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

[Mr Zoat]

15th September
08:45 GMT -5

Konvikt holds out his mug. "I would like more."

I pick up the flask and pass it to him. "Have the whole thing. I don't actually like it."

He frowns. "Then why did you drink it?"

"To demonstrate fellowship." He looks dubious, but carefully pours himself a new cup before setting the flask back down. "So, to summarize, you saved Jaggar Ton, worked as his bodyguard for years, became romantically involved with his daughter, were wrongly convicted of his wife's murder and were sentenced to lifetime penal servitude."

His face tightens, but he settles for taking another sip of tea. "Yes."

"Okay, well, ordinarily I'd be happy to just fly you back and help you do a proper investigation, but I have responsibilities here, too. And I'm afraid that after.. that, local authorities are-."

"I acted honourably. I have nothing to answer for."

"While that may be true morally, I'm afraid that it isn't true legally. Now, I know that you'd never deliberately target-."

There's a red blur, and Mister Allen-.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Konvikt is already standing, but he doesn't do anything more violent than glower. Mister Allen is still vibrating in a way which suggests to me that he's massively accelerated, his perception of the universe around him far faster than a normal Human. Or me, even. Getting ready to evade an attack, or strike with much more force than a normal Human is capable of creating. Or -just maybe- thinking about the incongruity of the situation and deciding not to run in, fists blazing.

Hasn't taken my advice on the subspace arsenal, I note.

"Flash."

The vibrating slows very slightly. "Orrangee Lannternn."

He's still accelerated, speaking slowly so that it sounds nearly like normal speed for us. It's still noticeable, but at that speed hearing my speech is probably far stranger for him.

Hm.

I drop twelve screens out of subspace and start playing the recordings I recovered at ten times normal speed. At his speed he should be able to view them at a leisurely rate and still have time to pay attention to what I'm saying. "Having reviewed the recordings of Konvikt's arrival and the early part of his fight with local authorities, I have reached the conclusion that he hasn't committed a crime."

His face is blurring as he moves his focus between the various recordings. "Theere's a ruiinedd town back there that wwould argue that witth you."

"I would cite Idaho versus Weaver there, Flash. The police shot first. He was acting in self defence."

"Theyy weeren't a threatt to someone as ttough as he iss."

"How was he supposed to know that? He hasn't even been on Earth an hour."

"There are bbodies in the wreckage."

"If he killed his attackers, then it was self defence."

"Theere were civillianss."

"Do you know that he killed them, or are you just focusing on the obvious aggressor? It didn't exactly escape my notice that Hardcastle declared a US town a free-fire zone." That earns me a two-second hard look. "You work in forensics. Did their injuries resemble those inflicted by a person with super strength? Or an entirely predictable side effect of firing automatic cannons and rockets and artillery into an inhabited area?"

"Speeed these up."

I comply, switching from ten times acceleration to fifty. Given the overlaps I have to split some of the screens, and the footage after initial hostilities break out is far more fragmented.

"What is happening?"

"This is the Flash. He's a heroic warrior who just saved the lives of a lot of people while you fought his friends and allies in the town."

"What is he doing?"

"Justice. At the moment, he assumes that you are broadly to blame for what occurred. However, he is just, and believes in the proper application of the law. As such, he is reviewing the recordings I made. If they favour my explanation, my life and yours will become somewhat easier."

"I have bad experiences with such justice."

"The Flash just put himself in considerable danger to save the lives of the innocent, asking nothing in return. He does that on a daily basis. I think he's earned your forbearance."

"What happens if he still blames me?"

"That would depend on what he blames you for, and why. Our laws are not like yours. You are not a murderer, but you may have committed lesser crimes." He grimaces. "Did you have somewhere you urgently needed to be?"

He sits back down with a loud thump. "No."

Flash stops vibrating and walks towards us at a normal pace. "Okay. That seems… I wouldn't call your new friend innocent, but he's at least got reasonable doubt. I'm still gunna need to arrest him, but-."

"Just a moment, Flash." He stops, and I stab the cold field surrounding us with a filament, causing it to vanish in a flash of suddenly-frozen airborne moisture. Mister Allen looks decidedly unimpressed, but did he really think I'd trust the League to exercise good judgement? "Are you going to arrest General Hardcastle?"

"Not right now, but once we complete a full investigation-."

"Then no. You don't get to do justice only when it's convenient."

"The law doesn't treat invading aliens the same as it does US Army generals. Look, just give it some time-."

"I don't see how that's my problem. Are you a member of the Justice League or the League of Lawyers?"

His eyes narrow slightly. "That's a cheap shot. Hardcastle will be brought to justice-."

Ring? "Then you should hurry back to town. He's already covering his tracks."

"Oh God damn it." His hand goes to his right ear. "Flash to Icon, and hopefully Batman. We need to make sure that we get a full picture of exactly what happened in Thayer's Notch. Orange Lantern's doing a Geronimo and he might be on to something. Yeah."

He turns away and I look up at Konvikt.

"He's a good man, but perhaps we shouldn't take the risk?"

"I will not run."

"Good. But will you fix the damage that was caused? Will you prove that you are better than they suspect you to be? Will you take back your name?" I lean forwards, my right hand going into one of my equipment pouches and pulling out a ring. "What do you want, Konvikt?"

"I want justice."

The ring in my hand shines brilliantly as it darts over to him. Carefully, he holds out his left hand and the ring slides onto his middle finger.

"Xalitan Xor. You have a great need in your heart. Join the Orange Lantern Corps, and see it realised."

"I accept."

Orange light washes over his body, a glowing orange sigil forming in the middle of his chest.

"I am yours."

Lantern Xor's eyes flare orange and he leaps into the sky, Mister Allen watching in shock for a moment before turning his attention to me. "That isn't going to help!"

I shrug. "Helped him."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th September
08:58 GMT -5

"Okay, maybe it did help."

Mister Allen and I watch as Lantern Xor finishes reassembling Thayer's Notch, getting a quiet cheer from some of the town's remaining residents. Not the ones whose relatives' corpses were dug out, obviously, but that total was far fewer than I'd suspected. I very much doubt that General Hardcastle is enjoying the conversation he's having with Kal-El right now.

"I appreciate you admitting that, Flash. It saves me from having to bear a grudge about it."

He glances at me. "So I'm not 'sir' any more?"

"As Ms Waller pointed out a few days ago, I don't have any formal working relationship with the Justice League any longer. As such, rather than being a member of my team's steering committee, you're… Some guy. And while I don't plan on bringing up the Nabu incident every single time we meet-"

"Now hold on-."

"-I haven't exactly forgotten that the entire League signed off on it. I don't trust any of you to hold command authority over me. I certainly won't be repeating last year's oath."

"I wasn't asking you to do that." He pointedly looks towards the medical station that's been set up for the wounded. "Not that I'm exactly impressed by your choice of recruit-."

Lantern Xor lands in the middle of the beds, a good few of both the patients and staff looking at him in alarm. His eyes briefly alight on a young police officer, but he limits himself to a glower before walking past and pointing his ring at a man with four broken ribs.

"Gosh, yes. What a menace."

"Why did he walk past that guy?"

"'That guy' probably shot him."

"He's not shooting him now."

"Flash, I'm not sure if you were listening when I said it, but the Geneva Conventions are very much an Earth thing. Lantern Xor has a strong sense of honour, but that doesn't mean that he's particularly nice. In his culture, if you pick a fight then you deserve everything you get. I can persuade him to help civilians, but he will not help anyone who attacked him."

Which is why I gave a quick heal to injured Justice League members. They may not be my favourite people in the universe at the moment, but I don't want them carrying injuries. There might be an actual invasion sometime soon.

"What exactly do you think is going to happen to him? More to the point, what does he think is going to happen?"

"I expect that he'll be questioned under caution, then the…" Jurisdiction in cases like this can be a bit interesting. It's not the FBI, because it doesn't concern inter-state crime. It's not the NSA because this isn't an invasion… "What, the state police?"

"Probably."

"Right, while they investigate. At this point, the only thing they can actually arrest him for is immigration offences… But he clearly crashed here and I've already submitted his asylum application. So as long as they have an address for him, they probably won't."

"Do you really think he didn't commit a crime here?"

"I think Mister Augustus Freeman will win the case for me."

His mouth opens slightly, then closes again. "What, you don't trust Luthor's lawyer any more?"

"I think Lantern Xor will respect Mister Freeman more. He doesn't have a lot of patience for legalism, but he can respect someone who can take a punch from him and keep fighting. Anyway, I can put him up in a hotel for a while with strict instructions to contact me before engaging in combat. That should give the lead investigator plenty of time to decide whether he wants to bring any charges. And give me a chance to educate him before he carries on with his mission."

"Which is?"

"His strongest desire is to see justice done. I haven't studied the place, but I understand that his homeworld doesn't have the best judicial system. Once he's ready, I'll be sending him back there to fix that."

"That what you do now? Take over planets?"

"Given sufficient provocation, yes. And if you want to follow that line of enquiry, I'll be happy to show you the planet where they cut their womenfolks' eyes out once they reach maturity. I don't intervene in nice places." I frown. "Don't you have a day job you need to be getting back to?"

"I was going to try to explain to you why I didn't vote against Nabu."

"If you think it will help. There's nothing I can think of that you could say which would make me respect your decision even slightly. With Diana, Batman and Kal-El I've been more concerned with building a relationship going forward."

"Okay-" He waves his right hand. "-then, I'm just going to say it. I didn't think Nabu would stick around indefinitely. Once we got Klarion under control-" M-mghf. "-I think he'd have been far more reasonable."

"Oh. Really?" I smile at him in the most sarcastic way I can manage. "And what brilliant plan did you have for 'controlling' Klarion? And how long exactly were you prepared to give Nabu?"

"I admit, I didn't have one. And I'm.. not sure."

"Ah, I see. So, what? You think I should have waited indefinitely?" His eyes narrow. "I'm not trying to take the piss here, I'm genuinely curious. How long was too long? At what point would you have… I don't know, said something to Batman?"

His scowl fades, and from the way he avoids meeting my eyes I think he's realised that he doesn't have a good answer. "I… Think I was waiting for Nabu to do something… Wrong."

"And… Possessing Mister-?"

"Something else. Otherwise, he was just… Reasonable."

"What..? Were you waiting for him to cackle manically?" I sigh. "No, just… Just promise me that you'll never do something like that again."

"I wasn't planning on doing that anyway." He folds his arms across his chest. "And I'm sure knowing that you'd kill them would motivate us to find another solution."

I nod. "I'm glad to hear it. But that's not… Why you should."

"No. We should have come up with something anyway. I get-."

"Yes, the morality is part of it. But the other is that if you didn't, if the League ever abandons its moral authority like that again, there will not be a Justice League afterwards." He blinks, taking a step back. "Nothing.. brutal, I wouldn't kill you. But you all agreed to cover up the Nabu situation rather than go to trial because you knew what the publicity would do to you. And when you value good PR over a man's life or doing the right thing… Then you're not heroes any more."

"I don't even need to release your secret identities. Just releasing that, then destroying the Watchtower and the zeta tube network would probably be enough." I sigh. "Though if you feel like heading that way, could you please give me at least a few years? Getting a replacement organisation in place would take me a while."

Lantern Xor rises up from the medical area and heads our way, a helicopter pilot blinded in one eye gesturing for him to come back.

"Excuse me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th September
15:08 GMT -2

Lantern Xor doesn't seem too impressed by my ice fortress, but that might just be because his face has little mobility.

"While I'm.. sure that the truth will eventually out, I think that.. it might be best if you didn't make any unsupervised trips to… Ah, anywhere, at the moment."

"I understand."

"The corridors might be a bit of a squeeze, but you can use your ring to transfer yourself between the outside and the rooms inside."

"Do you have news broadcasts?"

"Earth has hundreds of news channels. Your ring can filter them for you, or record and show you the bits you're interested in."

"How do I learn your life code? Your laws?"

"Huh. How do you feel about telepathy?"

"What is that?"

Ah. Yes, I suppose he might well not have encountered it before. "The ability of one being to connect their mind to that of another."

"Like technopathy?"

"I don't know anyone who can communicate with machines like that." Which -given the wide variety of power sets I'm familiar with- is a little odd, now I think about it. I wonder why that is? "And the machines don't necessarily have minds of their own, so it isn't quite the same."

"No. Not communicating from a brain to a machine. Communicating from a machine to a brain."

"Sort of? Do your people have systems like that?"

His eyes narrow slightly, but he isn't looking at me. "I learned like that. When I joined the army. It hurt."

"It might take them a little while to learn how your brain works, but none of the people who've been taught by the G-Gnomes have mentioned pain. A little.. temporary disorientation and confusion, yes, but not pain. Alternatively, your ring can access statute law and case law, or.. you can wait until our appointment with your attorney and ask him whatever questions you have." He turns his head towards me, but doesn't otherwise respond. "I've been meaning to ask: were you the only one in your pod?"

"No. Graak was also there. He was my barrister."

"Ah. I should.. probably track him down before he gets himself in trouble. Do you.. want anything now, or-."

"The man who first attacked me. Will he be punished?"

"Not sure. Given the number of broken bones he received and.. the particulars of the way police officers in the United States are allowed to attack with lethal force, I.. doubt it."

"And the warlord who attacked the town because I was in it?"

"Yes. General Hardcastle is already in custody. That will be a fairly long process, but eventually-."

He perks up. "Do your people allow trial by combat?"

"No." He shuffles sullenly. "We believe that justice is best served by discovering facts and dispassionately analysing them. Arcane truth compulsion hasn't quite caught on in most places, but I'm sure we'll get there in the end. You'll probably be called upon to give testimony at some point, but don't worry about that right now, we'll explain how everything works well ahead of time."

He nods, still clearly unhappy. "Why are you doing this?"

"Which bit?"

"Helping me. I haven't done anything for you."

"You didn't punch me."

"You didn't attack me. And I thought you were a civilian. Killing you would have been dishonourable."

"You wouldn't have been able to punch me."

He looks sceptical. "I have a great deal of experience in punching people. You were not moving."

I tap my forehead with my right forefinger, smiling. "Try it."

He looks at me curiously for a moment, then in a quick motion shoves at my forehead with the palm of his right hand. My kinetic barrier absorbs the force effortlessly.

"I like to give people a chance to demonstrate that they're willing to make the right choices… But I try to avoid being stupid about it. If you had hit me, your fist would have stopped. And I would have been sad that you tried, and I would have disabled you until such time as the situation could be fully investigated. I still think that you would have escaped a murder conviction, but you would have spent the intervening period in a secure facility rather than here."

He nods. "Wise."

"I do my best. But -more than not punching me - you have a desire to change the universe in a way I approve of. You want justice. At the moment, you just want it for yourself. But I'm hoping that you'll come to see that injustice inflicted on other people by the same system which so ill-served you is just as much of a problem."

"Why?"

"Because I want you to fix the system."

He stands completely rigid for a moment. "I am not a lawyer or a politician."

"Then maybe you fix the system by making a new, better system. I can teach you how to investigate crimes. Your ring can create all of the tools you need. And once you have all of the data you-."

There's a puff of violet-tinted smoke. Having learned his lesson from Thayer's Notch, Lantern Xor settles for reinforcing his environmental shield rather than just punching-

"There you are!"

-Zatanna in the face. Or the small chain-wreathed white-yellow reptilian floating beside her.

Zatanna's not wearing either the clothes I last saw her in or her uniform. Or the power armour I made for her. She's wearing solid-looking boots and has replaced her tights with black trousers decorated with runic… Those aren't decorations. She's actually got spells bound to her trousers. Looks like… Protection and fortune? She's replaced the dress shirt with a Kevlar vest coloured black and white, again with protective sigils picked out in… No, that's orichalcum, isn't it? There's a white cape, but the sigils there say flight and concealment so I'll give it a pass. And she's carrying the Staff of Love, but it appears to be inactive. That's a good sign.

"It's been hours! I was wondering where you'd vanished to." Zatanna notices me noticing her new look. "You like it? I know you made me the power armour, but it's just a bit too clunky for me." She smiles, then turns her attention to Lantern Xor. "Is this yours?"

The diminutive alien -Graak, probably- floats towards him. Xor thinks about it for a few moments, then nods.

"Sniahc raeppasid."

The chains vanish, and Graak scampers across the ground, climbs up Xor and settles on his right shoulder to glare at Zatanna.

"You replaced the conventional armour plates with bound spells. Clever." She beams. "I can't wait to look over your design documentation."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Resurrectionists

16th September
08:23 GMT +2

Adom smiles as I fly through the air towards the balcony of his private suite. "Paul. Good morning."

"Good morning, Adom." I land lightly and walk towards him, right hand extended. He mirrors the gesture, our hands clasping the other's forearm for a moment before letting go.

"How does Blaze fare?"

"The greatest magic users in Atlantis are working on the problem. She's not exactly enjoying the process, but she's keeping the moaning to within reasonable bounds." He nods, and gestures to the balcony table. I walk around to the far side and sit and he takes the near-side seat. "Do my eyes and ears deceive me, or is Miss Tomaz giving you a moment's peace?"

"My.. relationship with Adrianna-" My eyebrows rise. "-has… Improved, somewhat."

"Oh?"

"After.. discussing the matter in.. plain terms, she has come to accept that my respect for her is genuine. It… Amused her to test that respect in certain ways."

"What ways would that be?"

"Several Governorates had altered their laws to the disfavour of the women and girls who lived there. Though I do not believe that is a good policy, I had stated that I would not interfere with the abilities of the governors to set education policy. She demanded that I alter my decision."

"That is asking a lot of you. And them."

"I ruled Kahndaq for eighty years. I did learn something of subtlety."

"Then how did you square that circle?"

"I called a meeting for the educational advisors of every governor to discuss.. ways in which our methods could be improved. I gave Adrianna the opportunity to lecture them, and to field their complaints herself. I nodded, I thanked her for her input, but I did not state that her thoughts on the subject were to become national policy. Nor did I state that they were in accord with my own."

"You didn't break your word, but they're all sure what you want to happen, and.. given how popular you are, it's almost certain that it will happen." Adom nods. "And she was happy with that?"

"So long as it works, she will be."

"And what else?"

His eyes move away, and his face tightens slightly. "She said that.. if I were to become her husband, she would-. She wished to know that I could be informal. She did not wish for our children to 'have a statue for a father'."

"Adom, you are my friend and I am not sure that you can be informal."

He nods. "It was a challenge. I.. decided that… Perhaps the best way to convince her would be… If I composed a love poem for her. Without the assistance of the gods."

"I didn't know you were a poet." Though I suppose that it's not a total surprise. Nobles in ancient civilisations-.

"I am not. My tutors tried to instruct me in such matters, but I did not take to it."

"So..?"

"I attempted to woo her with a clumsy and amateurish poem. In front of witnesses. She was… Amused."

"How amused?"

"It was some time before she could steady herself. The other witnesses… I believe that they are behaving as the courtiers in 'The Emperor's New Clothes' and pretending that it did not happen." I'm trying to imagine it, and the image just won't form. "She demanded that I give her a written copy of the poem. Naturally, I acquiesced."

"Are you.. getting married, or were those just the prerequisites for being allowed to court her?"

"We are.. courting. She has accepted the Amulet of Isis as a token of our betrothal, though she has not sought to reach out to the goddess as yet." He leans back slightly. "And what of you and Miss Nguyen? You.. have spoken to her, yes?"

"Third place I went. I… Didn't have to compose a poem, but…" I'm smiling. "We're definitely courting."

Adom nods. "Have you spoken to her father?"

I nod happily. "Yes, and he didn't raise any concerns. Though to be honest, Jade is rather closer to her mother. And I already had a good relationship with her. I can't introduce her to my family, of course, but I'm taking her to meet Alan on Sunday." Hm. "I was.. wondering..? It's a bit of a personal question…"

"Please."

"You told me about your father, but I don't think you've ever mentioned your mother."

"Her name was Aneksi. She was my father's senior wife. She died of malaria when I was… Seven, I think." His eyes narrow slightly as he gazes into the distance. "I have only scattered recollections of interacting with her and I.. am unable to clearly recall her face." His face relaxes as he turns his head towards me. "Though I do remember that she was not so outspoken as Adrianna."

"Would you..? Do you want to see her again?" He raises his eyebrows. "Necromancy doesn't have the same connotations here that it does in Europe. I imagine that Lord Anubis would allow a brief conversation."

"Were I.. younger… Perhaps. But I do not fear that she would not approve. And with so much time passed, I would rather leave her to her rest." I nod. "Now, I have a question for you." I nod, eyebrows raised. "The last thing that Adrianna asks of me is that I find her brother. Since she has no other family, it is.. appropriate that he stand with her when we are joined. I do not believe that he is in Kahndaq, but there are a great many places in the world where I do not go for fear of their rulers coming to believe that I am threatening them. I have no great skill with magic, but those auguries I have been able to perform tell me nothing. If there is some technique you know that could aid me, it would be a great help to me if you would use it."

Ring, on the off chance something has changed…

Unable to detect.

"Standard ring scans still don't find him. I can put you in touch with better magicians if you like. But…"

I talked the process for quintessence waveform scans over with Hinon, and once she got over her need to express faux-surprise at my survival she was actually quite helpful. With the right constructs and existing slightly outside the physical universe it should be possible for me to do one without the Ophidian… Not exactly fun though.

"I'm happy to attempt a quintessence waveform scan for you, but I can't promise that I'll get anything useful. Last time I did one I had a clone of the person I was looking for standing right in front of me so I knew what I was trying to find. It's quite possible that I'll find his location and fail to recognise him."

Adom nods. "I understand. I would be grateful if you would attempt it anyway."

"Might take a while. If I'm still out of it in five hours, try to wake me." He nods.

Alright then. Rings, we've got a sample of Miss Tomaz's late parent's genetic material. There are only so many combinations Amon could have. That's what we're looking for. Understand?

Instruction internalised. / Get thing!

Close enough. Rings, quintessence waveform scan.

Colours and shapes, forms and ideas flash past, surround and confound me. Quarks dance and particles of brick are torn from their greater whole by the wind and the earth churns and the light from the stars impacts on-. Gah! This is.. harder without an inhuman mind used to this sort of thing! Come on, this shape, something in this shape-.

EVERYTHING=NOTHING

I tumble from my chair-. Ow! What? I raise my right hand-. My environmental shield is out. Not weak, not guttering, out.

"Paul, were you successful?"

I keep watching, and painfully slowly my shield creeps back around my body.

"No. No I wasn't. But whoever took Amon isn't a conventional gang."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th September
21:03 GMT -5

Jade watches the Gotham street life below us. Relatively few sirens this evening, and Richard and Mister Wayne are over in Granton at the moment. Seeing nothing that requires her immediate attention, Jade adopts a slightly more relaxed pose. "Who exactly am I going to meet tomorrow?"

"His name is Alan Scott."

She might be frowning; the mask makes it hard to tell. "Should I know who that is?"

"Probably not. He used to live in Gotham. He.. ran the Apex Broadcasting Company?"

"Didn't they collapse in the nineties?"

"Something like that. He'd already retired, the mobs were becoming more powerful... Skulduggery suspected-. "

"But never proven. So far, so Gotham. But that doesn't explain how you know him."

"Come on, Jade. Why did the mobs-?"

"The Green Lantern." She stiffens slightly, then turns to give me her full attention. "He used to prevent the gangs from coming into the open. After he left, they started acting openly."

I nod. "Despite the Reaper's best efforts. Though… As he approached retirement age, he didn't actually get in all that many fights. It was more his reputation and visible presence that kept things stable."

She nods. "Do you know why Dad brought us here?"

"Be.. cause.. no one was looking for him here?"

She starts.. not pacing exactly, but… Stalking a circuit. "He thought that it would be a good training environment for Artemis and me. Lots of gangs, lots of people who'd pay us to kill people no one would miss…"

"And most of them well below your skill level."

She snorts quietly. "And if they weren't then we'd deserve what we got."

"Alan was in his seventies. And if he hadn't left-."

"Dad would just have brought us somewhere else, I know. I wasn't blaming him… Exactly." She checks her environment again, then returns her attention to me. "How did you meet him?"

"When I first arrived on this Earth, I had a ring but no lantern. My ring could locate other people's lanterns, and I found one in New York that no one appeared to be using."

She tilts her head slightly to the right. "So you just flew down and tried to take it?"

"So I knocked on the door and tried to buy it from him. He put in a call to Diana, and the rest is history." I shrug. "He's the man who introduced me to America's superhero community, and I've mostly forgiven him for that."

"Your first mentor."

I nod. "And a good friend and.. given recent events, there's a fair chance that we're going to end up as co-workers."

She tilts her head slightly towards me. "And you… What, want him to approve of me?"

"Um… Sort of. I mean, yes, obviously I want him to approve of you, but…" How to put this? "The only piece of romantic advice he ever gave me was 'don't marry a supervillainess', and.. yes, you're not in that line of work any more-."

"What made him say that? Aside from the obvious?"

"He married a supervillainess. A.. really unfortunate split personality case called Rose Canton. Also known as 'Thorn'."

"Rose and Thorn. Creative."

"Please don't make fun of it, it's a really sore point for him. She got caught, revealed, she went through therapy and the psychiatrists said that she was cured."

"Only she wasn't." She nods. "So he thinks I might not be quite as rehabilitated as you think I am."

"It's probably a concern. I want to put his mind at ease."

She stands still for a moment, breathing slowly. "Paul… You do know that I-?"

"Do you want to tell me anything I might have to lie to Diana about later?"

Her hands twitch, as if about to ball into fists. "Yes. If you're actually serious about our relationship, there are things about me you need to know."

"Okay." Now's as good a time as any. "Me too."

"Why, did you kill a Justice League member?"

"You can't kill that which does not live. But, no, not that. I've… I've been lying about my age."

"This should be good." She folds her arms across her chest. "Artemis bet on 'sixteen'."

"Anyone guess thirty one?" There's a noticeable twitch that she doesn't quite suppress fast enough to escape my notice. "Or did the whole team think I overstated-."

"Overstated your age so you could skip school." She stands there for a moment. "Thirty one, huh?"

"Thirty one now. I was twenty nine when I got here. Ah, sort of. The years don't.. quite line up so I lost a couple of months. Though since I've stopped ageing-."

"I don't-. It's a bit weird, but I don't.. mind. And it does go a little way to explain why you were creeping on my mom."

"Your mother is a very attractive woman."

"Starting to mind."

"Sorry."

She tilts her head slightly to the side. "Were you being honest about being a virgin?"

"Yeah, I… Wasn't the most social person before coming here." I shrug. "That was completely true."

"Anything else I should know about?"

"Hey." I frown. "Your turn."

A quiet huff. "I've killed people."

"I had.. rather.. been assuming that. I take it they weren't all criminals?"

"Not all of them. I've killed twenty nine people. Twenty three criminals, and six… Not."

"Jade, I've killed… Rather more than twenty nine people. As long as you don't plan on starting up again I don't really care, saving that it might create difficulties for you in the future."

She regards me curiously for a moment. "You really don't, do you?"

"No, I don't. You could blame the orange light-."

"Did you ever think that maybe I do?"

"Not for any length of time. Would you like to do something about it?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th September
21:08 GMT -5

"Do something?"

"Yes."

She hesitates. "About me feeling bad or about them being dead?"

Huh. "Either? Both? I had a bit of a -heh- miscommunication with Zatanna last year, where I offered to take her to Eden and she thought that I was talking about the.. natural history project in England, and I was actually talking-."

"You know where the Garden of Eden is?"

"Ah… Roughly? It's a pocket universe with an entrance a couple of metres wide in Iran. John gave me directions but I haven't ever tried to follow them."

"Why not?"

"I didn't have a pressing need for a burning sword. Or a second set of Angel wings. Or any desire to waste time in someone's else's idea of paradise when I could be building my own. Plus it's.. guarded by these Benei Gadol religious fanatics…"

"The Angel doesn't worry you but Humans with assault rifles do?"

"No, I just don't like picking on minorities. It can't be easy, being non-Islamic in Iran, and that gateway is basically the only thing keeping their culture together."

"Do they have anything that lets you bring people back from the dead?"

"I've sort of been assuming that true resurrection is something that Angels can do, but I don't know if they can do it. Or if they'd be willing to."

She regards me calmly for a moment. "You're serious, aren't you? You think the best way to deal with me having killed people is to bring them back to life again."

"You worked for Ra's for… How long? It can't come as a total surprise that people can come back to life."

"I only met-. Met Ra's twice."

"But League members-."

"We… Most League members never meet him. A lot of them probably thought his name was a title. I don't know how many people realised that he was really coming back from the dead."

"I had wondered about that. The sheer temptation of having a Lazarus Pit just… There."

"The brutal executions of anyone who tried using it when they weren't supposed to. And their families." She leans back slightly, watching me carefully. "You think we should resurrect my victims."

"I don't think that law has quite adapted to the possibility. I mean, it's still murder if they get…" Um.

"Get better?"

"Right. And it obviously wouldn't do anything about the anguish the families have suffered in the intervening period, but if they're not dead any longer you don't have to feel bad about it."

"I.. don't think it really works like that. But I suppose it's better than nothing. Do you know how to make Lazarus Pits?"

"No, I'll… Have to talk to Nyssa about it on Monday."

"What, you've found something a power ring can't do?"

"Not without imperilling all life in the universe. If there are other methods that will work, I'd rather start with them."

…

"That was supposed to be a quip."

"Oh. Um. Sorry?"

Jade comes closer, pushing her mask up so that I can look directly at her face. "After seeing what you did for Zatanna, I'd realised that you don't.. think quite like most people."

"Completely true."

"Hm. So, apart from being over a decade older than me, what other secrets do you have?"

"Only one big one. You remember me saying that Earth Prime doesn't have superheroes?" A small nod. "And the only reference I had was popular fiction?"

"You don't need to build up tension, Paul."

"Some of the fiction was really really accurate."

"How accurate?"

"Accurate descriptions of names, power sets and personalities. In most cases. My best guess is that there actually are metahumans back home, but all they have is a weak unconscious parallel universe viewing ability and use it for writing comics."

Her eyes dart to the side as she tries to get her head around the idea. "I.. see. Was there a.. Cheshire comic?"

"There was a character vaguely similar to you. Er, I wasn't a fan. She once blew up a country. And was pretty mental. And also didn't wear that rather fetching white mask."

"Glad to know that wasn't accurate. And I suppose that explains how you know so many things."

"At this point, some of that is actual hard work." Hm. "That's about it from me. I don't.. really have anything else I'm actively hiding. You?"

"Aside from the murders?" She smiles faintly. "I do have a small tattoo on-."

"I-I-." I nod. "I saw it."

Her smiles take on a decidedly saucy edge and she takes another step closer. "You were pretty thorough."

"I… Hadn't wanted to bring it up, but you didn't seem to appreciate that degree of… Thoroughness."

"It was a… Surprise. And it certainly wasn't unpleasant." She sidles into convenient kissing distance, her eyes staring deeply into mine. "Maybe we could leave it until your birthday."

"Already? I thought you'd want to give it longer."

"What do you mean, 'al-'? Your birthday's today?"

I nod. "Yes. The seventeenth of September, nineteen eighty three."

"You spent your birthday last year looking after Tommy and Tuppence Terror, and repairing Belle Reve."

"I also repaired you, so I'd call it a productive use of my time." I lean into her, our faces close enough that I can feel her breath on my cheek. "What else would I want to spend my birthday doing?"

17th September
21:23 GMT -5

I scowl down at Mister Napier's quivering form. Then I kick him again.

"Look, I gave you an arm back specifically so that you could sign this." I thrust Kyle Knight's autograph book at him again. "I'm sure you've got enough motor control left to manage an X. Get on with it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
08:58 GMT -5

I idly look around the somewhat busy lobby of the Metropolis LexCorp building, then saunter in the direction of former-starface-guy. The press conference is due to start in a couple of minutes and now seems like an ideal time to find out what he's actually for. He's got a computer pad out and is working on… I think that's the Starseeker's engine design.

"Hello there, Doctor." He immediately locks his pad and closes the screen and only then looks around to me. "No one.. thought to introduce us when I brought the Knights to see the Starseeker."

"Nylor." He smiles. "Nylor Truggs. I don't actually have a doctorate."

"Ah." I frown. "Then-?"

"What I do have is some rather specialised expertise in this kinda technology."

"And you don't have a doctorate? Then, how did you come by your expertise?"

"Experience. I've had an interesting life. Stuck as a lab rat fer a couple a' years, then I get a Starfish stuck on my face. But at least my boss is taking me seriously. At long last." He looks me over, the left side of his mouth scrunching up as he does so. "Working with an Apokoliptian is an interesting swerve, but I like t'think I'm adaptable."

Lab rat? Sure, I can well imagine Lex having an alien dissected, but I'd have thought that he'd rather use financial incentives on a Human. "Sounds like you've got an interesting story there. Care to share it?"

"Not all that much t'tell. I grew up in a bad future and I came back in time t'make sure it doesn't happen. Oh, but don't go asking me fer lotto numbers or anything." He shakes his head and waves his right hand. "Records of alla that stuff got wiped out before I got born."

"I wasn't planning to. You wouldn't happen to still have your time machine, would you?"

"Nah, turns out that was a one-shot job." He shrugs. "Easy come, easy go. But I'm really liking Lex's new direction. I didn't even know Earth had that kinda spaceship. It's gunna be great, working on this."

"Why exactly did Lex-?"

"Ladies and Gentlemen?" We both look around to the usher. "If you'd like to make your way outside?"

"Sounds like our cue." Truggs raises his pad again and taps the unlock. "Lex is on schedule, so… Let's go." He strides in the direction of the main entrance and I amble after him, making sure that everyone on the LexCorp side with an invitation has plenty of time to exit the building ahead of me.

I did send notices to Sam and Jon in advance that Lex was going to be doing this, but I -intentionally- didn't mark it as being high priority. This isn't supervillainous. This is… I'm not sure what the word would be. If a superhero is someone acting violently outside of normal social systems in the interests of law and justice, what do you call someone acting industriously outside those systems in the interests of technical development? A market disruptor? Heh, Market Master? Of course, if this causes LexCorp to go on to become a true science fiction style megacorps…

Then he'd be a super functionary. An industrial functionary who performs his function to a superlative degree and on a super-sized scale.

Some of the assembled press stand as I stroll out, pictures being taken, video footage being recorded and questions being shouted. I will be making myself available to answer questions later, but this is Lex's show. I do make a point of waving to the Knight family, Kyle grinning back while his father looks less contented. I can't imagine what he's bothered about; I removed the arm right after Napier signed.

Finding my seat just behind the small podium, I look up into the sky. Sinestro?

Marking target, Corpsman.

A couple of the more on-the-ball journalists follow my line of sight just as the Starseeker becomes visible as more than a dot in the sky.

"That's not a bird. Is it a plane?"

Ms Lane narrows her eyes, shading them with her right hand. "It's definitely not Superman."

The Starseeker is making pretty good speed in our direction. Going full speed in an urban environment is a good way to be sued into penury, to say nothing of the bad publicity and political aggravation it would generate. The Starseeker's maximum safe speed is higher than that of any conventional aircraft thanks to the judicious application of force fields, but it still can't just appear.

There's a series of muffled gasps as awareness of the oncoming starship ripples through the crowd, everyone who had been sitting surging to their feet and cameras being hastily repositioned to better cover the Starseeker's approach. I asked, and apparently this is legal using the light aircraft provisions he uses to operate a plane from the roof of the LexCorp building. I imagine they'll be changing that loophole pretty quickly.

The Starseeker angles itself as it makes its final approach, its impellers shimmering slightly as the same mechanisms as were once used in the cosmic rod bend themselves to the task of manoeuvring the starship. A few moments later it more or less drifts silently over the crowd before coming to a halt just off to the side of the seating area, about four metres from the ground.

Then a hatch opens in the side and an immaculately dressed Lex Luthor appears. I happen to know that he's got a cosmic converter belt on under his jacket, but I grin as I hear the gasps caused by him simply jumping down from the hatch and landing on the tarmac below. A smile and a wave and he's heading towards the podium, the assiduous Ms Graves taking up position alongside him and whispering a few words. He nods, and she steps back as he climbs the steps and turns to address the extremely attentive crowd.

"It's been over forty years since man first went to the moon. Since then, we've sent robots and probes to almost every part of our solar system and Voyager One is just outside of it. Humans, however, have yet to set foot on another planet." He leans forward slightly, his smile broadening. "I think it's high time that we changed that."

"The vessel you can see to my left-" He gestures with his left hand. "-is not -as I'm sure many of you assumed- a sign of my oncoming mid-life crisis, but a fully functioning Human designed and Human built interstellar starship. And as much as I'd love for LexCorp to be able to take full credit, we weren't the ones who designed it. That distinction belongs to a man named Doctor Theodore Knight. Doctor Knight was a distinguished physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War, and served Opal City as Starman for several decades afterwards. And in his spare time, he designed and built that."

A hologram showing Doctor Knight in his prime appears on Lex's right hand side.

"While NASA was struggling to design a reusable spacecraft, a single man working out of a garage in Maryland created that. It was complete in nineteen seventy seven and the faster than light drive was added in eighty two. After I acquired the rights to it last week, all LexCorp's engineers had to do was perform a little maintenance and polish the hull. It's a marvel of science and technology, and I'm already buying land for the factories where I'm going to build more like it."

"But in the shorter term, the Starseeker's power generation systems revolutionise our understanding of stellar radiation in a way which has immediate application in the field of electricity generation. LexPower is already beginning the process of switching all of our hydrocarbon-burning generator plants to use non-flammable and non-polluting cosmic power sources instead. Not only is it cleaner and safer, but it is also far cheaper. Once the plants switch over, anyone using our services can expect to see their bills reduced to a tenth of what they are now."

And he'll still be making a larger profit per kilowatt hour than he does now. The conversion isn't cheap, but not having to ship thousands of tonnes of coal or millions of litres of natural gas around the place dramatically reduces costs. Not like those ships are going to pay for themselves.

"But beyond my personal pleasure in taking the Human race to the stars, this has brought to a head my concerns about technological development in our society more widely. Exactly why was a man of Doctor Knight's obvious brilliance operating out of a garage? Why did every company he tried to persuade to develop his technology turn him away? It offends me both as a Human being who wants to see people reach their full potential and as an industrialist who wants good ideas so that he can get rich exploiting them."

I think that was supposed to be a joke, but the crowd appears to be too shocked to really respond.

"That's why I'm going to be establishing the Theodore Knight scholarship fund. People this inspired, people with this level of brilliance, should be afforded every opportunity to bring the products of their work to as wide an audience as possible. The fund will pay for higher education, as well as providing grants and seed investment for high-technology start-ups. I don't want the next Theodore Knight to die without seeing his vision realised. The future of the Human race depends upon that not happening."

"Now!" He stands back slightly. "Would any of you like to join me on a brief trip to the moons of Saturn?"

Everyone jumps to their feet, shouting questions.

Lex glances back at the proud Knight family, and smiles.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
17:18 GMT -5

"Really?"

I look around the park a little self consciously. "Yes. Why, is that.. contrary to your past experience?"

"No. Those weren't long term relationships. We never had this sort of conversation." She considers my comment. "Is there a reason..?"

"I… Yes. I can.. take…" I make a circling motion with my right hand. "Take instruction. If you want me to do something, or.. do it in a different way-" A small smile from Jade as she considers the circumspect nature of my phrasing. "-then I'm fine with that. Without power rings I don't expect to get everything right the first time, and I hope you don't either."

"You didn't do that badly."

"Thank you. But… If you're doing… That, it's like… Not only are you saying that I'm not doing it right, you're also saying that I'm too dumb to learn and that you've decided that the only way you're going to get anything out of it is if you take care of the matter yourself."

She's fighting to suppress her laughter.

"I mean, I don't care… When I'm not there. But when I am… It's just not my thing."

"I'll.. remember that." She looks around in an attempt to distract herself. "Nice part of town."

"Run-away executive pay is a more recent thing than Alan's tenure at the top of Apex Broadcasting, but he wasn't exactly badly paid. He never had children and his main hobby was vigilantism, which is pretty cheap as long as you stay out of hospital. Which is a bit of luck, because now that he's functionally immortal he might have to consider getting back into the labour market otherwise."

"You didn't say he was immortal."

"Didn't I?" Think… No, I didn't. "Huh. Ah, yeah. His power ring leaked so much into his soul that as long as he keeps it charged, he stays at his physical peak. It's not really something we can use on your… Former.. clients."

"I wasn't asking because of that. I was thinking of all the effort Ra's went to in keeping himself alive with Lazarus Pits. From the sound of it, Alan became immortal by accident."

"I wouldn't call it an accident. He had to work hard at becoming sufficiently in tune with his ring for it to bond with him like that. And I had to work at getting him a replacement personal lantern."

"But the immortality part was accidental." She stops walking for a second. "Does that mean you're immortal?"

"I only age if I want to, I can't get ill and injuries disappear when I want them to. Alan's ageing is a bit different, but.. I.. suppose."

"Huh."

"If you're interested in that yourself, I'm happy to assist you. Ah, after you've been out of prison a year. I told Paula that I'd leave it that long-."

"It's not that. You just make it sound… Easy."

"Life extensions aren't that hard to get hold of. Ooh, have you considered converting to Hellenism? If you do, you won't age during any time you spend on Themyscira."

She raises her left eyebrow slightly. "I'm not worrying about that quite yet."

"Ah. Serious face, there's another good reason for converting."

"What's that?"

"Hellenists can't go to Hell."

She looks at me for a moment. "You think I'm going to Hell."

"Twenty nine murders. I consider the chances unacceptably high. If you got hit by a car tomorrow I don't.. currently have the equipment I would need to fight all of Hell's Demons to get you out."

"This conversation got weird fast."

"To be fair, our lives have gotten pretty weird."

"Still, you're apparently willing to take on all of Hell for me, so I suppose I should take it as a compliment."

"I'd rather not have to. But yes. I would."

Jade nods. "Who is the Ancient Greek God of Assassins, anyway?"

"There isn't a god with that exact portfolio, but there are few who would probably support that occupation. Neikos, Lupe, Adika, Apate or.. maybe Nemesis…"

"Nemesis is a god?"

"A goddess. She's basically a hitwoman who kills people who are rude about the Olympians." Thank you, warding tattoos. "I suppose that your choice of patron would depend on the reason for the assassination."

"What about… Artemis?"

"Not generally associated with hunting people. And…" I glance at her. "Traditionally, Amazons emulating her are… Celibate."

She raises her eyebrows. "Are they?"

"… Yes."

Jade glances my way, smiling speculatively. "What does she think counts?"

"If you have to ask… "

Jade frowns thoughtfully. "I don't know. I'm not really religious or anything, but the only one of those I've even heard of is Artemis."

"The only other obvious patron for a practising League of Shadows assassin would be Ares, who's up for killing in all its forms. But Diana ha-." Ah. "Diana doesn't like him, and the only shrine to him on Themyscira is this half-collapsed thing out in the middle of nowhere. Amazons who are interested in combat generally follow Athena or Nike, and neither of them would be interested in assassination."

"I'm not planning on assassinating anyone. How about vigilantes?"

"There are several gods and goddesses who are patrons of justice and punishment. I suppose… How long are you planning on working for the Inzerillos?"

"I don't think it would look good on my CV if I quit this soon. I don't have much of an employment record."

I nod as we reach the end of the park and start across the road to Alan's house. "Probably true. I'm.. assuming that you're not planning on going with your grandfather's suggestion?"

She flashes me a decidedly distasteful look as we start up Alan's drive.

"Just asking. You could consider working for an agency rather than being employed directly by the end user."

"I did try that the first time. They don't take people with criminal records."

"What, absolutely? How do they-" I open the front door. "-expect people to go straight if they can't get a job? Alan! We're here!"

"I don't think they really care about that. I-." She frowns as I close the door behind us. "I think I…"

"Hey there." Alan emerges from the kitchen, smiling as he does so. "You must be Jade."

Jade tenses slightly, then relaxes. "And you must be Alan. Pleased to meet you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
17:39 GMT -5

Something beeps in the kitchen, and Alan rises to his feet. "Let me just check on that. I'll be right back."

Jade smiles at him as he leaves the room, then turns to me with her eyes slightly wide. "I thought you said he was a Green Lantern."

"He was. But he gave me his lantern, and I couldn't get him a replacement green one without either going to Apokolips or.. shivving a serving Green Lantern. And blue was the best fit. Um… Is there a.. problem?"

"I feel like everything's going to work out for the best."

I look at her with a completely serious expression. "Oh no."

"I never feel like that. Dad's training was great for beating the hope out of me."

"Oh. Ah… I.. hadn't noticed that myself. Are you.. sure it's him?"

"I like him."

"Ah… Again, I-."

"You visited me in Belle Reve and brought me cookies. Talking to you was the only time I could let my guard down and I still didn't decide that I liked you until I nearly died."

I frown. "You need more friends."

"No I don't. And having your mentor mind control me isn't making the best impression."

"I very much doubt that it's intentional. Um." Huh. I certainly hadn't noticed anything. But… I suppose that out of everyone he could have exposed I'm the least likely to be affected by other lights. Same with Diana; her divine nature includes resistance to mind effects. And the other people I've seen him with like him so much that they probably wouldn't notice… "But we can just ask him about it."

Jade looks decidedly uncertain.

"His is the first blue power ring in existence. There are bound to be one or two glitches. This isn't some sort of silly, convoluted mind games thing, it's just an oversight, and we'll clear it up by discussing it like rational adults."

"You had a very different childhood than me, didn't you?"

"Unless my parents were keeping really quiet about the whole 'supervillainy' thing, yes."

Alan pushes the living room door open. "Supervillains?"

"Are you really that eager to start fighting again, that I just have to say 'supervillain' and you're there?"

"I gotta start using this-" He holds up his right hand. "-some time."

"How did it go at the hospital?"

"Healing injuries was pretty easy, but…" Jade starts smiling again despite herself. "The chronic cases… I couldn't… I don't know, I couldn't get a connection. I'll keep working at it, but I… I gotta say, I'm looking forward to our first sparring session."

"Lantern Stewart said that Lantern Savenlovich might be joining us as well."

"It'll be nice to have someone more at my level." Jade's face twitches. "To start with, anyway. Ah… Something wrong?"

"You're making me feel hopeful." Alan looks nonplussed. "I'd.. appreciate it if you'd stop."

"Really?" She nods urgently. "I'm.. sorry, but I'm not-" He clenches his right fist and takes a closer look at his ring. "-sure I know how. What if I just.. take it off..?"

Jade nods, relieved. "Thank you."

"Ooh, we could practise this. Find out how far the-." There's a knock on the door. "-effect-" Alan and I are both rising to our feet. "-goes."

"I'll get the door."

"The whole point of this is for you and Jade to get to know each-" I transition past him into the corridor. "-other."

"Alright." I head for the door. "How did you and Paul first meet?"

Hm. A bit odd. Can't see anything through the door. Did Alan have wards installed while I was away? I'll have to make a point of- I pull the door open. -complimenting him on…

An albino in a ragged suit with lifeless eyes stares at me. There's some makeup on its face, perhaps from an attempt to make the face a little more lifelike. Now, it seems to have been smeared and merely adds to the disturbing appearance. Where its mouth hangs open I can see where the gums have pulled away from the teeth, and his general stance suggests that he isn't in full control of his motor functions.

It immediately puts me in mind of Solomon Grundy, but he was far bigger and didn't introduce himself so politely. And no one's seen him for about forty years. These things remind me of those mass-produced knock-offs from Seven Soldiers. What were they called?

Ah, yes. Grundymen. Zombified Sheeda/Modern Human hybrids pulled from their graves to act as manual labourers. Except… Klarion was a Lord of Chaos. I checked the tunnels under New York as much as I could. No trace of subway pirates or subterranean puritans or any of that stuff. So what the heck is it doing-?

The grundyman jerks upright, a tiny sigil glowing white in its eyes as it lurches for me arms outstretched! And my piston-construct slams into its chest and sends it flying over Alan's drive, over the road and onto the grass of Inwood Hill Park. Remarkably, it remains intact despite ploughing a furrow in the ground, and even struggles to rise.

"Who is it?!"

"It's a zombie, Alan!"

There's a slight pause. "Did it say what it wants?!"

I step out onto the drive, my power armour appearing around me. "No! I'll ask!"

"Arragghrhh!"

Two more charge up the driveway, arms outstretched! Chain construct, perh-?

Jade dodges past me, x-ionised knives at the ready. She ducks under a grundyman's clumsy swing and neatly hamstrings it in both legs. It collapses without a sound, arms still reaching for me. That's a bit personal. I go to-.

Blue bands of energy surround the remaining grundyman. "They remind me of someone."

"Cyrus Gold was bigger, and his facial structures were different."

"Maybe he's been on Atkins."

"Ooh, good old-person-making-out-of-date-reference there, Alan."

"It's out of date?"

Jade takes a runestone out of one of her pockets and holds it up towards the grundyman struggling against Alan's construct. "Magic zombies."

"There are only so many ways to reanimate the dead. I'll see if there are any m-."

"Grundymen! Kill them!"

"GRAAAGH!"

The grundyman in Alan's construct swells with muscles and shatters his bonds!

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
17:43 GMT -5

Jade steps up behind it as it lands, slicing through the back of its neck with her knife then stepping smartly out of its reach. The sudden lack of a central nervous system doesn't seem to faze it as it pushes off its right leg to shoot through the air at me.

Hm.

Jade's eyes widen as it covers the distance. I form a railgun construct next to its head, load a mage slayer round and fire. It spins in the air, legs slamming into my construct armour and bouncing off. It struggles to rise from the drive's brickwork, its head distorted and flattened where my railgun round struck. Huh. Okay, I knew that flesh that was sufficiently magically reinforced could survive a mage slayer strike at low power, but I would have thought that the hit would still disrupt the spell anim-.

The first grundyman lands on me, slamming me to the ground!

"Paul!"

Another railgun round, this time with a little more force behind it. Headshot; the head is knocked sideways and… Ah, the eyeballs burst. "They're just killer zombies, Jade." Move the railgun to the front, aim at an eye socket, a little more power. Splot! The rear of the head bursts, spraying decayed brain matter, skull and hair across Alan's front flower beds. The front of the face is still upright and still orientated on me. Fascinating. "Nothing to get-" I take an x-ionised sword out of subspace and slice across myself, blade sliding neatly through its left elbow, torso and then right arm. Zombie guts spill as it topples over, and I rise to my feet. "-excited about."

"I'm not wearing armour!" She darts in at the crawling grundyman and removes its right hand. "Give me-" I float the sword over to her as Alan drops a mallet construct on the one I shot in the head. "-that."

She grabs the sword and neatly sweeps the blade through the grounded grundyman's neck and torso. That doesn't stop it trying to move, but its actions are much less coordinated now.

"Interesting."

"What? Being attacked by Grundy's younger brothers?"

"No." That's not interesting. "The spell animating them isn't tied to their brain." I shift the railgun to the head of the grundyman Jade cut into four. "Watch."

I overpower the shot and the head explodes. But the other parts keep moving.

"Hey, that's my driveway."

"I'll fix it when we're finished."

"Alright, but why is it-."

"Ruuuaaaghhhh…"

His grundyman rips at the hammer construct, causing it to fail. Alan lets it vanish, then drops an anvil construct on the revenant instead. It squashes somewhat, but doesn't completely stop moving.

"Why is the head such a big deal? It's dead."

"The brain controls the body in life. That makes it easier to put control spells there when it's dead. The alternatives are using a controlling spirit -which these don't have- or some sort of personal direction spell which my mage slayer rounds should have nullified. Which means-."

Jade shoots me an irritated look. "Can we worry about that after we're sure there aren't any more coming?"

"Sure, but there probably are. Oh, and… Ah, Alan? You… May have just lost your secret identity."

Sunset's an hour and a quarter away, and my railgun and his percussive construct strikes aren't exactly quiet. The park's still clear but several neighbours are sticking their heads out of their front doors to see what just happened.

"Ah, heck."

"Please stay inside! We're dealing with a zombie attack!"

Most duck back a little, but with no more zombies evident they don't hide as they probably should. Worry about that later. Right. If these grundymen work like the ones in the comics then they're being directed by someone from Limbo Town… Except Limbo Town doesn't exist. Probably. So, wherever Klarion actually came from, the place I dimly glimpsed in Teekl's recollections.

Why is the park empty?

"Jade, are you still carrying your Spell Eater?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I'm a little concerned that-."

I see the man dressed like a Puritan for a fraction of a second as his glamour fails and his pistol fires.

Ghostly white flames burn through the air between us. I didn't know ectoplasm could be excited like that. But it's aimed straight at me and I'm thinking fast enough that all I have to do is step out-.

Pale white mist rises from the grundymen.

Transition?

…

At least it's not black.

The bolt of eldritch fire howls as it hits my construct armour, a swirling miasma of howling faces flickering and twisting as it tries to breach my environmental shield! Jade's already sprinting across the road towards the shooter and Alan is trying to attack the fire directly but-.

There's a crack and the fire surges through the hole, enveloping me. The Spell Eater heats up immediately and my tattoos hurt for the first time since they healed. Metaphysical attack? Yeah, good luck with that, I'm-.

There's a stabbing pain in the left side of my chest. That's… Right where Klarion's spike went through when we fought in Salem. Agh! My right forearm burns! Homing in on residual chaos..? No, there wasn't any, I got that checked out very thoroughly by Sephtian. My left hand-. Mage slayer, stick it in the ghost fire. That should help, but-.

The fire twists away from it, even as exposure to the magic eating effect starts to unbind the spells. Pain blossoms in my mouth, but it begins fading almost immediately as the white fire creating it finishes dissolving.

"You back with us?"

I struggle back to my feet, my injuries vanishing only slowly as the residual magic resists my ring's efforts. "Help. Jade."

"Right."

Environmental shield flaring wildly, Alan flies over the road and straight at two grundymen trying to interpose themselves between Jade and the figure I assume to be a submissionary. The pistol he shot me with outwardly resembles a flintlock pistol and it looks like it has a similar recharge rate, forcing him to ward her off with swipes from a crescent moon topped staff. Alan's hammer constructs batter the zombies down just as Jade's sword cuts the staff in two and stops just under the submissionary's neck.

"Drop it, or I find out whether you can keep going without a head too."

The submissionary drops the remains of his staff and raises his hands in a gesture of surrender. His skin is a curious colour, chalky white darkening to pale blue in places. Other than that he looks fairly Human.

Right, good. Ring, how am I doing?

Injuries healed. Full functionality restored.

Glad to hear it. I restore my construct armour and fly across the road to stand next to Jade and Alan.

"What was that in aid of?"

"Our auguries showed the taint of the monster Klarion upon you. But if you survived my shot, his touch must only have been slight. I pray you, as a God-fearing man, tell me where the monster makes his home that I may end him before any others come to grief by him!"

"You're here for Klarion? Also known as 'Klarion the Witch-Boy'?"

"That I am. Do you know then whence he may be found?"

I throw up my arms. "Why can't you just ask to begin with, like a normal person?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
17:46 GMT -5

"The magic of chaos is a twisted thing. The bloody toll the Witch-Boy wrought upon my brother Witch-Hunters taught us well that those touched by him were not to be trusted, even if they seemed of honest aspect. I will beg pardon for my caution only when Klarion lies dead."

Jade lowers her sword. "This should be good."

"What's your name?"

"I be Brother Shadrach, a Witch-Hunter in the service of the nation of Colombia."

"Short version, Mister Shadrach: Klarion is dead. He's been dead for about two months. I'm carrying some residue of his magics because I fought him twice and he injured me." Not mentioning my other exposure to chaos magic. "If we were able to prove this to you, would you leave peacefully?"

"Dead?"

"Yes, very dead."

He nods. "That would be a wondrous boon. I would not shirk my sacred duty, but I have no desire to meet my maker earlier than I must." He shakes his head. "But Klarion has fooled goodly folks before, and I cannot put aside my task until I can personally behold proof he's been sent to Satan."

"Oh, he hasn't gone to Satan. With high-end magic users we like to be sure they're not coming back, and opening portals to Hell isn't that hard."

"Aye, 'tis sadly true. What manner of fate did you inflict upon him then, if not a righteous damnation?"

"There are a coven of magic users on this world who use the souls of evildoers as a power source. I believe that Klarion was finally passed to them, though I will put you in touch with the relevant government authorities so that you can examine the system for yourself. Would that satisfy you?"

"More like than not. Though my fellows and I would have a need to examine the spells in detail before I could swear an oath to it."

I sag slightly. "Fellows?"

"We would not send a man alone to face Klarion. Such would be suicide!"

I nod. "Reasonable. How might we make contact with the others, and are they likely to be repeating your error?"

"I can contact them easily enough. But I will not be doing so on your say-so alone."

Jade starts to raise her sword again, but I hold out my right hand to stop her. "Do you know anything about what Klarion did while he was here?"

"Not.. his particular deeds, no."

Jade rolls her eyes while Alan and I wince. "Did they not teach you how to investigate at witch hunter school?"

"I.. sought the spoor of his magics and would have interrogated whoever I found. What else could I do?"

Ah. Right. Limbo Town didn't have much in the way of industry, and what little I saw of Witch World suggested a similar lack of technological advancement. He wouldn't know how to investigate using publically available sources of information here.

"Alan, I'm.. sorry, but I think I'm going to need to take him to the Hall of Justice."

"You can open a zeta tube between here and there, can't you?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, dinner doesn't need to be a write off, does it? We'll just have to occupy a table in the staff canteen."

I nod, smiling. "Alright then. Mister Shadrach, do you need to collect your familiar, or shall we leave immediately?"

A strange purple lizard fades into visibility near his right foot, and it swiftly climbs up his body to take up station on his right shoulder. It looks a little like a chameleon, but with the addition of a neck frill and vicious-looking teeth. Mister Shadrach crouches down to pick up the fallen half of his staff and then stands once more. "Shall we off, then?"

"And the zombies?"

"Zombies? Do you speak of the grundymen?" I nod. "Aye, t'would be better they not be left to fester." He brings the broken ends of his staff together, muttering something that sounds prayer-like as they merge back together. Then he raises the staff. "Your service is done!"

The closest two fallen grundymen… Huh. The ground around them appears to liquefy, allowing them to sink into it without resistance. Looking back at Alan's drive, the same thing appears to be happening there. Even the bits that landed on brick. Interesting.

"Let's go and bother the evening shift. Transition in three, two, one." Our surroundings flicker and we appear on the upper steps of the Hall of Justice, Mister Shadrach not seeming especially perturbed by the sudden shift. "This way, please."

He gazes up at the glass frontage. "This seems somewhat extravagant for a courthouse."

"It's not a courthouse." I push open the door and then hold it for the rest of the party. From near statue-Aquaman's foot a cleaner stares at us. I wave. "It's a combination of museum and command centre. Just a moment." I raise my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern to.. duty officer?"

Jade looks around the foyer. "I've never been here before."

Alan nods. "I suppose you wouldn't have had much cause to."

"Red Arrow here. What do you need?"

"An investigator from Klarion's homeworld turned up to hunt him down. Can we use one of the Hall of Justice's media rooms to demonstrate that he's too late?"

"Tours should have finished for the day, so go ahead. I'll let Batman know."

"Thank you." I lower my ring and cancel the connection. "This way please."

As we head in the direction of the media centre, Alan frowns at Mister Shadrach. "Say, ah… You're a witch hunter who uses magic?"

"Aye." Mister Shadrach looks mildly puzzled. "I be a Witch-Man who hunts criminals, heretics and warlocks like Klarion. How else would I do that, but with magic?"

"Oh!" Alan smiles. "Sorry, I was parsing that incorrectly."

"Nay, 'tis no surprise to me that my use of the arcane is a surprise to you. Such things were forbidden to our forebears as well."

"What species are you? Whereabouts are your people from?"

Mister Shadrach looks a little irritated by that. "I am a man, much as you are."

"I apologise. I meant no offence, but where I'm from people don't usually have your, ah… Your particular skin tone."

"'Tis a sign of the blood of Melmoth. It is of no great import, saving that my skin burns a little easily in the heat of the sun."

Melmoth. I know that name. "Melmoth… King of the Sheeda Melmoth?"

"That's the hellspawn a'right. He stole away my ancestors from their homes and brought them to his own land. And he enslaved them. The menfolk he used for his labour, the womenfolk he used for his pleasure. 'Til his own children rose up and slew him. I am of his blood, but I am of their blood as well. I am a true follower of Jesus Christ and I'll not be compared to the likes of him."

"I'm sorry, that wasn't what I meant to imply. Your people came from Roanoke, didn't they?"

His eyes widen slightly in surprise. "Aye. You know of it?"

"Yes, I do. Welcome home."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
19:37 GMT -5

"…motivation." Jade shrugs.

Alan frowns at her. "You'd really just have left them like that if your uncle hadn't been there?"

"I probably wouldn't have been able to do anything. I was born in America, I grew up in America and I don't think I've spent more than two months in Vietnam my whole life. It's not…"

Alan nods slowly. "Not yours."

She nods. "Right."

"But doing that sort of thing again doesn't have any appeal?"

"I don't like… Losing control like that. If Paul hadn't been there, I don't know what I'd have done next." She… Hesitates. Alan waits patiently for her to decide to start speaking again. "I… While I was using Paul's ring, I actually altered the structure of my brain."

Alan's eyes widen slightly. "Why ever would you do that?"

"What, you've never wanted a better brain?"

"Maybe, but I'd never just.. fiddle around with it with a power ring. You could have done yourself some serious damage."

"Or.. fixed damage."

Huh?

"What d'you mean by that?" Alan glances at me after he says it, but I've got no more idea what she means than he does. That certainly wasn't what she said at the time.

Jade doesn't meet our eyes. "What people learn affects the structures of their brains. Especially when they're children. Dad wasn't big on empathy. I think I thought on some level that I could.. undo that. If he'd made me less empathic, I could use the ring to make myself more empathic."

I reach across the table with my left hand and lay it on her right. She glances up for a moment then looks away again. "Some things that seem like a good idea when you're hopped up on the orange light turn out in the cold light of day to have been less than sensible."

"On the other hand, I've found reading people a lot easier since then."

Alan nods. "You.. not planning on joining the Orange Lantern Corps I take it?"

"No. At least, not anytime soon. Paul said that having a central power battery makes it less.. dangerous, but I don't… Really want to feel like that again."

Alan smiles. "One less person spinning the moon around."

"One ti-."

"Pray, par-"

There's a glowing orange barrier and a glowing blue barrier between us and the new Witch-Hunter before he's even fully materialised, and my railgun and Jade's plasma pulse pistol trained on him before he has any chance to draw his own.

"-don me, good sirs." He takes note of the weapons, and freezes. The purple lizard on his shoulder crouches down a little, and hisses.

Jade raises her eyebrows. "No attack zombies, this time?"

"Brother Shadrach vouchsafed to me that you had some knowledge of the fiend Klarion. Am I intruding?"

"You're doing better than he did." I dismiss my railgun. Jade pointedly doesn't lower her gun. "Who are you and how did you get in?"

"I be Brother Abednego, Witch-Hunter. This building is not well-warded. A synchronicity pilgrim such as myself could enter without being troubled overmuch."

"Right. Mister Shadrach is through there-" I generate a construct arrow pointing towards the door containing Mister Shadrach, a secure limited database and quite a lot of monitoring equipment. "-and you're welcome to join him. Are there any more of you?"

"There is but one to come. She be down south a ways, and not wont to be coming this way until she's good and ready."

I blink. "She?"

"Oh aye. Sister Beulah's a canny one with a powerful hate for Klarion." He looks at us for a moment. "Will it be a problem, her coming here?"

"No, no more than the rest of you. I'm just a little surprised. Your settler forebears would have been loath to have a woman in such a role."

Mister Abednego shrugs. "'Tis true, men are the stronger sex. But magic is a great leveller in such matters, and her 'fluences are powerful strong. And her pyromancy."

I suppose I shouldn't have expected their society to calcify completely, particularly after such a traumatic experience.

"Right, well, the sooner you're up to speed the sooner you can all leave."

"I'm afraid not." He shrugs apologetically. "The witch-path by which we came here won't open again until the lunar cycles align."

"That seems to be a bit of a drawback."

"Our thinking was that we would most likely not survive our confrontation. As such, anyone left alive would be so grateful to return home at all, they'd not gripe having to wait a month or four."

"I'm sure we'll find something worthy of your time."

"Folks usually do."

Mister Abednego raises his right hand in salutation, then turns away and follows my arrow in the direction of his co-religionist.

Alan looks thoughtful. "I thought conservative Protestant denominations didn't like magic."

"They don't."

"What d'you think they'd make of these fellows?"

"I don't want to find out. I'm.. ninety nine percent sure that it will create more heat than light, and I'm sneaking magic into the mainstream by making it a practical rather than a theological thing. That's why I haven't publicised the Anglican Communion's witch hunters."

"The Episcopalians have witch hunters?"

"Yes. The Closed Order of the Alexins. Warrior monks, though they don't use magic quite as readily as these chaps. And they don't like necromancy, so I don't think they'd get on with them either."

Jade glances in the direction of the media room. "If they couldn't beat us, what did they think they were going to do against Klarion?"

"Either, they're specialised in fighting magic users and lost to us because we're not magic users, or they're trying to die honourably. I'm leaning towards the first, but I wouldn't say I know them well enough to make that a firm conclusion."

Alan nods. "Are you going to take them to China tomorrow?"

I sit back. "Nope! This is a job for the Justice League, or more specifically for the Justice League's Chinese member. Unless I rejoin the team or join the League, not only do I not have to involve myself in this sort of problem, I'm not legally supposed to."

Alan smiles. "If you don't have to involve yourself, why are we eating dinner here?"

"Because I want to make sure they're 'settled in' before passing the matter over to the League. Puritan wizards could cause a lot of problems, and I'm not going to let that happen." I shake my head. "So, where were we?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th September
18:37 GMT +5:30

Lex's facility in the Valmiki National Park has grown quite considerably since I was last here in person. I wonder how many palms he had to grease to get around the building restrictions? And whether the increased security is really worth the isolation? It's already dark here as I descend towards the front entrance, away from what appears to be a small building site at the western side of the facility. I phoned ahead, but I don't-. Ah, there he is.

"Doctor Munro! Good evening!"

"Orange Lantern. Good to see you." He waves with his right hand as I come down to land on the path next to him. "How was space?"

"Reassuring, in a way. I now know for certain that no matter how long I live, I'll always have something that I need to work on."

"So I.. take it that the universe isn't full of enlightened philosopher-scientists falling over themselves to show the jumped-up apes a better way to live?"

"I'm afraid not, though there are several groups who want you to think they're enlightened philosopher-scientists and would quite like to give ruling easily impressionable aliens a go." I shake my head. "Trust me, we're better off working it out for ourselves."

"I'll bear that in mind if it ever comes up." He starts off down the path towards a room containing nearly the entire staff-. Ah, the mess hall. "We're about to have dinner, if you'd like to join us."

"Thank you, but I only just had breakfast. How is your work with cracking the Danner Formula going?"

"Ah. It's difficult to say, really. Lex has been able to get a hold of some Atlantean alchemy textbooks for us, but the whole thing's just such a departure from modern chemistry… We have got to the point where we understand how it propagates through a fetus, and that was a messy business. And we know exactly what it does; we can quantify the increases in strength, endurance and regeneration precisely."

"So… What's the problem?"

"The problem is that Atlanteans don't do a whole lot of alchemy, and what they do do they do with plants and animals they can get a hold of at the bottom of the Atlantic. Which means that there isn't a whole lot written… I mean, in the same scientific style, about surface world plants and animals. To say nothing of refined chemical reagents." He shrugs. "Making more Formula was never going to be the hard part. Epiphany and Magnificus are doing most of the work on that part of the project."

"Are you..? Commercially active yet?"

"We've got the first generation of guard super-Dogs in training now. Doctor… Ah, Missus Sivana was… Kind enough to share her… Her experience with us.. regarding…"

"Breast feeding?"

He nods sheepishly. "We were gunna use expressed milk, but milking a Dog isn't all that easy. Really makes me… Feel sorry for my mom."

"Do they train like normal Dogs, or do you need to do anything special?"

"We need to keep them separate from regular Dogs. They're not any more violent -a bit less, actually- but what makes for a playful nip between them makes for a nasty injury for a regular Dog. Other than that… The handlers have to be a bit careful, for pretty much the same reason. But… The same techniques work just as well."

I turn and look around at the facility. "What else are you working on?"

"We've had a few Human volunteers?" I look at him with raised eyebrows and he raises his hands. "I know, I know, we can't offer it as a.. medical product, but you know as well as I do that it's perfectly safe. We can offer it as a health supplement perfectly legally."

"Do the parents know what they're letting themselves in for?"

"As well as we can teach them. We've got a pre- and post-natal clinic… Heck, Lex is even sponsoring medical students so we get people with the right skills who are willing to live out here."

"And immunology?"

"Oooh yeah." He nods. "I… I made a point of looking at those… Photographs you showed me. And the… Film reels. I have no desire to repeat those mistakes. But it is possible to administer immunisation treatments without using needles. We've done extensive animal testing, we're as ready as we can be."

I nod. "Good show. Please, don't… I do want this to happen. And I know there can't be any complete guarantees."

He bows his head slightly, then nods. "I'm more than a little nervous myself. I just.. wonder what my father would have made of all of this."

"You mean.. Hugo, not-?"

"Yeah, yeah. Not… Dad. I don't think John Munro would have thought much about it at all." He pushes open the double door into the mess hall, several members of staff waving at him as they see him. I mostly just get stares. "What exactly is it you want to talk to Nyssa about?"

"The work she did for her late father. Has she.. talked to you about any of that?"

"Not to me. Magni and her might have-." The door opens in the far side of the room, and Nyssa and Magni walk in. Magnificus has his head turned towards her and is smiling, while Nyssa scans the room and spots me immediately. A second later Magnificus notices her disquiet and follows her gaze, giving me a slightly puzzled but not at all hostile frown. "-talked about it. Nyssa!" He leads the way over to them. "Paul needs to talk to you about something."

"Oh?" I spot that she and Magnificus are holding hands. Cradle-robber. "Is there something in particular?"

"Yes. And.. it might be best if we have this conversation in private."

"Ah. I see." She turns to Magnificus, raises their joined hands and smiles affectionately.

He kisses her knuckles and then lets go. "I'll see you when Paul has finished with you."

"Of course." She turns to me. "Would my office be suitable?"

The site is warded, but it also has wi-fi so getting a plan of the place isn't hard. The space around us flickers, and we appear in a.. complexly decorated office. Quite a.. clash of styles.

Nyssa notices my puzzlement. "Magni has made a habit of giving me a present from every culture I speak to him about." She walks to her desk and picks up a cast bronze hippopotamus. "It's all authentic. I'm slightly worried that he has access to a time machine, but I haven't wanted to ask."

"Let's hope not. Ms Raatko, I wanted to talk to you about your father."

She sighs as she walks around the desk to take her seat. "Please tell me that he hasn't reappeared."

"No, he hasn't reappeared. I want to talk to you about the work you did on his Lazarus Pits." A wave of disquiet passes over her face. "Specifically, I know that you know how to make them."

"And you wish to bring someone back to life?"

"Twenty nine people, to be precise. I'm.. dating a former League of Shadows assassin, and I'd like to undo her murders."

"Undo-?" She does a cough-laugh, bowing her head for a moment. "How extravagant."

"After Missus Wayne dunked Mister Hagan, I know that things can go wrong with the process-"

"To put it mildly."

"-so I thought that -since you're the leading expert- I should talk to you before I did anything audacious."

"Yes. You should."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th September
18:42 GMT +5:30

"So..? What other problems are there?"

"Insanity is a common after-effect. In the case of my father, his mania faded a few minutes after he emerged. Or was so firmly embedded that we all believed it to be his true character. Others… The maniacal rage never leaves them. Or they tear themselves apart in an insane fit. Or their bodies simply decay, or grow to monstrous proportions as their flesh turns to cancer. And sometimes the Pit simply does nothing, and their body simply remains unchanged."

"How did Ra's come up with the Pit? Batman thinks he was born during in the Timurid Empire, but while there are plenty of records of people using magic in that era, there wasn't really any sort of alchemical tradition."

She raises her eyebrows. "Wasn't there?"

"Oh." I blink. "I didn't think you were that old."

"No. I am not yet three hundred. I am merely surprised at how you can claim to have such faultless knowledge of the time."

"Alright. No records survive of there being a significant alchemical tradition. Nothing beyond simple herbalism. So I don't understand how Ra's could come up with something so… Amazing."

"He once told me that it came to him in a dream." She shrugs. "I don't know whether he was telling the truth or not." A quiet snort. "Or if he even really remembered the truth. Making a Lazarus Pit is not difficult. Dig a hole in the ground at a site that is a focus of geomantic power. A simple druid could find such a site for you. The chemicals that it requires were available to a minor Sultan in the fourteenth century, so I doubt that you will have any trouble gathering them now."

"I can't get over the fact that no one else has discovered the technique."

"What makes you think they haven't? The world is vast, Orange Lantern. Even today. If a chemist or medicine man happened upon the technique, it might extend their life once or twice. But then the geomantic energy would be depleted, and their next attempt to use it would fail."

I nod slowly. "And anyone who read their notes would assume that it was bunk, because it killed them in the end."

"For centuries, Father had to live as a nomad, wandering the world constantly in search of places where he could be restored. You know his name because he did survive, but there were any number of occasions where he could have met his true death with no one around to restore him."

"Is.. that what you do?"

"No." She blinks, and shakes her head. "When I left my father's service, I used what I had learned of alchemy and chemistry to modify the Pit I made at the node he so generously permitted me to have. The version I created uses a slightly different mixture of chemicals. It takes little power from the node, and as a result it can be used repeatedly."

"So… Why is death still a thing?"

"It is not powerful enough to restore the dead to life. It can be made so, but then it would be drained and I would have to copy Father's nomadic habits."

"Do you know how many sites there are in the world where they can be built?"

"More than twenty nine. I do not know them all, but based on those locations I do know I would estimate a little over a hundred. Which is why death is 'still a thing'. The sites do restore themselves after they are used, but far too slowly to grant more then a small number of people immortality."

"And I.. don't imagine that people generally finding out about this would be particularly conducive to civil order." Who gets the immortality serum? Not something I'd want to have to decide, unless the answer was 'everyone'. Heck, making the answer 'everyone' is why I support places like this. But if I ever really needed to resurrect someone… "Have you.. noticed any trends about who gets up sane and who doesn't?"

"Virtually all of the resurrections I performed were of my father. The only patterns I noticed were in his responses. But, so that I could properly discharge my responsibilities he showed me his own records. There was a.. period where he used node sites to test the process himself, but beyond noticing that restoring the long dead never produced satisfactory results-."

I raise my right hand. "Um?"

"They would be confused, listless, and then decay and die within a few days at most. And using a node in that way would drain it just as assuredly as using it to restore the recently dead. In fact, he told me that he had never been able to reuse a site that had been used in that way."

I nod. "Doesn't work with long term dead-. How long term is 'long term'?"

"Father gave up on experimenting when his attempt to resurrect a Pharaoh failed. I do not remember resurrecting anyone who had been dead longer than a week, but as I said: I seldom resurrected anyone other than Father."

"A week..?" Oh, that's not good.

"I also do not remember it failing to resurrect anyone not dead longer than a century. I have marked the date of Ra's al Ghul's last possible resurrection on my calendar."

"Done any.. animal testing?"

"There is slightly more to my life than Lazarus Pits."

"Yes, but you.. depend on it. I'd… I'd assumed that you'd have studied it a little."

"My desire to do that evaporated the first time I watch a Pit fail. No, I have not experimented with animals, or bacteria, or viruses, or with cutting a person in half and putting each half in a different Pit-" I wasn't going to suggest that. Though it is an interesting-. "-or with any number of studies that such an investigation would require. Before his death, Father would have strenuously objected, and since…" She shrugs. "I have been busy."

"Magnificus is a lucky man."

She smiles fondly. "I am a lucky woman. He has an incredible-"

"A-hem."

She gives me a mild scowl. "-mind. And he seems much happier in himself since your meeting on Venus."

"Yes, the Sheeda set.. some sort of misery-inducing synthetic life form on him. He shot it dead after I mentioned that they existed. Look, I'd.. really appreciate it if you'd be willing to help me with this. Research the Pits properly. I'm going to ask Talia as well, you could.. spend some more time together…"

"That is a fairly weak appeal. I speak with Talia at least twice a week."

I nod. "Okay. What do you want?"

"You know that I was tortured in a Nazi-run concentration camp." I nod again. "One of the things I was subjected to was a radical hysterectomy. I.. wish to reverse it, but my own Lazarus Pit has not corrected it. Once we have a greater understanding of how they work I wish-."

"No problem." An orange beam connects my hands to her torso for a moment as the rings reassemble her reproductive system. "Just a moment."

Her eyes widen, staring at me. "You can-?" She looks down at her abdomen, her hands moving to the area external to the place the orange light is working at restoring her fertility. "And you are asking me why death still exists? Why do cripples still exist?"

"Because I have to want the result for me. I couldn't have healed you before Jade's wellbeing was on the line, but I really want to help her." The light cuts out. "There. I included thirty years' worth of egg cells so that you can once again experience the joys of ovulation. Might take a few months for your hormonal system to settle down. Anything else you want?"

She prods gently at herself, perhaps getting used to the slightly altered arrangement of her internal organs. "No. That is quite sufficient."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th September
09:12 GMT -5

"I'm afraid that Ms Head isn't in at the moment." The receptionist of the main Gotham office of what was once a League of Shadows front company smiles apologetically at me. "If you'd like to leave a contact number, or… Ah… I'm sorry, do superheroes have those?"

"We.. do, but do you know if she's going to be in later? I'd.. really rather do this in person."

Talia's either wearing a ward or she's ceased existing entirely. I could probably find her by abusing the ring, but.. at this point I'd rather not do anything likely to wind Batman up. Walking into a business premise and asking to speak with the manager is a reasonable enough thing for a superhero to do, and while it's strange enough to warrant comment it doesn't suggest anything else to the casual observer.

Which is good, because in this particular case the secret/not secret line is really quite confused.

It is not a secret that Nyssa Raatko is Talia Wayne's sister; she attended her wedding after all. It's not a secret that I know them both; I attended the wedding and was seen greeting her in a familiar way. It isn't a secret that I was involved in finishing off the League of Shadows; that came out when I had to explain the eye.. thing. It is a secret that they're the daughters of Ra's al Ghul… Sort of. Nyssa hasn't made a secret of it, she just hasn't broadcast it and I think she's rather slipped under the awareness of officialdom. Talia al Ghul is on a few databases as being part of the League of Shadows; Talia Wayne-Head isn't. Jade knew perfectly well that Talia Head was Talia al Ghul, and that let her work out who Batman is.

But none of that is exactly critical. Ra's knew who Batman was for years, and the Light either found out when they recruited him, or at New Year at the latest. Any of them could publicise the information. If they haven't done so to date, that's because they've decided not to. Any of them could attack Wayne Manor or Wayne Enterprises at any time, so there's no added risk from me coming here. The only real extra risk comes from it becoming easier for the general public to work out the link, and if the Talia al Ghul = Talia Wayne-Head connection becomes more widely known then the FBI arresting her will be a larger concern. The fact that Talia al Ghul had a thing for Batman wasn't widely known even inside the League of Shadows and it certainly never entered the public consciousness.

And avoiding that sort of confusion is why I don't have a secret identity.

"She… She's definitely going to be here this afternoon, but.. there's nothing in her schedule for this morning, so…" She shrugs, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know."

"That's fine. I can-."

The lift doors open and Mrs Wayne walks out. And it's weird. I think she's been taking acting lessons from her husband, because her whole facial expression is totally different to what it usually is. Or maybe she just doesn't like me? Not sure, but at the moment, she looks friendly and approachable, the boss of a medium sized concern who is perfectly happy to make time for her employees.

And all credit to her for not letting it waver when she sees me.

"Orange Lantern?" She walks towards the reception desk and even her walk is different. "What brings you here?"

"I believe that you might have some information pertinent to an investigation that I'm running. Would it be possible to talk about it in your office?"

"I.. suppose…" And hesitation. I haven't really interacted with Batman in Bruce Wayne mode, but… Seeing this, I can sort of understand how people might not make the link between ego and alter ego. "Sharon, could you screen my calls for the next… Half an hour?" She looks at me, eyebrows raised. I nod. "Half an hour."

"Of course, Ms Head."

"Okay then." She turns her attention back to me. "If you'd like to follow me up..?"

I nod, and she leads the way up the circular staircase towards the management offices. "I don't suppose this is part of a normal police investigation, is it?"

"I'm afraid not."

"The reason I'm asking is that our clients have a reasonable expectation that details on anything we ship will only be disclosed to relevant authorities." We reach the upper landing and she waves to a few early birds. "Then again, if my company's being used to transport something we're not supposed to, I'd rather know about it before the police break our doors down."

"I'll try to cause as little disruption as possible."

"No giant cakes then, right?"

"That was a.. one-off."

"I don't see why. Have you got any idea what slices of that cake go for on e-market.com these days?"

"It's.. probably a bit stale by now."

"I don't think that's the point." She pushes open her office door and heads for the desk as I follow her inside. "Could you get the blinds?"

I nod, then take a holocube out of subspace and use a filament to deposit it on her desk. There's a brief blue flicker, then the edges of the room take on a slightly wavy quality. "Slightly more sophisticated."

She nods absent-mindedly as she starts up her computer. Hm. Ring, any monitoring devices that look like they shouldn't be there?

No foreign monitoring devices detected. All monitoring devices detected are identical in style to those used by Batman.

Good to kn-.

"What are you doing here?"

Ah! There's the Talia I know and.. know. I sit down opposite her. "I'm having trouble keeping track. Are you aware that Jade Nguyen, aka Jade Crock, aka Cheshire, the former League of Shadows operative, is living in Gotham?"

"Of course."

"Oh good. And I'm assuming that you know that her plea bargain was extremely generous and that she did in fact kill-."

"Of course she killed people. That is what the League did."

"Excellent. Basically, I'm planning on using Lazarus Pits to resurrect everyone she killed. Nyssa's already on board but I'd very much appreciate your input."

Talia pauses for a moment. "How many kills does she have?"

"Twenty nine."

"And how many were men of low repute?"

"Twenty three were criminals. I didn't enquire as to their sex. Obviously they're the ones I'd experiment with first before trying anything on the other six."

"I take it that my sister has apprised you of the things that can go wrong with Lazarus Pit resurrections?"

"Yes, but she also explained that she hadn't really experimented with it and didn't know exactly what causes it to… Misfire. Did you.. actually know what was going to happen to Mister Hagen?" Her eyes narrow slightly. "Look, I've already decided that I'm not going to ruin your new life with Mister Wayne. There's no point in pretending, and withholding information could hurt the people I want to resurrect."

"I thought that it would kill him. The.. monstrosity he became was a surprise."

"Nyssa told me that older resurrectees fall apart. Have you got any idea how old?"

"Your consort had not been approved for assassination missions for long enough for that to be a problem. But that is far from the only thing that can go wrong. Did it not occur to you to wonder what became of my mother?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th September
09:16 GMT -5

"Not really. A couple of years ago you told Batman you were in your twenties. For all I know your parents had an amicable divorce and your mother is living in a retirement home somewhere."

"If that were the case, she would have been able to attend my wedding."

"Unless she was worried about getting arrested, but…" I raise my hands. "Alright. What did happen to your mother?"

Her eyes narrow. "Why should I help the man who threatened to destroy the Justice League?"

"Because I'm going to make the attempt whether you help me or not, and the only thing you can do to influence how I go about it is provide me with accurate information. Also, you're married to Batman. I'd be astonished if he didn't have a plan to do that exact thing."

"My faith in my beloved is absolute. My faith in you is much less."

"I don't.. really need or.. want your faith. Besides, are you really going to try and tell me that you wouldn't try to use a Pit on Batman if he died? Given the risks, shouldn't you try to get all of the data you can, just in case?"

"Perhaps."

"Look, I think I demonstrated before I left that I don't actually want to destroy the Justice League any more than Batman actually wants to use kryptonite on Kal-El or a freeze ray on Mister O'Brian or.. whatever he's got for the rest. I just recognise that it might be necessary at some point." Huh. "Actually, what's he got for me?" Talia doesn't respond. "Okay, but if it's the Medusa Mask, I should point out that empathic attacks aren't reliable when used against enlightened Lanterns."

"I will inform him of that fact."

We watch each other for a moment.

"So… Are you going to tell me, or shall I get on with it?"

"My mother's name was Melisande. She was killed by a man named Quinlan Landor, my father's godson. He broke into my father's laboratory and my mother spotted him. They fought, and he pushed her into a Pit."

"Did it.. turn her into a mud monster as well?"

"Nothing so kind. It melted her flesh and reduced her mind to that of a simpleton. For the brief time she remained alive. Father's attempts to resurrect her merely.. extended her suffering."

"That's.. odd. I thought that the Pits could be used to restore the living to full health? I know Nyssa uses her Pit like that."

"They can. Father has used them in such a fashion on numerous occasions. He concealed it masterfully, but I believe that he was as astonished that they did not perform that function as I was."

"Was there anything… Unusual? About your mother?"

"Nothing that I can think of that might affect the functioning of a Lazarus Pit. She did not use magic, her.. religious practices were not dramatically different from those of men and women who had successfully used Lazarus Pits before. She did not have any serious illnesses or other injuries."

"How.. thorough were her medical check ups? I ask, because there are all sorts of diseases that we can test for now that wouldn't have been testable a couple of decades ago."

"The best that were available at the time. I have not desecrated her remains by removing a tissue sample for a genetic analysis, but beyond that I am as certain as I can be." Her eyes narrow. "And you are not to violate her grave, either."

"Does scanning from a distance count? Because Mister Dorrance-."

"Yes."

Mm. Probably not essential. And I don't know either where her grave is or how the Pit affects DNA when something goes wrong. And I've got Nyssa's list of the reburial sites of the other failed resurrectees. "Have you.. ever used a Pit yourself?"

"Yes, but I was not dead on either occasion. I felt the mania, but it was not strong enough to overcome me."

"Did you ever oversee the resurrection of anyone other than Ra's?"

"Yes." She smiles. "My beloved. Once. I was relieved when he rose as strong and.. vital as ever."

"Did Ra's do a lot of experimenting while you were with him?"

"No. He had already established the policy of restricting the use of the Pits for himself and his immediate family. I oversaw his resurrection on several occasions, and prepared Pits under his supervision, but I have no greater knowledge of what makes them work and what does not."

Unfortunate, but pretty much what I expected. "You wouldn't happen to have a copy of Ra's' notes, would you?"

She shakes her head. "Did you not steal a copy when you attacked Infinity Island?"

"Sadly, no. I wasn't specifically.. looking for that, and I was really more concerned about intelligence on League of Shadows personnel than Ra's' lab work. And I suppose that they destroyed it before the League arrived."

"If there was ever anything there. After what Hagen did, it is possible that he did not even consider Infinity Island safe for such secrets."

I sag slightly. "Marvellous. Did your father practise any particular religion?"

"Why?"

"Interrogating his shade would seem to be the obvious way to learn more. I don't know where his body is, but if I get some sort of idea where his soul might have ended up I might still be able to contact him."

"The lands of my father's birth were largely Islamic, but he was born into a nomadic tribe. I doubt that there is anyone alive who would be able to describe their religious practices. He had some Zoroastrian religious images in his quarters, but I do not remember him ever praying."

"Or living at all piously." Darn. "No, it's no good. I might have been able to work with him if he was a pagan, but if he was a monotheist then he's either in Hell where Satanus can keep him quiet or in the Silver City. And I have it on good authority that they frown on necromancy in a golden fire sort of way."

I stand. "Thank you for your help. I'll send you a copy of everything I learn."

"If you successfully cause people to rise from the dead, then I doubt that you will need to inform me. All of the world's news agencies will swarm the reborn, demanding to know how it was achieved."

"I'm.. aware of the potential problem. I'll try to come up with a way of working around it before I start resurrecting people in earnest. Good day."

I return my holocube to subspace and walk out of her office. Alright, next step. I need a magic user familiar with spells and techniques which can reanimate the dead. I'll grab Ambrose, but I don't.. remember…

Ah.

19th September
23:46 GMT +8

Beulah Bleak stares at me for several seconds. "You want me to help you what?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th September
08:58 GMT -6

I stare through the wall at our guest as his lift approaches my floor. Curtis Metcalf dresses like the classical professor. Shirt and tie, neatly pressed fawn coloured trousers with a belt he doesn't need… Probably an attempt to cover up the fact that he's rather well muscled for a man who apparently spends nearly all of his time in his workshop cum laboratory. And a tweed jacket of the sort my Dad used to wear.

Not Darkseid. My actual Dad. I'm finally confident enough that I feel safe thinking that.

My own eyes flicker as I take in the rest. The glasses with the environmental analytics program. The fascinating liquid armour stuff he's wearing under the baggy clothes. The one-shot atmospheric excitation generator built into his watch.

If you're a superhero and Lex Luthor invites you to a private meeting, you'd have to be some sort of special idiot not to be prepared.

We took reasonable precautions too, of course. The invitation appeared in his other laboratory by hush tube, so there was next to no chance of his employer intercepting it. And we didn't schedule this meeting in a LexCorp property; I don't think that Mister Alva knows that his most productive employee is also his most notable bane, but I doubt that he'd react well to the man chatting to his main competition. No, we're in a rented meeting room in a conference centre in which his girlfriend also happens to be delivering a lecture series. Perfectly reasonable for him to be here.

There's a 'ping' as the lift reaches this floor, and I fix a pleasant smile on my face and fold my arms behind my back. The doors open, revealing Mister Metcalf standing firmly at the back, arms forced by his armour to adopt a relaxed posture. He blinks in surprise as he sees me, barely noticeable lights moving over the inner surface of his glasses as he tries to get any information from me that he can.

A moment later he steps forwards at a relaxed pace, a curious look on his face. "Mister Grayven. I wasn't expecting you."

"Lex thought that you might have…" I nod my head to the left. "Concerns. About him."

"And he brought along a man who decapitated someone on worldwide television?"

I shrug. "I feel safer. If you'll come this way..?"

My body language isn't quite Human-normal, partially due to my metaphysique and partly due to my body proportions. Still, the analytics program doesn't seem to be marking me as an immediate threat. He nods, and I turn around to lead him in the direction of Lex's temporary base of operations.

He wanted to go for a smaller room, but I couldn't fit through the doors. That's got to be against some sort of disability thing…

I pull the left door open and step aside to allow Mister Metcalf to go first. Lex looks up from his seat at the coffee table, then rises to his feet and holds out his right hand. "Mister Metcalf. Thank you for coming to see me."

Mister Metcalf hesitates for a half-second, his eyes alighting momentarily on Ms Graves where she stands against the back wall, then walks in and shakes Lex's hand. "I could hardly refuse. I've been trying to get out of my contract with Alva Industries for years."

Lex gestures to the chair opposite his own with his open right hand, and Mister Metcalf walks around the table to sit. While they're getting comfortable I duck under the doorframe and close the door. Anti-monitoring devices primed? Ah, Ms Graves is a consummate professional. I wonder if she'd be willing to train Miss Amane..?

"Now… Just to make sure that my understanding is complete…" As if there's any chance that it isn't. I walk around behind Mister Metcalf before pulling out my own reinforced chair. He can see me, but I'm not his focus. "At the age of twelve, Alva Industries granted you a scholarship as part of their 'A Better Chance' program. You graduated high school at fourteen, had your first college degree at fifteen and then went to work for Alva Industries."

"That's right."

"Eight years and… Five further degrees later, you asked to renegotiate your terms of employment."

"And Alva laughed me out of his office."

Lex leans back slightly. "That was… Certainly rude of him, but I'm not certain I understand..? You're not badly paid by any stretch of the imagination. Your facilities certainly.. appear to be excellent."

"My salary's great for a guy right out of college. But after all the money I've made for the company I don't think what I want is unreasonable."

Lex nods. "And simply quitting..?"

"I wouldn't be able to work in the industry again. A Better Chance has the mother of all no-compete clauses. Sure, I could just walk away, but this is my life."

"And there's no… Escape clause?"

"Sure there's an escape clause. I just have to make Alva Industries enough money and I'm a free agent again. Only somehow that doesn't appear to be happening. According to Alva's accountants I'm barely breaking even."

"Yes." Lex moves a couple of papers. "I had a few people take a look at that. It turns out that while everything he's done is… Legal, he's certainly engaged in a degree of sharp practice." He lays a small folder down in front of Mister Metcalf. "Essentially, all of the intellectual properties which you developed for Alva Industries are held by a holding company, which then leases them to the end users. Often.. Alva Industries itself. It's not an uncommon practice in a number of industries, but it is fairly open to abuse. In your case, it allows them to avoid counting the full profit of your work on the debit side of your account. Instead, they just count the licensing fee, which is far lower. It's hard to get an exact figure, but as far as my accountants could determine, you should have been fully paid up at least two years ago."

Mister Metcalf takes the folder, but none of his degrees are in accountancy. "And that's legal?"

"Well…" Lex makes a shrugging gesture with his hands. "An unbiased court would probably find in your favor. Eventually. Do you have the time or money to take on Alva Industries?" He leans forwards slightly. "And do you think you could find an unbiased court in Alva's home city?"

"No. But you could?"

Lex leans back, smiling. "Mister Metcalf, a year ago I would have gladly paid for your representation simply to deny a competitor your services. Now? Now, I find what he's done positively offensive."

"And what do you want in return?"

"I'm… Branching out, as of late. You saw my press conference regarding the late Doctor Knight's work?"

Mister Metcalf nods. "And his starship."

"Your work is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. I'd like you to work for me, and I'm willing to give you the sort of terms Alva refused you. But… I understand that working for Alva may well have soured you to the idea of working for anyone. So… Two further options." Another folder. "If you wish to establish your own company, I'm prepared to lend you whatever start up capital you require at below market rates. The only obligation you would have to me is to repay the loan and the only way I would get direct control of your work is if you were declared bankrupt. Alternatively, I am willing to invest in your company as a minority stakeholder." He slides the folder across the table. "There's no need to answer now. Even under ideal conditions, this is a case that will take years, and you wouldn't be able to make use of any of these options until it's resolved."

Hm. Unless Mister Swift and I finish our purge of Edwin Alva's criminal associates before that. I rather imagine that he's intelligent enough to see the writing on the wall once the bodies start turning up. Just need to hand their files over to Director Armstrong when we're done…

Mister Metcalf nods. "Okay… I'm on board with this. What's our first step?"

"You'll need to meet with my legal team. And most likely move to secure accommodation." Lex looks thoughtful for a moment. "Ideally, the first Mister Alva will know about this is when the head of his legal department walks into his office with the papers he's just been served. That said, it might also be… Satisfying, to start hitting him in the pocketbook immediately."

Mister Metcalf raises his eyebrows. "Oh yeah? And how do you plan on doing that?"

Lex smiles again. "How do you feel about medieval Arabic literature?"

Mister Metcalf frowns. "I don't know the first thing about medieval Arabic literature." He shakes his head. "I can't even read Arabic."

"Perfect. Then I imagine that it will take even a man of your considerable intellect some time to earn a college degree in it. A degree which Mister Alva is contractually obliged to pay for."

Mister Metcalf smiles.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th September
18:23 GMT +3

I step into the Temple of Hades and look around. "Anyone home?"

An Amazon I don't immediately recognise looks up from one of the icons along the walls, starting slightly in recognition. "Lord Pavlos. Are you looking for Thana?"

"Yes, is she around?"

She stands, then straightens her clothing. "She was heading into the inner parts of the Temple. If you like, I can show you-."

"No, that's… Fine." I head towards the stairs. "I'm sorry for disturbing your remembrance. I'll find her myself."

"Um!"

I turn around to face her. "Yes?"

"Have you..? Did you come to see the daughter of Iola and Tekla?"

I smile. "Naturally I visited them and little Elphida, but my business-purpose here is to see Thana. And… Yes, I appreciate that there's an odd symbolism in visiting the Priestess of the God of the Dead right after seeing a baby, but as I understand it Hades is the last God who'd be irritated about Amazons having children again."

"No, I…" She glances at the shrine and then back at me. "You… Helped them have her?"

"Yes?"

"I mean… The women of the city say that you used some sort of… Ring.. science..? But-."

"No." I roll my eyes. "I know the rumours, but I assure you that the technique doesn't require me to have sex with the would-be mothers. And before you ask: no, that isn't where Io and Pallas have disappeared to. 'Studying under the Gods' isn't a sexual metaphor, it's a literal description of what they're doing under Mount Etna with Hephaestus and Vulcan. And while I'm taking it as a sideways compliment that the children are being referred to as the Pavlovas, I actually meant that as a joke and I didn't think anyone would actually do it."

"Oh. Um. I'm.. interested too?"

"Okay, um… You'd need to introduce me to your partner or partners, and we'd need to discuss what characteristics you want them to inherit from whom."

"Actually, I… Prefer men."

"Ah." I frown. "That shouldn't really be a problem. If you've met someone in New York-."

"That.. isn't what I meant. I was here in memory of my last lover, and I think.. I would like to feel a man's touch again."

"Okay, but-."

"Your touch." She comes a little closer. "You are a demigod of some sort, kind and virtuous. I think you would make a good father-."

I hold up my hands. "Um. Thank you, but… Much.. as I respect the direct approach-."

"Oh, I do not mind sharing you with Prince Kon. That was quite normal in the old days."

"That wasn't what I meant. I'm afraid that where I'm from romantic relationships are monogamous by default, and I'm currently involved with a woman. Siring children outside of that relationship would be completely inappropriate for me."

"Oh! Oh. Ah. I.. didn't know that."

"No reason you should have done. I haven't.. gotten around to bringing her to Themyscira yet."

"I'm so sorry."

I wave my right hand. "Perfectly fine. But if seeing new children is motivating you in that direction, I really would recommend visiting New York."

"I…" She shifts uncomfortably. "I'm not sure I.. would…"

"The other gate is in the embassy. It's perfectly safe, everyone who gets in there is already cleared by Princess Diana."

"I will give the matter some thought." She gives me a shallow bow. "Good evening, Lord Pavlos."

She turns and walks out with some haste. That was.. awkward. I hope-.

"Should I not expect a hug this time, then?"

I turn around as Thana emerges fully from the crypts, then walk towards her with my arms outstretched. "You're perfectly welcome to an entirely platonic hug."

She narrows her eyes slightly. "I don't think that phrase means the same in Man's World as it does on Themyscira." She accepts my embrace with good grace, even returning it slightly before I step back. "And what brings you here?"

"Death and resurrection. You mentioned the first time we met that you were able to commune with the dead of other pantheons, and I need someone with that skill set for a research group that I'm putting together."

She frowns curiously. "Lord Hades is perfectly happy for people in his care to undergo reincarnation. Coming back as themselves is something he is less inclined to allow. In my experience, other Death Gods feel the same way."

"I was planning on.. working around them as much as possible."

She sighs quietly. "Why do I get the feeling that I am going to regret this?"

"Because you're very comfortable in your current rut and anything which takes you outside of it makes you nervous."

"I.. had intended my question to be rhetorical."

"Doesn't make my answer any less true. So. Coming?"

"Will there be any other Greek-speakers?"

"Yes, Euanthe agreed to take part." Without actually waiting for me to explain what I was doing, actually. I wonder what Dryads think of death? "And I'll have my rings translating for you full time, so there's no need to worry about not understanding anyone."

"What exactly are we going to be doing?"

"There's this thing called a Lazarus Pit which can be used to resurrect the reasonably recently dead. I'm trying to find out why it works in some cases and not in others."

"I would assume because their souls had not finished their journey to the afterlife."

"Possible, but we need to test our hypotheses. Which is why-."

"You wish for me to communicate with their souls before you revive them."

I smile. "Can you do it?"

"I have no desire to increase the suffering of those who have already died. Or give them false hope."

"I'd love to tell you that I won't be giving them false hope, but I don't know. I'm trying to resurrect very specific people, and there isn't really.. materials for testing on a wide range of corpses. So we're pretty much just going to be doing the ones I really want to bring back."

"But..?"

"It doesn't always work properly, and I'd like to know what happens to their souls in those cases as well." I take a work project journal out of subspace. "I'll read to you what I have so far."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
12:12 GMT +9

"We… Do still have Captain Gwak's body." Colonel Park of North Rhelasia's State Security agency is looking more than a little disturbed by my request, but after I spent most of yesterday doing photo opportunities with North Rhelasia's leadership he was instructed in very definite terms to help me in any way which doesn't endanger the nation. "But I don't understand why you would be interested in his murder. We detained the culprit shortly afterwards and executed them. There were no special circumstances that would require your attention."

I nod, avoiding his eyes and leaning back slightly. "Let's say.. that there was a man who… Though well-connected and from a good family, was nonetheless a disgrace to his name and office. That he sold information to foreign agencies and local criminals-."

"Such a man would be discovered and executed."

"Yes. Eventually. But let us further say that he had knowledge of things he did not sell. And that if he were discovered and arrested in accordance with the law, such awkward information might find its way into the public domain. Might it not -in such a case- be better for everyone if such an individual were to… Turn up dead. And a convenient patsy be tried and executed and the whole matter put to bed."

"There would be a… Certain ruthless pragmatism in dealing with traitors thusly. Perhaps the Southerners might arrange their affairs in such a fashion."

I nod, smiling pleasantly. "Perhaps. But who could carry out the killing? Clearly, such a person might well have compromised state apparatus."

"In other countries with less moral fibre than North Rhelasia, that might be the case. Our loyalty to the state is absolute."

I return my eyes to his apparently earnest face. "Okay, I have to ask: do you not know how creepy it sounds to a Westerner when you say it like that? Or do you know, but you have to do it anyway?"

He remains perfectly po-faced. "I am merely stating facts. If Westerners are so used to lies and half-truths stated by politicians with no real beliefs that hearing an earnest belief from an honest man sounds unnatural to them, then I am sorry for them."

I smile. "Okay, ah… Back to the topic. Let us say that -for whatever reason- the government of wherever this was happening decided to use an external operative. A professional assassin. The assassin in question performed the kill in accordance with the specified requirements, planted the required evidence and recovered certain missing pieces of information. The patsy gets arrested, convicted and executed. Sad for the traitor's family, but it saves a tremendous amount of face for the government."

"It sounds more like the South every time you add to the scenario. Would you prefer to speak to their internal security agency instead?"

"No. But I would like Captain Gwak's body."

"I can have my adjutant show it to you. We have compulsory organ donation in North Rhelasia, a practice which the West is only slowly catching up to. I believe that several of Captain Gwak's organs were removed after his death for surgical uses."

And not at all to disguise the presence of the poisons Jade used or the unusual precision of the wounds.

"That's fine, but I mean that I want to take possession of the body. I'm doing some medical research that requires Human remains, and the particular circumstances of Captain Gwak's death make him the ideal candidate."

Colonel Park frowns. "While missing several organs?"

"His brain is still there, right?"

"Yes, though the preservation techniques we used mean that it is not in as good a condition as it was when it was fresh. If you would prefer, it would be a simple matter to find you bodies of the more recently deceased."

"Thank you, but no. His is ideal."

"I have said that there is nothing further to investigate. The culprit was found and executed."

"Colonel." I raise my hands slightly. "No one is more disinterested than me in reopening this definitively closed murder investigation. I am simply doing medical research."

"What.. sort of medical research specifically requires the remains of Captain Gwak?"

"The arcane kind. I am -amongst other things- trying to discover whether or not there are medical uses for necromancy. Is it possible to bind body and spirit together to give the body longer to heal wounds that would normally result in death?"

"Is it?"

"It should be, but volunteers are not exactly plentiful. And neither are sane necromancers."

"Would this… Technique, allow you to communicate with his spirit?"

"Communicating with spirits isn't all that hard."

"He was -as you say- killed suddenly and violently. His recollections may well be confused, and it would threaten the people of North Rhelasia if a hostile ghost were released within our borders."

He looks mildly pleased with himself at that. Grounds for reluctantly turning me down within the bounds of his orders.

"Please, Colonel. This isn't my first time dealing with the dead. I have walked through Erebos, and my main necromancer has over two thousand years' experience with sacred necromancy. We will be most careful in our preparations, and have ways to contain a ghost in the unlikely event that one was freed."

Or a crazy Lazarus Pit powered revenant. I remember Lazara, even if no one else does.

"I would want a shaman from our military chaplaincy to be present."

"Certainly. And… I suppose that they're an appropriate party. I've recently come into a few Atlantean books on elemental magic I'd be happy to give them. I imagine that sort of thing comes under their auspices?"

He nods. "That is most generous of you. Will you need us to provide a place for you to work?"

"A Dryad acquaintance of mine has located an auspicious site in Kangrim Mountains. We will of course clean up after ourselves and remove any lingering maleficent influences before we leave."

"I will need to see the exact location. There are sensitive national sites in that area."

"I know. I was there last time they were on high alert." I take a map out of subspace and pass it across his desk. "As you can see, none are particularly close, and I'll be moving my colleagues in by ring. There won't be any chance for them to see anything… Prejudicial to North Rhelasia's national interests."

"What are the nationalities of the people working for you?"

"Themysciran, Columbian and…" I don't actually know what nationality is on Nyssa's passport. "Romanian, I think? Somewhere in Eastern Europe. And one person with joint American-"

He tenses.

"-Vietnamese citizenship."

"American."

"And Vietnamese."

He blinks, then grabs a file from his desk and opens it, showing… Newspaper cuttings relating to some of the people Jade healed during her brief stint as an Orange Lantern. "Ms Nguyen?"

"Yes."

He smiles. "Of course, Ms Nguyen is welcome to come to North Rhelasia. Anyone else?"

"No, that's it."

"Then please wait in the reception area. I will arrange for a shaman, and then you may begin at your convenience."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
13:45 GMT +9

My new companion and I walk through the corridors of the State Security building towards the front exit, the box containing Captain Gwak's chemically preserved body floating along just behind us. "Um… I'm.. not trying to be rude here, but-."

The woman next to me in the military dress uniform with the purple, yellow and red chao armband smiles. "How useful am I going to be to a man who has worked with the most powerful magicians in the world?"

"Basically, yes."

"I'm not here to be useful. I'm here to watch what you do and report back. If you needed help, you would have asked for it."

"Okay… Then are you actually going to know what you're looking at?"

"Does it matter to you?"

Huh. "Sort of? I've been trying to bring magic into the mainstream for a while. If North Rhelasia's got a corps of highly skilled magic using shaman whom they've been keeping quiet about then I'm going to start coming here a lot more. But… Not for this particular task, where I suppose that it's actually slightly advantageous to me if you don't."

"And what exactly are you plotting, Orange Lantern?"

"To control the release of any information I discover. You see, where I'm from there's a comic called The Life Eaters. The setting starts in the Second World War, and rather than just committing pointless genocide the Nazis are using their death camps as sacrificial altars to summon the Aesir. It works. The Nazis start a new necromancy-fuelled offensive. Then Loki the trickster god rescues a group of sacrificial victims out of the goodness of his heart and tells the Allies how the Nazis are doing it." I smile at her as we pass out through the front doors. "Guess what happens next?"

"All other factions begin doing the same thing."

"You read it!" I smile unpleasantly at her. "That sort of thing is something I'm worried about becoming more common. A magic user can get further through faith or industry than murder, but murder's a heck of a lot more convenient. I don't want anyone going off half-cocked. And it hasn't exactly escaped my notice that -while it's nothing like as bad as it's sometimes portrayed- this is still a police state with a very high proportion of executions per year."

"Such a practice would be hateful to the Holy Mother, and all of the spirits of the world would turn against them."

"Sadly, no. I mean, I've met Gaea and yes, she'd hate it. But there are plenty of malevolent spirits out there."

"Yes, and I have dealt with them before. But you might be surprised how limited their goals are. Major disruptions to the spiritual world tend to bring their wrath down on those who create them."

"Huh. I did not know that. I suppose I just equate them with Demons."

"I would be happy to continue your education at some point, but I believe that you have a pioneering piece of medicinal magic to perform."

"Okay." Ring? "I think they're about ready for us. Transition in three, two, one."

The passers by and curious soldiers watching us vanish, being replaced by a… Thick forest. What? This wasn't here when I brought everyone here…

"I thought we were going to the Kangrim Mountains?"

"We are in the Kangrim-."

"I know!" Euanthe steps out from behind an Alder sapling… Actually, all these trees look about.. the same.. age. "There were no trees at all. But the ground told me that there should be trees so now there are trees!" She prances forwards to stand just in front of our observer. "Do you like them?"

"This… Wasn't here this morning."

"I know!" Euanthe beams at her. "I put it here, where it should be. I have become so much stronger, the other Dryads are calling me 'Second Eldest Sister'." She giggles. "They are so silly."

"Euanthe, what did we say about changing the landscape without-."

"But the Earth wanted it, Pavlos!" She.. looks extremely upset that I'm not on board. "It called out to me and it wanted it. It was all-" She turns around and gestures at the tree-obscured landscape with both arms. "-wrong before and now it's nearly right."

"I'm not saying it was the wrong thing to do-" She brightens up immediately. "-but I am saying it that you went about it in the wrong way. I know that you want to help, but you know that you don't understand Humans very well. That's why I said 'talk to me first', because it's my job to help you understand."

The Shaman Chaplain next to me shakes her head. "Actually, it's my job. Professionally." Huh. Suppose it is. She takes a step towards Euanthe and performs a deep bow. "I am Mudang Ran."

"I am Euanthe. Have you dropped something?"

"Um, no." Missus Ran straightens up. "But I want to reassure you on behalf of the North Rhelasian government that we have wanted to restore the forests to this region since the end of the war. But there was always something else that required the funding, and the soil was poor-."

"Yes." Euanthe nods. "It is very bad. I had to ask the Alseids to change it around. And now it is good for roots again."

"I see. Would you be willing to restore other areas of forest?"

"I would be delighted to. Where-?"

"Wait. Euanthe, what happens if someone cuts one of these trees down?"

"One?"

"Yes."

"The tree would die. That would be sad, but trees die sometimes."

"What would happen to the person who did it?"

"Oh! They would die. Probably." Missus Ran boggles slightly. "It depends. I put so much Green into this forest that the local spirits are very awake. They might not take revenge for just one tree…" She looks around, probably trying to spot one. "You should ask them."

Ring, nearest settlement..? Okay, that shouldn't be a problem immediately…

"Ah…?"

"Come, this way." Euanthe dances away through the woodland towards the site of our new Lazarus Pit. "They are waiting."

I pat Missus Ran on the shoulder. "Spirits. Powerful, not Human. Not necessarily hostile-."

"But they do not see the world as we do. There was imbalance in the forest not being here, and compared to that imbalance the lives of a few farmers are of little concern." She nods. "I.. knew that, but I have never seen it demonstrated on this scale before. I will have to warn…"

"I'm keeping an eye on the edge of the forest. And the spirits' interest should die down as the forest becomes more natural." She nods. "Let's get after her before she decides to expand it further."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
13:51 GMT +9

I smell the Pit before I see it, an unpleasant mix of sulphur and salt that makes me increase my environmental shield's air purification effect until I can barely detect it any longer. As far as I can tell, Euanthe isn't even slightly bothered by it and my companion is still too focused on the sudden death-forest to be bothered by something that trivial.

She is bothered by the grundywomen who shamble in our direction as Ms Bleak gestures our way with her witch sign. The witch-woman looks down at the gently bubbling pit with distinct disfavour written clearly across her face, her Owl familiar perched on her shoulder. Thana on the other hand appears to find the Pit fascinating, and is pointedly avoiding the grundywomen. Yes, I can see how enslaved undead would make her uncomfortable. Nyssa is extracting samples from the Pit itself with a long-handled titanium rod and borosilicate sample container. A lot of acid goes into making a Pit, but in the right combination they get transmuted by the geomantic energy… Supposedly. The materials aren't similar enough to any Atlantean alchemy that I've read about for me be to sure exactly what's happening. Maybe I should have invited Wallace?

"Nyssa, are we ready?"

She pulls the vial closer and takes a careful look at the contents. "I believe so." She turns her head towards Missus Ran. "Who is this?"

"Mudang Ran Go-Eun. State Security wanted an observer."

"An observer?"

"I'm sure that she understands the seriousness of the situation." And if she doesn't, there are ways of dealing with that. "Mistress Bleak?"

"The alchemy-pit is ready, so far as I can divine." She regards me through narrow eyes. "Though I will be clear: this practice is ungodly. If he is damned then let him be damned."

"Surely it is our duty to save any man who can be saved? Would you condemn a man to eternal hellfire if he could learn to see his error and embrace Lord Christ?"

"Do not think to deceive me with your fork-tongued ways. You would restore this man to life to please your betrothed and for no other reason."

"True. But would you condemn a man to hell, and make his suffering the pleasure of Demons, when there might be any good in him?"

"Yes."

Missus Ran smiles faintly. "Traditional Rhelasian religion does not recognise 'Hell' in the Judeo-Christian sense as existing."

"Then in the fullness of time you will burn alongside him like the heathen you are."

I wince, put a hand on Missus Ran's shoulder and gently tug her away from Ms Bleak. "Ms Bleak is not the most liberal of women."

"I had thought that Christians were prohibited from using necromancy."

"Ah… There actually isn't a universal stand-."

"King Saul prohibited the summoning of spirits because he feared meeting the shade of the Prophet Samuel, against whom he had trespassed." Ms Bleak seems irritated further at a heathen presuming to question her theology, though I must admit that I'm interested to hear her justifications myself. "I do not summon shades or spirits for learning or wisdom. I animate the soulless corpses of my forebears for their labours, as one day my heirs will animate mine. And that is all I have to say upon the matter."

…

"Thana! How is it going?"

She looks up from Captain Gwak's body, her eyes ebony-black pools. "He does not suffer, but is willing for us to make the attempt."

"Lies from the forked tongue of a devil." Ms Bleak raises her right hand, her Owl shrieking excitedly as she conjures a ball of orange-red fire. "I will burn it swiftly for you."

"Please remember to check your target before firing, Mistress Bleak. Does anything about the ritual Nyssa described suggest demonic power to you?"

"You perform rituals in an unsanctified space. 'Tis close enough."

She sort of has a point. The experiments I've seen in Atlantis have far more protections than we're using here. On the other hand, both Nyssa and Talia confirmed that Ra's told them that he hadn't had a demonic episode in his seven hundred years, which suggests that the odds are fairly low. And any ward we could put up would be an extra variable…

"Pit's ready, corpse is ready, does anyone have any last minute preparations they wish to make?"

Nyssa takes several paces back. "I would recommend putting a barrier around the Pit itself."

I nod, and erect a construct barrier. Batman's report said that while Ra's exhibited hysterical strength upon emerging from the Pit, he didn't gain super strength. A simple construct barrier should be quite sufficient.

"Alright then. First test: Captain Gwak, Muist, murdered approximately nineteen months ago. His corpse was chemically embalmed after the chirurgical removal of his liver, kidneys and his left lung. Successful contact has been made with his spirit and the Pit has been prepared according to standard processes. Mistress Bleak?"

She raises her witch sign, the grundywomen carefully carrying the body to the Pit. They stand at each narrow side with the mortal remains of Captain Gwak between them, and carefully bend down and lay him on the surface. The Pit swallows him almost immediately, its consistency being more viscous than water but far from resilient enough to support any weight.

"Thana?"

"No change so far."

"My rings read the pit as still being composed of its original chemicals, but they aren't behaving as their chemical nature suggests that they should. There's a slight bubbling where Captain Gwak's body is, but the Pit does not appear to be responding in a way I can readily detect. Empathic vision shows no change. Scanning the corpse directly… Preservative agents are.. vanishing. No obvious sign where they're moving to, and.. they aren't being extracted from the exposed parts of the body first. They're vanishing throughout the whole of the body. No obvious sign of regeneration so far."

Nyssa nods. "That implies that the mental distress is not caused by the mind experiencing the restoration process."

Missus Ran glances at me. "You have attempted this before?"

"This is a first time for me. Thana has communed with the dead of Themyscira before on numerous occasions and Nyssa has performed this process..?"

"Twenty eight times."

"Huh. I assumed it would be more than that."

"Father did not die that often."

"Mistress Bleak has not performed this particular procedure before, but has animated corpses… How many times?"

"Those who carry the Blood of Melmoth animated themselves. Witch-Hunters such as myself merely bind them to service where they can do most good. I have performed bindings upon perhaps two hundred grundymen."

"How different does this feel?"

"'Tis not e'en slightly alike."

"Oh, the regeneration has started. Missing organs are regrowing and the skin is knitting itself back together." I hold up a runestone. "Still not seeing anything that would indicate the presence of a soul. Magic presence… Stable, so it doesn't look like one is being created new."

And wouldn't that have been funny, a new Ra's soul for every time he'd been brought back from the dead.

"I think we've still got a few minutes to wait."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
14:01 GMT +9

Thana is awkwardly shifting her weight from side to side. "Do you see-."

"Yep. Soul's back in his body, but he hasn't regained consciousness y-"

The gloop in the Pit suddenly churns.

"-et, no, there we-"

Captain Gwak's head and frantically flapping arms appear above the surface. "GRAAAAAGHHH!"

"-go. Captain Gwak?"

"Aaagh!" More upright now, he wades to the edge and- "Rwraggh!" -beats on my construct barrier.

"Allow me." I extend a hoist construct from the barrier around his armpits and lift him out of the Pit. "Physical reconstruction appears perfect." A wave of orange light passes over his body as I clean off the residual gloop and desposit him on a platform construct. "Heart is beating, lungs are breathing, brain activity is.. as predicted for a man in his state of mind. Digestive tract is empty, but otherwise in good condition. Production-"

"Aaaagh!"

Captain Gwak is hunched over, flailing awkwardly at the barriers surrounding him. Yes, hysterical strength, but nothing I can't manage.

"-of digestive enzymes appears to have only just started. Eyes are unfocused, but again-"

"You are.. bringing the dead back to life?"

Missus Ran is breathing a little faster, her eyes unconsciously widening as she regards the formerly late Captain.

"We're studying techniques that can be used to that effect, yes. I prefer to think of it as a code white resuscitation. Are you back with us, Captain?!"

"What-? Wha-?" He stares wildly around, a degree of purpose and reason returning to his eyes.

"Are you with us, Captain?"

He's shivering, arms wrapped around his knees.

"Nyssa, how long does this usually take?"

"He's doing reasonably well. Thana?"

Thana raises her hands in a placatory gesture. "He is not dead, and no signa of his death still mark him. I'm afraid that healing the living has never been my occupation."

"Good show. Mistress Beulah?"

She dismisses her fires and conjures a witch sign I don't recognise. "He lives, is in goodly health, and there are no magics upon him which might shorten his days."

"Thank you. Euanthe?"

"You told me that I had to cover my body. Why does he not have to cover his?"

"Because this is -technically- a medical procedure, and the Pit may well have destroyed them. Captain?"

"Who-? Who are you people? What happened?"

"Well done." I remove the constructs other than the platform and then float it down to the ground before dismissing it. "Do you remember your name?"

"Gwak Him-chan, Captain of the National Army of Rhelasia. Who are you? And.. where are my clothes?"

"Allow me." I take a white cotton shirt, a pair of trousers and a pair of wooden-soled sandals out of subspace and apply them to his body. "I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. You've heard of Green Lanterns?" He checks his clothes, then nods. "Same idea. Do you know what year it is?"

"Twenty oh nine. What do you mean, 'what year is it'?"

"Thana?"

Thana walks pointedly into his field of view. "Captain, do you recognise my voice?"

"No, I don't-!" Something occurs to him, and I watch the frustration on his face shift to amazement and then horror. "I was.. dead. I…"

"Yes?"

"My father's spirit spat on me. My mother's spirit spat on me. My grandparents… All of my ancestors…" He collapses to his knees. "I am a Worm. A lowly insignificant Worm."

I kneel down in front of him and place my right hand on his left shoulder. "You are now a Worm with a second chance. I would most firmly advise to make the most of it, because there will not be a third."

Ashen-faced, he nods stiffly.

"Mudang, I believe that I can now pass this one into your care." I stand and step away to allow her access, taking a large baguette out of subspace as I do so and passing it to her. "He'll probably get hungry fairly soon, so-."

"You brought a man back from the dead!"

"Yes. Look, your religion involves communicating with the spirits of ancestors, yes?"

"… Yes."

"So you know that there is conscious existence after physical death. Yes?"

"Of course, but-. This is… Something out of fiction!"

"Where I come from, superheroes are fiction. There is conscious existence after death. There are ways of communicating with the dead. A person's corpse is a strong tie between the spirit and the world of the living. You know all this." A stiff nod. "We're not quite sure how or why this works, but for some people it is possible to take advantage of those facts to restore them after their deaths. For a time, at least."

"What am I supposed to tell my superiors?!"

"If they're materialistically inclined, tell them that I was able to restore his body based on his genetic structure and surviving brain pathways, and once that was done restarting him was simple." She nods. "And if they are spiritually inclined, then say that the Holy Mother decided to give this sinner a second chance. But… Perhaps keep him away from temptation this time?"

She nods, then steps past me to kneel down in front of Captain Gwak. I head towards Nyssa as she takes a post-resurrection sample. "Well?"

"Dead. Resurrecting him drained the energy which the Pit uses."

I nod thoughtfully, looking around at the surrounding forest. "Which doesn't affect the trees at all. Curious."

"My father's original Pits were created in deserts. Plants are not necessarily a sign of geomantic energy."

I nod again before raising my rings and pointing them at the now-defunct Pit. "Right then. I'll clean this up, then it's on to Malaysia."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
07:02 GMT

The late Jayanand Duttagupta lies on the ground a short distance from the new Lazarus Pit we've dug just far enough from Minions that the locals won't see it until we're finished. The late Mister Duttagupta was the point of contact in Malaysia for a rather unpleasant group of Indian businessmen, and amusingly his was a whip-around hit. People he'd pissed off combined with the relatives of people he'd ordered killed in order to fund the League of Shadows sending someone to deal with the problem. The five bodyguards -Mister Ganguly, Mister Karokaro, Mister Megat, Mister Gohain and Mister Bantowa- who were accompanying him at the time of his death lie just behind him.

"Is there enough power here for more than one?"

Beulah shakes her head. "There is little difference 'twix the power here and the power in Rhelasia. Since their deaths were more recent the alchemy might consume less of it, but I would not place my faith in such fortune."

"That sounded.. less disapproving."

"While you recovered the bodies of these criminals, Mistress Raatko informed me that these Pits do not merely cause the dead to rise from their graves, but may restore non-mortal wounds also. That purpose is one to which we witch-hunters might legitimately put such alchemy."

"If you do, it'll extend the user's life as well."

"Adam was in his tenth century when he died. There is no sin in living a long time."

"See, I always thought that whole' very old prophet' thing was due to a mistranslation of the word 'month'."

"Think you that Mahalalel fathered a child at the age of five?"

"It seems unlikely."

"Then it was not an error in translation."

"Unless the person who originally translated it from Aramaic to Greek or Greek to Latin made the mistake in conflating the two periods. I'm going to guess that your forebears only had English language copies of the Bible."

"I don't believe it for a moment. Perhaps a Columbian clerical scholar could come here now that the witch path is open and prove the matter to your satisfaction."

I wave my right hand dismissively. "My queen is over three thousand years old. I'll let you have your short-lived prophets."

Nyssa looks up from the Pit. "It is ready."

I nod, and Beulah motions the grundywomen into motion. "Second test, Mister Jayanand Duttagupta, probably Hindu, murdered approximately fifteen months ago. Malaysian authorities refused to release his body or those of his colleagues for cremation, resulting in a profane burial. Hindu belief is that the physical destruction of the body eases the soul's passage from the world, which…" I look hopefully at Thana. "Any idea how accurate that is?"

"It.. would be.. one less tie. Speaking personally, I think that I would prefer my soul to be anchored rather than to be set adrift."

"Hindus believe in reincarnation until they achieve spiritual perfection and their souls merge with the universal divine force."

"Then casting themselves into the aether is likely to be the aim." She frowns. "That must be quite disconcerting, but.. destroying the body would help."

"No effort was made to preserve his corpse, and as such it is.. significantly decayed. All tissues and organs are significantly damaged or completely destroyed. It has not been possible to communicate with his spirit, which could indicate that he has already been reincarnated." I frown. "Any idea whether or not he'd answer if he'd been something else in between?"

"Amazons who pass are content with Erebos. While I know that Lord Hades has made reincarnation possible for those who want it, I myself have never had dealings with those who made that choice."

"Okay then. What happen if we use a Lazarus Pit on someone whose soul isn't available?"

Nyssa shakes her head. "There were times when my father had it used on people who practised such faiths, but the attempts that were successful involved them being dead for only short periods of time. I do not know."

"Then let's get our science on. Mistress Bleak?"

She gestures, and the grundywomen deposit their load with a splat.

"So the question is: will the body regenerate or not? Does the Pit require a soul to do anything, or does the rest happen first?"

Nyssa looks at me, eyebrows slightly raised. "Will you tell us, or do you expect us to place wagers?"

"Tissue regeneration is occurring… Not sure how fast it is compared to Captain Gwak, the extent of the damage to the corpse is too extensive. Mistress Bleak, any difference in the rate at which the local supply of geomantic energy is being consumed?"

"Do you wish to wait for me to seek instruction in geomancy, and then follow that course of schooling for five years?"

"Approximately?"

She closes her eyes, raises her hands and begins chanting under her breath. After a few moments she opens her eyes and looks at me.

"Some is being used."

Fair enough. "Regeneration is… Regeneration appears to be slowing, but is still continuing. I'm still not seeing any sort of emotional resonance-" I hold up my runestone. "-or a soul."

Nyssa sighs faintly. "How many of these do you plan on doing today?"

"Just these six. Ambrose is going to need longer to find any more sites where we can create Pits." She nods. "Regeneration… Almost done. Looks like the Pits find it easier to repair organic damage than to flush formaldehyde. Still not seeing any emotion, and-" The runestone glows very faintly. "-there's something magical in there, but it's quite weak. Heart's.. starting to beat and his brain's active, but there's no sign of panic or other heightened stress…"

He's not trying to get out. Not sure if you can drown in a Lazarus Pit, but let's not try to find out. I stick a construct arm down through the muck and pull Mr Duttagupta out.

Hm.

"Irises aren't focusing, breathing is shallow…" I deposit him on the ground next to the Pit, and he collapses bonelessly to the ground. "Minimal awareness. Even zombies will generally try to remain upright without prompting. I think we've got a Hollow Man. Mistress Bleak?"

"Most useful. He could replace those grundymen you destroyed."

"He isn't biologically dead. Yet."

"I can be a patient woman. With neither food nor water to sustain him, how long will he last?"

"Not long." I use a construct to pull his right eye open, then shine a light into it. No response. I hold him up with a hoist construct, then tap his patellar tendon with a hammer construct. Nothing. "Reflexes are impaired, a trait known to occur in Hollow Men and not Vodun zombies. I think-"

Starting from his feet, his body dissolves, flesh turning to what looks like dust before our eyes. Five seconds later, his skeleton decays as well and I'm left with nothing.

"-that.. didn't work." Unfortunate. "Everyone ready for attempt number three?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
19:27 GMT -5

I smile through the rain at Jade as she spots me in my car parked outside Miss Inzerillo's home. She hesitates for a moment, then heads towards me. The door oozes open as she reaches the passenger side door and she slides herself in.

"Going my way?"

She glances at me briefly, then turns her head away so that she's staring out of the windscreen. "Is it working?"

"Somewhat. Initial indications are that you can't resurrect people who've reincarnated, which… Makes sense, if you think about it."

Mr Bantowa and Mr Megat turned to dust just as their employer did. Mr Ganguly still hadn't calmed down when I dropped him off with Ambrose, but he was physically fine. Mr Karokaro and Mr Gohain came out of it pretty much as Captain Gwak did: fine in mind and body but something they experienced after their deaths horrified them. Hopefully, horrified them into becoming decent people but… Eh. As long as Jade isn't the one who sends them back it isn't my problem.

"So… How many people I killed are walking around again?"

"Four out of the seven we've attempted so far."

She wiggles back in her seat a little, still not meeting my eyes. "What have you been telling people?"

"As little as possible. I told the North Rhelasians that it was an experimental medical procedure. The bodies of the other six I took covertly."

"If people who used to be dead turn up in their old hometowns, someone's going to notice."

"Captain Gwak is in the custody of the North Rhelasian military, but he was clearly distraught with guilt about his prior behaviour and they.. had already.. basically executed him."

"I don't think Double Jeopardy works like that. With the League of Shadows gone they might decide to execute him properly."

"He was a traitor."

She wiggles her head a little, presumably not sure what to think about it. "What about the rest?"

"Ambrose is keeping hold of one who came back a bit incoherent. The other two, I dropped off in their home towns with a thousand dollars in cash. Neither of them knew who any of us were."

"I'm fairly sure they can do an internet search."

"If anyone asks, it's an experimental medical procedure. Medium to long term, I wouldn't mind incorporating Lazarus Pit alchemy into something that could be used en masse."

"How many times can you do this?"

"Don't know. Ambrose estimates there are probably about fifty sites worldwide, minus any that have been used for what we're using it for. Enough to resurrect the people you killed and still have a few left over to emergencies."

She gives a small nod. "What happens to the ones who don't come back?"

"They're stuck in whatever body they reincarnated in. It… Might be possible to find their new bodies, but they might well not have their past life memories and I'm… If they're Human then they're only going to be a few months old."

"If they're Human?"

"Hinduism holds that a bad person gets reincarnated as something lesser. An animal.. or a plant. And given the people involved, we could be looking for a seedling or something." I make an amused snorting noise. "That's what I love about this world: death just isn't that big a deal."

"Not everyone gets Lazarus Pits."

"No, but you get souls. Gods build afterlives specifically to house you after you die. And if you don't want to do that, just pick the right religion and read the right spiritual literature and you can come back with a lot of your memories intact. Death isn't so much 'death' as it is a temporary physical disadvantage. It's a much better deal than what we Earth Primians usually get. Where I'm from, people die if they're killed."

"Mm."

Jade's.. actually looking away from me.

"What?"

"Killing these people was a big deal for me. I wasn't.. as involved in the sort of magic that you know about. I thought we were like Earth.. Primians."

"Do you.. feel differently about it now?"

"I feel worse. It might just be my brain thing going back over my memories. I remember.. stabbing them, shooting them… I remember the feel of the blade going in, their faces, then… The smell… I'm not a.. total psycho. I didn't keep playing it through my head for fun, but it never… Bothered me."

"The fact that you feel bad about it now is.. is a good sign."

"Because it means I'm not evil?"

"Because if you're genuinely repentant that means that I probably won't have to invade Hell."

She makes a quiet amused snort, and glances at me for a moment before looking back at the street again. "I thought I had to ask God to forgive me?"

"It's not my religion. If you want to ask Father Mattias about it-?"

"No, I-." She shakes her head. "I don't even know if bringing them back really.. matters."

"I think that the ones we've brought back so far will appreciate the opportunity to straighten their lives out."

"And their families?"

"Captain Gwak was being spat on by a thousand generations of his ancestors, so…"

"Hah! Guess I probably shouldn't convert to Dao Mau then."

"There's no real advantage unless you have your own children, so I'd say 'no'."

"Why's that?"

"Oriental shamanistic religions usually involve dead ancestors playing an ongoing role in the lives of their descendants. So if you wanted to do that, it's not a bad religion to pick. In Hellenism, they'd consider the idea quite.. creepy. Despite there being a literal physical pathway down to Erebos on Themyscira, hardly any of the Amazons have ever used it."

"Even if I did have children, I'm not sure that I'd want to put up with being constantly spat on for a chance to speak to them once a week."

"Is this a serious thing? Do you.. want to know what your ancestors think of you? Because loyally serving a master and killing in his service probably wouldn't have been regarded as negatively during their lives as it is now. You haven't broken an oath or committed a great act of betrayal, so the situation isn't the same as Captain Gwak's at all."

"Let's put a pin in it."

"Okay. Um, I.. thought about it? And I think that Hades would probably be okay with having an assassin as a worshipper?"

"No, I mean… The whole 'religion' thing. I…" She finally turns to face me. "I killed a lot of people, and now I feel bad about it. I.. should feel bad about it, and… I don't think dealing with it practically is really going to fix things."

"Do you want me to.. stop resurrecting people? Because we haven't got to the innocent people yet and I'd-."

"No. No, worth doing, but… It isn't going to fix things for me."

"Okay. Well." I reach over and place my right hand on hers. "If there's anything I can do to help, tell me, alright?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
21:15 GMT -6

I look up, smiling faintly as Mr Talbot and the Blacks file into the briefing room. And.. smile slightly less as Mr Doom follows them in.

"Mister.. Doom. I wasn't aware that you were lending your efforts to this endeavour."

Mr Talbot takes a seat to my right and the Blacks sit to my left. Mr Doom remains standing at the far end of the room. "After being made aware of such improbity, did you truly expect me to simply walk away before the matter was resolved?"

Might have preferred it.

"I suppose.. not. Please, take a seat." He nods politely, then walks around the table to sit down next to Mr Talbot. "How's the work coming along?"

Mr Talbot clicks his briefcase open. "It-."

"A biggeh bunch of fookin' monsters I've never seen." Chester leans forward, jabbing his right forefinger in my direction. "Hundreds a' total bastards we'd all be betteh off without. I've had the patience of a fookin' saint heyah."

"I appreciate your forbearance, Chester. Mister Talbot?"

He pulls a ring binder out of his briefcase and pushes it in my direction. "I handed Jean a data stick containing a copy of our records. That's a summary: a damning indictment of nearly our entire legislative and judicial system."

I pull it over to me and start scanning it. Hmm. "Would it stand up in court?"

Mr Talbot frowns. "Of course not. Telepathic intercept evidence, gathered without a warrant? The CPS wouldn't touch it."

"Ignoring procedural issues. If you ignored the 'how' of how you came by this evidence. Do you think that an unbiased jury would convict?"

His eyes grow slightly vacant as he considers. "Most…" He nods. "Certainly enough. Not all, mind, but we could get enough to collapse the system."

"And the other part of your task? Finding replacements?"

"That's…" He glances at Ms Black and Mr Doom. "Proving trickier. Directly approaching the MPs not involved would put them under too much suspicion, and they are being closely watched."

Mr Doom nods. "In other circumstances, I might feel glad that so great a proportion of Britain's elite have gained at least a basic education in the arcane. Sadly, it does make our job that much harder."

"At.. lower levels, we have carefully spoken to the leaders of major city councils… I believe that it would be possible to establish a functioning government with the people available."

"How exactly do you.. see it working?"

He raises his eyebrows. "I rather assumed that was up to you. If you want trials, we would need to pass some sort of emergency legislation to cover standards of proof and levels of punishment. That requires at least one MP, at least one Lord and.. royal assent. And it would be a laughable fig leaf to pass legislation with so little."

"Or..?"

"We could just not bother and make it up as we go." He shrugs. "It worked for the French. And that's even assuming that we go to the effort of taking these people alive."

"I'm a little.. surprised to hear you suggest that. Being a police officer."

"Hm. Police armed response units are allowed to fire on their own initiative if they or a bystander face an imminent threat to their life. Considering the resources our targets could call upon, I think I could justify using that level of force against… At least some of the better magicians. And all of the Satanists. Imprisoning the leading politicians risks a counter-coup by well-intentioned soldiers…"

"Do you think that it's worth putting what you've found into the public domain from the outset?"

Chester grins. "Be a right fookin' laugh."

"It would prejudice a jury, but if we're not planning on using one..?" I give a noncommittal shrug. "That would buy us a significant amount of time… We would still need to have a process in place, though."

"Emergency rule by the remaining parliamentarians for two months while we conduct rapid show-trials on the worst and most senior offenders, followed by a special general election. The new government would ideally pass no legislation save that necessary to regularise the trials, and would be dissolved once the trials were complete."

"That might be longer than a normal parliament."

"Most of the trials, then. Ideally… Two years? Come up with a trial structure you think would work, and… Well, your contacts will probably be the best organised political force in the country after all major parties get decapitated. It shouldn't be too hard for us to 'politely suggest' that they opt for that. And after that… We've done our best. The country can have another general election, and we can wash our hands with the place."

"I don't intend to wash my hands of my country." His eyes dip as he considers my outline. "Who were you planning on putting in charge?"

"I believe that the member for Croydon North is the most senior untainted MP?" He nods. "Then her. The idea being that we're leaving as many parliamentarians in place as we can. As for the short parliament… Would you like the job?" He sits back in his seat. "You do seem to be the logical party, you have the exposure and the organisational experience… People will be looking to you for guidance."

"I'd.. need a constituency."

"You live in London-."

He shakes his head. "No, no good. My MP may be a bloody communist, but at least he's an honest one. Oh, I suppose I can find somewhere." He thinks for a moment longer, then looks at his neighbour. "Doom? Do you have anything to add?"

"Assuming that the elections are free and fair, I can tolerate a degree of.. emergency legislation. As long as it is of limited duration. I would be most disheartened if that sort of thing became more commonplace."

"I was a policeman, Doom. I don't much like this either. But if it must be done…" He nods, returning his attention to me. "When do you intend to give us the go-ahead?"

"I don't want to.. place undue pressure on you. If you need more time, you can have more time. But… It would be convenient for me if we executed our attack… Reasonably soon."

Chester perks up. "We really doin' it? Thought you might be getting' cold feet, cock."

"Far from it. Well?"

"We'll need to bring everyone we intend to work with together. I'll prepare a highlights reel for them, make sure they're on board with our way of thinking. And I think it would be best if we had local people carrying out the initial wave of strikes as much as possible, rather than relying on G-Gnomes. I doubt that you want to end up fighting the Justice League because they think you're trying to take over the country."

"I'll make an appointment with them and show them your highlights reel. Oh, and invite along a few of Britain's more capable superheroes. That'll help with public confidence." He nods. "How do you feel about leading a strike squad yourself?"

"I'm nearly sixty. I may be in reasonable shape, but that's a task for specialists like the Blacks."

"But would you like to? I'd have thought that finally getting the bastards-."

"There is little I would like more, but I'll live with it just so long as they are brought down."

"But… If you could..?"

He eyes me suspiciously. "What do you have in mind?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
21:29 GMT -6

Mr Talbot looks across the scrubland surrounding the home of the Orange Central Power Battery. "Of all the places I thought that my life might take me, an alien world was far from the top of the list."

Ms Black looks around. "I think we've lost Chester."

Ring? Ah. "Let him. The women of the Orange Lantern Corps are perfectly capable of looking after themselves. And we don't really need him for this." In fact… "Why don't you take a few hours off as well? Nothing that happens here will have any impact on your work on Earth, and it can't be much fun living under that sort of pressure all of the time."

She turns back to me and raises her eyebrows. "Are you telling me I need t' get laid?"

I frown. "Noo. There are any number of recreations here, or you could take an air car to Tamarus and go sight-seeing. I'll let you know when we're ready to leave." She nods and starts walking out across the grounds towards the main amphitheatre. "Though if you want to, Tamaraneans are very liberal about that sort of-" She holds up her right hand and shows me her index and middle fingers. I smile at the back of her head. "-thing!"

Mr Doom bows his head slightly, a small smile on his lips.

"You're welcome to join her."

"You will not be rid of me quite that easily. I think that my influence as a moderator may be required."

I shrug. That would have been too easy. I turn to Mr Talbot-.

"I hope that you don't intend to make that sort of suggestion to me."

"Wouldn't dream of it." I take a few steps back towards the corridor entrance. "If you'd like to accompany me?"

Mr Talbot looks up at me, mild suspicion evident in his expression. "Why are you pushing this?"

"It's an Apokoliptian thing. Not all of our Elite are the greatest fighters, but even a scientist like DeSaad is perfectly capable of leading an attack if he has to. And anyone who wants warriors to follow them into battle needs to be a good deal better than 'capable'. Plus, installing you as Prime Minister pro tem becomes easier if you're visually associated with the pointy end of the job."

"Is that all?"

I lead the way back into the building. Mister Talbot keeps up with me while Mr Doom hangs back. If he's anything like most street wizards he's trying to get a feel for the local energy channels. And those are far weaker in Vega than on Earth. "Not… Specifically this. But… Linked to why I want to get this started… Another ally of mine has expressed an interest in.. liberating an elderly relative of his who is presently being housed in the.. Dee wing of the Tower of London."

"A wizard?"

"A.. bio-artificer. He made-."

"Fiendstein."

"That's the fellow."

Mr Talbot nods. "I went to see those cells, once. I don't much like them, but I remember what that man did."

"He's in his eighties, mad as a fish and he's stuck being housed in patently inhumane conditions. I want to see him released into his family's care. They'll keep him housed in secure accommodation for whatever time he has left. In America, in the middle of a former nuclear testing area."

"And if I say 'no'?"

"I'd be disappointed, and probably sue the British government once things were settled down."

"Not threatening to pull the plug on the whole enterprise?"

I nod and wave at a couple of Tamaranean Lanterns as they pass us in the corridor. They both bow briefly.

"Don't be absurd. I have a sense of perspective. Reforming the British government is far more important than liberating one man."

"I'll agree to a review of the case, with a view to releasing him on compassionate grounds unless the evidence is exceedingly damning."

Cranius will be pleased. "Thank you."

He nods. "So, what's this weapon your armourer has for me?"

"Weaponer."

"Is there a difference?"

"One's her title, the other isn't."

We reach the doors to Weaponer Lysis' workshop. Given what she's been working on, I thought that keeping it as far away from the Orange Central Power Battery as the site's defences would allow was the correct thing to do. She seemed happy enough, but I nonetheless generate construct armour as the door opens.

"Weaponer Lysis?! Are you decent?!"

She doesn't even bother turning around from her work station. Not that her cybernetic eyes actually require her to look at someone to see them. She's wearing new and slightly Apokoliptian-looking light armour, the tron-lines glowing with the power of her ring. "Would it matter to you?"

"It would interest me, sociologically speaking. Seeing you adapt to Tamaranean social customs, I mean."

She doesn't deign to respond.

"How are you getting along with Clarissi Dox?"

"He is.. competent. And entirely acceptable as a go-between. Ah." Now she does look in our direction. "And this must be our test subject."

"Excuse me?"

Several emblems flash up on her display, and she almost immediately shuts it down. "Ooh. Grayven.. told me that you… Hm. I suppose I might not need the blast shields and restraints…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Weaponer, if you could perhaps lead the way..?"

Weaponer Lysis turns away from her station and heads towards another heavily fortified door as I lead Mr Talbot and Mr Doom around the laboratory. "You see, the most powerful tools in the universe are power rings. Unfortunately, they're rather hard to make. And harder still to use properly. The Guardians have quite rigorous selection criteria for their Green Lantern Corps.. and.. they've found a way to make it impossible for anyone else to make green rings. Orange rings can cause.. rather severe psychological issues for their users. I manage fine but there've been one or two 'incidents' with the Tamaraneans... And then there's yellow, but… I rather doubt that you'd want everyone you meet to be terrified of you. But…"

The door to Weaponer Lysis' hazardous testing area opens, revealing a red-glowing personal lantern, with a matching uncharged ring held in a clamp next to it. And Lysis herself on the far side of a heavily armoured and force field protected observation booth.

Mr Doom takes a step back, staring at the ring in alarm. "It is a manifestation of hatred and rage, a tiny fragment of the Bull Which Tramples The Universe. Mister Talbot, I most strongly advise you to have nothing to do with it."

"A power ring." I step aside as Mr Talbot approaches it. "Not something I've trained with. How dangerous is it to the wearer?"

"We're not.. sure. Animal tests resulted in the subjects going into a berserk frenzy, then dying."

"I'm glad that I'm so valuable to you." He cautiously holds out his right hand towards it. "Yes, I… I think I can feel it. Puts me in mind of how I felt when I wrung that lunatic Webster's neck with my bare hands."

"But you don't feel like doing it again?"

He glances back at me. "I've never stopped feeling like doing it again. I've simply learned to channel the impulse better."

"And that is why we think you can handle it. If you can't, my entire Corps stands ready to hold you down and take it off you."

"Hm." He leans forward to study it closely. "Is there anything else I should know before I put it on?"

I shake my head. "The basic functions are either automatic or instinctual. We can have a training session once you've adapted to it."

Mr Doom shakes his head. "Geoffrey…"

"I'm sorry, Cursitor, but the chance to be on the front line is more than I can pass up. How do I go about taking possession of this?"

Lysis presses a button to communicate with us. "The final part of the process requires it to attune itself to your hatreds. Put it on, then hold it up to the lantern and hate."

"My dear Ms Lysis-" Mr Talbot opens his right hand, and the ring leaves its cradle to float onto his right ring finger. "-I do not need prompting to hate."

"Geoffrey Talbot of Earth. You have great hatred in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps."

For a moment, his eyes flicker red, red mist precipitating out from the ring. Then he lets out a very quiet snort, and his eyes revert to normal. "Then I just..? Hold it out..?"

"It's customary but not essential to speak a devotional oath when you do, but merely focusing on your hate is quite sufficient."

He nods, and holds out his right hand.

"I, Geoffrey Talbot, do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the people of Britain in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law."

When the lance of red energy flares from the lantern and strikes his ring he doesn't even flinch.

"Charge at one hundred percent."

"Good." He clenches his right hand, red mist swirling from the ring and then dissipating. "Now let's get some practice in."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd September
09:03 GMT -5

"How are our happy campers?"

Ambrose shrugs as he ambles over to the cell door. "Not enjoying being back in the world of the living all that much." He slides the first hatch open-

"-owhnrghnooraagh-."

-and closes it again.

"Has he.. been doing that since I brought him here?"

"Pretty much. He quietens down sometimes, but that's about it. He hasn't slept, he doesn't want to eat or drink and he goes berserk if I try going in the room." He looks at me curiously. "What's he saying?"

"He's just.. sort of incoherently moaning."

He nods. "Explains why I couldn't translate it. What do you want done with him?"

"What do you mean, what do I want done with him? We need to try and calm him-."

"You do realise that he's come back from Hell, yeah?"

"I.. considered it a possibility."

"Look…" He sighs, looking away for a moment. "Hindus, ancestor worshippers, druids… None of the places they go to are…"

"Appalling affronts to sanity which serve to disprove the moral righteousness of the Source?"

"More like 'mind-bendingly awful'. I don't know what it says about the Source. Point is, no matter how much of an asshole they were, none of the other people you tried this on go there. But someone called 'Ganguly', living in Malaysia but coming from India? Probably a Muslim. Same with the others."

"And he didn't make the cut for the Silver City."

"Angels are pretty fair. Given what he was doing, it's a fair bet he didn't keep up his end of the deal. So down into the ditch of Hell he goes."

"And that's why you should always shoot the missionaries." Ambrose gives me an amused snort. "No, seriously. If the aim is to weaken the forces of Hell, why would you ever try converting people to a religion that gave them a better than average chance of going there? You'd just be giving the Demons more fuel."

"I guess the prophets thought people would sort themselves out if the alternative was eternal torment. I suppose they overestimated people."

"He was down there fifteen months. In your professional opinion, is he likely to snap out of it?"

"In my professional opinion?" I nod. "No idea."

I bow my head slightly and close my eyes. "Thank you, Mister Bierce, for that extremely helpful answer."

"I've called souls out of Hell before, and they were mostly… Okayish. I've never tried putting one in a living body before. That could be the problem."

"I hate to bring it back to this, but… Ah."

He rolls his eyes. "John Constantine."

"Y.. es. Are you aware of the existence of his demonic alter-ego?"

"As a matter of fact, I've been getting letters from him." I frown at him, left eyebrow raised. He smirks. "No word of a lie. I think he's using me as a Constantine stand-in as well."

"But getting back to the point: if people can go to Hell and not go completely mental, am I right in assuming that he will be alright eventually? Do we just need to.. play him the Indian equivalent of Care Bears on a loop? Get an Imam in?"

"I'd rather not."

"I know most Muslim denominations aren't keen on magic, but I'm sure I could find one who'd look on this as an opportunity to save a soul."

"No, I mean the Care Bears thing. I have Demons in here sometimes."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"He isn't acting like someone who'd just been tortured. Sure, that would explain it if he jumped whenever he heard a noise or saw someone. It doesn't explain the babbling."

"So, what? Do you think the Pit did something.. wrong?"

"Exotic alchemy, geomancy and Hell magic? That would be my guess. Could still be temporary, or…"

"I could have caused permanent damage to the structure of his soul." He nods. "Do you know..? How it works. Going to Hell."

"What, like, exactly how bad you have to be?"

"No. Clearly, you can be bad and still go somewhere else. I mean… How… Attached do you have to be to monotheism to be caught? And what happens to atheists?"

"I guess that once they experience consciousness without a body, they start believing. And they just default to whatever religion is normal in their culture."

"I.. hesitate to ask, but given how similar to John-."

"Hah! Oh, don't worry about me. I've got a deal with Coyote."

"Sensible. Considering, anyway. Any idea for how we can fix them?"

"I've warded the rooms so no more Hell magic can get in. Another set of runes should be draining away what he's already got. That should sort him out. Or at least get him to the point where he can sort himself out. But you're probably going to need to put him in restraints so we can force feed him before too long. Human bodies don't last long without water."

I nod. "Can you get another couple of cells like this set up? I'm not totally sure on the religious preferences of our next few subjects-."

"Look. Paul. Are you really sure you should be doing this at all?"

"Yes. Why do you think I shouldn't?"

"Because we don't know anything like enough about how this magic works? We don't know what the longer term consequences are. And okay, you don't care all that much about the criminals, I get that. But you said you want to use it on Jade's innocent victims as well."

"Just because they weren't known to be criminals, that doesn't mean that they hadn't done enough to get sent to Hell. So I've got the choice between taking the risk that they might come back a bit confused, or leaving them in the worst place in the universe. The longer I wait, the longer they're in there. If they are in there. If they're anywhere else other than the Silver City, we can ask them. If they're in the Silver City… It probably won't work."

"Or you'll have the Angels on your ass."

"I've been working under the assumption that I'll have to fight them eventually anyway." I slide the Sword of the Fallen out of its sheath. "If this worked on the First…"

Ambrose puffs out his cheeks. "Okay, how about the fact that you're sending the people exposed to their afterlives off on their own without monitoring them. There's all sorts of things that would love a living host."

"I may not be monitoring them full time, but I am keeping an eye on them." Lantern Xor's first job for me. "But that threat is something we also need experience on. Anything else?"

He looks unconvinced, but gives his head a small shake.

"Right. I'll get to work on the next group."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:17 GMT -3

Jade looks.. decidedly unenthusiastic as Nyssa puts the finishing touches to the Lazarus Pit. She didn't seem unduly bothered by seeing Mr Okereke's face… Seeing it again, I suppose. A minor official in the Kenya Ports Authority, he decided that he wasn't willing to look the other way when the League of Shadows wanted to ship materials without the proper documentation. Of course, he probably didn't know that it was the League of Shadows he was refusing… Anyway, Jade was available, so she was dispatched to dispatch him.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm remembering what it was like when I killed him."

"Difficult?"

"No. Two cameras and no guards. He had a pistol but he wasn't carrying it."

"Then..?"

"I didn't hesitate. And it wasn't that I didn't hesitate because I was worried that the other Shadows would think I was weak. I didn't hesitate because I didn't care. I was ordered to kill him, so he was going to die."

I nod. "How did you feel afterwards?"

"Satisfied. A little frustrated, actually. I'd been trained to be the best, and my target didn't even put up a fight. I could have killed him before I joined the League." Her eyes dip. "Dad would be proud."

"Do you.. want to talk to him afterwards..?"

She rolls her eyes. "And what exactly would I say, Paul?"

"I..? Don't know..?"

She looks up at me, her eyebrows slightly raised. "Is your empathy misfiring?"

"No, but it only shows me simple emotions well. And it's probably better if you can-."

"If I can talk about my feelings."

"Has not talking about them worked?" Beulah directs her grundywomen to lower Mr Okereke into the Pit. One of them is new: a failed resurrectee she was able to animate with her own magic before it could decay, replacing one she sacrificed as a test subject. Grundywomen can't be resurrected, which does tend to support the 'Lazarus Pits require a soul' argument. "You're never going to be in a safer place than you are now."

"Deal with it or forget about it?"

"I do realise that people aren't that rational. I'll support you in whatever way you need. Tell me what I can do."

She watches the bubbling Pit for a few moments.

"I feel… It seemed to be rational at the time, but now I'm just… Unsettled, that I could think like that. At the time, I was glad that the League took me in. Trained me. Gave me a purpose. But it didn't even occur to me that they were having me do exactly the things Dad would have had me do. I'm not even sure the training was much different."

"It was what you were used to, only not as bad."

She glances at me. "I'm a little worried I have a type."

I nod. "Is that why you haven't wanted to train to use an orange power ring?"

"You haven't exactly been broken up about the people you killed."

"Should I be?"

"I.. don't know. I was brought up to be a mercenary. You had a regular childhood. If power rings can turn old you into you…" She shakes her head.

"So it's not so much that you feel guilty about the people you killed as that you don't like.. your former self who did the killing."

"I can't help that they're dead." She goes back to looking at the Pit. "Even if you can. And bringing them back doesn't change the fact that I was happy to kill them. I just don't ever want to go back to being someone who's willing to kill anyone."

I nod, then wave my right hand in the direction of the Lazarus Pit. "So..? Should we just..? Get him out, or-?"

"No. I'm not saying 'don't finish', just… Bringing them back from the dead isn't what I needed."

"You know, that repenting-your-sins-and-trying-to-become-a-more-moral-person thing you just said you were doing sounds an awful lot like Christian-style morality."

"I did grow up in America."

"Hell is still a distinct possibility here, is what I'm saying."

"With all the work you've done on Lazarus Pits, should I be offended you don't want me around permanently?"

"Oh. In that case, I'm going to need some tissue samples. Just in case you die in a way that doesn't leave a body." Huh. "In fact, I should probably get those from everyone."

"I don't mind you having a tissue sample, but what religion are your old team mates again?"

"Oh. Yeah. Maybe I can.. talk them around? They wouldn't have to go on indefinitely if they didn't want to-. Although Nyssa has a version that just regenerates the living. That would be a far easier sell. And then I could work up to persuading them to change to a nicer religion. But going back to y-."

"Pavlos?"

"Hm?" Thana is walking towards us, looking rather concerned. "Problem?"

"I am.. uncertain. I have lost contact with his shade, which does not surprise me at this point in the proceedings. But… It felt…" She appears lost for a way to describe the experience. "Strangely becalmed. Are you certain that this man was a monotheist?"

I shrug. "No, but most Kenyans are. Could it have been purgatory? Because if that exists and we can resurrect people from there, that would be really conve-."

"Purgatory is a lie promulgated by the Papists to extort the gullible." Beulah turns her head in our direction. "My people have studied the matter most assiduously."

"With magic or by studying the Bible?"

"Both. Though since I know you care not for the Bible, I will tell you that while we do not intrude on the spirit's reunion with its Creator, we have watched them pass into his Presence."

"Well… Maybe he wasn't a monotheist, then. I'm not sure what-"

Warning: spell eater temperature increasing.

"-native.. religion-?"

The slime of the Pit boils and bursts as Mr Okereke leaps! His flesh is somewhat tattered, but more disturbing are the wings of flesh extending from his back as a second rib cage and the bleeding nails hammered through the bones of his arms and legs!

"Satanus says 'hi', Lantern!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:21 GMT -3

The universe slows, my immediate surroundings blurring for a moment as my power armour materialises around my body. My right arm reaches for the Sword of the Fallen at the same time as filaments dart towards my colleagues. Jade and Thana get construct armour almost immediately, while the other filaments move through the air at what feels like a crawl.

Euanthe is stepping away from the horror that was once a port official, but her epidermis is already darkening and hardening into brawling bark. Nyssa has drawn a pistol, but is quite sensibly trying to increase the distance between her and the Demon. Beulah is going for her pistol, an aura of burning purple already forming around her left hand while the grundywomen leap through the air at the malefactor.

Railguns.

The first grundywoman takes a demonic fist to the face, head deforming at the point of impact. She falls aside, but the Demon isn't quite able to strike the second fast enough to prevent it grabbing onto his torso. The Demon just grins as the grundywoman tightens her grip, then the spikes inserted along his limbs glow and extend, stabbing through his undead attacker. The spikes don't do much more than poke holes, but she immediately goes limp as the spells animating her fail.

Euanthe gestures and vines redolent with the power of the Green shoot upwards from the earth, grasping for the airborne Demon. He rolls in the air, ducking behind the vines as Beulah's fire blast strikes the place he was a heartbeat before and incinerates them.

Angel feather rounds and fly.

The shockwaves from my shots blast the grass back and tear the leaves from nearby trees. And I think I see the Demon wink an instant before the sludge of the Lazarus Pit vomits upward to envelop him. The kinetic force of the railgun round impact causes the goo to ripple and undulate, as if someone had taken a hammer to a lump of oobleck. He's knocked back, but-. Of course. He's controlling the Pit indirectly. The Angel feather round would only burn up demonic magic if it came into direct contact. The magic in the Pit-gunk somehow absorbed a lot of force, but that's perfectly possible for mid-tier magic users.

Fine. Mage slayer rounds.

The Pit-gunk pulls down, taking the Demon with it.

Um, what?

I float directly over the Pit, railguns pointing directly downwards.

"Anyone know what just happened?"

Beulah points her pistol at me, not bothering to try removing her construct armour. "Warlock! You called up a Demon!"

"Clearly, but how? We certainly didn't mean-."

"You called back a damned soul! Did you think the master of that place would fail to notice?"

Actually… Yes. Satanus… Worked out what I was doing based on… Three disappearances? Hell is vast. I mean, yes, if he knew exactly what we were trying to do it would be predictable, but he'd have to have good enough intelligence both on me and on the domains of the other Lords of Hell. And he'd have to know exactly who Jade had killed. That's… Scary-good.

"Fine, but we can kill Demons." He's not physically in the Pit… "What's he doing now?"

The ground around the Pit sinks, some sort of foulness bubbling up from underneath. I hurriedly lift Nyssa, Jade, Thana and Beulah off the ground while Euanthe roots herself, a powerful tree trunk blasting upwards from the ground just behind her and a root network expanding outwards in all directions. The remains of the grundywomen start being absorbed into the ground almost immediately, the foul ground digesting their dead flesh.

"Pavlos! He is using his body's connection to the land to open a portal!"

Fiddlesticks. "Can you stop him?"

"I can restrict his influence somewhat, but I do not understand the magic he is using well enough to truly counter it!"

"Beulah, you know much about Demon magic?"

She points her pistol downward and fires, the ectoplasmically enhanced shot doing little to the morass beneath us. "Fighting, yes. Banishing, certainly. But whatever devilry this Devil is about, I've not seen the like before."

Oh dear. "Logically, if a Demon was able to bind its own hellish magic to a site of geomantic power-."

"It will open a gate. One that will not be worn away."

"Right-oh." I generate four additional railguns and start firing with mage slayer rounds, scattering my shots across the parts of the morass furthest from Euanthe's roots. "Anything you can to do counteract that would be much appreciated."

She kneels on my construct platform, hands held together in prayer.

"While I wouldn't turn away divine intervention-."

A white-burning witch-sign appears between her palms. Never mind then.

Below, the mage slayers appear to have nullified the Demon's attempts to alter the ground… At least on the surface. I'm still getting confused scans from underground. Target those patches. Okay, if he does manage to open a gate it shouldn't be that hard to kill any escapees before they get somewhere with people in it. In extremis I can use Praexis Demons, but a simple transition-stab would most likely work as well. This has.. gone badly, but it isn't catastrophic just yet.

Hm. If Euanthe gets a firm perimeter established, grabbing everything inside that and throwing it into space could be a sound op-

Blood splatters across the front of my faceplate.

-tion. Where did that come from?

Another splatter, but my colleagues' armour is holding fine. It's not coming from them. The Demon hasn't reappeared. It doesn't appear to be coming from anyone, and it's not the sort of splatter you get from a wound. It's more like.. rain…

The forest vanishes, a dimly-lit basalt landscape replacing it, and the rain of blood from the literally hellish clouds above us increases in intensity.

Oh dear.

The horizon towards what used to be the west undulates and… No, that's a horde of minor Demons heading our way.

"Paul, what just happened?"

"This is Hell. The Demon wasn't opening a portal to call in reinforcements. He was trying to draw us in."

A shimmering image of a red-skinned man in Roman armour appears a short distance in front of us. "Orange Lantern."

"Satanus."

"Welcome to The Odium. Hell's industrial heartland. I thought that you might appreciate the opportunity to look over the modernisation campaign you inspired."

"No. Send us back or I destroy it."

"Really? My auguries show that the Snake of Avarice is no longer with you. Do you think you're powerful enough to kill all demonkind?"

"I'd give myself a better than even chan-"

Beulah shoots the illusion, which shimmers and fades to nothing.

"-ce."

I look at the oncoming horde, and ready my railguns.

Praexis Demons, go.

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:23 GMT -3

Praexis Demons spill from my rings and fly at what is for them a reasonable speed towards the army of abominations. Looks like an irregular formation, monstrosities formed of twisted Human forms and/or bits of animals, no two looking quite alike. Some squirm on their bellies like snakes, some undulate like caterpillars, some fly on insect or avian wings and others run on two or three or six or eight or more-than-I-can-easily-count legs. Some have simple weapons, other carry things that look more like tools while the great majority appear happy to rely on their natural weapons.

Beulah shoots me a foul look as she reloads her pistol. "You use Demons."

"Technically, they stop being Demons when I assimilate them, since they contain no Hell magic and are entirely made of orange light. Do your people use living slaves?"

"No, such is an Abomination."

"There you are, then. Looks kind of similar, isn't the same thing."

"Be that as it may, should we survive I am done aiding you in this."

Can't really complain about that.

Jade draws her swords, glancing sidelong at me. "Can we beat them?"

I target the largest of the oncoming Demons with an Angel feather round and fire. "Against all the hordes of Hell?" It strikes home, causing him to throw back his head and scream in agony as the golden fires consume him. "In a straight fight, no. However, I'm reasonably confident that I can slaughter enough of them that they'll either let us leave or flee."

"Reasonably confident, huh?"

The Praexis Demons hit the horde's front rank, immediately causing it to cave in on itself as they start biting everything in reach and the Demons on either side of their line turn to try to envelop them. Almost at once they start flowing from my rings once more, but if I unfocus a little I can also feel them reproducing from the mana-rich Demon flesh.

"I've seen better odds. Thana?"

"A-ah, yes?"

"Can you feel anything around here that isn't hellish?"

She shakes her head. "Lord Hades has no power in this place. Even if he would hear my prayers here, he-."

"We're in Hell. I'll take a portal to anywhere. Back to Earth would be nice-."

Nyssa's looking upwards. "Lantern…"

I follow her oh shit.

The clouds part slightly as a swarm of aircraft break through and head in our direction. Unlike the horde heading towards us across the open terrain, these are clearly the product of a technologically sophisticated civilisation. Part aquatic predator and part rune-covered mechanical war machine, they swim through the air as their emaciated crocodile pilots prepare their weapons. And floating just behind them is a golden humanoid wrapped in barbed wire.

He waves politely.

Railguns the fuck now.

I see tiny flares of light as they open fire with some sort of projectile weapon, bullets of kaahuite punching into the rock around us. Should probably try and collect some of that… I generate a shield construct as the cybersharks start getting their shots on target, the kaahuite striking and pancaking against the construct as its inherently destructive magics get to work. I'm forced to selectively make holes after the force of the initial impact is absorbed, letting the blobs of glutinous metal plop to the ground.

"Me taking all of you up against the fliers gives slightly better survival odds than me leaving you here." Agony is the most senior Demon I've seen so far. "Other options would be appreciated."

Now let's see how physics work here.

Mage slayers rounds strike cybersharks, glowing red arcane barriers manifesting around them and then being drained by the anti-magic properties of my ammunition. Sharks shudder in the air as they start taking hits, demonic machinery vibrating as the shockwaves from the supersonic impacts pass through their bodies. Pilots cry out and break off from their attack dives in an attempt to evade, which is really what I'm trying for at this point. As the fastest members of the horde -a group of skeletal figures on ruddy-glowing bikes- start getting too close for comfort I reinforce the platform beneath my group's feet and lift us upwards.

Cybersharks start to fall out of formation from damage, and with us out of easy melee range I mentally command a group of Praexis Demons to break away and chase them down. Plenty of food in those things. Next, I generate a small bank of cold guns and shoot anything that looks like it's burning. Some go out, frozen just as solid as a conventional flame. Other flaming Demons just brush it off, moving to evade the beam in some discomfort and then returning to their full incendiary glory as soon as they manage it. One or two impressively dressed Demons just take it, or become ethereal and allow it to pass through them.

Fine. Now, cross my fingers, aim a railgun at Agony, load an Angel feather round and fire.

"Oh, no, no-"

He lazily raises his right hand, the barbed wire biting into it swirling outward for a moment and-

"-no."

-striking my supersonic round in the air for an instant before the round carries on to its target…

Who catches it with no apparent difficulty. Thaat's not meant to be possible.

"Delightful as the torment of Heaven's fire would be-"

Praexis Demons start targeting cybershark riders, pulling them from their seats and chomping them to pâté.

"-I do have-"

I focus my fire on him, cold beams doing nothing and mage slayer rounds being met with barbed wire caresses before being ignored. My first couple of orange energy pulses draw a raised eyebrow when I fire them and a disturbing-

"-a job to arh-uaha-ah!"

-sigh of pleasure as they do little more than mar his skin.

"I'm open to ide-."

GruughhhhhhhhhA!

My vision whites out as every nerve ending in my body suddenly signals horrible burning agony! My muscles convulse and I slump bonelessly in my armour.

Spell eater exceeding critical temperature.

Replace it!

Uhuh! Better.

"Down! Take us down!"

I try looking sceptically at Beulah, but I'm wearing a faceplate and my face is still humming with pain. "Yeah. Sure. Why?"

"I have a weak sympathetic link to the Dryad. If God smiles upon us-."

"Good show, going down."

The ranks of Demons beneath us let out a howling cheer as we fall, and those who can spare attention from the ever-growing Praexis mob ready their weapons as I target them.