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

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
01:22 GMT +11

"An unfortunate -though not wholly unanticipated- event."

The Director was here within two hours of the Major reporting the attack. We're standing in the base's briefing room and the Major has been glowing bright yellow since he got off the telephone. It's a bit of a joke about excessive security precautions; so secret that even his name is classified. Major Adam's name was sort of a secret while he was being 'Cameron Scott' but it was never actually classified. The whole masquerade was technically for his benefit.

The Director's name actually is a secret. On no document that I've been able to see is his real name recorded, which is weird given that he's technically just a political appointee. I can see his patterns of emotion easily enough: green-orange with no indigo. That might mean that he's a psychopath, but lower intensity examples of psychopathy often lend themselves to office environments. Did he use to be a Soviet superhero? I'm pretty sure that was Steel Wolf with him as a bodyguard, and for that nutter to be willing to do bodyguard work he must consider the Director to be absolutely essential to the good of Russia.

The Director makes eye contact with the Major. "You have arranged to have the bodies of the deceased members of Blue Trinity cremated."

"Yes, Director."

"With Blue Trinity no longer present, this facility has served its purpose. We will discuss this further when this matter is resolved. Dismissed."

The Major about faces and marches from the room. Even once he is outside with a wall between him and the Director he doesn't relax at all.

"Sergeant. Members of the Justice Youth. Given the speed with which the attack took place, you are to be commended on the speed of your reactions." He focuses on Wallace. "Kid Flash, you will be given all computer records we possess on the treatment regime given to Blue Trinity."

"But that Black.. Flash.. guy got away!"

"I am fully cognisant of that fact. But a brief review of the case suggests that the attackers took opportunistic advantage of a gap in our defences. No one but you knew exactly when you were coming here for long enough to arrange anything sophisticated. I see no reason to deny you our aid simply because your presence coincided with this incident."

"I didn't mean that! Why aren't you going after them?"

The Director's expression doesn't change. "Kid Flash, under my direct command I have Sergeant Pushkin, ten Rocket Reds with advanced suits, two platoons of Rockets Reds with standard suits, a company of soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and various other specialists. With a phone call I can call upon any of the resources of the Russian government. I have the authority -should I deem it essential to the national good- to deploy a tactical nuclear device on my own recognisance. But where should I deploy it? If this 'Black Flash' is as fast as you then he could be anywhere within three thousand kilometres and moving faster than anything we could send after him. If he is as fast as the Flash then he could be anywhere on the Earth." Wallace wilts slightly. "No. Now is not the time for rash action. Now is the time for a careful discovery and examination of facts."

Canis grimaces. He is not happy about missing the fight, though I'm not sure what exactly he thinks he could have done. "What if your people have betrayed you?"

"Operative Truth of the Alliance will be interrogating everyone who could have known, but I think it unlikely that she will find what we are looking for. Postings here are not easily predictable and all communication is closely monitored."

Richard nods. "Who knows about this base?"

"That this base exists is not a secret. Precisely what was housed here was a secret known to very few, though as you yourself discovered it is a logical place to look for someone interested in Russia's attempts to create super speed."

"Did you have any kind of tracking devices on Blue Trinity?"

"Yes. They were removed from them during the attack."

Richard looks at me. "Oh El?"

I shake my head. "Tried and failed, I'm afraid. Mister Director, do you have any idea how long it would take to reverse engineer a workable version of the Garrick Formula from Miss Molotova's body tissues?"

"When the Russian project began working on replicating Mister Garrick's work, we had more intelligence to go on and it still took us more than a decade. Now, with modern medical equipment and spectrographs, it may well take a lot less time. What is of greater concern to me is that they already have some method of bestowing super speed."

Wallace shrugs. "It was just Velocity Nine, right? That stuff still shows up in the US a couple of times a year. I guess if someone actually trained with it-."

"The initial blood test results do not appear to contain any Velocity Nine. Or show any of the signs of prior Velocity Nine use. That result will need to be checked of course, but the equipment here is advanced and the researchers are highly experienced with super speed related medicine. It is unlikely that they would make such a mistake."

Richard looks puzzled. "So if they've already got a way to give people super speed, why do they need the Garrick Formula?"

"Yes. That is an excellent question. If it is not Velocity Nine and not the Garrick Formula, what could it be? If we do not know what it is then it is far harder to narrow the range of possible culprits."

"So we've got no idea at all?!"

"I would not say that." The Director walks over to the room's podium and an image appears on the projection screen behind him. An elderly man's face, grizzled rather than frail. "This is Feodor Kerimov. He once held the rank of General in the Soviet Army. He resigned his commission during the early nineties. While he was on active duty he was a proponent of the aggressive use of enhanced soldiers, and I have uncovered people feeding him information on Russia's older programs on several occasions."

Richard frowns. "Then why haven't you arrested him?"

"As the Soviet Union's influence went into decline, he acquired certain business interests in Azerbaijan and now has a joint nationality. He has not returned to the Russian Federation for several years and has many well placed friends in the government of his new homeland. While I could arrest him, doing so would require me to send Russian operatives into an independent country."

Richard nods. "Which would be an act of war."

"Russia against Azerbaijan? No, it would not be much of a war. But the political fallout both internally and internationally as a result of Russia behaving in such a way towards a former Soviet Republic would be quite serious. I am not prepared to order that yet. Instead, I am minded to increase our intelligence gathering operations against him. If I have hard evidence to present, it may be that he would find that his new friends become a good deal less friendly."

Wallace makes a curling gesture with his right forearm. "We could go in. We're not Russian."

"If he ends up in Russian custody, I do not think that our critics will be mollified by the fact that he was put there by Americans."

"We can take a look around for you. If we find Miss Molotova or… Information he stole from Russian intelligence, you could get him arrested, right?"

The Director nods. "Yes, pressure could be brought to bear to make that happen. The Russian government would be grateful for any assistance you feel that you can provide on this matter."

"Alright, stop." Wallace twists his head in my direction. "Mister Director, are you sure that General Kerimov is responsible?"

"No, but I have no other active investigations into anyone with his proven interest and capacity. There are Russian officers and politicians who have expressed an interest in expanding our metahuman program, but none of them have been actively spying on our programs. There are paramilitary organisations who would like to gain information for terrorist purposes or for sale, but they lack the resources to perform such an attack."

"Right. Thank you for the information, Mister Director. We will relay your request for assistance to Batman."

"Oh El!" Wallace looks pained. "That could take all day! We need-!"

"We gather information covertly, Kid Flash. We wouldn't be charging in in any case. Taking a few additional hours to get there wouldn't change much. More importantly, deciding whether to deploy the team remains Batman's responsibility."

He takes a moment to get his instinctive truculence under control. "Fine."

"Since it's clearly so important to you, I will suggest that he send us. Mister Director, could you please give us everything you have on General Kerimov?"

"Of course. I would be pleased to."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th May
10:03 GMT -6

"So when the fook are we actually gonna start doin' somethin' worth whyle?"

Chester's covered in sweat from his latest exercise session, and on his bare chest I can see the angry red marks from his not yet fully healed injuries. Given the internal damage which is similarly still only mostly healed, I can only imagine that he'd be in a great deal of pain were it not for his mental abilities. But he seems determined not to let his injuries slow him down.

"Chester, the world hasn't fallen apart in the month you've been away."

There's a tiny green-purple flare around his eyes as he squares up to me. "No, but that bunch of bleed'n' murderin' pederast tossers 're still runnin' the show back home! I don't seem to recall you bein' this slow off the mark where Klarion was concerned!"

"That was because I could kill Klarion without a nation collapsing into anarchy." I raise my hands in a gesture of surrender. "I fully accept that eventually we will have to forcibly remove a sizable chunk of the British ruling class. But before that, there are things we need to do in preparation."

"When?"

"When the preparatory tasks are complete."

"You'll 'ave t'do a damn sight better that that, cock!"

"I'm not going to set an arbitrary deadline if the result of going ahead then would be just the same as going ahead now. But, since this has clearly got you so riled up, I'm prepared to involve you in the preparations. Is that acceptable to you?"

Chester's eyes dim and he tilts his head to the right, stretching his neck. "Think it might be. What d'you 'ave in mind?"

Vera glares at me. "Chester's not fully fit yet. You shouldn't-."

He looks at her in irritation. "Leave it out, Vera love."

I shake my head. "Miss Black, it is not my intent that you or your brother should directly engage the enemy. But I am not prepared to remove one government only for them to be replaced by another which is just as corrupt. Or for them not to be replaced at all. I need to know who is irredeemable, who is tainted, who is redeemable and who is virtuous."

"Not gunna be many o' that last one, I'll tell y'that fer nothin'."

"Be that as it may, I need to know. I need you and Miss Black to act as intelligence gathering operatives rather than thugs. Find out how far the canker goes, but do not take action against it yourselves."

"So, what? If we see one o' the bastards grabbin' a kid right in front of us-."

"Chester, please don't be facetious. In the unlikely event that happens, feel free to remonstrate with them. But this is a covert mission. The aim is to avoid contact where possible. I don't want to tip our hand until the time arrives to act."

Vera puts her hand on her hips. "And how exactly are we supposed to werk under cover? The police will all have awer pictures."

"I can provide holographic and arcane disguises." Thank you Queen Clea. "Unless they're putting a great deal of effort in, they won't be able to spot you."

"Alright." Chester grins as he nods. "This is a bit more my style. I'll take a shawer, then we can get right ont' it."

"Yes, once you've had a shower you can start writing me a mission plan." His grin droops a little. "I'm not having you go off half cocked again. Doctor Robbins is going to be monitoring you full time, and she's going to be in operational command."

His face creases up. "That old biddy?"

"'That old biddy' has more experience of this sort of work than the two of you put together. So yes. When you've put the plan together, get her to approve it and you can start right away. Is that acceptable?"

"Not bloody likely, cock. I've only been doin' this me entire adult life-."

"Manny, knock it off." The siblings Black have a brief staring contest, Chester's outrage competing with Vera's growing irritation at his behaviour. "He's right and you know it."

"Chester. Do it for a month, and if you've proven that you don't need the oversight I can reconsider. You're too valuable to me to risk you dying doing something stupid."

Vera gives her head a small nod. "Again."

"Both a' yeh?" He turns his head back in my direction, rolls his eyes and tosses his head. "A'right, fine. But this better-" He jabs his right forefinger at me. "-be goin' somewhere."

I smile a little more confidently. Losing Chester's services would be decidedly unfortunate, given his abilities. "It most assuredly is." Hm. Something I was going to-. Ah! "Before you go. Is there any chance you might be able to talk your former colleagues around?"

Vera snorts. "Not bleedin' likely. You saw what they did t' Manny."

"Actually-" I frown at him. "-Chester never said exactly how that happened. I assumed police marksmen."

"Fook off. Police marksmen me hairy white arse." Chester wrinkles his nose. "Hard to shoot someone who knows what yeh thinkin'."

"Does the British government have telepath blocking technology?"

"Nah cock. They've got fookin' robots, h'ant they?"

I fold my arms across my chest. "News to me, chum."

Chester points to his forehead with his right forefinger. "Can't hear 'em 'cause they don't really think."

"They're built and operated by awer former colleague, Penny Dolmann. Doubt they'd 'ave told her why Manny did what he did."

"Not that she thought all that much a' me in the furst place. Probably jus' though I was livin' down t'her opinion."

"Exactly how good are these robots?"

Chester shakes his head. "Bit tougher than a normal bloke an' they can fly. I coulda coped, 'cept fer than fooker Derek Kelly."

I look at Vera with my eyebrows raised. "Awer old boss. He's in charge of awer unit. Used t'be in the SAS."

"Right bastard he is 'n all."

Vera nods. "My country, right or wrong."

I raise my eyebrows. "If right, to keep it right; and if wrong, to set it right?"

"What?"

"That's the rest of the quote. By a man named Carl Schurz?"

"I didn't know that, and I don't think Derek does either."

"Okay, so what's so scary about him?"

"He's invulnerable. Can't 'urt 'im at all." Chester sneers in disgust. "I can't even hear his brain, let alone mess about with it."

Vera nods. "That, and he's as strong as he needs t' be. Hit him and it won't even knock him over. Try wrestling with him and youw'll lose, however strong you are."

"Invulnerable? I was about to say that there's no such thing…"

Chester shakes his head, apparently pleased at getting the chance to lecture me. "Not 'avin' you on, cock. His dad gave him this magic jewel thingey. Don't remember what it was called. His dad used to wear it 'round his neck on a chain. Derek -bein' a crazy bastard- had 'is chest cut open so they could stick it inside."

I nod. "Logical. It can't fall off that way."

"You might wanna watch yerself. If I'm on his shit list, you'wer definitely there as well."

"Eh, if it comes to it I'll just throw him into space. Alright, I think that's everything. You can go and get started-."

"Robbins to Grayven."

I raise my ring to my ear. "Grayven here, go ahead."

"Your guests are here."

I nod. Today's other scheduled activity. "Thank you, Doctor. I'll go and greet them. Would you please ask Lynne and Sunset to join me downstairs?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th May
10:09 GMT -6

I step out of the boom tube into the mildly landscaped ruins of Challengerville. One of Jean's ongoing projects is directing the G-Trolls and G-Elves to do a bit of a tidy up, but I didn't want them to remove anything structural. Just as the US military dumps spare tanks to create havens for marine life, these ruins are now home to many different types of insects, birds and small mammals, to say nothing of all of the plant species.

"Hi Grayven."

Zatanna is in full costume… Or rather, armour. The same armour I created for her. It seems that she hasn't taken advantage of Scott's services. That pleases me. I'd judge that the gold glow is a little brighter than last time I saw her, but… That was a while ago. I should probably have done more in that regard.

Wallace merely nods at me. He's in costume as well.

I bow. "Once again... Welcome to my home. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring."

Zatanna's face goes blank for a moment, then she gets it and giggles. Wallace looks slightly perturbed. "I'm sure that was some kinda movie quote, but can you just get on with whatever you wanted us for? I've got plans for this week."

"As you wish. There is something… Somethings I wish to show you. But first… Zatanna, that commission I asked you to investigate..?"

Wallace glances at her with a slight frown. She looks down for a moment. "I can do it. But… You're with the Light now. I'm not sure I should."

Wallace's eyes narrow. "What commission?"

I decide to spare Zatanna the awkwardness. "A personal mana infusion device. It would increase the recharge rate of a mage and rapidly improve the growth of a New God's soul structures. I can create a crude approximation myself-" Or at least get Sunset to do it. "-but it would require the user to remain in one place while it's active."

"Whow. No. Zatanna, you can't."

"Wallace, what do you think the Light is trying to do?"

"Take over the world. Wipe out the Justice League. Have.. Tuesday renamed 'Savageday'! They're bad guys."

"Sort of, eventually, no… Ye-eah, okay, you've got me on the last one." I open a boom tube behind me. "Can we walk and talk?"

Wallace and Zatanna look each other in the eyes for a moment, then head towards me at a slow walking pace. I turn and lead the way through the tube into the lower part of the Mountain. "I'm sure you've read my reports on my initial meetings with the Light, but to reiterate: the Light wants to advance the lot of the mass of humanity. They see the League as a plaster over-. A band aid over a wound, falsely giving the impression that the problem is dealt with while actually encouraging people to remain indolent. Savage wants to defeat the League, mind control, kill them all, whatever. I think that's putting the cart before the horse. If we're successful, the League will be largely obsolete. Until we are, they do an essential job and it makes more sense to work around them."

"I am a member of the Light, which means that I can vote on policy and objectives. If Savage proposes an anti-League initiative which serves no other purpose, I say so, point out what else could be done with those resources and vote against. If my argument is rational, Lex, Brain and Ra's -who doesn't really mind mass murder but is actually pretty logical - vote with me. Mordru votes with Savage and they lose."

No local space coilgun for Savage. I mean, really. All the effort it would take and agents we'd have to burn to get it there and it wouldn't last more than five minutes after its first shot. I'm glad that at least Ra's learned his lesson from last time.

"On the other hand, if someone proposes a course of action that actually benefits humanity then I speak out in favour and it gets enacted."

I can feel Wallace's confusion. "So you think you're neutralizing-? Wait, Mordru!?"

"Didn't know about him? Yeah, one out, one in, as far as Lords of Chaos go. How's Miss Kane doing?"

"What? Ah. Okay..? As well as she can."

"Was my guess-?"

He looks away. "Yeah."

Ah. Unfortunate, but it's inevitable that a few first manifestations of metahuman powers would be destructive to their possessors' surroundings. And the people most likely to be in those surroundings… Sad, but there's not much I can do about it. "I realised afterwards that I should have known that it was something serious."

"What, because I came to you?"

"No, because you didn't try hitting on Sunset."

"Who's hitting on me?" Sunset emerges from a junction and falls in behind me, taking a moment to look Zatanna over. Magic goddess, meet someone who wants exactly what you have.

"Wallace wasn't. Zatanna Zatara, Sunset Shimmer. She's here to study magic."

Zatanna smiles at her. "Hi."

"Hey."

"Yeah, I guess it.. kinda put me off my game."

"Oh, you." Sunset looks him over, then appears to dismiss him. "There wouldn't be much point. I don't actually find Humans physically attractive."

Wallace frowns. "You.. don't..?" The frown is replaced with a squint. "Huh. Well, what do you find attractive, then?"

"Ponies."

He blinks, then jerks his head away. "Oh, I'm so not touching that one." He refocuses his attention on me. "Where are you taking us, anyway?"

"The vaults. It's where we keep the children I'm using as test subjects."

"Yeah, that's not as funny as you think it is."

The heavily reinforced door in front of me slides open with a quiet hiss. "Who's joking?"

Lynne is standing next to the cell containing-. I get a moment's dizziness before I stop trying to think the name. Ugh, my old name. He's in his early teens, a little older than she is. His brothers and sisters are in the other cages. Eight in total and he's the oldest of them. All the survivors of one of John Constantine's fuck ups. I'm pretty sure that I got all of them, but I left some monitoring equipment on Gruinard Island just in case.

Sunset walks over to Lynne while Zatanna and Wallace stop dead. The cells are designed to have a 'public' section and a private section, though all areas are monitored around the clock. Each one has its own toilet and shower unit, though curiously they don't produce much in the way of waste material. And I've found it's important that they can see and talk to each other all of the time. After all, they're all the company they've known for nearly their entire lives.

Zatanna's eyes widen in horror. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping them." Lynne steps away from the cell while the young man within walks around the edge until he's facing me. "Young man, would you mind providing my guests with a demonstration?"

He gives me a small shrug. I have talked with him about what I'm trying to achieve here, but I can hardly blame him for not being more enthusiastic.

Activate.

It only takes a second for him to get the scent. His eyes dart around his cell, his nose sniffing constantly. He winces, trying to resist. He's an extremely responsible young man, especially considering his circumstances.

"What are you doing!" Zatanna's eyes are blazing with golden light, triquetra forming around her hands.

"Offering him food."

And then the change happens. His face elongates, his skin darkens and his fingers sprout claws. He gets his clothes -sweat shirt and jogging bottoms- off before his body's change rips them, but after that his coordination fails him and he collapses against the inside of the clear dividing wall. His eyes turn red, the muscles on his shoulders grow and membranous wings sprout under his arms. His mouth opens and displays his pearly white fangs.

He's still fully intelligent like this. But -like the rest- he just can't resist the hunger.

"A fascinating case. He and his siblings are Vampire-Succubus hybrids. They can only feed on adults, and they don't have enough self control to stop themselves. When I found them, they'd been living in starvation conditions on a small island, having eaten both their mother and their four older siblings. I'm trying to help them learn to control their instincts." The youth regains his balance, hunched over as his gait now is. I deactivate the pheromone sprays. "That, plus I've been using the G-Gnomes to educate them."

"Hello." His voice is raspy but coherent.

Wallace's mouth is still open. Zatanna closes her hands.

"This is what I do with my time. Advancing the interests of humanity without punching people in the face. When was the last time anyone in the League tried something like this?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th May
21:08 GMT -6

I back carefully out of Lynne's bedroom. "Goodnight, Lynne. Sweet dreams."

She rolls over, pulling the duvet more tightly around her. "Mruuuuh."

Aw.

I sneck the door silently, then turn away and head back towards the living room. I'm smiling in total contentment. Today's going great. Well, aside from Lynne wanting me to read her bedtime story in the cells so that the Succupires could benefit from my delivery. I negotiated her down to playing it to them over the internal communications system. Fact is, as part Vampires they're more alert and active when it's dark so a bedtime story doesn't really make sense.

I suppose I could just change the light/dark cycle of the synthetic lights down there…

Jade glances up as I walk into the living room. As is her ingrained habit she's sitting in a position that lets her keep both doorways under observation and is far enough away from both that she could ready a weapon before most attackers could close the distance. At her feet Mister Tawny also flicks his eyes in my direction but otherwise remains still, his huge head resting on his forepaws. The Sphere chimes once, but otherwise doesn't react.

"Nine o'clock, huh? I didn't think you'd be that strict."

I nod as I cross the space between us and then lower myself into the settee. "Children benefit from safe boundaries. Routine." I reach down and give Mister Tawny's head a rub with my left hand, getting a quiet grunt in return.

Jade leans into my right side as I settle back, and I carefully put my right arm around her. "I wouldn't know."

"I've been reading up… If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing properly."

"From what you said about Apokolips, I can't imagine you had that sort of parenting either."

I take a slightly deeper breath, shaking my head. "I honestly don't remember. But -for my second childhood, on Earth Prime- I did. And that's the guide I'm using… Except where the other is unavoidable."

She nods, then looks up into my eyes. "I've never asked, but how old are you?"

"Well… That depends on where you count from. I've got thirty years of memories… Not perfect, but… The sorts of things a person would remember from thirty years of life. Before that..? Flashes of recollection at best, and I think they could be a result of my mind interpreting what Father Box has been showing me."

"So you could be..? A hundred years old?"

"I could be. Or two or a thousand or ten thousand. If it matters to you I can try and get an exact date."

She looks away, thinking about it. A moment later she shakes her head. "No, not really." Hn. Something there seems a little-. "Why did you invite Kid Flash here along with Zatanna?"

I smile again as I look over to where the first version of the mana siphon sits on the coffee table. Sunset and Zatanna spent most of the day working on it, and neither was happy with their initial effort. But it's still a massive improvement on what I had before and it's nice that they've each got a study buddy now.

"Why wouldn't I? I still consider him a friend."

"Because he's a superhero and you're a part of the Light. I can't see him being in favor of Zatanna helping you."

"He wasn't. That was the point." She narrows her eyes slightly. She knows that I have the explanation ready and am drawing out relaying it for my own gratification. "Alright. Zatanna still likes me. But, there are very good reasons for her not to help me. If I invited her here on her own, she'd have to raise them herself when I tried to persuade her. And if she did that, she would identify them as being her position. But-."

"If Kid Flash is here, he'd make the argument first and she'd see it as his position." Jade nods. "And she likes you more than she likes him. So why not invite Robin instead? You only just helped-." She stops. "Because you'd just done him a favor and he'd hesitate, making his position look weaker."

"Partially. My relationship with Kid Flash isn't exactly bad, you understand. If I gave up this Light stuff he'd be the first to welcome me back. Buuut at this point I don't think that Robin would bother making a rational argument against what I'm doing and 'Grayven equals Evil' is a narrative I want to avoid."

She nods again. "You're not planning on doing that, right?"

"Of course I am." A slightly more concerned frown. "Alliances between supervillains are.. unstable at best. And if it doesn't fall apart I will eventually outlive most of them. But I'm committed to our cause. As long as they are, there shouldn't be any problems."

Which is increasingly true. I've been pleasantly surprised by how non-mental my new colleagues are behaving. If things continue, if my mere presence neutralises them… Maybe I won't just hand them over to Batman. Goodness knows that I've found the work I've done since I left far more fulfilling than what I did with the Team.

"Grayven, I…" Jade looks away, towards the photographs decorating the wall. Pictures of us and the girls. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Okay? What is it?"

She steels herself before returning her gaze to me. "I need to talk about our relationship."

I smile. "And you think I will respond to your inquiry like some callow Human youth? With fear and evasion?" I shake my head. "Jade, I love you. Speak your mind, and be heard."

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why do you love me?" I just about stop myself chuckling. "I know you do, but I've been trying to see what you get out of this, and I can't work it out."

"I get you. Why isn't that enough?"

"You're one of the most powerful men on the planet and I'm a League of Shadows operative. I don't feel bad about what I am-."

"No, you're… Parsing the relationship wrongly. Why am I more powerful? The orange power ring?" I shrug. "A cosmic accident. I still don't know how I got it. My strength? An injection, one you could have this evening if you wanted it. Godhood? Already on the table. And yes, that was a nudge. I can't fight at super speed. You can have that ability, if you want. Or something you can take off at the end of the day?" I hold out my right hand. "In a couple of months I'm going to relieve Larfleeze of the Orange Central Power Battery. Once the orange ring is functional again, I'd be perfectly happy to make this ring a gift to you."

Corpsman-.

Oh come, Sinestro. Her life has been far more defined by fear than mine has. She has far more potential as a wielder.

Jade arches her right eyebrow. "The ring you don't want?"

"The ring I can't use as effectively as you would be able to. Goodness knows that your nature is far closer to the yellow light than mine is."

"Alright, but I still need to know why."

"Your father tried to break you, and you grew strong to spite him. I know that in your place I would not have been so strong. Had Darkseid focused on me as Lawrence Crock did on you I would have died… Or if not dead, have reached adulthood as a broken, pitiable thing. You thrived, became a wonderful young woman so that you could throw your achievements in his face. You are more psychologically vicious than I am. I admire that immensely. I came to love you for your mind and soul. The.. physical.. aspect… Transitory economic issues… Can be fixed. Will be. In all the time we will have together, a few years… They won't matter. You will be a goddess, my equal and partner."

Her face is still, listening to what I have to say and taking it in without as yet letting her thoughts show through.

Ploong.

"Perhaps… If I explained a little about the way Apokoliptians conceive of 'love'?"

"I didn't think Apokolips had that."

"Of course it does. But… We don't… Fetishise romantic love of the kind that is so popular on Earth. There are… For example, the relationship between Canis Senior and Hellga would be considered unusually romantic by our standards. They were… Two senior warriors in Darkseid's service. She was given to him as a reward for his good service, but they both respected one another. Admired one another. They were equals. As I understand it your two previous sexual relationships were of a similar vein." Her eyes flick aside for a moment. "But their lives were apart. Their relationship was one between comrades, they did not.. share of themselves in it. Then there are other types of relationship. One between people who are unequal. Darkseid's relationship with Mortalla. I do not believe that Father loves Mortalla, and I do not believe that she retains the freedom to choose not to love him. That would be like… If I were to change the character of my relationship with Miss Amane. I would hold all of the power, the control. It would be a servant loving her master. I could love Miss Amane, but she could not learn to be my equal. She would gladly do anything I asked-."

"She'd do that now."

"Love and devotion are not the same thing. She is devoted to me, yes, but it is not… I don't think I can express it properly in English. I accept her service because it is something valuable she chooses to give to me. Love would be…" I shake my head. And I actually can't express it. Not properly. "The love of an owner for their dog. Genuine, but… Lacking."

"And how would you describe your love for me?"

"Open, in that I keep nothing of myself back. I would share even my soul if you had the mechanisms to experience it. Free, in that there is no exchange. I do not seek repayment for my time, you are your own end. It is a love which when it was offered by my brother Scott it freed Barda from a lifetime of Anti-Life exposure. And when she reciprocated, did the same for him. It is the union of people to the exclusion of rationality. Among New Gods, it is really only common on New Genesis, but then… I never much liked living on Apokolips."

"I love you, Jade Nguyen. Your soul calls to me in a way that none other has before. It takes me away from the horror of my origin and shows me something of transcendent beauty. Does that answer your concern?"

She nods, not quite meeting my eyes. I think she's… Crying.

"Yes. Yes it does."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
08:18 GMT +4

I hear the door open, and turn my head around to see Kaldur walking in. "Has anything of interest occurred?"

We're in a small suite of rooms in a nice-but-not-top-of-the-range hotel in Sumqayit. General Kerimov's mansion home is located on the outskirts of the city, and this is as close as we could set up shop on short notice. Getting the team's non-speedsters into the fray quickly could be a bit tricky without either myself or Canis assisting, but given that we're up against either people with super speed or baseline Human mercenaries I doubt that will matter. It also has the advantage that we're far enough away that we're not going to arouse any suspicion. Dressing up as backpackers appears to have convinced the staff well enough for now.

"Yes… Sort of." I have one of the monitors play back a section of what I've recorded since he was last in the room. A military truck being used for personnel transportation comes to a halt at the back of General Kerimov's home. "He's bringing in additional security."

"From where?"

"He's part owner of a private security company. Their work is mostly legal, and the bits that aren't are sufficiently close to being so that they're generally ignored." Azerbaijan certainly isn't a terrible place to live. Here, anyway. I don't remember what it's like back on Earth Prime now, if I ever knew. But here? Secular government, good Human development rating, high literacy and employment. Bit of a corruption problem, but considering… "These lads have been booked for this for a couple of months. A lot of them are ex-military and they're all pretty well trained. Nothing we couldn't deal with…"

He nods in understanding. "But then we are the ones who would be in the wrong. I take it that you have made no progress against the building's wards."

"Nope." Honestly, the whole scry warding thing is getting a bit beyond a joke now. "You know anything about roleplaying games?"

"I do not."

I return to watching the feed from my stealth drones, leaning back into my chair. "For balance reasons, certain types of boss character are often rendered immune to certain types of attack. A one hit kill attack that would normally kill one normal enemy in a horde if it hit would be far more valuable against a single powerful opponent. Game-breakingly so."

"I can see the logic. But I am not certain that I see what bearing it has on your situation."

"I can scan anything I like, but whenever I try doing it to anything actually important to a mission?" I throw my hands up. "Ward. It's like I'm not allowed to or something."

"Do you regret having used it against the League of Shadows?"

"Nnnnnnno."

"Then it seems that you had little choice." He stands next to me, studying the screens. "I will admit that such events have cured me of my belief that surface worlders know nothing of magic."

"You not having any luck either?"

"Garth and Tula are certain that we could penetrate his defences."

"But not without letting him know what you've done." He nods. "Is that pretty much it or is there a chance they could find a work-around?"

"Not without knowing exactly how his protections work. Robin and Kid Flash are attempting to track down the plans, or builders who worked on the original construction."

"I imagine it would be a later addition. Christianity might have moderated its position on magic use lately but Islam hasn't." Yes, spell breaking might technically be Qu'ranically permissible, but if you know enough to break a spell then you know enough to make it. The Ottomans decided that the difference was splitting hairs and their successor states have rather tended to follow that line. "If the builders had seen anything like that there'd still be rumours about the place."

"Do you know of anyone in this part of the world who could have created them?"

"The League of Shadows could have found someone, and an ex-Soviet General sounds like the sort of person who would know how to get in touch with them. Magic users who are actually local?" I shake my head. "If there are local magic users, I'd be astonished if they knew enough to make a ward that encompassed a whole mansion for years on end, let alone one that a couple of people with an actual magic education couldn't easily bypass."

"Could he have brought in someone to replenish it?"

"Yes, but anything beyond a charm-necklace would get noticed and commented upon. We can send Canis and Rocket after local charm-sellers and hope they find someone if you want, but I don't think we'll have any luck."

"We could pursue a more aggressive approach."

"The Director's suspicion aside, we don't really have any evidence that he's responsible. I don't suppose that there's an easy way to detect the Garrick Formula using magic, is there?"

"None that we are aware of. Though I do not believe that the subject has been studied in any detail."

Another lorry pulls up, this one decorated with the logo of a local caterers. We know he's got some sort of party planned for this evening. Unfortunately, since we don't know the guest list we can't really judge how safe sneaking in as an extra guest is. It would be fine if his home were being used as a venue for a corporate social event type party where no one there would know all of the people invited, but it could well be a smaller event with his friends and allies. If that were the case we'd stand out like sore thumbs.

One of the guards walks over to the lorry's cab and has a brief conversation with the driver. The passenger side door opens for a moment, then closes itself again. No one gets out.

Wait, what?

I've only got one drone with countermagic capacities, but I redirect it from the main entrance to the rear entrance where the lorry is and move its feed to the main screen while flickering through the visual modes of the drone already in place. Infrared shows a small area of hot air… EM shows nothing… I could pulse the place where I suspect an invisible person is with something but I'm a little nervous that they'll detect it.

Then the countermagic drone gets a clear shot.

Kaldur's eyes narrow. "Is that not John Constantine?"

It shouldn't be. Since that thing with the Beast I've kept myself updated on his itinerary. Right now he should still be in Kahndaq. "I can phone him and check?"

"Do so. Having heard of what often happens to people who oppose him, it seems wise to ensure that we are not operating at cross-purposes."

I raise the right to my left ear, generating a phone construct. Dial John Constantine.

Compliance.

There are a few rings, then a click. "Yeah?"

The figure on the screen is strolling in the direction of the front entrance, cigar in mouth and no phone in hand.

"Mister Constantine-."

"Oh right. One o' those, is it?"

"You wouldn't happen to be in a former Soviet republic at the moment, would you?"

There's a slight delay. Hopefully he knows that this isn't a Nabu-related call. Only my dealings with him outside that are Justice League knowledge and Batman might check his phone records at some point.

"Not right now. Why d'you ask?"

The figure on the screen stops for a moment, looking around in a nonchalant fashion for a moment before looking up into the sky. And sticks up the middle finger of his left hand.

"Then I think we've tracked down your doppelgänger."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
08:27 GMT +4

"If we know he's here, why can't we just go in?" Wallace is leaning over Richard's shoulder, having used his friend's arm computer to watch the recording of The Demon Constantine's arrival. "There's no way the Azerbaijan government's going to protect someone doing business with a Demon."

Richard nods. "Especially not one who was involved in what happened in Fawcett."

"Well, yes, and if I'd recorded General Kerimov meeting him at the front door with a handshake I'd agree with you. But as it stands all him being here proves is that he's here. If anything, the fact that he went in while invisible and.. the fact that he knows that someone saw him but the guards haven't altered their patrols or just cancelled the party… That suggests that he's not meant to be there."

Kaldur looks slightly pensive. "In that case, do you believe that it would be prudent to warn the General?"

Wallace's eyes narrow slightly. "What, after he had two members of Blue Trinity killed and kidnapped the third? I think we can let him take his chances."

Kaldur remains impassive. "We do not have concrete evidence linking either him or one of his employees to that attack. Until we do, we are obliged to protect him from those we are certain are our enemies."

"On that subject…" I make deliberate eye contact with Kaldur. "In Fawcett City, I wanted to shoot him dead with the Ace of Winchesters. Captain Marvel ordered me not to. But, he's a Demon and involved in the murder of a very large number of people. Since he's back on Earth already, clearly just sending him back to Hell barely slows him down. I'd like a little forward guidance."

"Imprisonment is my preferred option."

"If that's your final word, I won't complain. But I have summoned Demons while in the Conservatory of Sorcery and with the knowledge of Queen Mera for the express purpose of shooting them dead with the Ace, aand... Justice League rules of engagement expressly exclude Demons from the 'do not kill' list."

Wallace frowns. "Can Demons even die?"

"Maintaining their bodies consumes arcane energy. Damage them enough and it falls apart and they lose whatever they invested in it. Being Demons, they tend to invest everything in the one they're using to keep them looking strong. Techniques for killing-" Arcane life forms of all kinds. "-Demons permanently usually revolve around starving them, taking so much away that they can't sustain themselves. It's difficult, though. If even a little bit survives they can eventually come back, which is what usually happens. The Ace works by sending its own magic into what it is that connects every bit of the Demon and -as far as we can tell- burning everything. One hit and the Demon's gone."

Kaldur's eyes drop as he considers my request. "Is there a less lethal option which you believe can work?"

"As far as I know, he's only a bit stronger than a baseline Human. A lot tougher, but if we knock him down binding chains will keep him there unless he gets external help."

"Then in the event of hostilities that is the option we will pursue."

I nod. I'm.. not happy about that, but our team is supposed to follow the League's example and William's order didn't leave any room for doubt. Still, I doubt Kaldur will mind if I shoot him a few times with Mage Slayers just to make sure that he stays down. Not as if the Demon actually needs his internal organs.

Kaldur returns his attention to the screen. "We need more information. For that, we will need someone inside."

Richard taps something on his computer and one of our screens changes to a wire frame drawing of the house. "Once it gets dark, I should be able to sneak in."

"True. But Roy could do it now."

Richard looks surprised. "Ah, no disrespect to Speedy or anything, but I don't think he's quite that good."

"He's been practising with my stealth armour." Richard hesitates, then nods. "Phasing and invisibility. Unless they know exactly what to look for and have some very specialist equipment, they wouldn't be able to stop him."

"And you're sure you've ironed out the whole 'it makes you crazy' thing?"

"Our testing showed that repeated exposure at low levels was pretty safe. Mister Crandell wore it for hours at a time when working and not at all otherwise, which is the worst combination."

Working out exactly what is happening in the Human body when the adaptation takes place is proving a little tricky. Best guess is that it's something really small that fits within the bounds of normal biological activity. That or something metaphysical, and I don't want to drag Sephtian into analysing something else like this when we've already got a workaround.

Kaldur taps his earpiece. "Aqualad to Speedy." Who's currently lurking in the back of a locally rented van near the mansion. "Activate stealth systems and investigate the mansion. If you get the opportunity, plant listening devices and cameras in areas likely to be occupied during the party. Try to observe General Kerimov or The Demon Constantine, but fall back immediately if you think you've been detected."

"Roger, Aqualad."

"Both Canis and Orange Lantern are available if you need immediate extraction."

"Orange Lantern? You're sure this'll work, right?"

"I checked the armour before you put it on. It's in perfect working order, so… Barring certain exotic detection systems, yes. Have you noticed any problems?"

"No. It's just a bit of a change from using just a bow. Makes me feel like I'm a walking arsenal or something."

Hah. Nice one, universe. It doesn't even have that many integrated weapons. I think it was Artemis' super strength which persuaded him that he needed to up his game when it came to armaments. Neither Green Arrow nor Red Arrow have mentioned anything to me about upgunning themselves and I think I've pushed the League as much as it's productive to for the time being.

"It'll take me about two minutes to do final checks and get inside. I'll be out of contact while the stealth system's active. Depending on where the guards are it should take me about half an hour to plant the bugs. Speedy out."

"Good luck, my friend."

There's a click as Roy hangs up.

"Something's been bothering me." Richard looks pensive. "The Demon Constantine was working for Satanus. If he was telling the truth in Fawcett City, Satanus basically rules Hell now. Which means he at least knows about DMN-."

Wallace smirks. "You mean 'Devil Jizz', right?"

"Batman.. didn't.. go for that name. Anyway, Satanus would at least know about it, right?"

I nod. "Given the usual level of intelligence and creativity Demons show, the most likely sources are him or an unusually well educated cult of some kind."

"Can your ring detect things in Hell?"

"Um. I only went in there briefly. I could navigate alright, though I don't have a map or anything."

"I mean, from Earth could you detect things that were there?"

"Unless there was a portal nearby? No, probably not."

"What about that quintessence waveform scan?"

"I'd have to scan everything on the planet and every part of the Earth's associated magic field. I'd get there eventually, but I'd expect everyone I knew to be dead of old age related causes when I came out of it. And I'd have even more trouble making sense of what I'd seen."

"The Demon Constantine was added to the international watch list, but he's a Demon. Going back to Hell and getting out again is probably something he can do for himself. But Batman's had Squire and me looking at criminal movement patterns. There have been a couple of cases of criminals we knew were in one country appearing in another with no sign of how they got there. Is it possible they're travelling through Hell?"

"Yessss. Though it's a pretty horrifying place, if a major power in Hell like Satanus offered safe passage, it could work."

"And how valuable would that ability be to the Light?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
17:35 GMT +4

Another limousine drives slowly up the driveway of General Kerimov's home.

"Nothing on that one, either."

I don't look round when Tula speaks. No magic users so far. It's gotten to be routine. General Kerimov has invited a large number of people from all across what was once the Soviet Union. Some of them I could write off as old comrades in arms. Others are clearly more recent business acquaintances. But the rest…

Richard brings up the faces of the most recent set of passengers on his terminal. "Oleksander Hryshchuk and Dariya Osipenko. Both of them work for the People's Party of Ukraine. No significant criminal record."

The rest are politically active sorts from around the former Soviet Union. There hasn't been any sort of public announcement that such a gathering was taking place, and no one we've seen so far was a 'face' for any sort of campaign. These are advisors and deal makers, people who can be dumped if they do something 'brave' in public. Just the sort you'd send to a meeting called by a ex-Soviet General with a big idea he wanted to share with you.

But I'm sure that the Director knew it was happening when he suggested that we come here. So, what, was he hoping we'd just charge in and disrupt it? It isn't as if the Justice League aren't going to be keeping an eye out for Ms Molotova regardless of what we turn up here. And he must know that we're not anything like stupid enough to just leap right in.

"Okay, thinking out loud here. Two political parties of any significance in modern Russia. Unified Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Unified Russia was founded by Boris Yeltsin and has been in power since nineteen ninety six. The Director works for their current leader."

Wallace looks up from the video feeds from the bugs he's monitoring. "What, you think the General's trying to restart the Soviet Union? And the Director wants us to stop them?"

"But he must know we wouldn't care about that."

"Ah, bringing back the Soviet Union sounds like the kind of thing we'd care about to me, Oh El."

I shake my head. "The Justice League doesn't get involved in the internal politics of nation states. Case in point: the ongoing Bialyan civil war. If the Russian Communist party somehow won an election and their neighbours wanted greater political or economic integration, good luck to them. But if that's what he's after, Unified Russia would be happy to talk to him. Or them. In terms of the political reality, life under either party would be quite similar. They're even starting to take major nationalised companies back into state ownership. Unified Russia is very much in favour of close relations with its neighbours. Right now, having good relations with Moscow is a good way to bring your gas bill down. I'm struggling to work out what he's got to offer that they couldn't get by working with people already in government."

"Maybe they just… Really like Communism?"

"Why? A nationalist police state has all the advantages of a communist one, as far as the ruler is concerned. And doesn't leave them shackled to an unworkable economic model. The only thing it lacks is a unifying morality, and you'll note how much more pro-Orthodox Christianity the current President is than his predecessor. If I had to guess, I'd say it's just attracting people who didn't win positions of power in the new state as it developed. They're just… Looking for an alternate route to power."

"No one we've seen so far has been an oligarch or a representative of one. Some of the oligarchs have come to terms with Unified Russia, some are keeping their heads down and a few are starting their own political movements. None want communism back because it would threaten their livelihoods."

Roy's still watching his monitoring equipment, but he looks a bit more thoughtful than a few empty rooms really warrant. "So what's this guy got that's got everyone so excited?"

Wallace shakes his head. "Can't be Molotova. He's barely had her a day. And even if he woke her up right now he's got no way to know whether or not she'd be willing to cooperate."

"And if he showed her off to anyone, Russia would hear about it and could openly come down on him like a tonne of bricks." I shake my head again. "I've got to say, if we hadn't seen The Demon Constantine I'd be suggesting that we just leave."

Roy presses a button, switching from one trivial conversation to another. "Yeah, well, we did, and until we find out what he's up to we're stuck here."

Wallace suddenly jerks, then tries to relax a little. Too late, we're already all looking at him. "Ah…" He looks around the room. "It was just-. The Demon Constantine comes from Hell, right?"

Richard smirks. "This is usually where Demons come from."

"So… He could have talked to anyone who's died and gone to Hell, right? Basically every bad guy in history."

"No. To go to Hell you have to have associated yourself with a mythos that includes Hell. Otherwise you'd just go… Wherever."

"But that includes Edward Clariss. I don't remember anything about him picking up another religion.. and.. he's.. dead, so..?"

"It's a possibility. But it would be rather hard for The Demon Constantine to find him, if he'd even heard of him."

"Do you think super speed soldiers would be enough to do whatever it is he wants with Russia?"

"Um. Maybe. But the old Soviet Union tried for over a decade and couldn't get it quite right. None of.. these people have the sorts of contacts they'd need to get a research program up and running-."

"Except for Doctor Conrad Bortz of Genetech, New York." Richard turns around, pulling the image from his monitor and transferring it to his hologram projector. We see a car carrying a thin and slightly ragged-looking man with a mop of orange hair and bushy eyebrows. As we watch he fiddles with his tie, clearly uncomfortable with it. "Think he'd be able to do the research?"

Ring, review personal history? Ooh dear.

"Yes, though I'd point out that researching super speed isn't actually a crime."

"Maybe not, but a super powered arms race doooesn't exactly sound like something that would help world peace."

"It wouldn't get that far. All we'd have to do is tip off the US authorities and Genetech would lose its export licence. I doubt that the US really wants a super power arms race either."

Wallace looks directly at me. "Unless they're offering Doctor Bortz a job here. How friendly is this guy with the Azerbaijani authorities?"

"Friendly enough that he could set up a laboratory without too much hassle. But we still don't know that he's got a source-."

"We do now."

Raquel points to her monitor, drawing all of our attention. Standing next to General Kerimov as he greets his guests is a man in tight fitting blue trousers and a loose white shirt, open at the chest to display his man-cleavage. It looks like some sort of ill-advised seventies hang over, and to be fair that's the last time anyone saw its wearer.

Max Mercury shakes Doctor Bortz' hand.

"Think they could study him?"

Max Mercury, who at some point told Mister Garrick that he derived his speed from a potion given to him by a Native American shaman. And if someone like that could make it, a modern laboratory should be able to crack it pretty quickly.

I raise my left hand to my ear. "Ring, get me Aqualad."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
17:53 GMT +4

"And that's where we are, sirs."

With Batman, Mister Allen and Mister Garrick in here as well as as many members of my team as are available, things are starting to get a little crowded. I used a construct zeta tube to bring them in without the loud bang that a boom tube would generate. Kaldur had been away for consultations on how to proceed, given how political the situation was becoming. But for this they wanted to review the situation first hand.

Mister Garrick nods as he straightens up from where he'd been lent over a monitor. "That's him alright. I'd recognize that getup anywhere."

Batman's standing back a little. "Have you run an analysis of his facial expressions?"

Richard and I look at each other for a moment, then I make a small gesture with my right hand. He nods, then activates his arm computer. "There aren't enough recordings of Max's face from his previous periods of activity for a conclusive analysis. Vocal analysis doesn't quite line up, but.. that could be natural change. It has been forty years."

"Hn." Mister Garrick shakes his head. "Not for him it hasn't. He found a way to use his speed to take himself out of time. From his point of view it might only have been a few days since he and I last spoke."

Mister Garrick is in a suit rather than his Flash gear. From what Wallace has told me that was most likely down to Missus Garrick's influence. Apparently she didn't have a problem with him being the Flash but she shares Alan's opinion that superheroing is a young man's game.

Mister Allen sighs. "Whether Max is there or not, I don't think I'm okay with an ex-Soviet General developing a super speed formula."

Batman's eyes narrow slightly. "There's been no further sign of the Demon."

Kaldur draws himself up a little. "There has not."

Batman turns his head slightly towards Kaldur. "How far do the wards extend?"

Kaldur presses a button on the display. It changes to show an image of the property, a line around the outer edge of the boundary. "So far as we have been able to tell, it extends all of the way around the property at uniform strength. Since we could not penetrate it without revealing ourselves I do not know if further areas inside have their own protections."

Batman studies the image for a moment, then nods. "Team. Your objectives are to locate and recover Christina Molotova, and to capture The Demon Constantine, ideally without being detected by any local group. Any political consequences General Kerimov's actions are a problem for the League."

Kaldur and I both nod. That's a relief, though I'm a little worried that 'problem for the League' really means 'we're not going to do anything about it'.

"Orange Lantern, zeta tube."

I nod again and create the required construct. Batman walks into it immediately. Mister Allen steps towards it, then hesitates when he realises that Mister Garrick isn't following him. "Jay?"

"You go on home. Think I should stay on for a bit. I knew Max best…"

"Okay, but I'm gonna catch hell from Joan if anything happens to you."

"I'll be fine. Get going before you're late for work again."

Mister Allen nods and dashes into the tube, disappearing in a flash of light. I dismiss the construct as Kaldur moves to address the team. "We have our task. Tempest, Aquagirl, how quickly can you perform a scrying ritual from inside the wards?"

Garth's eyes dip as he considers the question. "If we're not worrying about anything else, we should be able to locate a Demon within… Six minutes. But if they've got any sort of defences up it might not work. The Demon Constantine is a demonic copy of the man who invented Orange Lantern's tattoos, there's no way to be certain that he isn't protecting himself in a similar way."

I shrug. "The next best option is walking around with rune stones and hoping one of them starts glowing."

Kaldur nods. "Then that is what we have to do." He half-turns to the image of the mansion. "The easiest point of ingress for people who cannot walk through walls appears to be the wall at the rear of the property."

Richard nods, pressing a button on his arm computer to bring up a closer view. "There are lasers and razor wire at the top of the wall and another set of lasers right at the bottom on the inside, as well as cameras on the external surface."

Roy crosses his arms across his chest. "I can deal with the cameras. Being able to turn invisible almost makes it too easy."

Tula takes a closer look at the hologram. "If the cameras are down, our kinetic belts can get us over the walls easily. But that still leaves the guards and their dogs."

Raquel frowns. "Can't you just wear Orange Lantern's invisible armor stuff?"

Garth shakes his head. "We haven't practiced with it. Our water armor is usually more useful."

"Canis-?"

He grins. "I am not so subtle as Kanto, but I think myself able to kill a few Human guards without alerting their fellows."

…

"That's good to know, but I was actually going to ask if you could collect a bucket of Brut's urine." And now everyone's staring at me. "It was on Mythbusters? Wolf urine made guard dogs hesitate and Brut is far bigger than a Wolf." Still staring. "We could use a sonic device instead if urine makes you uncomfortable. If the dogs are acting up it's more likely that the guards will ignore them."

Richard brings up the patrol routes. "There are four moving patrols, but it looks like they're trying to keep them out of sight of the guests. If you go in here, unless they actually see or hear something you shouldn't have a problem. Will the spell make your tattoos glow through your clothing?"

Garth shakes his head. "Not for something simple like this. Demons stand out a great deal against background magic. Casting the spell won't take much power."

Kaldur nods. "Robin, Speedy. It is extremely unlikely that General Kerimov would keep anything incriminating in his home. Once the cameras have been neutralized, you and I will travel to the offices of his private security company and gather any intelligence that could lead us to Miss Molotova." He warded that place, too. "Canis, Kid Flash, Orange Lantern and Rocket. You will remain outside of the mansion and either move in to capture The Demon Constantine when he is located or assist Garth and Tula in evacuating if he is not."

Wallace nods. "Oh El? Anything else you can tell us about what sorts 'a magic this Demon can do?"

I shake my head. "Sorry. John can perform a wide variety of minor magics but I've got no idea how becoming a Demon has changed his abilities. Still-" I shrug. "-the chains can hold him and bind him and I've seen no sign that he's become anything like as fast as you."

Raquel points her right thumb at the picture of Max Mercury. "What do we do about him?"

Kaldur sighs quietly. "If we are fortunate, he will never know that we were here. Otherwise, he can be fought using the anti-speed techniques which we have practiced before. Your force field will hold him off indefinitely and he cannot fly. Kid Flash can fight at near his speed, Orange Lantern has a supply of Vertigo Inducers and Canis is extremely resilient. But if that should happen, the priority is to disengage. We have nothing to gain from such a fight."

There's a round of nodding, though Canis' head remains still. "And if we are detected and identified?"

"Then we were acting on legitimate intelligence on the presence of a dangerous criminal. General Kerimov may well not be aware of the Demon's presence, and even if he is I doubt that he will be willing to affirm an alliance with a Demon in public."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
19:27 GMT +4

Roy's subversion arrows arc over the road and strike the security cameras with a dull clunk, sticking them on an unchanging loop of an empty street. Garth and Tula are walking down the pavement along the wall side of the street, dressed in Azerbaijani apparel. Great thing about a country like this as opposed to somewhere like Japan is that there are so many ethnicities in the mix that Atlantean features don't stand out at all. Tula's red hair and Garth's purple eyes might attract a glance or two, but they certainly don't look out of place. Just two young people out for a walk.

"Raaaoowwwwwww!"

"Get the fucking dogs back in the fucking kennel! And when I find the cum-drinking idiot who sent us these useless mongrels I will…"

I lean back, wincing slightly. Richard raises his right eyebrow.

"I still say urine would have worked better."

He taps his earpiece, carefully watching the image transmitted by my surveillance drone. "Guards are moving away. You should have space in five… Four… Three… Two…"

The wall is about three metres tall, topped with razor wire. Slightly offset from the lip on each side is a laser, which means that if a person climbed up they'd trigger an alert as soon as they grabbed onto the top. Someone trying to use a ladder would have a similar problem. For added fun the razor wire is electrified, so anyone who tried grabbing onto it would find themselves spasming and unable to let go. The walls are painted with anti-climbing paint, so an Atlantean's normal fallback of using patches of highly viscous water to let them stick to the surface is out.

None of these protections do anything as I interrupt the power to the street lights for a moment and Garth and Tula trigger their kinetic belts. They aren't as comfortable using them as some of our team mates, but a simple up, over and down is no real test of their abilities. As they go in to land in the cover of some trees I tense for a moment. We couldn't be completely certain that there wasn't something nasty hidden just behind the ward we could see. There are any number of curses available to people who don't mind treating with malevolent Spirits or Demons, and while I'm reasonably confident my Spell Eaters could cope with anything that's actually likely to be there it would completely blow their cover.

"We're in. No problems."

"Understood." I nod to Richard and Roy and they jog across the roof we're standing on, heading towards the alley side. Really, as far as finding Ms Molotova goes their part of the operation is far more important than what the rest of us are doing. We might have to spend a week tracking down every operation and holding the company possesses, but that's the place where we'll find that information. A moment later they're gone, dropping over the edge to join Kaldur in our hired van.

I return my attention to the footage from my drone. I've got the magic detector in position over them, just in case someone who thinks that they're invisible tries to approach my Atlantean colleagues. Mister Crandall's invisibility system works perfectly well against x-rays and infrared but it can't disguise the presence of a soul. I'm going to have to get some sort of visor with an arcane detection system built in created. It's just too useful. Not Sephtian, his industrial work is too important. Maybe I could find someone else familiar with his techniques and hire them instead?

There's an uptick in arcane energy as the Atlanteans get going with their ritual. Bit of a shame that Zatanna's not available, but she has school today.

"Orange Lantern to team, the Atlanteans are in."

"…and Johnny. We were both only just learning what our powers could really do-."

"Kid Flash?"

Jay's voice gets blocked out. "Sorry, Oh El. Rocket asked Jay about Max, and…"

"Okay, but unless it revealed some sort of deep-seated Communist tendencies, please leave it until after the mission."

"Right."

For a moment I consider asking Raquel to get airborne. It won't get properly dark for another hour or so, so she'd have to get pretty high… No. It wouldn't actually reduce her response time by all that much and would create a chance of her being spotted. People don't usually look up without some sort of audible cue, but just one would be enough.

"Orange Lantern to intrusion team. Any difficulty?"

"None so far."

I turn my attention from the drone monitoring the patrols to the monitors I've got tracking Max and General Kerimov. Max is getting a few odd looks, but the General is well into his glad-handing and they appear to be accepting his guest. In fact…

"Kid Flash, could you ask Jay if Max speaks Russian?"

"Yeah, one sec." There's a slight delay. "He says he doesn't think so. He spoke Spanish and French, but no Russian."

Curious. Lip reading at this resolution is an imperfect science, but the ring thinks he's speaking Russian. Again, doesn't mean that he couldn't have learned it, but I tend to assume that if you've been around for a hundred and sixty years and not done something then you've probably decided not to. There wasn't anything on his file about him being politically active outside of the Native American rights movement. Nothing about him even coming to Russia before.

I vaguely remember Edward Clariss from the comics, but he only showed up once as a ghost. I had no idea who this 'Rival'.. person…

Okay. The fact that he was called that in the comics and so was the person the Russians had as a source doesn't necessarily mean that they're the same person. It's just -based on what I've seen so far- a strong indicator. Given the level of security the Russians are operating under there's a good chance that only the Director knows who it was, if anyone else knows that there was a source at all.

Max is acting suspiciously, The Demon Constantine is around and there's a super speed comic character who was known to escape from Hell and possess people.

He's in Max, isn't he?

Ah heck. "Orange Lantern to Kid Flash. How fast is Max compared to you?"

"Ah… About as fast but a lot more experienced. I thought we weren't supposed to be fighting him?"

"We're not. I'm just a little worried that the reason The Demon Constantine is here is to possess him. Which means that we're about to ping two Demons who may -or may not- be aware when we do it."

Okay. From what little I remember, becoming a Demon is supposed to take a very long time. Would a shared super speed ability be enough to allow The Demon Constantine to bind Clariss' damned soul to Max Mercury's body? And what about the control spells they'd need in order for Clariss to control him outright? I can't see any tattoos or drawings on his skin.

"Rocket, when I say 'now', fly to where Tempest and Aquagirl are and stick a barrier around them."

"Got it."

"We're activating the spell."

The rings glow faintly as I prepare to create a railgun construct. I won't be able to obscure it. Anyone looking in this general direction will have their eyes drawn to it. And they'll immediately know who it is making it. Max doesn't appear to respond in any way. Not only does he not look around, there's not even the slightest twitch or saccade of his eyes.

"Two Demons and a major focus of Demon magic. Sending you their locations now."

I have the rings relay the data to my eyes. One Demon and the magic locus are in the mansion's cellar. Constantine, presumably. The other matches the current location of Max Mercury.

"Orange Lantern to team. Max Mercury is possessed. Rocket, change of plan. When I say 'now', get in there and put a barrier around Max."

"My kinetic barrier doesn't stop magic."

"No, but it will stop him punching his way out." My armour materialises around me and I trigger the invisibility system. "I'm going after Constantine."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
19:35 GMT +4

Mister Crandall's invisibility doesn't do anything to cover up the orange glow of my environmental shield, so I have to remove the rings. As ever, this makes me feel slightly nervous. Playing Goldeneye taught me the distinct difference between invisibility and invincibility. Still, the kinetic belt, phasing and wards work just fine and I don't think there's anything around here that can easily get through them. Phased, I don't even cause a ripple in the air as I fly fast as I can through the manor wall, over the gardens at the edge of the party and through the wall of the house itself.

Roy's visit earlier gave us the chance to compare the actual structure of the house with the architect's plans. A few minor changes -a panic room and a small armoury- rather than anything that screams 'supervillain'. But then this is supposed to be his home. He owns fortified places elsewhere. This is where he comes to be 'normal'.

Says something about my life that I can consider ex-Soviet general politicians 'normal'.

I fly through a living room and a corridor before heading down. There's really only one place that The Demon Constantine could be without risking getting spotted by either guests or staff not in the know, and that's the storage cellar. Not sure what they usually keep in there. Not wine, there's a separate wine cellar and the two aren't connected so it can't be room to expand. Thought it was a bit odd when Roy mentioned it, but since it was empty he didn't bother bugging it. Rather than risk flying through a warded wall à la my fight with Kanto I emerge in the stone-walled corridor immediately in front of the door. No obvious security. Perhaps because he didn't want to risk any record being made. No matter.

I phase in and become visible, sliding my rings back onto my fingers. And this is where trusting my equipment becomes a thing. I'm not risking using a construct on the door, not after that Devil Jizz user managed to feed on my power, but this is still heavy power armour. I lumber at the door and smash it inwards.

Ethereally burning sand marks out an arcane circle on the floor and floats up in a rotating pattern above it. Looking through it I see… I'm assuming it's some part of Hell, because it certainly isn't the other side of the room. The flame around the grains is orange-violet and somehow insubstantial and if I knew more about demonology that would probably mean something to me. I have the rings take a picture of the design and then have them block my awareness of its specifics. Just in case.

"…mundus-." The Demon Constantine stops chanting and waving his arms the moment the door flies past. His head jerks around and spots me. There's a brief moment of disbelief, then his head tilts slightly to his left. "Oh, fuck right offaghh!"

I retarget my railgun at his other kneecap and fire again.

"GAH!"

The whirling vortex flares fractionally as he falls. If I had the Ace with me I'd put a round through that as well… But if I had the Ace with me then I'd shoot The Demon Constantine. I settle for shooting the edge of the design with a Mage Slayer round. In response the sand whirs faster and faster, gradually stripping the design from the floor.

The Demon's right hand is under his coat as I grip him with a series of construct clamps. "No." His coat is probably more projection than coat so I don't bother trying to put it into subspace. Disintegrate.

"Me fuckin' ciggies!"

I stride around the room and lean down, grabbing him with a filament and hauling him up. I then backhand him across the face, knocking his head to the side. "Shut up. Who have you got in Max Mercury?"

"I dunno what you're fuckin' talking about! I thought we were mates!"

"You didn't change your eyes back."

His face stills for a moment. "Oh." And then falls slightly. "Fuck."

Taking the binding chains out of subspace takes more power than I really want to spend, but the new generation sort of cuts out when not in contact with the Earth's arcane fields and so isn't quite as bad. Convenient thing about speedsters is that any fight with them is over one way or another before power requirements start to matter. Another flash of disintegration takes care of the rest of the Demon's faux clothing and then I apply the chain's clamps to his waist, neck, arms and legs.

"Bit much for a first date, innit?"

"I can get the Ace of Winchesters if you prefer. Last time of asking: who or what is in Max Mercury?"

"Nah, nah mate. You got it all wrong! This is just a-"

Brand.

"-bit a'-." There's a flare of orange and he throws his head back. "Aoh-ho-hoa!"

"I'm not sure how long this takes for a Demon like you. Or if you can recover afterwards like a Human would. But I do have a reasonable idea of how to come out ahead when dealing with a Constantine." I clench my right fist and the constructs around his naked body force his head back up. A glowing orange symbol is trying to form on his forehead, but just before it can fully come together there's a flicker of something and it fades again. "Protections bound to your body. Obviously not the Seal of Solomon that John has. Won't last indefinitely. Look, the game's up. Whatever you and Satanus-."

"He… SaYs It… SaTuRn… Us."

I take a Mage Slayer round out of subspace and shove it into the hole I shot in his right knee. He grits his teeth as it goes in. The damage hasn't exactly regenerated, but it's far less than a baseline Human would have received and is less than it was when I first fired. "I'm not sure if you actually feel pain, but that will continue to drain you of power. Whatever you had planned here isn't going to happen. The best result you can get is the one which irritates me least."

"Thought it was… Gah! Fucking… Blaze!"

I take another Mage Slayer out. "It wasn't. I normally don't go in for this whole… Jack Bauer thing. But you disgust me…" I nod. "Just enough, Demon."

"Oh, an' Demons aren't really people, is that it?"

"No, they're people. Very bad people. Take you for instance. The only decent Human quality John gave you was his love for Kit Ryan and I know you haven't tried contacting her. And since you have actually become a Demon rather than just being one damned soul among the multitudes you must have willingly bonded with the stuff of Hell-."

"You have no fucking idea what I've been through!" The skin on his face is starting to flake away like burning paper, revealing the canker beneath. "And another-!" I muzzle him. "Mmm!"

"I listen to bad guys in the hope that it might help them become better. You can't, and since you won't talk I'll just wait until the brand takes hold." I activate my armour's internal communications. "Orange Lantern to team. The Demon Constantine is secure. Rocket, are you able to put a kinetic bubble around Max Mercury and drag him into the sky?"

"Ye-ah, but it'll be kinda obvious."

Might be better just to wait until the party winds down a bit… General Kerimov isn't really our problem. Just dealing with the demonic side would be enough to call this part of the mission a success…

"Tempest, Aquagirl, could you exorcise Max Mercury?"

"Ah… How much time do we have?"

Garth doesn't sound anywhere near certain. "No idea."

"We can pick at the binding spells, but flat out exorcisms usually need the mage to channel massive amounts of power. We'd need him in a prepared environment-."

"Oh El, something's happening to Max!"

I change my visual mode back to the drone camera and see Max stagger and fall, his head elongating as horns sprout from his forehead.

"Rocket, go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
19:40 GMT +4

Unenchanted metal clamps attach themselves to rings on the binding chains and construct bindings attach themselves to them. Uh. I can't risk leaving The Demon Constantine in here on his own and I can't maintain the focus on branding him if I'm having to deal with Max Mercury. I don't want to take the risk that he has some way to drain my constructs that he can perform while bound. It doesn't seem too paranoid to assume that they've had some sort of feedback from the transformed Demons, or even from the Chaos Star Conquerors. Have to do that later.

I float in the direction of the door, him dangling at one remove from my construct bindings as the muzzle construct evaporates.

"Oh yeah, nice one! You've only gone an' let that nutter Eddie Clariss free!"

"I think you'll find that was you." I switch to internal. "Rocket, is it working?"

"I had 'im under control."

"Yes, I'm sure that you had the damned soul of a supervillain speedster possessing a superhero out of the goodness of your heart."

"At the moment, but he's.. mutating more. Is Max gunna be okay?"

Internal again as The Demon and I fly at speed up and out into the mansion's inhabited areas. "No, he's been possessed. He's going to be a mess. Aquagirl, Tempest, banishment as soon as possible."

"Right." / "Working on it."

"Kid Flash, do you have vertigo inducers?"

"Yeah. Look, Oh El, I don't think Max is much faster than me but Jay said he had a load of other tricks. Would the Demon know them?"

"It shouldn't. Unfortunately, The Demon Constantine says that's Edward Clariss inside him."

"Edward Clariss was Jay-fast, Oh El! There's no way I'll be able to keep up with him!"

"Lantern, the party guests flee into the streets! Do you wish for me to corral them?"

"No, let them go." I emerge out of a hallway into an open reception area in clear view of more than a few well-dressed partygoers. There are gasps, a few of which turn to shrieks as they see the naked and rotting Demon hanging in the air behind me.

"Oh, you've all fuckin' seen worse!"

They're not fleeing, though they are backing away. In fact, a stream of people are flowing into the mansion from the exterior. I fly out through a set of double doors and into the dining area, everyone giving me plenty of space. "Is the General still on-site?"

"Lantern, Max is doin'... Something?"

"With you in ten seconds, just keep him contained."

"Him, yeah, just not sure about all the rest."

Rest? "If the security guards-."

A shadowy shape slides through a wall next to me and leaps into one of the party guests. He staggers, shudders,-

"Team, we have Ghosts."

-then rights himself, looking at the people around him with malevolent and faintly glowing eyes.

Then I shock crown him and he collapses.

"Your Spell Eaters should protect you but the guests are vulnerable. Canis, Kid Flash, anyone gets a shadowy thing in them, knock them out and zip-tie them."

"At last!" / "You got it, Oh El."

Another shade appears through the wall. Right, assimilate. Strands of orange light leap from the rings and latch on to its ethereal form.

"Identity Theft in progress."

It writhes in distress as the orange light percolates through it.

The Demon Constantine looks on with fascination. "You know, that used to be someone."

"I know full well that people don't last long in Hell with their minds intact. I also know the death toll from when Lucifer ran off."

"Identity Theft complete. Identity partially corrupted. Nameless Hellshade, you belong to the Orange Lantern Corps."

"Assail your brethren wherever you find them."

"Yes, Master."

Oh wonderful, this one can talk.

It flies off, claw-like arms extended. Through the bay windows I watch the yellow blur that is all I can see of Wallace dash from point to point, slamming into the possessed and knocking them down. Brut lands in front of a pair of possessed guards who are aiming their guns at General Kerimov, putting Canis in position to take their first few shots on his armour before slamming his mace into their chests in a pair of rapid strikes.

Fuck it. Praexis horde.

More strands of orange flick outward, disgorging my von Neumann minions.

Fatty gets his bearings first, Chubbs floating just behind him. "Food time?"

"Eat the shadow things before they get into people."

"Okay!"

Glowing blobs of orange shoot off after the faint, dark Ghosts. I'm glad that they don't really have faces any more. It would be far more awkward explaining this to Batman afterwards if they did.

One of the guards panics and opens fire on my Praexis Demons, his assault rifle achieving nothing at all against their construct bodies. Immediately, his sergeant shoulders his way past the guard-huddle and grabs him around the shoulders. "Stop that, you fool! They belong to the Orange Lantern! You could hit someone!" The man instinctively obeys, though he isn't even slightly calmer.

Two Ghosts lunge for the guards, only for one of the Praexis to peel away from the main melee and chase after them. Its mouth clamps down on the closest, then the Construct Demon inhales and the Ghost is sucked into its maw. The other spots what just happened and frantically abandons its attack, going for height instead.

"Lantern!"

A surge of speed brings me up to the kinetic barrier in which Raquel has Max imprisoned. Considering some of the things John described to me the transformation is relatively mild. Horns, glowing red eyes and I think his legs have got a bit longer. I suppose that he hasn't really been down there long enough to become a powerful Demon. His hands are a blur as he repeatedly strikes at his prison, but his body remains still.

"Good work, Rocket. Now we can just get in touch with the local authorities-."

"Ah. That's how it works." His voice is normal. Given how his face has twisted that's a little surprising, but I suppose he hasn't altered his vocal cords. "But Max knows that we can do far more than adding kinetic energy to things."

His hands stop moving, and the barrier disappears.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
19:43 GMT +4

FuckAccelerate!

In slow motion I see Raquel wiggle her fingers in confusion, trying to reactivate her kinetic barrier. My armour doesn't have a projection system but I try sending filaments towards Clariss. It's not going to get there fast enough, damn i-!

Wallace cannons into his back and knocks him flying!

"Gah!"

Together they slam into the grass-covered soil of the garden, skim across it like a pebble on water and then smash through some shrubbery. Raquel's force bubble goes back up immediately. Stopping it must require his focused attention. So.. is he not fast now, or-? No, either Wallace can handle his speed or he can't. Decelerate.

Raquel looks left and right, clearly confused.

"Clariss is borrowing Max Mercury's skill, including-."

She looks positively offended. "Turning off kinetic energy?"

"Yes. Wallace is going to be occupied."

A Ghost goes for a distracted guard only for Canis to smash through it with his mace. "Feel my godly rod, nethersprite!" Their.. numbers don't seem to be increasing, good.

"Ooooooof!"

Wallace comes flying back in our direction, several minor tears showing on the surface of his uniform. No blood, I'm pleased to note as he pushes himself up. I'll be sure to point out the clear advantages of decent armour during the debrief. "Okay, good news? He can go fast or make stuff slow."

I form vertigo inducer constructs and bombard the area he and Clariss flew off in.

Raquel glances at Wallace as he starts moving forwards again. "And the bad news?"

"What? You don't think the fact he can move at super speed is bad enough?"

"Tempest, any news on that banishment?"

"Are all monotheistic spirits this truculent?"

"Is that a 'no'?"

"It's a 'maybe'. They aren't responding to the normal bindings!"

Clariss emerges from the shrubbery, hands outstretched in front of him as he stops my sonic vibrations dead. "Is it likely to get better in the next minute?"

"I doubt it."

"Then give us what you've got."

"Just a moment!"

A Praexis Demon floats past Clariss and gets frozen in place. I really hope 'a moment' is shorter than the amount of time it takes Clariss to realise that he can stop all motion in the air and simultaneously freeze and suffocate everyone here. Clariss himself is taking the time to stare each of us down. Then his eyes widen for a second before his features twist into a snarl. "Constantine!"

"Ah, heh-."

Clariss jerks at super speed and for a moment I lose track of him. Fortunately the vertigo effect still works and there's a crash as he goes through the bay windows in the front of the mansion. "Kid-" He's already running. "-Flash."

Clariss gets his head up just in time for Wallace to punch him in it, the man's face bouncing off the glass-covered floor and bouncing upwards into the second punch.

Then Wallace freezes in place and Clariss punches upwards, striking him on the chin and sending him sailing backwards. I recreate my vertigo projectors but they don't meet with any more success this time around.

"YAAAAAGH!" Savage aggression!

Brut charges Clariss, Canis on his back. Not growling, just a sort of rumbling moan sound. Canis is nearly leaning off him, left hand on the pommel of his saddle and right holding onto his outstretched mace. Oh, come on, that's not going to-.

Clariss sneers, and Canis' and Brut's armour flickers for a moment. They don't stop. Clariss' eyes widen and he throws himself aside as they charge past. Canis' mace lashes out and catches him in the side, and I can see ribs give way. I think he can feel his host body's pain like this, and that's going to hurt.

"Here we go!"

About flipping time.

Brilliant white flames flecked with gold flare out from the Atlanteans' hiding place, roaring across the garden in all directions! The Demon Constantine's eyes widen as they pass over a group of recumbent guests, faint traces of smoke rising from them as the Ghosts within them are incinerated. Pretty much what John tricked the Angels into doing to Nergal. And I've got a worrying feeling that my Atlantean colleagues- The fire bypasses me like I'm not here and passes through Raquel with no effect. -just forcibly took something from the forces of the Silver City without asking nicely.

"AAAAOOOWWWWFUCKINGFUCKFUCK!"

The Demon Constantine is set on fire, writhing against his bindings. A moment later and the front of the flame wave has passed him by, my chains dealing with the residual magic. Even after it's passed by I can see shining light in the rents in his flesh. Not dead or destroyed, though. I'm not sure whether that's due to his origin or simply not being what the spell is designed to deal with.

Slightly dimmed, the flames continue towards where Edward Clariss is struggling to rise. He gets about half a second to see them coming before being totally enveloped. The flames don't envelop him; they cover and coat him in white fire.

"MMMRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!"

His horns are consumed in raging fire, his eyes go white and his head is thrown back as he collapses once more. Wallace gets up somewhat unsteadily and takes a couple of hurried steps towards him, breaking out his own suppression chains. He's forced to shield his face from the heat being generated. Oh dear, I hope we haven't just cooked a famous super hero. Bracing himself, Wallace darts forward and claps the manacles around Max's forearms. The fire isn't burning him, so he clamps shut the neck and leg manacles as well.

Okay.

The Demon Constantine is either unconscious or faking it passably well. Aside from that… General Kerimov is staring at the wreckage, but I suspect he's starting to get the idea that the fight is over. And once he's sure of that, he's going to start making a nuisance of himself. "Anyone injured?"

Canis shakes his head. "A little tired." He smiles. "Invigorating. And such novel adversaries!"

Raquel shakes her head. "I'm fine. So, that was a Demon, huh?"

I frown. "You were at STAR Labs when-."

"No, that was just… Magic-drugs or something. That was an actual Demon from actual Hell."

I point my right thumb at The Demon Constantine. "So's he."

"Eeeaaaaagghh…" Wallace staggers back from the unconscious Max Mercury. "Oh El? I could do with a-" A wide orange beam hits him, knitting his injuries back together. "-heal. Thanks. Ugh."

Tula and Garth pick their way towards our position, trying to peer at Max Mercury as they come. Tula frowns. "Is that it?"

"I think so. We'll check once Max Mercury wakes up-."

"Because I didn't… Feel a Demon being destroyed or sent anywhere."

"Oh. Well, if you're not familiar with the magic-."

Garth is knocked flying, slamming face first into the ground! Tula is picked up and hurled high into the air!

Mister Garrick stands where they had been moments before, his face red and his needle-toothed mouth now extending to underneath his ears.

"Now this is more like it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
19:46 GMT +4

Oh...

Not again...

Edward Clariss grins with Jay Garrick's mouth, revealing multiple rows of needle-like teeth. The wings of Mister Garrick's helmet have been replaced by the horns now extending from the top of his head and punching through the metal. Mister Garrick didn't even bring that with him. Where did he get it?

Oh, never mind. A man who murdered people in specific locations for no better reason than to spell out his own name is now a Demon and possessing Alan's closest friend. And he's just standing there and not attacking. Or gloating. I.. would have expected gloating, given his personality profile. Mister Garrick... Should be alright, at least in the short term. I talked to John about the subject when we tried to work out what sort of state Mister Zatara is likely to be in.

"Edward Clariss."

"Orange Lantern." Jay's voice, distorted slightly. I'm not sure whether that's due to the possession or the teeth.

"Back from Hell, I see. Congratulations on becoming a Demon. Always knew you had it in you."

"Jay said the same thing." There's a slight upturn in the corners of his gaping mouth. "Then he started screaming."

Brut growls. Canis is holding him back for a moment, probably because he knows that Clariss can just walk around his attacks if he's not distracted by something. Raquel is bracing herself and Wallace is... He has his ear over Max Mercury's mouth. Listening for his breath, perhaps?

"What do you want?"

"I thought that I wanted to kill Jay. That's one thought that kept rolling around in my head while I was down there. But now it occurs to me that he'd just go to Heaven if I did that, and he's an old man anyway. So really... What would be the point?"

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think that Heaven is all that it's cracked up to be."

"He thinks that you know about this sort of thing. There is a Heaven, right? Not everyone goes to Hell?"

"No, there certainly is a Heaven. For the faithful and devout. If you.. wish to avoid going back to Hell, I'm prepared to assist with that?"

"You did pick up on the fact that I'm a-" He raises his hands to run them along his horns. "-Demon, right?"

"Just another species as far as I'm concerned. The last Demon I spoke to said that they found Hell aesthetically appealing, but I imagine that it isn't quite the same for immigrants like yourself."

"On my first day they shoved rusty iron spikes though my legs and made me run on a treadmill."

"That certainly sounds cruel and unusual to me."

"Then they flayed off my skin and made me run though a desert. Then they broke my bones, one at a-."

"Mister Clariss. Hell is an utterly horrible place. I fully appreciate that you have suffered greatly. But since you've acknowledged that there's no point in killing him, I'd really quite like to know what you want in exchange for letting Mister Garrick go."

"Let him go? Why would I do that? Hell, son, how do you think I became a Demon?"

"I don't know."

"I tried to replicate Jay's formula for fame, power and money. But you can't take it all with you. Then, somewhere in all the suffering, I.. realised how much fun those Demons looked like they were having. And I remembered how good I felt whenever I hit someone at super speed, someone with no way to fight back. Just beat them bloody." Oh dear. "And it didn't hurt less, but it started to bother me less. And then less.. and less… Until one day I just ran through the sandstorm and ripped those bastards torturing me apart. And that felt even better. Heady stuff." He refocuses on me. "Jay's going to Heaven? Let's see if I can't tarnish his halo a bit."

He sticks his arms out to the side, vibrating them at super speed. I project infrasound in his direction as Raquel projects a maximum area kinetic barrier around him. And... He's not there.

"Awraaaaagh!"

"I mean, if I eat this woman's face." He's holding one of the recently depossessed partygoers off the ground. "That's got to hurt his chances, right?" He unhinges his lower jaw, horribly distending it as he inches closer.

I send a mental instruction to every Praexis Demon and to the Hellshade to swarm him. I know that I've got no reason to assume that they'll be anything like fast enough but it can't hurt to try.

"Waaaaaaaghh!" His teeth get close to his chosen victim, who struggles against his grip to no avail. Possession must be making him stronger, because given his current age and general state of health Mister Garrick wouldn't be strong enough to hold her like that. But he's not looking at her. He's looking at us. It reminds me a little of a chap in my secondary school by the name of Alex Harrison. Once during a PE lesson he ran a ball over the goal line during a rugby session and didn't put it down, instead challenging weedy little me to tackle him. No point, I'd just have bounced off. And he knew it. Clariss is challenging us because he doesn't believe that there's anything we can do to stop him.

Two Praexis Demons come at him and he blurs away, grabbing a replacement hostage.

"Aagh!" / "Oh, Allah!"

Another Demon comes at him and his right arm blurs into it then vibrates, ripping it apart. I switch my communications to internal.

"Anyone got a clever idea?"

"Yeah, I do." I don't look around as Wallace speaks. "Make him move again."

With Clariss watching me, his teeth already drawing blood from the jaw of the terrified member of the Azerbaijan Worker's Party, I form a railgun while extending filaments under the ground in his direction. "I'd hate to kill Mister Garrick, but better that than let you continue."

"Give it your best-."

I form an infrasound projector in the ground under his feet and trigger it. Clariss staggers, teeth slicing through the flesh of his victim –no critical wounds- as he spasms and falls. His hostage similarly collapses, clutching at his injury. "Rocket!"

A kinetic bubble appears around him, not interfering with the infrasound due to its dome shape. Is that-? The dome disappears and Clariss stands up before lunging-.

Wallace blurs past me, accelerating as... Is Clariss getting slower? I just see two blurs moving, even as the ring accelerates my perception to try and allow me to meaningfully contribute. I transition the Praexis Demons into an approximate circle around the fighters in an attempt to corral them, but... The yellow blur is definitely faster than the red one. Wallace isn't as fast as Mister Garrick, but it looks like demonic resilience is all that's keeping Clariss in contention. Weird, but.. okay. Suddenly they stop, coming back to normal speed as Wallace gets Clariss into a sleeper hold. I've got my railgun up but Canis reacts faster, speeding forwards and smashing Clariss' legs with his mace. There's a resounding crack as the bones break.

...

It's okay, it's okay, I can heal him afterwards. I fire a subsonic Angel feather tipped round into his chest, wincing as I do it. Shining sand –like that in the portal site downstairs- beings sloughing off him as my new Construct-Lantern Hellwraith finally gets back to the combat zone.

"You, get in there and eat that Demon!"

"Yes, master." It flows over the ground and then leaps into Mister Garrick's body.

Okay, can't do anything else there for the moment. Tula, Garth and Max Mercury get quick healing beams, my Atlantean team mates getting up and Max finally being pain free enough to lose consciousness. More sand falls away from Mister Garrick, evaporating where it hits the ground as his demonic features recede.

A moment later the Hellwraith emerges. "Gone, master. Returned to Hell."

Immediately, Wallace lets go of him and I fire healing beams at Mister Garrick, making sure that his heart and lungs keep going and getting the remains of the railgun round out so they can't impede his speed-enhanced recovery. As an afterthought I recall all of my Construct-Lanterns.

I take a moment to look around at the stunned, bound and panicking partygoers.

Oh, what a mess.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
19:50 GMT +4

Wallace checks Mister Garrick's pulse and breathing, but I already know that he's... 'Fine' would be pushing it, but he's physically whole and unlikely to expire immediately. I turn to the Atlanteans. "Tempest, check Flash Senior for lingering influence. Aquagirl, same for Max Mercury."

"Right." Garth jogs over to kneel next to Wallace, his tattoos lighting up. Tula just nods before heading towards Max.

"Well, that went alright." Being mildly burned by holy fire doesn't seem to have overly diminished The Demon Constantine's spirits. "Guess you'll be sendin' me back to Hell now."

"No. That didn't work last time and I'm not inclined to-."

General Kerimov shoulders his way out of his guard huddle and marches in my direction. "You! Lantern! Is this your doing?!"

He's clearly well past his physical prime. I'd guess that he weighs two stone less than me when I'm not wearing the power armour which I'm currently wearing. And yet he's storming up to me in what is very clearly a fighting mood. We've probably missed our chance to get anything useful from him personally as far as this investigation goes. If we can't tie him to the demonic element we'll be relying on Kaldur to get something useful from their offices. Still...

Internal communication only. "Tempest, if you can do it without looking obvious, put a truth compulsion effect on the General, would you? Don't activate it until I say."

His eyes flick up towards my faceplate and he nods. Good man.

I send my armour's helmet section into subspace and smile at our target. "Good evening, General Kerimov."

"Stick your evening up your arse!" His face has reddened, but empathic vision shows that he isn't anything like as angry as he's pretending to be. His gaze slips to the side for a moment. "Why have you got some sort of bondage faggot behind you?"

"I'm afraid that Mister Constantine is under arrest and will be facing some rather serious charges." I'm not seeing anything that would indicate recognition, but.. then I wouldn't, necessarily.

"What, and that's how you treat people you arrest?"

"When arresting supervillains I find that it's generally best to remove anything they could use as a weapon. If he'd had tattoos I would have had to remove his skin."

Cold hard eyes narrow slightly, but I think I see... Approval? "Who is this... Constantine?"

Again, no indication of deceit. My goodness, someone with a possible supernatural connection who hasn't heard of John. I'll have to tell him. "I'm afraid that's a bit complicated, sir. And I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you a few questions before-."

"Fuck off. You can talk to my lawyer."

"General, are you fully aware of how the Azerbaijani legal system treats people who may be under the influence of demonic magics?"

"Demonic?" He frowns fiercely, trying to indicate by his posture that he isn't going to let something that trivial stop him getting the result that he wants. "Bah! Nonsense. Some sort of metahuman terrorist. Yes." He nods. "You can-."

"I'm afraid I can't, sir. I have two Atlantean mages with me who will confirm my findings. The standard Azerbaijani reaction to suspected diabolic influence is a month's solitary confinement minimum for each person at risk. Which means you and all of your guests." His pupils dilate slightly, but his expression remains controlled. "Alternatively, if you'll answer a few questions for me, I'll have my Atlantean colleagues check everyone over and report to the local police that they're all clear." He narrows his eyes slightly. "I'm sure that both they and you would find that more convenient."

On the other side of the garden a few guests try edging toward the front gate. Brut interposes himself and very slightly bares his teeth. They stop.

"Mpf. What do you want to know?"

Hm. Max 'Mercury' Crandall doesn't have a secret identity... Well, he used to, but you don't stay active for two hundred years without people noticing a thing or two. I think that these days most people just assume that 'Mercury' is his real surname. I half turn to see Tula helping him into a sitting position. He looks pretty out of it, but he's conscious and at least somewhat aware of his surroundings. And he's physically Human. A lot of possession victims don't get all of those things back.

"When did you first meet that man?"

Fairly innocuous question to begin. He certainly can't deny that they know each other. Whatever answer he gives, I'll have to check it. Doubt that Mister Crandall will be able to remember with any certainty.

"Mercury? A few months ago. He wanted me to find him work."

"Is that sort of thing a frequent occurrence?"

"People will pay a lot for metahuman security. Usually I just deal with kids who can make a few sparks, but someone who fought the Nazis? He could name his price. That was why I invited him here."

Hmm. I don't know what Mister Crandall's financial situation is like. His preferred way of life doesn't lend itself to building up a financial reserve. Or investments, given what inflation's been like for the past half century. It's not impossible that he'd genuinely have been interested in a job.

I make eye contact with Garth once more. "And what did you hope to get out of it?"

The great thing about most truth compulsion effects is that you often don't realise that what you're going to say is 'off' until after the words leave your mouth.

"I wanted to reverse engineer super speed and use it to create a generation of Soviet super soldiers, like that fuck who runs the Russian super power program is too cowardly to do."

"Do you have any sources other than Max Mercury?"

"Not ones that are worth a damn." He stops, looking perfectly content with his answer. Then the faintest trace of a frown appears, closely followed by the oh fuck, what did I just say?

"And the Demons?"

"You can't trust them to do anything. You-." He actually grabs hold of his own mouth to stop himself talking, glaring at me ferociously for a moment before turning and stalking away.

Hm. Suspicious, but if he already had Mister Crandall's willing participation...

Garth gets up and walks towards me. Mister Garrick is still out of it, but it looks like he's clear. "Was that helpful?"

"I'm not sure. Oh, The Demon Constantine had some sort of ritual going in the basement. I think I disrupted it, but take Aquagirl with you and go and make sure that it's shut down properly."

He nods and heads towards his girlfriend. I attach filaments to the senior speedsters and float them off the ground and towards me. I can get Canis to boom tube them to the mountain's medical bay in a few minutes.

Wallace follows Mister Garrick's recumbent body. "They gunna be okay?"

"Can't say for sure. The possession was brief, we've got magic users available to check on them... So, hopefully." He nods, slightly reassured. "Couldn't help but notice that you seemed faster there..?"

"Jay always said that he was faster than Max, but Max always had more tricks. One of those is how to... Kinda... Borrow speed from other super fast guys."

"And you just.. picked it up?"

"I've been doin' a lot of research into this stuff. I guess I already kinda knew how it should work. And I still wasn't as fast as the Flash. Ah, the current one. But it was just enough to let me keep up with Jay." He opens his arm pouch and fishes out a nutrient bar and a healing potion. "Hasn't done anything for my eating habits, but..." He nods to himself. "Probably worth looking into. Once Max is back on his feet."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
14:22 GMT -5

Tula, Garth, Raquel and I look up as Kaldur, Roy and Richard walk into our meeting room. "Please tell me you've got some good news?"

Kaldur looks very slightly downcast. Richard shakes his head. "Nothing to do with the kidnapping. We did get solid proof that General Kerimov has been breaking dozens of minor laws, but nothing about kidnapping Miss Molotova or hiding her."

Roy slumps into a seat at the far end, next to Raquel. "We checked dozens of places they owned or worked or rented. If they've got her somewhere, then it's totally off the books."

Richard sits down opposite Canis while Kaldur takes his place at the head of the table. He looks at me. "Were you able to apprehend The Demon Constantine?"

I nod. "Bound in magic suppression chains and handed over to Belle Reve." Ms Waller was fairly upbeat about the prospect of having definitive proof that the upgrades she's made to the place for the purpose of containing magic-based offenders actually work. The chains are designed to be highly resistant to damage but they're keeping him in solitary confinement just in case. "Max Mercury was being possessed by Edward Clariss under his direction. The General was planning to recreate the Soviet Union through super speed operatives by reverse engineering whatever potion it was that gave Max his speed. From what he said before he clammed up, he probably didn't have Miss Molotova kidnapped." I shake my head. "I'm not even sure that he knew about the Demons."

Roy frowns faintly. "Don't you have to be a Demon to possess someone?"

"Um." How to explain to someone with the limited knowledge of magic that Roy has? "The Exorcist-style spontaneous mutation and added super powers type? Yes. But... It's possible for a damned soul to become a Demon."

His eyes widen slightly. "Seriously?"

"We don't... Understand the process... It's unusual and slow and they usually aren't all that powerful. Of course, if someone like Satanus thought that Clariss would be useful he might have helped the process along a little."

"Oh, good. At least we don't have to worry about every dead criminal in history coming back."

Kaldur leans forward slightly. "Was Max Mercury able to give you any useful-?"

There's a rush of displaced air as Wallace comes to a sudden halt in the doorway. "Hey, guys."

"How are they doing?"

"Well... Jay's gunna get an earful from Joan when he's... Y'know... Okay enough to take it in." He crosses to the table and takes his usual place next to Richard. "She only let me off lightly 'cause she was really worried." He fidgets uncomfortably for a moment. "They.. are gunna be okay, right?"

Kaldur blinks, eyes directly on Wallace. "Did something happen to Mister Garrick?"

Wallace's eyes flick to me. "Oh. You guys only just started?" I nod. "Tempest and Aquagirl used some sort of magic to get Clariss out of Max, but rather than getting sent back to Hell or just destroyed he ended up inside Jay."

"Did Mister Garrick take to the field?"

"No." Wallace shakes his head. "He was still back in our room. Far as we can tell Clariss ran straight over to the mansion as soon as he took control." He looks over at the team's Atlantean members. "How did he do that?"

Tula shakes her head regretfully. "We are not really sure. There are a number of possibilities. The fact that all three of them have super speed might create enough of a link to enable Clariss to transfer himself. He might have taken power from the ritual in the basement to make it work, or they might have prepared a spell in advance."

"I thought-. Ah, don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you guys were experts on magic?"

Garth's eyes dip for a moment. "In the Conservatory of Sorcery, Demons are not a popular field of study. We simply do not know enough about how they use magic to determine what they did without a great deal of study of the site, and I do not think that General Kerimov is likely to invite us back." He turns his head my way. "Orange Lantern, do you think that the original John Constantine would have any useful insights?"

"He might. I'll certainly be asking him."

Richard presses a couple of buttons and an image of a man in a grey waistcoat appears. His hair is auburn, aside from his distinctive shock of white running along the right side of his head. Jason Blood. "Might be easier to call in someone they won't recognize as a Demon."

Kaldur stares at the image for a moment-. No, he's staring through it as he thinks. "I do not think that the precise mechanism will be of much significance. It would be more useful to have Jason Blood available when The Demon Constantine is interrogated."

I raise my eyebrows slightly. "Not Constantine mark one?" From the looks they give me I'm going to assume that the answer is 'no'.

"Ah..?" Wallace raises his right hand, index finger extended. "That spaced out thing Jay and Max are doing. They're not going to be like that permanently, are they? I mean... I don't know what being possessed by a Demon does to you. When Nabu did it to me I was just standing in an empty room, but I guess... With a Demon..."

The Atlanteans make brief eye contact with each other and with me. Why would-? Oh, right. I nod, and Kaldur turns to Wallace. "Do you remember how -before he got his current tattoos- Orange Lantern could become overwhelmed by magic, so that it would seem as if he was intoxicated?"

"Yeah? But, they're not acting like they're drunk, just... It's kinda like they've got... Like they've got dementia or something."

Kaldur nods. "For sudden or intense exposure, that is how it usually manifests. They should be fully recovered within two days. If they are not, then there are other treatments which can be used to improve their recovery."

"Okay." He nods, looking quite relieved. "Thanks."

"Okay, I need to bring this up. Whatever we managed to achieve today, we don't have any current leads on what happened to Miss Molotova. Is this mission effectively over?"

Instinctive responses range from denial to downcast. Kaldur mirrors me in taking a look around before responding. "We will need to speak to The Demon Constantine, and it is possible that the Director may have further information for us. But in the event that neither meeting results in us gaining new leads, I fear that you may be right."

Raquel frowns. "Ah still don't understand why you can't just use your ring to scan for her."

I smile ruefully, then connect the ring to the table's holographic display. "When I first arrived on Earth, I could scan pretty much anything I wanted to. After the League of Shadows was destroyed, that started to change."

"Yeah, 'scry wards', you said. But they can't be everywhere."

"These are corporate logos from companies owned by LexCorp before the League of Shadows... And after." I give them a moment to take the images in. "Please note the change in emphasis here and here..."

Garth gets it first. "Those are runic wards."

"Yep. But it gets better. LexCorp has a paper production business. And guess what shapes are now included in the structure of the paper? And guess who are adding it to their computer security product line?"

Richard's eyes narrow slightly. "That's kind of a lot just for you, isn't it?"

"Lex had LexCorp Metropolis warded by an actual wizard. If Satanus actually has joined the Light he's most likely got a few competent cultists around to work on that sort of thing. The protections won't be powerful, but they'll keep me and the Greenies out. Perhaps more importantly, if everything's warded, then magic users on our side can't tell what's important and what isn't, so looking for blind spots isn't really going to help." I look around the room. "Our enemies are intelligent people. In the same way that I've tried to persuade League members to cover their weaknesses, the Light are doing the same, and in the most inconvenient of ways."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May
09:01 GMT +12

Mister Gort glowers down at me as I step into the Director's office. I suppose that I shouldn't, but I'm peeved enough about the whole situation that I open my empathic sense up beyond my normal levels. Follow the red strands... No, he doesn't bear any kind of personal animosity towards me. I'm not Russian, I'm in a secure site and -a little yellow here- he's not completely sure that he could take me. I'm not seeing any real fear for his own safety, he's just worried that me attacking here could seriously compromise Russia's interests. Quick detail scan... Yep, another Danner enhancile. Born sometime in the twenties...

But again, it doesn't make sense. The Russians had both the Danner Formula and a working -if imperfect- version of the Garrick Formula. And while I'm sure that some people in the upper levels of the Soviet Union would believe in the inevitability of the overthrow of world capitalism strongly enough not to want to risk deploying novel weapons I'm having a hard time picturing Stalin having much in the way of reservations about it.

I walk past Mister Gort and towards the Director's desk. He looks up but doesn't otherwise react until I reach the other side, then indicates the chair next to me with a small motion of his right hand. I pull it out and sit down as he marks his place in the report he was reading and files it away, then rests his forearms on his desk and looks me directly in the eyes.

"I understand that you have captured The Demon Constantine. You and your team are to be commended."

"Thank you, Director."

"What is it that you intend to do with him?"

Right... That...

"We had intended to use the Lasso of Truth on him and have him inform us of his master's activities on Earth. Unfortunately, recent legislative changes in the United States have granted non-Humans the same legal protections as Humans. This includes the right not to incriminate himself."

"You yourself led that campaign with Mister Luthor."

"Yes. And.. now I'm really wishing we could have held off for a month or two."

He's not frowning... Not more than normal anyway. "So the American government intends to treat him like a normal prisoner. How confident are you of the continued integrity of the Belle Reve facility?"

"They've had Atlantean assistance in improving it to hold magic users. There's no such thing as complete certainty, but... If we're going to hold him, it's-" Probably worse than the Tower of Fate. On the other hand, if anyone can sneak their way out of the Tower it would be a Constantine. "-as good a place as anywhere."

"Are the Atlanteans selling such technology to other nations?"

"They're not especially eager to propagate anti-magic arcana, but you could probably come to terms."

He nods, a very slight inclination of his head followed by an equally short rising of it. "It was unfortunate that you could not uncover any evidence of a link to Molotova."

My eyes deaden. "Did you really think there would be?"

The skin around his eyes tightens slightly. "I did not think that chance was particularly high. I did not lie to you. It was indeed the best lead that we had on a possible culprit. But as I am certain that you realised for yourself: if General Kerimov already had people capable of super speed movement under his command, why would he take the risk of abducting her?"

"So... What? You heard about his political gathering and took the opportunity to have us break it up? Did you know about The Demon Constantine?"

"There is a modest advantage in having his involvement with Demons revealed by a party who is not directly involved in Russian politics. But in your place I could have brought more pressure to bear to ensure that the government of Azerbaijan dealt with him more harshly. And I prefer to deal with situations like this without involving people not under my command."

"That isn't what I asked. Did you know?"

"I knew that Maxwell Crandall was associating with him, contrary to his usual character. I suspected that his mind had been altered in some way. I did not know that he had been possessed. I trust that he has recovered?"

I give him a small nod. John tells me that people don't ever completely recover from demonic possession, but both Max and Jay appear to have recovered their facilities and not be in too great a mental distress.

"So who actually did it? Who actually took Miss Molotova?"

"Some other enemy of the state. We are still attempting to identify them. Should we learn anything of note, we will inform the Justice League."

"You're willing to share secure Russian intelligence with the Justice League?"

"Of course. Quite aside from the fact that I suspect Batman will be investigating anyway, ensuring support for American superhero teams is a major Russian foreign policy goal."

I didn't know that. "Why is that?"

"It is far better for us that people such as Superman exercise their powers for the greater good in an independent manner. Far worse for us if they join the American military or otherwise work directly for the American government. And with the Justice League held up as the highest embodiment of the superheroic ideal, they encourage up and coming American superheroes to follow a similar independent career path. So long as that continues to be the case I have the freedom to ignore the calls from people similar to General Kerimov to pursue a more confrontational approach."

"Alright then, tell me. Why didn't Russia develop the speed formulae further? Or-" I gesture back with my left thumb. "-the Danner Formula."

"The decision not to further develop Professor Danner's formula was taken by Comrade Premier Stalin. The decision not to continue with the Garrick Formula was taken by me, for the same reason. Steel Wolf has been a paragon of loyalty, but the way the Danner Formula must be applied means that there is no way to select the candidates for loyalty to the Motherland. The Russian Civil War began in nineteen seventeen and Russia was not fully unified under the Communist government until nineteen thirty four. In such an environment, the chance of politically unreliable people gaining such power and possibly overthrowing the Socialist government and setting themselves up as a new ruling elite was intolerable."

Makes sense, I suppose. I know Khrushchev had Mister Gort sent to a gulag as part of the de-Stalinisation program, and he was one of the loyal ones. "And the Garrick Formula?"

"I could not guarantee continued political control. There was an attempt to use their ill health as a control mechanism, but Red Trinity's defection demonstrated the weakness of that strategy. Super speed is far more dangerous than super strength."

"You..? Gave them an imperfect formula intentionally?"

"No. But I was prepared to take advantage of the situation that had developed." He looks past me to Mister Gort, who strides over and places a data stick down on the desk in front of me. "That contains the results of our investigation to date, as well as records from our medical staff and copies of the paperwork you were reviewing before your investigation was curtailed."

I frown. "You.. had this-?"

"No, Orange Lantern. You were engaged in work on our behalf, so I had our staff collate it for you. I have no interest in alienating the Justice League or in seeing Kid Flash come to further harm. And I am genuinely grateful. Your actions against the former General Kerimov will -along with our other work- go a long way to ensuring Russian political unity."

"I don't think you needed our help with that."

And for the first time his eyes waver. "There is no such thing as too much unity. My predecessor lived through the breakup of the Russian Empire. I lived through both Stalin and de-Stalinisation, through the occupation of Eastern Europe and the privatisation of national industries. Where there is disunity, there is weakness. And that is not to be tolerated."

"I didn't realise that you-" I open up my empathic vision again. "-were that old. Are you another Danner enhancile?"

I manage to control my reaction well enough not to frown. The colours I saw before are still there, but now that I take a closer look I start to notice the things that aren't. I can't follow threads to formative memories or experiences, they just sort of... Trail off to nowhere. I mean, the most intense green is associated with... I think that's a gulag. But the rest...

His face remains impassive. "My personal history is of no relevance. I act on behalf of the Russian people at the direction of their leader, the President. So far as you may be concerned, I am the face of the Russian state. One functionary among many, and completely replaceable. Good day, Orange Lantern."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Bindings

11th May
13:58 GMT

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Guy looks around from his place on the far side of the Justice League's meeting table as Diana and I walk towards it. "Hey Orange. Welcome t'the club."

I.. slow slightly, but continue my approach as Diana walks over to her place near the table's head. "Club?"

Superman nods. "I suppose you could put it like that."

Batman's here, as are the other Lanterns, Major Adams, William Batson, Mister Freeman, Mister Yao, King Orin and.. Nabu. If Mister Allen and Mister J'onzz were here I'd make a comment about this being the League's top tier. For a moment I worry that my talk last month resulted in half of the League getting fired.

Batman looks up from his datapad for a moment. "Take a seat."

That makes me stop. On the near side the occupied seat furthest from the head of the table is occupied by Nabu. Fortunately, there are more empty places on the far side. Giving Nabu a wide berth, I walk around the open end of the 'U' and pull out the seat next to Guy before looking in to the League members' faces and trying to work out what's going on. Diana orders me somewhere, I go there, but a little more information would have been helpful.

"Orange Lantern." Batman presses a button and a blue holographic globe appears in the middle of the 'U', rotating slowly on its axis. There are a large number of markers on it, some green, some yellow and a few red. "Do you know what these represent?"

Ring? Hm. Some are military bases, some I can't scan... Those could be secure government sites of some kind. Countries marked are the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Britain...

"Are they nuclear weapon launch sites?"

Batman inclines his head slightly. "This is a list of the locations of every launch-capable nuclear warhead on Earth which we have been able to discover."

"Do their owners know that you know this?"

Superman tilts his head to his left for a moment. "We haven't told them, but that doesn't mean that they don't suspect that we know."

Diana smiles faintly as she looks at me. "The reason I asked you here today-."

And it clicks into place. "Is that in the event of a nuclear war it's our job to stop them."

This time Batman nods. "Essentially, yes. Intercepting-" The globe moves and various military vehicles and missiles appear. "-aircraft and missiles requires a very particular power set, including but not limited to supersonic flight and the ability to absorb and inflict significant damage." I glance across at King Orin, then back at Batman. "The Atlantean military monitors all sea-based nuclear launch platforms."

"It's a little more than that, Batman." Orin turns to me. "We also have battle mages on hand who could disable or sink them at short notice." A wry smiles plays over his lips. "A job which the recent popularity of anti-scrying wards hasn't made any easier."

"Sorry, sir."

"It's not your fault. Something like this was inevitable, eventually. I won't really start to worry until they start using wards strong enough to actually keep us out."

Superman nods. "I can sympathise. It surprised me quite how quickly the army took advantage of the fact that I can't see through lead."

I remember that in the comic which featured Fernus the Burning they had to intercept a group of nuclear missiles launched by the American military. They missed one, but that was with a seven person League and zero notice. I turn to my left. "I thought you Greenies weren't allowed-?"

Jordan scowls. "What, you really think we prioritize being in the Corps over all life on Earth?"

John nods. "We checked, and we think we'd have about half an hour before our rings were deactivated. Short range nuclear miss'les only take minutes to reach their targets. Even Salaak can't revoke our status that fast."

Guy rolls his eyes. "Oh, good job, now you said it out loud."

Then... I can't help but look over at Major Adams. I'm not sure exactly what rules he's acting under these days, but to my inexpert ears this is starting to sound a bit.. treasony.

He notices. "I'm not about to see millions of Americans die if I can prevent it. And they can only arrest me if there's still a government left."

"Ah, alright, well, I'm in. Haven't really... Thought about this much. Do we.. each have a.. sector, or..?"

Batman shakes his head. "Given how quickly we predict that events would occur, that just isn't practical. Since most League members are based in the US-" The globe stops rotating and icons showing the 'home locations' of the League members present appear. "-we would most likely be relying on Doctor Fate and the Lanterns to cover the rest of the world. Realistically, I doubt that even under favorable conditions we would be able to stop all of the missiles, but every one destroyed en route or prevented from launching will spare the lives of tens of thousands of people."

I nod. "Have you discussed more... Aggressive action against launch sites? It would be... Far faster to destroy them than to disable them."

William takes a steadying breath. He really doesn't look comfortable. "Have you ever seen the film 'War Games'?"

"Not all the way through, but.. I'm... Assuming you're referring to the opening scene where the launch operator wasn't prepared to fire despite receiving valid orders."

"So..." He shrugs. "How do you know the guy who's been ordered to fire is actually gunna do it? And if we don't stop all of them, well... We're gunna have to do a lot of work... Afterwards. People probably expect us to try and stop the missiles, but if we actually attack someplace then people might start seeing us as the enemy."

He does have a point. I could probably tell whether or not the people in a particular silo or onboard a particular plane would actually do it, but not from a great distance and not quickly enough to go from place to place for each of the thousands of sites worldwide. Personally, I think it would be more sensible to just do it, but... No, if this happens we'd have to start immediately. A limited exchange wouldn't necessarily result in all out war. Unless someone started destroying their launch sites. And by the time everywhere got their go-codes...

Batman nods again. "In the event of all out war, if even one percent of the nuclear powers' devices reached their targets-"

The world hologram changes, showing arcs representing nuclear weapons flying from their points of origin. First strike weapons like ICBMs and fighter-mounted missiles streak ahead. Ninety nine in every hundred wink out... A hundred and fifty are left. I remember that belligerent powers generally don't target population centres. The UK does because Trident's got poor accuracy, but the US and Russia generally point theirs at military and government targets. Of course, those are usually located in cities. Looks like the League think that India and Pakistan have the same lack of precision.

"-the immediate death toll might well be in the region of one billion people. In the aftermath, as the only active Lantern on Earth we would be relying on you to do what you could to minimise the effects of the dust clouds. A nuclear winter which destroyed that year's harvest would kill even more people than the initial nuclear exchange."

"You know, if... " I glance left. "If you'd be out of the Corps anyway... There's really no reason not to let Alan recharge himself. I mean, I could do the whole planet eventually but this is something that needs to be done as quickly as possible."

Guy and Jordan nod. Stewart glances at Jordan first, then nods as well. Jordan leans forwards to make eye contact with me. "Not sure how much time we'd have, but sure. We can try doing that." His jaw moves slightly to the left and his eyes drop to the table for a moment. "Look, I've never been 'okay' with the way that the Guardians insisted on freezing Alan out. It just wasn't my call to make."

I shake my head. "Never thought it was."

Batman waits a moment to see if we want to say anything else, then presses on. "You will be required to memorize the locations displayed on the screen, though given that you have eidetic memory that shouldn't prove too difficult. We meet here once a month to go over any changes in our target locations. Since we started these meetings the world hasn't come close to a nuclear exchange. In the event that it did, we would meet more frequently. It should go without saying that you are not to tell anyone about this."

"Thank you for not phrasing it as an order, sir, but yes. I realised." Do I ask? "Sir, there are things I could do to make it easier to stop an exchange. Laser drones placed along likely flight paths, that sort of thing? Do you want me to look into it?"

"No. I do not believe that a nuclear exchange is likely to occur in the immediate future, and the damage that would be caused to both the League and to international relations if your efforts were discovered makes it too much of a risk."

Major Adams nods. "He's right. Remember how the Russians acted when President Phillips tried restarting the Strategic Defense Initiative?"

I nod. Not 'Phillips' of course, but I do. "Very well, sir. Thank you for trusting me with this. If the worst happens, you won't find me wanting."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th May
11:47 GMT -6

My maternal grandparents lived in a house in the village of Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire. They ate most of their meals on the kitchen table, but during periods when they had guests in the house they ate in the actual dining room, which would otherwise remain closed and unused. I suppose that the table was a bit big for the two of them, but... I'd never seen that particular arrangement anywhere else. Until now.

I look out through the hush tube into the home of retired Detective Chief-Inspector Geoffrey Talbot. His wife killed herself twelve years ago and his daughter and her family live in Australia. I suppose that he doesn't think it's worth keeping the dining room open just for himself. In fact, from the look of the kitchen area I'm going to assume that he usually eats out. There aren't any food stains but there's a small amount of dust in places which suggests that he hasn't thought to include them in his cleaning rituals.

I am mildly annoyed that Chester and Vera want me to meet him without actually telling me why. I suppose a degree of interpersonal difficulty is inevitable if I want to continue working with Chester. And I can't claim to be above creating unnecessary difficulty for my own amusement so it would be hypocritical for me to complain when he does it. I did a little research on the man and it seems that he retired under somewhat confusing circumstances. Twenty nine years on the force, then he was carrying out a corruption investigation into officers in the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. He was at it for a couple of months and then was suspended himself. I've checked the newspapers of the period and I can't find mention of a specific allegation, then... He took retirement and whatever case was going to be brought was dropped. I know that happens sometimes. I generally regard it as unfortunate, but probably more cash-efficient in complex cases than taking it to trial. Still, Chester will have had a look around his mind by now and given how seriously he's taking this I doubt that he'd involve me if it was going to be a waste of my time.

Miss Amane is sitting in his living room in full costume, war scythe propped up against the side of his chair. Chester is standing just behind her and Vera is lurking invisibly on the pavement outside. Miss Amane was delighted to take an assignment in Britain, though I suspect that she's been happy to take an assignment from me to just about anywhere. She'll be learning spycraft from my two more experienced employees, plus her natural face and body language aren't known to anyone. When we actually move into the active phase-.

There's a clatter as Mister Talbot opens his front door and steps inside, pushing it closed behind him. He takes his coat off and hangs it up on the coat stand. It's not raining in London at the moment but there's a chill in the air. There's a good deal more grey in his hair these days than there was in the older pictures. His hairline has receded a little further and I think he's lost a little weight. As he turns towards his shoe rack he hesitates for a moment, as if something just occurred to him. Then he appears to shrug it off, removing his shoes and donning his slippers. Next, he picks up his briefcase in his right hand and ambles in the direction of his living room.

He pushes the door open with his left hand and takes a moment to look at his uninvited guests. He doesn't look worried or angry. A little annoyed, perhaps. As if he now has a minor chore to attend to that he'd rather he didn't have to.

"Wondered how long it would take you bastards." He stays standing in the doorway for a moment. "Well? Here I am. What's the bloody hold-up?"

Chester grins. "Got us all wrong, dibbler. Not 'ere t'shiv yeh."

"Chester Black. I didn't realise that I warranted your personal attention." Miss Amane gets a small frown and then a mental dismissal. I suppose that if he knows who Chester is then he's got no reason to suppose that anyone else with him is more dangerous than he is. "I don't intend to cooperate with you taking me somewhere else, so you'd best do it here."

"Like I said, all wrong, cock. I'm a private agent these days."

Mister Talbot frowns slightly. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is so. Reckon my new boss 'd be dead keen on meeting you. If yer up for it."

"And if I say 'no'?"

Chester shrugs. "Sod yeh, then."

Mister Talbot's frown deepens. "Alright. I'll need my briefcase."

"Jest a sec. Vera love, you got the windows?" The living room window shimmers as Vera activates the hologram projector. "Magic."

I step through the hush tube, closing it behind me.

12th May
17:50 GMT

"Mister Talbot. Chester has convinced me that meeting you is worth my time."

Mister Talbot looks up at my face, puffs out his cheeks slightly and slowly exhales. "You're that Grayven chap who killed that little shit Klarion. Hmm. Well, since you're here I suppose we might as well talk about it. Put the kettle on, would you, Black?"

Chester narrows his right eye, preparing for a 'y'wot?' I give him a level gaze as Mister Talbot sits down and he acquiesces, heading out the door towards the kitchen.

"So. What exactly is it that you want with me?"

"Me and mine have run smack into evidence suggesting that the British establishment is corrupt and 'evil' to an almost farcical degree." He hunches down slightly, eyes narrowing as if to bore into my soul. "We're starting doing the work which will eventually lead to us dealing with the problem."

"What do you mean by 'dealing with'?"

"Killing the worst offenders, trying and imprisoning the rest."

"Need a bloody big prison."

"I have a bloody big prison." Well. I've started building one. It'll be ready by the time we need it. "I take it that you ran into.. some of the same things that we have."

"Something like that. One moment. Don't think I'll be needing this." He tightens his right hand and... Presses a button on his briefcase.

What exactly-? It's a bomb. "Why do you have a briefcase bomb?"

"Last time the bastards got me, they bundled me into the back of a van with four other blokes. They got slaughtered like pigs. I only made it out because our gaolers went mad and the armed response unit that got sent in after them recognised me."

Ah. I approve. "You decided that if they came for you again you'd take a few of them with you. Admirable. How exactly did this come about?"

He shakes his head. "Never really got to the bottom of it. When I was investigating the Avon and Somerset mob, I nearly ran into one of their Masonic death squads. That was enough to provoke them into trumping up charges and leaning on my superiors until they suspended me. Kept poking around, of course. Didn't find a bloody thing until I ran into John Constantine."

"Oh. Hard luck."

"Not his fault." He smiles, and there's no joy in it. "Though I've thought about walking up to him and giving a good thumping on many an occasion since. No, that death squad had been sending me hate mail since I was taken off the investigation. Didn't matter to me, but they were posting them through the door when Joanie was there on her own..." He sighs. "Silly cow."

I nod. Never really understood why that sort of thing could drive someone to kill themselves. I mean, why not just bin the things after reading the first few lines?

"So, she killed herself, I joined up with Constantine, a journalist called Hughes and a Russian FIS agent agent named Sergei. Only the death squad got a kill order and rounded the lot of us up almost immediately. Except Constantine, who was out at the shops at the time. We all got hauled off to a place called Geotroniks. The bloody Masons were using it for some sort of.. magic research. Still not sure how seriously to take that part of it."

"Oh, fairly seriously."

"I am well aware that magic exists, I just didn't expect to run into it in a place like that." He rubs his chin with his right hand. "Part of the ritual involved killing us. They got most of us. Throttled a few of their people myself. Armed response shot the rest. Constantine walked away from it all, of course. Apparently, he does that a lot."

"Then what?"

"Police took my statement, wrote it off as gibberish and let me go. Sat around the house for a couple of days feeling sorry for myself, then gave myself a stern talking to and got up off my arse. I started volunteering at the local citizen's advice so there would be something to keep my brain ticking over. Then one of my old chums from the force paid me a visit. Seems that all the pressure they'd had on them to get rid of me had suddenly disappeared."

"They weren't seriously asking you back, were they?"

"No, but they'd give me early retirement with no fuss. I said that I'd think about it. None of the Geotroniks employees could have had the authority to order Scotland Yard to get rid of me, and that meant that the ones ultimately responsible were still at large. People died, and they were just going to walk away from the whole thing. As I hope you can appreciate, that made me rather angry."

"Is that when you bought the bomb?"

"Not quite, but it wasn't much later. No, I knew that if I was going to get them, the people who were really behind things, I'd have to do it intelligently. Gather evidence until I knew exactly who did what. I need to get all of them in one fell swoop. So I started making contacts. Poked around a bit, kept my ear to the ground. Learned a thing or two you might be interested in."

"You might well be right there."

"But there's a price." I raise my eyebrows. "I want to be there when you take them. I want to see them when you drag them off to wherever you're planning on taking them. If it's the last thing I do, I want to see it happen. I want to see my country cleansed of this filth."

I smile, nodding. "Mister Talbot, I do believe that we can come to terms."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th May
14:37 GMT -5

"I hereby declare, and solemnly affirm, that I absolutely-"

I lean back in my wooden seat, trying to look like I'm giving the stage my full attention and trying to ignore the man to my immediate right.

"-and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty-"

It's a big day. We nearly had a bit of a misstep when Red Tornado tried using the version of the Oath from the nineteen forties, but Justice Stevens just stopped him and pointed out his mistake. Not really sure what the point of him bearing arms would be, but I suppose there has to be one rule for everyone where these things are concerned.

"-of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States-"

Danni has her right hand raised while she recites the Oath, having assured Justice Stevens that she knows the words for the modern version. Her face is serious but not blank in the way it would be if she didn't have her emotional simulation program active.

"-of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear-"

I can't really blame whoever it was who came up with the seating arrangement for putting me next to Lex Luthor. We both campaigned to make this happen, and… Yeah, it was reasonable to put us front and centre. I suppose that I was lucky, really. A little further down the row is a man who is either an actor or Uncle Sam.

"-true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf-"

I mean, really. Red and white stripped trousers. I came in suit. I'll give him a pass on the blue waistcoat and tailcoat. The hair and the beard even manage to look distinguished.

"-of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform non-combatant service in the-"

But the hat currently resting on his lap kills it. A top hat is dubious anyway, the red and white stripes are a big no-no and the ring of stars makes him look like a flag cosplayer. Did Captain Nazi dress like a Prussian officer? No, he did not.

"-Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I-"

Of course, it might just not have been noticeable with Captain Nazi. The Nazi's were dressed by Hugo Boss. He'd have thrown up all over his jackboots it the embodiment of fascism tried dressing like that. Apparently there wasn't any advanced noticed that he was planning on turning up. I had thought about investigating him earlier but his last public appearance was in the seventies and I couldn't find any recent trails. I suppose this change to citizenship procedures was enough to bring him out of hiding. Is finding out what he's been up to worth the mental anguish of actually talking to him? No, probably not.

"-will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that-"

Goodness me this Oath thing is a bit militant, isn't it? What happened to the ideology? Where's liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Bah, I found the idea of something like this unsettling and I still think that the modern British version is better. Not that I -as a loyal citizen of Themyscira- am affected much either way.

"-I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion."

Danni lowers her right hand to shake hands with Justice Stevens, then with President Horne. He's the one I've got to thank for the fact that we couldn't Truth Lasso The Demon Constantine. Aahhh, I shouldn't complain, not about having to follow a law I broadly regard as being a good thing. Apparently, something happened in Congress, the final vote happened sooner than anyone really expected and Horne wanted to get it signed and in force as soon as possible. Originally, it was going to be signed at the start of this ceremony. Would have made it a better performance piece…

I join in with the polite applause, though to my left Marie Logan is a little more enthusiastic. No more cross-border intrusions these days; the Bialyan military is far too busy fighting itself or defecting to make a nuisance of themselves. They did take in a few civilian refugees, but they weren't really set up for hosting them long term. I spot the new ring on Marie's left hand and smile. Turns out that one of the refugees was a judge from a town on the Bialyan side of the border. Danni took the initiative; a short trip over to the Bialyan side took them to the only Middle Eastern country where gay marriage is a thing. I'd like to have been there, but apparently Danni decided that haste was the order of the day.

In the chair to her left, Garfield mostly just looks bored.

Dubbilex has already had his turn and Doctor Lockhart is still firmly in denial. Mister Dukeston is up next. Technically, he isn't a prisoner, since at the time his crimes were committed he wasn't legally a person. Red Tornado has been spending a good deal of time with him in the interim and apparently he's… More or less adjusted to his new life. Not that we were stupid enough to give him a replacement combat body or anything. From what Red Tornado told me, he's perfectly happy to be able to regain control of his business and has no intention of wasting any more of his time as a 'no-good low down supervillain, nosireebob'.

Ah, good luck to him. It's not as if there are a great many robot assassins in the country, and we control the only places he can go for anything more than cursory maintenance. I'd be astonished if he's on anything other than best behaviour… Quick check? No, emotional connections say normalcy and lawful money making.

"I hereby declare, on oath, that…"

I tune him out. These four will be the first, but they hope that other beings who don't fit the conventional definition of Human will be able to come forwards and claim citizenship. They'll have to make do with doing so in the normal manner, rather than on the White House lawns. The legal structures for Dubbilex to take formal control of Cadmus are already in place, though it won't change what he's up to on a day to day basis.

You know, this legal change is going to have a larger impact on my work. When I'm in the US, I'm going to have to exercise the same forbearance on the use of lethal force on Demons and the undead that I do on living organic people. Of course, that only applies to the US. The Azerbaijani authorities were rather annoyed that we didn't kill The Demon Constantine right then and there, and British law positively incentivises the slaying of 'unrighteous revenants'. Or would, if anyone but me remembered that the law existed. It's one of those old 'no sunset clause and still technically on the books' laws that no one is sure if they are actually still in force.

Ah, I love my old country.

The President shakes Mister Dukeston's hand and ushers his guests to the front of the stage for a photo opportunity. Photographers and camera crews out to the front of the seating area, and several of the people around me get to their feet. I give it a moment to make sure that that is what we're supposed to be doing, then push myself off my chair.

Lex is already upright, and Miss Graves has reappeared from wherever she was lurking. He looks up at the stage with a faint smile on his lips then turns to me. "I thought that went rather well."

"No Enginehead, Lex?"

He gives his head a small shake. "I offered, but he wasn't interested. It's hard to get him to abandon his datasets."

"I suppose there's no reason to assume that AIs would have the same range of interests as organic beings. Or-" I glance at up the robots on the stage. "-AIs patterned after organic beings."

"No. Still, the protections of the law still apply to him even without this ceremony. My personnel department is trying to work out exactly what his services are worth to us so that we can determine what we're supposed to pay him. I wouldn't do at all for me to be seen as abusing our relationship."

'Seen as', I note. "I assume that he has access to counsel?"

"Naturally."

He's probably being honest. Lex does tend to treat his employees -at least those he directly employs in the various Lex-businesses- fairly well.

"I am curious as to why my son isn't here. Legally speaking, he was a US citizen before he became a Themysciran citizen."

The actual answer is that Prince Kon doesn't identify with the US. Conner Kent on the other hand is already a US citizen, though not through normal processes of application. "He's happy as he is. A diplomatic passport gives him all the legal protection he needs, and I'm fairly confident that he never intends to run for president."

"Ah." Lex bows his head slightly. "I had thought -given that he spends most of his time here- that he might have developed a stronger feeling for this country. Still, I suppose it's his decision to make." He looks past me for a moment. "Excuse me, I need to go and thank Senator Jeffreys for his support."

I nod, and he heads off to glad-hand.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th May
20:17 GMT

Our host frowns at us from his place on the family settee. "Not as far as I know, but I do not mind introducing you to a few people who might know better than me."

There are only so many sources of super speed in the world, and without any other leads to go on I suggested that we find out exactly how broad our ignorance is. Which is why we're sitting in the Birmingham home of Mister Aavai Singh (aka Rush Hour 1) to try finding out how the heck a seventy one year old man from the Punjab acquired the ability to run faster than a speeding bullet. He also picked up super speed reflexes that are always on, though he can't move through solid objects or run on water. Thanks to me his son-in-law is on the League long list and I know that Diana is keeping in touch with his granddaughter.

Richard nods. "It would be a big help."

I was just going to do this on my own, but Richard said that he really wanted to be out of Wayne Manor this evening. With the wedding coming up tomorrow things are a bit manic. I suppose going from three people living there to four, five, and now the extended family of both parties and a lot more servants-. Is that the PC term? The help? Whatever. Wayne Manor is actually overcapacity for the first time in decades. Mostly the bride's family of course, but Bat-. But Bruce's Aunt Agatha is temporarily in residence, along with her nursing staff and a smattering of more distant relatives.

Mister Singh nods, then frowns at me. "What is this I hear about you using Demons?"

Um. "Technically, they aren't Demons."

"Technically?"

His accent is an odd mix of Punjabi and Brummie, with the first being predominant. "As I understand the process by which they are created, every bit of demonic magic is consumed in the assimilation process."

"And what is that?"

"What I do to make them. As I said, technically they're just Demony-looking constructs. They keep some of their original instincts, but that's because it's easier to give them broadly worded instructions than direct them every moment myself. I would be extremely reluctant to trust a Demon with anything."

"Ah." He nods. "I do not like it much, but-" I hear a key in the front door. "-I will trust that you know what you are doing."

"Papa?! Are you home?!"

Mister Singh turns his head in the direction of the door. "Living room, Dennis!"

Dennis Singh née Brown pushes open the door from the hallway. "Hello, lads." Something of a rarity, he's a white British man who converted to Sikhism while on a gap year in India. He's married to Mister Singh's-. To Aavai Singh's daughter Adish.

Ugh, it's awkward to talk about people when half of their entire religion has the same surname. Yes, the caste system needed to go but couldn't the Guru have come up with a less linguistically awkward fix?

"Are they really here?" His daughter Vasi enters the room on her father's heels. I'm on my feet before I really think about it, and Richard follows me before he realises that I'm just 'being English'. Her eyes widen excitedly as she spots us and then she's in front of us, beaming.

Her grandfather frowns at her back. "Vasi. Manners."

She ignores him and holds out a small book towards Richard. "Could you sign it?"

He smiles back at her. "Okay, sure. Got a pen?"

Dennis walks up to me, right hand extended. I take hold of it and we shake. I've actually spoken to him a few times before while assembling my long list and adding to the League's non-US database. "What brings you to Birmingham, mate?"

"We had an encounter with a speedster last week, and we couldn't work out how they were moving that fast." I shrug. "I thought I'd ask if you knew anything."

Vasi blurs to the closest chest of drawers and back, presenting Richard with a biro. He takes it. "So, do I make it out to Rush Hour or Vasi Kaur?"

Dennis shakes his head. "Papa taught me, and the only person I've taught is Vasi. Vasi, you haven't been training anyone, have you."

"What?" She looks away from Richard. "No, of course not, Dad."

"Papa? You taught anyone else?" He holds his hands up. "I promise I won't be jealous."

"I have already told them that I have not. My brother Tekbir knew, but he died without teaching anyone. Our father knew, but he taught only us."

Richard finishes signing his name and hands the book back to Vasi, who looks delighted with it. "It's something you can just learn?"

"Johnny Quick's technique is something you can just learn." I remember my own attempts to visualise exactly what the hell '3X2(9YZ)4A' actually looks like. "Apparently."

Aavai shakes his head. "The names of everyone my family has acknowledged teaching are a matter of record, and I do not think that there is anyone in my family who would have taught a criminal."

"Um. Are you allowed to tell.. us... What it is you do?"

Dennis and Vasi look at him as he ponders the question.

"What religion are you?"

"Hellenist. I worship Eris, Goddess of Chaos."

Vasi blinks in surprise. "Really?"

"You did realise that Wonder Woman-?"

"Yes. But... I didn't think other people did?"

"The proof of the physical reality of a god is quite a draw for many people."

"I'm Episcopalian." Richard looks over our hosts. "If it matters."

Aavai bows his head slightly. "It is not the answer which I was expecting, but I suppose that it does not matter. We swear only to never give information on the subject to Muslims. The source of our speed takes the form of a prayer. To receive it you must open your mind and spirit to God and to the one teaching you in just the right fashion. If you do this, someone who already has it may share it with you. It is not written down and there is no way it could be passed on accidentally." He glances at Dennis. "No matter what my son-in-law tries to tell me."

Vasi rolls her eyes. "Oh, don't start, granddad."

Richard looks at him with undisguised curiosity. "So where did it come from in the first place?"

"A Hindu teacher to whom one of my ancestors gave shelter from the forces of the Mughal Empire. The version of the story I was told by my grandfather was that he was displeased by the inability of his own disciples to master his teachings and so he attempted to instruct my ancestor, who learned it in a single night." He smiles, shaking his head. "That was probably not what actually happened, but I'm afraid that there is no written record and no one thought to remember where the Hindu got it from."

"I haven't seen any super speed Hindus running around the place, so they probably didn't teach anyone else."

Richard frowns. "Isn't that kinda weird? I mean, if it was a Hindu prayer..?"

Aavai opens his mouth slightly, then closes it with a sigh. "Dennis, I can feel you vibrating. If you want to explain it, then explain it."

He grins the grin of someone who isn't allowed to eloquate on the subject he loves anything like often enough, and has just received an unlimited licence. "At the time, Hindus and Sikhs were mostly allied against the Muslim Mughals. Sikhism is monotheistic, but it isn't Abrahamic and it actually has a lot more in common with Hinduism than with Islam or Christianity. All of the first generation Sikhs were Hindu converts, and for a long time a lot of Hindus regarded Sikhism as an odd sort of Hindu denomination that only saw God as one thing rather than lots of things that were also one thing. The particular way Hinduism was practised varied a lot from place to place, and which particular god or goddess had a big following in a particular area. As long as a Sikh didn't eat beef right in front of them, the fact that a Sikh considered themselves to be a Sikh and not a Hindu probably wouldn't have mattered much to them."

Ah, the zeal of the convert.

"Of course, things aren't anything like that friendly now." He jerks his head to the side. "Well, not in India or Pakistan. There's no real animosity here, not among people who've been in Britain for a generation or two."

Aavai nods. "We believe in reincarnation as they do and in the same sorts of virtues and vices. Unless a particular prayer absolutely needed to be addressed to one of the Hindu gods on an individual basis, it would be compatible with Sikh thought and spirituality."

Richard nods. "Are there any other sorts of prayer power that you know of?"

"Oh, heh." Aavai laughs. "I would say that a great many Hindu superheroes probably received their powers in a similar sort of way."

"So do people know how to make more prayer powers like that?"

That brings him up short. He and Dennis share a moment of eye contact, then he shrugs. "They may. If anyone does, they are keeping it very quiet. I certainly do not know how it could be done. If I had to guess, I would say that God granted it to the first holder. But I do not know." He frowns. "If you find out, be certain to let me know. That is going to bother me all day now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th May
17:22 GMT -5

Richard, Artemis and I stand well back from the orange and yellow blurs darting around the holographic table tennis table. As with Donna, school commitments make it impossible for Vasi to join the team. Still, Diana was happy to approve a visit to the Mountain and for her to meet with those team members in residence.

"Point, Rush Hour."

The two of them precipitate out of the air. Vasi is panting heavily, her uniform darkening with her sweat. Wallace slowly jogs over to where he stowed his towel then pulls his mask away from his face to mop his brow.

Artemis smirks in his direction. "Still feeling confident, Kid?"

He drops his towel and picks up his water bottle. "I'm just..." He drinks a slug and then tips some over his face. "I'm just.. warming up."

Vasi straightens up and stretches her arms over her head. "Your... Your service?"

"Yeah. Yeahokay." He wipes his face once more and then toddles back towards the table.

Richard glances at me as Wallace serves and the two of them disappear again. "Wanna change your bet?"

"No. Kid Flash has become a lot more mature since we first met. He'll get over his reluctance to steal her speed eventually."

Artemis raises her left eyebrow. "That's something he can just do now? You said Clariss could stop sound waves."

"Not exactly. He tried it out with the Flash. He can slow down someone else with super speed and make himself faster by the same amount. At the moment."

"Point, Kid Flash."

"Alright!"

"At the moment?"

"He said he wants to keep training with Max. Max taught Jay, and there's a lot he could learn."

Artemis nods, opens her mouth slightly and then closes it again. Then she frowns slightly. "Has he said anything about it.... Doing anything about his... Eating..?"

"It might end up helping with that, but it hasn't yet." Richard looks down slightly. "Nothing the Russians came up with really helped either. I mean, they gave us a whole lot of things that they found out didn't work..."

"Think we should suggest that he talk to Rush Hour Senior about maybe accessing their form of super speed?"

"Maybe. I dunno. I mean, we've got no idea what it would do to someone who already had super speed."

"We tried Johnny Quick's formula without knowing that."

"I don't really think that was a good idea either, Oh El."

"Point, Kid Flash."

"My serve!"

There's a noise behind us, and I half turn to see the Sphere roll in. It warbles briefly and then rolls up alongside us. Had to admit, I'm a little surprised that it didn't go back to New Genesis with the young New Gods. Canis hasn't said anything about it but its presence appears to be confusing him slightly as well. Though probably not for the same reasons.

"You two got your outfits picked out for tomorrow?"

Richard raises his eyebrows. "We're guys, and I have a butler. So, yeah, that was taken care of really quickly."

"Remind me again how Richard Grayson knows Orange Lantern?"

"You're representing KordTech's Future Technology project. WayneTech is very interested in the commercial potential of some of the things your think tank has been coming up with. Lucius will probably want to talk to you at some point."

"Seems a bit... Distant? Inviting potential business partners to your wedding?"

"Half the people there are going to be people we barely know. Including the bride's relatives." Richard shrugs. "I didn't even know I had cousins."

We watch the blurs for a few moments.

Artemis shifts position slightly. "I've.. never actually been to an actual church service before. I don't.. really know how I'm meant to act."

"Really? Never?"

"Supervillains aren't really big on God."

"You know, you're totally ruining my mental image of Americans here."

"You said you used to be an atheist! How many times have you been to church?"

"Church of England Primary School, so... Two or three times a year between the ages of five and eleven? Might have gone to chapel with my Nan a few times, but if I did I don't remember it. Never been inside a working cathedral, though. Actually..." I frown. "Saint Augustine's is Catholic, isn't it? You said you were Episcopalian."

"He's Catholic. When... When I was living with my parents, we weren't exactly regular churchgoers. But, whenever we went and we had a choice, we went to an Episcopalian church. Or whatever the local Anglican church was. After they died and I moved in, he switched over so I could keep going to the sorts of service I was used to."

"I suppose that Catholicism is a bit of an acquired taste." Huh. "I hadn't thought about it before, but... What religion is the bride?"

"Lapsed Zoroastrian."

I chuckle in surprise. "Really? That's a thing?"

"Those were the sorts of social rituals that Ra's brought her up with. I'm not sure how seriously she took it. She seems happy with the venue just because it's big and fancy."

"And I imagine.. it would be a bit tricky... Finding a Zoroastrian venue big enough.. in... America, actually." I frown. "Wait, Ra's was a Zoroastrian and he worked with a Chaos Lord?"

"I guess he wasn't practicing either."

"Point, Kid Flash."

"Only one more to go!"

"You'll never get it!"

"What are the rest of her family like?"

"Pretty normal, actually. Oh, and they don't know what her father actually did, just that Melisande married a guy from the Middle East."

"I should hope not. Just in case it comes up, what is the official line on his occupation?"

"Shipping. That's what most of her legitimate businesses do, so they shouldn't question it if it comes up. Though... You might not.. know.. that."

I nod. "Because there's no real reason for a superhero to know anything about a Middle Eastern shipping mogul, right."

Artemis looks down at him. "Are you gunna be able to pretend you don't know all of the people you know?"

"It won't be too bad. I know you from school, people have already seen me with Wally when we were both out of costume. The Wayne Foundation donates to one of Wonder Woman's charities so I've met her before, and if I know her people could believe that I met her son. I haven't 'met' M'gann but Kon can introduce me. Really, it's just Orange Lantern I have to pretend I don't know."

"You know, when I decided not to have a secret identity? This sort of thing never occurred to me. Oh, we might have met. I introduced Wallace West to the brain trust. Which means that he knows Orange Lantern and could conceivably have introduced us."

Richard thinks about it for a moment. "It's a bit of a stretch. He lives in Central City. There isn't much reason for the three of us to be together in one place."

"What sort of security are you having?" Richard raises his eyebrows at Artemis' question. "'Cause we both know there's a lot of crazy people in Gotham and there'll be a lot of rich people at the wedding. They don't know that Batman's not gunna be available, but that's never stopped them before."

"There'll be armed guards, and Superboy, Wonder Woman and Orange Lantern will be there openly. It shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Point, Rush Hour."

"Yes!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
08:17 GMT -5

"The fuck..?"

I… Could have planned this better. Surprising how often I end up thinking that, considering, y'know, power ring. I mean, scanning my environment for weapons and nothing else is probably the ethical option but it does lead to me getting blindsided by things I might otherwise have avoided. I knew that Jade was working as a bodyguard for Erminia Inzerillo but I also knew that due to traditional mob sexism she was only really involved in the legitimate parts of the family business. Jade's shift finishes… About now, so I said that since I was going to be in Gotham I'd give her a lift home. Erminia makes her home in a rather nice apartment building. I was waiting in the lobby and admiring the very nice floral arrangements decorating it, then who should stride through the doors but…

Jacopo Inzerillo looks at me in disbelief while his bodyguard -not either of the two I've seen before- appears to wince slightly. 'First offence' and a few favours called in resulted in him getting a fine and a suspended sentence. Oh, Commissioner Gordon knew a good thing when he saw it and added a few delays to the process. Jacopo spent some time in prison on remand, and the final plea was 'guilty' rather than the 'this never happened' that would have been the result only a decade ago. His younger bodyguard on the other hand is still in Blackgate for shooting me.

"Mister Inzerillo." I smile. "Good morning."

"I say it again: the fuck?"

My smile broadens. "If you could narrow it down a little..?"

Eyes flare, fists ball and he steps forwards a step before his bodyguard's meaty right hand plants itself on his left shoulder. He stops at once, his eyes reluctantly leaving my face and shifting to his escort. Once the bodyguard is certain that he's stopped, he releases his employer. "Sorry, Mister Inzerillo, but the boss said-."

"I know what Dad said." He takes a moment to get himself back under control, dramatically shaking and straightening out his suit jacket.

"Mister Inzerillo, you really should listen to your father."

He stare at me in aggrieved astonishment. "Awh, I don't fuckin' believe this! What makes you think you get t' tell me what to do?"

"I don't think I can tell you what to do. However, picking a fight with someone in a public venue isn't clever, not with Gordon in the Commissioner's office and not with someone with whom you have a history. You were lucky to get out of it without a custodial sentence last time. I suggest that you show a little wisdom here." And let's leave out the fact that I was beating you even without a power ring and I'm now wearing two. "There's a time for open confrontation and a time for keeping things calm."

"Did you fuckin' talk to Dad about this?" He points with his right index finger, then wiggles it back and forth. "Did the two of you set this up t' teach me a lesson?"

"Mister Inzerillo, your father was running your family when the Reaper was cutting a swath through the Five Families. Your grandfather was running it when Green Lantern still lived around here. You grew up in a city where a sufficiently powerful criminal could get away with whatever they wanted, but… That's not the Gotham you're living in at the moment."

"Word fa' fuckin' word!" He stomps in a small circle, arms spread out in an appeal to the universe. "I don't believe this shit!"

"There's no point taking a risk if there's no payoff. There's no benefit in fighting me. And I'm not really sure what you hoped to achieve at that restaurant, either." He comes back around, staring at me intently. "Not getting your temper under control is going to cost you and your family money. It's going to give the police leverage you don't want them to have." I hold out my right hand, palm upwards. "Now is the time for sensible men to be honest."

"I ain't gunna-!"

"Grow up ever, Jaco?" He transfers his glare to the stairs behind us and I take a step to the side to see who else has decided to join in. Erminia ignores her brother, preferring to look at me as she comes down the stairs. Jade and a blonde woman whom I don't recognise but who I assume is the day shift stay back slightly, hands unencumbered so that they can reach weapons quickly if they have to. Her eyes only return to him when she finishes the journey to the ground floor. "Our father tries to teach you, Uncle Marc tried to teach you… Even a superhero understands better than you do."

"Oh yeah? And what would you do?"

"Oh, it's not complicated. If fighting isn't getting you what you want, make peace." She walks up to me, a polite smile on her lips. "Orange Lantern, permit me to introduce myself." There's a slight pause before she continues. "I am Erminia Inzerillo."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Inzerillo." I take hold of her right hand in my own and raise it to my lips, lightly kissing her knuckles. "I am pleased to hear that your father's lessons weren't wasted on you."

The kiss gets a surprised blink, then her smile broadens before her head turns back to her brother. "You see, Jaco? That wasn't hard at all."

Satisfying as completely smashing Gotham's mobs would be, if it could be done by conventional investigation and conviction Batman would have done it by now. As with police corruption, going after the worst offenders and threatening the same to anyone who doesn't smarten up is far more likely to produce the desired end state with fewer casualties than open warfare. I don't think it likely that Jacopo is going to be amongst the winners, but him getting his head around the idea would make it a virtual certainty that the Inzerillo family would straighten itself out. Plus I've had a nagging fear since the restaurant that him or his might target Holly or Karon at some point.

So…

I step around Miss Inzerillo and take a few steps towards her brother. "Mister Inzerillo, we seem to have gotten off to a rough start." I hold out my right hand towards Jacopo. "I'd like to put that behind us."

Since I'm not a gangster, him refusing won't result in my whole family waging war with his on the Gotham streets. It won't even cost him money. On the other hand, he knows that this will get back to his father. If his bodyguard doesn't mention it when questioned, his sister certainly will.

And he knows it.

Staring into my eyes, he takes my hand and shakes it exactly once. "Yeah. Let's do that."

"Oh, that is nice to see."

Jacopo lets go and steps back. "Yeah, whatever. Erminia, we got business to discuss."

"I was heading out for breakfast." She walks past us both, blonde bodyguard following on behind. "We can talk shop at the restaurant."

"Right…" Jacopo doesn't glare at me this time, but for a moment he looks like he's trying to weigh me up. Then he shakes his head, dismissing me from his mind as he and his escort turn to go after his sister.

Jade pulls up alongside me. "That looked fun."

"I.. didn't just get you into any trouble, did I?"

"I doubt it. Erminia loves taking any chance she gets to make her brother feel stupid. And she already knows that I know you."

"Glad to hear it." I extend the crook of my left arm. "Shall we get going?"

She looks into my eyes, then at my proffered arm, then back up to my face. Her eyebrows rise a little and her head tilts slightly forwards in a posture of polite incredulity. Then she turns to face the door and threads her right arm through it. Together we head towards the exit.

"Who did you end up asking?"

"Well, you-."

"You asked me first? I'm flattered."

"Holly was working, Karon and I don't really have a going-to-weddings relationship, Selina's on villainwatch so can't attend… I thought that inviting Doctor Sivana to a wedding was a bit much for a second date."

"Probably."

A wave of orange pushes the doors open in front of us as we leave the building. "Kon and Zatanna are going anyway. Tuppence is still in prison-."

"Tuppence Terror. Really."

"Really." We turn and head towards where I've parked. "She'd almost certainly have said no, but asking would indicate that I wasn't looking at her as a project or victim but as a person."

"What would you have done if she'd said yes?"

"I'd have taken her… After assuring her brother that I would comport myself appropriately."

Jade doesn't quite bite her lip, but she does take a moment before replying. "Did you invite an Amazon?"

"Most of them wouldn't want to enter a Christian place of worship."

"You're not going on your own, are you?"

"No, the ole address book wasn't quite empty."

"Jade! Hey theeyah!"

Jade stops as my date waves at her from the window of my car, leaning over from the passenger side while trying not to crease her dress. "You invited Doctor Quinzel. The Belle Reve prison counsellor."

I shrug. "I've spent quite a lot of time with her, and she lived in Gotham for years. And I enjoy her company."

Her grip on my arm tightens. "Has she told you anything about my sessions?"

"Of course not. That would be completely inappropriate. She's delighted that you've gone straight, though. Not a lot of her patients do." I look at her for a moment. "Is this a problem?"

From the way she hesitates, I'd say that the answer is 'yes'.

"Look, it was her or your mother, so-."

"Doctor Quinzel!" Jade pulls away and strides towards my car. "How are you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
08:23 GMT -5

Harleen leans forward slightly to peer at the dashboard. "Say, what sorta car is this, anyways?"

My eyes flick to her for a fraction of a second as we approach an intersection. Honestly, what's wrong with roundabouts? "It's a custom vehicle I created myself."

She turns her head towards me slightly. "F'real? Your insurance premiums must be nahsty."

"They're not that bad. I think they consider insuring superheroes to make their vehicles road legal to be a public service." Okay, we're going… Left, which means that the red light means red. In Britain where we use the red-can-mean-go convention we actually have a green curved arrow to indicate it.

Driving lessons in Happy Harbour didn't really prepare me for city driving.

She pulls open the glove compartment. "Where's the button fer tha miss'le launcher?"

"There isn't one." Gently accelerate, turning… "Missiles aren't space-efficient."

"So it's just, like, a car-car? Nuthin' special at all?" She looks around the front of the car. "That's kinda dissapoint'n'."

"The car has a force field and its own power plant. The Renault Racoon I patterned the body after could travel on water; mine can travel in space."

"Why would you-" I glance at the rear view mirror and see Jade's incredulity. "-design a car that would travel in space?"

"Well, I started designing a car that would be proof against chemical or biological attack, and since I had to make it airtight and.. that meant that it needed an atmosphere recycling system… Making it space capable didn't take much more work."

Harleen perks up. "It can fly."

"Ah, yes, but-."

"So how comes we're drivin' when we could be flyin'?"

"Because a flying car would risk drawing more attention to my friends' house than I really want. By the same token, I don't intend for us to fly to the wedding. Superheroes are going to be enough of a distraction without me actively seeking to draw attention to myself." I turn into the road upon which lies Holly and Karon's home. "And it's not really designed to be fast in space, and atmosphere flight is different to space flight."

"Why do you even have a car?"

I look up once more to meet Jade's eyes via the mirror. "Kon and M'gann were having driving lessons. I.. thought that it could be something we could do together. I had some lessons back on Earth Prime, but I never did pass my test." True, actually. I got the train to work and the shops were in easy walking distance. Of course, my lessons were a little further back than I'm implying.

"Are there lasers?"

"There's a laser communicator. I didn't design this as a combat vehicle. It wouldn't have a windscreen like this if I had."

Okay… And… Indicate…

I park the car at the side of the road just outside Holly and Karon's house. "And, we're here." I twist around in my seat. "Have a pleasant day's sleep."

One problem with the original Racoon design was the lack of individual doors. Not restricted by earthly building materials I was able to work around the problem. Jade presses the 'open door' button, which causes the car to check the chemistry of the air outside before opening. The 'glass' which makes up the roof and upper part of the side then liquefies and the body section slides out and then folds up out of the way. She then gets out and walks along the side of the car, then taps on my window. A simple motion of my hand causes a convenient conversation-sides hole to open, a motion mirrored by her car door oozing shut.

"Thanks for the lift."

"Not a problem at all."

She hesitates, then looks around the street for a moment. No one close by. She beckons, and I lean forwards. "You know, I was surprised to hear that Talia was getting married."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"We weren't close, but it wasn't a secret in the League that she was interested in Batman."

"So I'm told."

"And less than a year after the League was destroyed, she's getting married to a man with a similar physique who moved back to Gotham just before Batman became active and who has an adopted son roughly the same age as Robin."

"I suppose that she is." I smile politely. "Maybe she has a type?"

"Yeah." She nods. "That's probably it." She takes a step backwards from the car. "Have fun at the wedding."

I nod as she turns away, then I close the window and turn my attention back to the road.

"Sheeeee freaked when she saw me, didn't she?"

"I wouldn't say… Freaked."

"Nah, you'd say somethin' like 'astonished'." Her New York accent is momentarily replaced with something closer to Received Pronunciation. "Or maybe 'flabbergasted'." 'Garsted', I note. Not 'gearsted'.

"She seemed concerned that you-" I press down on the accelerator and the car pulls away from the curb. "-might have discussed her sessions with me. Obviously, I told her that you hadn't."

Harleen frowns. "That'd be a complete breach of professional ethics."

"Not.. assuming.. anything about anything she may or may not have said-"

"Shuwer."

"-but you know what her upbringing was like, even if it's just from her files. Her reaction suggests that she actually did talk about something personal with you, rather than just doing what I assumed that she'd do and just sit silently in the chair until the time ran out. She'd hate the idea that that got out and she doesn't trust you in the same way she does me."

"I suppose. She seein' anyone now?"

"If so, she hasn't mentioned it. I'd guess not, but I try not to monitor her that closely."

"Yeyeah, that probably wouldn't turn out so well." She faces forwards, watching the road go by. "How exactly did'ja swing these invites?"

"It's a high society wedding. Neither Mister Wayne nor Ms Head are all that close to their extended family. Otherwise they might have gone in for a smaller event. One of my.. ongoing projects is helping people with revolutionary technology bring it to market. WayneTech have been sending feelers in our direction. Plus, celebrity value." Huh. It looks like Gotham City is cutting back on road and pavement repairs. I can see weeds poking through the tarmac and paving slabs in dozens of places. Might come back later and fix that myself.

"How long were yeh plannin' on us stayin' for?"

"Don't know, really. We're invited to the reception, and it's been a while since I've been to one of these things." Kon's generally Diana's escort at diplomatic functions these days. My other work is taking at the time I used to have to attend. "We can probably leave after a few hours if you get bored… Or stay until kicking out time. Up to you, really."

"I was… Wonderin'… Could we go flyin' later? Not in a plane, but, like, with yower ring or somethin'?" My eyes flick her way, left eyebrow raised. "I know that transition thing you do is fahster, but I always wondered what it was like. Y'know, jus' flyin' around the sky under yer own powah?"

I nod. "If you like… Sure. I enjoy it, but it's so inefficient. I can even lend you one of my spare kinetic belts, if you like."

"Rilly? That'd be amazin'!"

I smile. "No problem at all. You should probably change your clothes first, though. Flying and dresses don't mix."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
08:48 GMT -5

"Alright, I give up."

"You can't give up." Harleen looks around to see if she can spot somewhere to park the car that I've missed. "We'll just have t' walk a bit further."

I raise my right eyebrow. "In those shoes? You'll break your neck."

She turns my way, smiling brightly. "You could always carry me."

The suggested time to arrive at the cathedral is nine o'clock, with the ceremony starting at half past. As a result, south east Gotham is gridlocked, normal Saturday morning traffic battling with the limousines of Bruce Wayne's wealthy friends and allies.

And we haven't moved significantly in the last four minutes. I can see the cathedral from here easily enough, but there's nowhere to park.

"No, giving up." I let go of the wheel and lean back against my seat. "Even if we did just walk from further away, we'd still need to get out of this morass first and we'll never manage that in twelve minutes. Let's get out."

I undo my safety belt -I was originally going to build this car with kinetic barriers instead of belts, but it was pointed out by Kon that the law in several places required belts- and then poke the appropriate button on the door, causing the driver side door to ooze open. Nice thing about it opening upwards is that I don't have to worry about scratching the car next to us, the driver of which is regarding me with some concern. Harleen gives me another concerned look and then decides to follow my lead, pressing the release on the passenger side door and getting out onto the pavement.

"You jus' plannin' on leavin' it here? Gotham ain't never gunna be that safe."

"No." I raise my right hand, a small fob construct appearing in my fingers. With a bleep, orange filaments flick out and deposit the decidedly non-magical car into subspace. I don't intend to leave it there -I rent a garage in Happy Harbour- but it'll be far less annoying than trying to find somewhere to park it now.

Harleen blinks in surprise. "Guess that works."

I jog across the now empty space, making it to the pavement just before the car behind us takes the initiative to move up. More than a few carfuls of people are just staring at me, and I give them all a quick wave with my right hand before using it to take hold of Harleen's left.

"Shall we?"

We start walking down the Gotham street, a map forming in the head. This is one of the nicer parts of Gotham. Even in the bad days these streets didn't get that bad. Not during the day, anyway. Crimes in these parts mostly happened behind closed doors. Huh.

"Is the decorative Ivy a Gotham thing? I don't think I've seen it before."

Harleen follows my gaze up at the wall of the building we're walking past. "Not unless they stawted afteh I left. Looks pretty." There's a brief flicker of concern. "Unless Poison Ivy's gotten outa Arkham."

"No, I checked. She's barely done anything since me and mine took down the Injustice League."

"That was you? I mean, I saw you on tha news with Ad-. Adom?" I nod. "But I don' rememba hearin' what happened to the rest of 'em."

"I'm afraid that not supposed-."

"Yeah, yeah."

"But Doctor Isley ended up having her connection to plant life removed. No more plant control, no more symbiotic plant microbes and no more-. Ah, no external pressure on her mind driving her mad."

Harleen nods, looking forwards as she thinks it over. "I tawked t' her a couple times, but that all happened afteh I went to Belle Reve."

"If you're interested, I could try and get an appointment with Doctor Young. See if there's been any progress."

The corners of her mouth turn down slightly. "Let's.. not do that."

"Problem?"

Harleen tosses her head. "She always hated me. Thought I got int' Arkham by sleeping with Strange. Like gowin' t' Arkham's such a great career move."

"You said that the Trust paid for your studies?"

"Yeyeah, but…" She takes a deep breath and sighs it out. "Strange had me pegged from the stawt. Gave me access t' more interestin' patients. Didn't break the rules or nothin'…" Another breath. "But it made me feel like he was doin' me special favors while at tha same time makin' me nervous so I'd be lookin' t' him for protection."

"You.. know that for sure, or-?"

"You followin' his trial?"

"Can't say I was. I used to always follow up on people I arrested, then I arrested the entire League of Shadows. It stopped being practical."

"Defence entah'd a whole lotta his records int' evidence. Bearstad actually explained what he was doin' like… Like I was a study or somethin'."

At least that means that they're guaranteed to get a conviction, I suppose. I slide my right hand free and put it around her waist. Her left hand hangs for a moment before slipping under my jacket to reciprocate.

The cathedral looms large on our left, and I see a few members of the Gotham police force trying to bring order to the jam. We're not the only ones walking this way, and names and faces flicker in my vision as the rings try to link them to the guest list. Or the suspects list.

"So we're shuwer that Ivy ain't been redecoratin'."

"Even if she could, they aren't grappling passers-by or releasing poisonous spores. Just decorating doesn't fit her modus operandi."

"Huh."

We look left and right before crossing the zebra crossing to the pavement outside the cathedral. A few heads look around when they see that we're joining the party but as I've noticed before: if I'm not actually wearing my armour and the environmental shield is turned down I don't actually attract all that much attention.

"Oh, I forgot to ask: are you a Catholic?"

"I ain't been to church f' years."

"Um… Is that a yes? Or a no?"

"The few times I've evah been to church, I didn't rilly pay much attention t' who it belonged to."

"Fair enough. I've never actually been to a church wedding, but-."

"Paul!"

Our heads simultaneously jerk around as we hear Nyssa's voice. She's heading our way with…

…

Was not expecting that.

"I think that you already know Doctor Sivana."

Magnificus nods. And… My goodness, that's a very slight smile.

"And this is my-" She looks at the black haired man on her other side. "-great grandson Vasily Arketov." I recognise him from the pictures but this is the first time I've met him in person. I free my right hand from Harleen's side and take his hand. "His wife Polina." I nod as I shake her husband's hand. "And this is little Yuliya." Nyssa picks up a girl of four or five, to the child's obvious tolerance. "And who is this?"

"This is Doctor Harleen Quinzel." Nyssa deposits her great great granddaughter back next to her mother and then steps forward to kiss the momentarily surprised Harleen on the cheek. "Harleen, this is Nyssa Raatko, Talia Head's sister."

Harleen nods, now a little more up to speed. "Hi there."

Nyssa turns to her date. "Magnificus, I believe there was-."

He nods. "Yes yes. Quinzel, you're the one looking after… The other two. The proto-." He stops himself, closes his eyes and tries calming himself. "The Beresfords. I… Think it would behove me to offer my assistance in their rehabilitation. If.. you think it would help. I was… A bit of an ass when we first spoke, and…"

Harleen nods, smiling. "That's real nice a' yeh. Maybe y'c'n join in next time Doctor Munro tawks to 'em?"

Magnificus nods. "Yes. I think I'd appreciate that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
11:26 GMT -5

"I have to admit, Commissioner, that I spent virtually the entire ceremony braced for some sort of attack."

"Ye-ah." Commissioner Gordon looks down at his drink. "I wouldn't be surprised if just about everyone was."

But -in defiance of all convention- the event happened without any significant hitch I could detect. I think the decorators might have overdone the flowers a bit as there were more than a few frantically suppressed sneezes from those seated next to them, but no armed lunatics breaking in, no instances of poisoning or… I don't know, earthquakes or demonic possession or anything.

"I mean… No offence intended to your department or anyt-."

"No need to sugar coat it." He looks up. "Not like I don't know what the GCPD's reputation is like."

"Your officers appeared to be on the ball today."

"WayneTech has been generous enough to donate more than a few pieces of low-lethality defence equipment to us over the years. My guys know that they've got Wayne to thank every time a flak vest catches a bullet the police standard vest wouldn't or when they get to subdue a perp with a sonic stunner rather than a night stick." He nods, looking around the gardens. "Wayne's got a lot of good will from just about everybody. And it certainly doesn't hurt that all of the usual suspects are inside."

"Oh, did you find Garfield Lynns?"

The left side of his lip curls upwards. "Yeah. He's in Blackgate's medical wing, recovering from having most of a warehouse fall on him."

"Good work." He takes a sip from his champagne glass. Mister Pennyworth attracted quite an audience opening the bottles with a sabre. "Ah, if you don't mind me asking a.. slightly personal question..?"

He shrugs. "Go right ahead."

"What exactly attracted you to Gotham in the first place? I mean, Chicago isn't the most friendly city in the world, but… When you first arrived in Gotham, the place was…"

"In need of a good spring cleaning?" I nod. "Well, the first part is that I didn't know that at the time. I mean, I knew it was rough, but I really didn't appreciate quite how bad things were here. Second part was that it was a promotion and I had-." He cuts himself off, his eyes moving away for a moment. "Well, there was James Junior and my wife was pregnant with Babs. We certainly needed the money and turning down a promotion didn't sound like the smart thing to do."

I nod sympathetically. His marriage to Barbara Eileen Gordon ended fairly recently, and for some reason she got custody of their son while Barbara… Junior? Is that how it works with girls' names? Note to self, if you ever have children don't name them after either yourself or their mother and certainly don't name all of them like that. Anyway, he got custody of Batgirl-Barbara, who isn't currently Batgirl. I think I remember his ex-wife from Batman: Year One and the Nolan films, but she didn't have much presence other than being the one he went back to after ending his affair with the far better characterised Sarah Essen. With Chicago in Illinois and Gotham being in Connecticut, visiting can't be easy.

"And the third… Eh, there was an incident…"

"Um, when you say 'incident'-?"

"James! Good of you to come."

We turn away from one another as Bruce Wayne walks over, new wife on his arm. I can't quite resist doing a quick scan just in case there is some sort of mind control at work, but the only change I'm seeing from his normal resting mindset is the violet haze which presumably can be attributed to perfectly normal causes. Again, I'm impressed by the divide between Batman's body language and what I'm seeing as he and Commissioner Gordon shake hands. Even sticking a mental sheet over the parts of his face his cowl normally covers… I wouldn't think it was him.

"Bruce. Talia. Congratulations to you both."

Talia smiles in a way which demonstrates to me that she hasn't mastered the secret identity/public identity divide in quite the same way as her new husband. "Thank you, Commissioner."

Mister Wayne looks at me with expertly affected puzzlement for a moment. "And.. you must be.. the Orange Lantern."

I smile politely. "Yes, Mister Wayne."

We shake hands. "I almost didn't recognize you without your costume on."

"I'm not actually required to wear it at all times." I shift my eyes to Talia. "And Missus Way-. Oh, I'm sorry, is it just Missus Wayne, or are you hyphenating it?"

She meets my eyes imperiously. "I am Missus Wayne."

"Missus Wayne." I take her right hand and raise it to my lips, lightly kissing her knuckles in what Jade assured me is the correct fashion. "My most sincere congratulations."

Really, this is an achievement. With her father gone she's got further in her relationship with Bruce Wayne than any other iteration of Talia al Ghul. Comics, animated series, films? Never managed to have a normal healthy relationship with the man. She's beaten all of them. Heck, even Selina had a continuity where she and Bruce had a successful relationship. Though I suppose… The reader wasn't ever shown who Bruce Junior's mother was in Batman/Superman: Generations. I had assumed that it was Selina there too, but I don't think it was actually stated.

"Thank you, Orange Lantern." She pauses for a moment. "You came here unaccompanied?"

"No, but my companion is currently catching up with a college friend of hers." Actually, Harleen is hiding from someone from the Arkham Trust who 'always gave her the creeps', but I suppose that wouldn't be the polite thing to say.

Bruce smiles at Commissioner Gordon. "You bring Babs with you, James?"

"Yeah, she's…" He looks around us. "Somewhere around here. I doubt she'd-."

Bang!

There's a noise like a car backfiring. Not a gun noise; I know very well what guns sound like these days. The four of us look around, trying to locate the source of the noise. Odd, but I'm not-.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It's coming from the far side of the wall around Wayne Manor's gardens. Is someone letting off bangers or somet-?

Then the grass rises in a wave in the direction we're looking. No, not a wave, the earth is still. It's growing, starting from the wall and rapidly spreading outwards! There are brief yelps of astonishment as people suddenly find themselves surrounded by thick blades of grass, rising past their waists, their shoulders and then their heads! The trees lining the drive are affected a moment later, their trunks swelling and their roots erupting from the soil in thick woody vines. I see the tarmac of the drive cracked to pieces by the sudden burst of growth before the grass cuts off the view completely.

Commissioner Gordon blinks. "What in God's name is going on?"

I step forward, forming a globe shield around the four of us and lifting us all into the air. Ring, scan. No, looks like normal plant growth, just supercharged. The soil hasn't been entirely drained of nutrients or water to support the growth surge. Dead plant matter like the wood of the tables or the food in people's stomachs isn't affected. As we rise a little higher we get a clear view over the walls to the south.

It looks like someone's set off a forest bomb in Gotham. The Giordano Botanical Garden is a jungle, the dense foliage clearly visible across the Gotham River. From everywhere else, shades of green have replaced the grey stone as vines, lichen and moss race to cover every surface.

I'm sure that Bruce has worked it out, but Commissioner Gordon is the one who vocalises it. "Ivy? No, this is far more than she's ever managed to control."

Over on the far side of the garden I see Diana and Kon rise into the air and it looks like Richard has scaled one of the trees for a better view. Barbara Gordon, Wallace, Artemis and Zatanna are at the base. Zatanna could be useful, but we haven't been focusing on Green-manipulation in the training and someone who could do this could do someone who doesn't know what they're doing a lot of no good. Plus, that's too many people the right size and shape in the same place.

"I can think of two beings who could do this so fast, and working out which it actually was is simple enough." I turn my head to face him. "Commissioner, please tell me that your people haven't arrested Abigail Holland?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
11:30 GMT -5

"Who?"

I generate a construct image. "Born in Romania in nineteen fifty five as Abigail Arcane. Emigrated to the US with her soon-to-be husband Matthew Cable in nineteen seventy four and since his death has become involved with…" I gesture to the visibly growing greenery with my right hand. "Swamp Thing. Who point blank rejects his own former name 'Alec Holland'."

"And he's the one doing this?"

"If Gaea was doing it, Diana wouldn't look so surprised. Jason Woodrue couldn't do it anything like this fast without a lot of help. There might be other floromancers out there who I've never heard of, but this level of power is hard to keep quiet. I'm going to assume that it's Swamp Thing until I have evidence to the contrary."

"Excuse me. Orange Lantern?" Whaw, it's weird having Batman talk to me like that. "My guests..?"

My eyes glow orange as I give the party area another scan. Below us the guests are trying to wade through the head height grass, people calling out in order to better locate one another. "Somewhat disturbed but all uninjured."

Commissioner Gordon's lip curls. "So he's the considerate kind of supervillain."

"He's the isolationist kind of superbeing. Nothing short of an oncoming apocalypse will get him to go further from the Louisiana bayou than Houma. Which means that someone must have done something very stupid to make him this angry."

Bruce makes a show of peering downwards onto his lawns. "Okay, but could you do something about that?"

"I can give it a go." Precision grass trimming isn't something power rings are really optimised for, but I generate a spinning blade construct over an empty area of the garden and slowly lower it into the grass. Clippings fly in all directions as I shave the lawn down to something a person can walk over. With nowhere to go the cut grass builds up in damp mounds on the lawn surface, but at least a person can now navigate the area without a machete. Okay, if I repeat that and put a few arrow constructs in the air where people can see them-.

The soil under my cleared circle heaves and bulges, then brambles erupt from the ground, filling the space and then curling around one another until they've created a solid mass of vines and thorns.

Right. Not doing that, then.

How about indoors? I know Swamp Thing is perfectly capable of resurrecting dead wood and using that, but has he? No, potted plants and window invasions aside the interior of Wayne Manor remains inviolate. I'd check the Cave, but I'm still under orders not to.

"Mister Wayne, I'm afraid that the plants don't seem to be cooperating. I suggest transferring the party inside. By your leave?"

He nods, the slightly shaky nod of an alpha male who finds his position suddenly uncertain. A masterful display of acting.

Right. How to go about this? I create arrow constructs across all occupied parts of the ground-. Really? Ugh, apart from that corner where a couple are having sex. Next, I create orange constructs that are a sort of cross between a wedge and a snowplough, creating furrows in the grass by shoving it aside. Should make getting through it a little easier. A good chunk of the population were already starting to head in that direction, but with pathways opening up and a clear indication that someone has some idea of what's going on most of the rest get moving as well.

But not all. Okay, Gotham, they're probably a little nervous about following the direction of strange floating arrows given the sorts of people liable to make things like that around here. I fly our bubble across the garden in the direction of Diana and Kon, dismissing the upper third of it as we arrive. I didn't know that Kon was planning on wearing his belt today, but I do admire his preparedness. His belt aside they're both wearing a chiton/himation combination accessorised by gold diadems. Huh. Sort of assumed that Diana would be wearing her bracers as well.

"Sir?" I generate a ribbon microphone construct just in front of her. "Could you please ask everyone to follow the arrows?"

She nods, taking the microphone in her right hand and holding it to her lips. "This is Wonder Woman of the Justice League. Would everyone please leave the garden and get inside Wayne Manor."

Commissioner Gordon gets out his mobile phone and presses a button before lifting it to his ear. "Gordon here. Find out if we've got someone in the cells called 'Abigail Holland'. Yeah, well, I'll try and find a ride. No, don't call a helicopter. Where would they even land the thing?"

I place a construct platform under where Richard is perched in a tree branch. A moment's consideration and he moves around it, extending his right hand downwards to give.. Barbara Gordon Junior a hand up. Together, they clamber aboard and I pull them gently in our direction.

Ah, okay, what next? My eyes unfocus as I scan the city with the rings. Hooray! No wards! Well, the plants aren't warded, at least. Swamp Thing isn't making any deliberate attempt to destroy buildings, though the roads are going to be a mess for a while after this. Haven't caught sight of his avatar body yet, but the thing about Swamp Thing is a) he doesn't actually need one and b) it looks like a pile of moss and vines, exactly the same things the buildings are now covered in.

Huh. Feel like I'm forgettin-Harleen! Ohdearymewhoops. I dismiss the microphone construct as Diana hands it back, then scan for Harleen and attach a filament to her and transition her up to us. She blinks in surprise. "Huh."

"Everyone, Doctor Harleen Quinzel. Harleen, Bruce and Talia Wayne, Richard Grayson, Diana and Kon-El of Themyscira and James and Barbara Gordon."

She raises her right hand in a slightly nervous fashion. "Hi?"

Kon nods to her. "Hey." Then he switches his attention to me. "This is Swamp Thing, right?"

"That's my working hypothesis." Now, I'm sure that Bruce would want to get involved in this, but he can't really abandon his own wedding reception. Not my decision to make, but I'm not sure how to-.

"My husband and I should probably see to our guests. Please convey us.. and our son, to the Manor."

Without thinking about it my eyes dart to Bruce's, but he's still in character. He hesitates for a moment, then nods. "That's probably for the best."

"Of course." I generate a new platform under their feet, merging it with the one which Richard and Barbara and standing on. "Commissioner?"

He moves his attention from me to Diana. "Wonder Woman, are you planning on going after this Swamp Thing guy?"

She nods. "I will be looking for him, certainly, though I would prefer to persuade him to leave peacefully rather than engage him in violent confrontation."

"Any chance I could get a lift to Police Central?"

"Certainly. Though you might prefer it if Orange Lantern conveyed you."

Recently divorced man? Doubt it.

"Okay then. Dick, look after Babs for me, would you?"

"Sure thing, Commissioner."

"Be careful, Dad."

I twirl my right hand and their platform heads towards the entrance to Wayne Manor. I note that Mister Pennyworth is already at the doors, welcoming everyone inside. Commissioner Gordon looks at Harleen for a moment and then frowns at me. "Ah..?"

"Doctor Quinzel used to work at Arkham. Her expertise in aberrant psychology may come in useful."

"Ma'am?"

Harleen nods her head to the side. "Suwre. Could get a great papah outa this."

I look at Diana. "Sir?"

"Take us to Gotham Police Central. Then we will attempt to locate Swamp Thing."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
11:39 GMT -5

"Whooooohw."

Yeah, I think… Harleen speaks for all of us there. Swamp Thing's envelopment of the city hasn't stopped as we've been travelling. No sign of the man himself-. No, plenty of signs, but he hasn't put in a personal appearance yet. We were about a third of the way to Police Central when the roads started buckling and crumbling as he extended nature's wrath to the transportation infrastructure. People had already started abandoning their cars so hopefully the casualties will be minimal, but neither fire, ambulance or police will be able to respond to emergencies any longer. Would it occur to him to put out fires? Or would he regard them as a part of the natural world, a part of nature's way of replenishing itself? How long until he starts disrupting water, gas and electricity supplies? In the comic his ultimate aim if they didn't release Abigail was to turn Gotham into a jungle permanently. If he's heading in that direction here he'll want to break open the water supplies and block the other two.

Starvation I'm less worried about. I've already seen several plants bearing fruit which the ring tells me have all of the nutritional content required for healthy Human life. Thing is, I've also seen his detergent fruit and water gourds and I don't think that the people of Gotham will easily be able to tell the difference. That, and the way my rune stone is glowing indicates that there's quite a lot of Green magic in both, and I know that Swamp Thing's fruits have hallucinogenic properties.

All the good he could do if he just got involved a bit…

Commissioner Gordon stares at what has become of his city and starts to raise his hands to his forehead before getting a grip on himself. "You still saying that he's not a bad guy?"

"A bad guy would have been using poisoned plants."

"That's not much of a recommendation."

"It takes a lot to provoke Swamp Thing to kill someone, but he doesn't like cities all that much."

Diana looks more awestruck than horrified. "In all my years I have never seen anything like it. It is as if Gaea herself had decided to smite your city."

"And if she did, I'd arrest her too. God." Diana raises an eyebrow at his choice of invective. "Can he get rid of all of this?"

"I.. think.. most of it is being sustained by his magic. If he leaves then most of it should die off. That won't repair the roads or.. anything like that."

"Great. There goes the city's budget for the next decade."

I'm not sure whether to be impressed by his practical attitude or dismayed by his inability to see this for the wonder that it is. I mean… Get a few floromancers in here and they could be the centre of a floro-arcane revolution. With a little magic the plants are perfectly capable of creating everything they need to live, and everything everyone around them needs to live as well. But, no. I doubt I could convince more than a handful of people to give that a try.

The entrance to Police Central is already covered by what I think is some sort of ivy grown far beyond its natural proportions. On the far side I see that the police have got the doors open and are attacking it with the sorts of mechanical saws usually used for cutting people out of wrecked cars. As I watch, one fat vine falls away, rousing a cheer from those on the inside. A moment later more vines explode through the remaining paving slabs, these one coated in thorns which ooze a paralysing agent. Not fatal to a Human, but getting stuck with it would cause pain and immobility in the body part stung.

One of the policewomen narrows her eyes at the new vine and raises her saw.

"Don't even think about it!" The police officers clustered around the entrance look up as Commissioner Gordon shouts down at them. "Every time they get attacked they grow back worse!"

They back away as we land on a section of surviving pavement that isn't entirely moss coated. Commissioner Gordon walks up to the vine wall and tries pulling away enough vines to get past. Realising what he's doing, Kon flies down and pulls an armful aside. Gordon nods. "Thanks."

"What the hell's going on, Commissioner?" Officer.. Santiago looks at her commanding officer with more than a little yellow at the forefront of her mind. I don't recognise any of the other officers as being people I've interacted with before. "Where'd all these plants come from?"

"We don't know yet." He shoulders his way through the opening, while Kon holds the vines back for the rest of us. Nice of him. "Who's got that information I wanted?"

"I do, Commish." Harvey Bullock walks out of the stairwell with a couple of files in hand. "You were right. Abigail Cable got picked up by a vice squad two days ago."

"What?" Gordon frowns, then glances back at me.

"It's kinda a funny story. She told the guys in Vice that she was just visiting. They figured it was the worst cover story they ever heard, but the other girls backed her up and she had a bus ticket. She actually was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were gunna let her go."

"Why didn't they?"

"She had an outstanding warrant from Louisiana. Jumped bail. She's due to get escorted back into their custody tomorrow."

"God dammit. What's she supposed to have done?"

"Aaaaah…" Harvey… He's actually looking uncomfortable, avoiding our eyes as he fiddles with the paperwork to find the charge sheet. "Minor fraud, not filing tax returns, pretty trivial stuff, really. Um."

"It's bestiality, isn't it?"

That earns me a few stares, but Harvey nods. "Yeah, kinda. Says here 'crime against nature', but… Yeah. There's also some stuff about child abuse… I mean, we aren't investigating the crime, but the warrant's valid…"

"Child abuse?"

"Raisin' a child in an unsafe environment, subjecting children to perverse… Ah, you get the idea."

"That.. would.. relate to her teaching?"

"Looks like they tried t' put her daughter in protective-."

"Are you telling me that you also have Tefé Holland in custody?"

"What, you know her?"

"No, though I'd very much like to. Do you?"

"N.. oh, just Abigail."

"Do the Louisiana authorities have her?"

"Doesn't look like it."

"Then it sounds like they tried to take her daughter away and she jumped bail to prevent that. Did it not occur to you that locating her should be a matter of priority?"

Harvey frowns at me. "Hey, ease off, alright? I got this file, like, five minutes ago."

I bow my head. "Sorry. Sorry. Just… Punch one of your Vice people for me, would you? No, no, let's be fair, picking her up was an honest mistake. Punch flipping Louisiana for me."

"Orange Lantern." I turn back to Diana. "Perhaps it would be best if you and Superboy began looking for Swamp Thing out in the city?"

I sigh. "Yess, it.. would. It's just-! I got the flipping law changed! We couldn't use truth compulsion magic on a flipping Demon because of it! Swamp Thing is exactly the sort of novel intelligence the Citizenship Recognition Act was designed to cope with! This is bullshit!" I march past Diana and the Commissioner, stopping next to Harleen. "Harleen, would you mind coming with us?"

"How dangerous is this guy?"

"He may well be the most dangerous person on the planet. But he's unlikely to be wantonly hostile."

"Then what'cha waitin' for? Let's go!"

I shove the vines aside once more with a construct, Harleen leading the way back outside with myself and Kon following after her.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
11:51 GMT -5

"So at first he just thawt that tha chemicals had mutated him?"

"Yes. It wasn't until Woodrue dissected his original body that they found out for certain. As far as I know, Alec and Linda Holland's remains are still in the swamp somewhere."

Since we're pretty much reduced to watching for Swamp Thing by eye, Kon and I headed off in different directions. Harleen's with me. This is technically still a date, after all.

"Wasn't Woodrue the one who turned Poison Ivy into.. Poison Ivy?"

"His chemical treatments were at least partially responsible, though I don't remember anything about him using them on her against her will. Funny thing is, he wanted the connection to the Green that she ended up with. If the police had been slower, or if he'd realised how successful he'd been…"

Harleen shakes her head. "That ain't funny. I saw her medical rec'rds when I was at Arkham. He did a real number on her."

"Highly capable but impressionable student, charismatic and domineering teacher…"

She pokes me in the ribs, her right forefinger bending painfully as it encounters my armour. "Hey, I'm the analyst here, thank you very much." She puts her damaged finger against her stomach and covers it with her left hand. "Ow."

"I think Swamp Thing fixed the physiological alterations when he stripped her of her connection to the Green. It should be possible for her to recover now."

"Don't think they were havin' a whole lotta luck." She frowns. "Huh."

Around us, greenery-covered medium rise housing rises up from the Gotham streets. The plants are colonising the rooves in earnest to maximise their access to sunlight. I see a wash of medium yellow from the people inside, but just occasionally I see someone sticking their head out of their window and gazing in wonder at the newly landscaped world around them.

"What?"

"Jus'… Thinkin' about it. How many people get int' weird accidents or exposed to some kinda chemical.. and end up gettin' super powers outta it. Instead of.. y'know, cancer or chemical burns or whatevah."

"Oh, plenty of people get those. They just don't live long enough to put on silly costumes and make public nuisances of themselves."

"Still… It's kinda weird."

I smile, shaking my head. "Did I ever tell you how I ended up on this Earth?"

"Yeah, you said-." She nods in understanding. "Oh. Heh, yeah, I guess you'd kinda know awl aboud it."

"Something like that. Not 'why', but-." I frown. "Oh, got something."

Harleen turns away from me, following my gaze down onto the street. "Weyah?"

We accelerate as I flick my left hand and generate a construct-screen, showing a playground. "Notice something about the slide?"

"It's made of wood." She nods. "So Swamp Thing must have made it himself."

"Yep. With any luck he's keeping an eye on the place."

As we come into sight I see eight children and a cluster of nervous-looking adults in an area which used to be a major road intersection in the Gainsly area in the east of the city. The roads are dead, the few people foolish enough to still be driving their cars either crashing them or getting them helplessly stuck in the undergrowth. Unlike their caretakers the children appear to be accepting the sudden change in their circumstances uncritically, clambering over a wooden climbing frame, swinging on the vine-ropes and sliding down the smooth wooden slide.

Harleen and I descending from the sky gets most of them staring at us, but at least we're not making them more-

"It's the Cake Man!"

-alarmed. Sigh. Once we reach near-ground level I float us over to just in front of the largest group of adults.

"Good morning. I'm-."

"Orange Lantern." A black man with a slightly fluffy beard steps forwards. "Yeah, we know who you are, man."

"Ah. Right. This is going to sound like a strange question, but-."

"Dude made outta moss and vine and shit? Yeah, he was here." He turns his head away from me and towards the city. "He really do alla this?"

First positive confirmation I've had that he's really here. "Probably." Watch out for confirmation bias. "Did he look like this?"

I generate an image of Woodrue in his plantman mode. While Swamp Thing can make bodies out of whatever plant matter is convenient, he usually makes them in the same sort of way. I've seen enough abandoned bodies to know his type, and Woodrue is much slimmer and woodier.

The man I'm asking looks at it in puzzlement. "Nah, nah man. Bigger. Lumpier. And he had this like-" He raises his hands to his face, palms resting on either side of his nose. "-triangle nose thing."

I nod. "Like this?" I leave the Woodrue construct in place and add one made in the image of one of Swamp Thing's abandoned bodies.

That gets a nod of recognition. "Yeah man. That's the guy. Who is he?"

"Swamp Thing. Which way did he go?"

"Hey." A woman steps towards us. "Is this..? This is gunna go, right? You're gunna get rid a' the plants?"

"The jungle reacts to attempts to clear it by producing more dangerous plant forms. While I probably could kill off all plant life in Gotham chemically, you wouldn't want to live here afterwards."

"So… What? We're stuck with this until he decides to get rid of it?"

"Swamp Thing's doing this because the police arrested his wife on bullshit charges."

The black man exhales through his teeth. "Hear that."

"He hasn't made any demands yet, so I'm just going to ask him. Which way did he go?"

"That way." They point west, away from the riverfront.

"Thank you." I have the rings scan in that direction and… An abandoned Swamp Thing body. This is taking too long. I float Harleen and myself upwards and face a completely overgrown building. "Alec! Show yourself, or I go and fetch Constantine!"

Nothing happens.

"Hey, didn't you say you had a Dryad livin' with yah?"

"Yes, but she's in awe of him and more likely to encourage him than talk him down."

"Oh."

The vines explode into motion! The mass between us and the wall triples in thickness as new vines shoot forth in all directions. I catch a momentary glimpse of someone in one of the windows behind it screaming in panic as they lose daylight.

"That him?"

"I hope so, because I'd hate to think there are two people who can do this around here."

Gradually, the rough outline of a face appears. It's not even, not symmetrical, and it's quite flattened compared to what he usually uses, but when the eyes light up red I have no doubt about whose attention I've attracted.

"What?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
11:55 GMT -5

"What do you mean, 'what'?" I spread my arms out. "What do you think I'm talking about? You've turned Gotham City into a forest."

"It was… Deserved."

"Big face. That's a real big face."

"He has complete control of all plant life."

"So it's, like, a projection?"

"Sort of. He's probably slightly more 'in' that face than he is anywhere else at the moment, but it's still just a pile of vines."

"O-kay."

I return my attention to the wall-face. "Swamp Thing… Seven million people just had their homes turned into bushes. How many of them do you think actually had anything to do with what the State of Louisiana was trying to do to Abigail and Tefé?"

"Sufficient… For my… Purposes."

No way has he got working lungs in there. How the heck is he talking?

"American politicians are spoiling for a fight with a supernatural opponent. All this is going to do is encourage them to dig their heels in. If you'd spoken to Euanthe I could have sorted this all out with a couple of phone calls. Current Louisiana law is in contravention of national law. Give me some time-."

"No!" Hard wood and thorn covered vines extend across his cheeks. "My daughter is… Dangerous. Distraught. I will… Not pull back."

"Okay." I hold up my hands in a placatory gesture. "That's fine. Just… Keep the greenery at its current level, Wonder Woman can find the idiot from Louisiana and get him straightened out and the three of you can go back to the bayou. I don't want this to escalate… Particularly given that you're one of the few people I can't out-escalate."

I try giving him a winsome smile, but I don't think that he's in the mood for the niceties of Human social interaction. If he's even capable of that sort of subtlety any longer.

"Your… Allies will attend to… The legal aspect."

"If you agree not to increase the forestry, yes. Do we have an agreement?"

"Abby is in the… Police cells."

"I.. believe so." Scan? "No, they've actually moved her to the police canteen at the moment." White hair with a black streak. I remember from the preparatory reading I did before the Aberrance mission that it's a characteristic found in the Arcane womenfolk. She's had it cut short rather than long as I remember it being in the comics. And as it was last time I spoke to her in person last year. For a woman in her mid-fifties she actually looks pretty good. "Diana probably wanted her somewhere less oppressive while they-."

Swamp Face's eyes go out.

"Guess that means he's not home no more?"

Uuuuuuh. "He's not focusing on us, anyway." I raise my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Just had a word with Swamp Thing. He's in a mood, but appeared willing to negotiate."

"He just appeared."

"Oh. Do you-?"

"The commissioner and I will handle negotiations. Superboy is busy dealing with a street gang. I need you to report to St. Luke's Hospital. With the roads blocked, Gotham has no ambulance coverage."

"On it, sir. Orange Lantern out." I lower my hand. "I'm afraid that this next bit isn't going to be as exciting. Transition in two,-"

"Transwhat?"

"-one."

Our surroundings flicker, then we're outside the pile of vines climbing the walls of St Luke's Hospital. Patches of thorns near doorways indicate locations where they've already tried to clear space. Right, Zatanna's still at Wayne Manor, Euanthe will be near Mount Justice. Both of them should be able to moderate Swamp Thing's actions, though neither are strong enough to block him if he actually exerts himself.

Yep, I'm definitely going to have to talk to Medphyll once I leave Earth. But until then… I attach filaments to the thorn vines around the main entrance and inject auxins along their length. Almost immediately they begin bending out of they way, hospital workers backing away as they see the orange glow. Harleen and I descend from the sky to land on the lichen carpet which covers the ambulance bay.

"Don't attack the plants. They just-."

"Grow back stronger." A short, balding man in a suit nods at me. "Yeah, we worked that out. You here to make yourself useful?"

Ring?

Individual is Doctor Simon Simpson, Head of Medicine.

I nod. "I can pick up and drop off. Just give me the addresses."

"I meant, can you get rid of the damned plants!?"

"Not in the short term, but it's being worked on. I can resupply you, but I'm going to be splitting my time between all of Gotham's hospitals and whatever else I need to do."

"We've been getting hundreds of calls about people getting poisoned by these thorns. What do you know-" Harleen's phone rings and she answers it, turning away and whispering into the handset. "-about the toxin?"

"It's a weak paralysing agent. Tell people not to touch the thorns and get them to put anyone affected somewhere safe. They won't require hospitalisation unless they have a particular reaction to it." And hopefully Swamp Thing is still intelligent enough to make sure that doesn't happen. "Some of the fruits are hallucinogenic, but again, they shouldn't cause any other complications."

He nods, rolling his eyes. "Great, a considerate supervillain. We can get a list of pick up locations together for you in a few minutes. You got a cell?"

C-? Mobile phone. "My trips will be instantaneous. Just have someone standing by in the entrance."

He frowns slightly, then shakes his head. "If you say so."

"Hey-. Orange Lantern." Harleen still has her phone in her hand. "That was Doctor Stoner up at Arkham. He says somethin's up with Isley. He wants someone who knows what's gowin' on t' check her out."

"Okay, we can-."

"Doctor!" A nurse jogs out of the entrance, a piece of printer paper in her hand. "Shooting in Murphy Avenue, we got no way to-" She sees me. "-get…"

Efficiency, that's the name of the game. Murphy Avenue is in Upper East Side. I narrow my eyes and have the rings show me the scene. A shop owner and a couple of police officers exchange fire with a group of youths in gang colours. Several people are on the ground, moving weakly if at all.

Flicker.

The youths collapse as I Shock Crown them, filaments tagging the fallen.

Flicker.

I deposit the wounded in reception.

"Next!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th May
13:39 GMT -5

"Hey." I look up as Harleen walks over to me, looking thoughtful. "Can I tawk t' you fer a minute?"

"Um..?" No one appears to be heading my way… "Probably?"

"Heh, yeyeah." She sits down next to me. "Been real busy, huh?"

"Oh, I'm the ultimate all-terrain vehicle, I am. Life doesn't stop just because someone with superpowers decides to take their problems out on everyone else."

"Kinda surprised Batman ain't showed up."

I shrug. "He can't be everywhere at once."

Richard sent me a message about that. He, Wallace, Zatanna and Artemis managed to get away from the reception, but the host and hostess don't have that sort of freedom. Bit of a shame, really. The comic version of this even ended with Batman giving a first rate ticking off to the fool who thought that picking a fight with a god's wife was a good idea. Oh, and Swamp Thing getting mystically blocked and then incinerated by napalm, but when the handover finally happens I'll be on hand to make sure that doesn't happen.

The mayor of Gotham went on television about an hour ago to make an announcement about what was going on. Since then, people have calmed down a little. No more idiots trying to set vines which cover an entire city on fire with petrol. Lucky that none of them ended up needing treatment for anything worse than first degree burns, really. I don't know how the negotiations are going.

"See, I was wonderin'-."

"Orange Lantern?" Nurse Grignon appears from around the corner. "Got another one for you. Stab wound in Filigree Street, in The Bowery."

My eyes unfocus as I see the scene. Knife through a boy's leg, wrapped in a blood soaked towel, his frantic mother on the telephone.

"Excuse me."

The hospital reception disappears and the vine-covered street appears. The infamous Park Row -better know as Crime Alley- is a little to the north of here. Window's open and with another flicker I'm inside.

"Aah!"

I ignore her and focus on the whimpering child. No, it's no good. I tried healing a few people the first couple of times, but I just don't feel proprietary enough to make it happen. I attach a tourniquet just above the site of the wound, tighten it in accordance with my team's medical training then attach filaments to both of them. "We'll appear at St Luke's in two, one."

Flicker.

The woman looks around in shock, mobile phone still in her hand, as I deposit her son onto the waiting gurney. The waiting paramedic gives me a nod before pushing it down the corridor towards casualty. "Hey there, kid. I'm…"

I look around for anyone who might have another pickup for me. "Anyone else?" Nurse Grignon shakes her head. "Okay." I walk back towards where my date is waiting. "Sorry, Harleen. Part of the job is always being on call."

"Guess every job's got its downside."

"Oh, it's not a downside. I find making the world work better quite satisfying. I just realise that it's rude to keep disappearing like this. You were.. saying? Something..?"

"Swamp Thing didn't actewally say it was him doin' this. Should we be worried?"

He didn't? I frown. I suppose… Not… I shrug. "He isn't chatty at the best of times. I'm not sure who else it could be."

"Has his dawteh got any superpowers?"

I shake my head. "I don't think he'd have called her 'dangerous' if the answer was 'no', but until today I didn't know that she existed." Spying on the Holland residence seemed like bad faith, but Tefé wasn't at home when I first visited their home last year. I seem to remember her having meat control in the one comic I ever read with her in it.

"'cause I was wonderin' if she mighta got real mad and done alla this. And not her Dad."

"Um. Plausible, but we don't know if she has the ability and the timelines wouldn't quite-."

"Lantern!" The chap manning the reception desk looks up. "Call from Arkham. They want you there right away."

"What for? Someone injured?"

"Whatever was up with Poison Ivy's still going on and they've gone from 'concerned' to 'seriously worried'. They want a superhero there in case things are gonna get.. crazier."

"Kid Flash-."

"Adult superhero."

I nod. "Right." Not really his.. bag, anyway. "Harleen, do you want to come? I haven't studied her in an asylum setting."

She nods. "Okay."

I step closer to her and attach a filament. "One stop first. Two, one." We appear atop Mount Justice. I tried stopping back here earlier and Euanthe wasn't around and my own scry wards seemed to be preventing me from finding her. "Euanthe! You around?!"

"Hey, those fruit are jus' like the ones Swamp Thing's growin' in Gotham."

"Yes, they come from the same place." I'll give her a mom-.

Euanthe steps out of a nearby tree smiling at me with a warm and only slightly creepy smile. After a brief discussion of Human social customs regarding clothing she's replaced her bark clothing… And also replaced her nudity, with a vine and leaf number which just about meets the requirements of local law while still managing to look borderline obscene. She looks far healthier here than she did the second time we met. Her skin is a pale green colour, her lips a strongly contrasting rose-pink and -yes- the grass grows more strongly around her feet.

"Pavlos." She walks over to me with her head tilted to the left and runs her right hand across my armoured chest before walking past me to get a better look at Harleen. "You're new."

"Yeyeah, I've never been-." Euanthe takes hold of Harleen's head and nuzzles her. "O-ohka-a-ay. Ah..?" Harleen looks at me for advice.

I give my head a tiny shake. "Euanthe, Swamp Thing has appeared in Gotham. I was hoping that you could come with us in order to help him."

Euanthe releases her hold on Harleen and turns back in my direction. I go to walk over to her in order to peel her off Harleen and then realise that there are vines training up my leg armour. "He is still there?"

Actually… We sort of lost contact after he-. No, the brambles aren't naturally growing like that. He must still be around. "As far as I can tell, yes."

She walks back towards me. I suppose that her outfit is being sustained in the same way as much of the growth enveloping Gotham, Green magic substituting for more conventional nutrients. I've got to have another go at persuading her to take students on. "Then we must go to him. Though I do not know what I can do for him that he cannot do on his own."

"Oh, don't sell yourself short." Harleen notices that the shoots are growing up her legs as well, an expression of uncertain disquiet appearing on her face. "Your social skills are at least as good as his are these days." And isn't that damning. "Ready?"

"Yes."

"Right then." I attach filaments to each of them, pushing through the small amount of resistance I feel from Euanthe. "Next stop, Arkham Asylum."