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

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
13:22 GMT -3

At sea level, the pressure of the air on the Human body is 14 1​/2​ pounds per square inch. Where we are it's more like 300 times that. My colleagues are tough enough to take that, and even they are going to have to be careful about going back up again. My armour can take that, as can my environmental shield. Times like this really bring home exactly how tough we are compared to the most advanced conventional technology. We can be here, even fight here without too much difficulty. Anyone else would need a very expensive submarine to just exist here.

I think that in the fraction of a second between realising that a pressure bomb is about to hit me and it actually doing so.

Oh, I'm accelerating myself. Heh.

Of course, part of the reason why we can exist here is that the pressure is all around us. The water will try to compress the much lower pressure areas of our bodies such as our lungs -if my environmental shield failed I wouldn't be able to breathe, though with my chest reduced to mush I doubt that would be my primary concern- but does far less to solid structures like bones and muscles. Even if a projectile impacting at 4200 pounds per square inch could easily penetrate soft tissue, a ship sinking to the bottom of the sea can remain more or less intact for centuries. The point being, it's the variation in pressure that causes the damage.

Five pressure bombs detonate in close proximity to me.

The impacts are heavy, but I've had heavier. The nasty part -the part that's causing visible cracks to appear on my construct armour- is where the pressure waves interact with each other, creating focused channels of even higher pressure or areas of normal pressure between areas of much higher pressure. I reinforce the armour, pouring orange light into it and I really wish that I'd had time to recharge before I came out. A simple sonic scan shows… More bombs heading my way, though nothing like the overwhelming number I'm sure that they could throw out.

Possible reasons..? My accelerated speed leaves my eyes locked in place as my mind whirs. They don't know who we are and don't think we're a threat. They're absurdly powerful and we actually aren't a threat. They're playing for time and this is working well enough that they don't need to exert themselves. They're focusing on something else and can't afford to exert themselves.

Neither Mister Kent nor Mister Freeman were wearing Spell Eaters. Ring, analyse the difference in performance between the pressure bombs, Spell Eaters versus non-Spell Eaters.

No appreciable difference detected.

Fair enough. The compression is magic but the water itself isn't. All my Spell Eater is doing is detonating them a fraction of a second early.

My construct armour is starting to fracture in earnest. Unlike my super-tough colleagues, I'm not really feeling the violence of the Water Wraith's attacks. I'm getting… I'm getting numbers relayed by the rings, a sense of my relative position and mental images of what the assault is doing to the zombies. But as a Lantern… Combat isn't a kinetic experience for me until things go very wrong. It's a little unreal, slightly removed… I'm a drone operator rather than a fighter pilot.

Assume that the bombardment is maintained, my construct armour will fail in five real seconds. I think my power armour could take the attack for long enough that I could recreate it, but finding out in combat doesn't sound like a good idea. I can't perform a test transition under these conditions. Invisibility is pointless as they can almost certainly sense me by the motion I create in the water. One choice remaining.

I phase, construct armour fading away as I head upwards. I see silt carried by the violent pressure differentials shoot past -and through- my eyes. Unlike when I do this in air, the armour will struggle to rematerialise under water. At some point I'll have to actually either push a volume of water aside by ring power or find an air pocket at surface pressure.

Ugh, that was someone's liver!

How do they even make zombies with water magic? I rise a little further before reorientating myself to follow Diana. I suppose that if the zombies were Atlantean in life there might be enough of a water-based connection… No, that would just animate the flesh. Head injuries wouldn't be fatal-. Wouldn't be destructive. Traditional Vodun zombies with partial soul separation only rot if the living flesh is damaged and infected. They aren't affected by pain, but they get weaker in the same way a normal person would. Demon possessed corpses? Hm. I think that's more like it. Minor bound spirits controlled by greater spirits? Plausible, but testing the theory will probably be impossible. Oh well.

Diana's making definite progress. A combination of her flight ability, raw strength and agility and the defensive enchantments on her armour prevent glancing blows slowing her while her bracers block direct strikes. There's a gap in the bombardment as the water around her solidifies once more, but with a little effort I'm able to repeat what I did to the last piece.

The Wraiths' pressure blasts have torn all of the zombies to pieces, and my other colleagues… Aren't looking too healthy. I can see thin trails of blood leaking from their ears. Mister Kent is squinting at his surroundings and making a little progress towards our enemies while Mister Freeman has been knocked out of contention. Severe bruising and he's lost consciousness. Fortunately for him, his augmentations mean that he heals quite a bit faster than most people.

There's a ripple of motion from the Water Wraiths as Diana gets close enough that they stop trying to use pressure bombs on her. I see the water around her body ripple as it heats up to just below boiling point… That sort of spell takes a great deal of energy. By now I'm not far behind her, and I don't.. think I'm doing anything they can detect. I'm not displacing water, my scry wards should prevent direct detection…

I draw the Sword of the Fallen as I get closer to the nearest Water Wraith. Now, what part of their 'body' is actually them? The water, or is that just a convenience they use to mark their place in the world and maintain a connection to their preferred element? The stones, or are those just held in place by their internal currents? I mean, the only warning they're going to get is when I start stabbing. I'd hate to hit something unimportant.

Ah, it doesn't matter. Just have to stab everything.

Six metre things are really big close up. Like this I can see that the edge of their 'skin' I can see isn't a result of the water bending, it's caused by silt particles creating an effect a little like the black border around a cartoon character. Diana's only a little way behind me and they're still not paying her a fat lot of attention. Not as far as I can see. They don't have eyes, those holes in their head stone look completely decorat-.

What?

The Water Wraiths just collapsed, the stones which indicate the presence of their body just flowing away like flotsam caught in a powerful current. The only thing it reminds me of is the water spell that enabled the Saremites to escape Themyscira. I shove water aside and rematerialise, strands lashing out in the faint hope of being able to-. No. Too slow.

Diana comes to a stop, relief clear on her face as she glances my way. "Wonder Woman to Aquaman. Respond."

I turn away, running a quick scan over the zombie remains as I head towards Mister Kent. Oh, nasty. He's bleeding slightly from the puncta as well as the ears, having to blink repeatedly in order to keep his vision clear. "Sir?"

"Did you..? Uh." He shakes his head. "Did you get them?"

"No sir, but they appear to have left the combat zone. Sir, there's not much I can do about your injuries without first draining your solar reserves completely. Are you alright to continue?"

He nods, smiling as he does so. "I've had worse. Icon?"

I send out strands to pull him our way. "Down, I'm afraid sir. He'll be alright, but if you intend for us to push on to Poseidonis we'll need to put him out of the way somewhere." He nods, blinking again. "Sir, I don't know if it will help, but I can replicate sunlight well enough to recharge a Kryptonian. I don't think it will heal you, but-."

"Aquaman here."

I note the blue glow from both Diana and Mister Kent as I give Mister Freeman a scan. Transformed Terminans are a good deal easier to fix up than Kryptonians. No force fields being projected from every living cell. The fact that he's not mine means that I can't fix him completely in the time available for our next move, but he'll be a lot less miserable when he wakes up now.

"I'm here with Superman and Orange Lantern. We encountered a group of water-based Titanspawn and what appeared to be zombies."

"Titanspaw-?" There's a slight pause. "Understood. Most of the attackers are pulling back now, but we've still got undead in the civilian areas of the city. Move in and link up with the officers on the ground."

"We'll be there in a few moments. Wonder Woman out."

She looks at me expectantly, and I recreate the waterplough construct.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
13:48 GMT -3

"Slayer!" I think Ceyx is smiling. The shark-mouth makes it harder to tell, and apparently 'happiness' isn't part of the emotional spectrum. "You missed all the good fighting!"

His fellow guards seem less happy about the situation, eyes a little wide and weapons held at the ready. Few of them are carrying the melee weapons that were the standard armament during Black Manta's attack last year. I'm not sure if that's because the guards around the Conservatory grabbed whatever they could from the workshops before heading out or if this is just their standard loadout these days. The armour I remember from previous visits has similarly been replaced by a version incorporating an automatic version of the water armour Garth and Tula use. Their version requires a trained battlemage. These just need a little training.

"I've had enough fighting for today, thank you. But I'm afraid that I'm here on duty. Is your officer around?"

His mouth hangs opens slightly for a moment, showing off his teeth. "The officer's me these days. Ah, after the Tesserario, but he got stabbed by one of those sneaky Saremite gits."

I nod. Saremites… Renegades, who their Ambassador called Oceanus worshippers. And we just encountered Water Wraiths. This is looking bad. "Is the Conservatory clear?"

"Yeah." He exhales sharply, bubbles flowing from his gill slits. "Professor Sephtian's goggles made spotting their infiltrators easy enough. The zombies were… Bothersome." Another exhalation. "Fighting something you can't eat is just… Perverse." He gestures to his retinue with his right thumb. "So I just told them how to do it. Officer thinking."

"Quite. Congratulations on the promotion."

He nods. "Yeah, once they cleared out all of Orm's people even I could get promoted. Didn't even have to bite anyone." He pauses for a moment. "Poseidonis is weird like that."

"Do you need my assistance with healing?"

"Nah, the High Queen and the Professors saw to that." He looks past me, off the mesa and towards the rest of the city. "Can you tell me what's happening in the rest of the city?"

"The army is finishing off the zombies and the remaining Saremites have fled."

"You scare them off?"

"No. I was a bit slow fighting some water elemental things. They'd already pretty much given up by the time I got here."

"Hah!" He turns back towards his soldiers. "Not such a soft target now, are we?"

"No sir!" / "No!" / "Atlantis!"

"Or the attack was some sort of distraction." I glance at the ring on my right finger. Guy should be here soon, if he isn't already. I'm half-braced for an immediate message from him recalling me to the surface for whatever attack is next. "I don't suppose you've got any living prisoners, do you?"

"Euh. When the Saremites… They used some sort of spell to just… Flow away. Even took the bodies of their dead. Saves us cleaning up, but it doesn't tell us anything."

I look him in the eyes, then look at his mouth. "You bite any?"

He squints slightly. "What do you think?"

"Okay." I generate a construct pipette. "Open your mouth. I need a sample of their residual flesh or-."

He backs up in the water, both hands up in a warding gesture. "Hey! I.. respect you, but I'm not into that kind of thing."

Whu-? "I need a sample of their blood and flesh for tracking and necromantic purposes."

"Oh." He blinks. "Okay. Ah, that's fine. I just thought you might be, ah…"

"I don't know enough about Nanauvian culture to know what you thought I was asking… But I wasn't. Eating from someone else's mouth is-."

"Yeah yeah, just… Ah… Forget I said anything. And don't mention this to Alki." He opens his mouth slightly. "Ik oray?"

"Thank you." Yep, got a few nice samples there. I put them in a pouch rather than subspacing them, then dismiss the construct. Not entirely sure what putting things in subspace does to their sympathetic attachments, but there's no sense taking risks. "Okay, that's all I need."

"Okay." He looks past me into the city again. "The High Queen just told us to guard the Conservatory, but if the attack is over… Do you have new orders for us?"

"I'm afraid not." I'll need to talk to Sephtian about trying to come up with a form of uneavesdroppable arcane communications device. Atlantean command and control is… Not great. "I suggest sweeping the place for charms or remaining infiltrators-"

"We're doing that already."

I nod. "-but otherwise I don't have anything to suggest. Good work."

He thumps the left side of his chest with his right fist in salute. I respond with the Themysciran variant, something I don't do on the surface because it looks a bit… Nazi. Then I transition to the edge of the palace's exclusion field. The soldiers forming the internal guard start for a second, then recognise me and stand down.

"Orange Lantern." A battlemage with glowing tattoos swims a little closer. I think I've seen her around the place before, though I didn't hear her name. "King Orin and the other Justice League members are in the Small Council Chamber. Do you need someone to show you the way?"

"No, thank you." I can't detect things inside the palace any longer, but I have familiarised myself with the layout. I've also found a slightly better way of getting around than creating outboard motor constructs. The environmental shield around my armour ripples as I'm thrust through the palace corridors in the direction of the meeting room. If they're still here then I assume that the situation is under control and that there haven't been any other attacks.

Reaching the solid water portal, I slow and push my way through. King Orin, Queen Mera, Diana, Mister Freeman, Mister Kent and several Atlantean officers I don't recognise are either seated or standing around a table. The room currently has an air atmosphere, and none of the Atlanteans present have noticeable piscine traits.

"…inventory of what they took." King Orin pauses in his speech to acknowledge my arrival. "The object which concerns me most is the Diadem of Dominion."

Mister Kent nods. "That sounds ominous. What does it do?"

Queen Mera raises her right hand, creating an illusion of a simple metal torc with runes marked on the inner surface. "It was created by the ancient sorcerer Ahri'ahn as a gift to the king of Poseidonis. When active, it allows the wearer to take control of any arcane artefact they can lay their hands upon."

Diana studies the image. "And what activates it?"

King Orin's eyes narrow slightly. "The blood of the ruling king. Either from me, or from a member of my immediate family." Oh no. Ring, start scanning Canada. "Mera and Artur are already here. I'm having my father brought here, along with my half brother Marius. I've got soldiers heading to my uncle's home in Tritonis, but we haven't had word of attacks taking place anywhere else. I don't have any other immediate family-.

Subject not found.

Fuck. "Your majesty? May I.. speak to you for a moment?"

Eyes turn my way, and King Orin nods. "Of course. What is it?"

"I… Ah… You might..? Prefer it if we discussed this in private, sir?"

He shakes his head emphatically. "If you've got something to say, say it."

"We're too late."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?"

I dip my eyes. Rip the plaster off quickly. "After you completed your high school education, you spent the summer as a lumberer in Canada before moving to Atlantis full time."

"Yes, but I don't see how that's relevant."

"While there you had a relationship with a woman named Kako. Early the following year she gave birth to a boy, Koryak. Based on that timeline and observations on his physiology, including unusual strength and resistance to the cold, I think it most likely that he is a Pureblood Atlantean and your natural son. According to police reports he went missing two days ago. Witness testimony says that he was picked up from school by 'an odd-smelling man' who claimed to be his uncle."

I look up into the ashen faces before me.

"It seems that Prince Orm has returned from the grave, and most likely already has everything that he was trying to get."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Titanfall

18th June
13:52 GMT -3

Shock.

Stillness.

Queen Mera is avoiding looking at anyone. I don't know what she's thinking. I doubt that she's thinking of the equivalence between King Orin's relationship with Kako and his mother's relationship with Thomas Curry. I can see the violet strands linking them. Theirs isn't a political marriage as his mother's was. I hope that when I considered the recent history of an elder surface-born son inheriting the throne in place of the Atlantean-born heir presumptive, I was worrying unnecessarily.

King Orin himself is staring at me, though his eyes aren't precisely-

"How long have you known?"

-focused. I could ask exactly what part he was asking about, but under the circumstances I think that an open and honest answer would serve us best.

"I discovered Koryak's existence and probable parentage ten months ago."

That focuses him. "And you didn't think to tell me!?"

I look him directly in the eyes. "Sir, I didn't know that you didn't know until just then. Early in my stay on this Earth I discovered any number of things that I would imagine people would rather I didn't share. So unless I've got a mission-related reason to do so-."

I watch as his jaw clenches, biting down his initial response. A moment later he's got a slightly better grip. "We'll.. table this for now." He turns his head left, towards the Atlantean officers. "Do we have communications with the surface yet?"

One of them nods. "Telephone only, majesty. The zeta tube won't be repaired for another hour. The Saremites knew exactly what to damage in order to wreck it."

King Orin closes his eyes for a moment before glaring at me. "I assume that you have her phone number?"

I nod. "Yes."

He takes a deep breath, then turns to Mister Kent. "I'll speak with Kako, but I think it would help if Batman and Fate visited the scene. If it really was my brother, he doesn't know much about surface world criminal investigation techniques."

"Majesty, I-." Another Atlantean officer hesitantly speaks up. "I don't see how it could be P-. The former Prince Orm. We all saw him dead."

"There are ways to come back from that."

"If my brother had been dealing with Demons-!"

"The Lazarus Pit." King Orin stops immediately he hears Queen Mera speak. "I performed an arcane reading of the zombies as the attack began. I had hoped to be able to undo whatever spell animated them. There were two distinct forms welded together to grant them their unnatural animation. One, water magics such as any Atlantean battlemage might command. The other, I did not immediately recognise." She looks at me. "The only thing I have felt like it was the samples of material taken from Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit which you sent to the Conservatory."

Diana nods. "If Ra's al Ghul did show Orm how to create Lazarus Pits, he could well have had one prepared in advance of his execution."

I knew that was going to happen! As soon as the body disappeared, I knew-! Ra's had been hoarding the knowledge, but if he started teaching people… We can't rely on anyone staying dead. I'm going to have to suggest that the League formally recommend that all executions include the body of the deceased being… Rendered mystically inert or something. And I'm going to have to talk to Nyssa about tracking down every single potential Lazarus Pit location on the Earth. If that's… Even how they work here.

I suppose logically there's no reason to assume it was Ra's. Nyssa does work for Lex Luthor. And several League of Shadow members would have the required knowledge. No. Ra's… That actually makes a lot of sense. I had thought it strange, how quickly Ra's was able to hide from ring scans. What if he just went to Orm? Orm would have any number of places he could hide a few surface worlders… Certainly he could block ring scans. And if he asked for the secrets of the Lazarus Pit in return, well… Ra's wasn't in any position to turn him down.

Mister Kent looks at each of his colleagues in turn, his eyes skipping over me. "Every member of the Justice League was attacked today, but this was the only attack that appears to have a larger objective. Does anyone have ideas what he could be planning to do with it?"

"Oceanus." / "Oceanus."

Diana and I look at each other for a moment, then she resumes. "The Saremites worship Oceanus, and those Elemental creatures which we fought reeked of his magic. Orm could only have gained their aid by offering to assist them in freeing their patron."

Mister Freeman frowns slightly. "I have not heard of a supervillain or sorcerer by that name. The only 'Oceanus' of whom I have heard is the mythological Titan."

Diana's face is more sombre than I've ever seen it before. "That there are myths about a thing should not be taken as a sign that it does not exist. Oceanus is the Titan of the Seas. Though he did not side with the other Titans during their war against the Gods, he quarrelled with the Olympians later as they established themselves. Quite what was done to him I do not know, but usually those Titans who made themselves the enemies of Olympus were bound in some way which prevents them from using their powers against the mortal world."

Mister Kent looks concerned. "Just how powerful is Oceanus?"

"He is the eldest son of Gaea and Uranus. Every Titan has the greatest arcane power over their own domain, and his is the oceans and all they contain."

"He's a god?"

"No. Most Gods are far younger than the Titans, and their domains are far less a part of them. I don't know precisely what he can do with it, but it is reasonable to assume that he is several orders of magnitude more powerful than the creatures we encountered when we first arrived."

"And he's definitely hostile?"

Diana frowns faintly. "I can't say for certain. Only the Gods and other Titans would have met him in person."

King Orin clenches his right hand into a fist. "I doubt that Orm would do all this to liberate him if he had friendly intentions. Do you have any idea where Oceanus is being contained?"

Diana shakes her head. "No. But just as soon as we're done here I can petition the Gods of Olympus to give me that information."

King Orin nods. "I think that it would be best if you learned that location as swiftly as possible."

Diana nods. "Agreed. Does Atlantis require any further aid?"

"No. We can manage the cleanup ourselves. I should be able to send forces out to attempt to locate Orm's base of operations within a few hours."

"Sirs." Four sets of eyes alight on me, one most unfriendly. "When Hawkman, Hawkwoman and I confronted Satanus outside the Hall of Justice, he mentioned that he'd been acquiring Atlantean thaumaturgical writing."

Queen Mera frowns slightly. "We do not make a habit of sharing our research with Demons."

"No, your majesty, but if Orm still has supporters in Poseidonis… Possibly amongst the student population..? They might have been sharing information with him, then he could share it with his allies."

There's a slight glow from her skin. "Then I will locate them exceedingly quickly."

Diana rises from the table, followed by Mister Kent and Mister Freeman. "Orange Lantern, we will need a zeta tube."

I nod, transition to the far side of the table and create a zeta tube construct.

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Superman, zero one, Icon, one eight, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
12:21 GMT -5

"…more information I have on the diadem, the better the chance I'll be able to find some way to counteract it. I don't give any serious credence to the idea that he could control a Titan-."

Diana holds out her right hand in a clear 'stop' motion. So I do. "Paul. I think it might be best if you stay out of Orin's way for a little while."

Mister Kent and Mister Freeman have returned to their home cities. Neither have skills pertinent to the attempts to locate Orm, and both have authorities to pacify regarding the attacks made against them as distractions. Mister Hol and Ms Thal should be heading back to St Roch shortly if they haven't already. The warden of Blackgate signed off on transferring Mister Hayes to Belle Reve without argument, though I haven't had time to take what's left of the Demon Ball to the Conservatory. Oh, I doubt they'd have time for it.

I nod, conceding Diana's point. "Yes, obviously. But Sephtian is going to be busy-."

"And it would probably be best for him if he didn't immediately start covertly associating with someone with whom his king is very angry."

W-? "I… Really don't think that King Orin would be that petty."

"Finding out that he has a twelve year old son is no small matter."

"I know, and I get that he's angry with me. I just can't see him getting angry enough that he'd lash out at anyone else."

She nods. "You are probably correct. But we need him as rational as possible, and anything that looks like duplicity on the part of the people he needs to manage this crisis will distract him."

I suppose that under the circumstances perfect rationality is too much to hope for. I don't remember Koryak or his mother at all from the comics so I don't exactly have any pearls of wisdom to impart that could make this anything other than extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved. "Alright. Do you need me for anything?"

"Yes." Her face takes on a sterner aspect than I'm used to seeing. "I am not happy about you withholding that information. I would like you to explain to me why you did not inform Orin sooner."

"As I said, I've discovered all sorts of things-."

"This isn't an embarrassing tattoo or a questionable judgement call. This is Orin's son."

"A boy whose life I had no grounds to interfere with. A boy whose existence could have damaged King Orin's marriage, revealed his surface world civilian identity and who had.. eleven years to adapt to not having his natural father around. Why should I interfere in his current familial arrangements -including his relationship with his stepfather- on the basis of information I was.. probably wrong to acquire?"

"Because he's an Atlantean, and his stepfather -whoever he is- is in no position to help him understand what that means. What if he were to contract a disease that affects purebloods and not unmodified Humans?"

Ring, double check..?

None found.

"There aren't any. There are certain forms of offensive magic which can-."

"I think you may be missing the point."

"No, I think we're having a genuine disagreement. Unless you want me to share everything I know with everyone I know it about."

"If you know anyway and it pertains to them, I'm not sure why you wouldn't."

"Because people have certain ideas about themselves that they don't want disturbed. Learning about the true history of Mars has created a crisis in their government. Me telling J-. Green Lantern two eight one four A and B about some of the Guardians' less noble moment created a reduction in their confidence in their superiors and worsened my relationship with both. To no real gain, because the Guardians certainly aren't about to change the way they operate."

Something occurs to her. "Is there something which you know about me which you have not told me?"

Oh… Poop. "A.. couple of things."

"Alright." She smiles. "Tell me. Let us see what is so disturbing that you would hesitate to tell me."

"Diana, I don't think that's a good-."

She raises her eyebrows slightly. "You still have a full seventeen days on your oath still to serve. Do you intend to take advantage-"

"No."

"-of the fact that it is unenforceable?"

"No."

Her smile broadens slightly. "You may have noticed, I have fairly strong feelings where the truth is concerned. I promise you that there is nothing you can say to me about me that is true that will lower my opinion of you."

…

"Alright. You know that Dryads regard themselves as being Gaea's daughters?"

She hesitates for a moment, then nods. "You believe that I should think of myself in the same fashion, since it was Gaea who gave me life and not my mother."

"I'm the last person to speak against the relationship you have with your adoptive mother, or your relationship with Kon. But the fact remains that the magics in your body are those of the earth and not of war. You live like a demi-goddess when as far as I can tell you're Oceanus' youngest sister."

She waits for a moment, then holds out her hands palms upwards. "You see? That wasn't such an earth-shattering revelation. Unless you have more to say on the subject."

"Gaea didn't just reshape and empower the magics in the earth to bring you to life in the way she did the magics in plants to create the Dryads. You've got her in you. I still don't understand why you're as -relatively- weak as you are."

"Perhaps it is something that I must grow into. Or perhaps she wanted me to experience the full range of Human life before I experience apotheosis."

"Or perhaps the 'blessings' the other goddesses gave you were intended to suppress your innate abilities."

The smile fades somewhat and she raises her eyebrows. "That, is speculation."

"Nineteen fifty two. You returned to Themyscira, bearing a gift for a botanist friend of yours. A small plant."

"I remember."

"You stayed for a few weeks before returning to Europe, and then to America. Four years later, you returned to find that she had died." Diana closes her eyes, and nods. "From the descriptions I read in the Temple of Apollo, it seems likely that the cause of death was anthrax. Anthrax isn't found on Themyscira. At the time Themyscira had no contact with the outside world for centuries, save for you. You're immune to all disease. You can't even carry them, so there's no risk of infection via you."

She nods, her face sombre. "You believe that the plant pot contained anthrax spores. That my gift killed her."

"The blessings the goddesses gave Themyscira's female population make them resistant to disease, but they don't grant blanket immunity. She would have examined the plant closely, giving her the best chance of inhaling the spores. I checked the soil where the plant was planted after her death." I shrug. "I destroyed the remaining spores to make sure that nothing like that happened again." I look down for a moment. "There is obviously no way you could have known that was a possibility. But I hope that you understand why I didn't think telling you would help anyone."

"I suppose I do. Do you have anything else to share?"

"Not about you alone."

"Very well. Return to the mountain. I will contact you if Orm surfaces."

"Sir."

I turn away and walk through the Embassy's zeta tube.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I stride out into the-.

My armour and construct armour appear immediately.

"What the hell happened here?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
12:25 GMT -5

"Oh, that's easy." The training room's hologram projector flickers for a moment, then an image of Nylor Truggs appears. "I did."

I accelerate.

Ring, full spectrum scan. Demons, go.

There are craters indicating where explosives were used on the floor, punching through and wrecking power cables and projectors. Truggs holds his right hand out and watches as it fades into non-existence. The lights are out, the air… Completely still. The lower parts of the Mountain… Flooded. Someone actually blew up the water and waste processing system. There are bombs on the zeta tubes behind me, and I'm just fast enough to put a shield around the closest before it detonates. The second is too quick, the shaped charge blasting a neat hole through the tube's ring.

Eh, annoying, but it shouldn't take me more than a few minutes to fix. Downstairs will take a bit longer… No immediate threat detected. Decelerate.

Praexis Demons flow from my rings, assembling in groups of three and flying out down the various corridors. I note the blasts on the walls and ceiling where I installed the automated defence systems that were supposed to prevent this sort of thing.

Internal only. "Orange Lantern to League. Mount Justice facility has been compromised." I recall the attack by the Reds. And by Mister Napier. "Again. I give advanced warning that before the end of the day I will be upgrading it to sensible levels."

"Batman here. Do you require support?"

"I don't appear to be in any immediate danger. Who else is supposed to be here?"

"No one. Do you have any clue to the attackers' identity?"

"I'm looking at a hologram of Nylor Truggs. We spent the day being given the run-around by the Light. I don't need to be you to make a reasonable guess."

"How bad is the damage?"

"Central computer wrecked, the bleed torsion generator I installed to power the place… Neatly extracted, probably stolen. Hard lines to remote backups severed. One intact zeta tube left." I exhale. "So when I do do that full upgrade, at least no existing infrastructure will go to waste."

"Ah, hello? I got a monologue to do here? A little.. professional.. hero-villain courtesy too much ta ask?"

External. "Mister Truggs, I've had a very trying day and I've got a sneaking suspicion that it was largely down to you. Excuse me if I'm a little short tempered about you blowing up my home."

The hologram holds up both hands slightly out to the sides, a sort of surrender-shrug. "Had ta be done, had ta be done."

"Yes, I'm sure that you destroyed our holographic training platform for the good of the Human race."

"Ah, hehe…" The hologram looks down. "That was really more… Y'know, collateral damage. I had ta send all a' my reliable people ta the Hall of Justice." He frowns. "Did you know that the exhibits are all replicas?"

"Yes."

"'cause I didn't. Lyin' tour guides." He shakes his head.

Oh no. Internal. "Orange Lantern to Batman. Given Truggs' history I strongly recommend checking on everyone employed as a tour guide at the Hall."

"Agreed."

"Good job taking down Saturnus. I gotta tell yah, I dropped my popcorn bowl when you called your construct thingies back through his own portals. And when you sliced up your own pet Demon with a sword-."

"This isn't a game, Mister Truggs. Mister Hayes killed five people escaping confinement, and probably more on the way to St Roch. I don't know how many people the Demon Ball killed-"

He grins, pointing at me with his right forefinger. "I called it that too!"

"-but I doubt that it was a small number. And if I hadn't stopped Mnemoth-."

"Saturnus was panicking. He was supposed ta just pick that Gary guy up from 'Papa Midnite'-" He air quotes. "-and bring him back so we could work out how that.. that hunger thing inside a' him works." He leans forwards, his head momentarily passing outside of the bounds of the projector. "What did you actually do to it? Have you got like a… A big ole' hunger monster inside the ring now? Aside from the ones in there already, I mean."

"No, it's gone, destroyed, broken down to its raw energy and absorbed. As best as I can tell there is nothing left of it."

"Well, darn. Anyway, about the people who died? The Reach invasion killed about two billion. Their research an' the 'fuck you' bombs they let off when they left ta try and make sure no one else could copy their work killed another five. So as long as I kill less than that and stay focused on the project? Far as I'm concerned, I'm all good."

"These idiots aren't your best bet, Mister Truggs."

"Pretty sure they are now. I mean, I'm wan'ed for murder."

"If you cooperated with the authorities and with the League we could probably get your sentence commuted to life imprisonment. You could even have access to the facilities to continue the non-villainous parts of your work."

He adopts a thoughtful pose. "Yeah, let me just think no. I mean, really?"

"I have to give you a chance, Mister Truggs."

"But seriously: you have no idea where I am. There's like… Fifteen guys with guns here. If I said 'sure' I'd be doing the bullet dance before you could say 'Albuquerque'."

"They can't watch you all of the time. I'm sure that if you wanted to get away, you'd manage it."

"Look, I… I don't know what you think the 'pull' is here? We just scored a major win. Several, actually. And in a couple a' days, we'll score another one. You have. No. Leverage."

"I'm sorry that you see it that way. Now, if there's nothing else you want to say, I've got some home improvements to make."

"What? I thought superheroes were all about nemesis banter."

"You're not my nemesis. You're an intelligent and well motivated man who chooses to use his abilities for criminal ends. You're really no more important to me than any of your colleagues."

"Oh, cut ta the quick." He turns to his left, presumably to someone who is wherever he is. "Cut ta the quick? It's a Britishism 'cause I'm talking to a British guy."

"I'm Themysciran. And I don't think it actually is."

"Oh, I just can't talk ta you when you're like this. I was supposed ta tell you all this stuff… You've just put me off my stride."

"I can't track you, but I can cut your link to this hologram projector. Tell me or don't, I'm busy."

"Fine. Neptune's Trident -the one Ocean Master used ta use and that Aqualad's been swinging around like he knows what ta do with it- wasn't originally Neptune's."

"Oceanus. It belonged to Oceanus."

"Yah-huh. So the Light wanna use him ta scare people inta action, getting in control of the whole 'super' thing. He's going to make a big bang in the middle of the Atlantic. And when he does-."

"It will devastate everything on the Atlantic rim. But you know we're going to try and stop him. Why are you telling me?"

"I work for the Light. But my actual employer is… Our mutual friend. And-."

"Lex Luthor is rather quite attached to Metropolis. He wants action on supers, but he doesn't actually want the attack to be successful."

"Sounds reasonable ta me. Now, I gotta be-."

I put a railgun round through the projector.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
15:03 GMT -5

"Dude…"

Wallace openly gawks at what I've done to the hangar. Richard does a quick sweep of the place then looks down, wincing slightly.

"Ah, are you.. okay?"

Kon's a sweetie.

I float down from the mountain's hangar entrance towards him, Wolf and M'gann. I've been adding a selectively permeable force shield to the blast doors which I've already upgraded.

"No. No, not really. I've got a nasty feeling that Batman's going to be telling me to strip all of this stuff out when he's finished in Canada."

Richard looks up at me. "You might have gone a bit overboard, Oh El."

I frown, then shake my head. "No, I don't think so."

"No?" He takes a boomerang from his utility belt and throws it upwards. It makes it two metres before a dematerialiser locks on and eliminates it in a puff of green. "That looks a lot like lethal force to me."

"What? The system can distinguish between devices and people. The Light know where we live now. As far as I'm concerned, it was this or move house. And I'm not moving house for these people." Hm. "And anyway, Rhode Island law is quite clear on the subject of home defence against armed invaders. The Reds came in via the sea entrance and Truggs' people phased through the walls. And stole everything that wasn't nailed down."

"Um..?" M'gann shakily raises her right hand. "How do you know that? I mean, no one was here and you said they destroyed all the recording equipment."

"You know how I don't assimilate sentients?" Oh, for goodness sake Wallace. Really? "No." I shake my head and roll my eyes. "One of the Saremites who took part in the attack went for my personal lantern. Where the Ophidian lives."

"Ohhh."

"We've been having a bit of a chat. Oh, ah, M'gann? Don't try phasing through the walls anymore."

She looks rather nervous. "What happens if I do?"

"Probably nothing, maybe it hurts a lot and you get forcibly ejected."

"Oh." She gives me a small smile. "I thought it would be something-"

"Except the outer walls, which would probably kill you. Certainly, you'd lose whatever body part you stuck in."

The smile vanishes. "-like that."

"Oh, come on." I land just before them. "How often do you actually phase through the outer walls anyway?"

"Well, I'm not doing it now."

Kon shifts uncomfortably. "You put anything anti-Kryptonian in here?"

"I rebuilt the vertigo inducers, but Kryptonians have never been the most subtle people. I was really trying to make it impossible for anyone to ever get the drop on us again." I glance over at the rebuilt zeta tubes. "Kaldur not with you?"

Wallace has resumed peering around, trying to spot any other changes I might have made. What with the complete lack of bare stone in here anymore he's rather spoilt for choice. "Nah, he wanted to stay on in Poseidonis. Tula and Garth too."

"Oh well. I'll just have to get Zatanna to empower the new magic defences."

Richard's face has gone rather still. "Aaand.. what do those do?"

"Well, the existing geomantic wards only blocked scrying and detection. Since everyone knows where we are, all those were doing was preventing them from monitoring what we're doing day by day, which… Basically pointless. The new version incorporates a rather interesting spiritual prison effect. If the attacker doesn't know what they're doing, it sucks magic -and eventually their whole soul- out of their body."

"Ah… You don't… Actually mean..?"

"Alright, it's more like it locks it away from their body. It's not an instant death, and it would be very obvious to any magic user inside the mountain what had happened. On the other hand, Rhode Island law theoretically treats magic attack in exactly the same way as any other attack… So legally it's cool."

M'gann looks a little nervous as well. "You can.. do.. magic..?"

My forearms rise until they're at right angles to my body. My palms are upwards and orange light drifts down, swirling about my feet and solidifying into meaningless but impressive looking symbols. "I have been trying to orchestrate a magitech revolution. I've picked a few things up, a few designs. Once they're active, the Mountain will be proof against anything short of utterly overwhelming force."

Kon nods. "So, are the bathrooms working?"

"Yes, the bathrooms are working. I also took the opportunity to remodel the showers."

"Uh. They wrecked the showers?"

"They wrecked everything they didn't steal." I dismiss the mystic mumbo-jumbo and hold out my right hand towards Wallace. "Souvenirs of past missions?"

He looks pained, his mouth falling open. "Uh?"

"Smashed or taken."

Richard blinks. "The armory? Your workshop?"

"Looted and written off."

M'gann's eyes widen. "My..? My room?" Kon puts his right arm around her and she puts her hands on his arm.

"Some sort of incendiary. I restored as much as I could remember. I hope you…" My eyes flick to Kon and then back. "Backed up your school work."

There's a moment of silence.

Richard looks thoughtful. "So the attacks against the League and the Team were to keep us from noticing that we couldn't reach the Watchtower and to keep us away from Atlantis. But it was also to make sure that there wouldn't be anyone here."

"Good job there wasn't, actually. The Saremite said the attacking group consisted of twelve of Truggs' men and fifty or so other Saremites. I might have been able to fight that off, but there wouldn't be much left of them or of the mountain afterwards."

Wallace looks at me askance. "Hey, how come they didn't get your gun or your sword?"

"I kept those in my room. Tubbs isn't clever enough to have reported the state of the mountain to me if I didn't specifically instruct him to. They might actually have still been here when he flew through."

Richard looks around once more. "You've certainly.. done everything you can to stop them doing anything like that again. Why don't you.. show us what else you've done with the place?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
15:38 GMT -5

Wallace slumps in front of the former trophy cabinet. "Aww man."

Artemis opens her mouth for a sarcastic comment, then looks at his face and bites it down. I get a quick 'don't mention this to anyone' look, then she puts her left hand around his shoulders in a sideways hug. "We can always beat up more bad guys and take their stuff."

Wallace isn't much mollified. "It won't be the same. Everything in here was a memory of a mission-." He turns his head my way, craning his neck to look over Artemis' shoulder. "Hey Oh El, can't you just recreate everything? I mean, it wouldn't be exactly the same, but it would be better than…" He goes back to staring mournfully at the empty shelves. "This."

"I'm afraid that I didn't bother scanning most of the c-stuff you put in here." Completely true, not to mention the fact that I find taking trophies mildly distasteful. "And I gave Jade's knives back to her."

"Yeah, 'cause her working for the mob is so much better than-." Artemis gives him a sidelong eyebrow-raise. "Yeah, 'cause it's.. so much better now… Ah, her doing legitimate bodyguarding work."

"I'm glad you think so, Wallace. Artemis, do you want me to-"

"Recognised,-"

"-show you-?"

"-Zatanna Zatara, B-"

"Excuse me."

I transition to the zeta tube vestibule.

"-zero nine."

The lights fade away as Zatanna steps out of the tube and into my scanner array. She stops dead, looking up at it in puzzlement.

"Identification confirmed."

The force field covering the zeta tube vestibule deactivates. Zatanna gives it a cautious once-over before stepping through. "That's… New."

"I thought that an upgrade was in order."

Wallace and Artemis walk out of the trophy room, Wallace wincing slightly as he's forced to look at my alterations once more. "Yeah, you should see what he's done with the rest of the place."

Zatanna frowns. "But the zeta tube already does an identity check."

"It's far too easy to fool, and doesn't detect a whole host of things. Mind control, intoxication, certain parasites. Like Star Conquerors. Plus, my system isn't on the same system as the zeta tube's approved list. Subverting one doesn't help you get past the other."

She looks around the remodelled training area. I didn't do much to it, though the hologram projectors now incorporate force field generators. It's very nearly a proper holodeck, capable of generating virtual opponents. Mooks, anyway. The sort of power requirement for virtual opponents capable of hurting our toughest team mates or myself made that system unfeasible. "How bad was it?"

Artemis wrinkles her nose. "The whole place was a total write-off."

"I put your room back exactly as it was. Apart from a.. couple of new security systems."

"Wohs em ym moor." Her eyes unfocus for a moment. "That's not so bad. From the way Robin was going on I thought you'd turned the whole mountain into some kinda fortress."

"Just because it's a fortress doesn't mean that it can't have homely touches as well."

"And if you did tha-. Oh, you need me to do the magic part."

Wallace squints. "How did you know-?"

Zatanna rolls her eyes. "Obviously we need better magic defences. Doing them at the same time as everything else just makes sense."

I nod. "That's what I've been saying."

"The new ones are kinda…" He tries to think of a polite but accurate term. "Nasty."

Zatanna smiles faintly. "Do you know what my house does to anyone who tries using magic on the owners?"

"Ahhhh… No?"

"Neither do I. Dad said I was too young to learn about stuff like that. Wohs em eht skrowten." Her eyes unfocus again, and she blinks heavily as she takes in the sight. "Whoooow. You… Really went all-out. That's… Way more than I can handle."

"Okay, but can you activate it at a really minimal level so it charges up itself?"

"Um… I don't… Know..? I mean, I could, but for something this complicated I don't think that would work right."

Wallace thinks for a moment. "Hey, you could always get Fate to do it." My face hardens, as does Zatanna's. "Or.. we could not."

Zatanna looks down, giving her head a slight shake. "What was everyone planning on doing this evening?"

Artemis shrugs. "Talk about spending the day with the Justice League and all the fights we got into. Except all of us had supervillains try and kill us and Poseidonis got attacked again. Kinda takes the fun out of it."

I shake my head. "I don't think they did try and kill us."

"Oh, that undead stripper was trying to kill me pretty hard."

"Right. Except, they were sent by the Light, weren't they?"

Wallace nods. "Yeah, probably."

"So why didn't they just murder us all in our beds?" A tiny flicker of yellow light from each of them. "I mean, the Light have had our secret identities and home addresses since New Year, right? One of Truggs' mercenaries with that power armour they wear could phase through our bedroom walls and shoot us in our sleep."

Wallace shudders. "Thanks, Oh El. I'm gunna sleep really well tonight."

"But they haven't. That's the point." I shake my head. "I don't know what's going on. Savage and Klarion could have killed the entire League at New Year. They could kill most of us now. Instead, they… Invade our home in an unpleasant but not.. particularly harmful way, send 'assassins' we could reasonably be expected to overcome… I don't think you need to worry about being killed in your sleep. I think… For some reason, they've decided not to."

Artemis frowns. "But why?"

"Assuming that Savage wasn't talking out of his arse, maybe he thinks us competing with them makes everyone stronger. Maybe he's worried that they might miss one or two of their targets, then the survivors would… Take the gloves off.
Or maybe he realises that the world -at the moment at least- needs the Justice League?"

Artemis looks unimpressed. "Or maybe he just doesn't want anyone else taking the credit."

Zatanna purses her lips. "Or maybe he's got.. some kind of.. weirdly convoluted plan that.. means we.. have to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and everything else is him manipulating us into doing that."

"Okay…" Wallace takes a step away from the rest of us. "Never thought I'd say this, but I think watching Rob interrogate that new Construct-Lantern would actually be less disturbing than carrying on this conversation. How about we go and do that?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
15:43 GMT -5

I let Wallace and Artemis get well ahead before leaning down, making my mouth level with Zatanna's left ear. "Please tell me that the staff wasn't here?"

Her eyes flick my way for a second. "Of course not. It's at home in a secure room inside a case that turns out to be full of chlorine gas if you aren't the right person to open it. The case is made of titanium and I put that quantum lock you gave me on it."

I nod, slightly relieved. I doubt that Orm would be able to wield the power of love, but Oceanus was married to Tethys. And I imagine that there must be magic-using villains capable of feeling love around somewhere. "That might not be enough. One of the things the Saremites stole from Atlantis was a relic that is supposed to allow the wearer to command any arcane artefact."

"One at a time… Or, anything he touches, or anything he feels like? And… Just the magic bits, or all of it?"

"I.. didn't.. ask." I sigh. "I pissed off King Orin in a fairly significant way… It didn't seem like an appropriate time to ask.. questions. Especially considering that this is now a-"

"Justice League matter." / "-Justice League matter."

We share a small smile.

"What did you do to.. annoy Aquaman?"

"I didn't tell him that he had a son." Zatanna looks at me with a confused frown. "Not Artur, another one. Um, before he went to live in Poseidonis full time. I found out during my mildly paranoid, find-out-everything-about-everyone phase."

"And you didn't tell him?"

"No."

"W-? Why not?"

"Several reasons." I sigh again. "On balance… I'm less sure than I was that my decision was the right one. I.. saw him.. with a life that King Orin wasn't part of… He seemed happy enough. No one was in danger. It didn't seem like something I should intervene in." I tighten the skin around my mouth. "And now it turns out that a critical magic artefact can be activated using his blood and Orm's already kidnapped him."

"What-? So if you'd just.. told him-?"

"I don't think so. Unless he actually moved to Atlantis -which is extremely unlikely- all telling King Orin would do would be to get Koryak's -ah, that's his name, Koryak- bodyguards killed. If he's really that important, Orm would have prioritised it and used whatever level of force was required."

"But they could have put in some kind of alarm or something. Couldn't they?"

"Yes, but Orm is a highly skilled magic user. And if Satanus has been keeping up with the latest developments in Atlantis then he certainly has. The only thing that would work reliably would be a whole squad of battlemages living there full time… And that's just against the level of resources Orm could bring to bear himself."

"You mean, there isn't anywhere that's safe."

"Oh, no." A tiny smile appears on my lips. "This place will be completely safe, once the wards are charged."

"And you only had to turn the mountain into a fortress to do it."

"Yes. I did. We're really going to have to look at the home security arrangements of everyone associated with the Justice League if this is the sort of thing the Light are doing now."

"Or you could just spend a few days tracking down Nylor Truggs." I get a small frown. "Why haven't you done that?"

"I was focusing on other things." Agh, no, shouldn't have put it like that. "And I thought… I don't know. He's a criminal but at least he was sane."

"He murdered an old lady so he could steal your ring. And that Japanese guy and probably a whole lot of other people we never heard about. I mean… I'm not saying stop the stuff you're doing? But… Maybe you should prioritise him a bit higher?"

"But the technology that allowed him to attack us exists now. We use it ourselves. I don't think.. arresting him again will make it disappear. We'd have to completely destroy the Light and make sure there wasn't enough left for anyone to take over." We stop just outside the door to the room where Richard's doing his interrogation. "And get all of the suits that have been built and everyone who's ever operated one."

"You don't think we can put the genie back in the bottle."

"No, we.. can. As with everything else, it's a question of how much effort you can put into it." I gesture to the door with my right hand. "Shall we?"

Kon and M'gann look around as Zatanna pushes the door open. Richard is taking a moment to write up some notes on his arm computer while Wallace and Artemis peer over his shoulder. Kon looks somewhat frustrated. "Paul, can you take over translating? This guy really isn't very good at Atlantean Greek."

The Saremite stands glowing at the centre of the room, orange sigil decorating his-. Her? Not sure, and I doubt that it matters now. "Ring, translation."

"Compliance."

Richard presses a couple of buttons. "So far the only useful thing we've found out is the total number of Saremite renegades Orm has working for him."

"Pretty useful. How many?"

"Not that many. According to him, there aren't all that many renegade Saremites in total. Aside from the fifty who attacked the mountain with Truggs, all of them who weren't already injured took part in the attack on Poseidonis."

"That's… Less than two hundred total. The attack on Themyscira had.. more than that. Did he say when Orm started working with them?"

"That's the weird thing. According to this guy, they're the ones who killed his father."

Eh? "What?"

"He was killed a few years before Queen Atlanna brought Aquaman to Atlantis."

"No, I knew that. I'm just… I thought he liked his father."

"Apparently, he did. About a decade later he led the attack that captured the renegade Saremites' base of operations. That's where he got his Ocean Master equipment from." He looks up. "Which means-."

"It's not the Trident of Neptune. It's the Trident of Oceanus. Nice to have that confirmed."

Wallace throws his hands up. "Neptune, Oceanus, what's the difference?"

"Atlanteans… Those who have religious inclinations, worship Neptune. The Saremites worship Oceanus. Knowing that he was using a weapon sacred to one of their people's god's enemies wouldn't have gone down too well. Especially with the… Conservative sorts that might be prepared to back him against King Orin. Truggs' people took it and the armour along with everything else."

Richard nods. "According to him, giving it to Oceanus is supposed to spare the one who does so from his wrath."

"Makes sense. There's no point releasing a monster that's just going to kill you." I nod. "Now ask him about Orm coming back from the dead."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
19:14 GMT -5

A building the robots were preparing to harvest comes alive with Chthonian Young as their parent bursts forth from the ground and grapples with an apparently implacable Assault Stomper.

"But that's just-!"

A glowing portal opens in the centre of the machine fortifications as a small tentacle-covered creature plays a strangely shaped flute, the outline of a vast translucent mollusc just visible in the air above it.

"How did-?!"

Out from the portal pour the Children of Abhoth in an unending tide.

And Artemis throws up her hands as her structures disappear into their mouths. "How did you even do that?!"

I lean around the monitors separating us. "I do play this game almost every day."

"But you always play machines! And you said magic was the hardest strategy to pull off!"

There's a small 'boom' as her Machine Harbinger loses antimatter containment and explodes in a plume of vapour, then a series of other detonations as her Particle Beamers try to hit the Servitor keeping the portal open.

"Oh, it is."

And hit just about everything else as the Servitor capers around and lets its big cousin take the few shots that are still on target before the Children reach them.

"The Old Ones are victorious! Mankind is doomed! Doomed! GEB'L-EE'H YOG-SOTHOTH!"

"Greh-gruget-grah!" Artemis becomes somewhat incoherent as Kon leans over her shoulder and takes a look at the full map. "What!"

"Uh." Kon's eyes flick to me for a moment, and I understand that he knows perfectly well what she did wrong -lack of pressure- but now believes that it wouldn't be a good idea to bring it up. "Umm."

"Ah, babe? Are you ok-?"

"Okay!" Her eyes widen. "Just give me, like, two minutes."

"We could do some actual sparring for a bit, if you want something you can actually beat me at."

She turns and walks away from the gaming set up, the index finger of her right hand pointed in my direction. "Two minutes."

Yeah, magic focus is kind of annoying to play against. I was a bit surprised that she-.

"Recognised, Aqualad, B zero two."

I half turn in my seat as Kaldur appears, taking in my additional security measures with his usual dispassionate gaze.

"Identification confirmed."

He strides forwards, heading in our direction. Bit of a nuisance that he decided to wear his original Aqualad gear today. On the other hand, having him openly wearing Ocean Master's gear would on most days cause more trouble than it's worth. And, Truggs might just have redirected forces in his direction.

"Kaldur, what new-?"

"Recognised, Doctor Fate, two one."

Kaldur pauses just inside the security scanner for Nabu to materialise. I get to my feet. If he's here then there's input from the League. Richard sent everything he had to Batman and then returned home. I forget sometimes… Quite often, actually, that he's only fourteen and that fighting Titans and underwater foes isn't something he's really equipped to do. Batman's attitude appears to be 'this is a League task, we'll let you know if we need you'. Which -to be honest- is pretty reasonable. I step away from the computer and come to an approximate parade rest.

Nabu stares at the identification system, a pale golden aura shining out from his robes. Hm. Either he thinks there might be threats here or he's taken a leaf out of my book and started having his defences raised at all times. Worth knowing.

"Identification not confirmed. Please lower any exotic defences which may be preventing a complete scan."

"Lantern." I smile slightly, raising my eyebrows attentively. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I decided that the standard Justice League system was too prone to being bypassed, so I improved upon it. I'm afraid that you'll have to drop your shield spell."

Nabu pushes his left hand against the barrier, which holds firm. It's as exotic a shield as I could safely introduce and I don't think it's easy for magic users to bypass. "Lower this shield at once."

"Nabu, that's not how security works. You've been both mind controlled and impersonated before. I hardly think it's unreasonable-."

Nabu raises his right hand, a golden ankh flaring into being for a second before it detonates. Golden light radiates outwards, running through the identification arch and disintegrating it in a flash of light.

It would be so satisfying to hit him right now.

And I think I'd get away with it. Artemis is still angry about everything and the game and now someone she doesn't like -though her dislike is hardly on a level with mine or Zatanna's- just wrecked a piece of useful equipment. Wallace is inclined to respect League members, but that's getting a mild frown from him as well. Kon's staring, and it's flat out hostile. Wolf's lip is curling slightly, though she isn't growling yet. I think that I may have put the idea into the zeitgeist that being disrespectful to Nabu is okay. I could slam him against the back of the vestibule with a construct… Amp up the orange until I can carry out the scan… Batman wouldn't tolerate League members bypassing the security he's put in place.

My eyes slide over to Kaldur who is watching me impassively.

No. I can wait a few weeks.

"Alright then." I pointedly turn away from him and face Kaldur. "Aqualad, how are things in Atlantis?"

"Poseidonis is secure, as are all members of the royal family not already taken." There's a tension in his voice that I'm not used to hearing. "Military battlemages have reached the location of Oceanus' temple. It has been long abandoned. At the moment we have no further leads on Ocean Master's location."

Wallace tilts his head slightly to the left. "Well, what about Canada?"

Nabu steps forward. "Orm -or whatever dark entity he now serves- has become quite skilled in covering his tracks. The Batman and I have identified all of his movements while on land. Beyond that, the trail disappears."

Kon's eyes dip for a moment as he thinks. "What about just waiting at wherever the Gods locked up Oceanus? Orm's gotta go there sometime, right?"

"Oceanus' prison is removed from the physical world. There is no location from which it can be readily accessed, and the very act of entering would most likely be enough to release him." Nabu turns his head towards me. "I have learned that you acquired a sample of blood from a Saremite."

I nod. "Yes. I had intended to take it to Atlantis once the initial panic died down a bit."

"Foolish youth. Time is of the essence. Hand it over to me at once."

The container I put the blood from Ceyx in is currently on a shelf in my reconstructed workshop. "I.. don't.. believe that I take orders from you, Nabu." I smile. "Try asking nicely."

"Orange Lantern." I turn my head in Kaldur's direction. I.. was.. underestimating how angry he is. With me. "This is not the time. Doctor Fate is this world's premier magic user, and the best chance we have for locating Ocean Master before Oceanus is restored to this world. My family, my entire people, are most likely to be his first victims should that come to pass. If you will not take orders from Doctor Fate, perhaps you will take one from me."

"Alright." I nod. Need to smooth things over with Kaldur later. "Back in a moment."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th June
06:27 GMT -5

"Hm hm-hm. Hm hm-hm​-hm-hm-hm​."

I look around from the frying pan as a tired-looking Wallace walks into the kitchen. "You have trouble sleeping too?"

"No? I'm usually awake at this sort of time." I use a pair of tongs to turn the bacon over. "The only reason I'm eating breakfast now instead of half an hour ago is that I had an idea about tracking down Truggs' mercenaries."

Wallace shambles towards the fridge and pulls open the door, picking up the orange juice carton. "What, like checking the backgrounds of the guys you and the Hawks picked up yesterday and seeing if any of their associates are unaccounted for?"

"Cht… Cht… Yes."

"Right." He steps away from the fridge, closing the door and heading towards where we keep the glasses. "Pretty sure Batman and Rob are already on it." He stops before reaching his destination, standing up a little straighter. "Wait a sec. Wasn't this place a wreck yesterday?"

"Wallace, you know how much time I spend in here." He nods, then takes another step forwards and kneels down to reach the cupboard. "Did you really think I wouldn't be able to recreate it?"

"Didn't recreate my room."

"I've been inside your room once, and I certainly didn't scan it."

He straightens up with a glass in his hand and puts it down on the work surface before pouring orange juice from the carton into it. "Doesn't really matter. Didn't have much in there anyway."

"Did you..? Stay here overnight for any particular reason?"

He puts the carton down, picks up his glass and turns around, taking a sip as he does so. "I was still kinda freaked out about… What you said, about them coming after us any time they feel like. I… thought they might-."

"Attack your home, which wouldn't be worth doing if you weren't there."

He looks away, nodding. "Guess I'm just not used to being in the line of fire the whole time. Usually if one of the Rogues wants to pick a fight with Uncle Barry they go after an armoured car or something."

"I'm… Much as I'd like to, I can't upgrade your family home's security very far. Not if you don't want it to be obvious that a suburban home has been replaced by a fortress."

He takes another sip, then fishes a small vial of his latest chi-infusion potion out of his pocket. "Don't think it would really be in keeping with the neighborhood. You about done with the stove?"

I pick up a rasher. It's appropriately brown without being burnt. "Yep." I pick up my plate with my left hand and use the tongs to transfer the bacon to the waiting bread before putting it down, stepping back and walking over to the table.

Wallace assumes my position, taking another swig of orange juice before putting the glass down and picking up the tongs. He points them at the rest of the packet of bacon. "You mind if I..?"

"No no, that's what it's here for." I squirt out a small amount of ketchup onto the unbaconed slice of bread and spread it evenly across the surface with a knife. It took me quite a while to get bread that was the right texture for bacon. When I was… Whow. First time I've… Thought about life on Earth Prime for a while. The bread machine always made the crust too crisp and the insides too soft. A bit of a crust is fine, but the interior really needs a combination of absorbency and sponginess that comes naturally to factory bread but is harder to achieve through home baking. "There are eggs and a few tomatoes in the fridge if you want them."

"Any hash browns?"

"There are some potatoes and a grater?"

He turns the hob up and puts four rashers into the frying pan. "Any waffles?"

"A waffle iron… And we've got the materials for waffle batter."

"Oh El… I get you've got this.. thing, about 'real food'. But sometimes it's okay to eat out of a packet."

I pick up my sandwich in my right hand. "Would you eat packet bacon?"

"Oh, now you're just being silly."

I take a bite into Scotland's finest. Mm. My improved sense of taste and smell certainly isn't the best part of the modifications the rings have made to my body, but it does make eating a much more satisfying experience.

"You got any idea what Kaldur wants us doing today?" I wince as I chew, my silence causing him to look around. "Oh. He still pissed with you?" I nod. "I kinda get why. I mean, I get why you didn't tell anyone, but… I think I probably would have. If it were me." I nod again as I swallow. It's not an unreasonable position to take. "I mean, if we'd known he needed protecting-."

"The League could have provided security for ten months? Security good enough to stop… About twenty people in invisible phasing armour carrying guns with crumbler rounds? Without severely interfering with the life of his family? And that wouldn't just draw our enemies' attention to him?"

"Huh." He turns back to the hob and starts flipping the bacon over. "Hadn't thought of it like that."

"I admit it's still a very debatable decision on my part." I take a small bite while I think. Nabu is doing what he can to bypass the wards protecting the Saremites, Batman is investigating the Human end. Unless… Either of them ask for help, there isn't anything for me to do there. I suppose that I could… Spread rune stones throughout the Atlantic. That might improve their reception. Of course, I don't have anything like that number of stones… Aaaand to get more I'd have to go to Poseidonis, which Diana told me not to do.

Okay, what else? I could get John to open a portal to Hell and assimilate a few Demons. See if any of them know something. If I won a straight fight with Satanus, that would make things a good deal simpler. Just forcing him to flee would probably weaken him politically… No. If what I saw when I went after Mister Gregor was anything to go by I'd be swarmed under. I don't have enough anti-Demon weapons that would function in Hell. Maybe drawing the attention of Duma and Ramiel to what he's been up to?

Angels. That would be like trusting Klarion. And of course, that's the alternate route, isn't it? Activate my plan to remove Klarion a little early. Dealing with a second member of the Light would serve to nicely balance things up after they wrecked my home. Might even motivate the rest not to do something like this again. It would risk alerting Nabu…

"Batman to Mount Justice."

I wave my arm in the general direction of the kitchen's communication system. "Orange Lantern here, sir." Wallace looks torn between coming to attention and attending to his breakfast. After a moment's hesitation he opts to remove the frying pan from the hob and face the monitor.

"I've been following up on possible leads on Ocean Master's location. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to conduct hundreds of interviews in person." From the background it looks like he's in the Batcave. "I'm sending you a list now. You have Justice League authority to request support from local police. Have the team interview as many of them as you can and forward potential leads to me."

"Yes sir. How-?"

The monitor goes dead.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th June
11:03 GMT -8

I walk down the street in the imaginatively named 'Normal Heights' area of San Diego, left hand pressed to the side of my head. I'm getting one or two odd looks, but since I'm out of costume I think most people are assuming that I'm just some guy on his mobile. "Mister Director, thank you for taking my call."

"I felt it best. Batman's report was somewhat light on detail."

"I'm afraid that we're in the middle of an incident, sir. We can't make a full report until we're certain that the situation is safe."

"I understand that. Nevertheless, the League are both suggesting that our fleets put into harbour and requesting that we offer them assistance from any advanced deep sea imaging equipment that we possess. If they are suggesting that our fleets go into harbour then they believe that Ocean Master may well succeed in releasing Oceanus and that anything on the sea would be at risk."

"That is my understanding, sir."

"And they understand that our more.. advanced equipment-" Xenotech or schizo tech, the sort of thing they wouldn't advertise that they have but might offer to use to help us if the planet is at stake. "-would be based on vessels far less able to survive an ocean-based calamity than our warships?"

"Mister Director, my normal practice is to assume that Batman knows everything." Except that one of his team mates sired a bastard, clearly. Unless he actually did-? No, not important. "Our best hope to prevent Oceanus appearing is to locate Orm before he can complete whatever ritual he is working on. But the oceans are vast, and the League does not have the capacity for universal surveillance."

"You are aware that Russia has no borders with the Atlantic ocean."

"We suspect that is where the ritual will take place. However, we don't know that for certain. We also don't know what the immediate effects of the ritual would be. If it takes place in the North Atlantic, the pressure wave might well be powerful enough to impact Russia's northern coast. And given their allies, they might well be performing the ritual somewhere entirely different. That's on top of the fact that we don't know exactly how good Oceanus' control of water is. It's possible that he can simply pull the water from people's bodies at range."

"That would be a concern. But the League does not require additional combat forces?"

"Unless you have specialists in water magic better than those the Atlanteans have already volunteered, the League doesn't need more force. If you wish to offer any other sorts of combat troops, I would suggest quite strongly that you carefully consider the likely conditions they would be fighting in."

"The only asset I have which could assist the League is currently performing a survey of our own coastal waters. I will ensure that the results are made available to the League."

"Is there a magic user on board?" He doesn't immediately respond. "Mister Director, I understand that you have security concerns but you will need magic assistance in order to get anywhere."

"Atlantis has experts to spare?"

"Yes. Atlantean industry and military is based around the use of magic. Their problem is getting to places. If you can give me a location, I can have a team sent to any Russian zeta tube within half an hour."

"I would prefer it if you could send them to your Fortress. You have returned it to the North Pacific upon completing your work on the South Pole."

"If you like, Mister Director. Please remind whoever will be making the pickup that they still aren't allowed inside."

"Acceptable. Please have them ready as swiftly as possible."

He hangs up. Ring, Watchtower.

Compliance.

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower."

"Hawkman here, go ahead."

"The Director wants the mages sent to my Ice Fortress. Apparently they've only got one vessel that can help us."

"Or one that they're willing to share. I'll contact Atlantis and have them make the transfer."

"Make sure they know to have a translation spell active. I doubt that the Russians have anyone who speaks Atlantean Greek."

"Would you also like to spend some time on Thanagar today? I believe that my grandmother may be rusty on her egg-sucking."

"You know that expression and you didn't know 'to be frank?"

"Egg sucking has a Thanagarian equivalent."

"Wouldn't that be cannibalism?" Not that Thanagarians actually lay eggs. I'm not sure whether Static was joking or if things are just different on Thanagar 12.

"Hawkman out."

I lower my left hand as I lift up the latch on the gate to my target's home. The American, Russian and Chinese military are now co-operating against a shared enemy. Being involved in something like this is a bit strange. Shouldn't it take… More..? Naturally, China weren't prepared to put foreign mages on the Dragonwing, but unlike Russia and America they have their own. Feels strange, hoping that Nabu can do something right this time. I even had John shut the sickness induction system down. Not sure how much difference that will make…

I press the button to activate the doorbell and I hear a buzz from inside the bungalow. The owner and current occupant is a man named Noah Martinez, and two known criminal associates of his were amongst those the Hawks blasted into unconsciousness outside the Hall of Justice yesterday. Yet he's still here. No logical reason for them to have been recruited and not him. Not that I want to get my hopes-.

The door swings open on a chain and the muzzle of a double barrelled shotgun is pointed at my face. "I don't know who you are, but you can-."

My right hand darts forwards and covers the muzzle of the gun. There's a bang as he instinctively pulls the trigger, followed by a sudden rush of displaced air as my kinetic barrier redirects the force. Mister Martinez goes flying backwards away from the door, shotgun flying from his hand as he does so. I have the ring remove the chain, then push the door open the rest of the way and stroll inside. Mister Martinez is lying on the ground in a daze, but he's sufficiently self-possessed to grab his backup weapon out of his trouser waistband and level it in my direction.

"Given that I just took a shotgun blast, how much do you think that's going to help?"

"Fuck you! I've been shitting myself all day 'causa you people! I said no face to face meetings! You don't think Batman or someone's smart enough to come here?"

Curious. "I imagine that he's busy at the moment. Of course, that doesn't mean he might not send an associate." I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out my identification card. "You may refer to me as Orange Lantern."

His eyes widen and his gun dips slightly. "OhJesusfuck."

"I'm afraid that I'm a Hellenist. So." I crouch down a metre away from him. "Clearly you know why I'm here and.. you've.. rather nicely confirmed that you have the information I want. Where is Nylor Truggs?"

"I ain't tellin'-. I ain't tellin' you nothing."

I nod. "I see. Batman has been known to inflict various forms of physical injury on people who aren't forthcoming during crisis situations. But breaking fingers isn't really my thing." Which is not to say that I can't perform fear-based interrogations when the need arises. "Fatty, eat his left arm."

The Demon drops from the right ring with a grin on its face. "FOOD!"

"AAAAAAGH!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

"…only really known him for a few months." My brother shakes his head. "Darkseid would never be this subtle."

Oh, Scott.

I stride through the hush tube-

19th June
21:03 GMT

-and into the Justice League's meeting room about five metres from the head of the table on Diana's side.

"No,-"

Hands go for weapons, Jordan's ring is glowing brilliantly, Barda's right hand grips her mega rod and Kal-El actually gets to his feet.

"-but he might do this." I smile, arms folded behind my back. "Good evening. My ears were burning."

Batman is still impassive. Letting me get the grandstanding out of my system, presumably. Diana hasn't moved but she's watching me like a disappointed Hawk. Scott-.

"How did you do that?"

"Wasn't too difficult. You blocked boom tube access-."

"I blocked the hush tubes too. All except-." He looks at me honestly shocked. "All except the one in Mount Justice."

"Yes." I stroll onwards, walking down the side of the League's table behind Mister Zatara and opposite the Lanterns. Don't pay them too much attention. Don't let them square up and try and turn this into a physical confrontation. "You tore out almost everything I built for you, but that was just too good to give up, wasn't it?"

I feel Diana's eyes boring into me. "If you have done anything-."

"Diana, they're my friends." I turn my head her way, looking pained. "But did you know that if you know the exact magnitude of hyperinflation applied to the gravitons in a hush tube-."

Scott gets it at once. "You can track it, even.. piggyback it. I'd detect it if you tried that with a boom tube, but since a hush tube is designed to be almost impossible to detect anyway-."

"I just had to wait until you used it at least once, then set my equipment to keep the hyperdimensional passageway open." I stop at the open end of the 'U'. "It wouldn't be noticeable from normal space-."

"But my equipment would see it as coming from a friendly location. Oooohhhhh." He sags. "I'm going to need to revise our entire security policy."

I grin at him. "You got in? Well do-!"

"What are you doing here, Grayven?"

I move my eyes to Lantern Jordan for a moment, then turn my full attention to Mister Wayne. Serious face time. "Batman, I think it's time for me to come in." I dip my eyes, shaking my head slightly. "I've learned everything about Light operations that I'm going to, and I'm a little worried that-."

"Wait, what?" Mister Allen voices everyone's gobsmackedness, Diana looking at Mister Wayne with a combination of disbelief and steadily building outrage.

I hold out my right hand, palm upwards, and replay parts of the conversation Mister Wayne and I had last November, construct images of both of us floating over my hand.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"You met with Ra's al Ghul."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Information gathering. Sir, I was under the impression that you didn't want full reports on my undercover work."

The image flickers as I skip forwards.

"I simply don't want to risk those parts of the organisation on which I have good information going to ground."

"How long do you envisage this taking?"

"No real way to know."

I close my right hand as Mister Queen whistles through his teeth. "That's some next level stuff, Bats. You running any other agents you wanna tell us about?"

"I wasn't sure that I was still running this one." He glares at me from his position at the head of the table. "You murdered a man on national television. How do I know you haven't been compromised?"

"Alright, first off. Captain Adams, I have to ask: do you actually have a problem with what I did to Klarion?"

"As it happens." He looks directly at me. "No. I didn't."

"Hawkman? Hawkwoman?"

Two head shakes.

"Jordan?"

His jaw tightens. "I have a problem with you working with Sinestro."

"Jordan, it was a joke." I turn away from him. "Dear sister in law?"

"Was both of you dying an option?"

"Harsh." I turn to the head of the table. "Diana? Honestly?"

"I would have preferred a better way, but I did not mourn his passing."

"There you go, Batman. Killing a mass murderer shouldn't really be taken as a sign of greater villainy. Now, the reason I'm pulling myself out… In two weeks, my 'colleagues' are planning to use a man named Johnny Sorrow to call a creature called the King of Tears into our world. You will be lured to the point of emergence, and it will kill you all. Then, I and my associates will -having already prepared for this event- jump in and either kill it or send it back to whence it came, taking your place as the world's premier superhero team. I assume that you don't want that to happen?"

Mister O'Brian points at me with both forefingers. "What, having you lead a superhero team?" His face distorts into an unsettling parody of an actual smile. Probably the best he can do. "Not really."

Kal-El's eyes narrow slightly. "And you want our help stopping them before they get that far."

"No." I take a leaver arch file out of subspace and float it down the table to him. "We will be destroying the Light in its totality. I will be taking care of the other leaders. It's the worldwide conclusion of their support structures that concerns the League."

Kal-El takes the file out of the air, still staring me down. "And why should we let you take the lead?"

"Because I have an order from President Horne authorising me to kill them and you don't. Well, alright; technically it says 'take into custody if that can be achieved without risk to yourself or any American citizens', but I think we're pretty clear what he means." I shake my head. "I'm not leading this effort. President Horne is overseeing things and General Lane is in direct command. It's going to be difficult getting people into place to carry out a complete clean up. We've got the entirety of the League of Shadows, Savage's mercenary groups and businesses, Brain's research centres and laboratories, whatever the heck Mordru has-."

"LexCorp?"

"Pursuing LexCorp is a little.. legally awkward. But what he's done has well and truly crossed the line. Lex will be presented with an offer he can't refuse. If he's sensible, he won't try."

Batman nods. "And if we say 'no'?"

"Having the Justice League on board would simplify things considerably but your participation isn't actually essential. There will be more deaths, both on the parts of our targets and amongst the police who will attempt to bring the Light down without sufficient metahuman support. And you will have more difficulty getting your budget approved by the US Ambassador to the UN next year."

Batman nods. "The League will need to discuss the matter. In private."

I nod. "Of course. If it helps your deliberations…" I take another file out of subspace. "This is the initial draft of the Destructive Persons Act. It will set a new tone for US policy towards both superheroes and supervillains. It doesn't apply to Justice League members, but you should probably be aware of it."

Mister Queen holds up his right hand, so I float it his way. "Let me guess: mass conscription or arrest, right?"

"No, a voluntary training scheme with privileges for those who undertake them. A crackdown on some vigilantes might end up happening, but that won't be for years if it happens at all. America's just too used to you people." I start walking up the room again, this time on the other side of the table. Jordan glowers at me as I pass. "I'll leave you to discuss things. Oh!" I stop. "Except one thing. Captain Adams? You're with me."

He frowns in consternation. "Like Hell I-" I take a letter out of subspace and float it over to him "-am." He takes it and breaks the seal.

"Signed by your commander-in-chief and you commanding officer. You're reporting to me for the duration." He looks it over then turns his head to the side with a grunt of frustration. "I'll quite understand if you consider resigning your commission preferable, but please, consider the benefits this course of action has. No more Light. Higher organisation gone from the world's supervillains."

"I guess it's not a crime if the President does it." The letter creases in his right hand as he stands. "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen."

"Glad to hear it. Father Box, hush tube. We've got supervillains to hunt."

"Ploong."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th June
17:03 GMT -5

Kaldur intently watches the screen in front of us. I'm not sure whether he's just being his normal intense self or if he's actually ignoring me. But, given that we're going into the field in a few moments it's probably best to clear the air as soon as possible.

"Kaldur. Do you have a moment?"

He doesn't look around. "Princess Diana has discussed with me the reasons for your decision. If it were I who had become aware of such information, then as an Atlantean citizen and as the pupil of my king, it is unthinkable to me that I would not have shared it with him. Having heard the arguments to the contrary, I still believe that what you did was wrong."

"I.. can understand that. Did Diana tell you what I told her about her history?"

He turns his eyes my way. "Do you mean to imply that you know something about me of which you think I am unaware?"

"Yes."

His eyes return to the screen, continuing to study the building layout before him. "Inform me after the mission."

I nod. "Alright."

There's a bang on the open door of the van behind us. We turn to see a fully armoured up Agent Bell looking at us. "You kids ready to go?"

"Are you?"

She flicks a switch on her shiny new plasma repeater, the gun humming as it feeds fuel into the plasma bottle. "I'd say so."

I walk to the doorway of the Federal TV Repairs van and jump out, power armour materialising around me as I stroll into the underground car park being used as a staging area. A moment later Kaldur joins me, his water armour forming a translucent barrier around his body. Roy looks up from where he's testing his new power armour adapted bow… As well as chatting up one of the female SWAT team members. Kon and M'gann's already on overwatch above the target location, Kon in full Nth Metal armour and M'gann in Starfish mode. This time we're also going in with thirty FBI SWAT officers.

Think you're the only one upgrading your mundane fighters do you, Mister Truggs?

"Alright everyone!" Agent Bell waves her right arm. "Stand ready!"

The SWAT officers activate their plasma repeaters and form up into fire teams as their corporals signal their readiness. Roy closes his helmet and puts an anti-magic arrow on string. Kaldur creates a water tower shield and whip with his water bearers. Everyone's carrying spell eaters.

Okay then. "Transition in three, two, one."

Orange filaments dart out and then the scenery flickers.

"Go!"

Roy's anti-magic arrow hits the decorative portico and my rune stone flickers as something fails. Pedestrians are already scurrying to get out of the way as the first squad storms through the front doors of the Hotel Midnight, taking up a position by the elevators. High above us I hear a boom as Kon hits the roof hard.

Linton Smith may be infamously untouchable by the New York authorities, but it's amazing what you can do with a Federal judge of the evangelical persuasion where magic use is concerned.

Another squad takes up position in front of the stairs, a third squad taking and holding the front desk, clearly petrified staff being handcuffed and stuffed out of the way. Kaldur and I walk in next. I check my scans -the general scry ward on the building having fallen with the impact of Roy's arrow- and note that the squad assigned to enter through the staff entrance has also breached successfully.

'Breached successfully'. Heh. Listen to me.

Agent Bell looks at me. "Well?"

"No trace."

She nods and presses her earpiece. "Superboy, Miss Martian. You have anything?"

"We've got a.. skull." M'gann heard my description of what he did to his sister, but seeing her skull in person is a little different. "Securing it and moving forwards."

"Squad two, you're with Arsenal. Head downwards to the gladiator pens. Secure anything that looks like it could be magical."

The corporal nods, then waves his troops forwards. "Follow the guy in the red armor."

Roy takes an Unmaker out of his quiver and looses it at the main elevators. The metal doors disappear, revealing the shaft beyond. He checks up, down, and then jumps down as the squad accompanying him prepare their ropes for the descent.

"Superboy to everyone. We've just encountered a.. zombie."

I nod. "Remember what I said. Linton Smith is a Vodun bokor. Those aren't undead zombies; they're people with their little souls removed, no will of their own. Just shout at them and tell them to stay put."

"Right."

Agent Bell comes up alongside me. "I'm a bit out of my comfort zone here. Can Smith be charged for that?"

"Yes. Yes he can."

The ring shows me the SWAT helicopter flying in, depositing the troops who will be backing up Kon and M'gann.

"Sergeant, hold the front doors. Orange Lantern, take us up."

This time I take greater care, sending a filament and a test object upwards and making sure that it materialises correctly before transitioning myself, Kaldur, Agent Bell and two squads upwards into the private parts of the hotel. Mister Smith runs his businesses out of this part of the building. Property, shipping and construction. One squad takes up position at the entrance, security guards raising their hands in the face of the troopers' plasma repeaters and FBI issue armour.

I realise that there's little chance Mister Smith will try to fight this out. He could, there are any number of unpleasant spells he could cast or spirits he could call upon. But much like John he prefers to fight indirectly. He'll cooperate up to a point, then arrange for blackmail or more subtle magics to be brought to bear to have the investigation blocked.

Teeheehee.

Agent Bell looks around the office. "Alright! Which one of you is in charge!?"

The only man wearing a tie nervously raises his left hand.

"Take us to Linton Smith."

The doors on the far side of the room open, immediately becoming the focus of three repeaters, a water whip and my railgun construct as the man himself strolls through looking perfectly at peace with the situation. I think he's lost a little weight since his last encounter with John, though it could just be the tailoring of his suit. Few people can make the grass skirt and shirtless jacket look slimming.

"Agent." He holds his hands out, palms forward. A gesture of appeal rather than surrender, but simultaneously showing that he isn't armed. Or rather, isn't carrying a weapon. "If you wished to speak with me, I do have a phone line. And a legal department."

Agent Bell lowers her gun, though the SWAT troops keep theirs on him. "Mister Linton Smith, you are under arrest for murder, slavery, blackmail and such other crimes as a full investigation may bring to light. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You-."

"Agent, if you wish to question me, could you not do so in my office? I don't think-."

"Warning: Spell Eater temperature increasing."

There's a flash of blue as Agent Bell shoots him in the chest with her plasma repeater. Its low lethality mode is a sort of static electrical beanbag round, but it still hits hard enough to knock the target off his feet.

"You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning." She walks forward, standing over him with her gun pointed downwards. If she fires then he's getting some nasty internal burns as well as broken ribs. "If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Lantern?"

I walk forwards, preparing the suppression chains as Agent Bell permits herself a thin smile. "You're not getting out of this one, you bastard."

"So, Linton Smith." I clamp on the first manacles and he starts to look a good deal less certain. "Where is Nylor Truggs?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
01:49 GMT -5

"Thank you, Mister Cobblepot. Your cooperation is much appreciated."

Richard smiles faintly. "He's scarier than me? I think I'm offended."

Mister Cobblepot nods nervously. "Call me again when you've set a Demon on fire on national television. Even his baking is more intimidating than some sort of.. circus acrobat like you."

"He's got a point there, Robin. Now, Mister Cobblepot, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to leave you where you are and lock you in."

"What? You bastard, I helped you!"

"Yes, you did. And that buys you my silence regarding the matter of you supplying both Nylor Truggs and David Hyde with personnel and equipment. Assuming that stops now, at least. But I can't have you warning anyone, intentionally or unintentionally."

"No, you fuck! Let me-" I close the lid of the storage chest, muffling his complaints somewhat. "-oooooout!"

I take a sound nullifier out of subspace and attach it to the exterior. "Is there a protocol for this?"

Richard tilts his head to the side. "Usually we hand them over to the police. But if you're serious about not telling them about what he's been doing..?"

"I prefer to stick to my agreements. It's good for business. And there must be some reason why Batman hasn't stuck him back in Blackgate."

"He might have trouble justifying that if Aquaman ever found out about Black Manta." We turn and walk away from the disused warehouse where we carried out our interrogation, the case vibrating slightly as Mister Cobblepot struggles against his bonds. "You're actually taking the part about him supplying Nylor Truggs pretty well."

"If it hadn't been him it would have been someone else. I'm saving all my anger for the truly deserving." Still, what I just did to Mister Cobblepot was fairly nasty. There's an oxygen purifier in the chest so he won't suffocate… "Do you think we should move him somewhere?"

Richard looks around at the street as we exit the building. "Nah. He should be safe here. You.. can.. track the case you used, right?"

"Unless someone gets very creative, yes."

"Then that's fine. Batman's done worse to him before."

I let out a sigh/laugh. "Eh, Gotham. Ah, no offence."

"Some taken. So, we hitting Black Manta's warehouse tonight?"

"Pff, this morning. And, no, I don't think we should. The whole team's been rushing around all day… I think that getting some sleep first would be a good idea. I mean, I'll talk to Kaldur, but…"

"Yeah, I'm not feeling all that inhausted right now either." He pauses. "You see, it's inhausted because-."

"No, no, I got it. Not exhausted."

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern and Robin. Have you completed your interrogation?"

"All done. We've got an address, but Oh El thinks we should wait until everyone's better rested."

"Yeah. Once we hit it, they're going to know exactly how we're coming at them. Assuming that we get another location, we're going to have to go there immediately. If we run into a Water Wraith or something I wouldn't want the team to be unfocused due to exhaustion."

Kaldur mulls it over for a moment. "And we do not know if what we are doing will impede Ocean Master anyway. I agree. We will reconvene at oh eight hundred, eastern standard time. Aqualad out."

"He sounds pretty good for a guy who didn't get any sleep last night either."

"I'm not sure I'd be sleeping if someone attacked Gotham like that."

"What about Swamp Thing?"

"That was more of a communication failure than an actual attempt to level the city." Across the road a small group of local toughs see the pair of us then turn tail and run. "I mean, if Arcane had done it, I'd be sleeping with a white phosphorus grenade and an agent orange spray under my pillow."

"And one of Kid Flash's alchemical bug sprays."

"Heh, yeah. You heading back to the cave?"

"That's where I usually sleep."

"You could stay in Gotham?"

"Yes, but I don't want to wake Karon up or give Holly ideas, and Jade and I-." He's stopped, looking at me in a way that suggests that his eyebrows are raised behind his mask. "Oh, you meant with you. Right. Ah, thanks, but there's really no way to explain my presence.. in your home, if I'm spotted. If.. you're.. concerned about your home being targeted you're welcome to have my Praexis Demons stand watch. I've also come up with a couple of drone gun designs that should pierce most disguises." I pause for a moment. "I could probably do better if I had some Nth Metal, but I used up my reserves of that and it'll be a while before the Hawks can restock."

"Thanks, I… Think I'd like that." He sighs, looking forwards. "The whole point of having a secret identity was so these things can't follow us home. At this point, Batman's going to have to do the same thing to the Cave that you've done to the Mountain."

"Unless we get all members of the Light. They don't appear to have shared what they know, otherwise your home address would already have been swarmed under. And we all know where Lex is."

"Miss Martian not had any luck?"

"No. It's not so much that he's actively resisting as he's pointedly avoiding thinking certain things. Kaldur didn't want to risk her doing more in case he became aware of it."

"Makes sense." We stop at the alleyway containing the zeta tube for this part of Gotham. "Well, ah, good morning."

I step forwards, depositing twelve Praexis Demons behind me as I go. "Good morning to you too."

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I step out into the training room-

"Identification confirmed."

-the force field parting for me. The lights are dimmed for the night cycle, but I can still see Zatanna blinking back into wakefulness from a holographic chair in the sparring ring. "Oh, y-. You're back. What.. time is it?"

"Eight minutes to two."

She rises to her feet before stretching. "You know what this room needs?"

"Pseudo-sentient magic drone guns?"

"Seats. Proper soft furnishings." I reach her and she falls in beside me, leaning on my left arm slightly. "Holograms just aren't the same."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Ugh?

I slowly become aware of the duvet around me. Something.. feels… Off.

I'm not sure.. what..?

No alarms, no sounds of weapons fire. No odd smell. Not an attack, okay. Ugh. Lights… Still on the night cycle. I usually sleep better than this. I look across the pillow to my bedside table, the dim orange glow of the rings illuminating my bedside clock.

20th June
05:02 GMT -5

Uhpfff. The worst time to wake up. I've got to be up in two hours, and my mind's already sufficiently alert that I'll struggle to get back to sleep. I turn my face away from the light source and press my right cheek into my pillow. Why did I wake up? After experimenting with a white noise generator I ended up just going with a sound deadening field. Really loud noises get through fine, but sounds from other rooms, the corridor or from the mountain's equipment get stopped dead. No movement in the room, the temperature's fine. I have a dim recollection of a dream in which I was lying on a lilo on a beach… Or maybe a desert… Don't remember it being particularly scary, though.

"Green Lantern to Orange Lantern."

Euh. What does Jordan want? I turn back over and sluggishly lift my right arm out of the duvet, waving it in the general direction of the rings. At this time of the morning I have too little desire to call the rings to me. The third flap results in my palm making contact with them, my fingers wrapping around the uppermost and knocking the lower one onto the floor.

"Orange Lantern here, sir. What can I do for-?"

"Ocean Master did it."

Fuckfuckfuckfuck! My mind sharpens, right ring finger going through the ring it's gripping even as the original ring flies around to land on my newly extruded left hand. Duvet and sheet evaporate as I rise into the air over my bed, power armour appearing from subspace.

"Oceanus is free?"

"If that's not Oceanus, I'd hate to think what it is."

A zeta tube construct forms around me, and a moment later I'm atop the KordTech building.

"Recognised-."

I transition upwards to the edge of the atmosphere and look down at the Atlantic Ocean spread out below me. Nothing much-. There's a grey cloud mass just to the west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, about two thousand kilometres from America's east coast. Ring, access weather satellites.

"Compliance."

Two hours of cloud and wind monitoring rush through my head. No, that's new. And it's slowly expanding. It doesn't appear to be moving yet…

"Don't look so big from up here, does it?" I half turn as Guy appears behind me. "C'mon, Lanterns are meetin' up on the coast."

I nod. Ring, detect will and transition.

Compliance.

Another flicker and I'm about five metres away from Lanterns Jordan and Stewart, both covered in green glowing construct armour.

"How.. bad..?"

A green cutaway image of the Atlantic appears just in front of Lantern Stewart. "Currents around Poseidonis, Tritonis and Crastinus are already so strong that they've had to call magicians back from the search just to keep them from being scoured from the seabed." The three cities are just on the US side of the Atlantic Ridge, which appears to be acting as a natural water break.

"'course..." Guy shrugs. "We don't really need to search anymore."

"Is Orm in there, or-?"

Jordan shakes his head. "Not our problem right now. Our problem is the tidal waves that are about to hit the east coast." He looks me over. "Think you can shield an area that size?"

John's image shifts, showing the water flowing over the land and marking the predicted area covered at full extension. Actual tidal waves don't look like the sort of mile high waves I remember from old cartoons. They aren't much taller than a person, but they're powerful and the water just keeps coming. Of course, those are just the normal waves caused by sudden earthquakes. Oceanus.. or Orm.. might be actively pushing. Or pushing and pulling. "You'll need to put it out to sea, from the sea bed. And make it tall. The water will just keep on pushing-."

I shake my head. "I'm-. I'm sorry, but that.. sort of area… That's well beyond me. I… I could probably shield Happy Harbour and New York, but-."

"Why not?" Jordan frowns "Yeah, it's a big area, but you don't need to make anything complicated to handle it."

"Because the east coast isn't mine. I don't own it. Complex constructs aren't a problem for me, but if I'm not invested in a place I can't.. do it. I mean, if this is the best idea we've got then I'll try…"

He frowns, eyes darting towards the storm clouds which presumably mark Oceanus' position. "How about with the snake?"

"She's got even less reason to care than I do. We.. might remain aware enough of what's going on to attack Oceanus, but.. maintaining a defence of places we've never even visited..? That's... I don't think that would work."

"Uh, great. Okay. If we work together, we should be able to."

"Hal." Guy looks thoughtful. "You know how I was… goin' on about… Abin Sur's ring picking you by dumb luck-."

"Guy, this is not the time."

Guy puffs up his cheeks, exhaling slowly as he stares out across the Atlantic. "I was jus' doin' the dumb.. macho thing. Y'know, puttin' down the other guy. You're a good man, an' a great Lantern." He turns in the air, looking at the confused Jordan. "Not sayin' I couldn'a done just as well, but… You've done good."

"Guy… What?"

"You wan'ed to know how come I could break free a' Klarion without help? I had help." He holds out his right hand in front of him, looking at his ring's sigil. "I was givin' it everything I had t' try an' get away.. and it wasn't enough. I opened myself up t' anything that was listening." He lowers his ring. "This has to happen, an' we ain't enough. So I guess I gotta ask fer help again."

"Well… Yeah, that would be great, but-."

"Ion." Guy's eyes burn with green light, green vapour wafting from his body. "I'm not enough. Not by myself. No ego here. Use me, burn me up, whatever. I don't care, but this doesn't happen, you hear me? I'm not gunna let millions of people die just because it's impossible t' save them."

"Guy, you've been spending too much time with Lantern Toren. I'm pretty sure Ion doesn't work like-."

"Warning, extreme will detected."

Guy's body flares with green light! I'm forced back, and the other two drift away as well.

"We are in alignment." Guy… Ion gestures, and a green barrier appears below us and then spreads out both north and south. It's got to be a hundred metres thick.

Ring, is that enough?

Unable to calculate. However, available evidence suggests that the barrier will serve as intended.

John stares at our brilliantly glowing colleague, then turns to me with a frown. "You knew about this?"

"I watched him turn off Jordan's ring with a thought. I suggested he keep quiet about it."

Jordan shakes his head. "We can have this out later. Batman, the coast is secure. Where do you want us next?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
05:06 GMT -5

Ring, patch in.

"…is surrounded by hurricane force winds, clouds and rain. Most members of the League can't even get close enough to make an attack."

"Understood. You want some heavy artillery, you just give the word."

"Jordan, Doctor Fate is currently ten miles away from the storm front. Go to his position and protect him while he tries to counteract Ocean Master's magic."

"You got it." He nods to John, looks Guy over cautiously and me over with irritation. "Be there in thirty seconds."

There's a flicker as he transitions away.

"Stewart, do you have any constructs capable of large scale atmospheric control?"

"Yeah, but… I've never tried using them on something this size."

"Sir, KordTech has five hundred arcanotechnology weather control drones. They can shut down normal storms by themselves. They might be-."

"I know. Kord's already making them ready for transport. How quickly can you get them into position?"

Ring, current locations? "If Lantern Stewart assists me…" They're magic, so take more power to shift into subspace… I look over at him. "Can you make zeta tube constructs?"

He nods. "Long as I don't try flying through, yeah."

"Then… Ten minutes. They're in about three different places at the moment, but if I open a zeta tube in the New York warehouse and start passing them through-."

"Get moving. Stewart, it will probably be easiest if you arrange them in orbit before moving directly against Oceanus. Coordinate with Doctor Fate."

"You got it."

"Orange Lantern, now."

"Sorrysir." My surroundings flicker and are replaced with the central courtyard of the KordTech complex in New York. Right, production and testing is over there. I transition again, going in through the air conditioning and appearing inside the building.

A couple of people on the night shift look up from their efforts to move the drones to the loading bay. A second later the supervisor waves his arms. "Okay! Forget that! Let the Lantern handle it! Focus on putting the part-finished ones together!"

I transition across the warehouse to the loading bay and generate a large zeta tube construct. The final version of the weather control drones ended up being much larger than the prototype we showed Io back in March. Not much point building them too small for a storm of any size, and the perfect control Ted likes so much just didn't make commercial sense if the business is mostly going to be shutting large storms down. Over in the production area I see three Atlanteans of the same Black Lagoon type as La'gaan working on linking disassembled enchanted sections together. The eventual split of work we decided on was to have the mechanically simple/mystically complex parts made in Poseidonis and the rest being done up here.

"Orange Lantern to Green Lantern C, ready here."

"Ready."

I pick up the closest with a null-grav clamp construct and shove it through the zeta tube, white light flashing as it disappears.

"Got it. Keep 'em coming."

Alright then. Twenty more clamps appear and start drifting in the direction of the zeta tube. The drones aren't fragile exactly, but unlike in normal operation they aren't going to be checked at the other end. First one through, then the second and more clamps appears to keep the convoy up. I'll slow down if John asks me to, but at this rate we should make the estimate I gave Batman.

"Hey, Orange Lantern!" The supervisor jogs over to me. "Ted's been phoning around the guys at the Florida site, they should have everything ready we're going to get ready by the time you're finished here."

"Good, thank you for telling me."

He watches as another disappears. "Hey, are we gonna get any a' these back? Aaah, not that I'm complaining. I don't want New York flooded or anything. But if we-."

"No idea, sorry. Protecting the drones will be a tertiary concern during combat. We'll try, but no promises."

He nods, taking a look around to see if there's anything he needs to do. "So… How big is this thing?"

"The area covered by clouds is about eighty kilometres across at the moment and growing."

"Nah, nah, I mean the guy making it. Ted said something about… Ah, about a Titan?"

"We don't know. There's a storm in the way and these really annoying wizards who keep blocking me when I try scanning through it."

"Can't Superman see it? He's got, like, super vision and stuff?"

"Any heat would be masked by the storm. Any electrical activity would be obscured by the lightning which the storm is generating. Atlanteans don't really use radio or radiation so there's nothing to see there either." Okay, getting there. One third done. "There's enough water in the air that it's messing up radar and we aren't sure if Titans have dense body structures like bones, if they even have bodies in the conventional sense."

"Okay, I didn't mean like-. I know you guys probably have it all covered-"

"I wish."

"-but it just seemed like something…"

"Fine. Don't worry. How many more are likely to be ready in the next half hour?"

"Uh-?" He looks over at the assembly area. "Assuming no problems, we can get one done every five minutes for the next half-hour. Then we'll start running out of the magical parts. Why half an hour?"

"The way super power fights go, if this takes longer than half an hour then we've probably lost."

"Oh. And what happens..?"

"Ocean Master was a prince of Atlantis who wanted his brother off the throne so he could have it. He was executed for treason and brought back as some kind of undead.. thingy. I have no idea at all what's going on in his mind. Honestly, I couldn't even guess."

"A big storm in the Atlantic would be pretty bad for shipping."

"It'd also be pretty bad for the Atlanteans who live under it and no one I've been able to talk to knows what Oceanus gets out of this."

He nods. "Supervillains, huh?"

"Don't even get me started." Two thirds done. "Still managing, Green C?"

"I'm managing fine. How many more?"

"Another forty from here, then I'm moving to Florida for the rest. Can Nabu work with them?"

"He thinks he can."

"Might be better getting Red Tornado in on that." Oh. "And if he could persuade Red Torpedo to assist us, that would be good as well. The drones are basically upgraded copies of their design."

"I'll pass that on to Batman once we're done here. For now, just focus on getting your job done."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
07:21 GMT -3

Nabu raises his arms, a gold light flaring outwards and being answered by the shining ankhs appearing next to each of the weather control drones currently holding position over the storm Oceanus is throwing out. "The mechanisms are crude. But they will serve."

Didn't see you doing any better.

Doctor Lockhart looks out across the world as it lies spread out before us. "There really is no getting away from all this, is there?"

"It is unwise to mistake isolation for safety, Doctor."

"Fate seems to be doing okay. I don't know why you even wanted me here."

"Professionally, because we don't know how well he can actually manage it. Particularly if an enemy magic user targets him while he's working on it. Personally, because I think you needed a kick up the arse."

He frowns at me. "Language."

"Kick up the top part of your legs. You didn't want to go to the ceremony, fine, no problem. But you haven't applied for citizenship-."

"I -James Lockhart- have citizenship. Father faked all the paperwork when he built me."

"I actually wrote you a letter about upgrading your skin to what Danni has. And the rest, if you wanted it. Not to combat levels, just so you can live a comfortable life."

"And if I suddenly rejuvenated, I'd need to come clean about my robotic status. I told Tornado and I'll tell you: it's not happening."

"I can make the changes far more subtle than-."

"Fate to the Justice League. I am ready to begin."

"Batman here. Deploy them at once."

Nabu lowers his arms slightly and four hundred and eighty eight weather control drones wreathed in golden light flash downwards towards the storm clouds. Red Tornado is already down there, testing the edge of the storm front and trying to prevent it spreading further. It should only take a few seconds for Nabu to get them into place, then… Well, we'll see if his existence has any justification.

"I am activating the spell-matrices now."

At this point the drones are just tiny golden specks of light below us, obscured by distance and clouds. Then the clouds around the periphery just vanish, airborne water precipitating immediately and falling to the ocean surface.

"Adequate. Resistance is minimal. This may be because Oceanus is not consciously generating the storm and it is a mere side effect of his presence. I am moving the drones towards the epicentre."

Water continues to fall in a perfect circle as the storm is cut down to size. Okay, a magic user down there could strike the drones with lightning but they're highly resistant to that even without Nabu shielding them. They're shielded against anti-machine effects. Depending on how big a Titan's physical body is -and going by the Hekatonkheires I'm going to guess 'very big'- his best option might well be to just hit them with physical force.

"Doctor, once Batman has no further need of us here, would you be willing to relocate to Atlantis? Your water control abilities-."

A large grey object pierces the storm clouds from the inside, lashing outwards… Presumably towards the drones. It's… This high up the scale is lost. It… I can't scan it, but I'd guess that it's made of stone. The shape is a long thin triangle, sharp along both visible edges. One drone is cleaved in two by the blade and another is smashed by the flat. Another prong emerges and-. Wait, that configuration… The trident, the ratio and spacing matches Oceanus' Trident.

Nabu adapts, moving the drones in that area around the obstruction and continuing to have them close in. Okay, let's see. Assuming that that trident has the same proportions as the smaller one Orm uses and that the Titan's material body has the same proportions as his, that means…

Ah.

"Orange Lantern to Justice League. My calculations suggest that Oceanus is about five miles tall. If he's standing on the sea bed, he should be visible from the waist up once the clouds are gone."

"Noted."

Batman's response is dry, almost disinterested. I suppose… From a planning point of view precisely how tall he is doesn't matter.

The storm is pushed back further, the head of the trident and… A hand. A hand made from churning grey water. Another becomes visible on the opposite side and I use the distance to check my calculation. Yep, I'm about right. Further in and a bracer made of the same stone-like material as the trident becomes visible strapped around his forearms. His water-body appears to be formed with a highly defined humanoid musculature. So, big and made of water. Um. Okay, I think I'm leaning towards needing to use the Sword of the Fallen but I'm certainly not in panic mode yet.

I left that in my bedroom, didn't I?

Nabu moves the drones down underneath another ponderous swing to the trident and two grey… Pincers..? Become visible through the clouds. Ah, traditional depictions of Oceanus show the claws springing directly form his head, but the entity we're seeing uses them as helmet decoration instead. Given that his body appears to be made entirely of water I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising. Lower still, and his face becomes visible. Solid shaped water once more, though with the spray and lack of colour difference the features are a little indistinct. Appears to be Caucasian in proportions and… Not much expression. Stern disapproval, but neither mouth nor the patches of extreme churning turbulence that mark his eyes are moving much. I suppose that it's also possible that he isn't aware of us. That we're just.. too small, too mystically inert to really register. Or too far away in Nabu's case.

His shoulders come into view. Bare, unarmoured. Not sure if that's odd or not. I'd guess that he doesn't have any need for armour, lacking vital organs or blood vessels. But then, what are the helmet and the bracers for? Decoration? Given how Human the Olympians I've met so far are I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that he might have a sense of pride.. or artistry?

"Doctor Fate to the Justice League. Oceanus appears to no longer be trying to maintain the storm. I am recalling the drones in case they are needed later."

The golden flecks glow brighter as they fly directly away from Oceanus in all directions. The storm still raging around his pectoral muscles appears to fade, spreading and fading to a mere sea mist. His head turns slightly up, looking in the direction of… Looks like Florida, though it isn't easy to calculate precisely. His head turns slowly northwards-. No, of course, he's looking at the long green wall. He bends slightly at the waist, left arm reaching down towards the sea's surface.

"Batman to Wonder Woman. If you believe he can be reasoned with, now is the time."

A small target reticle appears on my armour's screen as Diana flies in from the perimeter towards Oceanus. Donna might be a better choice, given that most Titans appear willing to at least talk to her. But she isn't a member of the Justice League and there is absolutely no guarantee that Oceanus isn't just going to attack. And we don't know that Titans aren't happy to talk to Diana; she's mostly avoided them due to her respect for the Olympians. Jordan's flying along just behind her, because while the winds have died down a little there's no way Diana's going to be able to shout loudly enough to make herself heard.

I don't.. really have anything to contribute to the situation. I'd ask where Batman wants me, but I don't really want to distract him. If he wants me to move somewhere I'm sure that he'll tell me.

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern."

Ring, person to person only.

Compliance.

"Orange Lantern here, go ahead."

"Has Batman given you any indication as to whether he wants us to proceed with our raid?"

"No. I… Don't really know how useful it will be with Oceanus already active, but speaking for myself I would be exceedingly happy to see Truggs knocked down a peg or two. Is everyone in fighting condition?"

"It seems that we have little choice. I will begin preparations."

I nod. "Best of l-"

The sea buckles, water streaming in from all parts of the Atlantic and building in the area around Oceanus' left arm. I can see the water level against Guy's wall drop as it does so.

"-uck. Hang on, something's-."

Oceanus half turns and gestures in the direction of North Africa, the huge mass of water he'd built up roaring as he launches it eastward!

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
07:26 GMT -3

Oh heck.

I grab Doctor Lockhart's left arm with my right hand and transition us in the direction of Africa.

20th June
09:26 GMT -1

"Doctor, anything you could do to slow that down-."

"Are you crazy?! I can't do a thing about a whole ocean's worth of water!"

"Anything you can do." Ring, show me.. water manipulation constructs.

Compliance.

I can't make a wall to defend the Western Sahara. Too large a volume of water to freeze or vaporise. That… There's some sort of molecular bond reinforcement device… No, there's no way I could maintain something that big either. Simple and powerful.

Shock wave manipulator.

Two huge sonic projectors glow into being next to me, their front ends projecting into the oddly becalmed sea. I'm a wee bit more powerful than I was back in July... Still, that is a lot of water. Okay, these things aren't quite as brute force as just slamming an opposing wave of energy at an existing one and hoping for the best, but they're not far off and I wouldn't want to be between the rapidly approaching wave and me when I fire. Ring, please tell me that no one is?

Displaying.

Oh.. dear.

Ships can't move anything like as fast as I can. Even with a couple of days' notice to get away there are still plenty of ships out there. Okay, so, stop this and grab-.

I see a green cradle materialise around an oil tanker and another miles away forms around a cruise liner. Agh, John can make zeta tube constructs but Jordan can't. He'd be better off handling this part-. A red blur grabs people from a trawler a moment before the oncoming wave demolishes it. League's on it, good.

I don't know why the wave is travelling across the surface of the water. Usually tidal waves are just waves of energy, the destructive output only being noticeable when they reach the shallows. I guess that when you're a Titan you don't have to worry about little things like the laws of physics.

"Orange Lantern to Batman. I'm in position to try opposing the wave. This is going to be very messy and I can't guarantee a high degree of success."

Hang on, if it's magic-.

I generate a railgun construct with extra construct-capacitors, angle it so that the shot will skim the wave and then fly onwards out of the atmosphere. Load mage slayer, power up to maximum, fire.

The air catches fire in my projectile's wake, a billowing red line marking its passage across the Atlantic.

"Orange Lantern, I did not say fire!"

"Sorry sir, no, that wasn't the collateral damage one." I see the round strike the oncoming wave near the crest, water vaporising and flying away from the site of impact. The wave shudders slightly but doesn't collapse. "That was the anti-magic one." Check the… I'm checking a wave for damage. Did he just put too much power into it for a mage slayer to nullify? Is it animated by multiple spells? "Minimal effect, but I've got many more."

A golden ankh appears above a cargo ship, which shudders for a moment before disappearing in a flash of gold.

"Then keep firing."

Three more railgun constructs, charge, load and fire.

John and Jordan aren't bothering to move the ships out of the way north or south, they're just lifting them over the wave. That'll.. work, unless Oceanus just repeats what he just did, and I doubt that we'll be able to clear the entire Atlantic…

Four impacts, and if the wave is weakening I can't tell.

Charge.

"Lantern, can you focus on a narrow channel?"

"I can probably limit the main beam to fifteen miles across at the point of impact."

Fire.

"Three more ships to evacuate and the defenders of Lemuria have been warned. Once the ships' crews are evacuated, fire."

"Understood."

Oh yes, they're not bothering to move the ships any more. Collateral damage.

Charge.

Is there anything else I can do? Yess… Damn it.

"Orange Lantern to Nabu. One of the ways to avoid the effect of mage slayer rounds is to use many small but unconnected spells, letting the ones affected ablate while the rest maintain the effect. I don't know that's why I'm not destroying the wave-"

Fire.

"-but it's a possibility. Can you-?"

"Yes." Two more flares of gold and Nabu appears in front of the wave, arms outstretched and ankh already appearing. Jagged streams of gold light flicker off, striking the wave at multiple locations across its surface. "The spells are bound."

Charge.

Guess Oceanus is one of the clever ones.

"Thank you."

Fire.

Oceanus dips his left hand again, a tightly focused storm cloud roiling around his forearm.

The four shots hit the wave just below the crest. There's a moment as the wave shudders, then it collapses, water falling downwards in a colossal splash.

Okay, the energy is still coming, but at least the magic component is dealt with. Which.. I think.. improves the situation. Shipping is clear.

"Orange Lantern to Justice League. Targeting wave with shock wave manipulator construct. Firing in two, one, firing."

I don't understand exactly how this thing works. The ring has a description, but my knowledge of physics is nothing like good enough to make sense of it. It does... Rather than apply force against the wave it does something to match the energy involved in the wave against itself. In a laboratory setting it can shut a wave down without the water stirring at all.

But this is a real ocean.

The wave front explodes in dozens of places, plumes of water rocket up, down, left, right, forwards and back as tiny changes in the make up of the water throw the manipulators off by tiny amounts which are magnified by the distance. Most of the energy is still oncoming, but I think I should be able to-.

Gugerhaah!

 

[Mr Zoat]

"…ke up! Come on, I'm not flying back to America by myself!"

Uh?

Wha-?

Everything hurts… Breathing hurts, but I can just about manage to take a breath. Armour's deadweight.

I smell… Bacon..?

Ring, why is there bacon?

No bacon is present. Most likely source of smell is you.

I try moving my right arm and that was a mistake!

"Aaaaaaagh!"

Ring! Fix!

20th June
07:34 GMT -3

Uaoower.

My armour blinks to life around me-

"Orange Lantern, respond!"

-and Batman's shouting at me again.

"Orange Lantern reporting. What..? What hit me?"

Warning: low power. Twenty percent remaining.

Oh wonderful.

"Oceanus used a storm cloud as an electrostatic generator and then shot you with a lightning bolt. Are you injured?"

Ring, what's Oceanus doing?

In my mind's eye I see an image of him moving slowly in the general direction of Bermuda, a storm cloud crackling around his left hand. A lightning bolt leaps out as Diana closes the distance, forcing her to block with her bracers and back away.

"The bolt blew apart my construct armour and fried my power armour. And me. The ring's put me back together but I'm on low power."

Ring, did I stop the wave?

Partially. Green Lantern two eight one four C is attempting to replicate your construct.

Yeah… Those things aren't cheap in power terms. John might be able to get his head around it… "Orange Lantern to Green C. Sonic cannon constructs would be easier for you to use. Don't worry about getting it perfect."

"Right."

Okay. "Batman, permission to disengage and recharge?"

"Granted."

Ring, zeta tube.

Compliance.

20th June
05:35 GMT -5

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I stumble slightly as I pass through the zeta tube.

"Identification confirmed."

Ring, I thought that you fixed that?

All physical injuries repaired.

Wonderful. Okay, get rid of my armour, let's see what else has gone wrong.

"Hey, Oh El. You done already?"

I register Wallace's presence just after he walks into the training room in costume. I shake my head again in an attempt to… I don't know. "No. Oceanus shot me with a bolt of super lightning. He was in the mid-Atlantic, I was off the coast of Africa. Nearly.. died, and now it's like… "

I pat my chest, and feel for my Spell Eater. It's not there. Ring, where is it?

Spell Eater was destroyed by lightning bolt. No replacement requested.

"And now I've got magic overload. Is Zatanna up? Or.. Rob?"

"Well, ahh…" Wallace glances back the way he came. "Ah… Should you be on duty? 'Cause I remember how you used to be when stuff like that happened, and-."

"No, I shouldn't. That's why I was asking for the magic users who can fix this."

"Right, right. I've been up for, like, five minutes. Batman gave Kaldur the okay to go after Truggs. I think I heard Zatanna's voice, but Cornwall's in school today. Ah." He checks his watch. "Now."

"And this is why I wanted to wait until a civilised hour before conducting the mission. Blasted.. inconvenient supervillains. Right." I shake my head again -no, it still doesn't help- and transition to my room. Huh, that shouldn't-. Oh, I left the door open. Whaw, that was only… Half an hour ago. Uh, right.

"This is my cause, this is my fight
Shine through the void with orange light
I've claimed all within my sight
To keep what is mine, that is my-"

"Paul?" Zatanna stops in front of the doorway behind me, clanking slightly in the Sororitas power.. armour..?

"-right?" My lantern doesn't appear. "Oh, come on, don't make me say the whole thing-" The lantern appears, wisps of orange light flowing into the rings. "-again. Alright."

"You beat Oceanus already?"

"No, no we haven't." The streams of energy cut off and I flex my hands. "I'm currently experiencing magic overload again. Would you mind dealing with it?"

"Oh, of course. Ssecxe cigam emoc ot em!"

And just like that everything snaps back into proper focus. Okay. Pick up the Sword of the Fallen. And a new Spell Eater.

Compliance.

"Thank you. Right. I need to get back to the Atlantic."

Zatanna hefts her bolt pistol and presses the safety. "Ave Imperator."

"Weapon armed."

"Your magic is going to be far more dangerous than that."

"I can pull the trigger and talk at the same time."

"Those are semi-automatic armour piercing rockets. Unless it happened while I was unconscious, we're still not aiming to kill-."

"They've got zombies."

"Fair point." I nod. "Best of luck. Ring, zeta tube."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
05:37 GMT -5

I appear once more on the roof of the KordTech building. There's a noticeably louder screams-and-cars noise from the streets below. I imagine that Guy's giant wall is the cause of some of it, huge constructs generally being a pretty good sign that something is up. I don't know if anyone has been stupid enough to try flying in the combat area to record the fight. I know that in the comics Lex had drones for monitoring Mister Kent's fights that Ms Lang repurposed for pay-per-view purposes. Certainly he'd have the ability to build such things. I just don't know if he has.

Transitioning directly into the combat zone would be stupid, so I instead transition to Bermuda.

20th June
06:38 GMT -4

From here the flashes of light generated by Oceanus' lightning blasts are clearly visible to the unaided eye, as is the green light shining from John and Jordan's constructs. Bermuda's on the outside of Guy's wall and the waves on the beeches are rising far higher than normal. Fewer cars here, but I can hear the screams and see the streams of people head towards either high ground or hurricane shelters. If Oceanus sends a wave this way… That's the island done. I honestly don't think that I could justify stopping one heading this way and risking missing one going somewhere else. I can't even justify trying to shove everyone through a zeta tube construct.

Ring, update me on the fight.

Pale blue beams flash out from the Batwing, tiny sections of Oceanus' body freezing solid where they hit. The power requirements… No, he isn't maintaining fire. He probably just stuck in the biggest cold gun he could, on the grounds that if something that big couldn't get the job done then the target was probably just immune to the cold.

Mister Kent floats stationary in the air to the right of Oceanus' head, cutting loose with his heat vision as he tries to evaporate Oceanus' eyes and trusting in Diana to block incoming lightning. Oceanus turns towards them -apparently unaffected by whatever damage Mister Kent has done- and swings his trident in an arc. Diana blocks, and he maintains the pressure as he brings his other hand around. White light flares and both of them go flying in an uncontrolled tumble until Jordan gets in position to catch them with a catcher's glove construct.

Ugh. I raise my right hand to my right ear, then pull it away and look at my finger tips. Blood? In the combat zone Mister Yao is standing on a construct platform held up by John, who is also wearing a heavy duty ear protector construct. Mister Yao is shouting-. And I'm not going to try listening to him again.

Whatever it is, it doesn't stop Oceanus making the seas roil and throw rock-impregnated icebergs at them. John's forced to split his attention three ways, carrying Mister Yao, keeping his ears blocked and evasive flying. He evades two, but doesn't spot the third until it's too late. Fortunately for him Major Adams is there, blasting it hard enough to knock it off course.

Nabu's holding back, hundreds of tiny ankhs floating around his hands as he watches Oceanus intently. Probably studying him, trying to work out how he works. Sensible. It's rather difficult to harm things when you have no idea what they are. Of course… I draw the Sword of the Fallen. Brute force is an option in a surprisingly wide variety of cases.

"Orange Lantern to Batman. I am recovered and I have the Sword of the Fallen. Do you want me to take a swing?"

"Whatever it takes. Stop Oceanus."

"Sir."

I lean forwards and accelerate to my maximum safe air speed, 'safe' in this instance meaning that there's no risk of setting the atmosphere on fire. I can't hide that I'm coming in from naked eyes… No, I could, but only by slowing down a lot. I can't really use constructs to increase my speed as I am now when I'm invisible. Alright, where at the whole.. colossal bastard thing am I aiming? Hitting the eyes clearly didn't do anything worth talking about. So… Anywhere on the body… The trident, in the hope that there's some sort of magic inherent in it that's helping with this titanic water body… I mean, Gaea took the form of a normally proportioned woman when I met her. There isn't actually an automatic link between physical size and arcane power.

Is the 'real' Oceanus inside that body somewhere? No, it doesn't matter, there's no way for me to locate it quickly enough. Hang on. "Orange Lantern to Nabu. Any idea where I should be stabbing?"

"No. There is no one concentration of arcane power and his mind is not contained with any one part of his body. For the purpose of your sword, one location is as good as another."

Not what I wanted to hear… Goodness, Oceanus is big when you see him from this angle. "Thank you." Close enough, and I don't like the way that lighting cloud is glowing. Dismiss constructs, invisible and phase.

A half-second later a bolt of lightning flashes through me. Hah! Not so clever now. Not having to defend something makes this sort of thing far easier. Least.. defended place..? Not the left arm with the cloud… It's probably the face, actually. I mean, he can control the ocean and he's attacking from his arms… Alright, angle up.

In the distance I see Red Tornado flying his brother around, water stilling wherever they pass. Good to know that Doctor Lockhart is unhurt. Mister Freeman and Major Adams take a shot at Oceanus' right hand, just about managing to vaporise one of his fingers before they're blasted by his lightning. Jordan catches them and ferries them over to where Mister Yao is standing on a construct platform. Since his ear bleeding attack didn't work, it looks like he's reverted to medical duties instead. Major Adams reacts to something he says and reverts to his bleeding Human form, then Mister Yao sings to him and his wounds knit themselves back together.

I'm not attracting any attention. Invisibility? The scry wards? The intangibility? Because there's quite a lot of water in the air around here. It might be interesting to work out exactly what Oceanus responds to, but I doubt that we'll have the luxury. And… I'm feeling slightly light headed. Ring?

Spell Eater destroyed by lightning passage.

Ah. That's.. a problem. I could get pissed in this fight. That's an actual problem I'm having to-.

I pull away as I start flying through the cascading waterfall that is Oceanus' beard. Would stabbing him in the beard work? I'd.. guess not, but…

Agh, not again. Focus. Okay, his chin would be there. Go for the cheek-. I pull back frantically as he turns his head to respond to-.

Pink and red beams of light strike his face up above me, sending water exploding outwards. Pink? Where would-? Oh heck, that was the same colour as the pink barriers the OMACs used. Ring?

The ring shows me three suits of power armour holding position about two miles away, their chassis glowing with pink energy and tastefully understated LexCorp logos on their shoulders. The general design matches what I saw in the underground sections of LexCorp Metropolis in February. Of course, just because he'd rather not let Oceanus wreck the eastern seaboard that's no reason not to try and score some good PR. Wonder if Lex is in one of those himself?

Okay, that's a cheek. I stop phasing and slash outwards. There's a half-second of resistance as the Sword bites into whatever is creating the membrane effect keeping the water of Oceanus' body in shape, then the resistance disappears and a chunk of Oceanus' face collapses, cascading towards the Atlantic in a torrent.

Ring, scan?

And the rest of him is entirely unaffected. In fact-. I phase again as tendrils of water extrude from his chest and shoot towards me. Two pass through me as I try to evade and oh, I'm feeling… What am I doing? Don't… Don't need the Sword. Sheathe it.

Nothing.. I can do, really. I don't.. know anything about fighting Titans. I was not ready for this.

Do I know anyone who fights Titans? I mean, you'd have to be some sort of berserk lunatic to want to fight giant-.

I blink.

20th June
12:41 GMT +2

Marshall Haraldson looks around as I appear in front of him. The Einherjar have made a camp near the Frederikshavn naval base, and their presence in town has both reduced street crime to near nothing and increased local tourism considerably.

"Hail to you, Orange Lantern. What news?"

"There's a giant made of water fighting the Justice League in the middle of the Atlantic. You want in?"

A long sword materialises in his right hand. "Einherjar were made for killing giants! Bring our steeds down from your Watchtower and we shall fight beside you with joy in our hearts and a song on our lips!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
07:49 GMT -3

I watch as the Einherjar charge downwards towards Oceanus, shouting their battle cries. Listening in might have been educational, but I told the ring not to translate the rest of them when Lars shouted 'prepare to be sodomised'. I like to believe that's just him being an arse rather than it being their official battle cry, but I don't feel like disillusioning myself.

Alright, what next? The weapons I currently have in my possession appear to be ineffective. I could -just about- create enough cold gun constructs to freeze Oceanus solid, except that for all I know he can animate ice just as easily as he can water. The titanic body I can see is too big and whatever magics animate it too diffuse to be easily drained or nullified. I could get a working party of Atlantean mages to enchant a giant mage slayer round and try firing that, but that would take a good long while and I'm not sure how long we can keep Oceanus' attention. And it would involve me leaving here, putting me out of position if he tries another Africa-Ending Super Wave.

Of course, I do have…

I'm unable to avoid looking over at Nabu.

I do have the mana batteries Zatanna and I are planning to use on him. They're in as secure and warded a location as I can store them. If I decide to use them, there's no way I can hide from him the fact that I've got them. Or how they work. I'd rather not reveal them, but I'd rather take the hit than let Oceanus destroy the Atlantic rim.

Would they work on Oceanus?

A Human body can only hold so much mana before strange things start to happen. Nabu is far more powerful than Mister Zatara because he replenishes everything he expends almost immediately from the Plane of Order. The mana batteries are designed to drain at that rate, but they're not designed to store what they take for long. Oceanus… Probably isn't taking power from any one location. It's either innate, or he's taking it from the entire world around him. Making a storage vessel to isolate what we drained from him would take a similar amount of time to making a super mage slayer… Maybe even more, because I'd have to explain the design to the people working on it. Plus, given what happened when I tried stabbing him with the Sword of the Fallen he appears to have an innate structure that resists that sort of approach.

I think I'm going to decide against.

The Einherjar appear to be enjoying themselves, performing hit and run attacks or in a few cases leaping from their steeds to grab onto Oceanus and stab him directly. Since they don't need to breathe and.. may be immune to conventional attack, a lot of the concerns the rest of us have aren't so much of a problem.

Oh. Oceanus appears to have noticed them. Sections of his 'skin' transform into hard ice, frozen spikes stabbing at the undead Viking warhost. They're… Laughing.

"Wonder Woman to Justice League. Everyone, pull away from Oceanus now."

And.. the Vikings can't hear that, because they didn't have radios in the tenth century. Anyway, why does she-?

Oh.

There's a huge wall of water heading our way from the general direction of southern Europe. Not as tall as Oceanus -and I think he's reconfigured my mental ideas of what huge really means- but still about a mile high, and… Are those..? Horses..? Horses made of water galloping in a giant wave of water, pulling… A giant humanoid, this one not made of water. Okay, his beard and hair don't appear able to decide whether they're water or not, his skin is pale green and he sits on his chariot atop a fish tail rather than legs, but he's mostly Human.

Looks like Poseidon has decided to involve himself.

Um.

I think, and filaments extend towards the Einherjar frantically swarming Oceanus… Or at least a tiny part of Oceanus' surface area. "Guys, a god on our side is about to hit Oceanus." And I'm not joking, he's really motoring. "Get back on your horses, pull back and reform."

The response is… Mixed. Marshall Haraldson gets it at once, squinting eastward before shouting something in Old Norse and leaping onto the back of a nearby horse. A good third of his host wheel away into the sky as Oceanus notices that his old foe is incoming and turns to meet him. The rest… Not all of the Einherjar were mounted. Several of them dart back to pick up their infantry colleagues and I see John and Jordan perform a similar duty.

Lars stabs a construct reaching for him and continues his attempt to cut a passageway under the left bracer.

Okay, most of them are off, and the sea is shifting as Oceanus tries to give himself the high ground against a mounted opponent. I've got nearly a full charge. And… I've always wondered…

Rings… Beam singularity projector.

Compliance.

Targeting these things is… Tricky. Quite aside from the way they mess around with local spacetime, the beam doesn't really attenuate. And it's a heck of a power hog. Still… If you absolutely, positively have to eliminate physical force as a possible vector for destroying your opponent, it's hard to do better than a singularity.

There are still eight Einherjar on Oceanus, and they appear to have decided to stay for the impact. Lars is laughing like the lunatic he clearly is. I think he's biting-.

"Orange Lantern to League. Everyone apart from those eight clear?"

"Yes." Batman sounds like he's about as out of ideas as I am.

"Alright then. One last attack from me." I warp forwards and aim my beam singularity projector at Oceanus' back, angled so that the beam will pass through his spine at the base of his neck and carry on through his face. I'm not sure if that's actually a useful thing to do… But I can't see a better target. "Prepare for singularity."

"WHAT!?"

Light.. cuts out for a second. Water foams in a fury along the line the beam briefly cut and the whole body visibly slumps.

Ring, reset to local time.

Adjustment made.

For a moment I dare hope that did it, that the raw power and exotic effects of super dense matter might have killed the damn thing. No, no such luck. Oceanus reels for a few moments, then starts to pull himself together.

Just in time for Poseidon's chariot to hit him at full force.

And I need to pull back now! I grab a falling Einherjar and then warp again, appearing well above the grappling gods. I think the comparatively Human forms of Hephaestus and Eris misled me as to what the gods can do when they pull out all the stops. Oceanus was taking everything the League could throw at it and now every blow from Poseidon sends him staggering. His attacks do just as much, however. There.. isn't actually much skill involved that I can see. They appear to just be slugging each other-. There's probably something clever going on at the arcane level, both parties wrestling for control of the seas… I can't see it, though.

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern."

"Orange Lantern here. Raid successful?"

"Yes. No casualties on our side, and we have captured a number of computer systems. If the League can spare you, I would like you to attempt to recover their contents."

"I can try, but there have been an awful lot of anti-Lantern enchantments on things lately. I can't guarantee that I won't trigger something."

"My alternative is to have Squire guess how to access it, and she tells me that is even less likely to be successful. Between yourself and Zatanna-" ! "-you have the best chance-."

"No we don't." Ring, where's Sergeant Pushkin?

Sergeant Pushkin is currently located on the north-west coast of Russia.

"I know a man who can access any technology, risk free. I'll grab him and be with you in two minutes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
04:57 GMT -6

We appear next to the camouflaged harbour that until recently was Black Manta's main centre for resupplying and offloading his own ill-gotten gains in America.

"…certain that the Justice League does not want me to assist in the main fight?"

Thinking about it… This was probably where he waited for Truggs when he broke out of Belle Reve and swam for it.

"Not… A-hah. Not that I am precisely eager to fight a giant made of water, you understand. But we must all do our parts. And there were other people in force armour on the scene."

Ahead of us, Roy deactivates his armour's invisibility generator and waves with his right hand.

"I appreciate the offer, Sergeant." I rise off the… Heh, they've put that plastic grass protection mesh down to cover the soil. Can't risk the grass dying off too much in case someone noticed, but they still need to drive over this because exotic transportation would be more noticeable than a regular lorry in an unusual place. I rise off the grass protection mesh and fly at speed towards the entrance next to Roy, Sergeant Pushkin just behind me. "But your armour doesn't contain any weapons that would be a substantial improvement on powers possessed by people already on-site. We have reason to believe that the data held here may well relate to the ongoing fight, and you are uniquely well suited to accessing it."

"Oh, if you are sure…"

We reach Roy, and he turns and heads inside to lead us through the corridors. "Arsenal, anything interesting?"

"A few hi-tech weapons, machine parts. Plenty of those scry wards you like so much."

"Naturally."

"Not much in the way of combat personnel. A couple of guards, and Squire and I took them down no problem."

"No zombies?"

"No. Ocean Master and Black Manta have worked together before, but Kaldur says they're not exactly close."

"One's a pirate who happens to operate in Atlantean territory, the other wants to take over the country. If Orm had won, killing Mister Hyde and his crew would probably have been fairly high up his agenda."

"Heh. With friends like that…"

An image of Nabu flashes into my mind. "Indeed. Prisoners?"

"We've got 'em all secured. M'gann's been taking a look in their heads, but it looks like Black Manta didn't include his cargo handlers on the need to know list."

Sensible enough. Black Manta is a thief, but he's been somewhat under my radar and… Frankly, I didn't consider him worth my time. Now we've got some of his people being pumped for information, and while we might miss the man himself if we can roll up the network he uses to shift his stolen merchandise then he'll find it much harder to operate in future. And most likely so will a load of other people who use the same fences.

"Injuries?"

"Nothing major. You shoulda seen their faces when Zatanna pointed that toy gun of hers at them."

"It's not actually a toy gun."

"Oh. … Huh."

He leads us into what appears to be the communications room. Kaldur and Richard are already present, Richard crouched down and running a small sonic probe underneath the server cases to get a look at their insides. Kaldur nods at Sergeant Pushkin. "Rocket Red. Thank you for coming."

"I am always happy to help the Justice League. Or.. their…" He leans awkwardly to the side to get a better look at Richard. "Sidekicks."

Barely a wince. I guess everyone's a bit more secure than they were eleven months ago.

"Orange Lantern tells me that you are able to access computer systems regardless of the security which they have in place."

"Ah, yes. But it is not well tested in the field yet. Robin may wish to move aside in case something goes wrong."

Richard stands up and steps back. "There's definitely something in there. Given the sort of technology Black Manta uses I'd guess it's some sort of plasma charge. Or several plasma charges."

"So I do not turn them off one at a time."

"No, definitely not." Richard keeps backing up. "In fact, just take the data and send it to my arm computer."

"Okay." There's a ping from Richard's arm computer. "All done."

"Huh." Richard raises his left arm and starts tapping buttons with his right forefinger. "That was fast. Give me a sec-."

Sergeant Pushkin stands completely still for a moment. "It looks like they are doing something on Porto Santo, off the west coast of North Africa. I can see that they have made equipment and supply deposits there recently."

Named by some excessively optimistic Spanish settlers, who were politely booted out by Atlantean soldiers in the fifteenth century once they realised that there were surface worlders there. It's probably.. inhabited back on Earth Prime, with no Atlanteans around to contest things.

Richard taps his computer once more and then closes his right hand. "Yeah. Looks like."

Kaldur frowns. "Islands in the Atlantic are Atlantean territory. If Orm had wanted to build a base of some kind there before he was condemned, it would have been a simple matter to arrange. Though I am uncertain as to why-."

"Squire to Aqualad."

"Aqualad here."

"There's something… The water in the dock? It's not moving right."

My eyes and Kaldur's meet for a moment, mild frowns on both of our foreheads. "Can you be more specific?"

"Does she need to? I mean, we're out of here just as soon as the police get here to pick up-."

The ground beneath our feet rumbles. Oh.. dear.

Richard's first out of the door, bouncing off the corridor wall and hurtling down the corridor towards the dock. I transition past him, appearing just outside the reinforced door leading to the place where the Manta Sub usually stops for repairs and for offloading cargo. Several of Mister Hyde's employees look up in shock as Canis flies through the opening on the end of a plume of water. I cushion his landing with a construct crash mat, don construct armour and then stride into the breach myself.

A Water Wraith stands on the water's surface, directing water spouts at Beryl, Zatanna and Kon. Kon just plants his feet and takes it, Beryl triggers her armour's phasing system but gets staggered by the attack's arcane component and Zatanna-

"Retaw wolf dnuora em!"

-takes a firing posture as the water bends at right angles about thirty centimetres before it hits her and spraying harmlessly against the wall. Then she-

Tchoom-tchoom-tchoom-tchoom-tchoom!

-opens fire with her bolter, the bolts striking the Wraith's outer membrane and exploding harmlessly.

"Zatanna." She looks my way as I draw the Sword of the Fallen. "Keep it there, keep it material."

"Right! Yats ereh dna niamer-"

Kon loses his footing and slams into a wall.

"-dilos!"

She collapses, bolter falling to the ground as the Wraith hisses like a steaming boiler.

But that's all I need. Construct jump pack forming on my back, I boost myself towards it and stab the Sword through its 'face', sword slicing through the outer membrane and into the floating stone within.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
05:01 GMT -6

Actual steam flashes out from the incision, washing over my construct armour and rushing across the room. Thick bars of orange light immediately link me to each of my comrades, construct armour appearing around them. Between supernatural toughness and fully enclosed power armour they'd.. probably have been okay, but I don't feel like taking risks at the moment. The head section of the Wraith has entirely vaporised now; the large stone that I've stabbed is sitting on the blade of my sword while the others are slowly falling through what's left of its body.

"Zatanna, still with us?"

"Ah? Uhhhh." She tries to push herself up, momentarily forgetting that she's wearing power armour. "I… I wasn't ready for how much power that would take."

I put an orange scoop construct underneath the bottom of the Wraith's 'body', catching the stones as they fall out of the bottom. That appears to be the trigger for what's left of the body to collapse into normal water, splashing down into the docking bay. Physics then snap back into force, steam freezing in the air and precipitating in tiny ice particles. I take hold of the head stone with a scaly construct hand and pull the Sword free.

"Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Situation under control."

"So I see." He walks into the room, the hardened surface of his water armour causing the ice crystals to crunch and fragment under his feet. "Can you detect any others?"

Not with a normal scan, but the stonework seemed pretty consistent amongst those that attacked Poseidonis… I send a sonar probe construct down into the water and let off a pulse. "No, we appear to be in the clear."

Beryl rematerialises and taps the side of her helmet with her right hand. "I think I might need a new spell eater."

I float back down to the floor, stones floating out in front of me as I put them in approximately the same position relative to one another that they had inside the Wraith. Hm. Check with the rune stone? Yes, powerfully magic rather than haphazardly collected detritus. I put them down. I'll pick them up afterwards and hand them over to Sephtian. Ring, check environment?

Environmental conditions safe.

I remove the orange construct armour from around my companions before connecting a filament to Beryl's chestplate. She's actually been burned where the spell eater overloaded, though fortunately it hasn't melted as mine did when Oceanus shot me. I disintegrate it, then heal her burn and deposit a replacement.

"Hey!" She puts her right forearm across her chest. "A little warning in future!"

I frown. Why would-? Oh. Oh right. "Sorry." I lean forwards, taking hold of Zatanna's hands and assisting her in getting upright.

"Thanks. Um, Aqualad? I don't… I don't think I'm going to be much use.. for the rest of the mission."

He nods. "Understood. We will need someone to remain here with the prisoners and hand them over to the police."

"An Old God!" Canis brushes off Richard as he re-enters the room, visibly limping. "That was a minion of the Old God fighting the Justice League! This is incredible!" He looks at me expectantly. "Are there more?!"

"Probably."

"Excellent."

"Aqualad to Batman. We have captured new intelligence from Black Manta's base of operations and been attacked by a Water Wraith. It now seems extremely likely that Black Manta was assisting Ocean Master. We also have a location."

"Understood. Stand by."

Kon looks at each of us. "What exactly are we standing by for?"

Richard nods. "What, you thought we were just gunna rush in with no plan and no reconnaissance? Batman's gunna want every member of the League who isn't fighting Oceanus directly to participate." He turns to Kaldur. "Does Atlantis have anything around there right now?"

Kaldur shakes his head. "The closest Atlantean city is Aurania, and they are unlikely to be able to move forces into position quickly enough to be able to help us."

"And the Spanish and Portuguese fleets are in harbour. If the sky is clear we might be able to talk them into carrying out an air strike, but without more precise coordinates than 'somewhere on the island' that's asking an awful lot of ordnance."

Canis sets his jaw. "I would prefer to confront and destroy our enemies personally, but if we are talking about simply bombarding them… Your people have fusion bombs, do you not? Three high-yield devices should utterly obliterate the island."

He.. does have a point. There's minimal risk it would trigger World War Three as the world's leading nuclear powers are aware of what's going on. The island itself is empty, and it wouldn't be all that hard for me to spend a couple of days removing radioactive material. On the other hand…

"A nuclear explosive wouldn't hit phased targets. We'd need to use some sort of phase disruptor first, and we don't have any of those attached to nuclear warheads."

"Ah." He bows his head slightly. "A shame. There is a beautiful finality to a mushroom cloud on the horizon."

Richard leans away slightly, looking at him askance.

"Batman to team. I authorize you to go to Santa Porto. Stay on the east side of the island. Once you arrive, open a zeta tube and further Justice League personnel will join you. Black Canary will have operational command. Your objective is to locate Ocean Master and disrupt whatever magic he's using. If that doesn't stop Oceanus, investigate the site for anything that might."

Kaldur nods. "Understood. Team out. Aqualad to team, convene in the docking bay."

"Right there!" Wallace blurs into view, slipping slightly on the ice. "Hey, why does Batman want us to stay on the east side of the island?"

"Because Oceanus can shoot the west side. And if he can take me down with full armour, it would kill anyone who wasn't super tough."

"Whow. Ah, east side it is."

M'gann drifts in through the wall while Roy walks through the door. She looks over to Zatanna. "I've put all of the prisoners to sleep. They shouldn't give you any trouble."

"Thanks."

Sergeant Pushkin enters the room as I flick my hands out to the sides, ten Praexis Demons led by Fatty shimmering into being. "But just in case. Robin, where did the ones I lent you end up?"

"Still at the cave. Do you need them?"

"I don't think I'm in danger of running out." I look around. "No Artemis or Rocket?"

Kaldur shakes his head. "We could not rouse them quickly enough to take part in this attack. They will most likely join us when you open the zeta tube."

"Alright." Ah. Kon looks at me, his head bowing slightly. "I can't just transition Superboy while he's wearing that armour." I generate a zeta tube construct next to me. "If you head to the Watchtower, you can come out with the rest."

He nods. "Alright. Be careful."

"I think we're a bit past careful."

He steps through the orange ring. "Recognised, Superboy, B zero four."

Canis shakes his head. "I will make my own way as well. Brut would be sorely vexed with me if I allowed such an opportunity to escape him."

"Very well." I remove the construct and attach filaments to each of my team mates, sans him and Zatanna. "First transition will be to Morocco. Then I'll test the safety of transitioning to the target and transition us onwards. Ready?"

Nods all around.

"Three, two, one."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:05 GMT

We appear on a cliff side overlooking a wave-lashed beach. It's a bit… Five mile tall guy… Whatever, you know? I can see the storms he's making from multiple time zones. Other things just don't impress. The waves hitting here aren't quite as bad as the ones which Guy and Ion are holding off, but the normally inviting sands are swamped with decidedly uninviting water and this whole area has been evacuated.

"Scans say there's nothing on Porto Santo but shrubs and rabbits. Sending a test object…" A tuna sandwich disappears from my subspace pocket and dutifully reappears on the island. "Test object materialisation successful." There's a noticeable tensing from my team mates. "Two, one."

And zombies.

"Haaaaaaarrrrr."

They don't do that underwater.

Kaldur's already slashing with his water bearer-generated blade as M'gann floats into the air, raises her arms and shoves, the zombies surrounding us being sent flying.

Beryl draws her x-ionised sword. "I'm starting to feel a little under-equipped."

Two zombie foreheads sprout fletching. "Not like I brought anti-zombie arrows."

A yellow blur as Wallace dashes off, weaving in between the undead horde. With the ring's detection being rendered unreliable the mark one eyeball will have to substitute. Sergeant Pushkin begins walking slowly forwards, firing finishing shots into any zombies that are down but not out. A flash of red plasma-.

I generate a zeta tube construct and send the 'active' signal. "Since when do you carry a gun?"

Richard's face has an uncomfortable expression on it. "I usually don't."

"So?"

"Recognised, Black Canary, one three, Green Arrow, zero eight."

"Batman taught me shooting and gun safety. I don't like it, but these are zombies."

"I'm not criticising your pragmatism."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaiiiihhhhhhhhhhh!"

Against the undead Ms Lance holds back not at all. Dead flesh is flayed from the bone by the sheer power of the sonic energy. Green Arrow looks sideways at her for a moment, then looses an arrow at a zombie standing near the top of the island's highest point. It collapses, pierced through the right eye socket.

"Recognised, Superboy, B zero four."

Kon comes through in swimmer pose, flying across the ground at waist height and smashing through anything in his way. Kaldur notices that we've got some space and falls back, his water constructs turning into shields. "Miss Martian, assume Star Conqueror form and then link us up."

I avert my eyes as her flesh distorts, forming railguns and watching for higher value targets than the meat shields currently throwing themselves at us.

"Recognised, Hawkwoman, one zero, Hawkman, zero nine."

They both pace through warily, circular Nth metal shields carried in their off-hands.

"Recognised, Red Arrow, one nine, Plastic Man, two three."

R-. William takes a second to nod to his clone before nocking an arrow while Mister O'Brian shifts to a predictably Ash-like shape before charging into the rapidly-concluding melee.

"Recognised, Artemis, B zero eight, Rocket, B one one."

Where are the high value targets? Whoever's running this must realise that zombies are only going to distract us for so long. And given how these zombies are animated I very much doubt that the fact they're being destroyed has escaped their creator's attention. I fire a few railgun rounds at zombies that have so far escaped my colleagues' attention-.

Wallace skids to a halt in front of Kaldur and myself. "There's some caves. Look like they've been dug out recently."

Kaldur nods. "You should probably report that to Black Canary."

"Oh. Yeah." He looks over to where she's snapping a zombie's neck with her bare hands. "Force of habit."

**Everyone is connected.**

**Query: they know we're here. Why aren't they-?**

The sea behind us rises up vertically about fifty metres. I cease animating the zeta tube construct and switch to throwing out the Hellwraith and the Praexis Demons with instructions to hunt and consume/possess anything that isn't us. Eyes turn upwards towards the oncoming wave as it curves at the top and starts heading down towards us! I snarl, generating a barrier construct over my comrades' heads.

**Sir, I can kill Water Wraiths but keeping this up-.** The water hits with tremendous force and then doesn't run off. The Wraiths animating it are just going to recreate their preferred fighting conditions!

**Can anyone see them? Or… Anything?**

Artemis' frustration is quite understandable. Being underwater is extremely limiting for most of us, and the silt-filled water around us is reducing visibility to next to nothing.

**Give me a second…**

Not sure what M'gann has planned. Not as if we've trained for this sort of situation. I hope she's quick; we'll start losing people just as soon as our enemies realise that cutting the glowing orange barrier protecting us removes life support from most of us.

**Yahh!**

The water around us vibrates for a moment and then flies back into the ocean as a colossal telekinetic surge shoves the water off us! For a moment I spot a Water Wraith just behind what would have been the start of the wall. Immediately, I drop the barrier, draw the Sword, warp forwards and stab. As before, the blade pierces the outer membrane and slides into the stones marking its head. To my right, plasma bolts, particle beams and anti-magic arrows slam into a second. It writhes and buckles, then collapses entirely as Ms Thal smashes through its head with her mace.

Two down, then the water rises up once more. I transition back to the land, then tag Ms Thal with a construct hand and pull her to safety before raising the shield again. **Anyone see how many others there are?**

I.. feel Mister Hol nodding. **There were four. If both of the ones you struck died, that leaves two.**

**Five of them attacked Poseidonis, and Oh El killed one in Black Manta's base.**

I hope that Richard is right. There's no real reason to assume that those were all Orm has at his command, but it would be very convenient.

**Miss Martian, can you do that again?**

Miss Lance, don't you think that if she could that she'd have done it already?

**Uh. Um..? Not… For a little while. My brains are vibrating.**

**Alright then. Orange Lantern, how long can you sustain this dome?**

**At the current level of pressure, about two hours. Though I'd suggest-** Something moves in the murk. **-having Green Lantern C open a zeta tube-** Things start hammering on my shield in multiple locations. **-and flanking them.**

Cracks start radiating out across the dome's surface.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:08 GMT

**Saremite infantry.** And I can't see their desires. Some sort of ward? Must try to acquire. **The ones who attacked Themyscira didn't use enchanted weapons, but regular weapons wouldn't harm my barriers anything like this fast. Orm has hundreds available, but my barriers are only being struck in… Sixteen places. Most likely a small number using enchanted weapons.**

And this is exactly the situation where having a magic user with us would be excellent.

…

Ring, dial Rob's mobile.

Compliance.

The cracks spread further.

**Orange Lantern, can you make your constructs permeable to our attacks?**

I glance in Ms Lance's direction. **Ssssort of, sir. A barrier like this is a barrier. An environmental shield around your body would let your attacks pass through it, but you'd have trouble moving through the water and they wouldn't.**

**Hawkman, Hawkwoman. Can you confirm Orange Lantern's assessment of our opponents' numbers?**

Mister Hol peers into the murk. **Visibility is too poor for me to be certain, but I believe that there are more objects moving further back, most likely further Saremites.**

Hi, this is Rob's voicemail. Leave a message after the beep.

The only flipping teenager to actually turn his phone off during lessons. Right, message: Hi Rob, Orange Lantern here. We could really do with your help on Porto Santo right now. Let me know when you're available and I'll create a zeta tube construct for you. Message ends. Ring, dial his father.

Compliance.

**Orange Lantern, do you have any other way for me to transmit my cry outside of the barrier?**

Ah… **Yes, but I'm afraid that it involves sticking your face through the barrier. I can make the barrier permeable to things covered in environmental shields.**

**Do it.**

Green Arrow looks at her curiously. "Canary?"

**Water doesn't compress well. Hopefully, Saremites do.**

Hello?

Mister Marrack, Orange Lantern here. Rob's not answering his mobile and we could really do with his help. Could you please prevail upon him to get to a zeta tube as fast as possible?

Right… Yeah, I'll call the school.

Thank you. Goodbye.

I attach a thick beam of orange light to Ms Lance. **Ready sir?** She nods, and I float her upwards towards the barrier. Water is already trickling in… I establish a second barrier slightly inside the current one and then drop the failing barrier. Bubbles swirl at the interface where the formerly trapped air mixes with the mystically propelled water, and I use the distraction to shove Ms Lance's face through the barrier at one of the stab points.

The barrier isn't designed to conduct kinetic energy, so we only hear the part of the scream conducted through Ms Lance's own body. But from the way the water turns murky brown I don't think we can doubt the effectiveness of the attack. Certainly, efforts at piercing my barrier in that area cease.

"Batman to strike force. Oceanus has turned away from the east coast of America and is heading in your direction, ETA sixteen minutes."

Kon frowns. "What happened to Poseidon?"

"He lost."

Ms Lance ceases screaming, so I pull her back through the barrier. "Canary to Batman, message acknowledged. We'll be finished before he arrives."

**Again, sir?**

**Hey.** Mister Queen looks speculatively at an arrow with a large head. **Would that work with arrows?**

**They would pierce the barrier, but the water would stop them almost immediately. I don't know how long the mechanism would last.**

Mister Queen nods, and he, William, Roy and Artemis all notch sonic screamer arrows. **Might as well give it-** Cracks start appearing in the new barrier. **-a shot.**

Orange beams connect me to the four of them, and I make a special effort to ensure that their arrows are included in their own right before applying Ms Lance to another locus of the offence. Another scream and another cluster of Saremites back off, a proportion of their number either dead or at least seriously injured. From Mister Queen's direction I feel a mental image as he directs his students where to point their bows. A moment later they loose, he and William hitting one location and Roy and Artemis hitting another. The arrows only just pierce the barrier and water remains as it was, but at least the attack stops in those places. Mister Queen fishes another sonic arrow out of his quiver, then looks expectantly at the others.

Artemis shrugs and Roy winces slightly.

**What, neither of you?** He shakes his head as he notches again. **You can't just throw away the classics like that. One day, you'll need them.-**

Roy rolls his eyes. **Ollie, I remember the fake cat arrow.**

**There were perfectly good-** Mister Queen and William loose as I reposition Ms Lance once more. **-mission-related reasons why I had that.**

**Chief Nudocerdo couldn't look me in the eye for three weeks.**

Connection made to monitored-.

Answer!

Paul, you there?!

Yes, yes, I'm here. Where are you?

Oh, thank god. We were doing a mock exam and I couldn't-.

That's fine. Where are you?

I'm about to get inside the mountain. I'll be with you in, like, a minute.

Good show. I'll have the tube ready for you. Orange Lantern out.

I generate a new zeta tube construct. **Cornwall Boy will be joining us momentarily.** I pull Ms Lance back once more and… Curious. They've stopped attacking. I put her down and begin regenerating the barrier.

Then something long and dark swims past the front of the barrier.

And keeps swimming.

And keeps on swimming…

…

Golly, that's long.

Mister O'Brian twists his neck around. "Did that thing just swim past the barrier in order to generate an image of menace? And should we be worried that it can understand basic Human psychology? Oh, and I'm trying not to take the whole 'not telling the one guy who can't hear telepathy what's going on' thing too personally, but if someone could clue me in, that'd be great."

And then a giant mouth filled with teeth latches onto the top of my barrier.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:11 GMT

A cetus is far too big for us to see much of it from this position. Its mouth is above us and its body is large enough to block out what sunlight the water and my barrier aren't. Richard breaks out a few fluorescent tubes and tosses them around to augment the light provided by my constructs.

**Is that some kinda sea serpent?** Wallace looks up in fascination. **Because there's no way an animal could actually get that big without magic.**

**They're supposedly Titanspawn like the Wraiths. And like the Wraiths, there aren't good modern records. And yes, my guess would be that it's the titanic magics inherent in their nature that let them get that big.**

Its leading fangs break through the barrier top and bottom, water spraying in at high pressure. The island of Porto Santo is about five kilometres across where we are and my barrier only covers one kilometre of that and is about five metres in height. From the angle of the jaw, I'd guess that the Cetus' mouth isn't even opened to its full extent.

Huh.

I bring Ms Lance back to ground level. **I can form a seal around those teeth if someone could-?**

Mister Hol and Ms Thal leap into the air, heading towards the upper canine teeth brandishing their Nth metal weapons. Kon heads for the left lower fang and Squire triggers her belt to fly at the right. Raquel… I'd missed her earlier. She's taken a pose. What's she-?

She spots me looking at her. **It's just a real big fish, right? So I figured I should be able to use my belt to stop it crushin' us.**

**Really?**

**Turns out there's a limit to how big an area-.**

Kaldur's head snaps in our direction. **Can you instruct other members of the team also wearing the belt in how to replicate your efforts?**

**Not fast enough for it to be useful.**

Ms Thal slams her mace into a tooth thicker than she is, chunks of whatever it's made of exploding away from the point of impact. Mister Hol takes a slightly more clinical approach, using his axe to sever a piece near the tip and then cutting upwards. Beryl holds position about half way down the length of her tooth and begins slicing clunks out. Kon doesn't bother with anything that precise, flying directly into the tooth where it passes through the barrier fists first. The tooth actually shifts slightly in the Cetus' jaw, and the barrier takes another impact as its tail spasms.

"Recognised, Cornwall Boy, B one zero."

Oh, at last.

Rob staggers out, still wearing his school uniform. "Right, what-?" He looks around, eyes wide. "Oh."

"Cornwall, the water over our heads is being held there by magic. Please do everything you can to get rid of it."

"That's a… That's a bit much for me, mate. But alright. Heh." He raises his hands over his head. "Give me all your en-"

Ms Lance raises an eyebrow in his direction.

"-er… Gy. Sorry." He closes his eyes. Of course, unless the water suddenly disappears above us I can't really tell whether he's succeeding or not.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

So… That's what a giant fish moaning in pain feels like. The sound is blocked by my barrier, so the noise is coming up through the rocks and soil of the island. It's really.. quite disturbing to listen to. Right, ring, show me… Magic power drain diagrams… Adapt for Cornish runic systems…

No good matches on file. Effectiveness of diagrams provided not guaranteed.

A few pictures… Okay. Maybe if I-?

Water flows across the ground from where it had pooled beneath the ruptures in my barrier, heading in Rob's direction. I immediately create a barrier around him-.

"No, that's meant to happen! I need that!"

The barrier fades before it can fully form.

"Still waiting to be clued in here." Mister O'Brian holds out his hand in a gesture of appeal to Richard and Wallace. "Anybody? Anybody at all."

Wallace is looking up at the partially destroyed teeth. He thinks for a moment, then pulls out a vial of essence of vitriol. **Hey, Superboy? Squire? Try using this stuff on it.**

Kon's taken to flying back far enough to build up speed and then ramming his tooth. Cracks are appearing all across its surface. Beryl on the other hand has cut through to expose whatever it uses for nerves, and zips down to take the proffered vial. "Cheers, flasher."

"Oh, you.. so can't call me that."

"Anybody at all."

Richard looks up at him. "Big fish try eat us. Big fish bad." He nods emphatically. "Very bad. Water men bad. Fish men bad. Drowning bad​."

Mister O'Brian looks at him askance for a moment, then nods. "You see? What was so hard about that?"

The water is.. actually forming a ball over Rob's head, writhing and sloshing as he -I'm assuming- pours more power either into or through it. Or sucks it out. I haven't really kept track of exactly how he uses magic. Frankly, it's hard enough learning the Atlantean system without also trying to work out another. Still, the basic principle of using an elemental focus that's been touched by your opponent's magic is reasonably universal.

"Please allow me." Sergeant Pushkin politely waits for Mister Hol to move aside before shoving his right fist up into the hole he's cut into the tip of the Cetus' tooth.

Warning: singularity detected.

At the same time, Beryl throws her vial into the hole she's created and-

"Rrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

-the Cetus convulses, jaw working as it tries to free what's left of its fangs from my barrier. The rate at which the water pours in briefly increases so I stick patch constructs over the holes as the Cetus finally backs off. Light filters back down to us with no giant aquatic creature obscuring it, and team tooth puncher drift back down. Of course, we still need to do something about the-.

The water, which is cascading down the sides of my barrier as Rob shudders and jerks in what looks like a very uncomfortable way.

**Does anyone have eyes on the target?**

Ring, scan with everything!

Targets located.

**[Map picture]**

I drop the barrier and boost outwards again. This time the Wraiths haven't come up to surface level, so I jam a watertight construct into the water around it and pump the water out. It gestures up at me and the blood in my arteries burns but it's too late. I dive, Sword of the Fallen finding its head stone and cleaving through as I hit it from above.

I stand on the damp sea bed for a moment, then sheathe the Sword. **Got mine. Everyone else?**

**It fled.** Kaldur doesn't sound entirely sorry about that. **And we do not have much time before Oceanus' arrival.**

I rise up into the air and head back to land, taking care to stay below the line of Santa Porto's hills. I do not want to get hit by lightning again. Landing, I look at Ms Lance. **What next, sir?**

**Kid Flash, lead the way to those caves.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:15 GMT

And that's a problem.

Ms Lance looks at me. **Well?**

**Oceanus already has a clear shot at the cave entrance. Assuming that he's actually aware of us, there's very little any of us can do to stop him shooting us.**

Yes, he's a very long way away and I'm not entirely certain how his colossal electrical discharges would interact with the sea water, sodden island or the rock, but I'm a little nervous about getting a third of the Justice League and most of my close friends fried.

Mister Queen looks a little puzzled. **Can't you just, y'know, teleport past it?**

I take my test object out of subspace. **This used to be a tuna sandwich.** I apply a little pressure and the bread crumbles to dust and the liquefied fish blobs out onto the ground. **Last time I encountered a ring FTL disruption system was Kahndaq. They're not common, but apparently Earth now has the technology to make them.**

Of course, if Canis were here we wouldn't be having this problem.

Ms Lance nods. **Can we just go through the rock?**

**Maybe. I don't know what spells there are on the place. If that's the way you want to do it, I'm going to need to know right now.**

Kaldur looks pensive. **That may not be wise. There are spells which can be used to alter space in such a way that entering a place from any direction other than the intended one results in the one attempting to gain access not encountering the interior of the structure. Ocean Master is a highly skilled mage, and it is highly likely that he has made preparations for such an approach.**

"So!" Mister O'Brian beams. "Who wants to re-enact the jumping scene from Enemy at the Gates?"

Wallace looks at him speculatively. "Didn't Flash say you were the toughest guy on the League?"

Mister O'Brian stops beaming. "Y'know? You'd think by now I'd see these things coming."

Kaldur doesn't share in the general amusement. **Orange Lantern, Squire, Arsenal and Miss Martian can all become invisible. I would suggest sending them in first.**

**I… Might…** M'gann winces. She still isn't anything like a hundred percent. **You remember when I used the Bio-Ship to hide us from Mister Twister? I might be able to do the same thing with… Me.**

**Kal-El shot out Oceanus' eyes and it didn't lose track of what was going on. It's more likely that it tracks with magic, ifff… If it isn't being directed remotely.** I frown. **No, sorry, it can't be doing that. I'm unscryable and it's been tracking me fine.**

Ms Lance looks at M'gann for a moment, then returns her attention to me. **Orange Lantern, you're in first. Squire, Arsenal, follow him in once he's given the all clear.**

**Sir.** / **Right-oh.** / **Got it.**

**I'll follow you in after that. We-.**

**Sir, that's.. not a good idea. One shot-.**

**I'll be exposed for ten seconds at most.**

**Sir, Plastic Man and Superboy could probably take a hit without being killed. Rocket Red would have a chance of survival. If you got hit there wouldn't even be ash.**

Ms Lance takes a moment to look at the other League members' faces. **Alright. Plastic Man, then Superboy. If Oceanus doesn't shoot I'll come in after that.**

Mister Queen looks as unhappy about that as I feel, but I doubt that I'll get a better deal by negotiating further. It takes a very particular mindset to fight gun-armed criminals while wearing tights. She wasn't going to back down just because the Titan of Oceans is bearing down on us.

**Sir.** My construct armour vanishes and I fade from sight. Let's activate phasing as well. New spell eater, check. Go.

Flying, it takes me four seconds to reach the cave entrance and during that time no lightning at all is thrown my way. And I'm in and breathing a sigh of relief as the watery colossus leaves my visual field. Or rather, as I leave his.

The entry to the cave looks like an actual cave. There's no path along the floor -which is submerged- and the rock is uneven, organically carved by the flow of water in and out and by the water running down through the rock above. It only takes a few moments for the ring's visual augmentation mode to pick out the unnatural parts. The marks made either by hands or fingernails on the rocks where someone has clambered over the stalagmites. No signs of heavy equipment being dragged through… Not sure whether that's a good sign or not.

I float further in. I want to take out the rune stone and check for magic, but it wouldn't be covered by my armour's invisibility system. Ring, any of those scratches runic?

Several runic patterns identified. However, simple runes may be created through repeated random scratching and this ring does not have the capacity to directly detect spellcraft.

I take a quick look at the suggested symbols. No, nothing that suggests intelligent design. Ignore them, press on. A little further in the cave opens up a little, though it still doesn't look man-made. Not seen any enemies yet. Curiously, the only weapon that I have that I can use while invisible is brute strength. And I can't use that while phased. Do I phase back in?

Yes.

**I'm inside. No one here. I'm moving deeper.**

**Understood. I'm sending Squire after you now.**

Sound judgement. No sense in putting both her and Roy in the line of fire at the same time if Oceanus is using magic-based detection. Hm. The water is still on the floor despite the cave angling slightly upwards. It's running out to sea. Where's it coming from?

I follow it in. I think Kaldur was right about space warping. This cave is continuing further than the available land suggests that it should be able to. The passageway is turning into something more even, with what is definitely a manmade channel down the middle. Not paved, this was clearly worked from the stone surrounding us and there are tiny stalactites on the ceiling.

Still no opposition. Ring scans aren't showing anything my eyes can't see. Sonic pulse, read the-.

Oh heck.

**[Image urgency]**

I drop stealth and thrust up the passageway, reforming my construct armour just in time to meet what I recognise as entropic lightning. I've only read descriptions before. Grey-white rather than white-yellow, it acts as normal lightning against most targets with the added bonus that it tends to nullify spiritual force. In effect, the target becomes more vulnerable to magic and loses magic capacity themselves. Against Atlanteans it's deadly. Against me, my construct armour soaks it without too much difficulty.

"Ah. The Lantern."

I emerge into a larger cave, with what looks like a large and vaguely Greek style folly in the centre. Ten pillars hold up a sloped roof while what looks like a statue of Oceanus pours an endless flow of water from an urn. There's an arcane design on the ground, the runes of which somewhat resemble those used in Dolmen Gates. Orm-.

I blink. No, that's not Ocean Master. Too short. He's… He's put Koryak in his old armour. Koryak is standing next to the statue, Diadem of Dominion in hand. Orm is standing a little further back. His new armour looks like it's made of the same grey stone as the armour Oceanus himself wears, and lacks the obvious holes of the Ocean Master gear. He hasn't relinquished Oceanus' trident, of course.

"I had hoped that Arthur-."

I generate a railgun construct and open fire.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:18 GMT

My mage slayer round hits-. It hits something about a metre from Orm. There's a flicker as… A tiny volume of water precipitates from the air, the expended round itself dropping to the ground. Fully accelerated I fire twice more, the supposedly magic user killing rounds stopping on what-.

Layered super surface tension barriers. It's the only thing I can think of that fits. Strong enough to absorb the kinetic force of the shot and separate enough from one another to cope with the magic draining. Weakness: they're more vulnerable to pure kinetic force. I load tungsten anti-armour rounds and dial up the power.

The barrier doesn't even trigger. The shot slams unimpeded into whatever that grey stuff is and-. He's barely affected. There's a slight sound at the impact so the force isn't simply being nullified by magic-.

The water's spreading out of the channel. Ring, scan? Yes, sea water is being pulled up the tunnel behind me to cover the floor. From the way it's foaming I'm going to assume that it would be extremely loud if I was thinking slower. As it is, all I'm getting is a low rumble.

Switch to crumbler rounds. Orm's trident is moving slowly, entropic lightning dancing around the prongs. I begin moving slowly to the side. Normal lightning spells use automatic aim which won't work on me, so unless he's an excellent aim his shots should just miss. Tridents aren't easy weapons to aim with and Atlantean battlemages don't train to aim precisely.

Pressure on my right foot. The moment the crumbler round leaves the barrel of my railgun I phase, construct vanishing. I fly at best speed towards the rear of the room as tendrils of water flail impotently after me… At a speed I can see. Those things must be moving faster than the speed of sound at least. Orm's work? No, he doesn't seem to be-.

Ggruh!

I materialise, slamming into the rear wall. My head feels like-. Combat with a magic user.

"There you are."

Don't reason, follow the protocol. Switch out the spell eater. With the FBI officers and my team mates I'm getting a little low on those. Same with mage slayers.

"Truggs mentioned that you have a frustrating habit of not-"

Praexis Demons, go. Eat him.

"Yay!"

"-listening to-. You think Demons will be enough-"

Orm turns to face me as they pour forth from the rings in a torrent. Tubbs leads the charge, mouth open and ravenous. To them, a magic-rich target like Orm must be a feast.

"-to stop me? Fool!"

The water around him explodes, tiny droplets hitting like railgun rounds. Praexis Demons are slammed back or flat out disintegrated, respawning from the rings and flying forwards again. This time I throw a barrier forwards and prepare a railgun. His trident shimmers and that's my sign to fire a mage slayer. The barrier meets it once more, but it delays him long enough for the Demons to get into biting distance. One I haven't bothered naming reaches him first, chomping down on his right shoulder. No apparent effect.

Blades of ice shoot up from the thigh-high water on the floor, neatly piercing every Demon save the one actually biting him. Orm's left hand forms a blade and strikes, piercing my construct Demon through the right eye.

"Aaaaaagh!"

Even with a chunk of its head gone the Demon continues to grind its teeth against his plate. Is it-? There's a tiny blemish on the surface of the plate where my crumbler hit. Dread to think what that stuff is made of if that's all it managed. On the other hand, I can make more crumblers on the fly. Orm gets a grip on the rest of the Demon's head and crushes. Alright, no point in calling more of them except as a distract-.

"Forget me?" Beryl materialises behind Orm, sword flicking out towards the rear of his knees. Shouldn't strictly be necessary with an x-ionised blade; either it'll go through like it does most things or he's got a spell that will stop it and it won't matter if the metal was thick or-. "Oh."

A pillar of water shoots up where she's floating, sending her careening towards the ceiling. She phases a moment before she would hit, shimmering into invisibility. The water level in here is getting to the point where it will seriously impede our mobility. And I don't think for a moment it will impede his.

Internal.

"Beryl, did you actually cut him there?"

"Yeah, but he bled water. Something weird's happened."

A hard gel arrow hits Orm in the back of his head, enveloping it. Alright, lacking a better idea… Double railguns and fire a volley of crumbler rounds at the areas of exposed armour. Some damage, but Oceanus is due to arrive soon and this isn't going to penetrate fast enough. Orm staggers, and I'm forced to create a construct barrier as a tornado of super hard water spirals around the room.

"Beryl, ideas?"

"What's Koryak doing?"

"Just standing there, keeping some sort of artefact under control. Probably ensourced."

My barrier fractures and I'm forced to replace it.

"What artefact?"

"The runes on the gazebo are a portal of some kind."

"Copying you again?"

"No, I got the original design from Brain anyway."

"Well, water's coming out of the portal and water's bad, so-"

"Shoot it." / "-shoot it."

One railgun diverts its attention and a mage slayer speeds towards the centrepiece. Being blocked by another sodding bubble shield. Beryl crouches behind me as Orm lets out another burst of entropic lightning. This time it's not aimed at us but at the material caked over his helmet. Relying on vision rather than a scrying spell? Worth knowing.

"You have moments until my master arrives! Mighty as you are, there is no way-!"

BOOM!

"Mighty, wizard?!" Brut runs at full charge out of the boom tube and leaps, Canis lashing out at Orm with his sword from his steed's back! "Feel the fury of a New God-" The edge hits Orm's upraised left wrist, severing his hand. Flesh and bone is revealed, but as Beryl said: water and not blood flows forth. "-and know that your master's time is done!"

"Wretch!" A blast of water vapour erupts around Canis as-

BOOM!

-another boom tube opens and Brut completes his leap, disappearing from sight.

Well, that was impressive, but I'm not clear-.

"Orange Lantern?" Sephtian is crouched next to the gazebo, the mage slayer blocking bubbles flaring into existence for a moment and then fading away. "Your way is-"

"Arsenal, anti-magic arrows at the gazebo, now!"

"-clear."

My railguns come up, targeting each runic cluster and firing with a scream!

"No!" Orm gestures and water surges towards the gazebo. I interpose a construct barrier, two shots striking the stone near the statue. Koryak moves, throwing himself in the way of my guns. But he's on the wrong side to block Roy's arrows. The stone cracks and the runic arrays fizzle and dim. Orm points his trident at Sephtian. "Bastard half-breed!"

Sephtian regards him levelly for a moment. "Better a half-breed than a traitor."

The water filling the room surges, flowing out of the room and down the passageway. Orm's trident crackles with lightning.

For about a second, before it explodes as my mage slayer round hits it.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:21 GMT

"Gaaagh!"

Orm doesn't appear hurt, but the destruction of his patron's weapon appears to have shocked him. Either that, or the lightning spell he was building did something to him through that armour. He starts to recover for a second, then takes another hard foam arrow to the face.

"Got you!" Beryl grabs Koryak and wrestles him to the ground. Atlantean Pureblood or not, the armour she's wearing makes her stronger than him and the protection his Ocean Master gear provides doesn't really help with her wrestling him-. Ah, she's applied some sort of gas to his exposed face. That should do it.

BOOM!

Brut bounds back into the room, splashing as he lands. Some water still lingers on the stony floor but it doesn't seem to be about to attack us. Canis slashes at Orm's back, cutting a narrow groove through the armour protecting his back. Orm collapses.

"Nonono. That wasn't what I meant." Sephtian is kneeling down at the gazebo, taking in the spell work in place upon it. His arms move, and a dazzling array of purely etheric runes shimmering into visibility. "You've destroyed too much!"

That sounds like the most important thing going on. I dart in his direction as Beryl begins tying up the recumbent Koryak. "Explain."

He squints up at me. Is this..? Yes, this is probably the first time he's seen me in my current generation combat armour. "This… This spell, is-. It was the Titan's prison. Now.. it.. is not. I had thought that we might restore it…" He sags.

Oh dear.

"What do you need?"

"A-a-a-a-ah…" He crawls over the structure to take it all in. "Here, restore… Restore it physically."

Ring, use prior scans to restore the structure.

Compliance.

Orange light flashes over the structure, stone whole once more. Sephtian's body stills as he gets a clear look at the remaining runes.

"Can you-?"

"No. No, I cannot. This will require far more power than I-."

"Orange Lantern to Cornwall. Get in here now."

"Ah, Orange Lantern? Oceanus is, like-."

"Now!"

"Coming."

"Power, restored physical component. What else do we need to force Oceanus back inside?"

"I'm… Ah…" He shudders as he tries to get a grip on himself. "I think…" He moves his hands over the outer part of the rune network. "This is recent, based on my work. You were.. right. Atlantis was betrayed."

Rob appears in a blast of air, looking around the room. I hold up my left hand in a 'wait' gesture. "Professor, please-."

He holds up his right hand to stop me, wiggling it slightly. "It was.. linked to the trident. With that destroyed... And here and here…" Parts of the runic network dim. "This is designed to imprison him. They modified it with my work… If I had been here-."

"What do we do?"

"You." He motions to Rob with his right hand, beckoning him. "Here. Provide power."

"Right." Rob kneels down next to him, his eyes unfocusing slightly. Several runes glow more brightly. "Any good?"

"No. Ah, yes-" Rob looks at him in concern. "-you are doing well, but it is not enough. Oceanus now has too much of himself in this world. It is enough to prevent thissss… System from pulling him back. And… Some of this is not… Not working."

"Hades gets a good chunk of his power from draining Erebos. Maybe Poseidon had a similar thing set up for O-."

"Oceanus." He nods. "Yes, that would make sense. But why is it inactive?"

"They fought about ten minutes ago. Poseidon lost. Any ideas for a replacement?"

He goes completely still. "Neptune?" He shudders, then starts re-examining the runes.

"Never met him."

"Perhaps… If Oceanus' avatar was destroyed…" He shakes his head. "I am sorry, it is all I can think of."

"Hah. Hah!" I turn to see Canis holding Orm up by his cuirass. He's taken off the foam and his helmet, revealing his pale white and somewhat chewed upon face. If it was a Lazarus Pit that brought him back, it clearly didn't do a particularly good job. "Oceanus will crush you all!"

I…

I don't know how to stop him.

"Aaaahhh..? Orange Lantern to… Everyone? We've recaptured the thing that was used to imprison Oceanus. If we destroy his body… We think we can stick him back in. But I don't know how to do that. At... This point, I think we're looking at nukes. I don't have anything better."

Except the Ophidian. Could I..? Could we assimilate something like Oceanus? What would that do to me, or to the Earth's seas? Probably less harm than leaving him to his own devices, but… I honestly would rather nuke him. Something like this… 'I don't know' really isn't something I want to work on. But… If that's all I can do…

"Canis, Squire, stay here with the prisoners. Arsenal, guard Sephtian and Cornwall."

"Right." / "Okay."

Canis doesn't respond. He's using his sword to cut open the rest of Orm's armour, and as each part of the body beneath is revealed he pauses, taking time to examining, move and poke at the newly revealed flesh. Taking a firm grip on Orm's head and right arm, he leans forward and sniffs-.

I fly at high speed back out of the cave. Since I'm not really having to study it I can afford to make better time-.

Shiiiiit Oceanus looks big from the ground. He's not here yet, but he isn't far away. Once he takes up position… He can just throw out waves and then have that last Water Wraith or.. whoever, work out how to undo the bindings…

A large ball tumbles past me, about fifteen Saremites tangled up in Mister O'Brian's distended body. Razor-tipped filaments dart out from my body, jamming themselves into their skulls and stunning them. A bit of a risk, but I think we're taking a holiday from 'no-killing' today. And they'll probably survive, it's just not as well calibrated as-.

**Black Canary to Orange Lantern. Batman agrees. We're going to evacuate everyone.** I can hear the defeat in her voice even as I see League members and the rest of my team locked in combat with the Saremites. **Create a zeta tube construct-.**

**Sir… Cornwall and Sephtian will need to remain in place to make the spells work.**

**I-.**

**Paul, can you get me to the sun?**

I wheel around, looking for Kon. **Um. Yeeess? But.. it won't make you that much stronger or I'd just have grabbed Superman.**

He shoves a large Saremite into the rocky surface of the island and punches it in the head, stunning it. **I'm not talking about Kryptonian power. Ocean Master isn't the only one who worships a Titan.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th June
11:24 GMT

I…

**Superboy, explain.**

Black Canary sounds irritated. Given how Greek deities behave I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Helios' offer of help was eleventh hour… Or so cryptic that Kon only just got it.

…

If that's actually what happened.

**I don't think I can. I just know-.**

**Irrelevant. Sir, do we stay or go? If go, you'll need to call in Green Lantern C for the evacuation.**

She screams in the direction of a block of Saremite infantry sheltering from arrows and more exotic blasts behind water shields of my design, breaking their formation and leaving them vulnerable to fly by strikes from the Hawks. **Go!**

I transition to Kon. **Ready?**

His jaw tightens slightly. **Guess I have to be. How long-**

I put a construct barrier over his eyes, then warp.

Warping towards the sun is.. not fun. Quite aside from the problems you get with intervening obstacles -which is why standard Green Lantern Corps protocol suggests using it for inter-system travel only- and the time distortion effect, you're essentially getting hit in the face with a laser for the entire journey. There are about 150 million kilometres between the Earth and the Sun and I need to cover that space in a few seconds. The sun's output at that distance is usually about 1.361 kilojoules per square meter every second, so if I do it in a second that's about two hundred billion joules right in my face. Even in the thirty seconds I'm planning to do it in, that would still be a constant 70 million kilowatts for the duration. And that's ignoring the fact that it actually increases as I get closer.

Sure, I'm not dumb enough to actually do that. Since I'm bending space/time anyway I also bend sideways, slipping through space like a mouse down a snake's throat. The warped pocket where Kon and I are is merely bright; the area towards the edges of the pocket is blazing white sunlight. I've tried this once before under Guy's direction and I'm.. still not sure I understand the description of what's actually going on. Still, if it-.

The warp stops, and the sun is…

Hah.

It's a wall of fire obscuring space. If I turn my head, it's like… It's too big for me to be able to see the curve. Somewhere to my left, a plume of plasma that must be…

Gods…

That's amazing.

"Alright, we're here. What next?"

"I'm.. not sure."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No. Just.. give me a sec." He takes a deep breath, then closes his eyes and bows his head. His lips are moving silently in what I assume is some sort of prayer.

Okay. Well, warping back is a good deal easier. Here to the outer atmosphere in one second is no problem at all. I shake my head and turn away from the sun, looking out in the general direction of Earth. A tiny amount of the sunlight that reaches it is bounced back this way. If I look in the right direction I can see what was going on eight minutes ago in really low resolution.

Hm. I know that Earth is unusually active, mystically speaking. I know that Mars has magic users. I don't know how that applies to the rest of the system. Is the idea of the sun as it exists in the Earth's arcane systems the same as the sun-as-it-is? Not like there's anyone living down there who could be using… Sun-magic. He's not… Helios turning up in person -even if he is more personable- probably wouldn't be much healthier for north-west Africa than Oceanus. Unless he's in Human-seeming mode. No, he'd have to fight at full power… Wouldn't h-?

"Warning: plasma density increasing."

When you say 'increasing'-?

"Warning: plasma density increasing significantly."

"Ah… Kon..?" I turn back towards him. "Are-?"

A coronal mass ejection about a kilometre wide is reaching out for us, launched by… Well, they're usually launched by the sun's natural magnetic activity. This one… I slide my rune stone out of a pocket. Yep, there's a reaction. This was aimed.

Kon himself is wreathed in white fire. It's a little like when he attacked Deacon Blackfire, only more… All-consuming.

Ah. I think I understand the plan. Ring, contact Green 2814 B.

Link established.

The image forming over the ring appears, then glitches in and out. Yes, I suppose that making an orange ring show Ion was asking a bit much. "Guy-. Ion, Oceanus has moved away from the East Coast. The wall is no longer required. We're going to hit him with a coronal mass ejection." I think. "Please move to where he is and create a barrier cylinder around him."

"The wall is no longer required."

"That's right."

"We understand."

"Okay, but did you get the res-?"

He disappears. Oooooh, that could be a problem.

"Paul?" Kon looks at me with eyes that are glowing white ovals. "Can you take me back to the edge of the atmosphere? I need to be right above Oceanus."

"Yes. Yes, I can do that. Ssssstand by."

Cross my metaphorical fingers.

Aaaaand warp.

The sun vanishes and the Earth appears behind us. Kon and I reorientate, me creating a construct marking Santo Porto's location beneath us. Oceanus himself is… Not visible to the naked eye, but with a little magnification I can spot him. He's nearly there, the League having mostly evacuated the island. Ms Lance and John are standing at the entrance of the cave…

And Kon's not next to me any longer. There's a plume of burning white as he dives through the air towards his target.

Um.

"Orange Lantern to Justice League..? Superboy's heading for Oceanus and I really think everyone should be standing well back when he hits."

"Wonder Woman to Orange Lantern. What do you mean, 'hit'?"

"Helios set him on fire. It doesn't seem to be hurting him, but he's flying directly towards Oceanus at-" Quick check. "-maximum acceleration. I don't know exactly what will happen when he hits, but I don't advise being there when he does. Has Guy arr-?"

There's a flare of green around Oceanus, followed by a surge of white as he unleashes lightning in all directions.

"Never mind. About… Ten seconds to impact."

"Batman to Justice League. Fall back to five miles' distance."

John and Ms Lance aren't moving. I warp again, appearing at the entrance to the cave as Oceanus… I'm shorter than his fricking toenail! He's walking through the shallows now, stabbing at Guy's barrier with his trident and here comes Kon!

"For Heliooooooooos!"