With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[TotalAbsolutism]

I have an almost instinctual drive to mock and correct idiots like Vaermina on their mistakes and stupidities.

The sad thing is that a lot of Vaerminas contrary barking doesn't fall on deaf ears, and there are people who actually consider a lot of his words to have some degree of truth to them.

Yeah he can make some intelligent comments sometimes, like when he mocked Tangseid, but most of it is still just garbage that sadly some people actually buy.

That you for your concern though.

And thank you for complementing my skills.

Click to shrink...

Threadban, three days. You were warned.

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th May
20:07 GMT -5

"So confident."

"Yeah." I smile, nodding. "Pretty much."

I look left and then right.

"These guys are… Veterans, right?"

"These are High Born. Augmented by Sheeda science and magic to be far greater than any man."

"But you're the only one with head cancer." I frown. "Might want to get that looked at."

The right-hand handmaiden hisses, showing off her fangs.

…

Can I get homesick for a place I've never lived? Because if they worked a little red or blue into the monochrome colour palette in here this could actually be Apokolips.

"Derog? Kill this intruder."

A male Sheeda in armour plucks a spear off the wall and spins-.

I shoot him in the chest with an energy pulse and he slams backwards into the wall.

He drops to his feet and smiles. "Foolish, Child of Spring. My armour-"

I draw my daiklave and generate a fusion cannon construct.

"-is now impervious to-"

I fire, and only the photosensitive properties of my goggles allow me to see Derog parry a beam of ultra-hot high pressure ions, in a way which somehow nullified the energy therein completely rather than sending it into one of the neighbouring stations. The goggles also allow me to aim the tip of my daiklave as I make a ring-assisted lunge, shoving the point through his philtrum and into his spine. Then I swing it around to the right in an arc, taking away his body's support and causing it to collapse.

"That was fun." I turn away from the growing blood-pool-. I shoot Derog in the face until his head is entirely disintegrated because I don't know how well Sheeda aristocrats regenerate. "Might want to consider helmets."

"You're not wearing one."

"I'm not seeing anything that's actually a threat to me. You, on the other hand-."

The amulet splutters and dies.

Wait…

Uh.

"You're not her. You're a body double." I shrug with both arms. "This is what I get for fighting idiots for so long; it confuses me when I run into someone moderately clever. Pretty good effort for someone with no direct exposure to Apokoliptian technology."

"Kill him."

Right handmaiden lunges for me with more than human strength and speed. Guess they don't know that much about Apokoliptian technology, then. The challenge is still in effect, and if whoever-that-is on the throne sends people at me without having the other party designate them her champions…

Fortunately, I have more than human speed too. Sword's out of position but she's not wearing a helmet either. My left fist hits her in the side of the head and sends her flying, though she's tough enough that her skull didn't shatter. In the fraction of a second when she's still in reach she tries to cut my gauntlet with her nails and.. scores a tiny scratch which doesn't penetrate. Not bad for a fingernail.

"Bored now."

I raise my fusion cannon and shoot the queen in the exposed midriff. The shot bores right through her and into the throne, and almost immediately her outline changes from demon prostitute to… Humanoid insect thing.

Meeting a distraction with a distraction. I'll admit to being mildly impressed.

Wreck the Empty Throne.

The barrel of my gun widens as the Sheeda form up behind me, swords, spears and shields and I've no doubt that they're all quite good with them. Instead of fighting them I fire again, the left handmaiden diving aside as the throne and the wall behind it are annihilated.

And then I run through the hole, leaving the command crew behind.

"Mother Box, get me a location for Sivana."

"Ping."

Because now the command crew have to choose between doing their jobs-

An arrow plinks off my back plate.

-and pursuing someone who has demonstrated the ability to kill them.

"Ping."

"Are you sure, because-?"

"Ping!"

"Okay, no need to take that tone! Boom tube."

"Ping."

Fine. Angle?

"Ping."

I point my fusion cannon just a little to the left of the focus of the ship's temporal manipulation effect and fire a wide beam, carving a line through the ship's internal structure. Then I fly, trusting my armour to keep the heat and poisons off me. Flying out-.

There's a green bubbling pit surrounded by some sort of ritual space. A heavily bleeding Thaddeus Sivana shoots the Queen though the head with.. a gun that hurts my eyes to look at. She's-. Why are there arrows-?

Sivana shoots her through the heart, collapses, then props himself up just enough to shoot her through the neck, fully severing her head.

Artemis drops down from a crenellation. "I was going to take her alive!"

"And I wanted her dead, so I killed her."

I frown at her. "Artemis, what are you-?"

She glances at me, frustration evident though her mask. "Mister Miracle found a back door."

Someone else who decided to ignore my advice. "Right. I don't know…" Sivana pulls a device out of his coat and draws a rune on the floor in his own blood. "Doctor?"

"This is the centre of their time drive. The green substance is literally trans-temporal."

"Okay, yes, good-."

His device glows.

"I'm going to use it to erase the ship from the present. If I'm very lucky, I'll wind back what they did on Venus-." He coughs up some blood. "But I doubt it."

"Is there a reason why you're rushing this? If we capture the ship-."

"You're going to prevent them from ever being. I can't take the risk of this ship disappearing on us. I think I should be… Sorry, but I barely care about myself at the moment and I certainly don't care about you."

"Artemis to team, get out of here!"

Sivana smiles peacefully. "Two…"

I step forward grab Artemis and fly at-

"One…"

-the pool!

"Goodby-."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
02:47 GMT -5

"…anything in the system?"

John shakes his head. "It's a binary system. Having a habitable planet here is strange enough already. There's some dust, but no asteroids worth talking about."

"Did your ring recognise the location?"

Another quick shake. "No. We could be in a parallel universe, or another time, or just another galaxy where the Corps doesn't have good star charts."

"Or all three."

I glance at the doors leading to the parliament chamber where Abednego is making his full report.

"I've never evacuated a planet before. You?"

"Yeah. Once. You know what a 'maximizer' is?"

"A type of badly programmed AI. One that is told to do something and given no mechanism for assessing its objective relative to the wider needs of society. You ran into one?"

He nods. "It wasn't all that clever, but it had already converted pretty much its whole home system into machinery. By the time Lanterns got called in, it was already getting near another inhabited planet. That was a bigger evacuation than this, and they were able to terraform their planet back after we got done destroying the robots. This isn't the same thing. If we take these people away, they can't ever come back."

He thinks for a moment.

"You got a way to beat this thing?"

"Giving the Columbians better profane and arcane technology will probably allow them to survive. Better necromancy…"

"What about using your ring to disintegrate it? You said that the Sheeda stuff you tried it on turned to dust."

"On a life form by life form basis. And while I didn't get a perfect look, I think this planet is covered in Sheeda beasts. I think Melmoth brought a cross-section here with him and told them to go forth and multiply. My worry is that he's spent the rest of the time since his 'death' doing the same to other planets. Or that he's trying to convert the entire mass of the planet."

"How dangerous are they? Unless there's something I'm not seeing, you killed them easy enough. And they can't use technology, so they can't get off-planet."

"The worms we fought were his mining tools. The magical super-acid was their equivalent of a drill, not a dedicated weapon. Assuming that the Columbians have been reasonably thorough in keeping Sheeda creature levels down… I'd assume that the really dangerous creatures mostly live away from here. If Melmoth was mostly leaving them wild he wouldn't want them near where he was building his settlement."

"How was the village planning on handling it?"

I shrug.

"Their creatures broke their obedience spells when Melmoth flicked his switch. They handled it, but can't evacuate without a way to transport.. food, at least."

"They could come here. You said there aren't that many of them, even if every small town packed up and moved out."

Yes, like the town with the maggot pit. Whose inhabitants are almost certainly turning into spine rider thralls even now.

"I doubt that the Columbians would accept that. I didn't ask them to point out their warlocks, but I'm confident that there are a few."

He folds his arms across his chest. "You think they'd sing the same tune if we told them we're helping everyone or no one?"

I raise my eyebrows. "Would religious fanatics fold to external pressure quickly?"

He looks away. "Yeah."

"Of course, religious fanaticism could help. If I give one of the locals an orange ring, they might be able to carry out a purge."

"'Purge' as in 'get rid of the Sheeda animals', or 'purge'-."

"I'd wrestle it off them if they attempted genocide. But the locals are far more invested in this world than I am." I exhale. "It's a shame I wasn't able to make common cause with Melmoth. If he's got a plan to defeat the Queen, we could make use of it."

"How exactly is he planning on getting his animals back to Earth?"

"Pass. We still don't know how he got all these people here in the first place. It could be that there's a space ship somewhere on this planet that we haven't found. He clearly has a good enough command of magic to hide it from our scans, and I don't know if Doctor Mist understands this planet's magic or the magic of the Sheeda well enough to locate it quickly. And…"

Oh heck.

"It's not like we actually know that the settlers on Roanoke were the only people he abducted. There could be any number of settlements across this world or across others in the same situation."

"You actually think that's what's happened?"

"No idea. Which is rather the problem."

We stand there for a moment, and I strain to hear any sound coming out of the debate chamber. No, no chance of that in a society of magic users.

"Do you have someone in mind?"

"For what?"

"Recruiting. If you need to recruit a local to deal with the Sheeda lichen, or animals. That Abednego guy?"

"No, his style of magic means that he doesn't think in the right sort of way. If I actually had to pick someone I'd probably ask them to line up witch-hunters and get them to drop their personal wards so I could get a good look at them. But if I had to pick someone now… Beulah Bleak."

"Klarion's sister? Doesn't she hate you?"

"That's not necessarily a bad thing."

John snorts in amusement.

"She was willing to die if she got another shot at Klarion. She's driven, selfless and devout. I'm not sure her staying in the Corps afterwards would work, and she's definitely a genocide risk… Or if Doctor Mist finds a way to transport everyone here back to our Earth."

"You think that's a good idea?"

"They've got a very useful skill set. I'm sure we can find somewhere to settle them if they're willing to trade their arcane knowledge. And if three witch-hunters handled coming over without being disabled by culture shock, I'm sure they can manage. And we could put the warlock-breed a long way away from the rest, if that was going to be a problem."

I know Russia would snap them up, especially if we sent the rest to America. There's no future in relying on uneducated tribal shaman, and no obvious way to transition them into something better.

"In fact, I should probably-."

My ring blinks, and John's does as well. We both raise them, and Alan's head appears.

"Paul? John? We've got a problem."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
02:53 GMT -5

Ahead, I see Alan shove the wave of grundywomen back, the revenants losing their footing as he moves them faster than their sluggish reflexes can accommodate. And this is a problem. The mob I can see represents a sizeable portion of Columbia's industrial base. While a powerful headshot will destroy a grundywoman, it will also ruin their economy. They literally won't be able to sustain themselves.

And I think Alan knows that and is holding off, because he's just as capable of headshotting them as I am. I don't see any living Columbians around, which is a moderate concern. Undead work gangs usually have overseers who make sure that their charges remain focused on their work and make running repairs to the flesh and the spells as necessary.

"Blue Lantern! What set them off?"

I come to a halt a short distance from him while John goes higher, green light strobing out as he searches for people in need of rescue.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Unlike some types of fictional zombies, grundymen are completely silent. Their footsteps make noise, their clothing still rustles and blows still pound, but not a single sound issues from their mouths. No breathing, no moaning, no unbidden words.

"They're strong; stronger than the ones who attacked us at my home. But-"

He shoves the grundywomen he has contained, keeping them squeezed together and off-balance. They can't bring their strength to bear in a coordinated way.

"-I think I've got them."

I nod, taking a look through empathic vision. If someone is manipulating them, I should be able to see a reflection of their desires-.

Oh.

Strands leap out from my outstretched hands, striking each grundywoman on the back of her neck. Where every spine rider is crouching. And assimilate.

Most simply evaporate as I strike them, the undead they were controlling becoming listless and purposeless without their motivation. A few draw their swords from their host and slash my strands. That works until I reallocate strands that have already destroyed their targets and attack them from multiple directions. Hm, alright, I know that assimilation doesn't work as desired. Let's try something a little different.

I release my construct-Lantern wraith and deposit it just above the undead.

"Possess one of the Sheeda-faries."

"Gladly, master."

One spine rider simply tries to flee, and the orange spectre swiftly undulates through the air and catches up with it, circles around it and then lunges, passing into its body and causing its eyes to flare with orange light…

No disintegration.

I sigh. I'm going to need to assimilate more demons. I wonder if I can get a warlock to summon some for me?

"Did you get them all?"

Quick check…

"All the ones in the immediate vicinity. Remember, they can stab through construct barriers."

"I'll have you know I've dealt with stronger grundy-men than this." He dismisses his construct. "Green Lantern, did you find any stragglers?"

"No." John flies back our way. "And I didn't find any living people, either."

I look around-. We're on the periphery of the capital here, where they put their tanneries and other industrial processes so that the sound and smell can't offend the living. I can see people… Some distance away, but-.

"There should be more people here than this."

Alan blinks. "Melmoth kidnapped them?"

"Spine riders control people, and can plan and execute complex strategies. They could do this without Melmoth's direction." I look from Alan to John. "I don't suppose that either of you have a secret ward-bypassing scanning technique?"

John frowns. "I thought you did."

"Yes, but I doubt that we'll have hours. I-."

"Captain Atom to Blue Lantern and Green Lantern."

Alan nods. "We're here, Captain. Go ahead."

"I'm in a town to the north. We're under attack by some sort of stinging insect. I need one of you here to cover the evacuation."

Alan nods to John. "You're faster than m-."

"Physician to Justice League. A town to the north-west is under attack by a group of Sheeda-altered mantises. I would appreciate help."

Alan nods. "I'll take that one. Orange Lantern, can you follow up on these abductions?"

"On it. Canis, are you busy?"

"Even the songs they sing in praise of the Source are bland."

"Brut can track people shielded by magic, right?"

John shoots off to the north while Alan creates a compass construct before heading for Mr Yao.

"Of course."

"Please come to my current location. Spine riders appear to have abducted some locals."

"I come."

I look at the spine rider my wraith is possessing.

"Does your host know where they're going?"

"No, Master. This one was not called to return, merely to take a zombie and attack any humans it could find."

"Do they have an easy way to locate each other?"

"No, Master. Mundane senses only. Its magic skills are innate, not learned."

I nod as Brut lands at the end of the road and bounds towards me, Canis on his back.

"You have something for him to scent?"

"These grundywomen were taken by spine riders, and I've got a spine rider here."

I have the wraith-possessed spine rider fly downwards, and Brut gives it a quick sniff.

"And those who were taken?"

"No list. Their supervisors were taken too, and I've got no idea who owns each company or where they are."

"Then we will start in their middens. Forward!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
02:59 GMT -5

Canis lets Brut lead him inside the main… Beamhouse? Inside of Smyth's Tannery, and nods as the dog makes a sort of gurgling growl at one of the liming vats.

"Yes, I see it." He looks around with a mild frown. "Odd that they only used one, but then I suppose they were pursuing the mindless-"

He pulls out his mace and smashes it into the wooden side of the vat!

"-dead." "Strike the Lies."

The wood cracks, and for a moment I see gallons of putrid fluid stream towards us..! Which then fades out, leaving a gap in the beamhouse and a hole in the floor about two metres across.

And neither my empathic vision looking for emotional resonances nor my ring's scans could tell the difference. I.. wonder if it's possible for a human to become a New God? If it is, that might cover my… Not 'weakness' exactly, but the.. hole in my strengths? I'll ask later.

Canis moves to the edge of the hole and looks down the vertical shaft. The floorboards have been… Gnawed? And the soil which makes up the first few metres is being held in place by more of the lichen. At least it wasn't acid-melted, but that does mean that the spine riders are either cooperating with another type of Sheeda creature or are perfectly capable of suborning non-humans.

I take a moment to try scanning for skin cells, air movements, footprints… Yes, there are a few things which suggest that they might have come this way, but Canis's blow hasn't removed all of the effect of their warding.

"Is this where they left, or just where they came in?"

"The trail is clear to me. Here they came, and here they left."

"Could they be deceiving you?"

"If they were deceiving me, how would I know?" He shrugs. "If you had asked me before I came to Earth, I would have cut you down like the Lowlie you appear as. But if I later considered the question, I would have concluded that only another New God could disguise things from my senses. But the Earth has shown me many strange things."

"I suppose it doesn't matter. Do you know if the Spine Riders can affect you? Or Brut?"

Canis cranes his head forward and points to his heavy gorget with his right hand.

"I added this to my armour in preparation for this mission. And-" He pats Brut's collar. "-so long as I live, this shall serve as well. They may be able to take control of individual nerves… Perhaps. But then they are within striking range. Now forward!"

Brut leaps, clearing the lip and twisting as he enters a shaft just big enough to fit him! He turns as his claws scrabble on the lichen on the far side and then.. dashes down, his claws finding just enough purchase to keep him anchored to the interior wall.

I thought I was over my vertigo. Apparently I was wrong.

I don my armour and fly after him face first, orange light shining from my body lighting up the interior of the shaft. Of course, most of what I can see is the back end of a giant dog, but it should give me at least a little warning of an oncoming attack as Brut dashes down at terminal velocity-.

"Where is your joy, Lantern? Does this not fire your blood even slightly?"

"No."

"Bah! Does nothing excite you?"

"Plenty of things excite me. Cleaning up the mess caused by someone else's egotism isn't one of them."

"Hah! You must invite Cheshire to the Mountain! I wish to see how you change in her presence!"

Brut makes a loop of the tunnel's interior as it bends and levels out, going from running on what would have been the new ceiling to the floor.

"I'll mention it to her."

No ladder, I note. Spine Riders can fly, but they can't carry their hosts. Or at least I've never seen them do so. So did another creature help them down? Columbians don't fly, and Sheeda only fly on the backs of their beasts.

The tunnel doesn't branch, so they must have brought everyone they took to that one tannery and brought them here. Spine Rider hosts only move as fast as they normally do, so they're reduced to human running pace while Canis and I are much-

Canis strikes the side of the tunnel with his mega rod and the tunnel ahead of us bursts into flame! Ring-!

Oh.

The flames are about 2000o​C, which while extremely dangerous to human flesh doesn't do a thing to Canis, Brut or me as they wash harmlessly over us. So that wasn't intended to hold us off.

-faster.

I take a moment to look at the lichen-covering of the tunnel. No, that isn't affected by the flame either. I-

"Master." The wraith flies level with me. "My host form was destroyed. I may take another at your command."

I doubt that was intentional, but it does show how much more fragile than Canis and me the Spine Riders are. Unless it was keyed with some sort of bypass spell? It also implies that the ones puppetting the grundywomen weren't supposed to return, or at least not return this way.

I draw the wraith back into my ring.

"Canis, Apokoliptian Fire Pits. Does anything grow in them?"

"Some strange creatures live around the edge. And there are tunnel-living Lowlies who live close to them. What of them?"

"I was thinking that we could use this lichen as a heat-resistant building material."

"Ah, a living world? An entire planet, alive and yet in constant pain, continuing to exist only by inflicting that same pain on others. Has the beauty of the vision enraptured you as well?"

"No."

"I wonder if the Queen is Apokoliptian. I have seen none of our technology, but the signs of a thing are not the thing in itself."

Scrub that idea.

We're heading… Further inland, into the areas the Columbians haven't settled yet. It's a little strange that they've generally grown their country back towards the lands their forebears fled from rather than away from them, but I suppose I can understand rallying your people against a known threat. It's not a sensible decision, but I can understand it.

If I were a Spine Rider, what would I want out of life? Unlike Star Conquerors they're not helpless without hosts, even in maggot form. I… Think I'd want to use my ability to achieve a goal, but… I wouldn't want to be stuck on a host full-time. Of course, that assumes that Spine Riders have human-equivalent intelligence, which given their tiny craniums seems unlikely.

Maggots can and will eat anything alive. To sustain a population, Spine Riders need enough for them to eat, and it wouldn't be practical for them to farm or hunt conventionally themselves… Host bodies as well-tended tools? Unless they're compelled to obey Melmoth or the Queen in some way…

Not enough information.

"Lantern! We just tripped a warding glyph! They know that we pursue them!"

Hardly surprising.

Far ahead of us I can see a light, but the tunnel hasn't turned up and there aren't any canyons in the area. Let's see what they've been building down here.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:03 GMT -5

There's light at the end of the tunnel, a dull and washed out blue clashing with my own orange glow. Otherwise there's next to no electromagnetic radiation… Though again, that could just be the wards. Can't scan ahead and I can't see much from this position-.

Canis and Brut burst through the entrance first, and by some miracle aren't immediately riddled with energy blasts. I'm a half-second behind them-. It's a cavern, possibly naturally occurring-? Volcanic rock. An old magma chamber?

Most of the interior wall is covered in the same coral structures as Melmoth's redoubt was made of, There are… Patches of the lichen, but it's not growing on the coral. I assume that it's designed not to attach itself to other Sheeda growths. Or perhaps enchanted? Globs of some sort of resin are attached to the coral in various places, and they're the source of the sickly light which permeates the gloom. There are a dozen or so tiny tunnels leading upwards towards the surface visible on the upper walls and the ceiling of the chamber-

"Ah, you again."

-and another image of Melmoth shining from a dais at the centre.

"So glad to see you!"

There's a staircase leading down near that dais, and I can see the abduction victims walking zombie-like down into the bowels of the earth. I fly-.

"And-. Oh my, is that a God?"

Something lands on my right shoulder and I throw up construct spines to stab it! The Sheeda maggot gurgles, gunge leaking from mouth and stab wounds as it shimmers back into visibility.

"Canis?"

"I haven't seen a God for millennia. What brings you here?"

Brut slows as Canis stares around the chamber, as if he were searching for something. "There is something here. Something of the New Gods."

"We can pull the place apart once it's safe." I fly for the staircase, strands darting at the Spine Riders who turn their hosts around and generate warding witch-signs. "Just-."

"Are you trying to-" Canis swings his rod and smashes a maggot clear across the chamber and through Melmoth's illusory face. "-rise above your station, elf-man? Would you-"

Two of the globs of light glow slightly brighter for a moment and then fire, beams of blue plasma lancing out to strike at Canis! A twitch of his legs and Brut jinks, the beams missing and-. And reforming into blobs.. at the point of impact, their glow now considerably dimmer.

I've… I've never seen a weapon like that before.

"-dream of-"

Three start glowing, and Canis's momentum-. I interpose myself, taking a solid shield out of subspace and bracing in the air. The beam hits, and my armour takes it without too much-.

Pjjccchhhuuukkk!

My armour doesn't take that without too much difficulty! Explosive acidic plasma! Shield's gone, arm's gone and a lot of armour has been eaten through-

"That looks painful."

-and something is nullifying my usual pain nullification! Gaaagh! Cauterise! Remove affected armour plates and flesh! Regenerate and evade!

Gritting my teeth as I dart aside from a follow-up shot, charred meat that used to be part of me falling out of the hole in my armour. Canis-. Took a hit, and I see him roll to his feet in time to dodge another two shots. Brut's heading for the people going down the stairs while his master tries to make it to the dais. Right, so I can-.

Dodge again! Dodge again!

"I rather thought that I'd hit a ring, there."

Okay. Feeling slightly better with my chest and shoulder back in one piece. Railgun, solid shot, target a glob and fire.

Shot punches right through without disrupting it at all.

That's… Not how fluid dynamics usually works, but fine. Load mage slayer, fire and move!

"Lanterns. Such an adaptable nuisance."

The glob goes out and slumps, whatever was holding it together allowing it to survive in a semi-solid mass but not preventing the magic being nullified. Or something simpler, maybe? I evade again and wait until a glob near Canis glows and then fling a plate of steel into the space between them. It hits and creates a violent explosion, heat, pressure, light and acid exploding in all directions and only slightly redirected by the metal that it swiftly consumes! But Canis is unaffected and.. it doesn't appear to be re-coagulating.

Whereas the one -dodge!- that I shot with my mage slayer just re-enchanted itself and tried to shoot me. Low tech solution it is, then.

I head towards-. Darn it, the puppeted Columbians are out of sight. Head that way anyway, draw fire. Can't tell where the globs are going to be shooting reliably but the 'glow-to-fire' gap appears to be constant. Firing firing and throw! Yes! Another one dowand that's a lot of lights.

Ah.

"And you were doing so-."

Canis does something to the console as Melmoth vanishes, which is progress, but doesn't do much to help with the shots I'm about to-.

Think fast.

Beehive structure, base filler to try and make it explode outwards when the two reach, secondary layer, tertiary layer and force field to protect against the mundane effects build build build! The near-sphere appears around me piece by piece as the orange light takes what it can from subspace and transmutes the rest, printing the material into three dimensional space as quick as I can make it! I can't see out once a layer is complete so I just have to cross my fingers and prepare to dodge if something-.

The structure shakes as the beams hit home, and I start losing construct probes in the outer layer at the same time as the first base-acid explosions start happening. Given the patterns of pressure, angles of attack and the weight of the whole thing, I estimate-.

The second layer explosions on the underside go off and the third layer is unaffected while the third layer above me is still taking damage. I use construct blades to cut a hole down and then fly down and out before dropping the acid shelter on the ground. Not bad for a.. two second job. Lights are out so I take light globes out of subspace and toss them around before heading for the stairs.

"Canis, you alive?"

A passing globe lights up the dais, shining on his face as he works the console.

"Yes. I thought that Mother Box might have a little more luck against the Sheeda systems than your power ring." He shakes his head. "It is a sad day for Apokolips when we are less feared than you are."

"I suspect that Darkseid would find the Sheeda instructive, if only as an example of mediocrity."

"But they know us, know our technology and abilities. You are concerned for what their existence means for your people." Canis glances at me for a moment, considerably more serious-looking than I'm used to him being. "I am concerned what it means for mine."

Yes, Apokolips being gone. What a… Tragedy.

"Alright, you work on that, I'm going to follow the Columbians. I'll shout if I need you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:05 GMT -5

I send filaments down ahead of me, though not as far ahead as a truly cautious approach would involve. I am trying to rescue these people alive, and I'm far more survivable than they are.

Nothing much, nothing, there! I grab the Columbian thrall and pin their arms to prevent the Spine Rider controlling them from using their magic. Then I loop filaments around their neck-. Got you!

The Columbian man stiffens at once, his heart racing and his breathing erratic. His pupils are dilated and aren't really focusing on anything. Ring, quick health check… Nothing he won't recover from on his own, but with a little power ring I can make that now.

"Sir?"

"B-by God Almighty-!"

"Sir, you've been taken by a Spine Rider. I've killed it, but your coworkers are still being held. If you can remember anything about what it told you to do, that would be very helpful. Otherwise, please head up the stairs and stay close to my colleague Canis."

"I-" He sits up, his right hand going to the back of his neck. I closed the wound when I treated him, but I use a filament to pick up the Spine Rider's sword from the ground and hold it out to him. He sees it and nods. "No, good sir. I saw little of their attack before I was… T-taken, and then it was… As if I was in a dream, compelled to walk ever onwards with no sense of my own self. I-I have no idea what they plan for us, but I pray you, destroy these devils. Save my friends."

"I'll do my best. Up, now." I give him a hand and he pulls himself to his feet. "Canis has a large dog with him. He's a little strange, but he knows his business."

He nods jerkily and then darts up the stairs.

There's no one else in range of my filaments, but the magic here is either making them fade out or preventing me from getting feedback.

Or… Thinking about the feedback-.

I check my spell eater, but it's still in place and at a reasonable temperature. Not cold; there's been enough magic thrown around to get it a little heated. But it should still be working.

For one entirely inappropriate moment I'm reminded of when I started watching anime. It was completely different to any of the tropes I was all too familiar with from western animation, and I mistook that difference for originality. Here, I don't know if the Sheeda are being truly clever or if they simply use arcane attacks that happen to be different to the ones I'm used to guarding against.

Not that it makes much difference; I'm here with the equipment I have now and I have to deal with them.

I fly downwards. Not much dust, but my rings ever-so-helpfully point out the disturbances in the dust on the steps and the walls. Not walking lockstep in the way that star conqueror victims tend to. No spell snares, but I suppose that if a random group of tannery overseers are capable of using magics which could harm me then they certainly couldn't do so quickly.

There's an opening up ahead, and a chamber beyond it. The ongoing sensor dampening magic is making me consider simply feeding on the magic… But I don't want to risk harm to the hostages unless a reasonable alternative presents itself.

And…

Huh.

The Columbians are kneeling in ranks before… Some sort of multi-headed mosquito… Thing. Most are collapsed, and as I watch the mosquito finishes draining the last few and withdraws its heads. I can see the blood running through its translucent body and into… A… Its vast body, bloated and fat.

A construct blade severs the heads. Filaments annihilate the Spine Riders and mend the Columbians. Other than the shortage of blood, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them. Was that… It? The Spine Riders brought them here to feed this.. thing? I restore their bodies as best I can and then deposit them by the door. Working out what the heck Melmoth was trying to do needs to be my priority.

Or… Does it? Can I think of a single non-evil thing that Melmoth might be doing with thirty pints of type-unmatched Columbian blood? No, no I can't.

Thick bands of orange light connect me to the still… Aliveish? Mosquito-thing, as I have a crack at assimilating it. The things I cut off… Yes, they had mouths and eyes but I don't think they were actually 'heads' in any conventional-

"Still alive, Lantern?"

-sense.

The creature is resisting, glowing runes all over its carapace making it hard to make contact. But that's fine; I'm trying to kill it anyway.

I ignore Melmoth's voice and form a railgun, load mage slayer rounds and fire at the most important-looking cluster. The first round strikes it without difficulty, and this time it actually works.

"How are you doing that? Some sort of leeching spell?"

The runes near the impact site stop glowing, and some sort of feedback causes the carapace nearby to crack up and the runes there fail as well. Immediately I follow up with an orange strand and attempt to assimilate it. The strand connects, and the creature turns to dust.

Mostly.. turns to dust.

"Ah. Curious. That particular redundancy wasn't created with Lanterns in mind."

There's a pile of.. tissue, or.. organic material. I assume that it isn't 'Sheeda' enough to have been included in the disintegration effect. It's.. like spider web: cream in colour, strong, slightly sticky in places and… It looks like it's cocooning… Someone or something. Columbian blood that hadn't percolated far enough through the system splats to the ground as I generate crumbler constructs and start… Pruning it back.

"Other than you wanting to be as evil as you can, what is any of this about?"

"Oh, this isn't about 'being as evil as I can'. There are far more ways to be evil than I currently indulge in."

"So when you claimed that you 'really like hurting people'-?"

"Oh, I do. But unlike some of my kind I know when to practise restraint."

"You just prefer to live-" Behind me the recovering Columbians begin making a retreat. "-in a situation which doesn't require you to."

"When I ruled these people I enforced my own laws in a completely fair and even-handed manner. I just didn't subject myself to them. What's the point of being king if you can't be king?"

"To create the greatest and strongest realm you can, with the most prosperous and capable people, as a testament to the rightness of your rule."

"Well…"

"But I suppose that's not for everyone. Particularly if this is all you've managed since the last Harrowing, you malignant incompetent."

The shape is humanoid, though I can't see anything that suggests that they're alive. But… This civilisation is rife with necromancy, and there are humanoid species with decidedly non-standard vital signs. I wouldn't want to kill an intelligent undead creature that hadn't done anything wrong.

"You know, I had considered keeping you on with your facilities intact. Now, I think I'll let you watch everyone you know and love die screaming before I turn you into a gibbering pet."

"Melmoth, if your threats worried me I wouldn't bother talking to you."

"I suppose you have acquitted yourself reasonably well so far. But I rather think that's about to change. You see, after I was deposed and abandoned after our previous Harrowing, I had the complete run of a dead civilisation. Access to all manner of interesting things. All sorts of interesting people. And their corpses. The main drawback of replacing my blood is that I don't have any Sheeda blood in me any longer, but my seed is still Sheeda seed, and my descendants have me in their blood."

"And it doesn't take a lot of blood to make a grundygod."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:09 GMT -5

…

No, the logic is sound. If he got hold of a New God corpse and dosed it with Sheeda blood… Or Columbian blood, that's how grundies exist in the first place. I didn't realise it could be introduced post-mortem and it didn't occur to me to find out how long grundies had to ripen for-.

The room above wasn't created in the day since we gained Melmoth's attention. Someone built this a while ago. And the Columbians have been under low-intensity attack by Sheeda creatures for their entire history. Melmoth's thralls could have taken the occasional citizen or their blood, without it seeming remarkable. They could have introduced blood little by little for decades. Centuries. More than enough time, I'm sure.

Still. Undead New God isn't exactly outside of my weight class, and that's assuming-.

I send filaments everywhere in the room except the stirring spider web cocoon.

No, nothing here I can feel. Grundies are controlled by sigils, binding them to the caster. There's no one here to brand this one. Melmoth might be able to predict its behaviour, but unless a sophont magic user appears here he can't control it.

A thin and pallid hand shoves itself free of the covering.

Unbound grundies I did ask about, and Cyrus Gold's behaviour is apparently atypical. Usually they either lie in their graves or stagger towards light or magic. When confronted, they're not usually violent unless attacked, and then they usually only flail around and try to get away.

I run a quick check on my armour and confirm that the Columbians have evacuated. Then I form construct blades and cut through what's left of the webbing.

The figure within has clearly seen better days. Their flesh hangs loose on their muscles-. Her flesh hangs loose on her muscles. Her armoured cuirass is curious: steel plate and chain with New God style tron lines as part of the tabard and helmet. Her gaze is vacant, her skin the classic blue-white and what hair I can see is snow white in colour.

"In case you're wondering, I carved the control sigil into her skull."

Oh.

"gnHHHHHHHH!" I Wake!

Skin tightens, flesh swells back into something approaching full vitality as she pulls herself free. Her armour likewise starts to take on the shimmering, vital appearance of the version that Canis and his family wear.

"I particularly enjoyed working on this one. Her father was the one who brought the Castle Revolving to my era. Whatever his Gods did to enhance him made him immune to my techniques, but his misery when I worked on the rest of his crew … That has kept me warm on many a cold evening. Aurakos? K-."

I deaden the air, preventing the verbal command from reaching her, or anyone else he might have tucked away.

"Ma'am?"

I run a construct cable backwards towards the stairs-. Still being jammed. I fabricate a material cable and begin playing it up the stairs.

"Ma'am? Can you understand me?"

She grabs a sword with the same 'New God meets Iron Age' design as her armour from the webbing next to her, and the tron lines become active as soon as it's in her hand.

Cable up, get me Canis.

Compliance.

"Orange Lantern to Canis, what happens when a New God is resurrected from the dead?"

"That cannot happen. If a New God has a God-Name, then their soul would be unified with the Source upon their death. There would be nothing to resurrect."

"How about if they were only mostly dead? Or if their body was reanimated? I ask, because-."

"Because you are looking at some fresh horror of human ingenuity. I will come to you."

"Get the Columbians out first." I turn my attention back to the-. To Aurakos. Daughter of Aurakles, presumably. "Ma'am, can you understand-"

There's a dim yellow glow under her helmet.

"-me?"

She makes eye contact with me, and seems considerably more focused than the other grundies I've encountered.

"You will die." Even the Odds.

Construct shield.

…

Construct shield.

My environmental shield goes out and… I'm fully aware of my aches and my armour switches back to 'manual'.

I deploy my right forearm's x-ionised blade as the Dead God lunges forward, turning aside her two-handed swing. In this armour I'm nothing like agile enough to dodge-. But I can be fast. Before she can recover I lunge, ramming my armour's bulk into her chest. She's knocked back slightly, and her sword is out of position as I punch with my left gauntlet. She's not any shorter than me but my head isn't particularly mobile like this-.

She sidesteps, proximity sensors guiding me as I blind parry and then trigger the armour's flight system, flying back-. Not flying back because that's not working either.

Oh this is bullshit!

How to win a flipping sword duel? Firstly, given that while I have done some primitive weapon practice I don't have the drilled reactions of people who focus on it, ensure that I'm as accelerated as I can meaningfully be.

I throw myself into a forward vault as Aurakos gets behind me and slashes at my back.

Oh, she's just this fast. Not Flash-fast or even Kid Flash-fast, but far faster than physical power can explain. Fast enough that I can't just out speed her. Upside down in mid air I can see her reacting, moving, stepping forwards to keep the distance between us as small as possible.

Taser? No, that's offline. Or rather, it registers as online but isn't actually doing anything when I trigger it. Blade in the other forearm? Doesn't deploy. I'm sure that if I had time and freedom I could hunt down whatever the core of this… Spell? Was bound to and shoot it.

Behind her I see Canis coming down the stairs behind her. And then stop.

"Lllllllll-"

I land on the wall and push off, catching and turning aside her sword again and hitting her full in the chest with my extremely heavy power armour. This time she goes flying and I switch back to normal speed.

"-antern, she is challenging you!"

"Yes?"

"You are bound together by the will of the Source!" Aurakos lands in a crouch, slides, and then locks her eyes on Canis. "You are balanced in power, by the Source's will!"

"Literally or metaphorically?"

"Yes!"

"That's not funny, C-!"

"We are the manifestations of the Source! It has granted her this power! You cannot use powers or equipment she does not have, save to balance her! And the same applies to her!"

…

And my rings are in my chest and my skull and my armour's systems are integrated.

Damn it.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:11 GMT -5

Aurakos approaches me slowly, sword partially extended. She's got better reach than me, because my blade is a backup weapon at most and certainly wasn't designed for duelling.

"Canis, is there any way we can swap?"

"Why?"

"Because you're tr-"

A small lunge which turns into a feint as I go to parry, then a stab aimed at my gauntlet which I counter with a power stomp which sends me into the air and lets me parry while sideways.

"-trained for this. I'm artlessly-"

Aurakos punches with her left hand, hitting me in the cuirass and sending me tumbling backwards.

"-flailing."

Things slow again as I correct my fall. My armour's movement calculation systems are clearly working; I'd never be this mobile without it. The question is: what do I do? Duelling the undead won't result in them tiring first. The only thing I can think of is taking a hit to give myself a clear strike at her forehead, but given that that's a New God sword and the fact that she knows what she's doing with it I can't guarantee that she won't simply use the opportunity to kill me. And while enough of her face is on display that I can hit the witch-sign if I get the right angle, there's a pretty good chance that I won't get that angle. And then it will simply be a matter of slashing into me and I'll die of blood loss.

"Ah… That.. is true. But I don't think that I can alter her use of her God Name. She is a lot older than me."

"What happens if I toss my swords away?"

"I imagine that she would-"

Aurakos stabs, letting me parry so that I can't stop her punching me in the faceplate. No real damage, but the sensors built into my armour aren't designed to take sustained punishment.

"-probably stab you."

"With a sword that-"

Okay, my kinetic barrier isn't working. How about plasma shield?

"-isn't equal?"

I hear the signature faint hum of my plasma barrier as it actually responds to my activation instruction. I.. suppose that's working because it's a pure toughness boost, not a negation of a particular type of attack that she can't mirror.

"Throwing weapons away isn't the same-"

Another weapon lunge, another parry, but this time when she tries to punch me I reinforce the plasma barrier and counter, forcefully knocking her empty left hand away and giving me an openi-. No, damn it! Missed the damn witch-sign and just poked her in the cheek!

"-as never having had them. That-"

Grab her sword forearm, undeploy right blade, deploy left and it works, slash-

"-doesn't make sense."

She turns her head and I scour a line along the side of her helmet, while she twists her arm and stabs weakly at my right shoulder just about going through the plasma shield and poking a hole in the armour without hitting anything significant.

Undeploy both blades.

"Okay, what counts-"

Push off and slam us both against the far wall, because while super strength fights are usually resolved by grapples neither of us are dropping our blades, she's undead and I'm in full armour. Choke holds are right out, she doesn't feel pain and if Canis is anything to go by she'll regenerate chip damage faster than I can inflict it.

"-as armed?"

I strain my legs to keep her pinned against the wall, letting my armour and plasma shield soak the punches and knee strikes she uses to try and force me back into sword range. I reciprocate with my right fist and she grabs it and pushes it aside so that I punch the wall behind her.

"If she has it in her possession-"

Good news is that she's not strong enough to simply squeeze through my armour. And she can't do what Printwhistle did and set us both on fire. And she can't fly, so she can't simply-.

She tries lifting me off my feet, using the wall behind her as an anchor. Except that doesn't work because I can just adjust my posture, threatening to twist her into a pose that would allow me to grapple her before she abandons the effort.

"-then she is armed-"

I stamp on her left foot with my right, to no apparent effect. Grundies apparently can't exactly feel pain in the same way that living creatures do, but the idea that being injured is bad is so ground into human psychology that it remains there even after death.

"-with it."

"If I tell you-"

Aurakos opens her mouth and tries biting my armour, and I hear a hideous noise as super strong teeth scrape across my outer plating.

"-where in my body my-"

I take a firm grip on her and the wall, then headbutt her in the forehead. I don't do any damage but I do cause her head to jerk back slightly.

"-ring is, how-"

I try to repeat the action, but she angles her helmet and pushes against my grip, threatening to throw me back if I persist.

"-quickly could you cut it out of me?"

I punch her with my right gauntlet fist, trusting my left to keep her sword out of the way and my armour to hold against-. Against her own fist.

"Not so quickly that-"

Her neck is somewhat exposed, but she doesn't need to breathe!

"-she could not slay you."

Hellwraith, go and find a Spine Rider, then come back and try using it to control her.

As you wish, Master.

The wraith emerges from the ring in my skull and flies up through the stone into the chamber above. At least that confirms that the rings are functioning.

"She's using the Source, right? What's-"

She-. Aaaaargh! She drops her sword point-down on my left boot, and all my plasma shield can do is turn it aside slightly before it slides into my foot. In armour I'm not really putting much weight on my organic foot, but the pain and blood loss are noticeable and I wouldn't be able to use the armour's purple healing ray until the sword is out.

"-the 'balance' for the Source?"

Aurakos then uses her now-empty hand to get a better grip on me in order to hurl me away. But disarming yourself counts as armed.

"Darkseid? The Anti-Life? The.. Great Darkness?"

I deploy my right gauntlet's blade and try to thrust it into her forehead, and she's forced to use all of her concentration to keep it off.

"How about the Ophidian?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:13 GMT -5

Left fist left fist left fist!

Focusing on keeping my blade from her face, Aurakos can't react as I stop trying for a pin and settle for just punching her in the chest plate. As I somewhat-expected the blows don't do a great deal and my crumbler gauntlet fails to activate, but-.

"I don't know?"

She tries to stamp on my bleeding foot but I crouch slightly so that my left knee prevents her hitting her sword. She stamps on the side of the boot instead, which-.

"Try it!"

She doesn't break the armour, but a super strength stamp's opposite reaction results in her body jerking upward and my reflexive grab with my left hand results in me going with her. We hit the ceiling together and she brings her feet up to try and push off me. I latch my left hand onto her shoulder to prevent her changing angle, keep my right hand's blade pointing at her face and bend my left leg back-

DRHHHHHHHHHHHH!

-which causes her sword to drop out. OOOw!

"Canis! Catch it!"

Canis darts forward even as we both fall back towards the cave floor. The sword goes out to the side as Aurakos and I awkwardly wrestle for position, and Canis grabs it and pulls back just before we slam-

HUGGGGGGGGGHHH!

-back onto the ground! I land on my right side and Aurakos tries to break my hold to clamber on top of me.

Ophidian.

But the weight of this armour against the floor is nothing like enough to stop my arm moving and while she's wrenching at my left hand I stab with the blade on my right! She tries to evade but I still manage to slash under her helmet and cut through the flesh of her neck. I retract-

A Sheeda maggot stumbles down the stairs, eyes glowing orange as it's puppeted by my wraith. Not what I asked for, but-.

The maggot collapses, and its bloated stomach undulates and writhes.

-the blade and swing my right arm into the floor. Not a big swing -that just isn't possible from this position- but it's still enough to get me more or less upright while she's awkwardly hanging off me.

Ophidian.

The maggot bursts, and a wraith-possessed Spine Rider flies my way while Canis waves his Mother Box at his newly acquired sword.

Ophidian.

It's not that I can't feel her. There's definitely something there, but I can't feel anything like the level of responsiveness I usually get from her. Nice that she finds the Corps so enthralling…

Without her aid, I try to feel Aurakos's connection to the orange light myself. Depending on her level of remote control, there might not be anything other than the direction which Melmoth is providing her. And it's… Working. I see a cage forcing the orange light to move-.

"Wait." Melmoth's voice sounds uncertain. "What are you?"

Aurakos copies me, bending her knees and swinging her feet against the wall with enough force to knock us into the middle of the room. Not wanting her to land on top of me I kick out with my right leg, hitting the floor and sending us careening-.

She grabs my left gauntlet and yanks, finally separating us. I hit the wall near the stairs, drop, then roll onto my f-feet. She lands.. on her hands and handsprings onto her feet nearer the centre of the room.

Break the Cage.

The light from her forehead shimmers between sigil-yellow and avarice-orange, causing her to stagger and her eyes to unfocus. I could try charging her down and stabbing her, but that risks her desires aligning with Melmoth's desires, which would undermine my work. Interesting that she's still got significant desires in grundy form. Also interesting that this challenge system thing considers my armour's healing potion dispenser to be equivalent to her regeneration; the wound in her neck is gone with only a small amount of grey blood clinging to her where it once was, while my foot is considerably less painful.

"Why do you obey your murderer!? Why do you obey the backstabber who murdered your father!?"

Who do you Want to Kill?

"Heroic resolve never ceases to be tiresome."

Aurakos jerks as her sigil glows brilliant-white, the light-

Wraith, now.

Yes, Master.

-shining from her eyes, presumably a sign of Melmoth asserting full control. But as the wraith-possessed Spine Rider lunges for Aurakos's neck, my environmental shield re-engages because apparently she can't use her New God powers while like this.

Something's happening with her body, her armour shuddering in response to forces I can't see. But that doesn't matter, because my power rings are working again. I form a small construct crumble gauntlet, duke it under her helmet and push it in the direction of Melmoth's sigil.

The lights from her head go out, and-.

The armour covering her right arm explodes as the limb within expands to grotesque proportions! The skin has torn in several places, grey blood dripping through the tears and muscles visible beneath! The limb is about eight times its former thickness and-.

The rest of her body is doing the same, armour failing under the internal pressure as whatever Melmoth just did causes her to grow. If I'm going to.. preserve her, I need to stop this. With the armour gone there isn't anything to stop my ring-based abilities, so-.

A construct-claw grabs her helmet, severs the straps holding it on her head and pulls it off. The enslaved Spine Rider takes that as its cue to dart in, dodging her expanding shoulders to stab her in the swelling neck.

"Wraith, cut her brain's connection to the rest of her body."

Two dozen strands of orange light connect me to her grotesque and mostly naked body as I try feeling the magics being applied to her and feed on them.

"Master, I do not know that I can."

"Do your best. Canis, if you can help, do so."

"Cutting off her arms-."

"Canis."

"We heal back mundane injuries. Though I suppose her current.. state may impact that."

I remove my spell eater and attach it to Aurakos with a construct necklace.

"Let's not do anything we can't repair. I meant New God abilities."

"Are you.. giving her to me? I did not think-."

"Canis, less… Less Apokolips. Alright? We're trying to help her."

"Then we should destroy her. Being twisted into something other than what we are is a most supreme torture for a New God." He comes a little closer, looking at the twitching abomination before us with… Actual distaste rather than the fascination he usually shows in situations like this. "I think that is what New Genesis would do."

"If she wants to destroy herself once she's back in her right mind, she can. First, we try and help her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:15 GMT -5

Canis takes a moment to look over the stupefied undead mutant before us.

"How?"

"I'm curious to know that myself."

I don't know if Melmoth can see us or is limited to hearing us, but in either case I want him not to be.

I still the air and absorb the light around the periphery of the room, causing the walls to turn jet black. I don't know if that actually works, but it's the best I can do for now.

"Was your Mother Box able to work out how Melmoth is interacting with this place?"

"No. She deciphered an impression of his work that may help Doctor Mist comprehend it, but all I can say is that it he is not using New God technology." He continues to stare at Aurakos. "I did not even know she was here."

"Ping."

"Where?"

I.. step closer. I've never tried using a purple ray on an undead before, and I.. don't think this is a good time to experiment. Without armour an x-ionised blade should be able to cut through the.. mutated parts. Cut them off-.

"Ping."

"Canis, if a New God has a limb cut off, how quickly do they regrow it?"

"Unaided? If they focus their efforts, perhaps a month."

"And aided?"

"That would depend upon the nature of the aid. With a Mother Box, a skilled New God healer and a ready source of magic, less than a day."

I closely examine the hole I made in her forehead. It's scabbed over and the skin of her face was affected by the uncontrolled growth a little, but… Okay, I can scan the bone and flesh… Somewhat. My magic sense is telling me that there's.. more that I'm not seeing, but… Whatever I do will literally be better than a hole in the head.

A quick flash of orange light and the hole is patched.

"How about… Internal organs?"

"A little faster. Depending on the damage."

"I ask because her head is least affected. If I cut it off and rebuilt a facsimile of her body, would she survive?"

"That is… Somewhat outside my field. You could ask my uncle, or his natural father." He smiles broadly, still unable to tear his eyes away. "This is a fascinating experience. I had foolishly thought that I was beyond horror. When I commemorate this day, I will paint feelings that I thought I had forgotten."

"Wraith, let her speak."

"I am not preventing that, Master."

"Okay. So, Canis, any idea on whether waiting and handing her over to someone else would be better than trying to restore her myself?"

"I have never heard of anything like this."

"Ping."

"And neither has Mother Box."

Hm. Well, I've seen enough people that I know what the fundamental drives look like. Implanting them in someone without them is well within my abilities. They won't be balanced; I can't give other emotions. But combined with New God physiology, it… Should jumpstart her. Without turning her into Larfleeze Mark 2.

'Should.'

"Orange Lantern to anyone."

I wait, but there's no response. Then-.

I look at the stairs, then at the giant grundywoman.

She won't fit. Leaving her down here -even temporarily- seems like a bad idea. So I can either cut bits off her or try and fix her. Or I could blast my way out and potentially destroy Sheeda equipment which we need to analyze. Or.. I could send Canis outside of the area and request guidance.

I fabricate a length of fibre optic cable, communication relay at both ends.

"Canis, head back to the surface. Lay this along the way."

I hand it to him and he takes it, nodding, finally looking away from Aurakos.

"I'd like to help Aurakos, but the people of Columbia take priority. Tell Diana what happened and ask for orders."

"Very well." He nods, turns to leave, then… Hesitates. "May I ask you to inform me before you work on her? I wish to see everything which occurs with my own eyes, hear it with my own ears. Smell it with-."

"Mission permitting, yes."

He runs for the stairs at what I recognise is his maximum 'not-trashing-the-environment-with-super-strength' running speed.

And… Then it's me and Aurakos. Who's… Drooling slightly. Ugh. Okay, not doing anything major is only sensible, but I can… Tidy things up a little. And… Maybe a small shrine to Hades? She is undead, and I don't know anything about religious practices in her era. If she has another death god then she'll go to them anyway, but some death gods really don't like the idea of undeath and I don't want to create a restless shade if she gets rejected.

As far as I can tell, her mutated flesh has grown in fairly predictable way. Veins, arteries and nerves… Yes, they're distorted, but they're still there, even if they're not doing their usual job any longer. And whatever New God exotic defence she would usually have appears to have been destroyed by Melmoth's work. Or at least massively weakened. So while a full genetic analysis is probably…

Oh. No, that makes perfect sense to me. A bit more Neanderthal than most modern humans, but perfectly comprehensible. So I can clone the tissue I need for a patch-job, rather than cloning DNA-free tissue and hoping that her body adapts it. Grundies only decay from damage rather than microbial infection, so the lack of biological activity shouldn't be a problem.

Right. Done. It's a patch job and it's probably magically wrong, but she could function as an organic life form now. I mean, she'd probably have trouble moving in a controlled way, but-. Actually what was Melmoth going for here? Boosted strength wouldn't help her against me. My main defence is agility, with selective immunity as a secondary. Being more muscular wouldn't help.. much, particularly not when it would cost her agility like this. An accident? Was she fighting his control and disrupted the spell? I didn't… See a flare of orange, but that's not a completely reliable guide.

I send filaments to pick up the broken pieces of her armour and fabricate a clay bowl, along with a flask of scented oil and a piece of string to serve as a wick. Kneeling is.. awkward in this armour, but I pour oil into the bowl and lie the wick in it as I put in on the ground.

"Lord Hades, please aid this fallen hero. I ask that you either receive her swiftly and painlessly and judge her fairly, or grant her forbearance and allow her to return to the living world."

I watch it burn for a moment, focusing my mind on the image of Hades sitting in judgement. Going by the lines I saw last time I was there, he probably won't get to her quickly even if he hears me.

Not much else I can do until I hear from Canis.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:19 GMT -5

No… I suppose that's not true. Quite aside from the fact that I need to fight off any Sheeda creatures who head this way… It… Should be possible for me to track Melmoth by his own desires. I mean, he must at least suspect that I can do something like that. Certainly, any group with significant knowledge of magic is going to invest in wards to try to prevent back-hacking.

The exterior of the room is still a jet black film, and I can't hear anything from outside. Do I want to try and lure Melmoth back into conversation and try that way? I mean, he'd almost certainly spot what I'm trying to do. Is he arrogant enough to let something go? Can I meaningfully distract him from whatever else he's doing? The animals appear to be attacking on their own recognisance rather than being instructed to go after a particular target, so that suggests that he's got the time to spare.

Least risky options first.

I try to feel the desires attached to this place, to any of the objects around me. I.. see memories… Floating? Around the fragments of armour I've collected, the wraith's blob of belligerence is completely apparent and a reflection of my plea to Hades in the slow-burning bowl.

But the room? Nothing. Nothing fresh, at least. Simple… Impulses from the maggot that died, or… Metamorphosed? Into a Spine Rider. Just a desire to feed, as far as I can tell. I assume that they have a control system as well, but my limited ability to see this sort of thing doesn't show it.

The only actual-.

Construct stingers stab out, impaling the… Spider-things through the thorax. These have slightly more complex desires, and as their venom-squirt is intercepted by my construct barrier I try taking a closer…

Oh. That's not theirs. It looks like Melmoth got a little curious. Not a lot curious, it's more a momentary 'I want to know what he's doing, go and take a look my spidery minions' than anything focused-

I stab the one that was lurking back to watch the other two.

-but it gives me a feel for his mind-state.

"Wonder Woman to Orange Lantern."

"Orange Lantern, here, go ahead."

"Columbia is under attack from all directions. Can Aurakos be moved?"

"Yes."

"Transport her to a place of safety, then assist the Columbians in defending New Southampton. Damage to the cavern is acceptable, but try to leave the central console in one piece."

"Understood. Orange Lantern out."

I drop the sound-dampening and light-obscuring effects and generate a large crumbler construct-

"Oh, hello again."

-and shove it into the ceiling.

"I wondered where my spiders had gone."

It punches a perfectly circular hole through the soil and lichen into the chamber above. I grip Aurakos with a heavy duty spinal board construct.

"Do you wish to negotiate at all before I leave?"

"Do you wish to surrender to me and witness the end of your era in relative comfort, from which you may laugh at-?"

"No."

"You could-."

I fly rapidly out into the upper cavern, then target the largest cluster of Sheeda-feeling desires that I can see and swing my crumbler construct into the cavern roof. Once again the lichen fails against Mr. Tuttle's masterpiece, and a moment later so too does the… Maggot burrow? As the crumbler continues on its unstoppable path to freedom.

Hm.

I fabricate a small squadron of drone weapons and leave them in the cavern. Given that even Sheeda beasts appear to consider visibility passé I doubt that they'll achieve much but it can't hurt. Then I and my passenger fly into the open air.

"Orange Lantern to League, heading to New Southampton now. Would appreciate a situation update."

New Southampton is south of here, on a lake fed by a tidal river. I know where it is because Abednego comes from near there. As I head in that direction I take a moment to scan the region.

On the positive side, I'm not seeing any worms. On the negative side, I can see dead Sheeda creatures and defenders around just about every major settlement that I can scan.

"Captain Atom here. We were being pulled in all direction trying to hold these.. bugs off. Then we all got jumped by supergrundies. You take yours down?"

"Yes, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to restore her."

My surroundings blur for a moment and then snap back into focus. Fast flight isn't as fast as transitioning or stepping out, but I didn't have to travel all that far. Scanning the town-. Maybe I'm not seeing any worms because the gigantic spiders ate them.

"The rest?"

"When it comes to super zombies, I have a 'shoot first' policy."

He doesn't have my crowd-control options. If they did that New God challenge thing he wouldn't have had any choice. And the others probably wouldn't have had better intelligence than Aurakos, so it isn't much of a loss on that level.

"Rational."

I form a railgun and take aim at one which is ignoring the grundymob trying to keep their attention while the living defenders reload their cannons. I can see a couple of actual witch-hunters but for the most part it looks like they're a militia rather than professional soldiers.

"Has she given you any intelligence?"

I open fire, my first crumbler round cutting off the right foreleg of a spider that was encroaching on one of the defenders' cannons. A moment later it fires, runes around the outside of the barrel lighting up as it blasts forth a blob of white fire that sticks to the spider which screeches as its thorax is consumed.

"No, but Melmoth said that her people are the ones they got their time machine from."

I put it out of its misery with a round to the face. Doesn't look like these ones have magic reinforcement; I can see their carapaces being chipped and broken by conventional musketry as well as the larger weapons.

"Time machine singular. That confirms Sivana's claim that they only have one; they can't build more of them."

Two railgun rounds stagger a spider that was trying to shoot toxic fur at the defenders, and-

"So we deal with this one and it's all over. Any of them who are still alive get stranded in our time and they can't send reinforcements."

-I quickly form and fire a laser construct at a smaller spider that was trying to sneak up on the witch-hunter directing the defence. It falls from the building it was using as cover, spasming and screeching until the witch-hunter steps up with a pistol and finishes it off. He then spots me and gives me a quick nod before turning back to the fight.

"And if I understood what my alter ego did to time correctly, that will be it. They get one swing and then even though they use time travel they can't bother us with it any more."

"Then we better make sure they swing and miss."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
03:28 GMT -5

Suffer-Not-Obstinacy Chandler shoves his sabre through the head of a wounded spider, takes a moment to check that the strike was mortal and then takes a moment to survey the town. He exhales sharply through his teeth then heads back towards my aid tent. I haven't simply been able to flit around healing everyone because while the majority of the attackers were nice and visible, a few weren't and exposing myself wasn't a good idea. But with the attackers slain the local civilians have been bringing their fallen friends here in a way which suggests a degree of familiarity with the process.

"We are done for now." He looks at two I haven't touched. "They are cursed in some way?"

I nod. "My healing techniques appear to make the wounds worse. Can you do anything about it?"

"I am trained to wound, not mend. And the local Reverend was targeted by the assassin spiders before the attack commenced. We will have to arrange for them to be escorted to New Plymouth."

"Do you need me to remain?"

"We are far from secure, but it would be churlish for me to ask that when our fellow Columbians are still under attack." He looks at the area where the local grundies are being stacked for salvage. Most of them are severely damaged, but I suppose that they won't dispose of them as long as they can soak a few hits. "T'will be a hard planting season with our labour gone. What is that strange grundywoman you have brought with you?"

"Another victim of Melmoth's. I want to see if we can restore her mental faculties to the point where we can question her in detail."

"I can break her to your will, if that is your desire."

"No, thank you. I'm not even sure that she's completely dead. If she can be truly resurrected, I wouldn't-."

He scowls for a moment before schooling himself.

"Many are those who have looked to a grundy for the mind and soul of the departed. 'Tis absent, and 'tis sinful to pervert their purpose."

"I.. assure you that I wasn't planning anything 'sinful'. She wasn't born of Melmoth's line, and I'm hopeful that she doesn't have the same restrictions as your people's grundies do."

He shakes his head. "When I speak of 'sin', I do not merely refer to lust for the pleasures of the flesh outside of wedlock. But if she can be restored to true life, then what you say may be true. Where will you go now?"

"I'll find out. Orange Lantern to Justice League. The attack on New Southampton is over. Orders?"

"Blue Lantern here. Have you got room for refugees?"

Evacuating the smaller settlements is a sound plan, though I can hear that Alan's not happy about doing it. I raise my eyebrows at Mr. Chandler, who nods cautiously.

"Aye, we can, though food will become scarce if this situation continues."

"Yes."

"I'll fly them your way, then. The Columbians are getting hit all over, and I'm sure the outcasts are getting it worse. You got any way to track Melmoth down?"

…

"Wonder Woman, how long can you spare me for?"

"What do you have planned?"

"I felt the pattern of Melmoth's desires on the creatures he sent after me. I might be able to feel him through the Honden. It will be far quicker than a waveform scan if it works."

"And then?"

"Confront and control. Sheeda normally self-destruct when I try that, but he's immortal. Then I can either have him end the attack or at least remove the higher level coordination."

"Do it. We will hold here."

"Understood. Orange Lantern out." I look at Aurakos. She might be able to cope with the journey, but I'd rather not chance it. "Mister Chandler, would you please look after Aurakos while I'm away?"

He nods. "Certainly. May God bless you with good fortune."

And deep breath and out we go.

Hm. Again, I look around for the Ophidian but I can't really see her. Honestly, it just feels unnatural at this point, but… On with the job. I focus on the desire-patterns of the Columbians I've come to know, most importantly on their commonalities, and I find myself drawn in their direction. There's a sense of movement and having travelled but the journey feels like it takes no time at all.

And I'm in an edifice to their shared drive and a room and a corridor and yet I know that it's not a real 'place' in any normal sense. Trying to describe it in material terms is an exercise in futility. Instead, I look for those desires which don't quite fit. Deviants within-.

I press my lips against his and pray that none disturb-.

No, not like that, though it's hardly surprising that the Columbians forbid homosexuality. How about-

…would be so much more efficient if the grundymen could be repaired rather than interred. A small change in the blood magic animating them-.

Yes, a warlock.

…joy as I cut off another of its legs and watch as it tries to crawl away.

Hello Klarion.

It can't understand what I am, can't see that I'm so much more than it is-. But then I realise that I could be in the same position; that something greater than me could be ruining my fun. I look away, my mood ruined, and resolve to make sure that can't ever happen.

Yes, more like that.

Desires move around. Or I move around them, until the ones which feel like that are a table/map/diagram in front of me.

I hold out my hand and the outline of the desire I felt from the spiders appears.

More like this.

Some desires flake off, returning to their usual webs. But a few remain, their feel and structure and relatedness being all the more apparent.

I don't recall Lanterns operating in quite this way before. Perhaps it would be best to monitor this one a little more closely.

Good. Now show me desires related to this. Desires from the same person.

The network grows.

Look at them all run! Look at them all bleed! Look at them die! Not so clever now, are you, dear children?

And more and more. I try not to look at them all too closely, limiting myself to checking that they have the same feel and flavour. And more and more they grow, millennia of desires laid bare before me-

A full belly. Just for once, to be freed of the pain-.

-earliest to latest. I pull the latest towards me, surrounding myself in the feel of his avarice.

And then I step in.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
At Some Point

Melmoth's eyes widen fractionally as I appear in what looks like-

Entropic rays orientate on me and fire, the modifications I made to my armour to enable it to better resist them performing well enough to keep me in one piece long enough for my railguns to retaliate.

-the control room of some sort of.. facility..? Multiple control panels show that it was designed to be operated by a larger number of people than the one who currently occupies it. Illusion projectors show a variety of scenes from Columbia and other places, and a large window to the exterior shows… A red coloured rocky desert. No, yellow-brown, it's the dim light from above that's red.

"Now-."

As the last ray projector slumps in its ball mount I reach out for Melmoth with orange strands and brand.

He grits his teeth, and I can feel him resisting. The images I saw suggested that he had a similar upbringing to Larfleeze: starving and scrabbling for every crumb. But while Larfleeze learned absolutely nothing from the experience, Melmoth learned discipline. Mental strength and focus. Even as he tries to suppress his own desires to zen-like calm the witch-signs he'll use to fight me are forming around his fingers.

But I didn't use every trick when I taught the Green Lanterns to resist me.

Enkindle Need.

Because while assimilation works best on people with little self-control, there's a difference between control and mastery. Melmoth could probably go centuries without hurting anyone if he had to without any adverse psychological consequences. But he could never let go of that desire and as his eyes glow orange and he tilts his head back with a gasp he abandons his effort at control in favour of lunging at me, rationality overwhelmed by his burning need to hurt something.

The brand finishes forming a moment before his face slams into my chest plate.

I reset his desires to their baselines as he stands and takes a closer look. Yes, he's… Flaking a little, but he's healing faster than it can take hold.

Normally I'd speak instructions at this point, because this brand is a temporary thing and whoever I've done it to is going to have to be rehabilitated at some point. But in this case… I think he's.. if not a lost cause then at least one I'm not inclined to look for.

Instead I reach into his soul, search out the atrophied drives for cooperation and camaraderie and empower them while I turn down his selfishness and cruelty.

"Melmoth, stop the attack."

"Ah-? Yes. Well, I… Can't." He hurries over to a control panel. "I set up the trigger before I left. I can release the counteragent-" He pulls a lever. "-but that won't stop any attackers who are already 'triggered' from carrying out their instinctive behaviour. And I should shut down the mass mutation device I left on the great southern island."

"Is there anything else you can do to help them?"

"Certainly!" He presses a few more buttons, and the… Some sort of ornament in the middle of the floor spurts a green fluid from… Oh, it's a fountain, from the top and the liquid flows beneath the keys as Melmoth presses them. "We'll be there in a moment."

"Where are we now?"

"We're over what used to be the Atlantic Ocean. Before it dried up." He smiles as the scenery outside the window shimmers and vanishes. "The one place no Sheeda would look: the miserable period before the first Harrowing."

"We're in the future?"

"No, the past! I won't be born for centuries!"

He hurries between the consoles, pulling levers, pressing buttons and briefly creating small witch-signs to manipulate the machinery.

"My future?"

"The future of humanity; the death of the world and the succession of the Sheeda. But put it from your mind! We have a people to aid!"

"What were you planning to do with them?"

"I imagine that you've deduced most of it. I wanted to create a reserve of people with whom I could colonise the Earth after the Harrowing."

"But they all hate you."

"Yes, but the moment they decreed that certain things were forbidden they created an opening for my return. Hating me is part of their official creed, which naturally means that anyone they define as being outside of that creed suddenly doesn't feel the same need for animosity. With sufficient time I would easily have talked the warlocks and warlock-breed around. Once I offered them my aid in improving their skills… Once I repaired their pupae forms into true Sheeda, and once I led them to victory against the Columbians, then they would accept me as their leader."

He blinks, giving his head a small shake.

"Not that that matters now. What a horrid waste of time."

The churning kaleidoscope of textures on the other side of the window fades away, being replaced by the stars I recognise from the skies over Witchworld.

Immediately, Melmoth moves over to another control station.

"I can use the integrated weapons to cull the horde a little. You should be able to speak to your allies now."

"Orange Lantern to Justice League. Mission success. I have Melmoth and-"

I scan the structure we're standing in. It's a huge cylindrical vehicle which floats unsupported in the air.

"-his base of operations."

"Is Melmoth under control?"

"Effectively. He's being very helpful. He's shutting down the attackers as much as he can and taking shots at the rest. You should be able to see-."

"The ship, yes. I see it now. Remain with him to ensure that your controls remain in place."

"Yes sir. Have.. you any plans on what we're doing with him once the immediate crisis is over?"

"Not yet. That will be… Difficult."

Telling me…

"I'll meet you on the ship once the fighting is over. Wonder Woman out."

I nod as Melmoth continues to treat Central Columbia as a shooting arcade.

I just went to the far future. I… Don't think that's something I… Can do at-will. Time travel. I certainly… I'm not usually one to turn down power but that would sort of make me responsible for everything and I'd… Rather not be.

"Melmoth, do you have any idea how I reached you in the future?"

"The water, probably." He points to the… Place where the water was flowing through the central console. "A small amount I temporarily stabilised from the fountain at the core of the Castle Revolving's time displacement system. It flows through time, which means that it escapes constantly. It wouldn't surprise me if it made the usual separation of eras somewhat less of an issue."

"And the Queen has the Castle?"

"Unless she lost it somehow. I think that's fairly unlikely, but that was how I was overthrown." He glances at the central console. "I'm afraid that if you want to do it again then you'll need more of the water."

I nod, torn between disappointment and relief.

"Keep up the good work. I'll stay out of your way."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th May
18:36 GMT -5

Lord-Protector Judah's right hand tightens around the grip of his sword, and his escort barely restrain themselves from raising their jezails.

"This is the fiend?"

Melmoth smiles. "Hello, descendant."

The Lord-Protector's botoxed face doesn't give anything away, and his wards mean that his empathic network doesn't either.

"Your seal upon his forehead. Does it mean have broken him to your will, as we do the grundymen?"

"No. That's a sign that I've changed his desires. He's still free to make decisions within his new framework."

Melmoth nods as best he can with the collar and chains.

"I see it clearly now; I was so painfully short sighted. I can never make amends to your forebears, but please let me help you. I know things about your magic and physiology that you have yet to discover; you have access to only a small part of your full magic potent-."

"Cease your prattling, Sheeda-man." Judah turns to Diana. "What is your intent?"

"The Earth will soon face the fury of the full Harrowing fleet. Every piece of information we can learn and every artefact of theirs that we can study improves our ability to fight against them. We would like to bring people here to study this harvest ship's-."

"'Harvester Dreadnought'. Though obviously this one has been substantially reconfigured."

"And Melmoth's magic. This is a unique opportunity for us."

"You would have us tolerate his presence."

"You may, or you may place him in our custody and you need never see him again."

"And the vessel?"

"We have no need for the vessel itself. We merely need to learn how to fight others of its class."

"I mean: will you take this blight from our skies?"

"We…" Diana glances at me. "Can do that, if you wish."

"Lord-Protector, I would urge you not to throw this opportunity away. Do you not use the grundymen and grundywomen created from criminals?"

"Those of mundane criminals who may seek forgiveness from God Almighty, aye. From such as him, I would see them burned, not raised. We have no desire for this… Chalice of poison."

Well… Okay. We offered and he didn't want it. No idea how we're going to ship it, but I suppose that we can just cut it up and shove it through the witch-path in pieces. Or throw it into the local primary.

Or I could take it as a replacement for my old Ice Fortress. I'm sure that I can learn how it works-.

Not the time.

Diana nods. "And Melmoth?"

"Is the binding permanent?"

"Technically, no, merely indefinite. Another Orange Lantern or a magic user who knew what they were doing could remove it, and he would revert back to his actual personality."

"Can you make it permanent?"

"Yes… But that would effectively make him a new person. If you want to try him for what he did to your forebears, it wouldn't be reasonable to do that to a new person who happened to share the old him's body."

"Do not presume to tell me what is 'reasonable'."

"I'm using it in the legal sense."

"By the laws of Columbia he is an outlaw, a pestilence from our grandsire's time who should have long since been keeping company with Satan in eternal hellfire."

"And by the laws of the Orange Lantern Corps-" I lay my left hand on the glowing sigil on my body armour's chest. "-I can't hand him over under these conditions. I can't hand over someone I know for a fact not to be guilty in a jurisdiction where I do not believe that they will receive a fair hearing."

Which is a legitimate interpretation of the actual rule, but I don't think calling Lord-Protector Judah 'technically incompetent' is going to win any friends here.

Judah stares at me for a moment, then turns his face towards Diana.

"And your view on the matter?"

"I'm not comfortable with permanently altering a person's nature in that way, and I will not authorise it."

I shrug. "I'm fine with that. I just want to make sure that you're fully informed."

"While he is like this, could you order him to list his sins in full?"

"Um. He probably doesn't precisely share your definition of 'sin' and so might struggle. And I'm not sure whether or not his memory is perfect. He's very old and has committed a great many crimes. But I could make him want to recount as many as he can remember to the best of his ability."

"You must take this vessel, and may take a share of the fallen beasts. I will consult with parliament on the matter of Melmoth himself." Diana and I nod. "Now. What of the warlock-breed, and the accursed warlocks?"

Diana shakes her head. "This doesn't change anything. We're still willing to offer them sanctuary if they want it. Though with the attacks by the Sheeda beasts coming to an end it is possible that they would prefer to remain here."

"Or we could offer them Melmoth's knowledge to turn them into normal humans. Or.. Columbian humans. I mean, I understand why you hate warlocks, but if the worst they've done is have a warlock parent or grandparent, well… That ancestor won't be as bad as Melmoth and you're all descended from him."

"They are not citizens of Columbia. We have agreed a truce, and I have no cause to forbid them from seeking his aid. But they will not be citizens for as long as I draw breath."

"Lord-Protector-."

"No, no, I get it. It's a catch twenty-two. If they're showing Sheeda modifications then they're tainted, and if they use Sheeda technology to remove those modifications then they're tainted."

"Verily."

"Would you let them become citizens if they removed their alterations by some other means?"

"Which part of 'draw breath' escapes your comprehension?"

Diana gives me a short glare as she somehow hears me thinking 'how long do witch-men live, asking for a friend?'.

"As you will. Let me know when I can be of further service."

I walk away, heading for one of the launch bays. Melmoth told me that he didn't know if anything could be done for Aurakos, but he's more than happy to try. And I want him to try soon just in case Judah decides to give him the thumbs down.

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th May
10:43 GMT -5

I smile at Beulah as she performs a final check of her equipment.

"Short straw or long straw?"

Her eyes move my way for a moment. "Your meaning?"

I nod to the standing stones where a couple of local mages -theonomists, they call them- are working on reopening the witch-path. Not the same one we came in by, but Melmoth had a more complete map than the Columbians do. It takes more effort to ensure that it's properly aligned, but can be reactivated far more swiftly. The underlying reason is probably quite fascinating, and I'm hoping to get the theonomist accompanying us -a Doctor Bertram- in contact with Sephtian.

Probably… Best I don't mention the 'flying through Hell' outline we came up with.

"Drawing straws is another term for drawing lots. 'Drawing the short straw' is a metaphor for being selected for an unpleasant job."

"I do what duty requires."

"Right, and so does Abednego." He's over talking to the drovers handling the few Sheeda animals we captured alive. The drovers aren't coming with us and Abednego wants to make sure that he knows how to look after them. "But Shadrach isn't here, despite being one of three witch-hunters who've been on our side before."

"Lord-Protector Judah is like to order a purgation. Brother Shadrach would be loath to be elsewhere when it occurs."

"So how-?"

"He is a judge of where to apply his own skills, and God Almighty is the judge of his soul. Abednego is perhaps a little too charitable. Our embassy must have someone who can judge you clearly."

I smile. "Oh, that's right: you missed me going to Heaven, didn't you?"

Her eyes return to me.

"Is this some manner of jest?"

"Oh, I wish." I shrug. "I wouldn't mention it, but there's no way someone isn't going to mention the whole thing while you're on Earth, so I'd rather get it out of the way now."

"You expect me to credit a claim that you died and went to Heaven and yet stand here now, risen anew?"

"No, I expect you to disbelieve me, and gradually gain more information supporting the claim, then become increasingly irrational in your demands that I deny that it happened before finally realising that it's true and… I don't know, going on a huge bender as you try to use alcohol to erase your memory of the revelation."

"Your imagination is heartily overactive."

"Then you would deny the bender, and just avoid me while throwing yourself into your work to try to regain some semblance of normalcy. But gradually the thoughts would return, and-."

"You are a pagan, are you not?"

"Yes. Oh, believe me, Heaven wasn't my preferred-."

"I am pledged not to use my pyromantic magic against another Christian. But I will not be made a warlock for using it against you."

"Understood. But I can't feel pain unless I want to and I can regenerate non-fatal injury."

"I would test that."

I hold out my right arm. "Go right ahead."

She reaches out and firmly grasps my forearm with her right hand, flames blue and fierce and.. entirely ineffectual against my environmental shield. She meets my eyes and I shrug, and-. Then for a moment she makes flames inside my environmental shield, burning my skin under my armour. She's still watching my eyes and I shrug again, subspacing my vambrace to reveal the burned flesh. Which then glows orange and is restored to pristine skin.

She lets go of my arm and I replace the armour.

"And I'm completely serious about the Heaven thing, too. The Angel King Asmodel decided that he could run the universe better than God, Karrien Excalibris just wanted to kill things and they both decided I was an acceptable target. My soul was taken to Heaven as a hard test of their new rehabilitation system."

"Rehabilitating one as prideful as you might test even the angels' capacities."

"That's what they said! But they won't get another chance. Straight to Erebos next time."

"Your false idols will not shield you from the Lord."

"Perhaps, but they will shield me from everyone else." The glow of the witch-path stabilises and the theonomists step away, nodding to the Columbian MP who is coming with us to open diplomatic negotiations. "So anyway, how do you feel about any of this?"

"The thought of spending time in your presence engenders a great desire in me to swear an oath of chastity."

"Oh, there are plenty of dour Christian men on Earth. I'm sure you could find someone who's a match for you. But I really meant the stuff with the Sheeda… Melmoth."

"All should burn. But you may put them to the question first, that you may learn to better burn the rest."

…

"Not.. big on turning the other-?"

"Brothers and Sisters, and honoured guests!" The MP gestures for our attention. "The way is stable, and we are ready to depart! For the first time since our forefathers were snatched away from their homes we will have official contact with England once more!"

That should be 'foremothers', given that they're descended from Melmoth and the colonist women. And… Someone has told him that America is an independent country, haven't they? I sort of assumed that they'd feel closest to the United States, but I suppose that it makes sense that they feel closer to English Nonconformists than anything else.

Major Adams and Abednego head through the portal first, then a theonomist and the mission's priest. John and I are going back because we need the carrying capacity of two Lanterns to wrangle all of the materials we're bringing with us. Some of the porters finish loading up John's lorry constructs and he follows a cluster of political aides through into the witch-path.

"You and me next, then."

Beulah moves towards the portal without further comment, pack and weapons stowed. I pick up the cages and crates containing living and dead specimens for dissection and float after her.

Back on Earth
Somewhere Near Ipswich

I look around the.. park? It's daylight at least. Ring, check time and-

25th June 2012
11:23 GMT

-date..? Oh. Time passes… Slower there. Something to bear in mind, but the difference…

"…Justice League mission…"

Soldiers in British Army uniforms are pointing guns at our guests as Major Adams tries talking their sergeant down. And I see tents… Refugee tents? Pitched all across what looks like it used to be a playing field-.

"They're here!"

I look up as a solid black wave of insect riders cover the sky.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 12
11th February 2005
12:24 GMT -5

God… Damn… Super-injunction.

A decidedly unfun part of British law which allows the muzzling of all UK-based media outlets for the duration of a trial. If this was from anyone other than Batman I'd assume that it was a stupid move made in a panic; it would basically be an admission that I'm right in identifying him as 'Batman'. I was expecting some sort of public holographic appearance, or having Mr. Kent wear his costume while he was publically elsewhere. Something to undermine my claim.

I mean, I could serve Batman as Batman. He's testified in court with his mask on before so that's not an issue. But that threat was supposed to be my leverage. I don't want to blow his secret identity. I want the ring back. All that injunction does is make it harder for me to bring non-nuclear pressure to bear.

"Hey, Peter. Rough day?"

I look up at Maxwell Lord as he reaches our table, and manage a weak smile.

"Having a bit of an operational disagreement with the Justice League. It's a little trying."

"'Operational'?" He sits and waves his right hand at a waitress for a menu. "Are they trying to extradite one of your employees or something?"

"No, that would be… I could handle that. They stole an object from me and don't appear… Either able or willing to return it."

He raises his left eyebrow as he glances up from the menu.

"Was it dangerous?"

"Yes, but a gun's dangerous. This was drained of all power and sitting in safe."

"Can you tell me what this object is, or do I have to guess?"

"Sorry, Max. They took out an injunction, and… Judges get a bit shirty if you bypass their authority, even outside of the country."

He shrugs sympathetically. "Can't argue with lawyers. Unless you've got a bigger lawyer."

"I've got some pretty big lawyers. But I still have to go through the motions."

He nods. "Is this..? Thing..?"

"I-."

"I know, I know. You can't talk about it. But I always figured that if the Justice League went after you, it would be because of your employees."

"No, no, they've been nothing but supportive about that aspect of things. Apparently they had a run-in with a parallel universe version of me and it's got them all paranoid."

"You can't judge someone based on what some parallel universe version of them does. There's probably some parallel universe somewhere where we're both Nazis-. Oh, aah, scrambled eggs on rye toast, Caesar salad and mineral water."

The waitress nods and takes his menu.

"Nazis. Or they are."

"It's kind of annoying, actually. There was some huge meet-up of parallel universe versions of me a few years ago, but Matthew Hagen… Clayface?" He nods. "Took my appearance and so he got dragged in instead. It would have been nice to hear what this was all about from the 'me' who actually did it." I shake my head. "How are things in the for-profit superhero business?"

"Good. Not great. I talked to our computer guys about doing what you said, going online?" He shakes his head. "Unless people want to spend all day downloading video clips, the bandwidth people get just isn't high enough for it to be practical. Maybe in ten years or so."

"Given all of the wires we'd have to replace, it might be better to skip that and upgrade mobile phone masts instead." Hm. "It's not really my thing, but I could do a feasibility study?"

He chuckles quietly. "Good luck with those antitrust lawsuits."

I exhale sharply through my nose. Yeah. More of those. "Thanks."

"The drone cameras were a big success. Once we trained the technicians not to fly them into the stars' faces."

"I've never been completely sure what the revenue streams are for the whole 'Ultimen'.. thing are. Is it just the television series and merchandising?"

"No, no. There's also… It's not exactly 'insurance', but I've made sure our hotline number is out there for companies who are under attack by supervillains."

I nod. "Their insurance would cover it either way, but if they're trying to protect a unique prototype or individual then it makes sense to pay for people with super powers to try and stop them."

He nods. "Which works for us, because none of our stars are trained investigators." He waves his right hand dismissively. "Which is fine, because criminal investigations -real criminal investigations- don't make good television. Being called to a crime scene as the crime is actually happening cuts the filler right down and shows the kids in the best possible light."

"Kids'?"

He frowns introspectively for a moment, then appears to shrug it off.

"Sure. I mean, I'm their manager, but they're teenagers living away from their parents for the first time. Guess I feel a little possessive."

I smile. "I guess that answers the question I had about how you actually found enough supervillains to fill the schedule."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Max, I actually look for supervillains with giant wads of money as a lure and I struggle to find them. Even in large American cities there aren't that many supervillain attacks each month, and even with a rocket plane you can only travel so far so fast. I did briefly worry that they might be staged, but I've seen the trial transcripts so I know it's not that. How many companies are in this… Referral scheme? And should I be offended that you haven't given me the number?"

"Well… It's… Ah…" He looks away. "Not as many as I'd like. And without point-to-point teleporters… You're right; we can only respond to calls from a certain distance away fast enough to stop a crime in progress. But I've also got… Ah… 'friends'."

"'Friends' like my girlfriend, or-."

"No, no. No, it's not like that. Friends in law enforcement. No police officer armed with a six-shooter wants to pick a fight with a guy in power armor, right?" I nod. "So sometimes we get called in. And sometimes it's a false alarm, but we get more than enough footage out of it to fill the show."

I snort. "I honestly don't know why there isn't a Federal superhero team. I mean, I'm not one to criticise private entrepreneurship, but it seems that enforcing the law is something that the government should be interested in."

"Some people aren't comfortable with that sort of-." He leans back slightly as the waitress puts his meal down in front of him, then he picks up his knife and fork. "That sort of power in government hands."

"Has the American government mislaid its nuclear warheads?" … "Again?"

"No, they're back up to pre-Carter levels. But the Federal Government can't deploy nukes in American cities."

"Sure, but a S.W.A.T. sniper can shoot someone just as dead as someone with… Laser fingers."

"'Laser fingers?"

"For example. It just seems like a weird gap."

He chews on a bit of salad before nodding. "We have been getting some unofficially-official interest in something like that." He leans forward. "Say, have you ever heard of something called Project Cadmus?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Earth 12
12th February 2005
14:16 GMT -5

"General!"

A bald man in dress uniform turns away from the buffet table as Max leads me closer, smiling broadly. The.. General manages a small smile back after a moment to warm up.

"Lord. And…" I get a quick threat assessment. "Mister..?"

"General Eiling, Peter Wynne. Peter, this is General Eiling. He's in charge-"

For a fraction of a second General Eiling's face hardens and his eyes narrow.

"-of America's exotic weapons development program, under Project Cadmus."

I offer him my right hand. "Pleased to meet you."

He grasps it firmly and gives me one quick shake. "You're the power guy, right?"

"That is my biggest and most profitable project, yes. Though I'm not sure it's my most significant."

"Tell that to every oil producer in South America. Hell, every oil producer in the Middle East. Your work's made a massive improvement to our fuel security. It's even shored up our position in Europe since demand for Russian gas fell off a cliff."

I nod. "I was aware that it had an impact."

"It's made the strategic situation a hell of a lot simpler." He thinks for a moment. "I still can't work out why you won't sell to us directly."

"I'm.. pretty sure that I'm supplying the US military with power."

"No, not that. A cosmic converter powered plane or tank would outperform anything on the market. It'd make you billions-. Even more billions, and ensure US dominance for the rest of the century."

"Well, the US-."

"Fine, NATO then. I don't mind selling to our allies."

"I'm not doing it because I promised Doctor Knight that I wouldn't. The patent's publically available, so other than collecting a fee we can't stop other people developing that sort of thing for you."

"Sure, and Luthor's already put a proposal together. But his people are starting from nothing. You're the one with all of Knight's records and I know he didn't just use the cosmic converter for making power."

"Doctor Knight spent time in a asylum after working on the Manhattan Project, because the guilt of getting so many people killed was too much for him. I.. get the impression that you'd be fine with it-"

"Only mistake we made there was not nuking Russia when we had the chance."

"-but he wasn't and I feel obliged to respect his wishes."

He visibly swallows his distaste. "Alright, but what about all of the other weapons your employees built?"

"I'm… I really don't think that encouraging them to be violent is a good idea for anyone. It's a bit of a 'lunatics running the asylum' situation."

"And everything else?"

"Supervillains are my focus, but I don't personally have a problem making or selling weapons to.. parties I can trust not to do something stupid with them. And… Well, anyone I've got under contract has a buy-out clause and the contracts are fixed term anyway. If you like something they're making and want to hire them directly, you can. Just… Be aware of their natural inclinations. If they were inclined to work well with authority, they-."

"They wouldn't have become criminals in the first place." He frowns. "Alright, Lord, I don't get it. What's your angle? Why are we having this conversation?"

"Peter told me that he was having trouble with the Justice League."

"Oh? Is that so? What kind of trouble are we talking about?"

"They stole something from me. And I'd get it if it was something my employees built, but it was a personal possession I can't replicate. If they don't fold I'm going to end up suing them in open court, which isn't going to be much fun."

"You..? Can prove that they stole it?"

"I walked in on Batman mid-steal. But it was the middle of the night and I didn't realise that he'd actually taken it until the next morning. I also have a recording of the League founders admitting to it and telling me their motive. The only thing making my lawyers nervous is that unless the League fold I'm going to use their real names on the court papers."

"You..?" His eyes narrow for a moment. "Know their names? What, did you used to be buddies with them or something? I didn't think Wayne Technologies could be funding the whole thing."

"No. But I've got access to exotic scanners, analytic equipment and… Frankly, it isn't that hard to work out once you abandon certain preconceptions."

He's trying not to smile. He's doing pretty well. It's like his own face can't remember how to make the muscles move that way.

"You're gunna sue the Justice League?"

"What.. can I say? I believe in the rule of law. I'm.. not massively fond of vigilantes and I'm certainly not going to let them get away with robbing me."

"That's, ah… An interesting idea. I guessed you'd be more of a fan."

"Saving fifty people doesn't give you the right to murder forty nine. I don't.. think that I… I don't understand why governments aren't.. more involved in… I don't know, formalising? A relationship with what is essentially a paramilitary NGO. I mean, particularly given how many of them are American. I don't think… Law enforcement is one of those things that should be outsourced."

"Hell, I don't either. That's what Project Cadmus is all about."

I nod. "I assumed that the American military was recruiting metahumans, but I didn't think you were allowed to undertake law enforcement duties?"

"Actual soldiers can't. But we can train metahumans who are members of a civilian agency, just so long as they don't join up themselves."

"That's… Not where the Royal Flush Gang came from, is it? Because-."

"No, that shit-show was the God-damned CIA. I had to explain that had nothing to do with us to three separate congressional hearings. I treat my people properly."

"I'm glad to hear it. I-."

There's a loud knocking on the window, and we turn to see… A young man knocking on the pane with a glowing green hand. That's not John Stewart.

"Package for a 'Peter Wynne'?"

"Great." General Eiling smiles. "I've been wondering what javelin missiles do to Green Lanterns. Keep him talking while I get a squad together."

He pats me on the back and turns to leave.

"I'll… Do that." I smile apologetically to Max. "Excuse me."

I jog out of the manor's patio doors and wave down the… I'm guessing that's Kyle Rayner.

"I'm Peter Wynne." He floats closer. "What do you have for me?"

"Do you have some ID?"

I take hold of the name badge I was issued upon arrival and hold it up. He nods.

"Right, just a sec."

He reaches out with his right arm, his forearm disappearing into… A subspace pocket, and pulling out a.. ring case, which he tosses to me.

"The Guardians say they didn't realise it was stolen. Ah, sorry…"

I open the case and touch the ring… Yes, it's either the ring or a functional duplicate. I'm happy either way.

"You didn't steal it. I trust that the other local Green Lantern has had his knuckles rapped?"

"Ah… Sssomething like that."

"Thank you." I close the case and slide it into my jacket pocket. "Please express my gratitude to the Guardians and inform them that I'm happy to negotiate access to the ring, if they're still interested."

"I'll do that." He floats there for a moment. "So, ah… About suing the Justice League?"

"I think I can put that on the back-burner. For now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Summer's End

Late Summer, IC 687

Someone's done something stupid.

While I may be acknowledged as a deity in the Saderan Empire, my shrine isn't exactly a bustling place of worship. Ever since the local gods carried out their marginally clever plan to trap me here, they've also made an effort to keep me marginalised. Not a huge effort; I think they got a little bored when I decided not to struggle against it. But the more popular cults hereabouts make a point of making sure that visits here are discouraged, and I'm perfectly happy for them to do that. Even with my physical form limited to my old power ring… Larfleeze's old power ring I should say, I'm perfectly capable of reaching out with its sensors so as to avoid being driven peculiar by boredom. And the followers I do have appear to appreciate my more accessible approach when compared to the locals.

What I don't get is high-ranking government officials visiting me. Oh, sometimes they send aides, sometimes their younger children come looking for a path to power when they know that their older siblings will inherit everything… But my cult is far too 'fringe' for the politically conscious to be directly associated with it.

So why the heck are the Praetorian Guard in my antechamber?

"…few rules that the God of Ambition enforces, oh Emperor. Everyone speaks to him alone."

"And who are you to tell me who I may take with me?"

"No one!"

Oh, you and I are going to have words about pointing spears at my priests, Emperor Molt. I'm rather fond of young Daniel.

"No one! But last time someone did that he broke their legs!"

Which is still less than the local gods generally do: burning out a devotee to share a few words with the locals. The fact that I don't do that might be why he's coming to speak to me, almost certainly about that big blob of fear I can feel from Alnus Hill.

Molt stares Daniel down for a few moments before turning away and striding into my shrine, walking halfway across the small and plainly decorated room before stopping to stare up at… Me. The statue representing both my human form and the Ophidian, the two parts together holding the ring that is my connection to the material world.

So many years and I can still laugh about it. I'd known that gods generally couldn't manifest their full power in the material universe without a vast array of preparations but I didn't realise before I came through their oversized dolmen gate that by local standards I had reached that standard. And I couldn't do what Zeus did and create an avatar for myself because it doesn't work like that here. I'm still not sure whether it was intentional or a pure fluke on their part.

"Oh Great God of Ambition, I, Molt Sol Augustus, ruler of our great Empire, seek your blessing as we wage the holy war decreed by the gods!"

This sort of thing is really meant to be like a confession. A private session where people confess their heart's desires and I give them a little advice and guidance. He's left the door open and is trying to turn it into a small piece of state theatre. Probably planning to seize my ring as proof of his authority… And probably murder a few priests on the way out.

If I had lungs, I'd sigh.

Instead, I pull the doors closed behind him. His guards look a little concerned, but when Daniel doesn't react they appear to assume that it's just one of the mysteries of my cult. Molt himself tenses very slightly, but he doesn't look around even when the doors clonk shut.

"I don't remember decreeing a war. Are you sure that you've come to the right temple?"

Hearing my voice affects him more than the doors, but he's still respectably self-possessed.

"The Great Gate opened upon the Holy Hill. Such a thing is a sign from the gods."

"Not necessarily. Depending on the relationship between the worlds on either end, it could be the action of one powerful god. I certainly didn't have anything to do with it."

"Mf."

Ah, that's news, I see. Did he think that the gods of this land had any sort of internal unity? Oh, goodness me.

"And when this gate opened, what did you do?"

"The Empire did our sacred duty; we dispatched an army to conquer the barbarian lands on the far side."

I give him a few moments to continue.

…

Okay then.

"And why have you come here, to the temple of a god that you don't worship?"

"I am here to ask for your aid in our war with the barbarians, who even now threaten the holiest site in the Empire. The war is the pride of the Empire, a manifestation of our combined ambition to conquer all who stand before us!"

"That isn't how this works, Emperor Molt."

"If you wish to receive a sacrifice before you will offer your blessing-."

"How much effort did you put into finding out how my cult works?"

Another tiny flicker of emotion. He rushed this.

"Let me explain it to you, then. I do not give things to people who ask for them. The Empire's ambition belongs to the Empire. Your ambitions are your own. The struggles, the costs and rewards are yours. By taking away from that I would undermine myself, and that I will not do. At most, I offer guidance on how they can most effectively be realised."

"Then what should I do? What guidance can you give me that will allow me to crush the barbarians?"

Frankly, not a lot. Through the veil's dimness, I can see the fear, flames and conflagration, but the image isn't clear enough for me to see what the exact cause is.

"Tell me, did your army scout the barbarian lands before marching through? Did you send men disguised as merchants to learn their languages and customs, to study their warcraft and weapons? Did you send light cavalry, to reconnoitre their defensive positions and raid their supply lines?"

His face hardens.

"We did not."

"And you lost, didn't you? Whoever these barbarians are, they were strong enough to throw you back. I can see them, their position on this side of the gate. And if they could throw the legions back when caught unawares, they will do better when they are prepared."

He reluctantly nods.

"What is your ambition, Emperor Molt?"

"To see the Empire expand; to make its armies strong, its people wealthier-."

"Try again. Honestly, this time."

"I do want those things. But I want to become powerful enough to rule without those fools in the senate, to concentrate power and authority in the person of the Emperor. I believed this war would give me the opportunity to do that."

It still could, of course. A partial loss can be used by a sufficiently cunning politician to do all manner of things victory couldn't justify. And Emperor Molt is a reasonably cunning leader. With me advising him…

But he did threaten Daniel.

"If you want me to salvage the situation, I will need something from you."

"Name it, oh God of Ambition."

"Your son."

"Prince Zorzal El Caesar is-."

"No, not him."

He didn't even hesitate. Sad.

"The one who isn't a nitwit. If I'm going to take to the field I want a bearer who can keep up his end of an intelligent conversation. Grant Prince Diabo command of the Imperial forces in the area and then send him here. I will negotiate with the barbarians on your behalf. And then you and I will talk about the future of the Empire."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Late Summer, IC 687

"Are these your people, divinity?"

I feel a pang of regret that I don't have a head to shake at Daniel's question. Of course, I'm just as capable of taking a host as any of the local divines. There aren't many situations in which I'd kill a devotee to do it, but it wouldn't be hard to arrange to have someone snatched from the gallows. I could even make a payment to their family. But… No. The road of pure utility wasn't for me when I attained enlightenment, and it isn't now.

"It is unlikely, though not impossible. If it were my people I rather imagine that a Lantern would be here already."

Daniel originally came to Sadera as a refugee, and came to my temple in search of alms. I personally spoke to him because I wanted to get a worm's eye view of the state of the Empire, and he took that as a Sign. I'm not sure that he completely understands all of what I tell him, but he's reasonably bright and he pays attention. To me, and to what's going on around him and in the country.

"Also, unless their stealth technology has improved a great deal I should be able to detect at least some electromagnetic radiation. I take it that there's no word in the city?"

"The army has not yet returned, divinity. Official couriers have been seen, but no letters are being delivered to the families of the legionaries. And certainly no one in the army has come back."

And while a priest of a major god might be able to buttonhole a senator in the know, a priest of a minor god would be looking to get a beating for his impudence.

Ah.

"Daniel, would you be so good as to escort the Second Prince to me? Perhaps imply to the praetorians that their services are not required."

He bows in the direction of my altar.

"At once, divinity."

He walks purposively towards the door, then slows.

"Divinity-?"

"I'm not in the habit of abandoning my obligations, Daniel. You genuinely wish to serve me until you die. Whether here or elsewhere, I will find a place for you, for as long as you desire it."

"Yes. Thank you. I am.. sorry to have doubted you."

"Think nothing of it."

I watch him go, Corps-related memories I haven't bothered with in some time stirring themselves. The Corps was well settled into its groove when I left, but we're not exactly the most stable organisation. Is Azula still Clarissi? She struck me as someone who would always find ways to push herself, but would that drive be strong enough to keep her alive this far beyond the normal human span?

Ah, and here's my nervous-looking guest now. And he neatly combines my actual preference in a bearer with the one I rejected; he's a prince who's acting like a man on his way to the gallows. The praetorians clearly have a similar opinion of the situation. Either that, or his father didn't give them any specific orders and they decided to knock off early.

Of course, once he puts me on then he certainly won't need their protection.

"Hello?"

He does start when the door closes behind him.

"Hello-"

And again when he hears me speak.

"-Prince Diabo El Caesar. Thank you for coming."

"What..? Would you have me do? Why did you tell my father to give me-"

He waves the scroll appointing him General.

"-this, when you're just-."

"To be completely clear, I have no need to possess you or kill you. Using this ring, I can lend you a portion of my power, as well as provide you with guidance."

He blinks in surprise.

"You're-? Going to make me your apostle?"

"No. That may happen at some point in the future, if that is your ambition. But at the moment I imagine that you will be content with raising your profile."

He nods cautiously, his manner still tense but a bit less 'cat in a bag waiting to drown'.

"I imagine that we have limited time. Please, approach my altar and take my ring."

He slowly comes closer.

"My father thinks that you will kill me."

"I hate to break this to you, but your father is a giant shit."

He cringes, looking around for potential observers.

"Don't worry, this room is inviolate. No, your father has committed the twin sins of arrogance and stupidity. I am hopeful that the next generation will learn from his errors, but I am not confident. Thus: you will be advised by me."

He finally reaches the altar and reaches out slowly to remove the ring before snatching it and jerking his hand back in case the snake bites him or the man strikes him.

"Very dramatic. Any finger you like, as long as it's yours."

He slides it on his middle-left and we have a connection. His desires for self-preservation and power trigger the environmental shield at once, and he watches with a degree of concern as it extends over his body.

"That will shield you and allow you to breathe anywhere. I would recommend taking this ring off before pissing or shitting."

"Why, what happens?"

"It's uncomfortable. Though extremely hygienic. Now, we're needed on Alnus Hill before things deteriorate further. With that in mind I'm granting you the ability to fly."

"Fl-? How?"

"It's simple enough. You just have to want to fly and want to reach a particular destination. Have you ever flown before?"

"Yes… But… On a wyvern, not by magic."

He holds up his left hand slightly, staring at the ring.

"I didn't think that was possible."

"There's a long and complicated explanation that we'll have to have later about how this actually works, but for now just accept that it does. Now, focus your mind on everything you want to achieve in life, and accept that this is the first step in achieving those things."

"By defeating these barbarians."

"Possibly. It depends on how you want to play it."

"What do you mean?"

"Your father did something very stupid. He picked a fight with a vastly superior force with no way to break contact. If you wanted, you could use this to completely undermine his position. But if you achieve absolute victory, it will appear that he was right all along. The war was winnable, and therefore should have been fought."

"And if I… Did… Want to undermine him?"

"Let members of the Imperial Army see the force the barbarians possess. Have them tell others what they saw. Allow that knowledge, that fear, to spread throughout the Empire. Let everyone know that your father would have doomed them and that you saved them. But for now, we must depart."

 

[Mr Zoat]

I tumble through thin air-

Oh
Fuck

-as Artemis slips from my grip, rings guttering as I try to generate a flight aura. To no avail. Above us the Castle Revolving is.. gone -if it was ever there- and I see only a murky mist through which a dull red light shines. Below, grey, grey and more grey.

Mother Box?

Ppppppppiiiiiiinggg.

Oh dear. Right, aero-discs.

I'm jerked around for a moment as they misfire, Artemis.. drifting further away as she flattens herself in the air to stabilise her tumbling and maximise her air resistance. I'm a little behind in her health checks, but I… Don't think she's tough enough to survive a terminal velocity fall onto rock. In my case-

She carefully takes an arrow from her quiver, puts it on her bow and fires it at the ground. A second arrow follows it.

-I'm more worried about the health of what I land on. Unless this is a future where Apokolips opened up some fire pits…

In any case, landing on people would create a bad impression. I Am The Eggman. I Am The Walrus.

My aero-discs finally activate, and-
Cut Through Space.
-rainbow bubbles percolate through the air below us-
Path to the Ground.
-and then the ground is there and we're slamming into crash-foam.

Artemis lands flat, sinks a short distance as the space age quick-hardening rubber depresses to absorb her kinetic energy, and then rebounds, leaping a short distance into the air. Then I hit it and it explodes, flecks of white foam flying in all directions as Artemis lands lightly a short distance away.

And my aero-discs fail again. But I'm down, and a small amount of residual rubber aside I'm none the worse for wear.

"Artemis, are you alright?"

"Uh-huh." She's looking around. "What just happened?"

"Sivana sprung a surprise on me. Us. The plan was for me to board the Castle Revolving-"

I look myself over and begin plucking strips of rubber off myself.

"-alone, but…"

"He wanted revenge for them killing his family."

I nod. "I knew that he was distressed, but after we prevented Magnificus committing suicide I assumed that he'd.. worked through it."

"So you don't think he managed to… Undo time and bring them back?"

"I doubt it. Not in a rush job like that." I give her my full attention. "Was that Tao's rainbow bridge technique?"

"Yeah, I've been able to do it for a few months now." She stops scanning our environment and gives me her full attention. "Which you'd know if you ever came around the Mountain any more."

"I don't.. think I'm authorised." Quick equipment check… Daiklave's still there. Yay. Sword of the Fallen… Yes. Ranged weapons are a big fat no, and drones..? No, no drones.

"You know where we all live."

"You know where I live. And unlike you, I set my own admissions policy. How is Miss Kane getting along?"

"She's-." She looks around again. "Can we focus? Where are we?"

I look around. The ground is covered in… Some sort of grey… Building material? Coral? Without a ring I can't do a proper analysis, but I don't recognise it. Not Apokoliptian though, so there's that at least.

"Not sure. That green liquid is supposed to send things that go through it to random points in time, and assuming that it ignored galactic drift somehow this should be Earth."

"Past or future?"

I nod. "One of those." Hm. "If that red light is reflected volcanism then this could be the past. And the sky could be obscured by high altitude dust. Finding food could be awkward if we're that far back. Alternately-."

"We're in the far future and the sun's turning into a red giant."

"In which case that's evaporated water up there. Except…" I hold my hands out to the sides. "If the sun's expanded enough to heat up the Earth to the point of evaporating enough water to enshroud the entire planet… The surface should be hotter than this. There should be a run-away greenhouse effect, like on Venus. I mean… Is it just me? Does this feel hot to you?"

"It feels… Maybe sixty?"

Or fifteen in new money. Which matches my estimation. I nod.

"So the temperature's wrong for a natural system-death."

"Unless they're using Captain Cold's freeze technology to keep the planet cool."

"I… Kind of hope that human civilisation either has better things to do than preserve the old homeworld or they've got a better way to do it. Because frankly, if anyone wants to live here then letting the sun go giant is a sub-optimal outcome."

"I…"

Artemis trails off, frowning. Then she crouches down and uses a target arrow to pick up a fragment of rubber. It's heavily decayed, falling apart as we watch, and I idly note that the rest is doing the same thing.

I nod approvingly. "Very environmentally friendly."

"Yeah, it would be, but this stuff isn't. We couldn't make something that did what we wanted and melted fast and safe afterwards. This stuff should stick around for days unless someone uses a solvent."

I nod. "My rings are dead, otherwise I'd run an analysis. And Mother Box is…"

"Peeeeiiing."

"Struggling."

"There could be chemicals in the air." She prods her arm computer and gets no response. "Nothing. Any idea what kills power rings?"

I raise my left hand and take a closer look.

"I don't think they're damaged. It just looks like… Their power's drained. I was near full power when I went through the portal, and… I don't think that protecting us in transit would have wiped the batteries by itself."

She stows her bow and pries open the computer's casing. "Doesn't look like there's anything wrong with-." She blinks, and I step forward to take a closer look.

The metal is corroding as I watch. There's already a patina across nearly-. Across the entire surface. Plastic is becoming brittle and flaking.

"What's happening?"

"I don't know. Some sort of.. curse, perhaps?"

I take another look at my rings, but other than the lack of power they're both fine. I draw my daiklave and look it over carefully, but it doesn't appear to be affected. I stab the point into the ground and it cuts through perfectly well. My armour… Yes, that's fine.

Artemis has taken her arrows out and is checking them, muttering curses as the material of the shaft crumbles in her grip.

"Your.. bow?"

She drops the decaying remains of the arrow and examines her bow. It looks fine to me, and it appears that she agrees. "Scott and Barda got me this from an Apokoliptian chick they beat up. But most of these arrows were made on Earth."

I nod. "Whatever's doing this, New God technology is… At least resistant." I look around into the fog. "We need to investigate."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Trudge
Trudge

"…covered up forever." Artemis shrugs as we continue marching through the dingy grey landscape.

I nod. "Is she alright? She knows there's no way she could-."

"Yeah, she… Knows. But it was still her powers that got them killed. She feels guilty."

I suppose it was inevitable that Miss Kane would discover that the car crash which killed her family was the result of a flare in her magnetic abilities. Natural that after being around superheroes and being trained to investigate crimes that she'd want to look into it. But as the song goes, 'Knowledge can also destroy'.

"You and Master Xu getting on alright?"

"Uh-huh." She glances around. "Uh."

"What?"

"I've got three arrows left."

"If you'd added an Apokoliptian blaster when you were upgrading-."

"Can you make more?"

"Yyyes, because fletching is something I'm super interested in, as bows are the cutting edge of space age weaponry."

She rolls her eyes.

"I mean with your Mother Box or whatever."

"Puuuuuuugggggh-."

I pat Mother Box's case lightly. "Don't strain yourself. And the answer is maybe. Usually I do most of my fabrication work by power ring with Mother Box's guidance, but my rings are out of power and Mother Box is struggling. And I don't have any other equipment or raw materials."

"How about this.. coral..? Stuff?"

"Yes, I guess I could build a simple lathe and shape a shaft." I stop for a moment and tap an outcrop with my right forefinger. "Don't know how it would shoot without fletching, but the stuff does seem to be surviving here."

"I'd cope. It's that or keep reusing these arrows. Apokoliptian arrows are kinda deadly."

"Well… Yes."

"Look, I… Get it. Killing… But I don't wanna kill someone unless I have to."

"She probably had torture arrows." I shrug. I don't remember there being an Apokoliptian archer, but it wouldn't exactly astonish me. "Besides, target arrows aren't exactly low-lethality at your level of strength."

"I can shoot to wound. With my… 'God powers'. So long as the arrows don't explode."

"Fair point. Okay, once we get somewhere I'll see about sorting you out. When did you last eat?"

"This morning. How long can… We, go without eating?"

"I don't know. It's never really come up before. Hunger weakens us, but I've never heard of a New God dying of hunger." … "But that's probably more because we lack the patience to wait for each other to die than any indication of immunity."

"Great." She huffs. "How're we getting back to the present, anyway?"

"Depends when we are. If it turns out that we're in the past I can just build a stasis chamber of some sort and we can wait it out." I remember a comic where the Justice Society did exactly that. Bit of a plot hole about why Black Adam didn't kill them off while he was in evil mode, but the idea was sound. "Depending on when we are. I'm hoping that the skies will clear and we can work it out roughly from the stars."

"And if we're in the future?"

"Then.. we.. have to hope that the Castle Revolving comes back at some point, or some other time traveller comes to pick us up. Failing that, we can settle in for the long haul and build a portal to a parallel universe."

"And just abandon everyone? What about your kids?!"

"By this point… I mean, if we are in the future, then I imagine that they're long dead, along with everyone else we know."

"And that's… Fine?"

"They're alive in the past. Either we get back, in which case I continue to raise them to the best of my ability, or we don't and… It stopped being a problem a long time ago." I shrug. "I can work out how annoyed I should get once we have a better idea of when we are."

She nods, and we continue to walk in silence for a few… I'm not sure, actually. With no power rings and with Mother Box not doing all that well I don't have any reliable way to tell the time. Never occurred to me to make a New God watch.

Those actually do exist.

"So you're… Dating a pony."

"Princess Luna of Equestria. We have a magic portal which links an area of Sunset's laboratory to a mirror in her palace. Going through turns humans into ponies and ponies into humans."

"That's how Sunset got here in the first place, right?"

I nod. "Do you want to go through and frolic in a meadow as a quadruped? I'm sure you're due some downtime after this."

"I don't think that's really me…"

"I frolic. I sang musical numbers with magic ponies."

"M-musical numbers?" She doesn't look like she believes me. "Really?"

"Yeah, they just sort of happen there. It's like a Disney film. Bit PG in places…"

"I don't think I need to know-."

"No, I'm not… Boasting. They're just anatomically complete and don't wear any clothes. Their tails usually cover their genitals but they're definitely there."

"So I'd be 'frolicking' naked."

"No, no, you can wear clothes. They just don't usually bother with that themselves."

"What do you look like as a pony?"

"I'm huge and grey. Grey pelt, dark grey mane and tail, grey horn and membranous wings."

She stops, staring at me. "You turn into a flying unicorn pony?"

I wiggle my eyebrows. "And you would, too. And… Not exactly on the 'flying'. Turns out that flying with two additional limbs is actually quite difficult. Luna got a laugh out of it, but I don't want to give the impression that it comes-."

"Did you kill my Dad?"

That… Catches me a little off guard. Lying and covering up would be my usual approach, but we could be stuck here for a very long time, and I think she has a right to know.

"Yes."

She doesn't look surprised. I suppose that Paula would have had to explain the body somehow.

"When?"

"Santa Prisca, the first time."

She frowns, then her eyebrows shoot up. "That was-. Like, your first mission. You still looked human back then."

"Yep."

"You didn't have your Apokoliptian memories back. You thought you were just some.. regular office worker guy, and you killed him."

"Yep. I had a power ring and he had a crossbow. Wasn't exactly hard and he definitely had it coming." I raise my eyebrows. "You going to tell me I'm wrong?"

"No…"

"I was honestly surprised that no one called me on it at the time. Batman at least."

"And the-." Her eyes widen. "You injected yourself with venom buster on purpose! How did-?!"

"Obviously. How did I what?"

She stares at me in astonishment. "How did you get away with that?"

I shake my head, shrugging. "Pass. Ask Batman when you get back."

 

[Mr Zoat]

One Foot in Front
Of the Other

"What about Texas, then?"

I hold my seventh attempt at a coral arrow up and look it over with a critical eye. Straight, smooth, with a somewhat pointy tip. I think it'll do.

"Probably vote for Knight, unless I can talk Jon into going to a gun show. Which isn't very likely."

I pass her the arrow and she takes a moment to get a feel for it.

"I'm not talking about the election. We're pretty sure Luthor was up to something and you're supposed to be keeping tabs on him."

"Yes, he made a big hole in the ground. I went to see it."

Getting the giant space ship may have been the primary objective, but Lex wasn't going to waste his investment for a ship he was giving to someone else.

"The only thing special about it is that it's lined with a simple kryptonian crystal."

"And you didn't think that was worth mentioning?"

"What, that Lex has a bit of a Krypton-fixation? I rather thought you knew." I shrug and then slice a new section off my coral-block with my daiklave. "He wasn't just working on ways to kill Kal-El. He wanted to develop kryptonian technology as well. Dumb programmable crystals-"

Were a gift from Karsta, who's hiring every Tamaranean childminder she can.

"-are just one of the things he learned to make."

And I'm not telling her the truth about that, because I am planning on getting home. Not entirely sure what I'm going to use a few hundred kryptonian marines for yet but I'm sure that something will present itself.

Artemis puts the new arrow on her string and draws it experimentally.

"What does it do?"

I shrug, strands of coral falling to the ground as I slide the block I'm working along the edge of my blade.

"It's strong, absorbs radiation and grows where it's told. That's about it. Nothing clever."

"So it's not a weapon."

"It works as armour but it's not a very effective weapon against things in our weight class."

She smiles. "Oh, I'm in your weight class, am I?"

"If you can shoot holes in space, yes. I don't suppose you can do time, can you?"

"Ahh… No."

She sights and looses her arrow at a nearby coral wall, the arrow becoming thirty arrows in transit with all of them embedding themselves into their target. She nods, satisfied, and strolls over to recover them.

"This should do."

I hold up my complete arrow as she checks them for impact damage and stows them in her quiver.

"So I can just stop?"

She shrugs. "You can keep on going if you want."

I hold up the half-finished arrow before me, shrug and toss-.

No. Ugh. Thanks, brain.

I bring it to my mouth and bite the end off, chewing… Yeah. No. We can't live off-

"What are you doing?"

-this stuff.

"I wondered if we could eat it." I turn my face away from her and awkwardly spit what is basically rock out. "In case you're wondering: we can't."

"Ah, yeah?" She frowns. "How hungry are you?"

"Not rock-eating hungry." I pull my daiklave out of the ground and attach it to my armour. "Can your rainbow bridge arrow thing take us anywhere?"

"Anywhere on Earth… If this place even counts. But I can't go to a place I don't know, and I don't know anywhere-"

"In this time." / "-around here."

I nod. "Right. And… Yes, I can't think of anywhere that would be similar enough five billion years in the future to bypass that. So I guess we're back to plan 'pick a direction and keep walking'."

She nods, and we turn in to direction we were walking before our brief stop and keep walking.

"How come Luthor didn't use that kryptonian crystal stuff for his space ships?"

"Because those ships are designed for agility and stealth. Kryptonian warships were flying bricks."

"Didn't help with the Sheeda."

I smile. "What, you mean those empty hulls we left on the ground so they'd be a nice and obvious target?"

She stares at me. "What?"

"Yeah. The on-site bunkers were made of kryptonian crystal, but… We knew that the Harrowing was coming up and we didn't think we'd have time to finish a big enough fleet to protect the whole planet. So we… Kept a nice obvious target out in the open. Sure, the Sheeda would know that we were working on space ships, but if they thought they knew where all of them where and saw them all being destroyed, they'd stop worrying."

"You wanted them to commit."

"Yep."

"And… Then you get aboard the Castle and assassinate the Queen?"

"No. We get aboard the Castle and disable the time drive so they can't get away. Then the actual fleet flies in from the actual shipyard on the far side of the moon and destroys everything that's left."

"The actual-? No." She shakes her head. "Green Lantern would have spotted it."

I shrug. "Advanced sensor stealth and magic wards. One of the local Greenies might have found it if he looked really hard in exactly the right place, but that wasn't very likely."

"So Lex Luthor's.. got a space fleet."

"Unless we badly miscalculated and he's-. Uh. Well, if we're in the future then he's certainly dead, but since he was on board the Pax Lex it's possible that we miscalculated and he died that day."

"Pax L-? Of course he called it that."

"Actually, I picked it. He finds it embarrassing." I smile. "One of our Chinese employees asked if Lex's family name was 'Pax'."

But it didn't give him a bout of paranoia, which means that his therapy sessions are actually working! He gets to name the next battle cruiser, but I suspect that he intends to be boring and give it a sensible name rather than a pun based on my name. Either that, or do a pun that no one but him will understand.

…

How am I going to tell the difference?

"And that's it? The ships fly in and destroy all of the harvest ships-."

"And the fliers and monsters. Our ships can all operate in an atmosphere, so fire support isn't a problem. Any surviving Highborn might be a problem, but that's what the League's for."

"And they don't need you for that?"

"No, just for nobbling the Queen. I-."

"Hhhkkkkkkk."

My daiklave's out and Artemis's coral arrow is on her string as the horde of zombie children charge out of the murk!

 

[Mr Zoat]

The Shoe
Dropping

I charge, daiklave swinging out in a wide arc and slicing through the front ranks. I Stand!

I'd estimate these children died when they were between eight and twelve. Their hair is either grey or entirely absent, and they're wearing coloured smocks and… Nothing else. Their skin is a very pale grey-turquoise, their sclera black and their pupils a glowing red. None of them have adult height-

A wide and exaggerated swing scythes through the mob as they try to surround me.

-and there doesn't appear to be any particular directing mind; they're just charging a source of heat or movement. Or life. In theory numerous small and weak attackers could overwhelm a larger and stronger opponent, but as I keep-

Smaller swings as I press into the throng, always moving into the space I create.

-pressing forward, I don't think I have to worry about that. They're tougher than humans of their size and shape, but not by enough to slow the movement of my sword through their bodies.

I've passed some, and a good proportion of them turn to follow me. A chunk of the mob to my right suddenly find themselves with arrows in their heads as Artemis demonstrates that whatever limitations the coral arrows have they do well enough against these things.

The mob's thinning out but I can see more of these things heading our way through the gloom. But a more dispersed formation means that scything strikes aren't what I need. I circle around, charging back into the thickest part of the mob and running back over the bisected bodies with my daiklave stretched out to the side, the upper torsos of those I've sliced in twain grasp at my heels and I stamp them into the ground.

One jumps from a nearby outcrop -or falls from it- and I switch to a one-handed grip in order to catch them in my left hand to get a closer look without stopping. Their -its? Her?- hands claw at my gauntlet and when that doesn't work they try using their teeth as well. No effect, but with a energy nullification effect in effect I'm not going to chance it.

"What-?!

Ahead of me Artemis strikes a couple of the zombie children in-. Through the heads with the arms of her bow-

"Are they?!"

-and then fires another coral arrow. This one arrow volley doesn't target the mob but rather the stragglers, each one collapsing and creating a clear break between the mob and the stragglers.

"Working on that!"

I toss my captive lightly into the air, draw the Sword of the Fallen and stab her with it on the way down before resheathing and catching her again.

Interesting. There's no obvious change, which suggests that there's no ongoing spell keeping them animated. Headshots appear to be working, which isn't always the case with magically animated corpses. Certainly it's easiest to bind the control spell to a brain, and Vodun-style living zombies obviously die if you shoot them in the brain, but pure death magic generally creates things that need to be smashed to pieces to end the spell.

"Is there a spell you can shoot out of them?"

Artemis hesitates as I come to a halt just in front of her, bracing myself to charge back in. Then she shakes her head before drawing and loosing again, the seven closest zombie children slumping to the ground as shafts appear in their crania.

"Not that's coming from outside of them."

I take another look at my abductee. Like those I cut in half the wound isn't bleeding, but she's still animate. I suppose that I could try lightly poking her in a non-critical part of her brain but she's pinging on my God-sense as a tool rather than a citizen, so I don't think there's anything here to preserve.

"Mother Box?"

"Pung?"

"Sorry, Artemis, without my rings I'm-"

I step forward, swinging my daiklave at neck height and decapitating two of them.

"-a bit weak on analytics. Any ideas?"

"They're not hard to kill, but there's a whole lot of them. So… Can we get away?"

"I can pick you up and run. I'm pretty fast. But I don't know that we won't end up somewhere worse. I don't know how or why they're coming after us, so while we could just build a shelter I don't know that doing so would make them leave. I don't…"

They appear to have stopped attacking. They're still there, but they aren't heading our way. Experimentally, I toss the one I stabbed back towards the rest. She hits a couple of the others and they tumble to the ground, then rise and…

Huh.

I take a few steps closer to get a better look through the gloom.

"Srkh."

"Khrrp."

They're… Eating the fallen. That's… Interesting. Groups of the zombie children still standing-. Still functioning are kneeling around the severed lower parts of the ones I sliced in two and are biting them. Or to be more precise, grabbing on with both hands and nibbling, small pieces coming free in their mouths which they then.. swallow. They don't fight one another while they do it, don't try and force one another off or attack anything animate. Once the part they're gnawing on is eaten to the full extent of their ability to consume then their grip shifts and they go back to it.

"They're feeding on their fallen."

The heads I cut off are opening and closing their mouths, no vocal cords left for enunciation. The upper torsos are a little sluggish, but they're trying to get to the severed parts in order to feed as well. The ones which have managed it are… Eating, and… Slowly regrowing.

"That's… Disgusting."

Actually, I find it fascinating. Cannibal zombies. That eliminates a slew of possibilities; one way of creating zombies involves evoking death's malevolence and zombies created that way only attack the living. This suggests.. some sort of biological machine?

"It's efficient. There will always be some loss, but without blood pumping and spilling it will be minimised."

No extraneous movement. No looking around. That's not something animals do. Predator or scavenger, they'd be checking their environment and competing for the best-

There are a series of quiet crunches as some of them get a good angle on some bones and ingest them the same way as they did the flesh.

-parts. Even the damaged ones aren't distressed, they're just eating.

"We should get outta here while they're busy."

Artemis takes a step away, then hesitates when I don't immediately follow.

"You said yourself that you can't analyse them. They can't tell us anything."

I nod and follow after her, repeatedly turning my head back towards them as we leave. Until the murk fully obscures them and I can't see them any longer.

"That was interesting."

"That was creepy. Be nice if everything else here is that weak. But what's the chance of that."

"Low." I shrug as we pick up the pace. "But you never know."

 

[Mr Zoat]

The Other Shoe
Dropping

Artemis and I stare into the distance at the dimly visible lights shining in the air.

She huffs, slowly.

"Well obviously they're not gunna be friendly. But it's not like we've got anywhere else to go."

"I'm curious as to how unfriendly they'll be. And the form that unfriendliness will take."

"Guess it's not Captain Cold who's keeping the planet cool." Side by side we walk slowly towards the almost certainly artificial illumination. "Whatever it was you did to kill Vandal Savage. Think it stuck?"

Huh. It's an interesting question. When I last saw it the Vandal Savage construct was in a storage vault in Challenger Mountain working on the fifth volume of his autobiography. But constructs don't age. And if I wasn't around… He'd just have stayed there until… What? Whatever it was that drained my rings started up and he faded away? I don't think there's any way to turn a construct back into a person… Have to experiment with the Sword some time.

"It… Should."

"Who else is there that could have lived this long?"

"Aside from us?"

"Five billion years."

"In theory." I nod sombrely. "Yes. It's not likely and I don't know of any New Gods who've lived anything like that long, but in theory? Yes."

"Whaw. Ah. I know you said… Ah, we'd get to thirty and just kinda stop… Ageing… I guess I hadn't really thought about it in terms of… This long."

"Can't really help you, I'm afraid. I mean, some humans hit a hundred and there are a few… Vampires who are over a thousand, but older than that…"

"Other than Savage, who is there?"

"The Guardians and Controllers are a few billion years old." I glance up at the shrouded sky. "A few billion more by now, if they're still around. Richard Swift was only a few hundred but he's ageless, so he could still be around. Any New Gods, including our colleagues." I snort-splutter with amusement.

"What?"

"If that's the home of Green Arrow and he's keeping the planet cool with heat transfer arrows, I might have a bit of a breakdown."

And… Just like that the humour vanishes.

"Has… Dinah said anything about undergoing the process herself?"

"Ah, don't want to ruin your ego here, but we don't really talk about you all that much?"

"Sure you don't."

"We don't."

"I'm an internationally renowned superhero who spends large amounts of his free time with Lex Luthor and who made significant modifications to the bodies of you and several other League members and affiliates. My brother and sister-in-law are League members and I know roughly how often Security Council members have asked when I'm getting an invite to the Justice League."

"Hey, Lex Luthor's got a space fleet! Maybe the League should invite him!"

That… Would be a stunning way to outmanoeuvre us, actually. Lex's fleet.. would become associated with the Justice League… They'd gain the firepower and… He'd be tied to their rules of engagement… He'd.. have to turn it down, but that looks like epic sour grapes given how he's made an effort to bury the hatchet with Kal-El. He could claim that he didn't have the time, but between LexCorp and running the fleet that would obviously be nonsense.

"… What?"

"No, inviting Lex is a terrible idea."

"Well, yeah, obviously. But how would you be any better?"

"I didn't leave the team permanently because I had a burning desire to join the Justice League. I just said I know how many people responsible for the League's official status have asked about it."

"So? The only people who decide who joins the Justice League are the members of the Justice League."

"And not the people who pay for the Justice League. And provide it with the authority to operate legally in their territory and most of its intelligence reports." I give her a lopsided smile. "Be interesting to see how sustainable that proves when there are more world-class superheroes not part of the League."

She looks away. "We have to get back to the present first."

"Or find a really good historical archive."

"That's got data from five billion years ago."

"Really good." I look further ahead and upwards. The variation in intensities, the regular placement… I'd be astonished if that was a natural structure. And the straight edges say 'building' rather than, say, 'giant future cockroach warren.' "That is a tower, right?"

"Looks like it to me."

I try looking around, but it.. looks like the clouds are denser in the air around the… City? Town? Pretty vertiginous place, and I… Can't really tell how wide it is.

"Hey. How far in the future do the Sheeda come from?"

"Sivana wasn't sure. William Batson kind of blew up his suspendium before he could check how the damage affected the machine. He wasn't sure where he ended up, and he used one of their time machines to come back because they already had our temporal coordinates."

"So… That's a city full of Sheeda."

"That would make a certain amount of narrative sense, but not necessarily."

"So, what's the plan? Sneak in, try and get hold of one of their time machines and go back the same way Sivana did?"

"Time travel being what it is, Sivana might be here now. And… Okay, you know how I'm the God of Conquest..?"

"What, you want to conquer the Sheeda? Just… You and me?"

"If the Harrowing fleet isn't here, it could well be doable. They need to harvest the past for resources, because-." Artemis raises her right arm and the rusted powder that used to be part of her computer rains from her forearm. "That, yeah. But because it needs to work-."

"They put all their troops into doing it." She nods. "Because if it goes wrong, then their entire civilisation dies."

"That's what I'm guessing." Wish I'd gotten Sivana to show me a map, now. Coming here wasn't ever part of the plan. Wish I'd asked him how their civilisation actually worked. "Which means -piling assumption on assumption- that if the fleet is currently away and the last Harrowing was some time ago as the locals measure things, they're at their lowest ebb."

"There's still just two of us."

We each spend a few moments looking at each other.

"I'm a Goddess of Archery."

"And your rainbow arrows are a decent stand-in for boom tubes. And I won't have a ranged weapon until I take one from someone."

"Why don't we just go back as soon as possible?"

"Because we're ageless. Once we get a time machine we can go back to a few moments after we left. But… If we leave this in our future and don't try to learn from it… This is what becomes of Earth. One hundred percent guaranteed." I shrug. "Is this what you want the future to look like?"

"I… We need more information."

I nod. "Then let's go get some."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Shoe
Shopping

Hm.

The wall around the city outskirts isn't all that impressive, but I can just about make out the shape of humanoids patrolling the wall-walk behind the battlements. They could be Sheeda or zombies; at this distance I can't really tell. From the outlines it looks like their weapons are bows and spears, but that doesn't mean that there aren't more sophisticated ranged weapons up there as well.

We could blitz it, but smashing through it or jumping over it would attract attention. Unless we killed everyone, but that would draw even more attention just a little later. From behind a coral outcrop Artemis and I watch what looks like a minor gate into the city, just in case there are travellers we could bushwhack or a clue we could gather about the structure of this civilisation. Are there other cities? Do they trade with one another? Are there other peoples around such that we could claim to be from elsewhere on this world?

At the moment the universe is not obliging us.

"I could bridge up onto those walls."

"With a bright, rainbow-coloured bridge." I nod my head to the side. "They might appreciate the lightshow so much that they agree not to report us, but I don't want to count on it."

"Can your Mother Box make hush tubes?"

"No." Hm. "I could throw you over. If I got enough height the watchers on the walls wouldn't see you-."

"I could throw you."

I turn my head her way and raise my left eyebrow.

"Could you?"

"Maybe you wouldn't go all the way over…"

I shake my head. "Let's make our way around-."

The gate opens from within. A couple of the people on the top of the wall look down over the inner edge, then go back to their patrol. Artemis and I lean into our cover as… A figure shrouded in robes walks out. They have a… Pole arm? No, a staff, with a ghostly glowing symbol floating just above the uppermost end. Doesn't look like any glyph I recognise. The entryway opens a little wider and… More of the zombie children follow the figure, marching in neat ranks just behind them.

"What are they?"

"Don't… Know."

Four columns of six, neatly marching and staring ahead of them. Not glancing left or right. Tame? Or-. No, the symbol, almost certainly. Control authorisation for a larger spell, whatever's animating them.

The zombherd turns away to our right, but is definitely heading away from the walls. It won't be particularly difficult for us to arrange an ambush…

"I don't suppose that you brought a New God communicator."

"No. You?"

I shake my head. Could use God-speech, but I don't know how good Artemis is with it and there are ways to detect it that don't require the detector to be a New God.

"You sneak better than me."

She nods. "I'll take the lead. You follow."

I nod and she moves laterally relative to the wall, her movements mirroring those of the zombherd while maintaining distance. A True, True Friend-.

I put my right hand over my mouth as I nearly start singing. Confound These Ponies.

I follow Artemis slowly, using the vague 'ping' from my God-senses rather than sight. Can't see much in the murk, though I imagine that the zombherd's staff makes tracking them easier for Artemis. And makes a mess of her night vision, but she's been trained in this since early childhood. Instead of paying too much attention to her, I turn my eyes in the direction of the city, both the walls and higher up where I've seen the shadows of flying creatures pass between me and the lights. If they're Sheeda soldiers mounted on flies they are actually a threat worth paying attention to, lightly equipped as we are. Nothing heading our way just yet, as far as I can see…

I give her… I've never been good at estimating time. Or weight, actually. But she's gotten a decent distance away from me and I assume that the zombherd is further. Carefully making sure to keep myself as concealed from the city as I can I walk carefully down the opposite side of the slope and walk slowly through the murk in her direction. Interesting that between the coral and the… Stuff which appears to grow on its surface there's basically no loose material. Also… Not much wind. That implies… Some sort of windbreak? There would always be patches of ground that would be hotter than others, so differences in air pressure and so air movement. Could the..? Energy draining effect be taking energy from the air? But I'm breathing just fine, so…

I don't know.

Another 'ping' from Artemis as she moves further away, faster than I'm moving as I follow her. I suppose we could send messages like this. Have one party move closer or further in patterns like Morse code. Which she almost certainly knows but which I don't.

I'm a twentieth century man fighting with a huge sword. I shouldn't be surprised about out-of-date skills suddenly becoming relevant again.

A faint.. tremor shakes the ground and has me looking about me for a source. I don't see anything of note and Artemis doesn't appear to be running, so… I don't know. An earthquake wouldn't be a surprise. The Earth's interior should still be at least somewhat dynamic in the future, and while I haven't seen anything man-made that would have made such an impact it could have been an impact from a catapult or.. something along those lines.

Another tremor, this one carrying on for a little while. Okay, my nightmare scenario is a giant charging out of the mists but this shaking doesn't feel right for giant footsteps. I accelerate from a slow walk to a slow stride, still keeping up my awareness of my surroundings while also feeling as strongly as I can for Artemis.

The land begins to descend somewhat, and the surface is… Uneven. Like cracks formed and have partially… Scabbed over. The size of my feet means that I don't have to worry about turning my ankles, but it's the first interesting geological feature I've seen since getting here. Perhaps earthquakes… Are common in this area? Not like we've been here for long enough to know.

I come to the edge of a-.

Oh my.

I'm standing on the edge of a crater. Off to my right I can see Artemis sneaking down into the basin, presumably to get closer to the zombherd. In the centre of the basin, surrounded by piles of displaced rock and earth is a giant… Millipede? Worm? Spider? It's long, thin, and has legs in all directions, though the 'thin' is relative. Its multi-jawed mouth is as least as tall as I am, and I can get a sense of scale because the zombherd is standing just in front of it with… Her staff raised and a different sigil glowing from the head. The creature's eyes are transfixed, and it completely ignores the zombie children as they gnaw at its sides. Is this a… Hunting party? Lure the thing to the surface and then hypnotise it while the children feed? But how are they controlling the children? Are they just locked on to a food source now that they've started eating?

The zombherd steps back and the creature follows, more of its vast body pulling itself out of the ground. That must be the source of the tremors, though obviously if one such creature exists there may well be others. Other than the staff there's no source of light down there so with the zombherd, creature and children all focusing on things Artemis is making good time. In fact, she's-.

She slips in behind the zombherd, presses a coral arrow to their throat and says.. something. The zombherd twitches but the sigil doesn't move. There's no change I can see for a moment, then Artemis pulls the zombherd's hood back and…

Female Sheeda. At least now we know roughly when we are.

Artemis looks around and then makes a beckoning gesture towards me. I nod, draw my daiklave, and with a wary eye on the beast begin my approach.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Shoe
Stopping

Artemis looks around at the vats as the zombie children line up to vomit into them.

"What..? Is this?"

Buddug the Zombherd looks at her in clear puzzlement. Interrogating the Sheeda who were part of the Harrowing fleet was an exercise in futility, but I suppose that it makes sense that those were the most fanatical soldiers. Buddug is a civilian with a civilian's understanding of the commonly used magics of her civilisation, and she's… Not a completely open book: Sheeda facial structures aren't quite the same as humans and they express emotion a little differently. But she is far more open to telling us what she knows.

"These are the city's digestion vats, where the living tissue harvested from the Deep Crawlers enters circulation."

I touch the side of the closest vat, running my right forefinger along a seam-. That's a pulse.

"The.. vats are alive?"

That… Might have puzzled her.

"But of course. How else would it be?"

I make momentary eye contact with Artemis, who is watching our environment carefully for any guards who might make an unscheduled appearance. Buddug claimed that this entrance to the city isn't guarded but we're not taking that on faith.

"Machinery? Mechanical devices that are not alive?"

Though to be fair, this… Does look like a factory. With just a touch of H.R. Giger. The structure is more of the coral stuff while the interior decoration, pipes and cables are somewhere between plastic and skin. And I can see veins supplying them with blood and bones holding them in place. None of the deep-Giger walls made of baby faces or zombie Mickey Mice stuff, but there's a definite feeling that we're inside a living organism. Or that the dividing line between living and non-living isn't anything like where we're used to it being.

Buddug looks mildly concerned.

"I don't understand."

Artemis takes a look over the rim of the vat-creature and then pulls her head back almost immediately, a look of distaste plain on her face.

"How long have these been here for?"

"Far longer than I have been alive, my lady. I cannot imagine how we could handle our harvest without them."

"Ah, why did you just call me 'my lady'?"

"Your power, your appearance. You are Highborn, are you not?"

Artemis frowns. "What does that mean?"

"Sheeda ruling caste. Strong, tough, mystically powerful." The zombie children have more or less finished and have fallen back into ranks. "You probably saw a few without realising it. Perfectly killable at our level of power, but definitely mid-tier superpeople."

Buddug looks confused. "You are.. not Highborn?"

Artemis shakes her head. "We're the people your people are trying to harvest."

Buddug's hand tightens around her stave. "But how did you come here?"

Hm. On the one hand, operational security. On the other hand, if we're worried about that we'll have to kill her anyway, so there's no harm in telling her.

"Sivana destroyed the Castle Revolving and we had to jump into the time pool to escape. We fell out here, more or less. Oh, we ran into some wild zombie-children, are you responsible for them?"

"I'm-. That's-. No, the Castle, the Queen-."

I lean in, looming over her and gaining her silence immediately.

"Destroyed and dead, respectively. So what happens now, now that the bounty of a Harrowing will not be forthcoming?"

"The Age of Autumn will return." Her eyes are vacant and her hands are trembling. "There will be no new… Fuel. For us, for our civilisation."

Artemis frowns. "What's with all the clouds, anyway?"

The look on Buddug's face indicates that she doesn't really understand that question, either.

"The clouds. In the sky. Why are they always there?"

"Where else would they be?"

"On the ground as liquid? Do you not.. have liquid water?"

"A-are you thirsty?" Still shaking slightly, Buddug makes her way over to a recessed area and pulls out… A still-beating heart? No, no, a… sachet? A beating sachet with a small scab where it just disconnected from whatever filtration system it was connected to, but still a sachet.

"What..? Is that?"

"Water? You.. drink it?"

I roll my eyes at Artemis and reach out with my right hand. "Give it here."

Buddug gives it to me, and… Ah, I see. There's a small protruding bone which acts as a ring pull… And the top of the sachet opens, the vessel's arteries and cartilaginous rings causing it to 'collapse' into a cup shape. I sniff it, and there's something… Off about it. But only slightly off. The light in here is too bad to see it clearly, but I doubt that they keep a poison strong enough to affect a New God just lying around. I take a cautious sip, and there's a surprisingly… Bloody taste, but it's mostly water.

"I think it's safe." I hold the cup out to her. "Want some?"

Artemis shrugs her left shoulder and takes it, sniffing it and then pulling a face.

"What's in this? No, don't-. Water. Why is there stuff in it?"

"The Vampire Sun would consume it without that. I have only seen pure water twice in my entire life."

"The sun eats it." Artemis looks at me. "Did you know about that?"

"Sivana mentioned something about the sun sucking the life out of things. I didn't realise that applied to water. Other than.. evaporation. But to return to our original question, Miss Buddug, what happens to your civilisation if it can't replenish itself through theft? And who might be inclined to do something about that?"

"We will.. starve, slowly. Through harvesting the bounty in the ground-" She glances at the neat ranks of zombie children. "-we will survive for a time, but we will weaken. Decay. Any of us would do anything we can to prevent that."

"In the absence of Queen Gloriana Tenebrae and King Melmoth, who would organise that sort of effort?"

"The Highborn. Lord Caeryg is the ruler of this city."

"Grayven?"

"We want to defend our own civilisation, but… Do we need to destroy the Sheeda to do that? Without the Castle Revolving they can't resupply from our era."

She nods. "So we find out how this happened and try and fix it."

"Or build them a planar portal and let them move somewhere a little sunnier." I turn back to Buddug. "Can you get us to his keep? Or wherever it is he lives?"

"No, I'm just a gatherer. He is Highborn."

"But you know where it is." She nods. "Can you get us to somewhere with a line of sight to it?" She nods again, and I smile. "Then we have the outlines of a plan."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Flue
Stopping

"They're late, aren't they?"

The one-legged Sheeda Highborn Lord Caeryg turns as fast as he can, but between his injury and the surprise that's nothing like fast enough to stop me stabbing him. Fortunately for him, that isn't my intention. But he sees my sword and Artemis's bow. And probably Buddug the Zombherd's stave, though I imagine that he discounts it.

"And with time travel, that shouldn't be possible. Unless…"

He grimaces, and I can feel him drawing magic into himself. "The Queen will return when she returns, Child of Spring."

I smile, eyebrows raised. "Apokolips as spring. There's a simile I haven't heard before."

I-.

No. That's that… Needless confrontation thing again.

I sigh.

"Okay, so there are two ways this can go. One, we mock each other for a little while until you've gathered enough magic power to fight us or call your guards, then we fight and the winner takes all. I'm not sure that the two of us can fight your entire civilisation, but I do know that we can kill you. The other way is that we come to terms which let us cooperate at least until the Queen returns, and while that does risk you getting in trouble with her, it also gives you an out just in case she doesn't."

"What do you mean?"

"You harvest the past. But if you can't, your civilisation breaks down due to whatever… Weirdness is going on. My God-Name drives me to dominate, but it also drives me to shepherd civilisation. I don't much like you or your people, but this…" I gesture out over the balcony towards the fog-shrouded city. "Is my future as well. I have an investment in fixing it."

"You escaped the Harrowing."

"We were both there when Sivana killed the Queen." His face remains still. "Sivana? Short, bald human? Spent some time here? The Queen sent a Huntsman to kill him?"

There's… Something in his eyes that suggests that he knows who I'm talking about.

"I know of him."

"I don't know exactly what happened with the Harrowing fleet, but the Castle Revolving was toast. Which means that the rest can't return. So unless another time traveller pays you a visit, we're the only help you're going to get."

He regards us both for a moment, clearly not enthusiastic.

"I could..? Probably build you a new leg?"

"My leg was taken as punishment for being slow in bowing to the Queen. Any Highborn could do something as simple as replacing a missing limb. And if the Queen is not returning and I am consorting with her enemies, I would do so."

Artemis tightens the string on her bow slightly. "You gunna help or not?"

He narrows his eyes slightly. "What would you require?"

"Access to your archival records. Everything you're got on how Earth became-" I nod at the city. "-this. We'll also need to know how your civilisation works now. We know about the Harrowing, but aside from that it's all a blank."

Artemis nods. "Everything we had which wasn't New God tech fell apart. What's doing that?"

"Our bane. Our… God. The Vampire Sun. All that does not live, dies."

"What about your clothes?"

Lord Caeryg's eyes finally alight on Buddug, and she pulls at the neck of her robe… Showing the proboscis plugged into her neck artery. Huh.

Artemis keeps staring even after Buddug releases it and the needle slides back inside of her.

"Everything's alive? What about the walls?"

"The material is barely alive, but it lives. In a manner of speaking. The same stone that is the upper layers of our world." He contemplates the matter. "You wish to see our archives?"

I nod. "It seems the most expedient way to learn. Once we have a better idea of what is going on, we can talk more about the next step." I smile. "And if the Queen returns from another era or somehow survived, you can always claim that you were detaining us to be destroyed at her pleasure."

"And after you have seen our archives, what then?"

"Locate problem, study problem, fix problem." I shrug. "Or wait for the world to die around us, one or the other."

"In Melmoth's era this 'problem' was studied in exhausting detail."

I smile. "Then we'd better start there. Lead the way!"

"Perhaps I will. Perhaps you will be our salvation. Or perhaps you will be meat, or a gift for the Queen." He smiles. "Or perhaps the knowledge will break your minds and I will gain some amusement from it. I see little harm in indulging you like this."

Something occurs to him.

"Have you eaten, since you arrived here?"

Artemis raises her eyebrows at me for a moment. I look away, and she shakes her head.

"No. Didn't look like there was much to eat around."

"And you say that you are… New Gods?" I nod, cautiously. "We have entertained New Gods as guests before. I will have something sent down to you presently."

The magic he gathered… Fades somewhat, glyphs forming on his right index and middle fingers and then floating over to Artemis and me.

"These will allow you access to our archives without my personal presence. As.. I recall, our previous New God visitors had no facility for the form of magic which we use."

"Thank you." I lift Mother Box off my belt and tap it against the sigil, and it is swiftly absorbed into her structure. Artemis taps the one offered to her with her right hand and it fades into her skin.

"And… You." He looks directly at Buddug, who wilts slightly at the attention. He then crafts another sigil and sends it to her, where it burns itself into her forehead. "You will serve as their equerry."

Buddug winces, but tries to control her reaction. Guess it's more painful for Sheeda? "Y-yes, my lord."

"I will summon a servant to show you the way."

He.. waits-?

I smile and nod. "By all means."

He taps the butt of his spear against he floor, and I feel the pulse of magic move through the apparently living structure.

"Hey." Artemis frowns. "What did you mean 'previous' New Gods?"

He smiles warmly. Oh dear. "Their visit was the foundation of our society. We learned a great deal from them on many subjects."

"Does that include biotech?"

"No, our records say that was our own distant forebears. But… Our archivists can explain it better than I. Would you like to examine the artefacts of the other New Gods as well?"

Artemis looks at me, and I nod.

"Can't hurt."

"I suspect that you are mistaken… But... Very well."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Full
Stop

The skeletal-thin chief archivist of the city of Caernouid bows apologetically.

"I am sorry, my lord. Preserving the media in its original format proved quite impossible under the light of-."

"The vampire sun." / "-the Vampire Sun."

I nod. No computers from humanity's prime. Nothing written on paper or parchment or vellum. No… Artefacts of whoever came before the Sheeda.

"So how do you maintain records?"

"Task-adapted biological computers and ultra-dense chitin are the two main methods. We feed the chitin into specialised digestion receptacles for it to be read. It is not a quick process, and the summaries are often.. long out of date. If you tell me what you're looking for I can dispatch our retrieval specialists."

"I'd like to know about the first generation of Sheeda. Was… Your current form the result of gradual change, or engineered specifically for… Some reason."

The cadaver-lookalike nods. "Those are not our oldest records, but it is the earliest period that is well recorded. Do you wish to review the recreations of the source material, or are later analyses acceptable?"

Uuh. This is going to be a long haul. We're going to be looking for sources for our sources, all the while knowing that the Sheeda have had more than enough time to falsify anything they want.

Ping.

Sure you're up to it?

Ping.

"How about-?"

"What about the Justice League?"

I raise my eyebrows at Artemis's enquiry.

"What?" She shrugs. "You're the one who said that kryptonians live thousands of years if they get enough sunlight. There's gotta be some kind of record of Superman."

I shake my head. "I knew a time traveller. Superman dies in the next couple of decades from-"

Her eyes widen. "What?"

"-our point of view. Oh, yeah. Why do you think I've been pushing the Earth Defence Force through so hard? Earth gets conquered and the Justice League killed… Well, in the original timeline it did. I doubt that will happen now."

"So…" She frowns. "Are we dealing with original history or your fixed history?"

I make a show of slowly shrugging.

"Okay, but was that just it? Humans got wiped out?"

"No, humans were taken as… Janissaries? By the people who conquered Earth, and the population of Earth wasn't completely wiped out. Just… Reduced a lot. My contact didn't make any mention of the Justice League… A Justice League reforming at any point-."

"Forgive.. my interruption." The archivist looks genuinely interested, a strangely open expression which looks odd on a Sheeda's face. "But what was the Justice League?"

I get a half-second glare from Artemis, which causes me to close my mouth and give her the metaphorical floor.

"The Justice League is-. Was a group of heroes who-."

I mime biting my lip.

"Who fought for freedom-"

I mime biting my lip really hard.

"-and justice against criminals and evil people."

"They were guards?"

"No, they… Didn't work for a government. They just did what they thought was right."

No, no, he's got no framework for understanding the concept of 'superhero'. How to put this..?

"Imagine a group of Highborn who -rather than serving the Queen directly or ruling cities in her name- used their abilities to enforce a code of moral behaviour, primarily on other Highborn but occasionally on regular citizens."

"Warriors."

"They have a wide variety of skills, but primarily:-" I nod. "-yes."

"I don't remember any group called the 'Justice League', but I… Seem to recall mention of a Justice Legion. Are they related?"

I very dimly remember something about them from Earth Prime comics. Reading the summaries didn't make the concept sound very appealing; clones of heroes from an earlier era with a few cosmetic changes. Ridiculous, really: put a picture of the Justice Society next to one of the Justice League and even the people with the same name don't look the same. And that's just two generations.

"Ah..?"

Artemis looks at me like she expects me to know. Which I'd normally like, because if she decided to go Richard-the-Justice-League-Puritan on me this would rapidly become very tiresome.

"Perhaps you could call up a file and we could see if there are any familiar faces?"

"I'm afraid that we don't have good records from that period, but…" He walks over to an organic-looking console and presses several buttons. Symbols I don't recognise appear on a… Holographic? No, an illusion-based display. "Relating to your query regarding the origin of Sheeda-kind. Our best information suggests that we were deliberately created. The city with our largest flesh vats is still on that site where the first of Sheeda-kind were created. And the Justice Legion…"

A severely degraded illusion of a human torso appears. I… Think it's a dark-skinned baseline human man, but I've got no guarantee that my concepts of any of those things mean anything to future-humanity.

"…art, I… … …halos fall…"

The quality is not good, but a damaged record that has been translated through several formats for… A very long period of time isn't going to be high quality.

"…site… …extract… …rom the Justice Legion's last st… …it here, but everywh… …understand what's killing us."

The archivist presses another button, and the playback stops.

"If you have any insight, I would be fascinated to hear it."

"A 'halo' could be a sign of an angel's divinity, or it could refer to an orbital ring. My.. future contact said that those became rather common forms of habitation for humans."

Not unusual. There are a lot more systems with valuable materials in them than there are habitable planets. At a certain level of technology building habitats makes economic sense.

"That sounded like 'from the Justice Legion's last stand', indicating that they tried to fight something and were wiped out in the attempt, and that someone went there later to pick something up."

Artemis nods. "And they were going to study it here. Does it say what they were fighting?"

"There are references to a great destructive force. It isn't clear whether they're referring to a singular being or group or… Perhaps even a natural event."

I nod. "Yeah, we're going to need all of those. And anything that mentions the Legion and wherever Sheeda came from."

The archivist smiles. "How long do your people live?"

"Indefinitely."

The archivist nods. "'Indefinitely' might be enough. I will gather a party, and my successor's successor will relay the last of the materials you requested to you. I wish you the best of fortune, my lord, my lady."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Late Summer, IC 687

Not the fastest a new Lantern has grasped a power ring's basic functions, but far from the slowest. His actual speed in the air leaves a little to be desired, but he's understandably of two minds about this whole endeavour.

At least he's not filled with fear any longer.

"And.. that is how a man's desires affect his nature?"

"No."

"Then-. I don't understand. Why have you explained this 'Hierarchy' to me if it isn't true?"

"In the Imperial Library, how do they order the books and scrolls? Is it by the name of the author? The date? Or is it by the subject?

"For the most part, by their subject. So I should organise my desires in the same way? To… Make them more comprehensible?"

"Just so. 'Architecture' has no objective reality. Take the universe, grind it down to the finest powder and run it through the finest sieve, and you will find not a single atom of architecture. Architecture is a label we apply to a group of concepts as a shorthand. Likewise, how we classify sets of desires is irrelevant. That we do is relevant. If you have a better system, use that instead."

"No, I.. don't."

"Studying your own desires is the first step to mastering the orange light. This is how I will begin your instruction."

He glances in the direction of Alnus Hill.

"Do I have time to reflect on them adequately?"

"Throw some at me, so that I know what I'm working with."

"What's the second step?"

"Identifying and resolving contradictions. But please, Prince Diabo El Caesar, focus on the task I set you. If you die, I will have to find another, and that will be inconvenient."

"My brother?"

"I will never be that desperate. His pet rabbit on the other hand is desperate enough to obey me and heed my words. Rebuilding the Empire from ash after she has taken her revenge will be time consuming, but time is a resource I have in abundance."

We dip in the air as he loses his focus.

"Interesting. That made you genuinely afraid. You understand that for that to happen you would be dead, and thus entirely beyond her-"

There's a flicker of light from a forest I can see in the distance. Alnus itself seems relatively quiet at the moment. Infiltrators? Commandos?

"-wrath."

"I just-. Imagined what would happen if you'd chosen her instead of me."

"I doubt that she would specifically target you. Your brother and your father, yes, but if you ran fast enough then you would probably survive. But that isn't-"

There's another flicker. Hm.

"-relevant. Stop for a moment."

Stopping, he manages easily.

"That flash of light in the forest over there. Identify it."

"A forest fire?"

"That isn't what I meant. Use this ring. Want to see it, want to know, and you will. Want it because it could be a threat, or because it could be an opportunity to advance yourself. Want it because you care about the people in this region or because you want them to care about you. But unleash your want, in whatever way you see fit."

He raises his left hand, and I.. feel it, as he wants the knowledge so that he can better understand his position. That work-.

And he feels fear and we're heading for the ground again.

"Do you want to break your legs? Because while this ring can heal your injuries, I assumed that we'd have longer before you needed that lesson."

He recovers almost instantly, his desire to keep his own hide intact having the expected effect. It was either this or strengthening his environmental shield enough to take the landing. Now, what did he see?

"It's a dragon."

"Okay."

"A giant, ancient dragon. It's burning its way through a forest village."

"Good show. Let's go and kill it."

"It's a dragon!"

"When I'd been a Lantern for a year and a half, I fought and killed an ancient, sentient, magic-using dragon who also had a ring like this one. Can I assume that the creature you are looking at is simply a large and strong reptile?"

"Very large and very strong."

"The orange light is stronger. As long as you want to be unharmed, you will be proof against fire and claw."

"And how exactly am I proof against fire and claw?"

"Imagine armour. Full plate. Imagine that the dragon is attacking you, striking you, breathing fire over you and doing its level best to kill you. Imagine that the armour is the only thing keeping you alive in the face of its assault. Hold in your mind your desire for it to stay there."

"And.. it will?"

"It will. That is the power of the orange light. Likewise, it can generate any weapon you want, and the weapon will be as strong as your desire for it to be strong."

"And you want me to fight that dragon?"

"Can you imagine arriving at the gathering of armies with a dead dragon's head in your hands? The looks on their faces? The reverence in their hearts?"

"I…"

"I know that you don't trust me. That is fine at this stage in our relationship. But please at least accept that this is far more effort than I would need to put in if I simply wanted you dead."

"I-."

"And that I have no desire to see the inside of a dragon's digestive system firsthand."

"You guarantee that I will be proof against its attacks?"

"The strength of your defences is proportionate to the strength of your desires. Try it now."

"I've been wearing armour under my clothes for years. Armour is something I know that I want."

And appear armour does, construct full plate such as a medieval knight might wear. Not something that existed in Rome where they were limited to light horse, but the Saderan Empire isn't exactly Rome. The construct isn't super strong by any means. I wouldn't want him to try fighting an apostle like this. But it'll do for a dragon.

But what about offence? He's been hiding himself in the courts for years, not drawing attention to himself for fear that he'd be executed like his eldest brother. Weapons don't come naturally to him. So, perhaps something a little different?

"Have you ever ridden a dragon?"