a momentary flicker of something as I make that distinction. "-on your designs since I started. Did you really come up with the design during your first stint at Iron Heights?"

"Had a few ideas. Needed to steal some parts…"

"Because I read some of your school reports, and there's nothing that suggests that sort of scientific ability."

He shrugs. "I wanted to beat the Flash." He's not lying about that. "First time in my life I got properly motivated to learn something. The first Cold Gun I built was just supposed to slow him down so I could fight him. The ice was mostly a side effect. To start with. Then I realized that freezing people in place-."

"Without killing them."

"Killing people's not my thing. Usually."

He's never been convicted of murder.

"I've seen several iterations of your gun. Seen how you changed the design. It's really brilliant work. But I've got to ask; did you never consider monetising the invention and not fighting the Flash?"

"After the first time I got arrested as Captain Cold, the designs got confiscated. The gun got given to the people I stole the parts from and they're the ones who own the patent."

"That could be fought, you know. You're clearly the inventor."

"What judge would rule in my favor?"

"Okay, not a judge then. I was talking to some people at the Central City University's physics department. They'd quite like you to write up your notes and submit them for peer review."

He makes a sort of hiss-laugh. "I'm surrounded by my peers here."

"It's called 'peer review', the people doing it aren't necessarily-."

"I know what peer review is. What's in it for me?"

"A doctorate, and probably a few lectures if you want to give them."

"Fuck off."

"Mister Snart, you've found a way to make thermodynamics your bitch." That gets a smile. "That's amazing, especially given how spotty your formal education was. The department of physics is completely serious about the doctorate."

He sets his jaw slightly to the side. "Police got my notes."

"Yes, but the great thing about working for the Justice League is that I can ask to see that sort of thing. I couldn't take the originals, but I did make a perfect copy of everything they had. Waller's got hold of the whole lot now. If you're interested, she's prepared to alter your work schedule to give you the time you'd need. Obviously you wouldn't be allowed anywhere near anything you could use to build a working device…" I raise my eyebrows. "Interested?"

"Heh. Doctor Snart." He nods. "Sure. No reason not to."

"I'm glad you see it that way. There was one other matter. I've been using the Ice Fortress to reglaciate the North Pole."

He frowns. "I.. thought it just made blizzards."

"I had to change some of the systems, stick more of your freeze rays on, take out the air blowers. Point is, I'm being awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for the work. And when they talked to me about it, I said that I wouldn't feel right about accepting if I didn't share it with the person who invented the core technologies. The freeze ray. Now, obviously you can't attend the award ceremony in person, but there's a plaque and a cash prize. If you're interested."

"How much?"

"A hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, split two ways. And I can probably persuade Waller to set up a video link so you can.. sort of join in with the ceremony. Um, I didn't refer to you as 'Captain Cold' when I spoke to them and it's possible that the people I spoke to didn't actually know who you are."

"Eighty seven and a half thousand dollars. For no extra work."

"Yes."

"Think I can see why Kadabra likes you."

"They might want to make you wait for it until you finish your sentence before you get hold of it, though."

"That's fine. Not like there's anything to spend it on in here."

"Oh, and as an added bonus… For when you finish writing up your thesis?"

He chuckles. "Don't let me stop you now. At this rate, you're going to tell me you snuck a couple of hookers-."

"I've got your mother's current address and phone number. I understand that you haven't spoken to her since-."

"FFfffffffuck!" His shock is clearly evident on his face. "You…" He slides off the chair onto his feet, taking a step away but staying facing me.

"Me. Still interested, or do you want to think about it for a -?"

He glowers. "Just give me my fucking notes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th March
20:04 GMT -4

"…kinda took a while-" Doctor Quinzel pokes at her noodles with her chopsticks. "-but I finally think Waller's stawtin' t' like me."

I widen my eyes for comedic effect. "Really?"

"Y'know." She deftly lifts a string of noodles into her mouth and chews for a moment before swallowing. "She don't glare at me so much no mowah."

I've never really got the hang of chopsticks. Fortunately for me, this restaurant lays out conventional western utensils for people like me. Certainly, I could just use the rings to hold the food in place but I'm trying not to draw attention. I use a fork to scoop up some rice and then skewer a piece of peanut-flavoured chicken. Fruit and meat may not work for me but this is quite nice.

"The guards are alright with you, aren't they?"

"Mmm, couple weren't. But the new guys weren't heeya during the Time of Strange an' most everyone else is giving me the benefit o' the doubt."

I spear a couple of French beans. "Do you want me to ask Bendemann to have a quiet word?"

"Fuhgeddaboudit. The prison shrink ain't nevah gonna be populah." She somehow manages to grip a piece of beef at the same time as a broccoli floret and put them into her mouth. She's wearing tight-fitting black jeans with a red roll neck jumper. I invited her out to dinner to talk about the progress we're making with some of the inmates and we stopped off at her apartment in Houma before I transitioned us on to New York. "How'd you even know about this place, anyways?"

"Zatanna Zatara recommended it to me originally. I've been here a couple of times."

She raises her eyebrows. "You live in Noo Yawk?"

"No, Rhode Island, but Diana, the Zataras and one of the Green Lanterns live around here so I've spent quite a lot of time in the area."

"I thawt you had that flying fowtress thing?"

"Yes, but it's a bit isolated. Superman has a fortress, but he doesn't live there. Can I take it you've eaten here before?"

"Yeah, a buncha times. I grew up in Brooklyn."

"Oh."

"What?"

"I just.. always associated you with Gotham."

"Oh, I didn't move t' Gotham 'til I stawted college. Went to Gotham U on a gymnastics scholarship. The Arkham Trust paid for my doctorate. They got grants for anyone who agrees t' work there when they finish." Her face falls slightly. "Seemed like a good deal at the time. Course, now I know Strange approved my application because…" She waves her chopsticks.

I nod. "Would you say Arkham was a better or worse place to work than Belle Reve?"

"Belle Reve's definitely sayfuh. While I was theyah I tink we had, like, fowar or five guys fired fowar takin' gang money. And, y'know, Gotham,-"

"Gotham."

"-so there was probably a bunch more. Belle Reve's so fa away from their usual stompin' grounds they can't get the leverage."

"Plus all those security measures Waller's put in."

"Them too. I dunno. Maybe if Arkham gawt as much money as Belle Reve does they could do bettah as well. And it's not really the same sorta thing. T' get int' Arkham ya have t' be legally insane. We get the medication roight and keep them away from othah drugs and some of them might be able t' live in normal society. Maybe. In Belle Reve, they've all decided not to."

"But at the same time, there's a rational mind to relate to. We can persuade them."

"I wasn't shewah bringing up Lenny's mom was such a great idea, but you pulled it owof."

"It's the contrast. At that point he thought I was basically bribing him to behave himself. That doesn't really work by itself. I mean, he'd probably have done the dissertation without much nudging because he didn't have anything better to do-."

"But unless he confronts his underlying issues-."

"Right. And I wasn't going to give him his dad's address."

"How'd you find out alla that stuff?"

I shrug. "Central City Police, the Flash. Finding her address was a little harder but I had a scan of Mister Snart's DNA… Both Mister Snarts."

"I dunno what the Central City social woykers were thinkin', leaving him someplace like that."

"Taking a child into care is a last resort thing. Once his grandfather died there wasn't really anywhere else they could put him. And that's if they even knew about it."

She takes another stickful of noodle, then hesitates. "Do you know things abowt other people?"

"You mean, do I know that your mother is effectively raising your niece and nephew due to your brother being a deadbeat? Yes, I know that. And so does Waller, it was part of your background check."

"Huh." She looks away. "How 'bout that."

"I generally know the worst and best about everyone. I wasn't joking when I said that I can see into people's souls. I generally know why people do things-."

She looks back at me, comprehension dawning. "And… When you know why they do it-."

"You can't help but sympathise. Up to a point."

She nods. "Strange was roight about me, yah'know. Dad bein' inside when I was growin' up… That's why I hooked ont' him like I did. Wasn't even the first time I did something like thayat. There was a teacher at Gotham U…"

"What happened?"

"Oh… Nothin' I didn't sign up fowah." She sighs. "I'm jus' kickin' myself for not realisin' soownah."

I reach across the table and put my right hand on her left. "Hey. Knowing is.. half the battle."

She grins. "Oh, you did not just say that."

"So the trick is.. to never spend any time with a man ever again."

"Hey!"

"I know this great island-."

"Jus-. No. I ain't gunna give up an awl guys just causa that. Jus' gotta-" She smiles. "-find somebody who ain't a jerk."

"A sensible aim. My only concern.. is that there are quite a few people in Belle Reve who fit your 'absent father figure' category."

"Oh, I'm so ovah that." She looks away for a moment. "Um, hey, I hewd abowt what you and Jade did in Vietnam. Looks like she's really turned a cowner."

"Whitemail."

She thinks for a moment. "You tricked her into doin' it so she couldn't go crooked again?"

"That was part of it. Assassins need all sorts of support infrastructure to operate-."

"And now she can't get it. So the two of you aren't…" She waves the forefinger of her free hand back and forth.

"No, that… We're friends, but that wouldn't be appropriate."

"Huh. How 'bout that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th March
06:41 GMT -6

"..so that's fifty eggs, twenty bell peppers and sixteen rashers of bacon." I look over the interior of the shopping trolley once more, phone construct held against my right ear. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather try chorizo sausage instead? Because I've got to be honest: I'm not completely convinced of the quality of this bacon."

"I am grateful for your concern, Mister Grayven, but I think it best if we keep with the familiar for the time being."

Jean is the newly created G-Goblin whom Dubbilex assigned to handle the Challenger Mountain operations as my majordomo. She's not only taller than both of them but possesses a much more adult frame than Ixy. Same suggestion-of-breasts and horn studs on her jaw that Ixy has but with Dubbilex's more upright posture. Her voice is clearly female and she speaks with a received pronunciation English accent. I'm not sure if that was due to them wanting to copy my manner of speech or not.

She can also taste and enjoy complex flavours, a facility which it appears the G-Prometheans share and one which I am more than happy to indulge. I'd kind of… Been feeling a bit lonely, moving from a populated mountain to one where Doctor Robbins, Mister Tawny and I were the only people who could talk so I'm glad for her presence. I've even made a point of easing off on my mental barriers when she's around, though I'm not sure if she appreciated the significance of the act.

"Okay." I take a look around the supermarket and smile at the few other early morning shoppers. I've been getting more than a few stares and several have taken pictures of me with their phones. With Challengerville an abandoned pile of rubble this place -Rifle, Colorado- is the closest settlement to my new home. Yes, I could boom tube to just about anywhere but if I'm making an effort to win the American public over I really think I should tie myself to a place. If the shopping is really bad I suppose I could just order still and have it deliv-.

"Hey. Are you Prince Grayven of Apokolips?"

"I'll see you shortly. Should be home in about ten minutes." I delete the phone construct before turning to face the woman addressing me. Ooooh bother. She's a little over six feet tall and has a muscular build. An unruly mass of vibrant red hair flows from her head and she's wearing green body armour with gold decoration and gold boots. And a gold cape? Odd. I was really hoping that I'd have more time than this. And that it would be somewhere private. "Miss Knockout, while I appreciate you doing me the courtesy-."

Dagh! Doof! Aghjik!

Bwah!

I gingerly pick myself up from the ruined wreck of a car I just slammed into.

Eight out of ten on the landing, Corpsman.

She just hit me through several shelving units and the outer wall. No weapon, I note. On the positive side I'm not injured and… I check around. When I hit this car I did so with enough force to shove it backwards into the middle of the road. Fortunately, there weren't any cars in the way. I hear screams as the other shoppers and staff flee, one of them shouting at the others to phone the police. No, that would just get them killed.

"Alright." My casual clothing is replaced with my Apokoliptian body armour and I activate the purple ray drones I left on a nearby roof top. "You can probably still protect Father with one arm."

Knockout walks confidently forwards through the settling dust. "At least you can take hits."

"Knockout, I thought that Father and I had an understanding." Leave. Now.

"While your flattery pleases me, I'm here for my own purposes."

The Sword of Second and Third costs too much ring power for me to store it in subspace so I don't have it with me, but I take my x-ionised sword out of subspace. "And what might that be?"

"I'm looking for a mate. You're powerful and reasonably intelligent, so you're it."

…

Huh?

Knockout reaches the pavement, then.. rises.. off the ground? I'm not seeing any aero discs… Then a yellow corona surrounds her head.

Father Box, I realise that I should have asked this about thirty seconds ago, but-.

Ploong.

Ah. Not Knockout.

"I am Maxima, Empress of Almerac. Defend yourself!"

I transition to the opposite side of the road as she fires what I think is some sort of telekinetic bolt at my previous location. "Sorry, thought you were someone else."

She immediately orientates herself on my new location. "Who could you possibly have mistaken me for?"

She gestures imperiously with her right hand and the wrecked car rises off the ground and then flies at me fast. I use the fear of the bystanders to brace myself before catching it with both hands and setting it down beside me.

"A woman called Knockout. She's got the same hair and fashion sense as you, but she's actually about an inch shorter and her musculature is more pronounced." I wave my right hand. "My ba-."

And she's on me ow. She punches my head in a left-right combination then rises slightly to strike me with her right knee. Before it hits home I grab her right lower leg and -check the building's empty, good- turn rapidly, slamming her into and through the wall behind me. Sinestro? Anything helpful about Almerac?

I never had cause to go there. The people have a wide range of unusual mental abilities-

I raise my right hand up and then slam her face first into the tarmac.

-and a highly martial culture. The system of government is an-

Ghh! My right hand spasms as she uses some sort of telepathic feedback attack on my peripheral nervous system. Haven't.. quite got the hang of adapting the yellow ring to blocking that sort of thing yet, though as she backs away she looks a little surprised by how much effort it's taking her.

-autocratic monarchy and they set great store in personal psychic power.

She shoots forwards, air rippling around her as she aims for my head again.

It is the only part of you which is unarmo-.

Yes, thank you, Sinestro. One fist finds my forehead before I can transition away again. "I'm sorry, but I'm not on the market! I already have a mate and I'm very happy with her!"

She doesn't even turn as the yellow corona around her head hits me… Okay, looks like I owe Chester a box of Roses. It hurts, but it's far from being overwhelming.

"Metropolis is on the East Coast! Why can't you go and bother Kal-El?"

"Kal-El didn't kill a lord of Chaos." She keeps the beam up as she drifts towards me. "Giving up yet? You'll have far more fun if you yield."

"Hardly." Drones, shoot her.

Purple beams lance towards her from four separate directions. There's a slight distortion around her skin as she creates a telekinetic barrier, but as expected the beams go right through it. Her blast cuts out as she shudders and falls to the ground as the negalife works its magic.

Drones, stop. As soon as the beams stop she rises to a crouch, ready to lunge at me again. "Look, I'm very serious about not being available. Jade and I are in love. But I'm willing to offer my services as a matchmaker?"

"Explain."

"What characteristics are you looking for in a mate?"

"Strength. Power. They need to be a warrior with abilities that complement mine."

"Really? That surprises me."

"I'm not interested in a weak mate."

"But they'll share your throne. Wouldn't experience in positions of command or leadership be more useful?"

She thinks for a moment. "Possibly. As a secondary consideration."

"Look, I have a database full of information on all sorts of people. Why don't you let me see if I can't find someone more suitable for you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th March
11:57 GMT -6

"Right." I lower the lights in what will soon once more be Challenger Mountain's briefing room and activate the holographic projector. "Sorry if this is all a bit simple, I'm mostly using Human technology. And my files are really more about threat assessment than datability."

Maxima sits up attentively, her eyes fixed on the display. "You may begin."

Jean stands behind her, tray in hand. I assigned her to look after Maxima while I did the research she wanted. Maxima more or less ignored her unless she wanted something, treating her as part of the furniture despite there being little difference in their psychic abilities. Someone didn't do their research. Mister Tawny was likewise dismissed as a mere animal, though from what I know of his untigerly body language he's actually finding this fascinating.

I think Doctor Robbins is off joyriding the Sphere again.

"Okay. So, I assessed potential mates based on physical power and political experience as you directed. There's no perfect candidate, but the best match I could find was-" I press a button to display the optimal potential spouse. "-Queen Hippolyta of Themyscira."

Maxima blinks. "What."

"She has over three thousand years of experience as head of state in both times of war and times of peace and is a skilled warrior and commander. In addition, her status as a demigoddess means that she has considerable innate arcane power resulting in more than Human strength and endurance."

"She's a queen."

"Small island nation. She could rule it in her sleep at this point, or hand it off to one of her more sensible senators. I doubt that spending most of her time on Almerac would really be a problem. Only one offspring, a now adult daughter who is a capable warrior in her own right. And she's single, so there'll be no problem over conflict with an existing mate. Possible drawbacks include the fact that she's a little behind the times, technologically speaking, and… The fact that she hasn't taken a mate in three thousand years might indicate a reluctance to involve herself with others in that way. But all told, she's your best bet by a considerable margin."

"She's a woman."

"Yes? Yes she is. Virtually all romantic relationships in her culture are between two women, so there won't be a problem there." I look back at Maxima. "What do you think?"

"Next."

I frown. "What's the problem?"

She rolls her eyes. "Show me one who's male."

I frown. "You didn't say that was part of the criteria." I look down at the datapad containing my list. "I mean, several of these-."

"Grayven, I need a mate. Someone with whom I can have children."

"Okay?"

She gestures angrily at me with her right arm. "Are you being deliberately obtuse?! How can I have children with another woman?!"

"How were you planning to have children with me?"

She lowers her hand and looks me over carefully. "You are male, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"And.. conventionally humanoid?" She looks directly at my groin. "You have a penis and testicles under there, right?"

I shake my head. "Yes, but it's not that simple. Humanoid or not, we're biologically very different creatures. And I'm God of Conquest, fecundity and proliferation aren't part of my domain. I can't just ignore interspecies biochemical barriers at will."

"Oh." She averts her eyes slightly.

"I was assuming that you realised that any children we had would have to be produced in a laboratory. And since you'd have to have known that, logically you wouldn't have a problem applying those techniques to the genetic material of other potential mates." I think for a moment. Actually… "Given Queen Hippolyta's relationship with her people's gods, it might be possible for her to get around that particular problem if you really want to carry the child yourself." I shrug. "Seems like it might get in the way of the whole 'Warrior Queen' thing."

She appears somewhat ruffled. "Is Kal-El on there?"

"No. Existing relationship and little leadership experience. I mean, I can give you the run down if you want, but would you really be interested in a man who so easily turned from his mate?"

Her mouth curves downwards as if she just bit unsuspectingly into a lemon. "I suppose not."

"Look, if you're not happy with the criteria, we can just come up with new ones."

She sighs. "I just thought this would be simple. Find someone who was my physical equal, fight them to establish dominance and then drag them back to Almerac for the ceremony and honeymoon."

"A most romantic vision, to be sure. May I ask a question?" She waves her right hand in a circle. "I assume that you would be sharing power with your consort?"

"Of course. They would become…" She glances at the image of Queen Hippolyta. "King."

"Then… Rather than choose a mate whose virtues match your own, would it not be wiser to select one whose virtues complement them? I mean to say… Surely there are some duties which you prefer to others?"

"Couldn't you just find me a big, strong telepathic male?"

"Yeeeeess…" I press a button. "This is Chester Black." The picture is one I took during one of our training sessions. He's more than a little drunk and quite dishevelled. "A powerful telepath and telekine with a vicious temperament balanced by surprisingly strong underlying moral fibre. His drawbacks include a complete lack of leadership experience-"

"That hair."

"-and according to his sister he dislikes children."

"Still. I could have someone to bathe and dress him…"

"I've got to be honest here, Maxima: I think you're reaching."

She slumps. "Is there no one else?"

"Dubbilex is a powerful telepath and a reasonable telekine, but while male-identifying he has no reproductive organs. Henry King Junior is a capable telepath but physically past his prime." I press another button and the hologram changes. "Doctor Cizko-."

"No."

"Okay, um… J'onn J'onzz is a capable telepath as well as a shapeshifter-"

She perks up. "Oh?"

"-but he doesn't really have any leadership experience, doesn't find standard pattern humanoids attractive and has a crippling pyrophobia."

"Oh."

"To be honest, given how large the families of his species usually are, I'm not sure he has a sex drive at all."

"He's a telepath, can't he just borrow mine?"

"I don't think it works like that."

She snorts. "Fine. What was that you were saying about complementary virtues?"

"You're a warrior. You're psychically powerful and I imagine a capable commander."

"Extremely so."

"But there's more to ruling than that. Would it not be more advantageous to take someone with administrative or political skills as your mate? Armies don't just need strong soldiers, they need food, weapons, transportation. A strong economy to support that, a research base to ensure that your weapons keep pace with those of your enemies."

Maxima blinks. "The boring stuff."

"I.. find it quite fulfilling myself, but if you like… Yes. Marry someone who is good at that and they'll have the authority to deal with it without having to refer every little decision to you."

She slowly nods. "That's not a bad idea."

"If that's your selection criteria, I have a few-" I switch the image to Lex Luthor. "-possible-."

"No, no." Maxima rises imperiously from her seat. "They'd have to learn everything about Almerac from scratch. It makes far more sense to just marry the person who does all that stuff now."

"If they do a good job, yes."

She slowly walks to a clear area of the room before turning back to face me. "Prince Grayven, once you turned me down, I thought this whole thing would be a big waste of time. But I was wrong. This has helped me a great deal."

I smile. "Pleased to be of service. Do stop by again if you're ever in the area."

Her yellow halo reappears as the space around her ripples and distorts. "Sazu, congratulate me."

"Congratulations, mistress. But what for?"

"We're getting married."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th March
23:13 GMT +3

"…a third time, and the young man's arse fell off."

Immediately I finish the line, I stand up and walk away from my attentive listeners.

"What?" / "Hey, that doesn't-!" / "His.. his arse..?" / "Why..?"

Don't ask a Discordian for a joke and then expect something that makes conventional sense. Honestly, they should know better by now.

I stride across the forum in search of further entertainment. The whole theatre troupe have returned to the island now and stories of my performance have spread. I've recounted the whole thing five times already this evening, three of those with interjections from the actresses. My suggestion that we do a play of the events was met with bemusement as the idea of doing a play within a play appears to be something that has never occurred in the Themysciran literary canon.

My suggestions that we start performing immediately before we forget didn't meet with more favour.

I wave back as someone -ah, it's Galene- waves at me in greeting from across the forum. Themyscira doesn't have a seven day cycle but the spring Dionysia nonetheless started on Saturday. Diana did see if I wanted to attend the opening festivities, but I had things to do and I sort of wanted Kon and M'gann to have some time to themselves. But during the week -with them needing to attend school the next day- I don't feel that I'm taking attention away from them by being here. I've feasted, toasted Eris and even danced a little. At the moment I'm making sure that I'm seen. Acantha was pretty definite that I should start spending some time each week in the forum. Amazons expect people like me -people who want to persuade others to change their ways- to be available to be questioned, and me not living here has been making that a little difficult.

But this really isn't the time for serious philosophical debate. I've had a bout of good PR, and apparently the Amazons consider me mouthing off about the gods while under the influence more amusing than offensive. And I'm not really here to work. In fact, the only choice is whether to limit myself purely to enjoying myself or to try to undo the three thousand year old mutual friendzone that is the Hippolyta/Philippus relationship. Mmmmm… Maybe if I see an opening…

I transition myself back up to the upper level of the cit-.

"Ho! Bard!"

I look around as Zosime hails me, then take a bow towards her and her friends. "Is there some service this humble member of the masculine gender may render to his honourable sisters?"

Next to her, Antimache blinks heavily in the darkness. "That sentence is so ridiculous that I do not even know where to begin. And do not think it escaped my notice that the smith with whom you were so taken spent the first day of the festival in-."

Zosime elbows her to silence. "A song! Something from the outside world!"

"As milady wishes. But what sort of song would be most pleasing to her ears?"

"This is the Dionysia! A love song!"

"Something bawdy!"

"He doesn't sing those. Remember the baths?"

Oh, the baths. The baths. I spent a half hour last month cleaning out Themyscira City's old male public baths for my and Kon's use. Only.. the locals took one look at the place and thought 'ah, someone's put the old baths back into service' and started using it themselves. A few weeks later I walked right in on… Well. I walked right back out again.

Antimache appears to grudgingly accept that this is going to happen. "Why not a song of mourning and heartbreak?" One of the other guards hugs her from behind and nuzzles her neck.

I grin as the crowd of tipsy guards turns to arguing amongst themselves for a moment. I somehow don't think that modern love songs are really the thing to go with here. Too instrumental for the most part. I can play a variety of instruments with ring assistance, but I really enjoy singing more. Let's see… What fits the ah!

"I think I have something! I think I have something." I give them a moment to quieten down. "A song with love as the subject, though not necessarily the object." I take a moment to get myself into the requisite headspace. It's not a very happy song, after all.

"As I was out a'riding.. one evening last July,"

The ring has enhanced my voice and my lung capacity, but I don't use it to continually ensure that I sound exactly as I want to.

"I heard a maiden singing and bitter she did cry."

If I do that I may just as well play them a recording.

"I quietly dismounted to get a closer view,
and see if there.. was 'ought a man.. of honour could yet do."

The original line is 'could pursue', but I thought that sounded a bit too 'she's alone and abandoned, I'm in' for me. My modification hopefully makes it clearer that he intends to offer aid.

"She stood all in the clearing and no one else was there.
Her eyes with salt tears shone within the shadows of her hair.
Her dance was wrought in anger and her voice was tight with pain."

There's a slight gasp from my audience and I notice that a little way away one of their number is performing an interpretative dance to my song.

"As she sang her song of undying love for some far-wandering man."

Her movements are slow and elegant, arm sweeping and-. She's not wearing very much. I raise the pitch of my voice for the female part as I slowly approach her.

"Oh, you deny the magic and you deny the love.
But I swear an oath by all that's bright in the darkening sky above-
That we have shared a magic and the love flowed strong and true!
You can close your ears to my heart's song and still it sings for you."

And then I realise why they gasped.

"So you want to be my friend and use a friendly voice to me-"

It's Euanthe.

"Oh, I swear an oath by all that lives on land, in air and sea!"

Our eyes meet for an instant as she twists and bends to my words.

"That I do not leave the friendship when my heart's led by romance."

I'm inches away now. She's.. healthier now, her 'clothing' a smooth bodice and pair of shorts made of bark. I lower my voice to draw the audience in as I stand within touching distance.

"You can close your eyes on the swirl and sway, but you cannot stop the dance.""

She turns away to continue her dance as I step back.

"So you say you fear to hurt me or to cause me some new pain.
Oh, I swear an oath by mist and fog, by sleet and snow and rain!
That the finest treasure's worthless if its beauty is not seen
And you pierced my heart like cold hard steel by denying what had been."

"Well, I pity all your ladies for your memory's so short.
And your eyes that speak of romance when you're only wanting sport.
Oh, I swear an oath by all I hold in this world to be true,
That as deep a grief as I feel now, 'tis a greater loss for you."

Dryads don't ordinarily enter the city. Is she alright?

"She swore that final oath and then she danced into the ground."

Euanthe drops to a crouch, her arms raised and in constant motion.

"The birds and beasts, the mist and rain, all heard that final sound."

I turn back to my now-shared audience, my face a picture of sorrow.

"And I'm the only witness as can tell the tale to you-
Of the sorrow learned.. by those who find.. that love.. can be half-true."

A moment of silence as I bow, then as I straighten I feel a hand on my right arm. I turn my head to the right to see Euanthe's face an inch from my own. She stares for a moment before reaching down and taking my right hand in her left. "Come with me." She tugs, and I gladly go with her. She's pulling me in the direction of Demeter's templ-.

"Just not on the altar, Pavloow!"

I look back with a smile as Antimache rubs her head and glowers at her comrades in arms before returning my attention to the Dryad. "Euanthe?"

"I was watching from Eldest Sister's temple, but I heard your singing. I had to-." She stops talking for a moment, tensing slightly. "It is hard… With stone…"

"Out of your element. I appreciate your effort."

She turns her head back towards me as we cross the plaza and there's a small and slightly awkward-looking smile on her lips. "I wanted to see you again but you are seldom here."

"Here I am."

She smiles a little more, head slightly tilted downwards. "Yes." Then she turns her head back to the path and increases her pace, pulling me along behind her in earnest. The temple is empty at this time of the evening and doesn't see all that much use over the Dionysia as a whole. Looking up, I can see that the roof is another vine-covered lattice, designed to let both water and light into the similarly plant-decorated interior.

Euanthe releases her grip on my hand and walks further in, onto the patch of grass beneath a larger hole in the roof lattice. She closes her eyes, clearly enjoying the reunion with her element, then drops into a sitting position facing me, her right arm extended towards me, inviting me to join her.

I slowly approach, extending my left hand to lightly take hold of hers as I sit down just in front of her. "I suppose we're not really seeing the temple at its best at this time of night."

"I could cause the plants to flower, but I cannot make sunlight."

I nod, then extend a filament up into the air behind me before releasing a light globe designed to replicate the wavelengths of natural light. Euanthe stares up at it for a moment before smiling at me once again. Then she turns her attention to the walls and oh. Flower buds form and blossom as I watch, covering the plants in a verdant shock of off-season colour. Artistic creativity isn't.. something I'm used to people using their power for. This is… Impressive.

"You have… Nice.. meat."

I look away from the blooming walls and back to Euanthe. "Um, thank you?"

"I did not say that right, did I? I am not used to dealing with Humans." Her body language is odd. No, literally inhuman. Constant motion but none of the automatic actions that a Human would make. Her eyes don't drop, her head doesn't turn away. "This.. festival, I remember it of old. It is about becoming closer to people, rejoicing in their presence, their.. physicality. I wish to.. become closer to you." She moves her left hand to her bodice. "Should I remove this bark? My body is not quite that of a Human woman, but it is very close. Close enough for your.. meat."

Not on the first date. Not even during the Dionysia. Not with someone who went through what she did. "Dryads don't reproduce in the way Humans do, do they?"

"There are different kinds of Dryad. But, no, I do not. Is that important to you?"

"No, I just…" That might work. My eyes unfocus slightly as I swiftly review the ring's database of alien plant life. "The symbolism is different. Perhaps-" Yes, that one would work. It should be able to survive in Earth's soil. I fabricate a Tartary seed in my right hand and hold it out to her. "-we could do something with-" Her eyes focus on it with laser intensity. "-this instead. Can you work with it?"

"I do not recognise it. And I know all plant life."

"All plant life on Earth. This is alien."

"Its spirit is weak. But.. if I nurture it…" She cautiously reaches out with her left hand and plucks it from my grasp. "And feed it on the Green…" I see a tiny sprout appear from the base of the seed and another from the tip. Euanthe looks down and pushes the seed into the soil next to us. "It will be the work of a moment." The sprout pushes upwards and a quick ring scan shows the roots pushing down and outwards. Leaves follow within a minute, flowers within two, and the lumpy blue Tartary fruit within three. Euanthe looks up at the spindly fruit tree with a look of pure innocent joy.

Well, the fruit match my database image for ripe Tartary fruit… I send wide filaments upwards, pluck one from the branch and bring it down to us before slicing it in half and holding one half out to her. She cautiously examines it for a moment before putting the end into her mouth and biting down. Hm. The skin is edible, but in the places where it's eaten it's more common just to consume the flesh. Oh, never mind. I bite into mine and.. it's a bit like a blackcurrant with the texture of an apple. Maybe a bit sweeter?

Euanthe has already finished her half. "Do you have more?"

"Yes, but we've got all evening. What have you been doing since I saw you last?"

"Existing. Forgetting. Remembering. Having seen what I saw, I find I cannot simply cavort with my sisters as I once did. I fear that what I experienced has forever marked me as a thing apart."

I nod. "I think I know the feeling. I.. don't know if the idea appeals to you, but… The mountain I live in. On top, there is a grove of trees grown from a fruit like the one I fed you under London."

"From the flesh of the Great Warrior?"

"Yes. It's a major site of Green power, the magic energies of the whole region now focus on it. I was.. wondering if you would like to move there? I can take you there as easily as I brought you here from London. And if you can't be as you were, perhaps you could become something else instead?"

"I think that I would like that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th March
15:27 GMT +4:30

"This is… Weird."

Zatanna looks up from her kebab as we walk away from the street food vendor. "What is?"

I look around the busy and mildly chaotic streets of Kabul. "I couldn't walk around Kabul like this back home. Well, no, I could with a power ring, but otherwise it would be too dangerous."

"How is Kabul dangerous?"

"The history of the country is… Somewhat different. Um, what do you know about Afghani history?"

"Not much. They.. joined the Warsaw Pact during the seventies… And I think I remember something about Soviet bases in the south being attacked by the local tribes…"

Our guide snorts, then catches himself and looks nervously at us.

I wave it off with my right hand. "I'm sure you know it better than we do."

He nods. "It was a cruel thing to do to those conscripts who were stationed there, but President Daoud knew what he was doing. Put all the bases near Pakistan so the crazy tribes start fights with the Russians and not the rest of us. And it was no bad thing to have all of the Russian soldiers away from the centres of government. The communists weren't as integrated into the PDPA as they are now and they might have started something."

"And he could honestly tell the Soviets that Pakistan was a member of CENTO and SEATO, so there was a good reason for them to be there."

"It was that or put them next to Turkey. But we had to trade with someone."

Zatanna looks at me inquisitively. "Is that not what happened on your Earth?"

"No."

"Ah… If you don't mind me asking, sir..?"

"I come from a parallel universe, and.. one of the differences is that Afghanistan is a bit of a war zone. I.. never really studied exactly what started it off, but the Soviet Union actually invaded the country at one point… Then, Britain and America started funnelling weapons and money to the most theologically vicious tribes and Wahhabi madrassas they could find with the aim of making their life miserable. Of course… In the end, that meant that when the Soviets gave up on the whole thing as a waste of life and money-."

His eyes widen. "Merciful Allah. You mean they took over the country?"

"The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from just after the Soviets left to two thousand and one when the United States invaded the country and they've been fighting a continuous guerrilla war across the country ever since, allied to every radical lunatic they can find. Westerners don't dare-" I watch as a group of tourists stroll past us down the street. "-walk around in the open like this. You'd get shot, kidnapped or blown up by a suicide bomber."

"Suicid-." He shudders in horror. "I think I am glad that I live in this Afghanistan."

We walk up to the security gate surrounding the conference centre being used for the conference in which the leaders of the region are meeting Adom officially for the first time. Bialya isn't being represented, though about three different groups who claim to represent it are in Kabul at the moment. It was interesting to see how different the region's history is to back home. No war with the Soviet Union means that while there are Islamic fundamentalists around -though like back home the word 'fundamentalist' doesn't have the negative connotations in Arabic that it does in English so they just call them crazy- they don't have anything like the political or military power that I'm used to. Plenty of countries hate Israel, but in an almost agnostic pan-Arab nationalist way rather than a religious way. It's a political problem rather than Satan's holiday home.

And of course, no al-Qaeda means no attack on the World Trade Centre on the eleventh of September.

Our guide -his name is Mister Farid- leads us inside the building. "I just wish I knew exactly what caused the difference."

"Did the Anglo-Afghan Wars still occur?"

"Yes, there was.. a bit of a joke about us not learning the lessons of history when we followed the Americans in for the.. fourth time, was it?"

"If that happened, it would have been the fourth time, yes."

"How do you.. handle the border with Pakistan these days?"

"We have the military guard the main roads, and otherwise do what any sensible person should do: avoid it." He holds open a door and ushers us inside. "His Excellency Teth Adom will be with you shortly."

"Thank you." Zatanna leads the way into the lounge area as Mister Farid closes the door behind us. She sits down on one of the settees and takes a deep breath. "Are you sure this is the right thing to do?"

"His help would be very useful and.. he.. definitely won't talk to Nabu."

"I know he's your friend, but I saw pictures of what he did to those people in-."

A door in the far side of the room opens and Adom walks through. He stops in the threshold, nods to Zatanna and myself and then partially turns his head to the people behind him. "Wait here."

"Yes, Mighty One."

He walks in and the aide closes the door behind me. Zatanna gets to her feet. "How is the conference going?"

"It is strange to have so many leaders meeting in one place. Recognition of my government will occur, subject to them sending 'monitors' to the capital to make sure that I do not make slaughtering my political enemies a habit."

"Are you alright about that?"

"They would have sent spies regardless. At least this way I will know where some of them are." He looks curiously at Zatanna. I suppose he... He hasn't met her before, has he? "I was informed that you wish to speak with me."

I cover the walls in orange sound baffles and deposit ward stones along the walls. "Yes, Adom. In point of fact we would like to ask for your help. Well, provisionally. We.. still.. hope it won't actually come to a fight."

"You have done a great deal for Kahndaq and for me personally. Tell me what you need, and if it is in my power I will grant it."

I look at Zatanna. This will almost certainly sound better coming from her. She takes a breath to steady herself. "Five months ago a Lord of Order called Nabu possessed my father. His.. spirit is bound to the Helmet of Fate; whenever someone puts it on he takes control of their body and uses it to interact with the world. Once he's in control there's no way for them to take it off or resist him. We're trying to work out a way to get rid of him, and if it.. turns out that we need to use force, we would appreciate it if you would agree to help us."

There's a very slight frown on his forehead. "Fate? Lord Fate is a member of the Justice League as your father was. Are they unaware of this?"

"No. They're not. And before you ask, I have no idea what they're thinking. And I can't talk to them about it because I can't risk Nabu finding out that we're planning something."

"His control is constant?"

"Yes. When you're wearing the Helmet, it's like you're standing in a black void. Nabu can talk to you and show you what's going on outside, but that's it."

"I find it unlikely that a woman such as Princess Diana would countenance the presence of such a being."

"Justice League nominations need the approval of every current member. If she wasn't happy about it she didn't speak out about it."

"This is.. concerning. What does it want with your father?"

"It wants a powerful magic user as its host. He was the strongest available."

Adom nods slowly. "I have no great love for Lords of Order, but they are extremely powerful. I will aid you, but you know that strength alone will not carry the day."

I nod. "We know. We're working on the rest, and it may even be possible to reach a peaceful settlement. This is just in case it's not. Our current plan is to confront him on the seventh of July and attempt to negotiate Mister Zatara's release. The fight would start the moment we fail."

"I will keep my calendar clear. You will brief me more fully when you have a firm plan?" I nod. "Then we have an accord. If there is nothing else, I will take my leave. I need to speak to the Libyan agriculture minister before the end of the recess."

"Ad-. Teth Adom, I… Thank you. For agreeing to help me with this."

"You are welcome, Miss Zatara. After all of this politicking, I will find it pleasant to have a simple fight of good versus evil once more."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th March
10:57 GMT -3

Sephtian makes eye contact with me from the outside of the air chamber. "We can begin the attempt, if you are ready."

I look over the obsidian head once more. I created it in perfect accordance with his directions. The spells bound to the strands of metal running throughout the structure should cause anything possessing it to have a full range of Human senses and be able to speak. I'm a little ashamed that I didn't realise the potential it has as an alternate residency for Nabu until well after the project was underway, but really that just motivates me to press this project ahead all the more. It's not quite as good as we can make it, but when you're waking up an elemental of uncertain temperament it's wisest not to presume its good will. That's also why it isn't connected to the rest of the golem body we built.

I nod. "Okay. Plug it in."

Sephtian moves his hand over the arcane control system and -though I can't see it- the spells keeping Michael Siskin bound within the containment vessel develop a single breach, one leading directly into the golem head, granting him access to the outside world for the first time since the start of the month.

Him or the Terror Thing.

The head is surrounded by spells of binding and containment. Finding time to research them is what caused the largest part of the delay. Atlanteans may not use automata to any significant degree but they know how they're supposed to work. We have no idea how long this part of the process is going to take. Depending on exactly how he's come to terms with his situation he might not even want to come out. Or he might still be fighting the Terror Thing and desperately try to keep it away from the breach. If something along those lines is happening we've got a replacement -and substantially improved- storage vessel on hand…

"Can you see anything?"

I shake my head. "No." I've got my empathic vision amped up and all I can see inside is yellow. Not that that necessarily means much. Unlike me, Siskin doesn't have an organic body to assist in keeping his other emotions functioning. Would it help if we cloned-.

"Orange Lantern, something is-"

There's a pulse of brilliant yellow in my empathic vision.

"-coming out!"

There's a dull glow from the wires in the golem head and a very mild shimmer from the inner circle of wards. Whatever we've got in there isn't actively trying to get out, at least.

"Are the bindings in the head strong enough?"

"I… Yes, yes they are. At the current levels of stress-."

"Where am I?"

Siskin's voice, or something close to it. There's a definite change, I can hear the yellow… It's threaded through every word, not crowding out all other concepts but still omnipresent. He sounds different to how he was last time we spoke.

"Mister Siskin?"

"Orange Lantern. Where am I? How long has it been?"

"You're in a hazardous materials laboratory in Poseidonis, the capital of Atlantis. It's been a little under a month since you entered the containment vessel before Nabu could destroy the Terror Thing."

He should be able to animate the head easily enough. I can only assume that he doesn't particularly want to at the moment.

"Are you.. you?"

"I am… Something. I took all that was left of the Terror Thing into me. Though that may well mean that I'm more it than me now. There was so little of me left anyway…"

"I remember speaking to the Terror Thing. It wasn't exactly philosophically inclined."

There's a slight.. glow in the golem head's eyeballs. "So. What happens now?"

"Now, we ask you some questions, then… Then we connect you up to a golem body. That will allow you to interact-."

"Do you expect me to be grateful?"

I consider his situation for a moment. "I suppose not."

"I exist. I should continue to do so, I suppose. And I don't want to keep staring at that wall for the rest of time."

"Are you..? Are you in pain? Or.. suffering some other-?"

"No. That's the thing. I was… When I lived through all of the fears that made up the Terror Thing, I did suffer. Horribly. To start with. And then… Each time, the horror got a little less. And I became more inhuman. I'm not suffering, and I think that's the worst part. I should be, but I'm not. It just feels… Right, now."

"That doesn't sound bad, considering how you were living."

"You said you'd been through this yourself. Do you not.. miss things? Your humanity?"

I shake my head. "I know I'm different, but I don't feel.. inhuman. Maybe it's because the Ophidian and I cooperated, rather than trying to tear each other apart as you and the Terror Thing did." I contemplate the head for a moment. "Is there..? Someone you want us to contact..?"

"My family. Are they still alive?"

"Your parents, sister and brother are all in good health. Once we get you.. ambulatory, you could say hello-."

"Why did you do this? At best, I'm a slightly more controlled monster than the Terror Thing. I see everything in terms of fear. You know the people I used to work for, if they found out that I existed like this-."

"If they ever came out of hiding you'd probably kill them yourself."

"Create a monster, get killed by the monster."

"They've got no way to manipulate you any more. No way to control you. You're a psychic weapon far more powerful than the one Geotroniks built; your golem body will be far more resilient than your old flesh one and even if it got destroyed you could still maintain your integrity-."

"No." There's a pause. "The idea amuses me, but there's no emotional connection to the idea. I don't intend to seek vengeance. What does.. this.. golem body look like?"

"At the moment, black stone in a roughly humanoid shape. I didn't want to get anything complicated done until I'd had a chance to speak to you about it."

"Black.. stone…"

"We can put an illusion on it if you want to look like your old self, one you can power yourself."

"No. I'm not the old me any longer. Pretending would be… It would be wrong."

"Okay, well, we still want to check you over,-" I nod to Sephtian who begins gathering his test wands. "-but once that's done we can attach this head to the rest of the body, and.. you can think about what you want the rest of you to look like."

"Mister Siskin?"

"Who is that?"

"My name is.. Sephtian. I will be your artificer. I was wondering… I was not able to properly assess how powerful you are while you were fully contained. How much of you.. are you able to fit into the head?"

"Hardly anything. Maybe a hundredth of my full power. Most of me is still in the storage vessel."

Sephtian freezes in the water.

"Is that a lot?"

"Oooooh yes. Less than the.. binding chains can contain, but… More than I should have put here without conferring with the Queen." Sephtain begins moving again. "Let.. us.. hurry."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th March
16:36 GMT

"What did the government tell them?" Mister Siskin doesn't bother turning his head as we stand on the pavement outside his parents' house in Becontree, East London. The fully constructed golem looks a little like the Flamekin from Magic: the Gathering and he's wearing loose-fitting jogging trousers and a sweatshirt to disguise his form. Only slightly, mind. If anyone took a closer look they'd realise that something was up. They're discouraged from doing so by the fact that the golem is six and a half feet tall and quite.. solid looking. He's probably also radiating a little of the fear-flavoured magic that now makes up his true self inside the stone case.

"I'm not completely sure. I can only easily access electronic records, and as you can imagine there aren't many of those left. 'Accident at work, full investigation to follow', probably."

Huh. I suppose that he's a little like Red Tornado was in the comics now: crack the casing and you haven't won, you've just made life even harder for yourself.

"If you don't want to try talking to them right away-."

"If not now, when? When would be a good time to find out that I have become this?"

"When we've found an illusion that isn't disrupted by.. you? Or when you've gotten more used to it? There were probably things other than fear in those memories if you look hard enough. I know someone-."

The pale yellow corona under his hood intensifies for a moment. "I'm not going to drag this out. Either they accept that I'm who I say I am, or they don't."

"Alright, I'll… Come out and get you if they want to talk to you."

He inclines his head slightly and I start up the path to their front door. A little surprising that this was the first thing he wanted to do, given how much he was banging on about his inhumanity. He wasn't particularly interested in assessing how strong his new body is or what his arcane abilities are now. As far as I can tell he was strictly a low level parapsychic before this, now we've got no idea.

I press the doorbell and wait. Police notifying people that their loved ones have been horribly injured or killed is a feature of most crime dramas I've seen but for various reasons isn't something superheroes are generally called upon to do. Gareth and Maeve Siskin, seventy one and seventy five respectively. He used to be a postman and she worked in a chemist's. No significant ill health, other than the gradual wear and tear that comes with ageing. They shhhould recognise me, though I'm not in uniform at the moment. Given the situation I didn't think talking to the British government before paying them a visit was a sensible idea.

There's a motion behind the door and I hear the chain go on before it opens slightly and Mister Siskin Senior peers up at me. "Yes?"

"Mister Siskin." I hold up my left hand palm facing him and generate an orange sigil. "May I speak with you-"

"Bloomin' nora."

"-for a moment?"

"You're that.. cake-" I wince. "-Lantern, aren't you?"

"One cake, one time."

"None of the others do cakes."

"Hah, that's where you're wrong. Guy never got further than barbeque and the other two live off take away food, but the fellow from the Justice Society is a perfectly capable baker."

"Never made a bloody cake the size of a city though, did he?"

"I'm also orange. Bright orange! I glow and everything! None of the others glow orange!"

We stand in silence for a moment.

"Do you want to come in?"

"Yes, thank you." He closes the door slightly and removes the chain before opening the door fully. "I do actually have something serious I need to talk to you about. Is your wife in?"

"No, she's at her reading group at the moment. Come in, come in." He moves to the side and I walk inside, him closing the door behind me. "That big chap not coming in with you?"

"Not just yet, no."

He heads inwards, towards the living room. "You want a cuppa? I was about to put the kettle on."

"Thank you, but no. Um, you.. might want to sit down and.. not have any hot liquids in your hands."

Immediately he turns back, his face grey and sombre. "Oh no, what's happened now?"

"No no, no one's.. died or been seriously injured or anything like that. I wouldn't be talking to you if it was something that.. simple. Mister Siskin, you really should sit down."

"Alright then." He walks over to an arm chair and cautiously lowers himself into it. "What's the news?"

"At the beginning of this month, I was on a mission in Cornwall… Aaaaand it turned out that it was involved in the whole Geotroniks business."

"I hoped I'd never have to hear that bloody name again. I thought they were finished years ago?"

"How aware are you of the work they were doing?"

He shakes his head. "All top secret. Never even really told us what killed our Michael."

"Essentially, they were creating a magic weapon. When active, it projected fear at a target. Michael was employed as a parapsychic during the early stages of development, and.. they didn't know enough about what they were doing to make sure nothing went wrong."

"Oh." He frowns. "How did he end up in a coma, then?"

"That wasn't exactly a coma. His job was to pull the fears out of the volunteers and put them inside a storage vessel. He… His body went into a coma because his.. soul got stuck there during the transfer. One of the things-."

"What? Are you trying to tell me-!"

"We found the storage container they used. Michael was still mentally coherent-."

"He wasn't dead?!" He's starting to tear up. "We saw the body!"

"There was no way you could have known, Mister Siskin. And given what happened at Geotroniks it wasn't likely that those in the know would have told you of the possibility. We were able to transfer him into an artificial body and he… Obviously he looks very different. I think he's still mostly him."

"Where is he!?"

"Just outside."

"Whu-? That..? That was never-?"

"Prosthetic body. We should be able to make one more lifelike later, but he wanted to come and see you as soon-" Mister Siskin gets up and strides over to the front window in order to look out at his son. "-as we had him up and running. I'll just go and get him for you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th March
21:49 GMT -5

"Bullshit."

I lean back slightly, my shoulders pressing against the settee. "No, totally true."

Jade rolls her eyes. "Your cards. I've got two fours and Karon has the other two."

"Hey!" Karon leans away from her and turns her hand so that the backs face directly towards Jade.

I make an appeal to the heavens, then pick up the pile. "Am I the only one here who can't count cards?"

Holly nods. "Looks like. One five."

Karon hesitates for a moment, then pulls out two cards. "Two sixes."

"Bullshit."

Karon mock-glares at Jade. "Did you look at my hand?"

"No, it's your body language."

"Yeah, I was about half a second from calling that one."

Karon reaches forwards and turns over.. a Queen and a Jack, before picking up the three cards.

Holly smiles at me. "So what happened next?"

"Well, his voice was the same, so that helped. His dad was still a bit shocked when he saw his face, of course. I ducked out once the initial introductions were over." I shrug. "Thought it was all a bit personal for me to be sticking my nose in."

"Three sevens."

I turn to look at Jade fully and lean forwards, staring intently at her face. She stares back with an expression of complete composure, betraying absolutely no emotion. I put my own cards on the carpet face down and lean further forwards, supporting myself on my right hand as she's forced to lean back to avoid our faces bumping into each other.

Two inches from her face I narrow my eyes slightly and her expression goes from composed to slightly vacant.

Then I pull away and sit back down. "Nope, no idea."

Holly and Karon are both looking at me with their eyebrows raised.

"Oh, sorry, um…" I look at my hand. "One eight." I turn to Jade. "Settling in alright?"

Her eyes flick to her landladies for a second before returning to me. "Mom wasn't too happy about it."

"Not what I ah-asked."

"I'm fine."

"City changed much?"

"Four nines."

She thinks for a moment. "It's less.. tense. People don't avoid the police as much. The criminals don't just walk around in the open like they used to. And the streets are cleaner."

I nod. "The arrest rate has increased quite a bit."

She gives me a small smile and shakes her head. "No. Literally. Street cleaning used to be a mob contract. Now it gets put out to competitive tender so they have to actually clean them."

"I think between Gordon, Batman and Dent the old mobs are nearly extinct."

"And the supervillains. Don't forget all the good work they did."

"Oneten. Jade."

"Batman had only been around for a few years when I left." Jade makes an exhalation-laugh. "Gotham's nearly turned into a normal city." She returns her attention to her hand and selects two cards from different parts. "Two-."

"Wait!" Karon takes a closer look at Holly's face, which entirely lacks Jade's comportment. She leans into her girlfriend who frantically tries to get her expression under control, then kisses her on the lips and pushes her back and down. Holly sort of falls to the side with Karon on top of her, the taller woman pushing herself off for a second to say "Bullshit." before returning to the clinch.

I turn back to Jade, shaking my head. "And Ra's said this place was irredeemable."

Hah! Jade's averting her eyes. "Yeah. Uh, two Jacks."

Karon pushes herself off to resume her place, while Holly limits herself to rolling onto her side as she takes her cards.

"Three Queens."

Holly smiles as she organises her cards. "Got that right. Oh, hey, how'd it go with Selina?"

"Dinner was.. nice, but she made it clear that she thinks I'm too young for her."

"Aww…"

Jade raises her right eyebrow. "You went on a date?"

"Yes. You know, some women find me quite attractive."

"I'm just surprised. Artemis told me she thought you were gay." Holly nudges Karon with her right foot. "Either that, or asexual."

"Really? Because one time she caught me checking out-." I stop, silently praying to Eris that she won't-. No wrong goddess!

"And who exactly did my little sister catch you checking out?"

…

"Your mother."

Jade's eyes widen and her mouth falls open slightly.

Holly nods. "Your mom is kinda hot. Toned, y'know? Think I'm gunna start hitting her gym now."

"I don't think she's interested in girls."

"No! Just, y'know, exercise. Now I'm eating better I don't wanna start putting on weight. And I think Selina goes there."

"My mother?"

"Well… You know, I… Rejuvenated her back to peak physical fitness-"

Karon looks away. "Awk-ward."

"-and her.. Huntress costume is.. quite tight around the… Everything, actually."

My phones rings. Guy's number.

"Excuse me a moment." I pick it up.

"My.. mother…"

"Good evening, Guy."

"Hey, Orange. You got any plans for tomorrow?"

"Nothing I can't postpone. Why?"

"Tora wants to bring some friend of hers on our date, so I need someone to keep her entertained."

"And you thought of me?"

"Eh, the guy I had lined up dropped out. Turns out Hal and Carol are 'on' again."

"Okay… When and where?"

"Some place called 'Bakken'. It's in Denmark. Be there 'bout.. six in the evening, local time?"

"Alright, see you there."

"Right. Uh. Okay, I gotta get goin'. I'll see ya tomorrow."

He hangs up and I lower the phone. Holly smiles at me. "Who was it?"

"That was Green Lantern Guy Gardner asking me out on a date."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
17:02 GMT +8

I sigh, then lower myself into the seat across from the hulking monstrosity opposite me. "Fabiao. Been a while."

He doesn't.. look too badly injured, but his hardened epidermis makes it a little hard to tell. The facility we're in isn't equipped with a power suppressor but the sheer weight of titanium-tungsten carbide chains on him should do the job about as well.

"Yeah man."

He sounds.. utterly miserable, which given what happened isn't too surprising. The accent is different too, as I'm listening to him through the ring's translation effect rather than his strongly accented English.

"So I… Assume that Bane went to visit his father after all?"

He tries to nod, but his heavy metal collar means that he can't complete the gesture. "Yes. Perdición wanted to talk to him in person. I don't…" He looks past me to where Colonel Fang is giving him a look of total contempt. "I don't know exactly what he wanted-" He tries to shrug and fails again. "-but he is the boss."

"He was the boss."

You'd think August Colonel in Iron's voice would be metallic. Raspy. But it isn't. There's a distortion from where his mouth isn't quite as flexible as an unaltered Human's mouth would be, but otherwise he sounds pretty normal.

Fabiao looks up at him for a moment and then looks away. "Yeah. The woman in the green dress shot him with… Like a crossbow? I thought it was a plasma weapon but the… The arrows? They stuck in him and stayed there."

"Ghost Fox Killer. It's an arcane weapon."

"Is she a superhero?"

"No. She's a superfunctionary. That means that she works for the Chinese government rather than being independent. Which in turn means they're happy for her to use lethal force against dangerous opponents."

"Were those.. people with her..? The see through ones? Were they ghosts?"

"Yes. She harvests the souls of the evil to use as a power source. I'm a little curious as to how you survived."

"You can't pay me enough to die for you. There were police, soldiers, Chinese super-. Superfunctionaries. When Perdición died, I just knelt down and put my hands up."

I half turn. "Was the Socialist Red Guardsman pulling a sickie?"

"I was concerned about bringing a radiological hazard to a densely populated area."

"Right." I turn back to Fabiao. "Obviously, I notified the Chinese authorities that you might be heading their way after we met in Gotham. They really don't like people with superpowers committing crimes in their country."

"Yeah man. I noticed."

"I'm somewhat sympathetic to your position, but I'm still not entirely clear on why you asked for me."

"What? You think I should have called a lawyer? I know America puts people like me in Belle Reve. I don't know what the Chinese do with us."

"For metahuman criminals who resist arrest, they usually summarily execute them. Since they're actually holding you, there's a prison camp out in the Gobi Desert. I imagine you'll get… You haven't committed a serious crime in China, so…" I turn back to Colonel Fang. "Five years' hard labour, followed by deportation?"

"Eight. He was in the company of an international fugitive. And then I imagine that the Americans will want him after he has served his sentence."

I turn back, nodding. "You're looking at Felony Murder for Gotham-."

"The old lady?" I nod. "That was Truggs, man. We were going to hold her hostage, maybe ransom her. Then he just pulled out some weird looking pistol and shot her."

"He admitted to similar murders before. But felony murder just requires them to prove that you might reasonably have suspected that someone could die during your crime, and I'm afraid that breaking into someone's house to commit a robbery counts. Then you've got the drugs smuggling, illegal entry to the country and.. Taiwan's going to want you and any other survivors over the attack on the Rhelasian peace conference."

He sags as much as his restraints allow him. "I'm done, man."

"On the other hand, you did hand yourself over willingly." I raise my hands slightly, rings glowing as I take a detailed scan of his physique. "And I did promise." Two fat beams of orange light strike the centre of his mass and flow across his body.

I hear a scrape of metal behind me as Colonel Fang folds his arms across his chest. "He isn't worth your time."

"That's… Not the point."

"He is undoubtedly a murderer many times over. His surrender prevented me killing him immediately as I did the other two like him, but I know him for the scum he is. The only reason he is still here is because he mentioned your name and the Chinese government considers itself in your debt for Roanoke Island. And for compelling the Physician to accept our authority."

I lower the rings and the light cuts out. Fabiao looks himself over. I could have done a full purge of his system, restored him to a Human baseline physique. But he told me in Gotham that his plans for the future involved keeping his enhancements, so I limited myself to healing the rifts in his skin and performing minor fixes on all of the other damage the Venom Buster did to him. He actually came out of it okay compared to Mister Huang. The changes to his brain were fairly minimal. He probably didn't get much worse than headaches. I guess the late Bane Dorrance knew his stuff.

"Eh. Thanks, man."

I get up and walk out of the room, Colonel Fang following a moment later. There's quite a lot of activity in the police station as Xeno-Team soldiers rub shoulders with Hong Kong police and both try to avoid Ghost Fox Killer's ghosts.

"Obliged or not, I'm still not sure why you showed me that."

"I imagine that my superiors would rather repay you by reducing the punishment of an inconsequential thug than something important."

I nod. "King Snake?"

"Dead. The police had him under observation for his links to the gangs. The presence of the Great Ten expedited matters."

I suppose I could… No.

"I suppose it would be the nice thing to do, but to be honest? He's committed some very serious crimes and I think he should be punished for them. Eight years' hard labour?" Colonel Fang gives me a sidelong look, then nods. "Sounds a little excessive to me, but China has much less of a supervillain problem than Britain or the States. Do as you see fit."

"Hm." There's approval in his eyes. "Had he tried to fight on, the lives of several of my men would have been lost to the criminals. And his potential utility is obvious. We may consider offering him employment."

"You want to bring him into the Great Ten? Really?"

"The Physician is a murderer. And you clearly have suspicions regarding Socialist Red Guardsman. Mister Matos has self discipline and power. We may be able to make use of him."

"What would he get out of it?"

"Better food, better conditions. And we would quietly repatriate him to Brazil at the end of his sentence instead of extraditing him. Or allow him to stay on in honourable service, if he so chose."

"That sounds reasonable. And I think he'll probably go for it." I hesitate for a moment. "Just curious… Can I assume that if those responsible for Roanoke Island found themselves in your custody, you would give them to Ghost Fox Killer as well?"

"Naturally. They are not fit to draw breath."

"Hm. Something to think about."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
17:56 GMT +2

"…like to see more a' her, but you know how much time this job takes."

Guy and I descend through the air towards the entrance to the entrance to Dyrehavsbakken, which apparently is the world's oldest operating amusement park. He's wearing a green shirt with a suit jacket and trousers in a slightly darker green, and as a result looks a little like a Leprechaun bodybuilder.

"I will in three months, yes."

I'm wearing fawn trousers with an orange sigil belt buckle along with a blue shirt under a darker blue jumper. Not exactly warm at this time of the year and while neither Guy nor I have secret identities I doubt the evening would be improved by us being pestered for autographs or some sort of performance.

"Oh yeah." He frowns slightly as we touch down behind some streets just off the main road. "What you planning to do when your probation runs out? Just head off out there, straight to Maltus?"

"No, I was thinking about visiting Vega first. Get the lay of the land in one of the few places John's ring didn't have up to date information."

He glances at me with a raised left eyebrow. "And run right int' that Larfleeze guy? That really a good idea?"

I shrug. "I have the Sword of Second and Third. If it really comes down to it I can probably kill him."

"Why's it called that again?"

"What, the sword?" He nods as we come out onto the pavement and turn towards the amusement park. "Because it was made from the remains of the Second of the Fallen and the Third of the Fallen to kill the First of the Fallen."

"So… Why don't ya just call it the Sword of the Fallen?"

…

"Um."

He smirks. "Didn't think of it, did ya?"

…

"No."

Smirk has evolved into Grin. And learned Beam.

"Anyway, I'm not sure who would win in a direct fight between myself and Larfleeze, but I need to know he's not assimilating the whole population of Okaara or something like that."

"Okay, so you have a look around. Then what?"

"See what needs doing. Do it. Gordanians, Psions, Spider Guild, Branx Warriors… As I understand it, the place is a bit of a mess."

He nods approvingly. "Okay! Now you're talkin' like a real Sector Lantern."

"Might even-" I hold up my right hand and have the ring sparkle. "-pick up a recruit."

"Yeah, the guy I got this suit from said somethin' about that. You really lend it to that assassin girl?"

"Yes, and she did an excellent-."

"Hey." He fans out his hands. "I ain't complaining. She did good work. I had t' have Kilowog shout'n at me fer a few weeks before I could even create constructs." He regards me curiously. "You, ah… Plannin' on takin' her with you?"

"Probably not. It's three months away and I want her to have a chance to experience normalcy before making that kind of decision."

"Y'know, sometimes you can give a girl too much space."

"Alright. First one to make a romantic relationship last a year wins."

"Psh. I've got a four month head start and even I ain't dumb enough to mess things up with Tora."

"One year continuous. Break up for a fortnight and it's back to the start."

"You're on. But I ain't worried." We reach the park entrance and come to a halt. "Where do we buy the tickets?"

"We don't. Entrance is free and you buy tickets or armbands at the kiosks for rides. It's probably easiest if we wait for Ms Olafsdotter and f-."

"You ain't actually gunna call her that, right?"

"Tora and friend, then buy armbands." Guy nods, then looks around, then checks his watch. "You could just scan-."

"Nah, that's just creepy. I don't want her thinkin' I'm looking over her shoulder the whole time." He tries looking through the crowds again. "Alright, so, what you gunna do when you're done sorting out Vega?"

"Maltus. If Larfleeze confronts me and I win, I'll pick up the Central Power Battery and go straight there. Um, can you.. tell me if Central Power Batteries have any sort of area effect I should know about?"

He screws up his face in thought. "I dunno. I always feel better bein' next t' the Green one, but that might just be 'cause it's the center of the whole Corps, y'know?"

"Well, anyway, I can't just leave it there. I'll have to take the risk. But otherwise, I think I'll probably try and meet up with a Darkstar inside Reach territory. Help them out, get an introduction. Then on to Maltus. What happens after that depends on the Controllers."

"What d'you want-"

"Hah."

"-to happen?"

"I want them to help me defeat Larfleeze without killing him. We will get Orange Lanterns who can't cope, who get overloaded like I nearly did a couple of times-."

"You did get overloaded."

"The Ophidian doesn't count. I mean, just normal usage. You remember when you and Diana talked to me after the thing with the intelligent Gorillas?"

He nods. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"The rings the Guardians give you aren't green because they want to make your lives harder. Not going crazy is a pretty big bonus. And if we can help Larfleeze, we can help the others too. Anyway, then we'd transport the Orange Central Power Battery back to Maltus and start recruiting. Any Darkstars who can handle it, probably, and I've got a list of people I want to talk to."

"Yeah? Like who?"

"First would be Vril D-."

"Guy!"

We look around, and Guy smiles beatifically as Tora climbs out of the taxi and walks in our direction. I think she'd be running if the heels on her boots allowed it. Guy moves away from me and meets her half way, their arms wrapping around each other as Tora lays her head on his chest and he kisses her hair.

Aww.

Guess whoever I'm supposed to be escorting is still in the taxi. I head towards it, ready to open the door and help her out.

"Oh, hey." Guy and Tora separate a little, though I notice that he's holding her left hand in his right. "This is my friend Paul."

"Good evening, Tora. And whom do I have the pleasure of escorting this evening?"

Her eyes widen slightly as she sees me. "Ah. Oh!" She turns back towards the taxi as a woman with pale green hair gets out. "Bea-."

"Okay, so who did Gardner saddle me-?"

She stops as I step forwards. "Hello there."

She blinks, looking me over. "You're the guy who-."

"Giant cake, yes, I kn-."

"-put those eyes everywhere!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
18:02 GMT +2

I grin at her. "This is the first time anyone's opened with that!"

"What the hell were you doing?!"

Behind me, Tora groans faintly and Guy winces.

"Looking for any League of Shadows operatives who escaped the initial wave of arrests."

She storms around the taxi and up to me, fists balled and… I think her hair's puffed up a little? I did do a little research into her as part of my attempt to investigate potential future Justice League recruits and this version of her isn't yet capable of the feats of pyrokinesis that the modern comic version is. Rather than covering her body in green fire as in Justice League Unlimited she can't project her flame further than about eight inches. It's steel-melting hot, but the short range combined with the summoning delay makes her DPS potential fairly low. She can't fly, either. Her background in Brazil's intelligence agency is a little more interesting but for whatever reason most of the files describing exactly what she got up to with them weren't on computer when I did my data gathering sweep.

"I'm sorry if I.. caught you at a bad time-"

"I was in the shower, you pervert!"

Fists back, face thrust forwards towards mine. She's about three inches shorter than me, though the heels make it more like one.

"-but I was a bit possessed at the time and I don't really remember-" And suddenly I remember seeing her. Thank you Ophidian. "-most of what we saw."

"'We'?"

"I was possessed-" Sorry Ophidian, but it's easier than a full explanation. "-by the Embodiment of Avarice. As you know the eyes were spread across the whole of the world so it wasn't like I was-."

"Whatever." She takes a half-step to the side and then shoves past me. "Gardner, I thought you said you were bringing someone from the Justice League, not the world's greatest peeping tom."

"Err, he had to pull out at the last minute."

"Don't talk me up too much, Guy." I turn around. So, Beatriz da Costa. Alpha personality and -at the moment- insufficient raw power to back it up in superheroics. And her best friend is dating a member of the Justice League.

Might be a slight chip on her shoulder, there.

"But hey, Paul's probably getting upped in a few months and he's already working for Wonder Woman."

Ms da Costa walks past Guy and Tora in the direction of the entrance, nose turned up.

"Bea…"

And she stops, sagging slightly. "Fine. I'll try making the most of it."

She's being fairly rude to me, but to be honest I find this situation more amusing than anything. "Gracious of you."

Beatriz turns back around to face me, pointing at me with her right index finger. "Don't you start with me. I was supposed to be networking tonight."

Tora pats her on the shoulder as she and Guy walk past. "Beatriz, try and be nice." Beatriz' hair flattens slightly-. Oh! It's part of her power set. I hadn't made that connection before. Internal heat or something else?

Something occurs to Guy. "Hey, Paul, didn't Bats have you doing that performance review thing? How am I doin'?"

I take a few hurried steps to catch up. "Pretty well. Based on the performances I've been able to analyse you're the most adaptable Greenie. High DPS, high utility in rescue operations and-."

Tora's head pokes around from the far side of Guy's chest. "DPS? Is that some sort of Justice League code?"

Beatriz falls in on the far side of Tora as we enter the park. "It means 'damage per second'. You mean you've actually worked out how much damage members of the Justice League can inflict?"

"It's hard to be completely precise, but yes. In order to evaluate how well the League is doing I had to work out what they're actually trying to do, and it fits into certain broad categories-."

"Paul's basically the reason why I got in."

"No, come on. I might be the reason why you got in when you did, but you'd have got in without me eventually."

Beatriz suddenly looks more interested. "So are you the guy I have to convince to let me in?"

"No, you have to convince a League member to nominate you and the whole of the League not to object. At the moment. I'm going to be trying to persuade them to change the criteria… About a week and a half from now? I'm supposed to be giving a presentation-" Beatriz crosses behind Guy and Tora and takes hold of my right arm. "-about the League's organisational structure."

She smiles sweetly at me. "And what would this 'change' mean for me?" I think she was pushing her original Brazilian accent there, rather than the North American one she's picked up from practising her English with Americans. "And Tora?"

"I'll.. just be laying out a series of options. I don't have any decision making authority-."

"I mean, is there a shortlist..?"

"Sort of. Once I came up with an evaluation criteria I added it to the list of possible future recruits-."

"There's a list?"

"There's a database of all active superheroes, and a long list of those who meet the minimum requirements."

"I am on that, aren't I?"

"On the.. long list, yes."

"How long?"

"As in, not an auto-recruit but worth considering once they have a better idea of what they're actually recruiting for. And my environmental shield is up, so squeezing my arm harder won't help."

"Hmpf."

"Bea, this is supposed to be a date. Do you have to talk about work all the time?"

"So what would I have to do to improve my position?"

Looks like she does. "Giving me your ESG and SNI files would probably help-" Her eyes widen by a very small amount. "-as it would let me assign a more accurate value to your investigative and intelligence handling skills. Beyond that, a heck of a lot more combat practice against people with super powers than you currently have."

"Nothing like it." Guy nods. "Think you can find videos of Paul an' me goin' at it on the internet."

"And, um…" Tora's head reappears. "What about me?"

"Your ex-nihilo ice construction ability is amazingly versatile and useful. I'm not sure exactly how precise your control is, but the potential during disasters… Floods, fires or.. droughts, actually, is considerable."

"Oh." She smiles sweetly at me. "Thank you."

"Are you saying that she's higher on the list than me?"

I look straight ahead. "I'm carefully avoiding saying any such thing."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
18:57 GMT +2

Guy sheepishly hands a very small mouse doll to Tora, who accepts it with princessly grace. "Guess rifles aren't really my thing."

Tora hugs it and smiles at him. "I think it's sweet."

Beatriz steps towards the stall and looks pointedly at me. I turn my lower lip down slightly, nod, and then step up myself, laying my right hand on the stall and depositing a twenty krone note from subspace as I take it away.

"The American doesn't know how to shoot but the English guy does?"

The stall holder passes an air rifle to each of us before moving out of the way.

"I used to go to a rifle range twice a week. These days-" I move the rifle butt to my shoulder. "-I mostly practise with exotic weapons, but the training stood me in good stead. You?"

She checks the iron sight. "Grandpa taught me."

"Ah, yes, I suppose he would have done."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"He was in the army, wasn't he?"

She raises her gun to her shoulder. "Exactly how thorough was your background check?"

"Thorough as it needed to be." Huh, gun's slightly bent. Used to always annoy me when arcade light guns were misaligned. Minute amounts of orange light flow along the barrel as I correct the flaw.

The chap manning the stall pulls a lever and the decorative wood covering the target papers rotates out of the way. The aim is to shoot out the perforated paper around the star in the centre using as few of your limited supply of pellets as possible. Having never attempted this particular exercise before I have no idea how many shots you need to make and Guy's placement was frankly terrible.

Beatriz opens fire a split second before I do, perforating the paper of her chosen target just outside the perforated ring. Let's try… Five shots? My first hits the twelve o'clock position of the perforated ring perfectly as Beatriz adjusts her aim and hits hers at the three o'clock. I hit the six as she hits five and seven. Ah, I'm not used to shooting for speed with this sort of gun. Three, nine and centre? No, the shot just overpenetrates without spreading the force out. Half one, half four, half seven and half ten? Done! Okay, next-.

Beatriz is already half way through her second target. Picking up the pace, then. Seven, even placement? It works, but I'm falling further behind. Again. And again.

"Hey, she's pretty good at that."

And click.

The fellow manning the stand smiles at me as he reaches to take the rifle from me. "The lady wins! Four to seven."

"Hm." Beatriz tosses her hair as she puts her rifle down. Guess I have.. got kind of out of practice…

"Do you want to combine your score for the prize..?

I look at Beatriz. "Do we?"

She doesn't look at me. "We will have the big pink fluffy one."

"Excellent choice, madam." He pulls it off the prize stand and passes it to her. It's… I think it's meant to be a cat of some sort. Too big to really do much with.

Beatriz turns away from the stall, looking at it for a moment. I step away as well. "Would you like-?"

She thrusts it into my chest, causing me to instinctively take hold of it. "Here you go."

"Um. Thank you?" Tora puts her right hand to her mouth to disguise her snigger while Guy doesn't even bother. I take a moment to try and put it into a position that will let me carry it… No, I don't think there is one. Subspace with you, foul abomination.

"Hey!"

"It's fine, it's in ring storage. I will forever carry it as a memento of the affection you feel for me."

Guy pulls Tora into him. "So what next, babe?"

"I thought… Maybe one of the rollercoasters?"

"They're kinda small.. but if you like?" He shrugs and they start walking towards the closest. Wooden, rather than the metal structures I've gotten used to. Never really been much of a rollercoaster aficionado. I don't mind the high speeds and sharp turns -not any more, and not even in my pre-ring days as long as I'd had a travel sickness tablet- but all the screaming of the other riders annoys me. Stiff upper lip, guys.

Beatriz glances at me for a half-second, then returns her attention to her friend. "You two go on ahead. I just need a quick word with my.. 'date'."

Guy smiles a bit too quickly at the idea, but Tora doesn't exactly look disappointed as she nods and tugs Guy away faster. Uh..?

"No, really, it's fine." I take the fluffy thing out of subspace again. "See? Completely-."

"How did Green Lantern Three even hear about Tora?"

"Three?"

"Gardner."

"Two eight one four B. And if you're talking about Green Lantern Corps members from Earth, he'd be two."

"I thought the black guy was the second one."

"No, Guy got his ring before he did."

"Stop trying to change the subject. You're the one who told him about Tora, weren't you? What, were you just looking through your big file of women superheroes and picking out the hot ones for your friends?"

I sigh. "Is that a serious question or do you just want to shout at me some more?"

Her hair's puffing up again. "What did you tell him about her? Did you.. coach him on how to seduce her?"

"Shouting it is, then."

"I knew there was something creepy about that guy!" She takes a step backwards, away from me and in their general direction. "I'm going right over there-!"

"While possessed I gave him a file of information. He flicked through it once then threw it away for exactly the reasons you're complaining about. I haven't been tutoring him. What Tora's getting is.. the real Guy. And I certainly don't regard my professional research as a pick up hit list when I'm in my right mind."

She stops moving away, but she doesn't look much happier. "Do you know how many times he's just.. turned up when I was spending time with Tora? I bet he's using his power ring to just watch her the whole time. And some of the stuff he said to me when she wasn't around-."

"Guy's actually quite a nice fellow once you get to know him. But at first, he's got this habit of pretending to be all macho and getting defensive if things don't go right. But, Tora's-" I give her a level look. "-somehow learned to deal with bad tempered people-"

"Hey, I'm nothing like-!"

"-and once he's built up his confidence a bit he usually relaxes and you can get at the nice guy inside."

"How long does that take?"

"Well he.. did.. set you up with a highly powerful and internationally well regarded superhero who is in possession of effectively unlimited wealth because Tora asked him to find you a date."

She simmers down a little. "And dating you would 'help my career'?"

"Wasn't that why you asked? But yeah, I don't mind helping with your training. In a strictly platonic way."

She looks away, eyes down and breathing pointedly regular. "Okay. I'll give.. Gardner a chance." Back at me. "But if he does anything-!"

"Then he and I will both be ahead of you in the queue to beat him up about it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
08:17 GMT -11

"Okay… Now try both hands?"

Beatriz points both palms forward, steady green flames sitting about a centimetre from her skin like someone turned a candle flame through ninety degrees. My temperature monitor constructs register almost no change in the temperature of the surrounding air except where they intersect with my girder construct. That is already starting to give way, so I delete it and replace it with a slightly tougher one.

Hmm.

One hand or two, the flame has roughly the same effect. She's not splitting power, which could have explained the limitation if it were true. She can't burn herself with them; she can wave one hand through a flame floating over the other without taking any injury at all. The flames don't consume oxygen from the surrounding environment and the conditions in the air around them don't seem to affect them at all. Gloves which can fit under the flame will survive it being summoned above them. Thicker ones which touch it don't.

"Okay, stop." She shuts off her flames and closes her fists. "Still not feeling tired?"

She shakes her head. "Have you actually learned anything, or have I wasted my evening?"

"The rune didn't react at all, so it's definitely metahuman. Your brain structure appears to be normal, though there are a few unusual patterns of activity in your cerebellum when you generate your flames-"

"I knew that."

"-suggesting… It's linked to your capacity for proprioception. Hm." I think for a moment. "Have you tried making flames while drunk?"

She nods her head to the side. "Yess?"

"I mean, falling down drunk? It would be interesting to see how it affects your control."

She puts her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"

"Urgh." I remove my remaining constructs and sit down on the deck of my fortress. "Are you going to keep doing that?"

She frowns for an instant, then looks blank. "Doing what?"

"You've been snapping at me all evening. I got.. the first thing, the Ophidian and I scared a lot of people with those eyes. But we were using them to hunt down the League of Shadows and.. the unaided Human brain can't retain all of that information. And I saw everyone, young and old, beautiful and ugly… I wasn't looking for wank material. And the thing with Guy-."

"No, I was just…" She looks off to the side for a moment, then walks over and sits down next to me. "That time, I was trying to joke about it."

"Oh. Sorry, I-."

"No, I didn't judge it right."

We stare out across the Bering Straits for a moment, admiring the view.

"You really don't remember what you saw?"

"I remember the bits we were actually looking for. The place in the Himalayas where the remaining League officers were hiding out. And.. occasionally, I.. see something or hear something and I suddenly-" I gesture at the side of my forehead with my right hand. "-get a flash of something we saw, but for the most part I really don't."

She glances at me, a playful smile on her lips. "So you really don't know what I look like naked?"

"No, pretty much as soon as you said it I got a flash of you." I shrug. "Sorry."

She goes back to looking out across the ocean. "Oh."

"If it helps, I'm.. pretty much team medic, so I've got detailed scans of both my team mates and the Justice League."

"You know what Wonder Woman looks like naked?"

"And Superman. And Plastic Man. And.. Guy, actually. You ever had a male gynaecologist? Because for me it's pretty much the same thing. It's not.. erotic, necessarily. It's just what they look like under their clothes."

She doesn't say anything for a few moments. Then she nods to herself. "Last time I was drunk, I could make the flames go further but I couldn't control where they were going. Tora had to stop me burning our apartment down."

"Hm. Well, there are exercises you can do to improve your proprioception. I can't promise they'll actually help with your flames, but it's the simplest idea I have at the moment. There are some things we could try with magic, but I'm dumping quite a lot of stuff on my magic guy already."

"You said my power wasn't magic."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that you can't affect it with magic. We could-."

"Proximity alert."

Oh, right.

Beatriz sits up slightly, suddenly alert. "What does that mean?"

"It means that something's getting clo-." She glares. "Probably the Russians noticing that I've come further south this time. I thought that they might radio first, but I guess that they want to make an impression."

I flick my right forefinger out, creating a glowing, curved-cornered rectangle in the air, marking the location of the incoming power armour suits. The elite model, I note. I create a construct of them just in front of us.

"Are they a problem?"

"No. Unless they're a lot better armed than I think they are they wouldn't be able to pierce the Fortress' force fields. But I'm trying to maintain good relations. You know that evaluation thing Guy said I was doing for the League?"

"Yes?"

"They want a guy because the Chinese have a guy."

"How highly does he rate?"

"Pretty high, actually. His power armour's good even by my standards and it includes some sort of localised machine control." I stand up and walk towards the edge closest to them. "If the summary they gave me was honest. I could forcibly check, but that seems impolitic."

I remove the constructs as they come in, gravity repulsors on their legs stabilising them in the air just over the edge of the rim. There are three, the one at the front possessing a Major's two lines containing a single star. "Orange Lantern. You are moving uncomfortably close to Russian waters."

"I made a deal with your government. I'll be recommending to the Justice League that they consider offering your colleague Dmitri Pushkin a spot. I was told that would be enough that they wouldn't bother me about coming south."

"Ah, that is good! I was worried that we might have to stop you!"

"Yes, that would have been awkward. Do you intend to escort me the whole way?"

"No, the air force can handle that." He begins floating backwards. "Just remember not to go too close to the shoreline. This is still a restricted area."

"I'll be certain to keep that in mind."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
20:14 GMT -6

"…punched you through a wall because she was looking to get hitched?"

I nod as the chap next to me at the bar stares at me incredulously. "Yeah. I guess that's how they do things on Almerac."

"And now she's going to marry her assistant because she can't be bothered to do her job?"

I take a sip from my glass of non-alcoholic root beer. "That part of her job, certainly. The structure of their government does quite a lot to centralise certain types of decision-making power and she isn't really able to offload it to anyone else. Formalising her assistant's authority actually makes a lot of sense."

"Lucky fellah."

I smile. Currently illegal in Colorado, and I don't particularly want to antagonise my new neighbours over something not happening in this sector. "Ye-ah, lucky fellow."

My companion -his name is Mitchel- takes a look around the bar of the Wingnutz Bar and Grill. Neatly shaven handlebar moustache, slight gut overhang and one of those cowboy hats I sort of assumed that real Americans didn't wear. I got some fairly extreme looks when I walked in, shock, fear and confusion mostly. Mister Tawny and Doctor Robbins entering just behind me flat out didn't register for almost a minute until I ordered them some wings.

Hey, the sign says 'No Dogs'.

Mitchel was the first person to find the courage to speak to me, though I can feel everyone else staring at the back of my head.

"So, ahh… What is it.. brings you out here?"

"This is my local, now."

He blinks. "You.. moving in?"

"Doctor Robbins-" I point at where she's overseeing Mister Tawny's kitty rides. "-owns Challenger Mountain. I moved in just over a week ago, and Rifle's the closest town. You're probably going to see a lot of me around the place."

"Challenger Mountain? But that's way over…"

I shrug. "Not like I walk it." I raise my tankard and drain it before wiggling it at the barwoman. "That was a good deal less loathsome than I thought it would be. Another, if you would."

"Non-alcoholic, again?"

"I know it doesn't fit the image, but I can snap steel beams with one hand. Me getting tanked up is a very bad idea."

She nods, taking my glass. "Non-alcoholic it is."

"Um. Saw you on TV."

"Yeah? Which time?"

Off to my left Mister Tawny rears up and the boy perched on his head squeals in delight while his mother looks on in horror. Mitchel looks around at the sound. "Ah… Is he… Y'know, trained?"

"Hm?" I make a show of looking around. "Oh, I don't imagine his mother would have brought him here if he wasn't." I nod to the barwoman as she puts my new drink down in front of me. "Thank you."

"No, I mean… Your Tiger?"

"Mister Tawny? I don't own him. He just sort of follows me around sometimes." I turn back to Mister Tawny. "Mister Tawny, no eating the children, okay? You don't know where they've been." Mister Tawny looks at me, grunts, then lowers his head back to his plate of wings and bites down on a few. "Huh." I turn back to Mitchel. "Just keep feeding him wings, I guess."

"Aaaaaah. Um, on TV, your award ceremony?"

"Oh right. Thought it might have been one of the other times. Don't think I've actually watched an award ceremony on television my entire life."

"You go on TV a lot?"

I chuckle. "Whenever I go out and about, someone points a camera at me so they can film the early parts of my rampage and sell the footage to the networks. Sometimes I feel like I should just.. buy something and then break it so they don't feel that they've wasted their time. I think some footage of me ended up being broadcast after Roanoke but if you're not Justice League you're not national news."

"Hey." I turn around as some guy on a nearby table speaks up. "I saw you on TV when you were in Fawcett City."

"Oh yeah, that got national coverage, didn't it. Sorry, it's… There's a bunch of things I do, and I don't necessarily assign them the same importance the networks do. Hey, I'm Grayven." I wave. "Who're you?"

"Ah, my name's Jacob?"

"You sure about that?"

"Ah-." He shakes his head. "Yeah, it's just… We don't see many superheroes around here. And, ah, this is my wife Ella."

The woman in question waves a little nervously at me. "Hey there."

I nod back. "Howdy neighbours. Pleased to meet you both. Can I get you a drink?"

They look at each other for a moment, then Jacob nods. "Yeah, thanks." They get up and walk over to take the stools on my left.

"What are you having?"

"Lemonade for me, and..?" He looks at his wife.

"If the root beer's good?"

I take a sip. "Wouldn't go that far."

"Um." Ella leans forward slightly. "I wanted to.. thank you? For killing that.. Klarion. Our-" Her eyes flick to her husband. "-little girl, she's seventeen months now, and when that thing happened… It was terrifying, not knowing where she was. Bastard had it coming."

"Happy to oblige."

A woman on the far side for the room slides her chair back and starts in my direction. "How can you say that? He cut a boy's head off on television!"

Jacob turns to face her. "Yeah, well that 'boy' killed more other kids than you've had hot dinners your whole life. What's your problem?"

"Oh, I just get worried when someone goes on national television saying they want to repeal the Bill of Rights and everyone applauds!"

I turn fully around. "Guys, guys." I make a placatory gesture with both hands. "We're all rational adults here. We can talk through our differences like civilised people. Okay?" Jacob and the new woman glare at each other for a moment, then look away. "In answer to your concern… As you may have noticed, I'm an alien. I don't have the same attachment to -or awareness of- the Bill of Rights that you do. Honestly, I…" I shake my head. "I have a little difficulty in getting my head around the idea that there might be a law that stops you killing people like that."

Jacob rolls his eyes. "Shouldn't be."

"Well, in the United States we do. Due process means they have to be there when the trial happens."

"And that's an absolute? I mean, I gave the matter some thought and I couldn't think of a way to make Klarion go anywhere he didn't want to."

"Yes, it's an absolute. He was clearly a monster, but the law that gives him the right to a fair trial is the same as the one that protects everyone else."

"You do realise that he was powerful enough to happily slaughter his way through any police force or military force sent to bring him in, right? As far as I'm concerned it comes under the constitution not being a suicide pact. The Founding Fathers can't have given thought to how the laws they were signing off on would relate to beings that powerful. Isn't it.. better than there not being any sort of court process?"

"It would never stop at just people like him."

"Because the alternative would be a politician giving a kill order, and that's far more-." The door opens, and Scott and Barda walk in. Wasn't.. expecting a visit from them. "Hey Scott, hey Barda. Everyone, my brother and sister-in-law."

Mister Tawny looks around and sniffs at them. Scott looks surprised at the people nodding at him and Barda's glowering. What crawled up her?

"Grayven. Can we.. talk to you outside for a sec?"

"Oh, great, my first time in the local bar and I'm getting called out by my own brother." I rise to my feet, sigh theatrically and put two hundred dollars down on the bar before stepping away. "Next round's on me, guys."

Scott looks like he's trying to work out what's going on, like he thinks that he's missed something important but isn't sure what it is. Barda steps back out the door and moves off to the side to let me out. I walk past her and then turn around as Scott brings up the rear. "Okay guys, what's this abou-?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st March
20:19 GMT -6

I wince as I push myself up into a sitting position. "Okay, people need to stop hitting me in the face now. Ow." I blink as my sister in law strides across the car park in my direction, fists clenched. "Barda? What the hell was that about?" Drones, activate. Low lethality pattern.

"Oh, don't you even try that with me."

I get to my feet as she gets closer. I see Mister Tawny come through the doors of the restaurant as the other patrons line up at the window. "Barda, I don't know what's got into you-."

She lunges towards me. I duck down slightly and bring my arms up in a guard as she swings her right at my head again. Easily blocked. She isn't wearing armour or carrying a weapon. This isn't a serious attack. Or at least she isn't trying to kill me. Her left smashes into my lower guard with enough force to lift me off the ground, then she's at my side, grabbing me and hurling me across the car park!

Okay, had enough. My armour appears around me and my ring's flight aura catches me just before I smash through a row of cars. I right myself in the air and then float back down as Scott and Barda start walking towards me. "First one's free. Second one, I'll let you off because you're family. I don't recommend trying a third."

Barda narrows her eyes. "We've beaten you before."

"What, sparring? Sure, I'm not a melee fighter-."

Scott gives his head a very slight shake, his eyes remaining focused on me. "She's talking about the White House."

White-? Sinestro, if I were to ask you where my brother and sister-in-law are at the moment-?

I would tell you that they are in their home in Hartford, Connecticut.

Oh.

"So, you're the two from Earth Fifty. How did you work out where I was from?"

"How do you think?" Scott 50 raises his eyebrows. "We tried visiting our Grayven."

"Oooooooh. Bad idea. Ah, sorry about that. Although in my defence, I did rather assume that you wouldn't."

"We had to dodge fire from a few hundred Gordanian soldiers."

"Hey, no. If you didn't bother checking better ahead of time, that's on you. He doesn't even look that much like me. Grayven Fifty has a mullet. A mullet!"

"I hadn't ever seen our Grayven before. He hasn't ordered the Gordanians to paint pictures or sculpt statues of him. But he has shielded his command ship against remote viewing. The first we knew that we had the wrong guy was when we walked into his briefing room."

"Oh. Yeah. Okay then, my bad. How's.. things with him and the Thanagarians?"

Barda makes a short rumbling noise in her throat. "He destroyed their fleet and has occupied their homeworld."

"Excellent. That should keep him entertained for a bit."

Scott tilts his head to the side a little. "How did you recover so fast? You were pretty crispy at the end of our fight, yet you came back here after only a few days fully healed."

"How do you know when I came back here?"

"My Mother Box picked up the Bleed radiation from your transit. I didn't think much of it until I realised that you weren't our Grayven."

"Turns out, the souls of New Gods can feed on raw magic. I just had to find a wizard willing to pour it into me and my body regenerated fast enough for me to leave after a few days."

Barda takes another step forwards. For an instant Scott looks a little concerned and lays his right hand on her right arm. She brushes him off, but appears to get herself back under control. "How much of what you did was a set up?"

"I didn't get nuked intentionally."

She stares at me ferociously. "The fight before that."

"I wasn't trying to kill you. I mean, if you'd completely failed I.. really would have taken over. You just had to meet a-" I hold my right hand out level with my chest, palm down. "-minimum threshold. And refuse my offer, of course. Where everyone could see you doing so."

"You played us!"

"I gave your world the heroes it needs. Heroes it can survive. I made the world better for my presence and better still by leaving it." I pause for a moment. Am I actually getting through to these two? "How are.. 'Stormwatch'.. getting on?"

"We beat up a jury-rigged Brimstone Servitor and got turned into children."

"Good for you!" Wait. "You mean, at the same time, or in sequ-?"

Scott holds up his right hand to stop me. "What are you planning for this Earth?"

"You remember all that stuff I said I was going to do on your Earth?"

"Yess?"

"That. Only-" I combine harvester my hands. "-less overtly, more covertly. And legally, without, you know, outright conquering the place. I just want to prove to myself that I can do subtle, you know? Oh, and hey, I've got a mountain fortress now! And an awesome-" I point to Mister Tawny, who's crept up to pouncing distance behind them and is crouching to do just that. "-cat I can stroke when I'm being evil. Heeeee's great!"

Barda's hand goes for the mega rod she's not wearing.

"Look, this has been… Fun? But I don't have any plans to go back to Earth Fifty. Really I don't. Was there something else you wanted?"

Scott and Barda look at each other for a moment, Barda looking like someone just made her gargle sewage. Then Scott reaches into his jacket and pulls out his Mother Box.

"Okay, well, it's been.. nice seeing you-" He holds her out slightly as a Boom Tube opens. "-but you shouldn't probably-."

!!!

Lynne Wayland steps out of the portal. Her hair's a little longer than when last I saw her, pulled back into a short black ponytail at the back of her head. Her face... She's obviously been eating better. She's wearing tight fitting black trousers and a grey coat. She sees me- "Grayven!" -and scurries in my direction, a huge smile on her face. I kneel down as she reaches me so that she can throw her arms around my neck. Why is..? Why did they..?

Scott's looking down on me. "You imprinted your soul on her, Grayven. I don't know what you were thinking, just leaving-."

"I was thinking 'I'm a supervillain'! You'd have a much better chance of giving her a normal life-."

"I don't want a normal life." Lynne pulls away slightly, looking up into my face. "I want you." "Being here feels right."

Well sssssssugar. It feels right to me too. I can feel my aura harmonising with hers, like a part of me that was missing is suddenly returned. I hadn't realised…

"Lynne… I…" What the heck do I say? "I'm…" I shake my head. "I'm not a very nice man. I'm violent, my life is violent. This isn't a safe place for you-."

"And back home was? Grayven, I killed my parents. I turned off their minds without even realising…" She looks away for a moment. "And then I… I got given to SHADE and they put me in a room with the Anti Life. You're.. the only thing that makes me feel truly safe. Please, don't.. send me away?"

…

I stand, lifting her up as I do so. "Very well then… Daughter." She leans into my side, hugging my shoulder as I turn to Scott. This could be... The word I'm thinking is 'inconvenient' and I feel.. bad about it. Her need for me is obvious and at this point in my life I clearly have the resources to cope with a child, but... "Scott. Do you have any other business here?"

"No. We'll be.. headed back now."

"Alright. Wink lasciviously at Kara for me." But my heart's not really in it. He and Barda turn away to walk through the boom tube. "Thank you. For bringing Lynne here." Scott turns back for a second, giving me a small nod. Barda's eyes linger on me for a few moments as if she's not sure what to make of me.

But thankfully Barda 50's unresolved personality conflicts aren't my problem. I stride past her towards the door to the Wingnutz Bar and Grill. Mister Tawny watches my back for a few moments, then turns around to follow after me just before I hear the boom tube shut down.

I shove the door open with my left hand, ducking slightly to make sure I don't knock Lynne's head against the lintel. My fellow bar goers are in various stages of returning to their seats as I stroll back to my seat, Lynne held in my right arm. I sit down and then transfer her to my lap.

"Lynne, sweetie? Do you want something to drink?"

"Um. Orange juice?"

I nod to the barwoman as Mitchel takes a look around and realises that he's been deputised. "Hey, ah, Grayven? What was that all about?"

"My brother felt that I'd been neglecting my daughter." I put my left arm around Lynne, pulling her against my chest. "And he was right."

Mitchel nods in understanding. "Yeah, I think my sister in law would probably throw me across the parking lot if I did something like that, too."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Fool's Canon

1st April
06:26 GMT -6

I open my eyes, shifting my right shoulder at an obstruction. Why am I-? Right, the lounge, because I gave Lynne my room. And… I lift my left arm, catching sight of the top of her head. And she didn't use it. Okay, so, priorities for today: finish the guest rooms. Need her input for hers. Find out stuff about her, birthday, how old she actually is… I'd guess somewhere around twelve? I'm going to need her whole personal history at some point, though that can wait. I'll need to sort out a school and… She's going to need some sort of immigration paperwork, isn't she? Ugh, I'm probably going to have to formalise that whole 'Apokoliptian Ambassador' thing? Probably easier than popping over to Earth 50 and getting her old paperwork from SHADE and creating law for parallel universe travel.

And I've got to work out how to tell Jade. Somehow… I suspect this isn't going to go over too well. Or maybe she'll be fine with it? I did talk to her about children after I got back from Earth 50 and once she reassured herself that I didn't mean 'imminently' she told me that she does want children. And the really horrid stuff like Lynne waking up at all hours of the night and needing us to clean up her excrement has already been taken care of. And, um…

"Mister Grayven. I see that you are awake." I turn my head as far to the side as I can, spotting Jean standing just inside the room. Took her a little while to get used to not asking me things telepathically, but as she pointed out the extra speaking practice is probably good for her. "Should I have breakfast prepared, or do you intend to sleep in?"

"Um." I look at Lynne again. She grew up in a military holding centre, right? I assume that they kept a fairly inflexible schedule. "Lynne, sweetie?"

"Mmmmnnmf."

"Are you awake?"

She grudgingly opens her eyes and looks around. "No?"

"Well, I'm afraid that your mattress is, so unless you want to go back to your actual bed…"

"Mmf." She sits up, still mostly on me. "I'm awake. Who was-?" She spots Jean, her eyes widening oh dear.

"Didn't have a chance to introduce you last night." I sit up slightly, picking Lynne up and then setting her down on the floor. "This is Jean. She's a G-Goblin and she more or less runs the place."

"Oh." Lynne calms down a little as I come fully upright and swing my legs over the side of the settee. "What are… G-Goblins?"

Jean looks to me. "If I may, Mister Grayven?"

"You know what you are better than I."

Jean's horns glow faintly-. Oh, that might not be a good idea. I lean forwards and rest my hands on Lynne's shoulders. And much of her upper arm, given how large my hands are. Hm. I'm not.. feeling any fear, and it doesn't look like Jean's suffering from the mind crush. At least, she isn't showing the symptoms the military facility which held Lynne described. Okay then, I guess I'll let them get on with it.

I shuffle sideways and rise to my feet. Pyjamas, right. A quick flare of yellow and my sharply-pressed trousers and tartan shirt appear. As part of my normalisation campaign I'm making a point of wearing normal clothes while out and about. Actually, replace the suit trousers with jeans and I'm copying Dad's preferred mode of casual dress. Oh, it is nice to be able to think that without thinking 'Darkseid'.

"Oh." Lynne shakes her head slightly as Jean's horns dim. "And… All of you… Think together?"

"In a manner of speaking. Forgive me for bringing the others in like that, but your mind was a little overwhelming."

Add telepathy training to the slate. Hm, if I check that no one on the Light wants Doctor Cizko for anything I could assimilate or brand… My eyes flick down to the yellow ring on my right forefinger. Ah.

How I weep for you, Corpsman.

Or I could just hire Henry or something. I mean, if she can burn out people's minds by accident she clearly needs some sort of instruction. I'll put Chester down as a doubtful… Wait, Mars! It's lousy with telepaths! M'gann said that she had a White brother, and if he's not interested or appropriate there'll be plenty of others.

I smile down at my daughter. "Lynne, what do you eat for breakfast?"

"I don't know. What do you have?"

Hmm. As New Gods, we can eat whatever we want. We can't get tooth decay, we can't get fat and aside from certain raw material requirements we can get away with eating pretty much anything. On the other hand, children need structure to their lives.

"I usually eat porridge, but since this is your first morning here… Jean, could you ask the G-Prometheans to prepare a Full English?"

Her eyes flare for a moment. "Done, Mister Grayven. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, get the work crew to focus on Lynne's room. Just get it liveable, we can worry about decorating it tomorrow."

"Of course, Mister Grayven." She bows slightly. "Miss Wayland." She turns away and walks out of the room.

"Her mind felt weird."

I lightly rest my right hand on her left shoulder. "She isn't Human. Have you spent much time with aliens in the past?"

Lynne shakes her head. "Not apart from people from Apokolips."

Right, I'm… going to be lying to her about that, aren't I?

"There's that, and the fact that all Genomorphs are part of a mental network."

"I know. I felt the others through her."

"Okay. Breakfast should be ready in about-."

Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Six minutes."

"Right. So, today we're going to be sorting out your living.. situation." She turns her head slightly-. "No, not like that. You're living here, but you need clothes, toiletries, stuff like that. You need to think about what you want your room to look like. Um. Were you enrolled in a school on Earth 50?"

"Doctor Hol was home schooling me." She looks uncomfortable. "Do I..? Have to go to school?"

"Have to? No. It will be far more efficient to have the G-Gnomes-. They're the little telepathic-."

"Jean showed me."

"Okay. It'll be far easier to have them load the factual information you need into your mind, and in any case it's probably best to give you time to get used to your new environment. But. Going to school will force you to learn all sorts of essential social skills and give you the chance to build social relationships with children your own age, as well as giving you formal qualifications which may well be useful to you in future." She nods. "But we can worry about exactly how that's going to work later. Come on." I smile at her and transfer my right hand to her back, giving her a small push. "Let's head to the canteen."

She starts moving, opening the door and then walking out into the corridor beyond. "Who else lives here?"

"Myself, Doctor Robbins, Mister Tawny, the Sphere-."

"The Sphere? What's that?"

"Like a circle, but in three dimensions." She turns back to give me a confused look, then gets it and rolls her eyes. "The Sphere is a New Genosian artificial intelligence that can shift between ball and flying bike forms. Then there's the Genomorphs: Jean, the G-Prometheans, and-" The corridor comes out into one of the workshop areas and I point. "-the G-Trolls, G-Gnomes and G-Elves."

She hesitates slightly, but now she knows what they are she isn't worried by them. Excellent. Now, what do we do after breakfast? What did my dad used to do with me?

"Lynne, have you ever flown a kite before?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st April
13:47 GMT

"Ready?!"

Lynne nods uncertainly at the other end of the string as I hold the kite aloft. After breakfast we came to the area of grassland abutting Beachy Head, which unlike my home village is more or less the same on Earth 16 as it was on Earth Prime. The weather is perfect for kites, overcast and windy with little sun to attract other people. There are a few hardy souls walking the paths around here, mostly retired people with dogs. I've been on the receiving end of a few odd looks, but seeing me with Lynne must be convincing them that I'm not about to start anything.

"Okay… Now!"

I release the kite and she pulls on the strings as it turns to face the wind and rises up into the sky. I watch it go with a smile on my face. Haven't done this since I was… I don't even remember. Not very old. Maybe… Fourteen? Not sure.

Lynne gives one of the strings a tug and the kite obediently tacks to the right before resuming its normal flight posture. "Okay, now try paying out the string a little!"

She twists her left wrist, rotating the plastic handle to unwind the string. That causes the kite to suddenly have more slack on one side and begin moving through the air. Lynne spots what's happening, works out why and tries to rotate her right handle to compensate but loses her grip. The handle goes sailing out of her hand straight into my construct hand as she rapidly switches her attention from kite to handle and back again.

"Yeah, bit tricky, aren't they?" I walk around behind her and pass the handle back to her. "You've really never flown a kite before?"

"No, I… I think… Before my grandparents gave me to the army, I think I remember playing ball with my-" Her eyes flick back to me for a second. "-dad in a park, but after everything that happened, it's.. hard. Remembering that."

Hm. "I know a few telepaths who might be able to help. If you want to recover those memories."

"I don't know." She gives the strings a tug, watching the kite dance on the wind. "I don't think.. going inside my head-."

"If you're not comfortable with it, that's fine. I'm usually not either."

"It's not that. People who touch my mind… That's how my birth parents died, but when the army were testing me, they.. exposed me to other telepaths. They died too."

!!!

"Lynne, I'm so sorry. H-how old were you?"

"I think… Six?" I kneel down, wrapping my arms around her torso and pressing my right cheek against hers. "They stopped after a while. I never really knew what they were trying to do."

"Okay. No telepaths. Do you..? Do you know how long you were there for?"

"No. Not really. It mighta been… Five years? Maybe longer. I don't know. Then I got taken to the SHADE base."

I briefly consider going back and.. remonstrating with America 50's military. No, no, everyone involved is going to be in hiding or in prison from the… From either the Lords' or Stormwatch's follow up investigation. "How old are you now?"

"Eleven. I'll be twelve in two months."

"The first of June?"

"No, April sixteenth. Why would you think it's in June?"

"Ah, yes, of course. I noticed during my visit to Earth Fifty -your Earth- that the calendars don't quite line up. You've come forwards about seven years and one and a half months."

"That's.. weird."

"Do you want to.. celebrate it on the sixteenth of April, ooooor move it backwards a month and a half to when you'll actually be twelve? I kept mine on the same date when I came here from Earth Prime, but it's up to you."

"I think I'll… Keep it the same. That means.. it's only two weeks away, right?"

"That's right." I suppose I could just invite all the local children. Might be a bit of a hassle getting anything in place to host them… Maybe we could use the ruins of Challengerville? Some sort of.. adventure themed thing? Wait, would some of them have been living in the area when the place got wrecked? Note to self: check before sending out the invitations.

"So… I'm a goddess now, right?"

"Technically, a New Goddess, yes."

"Do I get any cool powers?"

"In addition to telepathy? Yes, you will. Slowly. You're already stronger and tougher than a normal girl your age, and you'll heal faster as well."

"Will I get as strong as you?"

"As physically strong as me? Probably not. On the other hand, I'm as telepathic as a brick. The other people I've done this to-."

She stiffens. "Other people?"

"Oh, um… You're the only one upon whom I've bestowed a part of my soul,-" She relaxes. "-but I have invoked a divine awakening in some of my f-. My allies. They gained thematically appropriate abilities based on what they could do already. Based on what happened to Wallace, I imagine that the first thing you'll find is that it will be easier for you to control your abilities precisely."

"I hope so."

"Development beyond that will be based on how rapidly you absorb ambient arcane energy. I've got Zatanna-. She's a magic user, I'll introduce you later. I've got her working on a mana siphon which should speed up the process." Hm "I'm going to test it thoroughly before giving one to you. If you don't want one, you don't have to have one."

"Um. Maybe?"

"Hey, that kite's gone pretty high, huh?"

"Yeah." She looks up. "It really has. Do we just.. keep doing-?"

"Sorry to interrupt, Corpsman, but there is a matter which requires your attention."

"Who was-? Was that your ring?"

"Yes. The.. AI is patterned after the mind of its former wielder, a man named Thaal Sinestro. He's… He has his uses."

"One of which is monitoring Lantern Grayven's system wide sensor network so that I can notify him if -for example- an alien probe of unknown origin is hurtling towards the Earth at extinction event velocity. Of course, if you would rather continue with your kite-flying, I'm sure that the population will quite understand."

"Sinestro, was the Universe Fifty version of you ever married to Arin Sur?"

"No. She was a… Remarkable woman, but with my political work... Things never came together. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering if you knew anything about child rearing. Lynne, do you want to go and see an alien space probe?"

"What happens if we don't? Will it really destroy the planet?"

"No, I'll just tell the Justice League to sort it. There's got to be at least one Greenie in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, alien space probe, probably unknown to the Human species. Could be interesting."

"Um. Yeah does sound more interesting-. I mean, the kite's nice-."

"It's fine. Kites aren't for everyone."

"Right." She starts turning the handle to reel in the kite. "Do I need a spacesuit?"

I release my hold on her, stand and step back. "Yep. One moment." Yellow light flares along her body as her clothes are replaced with Apokoliptian body armour. Half-remembered Justice League Animated images result in her suit being black and white with a Ace of Clubs tron line design on the chest. It also includes an enclosed helmet and aero discs. If something goes wrong she'll be able to get back to Earth safely. "Grayven to control. Are you there, Doctor?"

"Robbins here. What's going on?"

"Alien probe. Lynne and I are going to have a look. Are the electronics complete enough for you to provide monitoring?"

"Just about. Okay, got you. Mission is go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st April
13:58 GMT

"We're in space!"

I glance at Lynne as we accelerate towards the ship. "You've been in space before, haven't you?"

Actually, having had the chance to give it a scan I think it's actually some sort of escape pod. There appears to be a climate control system but it isn't a full suspended animation set up. We didn't pick up an explosion in this system but if the species who created it used a space warping form of faster than light travel they would have formed the warp at the 'send' end. I can't build sensors for everything. It would just take too long.

"On the Wrath of Thanagar. But they never let me just go outside!"

"It gets boring fairly quick."

"I can see forever! How could this get boring?!"

Okay, schedule some time off planet with her. The object is a tube. No generators, but there are a power cell and kinetic dampeners, it's definitely slowed down since we first picked it up… 'Soft crash landing' design, then.

"How fast are we going?"

"Hm? Oh, about three hundred times the speed of sound." Planet Earth is a slowly growing dot up ahead and the Watchtower is on the opposite side of the planet. I could try grappling the pod, but I'm a bit worried about the fact that parts of it are resisting my scan. Even Father Box-

Ploong.

-is having difficulty making sense of it, and there aren't many things that can defy his observation.

"Is that safe?"

"It would be a bit risky in an atmosphere, but we're in space. My environmental shield combined with our divinely resilient armour means that impact with the handful of particulates that there are this far from Earth aren't a problem." That said… I ease off a little. "Doctor Robbins, it looks like the object is heading for the South Pole. Please confirm?"

"Right in the middle of Antarctica, according to your computer. Near Dome Argus."

"Anyone there?"

"It'll be quite close to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Whether they're in danger or not depends on how hard it hits."

"Shouldn't hit all that hard at all. I'm more worried about the shockwaves as it goes through the air."

"Oh no. Who will save us. From this terrible peril."

Lynne giggles treacherously.

"Yeah, yeah. Lynne, watch carefully what I do. You won't get many opportunities to see things like this."

Leaving her a little way behind me I get closer to the pod. Disruption's still there. Quick check shows that it isn't construct proof. Could try just dumping the whole thing into subspace, but I'm worried about how the bit which I can't scan will react… I take another look at the force field that's protecting it.

Is that a button?

There's a sort of.. plasma eddy in one spot. The design looks deliberate. Alright then. Construct finger and press.

"Hello!" The message is coming over about seventeen different forms of advanced communication system simultaneously. A slightly extreme precaution, but a sound one if the sender had no idea who the pod might meet at the other end. "You've reached the messaging service-" Eh? "-of Brum-El." A Kryptonian? I don't remember-. "No, I'm not a Kryptonian. Why do people always ask that? They're not the only species who frantically jettison things from their dying home planet, you know!"

Huh?

"Preserved in this pod are the things most precious to me." Okay, alien baby. Babies. The Genomorphs can handle-. "My clothes." What? "My sock collection, all fifty two pairs. My fabulous hats, all in their original boxes." What? "My oven gloves, my beautiful, beautiful oven gloves." I hear a whimper. "Oh, and that weird bug facemask my brother bought me for my birthday that time and my green union suit. To be honest, I really just wanted to get those off the planet. I mean, can you imagine if I died wearing those? Yikes, right?"

…

I think we can pretty much rule out the wisdom of the universe.

"Anyway, meteorites coming, I gotta go. The pod should land safely on the first inhabited planet it comes to. So if that's you, congratulations! I guess… Put them in a museum or something? Oh, oh, and there might possibly have been a small infestation of radioactive space robo-insects. Maybe! But it's probably nothing to worry about. All you need to do is crackle. Crackle! Crackle? Yeah, that sounded believable. Okay, future fashion worshippers, this is Brum-El, signing off! I'm off to leave life the way I came in: naked and screaming! Leave your message after the beep."

I wait for a moment.

There is no beep.

"What a flipping waste of time. Sinestro, get me Lex Luthor."

"Dialling now."

I hear the phone being picked up, but no one says anything. "Lex, Grayven here."

"One moment." Miss Graves' voice. Oh, come on. I don't rate being put straight through? Sinestro, I show up on caller ID, right?

A terrible oversight on my part, Corpsman.

"Grayven. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Lex, hi. Alien supply pod on collision course with the South Pole. Apparently it contains someone's wardrobe, but you could probably get something useful from the technologies of the pod itself. Interested?"

"Their wardrobe?"

"You can keep the socks, no charge."

Lynne laughs again.

"… Thank you. Once you've performed a preliminary investigation, please transport it to LexCorp's secure warehouse in New York."

"No problem. Tell them to expect me in about an hour."

Sinestro, hang up.

Earth's bigger now, almost the size of my thumb nail. "No sense following it in." I bring Lynne and myself to a relative stop, the pod zooming away from us. "Father Box, boom tube to the Antarctic."

Ploong.

A glowing portal opens in space, a white wasteland on the far side. I send Lynne through first and then float through myself, closing it behind me and looking upwards. Can't see it yet with my unaided eyes, but I have Sinestro plot the location and distance on my eyes and Lynne's visor.

"That was weird. Are we really on the South Pole?"

"No, the Pole's a little way-" I point to the south. "-that way. Magnetic south is about a kilometre south east of us."

"Can we go see it?"

"Um." How long have we got? "Yes, alright. First thing though." I activate the aerodiscs in her boots before triggering my own and rising off the hard packed ice. "I want you to try getting there using your aerodiscs."

"I have those?"

"Everyone worth mentioning on Apokolips has those. You just have to lean a little and angle your feet-." She gets about three inches off the ground before losing her balance, flailing her arms around for a few desperate seconds before falling onto her back. "Nearly. It's like riding a Segway." I float over and offer her my right hand. "It's only not intuitive if you expect it to be unintuitive. Now." I give her a friendly smile. "Try again."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st April
09:16 GMT -5

"…you and the other Roy decided who gets called what yet?" I frown. "And.. the other Mister Harper, come to think of it."

Roy I slowly swings his right arm out to the side while opening and closing his hand, giving the armour's computer the data it needs to interpret his actions. "Yeah. We're keeping the same names, but he's going to ask people to call him William.. or 'Will' I guess.. instead of Roy. It's our middle name, so it shouldn't be too hard to remember."

"My Dad's family had this weird habit of referring to their menfolk by their second names. My great grandfather 'John Jeffrey' was always called 'Jeff'."

He opens and closes his right hand, watching curiously as the armoured pieces move to allow the motion while maintaining the protective layer. "'Uncle' Jim Harper is going to keep his name. Huh, guess that's one of the reasons why they had to remove me."

"How do you mean?"

"Obviously I knew that I didn't have an Uncle Jim. But when they copied my memory for-. For Will, it was easy enough for them to add him in."

"You're probably right. And your… Professional names?"

"He's keeping Red Arrow. Jim's retiring from being Guardian. He said he was thinking of joining the police force." He shrugs, and the pauldrons match his movement. "Not all that much call for out of work superhero laboratory managers."

"Look, um… Given how he was programmed, I'm trying not to hold the Genomorph thing against him?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Are you keeping 'Speedy'?"

"I never really thought about it. It was just a nickname I picked up when my foster father taught me to shoot the bow. Using it as my code name just sort of followed from there." He stretches his right arm out and then rotates his hand from palm down to palm up. "I guess I can see why the other R-. Why Will changed it. It does sound kind of.. juvenile." He pulls his arm back and makes a fist. "How long does this armor take to adapt?"

"To be honest, you could probably wear the lightweight version now. It's the heavy versions where the synchronisation is most imp-."

"Would all team members please report to the briefing room."

Roy glances at the workshop speakers. "What, all five of us?"

"Batman knows most of us aren't available during the week." I dismiss my data pad construct. "He's either going to give us a mission to plan for this weekend or give us something that is within our abilities with just the five of us." I look him over. "Do you want to keep the armour?"

Roy stands up, performing what looks like a squat to check the motion of the legs. "For the briefing sure. I'll make a decision about the mission once we know what it actually is." He slings his quiver over his left shoulder and checks its position before picking up his bow and nodding to me.

"Transition in two, one."

The room flickers and we appear in the briefing room. Batman and Mister Freeman are already there, and as I glance left I see the Atlanteans emerging from the direction of our miniature arcane laboratory. Seeing what Sephtian and I have achieved appears to have set off a burst of creativity amongst some parts of the Atlantean thaumistic community, and having our three work together has allowed them to rebond while simultaneously allowing Kaldur to catch up with his arcane education somewhat. Roy and I exchange nods with them, then we come to a parade rest line.

Kaldur makes eye contact with Batman. "Do you have a mission for us?"

"Yes, but we're still waiting for a member of your team."

Kaldur glances back at me and I make a small shrug. "I was under the impression that they were all attending school at-."

The external door opens with a with a gust of wind, then Rob precipitates out of the air. "Sorry I'm late, sir. Came as fast as I could."

Roy looks him over. "Skipping class?"

He bends slightly, breathing hard. "Inset day."

"Now that you're here." Batman takes a moment to make eye contact with each of us. "The Apokoliptian Canis Minor has expressed an interest in joining the team." Can't say I'm completely surprised. I imagine that our lifestyle is far more similar to what he's used to than how the Frees live. "He has considerable skills and experience, though his attitude can be highly abrasive. Both Orange Lantern and Superboy have spent time in his company and can brief you on his personality characteristics. Since he is not being mentored by a Justice League member, the choice on whether or not to admit him will be yours."

Kaldur nods. "Thank you, Batman. We will consider the matter carefully."

I'd say, better inside pissing out. We are going to end up fighting Apokolips eventually, and the more our people can get their heads around how their society operates the better. Plus he's Kon-strong and doesn't need to go to school five days a week.

And him coming here does suggest that Mister and Missus Free are a bit closer to agreeing to join the League. Heh, the Frees, Fire, Ice and Rocket Red. Blue Beetle's a bust but if Booster Gold turns up we'll have the entire Justice League International line up available. Maxwell Lord was one of the people I checked out very carefully early on, but the Earth 16 version isn't telepathic and has no obvious reason to hate metahumans, meaning that the personality shift he underwent in the comics hasn't happened and hopefully won't.

Batman activates the holographic display and a picture of Antarctica taken from space appears. "Approximately ten minutes ago the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station registered a significant seismic disturbance which we believe was caused by the impact of an object crash landing nearby. The object was extra-terrestrial in nature and I'm concerned that it might carry either a weapon or a hostile life form of some kind." The image zooms in on the pod, the scale showing it to be approximately cylindrical, about eight metres long with a diameter of about two metres. It doesn't.. look open, but the resolution at the distance this was taken from isn't good.

Easily fixed. "May I, sir?" Batman gives me a curt nod and I raise my left hand. Ring, scan. The grainy image is replaced with one of crystal clarity. We can see the impressions in the ice left by the landing, though the object doesn't look damaged. The pod itself… Externally, everything looks normal. Internally-. My scan starts glitching out. I get flickers of the interior but something's working against me. "Sorry sir, that's the best I can do."

Roy's eyes narrow slightly. "Clearly something's in there."

Batman studies the image. "The Watchtower is currently monitoring the area. If we see anything moving away from the Station we will notify you immediately. Aqualad, Icon will be accompanying you for this mission." Several not entirely friendly eyes move to the League member in question. "You will remain in command, but Icon has had the most contact with alien species of any available member of the League. If the entity responsible is not mindlessly hostile, he stands the best chance of reaching a negotiated settlement."

"That would be preferable."

Batman nods at him. "Dismissed. Maintain constant radio contact with the Watchtower."

"Um. Batman?" Tula hesitantly raises her right hand. "Isn't making first contact with potentially hostile aliens something the Justice League would normally do?"

"Yes. But with the Green Lanterns all away from Earth it would take a Justice League task force longer to get there than it would take your team." A few glances my way. "And in situations like this time is of the essence. Furthermore, I believe that this mission is well within your team's capabilities."

That gets a few more half smiles as Kaldur turns to face the rest of us. "Gather your equipment and rendezvous in the hangar as swiftly as possible. Fall out."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st April
14:24 GMT

That is a truly hideous sock. I mean, I'm no fashion guru or anything, but green, red and white stripes? Remind me never to go shopping for clothes on Schwab.

Oh. I frown. Right. I suppose that isn't a problem any longer.

I return my attention to Lynne. "So, ah, I'm not quite sure how you being a New Goddess will affect your growth, but assuming that you now match our maturation rate you should age like a Human until you get to about thirty and then just stop."

Killing the robobug appeared to neutralise the exotic energy effect, but as predicted any analysis beyond 'this isn't normal' proved impossible. At least these days I know that's because I've genuinely run into something just that weird, not just because I'm dealing with a gimped database. Sinestro suggested forwarding my findings to Qward and I told him where to stick that idea. While I probably will end up coming into contact with the Weaponers at some point I'm going to wait until I'm in a much stronger position before I do.

"There are real outliers like Granny Goodness, but I assume that her current appearance is something to do with her divine nature. Or possibly Father blasting her with the Omega Effect until she looked like that." I create a construct in the image of the New Goddess of Child Abuse. So glad I didn't actually grow up on Apokolips.

Lynne isn't gagging quite as much as she was a few minutes ago, but she definitely looks a little queasy. "Did you have to give me this talk now?"

"Nooo, but it seems to me that it's best to get it out of the way early so it's not so much of a thing, you know? Leaving it to your school seems like an abdication of parental responsibility and putting it off in the hope that you won't get curious… In this day and age that seems like painfully blinkered optimism. This way you're properly informed before you even start to care! I mean, I'd certainly want plenty of warning if I was going to start bleeding from my genitals every month."

Her eyes widen. "You just said I wouldn't do that!"

"Probably. I mean, I've only got the one data point… Anyway, the important point is that you won't have a fertility cycle, getting pregnant is a conscious, directed proc-"

Ploong.

"-cess." I start looking around. "Which is not to say that you shouldn't insist future partners wear condoms as it's a good habit for them to get into." Ah. Only four places on Earth have hush tubes and the fact that I can't see who came through strongly suggests… Yes, I can see the Bio-Ship now. "Now, I think that covers the basics, but if you have any other questions at any time, it is always right to ask. Apokoliptians are very open minded people and nothing you can say on the subject will disgust or offend me."

"Thaanks."

"Okay, awkward bit over. We're about to meet some of my friends." I drop the yellow wall I erected around the pod when some people from the nearby research base came to have a look just as the rear hatch of the Bio-Ship opens up, revealing Kaldur, Tao.. Tula and Garth. Hadn't realised that they'd be joining. A moment later Arnus steps forth as well, remaining a little behind the younger members. A field supervisory role? In deference to the fact that until recently we were allies they don't point their weapons or spells at me. In deference to the fact that they aren't idiots they have them prepped and ready to go. I smile, flare my armour and start walking towards them. "Hello, chaps. How have you been?"

Kaldur's eyes move from me to the pod before shifting to the construct-armoire. Lynne gets a momentary and very slight look of puzzlement before he returns his full attention to me. "Why are you here?"

"Same reason as you, probably. I saw an alien object approaching the Earth dangerously quickly and got here as fast as I could. I actually.. intercepted it in space, made sure it wasn't a threat and then waited for it to land."

"The occupant?"

I float the construct kill jar over from the top of the armoire, then rattle the late occupant at him. "One alien techno organic pseudo-insect. Non-sentient. The pod wasn't intended to have an occupant."

"Then what was inside?"

"Fifty two pairs of socks, sixteen hat boxes and the corresponding hats,-" The look of puzzlement is back. "-five oven gloves designed for humanoid use, one union suit -green- and this mask." I hold up the strange ski mask with the yellow antenna. Obviously I recognise it as belonging to Ambush Bug. Or rather, it's the mask that would have belonged to Ambush Bug if I hadn't intercepted it. Nothing special about the mask itself as far as I can tell, not with the exotic energy sucked back into the insect thing. Only thing I ever read with Ambush Bug in it was 52, where he joined the very short lived version of the Justice League that existed in the missed year. He could teleport, couldn't he? Plus some sort of fourth wall awareness. The first wouldn't help me much and I'd be genuinely disturbed to encounter the latter.

Tao frowns. "That seems a little strange."

"Having heard the message the former owner recorded, I don't think we're dealing with a first class intellect here."

Kaldur nods. "Thank you for securing the crash site. We will take it from here."

"Ah." I shake my head. "No. This is.. my pod."

Kaldur's grip on his water bearers tightens slightly. "We have the authority of the Justice League."

"Nnnot exactly. The governments who signed the League's UN charter didn't want the League thinking it had unlimited authority to remove alien technology from their own research centres. Even League members don't have the authority to just seize whatever they feel like. And, obviously.. you're not a Justice League member, thissss-" I look around. "-isn't the sovereign territory of any UN member and there isn't an imminent threat to life." I shrug. "I'm not seeing your legal argument here."

He starts to turn to Arnus for confirmation, then stops himself. "Even so, I would.. ask, that we be afforded the opportunity to confirm that for ourselves."

"Of course." I step aside and hold out my left arm in the direction of the pod. "Be my guest. I'm assuming that Arnus is here because there's some small chance he might actually recognise this?"

"That is our hope." Kaldur walks past me and cautiously performs an examination of the pod's exterior. "Our team's own expert on alien technology resigned recently."

I nod. "People like that, you've got to make sure that the opportunities for professional development are there. Otherwise, someone else will just make them a better offer."

"Do you intend to deliver this to the Light?"

"Who?" I smirk. "This is going to a LexCorp research facility, where it will be studied and the technologies derived from it developed for the good of all the peoples of Earth."

Arnus floats over the pod, flashing me a look of… Actually, given how unexpressive he is I can't actually tell. Disappointment, probably. "For the good of Lex Luthor."

"Welcome to capitalism. He can't make money on it by sticking it in a shed and forgetting about it. Which is what the League would do."

"The proper procedures for-."

"And how was it you found out about this, anyway?"

Kaldur glances back at me. "It was detected by the Watchtower's sensors."

I nod, my right finger thinker-posing against my chin. "Remind me who it was that put those back online, Arnus? And.. who it was.. built the hush tube you used to get here right now rather than hours from now after I'd already removed the pod?"

He turns away. Hah-hah.

Kaldur walks around the side of the pod and stops just in front of Lynne. They look at each other for a moment. Ah, I should introduce them. "Lynne, this is Kaldur. Also known as Aqualad. Kaldur, Lynne."

"I am pleased to meet you, Lynne."

"Hello."

"How did you come to know Grayven?"

Lynne looks awkwardly at me for a moment. Oh, I'll field it. I'll have to accelerate my plans for telling Jade to make sure that she doesn't hear it from Artemis first... "Kaldur, you read that mission report I wrote after I got back from Earth Fifty, right?"

"I have indeed read it." He hesitates as he tries to call it to mind. "Lynne.. Wayland. The girl from the SHADE facility."

"Scott and Barda Fifty dropped her off. I'm adopting her." His eyes widen, and I studiously avoid looking directly at him. Instead, I open my killing jar construct and shake the insect out onto my right hand. Sinestro, scan the thing in detail-. The bug flickers with scintillating colours for a second before vanishing.

That was… Odd. But.. probably nothing to worry about. I'll just have to remember to create teleport jammers around sites like this in future.