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

[Mr Zoat]

8th September
13:12 GMT -5

Kaldur takes the notebook and opens it to the first page, with Robert's picture both in and out of uniform. "Cornwall Boy?"

"He picked it when he was eight. Last time I talked to him, he said that he's probably going to change it."

"You have already spoken to him?"

"I didn't say that I could offer him anything, just that I'd bring it up. And I needed to find out if he was even interested, and why."

Kaldur scans the first few pages. "How did you meet?"

"I was looking for potential new members anyway. He was in the right age group. I went to see him for the first time after we got back from Salem."

"It was him who..?" He moves his right hand to the left side of his chest, and makes a circling motion.

I nod. "Yep. Took him a few seconds to sort it out. Don't know what he'd have been able to do if it was at full strength, but I suppose you could check that."

"I would be interested to meet someone versed in surface world magics."

"Yeah, you'd probably find it disappointing. His family owns some books on the subject, but it's, y'know, not exactly rigorously researched. Not by Atlantean standards, I mean."

"What can he do?"

"There's an artefact his family owns. While he's connected to it, he's very strong and very resilient. Not quite at Kon's level, but still pretty impressive. Since he can turn the connection off, he's been learning shotokan karate at a local gym. Brown belt at the moment, though I think Black Canary could get him up fairly quickly. He also has an instinct for magic energies, but he hasn't really learned to do much with it yet."

Kaldur smiles faintly. "It seems that his skill set is fairly similar to my own."

"Huh. Suppose it is. Hadn't really thought about it."

"Why does he want to join us?"

"Apparently his power set runs in his family, in the male line. But, his father isn't really interested in doing much more than looking after their reliquary, and occasionally supporting the local police. Robert wants to go further, thinks he can achieve more with their powers. I mean, let's face it: if you don't know where you need to be or you can't get there, it's very hard to use super strength effectively."

"The League's intelligence resources are extremely useful."

"And the zeta tubes, for members who aren't super fast."

Kaldur closes the book. "I will read it and consider the matter carefully. You will have my opinion tomorrow."

"Thank you. If you like the idea, I'll bring it up with Batman."

"How many other potential recruits have you spoken to?"

"Spoken to? None. There's a few maybes I'm making notes on, but he's the only one who's got to this stage." Hang on, there was something else… "Oh! Do you want this for anything?"

Kaldur looks in bemusement at the coconut sized lump of grey plastic that has appeared in my right hand. "What is it?"

"It's what's left of the rubbish I cleaned out of the North Atlantic Gyre."

He stares at me for a moment. "You.. 'cleaned out' the North Atlantic Gyre?"

"Well I started.. on the Pacific Rubbish Patch, but when I finished that it occurred to me that there was probably an equivalent area in each major ocean. The one in the North Atlantic didn't take as long as I'd already had loads of practice… Didn't I mention that I was doing that?"

"You did, but I had assumed that it would take a good deal longer."

"At the speed I was going at the start, it would have. But I've got much better at creating filtration constructs and focusing my avarice since then. I mean, there's still some plastic in there, but the place it used to be collecting in is now about as clear as the rest of the ocean."

"The presence of that area of surface-created pollution had been a major cause for concern in Atlantis. This may help improve relations between Atlantis and the surface world. The use of the ocean as a dumping ground has long been a contentious issue."

"Really? I'd have thought that you were all too deep to be affected."

"No one lives directly under the center point, but even many miles away it is… It was, possible to taste the detritus in the water whenever you open your mouth or your gills. You have truly done Atlantis a great service."

"Oh. Well. Um. No problem."

He goes back to looking at the lump.

"I have no use for it personally, but I am sure that the Poseidonis Royal Museum would be interested."

"I'll offer it to them when I drop the hands off." Oh it felt weird to say that. He starts walking to the habitation area. "Look, I was going to cook something for lunch. You hungry?"

He stops and thinks for a moment. "I thought that you usually ate your main meal in the evening."

"I've been through so many time zones today that I don't even know what time it is."

"Are you not supposed to be attending school today?"

"There's a funny story there. I never told Diana how old I am. I'm seventeen, and in the British education system compulsory schooling finishes at sixteen, so I don't actually need to attend school unless I plan on having a career in a field that requires a particular qualification, and-" I hold up the ring. "-I don't."

"Then I think I will join you. Thank you."

He resumes his journey. I'm probably going to be spending a great deal more time with him, now that M'gann and Kon are going to be at school all day. Especially with M'gann's cheerleading practice. Cheerleading. Nothing is more American than celebrating the concept of celebration. Reminding cheering people that they're supposed to cheer. It's like those greeters at WalMart who are there to tell people that they've entered a shop. I mean, for goodness sake, what's the point? Ah, I'm sure that she'll love it, and I try to be polite when she brings it up, but my inner British curmudgeon is demanding that I do the whole thing down whenever possible.

I wonder if there's a New God of Celebration?

I focus, and remotely prepare a couple of potatoes for Kaldur and add them to those already in the oven. Remote control for complex tasks is a bad idea, but this is a job the ring could do in my sleep.

I'm glad that the Atlanteans will be pleased about all that cleaning work I've been doing. To start with it was a bit of a hassle, but after the first few weeks it became a challenge to overcome, and that made it much easier. I'm doing low Earth orbit next, once the Rhelasian stuff is dealt with.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th September
17:26 GMT -5

Grimacing, I curl the glowing orange shield in front of us inwards, compressing the exploded remains of the late Roderick Rat into a gooey ball of blood, guts and fur.

"Ring, incinerate."

The ball blackens. Once I'm sure that it's sterile, I cool it, open the biological waste bin and deposit it inside. Only then do I risk looking at my fellow researchers.

Wallace is staring wide eyed at the test area.

"So, not.. taking.. the formula.. then."

"Sorry. Looks like two doses isn't healthy."

It's so annoying! We've been able to replicate the Garrick Formula just fine! Sure, as soon as Speedy Gonzales got scared he ran out of the mountain through a wall, but the formula definitely worked! We've even been able to make impure versions which are probably similar to what Wallace and Mister Garrick used originally. But, give a rat a second dose… Rat-a-blew-ey.

"Ring, transfer scans of the last subject to the computer."

"Compliance."

Wallace relaxes enough to sag. "It's not gunna work, is it?"

Mister Garrick looks up from my research records. "It was a first attempt, Wally. You shouldn't expect modifying my formula to be that easy."

"Noo… I know. I just… I just really hoped it would be." He sighs. "How about we try with one of my blood samples?"

The left side of my mouth tenses slightly, and I make momentary eye contact with Mister Garrick.

"Oh kay…"

I pick up a test tube containing a small sample of Wallace's blood, and create a shield cube around it.

"Recording. Transmuting in three, two, one."

The blood sample was small, but the blast still coats it across an impressive proportion of the shield before it slides down the sides.

"Ohhwah…"

"At least your blood actually reacts to the stuff."

I wave at my own samples, still in a stand on the bench. For reasons I suspect have something to do with alchemy it fails to react at all to either the Danner Formula or the Garrick Formula. Even when the samples are cloned rather than extracted, Wallace's samples react and mine don't. Mister Garrick found it fascinating. I'm not sure that I'd actually have used either of them even if I could, but the option would have been nice. The third, much darker sample a little further along the stand is proof that Venom Buster can interact with me, but that change isn't something I'm willing to contemplate.

Combining the two formulae doesn't work. Administered in sequence, the second does nothing. Administered together, they tend to neutralise one another. Again, that shouldn't happen. Worse still, I can't remove the effects. I can transmute the formulae from other materials no problem, even if I have to do so in every cell of the body like for the Danner Formula. I can transmute it back fine, until it gets into a living being and goes to work. Transmuting it back then just makes it disappear for a few seconds with no noticeable change in the abilities of the user. It then reappears spontaneously.

I'm starting to think that it's just doing it to spite me.

"Ring, transfer scans to the computer, then incinerate and bin."

"Compliance."

Silver lining, I can now induce celerity in any baseline Human, up to and possibly beyond what Mister Allen has. Even a modern lab can't quite manage the reagent purity a power ring can. But we're still no closer to helping Wallace. I bring my right knuckle to my chin.

"The way I see it, there's three basic approaches we could try from here. First, I could try altering the materials already in your body. Second, I try turning you back into a baseline Human, and then we give you a dose. Third, we try getting hold of an alchemist, see if we can get a better understanding of the mechanisms involved."

"But..! Chemistry..!"

"Sorry Wally, but he could be right. I based my original work on Professor Danner's paper on alkaline radicals. Even after we found that it couldn't possibly work by the mechanism which he thought it did, I always assumed that we'd eventually have a scientific explanation for how the formulae worked. It's been seventy years, and if a power ring says it isn't the chemical reactions, well, then there isn't really anywhere to go from there."

"Mister Garrick, are there other people we could talk to about this? Johnny Chambers, or Max Mercury?"

"Afw… Sorry Paul. Johnny's been dead for more than twenty years. Max… You don't find Max, he finds you. I could put the word out, but I haven't seen him for decades."

Mister Constantine might be able to get hold of Mister Chambers anyway, but I don't think I'll bring that up unless we're really desperate.

"Probably worth doing. Look, can I check that we're all on the same page about alchemy? Wallace, you tested my blood samples yourself. In simple chemical terms, there's no reason for it not to react."

Wallace looks away, then down, before grudgingly nodding.

"Mister Garrick, about Abednego Danner. I've been trying to look up other chemistry papers from the same period, and I haven't found anything even remotely similar to his work. That's unusual, right? Were any of his contemporaries working on the same thing?"

His gaze drops slightly, he frowns a little, and shakes his head. "No. I tried investigating the same thing myself in the forties, when I started work on my formula. His work doesn't have any obvious precursor. Doesn't have that many successors, either, particularly these days. Serious chemists aren't prepared to put time into things that shouldn't work. And yeah, that is odd."

"Then there's something black in our lentils." Both Mister Garrick and Wallace give me a puzzled look. "It's an Indian saying. Means, someone's playing silly b-. Um. It means that something odd is going on. I mean, he might have put random chemicals together and got incredibly lucky, but…"

Wallace perks up. "But that's really unlikely!"

"Yeah. So how does a professor at the University of Colorado get an education in alchemy in the eighteen nineties?"

Mister Garrick nods. "And another question: if he learned it from an existing source, why aren't there other people with the same ability? If it was written down, other people would have read it. If he learned it from a person, what stopped them telling other people?"

"The stuff I got off Alan showed a progression in his research. He definitely improved on what he started with, but either he didn't write down his initial work, the notes didn't survive, or someone gave him a leg up."

Wallace appears to think for a moment, then makes eye contact with me. "You said that any sufficiently well understood magic is science, right?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know anyone who understands it well enough?"

"I could get an alchemist, but I don't think they'd have the necessary understanding of the theory behind the operating mechanisms to do original work. There might be someone in Atlantis, but I don't think they study regular chemistry down there."

"Then I'll do it."

My eyebrows go up. That, I did not expect.

"You sure? I mean, we haven't eliminated all other avenues..?"

"Yeah, but it's a completely new area for me. It's going to be a while before I know enough to be worth anything. You keep trying ring transmutation, and I'll grab some books off Kaldur." He shifts uncomfortably on the spot. "Paul… Jay… I need this. I don't even care about the speed so much, but I can't keep eating whole tubs of ice cream 'cause I got the munchies."

Mister Garrick steps toward him, and lays his right hand on Wallace's shoulder. "It's okay Wally. We'll work this out together."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
09:23 GMT -2

I nod at our host.

"Alright then. Let's see it."

Sephtian told me that he had the first of what he's decided to call 'Spell Eater Amulets' ready when I visited yesterday. Since I had a meeting with Diana planned I said that I couldn't stick around, but that I'd come back today. I then decided to kill two fish with one harpoon, which is why the world's most out of place Liverpudlian has joined us in Sephtian's workshop.

I still haven't quite worked out why John Constantine agreed to come. Sure, I know he's a sucker for anything to do with magic, and he did hold out until I offered to take him to a couple of Atlantis' arcane book shops. I want him because yesterday evening I slowly disassembled the Brave Wind missile, and I've located what I think is the runic inscription on the inside of the outer shell. It's written in electrically conductive polymer, probably with one of those circuit pen things. Sephtian is more likely to be able to analyse it, but Mister Constantine knows more about who might have been able to create it. I also want them to have a look at the Danner and Garrick formula samples I've brought. I know that neither of them are really alchemists, but I really want to give Wallace something to work with.

Sephtian… I can't read his body language. His face is too different and his robes obscure too much of his body. I'd guess that he's excited, but I'm not really sure.

"The hard part was the maths, really."

He picks up a flat case from the work bench and holds it out towards me. Unlike when we first met, he actually isn't standing on the floor. I'm keeping Mister Constantine and I anchored to it out of habit, but we're surprisingly buoyant. I hadn't even thought about it during my last couple of visits, but we should have negative buoyancy at this depth.

"Calculating the relationships took about four days' work. I mean, four whole days. I didn't sleep."

I see a motion in the corner of my eye as Mister Constantine pushes off the counter and half wades/half paddles over to us. Navigating under water when you can't fly and aren't much of a swimmer isn't easy. My environmental shield means that he doesn't have to worry about breathing or getting wet, but as he wasn't happy about me being the one moving him around he's having to struggle a bit.

"Let's see what all the fuss is about, then."

Sephtian reaches his right hand around to the front and flips the catch. One hand over and one hand under, he slowly opens the case. "Getting help to do the enchanting was easy enough. I even set up a system so that they don't have to be in close physical proximity to the artefact."

The lid passes the forty five degree point, and I get a look at the product of his labours. This prototype is a disk of black granite with a hole in the centre and tiny gold wires crisscrossing the surface. They actually run through the granite as well, something that is basically impossible to achieve without a power ring. Granite is pretty common in amulets of this type because it's fairly mystically inert. The hole is for the thong which will allow it to be worn as a necklace without risking disruption to the binding wires.

The thong itself is in the case next to the disk. It isn't made from leather -they couldn't work that down here even if they could get it- but from enchanted whale sinew. Thanks to Atlantean efforts -diplomacy in modern times, fishing boat hunting a few generations ago- fish and aquatic mammal stocks in this parallel are much higher than at home. But this probably wasn't taken from an actual whale but rather created by a professional biomancer.

I only found out they existed yesterday, when Tuvul'Orr explained the process for reattaching Ocean Master's hands. Recreating the whole hands would have been immensely difficult, but according to him reattaching them was day surgery. If the surface world only gets one thing in trade with Atlantis it has to be the ability to regrow simple body tissues. I mean, I used to work in umbilical cord blood storage, and I know that even the most generous estimates of future stem cell regeneration techniques are nothing like what Atlantis can already do.

"Well?"

Sephtian's lower body is in constant motion, treading water. Or maybe that's just how he shows excitement? He sounds breathless, but I'm not sure how much of that is being translated by the ring. Would I be able to hear him at all without it?

"It doesn't look any different to me."

"Of course it doesn't! You certainly can't see magic."

Another advantage to having Mister Constantine here is that he can tell me if this is some sort of weirdly complex conjob. I extend my right hand and pick it up. It dries as it passes through my environmental shield. I can't feel the wires, and the stone is smooth and cool to the touch.

"Let's give it a try then."

I subspace my armour, replacing it with my vest and jeans. I reach up with my left hand and remove my existing ward, putting it in the case in place of its successor. I don't.. feel any different. No, I suppose that's not a fair test. I put the new ward back in the case as well, taking hold of the lower flap with my left and with my right hand hovering just above the Spell Eater.

"Sephtian, that scanning spell you used on me when we first met. Cast it, and don't look at my hand."

He nods once, releases his hold on the case and pulls his hands into his chest. He's much gentler now than he was the first time, but it still feels like I've got some sort of burrowing insects living in my hypodermis. Keeping eye contact with him, I drop my hand onto the new ward. Half a second later the feeling is gone, and Sephtian breathes out heavily and blinks rapidly. He rubs his hands together as if he were washing them.

"It is not a comfortable feeling, to be casting at the Spell Eater. Once it gets going, it feels like it could pull the spirit out of you."

"It can't, right?"

"Nnnnnnnot out of a normal person. Perhaps… Perhaps out of some sort of elemental? I'm not sure."

I turn to Mister Constantine. He's pulled out a cigarette, and is in the process of lighting it. He started nagging me about that during our mid-Atlantic descent, until I realised that the environmental shield would probably keep them dry. As long as it's in close proximity to him anyway. Atlanteans don't smoke, obviously. I've already told the ring to unmake the smoke and ash.

"Bit beyond me, mate, to be honest. I mean, I recognise the runes and that. The theory bits sound right, but…" He shrugs.

I suppose he's got a point. "Fair enough. Another practical test then." I pull out the Spell Eater and the thong. I thread the thong around and through it, and put it around my neck. Oh, hang on, should check. "Does it have to be in contact with my skin? Or can I wear it over clothes.. or what?"

"It needs to be in close physical proximity. Skin contact is best, but a centimetre or so shouldn't matter too much."

"Rightyoh. How about the other ward?"

"That thing? It would fail after a few minutes if you tried wearing them together."

"Alright. Mister Constantine, present for you."

I hand him the other ward and he slips it into his coat pocket as I put the Spell Eater down my chest under my vest, and keep it there. Then I take a couple of steps away and take a solid stance.

"Hit me with something."

He reaches up to his mouth with his left hand and pulls out his cigarette, holding it out to the side slightly. He then meets my eyes, his own narrowed slightly, a thin smile on his lips. He holds this position for about six seconds. "Why don't you give me your power ring?"

I blink. "Um, no?"

He winces, squeezing his eyes shut and hurriedly jamming his cigarette back into his mouth, sucking on it. "Yep, it's working. And I'm not testing it again. Feeling like your soul's gettin' sucked out loses its novelty value after a while."

Sephtian either exhales heavily. Or farts. Or does he have flotation bladders? He's looking at Mister Constantine in alarm. "Please avoid using that sort of magic while in my company. Atlantean law takes mental influence spells rather seriously."

I smile. "Wouldn't be much use to me if it only worked on legal magics, would it? Alright, I'll take it. How long will it take you to complete the order?"

"I've.. modified the design a little, now that I've had a chance to see it working. The next model should be about a hundred and twenty percent more effective. If you can fabricate.. you said you wanted twenty? If you fabricate them now, we should have completed the order within fifty days."

I frown.

"That's longer than it took to make this one."

"I did not fully appreciate how small your ring can make things. The next generation will not be limited by my preconceptions, but only by my knowledge and ability. The individual enchantments.. there will be many more of them. It will probably not be quite that long, now that everyone knows what they are doing. But I'd rather overestimate than disappoint you."

I nod. "Sounds good."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
09:27 GMT -2

I convey myself over to the counter. "Now, payment. You said you wanted other metal samples?"

He makes a gesture with both arms, striking out to the sides. It's a bit like a shrug, but I'm really not sure that it means the same thing.

"Yes! So many things become possible with complete purity! And… Since most of the enchanting work here doesn't actually require my personal oversight…"

I nod. "Right. Wasn't sure exactly what you wanted, but…"

The Atlantean language is pretty similar to ancient Greek dialects. Diana told me that she and King Orin can understand each other fairly well without translation, though the idioms don't work at all. I thought it best to write the name of each metal on each ingot, and nearly forgot that Sephtian almost certainly doesn't speak or read English. I asked Diana about it, and it turns out that Themysciran Greek doesn't have names for a number of the elements in the periodic table. They can refine to complete purity, but haven't ever done much work with elements they can't mine themselves.

"Tin, Gold, Silver, Copper, Aluminium, Titanium, Lead, Zinc, Tungsten, Nickel and Cobalt. Are you sure it's alright to just put them here? Most of these react with sea water."

He waves a dismissal with his right hand. "My workshop is enchanted to prevent certain types of chemical reaction. I realise, in terms of chemistry, Atlantis is a long way behind the suuuurface..?"

The chemistry textbooks with pages made of polymer substrate materialise next to the ingots. Nothing amazing by surface standards. I really don't know what sort of level of chemistry education Sephtian has. Since everything they do down here involves the manipulation of materials by magic, I suppose that conventional reactions are only relevant if they want to prevent a particular reaction happening. But Sephtian clearly knows that there's something out there that he doesn't know, so he must know something, right? Just in case, I got a range from real beginner stuff covering appearance and basic uses, through secondary school textbooks on to more specialised guides to industrial processes. I wasn't completely happy with some of the translations, but I'm sure that he'll manage. And from the way he's picking them up in turn and caressing them, he's happy with them.

"Um, Mister Constantine-."

"Is calling me 'John' against the rules or something?"

"… No. I can call you 'John' if you prefer? I didn't want to presume."

"Think so, mate. Not used to posh people being polite to me. Messes up my world view."

"Um, I'm not posh. I'm middle class. I mean, my parents are. Well, my paternal grandparents were upper middle class, but they went down a level after the Second World War. I suppose.. don't know… how the class system deals with superheroes."

He chuckles.

"What?"

He shakes his head. "Don't worry about it, mate."

"Er, okay. Would you mind taking a look at this?"

I take the section of missile epidermis out of subspace, creating a pocket of air around it and positioning it so that the sigil is toward John. He leans towards it slightly, peering at the design.

"Any ideas?"

"Yeah. Used something like it myself a few times. It's a ward. Supposed to prevent someone scrying for whatever you put it on. You know what the symbol's made of?"

"A conductive polymer, probably drawn on with a circuit pen."

"Hm. Generally stick to chalk, meself."

"But apparently other things work. I saw a television series once where a man held off a demon by standing in a magic circle made of light. Would that actually work?"

He tilts his head to the side for a moment. "Maybe, if the guy inside knew his business. Be a stupid way to die if the demon was bright enough to cut the power."

"Let me see that." Sephtian still has 'Modern Industrial Chemistry' clasped to his chest like a teddy. "Mm, yes, scrying ward. Weak, though. I doubt it would hold off a skilled practitioner."

"Not on its own, but if you combine it with a few things-."

"Yes, but there's nothing else here." He turns back to me. "Where did you get this?"

"Taiwanese Brave Wind anti-ship missile."

A moment of recognition from John. "Oh, that was you. Should'a realised."

Sephtian looks from me to him and then back again. "Ah..?"

"Three days ago I took part in preventing a peace conference from being destroyed by these." I create a life sized missile construct. "I couldn't scan them with the ring for some reason, and since I still can't scan this plate, I'm going to assume that the scry ward is interfering with it."

Sephtian blinks. "Could do. I'm surprised that it's still working. I.. was assuming that your ring didn't use magic?"

"Technology this advanced, there isn't much of a distinction. I don't suppose there's an easy way around it, is there?"

"Oh, any sort of scrying focus would probably bypass it. Or having more than one person scry at the same time. I don't think… Hm. Mister Constantine?"

"Yeah, I think you're right there. Don't suppose there's any chance the Taiwanese put it there themselves?"

"I'll ask, but I doubt it. A surprisingly large number of people have found a way to evade my ring scans lately. Are you saying that having several people scan it at the same time would get around it?"

John and Sephtian look at each other for a moment, then Sephtian nods. "Yes, if a single example of this was the only protection they had. This-" He waves a hand at it. "-is poor workmanship. Really, I'm surprised that the binding has held the spell for as long as it has."

"The missile went from the launch site to the target in less than a minute. I started scanning a little before they launched, but not by much."

"Oh, it would easily work for that long. But if people are evading your detection for a sustained period of time, I would assume that they have access to something better."

"Any chance you could come up with a way to counter it?"

"For a magic user? Certainly. Easily. For you? Mmmmmno."

"Right. I suppose that would have been too easy. Thanks for your help. If you could show me your revised designs?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
10:22 GMT -2

I hadn't thought about it, but even though the inhabited parts of Atlantis only cover a fairly small area of the sunken continent they aren't restricted in how high they can go. There's still a down -usually- but if you step out of a fiftieth story window here you just stay there rather than falling as you would on the surface. Plus, their use of bioluminescence means that sunlight isn't an issue. So, they usually build up rather than out, and they don't dig down. Oh, they build foundations, but Sephtian found the idea of a basement quite strange. Buildings in Shayeris are often a sort of mushroom shape, while in Poseidonis they seem to favour tall thin towers with the apartments projecting out from the side like boils. At ocean floor level the feel of being in ancient Greece is still pretty strong, though I doubt these buildings actually predate the sinking.

I asked about the Formulae, and it was all I could do to stop myself laughing when Sephtian actually said 'Oceanus' breath, Orange Lantern. I'm an artificer, not an alchemist.' Clearly he's never seen Star Trek, and I don't think I'd be able to explain why it was funny to him. So, after picking up a couple of what Sephtian called 'apprentice level' books for John we headed off to Poseidonis. Didn't get around to seeing much of the interior of the Conservatory of Sorcery last time I was here, but there certainly weren't all these guards. Most of them are Sharkmen… um, Sharkfolk? How would I tell..? No, not thinking about it. There are a few fish-tailed types as well, but I'm not seeing any Purebloods.

The outer parts of the Conservatory are clearly in the Greek style, with a large and quite out of place Atlantean tower in the centre of the complex. Interestingly, no effort appears to be being made to keep down the level of aquatic plants. I don't think that they're part of a garden, but maybe they use them for reagents? Mindful of what happened during my first visit to Atlantis, I bring myself and John to ground level at the edge of the plateau on which the Conservatory sits, and make sure that the guards have seen us before starting toward the main entrance. There are four of them on duty -three Sharks and a Triton- and the Triton nods at two of them who start swimming in our direction.

"You sure about this, mate?"

"They're probably from Nanauve. Like I said, King Orin's had to temporarily replace a large chunk of the local garrison with the Sharks. Don't worry, they'll behave themselves." He gives me a sceptical look, and lights a new cigarette. I wave my index finger in the Shark's direction. "Come on."

I walk forward to meet them, and John follows me. Once we get to within easy speaking distance the Sharks stop in the water. Atlantean soldiers usually carry a type of arcane sonic pulse weapon, but the Sharks have theirs stowed in favour of a short straight sword and a shield. Some of the ones I saw yesterday were in Nanauvian red and blue, but the armour these wear is Poseidonian turquoise.

"Warning: arcane sigil detected."

John looks at me in surprise. "Your ring can talk?"

"Hm? Yes?"

"Exactly how in-."

"Identify yourselves."

The Sharks' posture doesn't suggest that they're particularly worried about us, but I notice that the two still on the steps have drawn their ranged weapons. They aren't pointing them at us just yet, but they're being cautious.

"I am Orange Lantern two eight one four. I was hoping that I could use the library, maybe book a consultation with one of the Conservatory's scholars?"

They look at me for a moment. Then the one on the left tilts his head slightly forward. "Aren't you the guy who caught Ocean Master?"

"I was part of the group, yes."

The one on the right shows an interest. Their voices remind me of those belonging to the Krogan. "Did you really cut his hands off?"

"Um, yes?"

"What did they taste like?"

I blink. Need to research Atlantean rules of engagement.

"I didn't eat them. I didn't know where they'd been."

That gets a laugh from both of them. The one on the left nods. "The Queen put you on the accepted visitors list. You're fine to go in. Who's your friend?"

"This is John Constantine. He's a… A visiting scholar, from the surface."

Right Shark looks puzzled. "I didn't think the surface world had magicians."

He looks at them both in turn, inhaling deeply through his cigarette. Then he removes it and breathes out a cloud of smoke, which goes.. through.. the environmental shield? How did..? It wafts toward the guards, and as it reaches them it seems to shift its shape. I can't see what they're seeing, but both of them instinctively crouch and raise their shields as it passes through them and then dissolves into the water behind them.

"John!"

He returns the cigarette to his mouth with a smug grin. This could be very bad.

The Shark on the right turns his head away from us, a difficult feat for someone with no apparent neck. "A phantasm. I can't believe you fooled us with a phantasm. Could you, like, not tell anyone that happened?"

"Don't worry, mate. Lips are sealed."

Left Shark wiggles his head. "Uh. Guess you're okay, then. Come on."

They swim in a loop around us, dropping down to our level at our sides as an escort. I start walking again. Right Shark is now next to me, and Left Shark is next to John.

"So, are you enjoying working in Poseidonis?"

He exhales sharply. "I was liking it just fine, 'till they stuck us guarding-."

"Alki!"

Left Shark tries to shut Right Shark -Alki, I suppose- down.

"What, Ceyx? You really like him so much?"

Ceyx rotates his head to the left for the moment.

"Thought not. Only good thing about having two kings is it doesn't matter too much if one of them's a-."

"Report!"

The Triton on the steps has stowed his ranged weapon -note to self, find out what those are supposed to be called- and has swum down to meet us. Our escort simultaneously bang their shields with the butt of their swords.

Ceyx swims to the fore. "Sminias. Orange Lantern and guest. They want to use the library."

"Have you confirmed his identity?"

Alki looks at me for a moment, then back to his superior. "He's glowing orange."

I hold out my left palm, and project a large orange sigil out in front of me. Sminias looks at it, then nods.

"Orange Lantern, welcome. All Atlantis owes you a debt for defeating Ocean Master. I'll let the Queen know that you're here."

"Oh, there's no need to disturb her. I'm not doing anything I need to talk to her about."

"She's said that she wants to speak to you anyway. Ceyx, Alkiphron, escort them into the library."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
10:35 GMT -2

"This is my kind of library."

"Because it's full of arcane lore?"

"No. Because it doesn't have a 'no smoking' sign."

I was expecting something like the library at the University of Sussex. Central light well, rows of bookshelves, a few desks around the edge and large windows. What we've got is a series of rooms with fairly small areas of floor space. Around the edge of each are scroll racks, rising to the ceiling. The rooms are about ten metres tall, so that's a lot of scrolls and I have no idea what organisational system they use. Ceyx and Alkiphron have no idea either. I've extended the ring's translation ability to John, but after his first attempt to swim up to the top of a scroll rack while wearing a trenchcoat I suggested that he stick to the bottom scrolls. He's about as athletic as I was before getting the ring.

I'm not much use either. We're looking for stuff on alchemy, thaumaturgy and soul structure, and unless one of those words was specifically mentioned I could go right past the scroll we want without realising it. I've been trying to read up on the subject of magic generally, but this is probably the greatest store of magic learning on the planet. I'm as far out of my depth metaphorically as I am physically. I can't even scan for it; unsurprisingly, the whole place is warded against scrying. And the light comes from the floor and ceiling equally. Twice now I've found myself getting confused about which way 'up' is.

John found it a bit amusing that I'd volunteer for the same sort of soul carving that he used on Chantinelle when I'm the one person on the planet that he can't do it to. I'd need to have a soul first. Can't believe I didn't spot that particular rub sooner. Plus, I do kind of want one anyway. Bargain basement immortality might not be much, but it would still be an improvement on my current position. John said that he'd be happy to help, as he's curious what happens when you give a soul to something that isn't supposed to have one. Another poke in the eye to the powers that be, I suppose.

I slip a scroll on the spiritual resonances of amphibians back into the rack. "It's no good, John. We need a librarian."

John rotates the scroll he's holding through ninety degrees and peers at it, before giving up and rolling it back up. "Think you're right there, mate. Ceyx, you know where the front desk is?"

Ceyx nods, and takes the opening to the north. That's something it took me a while to pick up but now I can't stop seeing: no doors. There were these sort of screen shutter things in Kaldur's family home, but there aren't any external doors anywhere I've seen, including this school. We go through five rooms similar to the ones which we've already passed before coming to a large room with rows of desks and -Hallelujah!- a librarian station. This place needs a waterproof computerised catalogue. I notice several students reading things at the desks, including Garth and Tula. She waves at me, and Garth turns around to look at who it is she's spotted. Since no librarian is in evidence, might as well say 'hello'. First though, the escort.

"Ceyx, Alkiphron, thank you for bringing us, but I think we can manage from here."

Ceyx looks at me, then around the room. Did I mishear earlier? Are we required to have an escort? "Alright. If you say so."

Alkiphron nods. "We were just using this as an excuse to skive off, really."

Ceyx sags as his colleague continues.

"With Ocean Master gone and Black Manta having lost most of his men in that last attack, I don't even know why we're here. And hanging around inside beats hanging around outside."

Ceyx shoves him toward the door. "Get moving."

As they reach the exit Alkiphron turns back to us. "Careful now: some of these scrolls can be vicious. And none of them have hands! Heheheh!"

Ceyx takes hold of his dorsal fin and uses it to shove him forwards.

"Ow! What'd'you do that for?"

John takes a drag on his cigarette before taking it out of his mouth with his left hand and pointing it at our retreating guides. "Don't know about you, but I'm a lot less scared of Sharks than I used to be."

I nod, then beckon him. "Come on, I want to introduce you to some people."

I lead him over to where Tula and Garth are sitting. Garth, who's closest to us, rises.

"Garth, Tula, nice to see you again."

Garth nods. "Orange Lantern. Who's your friend?"

"This is John Constantine. He's a magician from my home country. Um, the equivalent of my home country in this parallel. We're trying to get some information, but it's a bit of a maze here…"

Tula pricks up her ears at 'magician'.

"Oh! Well, we can show you around. What are you looking for?"

I look at John. Come on, magic talk time. He rubs his chin with his free hand.

"Some sort of introductory guide to Atlantean alchemical practice would be nice. And anything you've got on thaumaturgical studies of the soul, how it can be damaged and repaired."

Garth frowns at the second one. "That's a bit-."

"You're trying to help Paul get a soul? Is that even possible?"

"Dunno 'till we try, do we?" He looks at me speculatively. "Not sure you were supposed to tell me his name, though."

Her face falls. I wave my right hand. "Don't worry about it. I don't have a civilian identity to protect. Probably want to be more careful with the others, though."

"I'm so sorry. Secret identities aren't something that exist in Atlantis." She rises out of her chair. "I'll take you to the scrolls you-."

"Actually." Garth glances at John then turns back to her. "Why don't you take John Constantine to the alchemy section, and I'll take Orange Lantern to the restricted section. No offense-" He looks at John. "-but some of the spells there are really dangerous, and we don't know you at all."

Makes sense, I suppose.

John nods. "Alright. Lead the way, love."

Tula swims toward the exit on the left and John wades after her, thin orange line still connecting us. As they leave the room she looks at his mouth with a slight frown. "Why do you have a burning stick in your mouth?"

I turn to Garth. He appears to be studying me, and I have a momentary urge to check if there's something on my face. "This way."

He rises up into the middle of the room, and leaves through an exit in the roof I didn't even see until just now. I follow.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
10:41 GMT -2

Garth doesn't seem to appreciate exactly how hard navigating around Atlantean buildings is for someone who isn't used to it. He keeps shooting ahead, and it's getting a bit irritating.

"Hey, Garth!" He stops at the entrance to the next room. "How's the background checking on the Ocean Master's appointees going?"

His face hardens, and he looks away. "Mine was finished yesterday."

What?

"Wait, what?"

He looks back at me. "Prince Orm was King Orin's regent. He didn't just approve palace appointments for his own agents, his name is on nearly everything. Including the royal scholarship grants that make it possible for Tula and I to study here."

"Oh. I'd.. I'd assumed that Queen Mera would be responsible for that sort of thing."

He shakes his head. "In exchange for the scholarship, we agree to spend several years in the military as battle mages. Since the military's involved, it has to be approved by the royal court. I had thought that I'd got approval from the senate committee, or the military education board. But apparently Prince Orm signed it himself, and, since I'm a Pureblood…"

I feel like I should be apologising. "You know.. they have to be thorough, right? I'm sure no one actually thought that you'd-."

"It felt like they did." His face relaxes a little, and he turns back to the exit. "Come on."

One more east, then up two and we arrive in a larger room. It's much shorter than the other two, and there's a couple of attentive looking Shark guards between what appears to be a reception area and another room which holds the familiar scroll racks. The short passageway between them is covered in gold symbols, presumably being used to bind protective spells in place.

Ring, optical scan and identify when able.

Compliance.

Garth swims ahead to speak to the guards. "Garth of Poseidonis and Orange Lantern.. two eight one four, to access the restricted section."

The guard on the left nods, then pulls two small amulets off his belt. I move up to him, and he hands one over. "You'll need this to go inside."

"Um, is it safe for me to wear this?"

He thinks about it for a moment. "It should be. It doesn't do anything to you, it just stops the defensive spells inside registering you as a threat."

Alright then. I nod. There doesn't seem to be any sort of fastener, so I try just pressing it against the strap of my vest. Nothing. Um. Trouser pocket, that works. Garth watches me put it away, then walks through the passage to the room with the scroll racks. I walk after him.

"How basic do you want?"

I stop at the entrance to the passage, and run a sceptical eye over the runes. I should be safe, right? "I'm not sure. John can already-." I take a step into the passageway, and a piercing shriek nearly deafens me before I ring up some ear protection. Garth stares at me in confusion for a moment, then everything goes white and cold. Ice! The water's turned to ice!

Ring, armour, construct armour, break the ice!

Shards of white explode away from me as the water churns. A portcullis has dropped over the far end and Garth turns, staring in astonishment. Lightning bolts spend themselves against my armour. I turn, and there's another portcullis through which a couple of hostile looking Sharks are staring at me.

The lightning cuts off, to be replaced by force beams like those used by Atlantean soldiers. I add a dome shield. What's going on! No, can't worry about it. Confusion is a distraction. I need to not be here.

"Ring, vacuum tube transition!"

After last time, when the ring told me that I couldn't FTL under water, I came up with a way around the restriction. By forcing water away from a particular area, I can create a zone where FTL travel is possible. I need an area for re-emergence as well. The whole thing's a bit avarice intensive, but with the noise and the surprise violence I have no problem wanting OUT enough.

A narrow orange beam projects from my dome shield and through the portcullis on the exit side of the passageway. The standard dislocation, and the vacuum around me collapses. I'm standing facing the backs of the guards, who whirl around to confront me.

"Come on! You gave me the entry pass!"

They take no notice, raising their shields and spreading out in an attempt to become harder to hit. The Atlantean military really needs better briefing on Lantern capacities.

Scan, Pithing Needles.

Lines of orange extend from my armour chest plate, and curl around the Sharks. Both strike home next to the base of their dorsal fins, but for some reason there's a moment of delay while the Sharks are still able to react. Left Shark is brought to a dead stop as the construct takes effect, but Right Shark is a bit faster off the mark and brings his sword around, severing the construct. Huh?

Warning: slicing sigil detected. Warning: fortification sigil detected.

I jerk the other tether aside as he slashes at it. Realising that he isn't going to free his colleague, he pulls his strike and surges forward toward me. I send chains in four directions around him and try to grab him from behind. He swirls in the water and slashes at them, cutting the one heading for his sword arm and blocking another with his shield. I get both his legs, though, and drag him back. He tries to bend to cut those too, but his body isn't really designed to move in that way. Plus, he's assumed that the constructs he cut are no longer a threat, when in reality I just lost control of the bit which was severed.

Instead, they become Pithing Needles and strike the armour on his now exposed back. A moment of resistance, then he goes still.

Construct resistant armour? Wonder if I can get Sephtian to do that to mine? Now, how do I turn off the alarm? I move to the portcullis, subspacing the Sharks' swords and shields as I pass. The inside of the passageway seems to have calmed down. At the other end, Garth looks like he's trying to cut through the portcullis, but stops when he sees me. I throw my hands up in the air.

"What just happened!?"

"What did you do to the guards!?"

"What? Oh, just paralysed them, they'll be fine. How do we turn the alarm off?"

He stares at me for a moment. "Uh, I'm not sure. I think the Queen has to-."

A flare of light behind me. I turn, and a vast lilac manta fills my vision. Star Sapphire? The back wall is.. gone. There's a distortion around the place it used to be, and the side wall glows where the join should be. I crouch, raising an orange sigil emblazoned tower shield in my defence. Behind the manta I see more Sharks, a couple of Tritons and… Oh.

Hello, Queen Mera.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
10:46 GMT -2

"I'm really sorry about this, your majesty."

Her escort are checking over the two Sharks I paralysed, and Sminias is waving some sort of wand at the portcullis. The siren finally stops and the portcullis retracts into the wall, leaving no sign that it was ever there.

"That's alright, Orange Lantern. I am just curious as to why the defences reacted to you. You do have an access talisman, I hope?"

"Er, yep, hang on."

Ring, regular clothes.

Once my armour has been replaced I reach into my pocket, pull out the talisman and hand it to her.

She looks at it for a moment. "It seems to be in working order. Are you carrying any other enchanted artefacts?"

"Um, yes." I fish out the Spell Eater Ward, and hold it out on the end of its thong.

She regards it with curiosity. "I do not recognise the design."

"The design didn't exist until last week. Sephtian… Um, he's an artificer, lives in Shayeris?"

"I know of him. I made his one published work a set text."

"Right! That's how I heard of him, reading Kaldur's textbooks. So, he found a way to prove that for a particular amount of magic energy, it was always more effective to use lots of little spells than one big spell."

"Orange Lantern, I am somewhat familiar with theoretical thaumaturgy."

"Yes, yes, of course you are. Sorry. So, I went to see him, urm, and he explained that the problem in doing anything with his work was that he couldn't get materials pure enough or create bindings small enough to make it work. But then I realised: I have a power ring, and power rings are really good at fabrication."

She looks a little closer. "What does this amulet do?"

"He calls it a Spell Eater Ward. Sucks the power right out of anything.. that…"

Oh.

She lowers her head slightly. "I think that we may have located the problem. The spells guarding the restricted section of the library attempted to detect your access talisman, and your ward began draining their power."

"Oh."

"Precisely how potent is it?"

I shrug. "Sorry, your majesty, but I'm not at all familiar with theoretical thaumaturgy. I got the impression from what Sephtian was saying that it's very effective."

She looks at it with interest. "I wonder." She makes a circle with her right index finger, leaving a glowing white trail in the water. Then, she pokes the centre of the circle. For a fraction of a second, a shape appears, but it's gone before I can get a good look at it. The rest of the circle swiftly follows suit. "Goodness. And you say this took you and he a week?"

"Four days' design work. And we found a way to let a whole team work on the enchantments without disrupting each other."

"That is a remarkable achievement in itself. I may have to find an opportunity to speak with Sephtian."

"Er, this is just a prototype. I've got him working on a batch of the final version now. If you can wait a couple of weeks… What?"

She's staring at me. She looks… nervous..? What's happening?

"How much more effective will the final product be?"

"We don't have one yet, but he said about twice as effective."

"How long to they take to make?"

"He estimated that twenty of them would take fifty days. Maybe less."

Her eyes drop. She takes a breath. "Goodness."

"That's alright, isn't it? He didn't say anything about ward creation being illegal, and I really need the defence."

"Illegal, no. However, the ward which you are wearing is two orders of magnitude more effective than anything of a comparable size I have ever seen."

"Is that.. bad?"

She thinks for a moment. "I would not say that it is bad, precisely. I will need to discuss this with my husband."

I really hope that I haven't just dumped Sephtian in hot water. Garth cautiously emerges from the passageway, and I slip the ward back under my vest.

"What are you hoping to find in there?"

"As you know, I'm what Atlanteans call a Hollow Man. I know that Kaldur focuses magic through the tattoos on his back and arms. I was hoping that by studying the... By studying how they function, a colleague of mine by the name of John Constantine might be able to create some sort of channel.. system.. thing… I don't know the terminology… That would cause me to develop a soul-like structure. Since I don't have whatever normally causes a soul to develop."

"An interesting theory. It.. may be possible. Who is 'John Constantine'?"

"An English magic user. Not much formal education or power, but intelligent and very cunning." I point at the orange line running from my leg down through the library. "He's on the other end of this tether, actually, if you want to talk to him. Tula's showing him the alchemy section."

Her eyes glow white for a moment as she stares into space, then she refocuses on me. "You have an interest in alchemy as well?"

"Sort of. This, is a small preparation of the formula which gave the Flash his super speed. This, if injected into the womb of a pregnant animal, will result in offspring who are supernaturally strong and resilient. But no one, not even the people who first developed them, knows how or why they work. I've eliminated chemical reactions as a possibility. That leaves alchemy, and this is the best place to research it."

"You will certainly have your work cut out for you. I presume that your intent was for your ring to make copies of the content?"

"If that's alright?"

"Orange Lantern, access to information of this sort is restricted because the potential for abuse is so high. While I have no doubt that you intend to use it as you say you do, I would not have that security if anyone else were to gain access to it through you." She pauses, considering the matter. "I will allow it, on the condition that you limit access to Justice League affiliates, and that you share your findings with the Conservatory. I would be interested to see what someone with a completely different background will make of the subject."

Um…

"John… John isn't affiliated with the Justice League. I mean, he knows Mister Zatara, but they aren't particularly close. He's.. he's the only person I know with expertise in this field."

She nods. "I will speak to him, before making a final decision. In any event I am content to give you access, and perhaps you could find a researcher in Atlantis to help you in John Constantine's stead."

True, but really awkward.

"I will acquire the scrolls which you will need from the restricted section, and then we will go and speak with your magician."

"Thank you, your majesty." I give a shallow bow. "That would be very helpful."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
10:57 GMT -2

I'm back in the reading room, scanning through the scrolls -and in one case a stone tablet- on soul magic. The wards prevent me doing a mass scan, so I have to unroll each one and scan it by eye. Garth's sitting across from me, presumably either to make sure that I don't damage anything or to make sure that I don't go mad from the revelation. No need to worry about that, this is far beyond my level of comprehension. Tula's gone back to her own reading, and over by the librarian's station John and Queen Mera are talking animatedly. He started talking about an event where someone attacked him by using ley lines as a conduit for fear magic, but they've moved on since I tuned them out.

When we followed the orange thread back to the couple of rooms which contain the Conservatory's information on alchemy, I could feel John preparing a truculent response to Queen Mera quizzing him. He clearly had no idea who she was, but some frantic eye and chin movements from me seemed to encourage him to bite down his typical response to someone in authority attempting to stop him doing something. He actually turned on the charm, and he can be very persuasive even without magic.

Wait. Did Queen Mera just giggle? He does know that she's married.. doesn't..? No, don't worry about it.

"Do you need to concentrate to do that?"

Garth isn't exactly chatty. Before today we'd only spoken a few words to one another, and our trip to the restricted section wasn't much of an ice breaker.

"Not really, I just have to want it." I reroll the scroll and move it to the side, before picking up the next.

"Then, do you mind if I ask a question?"

"Of course not. What is it?"

"I spoke to Kaldur about your rescue of Queen Mera. You defeated one of the most feared battle mages in Atlantis in a few seconds. How did you manage that?"

I shrug, and begin unrolling the scroll. "I was wearing a ward which absorbed his first spell. Then, I noticed that his hands were unarmoured, and struck. Pureblood Atlanteans are tough, but not tougher than my circular saw constructs."

"How were you able to strike with such precision?"

"My mind controls my construct. It took a bit of work to learn how to focus my desire to harm my target into something capable of precision strikes, but actually performing them isn't that hard. Didn't hurt that he had to split his attention between the four of us, and I think that he might have dismissed me after his armour blocked my first attack."

"Why..?" He turns his head away, looking for a moment like he'd swallowed something unpleasant. "I'm not criticising what you did, but was there a reason why you didn't call for assistance? Even if you couldn't trust the palace guards, I'd… We'd have been more than willing to join you."

"Wasn't really my decision."

"Kaldur said that you advised him against it."

"I advised against telling Prince Orm." I shuffle the scroll along a little. "Look, I couldn't think of a reason for Ocean Master to leave the Queen alive. If we'd come to the Conservatory, we'd have lost time we didn't have to spare. It wasn't supposed to be a personal slight to you or anything."

He nods. "I.. know. But when Black Manta invaded Poseidonis, Kaldur made certain.. observations, about my combat skill."

Oh dear. "Uh, I don't know exactly what Kaldur was thinking, but he's been fighting alongside King Orin for two years now. There's things you learn from the practical experience of people trying to kill you that you don't get in training, however good it is. Plus, the four of us have been training at working together, and.. we haven't trained with you. Well, Kon, M'gann and I haven't trained with you, and Kaldur hasn't trained with you recently. We don't know exactly what you can do or how you react."

"You do have a point."

Problem described. Suggest a solution.

"There's a zeta tube in Poseidonis if you want to train with us. With the American school year started it's just me and Kaldur in the mountain for most of the day, and I'm sure he'd love to show you around."

Another scroll done. I roll it back up.

"I might take you up on that."

That it? Right then. I look around, but John and Queen Mera are still deep in conversation. I somehow doubt that we'll have trouble convincing her to let him review the soul scrolls.

Ring, charge?

Seventy four percent remaining.

Hmm.

"If this is really bothering you, I don't mind showing you how I fight. Do you have a sparring area here?"

He smiles. "This is a school for battle mages, of course we do. We usually practise combat magic on the roof."

"Oh, that's what the tower's for. Well, if you don't mind taking these back… Don't think I should risk that again."

"I don't think so either."

I create a small scroll rack, and a stand for the tablet. Then I push the seat back. "Lead the way, then."

He pushes straight up, and starts swimming to the ceiling.

"Garth?"

Garth's movement distracted Queen Mera from her conversation with John.

"Orange Lantern has finished with the scrolls, and he can't return them himself. He's also volunteered to spar with me."

John dodges making eye contact with her by scratching his head.

"I too would be interested to see how a Lantern fights. I was a little distracted on the last occasion."

Her hand describes an arc, and a portal to the restricted section appears. Garth takes the rack construct from me, and swims toward it.

"Your majesty, if you're going to be spectating, do you think you could take over providing John's environmental protection? I'd hate for him to drown because I got distracted." John glowers at me. I face shrug.

Queen Mera looks at him and smiles. "A sensible precaution. I'm sure I can manage something."

Garth returns, and Queen Mera opens a new portal. I see a view over the Poseidonis skyline. Sealine. Not sure.

"Right. Tallyho then."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
11:01 GMT -2

"First question, what equipment do you fight with?"

Garth and I stand near the middle of the circular roof arena. Queen Mera, John and Tula are watching from the building side. John's standing in an air bubble Queen Mera created around him. I'm not sure how interested he is in this, but he is of the 'it's the journey not the destination' school of thought. Maybe a demonstration of Atlantean combat magic is right up his street?

"Battle mages don't usually use equipment. Things like Kaldur's Water Bearers are tools for people who haven't learned how to create those effects themselves."

Oooh.

I hold my arms out to the side. "Ring, armour."

"Compliance."

"And make the sigil glow."

The familiar weight of my armour settles across my body.

"I can't tell you to carry equipment until I get some idea how you fight, but for me? If I'm getting into a fight, I'm wearing armour. The armour of the Sharks who attacked me earlier was able to temporarily block my construct."

"I thought your armour glowed orange all over?"

"That's my construct armour. This stuff-" I tap the chest piece. "-will stop small arms and most unarmed attacks. This-" My construct armour appears. "-will stop a Taiwanese anti-ship missile strike. On a mission last month, Kaldur punched me repeatedly in the chest and face and I felt nothing. In training, I've had it sustain multiple strikes from Wonder Woman. The only things that have hurt me since I've come here are things that bypass it, telepathy and chaos magic."

"Any armour I could wear that could do that would slow me down too much."

"Ocean Master wore full plate. If he'd covered his hands and feet that fight could have gone very differently." That's a thought. "What's happened to his armour? I know Kaldur got his trident…"

"It's being studied in the Conservatory. The spells bound to it are extremely powerful, and we don't yet know how he was able to make it."

"I cut off his hands when every other part of his body was protected by armour I couldn't break. Your arms and legs are bare. You can spar like that, but I strongly recommend getting some armour, or protective spells or something before you go into the field."

He raises his arms in front of him, and lines running along them glow as a small blue barrier forms in front of him. "I can cast defensive spells."

"And when you're doing that, you're not doing something else. Here." I remove from subspace the shields and swords I took from the Sharks earlier. "Without a boost from magic or some other sort of unusual ability, melee combat's a joke. These swords can cut through my constructs and…" I launch a shield up, then chop at it with an axe construct. It holds. "The shield can take a hit. At least get a ward or something."

He appears to consider. "I'll think about it."

Well, I tried. He swims up a little into the water, and turns to face me side on. I push the swords and shields over to the spectators. "So, do we go on three, or what?"

He's not looking at me. He's looking at Queen-.

"Begin!"

His hands form a ball catching position at his chest.

Scan, various.

He registers as Human, even on sonics.

"I-"

His nerves are in the right places.

"-summon-"

Streams of water whirl around him, focusing on the point between his hands. His arms are glowing far more brightly than when he made the shield. Hmm.

"-the power-"

No need to mess about, I suppose.

Shockcrown.

A line of orange from my right shoulder connects with his forehead. His eyes go wide for a moment, then his spell falls apart as he starts to drift.

"Not a good choice. Far too slow in a location without cover, or without someone to distract for you."

Unshock.

He rights himself.

"Whenever you're ready."

A glow of a fraction of a second on the arm facing away from me, then he's speeding through the water up and to my right. His right arm comes forward and a bolt of electrical energy leaps from his hand to me. My construct armour takes it without complaint.

Ring, analysis?

Electrical energy appears to be conventional. Unable to determine how it remains focused through seawater. Unable to analyse generation method.

The electricity itself is conventional? Not troubling the Spell Eater, then. I send a series of orange lines out in different directions through the material of the roof, then create a nice big tower shield between myself and him. He slows, bringing up his left arm and intensifying the attack. I respond by sending a chain up from one of the lines, clamping it around his left leg and pulling him to the floor before binding him.

"It isn't easy to make conjured attacks powerful enough to break my armour."

I dismiss the chains and the shield. He rises to the floor and walks over to the spectators. For a moment I wonder if that's it, before he picks up a sword and shield and returns to the arena. I don't think that anything less than a full covering will help him significantly, but if it makes him feel better. I move back across the arena, taking his original place as he takes mine.

Lines on his arms glow as his arcane shield reinforces his enchanted metal one, covering not just his front arc but top, bottom and sides as well. I briefly wonder what the point is, before the lines on his legs glow and water churns as he rockets toward me.

I strike the shield with a circular saw construct even as I plot the FTL passage. I activate it as he reaches me, reappearing behind and just below. He slows and he passes through the space I had occupied.

Pithing Needle.

His shield collapses. Hmm. This is a bit dull. The ring is letting me cheat on years of magic education. I just have to study application while the piece of orange on my finger does the stuff that he's had to learn all of the supporting theory to do.

!Motivate!

Hmm. That might get him moving.

Ring, trunks.

My armour disappears, leaving my bare skin visible. Next, I swim up to Garth and take hold of him from behind, before generating orange light along my skin in a pattern similar to what I saw on that Hollow Man scroll Lori showed me the first time I was here.

Prepare the ham.

"Three falls! Now I get to eat your soul!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
11:05 GMT -2

"Garth!"

Huh?

Wooooosh!

The beams projected by certain types of Atlantean spell and weapon are not light energy or plasma, but are instead incredibly compressed water. A hit from the gun version will pulverise flesh and shatter bone. The spell version can do that, but it's more typically used to explosively decompress in the middle of enemy formations.

And, turns out? If you're dumb enough to drop your armour construct next to a woman who honestly believes that you're about to eat her boyfriend's soul? They really hurt, even through an environmental shield.

Fucking Wholeness fucking Rightly A-fucking-sumed.

Aaaagh!

I accelerate out of my aquatic tumble, two more compression bolts shooting past me. I've lost the pithing needle on Garth already. I risk a look in their direction. Tula raises her hands together, and the water around them shimmers. I don't see any effect, but she jerks suddenly and stops the spell.

Ready in Sixty Four Directions Stance.

My awareness expands. Tula's floating in front of Garth, and flinging her arms forward and launching more explosive water at me. I should consider myself lucky that she doesn't have a homing version of this spell; she's a shockingly bad shot, but she might still have done me a serious injury if that didn't matter. What's Garth up to?

"I summon the power of the tempest!"

Armour! Move! And drop the stupid Hollow Man glow!

A continuous tumult of water passes by at my left side. The most intense part misses me, but the outer eddies shove me violently aside. Move faster. Garth's redirecting the flow, but I'm aware of his movements before he can bring it to bear. Quick check? No injuries, armour's fine. Now, if you'd been thinking, they'd-.

Wooooosh!

Barrier! Yes, one of those. Right. Turret, intercept.

An orange ray gun appears on my right shoulder and immediately opens fire on the incoming water bolts. To no effect. Not solid objects, of course. Switch to barrier creation and attempt to prematurely detonate.

Not sure why exactly Tula thought I was being serious. She must know that I can't actually eat souls, right? On the other hand, this might work as a training format. Blasting hasn't worked for them. What will they do next? The turret fires a beam which changes into a barrier just as Tula throws another water bomb. It detonates a short distance from them, knocking them both flat and throwing up a cloud of bubbles. Should I call this off? I don't want to seriously scare them. Queen Mera's still standing in place, and doesn't look seriously concerned. Hmm.

Five translucent fish the ring identifies as Payara shoot from the murk. The turret shoots the lead fish in the face, but the orange beam passes through harmlessly. Could be an illusion, could be insufficiently tangible for the impact to take effect. I put a beam through each one just to keep the summoners honest. Negative impact. They're moving at a fair old rate, so I evade, locate my bubble-clouded opponents and fire a pair of orange shots at their diaphragms. Something intercepts the beams, and the water clears enough for me to see the pair of them encased in a dome of ice. Their hands are glowing and their heads are bowed. Presumably their summoning pose? Not a bad idea, and I don't fancy finding out whether or not the fishes' teeth can pierce my construct.

Since that hasn't worked, I continue to evade. They're fast, but not quite as fast as me and I lead them on a circuit of the tower. Hm. A ghost fish construct might be useful. Ring, assimilate.

The beam curves around from my right side and seeks out the front fish. This time the beam makes contact and the summoning shimmers. Tula grimaces, cringes, and then straightens as the summoning collapses. Hm. Odd. Oh, just realised that it might have tried to assimilate her. Not doing that again, then. Another Payara appears just outside the ice dome, while the ones behind me spread out to try and trap me. They even remember that under water is a three dimensional environment. Hm. Does the ice barrier continue under the surface of the platform? No? Alright then.

I send a tether down, through the floor and under the ice barrier, then up between them.

Ring, transition.

The tether expands slightly for a moment, forming a vacuum channel past their defence. Then, I'm among them. Tula looks up for a moment before I double ShockCrown them. I use the point of contact to pull Tula over to me.

"You do know that I can't actually eat souls, right? Anyway, good work with the fish things, but you can't assume that a surface like this is an impenetrable barrier. Ring, unshock."

The constructs fade. Tula jerks away from me before steadying herself. Garth swims in an arc around me to float alongside her, watching me warily.

"Tula, you know I can't use magic. There's no way I could eat someone's soul."

"I felt it! You were feeding on my magic!"

Oooooh!

"You felt this." I change back to my civilian clothing and fish out the Spell Eater. "It's a new type of ward that consumes magic targeted at the one wearing it."

"But your tattoos..!"

I hold up my right hand, and light up a couple of different shapes under the skin. "You mean these? Ring generated. I'm sorry, I didn't realise quite how scared you'd be."

Garth looks me in the eyes for a moment, then looks away and shakes his head. "You copied them from that ridiculous scroll Lori showed you, didn't you."

"Yep. Hollow Men don't exist, remember."

Tula gapes at me for a moment, then gives a relieved laugh. "Oh, Lori's going to find this hilarious."

She and Garth hold up their arms, and after a brief glow the water surrounding us reliquefies. I repair the holes I made in the roof. Wouldn't want any water to get in, would we?

"Good work with the ethereal summonings, I couldn't hit them at all. Hey, can you make fish summonings of one type, and then convert them to something else?"

Garth and Tula look at each other for a moment, then Garth responds. "Maybe. Why?"

"It would be more difficult to stop a smaller faster target. If you could send it to the target as a minnow, especially with a distraction, it's far more likely to connect than if it's obvious."

They look at each other again. "We could.. try that."

"And armour. I know a guy named Sephtian, in Shayeris. Tell him I sent you. Urm, either of you want to go again?"

Tula shakes her head vigorously. "Oh, no. I think we've had enough excitement for one day."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
14:57 GMT -5

"It sounds like you have had a productive morning."

I set the next test sample -a section of brick wall- in place fifty metres away on the firing range we've set up in the training area. Then I step aside as Kaldur takes aim with his new weapon.

"Had its moments. Of course, she changed her mind when John asked for a bout."

Kaldur's tattoos glow, and the trident sends repeated arcs of electricity at the target. "You said that he was not a battle mage."

"He's not. Demons, rituals, and mental manipulation."

Ring, accuracy?

Strikes cover an area of 3 square centimetres.

Kaldur looks at me, and I shake my head. "Same again. I don't think you're going to get it better than that. Wanna try something else?"

Kaldur points the trident's head at the pool of water on our right, and a column of water about a metre wide arcs out before stopping in mid air next to him. The other end is still connected to the pool. Looks a bit like water bending, and I really wish Avatar existed here. "I do not seem able to solidify it. Freezing…" I feel the chill as the column freezes in a second, then hastily raise a barrier as it overbalances and slams into the floor next to him. It remains solid, though. Interesting. "It is powerful, but it lacks the flexibility of my Water Bearers. I do not think I would be comfortable taking it on a mission if it cost me my ability to generate shields."

"Ocean Master probably relied on his armour for that. Could you manage one handed?"

He shakes his head. "Water Bearers are designed to be wielded in pairs. Given the trident's size, I do not think that it would be practical to switch between them."

His tattoos glow again, and the ice rises into the air like a giant frozen candy cane. He shifts the trident to his right hand, holds up his left and clenches it into a fist. The ice shatters, but remains in the air.

Target.

A large archery target appears over the water. Kaldur gestures with the trident and a cluster of ice fragments fly forth and strike it dead centre. I shift the target, and he sends more ice to meet it.

"Did Tula win?"

"Hmm? Oh, no. John struggled out onto the arena, then turned around and just stood there. Tula takes her place, probably worried that she was going to accidentally kill him or something. Queen Mera tells them to begin, and Tula just sort of stands there for a few seconds before turning around and swimming out of the arena."

Kaldur's tattoos brighten as I begin moving the target around.

"She refused to risk fighting him?"

"No. She thought she'd already won. She actually refused to believe us when we pointed out that he was still standing there, until she turned back around to look for herself."

"He was able to affect her mind that easily?"

"He somehow got hold of one of her hairs when they were looking at alchemy scrolls. Tied it around his left thumb-" I point at my own. "-and made eye contact. I think he was trying to make the point that there are indirect methods for beating an opponent. Or about the importance of preparation." I think about that for a moment, and shake my head. "Or maybe he was just showing off."

Kaldur grunts and stops glowing. The remaining ice falls back into the water. He lowers the trident.

"You alright?"

"Prince Or-. Ocean Master is a considerably more powerful mage than I am. The trident is calibrated to be most effective at a level of energy which I am as yet unused to sustaining."

"So, less flexible, and you can't really get the benefit anyway?"

"I should be able to adapt to it with continued practice. But, in the short term, yes. I certainly will not be taking it on missions at any point in the immediate future."

Hmm. Shield generation. I know the sigils for shielding, and since bound weapons use their user's magic abilities… Some sort of bracer?

I cup my hands in front of me.

Fabricate.

The ring squeezes titanium from my subspace pocket into my hands in the form of a bracer. Gold threads run through the outward facing part in the shape of the 'shield' sigil. The bracer is in the 'open' position, but I've added the sigils for resizing the clasp, though I can't trigger it myself. I hold it out to him.

"Try this."

He takes it, and places it around his right forearm. "The workmanship is of extremely high quality. Did you purchase it while you were in Atlantis?"

"No, I made it just then."

He looks at me.

"Really. I can't enchant, but if I see a description I can probably create it. That's designed-."

"To generate a shield, yes, I see that. It does not appear to have a way to generate its own water supply."

I shake my head and shrug. "Don't think I've seen a diagram of that. And I wouldn't know how to make the different effects work together anyway."

"It would not matter under water. On the surface, however…" He points the trident at the water, and a sphere about half a metre in diameter shoots forth and strikes the bracer. It splatters, then is pulled around into a tower shield shape connected to the bracer on its outer side. Kaldur tries moving it around experimentally.

"How does it feel?"

"Strong, but inflexible. You have also not included the components which would allow it to change shape."

Come on. "It's my first go, man."

"I realize that. I did not mean to imply that it is inadequate. For any artificer in Atlantis making such a device it would be the work of many months of careful design, testing and planning. There would be a number of additional features included as part of the design. They would also need to have been studying the craft for many years. To know that you created this in seconds, after only a few months' worth of study…"

"Yeah, but I can't improve it without someone telling me exactly what to do. I was thinking of making something for Garth. Feel a bit bad about him not having any way to block my constructs. His shield was perfectly effective, but it didn't cover enough. I was hoping that I could eventually create full body armour with something like that."

He takes a closer look at the bracer, then looks over the rest of his body, presumably imagining what it would be like. "That may well be possible." He raises it in my direction. "But first, let us test this one. If it is at least as effective as the shield my Water Bearers generate, I may be able to use the trident after all."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th September
23:04 GMT -5

That was… unexpected.

Carefully, I reach across with my right arm and gently stroke the hair of the woman sleeping in the crook of my left. She responds by pressing herself more tightly against my side. Her breathing is regular and slow. Just to be sure, I check her brain activity. She's definitely asleep.

She seems so fragile like this.

I think I may have misjudged this situation rather badly. No, not badly, but… I hadn't planned for Jade to be anything other than a source of information. And if I'm honest, after I infiltrated Infinity Island's records, she wasn't likely to be of much use in that regard. But I kept seeing her. At the time, I thought I was doing it because I found her to be a fun and safe way to practise intrigue. The techniques don't come naturally to me, and my raw power means that I probably couldn't just pick it up.

I suppose I was wrong when I told Artemis that one woman couldn't… Hm. My skin doesn't respond to soft physical contact on its own anymore, but the ring allows me to detect touch, and relay it to the nerves under my outer plating. After realising that, getting complex feedback from a normal construct seemed like a perfectly natural progression.

She certainly seemed to like it well enough.

The intelligent, dispassionate thing to do would be to simply enjoy the sensation and not allow it to change my behaviour. But I'm an Orange Lantern, and I will not deny my own desires. And, surprising though it is, I find that I want her. Jade Nguyen is mine.

My original plan to set her up with a new identity post-League of Shadows will need a rethink. Particularly given the criminal activities she confessed to me this afternoon. Twenty nine murders… I don't think a pardon is likely. Four senior members of criminal syndicates plus nineteen of their bodyguards, those, we could work around. But five legitimate businessmen and one politician… I checked, and while the deaths are known to be murders there isn't much evidence linking it to her.

She more or less threw her crimes at me this afternoon. I think she was offended by me daring to say that I didn't care about what she'd done as a Shadow. Thing is, I've never cared all that much about the suffering of people I know. If I'm honest, I was always more concerned that I was responding to them in the way I was supposed to, expected to. Now that need is gone, and I certainly don't care about people I've never even heard of. I'm not working to get over how I feel about her work, or even accepting her in spite of it. It genuinely doesn't matter to me. Atypical for a superhero? Should I care?

No. I'm not a group. I'm me, and with this ring I can finally express exactly what that means. I'll destroy what physical evidence there is tomorrow.

!Mine!

The size of my chest makes it hard to see her from this angle, but a thin and almost lightless construct connected to my visual cortex allows me to look her over once more. I haven't seen her peaceful before. I want to see it more.

I shift slightly in bed. I actually had to reinforce it to hold my weight. I could have used the ring to compensate for our 'activities', but I might want to get some sleep tonight. I had been a little concerned that the hotel might not accept me, but it turns out that sufficiently large amounts of money can smooth over most problems. There'll be a tip for the cleaners when we leave as well. Would it be polite to turn the bed back? No, wrong question. Do I want to? No. Does it serve a practical advantage? Not really. I mean, I'm known, now. My face, my appearance and my power set are public knowledge. The fact that I reinforced a bed merely adds interest, and it isn't so much heavier that they can't move it.

Will the fact that I was seen coming here with Jade cause a problem? Unlikely. Ra's knows that we're meeting. Wonder Woman knows that I like Asian women. She was less than pleased when she found out about Aichi. It seems that she thought I was considerably younger than my twenty nine years, but even after I corrected her on that score she felt that I was treating the women there as sex objects. I countered by pointing out that I talked to all of them beforehand, and as such knew them considerably better than she did. That no coercion or deceit had taken place, and that not all women share her reticence on sexual matters.

That may have been overdoing things a little, but I've checked and as far as I can tell she's never even dated anyone. Mister Scott mentioned that during World War 2 she dragged her Air Force liaison officer -First Lieutenant Steven Trevor- to a couple of formal receptions after someone said that she was supposed to bring someone with her. He was fairly confident that they'd never actually been involved, however, as he was the one to explain to her how courting and romantic relationships work in Man's World, and why the women who she'd originally asked to go with her had been so shocked.

I'm a little surprised that Queen Hippolyta hasn't given her a nudge yet. Didn't she make a noise about grandchildren when Wonder Woman dated the idiot in the comics? He exists here, but he's a junior FBI agent and they've never met. Anyway, while Wonder Woman hasn't said anything about it since, I shouldn't risk her ire so casually. And -I stroke Jade's hair again- I don't think I'll mind at all switching my attention to Jade alone.

Hmm. I'm still planning on making contact with the Controllers once my year is up. I need to know that Larfleeze isn't in a position to threaten me, and I do rather like the idea of having other Lanterns around for backup. I'm not sure that Jade would want to leave Earth. I'll have to pencil in the League of Shadows' destruction for mid June, and see what she wants to do after that. I already have the faces and genetic patterns of most of its members. I'll have to get serious about the extraterrestrial prison I've half started to plan. If I start picking people up I'll have to have somewhere secure to put them. I don't intend to risk comics nonsense ninjas ruining my work, and assimilating all of them would be dull. And of course, if the most practical plan is to kill them all, I'll want to know exactly where Jade stands before I leave the planet.

I've sort of toyed with the idea of taking the organisation over, but it seems like it would be a lot of work for little actual benefit. I might end up cherry picking a few useful people or arcane artefacts, but I have no desire to run a network of assassins. I suppose I could give it all to Mister Luthor, but I'm not sure that's really his thing either. Perhaps I could ask for his advice? They did try and kill him last week, and disposable Venom Buster assassins are a distinctly unpleasant development. Miss Grant was impressed that I removed the drug from their systems, but really that was the best option. There was no way I could have fought all seven of them and protected everyone.

My new Bane construct-lantern has been quite forthcoming. Apparently, once he took back control of the factory on Santa Prisca he was swiftly contacted by a League of Shadows representative looking for him to take over the contract from Kobra. And they're buying nearly all he can produce. The street price of Venom in the US has more than doubled since then due to the supply shortfall. Though I doubt that his factory is still their only source, I undertook a railgun strike on the place. No people were permanently injured, but they won't be manufacturing anything there anytime soon.

Perhaps the Shadows finally have a clue? Ninjas are for hiding. If you want to brawl with superhumans, come loaded for bear.

Ah, the League of Shadows can be a problem for tomorrow. I intensify the sensitivity of the nerves in my left arm and side, letting me feel every part of Jade's body which is in contact with mine. I can feel the texture of her skin, and dampness of her sweat, even the small scars on her arm and the larger one on the lower part of her left rib. I feel her chest move as she breathes, and I feel her breath as it moves across my skin.

I could get used to this.

Do I risk sleeping myself? She has some weapons in her clothing, but nothing that's within arm's reach. Of course, if I were asleep my nervous system would be reduced to its natural sensitivity and she might be able to extricate herself without waking me. I might desire her, but I can't guarantee that she feels the same way. I want to believe it, but I think I'll leave having such complete faith for a while yet.

!Jade Mine!

How might I further convince her to remain with me? I undertake a detailed scan of her body, and mend her internal scarring. I leave the external ones. She might be proud of them or something. There are a few bruises, and I remove them. Hmm. I tweak her senses a little. They're all in fairly good order, but I doubt that she'll complain about having slightly better eyesight or hearing. All of those explosives aren't good for the ear drums. I take a moment to admire her musculature. Nothing else to do here.

Perhaps her mother? I know the woman is paralysed from the waist down, but I'm not sure how easy that would be to heal with a power ring. Is that something Ra's would be concerned about? No, she could claim that she was learning to manipulate me. I doubt that he'd object in principle, and Jade's already reported that I've killed her father. What about Artemis? Getting her a better weapon shouldn't be all that difficult. Amazons use bows, and some of them must either be enchanted or created using arcane materials. I wonder what they'd want in exchange? Or perhaps improved arrows?

Alas, I can't really risk giving Jade herself better weapons, and we've mostly talked about work when we've been together previously. I need to find out about her other interests. I remember hearing that roses are never wrong, but that does seem a little generic. Jewellery? I wouldn't have thought that she's the type. I'd use the ring to just find out what she wants, but that feels inappropriate for some reason.

I'm due to give Batman a report on my infiltration of the League of Shadows tomorrow. I think that I should be honest, if a little nonspecific when the precise nature of my relationship with Jade comes up. Or maybe it doesn't matter; he certainly isn't in a place to lecture me on having relationships with bad girls, and Talia wasn't even an informant when they were together.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September
17:41 GMT -5

"Are you actually reading my personnel file?"

Lessons are over for the day, and after going over the modifications Kaldur wants made to his shield I've returned to the training area to find Artemis studying a holographic interface with my face on the screen. She jerks when she hears my voice, half a second of guilt before her more typical aggressive response. "It's on the team's database. We all have access to it, Paul Candle. And you know everything about us anyway!"

"It's not Candle, I just couldn't communicate anything closer. And I'm not complaining. I'm just a bit surprised. I've been monitoring the file, and before now only Kaldur's accessed it."

"I've accessed it." Robin walks in behind me, towelling his hair which is still damp from getting drenched by a wave of water propelled by Kaldur's trident.

"Robin, power ring. If you'd accessed it, I'd know about it."

He smiles broadly, and walks past me to sit down on the steps leading up to the habitation area. How could he..?

Oh.

"Uuuuunless you accessed it from the Batcave. Which I'm not monitoring. Because Batman ordered me not to. And which contains one of three complete copies of the Justice League's database."

"You got it. Hey, I've been wondering; what actually happens if you violate an order?"

"I'm not sure. I had been assuming it would be something like what happened to Orion: hunted down and killed by some sort of giant monster."

"Harsh."

"Eh, I agreed to it."

"Can you actually do all this stuff?"

Artemis appears not to like what she's reading.

"Um, probably?"

"Faster than light travel."

"Of course. How do you think Lanterns patrol their sectors?"

"Create an energy shield a mile across?"

"About that. I struggle to go above a kilometre."

"Turn people into constructs?"

"You've met Teekl, right?"

"Accelerate your brain?"

"Yeah, but that always feels-."

"Alter every cell in someone's body?"

"You've seen the rats."

"And what exactly did you do to earn this?"

I shrug. Can't deny that I kinda won the superpower lottery.

"Nothing. Or if I did, I don't know what it was."

She huffs, and folds her arms across her chest. "That is so unfair."

"Green Lantern two eight one four A got Abin Sur's ring because he was closer to his crash site than Lantern Gardner."

Guy's smug could have powered Texas for a year when he got that confirmed. Turns out that the ring actually rated him slightly higher than Lantern Jordan due to the latter's dishonourable discharge. I told him that whole case was a nonsense, but I don't think he was listening.

"If it's any consolation I can't go home, and the only other person I know of who owns an orange ring was driven mad by it. And.. I.. don't.. have a.. soul..?" I rub the back of my neck with my right hand. Thing is, while Robin's skill set stretches to criminal investigation, tactics and computers, Artemis is pretty much just bow girl. Heh, only one string to her bow. "Um, I could give you celerity or super strength if you wanted. Probably need your parents to sign something…"

Robin straightens up. "You can do that to anyone?"

"I think so? We sort of lost containment on a.. super speed rat a couple of days ago, and I'm a bit reluctant to do more tests on live animals. But the strength boost works on everything except me."

Artemis still looks miffed. "'Cause you really needed it."

"Would have been nice."

"But what would you do if your ring ran out of power again?"

"Ring, small target, twenty five metres, range shields."

An orange line loops out of my right shoulder and across the room where it creates a small circular target. Two shield walls form a shooting lane. In a smooth motion I draw the pistol from my leg holster, ready, aim and fire.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

I lower the gun, raise my right hand and jerk it back. The side walls drop and the target flies over, bullets suspended where they struck. The target is only about twenty centimetres across, and five hit the centre third and three hit the middle third. I pass it over to Artemis as I clean, maintain and reload, before reholstering.

She blinks at it, then at me. Robin seems similarly surprised, but she finds her voice first. "You carry a gun?"

"Yes. Taking a backup weapon seemed sensible. I've also been visiting a range in New York for training. I'd also like to point out that it's only a fraction as powerful as energy projection attacks the ring can generate. Or those beam pistols I made from Ivo's MONQIs."

"Huh."

Robin recovers. "So, uh, you made Superboy stronger, you're working on making Wally faster and you're making better equipment for Kaldur. What do we get?"

"If celerity and super strength don't take your fancy, I could probably improve your body armour?"

"No alien computers?"

"Sorry, I won't have much of a tech database until I can visit the Controllers. And.. I'm afraid that everything I came up with for Artemis involved, well…"

She raises an eyebrow and transfers her weight to her back leg. "Dropping the 'pointy stick launcher'?"

I eliminate the bullets and target.

"I didn't want to put it quite that way, but, I know you said that you wanted something that you can hold onto legally. And that makes sense! But on team missions, if you left the weapon here between outings, there's no reason you couldn't use something a bit-." I limply circle my right hand in the air.

Her eyes narrow. "A bit what?"

Um. How to put this? "Better. If you want to stay a ranged fighter, I could build you a coil gun. Or something that works using air pressure. Or some sort of micro missile launcher."

"The bow's fine."

!Wrong wrong wrong!

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in your arsenal that can hurt, for example, me."

She steps up to me, staring into my eyes. "Wanna bet?!"

"Yes!"

"Fine! Stay right there!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September
17:46 GMT -5

I'm pacing. Artemis stormed off in the direction of the cave's arsenal. Maybe I shouldn't have said that?

!Improve Upgrade Aid Make Better!

But, godsdamnit, it's a bow! It is a pointy stick launcher! She can probably get away with it during regular patrolling, but if she's comparing herself to me in the ranged fighter category there's no way she's going to be able to make up the difference if she won't upgrade her equipment.

"Don't you think that was a bit..?" Robin was smiling. Now, he doesn't sound so enthusiastic.

"Robin, you're pretty good with those throwing weapon things you use, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you seriously consider limiting yourself to just those? No staff, no taser. No personal computer?"

"Well.. no…"

"Because as I see it, that's what Artemis is doing. There's -just about- room for a bow in our line of work, but if she had to fight someone like me, it wouldn't be enough."

"But how likely is that? There's just the Green Lanterns,-"

I snort.

"-you, and that Larfleeze guy. And you said he never leaves Vega."

"And Thaal Sinestro. And whoever else the Qwardians have equipped. Or Star Sapphire, and whoever else the Zamarons have equipped. Or a magic user with a thing for barriers, teleportation and summoning. Power rings are only special in that they're so user friendly, there's nothing I can do that can't be done with magic."

He looks down for a moment. "I su-ppose…"

His head jerks up, and I turn to see what's drawn his attention. Artemis has stormed back in, fists balled, muscles taut. She's wearing two quivers, each loaded with her fanciest arrows. Kaldur and Wallace follow in her wake.

Wonder where Kon and M'gann have got to?

Artemis heads directly for me and keeps going until she's right in front of me. She stares directly into my eyes. "Still feeling confident?!"

"Yes, actually."

"Then get a shield up, so I can knock it down!"

"Eh eh." I wiggle my right hand in front of her. "I said bet. What's on the line here?"

The intensity of the stare lessens for a moment as she thinks about it. "If I drop your shield, you have to learn how to use a bow."

"Alright. If you can't, after expending all those arrows, you have to learn how to use the weapon of my choice."

"Fine!"

I hold out my right hand for her to shake. She hesitates for a moment, then grabs it and squeezes hard. Petty. The ring prevents any pain, but I elect not to respond in kind.

"Minimum safe distance please, everyone." I rise into the air, floating over to the area above the water. I'm about five metres from the surface. No need to damage the floor after all. I change to a cross legged sitting position.

"Environmental shield to full."

My orange aura intensifies.

"Construct armour."

Glowing armour plates appear around my body.

"And lastly…

I want to win. I want to be right. I want to help her by showing her that she's wrong. I want my team to be as effective as they can be.

!Exalt Ingroup!

"Shield sphere."

A perfect sphere of orange light forms around me. It doesn't appear to be projecting from any one part of my body, but the area around me is so suffused with orange light I couldn't swear to it.

"Hey! You said one shield!" Artemis gestures angrily as she sets up on the edge of the water.

I hold up my hands. "And I meant it. You win if you break the outer one. I just want to avoid the possibility of getting hurt on the off chance that you actually manage it."

"Worried?"

"Are you?"

Her eyes narrow, and she puts a large explosive arrow on string.

"Kaldur, you alright about judging this?"

He tilts his head down slightly, and sighs as he makes eye contact with me. "I had hoped to persuade you both to settle your differences amicably. But if you absolutely must do this, then I accept." He turns to Artemis. "You will stop the moment I rule that his shield is down. Am I clear?"

She grits her teeth. "Crystal."

He looks at me. "Are you ready?"

I'm staring at the arrow.

"Am I glowing orange?"

"Artemis, you may begi-."

The first arrow explodes against my shield to minimal effect. The second hits before the smoke from the blast has fully dispersed. I had thought that she might try to overwhelm the shield through speed, but instead she's taking time to aim at the exact same spot. I don't think that my shield works like that. A third explosive, then a sonic shrieker which blows away the smoke and does no perceptible damage. What am I, a guard dog?

I smile and wave at her. Her quiver can easily hold about twenty point arrows, or about half that in specialist ones. If she's done the intelligent thing and overstuffed both of the quivers then I could be looking at anywhere between thirty and sixty, depending on what she's loaded.

What's she got now? An EMP arrow. Really?

"This shield isn't made out of ionised gas, you know!"

She looses it anyway. It strikes with a brief flash of white. No effect.

I've got this in the bag.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September
17:52 GMT -5

With a brilliant flash of white and a deafening bang -both suppressed by the shield- arrow forty six -a flash bang arrow- spends itself against my defences. Seven arrows to go, and the shield is barely scratched. I shouldn't be surprised: my environmental shield with no particular focus was able to hold off a shot from a Bialyan tank. Of the seven remaining arrows, four are simple point arrows and since neither of the others are atomic arrows or a phantom zone arrow they shouldn't be a problem. Since that's decided…

"Artemis, you're going about this in the wrong way!"

She's scowling, but hesitates as she reaches for her next arrow. Either anti-radiation or hard foam, neither of which would work. Kaldur remains impassive, patiently watching what I assume he believes to be needless infighting. Surely he'll see where I'm coming from? I mean, he's been fighting with his Water Bearers for what, two years? Then King Orin gives him the trident and he tries it out because it might work better. Wallace is standing next to Artemis. I imagine that he's making 'helpful' comments, though I can't hear them with the ring doing noise reduction. Should I tell him that I no longer think that he could beat me one on one? No, we're already working on the fix for that, it would just make him feel worse. Robin looks thoughtful.

"My shield isn't just an energy barrier, it's a literal manifestation of my desires. If you can't force it down, try finding something that will make me want to drop it. Even if I don't actually drop it, it might weaken enough for you to breach it."

She looks down as she thinks it over. Then she lowers her bow, and points at me with her right hand. I lower the level of noise reduction.

"Don't. Go. Anywhere."

I smile and shrug. She turns, and walks off toward the living area. Hmm. I float back over to the others, taking care to stay off the ground and to keep the shield up.

"Well, not much longer now."

Robin looks up. "Would that actually work?"

"Would what work?"

"Making you want to drop the shield? Or finding something you want more than winning the bet?"

"Of course. Same with distracting a Greenie, or calming a Red down, or destroying a Blue's hope."

"Sooo… what exactly would it take to do that?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Do your own homework, boy wonder."

"D'y'think..?" Wallace shifts uncomfortably. "Do you think that maybe you're being a bit hard on her? I mean, so a power ring's better than a bow, I mean what does that prove?"

I shake my head. "I don't mind her using a bow. I mind her refusing to consider trying something better. I mean, you want to be faster, right?"

He nods, but doesn't meet my eyes.

"And you,-" I turn to Kaldur. "-you've left the Conservatory, but you're still studying magic, and you're learning to use the trident. And me? I'm studying magic, and learning to build better constructs. We're learning, but we can't get better if we just decide that we're good enough already. Maybe this is a bit of a harsh way to-."

"Uh. Hey."

Kon?

Kon walks down the steps from the living area. He looks a little puzzled.

"Artemis said you wanted me to come out here and-" He reaches back, and pulls his t-shirt over his head. "-take my.. shirt off?"

I remember seeing something a few years ago that suggested that -as muscles gain strength through exercise- Superman should actually look quite weedy due to seldom having to exert himself. Looking at Kon, I'm glad that turned out to be nonsense. I don't think that giving him the Danner Formula has affected his physique visibly, but he still has a very pleasant looking tors-.

A point arrow breaks on the shield right in front of my face.

Oh, hah hah. I roll my eyes.

"That won't be enough."

I float upwards, and make eye contact with Artemis where she's standing near the top of the steps.

"I've seen Kon without his shirt on loads of times. And after I've won this bet, I'll probably see it loads more."

Another arrow to the face. I feel a twinge of nervousness as it releases a flare of violet light, but that doesn't do anything either. Ah, anti-radiation arrow.

"Not radio-ac-tive."

!Win!

Kon looks a little miffed. "You just wanted me to distract Paul so you could shoot him?" He puts his t-shirt back on. M'gann walks past Artemis, looking right at him. "Why did you think that would work?"

M'gann colours slightly when Kon asks. Having reflected long upon the matter, I think I might.. possibly.. like Kon. My earlier justification for not taking the matter further still stands; he still has little life experience, and I think he still needs my support too much for the sort of equality I think that sort of relationship requires. I don't know, I've never felt quite this way about another man before. I don't know if I'm properly characterising how I feel. Maybe this is just what really close friendship feels like?

And, whow, my shield just noticeably faded. Focus. Still want to win. Okay, we're back. It should be alright anyway, Artemis has already expended her heavy ordnance.

M'gann looks at me. "Um, what's going on?"

"I bet Artemis that she couldn't down my shield. She's down to her last five arrows, and she tried to use Kon to break my mental focus."

I drift in Artemis' direction as she readies an electroshock arrow.

!Triumph!

"Of course, if she were really thinking, she'd try showing me something I haven't seen before."

Artemis' eyes narrow. "What?"

"Not that hard to work out, is it? What have you got that might appeal to me more than Kon's chest."

The electroshock arrow hits my shield over my chest and bounces off, swiftly followed by three point arrows.

"Last cha-."

"RAaaaahhh!"

The hard foam arrow hits the shield in front of my face, and swiftly envelopes the shield. I'm not worried, as the substance doesn't contract significantly during hardening. I cross my arms with a smile as the room disappears. I'll use the ring to comm Kaldur and get confirmation that I've-.

"Uuuugh!"

I hear something clatter to the floor. Right. I'll get confirmation from Kaldur that I've won, and then start looking at weapon types. Artemis'll probably need a day or so to cool down, but after that we'll-.

"Recognised, Artemis, B, zero eight."

Huh?

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
06:43 GMT -5

I'm an arsehole.

I'm an arsehole.

It took a while to sink in. I knew that I was being a bit hard on Artemis, but I thought it was proportional to the potential gain. It wasn't until I cut my way out of the foam and none of the others would meet my eyes that I appreciated how far overboard I'd gone. And it wasn't until much later that I finally realised that I'd suggested to a fifteen year old girl that flashing me was her best tactical option.

I'm an arsehole.

Worse, I'm an arsehole who's in the Bat Cave for an appointment with his supervisor. Kaldur gave Robert Marrack his provisional approval yesterday before I tried to add myself to the American sex offenders register. And I asked Batman when a good time for a chat would be, and he said that he wanted to talk to me privately about a couple of things and that I should visit him in the cave this morning.

Irritatingly, some part of my mind is still trying to justify it. I remember in a wilderness survival lesson when one of the female members of my Scout troup expressed reluctance to share body heat, and the instructor asked whether her modesty would be more important than the life of whoever she was with. If that was what it took to stop a rampaging Red Lantern for example, would it not be correct to consider it? Maybe? No. It doesn't matter if it might have worked, it was still massively inappropriate! Artemis actually threw her bow to the ground and left the cave without it. I've got it in subspace now, and I'll give it back to her when I apologise to her today.

Unsurprisingly, the zeta tube exit in the Bat Cave is in a sealed room. The walls, ceiling and floor are made of reinforced concrete. Thick cables running along the ceiling power large fluorescent tubes in boxes of laminated glass. The floor is bare, and the door in the far corner looks like something out of a submarine. Tough, but not sophisticated. If I didn't know where I was -and if I didn't have a power ring which could scan the whole area anyway- I would have no idea that I was in Gotham, let alone in the headquarters of the current chairman of the Justice League.

Ring?

No, no automated defences. No gas dispensers, no guns, no bat robots. Maybe those are in the next room? Or maybe there's a zeta tube program for that, a warehouse somewhere with a one way zeta relay and a swarm of angry hornets, ready to go at a moment's notice. Or maybe he assumes that anything that can penetrate the zeta network can probably handle anything it would be sensible to automate? The control computer for this tube is embedded in the concrete. Is this entrance only?

I walk over to the door and knock. A dull metallic thud. I think that the room's airtight. Hmm. I lay my left hand on the door and open it. There's a thud from inside as I bypass the mechanism and have the ring do it manually. The door swings toward me, and I step around it and out into the corridor. Oop, manners. Close the door and reset the controls first.

Okay, where am I? A walkway made of metal grating is attached to the sloping side of the cave, about two metres above the 'ground' level. The part of the wall which makes the outer wall of the room I have just left is concrete, though painted and textured to resemble the natural rock of the rest of the cave. The cave wall itself looks natural, but I suppose it could be artificial. I'm hardly an expert on rocks. The walkway is about eighty centimetres wide and curves around the side of the cave in straight sections before coming to what seems to be the main work area. There are a small number of powerful lights in the ceiling, creating clearly lit areas while leaving deep shadows around them. In front of me, down on the 'floor' level of the cave, a black car -which I presume to be this parallel's version of the Batmobile- is parked with its rear facing me. I lean on the railing to take a look at it. It's surprisingly plain. No ridiculous bat-themed detailing. No glowing parts. No flashing lights. It looks a bit like a slightly oversized sports car. You could drive it around, park it in broad daylight, and it wouldn't attract too much attention. Sensible.

Doesn't seem to be anyone around. I don't seem to have set off an alarm though. I stand up straight. I'm a little early, I suppose. What does Batman do on Sunday mornings? If I had to guess, I'd have said 'go to bed after working all Saturday night'. Just wandering around feels like it would be rude. I could scan for him, but this is his home, and I am a little early. Instead, I walk along the walkway, around a corner and on to the main work area. There's the Bat Computer with numerous computer screens, and a work bench with numerous fancy looking pieces of scientific equipment. I don't see any of the mementos that most versions of this cave which I've seen before have, but I haven't seen everything and maybe he keeps them somewhere else.

Should I just wait here? He said seven, but I thought that security might take a little-.

"Can I help you, sir?"

English, upper class, formal. I turn, and see Alfred Pennyworth standing at the bottom of the steps down to the car with an enquiring expression on his face and a dustpan and brush in his hands.

"Mister Pennyworth-" I put my right hand to my chest. "- Orange Lantern two eight one four. I have an appointment with Batman scheduled for seven o'clock, but I'm a little early. Is it.. alright, if I wait here?"

"Please do. I will inform Master Batman of your arrival."

I give a shallow bow. "Thank you. Um. If he's picked up an injury? I don't mean… No offence to your skills as a medic, but I'm probably best placed to heal him." I hold up my left hand, and give it a wiggle.

"Thank you for your consideration sir, but fortunately last night was relatively injury free. If you'll excuse me?"

"Of course."

He turns, and walks past the car and up a flight of stairs to another part of the cave. Perhaps the exit is in that direction? Or a communication device? I move to stand at parade rest. I'm not sure what Batman wants to talk to me about, but my research into both Robert Marrack and Yao Fei is complete, and I need to talk to him about them. If he seems receptive, I'd like to put in a good word for Guy as well. I had been planning to brush up on my arguments last night, but I had to spend the time thinking of ways to placate Artemis instead.

In the end, I realised that the only way I'd get anywhere was to use the ring to acquire background information on her. Turns out she's Jade's sister, and is currently living with their mother. Jade's sister, Artemis Crock. Small world. I suppose that explains why Jade found it funny that I didn't think 'Artemis' was her actual name. And why Artemis was so concerned about what we'd been talking about.

I've still got her father's plasma crossbow thing, so I can give her that. I bought an orchid in a pot. Not sure if she likes flowers, but it can't hurt. I've fabricated replacements for the arrows she used against me, as well as one type of my own design using technology STAR labs are dragging their feet about reverse engineering. In addition, I plan to have a go at repairing her mother's spine. I've sort of been thinking about that for a while as I've got to know her during our visits to Jade. The journey to Belle Reve isn't something she could really afford on a weekly basis, so I've been flying her there instead. Now that I think about it, I've never picked her up from her house, always the local park. Was she trying to avoid me meeting Artemis outside of work? Hmm. In theory, the damage to the tissue and the remaining shrapnel should be reasonably simple for the ring to deal with. Motivation certainly shouldn't be a problem anymore. Alienating a team mate feels wrong, and I genuinely like Paula.

"Orange Lantern."

Batman precipitates out of the darkness. I wasn't really trying to spot him, so I'm not sure if this version has the ludicrous stealth capacities of some versions.

"Sir. Thank you for seeing me."

He walks up the stairs to the work area where I'm standing. "I understand that you've had an.. altercation, with Artemis."

"Ah, yes sir. My behaviour…. was not appropriate. I was going to apologise to her after we've finished here."

He nods. "I think that would be for the best. I will also remind you that alcoholic drinks are prohibited from the mountain. American laws are less relaxed on the subject than European ones."

"I was cooking with it. Red Tornado spent the whole four hours looming over me. You know there wouldn't be significant amounts of alcohol left after that."

He maintains eye contact with me for a few seconds longer than I'm comfortable with. I drop my eyes.

"Yes sir. No alcohol. Right."

He walks around the work bench and takes a seat. I turn to face his position.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

I raise my right hand and call forth my Cornwall Boy notebook.

"Kaldur said that you hadn't defined a process by which a new trainee might join us. So, I thought that I'd take the initiative."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
06:48 GMT -5

I offer him the notebook and then return to parade rest. He takes it, looks at it for a moment, and then lays it down on the work surface.

"What makes you think that the League intends to expand the team beyond its current membership?"

"Artemis turning up, sir. If you'd left it at the six of us, I might have thought it was a one off thing. But she's been active with Green Arrow for even less time than I've been being tutored by Wonder Woman. And I didn't have a pre-existing tie to her, so the deciding factor can't be that."

He looks at me for a moment, before opening the first page. "How did you meet 'Cornwall Boy'?"

He says the name without hesitating. I suppose that objectively it's no sillier than 'Batman'.

"After Klarion hit me with the chaos magic shards and neither.. Mister Nelson nor Mister Zatara.. were able to completely remove them, I sought him out. I'd been looking at potential future recruits for a while, and it seemed like a good opportunity to introduce myself."

"He was able to completely heal you?"

"As far as I can tell. I've had a couple of other people check, and they agree."

Batman nods, and turns the page. "He's British."

"Yes sir."

A minute of silence, and he turns the page again. "He doesn't appear to have any sort of relationship with a League member."

"Neither did Kon, sir. I'd only known Wonder Woman for three days when the team first got together. And Robert's great grandfather worked with the Justice Society on several occasions."

Batman gives a shallow nod.

Alan mostly remembered him for having a truly huge moustache, but after having a moment to think about it he told me what he remembered of their meeting and damn, but Graham Marrack would have been a scary guy to have to fight. He actually subbed in for Fate on a couple of missions during World War 2, and Alan didn't think it was a downgrade. He was in his sixties at the time, and at the height of his arcane powers. And really hated it when people smoked around him. Not sure why none of his heirs have reached the same heights of achievement. His eldest son, David Marrack, started as Captain Cornwall much later in life than his father had, and never really achieved the same level of renown. Trevor Marrack -Robert's father and current holder of the title- never really bothered, though I found some evidence to suggest that his younger brother Julian was a bit more involved in the arcane, and in a criminal way. Interestingly, I haven't been able to track him down, and Robert didn't want to talk about him. Furthermore, the Marracks generally only have one son per generation, but they're always the first born. Robert's got four younger sisters, two Marrack great aunts and would have had six Marrack great great aunts if they were still alive.

"He doesn't appear to have achieved much with his powers so far."

"He's fourteen sir, and Truro isn't exactly Gotham. It's harder for him to find things that match his abilities."

"What exactly have you told him?"

"I've told him that the Justice League has a training program, that I personally think that he would be a good fit, and that I'd hand that-" I point to the notebook. "-to you, with my recommendation. I haven't told him who else is on the team, I haven't mentioned the content of any missions or even that the team is given missions. I haven't mentioned zeta tubes or the location of any League facilities, including the mountain, and I haven't mentioned any real names other than my own. Um, and Mister Zatara's, but…"

He closes the book and pushes it to his left. "Orange Lantern, what do you know about Artemis' background?"

"Pretty much everything, sir."

"As of when?"

"As of last night. After the whole getting banned from saying people's names thing I decided to stop routinely scanning everyone, but I thought that I needed to know more about her in order to come up with some sort of apology gift? Really, given the amount of time I've spent with her mother, it surprises me that I hadn't bumped into her out of costume before."

"I see." He thinks for a moment. "My original vision for the team was that it would supplement the individual training you received from your mentors with both other skills taught by League members and with training in coordination and teamwork. It was never intended as a training centre for people with no experience at all."

"Well, I didn't-."

"Wonder Woman brought you to my attention only after I conceived of that methodology. I also did not expect Superman to react quite as negatively to Superboy as he did, so I had to adapt the model. Artemis' inclusion -though not part of the original plan- fits the model. Though they are not related, Green Arrow is training her. You are asking me to consider including someone who -by your own admission- is unlikely to get any training outside of what the team receives."

I feel the first glimmerings of despair.

"Are you investigating any other potential members?"

"Yes sir."

"How many?"

"Twenty seven, though some of them are a bit obvious. I mean, Troia and Zatanna meet all of the original requirements."

"Do you intend to present me with a report on each of them?"

"Not at this time, sir. Robert's probably the best fit I have, and the amount of added value that could be gained by including him, plus the low probability of him advancing himself in any other way…"

He nods. "I'll look into it. If I reach the same conclusion as you, I will contact his parents."

"Thank you sir."

"Now, I want to talk to you about your encounter with Lex Luthor."

"Um, before we start on that, sir?" I hold out my right hand again, and a second notebook appears. "These are my notes on Yao Fei, a Chinese national. He's presently resident in-."

"The Gobi Desert."

Uh?

"Sir, how did you know that?"

"I don't recognize the name from any of their active metahuman groups, and I know the Chinese government policy relating to metahumans. You generally work by examining existing databases, so it would make sense that you discovered him by examining theirs." He holds out his right hand, and I pass the notebook to him. "Why do you want to bring him to my attention?" He opens the book. "He seems a little old for the team."

"Actually, sir, I was going to recommend him for your team."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
06:52 GMT -5

There's no immediate reaction. He appears to keep reading. Perhaps I should explain?

"American superheroes have always existed in an unusual position of independence from the US government. In most places that isn't how it works. China has a small number of super functionaries who could join the League, but they're all tightly controlled by the Standing Committee for Metahuman Affairs, and their first loyalty is to the state. I mean, you could probably talk them into lending you August Colonel in Iron or whoever, but you wouldn't be able to fully trust them. Accomplished Perfect Physician on the other hand spent several years acting against the Chinese government before being forcibly convinced that it was counterproductive."

"What makes you think we want someone from China at all?"

"Sir, you know as well as I do that most of the world calls you 'The Justice League of America'. Aside from Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Red Tornado, all of the members of the world's premier group of superheroes are American, and the only reason Red Tornado isn't an American is because the American legal system still hasn't adapted to the existence of AIs yet. Your recruitment method seems to be 'know a guy who knows a guy'. There are going to be a lot of highly skilled people across the world who aren't going to get anywhere near it because they don't know the right people."

"A reasonable point to consider. But I doubt that the Chinese government would be prepared to release Yao Fei to work with us. And according to this, he doesn't want to leave the prison."

"Well, as I see it, China certainly wouldn't mind having someone on the League, and he is a highly skilled medic. You don't have one of those, and there aren't all that many people who are both superheroes and medical doctors. That gives you a reason to ask about him specifically. Plus, the existence of the Gobi Desert prison isn't common knowledge. If they thought that there was a chance of the information getting released…"

"Don't underestimate the willingness of the Chinese government to ignore international criticism."

"Oh, I don't. But conditions in the camp are.. not good. If they thought that they could hold the people there hostage to Mister Yao's loyalty, they might be prepared to consider it. And, frankly, he's being wasted there."

He flicks past a few pages. "There's no mention here of him receiving medical training."

"Past life knowledge. As far as I can tell he perceives certain forms of magic as sound. He can heal a wound or still an earthquake by humming at it. And he's spending his time treating dehydrated metahumans in the Gobi Desert and feeling sorry for himself."

Batman closes the notebook and slides it to his right. "Anyone joining the Justice League would have to have the approval of all existing members. The chance of someone whom none of us can vouch for gaining acceptance is slight, to say the least."

"Sir, if the League continues to grow, that system isn't going to work."

He doesn't reply for a moment, and drums the fingers of his right hand on the notebook once. "Do you have any other recommendations?"

"Lantern Gardner, obviously. I don't have a file on him, but I assume you already know everything about him that you need to."

"I understand that the other Green Lanterns of this sector don't share your opinion of him."

"Lantern Stewart hasn't spent five minutes talking to him since he woke up. Lantern Jordan.. yeah, he's… I think Lantern Jordan reminds him of his brother, and he's transferring some of that resentment. But, Jordan and Stewart are spending most of their time off Earth at the moment, while Gardner's here full time until the Guardians decide what they want to do with him. I know who will be most useful to the League."

Batman bows his head slightly. "Is there anything else?"

"No sir, I think that's everything."

"Very well then. Your meeting in Taipei with Lex Luthor."

Full transcripts were included with my report, along with a record of my scans of his brain. I also included scans of his face in case Batman could read it better than me.

"What about it, sir?"

"How long have you known that Luthor was one of Superboy's genetic parents?"

"Since just after the fight with Mister Twister. I had to repair his inner ears, and I needed to know what tissue to use, so I did a full scan."

"Why did you decide not to tell anyone at that time?"

"I told Kon that I knew who it was, but he's never been very interested in his Human components."

"And why didn't you tell anyone else?"

"Because it's none of their business? If Artemis hasn't told anyone that Sportsmaster's her father, I don't see why Kon should be expected to tell everyone that Mister Luthor's his."

"The rest of the team don't know about Artemis' background. Both myself and Green Arrow do."

Oh dear.

"Sir, are you telling me you didn't know about Kon-El's… Seriously?"

Oh dear. I'm stunned.

"W..? Who performed his medical examination before he joined the team?"

"Kryptonian physiology is resistant to most sensor technology at our disposal, and we had access to the records from Cadmus. According to those, the source of his Human genetic material was Doctor Desmond."

I just about stop myself facepalming.

"Sir, did you not..? Any of the Green Lanterns could have checked that. I mean, a saliva sample..?"

"An extremely regrettable oversight, especially considering what you uncovered about LexCorp's links to Cadmus."

Putting it mildly.

"How bad..?"

"It might come to nothing. But as a worst case scenario, now that you've given Luthor a way to claim that he only found out about the relationship since Superboy was freed from Cadmus control, he could try to get custody of Superboy through the courts."

Shit.

!Kon mine!

"Is that likely? I mean, he doesn't have any sort of social relationship with him."

"There may be legal instruments he could attempt to use to that effect. Clearly, existing law doesn't properly account for this situation. Regardless of his physical or mental maturity, Kon-El is a two month old boy with only one other biological relative."

And Superman doesn't want to know. And much as I'd have liked to improve their relationship, the idea of Superman playing a larger role in his life just because the alternative was Lex Luthor is quite distasteful. Would Kon actually want..? I don't think so. He's never spoken about Cadmus except through clenched teeth. I can't imagine him responding well to the man responsible for it all.

"The other matter I wanted to discuss with you is your studies in the field of Human augmentation. Why did you think that drawing Luthor's attention to the possibilities of combining Abednego Danner's formula with Cadmus' cloning technology was a good idea?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
06:56 GMT -5

I said that, didn't I?

"Because I honestly believe what I told Mister Luthor. That sort of research is something that our species needs. I mean, maybe not from him specifically… No, even if it has to come from him."

He leans back in his seat, hands steepled in front of him.

"Heck, giving Mister Luthor everything he wants might turn out to be the best way to neutralise him as a threat."

Batman's eyes narrow.

I raise my hands in surrender. "He doesn't actually have the Danner Formula. I only got hold of a copy by complete fluke, and the originals have all gone walkabouts. I checked. He can already create Kryptonian/Human hybrids and program their brains, so even if he got a copy it wouldn't improve his position all that much. And Human cloning's illegal anyway, isn't it?"

"Are you sure that he couldn't simply get it somewhere else?"

"No, and I'm honestly not that worried about it. Are you sure that he couldn't get hold of Mister Garrick's original research? That was far more widely distributed than Mister Danner's."

"No, Orange Lantern, I'm not sure at all."

"Sir, the Martians are an entire species of shapeshifting telepaths. The Atlanteans have been augmenting themselves since before the Sinking. I can only imagine the effort that it's taken to stop transhumanism spreading. And I hate it! I hate the fact that it's somehow okay to keep these advantages to a tiny proportion of the population. If I could, I'd give every pregnant baseline Human on the planet a shot of the Danner formula."

"Have you any idea how difficult that would make our work?"

"It would make it so that the population at large could deal with the sorts of thing they need the League for now! I mean, do you want to be augmented? Speed or strength. It will take me a couple of seconds."

"I don't feel that I'm missing anything by not having super powers."

"I don't… Sir, I have the utmost respect for your achievements, but having an extra edge doesn't take anything away from them. You just.. have an extra tool. Both of the formulae I have access to have been shown over many decades to have negligible side effects. The Danner Formula even makes you live slightly longer!"

"Orange Lantern."

I bow my head slightly. "Sir."

"While I appreciate what you are trying to do, I do not wish to be augmented."

"Sir."

"I understand that you have already used the Danner Formula on Superboy."

"After testing it, yes."

"Why didn't you ask a member of the League to supervise?"

!Kon mine!

"Because none of you know more than me about either Kryptonian physiology or the Danner Formula. And, none of you are Kon's legal guardian. I knew it was safe, he wanted it. We put him through his paces afterwards, he was fine."

"Wonder Woman received a phone call from Troia's parents about the injuries she received."

"Wh..? I offered to heal her, she told me she wasn't hurt?"

"He was able to hit hard enough to harm her through her armour. The bruises probably wouldn't have been showing when she left the mountain. Fortunately, she heals quickly."

I think I owe her some flowers or something.

"Do you know how much stronger you've made him?"

"About a third, I think? It's hard to test. It increased his endurance by more."

I flat out can't make constructs that can stop him anymore. I mean, in a direct struggle, I always found it difficult, but now he just goes straight through them. Finding that out made him so happy, and I'm happy for him. He's now as strong and as tough as he thinks that he should be.

!Kon mine!

"Incidentally, given that you knew he'd been educated telepathically, was there a reason why you didn't make sure that a telepath went through his mind to remove the Cadmus programming? M'gann had to remove five different types of override when she started the knowledge integration. Can you imagine what would have happened if one of those had been triggered during a mission?"

!Kon mine!

"All too easily. I.. accept that the League hasn't done all that it could for Superboy."

"Diana's… Wonder Woman's really stepped up there, sir."

He nods. "How is your work with Kid Flash going?"

I shake my head. "It's going nowhere. We need a greater level of alchemical knowledge than any of us have, and the Atlanteans only study the subject out of historical interest. He's started studying it himself, but it's going to be a while before we get anywhere."

"Were you able to track down the test animal that escaped?"

"Eventually, sir. It wasn't immune to rat poison, and managed to eat enough to overwhelm its accelerated metabolism. Since it was female, there's no need to worry about another generation of speedy rats."

"Can the Garrick Formula be passed on from one generation to the next?"

"I don't know sir. Testing would be a bit of a risk."

"You mentioned in your report that you found the origin of the formulae suspicious. Have you uncovered any evidence that would support that belief?"

"No, but I haven't prioritised investigating that."

I think I vaguely remember something about one of the New Gods being in the US during the 19th century? I could ask, but the way things are around here finding a period of Human history free of aliens might be harder than finding one with them in it.

"To be honest, given how much time's passed, I'm not sure that there would be any evidence anymore."

"You may well be right. Very well, continue your research, but keep me appraised of any significant new developments."

"Yes sir."

He stands. "I believe that Artemis is spending the morning with Green Arrow in Star City."

I nod. He didn't need to remind me about that. "That's where I'm heading, sir."

He walks around the table and heads down the stairs to ground level. "I'll send you there by zeta tube."

I follow him down. "Actually sir, could you send me back to the mountain? I've got a couple of things to pick up, and I'd rather fly there myself. Don't want to risk giving away the Star City zeta tube's location by shining a great big orange light on it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
07:34 GMT -5

I might make a habit of getting up at six, but I try not to assume that everyone else does the same. Looks like Artemis does, but I wanted to wait until I saw Paula moving in the window before I buzzed for admission. I've been sort of lurking on the other side of the road for a good twenty minutes. Is that creepy? I thought that scanning the place would be creepier. I mean, I don't like to violate people's privacy without good reason. Their home is a flat in Old Gotham, and I've been occupying myself by removing the lead from the paint and replacing the asbestos with something a little less carcinogenic. And a lot more effective, but then, if LexCorp wanted to make a profit on this stuff then they should be selling it. I did tell Mister Luthor about Dyson. I've also made some minor repairs to the structure, pipes and electronics… I'm not sure that I should have done, but it's just so darn easy.

Finally, I see a familiar face in what I gather from the location of the pipes is their kitchen window. I'm not making an effort to conceal myself but she hasn't ever seen me in casual clothing before. I straighten up from the lamp post I've been leaning against, look in both directions and then cross the road. Up the steps, in through the outer door. There's a bank of post boxes on my left behind an empty desk, and an intercom on the right. The stairs are at the end of the lobby on the left and the lift is on the end wall. I suppose that it's a good job that no one is around, really. I walk over to the intercom and clean the metal to a sparkling silver. Ugh, no names. Right. I look over to the post boxes, and see the name 'Crock' on box number 302. Guess she hasn't got around to changing it. Okay then. I press button 302, and hear a buzz. Probably take her a little while to get there.

I take another look around the lobby. Bit shabby, but basically well cared for. I spruce it up a little, cleaning and repairing the paintwork. Windows could do with a little-.

"Yes?"

Ah. Quicker than expected.

"Ms Nguyen. Orange Lantern two eight one four here. Congratulations on getting the divorce finalised. Do you mind if I come up?"

A delay of a couple of seconds. "Oh, um. Of course not."

"Glad to hear it. See you in a jiffy."

When I go… When I went shopping with Mum, it amused me to race the lift on the stairs from the car park. I still prefer stairs, though I don't think I could get away with something so juvenile at my current age. Even if everyone thinks that I'm not my current age. Anyway, it's only two flights up and either everyone's still recumbent or they're all really early risers. Flat 7, and knock…

And the door opens. Paula's wheelchair is facing sideways from the doorway while she's turned to face me. She looks a bit surprised. "The others usually come in through the window."

I frown thoughtfully. "Does that not strike you as a little odd?"

She blinks. "Um, come in."

She wheels herself backwards and I enter the apartment, closing the door behind me. "Is… something wrong?"

"Ah, sort of. Um."

Where to start?

"Is Jade in some sort of trouble?"

"No. No, other daughter. Okay, so I only just found out that Artemis is your daughter. Um."

"I thought your power ring could identify people by their genes?"

"Oh, it can. I just thought, well, that I should let her have her privacy. But, yesterday, I finished our training session by being, um, quite rude to her."

"I thought she came back early. If you wanted to see her, she isn't here. She is spending the day with Green Arrow in Star City."

"Yes. I know. See, I wanted to do something to make up for my behaviour, and it occurred to me that fixing your spinal injuries would be quite a good way to do that."

She stares at me. She says nothing for about ten seconds.

"The.. the doctors said…"

"The doctors don't have a power ring. I'm not going to be digging into you and risking further damage, I'm just going to be pointing the ring in your general direction and telling it to sort it all out. Assuming it's just tissue damage and shrapnel, it shouldn't take long. Obviously you'd have to do physiotherapy to get full functionality back, y'know, heh, don't try jumping right out of the wheelchair or anything."

She's still staring, her face still. "You are sure that it will work?"

"At my current level of motivation, I'd give myself roughly a ninety nine percent chance of pulling it off with no problems. And I'd estimate that the chance of anything going seriously wrong is… I dunno… Point nought five percent? I rebuilt a Kryptonian's inner ear with no difficulty, and the ring's had loads of data on Human physiology."

"Oh. Um. What..? Do I need to do something?"

"No, not really. Well, you have to say that you want me to do it, but other than that you can just sit there."

"And.. you're doing this.. to apologize to my daughter."

"I've also got her some arrows and a pot plant, but I thought she'd want this more. Um, hehe, plant in a pot. Not marijuana."

She slumps slightly, looking at the ground. Is she really having to think about this?

"Sooo..?"

"Yes. Please?"

!Make better!

I grin. "Just what I wanted to hear. One moment." I raise my left hand so that the sigil on the ring is pointing directly at her. "Oh. Um, are there any injuries you want to keep? Like, important scars, or whatever."

She gives me a puzzled look, then shakes her head. "The only thing I want to keep from that part of my life is my daughters."

"Rightyho. Ring, scan, analyse and repair."

Orange light strobes over her body. There's a sharp intake of breath as she tenses up and watches it work with trepidation. The ring reports its findings to me, numerous scars and old breaks, shrapnel and bone fragments, sliced muscle and nerve. And some unusual chemical residues, though not in significant concentration.

Fix it all.

There's a flare of orange light, and then it shuts off.

Oh. Whoops.

"Feeling alright?"

"I... think so…" She holds up her hands to look at them, then lowers them and pokes her right thigh with her right index finger. She gasps. "I can feel it."

"Glad to hear it. Um, small problem…"

She jerks her head up to look at me. "What is it?"

"Well, I was reading your 'Huntress' file on the Justice League database yesterday, and I was sort of thinking of the picture of you they have on file -from back when you were active- when I was healing you. Um, I may have inadvertently knocked about ten years off your age." Got to say, I can totally see what Lawrence Crock saw in her. "Or.. mmmaybe a bit more."

Eh, Orange Lantern Corps. Even if we fuck up we get the result we want.

Her hands go to her face. "Mirror."

"You got to understand, this is the most advanced tool in the universe, and you did say that you didn't want to keep anything else. I mean, I was going to suggest keeping this as a surprise, but there's no way Artemis is going to believe that that's a new brand of make-u-."

"Mirror!"

"Um, right."

I step back and generate a mirror construct identical to the one I used back on the moon when I first augmented my body. She stares at herself, mouth open in shock, running her fingers over her rejuvenated features. "I. I don't…"

"It's not a problem, is it? 'Cause I'm not sure I could make you older intentionally…"

"No.. This is, this is..."

She leans forward in her seat, peering at herself, then takes a moment to collect herself.

Is she crying?

"Thank you. I don't… I can't…"

Her hand goes to cover her mouth as she starts to weep openly. I pass her a tissue, which she takes and begins using to dab her eyes. I don't really know what to do. I kneel down in front of her, and she smiles at me through her tears.

"Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
06:49 GMT -7

Star City certainly looks nicer than Gotham.

I stayed with Paula while she got herself back together. Even made her a set of railings so she could practise walking, though I asked her to only use it while there was someone else there. Under my supervision she just about got to the point where she could stand up straight with only a little help. She offered me a cup of tea by way of thanks, and I didn't have the heart to turn it down. Good job I like blackcurrant.

Okay, so where is Artemis? Top of a building, that seems simple enough. What's she shooting at?

What the heck is that?

Some sort of giant robot is smashing up the street she's overlooking. I know I joked about it with Mister Luthor, but giant robot rampages are actually fairly uncommon, even here. Green Arrow is at ground level, trying to find a vulnerable point to hit while Black Canary tries to run interference in close quarters. The robot doesn't actually have all that much mass, it's just very tall and thin. As I watch, the robot slaps aside an arrow, which bursts and releases hard foam over its left hand. The robot shakes most of it off before it fully hardens and… huh? Cars are driving at Canary and Arrow with no drivers. How the heck is it doing that? There can't be enough electronics in them to allow that sort of control. And why is it wearing a ten gallon hat? Canary dodges frantically, while Green Arrow takes cover in a shop as a car parks itself through the front window.

Transition.

Then I'm standing on the rooftop next to Artemis. She wheels, arrow on string. The bow she's using looks like one of Green Arrow's, and the arrow is a simple point arrow. She starts as she realises who it is, and scowls. "You."

I hold out my left hand, and her bow appears.

"Yes, me, and I'm very sorry for everything, but can we please focus on the robot?"

She put the bow she had been using down and snatches hers away from me. "I used up all my special arrows on you. I can't hurt it!"

Ah. Good news, then. I used some of my time last night to create a new type of arrow based on the designs originally created by Alexander Tuttle. His original 'Crumbler' gloves are in storage in STAR labs, and it didn't take long to scan them. I don't understand how they do what they do, but they do it well, and they give the fellow on the other end hell. I materialise one in my right hand.

"Try this."

The head is only a little larger than that of her normal point arrows, and there's a groove around it that compresses on impact to activate the 'crumbling' effect. I think that the weight… um, drag pattern… thingy, should be something she can cope with. She looks at it, puzzled, but takes it and puts it to string.

"I call them 'Arrows of Unmaking'. You see-."

"Weeeerl lookieee here!"

I'm armouring myself even as I turn to see a robot head with a damaged flesh mask and a ten gallon hat rise up over the edge of the building. Once it reaches head height the head stops, while its neck keeps going, bending up above the head in a inverted 'U' shape.

Scan.

A huge metal talon rises up from the street. It actually looks thin and flimsy, then it slams down onto the roof to the left of us and my perspective sorts itself out. The thing must be a metre across at the knuckle, and the fingers have at least that between the joints.

"Cain't sit outa this here rodeo!"

His elbow bends upwards as he begins pulling his body up the building.

"Shoot the chest, past the ribs. That's his power source."

"Right."

She takes aim, pulls the string back, and as the disproportionately small chest appears over the roofline atop his telescoping spine she looses. The arrow passes between the third and fourth ribs on his left side, and then unmakes a perfect hemisphere of his torso in a radius of approximately sixty centimetres.

The robot's head jerks up and swings around to look at the damage.

"What in the Sam Hill..?"

The left side of his torso crunches and collapses. His left arm -which he had been bringing up to either climb or strike at us- falls backwards with enough force to snap it off at his shoulder.

"Nnnnyyahh!"

I pull another arrow out of subspace and hold it out to Artemis.

"Lower abdomen this time. Make him fall."

She takes it and makes a hurried couple of steps forward to the edge of the roof. The robot is hanging onto the side of the building by the arm on the roof with his right leg dug into the side. His left leg is twitching loose from his hip. Artemis sights, draws, and looses. The arrow's impact is virtually silent as the robot's spine is cleaved in two. Immediately his body drops down, top half trying desperately to hang on to the roof by his right hand while his hips swing about the pivot point made by his embedded right foot before acquiring enough force to break its hold and tumble to the ground.

"I ain't licked yet, ya littl' varmints!"

Putting more force into his remaining shoulder, the robot raises his head up as high as he can and then swings it down toward us. I extend my left hand toward his torso.

"Fall."

An orange beam hits him in the chest, and overcomes his precarious hold on the roof.

"Aarrrh!"

His claws dig furrows in the roof, and then he's gone. I step forward, and Artemis and I look down at where he's lying on the road below.

"Dang. Dang. Dang. Dang d-dang. Dangdangdaaaaaaangggg."

He chassis spasms and goes still. Whoops. I jump down, tearing batteries out of wrecked cars as I go. A piercing construct takes out the transmitter embedded in his head that he was using to control the cars, and a slice cuts off his head as I assemble a power transformer. The pieces come together as I land, and his eyes blink open.

"Maw? Can't feel.. mah legs, Maw."

Black Canary walks up from my right, favouring her right leg. She takes a breath which I know from experience is a prelude to a Canary Scream.

"Sir, he's got Human-equivalent intelligence!" She hesitates for a moment, then goes to speak. I pre-emptively interrupt. "Before you say anything: Red Tornado. Are we killing people now?"

She thinks for a moment, then nods. "Alright. I'm not sure if we can arrest him, though."

We both look around as sirens sound from the end of the street, and Green Arrow pulls himself past a broken car embedded in the shop front.

"Sir, would you mind handling this? I've got to go and apologise to Artemis."

She gives me a sharp look. "Yes, you do."

"Ring, transfer."

And I'm back on the rooftop. Artemis is still looking at the remains of the fallen robot, but turns to me when I speak. "I want to apologise for the way I behaved yesterday. I really went about that the wrong way, and I certainly shouldn't have suggested flashing me."

She thinks for a moment. "Got any more of those 'Arrows of Unmaking'?"

"Yep."

I hold out a quiver I made. It's in her preferred brown, but shaped like the flat, double sided one Green Arrow used in Justice League Animated. It contains thirty of my arrows.

"I also replaced the ones you used on me. They're in the.. team's armoury."

She takes the quiver.

"And, I got you this."

I smile, and remove the orchid in the pot from subspace and hold it out as well. It's just starting to come into flower. She stares at it, puzzled.

"You got me a plant?"

"Yes. I mean, I can get a different one if you don't like it, but you just need to water it every couple of days and I'm told it will really look quite pretty. Oh, nearly forgot!" I take her father's plasma crossbow thing out of subspace and hold it out with my other hand.

Her expression changes from puzzlement to distaste. "You can keep that."

She decides to ignore the plant for the moment, and pulls out an arrow to examine. "These arrows. Could they destroy your shield?"

Can they ever.

"Yeah. One hit and the shield collapses." I clench and unclench my left hand at the memory of my test of that facility. "Really stings, too. So, um, are we okay?"

She smiles, then nods. "We're okay. Just as soon as I test out these arrows."

"Ah, okay. What do you want to test them on?"

Her smile morphs into a grin as she looks at me.

Oh.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September
16:07 GMT -5

I trudge across the playing field toward the stand where Kon is watching M'gann and the other cheerleaders practise. I haven't been back to Happy Harbor High School since the thing with Doctor Roquette, and I never did deal with that flare gun. Oh well, I'm sure that Kon or M'gann would have mentioned if it had been used. The lacrosse team are warming up to my right, and I see the American football team armouring up. Pff. I still think it's rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby.

Kon's sitting on the… Bleachers? Is that what they're called? We didn't have anything like that at my secondary school, so I'm relying on my knowledge of imported television. I'm in civilian clothes and so can pass as a student to anyone who is casually curious, while I think my accent should convince anyone who I need to convince that I'm not an actual student. Kon's at the far end, right elbow on his knee and right hand propping up his head. The cheerleaders are prancing around on the grass in the middle of the athletics track… No, come on, be nice. This matters to M'gann. The cheerleaders are practising on the grass in the middle of the athletics track. If Kon's watching them at that distance then he's got almost no peripheral vision. Hmm.

Ring, nullify my sound and scent.

Compliance.

I wait a moment, but it doesn't cause my environmental shield to flare. So, I step up onto the bleachers at the bottom level, and climb up to two levels above the one Kon's sitting on before walking toward him. Maybe I should look into expanding my wardrobe? The weather here is easily hot enough for me to get away with this vest at present, but for goodness sake I can't have people thinking I'm a Geordie. Kon, bless him, has become rather fond of dress shirts for school wear.

I can sort of see why Batman wants to send Kon and M'gann to Belle Reve, but he's picked a pretty inopportune time to do it. I mean, they've only just started school and they could be gone for weeks. Couldn't he have done this before they started? It wasn't as if we were all that busy. I just hope whatever they're planning doesn't take that long. I haven't gone into Belle Reve's security in great detail, but Hugo Strange aside the place looked pretty solid to me, and he hasn't done anything yet. Honestly, I barely remember him from the comics. Think he was in the Arkham City game? I remember a video clip in which Ra's killed him before falling out of the building. I'm monitoring him, but he's not exactly William Hand, is he?

Speaking of William Hand, he hasn't done anything much either. I had John check, and he wasn't able to detect anything untoward, mystically speaking. Assimilating him might remove the problem, but I don't think I'm ready to do that to a man who might be entirely innocent. Besides, Nekron might just pick someone else.

Kon's looking slightly to the left, so I sit down on his immediate right and lean right up to his ear.

"Hi Kon."

He jerks upright and twists his head in my direction, eyes wide in surprise. Hah!

Leaning over like this, his face is only a couple of centimetres away from mine. His eyes are a really stunning shade of brilliant blue.

"So, um, how's the practise going?"

He blinks, then relaxes. "I don't know exactly. I don't think they're really preparing for an event or anything."

He turns back to watching, and I shuffle right up next to him. He's surprisingly relaxed about me being inside his personal space like this. Not sure if it's because of what happened in Gotham, or he just doesn't care. Come to think of it, I don't think that I've hugged anyone aside from him since getting here.

"I don't really see the appeal of it, to be honest."

"M'gann says it's good aerobic training."

I still say it's dressage for people. And can't M'gann reconfigure her body at will? Surely she doesn't need exercise any more than I do. But these are Americans. Leave them to their foolishness.

"Not taking part in extracurricular activities yourself?"

"I can't." He shrugs. "I'm too strong. If I joined the football team I could hurt someone."

True… "Kal-El had the same problem, when he was at school. But you could always join a different type of activity. Didn't M'- Didn't Megan say that Cadmus taught you to play chess?"

Seems like the sort of thing Mister Luthor would want his son to be able to do.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it may not exactly be butch, but I expect that this place has a chess club. You could join that."

His head drops slightly. "I'll think about it."

Is he down? He sounds down. I think he's down. I put my left arm around his waist and shake him a little. "Something wrong?"

"No."

I wait patiently. After a minute or two, he sighs.

"M… Megan finds it easy to fit in here. I don't."

"Megan grew up as part of a large family. Plus, she's got forty eight years more life experience than you do. She's going to be better at things like that."

"I guess. But why didn't Cadmus program me with that stuff?"

"I don't know. Maybe they couldn't. Maybe they planned to do it later. Or, maybe they were going to socialise you themselves. But, you get on alright with Donna, don't you?"

"That's different. I get fighting." He shift in his seat. "I told Wonder Woman that I'd do this, but when I'm here, I have to spend hours just sitting in class, getting told stuff I already know."

"I'm sure that your teachers would be prepared to give you extra work if you asked for it. Maybe they could find something you don't know about?"

"Maybe." He scans the playing field. "What have you been doing today?"

Trying to massage life back into my left hand after Artemis spent all yesterday morning breaking my shield is what I don't say. I hadn't even realised that I had a limit on the number of times per day I could recharge, but apparently my lantern's capacitors can only hold power for two full recharges, and each of them takes about eighteen hours to refill. I had to walk back to the zeta tube. Once I recharged, the ring was happy to tell me that that problem could be fixed by connecting to the Central Power Battery. Nooo, thank you.

"Clearing Earth orbit of small pieces of debris."

Kon nods. "The mid two thousand nine update to the NASA debris FAQ placed the number of debris items over three point nine inches at nineteen thousand, between point three nine inches and three point nine inches at approximately five hundred thousand, and that debris items smaller than point three nine inches exceeds tens of millions."

"It's not the number, it's tracking down each one. All day got me about enough to fill a pint glass."

Kon suddenly orientates on the cheerleaders.

"What?"

"They're talking about you."

"Oh? What are they saying?"

He frowns. "Karen's asking Megan how we know each other. What does 'alternative relationship' mean?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th September
22:07 GMT

I'm sure there are many people -and I try to be one of them- who, when faced with a strange situation, try to take whatever they can from it. Try to enjoy it, even. The Beresford twins, however, seem more inclined to piss and moan. I mean, Batman wanted to stick them in a reinforced cage in a warehouse somewhere. I had to argue the point, saying that the risk of break out or discovery was unacceptably high when better alternatives presented themselves.

The only light over the lunar landscape is the orange light cast by my personal lantern, floating over our heads. Just to be extra sure we wouldn't be spotted I transported us to the dark side of the Moon. No more Humans have walked on the Moon in this parallel than have done so back home, and we're the first Humans ever to walk on this side. When the lantern is behind you the view of the stars is breathtaking. But I can't concentrate on that, because I've got to deal with these two delinquents.

"Well, you should have thought of that before you started smashing down buildings!"

"I need tah pee!"

I've tried explaining this three times, but Tuppence Beresford isn't getting it.

"Look, d-do you see that you're glowing orange? Yes?"

She's treating this as a contest of wills. I know she's doing that. I know that I'm wasting my time, I do. But somehow that knowledge isn't quite filtering through into my actions. Psychologically, I have trouble responding sensibly to people who have abandoned rational discourse. One of my old work colleagues used to taunt me with the idea that President Obama wasn't born in the US. He didn't believe it, he just knew that it drove me to distraction. Every time he did it I rose to the bait and tried presenting evidence. He found it hilarious.

"The environmental shield is designed to deal with -among other things- body waste. As long as it's active, you don't need to eat, you don't need to breathe, you don't need to shit and you don't need to piss. Did you not notice that there's no air?"

"Ya'll cain't do this!"

Eeeeegghh…

I roll my eyes and raise my hands in surrender. I can, actually, but…

"Fine. Fine. Fine. Ring." I gesture with my right hand, and the surface of the dark side of the Moon is deformed as the ring pulls dust and rock into the shape of a cubicle and toilet seat and fuses it in place. Next, I excavate a shaft straight down and a small chamber for waste collection. Not that any waste will go there. "There you are. One completely superfluous lunar toilet. Enjoy."

She rage-stares at me for a moment longer, before snorting angrily and trying to stomp off. It turns out that stomping off under lunar gravity doesn't really work, and she ends up launching herself off the ground. I take a breath, then pull her back down. A sour glance and she resumes her walk to the cubicle.

Now, I've tried excreting while wearing a power ring before. She hasn't. As she disappears from sight I can't help but have a moment of smug.

"Ya'll gowna watch? What kinda sicko are you?"

"Mister Beresford-."

"It's Mister Terror!"

"It most certainly is not. I've seen your birth certificate. I've scanned your parents. You are not called 'Terror' and no one in your family is called 'Terror'. Mister Beresford, while I respect your protective instincts there is a good twenty centimetres of granite between Miss Beresford and myself, in a place where there is no air to carry any sound which will not in any case be made because the environmental shield is going to deal with any waste material she produces. Do you know how little privacy there is in prison?"

He clenches his fists. "You wouldn't be so smart if'n ah weren't wearin' this collar!"

I rub my forehead with my left hand. "I would be exactly this smart if you weren't wearing that collar. Mister Beresford, are you an idiot?"

"What d'you call me?"

"I didn't call you anything. I asked you a question. Are you an idiot? Because if you're not, I would invite you to consider for a moment the likely result of you taking a swing at me."

He makes an expression part way between a sneer and a grin. "Me, feelin' real happy."

"Briefly, that's probably true. Then, if you hit, and if you killed me or knocked me out, the environmental shield would shut down. Your toughness might let you survive the temperature here, but you wouldn't be getting any air and you'd asphyxiate in short order."

He actually isn't an idiot. I can see the wheels turning. Hm. I thought that a reasonable criticism that could be levelled at Twilight Sparkle in her studies of friendship was that she only ever befriended ponies who were inclined to be friendly. She's supposed to be learning the true nature of friendship but never took the extra credit class of making friends with someone like Gilda or Discord. Never tried to help Queen Chrysalis find another way to feed her people. Not wanting to copy her flaw, I thought that maybe I could use this as an opportunity to reach out to two newly minted supervillains.

I think I've misjudged. Jade is alone, and purely self interested. I can deal with that. These two have each other, and my look at their souls showed me that they think of life as a conflict, them versus all. They can't understand negotiation and regard coexistence as submission. I'm not sure I can help, at least not any time soon.

Thomas sits, knees folded up to his chest. Hmm, that's a thought. What grants him his strength? Aside from his sister none of his relatives are metahumans.

Ring, scan.

Compliance.

Oh, that is interesting. Someone, eighteen years ago, got access to the Danner Formula and gave Mrs Beresford a shot. His father's a truck driver and his mother works in a supermarket. Neither attended college, and having scanned Mrs Beresford slumped in an alcoholic stupor in front of the television I think I can rule out undiscovered scientific genius. I will need to follow up on this.

"Thomas, I'm curious… Can I call you Thomas?" A sneer and a shrug. "Thomas. Have you always been that strong?"

"Yeah?"

"Then I'm curious. What is it that made you embark on a destructive rampage across New Orleans, when there are so many productive things you could do with your abilities?"

"Like whut? Help ol' ladies cross the street? Ah went toe t' toe with Wonder Woman. Nuthin' else I couldah dun woulda beat that. Who the hell'r you, anyway?"

"I, am Orange Lantern two eight one four, and in my first close combat training session I bound Black Canary in glowing orange chains and threw her across the room. I defeated her in roughly two seconds, Thomas, whereas earlier today my mentor Wonder Woman tossed you into an ambush without straining herself. And have you any idea what the US military, or the CIA, would pay to have someone like you on their books?"

This doesn't appear to be what he was expecting.

"Whu'?"

"I'm serious. I reviewed your files. You've been stealing chump change. If you'd used your head as something other than a bludgeoning weapon you could have been a millionaire by now. Legally. Hell, just a blood sample so they could find out how to make other people as strong as you are would be immensely valuable to any number of groups."

He frowns, clearly confused. "So yuer sayin'-."

"Ah! Jesus!"

Tuppence cries out from the stall. Thomas flashes me an angry look as he leaps to his feet.

I shrug. "I warned her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th September
10:17 GMT

Thomas shoves the draughts piece over to the fourth row. I'd always wanted to play a board game on a giant board, but neither Thomas nor Tuppence understand chess or have the patience to learn Settlers of Catan. They did find me defacing the Moon for a board funny, but who's ever going to see it? Neither of them are exactly chatty, but after I popped back to Earth to pick up a breakfast of bacon sandwiches their disposition has changed from openly hostile to merely surly. No rational person can honestly argue against the claim that the Scottish have perfected bacon. Their bread isn't all that, but I have some that I baked myself in my subspace pocket, and the Beresfords are happily munching through it.

Took the time to pick up Teekl as well. Thought about bringing the sphere, but I realised that the likely result of putting it in a low gravity environment was the Moon getting a moon and decided against it. My cat is currently sitting on the top of the toilet cubicle, staring down at Tuppence while she stares up in return.

"'ugh 'at ifz weird. 'S freakin' me ouh."

Teekl appears to have taken the staring as a challenge. I'm not sure if that's an animal thing or an intelligent decision based on what information she's gathered about Tuppence. Or maybe she just wants some bacon. I'm not giving it to her, she doesn't need to eat. Tuppence is on her third bacon baguette. She's munching messily, and she'd be spurting ketchup all over her face if the environmental shield wasn't dealing with it.

Ketchup. What a waste of good pig.

"Hay! It's yer turn!"

At the height I'm currently floating the board looks like the tabletop version I used to use when playing with my sister's boyfriend's sons. Thomas has leapt back onto the rim of the crater. His collar is still on, but he's had time to adapt to the lower gravity. The game is still in the early stages, and this move hardly requires a great deal of thought. I pick up a piece and move it to the side of the board. Thomas is looking thoughtful.

"Orange boy, whut was that you were sayin' yesterday. 'Bout makin' money with super strength?"

Ring, access 'How To Succeed In Evil'. The bit where Edwin talks to Lifto. Audiobook version, obviously.

Compliance.

Knowledge appears in my brain. I could even do the accents.

"Oh, that. Well, take bank robbing, for instance. How much cash do you expect to get robbing a bank? Assume you get in and out with no trouble."

"I dun't know. Couple million?"

"Nope. On average? More like five thousand."

He contemplates the board. Behind me, Tuppence yelps as she gets too close to Teekl and the cat takes a swing. Thomas' response is less than supportive.

"Tuppy, you ain't never bin no good wid critters. Why you think a glowin' orange one gonna be any different?"

"Teekl's got a bit of a vicious streak. You're probably better off just ignoring her."

Tuppence glares at both of us, chomps off most of her baguette, then hurls the nobby at Teekl. Teekl just stands there and… And that damn cat has learned how to phase! How the heck..? She gives Tuppence a contemptuous look, then sits down and starts washing her right forepaw. Thomas walks back to the board, and starts pushing a piece.

"So? Five thousand don't sound bad t'me."

"Thomas, within a hour of getting this ring I owned about a quarter of a million dollars in precious metal. Legally. With powers like yours you should be aiming higher. Think about it. Robbing a bank; what does it cost you?"

"I dunno..? You wouldn' ask if it were nothin'… Takes tahm, I suppose?"

"Yep. Plus, depending on how you do it, you've got to factor in the costs of getaway vehicles, disguises, percentages for the people doing the money laundering. Then, you've got to factor in the risk of getting caught afterwards, and what sort of sentence you're likely to get. For your first armed robbery conviction, you'd be looking at seven years if you went in with a gun. With super strength, and a criminal record? More like nine years. Which, by the way, is probably how long you're going to Belle Reve for."

"Ah, aih ain't sweatin' it."

"But it's soooo pointless! Look, if you were going to get a normal job, what would it be?"

Thomas steps back from the game piece, and frowns as he thinks about it. "Aih dunno. Truck driver?"

"Right. So, you start out as a truck driver on, what? Sixty five dollars a day?"

"It ain't five thousand."

"True, but think about it. Lets say that if you rob a bank, you've got about a one in three chance of getting caught. Actually, if you use super powers and don't hide your face it's a lot higher than that. And if you don't get caught… lets say you have to lie low for a month. So, five thousand dollars divided by thirty. A hundred and sixty six dollars and sixty six cents a day. Split two ways, that's eighty three dollars thirty three."

"Still more'en sixty five dollars."

"And there's less overheads. But, then you've got to add in the chance of getting caught, right? A one in three chance of getting nine years, or an average of three years, of no income. If you worked as a truck driver on sixty five dollars a day for three years -lets say two hundred and sixty days each year- you'd make fifty thousand seven hundred dollars, before deductions. Money you can't make if you're sitting in a cell in Belle Reve."

"Wull, no?"

"So, on average, you lose over forty five thousand dollars every time you rob a bank."

He blinks heavily. I'd wager that he's more intelligent than Lifto, but what I just told him is a bit of a stretch even so. He shakes his head. "Tha's crazy tawk, man."

"You're going to get nine years to check my working."

I move another piece, trying to force him to start jumping and open up the board. Tuppence walks over to her brother, touching her face with her right hand to make sure that she's not bleeding.

"If'n you got it all figured out, what'd'you thank we should be doin'?"

"If you'd make more money as a truck driver than breaking a law, you need to either get a truck or find a more profitable law to break." I shrug. "What do you like doing?"

They look at each other.

"Smashing stuff." / "Smashing stuff."

"Eeeeerrr… Some types of demolition? Ship breaking? There's lots of things that pay more than negative forty five thousand dollars, and if you enjoy them, why not do them? If nothing tickles your fancy, if you don't mind killing people there's probably someone in the CIA or the military who'd hire you."

This does not compute. Tuppence is looking bewildered. "You sure yer a super heero?"

I shrug. "All of my basic needs were taken care of already. And I decided that I quite liked the idea of crowds cheering me as I walked down the street, so… Becoming a superhero was the rational choice. Work's interesting, the people are nice, you get respect from just about everyone and there's always someone interesting to fight. Everything's sharper, more intense. Life, plus one."

Tuppence blinks at me again. The trick is to create an argument which appeals to the audience. Like I did with Jade, -and like I failed to with Artemis- I can't make this a you-are-wrong-and-I-am-right thing. Can't convert atheists using scripture. This is going to be a long term thing, but that's okay. I've got time, and so do they.

"Thomas, your move."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th September
07:22 GMT -6

Unsurprisingly, everyone's on edge when I drop Thomas, Tuppence and Mister Nigma off in arrivals in Belle Reve, Louisiana. The regular guard complement has been heavily reinforced with Louisiana State Troopers. Those guards still standing, anyway; we flew over at least three ambulances on the way in. Even with all of the chaos I've got no idea how Mister Nigma managed to get out. Fortunately, he wasn't carrying any of the anti-scrying gear that is becoming depressingly common amongst the people I'd like to pick up. And he hadn't had a chance to rearm. It's not completely impossible that some of his more esoteric equipment might have affected me.

Now that I'm inside the wards, I should probably check-.

Shit.

I wanted to check on Jade and Kadabra. He's fine, though I'm detecting spatial distortions which suggest that he sat the whole thing out in subspace. She's in medical swathed in bandages. I haven't had a chance to get a full report from Kaldur yet. What the hell happened? No, don't worry about it, she isn't dead so I can just-.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Waller, four heavily armed and armoured guards and Doctor Strange hovering just behind them.

"A rather good friend of mine is in your medical facility with a fractured arm and truly horrific frostbite which without proper assistance will probably cost her an eye, her legs and most of her fingers."

"And she's not the only one. A third of my guards are in medical 'till we can get them transferred to a hospital. If you think I'm going to prioritize your convict girlfriend-."

!Jade need!

She takes a step back as my aura flares.

"Warden Waller, I'm going to respectfully suggest that at this point you need all the friends you can get. Until now, you have been remarkably tolerant of my presence here, and I am grateful for that. If you get out of my way, then in half an hour or so you and I can have a chat about all the things which a power ring can do to speed up repairs and improvements to this place. Heck, I'll even do what I can to get your guards back on their feet. Power rings are very good at putting people back together."

"And if I don't?"

!Jade need need need go go go go!

My aura pulses again.

"Then, in the short term, you'll find out that projectile weapons are no better at stopping me than they were at stopping the inmates. In the medium term, after Taipei, Lex Luthor owes me a favour. Such as the name of his favourite law firm, and enough political favours to make the congressional hearings you're going to be going through truly harrowing." I shrug. "Can't promise you'll keep your job as it is, but…"

She grunts. "They can only shoot me once. Rawlings, escort him to medical."

One of the troopers steps aside, then gestures down the corridor. "Sir, if you'll follow-"

"No, too slow." I step up to him, put a hand on his chest plate, and we transition to the first blast door. Follow protocol?

!Jade needs me!

No, that would take too long. I seize the mechanisms and open the door, heedless of security protocols. They're lucky I'm not just smashing through. Rawlings floats along as I trigger all of the intervening doors in sequence, making the full transition to medical before dumping my escort on the floor.

Paula's sitting in her wheelchair at her elder daughter's bedside, facing the head of the bed. She looks up as the displaced air blows through the room, her face streaked with tears.

"Paul, can you-?"

Two strides take me to the head of Jade's bed and I hold my left hand over her recumbent form.

"MINE!"

The orange light is so intense that Jade is briefly completely obscured by it. I feel her body as the ring detects and repairs her. Gods… The only thing I've seen like the internal damage is what Klarion did to me, and Jade's had this since last night at least. She's drugged unconscious, and I instruct the ring not to change that. Fourth-degree frostbite to everywhere. Until I started work more of her skin was red and black than her usual olive. Some of her flesh had actually liquefied as cell walls burst when the water within froze and expanded. The only thing I've seen that's comparable is in pictures of some of Mister Freeze's victims, post thaw.

I stumble back as the ring finishes. All physical damage fixed, but she could all too easily have died from that.

"Done. Um, done. She should.. she should be fine."

Paula sniffs, and blows her nose into a tissue. "Is it safe..? Can I hold her hand?"

"Yes, yes of course."

She shuffles a little closer, and reaches under the bedclothes to take Jade's bandage swathed hand in her own. They'd probably been trying to warm her up while preventing impacts that could worsen the damage further. Paula sniffs, pulls Jade's left hand up to her face and holds it against her cheek. How did this happen?

"Do you know what happened? I haven't had a report yet."

"I'm not sure."

She takes a deep, unsteady breath. Keeping Jade's left hand clasped in her own, she reaches out and places her right on Jade's forehead. Bandages, right. I want and the bandages disintegrate from around Jade's face. Paula breathes a little easier when she sees healthy skin, and begins stroking her hair.

"The one who froze her was Killer Frost. When the inmates first broke free, Killer Frost tried to kill the guards. Jade's cellmate stopped her. There was a fight, and Killer Frost did this to Jade."

"Jade's cellmate?"

"A blonde woman. I think her name was Tuppence?"

Oh.

**M'gann?**

**I'm… I'm here.**

**Where's 'here'?**

My eyes glow orange as I look around, and I see M'gann's outline hovering -metaphorically hovering- next to the entrance.

**Is she really okay?**

**There's no remaining physical damage. I suppose I won't know how she is mentally until she wakes up. Killer Frost?**

**I did something Uncle Ma'al taught me; I locked her inside her own mind. Unless another telepath helps her, she'll never get out.**

**Good idea. Didn't that blow your cover?**

**I punched her as well, so it looked like I just knocked her out. The other prisoners thought I was defending my friend. I did the… I did what we're supposed to for fast freeze injuries, but I was so scared that she wouldn't make it anyway.**

**You probably saved her life. Thank you.**

**She was.. nice. I know you've been visiting her, but I wasn't expecting her to be like that.**

**I'm a little surprised myself. I think I may need to do something for her.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th September
08:54 GMT -6

This is probably the most eventful birthday I've ever had. Shoving civil engineers aside, I've fixed all the damage from the break out attempt.

Healing the guards was harder than I thought it would be. I suppose this is the first time when I've tried fixing someone I don't really care about on an individual basis. After a little trial and error I found that it worked best if I focused on the idea that helping them would improve Jade's chance of getting a favourable outcome. Doing that, I've fixed up the guards who had minor injuries, and dramatically reduced the recovery times on the more seriously injured ones. A couple of frostbite cases, but nothing on a level with what Jade had.

I even gave the prisoners the once over, but the only one with really serious injuries was Cameron Mahkent. Turns out that the other prisoners didn't appreciate him being deceived by Kon into preventing the break out. They might end up having to transfer him to another prison, though given what happened I'm not sure leaving all of the cryokinetics in one place would have been a good idea anyway.

One of the female guards asked me how Jade was. I said that I'd pass on her best wishes.

Warden Waller was a little surprised by my offer to transmute the interior of the prison walls to diamond. She's been called to Washington, and in any case seemed a little reluctant to accept my aid for anything long term. Maybe she'll change her mind once she's been pilloried in the national press for a few weeks. I'm all for self reliance, but this country genuinely can't afford to have the sort of break out that nearly happened here happen. Someone from on high has decided to put Doctor Strange in charge while she's away, which strikes me as odd. Wouldn't Bendemann or some other senior guard be next in line rather than the prison psychiatrist? Or is this the American thing of senior civil servants being political appointees?

I contacted Mister Luthor, and he was only too happy to give me the direct line of the lawyer he uses when he is personally accused of criminal activity. I think I remember Frederick Tuckman from the comics… Something to do with Green Arrow? Jade clearly isn't safe here, and I'll need to talk to Batman about what she's actually being accused of. See if I can get some of it dropped.

!Jade mine!

M'gann left after she checked out Jade's mind for obvious damage. She said that Jade should be alright, and I need to have a talk with her and Paula about our next step. As I approach the medical area I note that whatshisface… Rawlings, has cleared off. He didn't throw up after the transfer, so I'm going to assume that I've finally got the hang of FTL transitions with passengers. M'gann left as well once she was sure Jade would be alright.

"… don't clap your hands
Grandma hits you on the head till it hurts."

Huh?

Paula looks around when I walk in, before turning back to her daughter. She's definitely looking a bit happier. Jade's still out, but it looks like she's sleeping normally. I stand just behind Paula. Think I'll skip asking about child abusing grandmothers.

"Alright. Prison's fixed. Ish."

"Do they want to put Jade back in her cell?"

"No, I've talked to the warden… I think.. Jade should.. probably hear this. Are you alright with waking her up?"

She nods, and puts her right hand on Jade's shoulder. "Jade? Jade, it's time to wake up."

A slight moan, a shift in the bed, and her eyes flicker open. Eyes narrow, she looks first at her mother, then me, then her eyes open fully and she stares at her mother. "Mom?"

"Yes Jade, I'm here."

Jade stares for a moment longer. "Paul?"

"Yes?"

"Why does my Mom look like Miss Ho Chi Minh City?"

Paula stifles a laugh. Um?

"I don't know. Is the current Miss Ho Chi Minh City your cousin or something?"

She lays still for a moment. "Paul, what did you do?"

"He repaired my spine. And don't talk about me like I'm not here. It's not polite."

Jade blinks, then shifts her gaze back to me as I frantically but silently shake my head and wave my forearms back and forth across my chest in a 'don't' gesture. Her eyes narrow.

"So, I can't feel any injuries, but the last thing I remember is getting iced. Literally."

"Orange Lantern healed you. You should thank him."

"How.. bad.. was it?"

"Pretty bad, Jade. Usually I'd applaud heroism-" She winces. "-but we nearly lost you there."

I walk around her bed to the other side and pull up a chair. She considers her options.

"Don't think I'm making a habit of it. Tuppence was my cell mate. You need someone to watch your back in a place like this."

"That wasn't Tuppence. That was my colleague, M'gann M'orzz. You remember, the Martian who read your mind when-."

The hand her mother isn't holding goes to cover her face. "I'm starting to hate shapeshifters."

"Mm. Well, she's starting to like you."

"What happened to Frost?"

Don't really want to implicate M'gann in anything that might be criminal. "M'gann hit her, and she hasn't got up yet."

She shuffles, and uses her right hand to move to a sitting position against the headboard. I notice that she hasn't made any effort to reclaim her left hand form her mother. "Was kinda hoping to deal with that myself. Oh well." She looks at her mother, the sheets, and then me. "So, what happens now?"

"Now, you stay right here and look ill. I've spoken to Warden Waller, and she agrees with me that moving you back to the cell block would be a very dangerous thing to do."

"She can't stay here forever."

"I've hired a man named Frederick Tuckman to conduct her.. um, your defence on the assault, membership of a foreign terrorist organisation and attempted murder charges."

Jade's eyes flick to the side. I don't think she recognises the name. "He any good?"

"His client list includes Lex Luthor."

Jade blinks. "That's pretty good."

"His first order of business is to get you transferred to another prison. Since you don't have a registered address I was going to suggest one in Gotham, but that's Blackgate and I don't think you'd be any safer there. How do you feel about the Gloria McDonald Medium Security Facility on Rhode Island?"

"Do they have cable?"

"I didn't ask, but it's pretty close to where I live. I'm also going to talk to the Justice League about getting some of your charges struck or reduced. Manhunter owes you for looking after his niece, and I will be reminding him. With a little luck, you'll be offered a favourable plea bargain before too long."

"Whaw."

I can feel her reaching around for a sarcastic response. A few seconds later it doesn't look like she can find one. Then she raises her eyebrows.

"Guess I should have gotten frozen to death sooner."

Okay, I was wrong.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Home Font

18th September
19:02 GMT +8

I haven't quite gotten used to the stares yet.

Obviously my activity last time I was in Taipei was far more obvious than what I've been doing with the team, but there are plenty of other Caucasians around and it's not as if I'm wearing my armour. But I'm getting recognised. I'm getting photographed. I'm getting gawped at, even just walking down the street.

Feels jolly odd.

I'm on the way to the Mackay Memorial Hospital where Mister Huang Jianhong has recently woken up. Had to skip out on the morning training session, but Kaldur said it was fine. Mister Huang's parents -Missus Huang De and Mister Huang Tung- and a young woman -ah, her name's Miss Su Xin- I assume to be his girlfriend are with him now. It's been a couple of hours, and I think that the initial 'thank-god-I'm-alive' bit should have passed by now. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why I want to speak to him so much. I'm sure that the police will be interviewing him after an appropriate amount of time has passed, though at this point a new lead is unlikely. Everything I know about neurophysiology says that he should be at least as good as new. But I don't regard the case as complete until I've seen for myself.

I don't know whether or not I'm actually allowed in to see him. It isn't as if I'm a relative or anything. Hmm. One of the windows in the room next to his is open, and the door doesn't make a good enough seal to stop my FTL. It's a pretty good room. Mister Luthor made a point of paying for his care. It was thoughtful of him, even if he made sure that the press knew about it. I'd have done it myself, but it just didn't occur to me to offer. I suppose I'm too used to the NHS just being there.

Might as well skip the whole front desk bit. I materialise in a hospital corridor, one door down from the one Mister Huang occupies. I hear a soft thump, and turn to see someone I presume to be either a nurse or an orderly staring at me in astonishment, having just dropped a pile of folded bedclothes she was transporting from the cupboard to a trolley. She's probably in her mid twenties, though I remember reading an interview where the interviewee claimed that Asian women generally kept looking young until they suddenly don't, so I could be well out. I pick the sheets up and move them to their intended destination, before walking toward her. I stop moving when her confusion shifts to nervousness.

"Good morning, miss. Orange Lantern two eight one four."

"Um… G-good morning, sir."

She actually puts her hands together at her waist and gives me a shallow bow. Am I supposed to do that?

"I'm here to check on Mister Huang. He's in this room-" I point. "-is he not?"

"Ah!" She moves to her trolley and consults a clipboard. "Yes, that is where Mister Huang is staying."

"Thank you. I won't keep you."

I find myself bending slightly, as if some part of my brain believed that bowing was appropriate but was unable to secure a majority. I straighten, turn away, walk to the door indicated and knock loudly. The conversation within carries on, and for a moment I wonder if they didn't hear me.

"Come in?"

A woman's voice. I turn the handle and push open the door. Miss Su and Mister Huang senior are sitting on either side of the head of the bed, with Miss Su taking the window side. Missus Huang is sitting by the foot of the bed at her husband's side, and is looking at me as I enter the room. Given how surprised she looks I'm going to assume that she was expecting a doctor or something like that. Miss Su flickers her eyes up, then back to the patient, then back to me with her eyes widening.

"Good morning. I'm sorry to intrude, but I was hoping that I might have a few words with Mister Huang Jianhong."

Mister Huang senior stops talking to his son with a grunt. "You couldn't even wait a day, could y-." He swivels in his seat as he speaks, then cuts off. And I get a direct look at his son for the first time in two weeks. He's smiling faintly, and unlike his guests doesn't seem shocked by my being here at all.

"What can I do to help? They showed me the recordings of what I did, but I really don't remember much about it."

"I didn't honestly expect you to. Have the doctors here explained what the stuff the League of Shadows stuck you with did to your body?"

"Not yet. They're going to run some tests to check how I'm doing. I do remember reading a newspaper article on the effects of Venom use, but I thought that most of the harmful effects took a while to manifest?"

"Usually, they do. But what you were given was a new substance made by combining Venom with something called the Blockbuster Formula. They then mixed that with something called Adder Venom, which is a Venom variant which had only previously been seen in a couple of places in Mexico. The stuff was responsible for you going berserk, and it has much worse side effects than regular Venom."

"How bad?"

"You'd have needed a new liver, and would have been left an emotionally unstable wreck. Probably for the rest of your life."

He looks down at his chest. "I don't seem to be..?"

"Power rings are awesome. The liver was an easy fix, and it's now as good as it ever was. Thing is, I didn't know what your amygdala looked like beforehand, and that has a larger effect on your behaviour than your liver does. When I repaired it, I made it as good as an amygdala can be, and that's probably quite a bit better than it was."

He looks more puzzled than worried. "What would that mean for me?"

"Not sure, to be honest. As an educated guess, you'll be able to learn new skills faster than before, and your memory will probably be better. You'll have better intuition of what other people are feeling or thinking, and you'll probably be calmer and friendlier, no social anxiety at all."

He seems to think for a moment. "Those all sound like good things."

"If there were likely to be negative effects, then I wouldn't have been so gung-ho about doing it. Fact is, I've never done this to someone before and so I can't predict exactly what will happen. Plus, those behaviours might not have been how you were originally."

"You have repaired my son's brain from the damage the terrorists caused… By making him smarter?" Mister Huang Senior wants to make sure that he's understood correctly.

"Sort of? There haven't been any studies into the effects of doing what I did. I mean, we know what the result would have been if I'd done nothing, but it isn't as if I just go around doing this to everyone."

"I do feel a little different." He frowns slightly. "When I woke up, I wasn't worried at all. I suppose I should have been, waking up in hospital with no memory of how I got here. But, I think I like it better this way than the alternative. And I appreciate the effort you have gone through on my behalf. Thank you."

"You're welcome. But if you start to feel uneasy about the situation, contact me on this number." I summon forth a card with the number of the public phone in which I'm monitoring in Happy Harbor.

He takes hold of it. "I will. Thank you for checking up on me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
08:52 GMT -5

Note to self: use FTL more. After I finished talking to Mister Huang and his family and handing my scans of his brain over to his doctor, I decided to walk out of the hospital. As a result, I walked straight into an ambush of news reporters when I reached reception. I couldn't hear what any of them were saying over the general noise and the receptionists were giving me the evils. So, Doctor Manhattan style, I transferred the whole thing outside and set up an impromptu press conference.

When they ignored the order I was trying to create I muzzled them so that only one could speak at a time.

That might have been overdoing it, but they were getting on my nerves. And it certainly made things go much more smoothly. In no particular order: Mister Huang's fine but should probably be left alone for a few days, I don't live in Taiwan, I'm not a member of the Justice League, the police are handling the investigation though I'm happy to give them whatever help they want, I'm single, I'm glad you liked the interview but it was really a fairly spur of the moment thing, never heard of him, never heard of her, never heard of them, why would you even ask that -that came up more than I would have liked-, things in Rhelasia are going well but I was really just acting as a guarantor and credit should go to the politicians, I couldn't say and that while I respect Mister Luthor's work I don't know him well enough to comment.

Once things started getting trivial I excused myself and left. Transitioning to the seaward side of the mountain with the bulk of it between me and the town, I turn head down and dive for the sea entrance. With repeated visits to Atlantis I've got my air to water transition so smooth that I don't feel it, the change being marked only by the different level of illumination. Manta construct extended around me, I turn smoothly in the water and head through the tunnel. Now that I know where I'm going and know how to augment my vision the journey takes much less time than it did back when Diana, Alan and I first used it. Hmm. Where is everyone? Ah, the arena. The computer marks danger areas on the floor and throws up targets. Participants have to hit them as swiftly as possible without getting in each other's way or staying in danger areas. Useful for the others, a bit pointless for me. Last time I tried it I had to switch to the beam pistol and even on low power still managed to shoot through the ceiling into Red Tornado's quarters. No Artemis yet, but everyone else is here.

I'm feeling pretty good. Jade's good deed yesterday, Mister Huang being okay, patched things up with Artemis… I'm getting the urge to do some showing off. I accelerate as I near the surface on the cave end, and prepare a cold gun construct. Pushing water ahead of me I fly from the surface, freezing water droplets so that they fall in a corona of snow about me as I spread my arms wide and spin in the air, orange sigil glowing behind me.

"Duh dah!"

The holographic lights from the training exercise shut down as the others turn toward me.

Robin strokes his chin. "I'd give you a nine point two."

Kon squints. "Nine point four."

Wallace walks to the edge of the water. "Where you been?"

"Mister Huang woke up from his coma." I float through the ice particles to the solid ground. "Seems he quite likes the upgraded amygdala I gave him."

Robin looks interested. "Anything new on Bane or Onyx?"

I shake my head. "He said that he didn't really remember anything, and given what the drugs did to his brain I can well believe it. I didn't want to push too hard."

He nods.

"So, coordination practice?" I raise both arms and form an assault cannon under each, grinning. "I'm up for that."

Kaldur pushes my right arm down. "Perhaps not. I have completed the revisions to the shield bracer you designed-."

I drop the constructs. "Ooh! Gimme! Water armour for everyone!"

Kaldur smiles faintly. "Not quite yet, though this version should allow anyone with some magic training-."

"Recognised, Artemis, B, zero eight."

Wallace looks nervous. "You did patch things up with her, right?"

"Yes, of course I did."

Artemis materialises, scans the room and locks eyes on me. "You."

Wallace steps away from me. "Are you sure?"

I was. I remain exactly where I am as she stalks across the room. What have I done now? Is she angry about me working to get Jade transferred? But that's not going to happen for weeks at least!

M'gann steps into her path. "Good morning Artemis!"

Artemis brushes past her. Ten metres. She's wearing the quiver I made for her, but I can only see two of my arrows. Five metres. Should I try talking to her? Two.

"Er, hello? How have you-?"

One. She reaches up with both hands, pulls my head down to her level and puts her lips to mine. Oh. Um. Am I supposed to shut my eyes? Don't think about Jade. My arms are sticking out to the side slightly. Should I bring them in? Am I supposed to put them on her? Before I can decide she pulls back a little, still holding my head in place.

"Thank you."

"Mm, you're welcome."

Then she pulls back a little further and-.

"Ow! What was that in aid of?"

She's grinning. "I guess it would have worked, then."

I rub my cheek where she slapped it. "Yes of course it would! I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise."

Wallace raises a hand. "Ah, can someone explain what just happened?"

Artemis looks down for a moment, trying to work out how much to share. Perhaps I should..?

"When I went to say sorry, I got Artemis some new arrows. And a rather nice orchi-."

"He healed my mom." She goes to cross her arms at her chest, but I catch hold of her hands and bring them up to my chest instead. She's still not meeting my eyes. "Mom has.. had, a spinal injury. She couldn't walk. He fixed it. The doctor said she should regain full mobility within two months."

Robin's eyes go wide. "You can.. do that? Fix long term injuries?"

"By channelling my need to be in Artemis' good graces, yes."

"Can you.. do that.. to other people..?"

"I can try." I bring Artemis' hand up to my lips, kiss her knuckles and then release them before turning to Robin. "Did you have someone in mind?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
09:21 GMT -5

Robin… No, Richard, leads the way through the corridors of the Gotham Mercy General Hospital with a familiarity born of constant repetition. We went from the mountain to the Bat Cave, then up into Wayne Manor proper where he changed into a suit. I suppose that Batman must have told him that I knew who everyone is, but it was still a strange experience. Like stepping behind the stage at a theatre, or a fairground when the rides are being packed up. No, behind the frontage while they're in operation. I can hear the music and the laughter, but I'm seeing the guts of the operation.

This is also the first time I've seen him without something covering his eyes. I mean, I'd scanned his eyes so that I'd be able to repair them, but I'd never seen them with my own before. I switched to a suit myself, one where the only orange sigil is a tiny one sewn into the lapel. I've transferred the ring into my pocket, and it's taking an effort of will to stop me reaching in to put it back on or to touch it.

Richard looks a lot younger like this. Turns out, there is a good reason why his name isn't abbreviated to anything other than 'Dick'. And we're on our way to see him.

"Richard, I'm so sorry. I mean, I knew about your parents but it never occurred to me to check for other relatives."

"I could have told you after you fixed Su-. After you fixed Conner's ears. Just didn't make the connection."

We pass through a department waiting room. Mister Pennyworth drove us here and he offered to come in with us. Not sure why Richard turned him down.

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Use Wally's full name, and mine."

"Errh. Not really sure, to be honest. Where I'm from, 'wally' means fool, and a 'rubber wally' is a condom, but I think it's mostly just because I don't like abbreviations. That was one reason my Mum picked my name; the fact it can't be abbreviated."

He turns his head to look at me while continuing on his course. "Wally means fool?" He smiles, but it has a brittle edge to it.

"Yeah. I mean, if it really bothers you or him, I could start using abbreviations. I just prefer full names. And I usually call you, you know, the other thing anyway." I'm not used to actively pretending to not be a superhero. Usually it's just convenient, but if, for example, one of Kon's schoolmates rumbled me, I wouldn't care. But Richard and Batman are fully committed to the masquerade, and I respect that. We step aside for an elderly man being pushed down the corridor on a bed. "You know, I can't promise this will work, right?"

"I know. But I've got to try. Uncle Rick's all the family-." He cuts himself off, head going down for a moment. "Aside from Bruce and Alfred, Uncle Rick's all the family I've got."

"Okay."

We walk the rest of the way to the long term care ward in silence. Richard doesn't bother talking to the large black nurse on the desk, instead heading straight for one of the rooms. The nurse gives me a brief puzzled look before turning to my friend.

"I'm sorry Dick, but today wasn't a good day."

He stops, downcast, and nods. "Can we.. go in anyway?"

"'Course you can, hon."

He nods again, and I scurry to catch up.

"Not a good day?"

"Uncle Rick's injuries give him constant pain. When it gets really bad, they just give him something to knock him out." He slows down. "Might be better this way. I wouldn't want to get his hopes up."

I'm wondering how often he's awake, but I don't think I'll ask. He slows almost to a stop as we get to the door labelled 'Richard Grayson'. I raise my right hand to put it on his shoulder, but before it gets there he pulls himself together and opens the door. Not a big room, but I suppose that it doesn't need to be. His uncle is laying on the bed, drip attached to a tap in his right arm. I walk in after Richard and he shuts the door behind me.

Right. I slip the tip of my left ring finger through the ring. Scan. Gods. This isn't a single point of damage like Paula's was. His spine is mashed in five different places, and the tissue around it has healed wrong. His pelvis was broken and set almost correctly, but almost everything is slightly off. I can well imagine that it must hurt. I walk around the bed. Right. I hold my right hand over the bed.

"Heal."

Nothing. Right, come on. This is Richard's last blood relative!

"Heal."

An orange strobe flickers and fails. It's not working, I just can't feel the need for his well-being viscerally enough!

"Work around it, work around it. I didn't cause the injury, and I haven't done anything to offend…"

I can't. Could he? Maybe. I could keep trying, but I've no real reason to believe that I'll do any better.

"It's… It's okay, I-."

"Right. Robin. I've got an idea. I think the reason that it's not working is because I don't think of your Uncle as being part of mine. But, you might be able to do it."

"Wh-? I don't have any training in using a power ring!"

"I know. Okay. I think I should be able to direct the effect while you provide motivation. I'm not sure, but it's the best idea I've got at the moment."

He thinks for a moment, then nods. "What do I do?"

I put the ring fully onto my ring finger and take my left hand out of my pocket. "Take my hand. If you start feeling weird urges, let go immediately." He nods, and takes my left in his right. "Ring, designate Richard John Grayson as secondary user."

"Succession acknowledged."

And I'm looking at the bed from two different places. Ugh. I close my own eyes, and then I just see out of his. That I can manage. "Okay, now focus your mind on your need for your Uncle to be well." I maintain a scan, and share the image with Richard. He knows about as much about Human physiology as I do, but he isn't used to seeing it like this. "When you're ready."

My viewpoint shakes as he nods.

"Uncle Rick, heal."

Nothing. I feel his sympathy for his Uncle through the ring.

"Heal."

"No, that won't work. You're thinking altruistically. Compassion and love won't work with an orange ring."

"Then what will!?"

"Need. Selfish desire. I'm.. I'm sorry. The only thing… You need to remember what it was like when your family first died. The horrible sense of loss and wrongness and abandonment. Feel your need for things to be right, how they should be. Use that."

For a moment he doesn't respond.

"That… That's…"

"Yeah. I know. No, I'm sorry, I don't, but…"

Hell. No one should go through that, but I can't think of another way. Maybe there's a doctor around here..? Vision goes as he scrunches his eyes closed. For a moment, I don't feel anything much. Then I feel him start to shake, and he opens his eyes again, our vision blurry with tears.

"Uncle Rick, heal."