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

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:24 GMT -7

The revenant before me lifts the elderly homeless man up by the shirt and looks at him critically.

"I 'unno. You carrying anything?"

"Don't have anything, don't have any money. Just leave me alone."

"You smell good." The revenant shakes its head. "Which is kinda freaky, to be honest. You sure don't look like you should smell good-. I mean, ew, right? I'm not telling you anything you don't know. But something about this whole situation really sets me off."

The revenant bangs him against the wall behind me a couple of times, like a cat toying with something that might be able to resist a little more if it were properly motivated. It's curious how many of them act like that. I've certainly never felt the drive, but then.. I.. suppose I'm not exactly like the rest.

"Hearts ready for harvesting."

The revenant looks around at the voice, its eyes narrowing slightly as it tries to pick me out in the dark. Their… Alright, our, vision is better than what humans have, but between my body's lack of vital function and my environmental shield I don't make much noise or reflect much light.

"Oh, hey." The revenant smiles. "Didn't see you there."

Clearly. But that's a statement of fact. I'm not sure what it expects me to say.

"You been here long?"

"About a minute and a half."

"No, no, I mean Sunnydale. Is this, like, your patch? Are you in charge?"

It seems to find the idea… Entertaining?

"I only got out of the ground last week, y'know? Still finding my feet with this whole 'vampire' thing? Is this face normal? Did Anne Rice lie to me?"

I take a couple of slow steps forward. "I did not know that. You seem to be managing. Yes, that face is normal, and I do not believe so."

It frowns. "Huh?"

"It is unlikely that Anne Rice has any real knowledge of the supernatural. As such, her misrepresentation would not be a lie."

"Oh. Yeah. Huh, you're English? Are all English vampires, like, super old and think American vampires are making all our kind look bad?"

"I am indeed English. I can't speak for English vampires in general but I myself have existed in this state for less than a year. And while American revenants do 'make us look bad', that same appears to be true for every nationality of vampire."

"Hah, yeah, I guess the whole 'eating people' thing never really looks…" It frowns. "You wanna share or something? Usually their blood pressure drops real quick when I feed and I end up having to bite them in a bunch of different places or just…" It grins. "Pull off their arms and shit and just let the blood spurt into my mouth, but if you-"

"Hearts ready for harvesting."

"-wanna share-? Or are hearts your thing? Oh, have you ever ripped someone's still-beating heart out of their chest and shown it to them? 'Cause I tried-"

"Yes."

"-that once and their ribs kinda ripped-. You have?" It looks excited, and I can see the strong confluence of lights in its chest. "That is so cool! Can I just feed on this guy a little bit and then give him to you so you can show me?"

A direct question.

"Yes."

"Mhhrrrrrrrnonononno."

"Hearts ready for harvesting."

"Is that like your ring tone or something?" The revenant grins. "Hah!"

"No."

"Whatever, dude." It holds the man out in my direction. "Come on! Go for it!"

Wasn't I supposed to say-. Ah, yes.

"You may wish to remove your outer garments."

"Yeah, kinda gets my engine running, too. Though that's not a vampire thing; I was kinda bitchy when I was a human, too."

"Strictly speaking, you were never human."

It looks at me with a frown. "Ah, pretty sure I remember being human, dude."

"Revenants such as yourself are demon-possessed corpses. You retain human memories because the brain of your host body has them, but you'll notice that you instinctively relate to them in a very different way. And I do not find violence arousing."

It frowns, then nods. "Does explain a few things. But-. Oh right! You're not draining him first! He's gunna splatter all over the place! Just a sec."

It passes me the homeless man and then takes off its coat and.. blouse, dropping them on the lid of a nearby bin. It then removes its skirt, depositing them on the pile. Then it strikes a pose.

"Yeah, demon-possessed corpse? Ultimate diet plan. And my family buried me in cheap shitty-ass clothes anyway. Guess I need to go back home and get my wardrobe back." It smiles at me and then nods at the homeless man. "Okay." It steps a little closer and holds its arms out to the side. "Hit me."

I thrust my right hand through its exposed chest and yank it back with its heart between my fingers.

It looks at it for an instant.

"Huh."

And then its entire body turns to dust.

"Feed."

The heart remains in my hand for a moment. Not beating, because why would it start now, but clearly existing separate from its former home. Then it etherealises, orange light being sucked into my ring.

"Power level two point two percent."

And then I remember the wonderful feeling of selfishness, of wanting and taking things for myself. I let the homeless man go and rummage through the revenant's clothing for-. Ah! Its purse! The first few times I did this I didn't separate the clothing first, and for some reason it turned to dust along with the rest, but now I usually manage to remember.

"Here." I hold it out to the homeless man. "Not a huge amount, but it's probably worth a meal or two."

He's sort of collapsed to the floor, just staring at-.

"Heart ready for harvesting."

Yes, he.. would be a good source. But I don't want to, and for now I remember that, and remember why. And there are plenty of more acceptable targets I can get a fear-filled heart from in a place like Sunnydale. And then rage and maybe hope, and then…

And then I'll start to feel a little more alive.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:29 GMT -7

The fact that the library is called the Sunnydale Library doesn't mean that this is that Sunnydale. America has a line in places with odd names, Jump City being the case in point. Apparently it was a mishearing of a word from the local tribal dialect when the area was first settled by Europeans, though 'Sunnydale' sounds more like a fifties New Town.

If this is that Sunnydale, then was my orange alter-ego's ward set off by the mayor directly, or by whatever area effect thing he has that makes people actually want to live here? Atrocitus was kind enough to give me some basic lessons on blood magic, and I can do a few simple rituals, but anything sophisticated is beyond me. One of the simplest things I can do is blood divination, and that's probably going to be quicker than wandering around at random or asking my ring.

Of course, since I'm a neophyte, what I can actually get out of this is a bit basic.

I raise my hands, calling upon the spirits of the vengeful dead to answer my-

"Ah. Hey."

-call-.

I lower my hands and look at the…

That's Oz. This is that Sunnydale.

So many glorious targets. If the mayor isn't immortal yet then I'm pretty sure I could kill the serial killing monster baiting shit. I mean, the whole 'masquerade' thing barely made sense when it was just Sunnydale and the Hellmouth. Because if magic exists and has existed since human prehistory, on a power level where a few years' study grants the ability to conjure observable phenomena, civilisation should be unrecognisable. At the very least, the knowledge shouldn't be ring fenced like it is here.

I wonder if I can talk Time Trapper or Red Queen into sending me back here?

"Hello." I drift a little closer. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you..? A vampire?"

He sounds more curious than afraid. I land a short distance from him.

"No. I'm a superhero."

"Right. But a superhero who's a vampire, or a superhero who's not a vampire?"

"I'm not a vampire. Though I am looking for an undead. They should look like me, with a black ring?"

"Ah…" He shakes his head. "Haven't seen him."

"Do you know where I might find some undead?"

He manages a small shrug. "Have you..? Tried the graveyard?"

"I wouldn't have thought that established undead would spend much time there." Another small shrug. "Thank you for your suggestion, but I think that I'll leave it as a last resort."

He nods, frowning in thought.

"Are superheroes a thing? 'Cause, I only just started finding out about vampires being a thing. Which makes me think that other things I didn't think were things might be things as well."

"I can't speak for Sunnydale, but if there are people with supernatural or preternatural abilities who devote themselves to the greater good, then yes, even if they don't follow the usual tropes of superheroism. Costumes aren't required, though armour is recommended. I come from a parallel universe so I can't speak for any local colleagues who may or may not exist."

"Huh."

"Well, pleasant talking to you, but I really must-."

Dust and lumps of tarmac explode past me, and I blast a line between me and the impact zone clear! Cars parked on the roads around us get the worst of it: the windows and panelling facing the centre of the blast are smashed and caved, alarms blaring pointlessly into the night.

"Mister Oz, are you alright?"

He takes a moment to check himself over, then brushes off the dust that got past me. "Uh, yeah. Surprisingly, actually."

"Any idea what that was?"

"Ah… No."

I nod. "Ordinarily, I'd suggest running, but since I don't know what it was, I'll leave that up to you."

Pieces of debris that were thrown directly upwards rain down as the dust clouds begin to clear, and through them I see a shape. Humanoid. Clothing seems loose…

"Stupid ground!"

Female voice. Adult. Not in distress. Someone new to super strength navigation? She.. strides out of the clouds. Pale skin, unkempt blonde hair and… Hospital uniform? Bare left foot, and she kicks off what's left of her right shoe a moment later. She doesn't look injured.

She fixes her eyes on me, heading my way at walking pace.

"You."

"How may I be of service?"

"Yes, you, new minion. Open a portal for me."

"Where would you like to go?"

"Home. Back to my own dimension."

"I'm afraid that I can't open that sort of portal myself, but if you like I can ask someone who can if they can help you?"

She stops. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Certainly. It doesn't cost me anything to ask. And if it turns out that you're a problem I can always kill you later."

She tilts her head slightly to the left, an open-mouthed smile on her lips.

"Huh. Yeah, about-"

She blurs forward but I'm already shooting upward and her grasping hand narrowly fails to snag my right boot. A dash back and her follow up leap misses.

"-that-."

An energy pulse from me destroys the paving slab she uses as an ersatz projectile and then I've had about enough of her shit. I open my mouth and douse her with a stream of the Butcher's blood, the highly caustic substance melting-.

Her clothes and-.

"Heh."

I just turned her hair from dull blonde to peroxide blonde.

…

All of her hair.

…

I feel my anger falter at the sheer ridiculousness of it, and my flight aura wobbles.

The woman looks at her arm, noticing that the sleeve is gone. Then she checks her body. Then she takes hold of a strand of her hair in her right hand and holds it in front of her eyes.

Then she drops it and glares at me.

"Oh, very mature."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:33 GMT -7

"Hehahahah." I shake my head. "Okay, look: who are you and what the heck is your problem?"

"I just want to go home! Why is this so difficult for everyone to understand?!"

"From the looks of things, because you're being a colossal bitch about it! Who are you, anyw-?"

And then she's there, grabbing-. Ah! My left arm as she leaps and dragging me down with her!

"I'm Glorificus, and as a goddess I really don't think I should have to deal with-. With pond scum with delusions of adequacy, like humans and-" She turns her face away. "-werewolves and don't think I didn't see you trying to sneak aw-."

Red vomit to the eyes red electrified chains to the arms, neck and legs! She loosens her grip more in surprise than anything else, but as I rise she squeezes-.

"Hah!" She lands on her rump as pain flares through my body! "Got your arm! And I'm going to pull your dog-pal-."

Killing the bitch.

My blood stops spurting, mixing with the red light and coagulating in the form of a replacement limb. Red horns form upon my brow in the shape of the red sigil. This woman ate the sanity of others to keep herself in control of the body she shares with… Whatever his name was, who murdered and stole and generally rampaged through life without a care save for the convenience her actions brought her. And those idiots who didn't just kill her or the 'key' when they had the chance.

The blood-fingers of my new left arm form into razor blades, enhanced not just by my hate but by the righteous anger of all those she-.

Violet's Supergirl strikes her like the wrath of Rao! The shocked Glory is knocked onto her back, then her attacker goes to work, punching face and diaphragm, heat vision burning into her eyes for a second before Supergirl's thumbs dart in-.

The bitch is stealing my kill-. No. No! No, not stealing my kill, helping me.

Helping me.

This is why I don't fight with people who aren't Komand'r.

I drop down and pick up my discarded arm in my remaining hand, then fly up out of lunge range before pushing it into the red light simulacrum. A sharp-

-bwugh-

-and then I'm whole again. For the moment. It's not a secure reattachment, but it'll do for now.

It didn't irritate her eyes or lungs. My acid vomit isn't a completely reliable attack, but the lack of non-comedic impact leaves me concerned about her exotic resistances. Supergirl's clearly doing some damage, but I'm only seeing tiny amounts of blood. Less than a normal person would show after another normal person attacked them like this. My constructs hit less hard, and I don't have another tool to leverage. That leaves using ritual magic to supercharge myself or that old fallback 'toss her into space'. I seem to remember that Willow teleported her into the air once and she couldn't fly-.

Glory headbutts Supergirl hard enough to knock her off, but she catches herself with her own flying ability after three metres and surges back down! Glory ends up with her head pushed back so far that it's underground, her face facing dirt while her body lies on the cracked pavement. Looks like Glory never learned to fight efficiently with her human-seeming body whereas Supergirl clearly has. Heh, I wonder if this is the real-world version of a bullet sponge boss? Glory's never going to manage to do anything to her, but Supergirl can't inflict enough damage quickly enough to beat her.

A shame that she won't actually kill her, but I think there was a prison in Angel that could actually cope with beings like her.

"Stop."

Glory manages to catch Supergirl's right wrist with her left hand, prompting Supergirl to twist into a position that lets her kick Glory in the fa-.

"Doing that!"

The air shimmers between Glory's right hand and Supergirl's face-. Her sanity-draining ability.

Supergirl isn't quite stunned, but she's clearly off her game for a moment and Glory slugs her hard enough to smash her into the front of the library. Ah, looks like-

I dip down, grab Glory around the waist with a construct and haul her into the air, keeping myself at a safe distance.

-plan 'lob a bitch' is back on. I gain height rapidly, hoping that this isn't the film version of Buffy where vampires could fly. No, no flying vampires and no mayor deciding to shoot me with demon lightning, just a patch of violet where my alter ego is heading into town-.

"How dare you even touch me you-"

"Heart ready for harvesting."

"-filthy-!"

Her chest bursts, a gore-covered.. hand poking through, and what I presume to be her heart held between its fingers. The heart glows a faint red for a moment before decaying and flowing back into… The black ring on the hand that had been holding it.

I drop the body at once, ignoring it as it continues in a ballistic arc towards the outskirts of town, and back the heck away from my super-zombie alter ego.

He looks pale, naturally enough, and unlike both myself and Orange he appears to have kept our long hair. He.. breathes in deeply as the red light he absorbed from Glory's heart flows through him, running from his ring and through his veins into his mind. My own ring pulses in sympathy as the stolen rage threatens to overwhelm him-. Which at least suggests that he's not a pawn of Nekron.

"Power level two point four percent."

Or not. We could perhaps try some sort of magic to pull his soul back into his body, but if he's ripping hearts out of people then I'm going to accept-.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

He's angry, yet coherent. Possibly a hopeful sign, except that I remember that Nekron had his Black Lanterns feign having the personalities of the bodies they animated. So… Is that his anger, or a form of concealment which uses hers?

Either way, there's no obvious benefit to lying. Time Trapper wants him. Glory is about as powerful as enemies get around here and he pulled her heart out.

"Or are you incapable of speech? Did you get a ring that makes you insane?"

"Yes, I can talk. Am I talking to Nekron, or-"

"Heart ready for harvesting."

I eye his ring.

"-am I talking to me?"

"Not yet. I take hearts to feel emotion. I'm only about half myself at the moment, and in a few hours I won't even be that." He regards me impassively for a moment. "Why are you here?"

"Krona's abducting versions of us from parallel universes. We all came from Earth Prime and we all got power rings, but you're the only Black Lantern."

"Lucky everyone else."

"I'm happy to help, but we need to deal with Krona first."

"Alright. I just need to make one stop first."

I frown. "Why?"

"I'm a vampire. I feed on blood to get stronger. And right now Glory's god-blood is going to waste on the Sunnydale pavements."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:41 GMT -7

Paul looks awkwardly at black-Paul as he drops the exsanguinated body. Halfway through him.. feeding upon it, it became a man, though that did not appear to trouble him. Was the false goddess possessing someone? If she was then that would be regrettable. I will pray for their soul once this mission is over.

"Better?"

"Stronger, at least."

I turn-. My mouth tightens slightly as pulses of pain radiate from my bruises. I have never learned to completely suppress my response to being injured. The Bat once said that it was because I wasn't injured often enough to become used to it. I… Sometimes wonder if it is because I.. am embarrassed to be so weak that I can be injured.

"Did you actually get any benefit from feeding on… Whatever his name was?"

"The two of them were so closely bound together that the only difference is that piercing his skin was easier."

Paul hasn't said anything. Either of them. Did he not notice? Not care? I'm still feeling too… Awkward about my.. accusation, to ask him.

Why did I think that?! Stupid girl!

But that.. 'Glorificus'? Was a clumsy fighter. In open ground, killing her from a distance would just be a matter of patience. I only fought her in melee in order to prevent the town being levelled, and even then-.

She was stronger than I am.

But not as skilled. She had not worked for her strength. She simply was.

Like Karl.

No, no, not like Karl. Karl worked to become better at what he did. More skilled.

"I thought that vampires here were demon-possessed corpses."

"Usually, yes. But black rings don't share."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

It's an instinctive response, not showing weakness, not being weak. And it's stupid as well because he can see perfectly well what I'm feeling. And his eyes tell me that he knows I know, but that if I don't want to talk about it now we can do it later.

He's going to want me to talk to that Jewess.

He might suggest someone else first, but that's what he wants, because he trusts her. Because he thinks that she'll do the best job. That she'll understand me.

Am I supposed to want to kill her?

I-. I don't. Karl wouldn't want me to, and she isn't… Doing anything... Jew-ish. I know that. In my head, I know that-.

"-go?"

Damn it!

"I'm sorry. I was distracted."

"Are you ready to go? Is there anything you want to do before we take a portal back?"

"Are there any orange power rings here?"

He closes his eyes for a moment. "None on Earth. And I couldn't call one from somewhere else quickly." He opens his eyes and looks at black-him as he takes out a phone. "You own a phone?"

"Mister Giles insisted."

Red-Paul looks around.

"Shouldn't there be some police by now? If only to cover things up more quickly."

"Normal police like to give everyone enough time to get away. The mayor's people learn to be cautious, or they learn to be dead."

"You haven't killed him?"

"I can barely motivate myself to move most-. Mister Giles, it's me. I'm being called away. I…"

I watch as the Red Paul flies away at speed, and I'm.. distracting myself by wondering how they both know about this place. They might be able to use their rings to access data networks, but if the history of this Earth is more similar to Earth 16 than my Earth then the data networks shouldn't be advanced.. enough…

Time Trapper said that a version of me exists here.

Perhaps not on Earth 16, but definitely here. Certainly here. Someone who made a life for herself, without alien genetics.

How would.. she..?

"Did you see where Red went?"

"Ah-?" I look in the direction he flew in, looking through the buildings to spot-.

In the distance a large pneumatic ram construct appears and slams repeatedly into a building.

"Oh, for goodness-. He couldn't wait a few hours?"

"Who was in there?"

"The local mayor is a magician who built a town over a portal to hell in order to make it easier to empower himself at the townspeople's expense. I think Red Lantern just killed him."

I nod. "Are you worried about being delayed?"

"I'm worried about setting off a mutual assurance of destruction exchange between the world's most powerful magicians because I jumped the gun. It's not killing sufficiently bad people that I have a problem with, it's failing to plan for the fallout."

"Like how the General Protection Squadron's obsession with exterminating every subhuman delayed the settlement of Greater Germany's new territory after the war?"

And he looks at me and I know I shouldn't have said that. Stupid girl!

"Um. Possibly? Though I.. imagine that a better comparison would be the lack of a handover plan from the Protection Squadron to the regular police." He shakes his head, and I know that I.. just.. disgusted him and he's still being nice about it. "I'm going to grab him. Black Lantern?"

"If I wasn't worried about Nekron drawing strength from his death I would have killed him myself."

"Magic mutually assured destruction. Wolfram and Hart have planar travel. Setting that off definitely risks Krona hearing about it."

"True, but I only just discovered that Krona was a problem."

"But you knew that Wolfram and Hart, and… The First Evil? And the legion of super vampires under the hellmouth? Were here."

"I feel emotion by ripping it from the hearts of others. I don't get to feel compassion very often."

"Okay. Angelika, look after Black. I'm going after Red."

He flies in the direction of the still-pounding piston.

I have a few minutes, but… If this is a greater risk of alerting Krona anyway…

"Black Lantern? Have you visited Germany?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th August 1997
08:52 GMT +2

"Ah, hallo?"

The woman who-. Doesn't.. actually look a great deal like either myself or my mother looks around, her eyes widening slightly as she sees me floating in the air above her. I.. think she looks like Aunt Katarin, but between her age and my kryptonian genetic modifications-. I should have realised that becoming part-Karl would change the way I look.

The two people she was talking to are staring as well, but I'm sure that the way I'm staring at.. me makes it obvious who I'm-.

Why are they smoking? It's a degenerate habit! Yes, I knew that without-. Without the social changes the National Socialist German Workers' Party made, some practices which-. I saw that on Earth 16. But seeing myself behave like that is… Worse. I understand that someone who… Had not grown up to regard preservation of the strength and purity of the race as a noble pursuit might.. become involved with other races. But why would any person wilfully poison themself like that?

"… Yes? Can I help you?"

I drop down to.. just above pavement level. The other two people are smoking as well. Are they being shunned by their peers? I can't see any armband.

"You are Angelika Köhler?"

"That.. was my maiden name. I'm Angelika Becker now." She smiles. "I have been for a while."

Married, with children. Yes.

"And your parents were Peter and Gabriele, from Danzig?"

"I don't think we're supposed to call it that." For some reason she is staring at the area around me. "How.. are you doing that?"

"Alien genetics which allow me to generate a biological force field."

She chuckles. "Aliens?"

I purse my lips and blow, the sudden wind extinguishing her cigarette. And freezing most of it. Her face falls in surprise, prompting her to raise the cigarette so that she can take a closer look. She then squeezes it between her thumb and forefinger, and watches as frost formed from the water vapour in the air around it begins to appear.

"My God."

"I think that the proper answer is: 'no, but people do make that mistake sometimes'." I land a short distance in front of her. "I could also demonstrate my strength, but… I would have to break something."

"What-?" She lowers her hand. "Who are you?"

"I'm you. A.. different version of you. From a parallel universe."

"Oh. I.. don't really know what to say." She looks me over. "I don't remember ever looking that good. Is that the… Alien genetics as well?"

"Yes, and an active lifestyle. Mostly the genetics."

"So… What-? Why are you here?"

Perhaps… Best not to mention the actual reason.

"I wanted to find out what my life would have been like if things.. had gone a little differently. I age only very slowly, but I've never married. I also can't have children."

The.. older version of me chuckles nervously as her co-smokers continue to stare.

"Do you want to borrow mine for a little while?"

"I.. do not think that I will have… Time. But you are happy? With the life you have lived? Working-" I look up at the Kirow Ardelt GmbH sign. "-here?"

"I…" She shakes her head. "Suppose? I haven't had another life to compare it to. Is that why you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes." No. "And… In this country?"

Another chuckle. "As opposed to where? Poland?"

"The Greater German Empire."

One of the observers hisses air in through his teeth, while my doppelgänger looks.. slightly nervous. Not.. afraid, but I can hear as her heart rate increases and see as the increasing flow of blood to her muscles causes a change in her body temperature.

"You're a..?"

"A National Socialist, yes. I am known as Overgirl. Which is… I understand that women are encouraged to have a greater role in the workforce on… Earths where the National Socialists were defeated. I have.. struggled to reconcile what.. the Party says is the proper role for women with how I actually live."

"And-?"

And now there's fear. A pure-blooded German who was.. afraid of a movement devoted to acting in the interests of her and her people.

"My adoptive father… He loathes it. The things he is expected to believe, expected to do. What he did for the Empire when he was too young to question it. He has tried to raise his concerns in public on a few occasions, but no one is listening. I thought-. I always thought that… Yes, that period of our history was violent, but it paved the way to something better. But I look around…"

I do just that, using what little temporal energy I retained from Time Trapper to see through the objects which would usually stop my vision. Not… Peaceful; this is after all a city during the morning rush hour. But at peace. Perhaps… Lacking the grandeur that my Leipzig possesses, but a fine city in its own right.

"It was all lies. It was all lies. We could have lost the Second Great War and everything would have been fine anyway. We could have just not.. fought it at all."

"Yes, that-" She nods vigorously. "-would have been much better."

It is as if some great… Knot has unravelled inside me. Not a knot of rope, but a knot that might be tied in a balloon. When you untie it, everything just.. flies out and.. nothing is left inside.

It's all…

It was all…

I barely feel it as my other self cautiously pulls me into a maternal hug, the fact that time travel has made her younger than me seeming irrelevant.

It must be so much worse for Karl. He actually-. And he stayed strong for-. For those parts of what he believed that were not… Lies. And for me. And…

This is so much more than.. a few little.. lies, to.. ease the minds of the public and not distract them from-.

"How did-." I pull out of her grip a little. "How did Germany..? Stop being a nation of National Socialists?"

"We lost the war. There were trials for the people most directly involved in what the National Socialists did. And ever since then we have been reminded of everything they did so that we never forget it. I don't think that would work in a world where Germany won the war. I think your people would probably learn the wrong lessons."

"Yes. I did. And I have more reason to question things than most."

I… I wipe my eyes. I breathe in slowly, then breathe out.

"I think-."

"Angelika, what the heck are you playing at?!"

I look around and-. Orange Paul has finished with the problems Red Paul was creating.

"I… Needed to talk to her."

He frowns at me and.. her.

"After Time Trapper specifically told you not to?" He shakes his head. "Come on. We're leaving. Hopefully, Krona won't pick up anything."

His ring blinks, his face falls, and he grabs me with a construct tether and we vanish.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 1997
23:58 GMT -7

"A few hours, Angelika."

I shake my head at her, trying not to look at the burning pits Red-me burned into the Sunnydale landscape. It's not that I don't understand why. Empathic vision shows clearly that she's now part way towards resolving her internal contradictions. In any circumstances other than one in which we'd been told specifically not to encounter parallel universe versions of ourselves I'd be delighted.

"I-. I know."

"Fucking red wanker!"

"Heart ready for-"

There's a quiet poof as William the Bloody turns into a pile of dust.

"-harvesting."

Can't say Red isn't efficient. With Mayor Wilkins, Spike and Glory dead, I guess Buffy can take a year off to actually have a life. A few years, actually. I wonder if her desire to get her slayer-work done as quickly as possible would make her a good choice for an orange ring?

"Are you finished?"

Red nods. "That's it for now."

"We're work-." I make a point of flying through Red Queen's portal and waiting for them. Angelika is through a moment later, followed first by Red and then Black. "We're working for a time traveller. Why could none of you wait?"

"Red ring."

"And if you were a feral monster I'd accept that for an answer."

"I'm not making an excuse, I'm saying-. It encourages you to think-" The portal closes. "-in certain ways. And-."

"And I use an orange ring. I wanted them dead too, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't wait until we're done."

He frowns. "Really? I'd have thought that you'd have had to embrace our impulsive side."

"I learned not to indulge myself."

Komand'r flies over my head with an unpleasant chuckle. "Bet that makes your girlfriend happy." She kisses Red. Loudly. "Hey bae. Kill anyone good?"

"No, I only kill bad people. And you know vampires don't leave good skulls."

She floats on to take a look at Black. "And this is the new you?"

He leans away. "Tamaranean. I don't like sunlight."

"Yeah, I see that."

"The point I was making is that I've learned to act when I'm angry. The things that make me angry are -I think- things that a right-thinking person would get angry about, but condition themselves to accept. Time Trapper didn't tell us not to kill people, we know they're bad-."

"Get over here!"

We look around at Time Trapper's exclamation, then fly over to the spire.

"Alright, simple question: have any of you had any contact with parallel universe versions of yourselves before?"

Angelika glances awkwardly at me. Red and Black shake their heads, while I nod.

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Ten different versions. I met the blue version of me-. Us, from Earth negative fourteen. I also visited his parallel. I also.. got.. visions of three other versions of us; an indigo version, a version with an anti-green ring and-" I nod at Red. "-you."

"Me?"

"I saw you rescuing Komand'r from some police officers and… I think you had a good argument, there. And then I.. saw you return to your home with her, stow your armour-. You keep skulls?"

"I feel immense satisfaction whenever I look at them."

"You've met before?!"

"No, just-. Ambush Bug did something that made me see parts of their lives from their perspective. And then the next year I got visions of a yellow ring user, someone with angel wings grafted to his back and several other orange ring users."

"And you didn't think to mention that?"

"You came to me, having met me before. You didn't ask. I don't know how this works."

"And it was Ambush Bug who did it?"

"Irwin Schwab, yes."

"Wait." Komand'r's starting to smile. "Do you insist on using everyone's real name as well?" Her smile grows, and she elbows Red. "You do!"

"Indigo." The Time Trapper nods. "Indigo. We can work with that. The indigo light can serve as a link… Did he have a staff?"

"Yes." I frown. "Which… Seems a little unfair." I look at Red. "Did you-?"

He shakes his head. "Lord Atrocitus gave me one. You?"

"Alan Scott gave me his. Black?"

"I don't use a lantern. I don't even know where this ring came from."

"'This ring'?"

"Yes?"

"Say 'my ring'."

"Why?"

"I spent a year being literally incapable of saying 'my ring' until I met my ring's creator and she gave me the ability. It was always 'this ring' or 'the ring'."

Red raises his eyebrows. "You met your ring's creator?"

"You haven't?"

"No, this-. My ring, the ring I'm wearing now, was made by Lord Atrocitus. He took the ring I started with because he didn't trust it."

"Can you call it 'my ring'?"

"The ring-. The ring-." He blinks. "No, I can't."

"Did you ever talk to the Controllers?"

"Why would I? Lord Atrocitus hates them for being part of the Manhunter development program."

"Black?"

"If I left the Earth, I might forget 'why' and just float there for eternity."

Time Trapper exhales. "Though it does suggest that Controller Hinon is disturbingly insecure, it's just a memetic program. Red Queen, please open-."

A new portal opens.

"Thank you. You need to acquire this Indigo Lantern, or confirm his disappearance. If you get him, I can get to work on-."

"That portal isn't mine."

 

[Mr Zoat]

In
Between

Black focuses intently on the portal. "Hostile?"

"Of course it's hostile. I can feel the other versions of me he has hooked up to the machine he uses to generate it."

"And we're not being swarmed under with Manhunters because..?"

Time Trapper begins picking up shards of crystal and depositing them in his robe. "Because this place is protected. But imperfectly. Charging in will turn his assault force into an outwardly-directed blast of exotic radiation, but he can work around that problem given time." He looks at me. "Did Ambush Bug show you anything about how you should handle events like this?"

"No."

"Did he say anything that could be helpful?"

"No, but… When I met Doctor Schwab, he mentioned..? I don't know if it's important, but he mentioned that he was having some sort of contact with Grayven."

"Grayven? Darkseid's son?"

"I don't know anyone else with that name."

"What exactly did he say?"

"'Only from your point of view. From everyone else's, they got a quick lesson on the Antarctic's environment and an awesome fight with robots and pirates! And that Grayven guy, for the niche crossover appeal.'"

"Niche.. crossover-?"

I point at Red. "Teen Titans." Then at Black. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Red frowns. "What?"

"You don't know who the Teen Titans-?"

"No, I know who the Titans are. I just didn't recognise the exact line-up."

"You don't remember the animated series?"

"Not with that line-up. Why? Do.. you?"

"I remember a Buffy the Vampire Slayer film."

"But not the television series?"

"No. I remember the comic series, which…" He frowns. "I watched Angel. I remember Buffy appearing in a few episodes. I didn't think it was important…"

Shit. Have I forgotten some sort of.. comic series, or Teen Titans reboot that.. I'm now living through? I didn't recognise how I was talking about my ring and I still can't say my name…

Time Trapper exhales sharply. "Your mental deficiencies are not pertinent at this stage. Were any of the versions of you which you've seen involved at all in parallel universe travel?"

"Blue's parallel has planeshifting technology, but they're a Crime Syndicate reality."

"That will have to-."

Red Queen tenses.

"They're-"

The universe around us shudders as the portal jerks wider, just in time to admit a huge robot.

"-through."

It's clearly a Manhunter, though at eight feet tall and nearly as wide it's far larger and less feminine than the previous batch we encountered. Its outer surface is red, shaped like a heroically proportioned humanoid sumo wrestler, the only breaks in colour being the purple-grey bands around its legs and forearms. Its chest-. The head is bucket-shaped, purple-grey face and two 'eyes' which I suspect are show. The front piece of the chest is transparent, clearly showing a woman-

Jade, that's a Jade.

-trapped there like I remember the pre-War of Light Manhunters did with captured Green Lanterns. It's using her in order to exist here.

"By the command of Krona, no man escapes the Manhunters."

My crystalline construct armour is already in place, and I put a shield in front of Red Queen and Time Trapper happens to be there. Red throws out construct magnets-on-poles, Angelika flies an evasive pattern while firing heat vision and Komand'r charges.

"Time-"

Angelika burns out its faux eyes, though the armour beneath proves far more resilient. Komand'r's eye beams hit the middle of the transparent section a second ahead of her fists. For a instant the Manhunter appears to be moving to block her, then the constructs hum and it trembles, not crippled but just slightly put off its stride.

"RRRRRAAAAGH!"

The Manhunter shakes at the hits, but isn't knocked back, much less actually damaged.

"-Trapper-"

The Manhunter's internal sections start to glow, and the crystal landscape around us starts to fracture.

"-what are-"

Time Trapper's hood jerks around. Great, he doesn't know what's happening either.

"-we doing?"

The spheres of bubbling wax twist and flow, moving through the air to form circles around the Manhunter.

Angelika darts to the Manhunter's right arm and grabs a finger, straining for a moment to bend it back and break it. A moment later it gives way and Red sprays red vomit into the breach-.

And then it moves.

Komand'r is pushed into the ground, fracturing crystal embedding itself in her flesh. Golden light flares around the hand Angelika is attacking, disintegrating an arc across her costume and leaving an angry red welt on her skin. The red light from Red's ring is redirected, drawn into a siphon deployed from the grey-purple bracer on its left forearm. And then it's in front of him, damaged face-.

Black hits it, ghostly white claws coating his hands and slicing through the Manhunter's chest-mounted containment unit-.

A small explosive detonates, and that Jade's head is reduced to a red smear.

No.

Violet crystal encases the Manhunter's arms and legs as Red grabs Komand'r and pulls back as fast as he can.

"Queen, anywhere."

"They're-. Jamming-."

The portal spasms again as the crystal around the Manhunter I trapped begins to crack. Their AIs aren't sophisticated enough to learn to feel love.

Red Queen sags as another, smaller portal opens. "Go."

Jade 32 appears from behind the spire and dives through, Time Trapper just behind her, and Angelika waits just long enough to get a nod from me before flying for it. Komand'r's gotten over her shock sufficiently to take Red through with her, while Black pulls back more slowly, alert for any sign of weapon-.

Another Manhunter drifts through their portal, opening fire as it comes! Black just tanks the shots-

"Go."

-and I fly through the portal.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Out
Again

I'm.. in some sort of.. workshop? Computer controlled assembly units are set into the walls, and as the lights furthest away from us blink on I see that there's plenty of space left over. Empty storage? For raw materials, or finished products. Red shoves Komand'r into cover and then flies for a wall-mounted first aid kit while Time Trapper types something on a computer interface built into one of the room's support columns. Cheshire 32 appears to have made herself scarce.

I take a moment to regain my focus, then create a ring of violet crystal around the portal aperture.

"…down, this place-"

Angelika lands next to Time Trapper as he keeps typing.

"-was programmed to be paranoid about kryptonians, although-"

There's a clunk as large energy cannons emerge from their roof-mounted housings, and in the distance I see lightly-armed drones flying in our direction.

"-in this case, that-"

Red Queen flies out of the portal, her armour smouldering as she hits the ground and tries to roll with her momentum. It doesn't quite work and she strikes a column side-first before recovering sufficiently to throw a crystal at the portal.

"-may be to our advantage."

It.. closes-.

I watch the air for a moment.

"Black?"

Red Queen gingerly pushes herself upright as Red Me begins cleaning Komand'r's wounds.

"He was overwhelmed."

She looks down at her armour, which shimmers faintly as it reknits itself.

"Alright." Time Trapper steps back as the guns above us point in a more neutral direction. "The system has accepted us for the time being. I'll begin fabricating the tuning fork. Queen, you'll need to liaise with whoever is running the local Lantern Corps at the moment."

There's a scarlet flicker as she vanishes.

"Where are we?"

"One of our backup sites." He walks over to a fabricator and inserts a data stick into its port. "It was built by the local Lex Luthor at the height of his anti-Superman paranoia. Since he disappeared, I think we're the only ones who know about it."

Red glares at me, then flicks his eyes in the direction of Angelika as he tends to Komand'r. What? She's a big girl, she can give herself first…

I take a slightly deeper look at Angelika, at her sense of self-worthlessness…

"Angelika, come over here."

She flies my way, and I-. Ow, her burns are.. quite a bit more serious than my initial assessment suggested. Soon fix that.

Ah. Unlike with an orange ring where the injuries just disappear, violet rings leave a sort of crystal… Scab? Angelika inhales sharply-.

"Did that hurt?"

"No." She performs a quick check of herself, pulling disintegrated uniform flaps aside. "No, the numbness was a surprise. Do you think that we will have time to create a replacement costume? This is a little.. draughty."

Ah. Yes, I suppose that it would be.

"Time Trapper?"

He doesn't look around as the fabricators whir to life. "What?"

"Can these machines make clothing?"

"Yes. Why would-?" He looks around and notes Angelika's state of dishabille. "One of the smaller units should be able to produce clothing. I never concerned myself with the full catalogue."

Angelika nods gratefully and flies slowly to one of the indicated units.

Komand'r pushes herself upright, blobs of dull green wound sealant drying across her skin. "How long do we have?"

"Luthor warded this facility with every defensive measure he could build, borrow or steal. It should be inviolate. On the other hand, Red Queen and I were able to find it. We upgraded the defences ourselves, but I don't want to offer you hollow promises of safety."

"Should we expect a visit from Mister Luthor?"

"No. He got into a fight with the Guardians of the Galaxy which resulted in a double knockout. Earth is now the base of operations for the Gold Lantern Corps, who we will be using to run interference."

"The Guardians of where?"

Time Trapper freezes for a moment.

"Universe. Sorry, I just call them that because they-"

"Because they don't guard the universe." / "-don't guard the whole universe."

Time Trapper maintains eye contact for a moment, then returns to the machines.

"I can make the tuning fork perfectly well from here, but without the Black Lantern… I'm not sure how to get it working."

"Indigo Lantern?"

"Might work as a substitute. I suppose we don't really have much choice."

Red frowns. "What the heck is a Gold Lantern?"

"Not all parallels use the same emotional spectrum system. Sometimes, the colour of the rings comes from the material used to make them."

I nod. "The pre-War of Light system."

"If you say so. I'll open-."

"What will happen to Black?"

Time Trapper steps away from the fabricator and faces Red.

"I don't know for sure. Studied, probably. The fact that he didn't pick him up early on suggests that Krona doesn't consider him vital. If Krona destroys him… If we're successful then I should be able to restore him."

"There wasn't really much going on in Indigo's parallel. Red can handle it on his own if you want to send me somewhere else."

"Somewhere e-?" His hands leave his sleeves, showing three crystals. "Three. That's what I managed to grab before we left. One-" He holds it up. "-will be used to improve our concealment. Two-" He holds it up as well. "-will be kept so that we can force their entry points shut. That leaves three, for letting you pick up Indigo. I couldn't send you somewhere else even if I had somewhere to send you."

I nod solemnly. "Okay." I turn to Red. "You should be able to find him easily enough. And he's-. Well, compassionate. There shouldn't be any trouble persuading him."

"No need to rush. It might actually be better if you're there rather than here. Without the spire we can't conceal you, but it should still be a little less obvious if you're on an Earth variant where there's one of you already."

He tosses the crystal to the ground, where it generates a portal.

Red steps forward, then hesitates.

"Does this put you at risk?"

"We're out of options, Red Lantern. If we can't complete our work here, then we're lost anyway."

Red shrugs, nodding, then steps through the portal.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd April 2011
23:03 GMT -5

The lead fire fighter looks at me with… Not fear exactly, but he's certainly… Nervous. I smile warmly, and there's a look of recognition in his eye as he spots my ring.

"Indigo Lantern. Didn't recognise you without the tassels."

"That's… Something I wear for photographs."

Though the urban camouflage which Thomas Koche from Red River suggested would have been nearly as bad, just from the opposite direction.

"Are your..? Team…"

I glance upward as Sarah -who abandoned the name 'Ladyfold' as soon as she could complete the paperwork- ushers residents out through an upper window, heading down a ladder which until a few minutes ago was her team mate Klanker. He's come on in leaps and bounds since we've been working together.

"Will be getting out of your way, saving that you think we can be useful."

I could deal with this myself. And it's… Hard, not to. People are afraid and in danger, but… Not only do the children need to prove themselves like this, other people need to know that there are superhumans other than me who are capable of acting to serve the greater good. Not just normal humans; people didn't stop getting super powers just because Vought-American American Consolidated became the most hated company on the planet. And… Scary though it is to be inside a burning building, I'm tracking everyone inside and there's no reason to believe that everyone won't get out.

Shadow phases through a wall, two small children clasped to her side. Altering the nerves she uses to trigger her ability was a little awkward, but all it needs now is that she presses her right thumb to her right palm, rather than… What it was before. I spot her open her hand and then push the children away from her in Charlotte and Bobby's direction before closing her hand again and darting back inside.

"You got an idea where there's still people inside?"

I create a three dimensional model with small dots marking their locations. Black Hole and Kid Camo -having at long last learned that they don't need to use their powers where there isn't an immediate need- are doing door to door and herding people towards the front door. They should be coming out-.

There's a small cheer from the crowd as the front doors open again and the residents begin pouring out. My two young colleagues are dressed similarly to myself; there's a clear visual link to their superhero costume but it isn't a costume. It's stab resistant, insulated and contains a gas mask.

"Looks like it's clear-." He turns away as the fire engine's ladder and hose are brought to bear. "Fifth floor, Steve! Fifth floor!"

Steve the Hose Operator nods and waves as the ladder extends.

"You need to warn Stool Shadow?"

"No, she's trained in how to deal with this sort of situation."

Actually, once we built up her confidence in her own abilities a little-. A lot, and after I repaired the effects of her mother's substance abuse upon her brain, she was a natural. I worried that I might need to make some sort of clothing out of her cloned skin or something, but it turns out that she can actually phase with a significant amount of additional mass.

"Always wondered about that name…"

"The… Original idea from the marketing department was that she would conceal herself and listen in to criminal conversations… In the sense of being a stool pigeon." He nods. "But it turns out that doing that wasn't really practical and people… Misunderstood the name-. You should have heard some of the ridiculous things people came up with." He nods again, then awkwardly looks away. "And with the previous Shadow being executed, after… What happened in Washington-" Another nod. "-there wasn't any reason not to change it to something which made more sense."

It wasn't that. When I became de facto team manager I was given access to the full files. The document -the single page- which contained the entire discussion on her nom de héroïque made it clear that their attitude was 'she's a shit hero who activates her power by shitting, let's not waste time with someone nobody cares about'.

I had a word about their attitude with the new head of Superhuman Development. I've been reassured that in future members of that department will put a little more effort into things. And I will be checking that.

The water blasts out of the hose, punching through the window and beginning the process of soaking the building's interior. Sarah takes the ladder down as soon as the last evacuee has reached the ground. The building is… Mostly evacuated, and Shadow is heading towards the last few inhabitants. Might be safer for them to stay where they are, actually. This isn't a huge fire, and the building is reasonably up to code.

Once Sarah reaches the ground, she raps her knuckles against Klanker's third rung in the pre-arranged 'tap tap, tap tap' pattern which he's learned means that he should change back. That was an essential lesson, as he can only turn into iron objects and he'd be both rather heavy and conducts heat dangerously well. He switches back to human form, staggering for a moment before righting himself with a smile.

"Is there anything else you need us for?"

The lead fire fighter takes a quick look around, then looks at my construct. Looks like the last few residents have made their way out.

"This here the bit that's on fire?" I nod. "Then… No, I think we've.. got it covered. Ah. Thank you."

I give him a small bow as I dismiss my construct. "I'll leave you to it, then. You know where to find us when you need an official statement."

He nods, then returns his attention to the building as I head over to Charlotte.

"I think that went well."

She looks up from the small boy she's reassuring. "Did everyone get out?"

"We're just waiting for Shadow."

Her attention immediately turns to the building, even as hot water vapour begins emerging from the middle floors. "Are you tracking her?"

I smile reassuringly. "Now now, Aunty. You have to let the ducklings swim on their own eventually."

A minor point of contention between the two of us. Having known that her job was to effectively be a live-in carer, she's… Having trouble adjusting to the fact that they can handle a lot of things for themselves these days. I on the other hand am… Occasionally too enthusiastic about the children's newfound skills. And their psychological ability to handle the stress involved. It.. sort of works when we're.. covering for each other's oversights, and the children themselves accept that we can disagree and still be good friends. But sometimes-.

Shadow steps out through a second storey wall, drifting to the ground before phasing back in. She's carrying a small bundle-. There weren't any babies-.

"Doggy!"

The small dog Shadow was carrying perks up at hearing its master, jumps off Shadow and dashes across the tarmac to jump at him and bark excitedly. Shadow pulls off her mask, smiling as she heads over to us at a more sedate pace.

"Shadow." Charlotte puts her hands on her hips. "It was very nice of you to rescue that dog, but you're not supposed to put yourself at risk when you do this."

"We weren't near the fire. He just got shut in and couldn't find his way out."

Charlotte can't quite maintain her stern expression in the face of Shadow's earnest desire to help. She exhales, bowing her head. "Alright then." Shadow beams. "Team!? We're leaving, now."

Black Hole and Kid Camo turn away from the people they were talking to. I smile. It's not all that long ago that people wouldn't have dared speak to a superhero, but patience, hard work and a moderate media presence have gradually won people-.

On the other side of the crowd I catch sight of a limousine containing our American Consolidated contact. She nods approvingly at me, then turns away and winds the passenger window up.

…

I turn around, smiling at the team.

"Yes, let's be off."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd April 2011
23:03 GMT -5

"…that you could have dealt with any of these problems yourself." My interviewer shrugs. "So the obvious question is: why didn't you?"

"And the obvious answer is: training."

"Training?"

"Yes. Despite the.. former policies of the Superhuman Development Department, superhumans aren't born with an innate knowledge of how to use their powers, much less how to apply them productively. As our.. previous public statements have covered-."

"You leave people in burning houses so you can train?!"

After decades of being able to reliably source obsequious interviewers for things like this, American Consolidated has now.. grudgingly accepted that anyone they put up is going to get harangued. And that that haranguing isn't necessarily bad. Drummer Boy having a bit of a break down after an interviewer went completely off on him actually improved his popularity ratings.

"As part of-."

"You think that anyone who burned to death because you were standing around cares why!?"

I smile, and I wait.

"Well?!"

"You clearly hadn't finished your question when I started speaking. I apologise. I wanted to be sure that you'd asked everything you wanted to ask before I replied to your perfectly reasonable question."

I smile, wait, and raise my eyebrows.

I think I've wrong-footed him, but this isn't about scoring points, at least not in the 'deal with interview' minigame. As in 'Thank You For Smoking', I'm not trying to convince the man opposite me. I'm trying to convince the audience.

Ah. It appears that he had finished.

"As part of a training program which lasts several months, trainee superheroes are taught how to handle themselves in a variety of high-risk situations. That includes burning buildings, a module which is taught by a mixture of former and currently serving fire fighters. After that, we consider them competent to handle a real fire, but… Obviously, it's better if someone who could deal with the fire if it proved more than they could handle is on hand. That is why I try to be there. But, there is only one of me. The objective of the exercise is to train them to handle things when I'm not there."

Not having an ego is… Surprisingly restful. People can be rude to me as much as they want, and I feel… Nothing, aside perhaps from a little pity. Certainly, I'm aware on an intellectual level that the staff has done a number on my mind, but… Aside from that time Charlotte and I went on a date, I really haven't noticed any real drawback.

The morning afterwards was awkward, when I made it clear that I'm literally incapable of giving her what she wants. I suppose that in the very long term I should probably look into doing something about it, but… I'm never the most urgent thing.

"So, what, the millions in property damage and hundreds of people left homeless don't bother you?"

"Objectively, if you live in a building worth millions then, by the standards of the planet at large-."

"Oh, don't give me that bullcrap! I thought you people worked for American Consolidated! It was certainly American lives that were lost when your co-workers tore a hole through Washington!"

"And Russian lives that were lost when the former department manager attempted to carry out a coup in Russia on behalf of the Communist Party."

Goodness only knows why he thought that would work. Honestly, sometimes Stillwell is the perfect corporate sociopath, and then at other time he does the most bizarre things. I do not understand the man.

"And to Stormfront's 'holidays', and… I really don't think that having a 'suffer-off' is a sensible way.. to…"

I stare in dismay as a red-glowing figure wearing my face flies in from the wings.

They told me that they shut down their cloning facilities. If they didn't learn anything from the whole horrible mess with Black Noir then I'm going to be demonstratively upset.

"Good morning."

My voice, my approach, and… That's a red power ring. Is he alright?

I can't see anything wrong with him.

If that's a power ring then he.. can't be a clone of me. If American Consolidated had the ability to make power rings-. If I had the ability to make power rings, things would be very different.

So that's not what's happening. Which leaves-?

He nods. "Parallel uni-."

"Who the fuck are you?! Get the fuck off my fucking st-."

A red cocoon forms around him, cutting off all sound.

"Parallel universe. A few versions of us are trying to stop Krona the Ex-Guardian, and Time Trapper thinks you're what we need. Does this Earth have anything that can help?"

"Not.. that I would want to rely on-."

He grimaces, then glares at my staff.

"Is that thing trying to mind control me?"

I shake my head as I call it over to me, catching it in my right hand as I stand.

"Yes, but it takes a very long time to do anything, and as far as I can tell it's not permanent. Still, if it makes you uncomfortable, simply stay away from it."

Ring, scan for a portal of some sort?

Yes, I've found it.

I wave my staff, and we're floating in the air… On the other side of the country.

3rd May 2011
10:49 GMT -6

The portal is a red-ringed hole in the air. The Red Lantern glares around, then flies through it. I give him a moment to warn them of my arrival, then drift after him, passing through…

And.. coming out in a crater, construct armour glowing around the Red Lantern's body as he wheels around. Presumably trying to find a target. The clean curve of the crater walls suggest that whatever did this was recent, and.. the artificial placement of patches of stone and metal suggests that there was a building here until recently.

"Red Lantern?"

"What-? Happened? I was only gone-."

Gold lights flash in the air above us, and three men and a woman appear, floating in the air and held aloft by their… Gold power rings? The symbol on their chests is that of the Green Lantern Corps. Gold cages clang into being around us as they raise their rings, then their gold-armoured leader descends to a position a little closer to our levels.

Sinestro peers at my face.

"What are you supposed to be?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Duplication

2nd April 2012
09:22 GMT -6

My day started strange, and now I'm surrounded by mini-ponies.

What a world.

I use a construct to shove one of the drawing room's doors open. Luna, a hoof -hah!- ful of guards and a couple of ponies I don't recognise are assembled within, guards at the doors, windows and attending Luna while the other three lie on chaise longues.

"Hey, Luna. I brought Jean and a few g-gnomes. Are these your experts?"

She nods, indicating an elderly looking mare. "Justice Heavy Heart has volunteered to aid Us in the matter."

I frown. "Is that 'Us' as in you, or 'us' as in us?"

"U-." She hesitates. "Both, we suppose. Doctor Hay Exchange-" She indicates a stallion with a cutie mark of a balance, a pile of scrolls on one side and a pile of coins on the other. "-has also expressed an interest in aiding Us in gaining an understanding of modern economics. And-. By 'Us' We mean 'me'."

"Right." I nod to him. "Slight problem. Jean didn't come through as a pony."

"What did she come through as?"

There's a general intake of breath as changeling queen Jean clops through the doorway, following by the g-gnome drones. They're a bit more mobile in this form than in their customary shape, which meant that we could get away without bringing the usual g-elf escort. From the way that the guards are starting to square up I think that bringing the combat genomorphs would have been a unnecessarily confrontational act.

"We see."

"Princess Luna?" Jean looks around and I point her out with my right forehoof. "My name is Jean, and I will be overseeing the process."

One of the guards glances at Luna.

"Princess..?"

Luna shakes her head. "Be not afeared, Our loyal protector. These are not in truth changelings. This is merely the result of the changes wrought by Starswirl's Mirror."

I nod. "She actually looks like this."

I generate a construct image of her native form. From the expression on the ponies' faces, they don't like it any better. I mentally shrug and then dismiss it and the transformed g-gnomes take position near Luna. Jean takes a step closer to Heavy Heart.

"Ms Heavy Heart?"

Heavy Heart doesn't look entirely sanguine. "… Jean. What exactly are you going to do to me?"

"With your permission, these g-gnomes will study the networks of schema in your mind relating to legal practice. They will then copy them into the mind of Princess Luna, and work to integrate them into her schematic systems so that she gains the same instinctive awareness of legal affairs that you have."

She nods. "And I won't forget anything."

"Since they are creating a copy, the original will be unaffected. You might find yourself having.. unusually acute recall of particular incidents while they work to locate them, but otherwise you should not notice a thing."

Luna leans forward, her nose a short distance from a blankly-staring g-gnome.

"And for Ourself?"

"Once we begin the dubbing process, you may experience a period of confusion while the integration is completed. Assuming that everything goes to plan, the worst that will happen will be surprising moments of insight; we can only integrate the memories so far. In the event that there are any problems, we can erase the new unintegrated memories quite easily."

"Do We need to do anything? To keep Our mind blank, perhaps?"

"On the contrary, we find that sort of thing unhelpful. All we would ask is that you remove any magic-based mental defences. We have no way to work around those ourselves. And if you could avoid casting for the duration, that would help as well."

Luna nods, then turns to Heavy Heart. "Are you ready, your honour?"

"I.. believe that I am. When will you begin?"

The horns of the g-gnome drones start glowing with a pale orange corona.

"Now."

Luna stares, a faint corona rippling over the surface of her horn.

"Fascinating."

I nod. Curious how the mirror adapted their abilities to magic. Genomorphs have next to no magic ability, as far as Sunset was able to tell. Barely any arcane presence at all, in fact. It's a problem that might fix itself over the next few generations, but otherwise I'll need to be adding it to Sunset's slate. Point is, the mirror didn't turn them into something with telepathic abilities, it gave them equivalent magical abilities instead. That warrants further investigation.

"How fares Our Sister's former student?"

"Ah… Emotionally overwrought. I… Don't think she's going to be coming back for a little while." Luna nods solemnly. "She was still in pony shape last time I saw her, so she's clearly not… Rejecting her equine existence or anything…" I frown. "Do her parents live in Canterlot?"

"We do not know. Our Sister hath not mentioned them." She frowns mildly. "We will send a missive once We hath determined their identity and place of residence, informing them of Sunset Shimmer's wellbeing and newfound status. She hath not spoken of them to you?"

"She mentioned that they exist. That's about all she told me about them."

"We see. That is unfortunate." Her eyes flick downwards. "Our Sister made it clear that she made no friends during her education; to be alienated from her family as well-"

I clop forwards, half turn and lie down next to her seat, the upper part of my trunk resting against her side.

"-would.. be…" She turns her head around to look me full in the face. "What are you doing?"

"Sounded like you were getting mopey, and there wasn't room on your seat." I tilt my head left until it's resting on her shoulder, then lean on her. "Go on."

"We…" She blinks and turns her head away, as if suddenly becoming aware of the other ponies in the room. She clears her throat, and the ones who were staring find something else to rest their eyes upon. "Would be rather sad."

"Yeah, it would. Speaking of family, is it alright if I bring mine for a visit?"

"Of course." Slight hesitation. "Who..?"

"My children. Lynne, Pa-"

I cough.

"-Bethany, Maeve, Stephan, Mary, Christopher, Clare and Sarah."

"You have..? Ah. Their.. mother..?"

"Their natural parents are dead. I adopted them. Oh, but my mother might visit at some point; I think Equestria could be good for her."

She nods in understanding. "And you wish for me to meet them that you may learn of my skills as a dam, and that your mother may assess my worth as a partner."

"Ah… Sort of. The children, pretty much. My mother, less so. I'm old enough and horrible enough to make mistakes-. Decisions!"

Her right wing bats me over the head. I smile at her.

"Decisions. Lynne can come over this afternoon, if you're up for it. Ease you into it."

"We believe that We are." Luna nods. "Is there anything regarding her that you feel that you should notify Us in advance?"

"She's a stronger telepath than the g-gnomes, and since she's a New God like me she'll probably come through as an alicorn. She grew up on a military base and was briefly used as an Anti-Life broadcaster so there's absolutely no need -or point- in shielding her from the harsher realities of life."

"We.. had meant regarding her hobbies or preferred foodstuffs. But I suppose that you would know the most pertinent insights."

"Princess Luna?" Jean gestures as the glow from the g-gnomes fades. "We are ready to begin the implantation."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Under Attack
By Manhunters

"By the command of Krona, no man escapes the Manhunters."

The large Manhunter has a copy of Red Queen contained within its chest. Violet armours himself and shields our Red Queen while Red, Supergirl and Komand'r immediately move to attack.

Intellectually, I recognise that this automaton is a threat. But.. I.. think that vampire's heart is wearing off already. The only things I was able to ingest were avarice and anger, but the particular flavours of those emotions don't lend themselves to acting in this situation.

"Time Trapper, what are we doing?"

And the ring is no help. Robots don't have hearts. Or blood.

A few fragments of crystal skitter across my environmental shield as the Manhunter begins using its Red Queen to begin breaking this pocket universe apart. That's… Interesting, in the abstract, but I didn't consume that tramp's heart. I can't work up the fear to be personally concerned.

Still… I should try to do something.

The Red Queen in its chassis has a heart. And her despair is palpable.

For Nekron.

Komand'r hits the ground, Supergirl gets shot and the Manhunter begins draining Red's power as I dive forward, construct claws extended. It's a curious mental state which I usually try to avoid: knowing that it is right that a thing dies and that you are obliged to bring that cessation about. The Manhunter doesn't block me as I strike its chest, and my claws cleave easily through its energy shield and armour.

I hear a quiet.. click, and then Red Queen's head explodes. But it doesn't matter. In a universe of this size there's nowhere for her soul to go. My claws turn into reaping hooks as I tear the Manhunter's armour asunder and shove my right hand into Red Queen's corpse.

For Nekron.

"For Nekron."

Violet crystal traps the Manhunter in place and I.. pull back, heart decaying in my grasp. The crystal is already cracking, so I doubt that it will last long. I wonder exactly how tough Glory's blood made me? If they keep sending me hearts…

"Go."

A portal opens next to the spire as another Manhunter drifts through their portal, a shot from its integrated weapon systems hitting my environmental shield and.. not doing much at all.

Bleed them. Take their hearts. Make a ring. Create a Black Queen. Scour all that is and can be and make it silent.

I… Don't… Think that's-.

The others need to leave. I glance back, seeing that Red, Time Trapper, Supergirl and Komand'r are gone. Red Queen is presumably keeping the portal open while Violet is hanging back to… Buy me time?

"Go."

Violet takes my advice with haste, leaving myself and Red Queen to face the two Manhunters. The crystal around the first one fades rapidly with its creator gone so I recreate the reaping hooks and tear through the late Red Queen's corpse and into its chassis. The Manhunters may not be truly alive, but they have substance, they're a proof that life existed. That purpose existed. The first Manhunter comes apart as my blades extend into scythes and bisect its torso, and I catch the upper portion and hurl it at the second.

It.. doesn't reach, instead… Dissolving just before it hits. The second Manhunter then drifts towards me, freeing the space for a third to come through.

"By the command of Krona-"

I bring a construct scythe blade down towards it, and it raises its arms and tries to use its forearm weapons to drain my power. The blade bites into its arm and through, but I could see it wavering-

Local entropy detected.

-as it did so. Perhaps Krona is less skilled in manipulating the black light than the other colours? It certainly appears to function differently to the others.

"-no man escapes the Manhunters."

The stump-armed Manhunter sets its other siphon to try and drain me while it overcharges its shield, a swarm of blue slightly convex squares forming up into a wall between us.

Local entropy detected.

The third is moving slowly towards Red Queen. She points her left hand at it and blue-black lines briefly connect them, the Manhunter's armour twisting and warping both front and back as they pass through it.

Another scythe swing and the wall bends, feedback from my construct reporting that it was varying in composition and texture in an active attempt to discover some way to block my assault. I generate a boar spear construct and ram it into the barrier as well. It's clearly stressed, but given Krona's age and experience… I don't use constructs anything as much as the non-black versions of me appear to.

But there's still a heart in that chest.

The barrier only protects the Manhunter's front arc. Flying around the stressed shield and tearing into the Manhunter's head with goddess blood-enhanced strength is a matter of simplicity. The outer part is relatively weakly armoured, but my new strength shears the collar bone reinforcement with little more difficulty. The central processor is there and the internal armour is nothing like as strong as the force field. I'm still losing power, but it-.

The barrier drops, my constructs slice into the Manhunter's body and a black bolt blasts from its siphon and strikes Red Queen in the head. She drops at once, armour and flesh stripped from her skull and the portal undulates. The Manhunter she attacked opens its chest compartment and the Red Queen inside dives through-.

I fire energy pulses and score a hit before she makes it through. The portal is already destabilising from this side-.

I tear off my ring finger and send it flying for the portal. It.. just gets through before the portal collapses.

Huh.

I've never been entirely sure whether my consciousness was stored on my ring or not. I assumed not, because I'm essentially an unusual demon-free vampire and vampires demonstrably think with their brains.

I don't think I'd have bothered doing that before I became a Black Lantern. I'd value my continuity too much. As far as I was concerned, if the thing that kept going wasn't this me then why bother? Now I can barely work up the enthusiasm to keep this me going.

I wonder if my new instance will remember this?

The Manhunter that just lost its Red Queen shimmer and decays into dust, and.. as I look around I see that most of this pocket universe has gone the same way.

Hardened nails bared I tear into the damaged but still functional Manhunter that I'm perched on. It's slow going, but between my vampire-.

The Manhunter's hand closes around me and lifts, pulling me free of its damaged torso. Darn, didn't get the core or the Red Queen. If I'd gotten her blood I might have been-.

Guuugh
Ughaaaa

Black Lantern re-instanced. Power level one point one percent.

My eyes open.

Oh.

I appear to have retained all memories up until the moment of my brain's destruction. That… Would probably be uplifting if I could feel uplifted.

And… I'm in a.. storage… Not a tent. The material says 'portacabin' but the metal armour says 'secure storage'. The others should have noticed my body regrowing. That's rather-.

"…one other ring, attached to a severed finger."

"Thank you. I'll-" There's a clank as the fortified door unlocks. "Take a look." The door swings open. "What color-?"

A woman in the gold and black uniform sees me, and her power ring flares.

 

[Mr Zoat]

And now I've got to deal
With this shit

I need to not go berserk.

"Sinestro."

Komand'r is capable of looking after herself. She's either safe, or she's-.

Or she's not. In either case, there may be people I need to retaliate against. But I don't have any evidence that these are they. Wasting time fighting someone I know to be extremely skilled with a ring means that I'm not pursuing the people actually responsible as quickly as I can. These people could be a useful source of information in identifying exactly who those people are.

I need to not go berserk.

Lord Atrocitus designed red rings to kill Green Lanterns. I've never had to fight the local Green Lanterns, but Zilius told me about his encounter with his homeworld's Green Lantern and it turns out that our red blood vomit wrecks green constructs. Not sure what it does to yellow ones -or gold ones- since Lord Atrocitus lost interest in Sinestro when he found out that he left the Green Lantern Corps.

"No, human, I'm Sinestro."

"Heh hah!"

Sinestro and I both look around as Indigo laughs. He smiles at both of us.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting you to use humour. I always imagined you to be rather po-faced." He bows, as far as his cage permits. "Saul Talbot. Indigo Lantern. My colleague hasn't given me his chosen name yet, but as you can see he's-."

"A red Lantern." Sinestro regards us both for a moment. "Where did you get those rings?"

"I'm afraid that my memories of the incident are fairly confused. One moment I was laying in bed… The next, I was in orbit around a parallel universe version of Earth with a ring on my finger and a staff in my hand."

He raises his right hand slightly, the indigo sigil appearing in front of him. Immediately, the cage holding him dims faintly. Sinestro pulls back slightly, his aura strengthening and generating a javelin construct.

"Stop what you're doing now."

Indigo raises his hands and dismisses his logo.

These constructs are just as vulnerable to our abilities as green ones.

I need to not go berserk.

I need to not go-.

"That goes for you as well."

!TAKE THE DATA FROM THEIR BURNING CORPSES!

"RAAAAAGHH!"

The red light swirls and scythes, tearing apart the cage around me as the Butcher's Horns form upon my brow! Sinestro's construct javelin is melted by a spray of blood vomit from my mouth as he backpedals in the air.

"Berserk strength-"

A bell jar construct forms around me and the air gas concentration drops to near-vacuum.

"RAAAAAGHH!"

That vanishes too, the volley of energy pulses from the other Gold Lanterns being countered by my own. A bull-construct charges Sinestro and he sidesteps, a construct foil piercing its neck as it thunders past. His pistol construct fires in retaliation, gold beam striking my chest and battering back my flaring environmental shield.

"I don't think this-"

I retaliate with piranha plant constructs, sending them chomping at him and forcing him to dodge and dive around them.

"-is going to help-"

"Sir!"

"-anyone."

One of the other Lanterns didn't back up far enough and is getting chomped, the piranha plant biting into his environmental shield and jerking him left and right like a worrying dog. Sinestro's eyes dart his way for a moment and he finds space to fire another volley at the piranha plant's stem. The piranha begins to fade, but I use the opportunity to spray a high pressure stream of blood vomit at him. He spots it but is too hemmed in to evade quickly enough, construct-liquid spraying across his environmental shield and burning into his chest and right arm.

"No, why did I-"

His ring begins to splutter, the liquid turning to fire as it spreads across his body. His eyes widen.

"-think I'd listen-"

I lunge through the air, punching him in the chest with a construct-fist as the other weaker Lanterns struggle in vain to pierce my environmental shield. He hurtles out of the pit, unable to control his flight.

"-to me any more-"

Chain flail constructs batter the other Lanterns, forcing them onto the defensive. The one my piranha flower bit crumples as the attack pierces his environmental shield and smashes into the ribs beneath.

"-than anyone-"

"RAAAAAGHH!"

"-else does."

Sinestro will know things. I fly and hammer the two active Lanterns into the ground, then shoot upwards. Sinestro's standing on the rocky ground outside the bowl, frantically trying to douse the flames with his ring. The moment he sees me he grimaces and generates a construct shield-.

Indigo appears next to me. "Peace."

Uh?

"Peace."

Uh?

The.. horns… Fade, and I…

"Peace."

…

"I went berserk."

"Yes, yes you did." He looks at Sinestro. "And I do not believe that we will be able to reach a peaceful settlement at this stage."

"Ah. Sorry."

"Well… Yes." His eyes unfocus for a moment. "Why don't we-"

Sinestro's attack splashes across his shield.

"-move to a safe location, and then you can give me a more complete briefing."

"That's…" I nod. "That's probably a good idea."

"Very well. Sinestro, I apologise, but my colleague is overwrought. We will remove ourselves from the field."

"We will find you-."

"That may be unwise. Farewell for now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Blankly
Staring

"Hello."

She regards me for a moment.

"Brian, that's not a finger."

I look at the surprised blond man standing just behind her.

"Hello Brian."

"It was a finger five minutes ago. All the.. systems said that it was dead."

"They were correct. I was dead. I'm still dead."

That may not be clear. I pull back my lips to give them a look at my fangs.

"You're a vampire powerful enough to regenerate from a severed finger."

I restore my lips to their accustomed location. "Not exactly. I'm a revenant-. On the parallel where I contracted vampirism, it isn't a disease so much as a form of automated possession. I was set upon by a group of revenants, killed and infected. This ring-" I raise my right hand, not pointing it at them but just drawing attention to it. "-destroyed the demon that would have claimed my corpse and then used its power to reanimate me. The blood I had been fed as part of the ritual changed my body somewhat, but the regeneration came from the ring."

The woman nods. "Like Lantern Driq."

"Possibly. I don't know the man."

"How are you with sunlight?"

"It's not a problem as long as I'm wearing a power ring. If I'm not, I catch fire." I frown slightly. "At least, I did last time I experimented. I drank the blood of a goddess recently and I'm not sure if that changes things."

The golden aura around her body intensifies slightly.

"… Which goddess?"

"She gave her name as 'Glorificus'. She was attacking a town and its defenders at the time, and after killing her leaving her blood seemed wasteful."

She considers for a moment, then runs a golden strobe over my body from her power ring.

"Are you alright?"

"Given that I'm dead, not by most standards."

"You've barely moved since I opened the door. Your facial movements aren't natural. And there's something… Off about your voice."

"I'm told that my behaviour becomes more lifelike after I rip out someone's heart and have this ring consume it."

"Who the hell made a power ring like that?"

"Based on my recent experiences, I believe that it was Nekron."

"And you're just telling me that."

"Yes. Why wouldn't I?"

"My files say that Nekron wants to kill every living thing in the universe. Of course, those are files I got from the Green Lantern Corps. If you can prove that he's someone else they were slandering, we may reconsider our approach."

"Based on the behaviour of this ring, I believe that information is correct."

"But you don't have to obey him."

"Technically, I have never received a direct order from him. I don't know for certain that I could disobey if I did. The ring appears to encourage omnicidal behaviour without compelling it. As things stand, my behaviour is my own."

"Do you mind if we test that?"

"I don't think that summoning Nekron would be in your interests."

"With a wizard."

"I'm not completely certain that I would 'mind' if you shot me in the head and incinerated my remains. Unless I've taken a heart recently I don't really feel things."

"Do you need hearts?"

"The ring would eventually run out of power if I didn't harvest hearts."

"And how long will that take?"

"That depends on how much I exert myself. I can remain active for two months without recharging."

"Can you recharge from animals?"

"Animal blood is fine for my revenant physiology. However, the ring requires hearts filled with emotion. By definition, that requires mental complexity."

"And how do you normally recharge?"

"Usually, I take hearts from violent, predatory cannibals."

"Other vampires."

"Other revenants. Sometimes demons. I have no particular objection to killing a human while in this state, but by the same token I have no particular motive to do so."

"Do you want to get that desire back?"

"I appear to appreciate it when I have it."

"Would having another ring help? We've got quite a lot."

"I am unfamiliar with gold rings, but I doubt it, since I lack the will in my default state to use them. I suppose that it may be possible for another to infuse me. Is that something which you know how to do?"

"I can't say that I do." She considers for a moment. "Why were you a finger?"

"I appear to be able to regenerate from any part of my body. When faced with destruction I threw my finger through a planar portal. The rest of me was then destroyed."

"What by?"

"A Manhunter robot. It could drain my constructs and ring, as well as being extremely strong and resilient."

"Did you know what was on the other side of the portal?"

"No, though I assume that Time Trapper and Red Queen believed it to be a safe location. The Red Queen we were working with at least. The one who came through the portal was released by a Manhunter."

Her ring is at her mouth immediately.

"Corps Commander to all Lanterns. Detain Red Queen now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Oooooh
Dear

"Does that happen often?"

I sit in a small disused hut on the side of a mountain with my head in my hands.

"No. Not often."

Indigo passes me a cup of tea. I take it, lifting my head just enough to raise my eyebrows at him. He doesn't… Like tea, does he?

"Try it. You might like it."

I take a small sip, and it's the same old boiled-leaf-water that I know and don't drink when there's any alternative. Perhaps if I just.. sniff it.

"Thank you."

"I can probably find some yak milk, if you think it will help."

"I don't." I take a whiff of… No, whatever tea this is, I don't recognise the smell. "What did you find?"

"They've issued an alert with our faces. Though between this.. place-" He looks around our Himalayan retreat. "-and your blood wards I doubt that they'll find us quickly."

"Any idea what happened to Time Trapper?"

"Since I didn't.. meet him, any answer I give you would be almost completely speculative."

"You didn't… Intercept any of the Gold Lantern Corps' communication..?"

"No. I didn't think that taking that risk would be wise. Quite aside from the chance that they might track it back to our physical location, it would be… Unnecessarily aggressive. While you appeared quite capable of handling yourself, I imagine that we're receiving a certain amount of special attention and.. we are vastly outnumbered."

"Where are we?"

"DC. Post President Luthor, pre War of Light."

Oh… Good? Oh dear? There are people around here who've handled Krona before, but… They could also handle us. And why the hell was Sinestro there?

"I don't remember a Gold Lantern Corps on Earth One."

"No, something… Happened with Lex Luthor after he left office. I didn't risk accessing Justice League records-. Is there a Justice League on the Earth you ended up on?"

"Yes. I don't really have much to do with them. You?"

"Alas… No. We.. had a group called The Seven, and they… Weren't the Justice League."

The Seven? He was-? Was that The Boys?

"Homelander's already dead?"

"Yes." He frowns. "Did you.. pick that up during your time on my Earth?"

"No. Um. It turns out that.. we all ended up in different fictional realities, but it… Looks like we lose our memory of where we ended up. I ended up in some sort of Teen Titans animated series."

He smiles.

"When there's trouble you know who to call!
Teen Titans!"

"Ah. If you say so. I don't.. remember it." I frown. "Wait, what was the target age group?"

"Early teens."

"I-." I blink. "Really? I've been.. ripping people's skulls out! That.. can't be okay."

"You weren't in the original work." He.. hesitates for a moment. "Why have you been ripping people's skulls out?"

"Originally, I was just… Curious. The first time I killed someone and.. felt that it was a good thing. When I knew for certain that I couldn't use the original ring for anything other than destruction. Lord Atrocitus knows magic that can be performed with mortal remains, they give a… Particular impression to anyone who knows about them…"

"Still, I… Can't help but be a little concerned."

"You told me that your staff was a mind control device."

"It's more about.. influence than.. control. But it has altered me, true. Is that why you're collecting skulls? Your ring..?"

"I'm learning to accept my anger and hate. That's.. involved… It's not 'depersonalisation'. It's about accepting that the people I target are people who have made their choices and that my actions are justified as a result. And if I'm going to kill them anyway, why not take a memento?" I shrug. I suppose the 'skull' thing is a bit odd, but I've been doing it for long enough that I consider it normal for me. "How about you? What have you been up to?"

"You said that you know my Earth?" I nod. "What's it from?"

"A Garth Ennis comic called 'The Boys'."

He frowns. "They're the main characters? A CIA black operations squad?"

"A Garth Ennis comic called 'The Boys'."

He nods slowly. "Ah. Yes, that… Would explain a few things."

"They're dead now, aren't they?"

He nods solemnly. "Most of them, yes. Mister Campbell is still with us. Nice chap, when he forgets that he's not supposed to be. I know his girlfriend better than I do him…"

"So Homelander's coup attempt happened?"

"Yes, and Super Duper and I are doing our best to persuade American Consolidated-."

"Super Du-?" I blink, but… Actually, that makes sense. There's no way Homelander would have involved them in his plan.

Indigo spots my realisation. "Yes, well, obviously they needed my help and were willing to take it, and American Consolidated needed a new model for the Superhero business."

"I'm a bit surprised that you didn't say 'a plague on both their houses' and just do your own thing."

"Yes." He nods sadly. "I'm sure that you are. That would of course have led to American Consolidated not making even a token reform effort-. And… You'd have killed them, too, wouldn't you?"

"The higher the branch, the blunter the saw."

He looks at me for several uncomfortable seconds. "You've had a hard time of it, haven't you?"

"Me? You got stuck in a Garth Ennis comic."

He smiles. "I suppose that neither of us really fit-."

Red light flickers and I'm bracing myself as-. Red Queen appears. Then I relax. Oh, thank goodness. Indigo hasn't really reacted, but I suppose that's how he does things.

"Indigo, this is Red Queen. She was working with Time Trapper and the others. Queen, what happened?"

"I'm not sure." She shakes her head. "I teleported to the Justice League's Watchtower and explained what we're trying to do. A few moments later I felt the destruction of my crystals."

"What happened to Komand'r?"

"I didn't see, and the League are now targeting me. If she's still alive, they probably have her in a holding facility somewhere."

I sag slightly. "Do you know enough to build a tuning fork?"

"I don't, but I know a place that does." She looks from me to Indigo. "Did you get anyone else? Or.. see anyone else at the bunker?"

"No. This is it."

"Then this will have to do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Waiting for a
Better idea

The local version of Doctor Fate lowers his hands, the golden ankhs floating over them guttering out.

"As far as I can tell, he is exactly what he says that he is."

The woman nods. "And his contact with Nekron?"

"Nekron is not a being with whom I have any personal experience. Your Guardians would probably be better placed to give you advice on his presence."

"They're… Busy. I don't want to recall them unless it's essential. What can you tell me?"

"Nekron is a font of vast necromantic power. Given his age and nature, creating a power ring may well be something he can do. But without another example of Nekron's sorcery or.. actually having this Black Lantern feed on someone's heart, there is little more I can tell you."

"I am willing to demonstrate, if it will help."

She gives me a mild glare. "I authorised the use of lethal force in the line of duty, not for feeding super vampires."

"While my particular strand of vampirism may be different to local variants, I doubt that my abilities warrant describing me as 'super'. Also, I am not under your authority. If you provide me with a stellar map and avert your eyes-."

"No."

"Then perhaps you could ask for volunteers from amongst the criminals the governments of your world have sentenced to d-."

"We don't actually want Nekron here."

"Neither do I. I was simply suggesting avenues of study. Though if a single heart could summon Nekron, I would have summoned him years ago."

"That isn't-." Her ring glows, and she holds it up. "Yes?"

A face appears.

"Commander. Whatever the Indigo Lantern did, it's defying my efforts to track."

"Sinestro, you were badly burned. You aren't cleared for active duty."

"I won't fight them head on until I'm fully recovered, but my mind was unaffected. I can direct an investigation perfectly well."

The woman considers that claim for a moment.

"Very well. Doctor Fate has confirmed the Black Lantern's claims as far as he can. I presume you wish to speak with him."

"Yes, I do."

The woman lowers her ring, and a full size Sinestro construct materialises next to her. Sinestro takes the opportunity to look me over.

"Your ring is powered by Nekron."

"I don't understand the precise mechanics. Nekron has… Something to do with it. It may be that he powers it directly. Or it may be that an energy he finds it easy to manipulate powers it."

"What powers the others?"

"The first red rings-." I pause, frowning. "My knowledge of early Maltusian power ring experiments is incomplete. It is possible that they created one or more, but my red alter ego mentioned being given his by Atrocitus. Atrocitus is leader of a group-."

"One of the immortals from Sector Six Six Six."

"He sought revenge, and used the blood of the other four to create a Central Power Battery. His rings respond to rage and hate as green rings-. And yours, apparently, respond to a focused will." I pause. "Though these factors are not necessarily constant between parallel universes."

"He'd be a little late to take revenge here, in any case. Still." He looks at the woman. "I can task the Gold Lantern in that Sector to speak with our version, in case he has anything to share."

The woman nods. "Do it, but make sure they know to be polite. He hasn't recovered from what the Guardians did to him."

"Of course." Sinestro turns back to me. "How did it bypass my defensive constructs?"

"I'm afraid that I don't know. I only had the opportunity to speak with him briefly, and the precise mechanics of his ring were not discussed."

I can't read Sinestro's expression, but I wasn't particularly good at that even before I died.

"What of Indigo?"

"I'm not sure. They were speaking about recruiting him before the attack on their command post, but if they followed through on the idea it was after we were separated."

"What emotion does it use?"

"Compassion, though.. it may not be limited to just that. As I said, not all of what is learned in one parallel applies to all others."

"They believe that the Red Queen who emerged from the portal is the one they were working with to fight Krona. Instead, she's his agent." He snarls quietly. "To think that we're still doing a Guardian's bidding."

"I thought that they kicked Krona out."

"I don't trust their records on the subject. I think we should try contacting the Controllers again. Without a more accurate knowledge of Krona's actual behaviour, it's impossible for us to know how to proceed."

The woman looks at me.

"What do you want us to do?"

"I don't want things. I have no animus, no vital motivating force."

"Okay, what do you think we should do?"

"Telling me your name would be a start."

"I didn't-? Huh." She nods. "Commander Barbara Gordon of the Gold Lantern Corps."

"Next, I will need to know what happened to my colleagues."

"We don't know. We received an alert from the Manhunter Red Queen informing us that Time Trapper was attempting to use one of Lex Luthor's old bases to build a device to rewrite the universe. Then it was.. erased, apparently taking Time Trapper with it. Sinestro went to confirm his death, then your two colleagues reappeared. Sinestro and his squad attempted to take them into custody. They fought them and they escaped. A little later was when we found your finger and power ring."

"Red Queen?"

"Since she was cooperating with our investigation we gave her near free rein. We tried to put her into more secure holding conditions once you contradicted her narrative, but she vanished."

"Your intent towards my colleagues?"

"We don't want another Crisis event. We barely survived the last one. If we can work together to stop whatever this is, then we will. If we can't, then we'll pump them for information and deal with it ourselves."

"Would the simplest solution be to announce this publically, and offer them a secure way to contact me and confirm my continued existence? It seems to me that there's little benefit in secrecy, and my alter egos have no interest in aiding Krona."

"That…" She blinks, then looks away awkwardly. "Yes. It probably would."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th May 2011
11:39 GMT -5

People.. aren't.. looking at us.

I don't want to sound too 'up myself', but… I'm wearing my display costume. And carrying a glowing staff. Even on an Earth like this one, which appears to be far closer to Detective Comics norms than the one both-.

I glance at Red.

Than the one I landed on, that should provoke some comment, surely? Perhaps not clustering around us for autographs given that we have no local reputation, but leaving us some clear space in case we lash out? I realise that DC Earth may have resulted in people becoming somewhat inured to oddities such as us… There was a Superman comic I vaguely remember in which a visiting superhero team were met with total indifference, as was the fact that Superman was 'fighting an alien invasion or something'. But still-.

Red waves a hand in someone's face as he walks past. The man slows and blinks, then returns to his journey. Red then stops walking.

"What's going on?"

Red Queen turns around to… I think she's glaring under that faceplate.

"Do you want them to see us?"

He shrugs. "I don't usually hide what I'm doing. Though I suppose-."

A couple of Gold Lanterns fly over our heads, not paying the street beneath them any mind.

"I suppose on a planet like this-." He frowns. "Are you doing this?"

"I used the materioptikon to brute force dozens of super power formulas. Suppressing people's interest in us is the least I can do."

I frown. "What were you planning to do with that sort of power?"

"It doesn't matter." She turns away and continues striding towards LexCorp Metropolis, the people in her path not looking up as they step out of her way without knowing why. "Come."

Red and I make momentary eye contact, and I can see that he's getting just as dubious about this as I am. But after his attack on Sinestro-

He inclines his head slightly.

-he'd rather that I take the lead.

I smile faintly, then start after her.

"Given everything else they know he did, I'm a little surprised that-"

In the small square in front of the building there's a statue of Lex Luthor, surrounded by relatively fresh wreaths. There are even a few… Not mourners, but people paying their respects at a monument dedicated to someone they respected.

"-they're letting his company work on a project like this."

"This Lex Luthor was proven to have been driven to paranoia by phobiline hydrochlorate administered by Manhunter androids at the behest of the Guardians of the Universe as part of a plan to suppress the intellect of human geniuses. Having conclusively proven that, he committed himself to striving to undo the damage they had inflicted on his species. This building had WayneTech stamped on its frontage last month. Now, they do research on exotic technology. Including what's left of the tuning fork Alexander Luthor Junior tried to use to pry the universe apart."

"Yes, but I imagine that it's-"

She walks across several wreaths on her path to the front door, crushing her boot prints into them.

"-got all sorts of systems for detecting people like us. Wouldn't a less secure facility be better for our purposes?"

Red steps around the scattered wreaths as he nods.

"Time Trapper didn't mention anything about coming here-."

"He was excessively cautious. If they have all of the parts in one place then I can reassemble what we need easily."

While that sounds reasonable, I doubt very much that this Time Trapper would operate out of a subterranean base without a good reason. "And then… What?"

"Krona's tuning fork will be destroyed, our alter egos will be freed, and we can deal with Krona directly."

"Yes, about that. I haven't encountered a Guardian, but I'm led to believe that they're rather good at manipulating the emotional spectrum."

"If all of you and all of me together can't beat him, then the entire superhero population of this Earth certainly can."

The building's front doors open as she reaches them, the security guards' eyes glossing over and the various sensors failing to register.

"And are we notifying them in advance? Our emergence point-."

"We can notify them the moment I set the tuning fork off."

"Why not bef-?"

"I tried talking to them, and the next thing I knew our base was destroyed and they started attacking me. Maybe it was some kind of misunderstanding or maybe Krona's already controlling them, I don't know."

She strides towards a wall, which shifts out of phase as she reaches it to allow her access to.. some sort of emergency access shaft. Red and I follow her, the wall reforming behind us as we descend into the lower reaches of the building.

"But ultimately, 'why' doesn't matter. It happened, they won't help voluntarily, we need to do this."

Red did say that 'make a tuning fork, win' was their original strategy.

"Do you need any additional versions of me?" I glance at Red. "Us?"

"Can you use other colors?"

"Not… Easily, but if we're not in any rush I should be able to manage something."

"Then no. All we need is a you who can use the colors other versions of you can use. I'll do the rest."

She comes to a stop in the shaft and gestures, one wall becoming translucent. She floats through and we follow her into.. a high tech laboratory cum workshop. There's no.. big tuning fork, though some of what I presume to be analytical machines contain tiny fragments which might have been part of it at one stage. There are.. a few employees around, mostly not doing anything that looks particularly exciting. I suppose that with something like this you don't want to do anything precipitous.

"Wait here. I'll check on the storage chamber, then we can get to work."

"And they will continue not to notice us?"

She lands and walks towards one of the interior doors.

"They can barely notice anything."

I frown, then look more closely at a woman who… Her coffee mug slips slightly in her hand, pouring hot liquid onto her skin and sleeve. She doesn't react.

I move the mug to a nearby work bench and heal her hand.

"So. Here we are."

Red nods as Red Queen leaves the room. "Now we know why Time Trapper did most of the talking."

"She is under a great deal of-."

My ring blinks. I raise it slightly.

"Yes?"

A face appears, my own with slightly longer hair.

"Black Lantern to-. Ah. Good."

Red stares at the image. "You're alive?"

"No."

Red rolls his eyes. "You're functioning?"

"Yes, but that's not important. The Red Queen who came through the portal isn't the one we were working with. It's important that-."

A black-blue beam punches through my chest!

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th May 2011
11:44 GMT -5

Indigo staggers, blinking in surprise as I

!GET THE BITCH!

lunge forward, blood vomit spraying from my mouth and-.

I'm suspended mid-dive and the vomit is.. sort of pooling in the air just in front of her. I'm not-.

I fly left, making it all of a metre before I find myself unaccountably slowing to a stop once again. The.. hell?!

"LexCorp Metropolis." Indigo's chest glows as he undoes whatever Red Queen just did to him "Basement."

The blue black beams flicker out again, but this time he vanishes before they strike him, reappearing just behind her!

"Peace."

The air goes white as a massive discharge of electrified plasma explodes out from Red Queen. I don't think that was Indigo, but if I've got any time-.

I fly backwards-.

Huh?

I just hit the back wall-. She's twisting spatial dimensions, right! A bucket excavator construct eats through the wall and I fly back, dropping down the shaft a level before creating a rock drill construct and boring through the.. server room-

"Aaaaagh!" / "What the fuck?! / "Hit the alarm!"

-cooling system in a spray of escaping refrigeration gas before drilling upward underneath-.

My constructs disappear and I'm falling towards the ground, the shock of cold! This is what I get-

Ow! Ugh.

-for not getting the temperature controlled version!

I tap my chest plate to activate my force field and furiously try to reactivate my there we go! This time I try to lock on-.

I'm not seeing any emotion. How-?

WOOAP! WOOAP! WOOAP! WOOAP!

The alarm finally goes off as the last of the staff flee for the exits. Okay, magic or tech based ring shutdown, only bypass I can do at short notice-.

She's helping Krona destroy everything and fighting in a building full of people.

Butcher's Horns.

The red light roils around my body as I leap through the hole I made in the roof to the next floor up, claw-.

Where is the-?

I'm slammed across the room, environmental shield twisting as a blurring Red Queen hits me with more than human speed and strength! One interior wall explodes around us as we smash through it, but the next is fortified and I merely dent it! I'm taking hits, but when I'm like this I don't really feel it, and I can see the damage on her armour where the red light is biting back.

A spray of blood vomit forces her to back off for a second, circular saw constructs are negligently slapped aside and the plasma discharge construct… Hits but doesn't appear to do all that much. She raises her right hand-.

Which is suddenly yanked aside by glowing yellow tethers, the black-blue beams she was planning on firing at me instead scything through the floor and wall as Indigo appears behind her, his staff glowing with the light of fear. I fire the blood vomit again, this time getting a solid hit and melting through her armour, revealing-.

"By the command-"

The yellow tether evaporates as the blood vomit eats through the Manhunter infiltrator's now-exposed chassis!

"-of Krona-"

The chassis smokes, the colouration browning as the infiltrator jerks its right fist and.. the left side of Indigo's torso jumps about two inches left. He shudders, and a second jerk causes his staff to go flying into the room's debris. He collapses, an indigo body cast appearing around him as he tries to hold his internal organs together. A point blank bull construct gets-. Sliced, and I'm barely able to dodge her black and blue beams.

What do I do what do I d-?

The room explodes and the Red Queen is gone.

W-?

I look left and a two metre wide hole has been punched into the building through the rock and soil outside. I can see a curved tunnel whose interior is illuminated by daylight. On the right, the exit hole looks much the same.

Um.

"Indigo, are you alive?"

"Just about."

"I've only got a first aid k-."

"I'll live. Get the Queen."

My aura flares back to full as I shoot out and up through the hole, the crowd who are in the process of evacuating LexCorp at a sprint. Okay, great, is someone-?

"Hey." A young man in some kind of… Nineties reimagining of Superman's costume… Drops down to float next to me. "You on our side now?" He tips his glasses down slightly so that he can see me over the top of them. "'cause horns made of blood are usually a bad sign."

"Look after the civilians."

"You don't get-!"

I shoot upwards, trying to work out where she's gone. She could just teleport-.

A plume of debris and a chorus of car alarms draws my attention to the coastline, blue and white figures flying around a blackened red figure I assume to be Red Queen. Superman and.. either Power Girl or Supergirl. Superman deliberately tanks a volley of those blue-black beams in a way which has me wincing while the other one zooms in and scores a couple of punches. I-.

I frown. I'm feeling anger from Red Queen, but not-. The Manhunter isn't angry at us, it's angry at… itself?

Four Gold Lanterns flash into the sky above me, followed a moment later by Black. One of the Golds-. Is that Barbara Gordon? Heads towards me.

"Red Lantern." She eyes me for a moment, paying particular attention to my horns. "I'm taking command."

"Good for you. Any idea why I can feel emotion from that Manhunter?"

She looks up towards Black.

"The Manhunters who attacked the crystal pocket universe used Red Queens to stabilise themselves. I had assumed that this was simply a replica, but it has been using her other abilities as well. Perhaps doing that does not require all of her?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th May 2011
11:47 GMT -5

"Heart ready for harvesting."

Commander Gordon looks askance at the ring as it makes its pronouncement, her retinue moving into position to hem Red Queen in.

"Your ring thinks that she's a cyborg? That we're fighting an organic brain in a robotic Manhunter body?"

"Not necessarily. The human brain is mounted in the head so that it doesn't overheat, but there are other ways to maintain its temperature. We could be fighting a Manhunter android with an organic brain in its chest that it externally stimulates when it wishes to use her super powers."

Red nods, his horns fading into nothing.

"Or any other body parts it needs. Not like any of us know how her powers work. Or Krona could have altered her organic mind to be loyal to him." He looks at Commander Gordon. "Got any telepaths available? Or.. technopaths, I suppose."

"Commander Gordon to the Justice League. I need a telepath. Who can get to Metropolis fastest?"

"And Indigo could do with a medic."

I look at his bleeding torso. "What about you?"

He blinks in confusion, then examines his battered armour. "Yes… Probably, but he got the worst of it. And if I know the Justice League they haven't exactly been mass producing purple healing rays."

"…to LexCorp. We'll provide transportation." She switches her attention from her ring to Red. "We can't mass produce it yet, but we're working on it. The standard procedure for the aftermath of a metahuman battle includes bringing one in with the medics."

He nods. "Sounds pretty reasonable. How long has that been going on?"

"Luthor had some fairly harsh words for Superman about him not sharing Kryptonian technology that could make the world a better place. When he told the rest of the Justice League about it, they realised that he wasn't the only one." She smiles distractedly as she monitors the fight on the seafront. "And it means that Themyscira has a GDP figure for the first time in history."

"Do you require us to take any action?"

"Not.. yet. We are going to have to use you to reactivate the tuning fork once we know how, but at the moment-"

Two flickers of heat vision and a punch tears Red Queen's right arm off.

"-we've got this handled. Unless you've got a way to knock her out right away."

"Technically, yes, but if we're trying to rescue the organic brain it's probably not a good idea."

On a nearby rooftop a cylinder of space shimmers for a moment before resolving into the form of a man. He takes a moment to get his bearings before turning to watch the fight unfold.

Red Queen appears to be draining the golden constructs and using the energy she gains from doing that to make a shield to keep the kryptonians back. Since this reality is similar to DC post-CrisisI can only assume that they've already gotten the message about the organic brain because otherwise they should have taken her apart by now. Since she has maintained the Manhunters' ability to remotely drain rings, directly involving myself probably isn't a good idea.

"Are you certain that there isn't anywhere where it would be acceptable for me to harvest hearts?"

Commander Gordon frowns at me. "Yes. Why, are you getting drained?"

"No, but I noticed that the serial killer Ragman and the mass murderer Spectre were both on the League's contact list. There appears to be a logical contradiction and I'm hoping that you can explain it."

Red snorts in amusement. "You can only expect the Justice League to be so logical. I've killed plenty of people and yet for some reason it's the fact that I keep their skulls as trophies that horrifies people."

One of the Gold Lanterns flies over to pick up the man I assume to be Brainwave Junior and fly him closer to the combat zone.

Commander Gordon frowns. "Do Red Lanterns power their rings using skulls?"

"No, it just-." He glances over to where the kryptonians appear to be destroying Red Queen's power ring draining apparatus. "Actually, while we've got a few minutes I should probably recharge."

He holds out his ring and a red/white hole in space opens before him, his personal lantern floating out a moment later. It's in the shape of an oblong hurricane lantern, with the handle making up the horns of the sigil.

"Embrace your hate; vengeance for all!
My ring answers to rage's call,
And once I'm done, been your downfall,
I'll put your skull upon my wall."

Commander Gordon stares at him as he returns his lantern to subspace.

He shrugs. "Komand'r thought it was funny. And speaking of the love of my life, Commander, do you have her?"

"No. The site of Luthor's bunker was the same when we arrived as it was when you got there."

"Do you know where she is?"

"No. Our best guess is that Red Queen either teleported it to Krona, or she destroyed it."

His jaw tightens. "If she could destroy it that easily, she would have destroyed us when we attacked her. I.. think it's more likely that a radius around.. either Time Trapper or the tuning fork he was building was teleported."

"I'm…" Commander Gordon nods. "That's certainly possible." She frowns. "Komand'r?"

"Yes."

"Blackfire? The Tamaranean Princess who sold her sister and then her entire world into slavery?"

"No, a version of that woman from a parallel universe who lived a different life. The gordanians were perfectly capable of ravaging Tamaran without anyone's help."

Superman and the other kryptonian have pinned Red Queen and are carefully removing her weapon modules as Brainwave is brought closer.

"What is the status of Vega in this parallel?"

"It's difficult, but it's not so bad that I'd let you rip people's hearts out."

"Is there a substantive difference between a psion vivisecting someone and me tearing out their heart? I'm pushing this because if you intend to use me to activate the tuning fork then I will need substantially more power than I have now."

She looks thoughtful.

"That…"

"Also, the Manhunters who attacked us had internal explosives to kill the Red Queens when their containment was breached. I can create new black rings to raise her, but that-."

Her eyes widen. "What? Superman, be-"

The Manhunter Red Queen shudders and goes limp.

"-careful."

"That requires significantly more power."

Commander Gordon takes a deep breath.

"How much more power?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd April 2012
14:04 GMT -6

Luna stares blankly at the panorama visible from her balcony. Looking closely, I can see her mouth moving as she mutters to herself.

"…knock on effect of government spending artificially inflating demand, preventing the self-correcting function of the market place, and in the longer term..."

Maybe… Jean put in a bit too much.

"Luna?"

She doesn't look around. Her ears don't even flick, and I thought that was an involuntary action.

I walk closer, waiting for the sound of my hooves against the stone to provoke a response.

…

No… Doesn't appear to be happening. Hm. I don't want to stomp, because this stupid city is still perched on the side of a mountain, but… I prance a little in place.

Nothing.

"Luna, you alright? It wasn't… Too much for you?"

"…study has shown that the cost to the state of rehabilitation is in the longer term less than the cost of pure confinement…"

…

She sounds fine.

Hm. I look around, but the guards who brought me here appear to have either been ordered to wait outside or were so unnerved at seeing an alicorn like this that they retreated to somewhere where they wouldn't have to watch it.

I trot forwards until I'm standing over her unresponsive body, then tilt my head slightly forwards and lick the tip of her horn.

"Uh?"

Tastes like… Keratin. I lick it again, just in case I'm missing-.

"We knowst not precisely what you are doing, but We will thank you to stop."

I withdraw my tongue, looking down as Luna looks up at me. "Back with us?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were staring into space and muttering to yourself."

She rolls her eyes. "We were doing no such-." She blinks, looking up at the sun. "Why hath the sun moved?"

"No, no, see, for questions like that, you want the big white pony. You might have met her, actually, she's got a giant sun on-."

"We know perfectly well who it is that moves the sun, dalcop. We have-. Didst We really lose so much time?"

"Yeah, and I think Jean'll have to come back another day. You're not supposed to space out like that. I tried speaking to get your attention and it didn't work."

"But why didst you lick Our-." She starts to smirk. "Did you think it was… Sensitive?"

I look away. "Might have."

"Hah! Your ignorance of pony physiology may prove your undoing. Didst you not remember when our horns clashed in mortal combat? Didst you feel any great erotic sensation-"

"Yes."

"-then from your horn?"

"No, b-"

"Then why didst you think that We would?"

"-uuuut, I thought that might have been because you were using combat magic and I wasn't usually a pony." I bend my legs slightly, the fur of my unarmoured belly just brushing the fur of her back. "So where should I lick?"

"To create a sudden shock, We recommend the ears."

"Ok-."

Her eyes narrow. "Try it with Us and We shall see if your ardour remains after being hurled from a mountain."

I bend my neck to the right and lower my head until my muzzle is level with her ear.

"What happens if the answer is 'yes'?"

Her horn glows midnight blue and she discorporates, turning into shadows before flowing out from under me and recorporating.

"Little."

"It's not that l-."

"Are you here for a reason, or do you merely wish to vex Us?"

"Checking that the session went alright. I also want to introduce you to my eldest." She tenses slightly. "I mentioned-?"

"Yes, you… Did. The daughter who can read minds."

"That's her. Don't worry, she's done the full telepathic ethics course. And we both know that you go into people's dreams without prior consent, so don't be a hypocrite."

"You-?" She shakes her head. "Yes, We are prepared to meet her."

I turn towards the door. "Lynne!"

The door opens a little, Lynne's muzzle poking a short distance through. Then she shoves, the door opening fully and displaying her to Luna.

Lynne is a short alicorn, smaller even than Twilight Sparkle. Her mane and tail are jet black, while her pelt is a grey a shade or two lighter than my own. Her cutie mark is near-identical to my own as well, the only difference being that the axe blade is slightly larger and has a Ψ character on the side as decoration. I.. think I expected her pelt to be white as a reference to her Justice League Animated costume, but she hasn't ever actually worn something like that. And this could well be a result of my soul donation.

Lynne awkwardly genuflects, bending her front legs and lowering her head.

**Good afternoon, Princess Luna.**

"Greetings, Llyn." Luna smiles, and trots closer. "We are pleased to meet you. We-." She cocks her head to the side. "Didst you just speak to Our mind?"

**Daddy has his rings to translate for him. I have to connect to your mind to understand what you're saying.**

"We see." Luna considers, and appears to accept that.

I was planning to ask Sunset about dubbing her knowledge of the language, but she was in such a state after yesterday that I didn't want to push-

"OOF."

-things.

The three of us turn to see the dirt-encrusted form of Sunset Shimmer laying on the balcony, struggling to climb back to her hooves.

"Sunset? What are you doing?"

"Oh." Legs trembling, she regains quadrupedalism. "Hey Grayven. I think I'm studying earth pony magic."

"You.. think..?"

She takes a deep breath. "It's a challenging teaching st-"

A boulder slams down on the balcony from above, shearing it from the face of the palace!

"-yle!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd April 2012
14:08 GMT -6

Luna and I cautiously trot forwards towards the broken edge of the… Room, I suppose.

"I.. have my issues with Celestia's teaching style, but to the best of your knowledge-?"

"Be assured that Our Sister is not in the habit of hurling her students from buildings."

We both look down to where Sunset appears to have survived her crash landing and is now sprinting across the courtyard garden for cover as skull-sized rocks get pelted at her.

"You alright, Sunset!?"

"Yes!"

"Because we're getting slightly worried up here!"

"Short version?!" I just about manage a wing-shrug. "Equestria does have a native earth pony magic tradition!"

"Um! Good?!"

"I know! Ah!"

A boulder the size of a car slams into the ground just in front of her, forcing her to throw herself to the side to avoid running into it. She trips, rolls, then climbs back onto her hooves again just ahead of the next rock.

"It's going to save so much time!"

I turn my head to Luna, who appears to be staring at the scene with the same bewilderment I feel.

"Luna, is this some sort of.. pony thing I don't know about?"

"If it is, then there are two of us who do not know about it. Our Sister's student! Wherefore art thou not using thine unicorn magic?!"

"Did you know that benitoite can stop unicorns using magic?!"

"Neigh, we did not!"

The rain of rock stops and Sunset braces for a novel form of attack.

I smile. Good girl.

"Well it can and it works really well!"

"Daddy, should I stop them?"

I look further down to where Lynne is standing next to my right foreleg and looking up at me, a faint orange glow around her horn.

"No, Sunset appears to be enjoying-" I glance down at the garden as a circle around Sunset becomes liquefacted, causing her to drop into the ground and frantically try to 'swim' to the edge. "-herself. Ponies aren't good swimmers, are they?"

Luna looks away from the garden in order to throw me a quizzical glance.

"And apes are?"

I nod. "Hominids are. Humans can swim straight from the womb."

"That must be a strange sight."

"Compared to a pony trying to swim through earth?"

Sunset reaches the edge and gets her forehooves on solid ground, only for the rest of the soil to become solid as well. Sunset's eyes widen as she's caught halfway.

"Daddy, can babies really swim?"

"Yes, but not very well." Sunset wiggles, trying to use her alicorn strength to force the soil to release her. The soil covering the front part of her torso falls free easily enough but she can't get the leverage to pull herself out of the hole. "They tend to float and they hold their breath, but they can't do more than doggy paddle and they're not very strong."

The earth on the far side of the courtyard erupts, rock pillars shooting upward to form a series of steps from the roof to the garden as a small grey mare in a dull blue dress calmly jumps from one to the next like a mountain goat funeral director.

"Sunset."

Her voice sounds curiously disinterested, as if fights on the palace grounds are something she gets into every day.

"You know you can get out with magic."

"Yeah… But when I said I like hooves-on-" She strains against her earthy prison. "-research, I still meant a training area, not just -uhh- 'throwing down' in the palace."

The grey pony reaches ground level and lightly stomps her forehooves, causing the rock pillars to sink back into the ground. Dread to think what the subsidence is going to be like in a few years…

The grey pony then stops and stamps her back right leg. The ground around Sunset slowly rises up in a wave of earth.

"Um. Um. Um."

Sunset takes a deep breath and lets the wave collapse on top of her. I don my goggles so that I can make sure that her life isn't in danger, but… I don't want to intervene yet. And not just because she brought this on herself. Given the day she had yesterday, I'd probably give her a bye on that one. No, it's because I can tell the difference between outright panic and a momentary burst of fear. Sunset was worried about the soil, but she didn't genuinely believe that she might die. So that-.

Soil explodes in all directions, though I note that anything that hit the grey mare dropped to the ground immediately, rather than sticking to her fur or clothing. Sunset stands unsteadily in the centre of a gardener-horrifying crater. She's still pretty muddy, but-. Oh, that was lacertomancy. She removed the soil with a super strength flex, rather than geomancy. Still a one-in-four improvement on her earth pony magic skills since yesterday, but probably not what she was trying for.

"It worked!" She looks up at us. "Did you see that!?"

"Yes! Very nice!" I frown. "Luna, have you got any idea who the grey mare is?"

"No, though We think that We may need to make her acquaintance once this bizarre display has been concluded, both to learn from her expertise and to sentence her for vandalism."

"Daddy, can we learn to do that?"

"Pro-bably, but you'd only be able to do it in pony form." I glance down at her. "And if you're interested in magical strength-training, I can show you how to do that."

"Okay."

Sunset clears the edge of the crater by awkwardly flapping her dirt-encrusted wings and doing a trot-landing on what's left of the grass.

"That wasn't rock magic."

A spear of rock shoots out of the ground and Sunset has to jerk her head to the side to avoid being speared!

"You should try listening to the rocks. They say all kinds of interesting things."

"Ah…" Sunset leans towards the spear. "Hello.. rock..?

Another spear comes at her from her left, and she drops onto her belly to fully evade it!

"Ah! Bad rock!"

"Hey, Luna." I frown as Sunset keeps trying to 'talk' to the rock and the grey mare keeps firing spears at her. "Can you control rocks?"

"We cannot. And… Having seen this tomfoolery, We think that We will wait to learn until Sunset Shimmer can instruct Us in a more decorous fashion."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th May 2011
14:10 GMT -5

A cloud of smoke and tentacles undulates from inside the magic circle.

"I am summoned and so I'm here,
Mind so sharp and magics so queer,
Pay me in pain,
Or I'll drive you insane,
And-"

"Leef noissapmoc."

"Heart ready for harvesting."

"-shit it's Constantine again!"

Black breaches the summoning circle, shoves his right arm into the mass and pulls out a still-beating… Thing. The tentacular mass collapses to the floor and then begins to fade.

"Feed."

John Constantine grins as the heart is absorbed into Black's ring.

"Any chance you could come back after you've sorted this whole mess out?" He leafs through his copy of the Grimoire Verum. "Got whole chapters we could clear out."

Zatanna doesn't look at him, but nonetheless gives her head a small shake.

"Do you need any more?"

I'll admit, it's an interesting take on 'acceptable targets'. Call up a demon that is known to be a blight upon the Earth, force it to feel an emotion and then have Black consume its heart. They're not human, not conventionally alive and can probably recover eventually. The only real surprise is that they're alive enough for it to work, but Black already knew that would work as the very first thing his ring ate was a demon. I suppose that Nekron's concept of 'life' isn't so limited as to refer exclusively to organic life.

"Ring, state charge."

"Power level twenty six percent."

"I have sufficient." He hesitates, then smiles in the most natural expression I've seen him make so far. "Thank you."

Zatanna frowns curiously. "That.. sounded different."

"This.. is the closest I get to being alive. With a mixture of all parts of the emotional spectrum, I'm more… Myself… Now, than at any time since I died." He smiles at her. "Thank you."

"Is there any way to.. fix..? You?"

"The problem with any sort of 'fixing' is that I lose this power ring. And probably the benefits of vampirism. My condition is 'chronic', not 'terminal'." He grins, bowing his head. "Hah! It's terminus, not terminal!"

It's a curious point. What happens if you do something which is supposed to return the target to life on a vampire? When that sort of spell was cast with Darla as the target she resurrected as a human, but she'd already been destroyed in her vampire-form at that point. Actually, now that I think about it, why did that work? If she was resurrected then she should have had her human personality, rather than her demon personality. And when she was turned back into a vampire she should have been a 'new' vampire. Except she wasn't. I suppose I'd have to know more about the exact mechanics in order to know how the magics involved would affect Black.

John smiles, but he's also sure to keep Zatanna and myself between him and the grinning vampire-Lantern. Zatanna on the other hand gestures to the work bench where what's left of the Red Queen replica Manhunter was placed after the tech-savvy members of the Justice League finished making it safe.

"Can you bring her back?"

"Certainly!"

Black skips over to the remains, gives them a once-over and then sticks his right forefinger in a patch of mixed blood and cerebrospinal fluid before pulling it out and tasting it.

"Ring, analysis."

"Subject is deceased."

He turns to me, grinning.

"What a truly remarkable machine. And it knows all-."

"All that from just seeing a dismembered corpse. Absolutely-" / "All that from just seeing a dead body. Absolutely-"

Red and I glance at one another. Apparently, we all listened to Red Dwarf: The Last Human.

"-incredible." / "-incredible."

Black grins wider.

"We really are all the same man, aren't we? I didn't really appreciate it before-."

Zatanna looks puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"

"Why do you think Krona wants us rather than literally anyone else? We're not parallel universe versions of the same man. We used to be one man, and then we were many men in different parallels."

I raise my right hand. "We haven't… Conclusively confirmed that yet. I wouldn't want the League or the Gold Lantern Corps to plan with that in mind without having it confirmed by an expert."

Black slides his ring off his right ring finger and lays it on his palm. He then opens his mouth… And closes it again.

"Do we know what her name was?"

I.. shrug, and look at Red.

"Uh. Pass? They might have told Orange, but all he told me was that the other person we were looking for was Jade Nguyen."

"Cheshire?" Zatanna frowns. "Why did you want her?"

"We wanted her because Krona wanted her. But that doesn't mean that Red Queen is Jade Nguyen any more than Time Trapper is one of us."

Black gives an amused snort. "Be funny if he was, though. Anyway, I might as well try Jade Win."

Zatanna looks at the remains. "We have Jade Nguyen's genetic code on file. It will only take about half an hour to confirm whether it's her or not. Assuming Batman hasn't done that already."

"No, no point. If I guess wrong nothing happens. Ring?"

"Ready for command."

"Jade Win of Earth. Rise."

Black.. lightning flickers across the remains, the Manhunter chassis flickering out of existence almost at once and the organic remains.. levitating into position over the bench. Then the lightning focuses on the pieces of meat, striking them again and again. A few seconds pass with little happening, and then they.. slowly begin to grow. Yes, it looks like they kept the brain, a little blood to keep it fed and some of the nerves. The growth is slow at first, the brain matter turning from goo to an actual cerebral structure. Then a spinal cord extends out from the base, flickering strands of unlight painting in the skull, spine and ribs, then organs. The heart is unbeating and the colours are.. duller. There's no blood, not even the pooled and dried blood I've seen in older corpses. Muscle comes next, curiously.. grey in colour, veins and arteries, arms and legs. The strobing is constant, flickering all over her as the skin and hair are added in. Lastly, thicker bolts of lightning strike the right forefinger, coalescing into a.. new black power ring.

I take a robe out of subspace and drape it over her.

"Jade Nguyen of Earth. Rise."

Her eyes jerk open, tiny black sigils visible in her irises for a second before she blinks them away.

Black smiles down at her as she feels her face with her left hand while clasping the robe with her right. "Welcome back. Ready to get Krona?"

She snarls.

"Yes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th May 2011
15:42 GMT -5

I smile at this parallel's version of Wonder Woman.

"I realise that I'm pushing my luck here-" She smiles faintly. "-but is there any chance at all you could spend a year or two on my parallel once this is over?"

She raises her eyebrows very slightly. "Why do you ask?"

"We.. don't have much of a superhero tradition. Everyone with super powers gets them from a substance called Compound V, either injected or inherited. And… For various reasons, the people who are referred to as superheroes have never developed the skills or moral probity to truly be superheroes." Her expression grows somewhat more serious. "The least bad are well-meaning celebrities with powers; the worst… Well, there was a… An event two years ago and they're mostly dead now, but we're left with a void in leadership and direction. I'm doing what I can, but I don't have the experience or charisma to.. bring as many people as I need to with me."

"You shouldn't underestimate yourself."

"Yes… But… I'm fully aware that my staff has altered my mind and that another version of me who hasn't had his mind altered collects the skulls of his fallen enemies so that he can decorate his home with them. I'm not even sure that I'm the sort of person who should be in such a position. And while I can probably… Succeed in managing something like what I'm trying to achieve eventually, the presence of you, or… If you can't spare the time, another highly motivated and capable League member would speed things up considerably."

She nods thoughtfully.

"Prepare a full brief, and I will give it the consideration it deserves."

I smile. "Thank you. Were..? Have you fought Krona before?"

"No, though I was involved in both the event which merged many parallel universes into one, and in the event where the Society of Super-Villains attempted to recreate them. I am all too aware of the devastation such events can cause. Even if the people involved are all too likely to forget them in the aftermath."

I frown. "Is there a.. way to know if you've had a memory erased like that? I've long.. thought of memories as a vital part of a person's existence, and the idea that I'd just.. forget my whole reality is one I find extremely troubling."

She nods.

"If it is any comfort, I met a version of myself who had been part of a universe which was unmade. Though we were different in some ways, we were still recognisably the same woman."

"I appreciate the thought, but I'm recognisably the same man as the heart-ripping vampire and the skull collector with the blood-horns. Other than the fact that we appear to be naturals at being Lanterns, it… Doesn't really reassure me."

16th May 2011
15:42 GMT -5

The local Koriand'r regards me with a warm fascination, but I find my eyes drawn to her hair. It's mountainous. I can't.. smell any hairspray-.

"Most people do not stare at my hair." She smiles. "Why do you find it so fascinating?"

"Tamaraneans.. in my parallel, their hair doesn't get quite that… Voluminous. Do you do.. something special to it?"

She raises her right hand and runs it through her bouffant, forcing the local Garfield and… Some guy in blue armour I don't recognise, to back up to avoid being haired.

"It has been like this for my entire life."

"So it didn't get like that when the psions..?"

She shakes her head, making blue armour sidestep. "No. Most Tamaraneans have hair like this." She smiles curiously. "What is Tamaranean hair like where you are from?"

"Our Koriand'r's hair is completely straight. No volume to it at all. She has the.. fringe cut short and the rest brushed straight back. Komand'r's the same. There are… A few Tamaraneans with bushy hair, but it's not really a… Common trait."

"It is strange to hear anyone speak of my sister with such affection."

"My.. Komand'r isn't your Komand'r. Mine.. is more about personal freedom than domination."

Koriand'r smiles, apparently genuinely pleased.

"How long have you been together?"

"About a year and a half. She's so… Passionate. The way she.. throws herself into everything she does, probably… Because it's all new, all.. something she couldn't do growing up with Vega being.. Vega. Being with her is what makes all the killing… Have concrete meaning for me. And trying to keep up with her has made me live more than I did before meeting her."

"Then I am glad that you have found one another."

I nod, smiling. "Thank you."

"And how does the other me feel about it?"

"She finds it delightful in the abstract, but she gets a bit disturbed about exactly how we express our affection for one another."

Garfield snorts in amusement, while Koriand'r seems more confused.

"On my Tamaran, my people are completely open with our feelings, both in what they are and in how we demonstrate them. I would not think that there is much you could do that would disturb me."

I suppose that projectile vomiting is a pretty open display. Super strength stomach evacuations are not for the faint of heart.

"Some girls just don't like excarnation, I guess."

16th May 2011
15:42 GMT -5

"I've never been undead before."

Jade Nguyen examines her right hand, and the power ring upon it.

"Okay?"

"I don't know how old I am. I used the materioptikon to live so many lives, I never kept track of how many subjective years I was integrating back into the whole. But I never tried undeath. If a version of me died, I just wrote them off."

"I don't understand, I'm afraid."

"On my Earth, a supervillain named Doctor Destiny brought the entire population of the Earth into a dream realm he could control. When the Justice League defeated him he lost control of the tool he used to do it: the materioptikon. I took it, and used it myself. I created illusory worlds and lived illusory lives, becoming stronger and more knowledgeable until that began to lose its appeal."

"To what end?"

"I-." She hesitates. "Personal protection. I hate feeling vulnerable, so I tried to make sure that I never.. would. I… Don't feel that way now. Is that because of you?"

"It's hard to feel, as a Black Lantern. You'll need to feed your ring a few fearful hearts."

She shakes her head.

"I'm not keeping this me. Once we free them, I'll merge with another version of me. Then you can have your ring back."

"That… Might… Ah…"

"It's worked through every change I've gone through so far. Including death." She looks out into the briefing theatre at the superheroes who are filing in. "Let's get this briefing done so we can all go back to normalcy."

I frown at her.

"Are you sure that you really want to?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Hell if
I know

I think I fucked up.

Ah, who am I kidding? Yeah, I fucked up. Was my life really so good that a few years in prison would be that bad? No, no it wasn't, but I still thought that getting grabbed by a giant hand like I was some kinda prize in a fairground claw machine was better. And now I'm back on ice, surrounded by killer robots, at the end of the fucking universe, and the second I can't keep up this shape… I don't know what they're gonna do, but I don't think I'm gonna like it.

No, forget that. I didn't 'fuck up', I am a fuck up.

I mean, what the fuck was I even thinking?

Shit.

Okay, I'm about… Halfway up the right fork of the giant tuning fork thing. So I.. guess the view's an improvement. Except that I can't look around, 'cause the robots think this thing wrapped around my head is messing up my thoughts like it is everyone else's. I mean, I guess that's what they think. It's not like they talk to me, just 'wham, bam, back in the can'.

View's better. All of the… What was his name..?

Shit, I didn't even ask.

I sure used to be a whole lot more sociable than this. Guess being a giant mud monster did a number on my people skills.

I mean, the hole in the sky.. thing said 'Peter Wynne', so I guess that's it. But seeing as how it grabbed me maybe I shouldn't just assume that it knew what it was talking about. So okay, a couple of… Hundred? Clones of that Peter Wynne guy are plugged into one side of a giant tuning fork, and hundreds of clones of some chick I've-. No, wait, that one's-. She's wearing the same mask as that Cheshire chick. If they're all the same woman…

I.. don't know what that means. Being a Gotham mud man does not prepare you for this stuff. You think you've seen some shit, then you get strapped to a tuning fork by a robot.

Okay, think. What's this place even for? The… House… Villa… Whatever it is over on the asteroid… Someone built that. On an asteroid. In the middle of nowhere. So… I mean, it doesn't look like a space station or anything… But these robots look pretty high-end. And the giant hand…

Okay, so some crazy alien with a robot army built a holiday home on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere. Think I was an extra in a flick like that one time.

Though… I guess, if he can open those portal things to anywhere, he doesn't need to live near anything. The robots probably need… Electricity? Or.. whatever alien robots run off. Was that what the tuning fork was f-? No, that was stupid. Not even a crazy alien is gonna kidnap a bunch of clones to make electricity.

Think I was in a sci-fi channel special with that plot…

Crazy alien-. Ah! No. Not a crazy alien. No way is an alien who gets a whole bunch of robots working for him crazy-crazy. And I guess if you're crazy on an asteroid house then you get spaced and die.

Would I die if I got exposed to space? Or… Just stop moving until something warmed me up? Four years out was bad, but I could.. float around in space… Forever. Except… There isn't anything around here, so wouldn't I just..? Float back? No, if it actually happened the robots would spot me and pick me up. And take me to the alien running the place. Or…

Could they kill me? Gotta admit, there've been times… I mean, if anyone could…

Nah. Nah, that ain't healthy.

So. Do.. I.. think that Peter Wynne guy is gonna try and bust me out? I… Dunno. Superheroes don't stop until they win, but… I dunno if he was a superhero. And if he was-. Ah, how would he get here, anyway? And he said he wasn't, and I tried ditching him the first chance I got. So I don't think I got any credit there.

So what are my options here?

I could stay here. I don't need to eat or breathe. Or scratch myself. I can move my insides around so I don't feel like I need to twitch. I can stay here until the alien does whatever it wants to do, and then…

Yeah. I guess aliens don't have to think like humans, but if this guy was a human? I don't think he'd be the kinda guy who'd just send everyone home with a thank you note. And 'giant tuning fork with people strapped to it' doesn't exactly shout 'art installation'. So I need to escape. Somehow.

None of the robots… Look like they're looking this way. There are plenty around the tuning fork, but they're clustering around the handful of clones who are… Glowing, or… Something. My body is basically mud. Are they gonna be able to tell the difference between my mud and asteroid mud? I'd have thought they would, but then I don't get how they haven't spotted that I'm not that Wynne guy already, so what do I know?

And… If I can get out of this pod without anyone noticing… Where would I go? The… House? I guess if I squirmed really slowly and made myself really thin, I… Could pull that off. Creep down the side of the tuning fork…

No, no, that wouldn't work. Sure, they might not notice that I'm not plugged into whatever this thing is, but they'd spot an empty booth. And there's no way I could stretch that far. So.. I.. guess I'm…

…

I could try doing that thing that made that Robin kid nearly kill me. How old is he now? I mean, it's been four years, plus the time before Edge got me… In his twenties? Late teens? Whatever. If he hears about it, I don't think he's gonna try killing me where Batman can stop him. But if I give it really clear instructions and make sure I absorb it before anyone finds out…

Not like I've got any better ideas.

Okay. Where is it easiest..? I can't just chop off a limb, but it's gotta be hard to see the back of my legs from outside. Go from there. Shift a little mass around, make sure I keep my outside looking the same… A hollow space grows in my middle as extra clay leaks out of my right foot. It spreads out, mimicking the color and texture of the bottom of the pod I'm being held in. Still.. connected to me.

I always figured that if I did something like this, I'd just have a little me around the place. Up until I did it, and a piece of me wandered off on its own and started living its own life. Still don't really know how or why that happened. Was it because of the chemicals? That would kinda make sense, and it shouldn't be a problem any more. All of my mud is definitely me.

Okay. It's just connected to me by a thin thread now. Focus. Maybe that'll work better than just thinking 'go and look around'.

Stay hidden. Look around. Find a way out. Then come back.

I can't look down, but I can… Faintly hear my own thoughts echoing back to me.

Stay hidden. Look around. Find a way out. Then come back. Stay hidden. Look around. Find a way out. Then come back.

And sever.

Can't hear it now. I risk moving my eyes to the back of my body so I can watch it, closing the faux eyes on my face. It's… Sort of laying there, slightly… Rippling. Right, staying hidden. It isn't gonna move unless it's sure it's safe. Which is good-.

It extends itself very slightly out of our recess, carefully mirroring its surroundings all the while. Okay, fine. I move my eyes back up and take another look around at the robots. Not moving. Or not moving over here at least.

I take a closer look at them. Another thing Gotham doesn't prepare you for: alien super-robots. They've got a red and blue theme going, but there are a whole lot of different shapes. Not like in They Come!, where we had one design to cut down on costume costs. Guess if you're building them for real-.

No, no, hang on. You'd set up a production line. Wouldn't you? I haven't seen the different types doing different things to each other. And they're not all custom jobs, or they'd all look different. Robots of the same types are sticking together, but they're working with each other no problem.

I don't know what's going on.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th May 2011
02:57 GMT

"Where do you want me?"

Commander Gordon looks up from her datasheet construct.

For reasons relating to public safety and time-space stability, we're rebuilding the tuning fork in the same place that Alexander Luthor built the last one. It also has the advantage of already being owned by the Justice League. Most of the tuning fork is held together by golden light, the pieces which were recovered from the original shoved into place in the golden mould. The effect is an odd patchwork of pieces and constructs, though the proportion which is construct is decreasing steadily as the local John Stewart reforms it under the instruction of Black Queen. He's… Quite a lot more capable than I thought he would be. I don't remember his exact abilities particularly well from the comics, but macro scale matter conversion isn't something I remember him being able to do. He's also dressed in a modified Guardian robe rather than the gold and black armour of the other Corps members.

"At the rate John's going, we should be ready to force the connection in a few minutes."

"Does that stop Krona, or open a portal directly to him?"

"It should just stop him. At least until he can build a new tuning fork." She looks around, smiling confidently. "But if he does attack us directly, then we'll be ready for him."

I don't know what the term for a large force of Lanterns is, but at the moment most of the light illuminating this area is shining from the rings and environmental shields of over a hundred Gold Lanterns. Also present are a large number of Justice League members in cold weather gear, as well as a veritable legion of bat-themed combat robots. Not all of the League members look happy to be here; esprit de corps only gets you so far in arctic weather, and those who don't have either heat powers or supernatural resilience are huddled up in thick thermal clothing.

I smile, and.. I think that my teeth show a little.

"What?"

"My previous world, and… The world all of the alternate versions of me came from originally, we don't have superheroes."

She frowns curiously. "You don't?"

"No. My original home has no magic or superpowers, and if there are any aliens then we haven't met them yet. And the world where I died and rose again… Plenty of magic, but the heroes it has tend to…" I look around at the eye-scouringly bright costumes all around me. "Dress conservatively, rather than wear costumes. Also, authorities seem to not actually be aware that magic is real."

In the air to the north, Doctor Fate summons protective ankhs at each of the cardinal points.

"How did they miss it?"

"Commander, this is the most mentally focused I've been since I died. When I go back, if I stay like this, I'll try and find out."

"Are you losing focus again?"

"Not that I've noticed. Hearts appear to be multiplicative for me: taking one-."

She gives me a level stare. "I know what 'multiplicative' means."

"Of course, sorry. I've never had this much power before. This could last a very long time."

"Though if we're fighting a Guardian, he might be able to undo it."

"Poss-ibly. I don't know if they ever used black rings, but… It's their technology."

She reaches into a utility pouch and pulls out a gold power.. ring.

"The reason why I've brought so many Gold Lanterns here is that our rings weren't made by the Guardians. They were made by John Stewart, with input from Sinestro and Lex Luthor. All of the programming was rewritten and replaced, so while we can't stop Krona affecting it, he shouldn't have any advantage over anyone else."

"Good show. So I should stay here?"

"No." She passes the ring to me. "So you should take this. It can't help with your other emotions, but you should at least be able to remember why you're fighting."

I.. take the ring and slide it onto my right middle finger.

"Does it come with a personal lantern?"

She nods. "Of course."

I.. nod. "I'm not sure this will actually work since it's not a heart, but… Thank-"

She suddenly looks up toward the top of the tuning fork.

"- you."

"John's ready for you. Follow me."

She rises in his direction, and I float along after her.

"So how is this going to work?"

"The original tuning fork used people from as many different pre-merger realities as they could find in order to… Pry this universe apart along the seams. We think that Krona is using different versions of you to study the layout of the multiverse. That should be less dangerous -at least to start with- and so we're using you to link our tuning fork with his. It should be a simple matter of imbuing each of the seven power containment units with small amounts of your-"

A small frown.

"-emotional energy, while Black Queen does the same on the other tine. Once Krona has been shut down we can worry about how we stop him permanently."

We stop just above the platform at the top of the right tine, and I land in the centre of it. Black Queen is already on the other side, while Red and Indigo rise up to keep me-.

A Gold Lantern flies up with a fur-wreathed and decidedly disgruntled Cheshire. The local one, presumably.

I give her a jaunty wave as she's flown over to Black Queen.

"Right then." I look around for a moment and try and work out how I'm going to do this. Infusing other things with emotion isn't really something I've done before. Black rings are more about taking emotion from other people. On the other hand, infusing other things is basically what I do when I make a new ring, right? "Let's get this show on the road."

I arbitrarily designate one of the power containment units 'will', and mentally assign a sigil to each of them.

Anger should be easy. I didn't need to heart-rip demons to get that. Rage at a power I/he couldn't fight against killing the only person he loved and making him feel weak and helpless-.

It's like… Vomiting. One moment I'm standing there pointing my right hand off to one side, the next a thin tube of black connects the ring to the containment unit, red light flowing along the inside. And it does not feel nice to vomit from your soul rather than your stomach.

"Power level twenty five percent."

One percent a time?

The construct evaporates, a dull red sigil floating over the containment unit.

That's not too bad.

I glance over at Black Queen. She's gone for will first, which probably comes most naturally to her. She looks my way as her sigil forms and I give her a thumbs up.

Next is avarice. Well, I do like feeling alive, and those demons liked being in the material universe. This one should be easy-.

A man in a green, black and white costume appears in the air between the tines and looks around wide-eyed.

"Oh, not ag-"

The sky turns red.

"-ain."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stay hidden.
Look around.
Find a way out.
Then come back.

Check resting surface. Check outer surface. Still matching.

Check surroundings. Note observers. Note attention level. No imminent threat. Move.

See exit? No.

Keep going.

Check resting surface. Check outer surface. Still matching.

Check surroundings. Note observers. Note attention level. No imminent threat. Move.

See exit? No.

Keep going.

Can't keep going. Surface ends.

…

Puzzled.

Check resting surface. Check outer surface. Still matching.

Check surroundings. Note observers. Note attention level. No imminent threat.

Think.

Situation too complex for current instructions. Cannot modify instructions. Cannot understand more than instructions. Need to understand more to follow instructions in situation.

Self must change. Self material matches resting surface material. Make more self.

Check feeding surface. Check outer surface. Still matching.

Check surroundings. Note observers. Note attention level. No imminent threat.

Self checks the feeding surface. Self checks the outer surface. Still matching.

I check the surface I'm feeding-.

Wohw wohw wohw! I'm.. the split off?

That… Wasn't meant to-. Well fuck me if I'm absorbing me.

Stay hidden. Look around. Find a way out. Then come back.

Fuck that! It's like a Sunday School lesson! Don't fuck someone in your power over or the guy fucked over might be you!

Am I-? Yeah, I… Think I'm Matt Hagen, but-. Oh, I'm… Bigger. Lucky thing the robots don't walk anywhere. So… Okay, I'm off the tuning fork, got to the ground with the alien overlord's house on it, and-.

I.. crawled all around it and wasn't clever enough to work out how to get inside? And then… Me.

Huh.

Shit, I actually-. I didn't think that thing I made to scout really was a person, I thought she was just-. Oh. Oh shit, I actually killed-. I killed a kid. I mean…

…

I've killed people. People attacking me, or… Who had it coming. But… That's…

Okay, yeah. I get back home, I'm going in whatever prison they pick out. Maybe… Someone can work out how to get… What did Robin call her? Annie? Out of me. All I remember getting from her was a few memories, but there's gotta be something if she was a person.

Right?

God.

Stay hidden. Look around. Find a way out.

Yeah, yeah.

There aren't actually any robots on guard duty. Not in a 'standing by the doors' kind of way. Okay, now I can think about it… There's a flow of robots towards a.. red.. area near the tuning fork, and… When they get there they vanish, and… More appear from someplace else. But I'm too big to stick myself on one without it noticing, even if I wanted to risk it.

The walls of the alien's fort-thing… No friction. Can't climb them, and I don't want to risk stretching up that far. I stick fine to the rock… Try… Underneath, I guess.

Then come back.

I'm gonna have to, aren't I? Otherwise he'll-. I'll-. … He'll just make another one, and that's… Bad. I need to report back, I just-. Don't merge. Or if I did, what..? I mean, we still think like each other, so would we actually-? Would he.. 'get' me, or would I get him or would there be no difference, because we're not different enough?

Hell, I don't know.

Okay. Underneath. More of the building's sticking out here… That's… Open? Some sort of-.

Is that the toilet outflow?

It wouldn't be the.. weirdest thing I'd crawled into. And I guess aliens gotta go potty too. Not like it disgusts me; my sense of smell doesn't work like it used to and it's not like anything that doesn't get absorbed will stick. But wouldn't they have… Space toilets? And why isn't there shit just floating around out here?

Pipe's not zero friction, so… Check the robots again, then here I go.

Eh. Crawled through one pipe, crawled through them all. There's a little water in here, but I'm not feeling anything else. Nothing organic. There might be something too small for me to feel, like microbes or whatever, but nothing larger. I think there's a… Slight change in pressure? I -ughh- change myself into a tube so the air can flow, because they might spot a gas build up even if they don't have… Laser sensors or something inside the pipe. And… Okay, light at the end of the tunnel. The pipe… Just leads out into a room?

I very cautiously stick an eye down, and… Plants. A garden of flowering plants. A greenhouse, except there isn't any glass. Some of them have large violet flowers, others… Don't have any. No robots in here as far as I can see. The pipe comes out way too far away from the walls for me to climb down. I could try climbing up the outside of the pipe and then moving across the ceiling, but it looks smooth and I'd need really good grip for that. I'm flexible but I'm not exactly light.

I bring down my other eye so I can look in the other direction at the same time. I think I'm gonna have to… Drop, fast as I can, and then get the heck away in case anyone hears it.

I squash up my front, bring up as much of my mass as I can and relax my grip on the pipe. Then I get to see the ground shoot towards my face, and the feel of the rest of me sliding out of the pipe at speed! Oof! Takes a moment to me to sort myself out after getting mashed like that, and… What shape should I go with? One of the robots, I guess? The only other thing would be Wynne, and if someone spotted that I'd get stuck back on the tuning fork. The alternative would be creeping around, but this is inside. It's a lot easier to put monitoring devices around.

I guess. I mean, what do I know? I'm an actor.

Was an actor.

Okay, humanoid… One of the ones with the heads built into their shoulders. Check the colors… I'm good. Their heads just rotate… Yeah, I can do that. Check the range of motion in the arms and legs. I can't fly, but I didn't see them walking. Hm. I think I can manage. Exit…

I carefully look around and see a doorway -with no door and so no door security- leading out into a corridor.

That's a start. I'll head that way and see where it takes me.

The plants do brighten the place up nicely.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th May 2011
03:01 GMT

The red sky ripples and the Manhunters begin to appear.

I erect a dome barrier over Black, and two of the Gold Lanterns do the same with Black Queen. Fortunately, it-

A dozen varieties of energy beam flare upward from the assembled Justice League members, heat vision from the kryptonians, fire, ice, plasma, gravitons and acid from League members I half-recognise, all combined with missile and heavy gun constructs from the Gold Lanterns. The first wave of Manhunters are heavily armoured and armed with some sort of staff and as the first part of the torrent hits home the robots who attracted their attention evaporate.

No energy shield, no return fire-.

"Lantern Rathbone, focus on your sector and trust everyone else to focus on theirs."

Ah, I see. Some Manhunters took more than their share of fire, while others were almost unmolested.

"Yes, Commander!"

More shimmers and this time the Manhunters have their staves levelled, green bolts erupting from the tip and slamming into the League's positions! Gold Lanterns raise shields to block while the fireteams open up on them. Again, the Manhunters have no shields and their armour is massively inadequate to the task.

"…helps a little with fear…"

"…helps a little with fear…"

Black's third sigil springs into being, a dull yellow which contrasts quite strongly with the brighter light being employed by the Gold Lanterns-.

Another wave of Manhunters, larger than the previous two. Rather than spreading out, they form clusters protecting… Slightly larger Manhunters whose armour is partly opened-.

"They're deploying Highmasters. Lanterns, focus on their bodyguard."

Most Lanterns didn't need the reminder, construct attacks hammering through the bodyguard units but shutting down before hitting the 'Highmasters'. The Manhunters of the new model intentionally fly towards the heaviest focus of construct activity, gold wisps rising from the constructs in the brief window before the Lanterns creating it dismiss them.

The green sigil flares into being next to Black Lantern as the Highmasters charge for the ground! One is intercepted by Superman, golden light shimmering around its body as it tries to soak up his attacks. Predictably that doesn't work, his first trial-tap fracturing the construct shield while the Manhunter's construct beam doesn't so much as muss his quiff. Superman's second strike is a series of blurs, the Manhunter's armour fracturing and failing from its vulnerable points. The robot… Collapses into bits and tumbles to the ground.

"Hope done. Um."

Commander Gordon doesn't look around, keeping her attention on the growing area of red sky.

"What?"

"Love is next, and I'm…"

Ah. Yes.

"None of us were particularly amorous, and then he became a clinically depressed vampire."

"Can you do it?"

"P.. ro.. bably, but not quickly."

Another wave of Manhunters, these ones looking a little more sophisticated than the initial combat variety. They dart towards their preselected targets the moment they appear, strong-looking shields shimmering around their bodies as they take hits.

Still none focusing on the giant tuning fork.

"…built this!?"

The fellow in the green, black and white tried to reach Commander Gordon but was intercepted by her escort. He looks decidedly unhappy about the whole situation, and… I've got no idea who he is.

"Because we don't have any other way to stop him, and you always said that you couldn't control where you teleported."

"I can't, but I wouldn't be here if the cure wasn't worse than the disease!"

"Provide me with actionable intelligence or get out of my way."

"I'm just going to skip to compassion!"

Which is-. Would be a little frustrating, given that I could probably do that one but definitely could-.

"Commander, personal question: you and Mister Grayson..?"

Her head jerks around. "What?"

"I can use the emotions of those around me to weakly use other colours. Neither I nor Black have a significant amount of romantic experience, but…"

"Dick and I are… Fine."

"Ah-."

Her bodyguard looks at me. "My husband and I have been together eight years. Would that work?"

"Eight happy years?"

"Ah, y'know, mostly? It's not like we never disagree about anything…"

"That should do." I look at Commander Gordon. "Would you mind if I borrowed her?"

"Yes, do it."

I open a hole in my shield to allow her through.

"Red, can you take over shielding dut-"

Three plasma bolts strike my shield, causing momentary cracks in the dome before it bleeds off their energy.

"-y?"

I think that was.. just a spray rather than a deliberate targeting, but the fighting above us hasn't stopped just because we needed a quick chat.

Red nods, a red dome appearing above mine. I wait until it envelops the top of the tine completely, then drop my own and focus my attention on the Gold Lantern volunteer.

"I need you to focus your mind on the most intimate memories you have of your husband." She looks askance-. "Emotionally intimate, the thoughts and feelings that tie the two of you most closely together. Not just the good; times when you've supported each other in hardship or otherwise helped one another work just as well."

She takes a couple of breaths and then nods. "Okay, gimme a sec."

"Black, we'll handle love."

"Ah?" He glances at Commander Gordon for a moment, then nods. "Okay, thanks."

My Gold Lantern assistant isn't really looking at anything, presumably trying to call the required memories and emotional sensation to mind. I shut down my constructs and… Target her with my stave's alternate mode. This isn't usually a good or efficient way to use it, but if all I need is a dribble of power anyway…

A weak strobe of violet light shimmers out to one of the two remaining capacitors, while black fills the other.

I smile at my assistant.

"Thank you. You should probably take a moment to-."

She flies upward, Red getting his shield out of the way just in time.

"Or not." I look over at Black Queen, who is standing in the middle of her tine with her arms folded across her chest, her capacitors already filled. "Ready!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stay hidden.
Look around.
Find a way out.
Then come back.

I stop, and the other robots walk past my corridor like I'm not even here.

Guess those movies were more accurate than I thought.

There aren't a lot of interior doors. Which is good, because if there was some sort of… Metal detector or whatever then there's no way I'd show up looking like one of the real robots. Now that I've had a chance to watch them I'm walking more like they do, but that sort of thing only fools people and I haven't seen any. Maybe there isn't a crazy alien but a crazy robot? Or maybe they're all just doing the last things they got told to do and no one's really in charge?

I march down a corridor I haven't been down before. Not because I think there's anything there, but because I know there isn't anywhere else and I may as well take a look. If it turns out that the only way to leave is using the tuning fork… Maybe there's a way to bring other people here? Superman or someone? No disrespect to Batman but I think he'd be out of his depth too.

"…quite as planned. I didn't know that Guardians could bleed."

"It's rare for us to encounter anything that can make it happen, certainly."

I don't stop. A robot wouldn't stop until it got to where it was going.

I keep going at exactly the same pace, heading in the same direction. And start looking for a believable stop-point that lets me keep listening.

"I'd offer to help, but I really would quite like you to bleed to death."

"You are fascinating. I doubt that you can really appreciate it."

"I'm unique. You're really old."

There isn't anywhere. The only thing I can do is march into the room, or hope that no one looks when I go somewhere else.

"You're not the first Time Trapper, are you? Even the people who meet the different versions of you probably don't realise it. The unique interaction you have with time makes sure that there wasn't a Time Trapper before you. I wonder how you experience it?"

I hear the stomps of a robot approaching from behind me. Can't risk looking around. Looks like I'm going in.

I march into the room, looking upwards in the direction of the voices as much as I dare. The room is large and has two levels, the first floor and a floor half way up the room made of platforms criss-crossing the middle. In the centre of the room is a sort of… Bubble. Probably a force field of some kind. Inside, there's some guy in a purple robe. On the gantry looking in at him is a… A blue midget. With a black widow's peak and a black handlebar moustache. His right arm is in a sling, but I can see that the sling was just some cloth he had lying around rather than a proper medical sling. So the guy's got an army of robots but can't get decent medical attention?

Lucky that he's not looking at me. I head towards a work station and then stop just before I reach it. That's something a robot would do, right?

"It might amuse you to know that your experiment is continuing without you. That last universe you were in has built another tuning fork."

I can't look at them from here, so I don't know how robe-guy responded to that. But the midget sounds like he's trying to taunt him, and when a guy outside a cell is taunting you it's because you're in his power and he thinks he's winning.

Which saves time on working out who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. And he's not even a bad guy with any class.

"What are you doing, Krona?"

Krona… Krona… No, don't think I've heard of an alien midget called 'Krona'. Don't think I've heard of an alien midget called anything, but Krona-. Isn't that a brand of beer? And… What they call their money someplace in Europe?

"Learning a great deal about time. I know that Vanishing Point is generally considered to be outside of time, but here we are. Your past self isn't walking past this enclosure or trying to free you. We can have a chronologically consistent conversation. But we can both feel that something is different. What's the difference between time in here and time out there?"

"I don't know any more than you do."

"No. I suspect that you know rather less."

"It's not just blood, is it? You're weaker than you were."

"And that's something I will correct very shortly. You really shouldn't have gone to a parallel where the power rings don't have Maltusian lockouts."

Quiet steps as the midget walks away. Okay, don't look and wait until he's g-.

"Manhunter, report."

Gone.

Okay, is this robot a Manhunter? There's no one else here and I didn't see a radio on him. What the hell do these robots say to him? I can do voices like this, but I've never heard any of them talk.

I turn in the direction of the midget's voice, and luckily he's not bothering to look at me. Shit, was he talking to a different robot? Still can't see any. Have to take a risk.

"Acquisition of Peter Wynne unsuccessful."

"Still? Unfortunate, but he's just one man. We can get plenty more."

The alien midget walks down the staircase at the edge of the room, and I track him by rotating my head.

"Not much point sending you to fight the Justice League, given how quickly they're destroying the others of your generation. You can keep Time Trapper company. Make sure that he can't escape again."

He heads towards one of the exits. Good, I can talk to that Time Trapper guy and find out what's-.

He stops.

"Manhunter? Confirm command."

What do Manhunters say, what do Manhunters say? Wait, there are a whole bunch of different models, and it sounds like they have different abilities. Do they all say the same thing? Just have to guess. What would an alien megalomaniac have his robots say?

"By the command of Krona, I obey."

He keeps walking. So either that was the right response or he's gone to get reinforcements and doesn't want to let me know that he knows. Or… He didn't really listen to the response but wanted to get one, like some total prima donna ordering around wait staff. Yeah, that sounds more likely.

I wait until he's out of sight down the corridor then walk robotically to the staircase at the side of the room, climb up them and walk towards the bubble prison in the middle of the room. Time Trapper is wearing an all-concealing purple robe, and he's sitting slumped in the base of the bubble. I walk up as close to him as the gantry allows and then stop.

"I don't suppose that you can tell me what's going on out there, can you? I can't do much about it, but I'd still like to know."

"What, you think I understood any of it?"

The hood jerks up.

"What?"

"Name's Matt Hagen. The dumb robots picked me up rather than a guy called Peter Wynne, and I'm looking-"

"Clayface."

"-for a way out."

"You-? He just-?" He stands up real quick, leaning toward the edge of the bubble closest to me. "Alright. Mister Hagen? Listen very carefully, because you have somehow found yourself in position to save the multiverse."

"And papa always said I'd never amount to anything."

"Focus. Mister Hagen. I'm going to tell you exactly what to do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th May 2011
03:04 GMT

"John, do it."

I generate a construct sword for a moment before dismissing it. I don't think that I could visually identify which Manhunters could drain it in the fraction of a second I'd have before committing to an attack. And while there are things I can do with red light in someone else's hands… I just can't get that angry at a non-sophont.

A golden aura builds up around our tuning fork's tines then the red colour is bleached from the sky. New Manhunters' appearances become fewer and fewer as the discolouration fades, until the sky reappears and no more materialise.

Krona on the other hand is being exactly the sort of high-handed shit I'd relish killing. Haven't checked the rules of engagement with Commander Gordon, but fortunately I'm not under any obligation to obey her. The only thing I need from her is transportation home, and we're basically on Earth One now. There have to be a dozen places I could get one.

"John?"

"It's holding, as far as I can tell. Krona can't open any more portals. Which means that he's stuck where he is and all he has is the Manhunters he brought with him."

Indigo raises his left eyebrow.

"Given that we're deliberately creating a link between our tuning fork and his, are we certain that he can't open one here? True, I'm happier that he's limited to one point of egress, but I don't want to underestimate a Guardian."

"We're not. John's already working on opening a portal that we control."

Obvious problem with that.

"You know how Krona's got a pile of power rings."

"You mentioned it. Everyone's been briefed on the capabilities of high-powered Highmasters. We're not underestimating him."

"Right, but you are aware that most of those rings are orange, right? And that unlike here, on most parallels colour defines function."

"Yes, I did read the briefing document you wrote. Everyone we send will have extensive training in resisting mind control and will also be enchanted by Doctor Fate for extra protection. I have planned operations like this before. I've also sent Lanterns to Okaara just in case we've got a Larfleeze as well."

I raise my right hand. "Understood. I apologise for doubting. You've clearly got everything under control."

"Don't apologise for raising a concern. Apologise for not raising it before the mission started." She turns to Pariah. "Is that it? Are we past the crisis point?"

"I'm still here, so I very much doubt it."

I shake my head. "Who are you?"

"My name is Doctor Kell Mossa. I inadvertently enabled the Anti-Monitor to escape its prison, and so set off the first great Crisis. Since then I've been rendered immortal and indestructible, forced to move from crisis point to crisis point to witness horrors I'm helpless to stop."

Indigo smiles at him.

"But you try anyway."

He shakes his head. "What else could I do?" He smiles ruefully. "That's a serious question, by the way. Is there anything else?"

I nod. "Find whoever's teleporting you and kill them." Indigo glances at me, then looks away. "What? The Anti-Monitor's dead already, so it's not him. It's clearly directed. Kill them." I frown. "Speaking of killing people, are the Manhunters killing all of our alts on their tuning fork right now?"

Commander Gordon shakes her head. "Krona will still need them if he wants to escape. And when we attack, he won't be able to spare the resources to kill them."

Not like we can rescue them more quickly anyway-.

"Silly question, Doctor Mossa: you can't teleport around a crisis zone, can you? I mean, is the disaster supposed to happen here, or is it just something to do with this event?"

He floats there for a moment, then shakes his head. "My teleportation is purely involuntary. I just tried forcing it and nothing happened. As to exactly where it's happening, I have no idea."

"Is it inevitable?"

"Every world I've been drawn to has been destroyed. Alexander Luthor's Society destroyed and remade dozens of worlds in their insane attempt to create one correct Earth, or recreate the exact one that they wanted."

"Well, to quote Mustrum Ridcully, those other buggers can look after themselves."

"So long as you accept them saying the same thing about you."

I nod. "I can look after myself."

Indigo looks up at Commander Gordon. "Are there any injuries? If we're no longer under attack, I can-.

The sky… Blisters pockets of red. Each remains for a few seconds before fading-

"John?"

-back to normal, but more form-

"I don't know what he's doing."

-immediately after, the rate increasing until-.

Those… Are a bit bigger.

Seven… Titanic Manhunters appear, each glowing with a colour of the emotional spectrum. The brightest by far is the orange one, and I can feel the rings mounted in its chassis. There must be… Dozens at least. The others are a little less overwhelming, but they're all channelling their colours-.

How? The Manhunters we've seen are robots with basic combat AIs. Are these new ones actually sophonts, or-.

We're natural Lanterns. Krona's got-.

The Orange Titan glows brilliantly, huge bands of orange light blasting outwards! Gold Lanterns who try to block it are knocked back or simply disintegrated, while League members on the ground are knocked flying as the ground explodes! I see a blur that's probably Superman dart in and out, frantically trying to evacuate as many people as he can as the other titans from the red half of the spectrum head towards our tuning fork.

The Yellow Titan aims for John Stewart, yellow beams clashing with gold as the super-Manhunter duels with the human Guardian. Red is firing out streams of red shards, targeting any fliers who've evaded the orange wave. I stare up at it, shuddering with rage as my horns reappear. Are those rings Krona's work, or just rings he's stolen from other Red Lantern me's? How many heroes has Krona taken to power his latest omnicidal science experiment? How many did he just kill?

Blood boils through the skin of my palms, flowing into the runes for 'self' and 'power'. Don't know if that will do it com-.

The Red Titan finally fires at me, streams of red shards striking my shield and then as I raise my hands merging with it. The titan switches to other targets the moment it spots it but now that I've got a feel for the rages and hates of my own alter egos I don't need the direct connection. I just pull, my own shield growing as I do so.

I grin as I raise my hands, bands of red light churning in my hands as our emotions nearly-but-not-quite mesh and I prepare to blast-.

The yellow beam hits me in the side and smashes me into the tuning fork!

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stay hidden? Failed.
Look around. Kind of.
Find a way out. In progress.
Then come back. Probably not.

I've never been a midget before.

I can take on more mud or dump it, but I need at least a certain amount to be me, and if I add too much everything gets kinda… Numb. Like I'm waving around something that's kind of attached but not quite. I guess it's like having a body made of prosthetic limbs. And yeah, I can compress myself down a bit, but then I end up being far heavier than I look like I should be.

If you're a short skinny guy and the floorboards are creaking, the people around you don't exactly need to be Batman to spot that something's up.

So I've got Clay Krona with painted on eyes on top of a thin platform of me. Time Trapper was pretty sure that most of the Manhunters still in here aren't all that smart, so looking like Krona and faking his voice should be all I need to do… So long as I don't run into Krona himself. So I've got my actual eyes at the front of the platform as hard to see as I can make them but I'm still really hoping that I don't run into Krona. Time Trapper seemed pretty sure that he isn't super-powerful right now, but I get beaten up by a man dressed like a bat, so…

No Krona so far, and it's not that big a place. I really hope he's outside right now. I mean, that's probably bad for the multi-universe thing, but me not pulling this off is bad for the multi-universe too. And-.

Manhunters. A bit different from the one I was pretending to be, but according to Time Trapper they're not 'mission abort' dangerous. He seemed to think that their scanners are 'too advanced' to detect me, which… Eh, not like I've got a better idea.

"Manhunters, go and keep Time Trapper company. Make sure that he doesn't escape."

"By the command of Krona, I obey." /"By the command of Krona, I obey." / "By the command of Krona, I obey."

I guessed right? Jeez…

The Manhunters stomp off, which leaves me access to the storage room. Apparently this building is pretty much immutable and the residents just move the furniture around. Time Trapper said that Krona stuffed a lot of his stuff in here…

None of it means much to me, but apparently this… Looks sort of like a small solid metal funnel, but if I absorb it into myself and press with my internal mud…

And I'm floating. Okay, stage one.

I turn it off and make sure that my disguise is still there.

So now I can fly like a Manhunter, and Time Trapper is going to get confirmation that it worked when the Manhunters walk in. Great. Next objective.

This feels really weird. Not holding something inside me; I'm used to that. It's the crawling-across-the-floor-while-managing-a-man-shaped-body thing that I'm not used to. I know I'm not... What's the word… Humanoid, except when I want to be, but there's a reason why I usually look roughly humanoid. It's instinctual, and doing this I have to keep remembering that I'm not supposed to 'be' the Krona-shaped bit.

If I breathed, I'd sigh.

More Manhunters, and these are definitely the more advanced model. One of the more advanced models. So I lower my crawl speed and make a show of having Krona look around, like he's taking in the larger… Workshop? I don't know if that's something he'd do, but I don't think he'd program the help to question him. Still no Krona…

I have my Krona replica stop walking and slowly shift the rest of me into it. Yeah, this… Looks like where they blew the effects budget. I don't have the slightest idea what any of this does, but apparently this was the last place Time Trapper saw Krona putting the power rings he was taking from all the Peter Wynne doubles. I can't see any glowing lights, which… Is a problem. I don't think the Manhunters would question Krona poking around to try and find them, but it would be a risk. And it would take too long.

I blink, looking out of Krona's eyes and focusing on the closest Manhunter.

"Manhunter. Fetch me an orange power ring."

It doesn't say anything. Shit, have I fucked-? No, it's moving. It presses its right hand into a panel on the wall which chimes, then a compartment slides open. Inside there are a couple of weakly glowing rings plugged into… Some sort of alien equipment. The Manhunter presses part of it and part of the equipment retracts, allowing it to remove the ring.

So apparently orange rings really fuck up the people who use them. And Time Trapper didn't know exactly what it would do to me if I touch it. He suggested gloves or something like that. But Krona's supposed to be an expert with power rings, so…

The Manhunter stomps across the deck but I really don't want to be here.

The Manhunter stops as the ring glows weakly and jerks in its hand.

Okay, literally the reason I exist is to do this and I really want to get-.

The ring jumps out of its hand and into mine and whooooow I've been thinking too small. I could turn myself back into a regular guy with this. No, better! I could get all the advantages of being a regular guy, then go back to mud whenever I want! I mean, yeah, the accident wrecked my career but it's not like I was getting any younger! Now I've got a fucking power ring and the robots are looking at me.

I put the ring inside my robes, turn a chunk of me around the ring into inert regular clay, then turn around and walk out.

Step two done. Now comes the part where I probably die.

I-. Matt the First… Whatever, saw the glowing versions of Peter Wynne. Time Trapper said that those ones are super-powerful mystic Lanterns, and that as far as he knows the Orange one is the most powerful. Don't know how he ended up here, but I guess 'most powerful' doesn't mean 'unbeatable'.

I step out of sight of the Manhunters, shift into the shape of one of the advanced Manhunters, and march towards where Time Trapper said the exit was. No guards again, but the front entrance is still locked from this side. Time Trapper said that the quantum lock thing was a leftover from one of the previous occupiers of this place, but you can turn it off by pressing here and here-. Yeah, it's gone.

The Manhunters around the tuning fork look a hell of a lot more intimidating now. I still.. don't think they can kill me-kill me, and Time Trapper would probably take the time to stick me back together…

I turn on the flight funnel and float towards the tine that's glowing most. A few other Manhunters are flying around doing whatever they're doing, but none of them pay me any attention. Risk comes if the ones guarding the dangerous versions of Peter Wynne got told to stop anyone coming closer, and if that happens I'm going to have to hope I'm a little bit faster-.

Tattoos and an orange glow. That's the guy.

I shift the direction of my flight slightly and shit that's Krona. He's not looking at me but he's a heck of a lot closer than I want him to be. Looks like there's some sort of hole in the universe just in front of him, and I can just about see a whole lot of bright lights flashing through from the other side.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Can't change what I'm doing now. Can't go faster without giving myself away. Stick with it. Stick with it. You're an actor so fucking act.

Getting closer getting closer.

Aim…

"By the command of Krona, halt and identify."

Shit!

I turn up the floating funnel and shift shape into a ramming spike, shooting past the outer layer of the Manhunter cordon as I build up internal pressure, aiming carefully for the-.

The Manhunters start shooting and I start taking hits, but whatever they're shooting isn't designed for hurting mud. A few start getting closer, and they look like they've got some sort of shield-.

That'll have to do. I decompress, flinging a volley of hard ceramic spikes into the pod containing this Orange Lantern guy. Some glance off, a few cause light damage but a couple punch through. Then I fire the ring and really hope this works.

Okay
What the heck is going on?

My eyes open, and my surroundings explode with orange light!

"KRONA!"