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

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:04 GMT

And he's there, sword slicing into-. Through my overshield without apparent effort. I sidestep, voiding his follow-up as I raise-. He's back in his original location.

"Weak, alien."

"Nice sword. Apokoliptian?"

And he's angry. Very angry. I really would like to know what actually happened on Karrakan, but I think this is a three-edged sword situation. I can't see either side giving me a reliable answer, and I can hardly-.

I yank myself to the side as he appears again, sword cutting through my construct armour and cutting a slice in my power armour. I send a filament at him as he hesitates for a split second, not sure whether to swing again or retreat. It splashes against some sort of protective barrier around him, and that appears to make his decision for him as he vanishes back to his starting location.

Angry, but making good judgements. That's-. That's me being compelled to intellectualise and not actually act.

No reason not to combine the two impulses. Whatever shielded him from the filament appears to do the same to my empathic vision, but that doesn't mean I can't just sever-. Okay, apparently it does.

X-ionised knives, then.

"Pathetic. Could they find none better?"

Ring, it's been a while, but Ready In-.

Alert.

I turn, knife blades moving as my assailant appears to my right, sword stabbing into my thick rerebrace rather than going into my face. My knives stab at his armour while I try draining the sword in the same way I did the ship's shield.

He tries pulling the sword free, and it doesn't come. My knives fail to pierce his cuirass, while he raises his off hand to block the one that I sent at his exposed face.

I step away shoulder armour glowing as I suck whatever magic is making his sword work out of it. He tries to pull it free but it's stuck; the heavy outer plates of my armour clamping down on the flat sides of the blade.

And then I punch him with my left fist, crumbler gauntlet smashing into the protective shield his armour generates, flares of magic and plasma flickering out as I increase the output. With a frustrated snarl he releases the sword, backing off a pace.

"Thank you."

I form a construct-.

The sword vibrates, the plates gripping it abrading and losing their grip as-.

As I form a construct positron ray and shoot the owner in the chest!

"Ah!"

The positrons don't hit the armour, but the energy released by them reacting with the air immediately next to his protective aura is enough to send him hurtling backwards. Doesn't look like his armour has any sort of inertial dampening system, but he's toughing it out and getting back to his feet.

The sword stops vibrating, and I extend a strand of orange light up to the handle and pull it free before knitting my armour back together.

"Thank you. I'll keep-."

The accompanying squad aim and fire, blaster-. No, plasma, striking my construct armour. But these weapons are far more conventional, far closer to the levels of energy output that I designed my power armour to take. So while my weakened construct armour fades and the armour starts taking hits, I'm not really worried.

At least not for the fraction of a second it takes to turn my own gun on them. The first load of positrons hits my initial target and erases him, the explosion burning the deck, walls, ceiling and sending his comrades flying! There was a force field there, but-

"Damn you!"

-it wasn't anything like strong enough. Or perhaps it wasn't designed to cope with positrons? That's not uncommon.

Their leader draws a small knife-. Then uses it to cut his exposed face, coating the blade in blood before-.

I shoot him again, but he's touched his knife to his chest plate and his body is swelling, veins of red light appearing all over its matt black surface.

"Thank you, alien, for giving me the chance to prove my faith!"

"Is there any chance we could talk ab-?"

He lunges, and while the travel time isn't nothing, it's quicker than his-

And he's punched me back outside of the ship.

-other movement. He grabs my armour, one hand on my right shoulder and the other on my left arm and both pulling in opposite directions! I can hear my armour creak as he keeps growing and the force he exerts keeps increasing! I send x-ionised knives at his face once more, and while they bite into his flesh I can actually feel the resistance as his innate magics try and nullify the thing that's harming him.

My left arm is at full extension and he's trying to tear it free.

Tether his discarded sword, connect it to my tattoos and feed it and stab!

It slices through his cuirass, punching into his gut! He twitches and grimaces before snarling.

"You first!"

I try slicing further in, but this sword isn't really meant for sawing. My shoulder is approaching maximum strain; it's just not optimised for shearing force. Ah-.

Drain him directly.

Orange light radiates out of his stomach wound and the pressure on my armour decreases at once. Still more stress over a sustained period than I'd like, but he's not going to rip my arm off like that. I lift my right arm and grab onto the hand on my shoulder, reinforcing my environmental shield and yanking at it, doing what I can to remove the friction-

He loses his grip, twisting sideways at the sudden loss of pressure.

-as I drain harder.

"What-? What are you-?"

"Enjoy existence as a construct."

He shudders, body shrivelling without shrinking, armour caving in on itself.

"Assimilate."

"Unable to comply."

He starts choking, vitals fading.

"Why not?"

"This one is not yours to take, Lantern."

I scan, but I can't tell where that came from. I take a moment to look at the corpse still clamped onto me. It hasn't lost any height but it's unnaturally thinned, giving the impression of a long-term dungeon inhabitant who has been drawn on the rack. Then I toss it aside and fly back into the ship.

The surviving soldiers are picking themselves up and I use constructs to grab onto the armour and pull, tearing it from their bodies and leaving them in scraps and their under suits.

Still need information.

"Assimilate."

Orange strands leap out and are pushed back before they can touch them, the bodies of the defeated decaying to.. ash to fuel the spell.

"And neither are these."

"Sparta. I don't know what you want, but you came here to pick a fight rather than settling anywhere else." I run in the direction of the cruiser's bridge. "You won't get the choice again."

"What is one more titan to the Bane of Titans?"

"If that's how you want it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:07 GMT

"yARGH!"

While the positron ray reliably annihilates anyone it hits, close detonations just cause agonising burns as the armour and personal shields fail. Respect to whoever designed the Karrakanians' armour, though: it isn't melting into their flesh or otherwise exacerbating their wounds.

"Sorry."

I fly closer to what appears to be an internal strongpoint, designed to allow marines to defend against boarding actions.

"Nugh nuh nuh…"

"Would you be prepared to exchange information for healing?"

He beckons me forward with his more intact arm, but I've already seen the grenade he's preparing in his other hand.

"Good effort. You gave it your all."

I shoot him in the head, then extend strands of orange light into what I hope is an internal communications node of some kind. Accessing…

Partial access available.

Yes, that. It looks like someone has partially integrated a New God system with both an earlier, more primitive system and something that's mundane but sophisticated. Not using a central computer is something that civilisations that are just getting into space don't do, due to either not having computers or the great efficiencies and improvements in command and control a unified data network provides. Deliberately not doing that because it improves security and is no longer necessary… Apokoliptian ships don't have central computers because the New God in charge can manage things perfectly well without one. Other species… The Reach have a decentralised sys-.

I'm doing it again.

I wonder how the attacking soldiers manage to-?

No.

I push forward, crumbler gauntlet smashing into the security door and crumbling a two metre hole in it before I fly onward towards the bridge.

The only thing I learned from that computer was the local patrol shifts, which might be useful if I was a stealth infiltrator but is fairly useless for me. Copies of personnel files -oh, that was his name- and local maintenance logs… Complaints from the engineering team about the systems not working together properly unless one of 'The Ascendant' were in the area…

Ascendant: Rhea's descendants. Who can use New God technology. Makes sense. Have to see what we can harvest from these ships for the local gods, because learning more about their technology could be very useful in our future dealings with Grayven.

Though the term 'Ascendant' implies that they're moving towards some state-.

Two Karrakanians with belts of engineering tools walk through a side door and then freeze as they spot me. One goes for-

"Don't."

-something on his belt, then makes a point of moving his hand away.

So. Prisoners. I don't have anywhere to put them and my usual methods for rendering them compliant aren't working. As a military obstacle they're irrelevant and they have potentially useful knowledge.

"Go back inside, shut the door and don't come out until you hear an all clear or I come for you. Understand?"

They don't say anything, but they do back up and press the button to shut the door behind them. I use a crumbler gauntlet to fuse the door shut and then continue on my journey.

How close to a divine being does a demigod have to be to still be able to use Apokoliptian technology? They called Sparta a granddaughter, but if she's got Phoebe's seed then she might be running off that. Is that why they only boom tubed in after she returned? Was the delay because they needed to integrate it into their systems?

No, I don't know it was a delay at-. Doing it again.

Apokoliptian ships sometimes have the bridge entirely inaccessible from the rest of the ship, on the grounds that anyone important enough to go there has a boom tube with access permissions, but the general design of these ships is Karrakanian so it probably won't-.

Al-

I yank myself sideways as the spear meets the corridor wall.

-ert!

This one's female, though the armour and equipment are otherwise identical. Spears are good weapons for formations or single warriors on the open ground, but on a ship with narrow corridors and guns, they're-.

That's going to keep happening, isn't it?

"He-"

Al-

From behind, and I lunge forward in the direction of the bridge while laying a cold field down behind me.

-ert.

"-llo."

Al-

From in front, my construct armoured gauntlet coming up faster than thought to parry the haft and direct the point away from my chest.

-ert.

She vanishes as I reach for her with my right hand. Cold field in front then, and take a step forward to make it look like I'm-

Al-

I raise the sword, linking it to my metaphysique as I parry high, the spear coming down from the ceiling. And I smile as I see hoarfrost appear on my assailant's armour, her body tumbling to the deck before me as her spear falls from her grip. I kick, but rather than shatter she goes flying into the wall at the end of the corridor. Resistant but not immune. And I get a spear that-.

That I can't send into subspace. Bound to its owner? She's trying to get up, but I can't feel any of the motion from it that the last demigod managed to make in his sword.

"Surrender or die."

I try attaching a tether to the spear, but it isn't taking. One owner at a time?

"Need a quick answer."

"I would sooner die than surrender to a false god."

"Reasonable, except I'm not a god, don't claim to be, and am not formally allied to them so you'd be surrendering to me as a representative of an independent power. You would be held until the end of hostilities and then released on parole. Though if that doesn't change your answer, I will understand."

"Kill me. It will change-."

I stomp forward, grab her helmeted head and activate the crumbler gauntlet. Her head is vaporised, her body collapsing to the deck.

I wonder why they're so-?

No. Bridge door next.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:10 GMT

The bridge is abandoned, the circular doors leading to the escape pods closed and the pods themselves gone. Computers… Non-functional. I could probably dig up something; emergency data wipes are rarely completely reliable at removing all data. But I can learn something from the layout. That command dais is clearly Apokoliptian in design, and it's… It's been cut and shut into place. I can see the welds, and the floor around it isn't quite level with the rest of the room. For the most powerful Ascendant? They don't seem to have sabotaged it, which may well be an error in judgement given that I can interface with the technology well enough.

This ship is somewhat interesting, but New Cronus takes precedence. I walk over to the command lectern and bind it to me as I did the sword, the orange glow extending into its tron lines oh that's what they do! Or what they're for. I mean, there's something going on there-.

I consider my armour for a moment. The tron lines on that are more for aesthetic reasons than anything else. I can't cover myself with solid plates if I want to move, so I reinforce the flex points with orange light. But I get the feeling that this is functional… Somehow.

Right.

I want to ram the cruiser into the battleship's launch bay.
That makes no sense. Who is this?
Why would I want to do that? That's completely-. Completely someone else's desire feeding back through the system to me. I saw it coming, but it's… Fascinating to experience. A technological gestalt soul. Someone felt what I wanted but it didn't make sense to them, so I get their feedback.

Did they not hear whatever evacuation alarm sounded? I mean, on a ship like this losing the bridge isn't game over or anything like that, but they should-.

They can't. There's no way to shut off the Apokoliptian devices. They'd have to smash them apart completely, and even that isn't reliable. People-. Ascendants in other parts of the ship might know that the bridge crew aren't transmitting, or that they'd signalled that they were abandoning ship, but the moment someone else starts broadcasting there's no way to know that it's not the same people because this is the system being used.

I want to ram the battleship's launch bay because the false gods are attempting a counter-boarding and collapsing the bay externally-
I Hear And Obey.
My ring detects us starting to change our vector.

-is the best way to stop them.

I distantly feel other people… Take on my desires as their own. Is that how the system works? How the bridge version works? Do different parts of the ship just have another one of these, or is this some sort of dedicated command unit? Imparting desires like this is allowed but my normal ring-based abilities are blocked? And does their high command feel what I do?

Interesting that I could lie like that. Have to ask Canis whether that's-.

Doing it again.

Can't try to communicate with New Cronus, not with other Asc-. New Gods listening in. Got to see if I can talk Hinon or Kalmin into making a black power ring for Melinoë… Though under current circumstances I suppose that it might still not work as a communication channel.

I reattach myself to the Apokoliptian console.

Want to defend the bridge. May not be in constant communication. No need to reinforce, current orders are more significant.
The Supplicant Hurries To Obey.
I feel a vague sense of agreement that I… Can't really describe. Probably a New God thing. If I capture something decent intact I'll get Canis to go over it with me. Ah, Canis and Mr. and Mrs. Free.

That'll do for this cruiser.

I raise both hands, and… Take a moment to work through my hesitancy to destroy something interesting before unleashing a two-handed eddy pulse at the Apokoliptian technology, tearing it to pieces. With a little luck that will stop Sparta countermanding my directions, though that's really more a faint hope if she can detect when I try assimilating her followers.

Then I fly over to an empty escape pod dock and crumble the door. There's a movement of air as the pressure equalises, but again I note that the air doesn't leave the ship. Through the hole in the hull I see New Cronus wheel past, assault ships from the Karrakanians landing around the main batteries which have finally started shooting. I-. Yes, that's water and ice being used to repel the attackers, so it looks like Oceanus Junior and Tethys are in action. The mortal defenders appear to be using plasma guns as well, though I can also see some light vehicles flanking to destroy assault boats and prevent evacuation as the gods press forward.

I exit the ship and pull away from the cruiser as it accelerates towards the battleship. One of the other cruisers is actually attached to the New Cronus launch bay, presumably defending the interior of their landing zone with its guns. The other cruisers are forming a protective semicircle, and I can see that they've already destroyed the primary guns on that part of New Cronus.

Decent strategy. Though it does mean that they can't direct anything like as much fire at small objects as they could during the initial attack. And the ship I was on actually got closer to the battleship while I fought my way through. Now, if the cruiser actually hits, it will be knocked that way… Average stabilisation thruster performance for a ship that size at their tech level, add a little for whatever Apokoliptian stuff they've bolted on…

They should just enter the arc of fire of a couple more of New Cronus's guns. But those guns could fall if they're not defended, and they might not score a killing blow if they're not in position.

I accelerate towards New Cronus, swapping my positron beam construct for two cold guns. Target fire support ships and fire. Dead, dead, dead and I'm drawing a little more flak. Bubble shield and increase evasiveness. New Cronus coming up-

And again I'm momentarily overwhelmed by the scale of it. No clouds to obscure the view of it getting larger and larger until it fills my vision, micro to macro with no clear point where the switch occurs. It-.

Those are mobile shields. The attackers are forming up around them as they muster for a new push. Soon deal with that.

Filaments leap across the intervening space and connect to the upper surface of the dome and connect them to me. I lose one connection immediately to a lucky shot from an unusually alert soldier, but the other connections hold for long enough that I can usurp control and-. Try and crush.

No, that didn't work, but I did knock a lot of them off their feet, and now I'm close enough to fight directly. Since I've never really trained in spear combat I leave plotting my swings to the ring's AI while I keep track of my surroundings.

"Oceanus! I have news!"

A sweep from a cold gun causes limbs to crystallise and soldiers to fall, alive but overwhelmed by pain.

A wave filled with razor sharp super hard shards of ice slams into them a moment later. Some are torn apart, their armour unable to withstand the extreme force. Others are catapulted off the New Cronus surface, their armour's atmosphere seals failing and losing heat and air.

Oceanus surfs in just behind it, partially transformed into the element that he commands.

"What news?"

"Definitely Apokoliptian technology. I've sent that cruiser to crash into the battleship. If Coeus has-" I create a construct model to demonstrate. "-these guns ready and lined up, we might be able to destroy it. Can you get a message to him?"

He manifests a little more of his human-like form as he considers the model.

"Yes. Yes, I can. I will send a runner. Internal communications are not reliable or safe."

"Good show. I'll head that way now to make sure."

He nods. "Send up a signal once you're clear."

I shake my head. "Don't worry about that. Just shoot them at the first opportunity. I can look after myself. Where's everyone else?"

"Hyperion and Athyns are fighting their boarders around the landing bay and Coeus in on the bridge. I've lost track of everyone else."

"Right. I'll go now." I rise up slightly, taking in the dozen patches of fighting between here and the bridge. "Maybe send.. a few runners."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:14 GMT

Spear wreathed in an orange glow, I head after the kamikaze cruiser, taking a few seconds to dodge behind assault craft where reasonably practical. The spear point can cut though their shields and armour easily enough, but as they start veering away from me I elect not to chase them down. The defenders are capable of dealing with them without me, but that battleship-

It turns one of its medium batteries in our direction and fires, shields flickering over New Cronus before a small breach appears and a building patterned after the Acropolis gets pulverised.

-isn't going to destroy itself.

I can't detect any communication between the battleship and my suborned cruiser, but my ability to detect New God communication isn't exactly reliable. Alright, this… Seems to be my maximum speed. What else can I do to sell this?

I form a beam singularity projector, then take a moment to contemplate the likely results of firing that in the vicinity of a moon with its own artificial gravity system when I'm not exactly sure how my orange light manipulation abilities are being altered by the change in local physics.

Best not.

Instead, I form a laser cannon construct and take a few shots at what look like they might be vulnerable points on the cruiser's surface. I mean, if I can see it then lasers should be able to hit its hull, right? Naturally its Apokoliptian technology shielding… Or wards? It could be a separate system. Whichever, they protect it.

Sparta isn't mocking me. Was that… Some sort of hallucination that I only experienced because I was touching the souls of people in her network?

I know I'm doing it again, but until the cruiser gets a bit closer there's not much else I can do.

The battleship isn't targeting the cruiser, and neither are any of the other cruisers. I'm starting to attract a little more fire, but it's nothing that I can't evade. Should I be worried? Sparta appears to have better things to do with her time than fight me. Would she know who or what I am? Rhea might have heard of the Green Lantern Corps, but it's unlikely that she'd heard of Larfleeze. The Karrakanians appear to be assuming that I'm another god, so possibly they haven't heard of Lanterns ei… Ther.

Wait. If Sparta is using Phoebe's seed to create an area effect, shouldn't I be able to connect directly to that?

I've got another minute and forty seconds before the cruiser hits the battleship so I may as well give it a try.

Orange tendrils reach out, not really reaching for anything in particular. I unfocus my soul, trying to see the interface between the Honden and the material universe. It can't be cut off -and not just because of the power requirements- because people wouldn't be able to have desires. And I wouldn't be able to use my rings. Still can't feel the Ophidian, which is… Weird… But I can still feel the conflicting desires of-

Things go dark, and blinking feels wrong and damp-. My eyeballs just exploded. Clean that up and grow a new pair.

Compliance.

And there's the univerohdear. Yes, someone noticed that and they're making a real effort to shoot me! I abandon efforts to interfere with whoever clearly has the mystical realm firmly in their grasp and instead focus on dodging-. Oh, yes, yes, that was a shot from the battleship and it didn't miss by much. In a way, it's nice to see that the Karrakanians don't share the New Gods' reticence when it comes to just shooting each other rather than brawling, but it's-.

Agh! Looks like they have lasers as well! I track the source and swoop left, because while the laser will hit me near-instantly at this range they still have to keep it on me-. Yes, it's following but not instantly. Coming from that ship, so if I fly-. Yes, they've lost the lock. I refresh my shield bubble and change it to 'reflective' mode, on the grounds that I don't think the bubble would stop a direct hit from their big guns anyway.

Cruiser is still on course even without me worrying it. Though… Why not combine the two? I fly out of cover and go back to normal evasiveness, and the laser locks onto me almost immediately, hitting dead centre and having about ninety seven percent of its energy directed right back at the cruiser I'm chasing. It-. Oh, it actually does damage their New God shields. Doesn't appear to be doing much, but it's doing something and that's probably what prompts their gunnery officer to stop using it.

The cruiser is on its final-

OhgoshIdon'tlikeseeingprimaryweaponfirefromthesideatthatdistance.

-approach, and I think someone's spotted that things are-. Yes, yes they're firing. And its shields aren't blocking any of it; it's hitting the hull directly but no one's on the bridge. Can they communicate with the engine room or drive? They're not sending over a boarding team to speak to them directly, and the cruiser is out of the arcs of fire of the battleship's main weapons. The smaller guns on the other hand-. They're shooting the.. hull? No, they're trying to shoot through to the empty bridge-. Though that might just be because they're not in a position to shoot the drives.

New Cronus' gun batteries on the far side of the battleship are still inert. That's a shame, because to quote Ghenghiz Cohen, if this doesn't work it's going to take ages to kill them all.

Okay, get into position. The fire coming at me is slackening off slightly as the ships don't have an angle that doesn't threaten each other or their ground troops. I'm taking hits, but unless they get a lot more accurate in the next few-.

The battleship stops shooting and the cruiser starts to slow and turn. Oh no you don't. I bend space-.
Remain As I Command You To Be.
Ah. I can do it, but it's far more effort than usual.
Impudence!
Right, bend space around me and around the ship. Create a corridor and shorten the distance, I want to get close enough to shove it into the battleship myself if necessary.
Destroy The Usurper!
And the cruisers have stopped worrying about-.

Gah!

About shooting each other! A dozen hits across my bubble shield and about a hundred that miss me and hit each other! The bubble shield collapses as the battleship starts trying to shoot the cruiser that's on a collision course but it's too late! I get up close to the rear of its hull and generate massive construct thrusters surrounded by construct armour. Immediately they stop shooting me and try shooting my construct, but even as they eat through the armour both of my construct and the cruiser the engines activate and accelerate! Closer, closer!

The cruiser's nothing like big enough to destroy the battleship at this sort of relative speed, but my rings show me escape pods being launched from the sections that will be closest to the site of impact because that doesn't mean that there won't be a lot of local destruction.

Would their shield block it? I.. don't know. Even if it prevented a direct impact, the kinetic force should push the battleship into the path of those guns… That don't appear to be ready yet.

Damn it. Okay.

I fly around the cruiser, taking all… Three disc launchers out of subspace and setting them to fire until dry. Then I fire fat cables of orange light at the battleship-. Yes, shield is still up. Connect that to my metaphysique-

And it occurs to me that my tattoos are designed to feed on local sources of magic, and the change in my behaviour could well be explained by the fact that Phoebe's seed is the largest local source of magic rather than anything deliberate.

-and Feed Me!

Red lightning dances through space as the discs start hitting the shield and doing their best to make an inanimate energy field feel pain. But my tethers are achieving something more, not only causing the ward shield to visibly fail in places but…
I think…
I can actually… I'm getting glimpses of the battleship: how the systems and New Gods on board interact with each other. It's fascinat-.

My right arm comes up and clumsily slaps me in the face.

The heck-? Soul back-hacking? Okay, clever dick, let's see if you can handle being consumed!

Another slap, then I feel something shudder and my arm is back under my control. I dive off the cruiser as the battleship fills the horizon and my engine construct falls apart under the bombardment but it's too late!

The cruiser smashes through what's left of the shield and into the outside of the battleship's flight deck.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:16 GMT

The first thing I see is that the cruiser loses momentum suddenly, the hull around the point of impact crumpling in a little as the hull armour fails and the exterior corridors form a crumple zone. Then the battleship's hull starts to bend, armour cracking as the empty hold of the launch bay provides no structural reinforcement while the more solid interior structure of the cruiser has far less give to it.

It bends a little more.

A little more.

Then it caves, the entire front… Fifth? Of the battleship's underside caving inwards. Is it-? Yes, whatever environmental shield they used to keep the air in fails with such widespread damage, atmosphere escaping in the direction the cruiser came from.

The battleship is moving. And it appears to be a weakness of the design that it doesn't have good manoeuvring abilities. That's a common feature of battleships, and why a lot of polities don't use them. Accelerating an object that big takes a lot of thrust, and larger ships have proportionally less surface area than smaller ships. When compromising between space for guns and space for the thrusters that would be needed for something it wouldn't ever be particularly good at anyway, most places allot the space to guns and have escorts cover them when it needs to turn.

The Karrakanians appear to have adopted that methodology and right now it's biting them in the rear.

I head for the battleship as it begins to tumble very slowly in the direction I want. That's not doing anything to move the troops that it has already landed other than wound their morale -they can all clearly see it- but if they're fighting in the Apokoliptian way, anything that weakens their supreme commander should have a knock-on effect on all of their weapons.

The remaining cruisers don't appear to be trying to reacquire me as a target, which is a little curious. Two are moving from their 'guard' position, presumably to render direct aid or recover escape pods.

Only question is whether the guns are going to actually take advantage of the opportunity. Well… That, and do I board the ship or operate the guns myself. I could… Drag the battleship while they're distracted. If I keep close to the hull I doubt that they'll dare shoot me, not with the battleship in the condition it's now in.

Okay. Ring, calculations based on the visible thrusters. Can the battleship stop itself getting hit by the guns if they're active?

Assuming that it has no other means of generating thrust, the battleship will drift into the arc of fire of the guns. However, the cruisers may be able to act as tug boats and prevent that.

Agh, that's what they're doing. Okay, not an insurmountable problem. Ships that size don't have lots of tractor beams, for the same reason that battleships don't have a lot of manoeuvring thrusters. It takes a lot of power to use and doesn't add anything to their gunnery. Some fleets relegate them to dedicated tug boats kept with the fleet tenders. I'd be surprised if they have more than one designed to work on capital ships, though they might have smaller ones from grabbing escape pods. And now that I know how to pierce their shield, and could just destroy them when they are deployed and then carry on with attacking the battleship.

I-.

Ah. I turn back and pick up the disc launchers. They're dry now, but they can generate their own ammunition given time. I stick them back into subspace, and then fly towards the closest of the two supporting cruisers. I've got no idea where they deploy their tractor beam from, so it's really just a-.

The cruiser I used as a ramming ship activates its thrusters at full reverse, pulling itself out of the battleship with a flare of the shields of both vessels. They… Shouldn't have any sort of central command and control, but I suppose 'we just hit something, move away from it' doesn't require a great deal of instruction from on high. If their tractor beam was front-mounted rather than underside-mounted then they won't be able to use it, but if it was-.
We Will Have Revenge!
I hurriedly throw myself into an evasive pattern as they work out where I am and decide to demonstrate their displeasure with all of their remaining guns. A cavalcade of plasma bolts fly at me with… More accuracy than they were able to pull off. I'm taking hits, and my construct overshield is cracking in a dozen places. They aren't keeping the guns on me like whoever it was controlling that laser did, but it's a good deal harder to redirect plasma. I'm going to have to keep moving-.

Oh! One of the surface guns is up and tracking. Not sure if that was because of me-.

It shoots, hitting… One of the cruisers that was preparing to act as a tug. Its shields flare, movement slightly thrown off. I know that Coeus said that the guns of New Cronus dealt with them easily last time, but I suppose that was without them boom tubing into assault boat range. If that cannon can't even destroy a cruiser, maybe it's best-.

It fires again, then maintains the rate of one shot every four seconds. It takes five shots before the target vessel's shield weakens to the point where they start hitting the hull, but the cruiser is already giving up on whatever it was trying to do in order to get out of the arc of fire. The other cruiser stays on the near-side of the battleship, one of its weapon ports opening up to reveal its tractor beam. I immediately start flying towards it, only for the-.

Ah ah ah.

Damn, bubble-. Bubble gone, and my construct armour is taking a battering. It turns out that someone over there has basic tactical awareness and had everyone else shoot through the space between my position and the cruiser that deployed the tractor beam. I just got shot by at least four different ships and I-. Alright, don't compromise on evasiveness. They know where I'm going and I have to go there, but that doesn't mean that I need to make myself an easy target.

The outer part of the battleship's hull just… It's falling off, the part near the hangar doors being completely disassociated from the rest of the structure. It's still attached at the opposite end, but the weakened sides are tearing from the stress as the ship tries to change vector. I can see bodies and small ships falling out through the gaps.

The cruiser that got into range of New Cronus' gun is nearly out of the arc of fire before it takes a final hit to the rear armour that punches straight through, a brilliant plume of gold-white fire burning through the armour and flaring through the interior! The ship loses control of its acceleration immediately, drifting along its last vector without further thrust.

One of the gods boosted that. And if Hyperion is fighting around the New Cronus launch bay I'm going to assume that it was Theia. Excellent! That makes my job far simpler.

Okay, I'm close enough to the tug boat cruiser that it's shielding me against fire from the rest of the fleet. Its anti-attack ship guns have deployed and are peppering me with fire, but they don't have anything like the power of its main guns. Destructive pulse… Doesn't penetrate. Okay, not a problem, I need to fly around the bulk of the ship anyway. Hug the shield, strands ready and-.

Alert!
Seek The Foe's Heart!
DODGE!

"Surprise, alien!"

A New God carrying a cruiser-class gun like it's an infantry rifle is floating in space. Light power armour and thrusters, and from the tron lines I'm going to assume that it's Apokoliptian issue. They narrowly missed the first shot, mostly because they're using a slower than light weapon and my ring's still guiding my dodging. They change pose and accelerate after me, weapon ready and apparently not slowing their accelerating at all.
Die!
Alert!

I change vector immediately and agh! Hit me anyway! There goes my construct armour and my power armour isn't rated against that class of weapon! Nowhere to evade to, have to fight them quickly and then carry on with my attack.

I turn, generating a construct shield and sending out construct tendrils.

Feed Me!

"Cannibal." Four small flak turrets extend from their armour and shoot out my tendrils. "Degenerate."

Two can play at that-.

They fire their main gun, the oversized shot smashing straight into my construct shield, which…

Technically it holds, deflecting the plasma before being reduced to a disc of cracks and dull orange light. Then it fails completely as my opponent prepares to fire again.

Spear it is, then.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:20 GMT

Warning: low power. Nineteen percent-

Already?!

-remaining. … Yes.

Give me the spear anyw-
Expunge!
Alert!

-ay!

The shot blasts through my construct armour as I manage to partially evade by inverting, causing it to hit my legs rather than my chest. Armour's melted and flesh…

Ah…

I didn't really like walking anyway. Okay, this is shaping up to be difficult and I'm on more of a time limit. But I don't need to win. I just wanted to ensure that the battleship was destroyed outright rather than just being crippled. I could head for the New Cronus or Minosyss itself, hide and recharge.

Or I could hide in the battleship while this New God wannabe shoots it apart from the inside. Sounds actionable.

Speed and rearward shield. No point in evasive action if she can hit me anyway. Don't want to waste power on healing my legs when they're not essential.

Shot to the rear and the construct vanishes. The New God is falling behind a little as they try to maintain separation. They haven't realised where I'm heading-. No, they've angled their body and they're accelerating, trying to keep the distance down so that I can't dodge fully. Given current time-to-impact-
Die!
Alert!

-I could-. Yes, dodge the next one fully so as to not waste power. Right, attach myself to the spear and wait for the pursuer to commit. Passing out from behind the cruiser now and there's some fire, but I'd guess that they know that one of theirs is in close proximity and they don't want to risk hitting them.

Not that Apokoliptian, then. Might be possible to negotiate a settlement at the end of this-

Alert!

-then.

I dodge, the shot going wide and hitting the battleship in the undamaged portion of the underside.
No!
I can almost hear my assailant hesitate in shock as the shot penetrates and blasts a furrow in the outer armour. Good, yes, just a little-.

The small turrets on their armour open fire, biting at my rear-mounted shield. But they're nothing like as powerful as the main gun, and the construct remains reasonably solid. Seeing this, they retract them and pour more power into their thrusters in order to close the distance. I dart around a detached armour plate from the battleship and use a construct ram to send it careering towards them, on the off-chance that their commitment to pursuit means that they can't dodge effectively. I doubt that'll be the case, but-.

Incoming fire from the surviving flak turrets on this part of the battleship's hull, but it's sporadic and not particularly accurate. Something got damaged during the ram, and if I'm very lucky then it was something fundamental to the operation of the ship. Based on the snapshot I saw of its internal systems I don't think that it was, but I don't know how their internal power system oper-.

Behind me, the New God cleaves the hull plate in two with the sword blade now projecting from their gun barrel. And they're gaining on me.

Okay, okay, construct impeller and.. aim for that still-functional flak turret, firing every two seconds, line up and dodge!

And the New God batters the shot away with their new sword, and the gun stops firing a moment later. Alright, if you don't want to shoot… Two railguns, load-

Warning: low power. Seventeen percent remaining.

-crumbler rounds and fire one of them at each target.

Compliance.

The gun pointing at the ship's hull opens fire at once, the rounds striking the hull and chewing a circle in the armour. No exotic defences functioning, at least not in this part of the ship. The gun firing at the New God tracks for a second before shooting. They see the shots coming somewhat and go to parry with their sword. But the sword is more than a little unwieldy and the gun is rapidly traversing to aim shots at every part of their body. Some get through, causing the tron lines on their armour to glow turquoise as it works to resist the damage.

The New God responds by cutting thrust and making their armour grow thicker and harder, which renders my shots ineffective but allows me to pull away further and-

Heavy construct armour!

-smash through the partially crumbled section of hull armour and into the interior of the battleship. Looking to my right I can see the cracking internal armour and flickering lights, while looking to my left… Doesn't look much better, but that is the direction the more intact parts of the ship is in.

Right, fly that way, hold up Larfleeze's ring because it's least useful and chant.

My personal lantern appears next to me from subspace.

"This is my cause, this-"

My construct armour dims.

Warning: low power. Nine percent remaining.

Because it's not counting the combined charge across the two rings. Talk faster.

"-ismyfight,
Shinethroughthevoidwithorange-."
Seek The Heart!
Alert!

I throw myself at the ceiling, the New God's shot punching through the hull and missing me by millimetres! Well! Sort of what I wanted!

"-light,
I'veclaimedallwithinmy-"
Hit Him You Stupid Gun!
"-sight,
Tokeepwhatismine-"

Alert!

GAH!

That hit, armour… Ah, basically gone on my left side, along with my arm-. I grab my detached hand and the ring upon it with my right hand, my construct armour failing as I lose the connection.

"Thatismyright!"

An orange beam connects the ring to my personal lantern. No AI assistance in Larfleeze's ring, but I can create a shield to cover my left as I… Gunnery compartment, this is where the main guns retract into when not in use. I head deeper into the gunnery compartment. And… Can't really heal myself with Larfleeze's ring, but I can create construct legs and a construct arm to go with the shield. And I also can't replace my equipment because I keep all of that in the subspace pocket associated with the ring Hinon made for me.

Move further in, and… The gun isn't designed to point inwards for obvious reasons, but with a few constructs that.. I can't create using Larfleeze's ring, I can pull it off its runners while keeping it plugged in, and bypass the targeting lockouts. Or I could shoot the second cruiser through the hull. Need to recharge the other ring first, but that won't take long.

"This is my-"

Alert!

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:22 GMT

I duck back, the shot smashing through the hull armour and inner hull before slamming into my cover-. The gun has its own shielding, which shimmers as it soaks the strike. Ah, okay, that's… A relief. But as I stare at my glowing arm stand-in I realise a problem.

Despite my wounds, I'm feeling no pain. That's not because of the medical systems in my armour; they're good but not that good. That's because my main ring is altering the way my body is processing stimuli. When I recharge it there's going to be a good few seconds at best where I'll get the full effect of suddenly losing large parts of my body. Not for a fraction of a second like I did just now, but for several seconds as the ring fully recharges.

No titan of healing.

Okay, transfer Hinon's ring to my good side without ever losing hold of it. Move around to the far side of the gun to keep its armour and shield between me and the New God with the oversized gun. Disintegrate the hand; I'll replace it later. Full construct arm. Purple healing rays on my left shoulder and my leg stumps; that should reduce the pain to manageable levels. And unlike maimed Amazons I can repair by ring later.

Alert!

This time I don't move, other than to interpose the shield I'm generating with Larfleeze's ring. It's good for simple and strong constructs at least. Instead I watch to judge the effectiveness of the gun as an obstacle to hide behind. The New God's shot comes through the outer hull just as easily as before… Diminished from what they were firing at me outside, but still strong as it hits the gun's shield. The gun blocks, but the shield seems more stressed than last time.

Finite uses, then.

Wounds still being healed. Recharging my main ring right now would be a bad idea.

What's the New God doing?

They're shooting at me. How are they detecting me? Magic shouldn't work, and… I think that extends to New God technology. Gravity-based detection might have been able to track me outside of the ship, but here I'm surrounded by mixed density materials. There isn't going to be anything that identified me as me. Internal monitoring-? Can't see any cameras or lasers, and heat detection becomes unreliable when weapons start firing inside the ship.

What does that leave?

Nothing on the outside of my armour, so I'm not broadcasting my location. Detecting me by my absorption of local mana? Theoretically doable, but mana systems are usually chaotic enough that it-.

That it's not possible, unless someone is already rewiring the local thaumasphere and has simplified it for easier access. I reach out with orange tendrils and pull more of it into me from all parts of the gunnery chamber before repositioning higher up the room, closer to the muzzle of the gun. Still behind the gun to take advantage of its shield, but in a different position.

Can they still track me?

Alert!

I shield and wait… As the shot hits one of my strands on the other side of the room.

Got you.

Their next move is probably going to be to shoot 'me' a few more times and then come aboard in order to confirm the kill. That would fit Apokoliptian methodology. I'd rather that they stay outside, to be honest. Or leave. Under these conditions this isn't an efficient or necessary fight for me.
Roust Them Out.
Alert!

Another shot, this one closer. And it didn't appear to be aimed at a strand. Which means that they know the strands are a hoax. How..?

Self-enhancement. They might not be able to track me directly, but there's nothing stopping them improving their own ability to predict me. I've never claimed to be a tactical or strategic genius. So either they shoot everywhere in this compartment -which would take a while with her current gun- or they come in here to track me with their own eyes.

So do I try finishing off the ship? Grab the gun with Larfleeze's ring and force it to fire? Or prepare to fight them? Don't know how long taking over the gun will take or how long my assailant will take to decide to get closer. Or if I even can take control of the gun without a ring AI.

Wounds mostly healed. Right. Cold gun out of subspace and firing cold zones at all obvious points of ingress.

I tap Hinon's ring against my personal lantern.

"Charge."

Nothing happens.

Yes, that would have been too easy. Ritual binding it is, then.

"This is my cause, this is my fight."

My construct arm vanishes and… The missing parts of my body don't hurt so much as… Really disturb my sense of proprioception. There's an ache, but… Not so bad. I've been injured enough that physical damage doesn't faze me emotionally any longer.

"Shine through the void with orange light."

Not rushing in or firing again. I think I do need to defeat -kill or disarm- them. Lure them in? They require my full focus, obviously.

"I've claimed all within my sight."

Alert!
Cowering Before The Inevitable.
"To keep what is mine, that-"

The shot hits my shield, but that's okay.

"-is my right."

The beam connecting my main ring to my personal lantern glows brilliantly, but with my other ring I throw out a blast of orange light in all directions.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHnnnnnnnnnnnnn…"

And cut the flow of orange light off, dismiss my tendrils, personal lantern back into subspace, grow back the missing parts of my body and repair my armour. Construct power to minimum and… Directly feed orange light into my tattoos to exclude anything else.

Under my armour my skin is glowing orange, but that should make me impossible to find with whatever technique they're using. I mean, it's not like they know what happens when a Lantern of my abilities gets killed.

Unless they had someone observing both other times it happened, but that seems unlikely. Or perhaps they'll think it was my rings getting destroyed? In either case-.

For a fraction of a second I see the hull cleaved open by the gun-turned-sword, then-
Death Comes For You!
-the cold field collapses, somehow cut by the oversized sword while I fly towards the New God, tendrils reaching out and around to grabble and feed!

Micro-turrets on their armour open fire, only to be immediately countered by orange lasers from my counter battery constructs as the second wave of tendrils lock on!

Feed Me!
I Stand Strong!
The colour in their armour oscillates as they try to power through, sword flashing towards me! I take my spear out of subspace, already linking it both to my body's energy and to theirs. I parry, briefly meeting their energy blade before turning it aside as I latch more tendrils onto their weapon.

The spear is partially melted by the brief contact, but the oversized sword is positively guttering.

And sword, stab forwards into the mechanism! Their sword goes out with a small crack of energy, and a construct claw grabs it and pulls it from their harness!

"One chance. Yield."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:24 GMT

Various parts of their armour glow in quick succession as I prepare for a new att-.

"I yield." "I strike my colours."

Their armour dims, and I feel a certain… Presence, vanish from the material.

"Accepted." I float back slightly, dismissing most of my offensive constructs. "You will remove any remaining weapons, though under the circumstances you can keep your armour for now."

My new prisoner -the voice was feminine, but let's not make assumptions with aliens- hesitates, then begins decoupling their gun's harness from their armour.

"Good effort, by the way. You did noticeably better than the other two Ascended I fought today."

Their helmet momentarily turns to the spear I discarded and the sword I'm still holding. Ah, that was probably insensitive. Though with warrior cultures that isn't always the case so long as you make it clear-.

"They both fought bravely, but their tactics were inferior."

They let the removed parts of the harness fall to the deck, then remove what looks like an equipment harness. That appears to be all of the readily detachable parts of their armour. I reach out with orange strands, connect them to my metaphysique and then subspace them.

"Why do you not complete the ritual?"

"An ongoing misunderstanding. I'm not a god or titan. I just look a bit like one. I have no idea what ritual you're referring to."

"Oh."

"If it's important to you, you can talk me through it once this battle is over."

"No, that's-. No."

"Right then. I'm going to be busy destroying this ship, so please fill me in with what you think this fight is about."

"What?"

I send strands out, draining through the gun's shield and attaching myself to the gun itself.

"I was visiting New Cronus on an unrelated matter when your attack started. I've only heard their version of events, and while I doubt that hearing yours will change things greatly it might affect the resolution I suggest."

Okay, the gun seems… Reasonably responsive. I can make it traverse, that's… The control to deploy it, but the system appears to be damaged. Power comes from there… Huh. There doesn't appear to be anything stopping it firing internally.

"Or you can remain silent, but I will point out that doing so may be contrary to the interests of your faction."

"What lies did they tell you?"

"Don't… Know."

With a creak and a scream of twisting metal, the gun comes free from its cradle, construct cabling maintaining the link to its fuel reserves and power source.

"Beyond a passing familiarity with some of Rhea's other descendants, I know nothing about what she did after leaving Earth beyond what they told me. Feel free to give me your version while I kill this ship."

"If you're not one of them, why do you-."

Charging the gun… Seems straight forward enough, other than the tron lines. But I doubt that-.

"Stop! Please, stop."

"I take it this will work, then?"

"The other Ascendants have already boarded New Cronus. The remaining crew are all mortal!"

"So it will definitely work, then. I'm not seeing that as a-"

Construct cradle for the gun, point it towards where I… Think I felt the commands coming from. The tron lines covering the gun are fully orange at this point, glowing brilliantly as I prepare to actualise my desire to bring about destruction.

"-bad thing. War is all about killing because you couldn't accept an alternative."

"What alternative could we accept?!"

"I don't know. It doesn't matter to me, and I would suggest that it will soon not matter to the crew of this ship, either."

"They murdered Grandmother Rhea for her power!"

"Ah. You believe that they gained those seeds by killing her, contrary to their claim that she died after creating them. What evidence do you have?"

"Their power-."

"I know of two demigoddesses brought to life after a titan infused clay with their power. What they say that Rhea did is possible, though it's true that they could be lying. Brace."

"W-?"

I fire and oh that's a bit spicy! The gun annihilates everything in its path… Yeah, yeah, I can see through a cylindrical section of hull… Not quite into open space, as the ship is quite long, but I can see sparks and lights going out, so I assume that I'm closer to achieving my objective than I was.

My prisoner was slammed against the interior wall due to not bracing.

The gun's recharging, doesn't look like anyone can respond…

"When I say 'brace', brace. Do you have any evidence?"

"I-." The New God picks themself up. "I don't-. Will you allow the ship to yield?"

"That's actually my preferred option. Can you arrange it?"

"Ah…" They take a look at the white hot hole I just shot in the ship's interior. "I can see no way for them to survive. Yes. But… I will have to use my divine essence."

"I'm not stopping you."

"And yours. The crew will need to feel my submission."

"I have no idea how to do that, but if you just want me to plug myself into you then I can do that."

I release the hellwraith construct lantern.

"If she does anything suspicious, eat her soul."

"Yes, Master."

The gun indicates that it's fully charged. It would probably be more helpful in the current battle if I just fired a few more times, turned this ship into a wreck and then left. But I'm trying to wean myself off genocide.

I extend filaments and attach myself to the New God, the orange forcing out the turquoise from their armour.

"Does that work?"

"Yes. I will speak to them now."

"Good. Do-. What's your name?"

"Thiva."

"Make sure that they understand their position, Thiva. I'd rather they live, but I'm not wedded to the idea."

 

[Mr Zoat]

January 8th, 1857
Midday

Bart takes another look around and then shakes his head, before looking over to his current employer. Though 'employer' might be a bit of an overstatement, given that no actual money had changed hands yet. Oh, he was confident that he could turn a profit somehow, but he didn't think it would come from the Indian tribe. If they could afford him, they wouldn't need him.

"Come on, fellah. I don't see no way there's anything worth fighting for 'round these parts. What's really got y'all so riled up?"

The middle aged Indian shifts slightly on his horse, then looks over to Scalphunter. Because once you've seen a person cut someone's scalp off their face, you're not going to be calling them 'Brian' or 'Mr. Savage' in a hurry. And just calling him 'Savage' didn't seem like such a good idea, however much it fit him.

"There are evil spirits in this land. If the white men-."

"I am a white man."

"If they come here, if they disturb the land, it may awaken again. The Ancestor told us to keep people away, but… But we are too weak."

"Mm."

Scalphunter wasn't looking at the local. Instead, he was watching the trees. Bart had no idea what for, but he was the better tracker between the two of them.

"So who's this 'Ancestor', then? Fellah who founded your tribe?"

"No. He was-. He was a white man, like you. He walked all across the world long before people from Europe came here."

Bart frowned. He could generally honestly say that he was the best educated amongst any band of wanderers and chancers he happened to join up with, but there weren't a lot of white men around who couldn't trace their forebears to Europe.

"An albino?"

"No. His eyes were orange. Not red."

"I don't wanna argue the point, but that's the kinda detail gets lost in the retelling."

"No, they glowed orange. That is part of his story."

Bart hadn't ever seen anyone with glowing orange eyes. Glowing eyes, once or twice. Out this far from civilization, things could get a little strange sometimes. There was a mesmerist that one time, and-. Glowing orange was new. And kind of specific.

"Before Columbus?"

"Yes."

"Think I remember something about the Vikings trying to settle North America before that. Called it 'Vinland', because the land was so good for farming."

"No. Before that, whenever it was. He walked the land before people were people."

That put a different spin on things. And that was why he was here. Some times superstition was just that; nothing to it. Sometimes there was something darn strange going on, but for a good reason. There was a stream in England that was supposed to turn things to stone, but that was just due to some chemical in the water. Strange to look at, but not much to worry about.

Or if you got real lucky, there was oil close to the surface killing off the plants and that was why the place had a bad reputation. In which case, his good friend Mr. Bissell would give them a few dollars for it. Minus a finders' fee.

And then sometimes there really was something going on, and if you were real lucky you made it through without soiling yourself. But for the life of him Bart couldn't work out what Scalphunter was seeing in the trees that would give him a clue what was happening here.

"The Kiowa also told tales of the Ancestor." Scalphunter leans down and pulls a small piece of chalk out of his pannier. Then he leaned over and drew a shape on the bark of a nearby tree. A small circle with lines coming out of it. Some kind of Indian writing? "This shape?"

"Yes." Their guide nods, looking a little relieved if Bart was any judge. "The sign of the Ancestor."

Scalphunter looks at Bart. "You don't recognize it? The stories say he walked all over the world."

A circle… With a 'v' cutting through it at the top, two little lines coming off it at the two and ten o'clock positions and another two at the five and seven. Looks a little like a man with arms and legs sticking out. It… Could be a Viking rune, but those were usually made up of straight lines. Not that he thought reading a couple of pulp Viking adventure stories when he was a boy made him any kind of expert. So, maybe some Viking sails to the New World, walks from the east coast through Colorado to California before other white men visited either and made a big impression on the locals.

"You got any idea when this Ancestor guy visited?"

"When he first visited us, or when he most recently visited us?"

"First time. Just trying to get some idea of how long he's been around here."

"He told us that he walked across the bridge between Siberia and Alaska and protected our ancestors from a Martian."

W-?

"I don't know what a Martian is, but he said that Alaska is the land to the furthest north of the west coast, and Siberia is across the sea from it."

"A Martian?" Jesus. "Is this some kind of joke?"

The guide looks at him with widening eyes. "You know what they are?"

"Martian. From…" Ridiculous. "Mars. It's a planet. You know what a planet is, right?" He shakes his head. He might have taken advantage of Indian superstition once or twice, but it sounds like someone took these guys for a ride.

"Another world, orbiting the sun. One place further from the sun than our world."

So some educated white man swung through here a few years ago, claimed that he was some Ancestor hero and spun a few tales… He couldn't imagine what the man wanted from them, but this was starting to sound like a waste of time. Back when the local Indians moved in… Did they even know the world was round back then? Galileo was around in the 16th century, and the Indians had been in America for a lot longer than that.

"Listen, I don't think-."

Scalphunter comes alert, and Bart finds himself instinctively ducking closer to his horse.

"Those aren't trees."

His hand snaps out, chalk stick striking-. Passing through a tree, the bark rippling like the surface of a pond when someone threw a stone into the water.

Ah hell. This was that kind of job.

And these were his good pants.

Bart smiles. "Guess he's not a Viking after all."

"No." The guide shakes his head and then shakes his reins, causing his horse to trot forward-. And vanish. "Come."

Bart looks at Scalphunter. "If he knows your tribe too, maybe… You better go next."

Scalphunter scowls. "Bat Lash, I will say this once. I grew up with the Kiowa after they stole me from my parents, but I was never one of them."

Bart raises his empty hands.

"I misspoke, and I apologise."

"Accepted. Don't do it again."

"I won't."

Scalphunter nods, and spurs his horse to follow the guide, vanishing with the same ripple he did.

Bart hesitates, then for a moment looks back longingly at the trail they used to get here.

For a moment longer.

Then he gives his head a small shake and follows them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

January 8th, 1857
Midday

"Well that there looks like a wall."

Bart tried to cover up how relieved the idea that this whole thing wasn't going anywhere made him. Past the fairy trees lay a fairly steep incline, the sort of thing that could easily break a man's neck if he weren't riding real careful. The slope formed part of the edge of a pit, like someone pulled a plug out of the ground, or someone drilled a great borehole. There was a path around the rim, but if you missed it…

He tried to ignore the yellowing bones in the pool at the bottom. The one he caught a glimpse of before he pulled his eyes away looked like a deer, and if the local redskins knew not to come here that might be all there was.

But now they were as far down as the path went, and there was a solid-looking piece of stone projecting out of the stony root-bound soil.

"We come down in the wrong hole?"

He had some dynamite in his panniers… But he didn't think the redskins would want him blowing up their holy place, even if it was just a hole in the ground.

The guide took a pebble out of his belt pouch and tapped it against the rock surface, which melted and Bart found himself looking longingly back at the rim of the hole.

Scalphunter nods. "Magic. Strong magic."

"No." The guide put the stone back. "Nanofabricators."

Not magic? Bart frowned. What does that mean? 'Fabricate' comes from the Latin 'fabricationem', meaning building something. Nano… From 'nanos'? Dwarf? Put the two together and what do you get? A small building? Something small that builds? Alright, it wasn't a big hole that opened up, they'd have to lead the horses on foot, but-.

Hey now. How did a redskin know Latin?

Scalphunter frowns as the three of them dismount.

"Not magic?"

"It has been a long time since our tribe had a medicine man who could command spirits to make rock run like water. Even the greatest spells fade over time."

Bart shrugs as he followed them into the gloom.

"Alright, I'll bite. What the hell is a nanofabricator?"

Behind them, the rock… Grows back, putting them all in the dark for a moment before light starts shining down from somewhere near the stone roof. Bart takes a moment to peer up, but he can't tell exactly where it's coming from.

"Before men came to these lands, there was another, older people here before us. The Ancestor knew them while they lived here still."

"What did they call themselves?"

"The Ancestor taught us that they were called H'v'ler'ni. I have no record of what they called themselves."

That name didn't match any of the redskin languages Bart knew. And from the looks of it Scalphunter didn't recognise it either.

"What sort of people were they?"

"There are drawings here, if you want to see them. But it has been many generations, refreshed many times. I doubt that they show them as they are."

"What happened to them?"

"Disease. They met men who had diseases they had no knowledge of, and most of their civilisation died as a result."

Though there was no particular accusation in the man's voice, Bart couldn't help but think of what happened to every Indian tribe who ran into white men. Sure, he knew that Europeans used to throw rotting cow carcases over the walls during sieges to try and spread disease amongst their enemies so it wasn't like it was anything unique, but he'd seen whole redskin villages filled up with smallpox victims.

"And the rest?"

"Some fled. They may be a problem some day, but they will not be my problem. The rest changed themselves so that they would no longer be vulnerable to weaknesses of the body. Those are my problem. And if we are unfortunate, yours as well."

"We're already down here. Seems to me they're already our problem. And you haven't told me what a nanofabricator is yet."

"A machine. It makes very small things and puts them together. Rock is strong, but it is simple."

"Your tribe selling those?"

"It is part of the last H'v'ler'ni city. Their machines are more complex even than what the white men from Europe make. Even if it were possible to remove it, it would not be wise."

"Nice city." Bart taps the rock wall with his left hand. "Rocky."

"They destroyed the surface when they left. What is left is underground."

"And you want to keep people away?"

"We want to keep people away for now."

Scalphunter frowns. "What do you mean?"

"We want to keep people away because it's dangerous. Far more dangerous than anyone except the Ancestor could understand. But it was his expectation that eventually man would be strong and wise enough to cope with it. Once that day arrives, we will happily stand aside."

He bows his head as they come to the end of the corridor, the passage opening out into a cave-. No, that ain't no cave. The walls are perfectly flat, painted white and far too angular to be natural. Their guide leads his horse to a wooden stall that doesn't fit the location at all, and Bart and Scalphunter guide their own horses in next to it.

"Mister Duvall didn't exactly strike me as the patient type, but maybe you could work something out. How long were you figuring?"

"The Ancestor said about three hundred more years."

Bart winces. "Yeah, he ain't that patient. So, does he know this place is here?"

"As far as we know, he only knows that there is something in our territory and that some of the tribe know where it is."

"Explains the attacks. He's trying to get someone to come forward."

Scalphunter scowls a little more as their guide leads them further inside… And Bart realises that the man never actually gave them a name.

"It would be easier to kill him."

The guide shakes his head. "Others will have heard. In time, they will come. It is unfortunate."

Bart nods. "That's one way of putting it."

"For many generations, my tribe believed that if we increased our strength, we would be granted the full power of this place. We heard the Ancestor's tales of athletic competitions of Ancient Greece, so we trained our bodies as they did. We lifted weights, ran, practised wrestling, archery and sword fighting. And we did not understand when he told us that would never be enough." He looks back for a moment as they come into a new room. "And then we met the white man, and his muskets and rifles and cannons. Then, we understood."

"They had cannons?"

"They have weapons more powerful than yours by many times the difference between a rifle and a bow. But those are not the problem."

In the next room there's some sort of display case. Bart walks over to take a close l-.

"What the hell is that?"

The guide doesn't spare it a glance, walking over to a metal wall and tapping his stone against it once more.

"That is the head of the Martian that the Ancestor slew. This is the problem."

The metal sheet drops slowly into the floor, and Bart braces himself for whatever's got these people so scared.

Looks like… A small white… Barn, with red lanterns inside. Confused, he takes a step closer. What's so scary about a…

Barn.

Bart takes a moment to look at the huge white and red… Thing.

"That a statue?"

"Yes. That walks and fires rays from its eyes that can transfer the spirit of the dead H'v'ler'ni inside it into the body of anyone it can see. Now, it sleeps."

Bart tears his eyes away from it, and-. And gets an idea of the size of the thing by comparing it to the Indians standing on the ground in front of it and the gantries around it. It must be about a hundred feet tall.

Scalphunter appears to be taking it better.

"Your tribe must fight this if it awakens?"

The guide stares at him with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Hah hah! Fight it? No. If it awakens my tribe will do as the Ancestor said and flee to the four corners of the world to try to find him or another like him, someone who might be able to contain it and return it to sleep. We want to keep Mister Duvall away for the good of your people, for they are the ones who it will turn its rage upon once we have fled. So, for their sake."

Bart nods. A difficult task. And worse, no obvious way to make money from it. He needed more information.

"So what could someone do around here that wouldn't risk it waking up?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:32 GMT

"…believe that the collapse of Karrakanian civilisation was caused by the gods and not -as they claim- by the demigod descendants of Rhea amongst your own people?"

"Yes!"

With Thiva standing unhelmeted next to the non-Ascendant bridge crew, the physical difference between regular Karrakanians and Rhea's descendants like her is obvious. It's the difference between 'human with some reptilian characteristics' and 'actual reptilian alien'. She has a nose while they have nose ridges, her eyes are a little different… I suppose they must have told Athyns that he had an alien forebear.

"Do you have any physical evidence that you could show to me within a reasonable time span?"

Thiva takes a moment to master herself. "I.. do not. I was young when New Cronus left, and the destruction was so widespread that I… Doubt that anything survives."

I frown. "You don't know?"

"Sparta recovered me from the planet after the town where I lived was frozen. I was a little girl, and I don't think there were any other survivors. We couldn't live on the planet now."

"Would you go back if you had the tools to restore it?"

"That's-. We-."

A few of the bridge crew look mildly puzzled at the question. Thiva-.

"Wait, how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Ah-. I know any number of competent adolescents-."

"Karrakanians are adults at fifteen."

"Right, but they're not usually given ship command at that age. Who..?" I look around the other Karrakanians, but there aren't any obvious signs of high rank. "Has seniority here?"

None of them answer, a few awkwardly dropping their gaze.

"You." I point to one with a slightly nicer cuirass than the others. "What is your rank?"

"Steersman. I'm not one of the Ascendant."

"Only the Ascendant have officer rank?"

The steersman looks at Thiva for… Direction? Permission? She nods.

"Our divinity grants us insight that others lack."

Theocracy. No, deiocratic oligarchy. Authority comes from their relationship to Rhea, who… Apparently made quite a positive impression on their society, despite everything that happened. Or the current ruling coterie just made that the official line.

They all seem rational, though. I can't imagine soldiers from Earth being this… Polite, to someone who forced their ship to surrender.

"And the New God technology? Where did that come from?"

"New..? God? You mean the Ascendant?"

I take the sword out of subspace once more.

"I recognise the technology. The people of the planet Apokolips and the planet New Genesis use similar designs. Rhea wouldn't have been familiar with it, so either your people developed it independently or you copied it from them. And while I could understand a civilisation borne of a titan developing similar technology, it's too similar."

I pause.

"You're looking blank. The upgrades you've made since leaving Karrakan?"

"We implemented those at Sparta's behest. She designed them."

"Do you have the evidence to prove that to a disinterested party? Because while that may not be impossible it is pretty unlikely. I mean…"

I take a hologram generator out of subspace and project images of Canis, Scott Free and Grayven.

"See the armour layout? The tron lines? How they glow?"

Thiva hesitates, but-. Ah. I've told her something that can't be incorporated into her current worldview, and she's trying to come up with any reason to ignore or reject it.

"Yes, I… See the similarity. But there are only so many ways to design armour."

"The workshop where Sparta came up with these designs. Is it on this ship?"

"No."

"How about the boom tube generator?"

"You mean the wormhole device? No."

"Does your current surrender agreement cover telling me where they are?"

"No."

Obviously I could compel her, but the Geneva Conventions prohibit the use of mind control on prisoners. And I'd feel a bit bad about it without an imminent threat.

"Fair enough. Is this ship's drive still under power?"

Thiva and the steersman both look at the bridge's control systems. The steersman appears to reach a conclusion, but hesitates to report it before his mistress can.
Read The Auguries.
"Yes. Slowly and clumsily. Though I will have to remain on board to operate the divine technology."

"Then please do so. Also, render aid to any escape pods that you can. I'm going to return to New Cronus to try and negotiate a truce. I'm convinced that Sparta has been keeping pertinent information from you, and it appears that the closest place I can investigate further is wherever she is. I assume that she has a way to contact you to confirm my version of events?"

"Yes, she will be able to communicate with me."

"Then you have your directions. Carry on. Hellwraith, keep an eye on them."

I fly towards the nearest airlock, the location… Something about them surrendering to me made it… Easy to tell where things are on the ship. And its approximate state of repair. Not sure whether I'm piggybacking on Thiva's New God abilities due to me dominating her, or if I'm sufficiently New God-like to do it on my own. I'd guess the latter, but I don't have the evidence.

I do need to go home for a day or so to check up on things. I'll have Canis take a look at a few samples. Maybe… Not suggest that he visit. Though I think he would find my spiritual growth interesting.

That, or amusing.

Flying out of the airlock I see that the cruisers are tractoring their crippled companions into the area of space they've established control over. They don't appear to be making any move to board and liberate the battleship, though if they have really deployed all of their Ascendants then they may not be able to.

Wait. I didn't feel the battleship getting shot, and we're… Definitely within the field of fire on the gun Theia was occupying. Why didn't she shoot?

Concerning. I angle my body and fly towards it at top speed.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:35 GMT

O-oh-h.

The heavy gun appears to be in one piece, but the bodies around it definitely aren't. Presumably, the attackers rerouted some of their forces here after their cruiser was hit. The… Defenders, have sunburst insignias, so I assume that they were Thia's bodyguard. The goddess herself isn't here. I'm trying to work out who won based on the position of the dead, but… I can tell who was attacking and who was defending…

Okay, defender corpses around the gun control booth would suggest that they were overrun. That's… Not what I'm seeing, but there… Are bodies which appear to have been shot from multiple directions, but that just means that they were flanked.

"Illustres to Lord Coeus. Please respond."

…

Any wounded? Doesn't… Look like it. Closest ongoing combat?

Located.

The gun appears to still be in working order, some minor cosmetic damage aside. But with the battleship in retreat on my order and the cruisers over the horizon there's no point in manning it.

"Illustres to Melinoë?"

I lift off the ground, forming a positron projector construct and a railgun construct. Missiles didn't seem to be a part of their arsenal so I skip flak. And… I release my remaining Construct Lanterns.

While assimilating them was the correct tactical decision, their blank staring eyes and general listlessness make these ones unnerving to be around. I'm still not entirely certain whether Construct Lanterns retain any sense of self normally, but these… People, had next to none when the Reach threw them at me. But seeing them as Construct Lanterns make it look like it was me who did that to them and not the Reach, even to me.

But with no idea where the gods are and with no authority to command their forces, I need some backup.

"Spread out, watch for attackers."

"Yes dominus."

They all say it as one. I didn't teach them that. I didn't want them to do that. Which means that's a response the Reach gave them.

I hope.

They fly off in all directions, while I head towards the closest fire fight. My objective now is a little different. I need to take one of the attackers alive, preferably an Ascendant. I'm fairly confident that Sparta is lying to the others… Assuming that Thiva was telling me the truth, and I can't think of any reason for her not to be.

Still don't know what actually happened on Karrakan. I think that whatever happens here I should try and find out. Thiva seemed earnest, but I think I'll want to get to know her a little better before giving her a power ring.

Hm. Maybe I should put Lord Malvolio in touch with Carol Ferris -14? From the sounds of it the organisation of green power ring users he's planning has more in common with her order of roving knights than the super police of the Green Lantern Corps. At the very least, hearing about another worked example will help him clarify his thoughts.

Movement up ahead. Defenders, retreating in a speedy but orderly manner and hunkering down. I drop to ground level and stand in the open to allow them to see me. We're on the rear of the upper crescent here, effectively a series of platforms and promontories build into the remaining moon rock. The defenders are retreating 'up' and 'back', away from the main habitation areas on the inside of the crescent. If that's replicated all over New Cronus it would suggest that we're in trouble, but the main point of the attackers' ingress is 'down' so it's hardly surprising that some soldiers retreated away from there if they were getting overrun.

"Khairete!"

Because I have actually been learning Themysciran Ancient Greek, even if they laugh at my accent. I don't want to have to wander the streets in someone else's trousers again.

The closest three fall prone, long arms immediately pointing at me. But they don't fire, which is a good sign for their discipline and the prospect of future cooperation.

"I'm the ambassador of the Orange Lantern Corps. I also dealt with that battleship."

One soldier glances at one of the other, while the third keeps his eyes and weapon on me.

"We were told that you were fighting."

"I have received information which suggests that the leader of the attackers is lying to her followers. If I can speak to them, that might be enough to persuade them to break off."

There's a hesitation, then they climb to their feet and point their guns in the opposite direction as more soldiers approach.

"How's it going?"

"We wouldn't be up here if it was going well."

"Yes, I spotted that. The surviving crew of the battleship said that they deployed most of their demigods to New Cronus."

They straighten slightly.

"It is a relief to know that we were not bested by normal soldiers."

"Weapons and armour with glowing lines all along them?" A nod. "Yes, that's them. Someone's giving them New God weapons, but Sparta's been telling them she invented them and they're all so devout that they accept it as a matter of faith."

"Does it matter where they come from?"

"It matters that she's lying to her followers. And it matters to me because there's a New God called Grayven active in the Reach warzone, and the New Gods of Apokolips are the enemies of everyone."

"They're not our enemies."

"Their ruler wants to remove the capacity for mental independence from all other beings in the universe. That makes them your enemies whether you know them or not."

"That's possible?"

"He thinks so. I'd rather not assume not and be proven wrong."

More soldiers, some wounded and supported by others. Walking wounded only. That could be because the weapons they use are so lethal that major wounds are always fatal, or because they abandoned them.

And then I see Athyns. A few scratches and scorch marks on his armour, but he doesn't look seriously injured.

"Athyns!"

"Lantern!" He checks his environment before walking over to me. "The battle in space is over?"

"The cruisers are pulling back and the battleship is my war prize. Unfortunately, Sparta-."

"Already boarded." He nods. "I saw her before we pulled out. Lord Hyperion charged in to fight her."

"Either way, we still need to fight. Do you have an overview?"

"The last I heard, there was fighting all across the residential areas. Their hold of the launch bays is uncontested. Where is Lady Thia?"

"Don't know. Some of her guard were dead, but I didn't see any sign of her. Or any survivors."

He grimaces. "Unfortunate. Then we-."

"Commander Athyns! Contact!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:38 GMT

Athyns and I both head towards the forward edge of the defenders' position.

"Sorry to spring this on you." I take the sword out of subspace and offer it to him. "But you might find this helpful."

"A war-prize?"

"Their technology. The gods told me that you are a descendent of Rhea yourself, so you should be able to use it."

"I… Had suspected, but-."

The soldiers at the edge of our position open fire. Athyns ducks slightly, then takes the sword and hefts it.

"If it helps with their damnable personal shields then I will take it."

"Good show."

I shoot into the air, immediately drawing fire from the attackers' advanced party. Nothing particularly troubling. They all seem to be equipped as light infantry, and their weapons have nothing like the power needed to meaningfully damage my shields. I generate a draconic claw construct and send it downwards, grabbing the closest and pulling him into the air. He struggles for a moment, then prepares for death.

Admirable.

"Hello. I'd like to arrange a parlay. Who do I need to speak to in order to do that?"

"There will be no parlay with the servants of the parasites!"

"Now, are you informing me of policy there, or are you just talking me down? Has Sparta ordered no parlay with anyone?"

He hesitates.

"No, the-. The false gods are condemned, but she-. She has not made any decree on the fate of their servants."

"Then, surely, from your point of view… Is it not reasonable to grant pardon to the slaves of the false gods, who serve them because they know no other life?"

"I-. Who are you?"

"I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Not one of the false gods you're here to fight, though that's sort of happened anyway. If you could send a message to your commanding officer?"

"The false gods still stand! Their soldiers still fight!"

"If you don't negotiate with them, they'll be forced to fight to the last. They will kill more of your side than they would otherwise. I don't see how that's advantageous."

I smile broadly.

"Would you please explain it to me?"

"I… I don't think that they would surrender…"

"You have the authority to make that determination?"

"No! But-. Ah, I can.. contact my squad leader?"

"Why are you asking my permission? I'm your enemy."

He reaches around the construct talons and taps his neck. "Primus. One of the fa-. Um, defenders, is requesting a parlay. Is there-?"

He pauses, and I don't listen in to the other half of the conversation.

"No, they're still resisting." I glance down. The scouting party is fanning out to form a containment perimeter, but not advancing. I'm not sure that Athyns' party could attack. "Because… Most of them are Karrakanian. If they hear the truth of the Ascendants-. Ah, of course, but are there… No conditions..? Yes, but I'm uninjured and he makes… A good point. We are all Rhea's people, and this is-."

There's a longer pause.

"Thank you, Primus." He looks directly at me. "My Primus will speak with you and the leader of the-. The soldiers below us. Just the two of you."

"Can your Primus order a wider ceasefire?"

"No, but he can take you to an Ascendant who can, if he thinks that it is worthwhile."

"Can't say fairer than that. And in the meanwhile?"

"Our soldiers will not attack if yours do the same, and will not advance further if yours do not retreat."

"Accepted."

I descend at speed, swapping the construct claw for a simple tether. Athyns readies his sword and two other defenders point their guns at us as I return to ground level.

"Good news; they've agreed to parlay."

My prisoner stares at Athyns' face in clear shock. Athyns merely frowns back.

"And that is good?"

"While these things can't always be settled through reasoned debate, one of the most important rules of warfare where I'm from is that both sides should openly state what they're trying to achieve. Aside from anything else, it encourages seeing the people you're killing as people, and not as some faceless manifestation of an abstract principle. Also."

I take a couple of purple healing ray devices out of subspace and thrust them at the soldiers acting as medical orderlies.

"Universal healing rays. Patch your soldiers up."

My 'prisoner' looks shocked. "That-."

"Is a technology that I will be happy to share upon the cessation of hostilities, but I am on the opposing side at the moment."

"It's… Yes. I can.. lead you to my Primus. You'll need to stow your weapons."

I dismiss my construct guns, while Athyns awkwardly holds the sword-.

I fabricate him a sheath and pass it over, and he sheathes the sword and attaches the sheath to his equipment harness.

"Adequate?"

He points to the tether and I remove that as well. Then he nods. "This way."

We follow up out of the area Athyns' soldiers are hunkering down in, out into an area where the attackers' scouts have a clear view of us. No shots, though they peer out only cautiously, checking that their colleague is alive and well. One nods and waves us onwards before getting back into full cover.

"I don't suppose that you took armour as a prize as well?"

"Sorry. I feel a little off about stripping corpses. I mean, if you try and kill me with something then you've got no right to complain if I keep it, but taking someone's clothes seems unsavoury."

We're led through sensor domes and shield generators and past the bodies of the fallen. Gradually we begin seeing more of the attackers' soldiers. No vehicles or Ascendants, but they're clearly mustering. A few have wounds or other battle damage, but the advantage of advancing is that you can gather your wounded somewhere safe.

A soldier with gold stripes on his armour is giving orders to a few without, but looks around as we approach. He takes a moment to look us over, then dismisses our escort with a gesture.

"I am the Primus of this cohort. What are you?"

"I am Athyns, commander of the New Cronus garrison."

"Is that high?"

"I report directly to the gods."

The Primus snorts contemptuously.

"Haven't you heard, commander? The gods are dead."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:42 GMT

My right gauntlet covers the grip of Athyns' sword just before he can grab it.

"When you say 'dead'..?"

The Primus spots that, and makes a point of staring into Athyns' eyes. "Slain. They are no more. Their perfidious reign is at an end and their stolen magic in the rightful hands of the Ascendants."

"And my diplomatic party?"

"I don't know." The Primus moves his gaze from Athyns to me. "If they fought, they're probably dead as well. If not… We weren't here for them."

Athyns moves his hand away from his sword, so I return the favour.

"Could you get in contact with someone higher up the chain of command and get us an audience? If the gods are dead, that leaves Athyns as the highest ranking officer. He can order a ceasefire."

"And what of you?"

"If the people who asked me here are dead, then I'll probably take my party and leave. Unless Sparta invites me to stay, in which case I imagine that I'll be doing the same thing that I was before."

The Primus regards us both for a moment, then steps back.

"Guard them while I consult the Ascendant."

Four of the invaders' soldiers gather a little closer with their guns at the ready, though not actually pointed at us. The Primus checks their position and then turns and walks away, moving out of our line of sight a moment later.

Internal only.

Compliance.

"Illustres to Construct Lanterns. Prioritise locating Melinoë, Aporia and Gaudia. Make no effort to avoid detection."

"Yes dominus."

Athyns leans a little closer, and I reactivate external speakers.

"If this is no trick, I do not know that I can command the garrison to stand down. We are faithful to the gods, Rhea's anointed. Simply telling them-"

"You could still give the order, couldn't you?"

"I don't know. To know that a monster… Held the seeds bestowed upon-."

"You could give the order?"

He hesitates.

"You merely want an audience. Sparta the Mad, along with as many other demigods as possible when you reveal her deceit."

"And don't overlook the value of a long term strategy. Convince them that you're converted, then stab them in the back once you have their confidence. At this point I don't think that further direct overt resistance is likely to do anything but get the rest of your soldiers killed."

He bows his head slightly, his eyes narrowing.

"I will bite my tongue."

"I appreciate that." I step away from him, moving towards one of our escorts. "So what's the endgame here? You capture New Cronus, kill the gods and take their seeds, and… Profit?"

"Then Sparta enacts Rhea's design for our world using the power the parasites stole."

"'Our world' being Karrakan?"

"Of course. It will become a paradise, unified under the Ascendant."

"So you don't have any particular designs for this world?"

There's a slight pause as he considers me.

"No? Why would we?"

Hm. Would that work? I want to say 'no'. I don't see how partial repositories of the titans' power would do more than the personal presence of a titan. Not on a world with a weak thaumosphere. Okay, but how could it-? Could they use Essence of Titan to bring the Dream… Closer? To invigorate the thaumosphere? Sure, giving people power doesn't fix problems and I'm sure that if Rhea knew how to do that then she would have done it herself-. If she wanted to.

So… Her demigod children and grandchildren run rampant over however many years, and she… Gives up on the idea?

No. No one has said anything about the demigods helping her get the seeds. She had the seeds all that time. And it doesn't sound as if she were focused on something, otherwise the fighting wouldn't have happened. As.. suming that it did happen. Need to check that.

"How long have the Ascendant been unified for?"

"Since Sparta unified them over the wreck of our world."

"And the world was wrecked by..?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I'm trying to understand what led us to this position. Surely such a well-established matter of historical fact is not a secret? It's… Simply that as an alien I'm ignorant of it. I'm sure that a brief lesson in the dogma of your faith will make my eventual discussion with Sparta go much easier."

And the more claims to historical fact I can check, the better.

"Karrakan was ravaged as a result of the false gods stealing Rhea's power. Without her direction there was nothing unifying the Ascendants, no great plan to guide them. The proximate cause of the destruction was their attempts to realise her goal without her wisdom, but the ultimate cause was the parasites' murder of Rhea. The destructive chaos continued until Sparta established her rule, in Rhea's name."

"So the Ascendant aren't without faults?"

"No being is. But they are closer to Rhea's divinity. Their divine power allows them to discern her aims better than we mortals."

"Her aim being?"

"To make Karrakan a paradise in the material universe, ordered by the Ascendants, under her governance."

"Did she say this herself?"

"It's self-evident."

Something else Sparta made up, then. But okay, I've got some idea of what their ideology is. Given the impression that I've got of the state of Karrakan, it shouldn't be too difficult for Sparta to show some improvement with the added power of the seeds. And that should keep the faithful happy for a while. Let a generation of faithful Ascendants grow up being conditioned to be properly goodthinkful, set them to work…

That could work. But it requires her to actually be able to do something with the seeds.

"And now that Rhea is-."

The Primus walks back into sight.

"Ambassador. 'Commander'. Sparta has agreed to meet with you. To the throne room, now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:43 GMT

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique! Where everything is oh it's you."

Rarity regards me for a moment as I stand just inside the door of her establishment.

"Good morning."

"I'm not certain that I would go that.. far."

She takes a slow breath in through her mouth, then snorts it out through her nostrils.

"Mister Grayven. Are you interested in a dress?"

"I don't think you've got anything in my size. Look-."

"Then do you have some reason for being here? Satisfying as putting you in that ridiculous costume was, I do not want to give you the impression that I enjoy your presence."

"Don't blame me for the fact that you can't make bad clothes even when you're trying to. And don't expect me to apologise for informing the authorities of the crimes you committed against Equestria's laws. This is about normalising relations between us."

"Hm." She trots out fully from her kitchen onto the shop floor. "How did your meeting go? Did your brother at least comment on your apparel?"

"Sorry, no. I think he's got even less taste than I do."

"So? Do you have some other meeting you wish for me to try and fail to mis-dress you?"

I bend my legs, laying down on my chest so that my head is closer to her eye-level.

"I heard about Canterlot."

Her head tilts slightly to the right.

"I'm not sure how my Canterlot boutique is of any interest to you."

"Luna's been helping me with this whole 'Making Peace With The Bearerherd' thing. Which means that if someone were to write a letter about learning a friendship lesson, it might find its way into my hooves." I frown. "Not that I've gotten the hang of holding things with my hooves, or… Any other part of my body. But… I understood that you had a personnel problem, and I though-."

"If you read the letter then you know perfectly well that it was resolved."

"Right, and you learned a lesson about politely asserting yourself or whatever. But I'm not sure that you considered the underlying reasons why it happened. Now, my special talent is conquest; the creation, domination and administration of a realm. And because I've been advising Luna, I'm starting to get an itch on the haunches when-"

Rarity moues in distaste at my crassness.

"-something's not right in Equestria. You don't have to accept my help, or listen to me, but I thought that I'd offer."

"Might that assistance explain why Applejack hired extra farmhooves during this year's cider season?"

"Eh, that was half me, half her having the wisdom to overcome her own stubbornness."

"And you feel that you have something to offer moi on the subject of staffing?"

"No, it's…" I widen my eyes slightly, looking directly at her. "So you want to hear this?"

"I am planning on expanding my franchise across Equestria." She rubs her chin with her right frog. "I suppose that it wouldn't hurt to listen to you."

"Right. See, I don't think you've really thought this whole thing through. Why do you even want these shops?"

She gives me a mild frown. "Bou-tiques."

"I'll compromise at 'fancy shops'."

Her head tilts slightly to the right. "Is this something to do with your unfortunate mispronunciation of the word 'ennui' during your conversation with Rainbow Dash during the party after Sunset Shimmer's ascension?"

She heard about that.

"… No."

"It's very simple." She leans forwards. "Boo-teek."

"We can go with 'drapers' if you prefer?"

"I suppose I'll live with it. And I want them because I want to spread fabulosity-"

"That's not a word."

"-across Equestria and yes it is."

"Alright, let me be blunt. Your special talent is discovering hidden beauty, and you bring it out using bespoke dresses. Yes?"

"That's… Essentially correct. But not all the dresses I make are bespoke." She looks around at the wards on display. "Many are just… Waiting for the right subject."

"Right, see, that was my first thought when I heard about the whole 'Princess Dress' debacle. Are you really making all of the dresses for both shops?"

"But of course. As you pointed out, that is what I do."

"And when one dress got ludicrously popular, and Sassy Saddles did her job as shop manager and tried to maximise profits by getting more and selling them, and you were her one source of the dress…"

"I stopped making it, because on a lot of those ponies it looked-." Another moue. "Not… Hideous, but it wasn't their colour or style."

"And you were overworked. Rarity, expanding will make even greater demands on your time, making dresses for remote stores to be worn by ponies you will never meet. And as long as you're the sole source… There's no other way to do it. There are only so many dresses a single pony can make. Did you like that sort of crunch?"

"No! I-. Suppose… Not?"

"So the whole plan of 'a Rarity fancy shop in every city' isn't at all viable. You would work yourself to death and the shelves would still be empty."

"That's… A concern." She sits on her haunches, looking slightly uncertain. "What do you suggest?"

"Depends what you want to do with your life. Because this whole thing is about building the mechanism to make you happy. You can have a fancy shop in every city, but you'll have to do what I persuaded Applejack to do and get other ponies to pitch in with making the product. You do the original dress and work out a pattern, and ponies with special talents relating to manufacturing do the actual stitching. That way you can scale up production to meet demand while keeping your own focus on the creative side where you excel."

"But I wouldn't meet the ponies who would wear my creations."

"Are you meeting the Canterlot ponies now?"

"But… Fittings."

"Fittings can be performed by technically skilled but inspiration poor seamstresses who aren't you. That's not a creative exercise. But if that doesn't appeal, there's the opposite option."

"Ug-h-. Which is?"

"Focus on a smaller number of clients. Keep the shop-."

"Bouti-."

"Fancy shop in Canterlot as advertising, only now the general issue dresses are a lure for your customers rather than the primary product. What you're selling is your expertise; persuade individual ponies to come in for a wardrobe consultation and provide them with a whole range of clothes which suit them perfectly."

"That's… A little more my style, but… Just Canterlot?"

"No, of course not. There aren't that many ponies who could afford such a service. You could keep your Ponyville fancy shop going as you do now, and just change the way you handled the… Next level of things. If successful, your name will be famous through the high society of Equestria… And virtually unknown outside of it."

"I… Don't suppose there's a half way option. Is there?"

I scrunch my nose.

"If you want to be sensible. Hire two people per sto-. Fancy shop. One focuses on sales, the other sews your patterns. You advertise a bespoke service, but it's not a focus and you generally do it for individual garments rather than whole wardrobes. You send up new dresses to see what sells, and the more popular ones become part of the standard range at the behest of the salespony. Yes, they won't really be ideal for everyone, but it's their money and the personal service is available if they want it."

"Hmmm. I suppose that you can lead a pony to water but it's up to them whether they drink or not."

"Now we need sales data."

BOOM!

"Let's go and talk to Ms. Saddles."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:51 GMT

We're escorted at walking pace through the interior of New Cronus. Burn marks, battle damage, broken bodies and blood are on display throughout the route of the attackers' advance, their own dead being tided up for eventual removal and final disposition. The dead of the defenders are mostly left where they fell, except where that left them in the way. Then they have been dragged aside and dumped.

That one has a wound-. They fell, were dragged and found to still be alive and they received a coup de grâce shot to the head.

Athyns' fists clench as he notices.

Heavy doors open in front of us and we emerge onto one of the upper gantries overlooking the launch bay. The cruiser is still attached to the entrance, blocking the view of space while giving an excellent view of its guns. Three are pointed in our direction, and while I'm confident that I could block them I'm pretty sure that would kill Athyns.

Below on the deck, the attackers have set up an ersatz medical bay. Their wounded are laid out on beds, medics treating their wounds while new arrivals are seen by a New God in glowing overalls. Some… I can't see any wounds. Some sort of stun effect? If they got hit with some sort of neural shock device but the attackers were pushed back, that's certainly possible.

"Here." The lead of our escort points to the open cargo entrance of a small cargo hauler. "We will fly around the exterior, that you might know the hopelessness of your position."

So. Confident of their control of the exterior, but less sure about the interior. That portion of the exterior, anyway. That's still worrying, because there were a lot of soldiers with Oceanus Junior. And… Oceanus himself, of course. Though I suppose that they might simply have retreated inwards or around the outer hull.

"My position is seldom hopeless." I step aboard and then turn. "But an overview-."

"Wait!" At One With My Mission.

Our escorts stop, and Athyns frowns as he turns to look along the gantry. The New God I saw a moment ago has left his patients and is heading up to us on a cargo lift.

"Hold!" The New God jumps up and heads towards us at a jog. "You, Lantern."

"Me, Lantern."

One of our escort steps towards him as he comes towards us.

"My lord, we are ordered-."

The Ascendant gestures with his right hand, and the soldier stops talking. Yes, that's the problem with deifying your leaders. There's nothing to stop them silencing you, even when you know something that they don't.

"Can I help you?"

He comes to a halt, hands hidden in voluminous sleeves. "Our soldiers in comas. Your doing?"

"I've been outside, fighting your starships. I haven't deliberately put anyone I've fought into a coma."

I take a look down towards… Spikes of yellow from the fear-filled dreams that Melinoë has given them.

"It wasn't the false gods or their-" A glance at Athyns. "-slaves. You are the only variable that remains unaccounted for."

"Oh, not true. There's-."

"Lord, Sparta herself has ordered us to take them to her."

"Then board. We will continue this while we travel."

Athyns and the guards climb in, Athyns taking position opposite me near the loading entrance. The Ascendant gets in last, standing between us as the transport lifts off -good inertia controls, I barely feel a thing- and flies into the cruiser's shuttle bay and then out into local space.

Good job I don't get motion sick any more.

"What is causing it?" Divine The Source.

"I suspect that it's one of my colleagues. Melinoë, Goddess of Nightmares and Madness. But since I was told that all of the gods are dead, there's probably nothing that can be done for them."

"How?" Divine Discipline Domin-.

"I can't exactly hear what you're doing, but we have a ceasefire. Keep violating it by trying to alter my behaviour and I'll assume that it's off."

He takes a half-step away, eyes widening.

Athyns shakes his head. "He said nothing of consequence."

"You.. heard-?"

"Yes, I am a demigod. A descendant of Rhea. This doesn't mean that I would go along with that insane-."

"Not… Helpful, Athyns. And the broad outline of the plan seemed sound to me, if the justification was… Reaching a little. But as for your soldiers, anyone Melinoë strikes ends up like that. As far as I know, if she's dead, that's it. Getting them out of it would require her or another nightmare deity." I'd raise my eyebrows but I'm wearing a full face helmet. "Do you have one?"

"No. But once Sparta takes Rhea's full power into herself, it won't matter. She will be able to do it herself."

…

Will she now?

I take a moment to look out of the hatch and I can see that the invaders do indeed have control of this portion of the surface. I can't see any fighting, so either both sides are hunkering down or it's going on inside. I can see patrols and guards around the remaining surface guns.

"So how's that going to work? Rhea created the gods to be compatible with her siblings' power."

"The mechanism by which it will occur is not my concern. But if healing my people requires this 'Melinoë's' assistance, then I will try to ensure that she is kept alive."

"Appreciated."

We land without a bump, smoothly sliding up to the same landing I left by at the start of the engagement.

"Though if any of them die while-."

"People die in combat. If you want them all unharmed, you can always leave. Or just have never come."

"I can do neither."

I step off, Athyns and the guards and the Ascendant following us.

"If it changes your answer, it works on gods, too."

No fighting here, as far as I can see. Either that, or they cleared the way with more thoroughness than they did their landing zone. Coeus might have retreated from the bridge if he could see that he was going to be overrun-.

Then the doors to the bridge open and I see Sparta, her Ascendant bodyguards, the recumbent forms of the gods and the Seeds floating around her. The physician escorts us in and the mortal guards form up to guard the door, which closes behind us.

The Seeds shimmer as Sparta stands, glowering at me as she takes a single step in my direction.

"I win."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
20:56 GMT

Sparta herself isn't actually all that physically imposing. About one metre eighty tall and… Moderately muscular. Clearly fit, but thin like a marathon runner rather than bulky like a weight lifter. Nothing particularly special about her armour: standard New God gear with the addition of a plumed helmet.

But…

I used to read a comic called Erfworld. It was set inside a wargame, where a selection of 'divine' artefacts were drawn as computer generated 3D models while the rest of the art was 2D.

That's what looking at her feels like. And I don't know… Why.

Athyns freezes as he sees his gods in their weakened… No, dead, state. Some of them are wounded -Thia and Oceanus in particular look like they've been in the wars- but the others are more like Phoebe. Some sort of… Assassination? None of the other Ascendants in attendance appear to be equipped with tools of assassination, and I'm not seeing any Mother Boxes.

"Lady Sparta. Or.. is there some other form of address you prefer?"

"Sparta. Just Sparta." Complete In Myself.

"Sparta, then. I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. The… Late owners of the facility invited me here to disarm certain devices left here by the previous-."

"I know why you are here. You are to remove the Maltusian weapons from beneath the planet's surface."

"True enough."

"They are now mine." What I Have I Will Hold.

I shrug. "We've been without them for a billion years. I'm sure we can cope. May I enquire what you intend to-?"

"No, you may not. And you, Athyns."

"S-parta."

"You will command the garrison to stand down." Kneel Before Your Goddess!

"Why would I do that?" "No."

All of the Ascendants in the room other than Sparta reach for their weapons.

"Perhaps if we could go over your political objectives, that would help us-."

"Because your gods are dead, and if you do not then your soldiers and you will join them." Kneel To ME!

"I am willing to negotiate a surrender. I will not kneel to you. Unlike these-" he looks around at the attendant New Gods. "-children, I remember the limits of the responsibilities Rhea gave y-."

"You WILL NOT SPEAK HER NAME TO ME!"

Flames flare along her outside, darkness pools at her feet and I feel… Telepathic-. No, mental magic pressure even through my defences. Okay, link my tattoos to the area between my body and my armour…

Ah. A little better.

So, she can use the power from the Seeds… At least a little. Or… Okay, she knew Rhea, or… Was working directly under Rhea when whatever happened happened. That might explain how she had access to ships and wasn't directly involved…

Why hasn't she disintegrated the gods' bodies?

I mean, she clearly hates them. They haven't had their wounds cleaned up in the way that I -as someone familiar with Hellenistic funeral rites- would expect if they were going to be respectfully interred. They're on display, but I doubt that she arranged them like this for my benefit. She was doing this anyway.

If Rhea was planning on doing something with Karrakan, why didn't she do it earlier? Was she just letting it develop by itself? No. She was having sex with the locals and allowing her descendants to have the run of the place. That's not something someone trying to stay above it all would do.

Did she want to rule personally? No, nothing in the stories the Amazons tell of her suggests that she had any desire for personal political power. She is considered admirable for defying Cronus to protect Zeus and causing the events leading to his overthrow, but she turned Zeus down when he wanted to make her his mother-wife and queen. And I haven't heard anything about Rhea being a temporal ruler.

Okay. The Seeds are fragments of her siblings. Which might well mean that she couldn't use them, because she has her own titanic magic which wouldn't be compatible with theirs. So-.

Was the point of the demigods… Was she trying to breed descendants who could use them? Because if so, she appears to have succeeded in Sparta.

But she knew Sparta. So… Presumably she knew that. Or didn't care.

Oh. She didn't just create the gods using the Seeds; they were created specifically to enable their use. If the gods are to be believed, because the demigods were making such a mess that they were required. If they're not… No, the Ascendant side hasn't offered an alternate explanation as to why Rhea created the gods. They just claim that they killed her afterwards. Which is possible, but I'm not seeing a motive.

But the gods didn't try fixing Karrakan. Instead, they piloted the moon away to start again somewhere else. So it's not just about power. Anyone with access to New God technology can geoform a world without -for example- sun magic or mind magic. It's about political authority. A demonstration of power.

"I will speak the name of my mistress whenever-."

"Do you want a power ring?"

Sparta looks mildly confused as she tears her attention away from squaring up against Athyns.

"You could probably fix Karrakan a lot easier. Seriously, I reglaciated my planet's poles and cleaned up our oceans in a few weeks. Given how well motivated you are, I'm happy to either give one to you or lend one to you. Heck, I'm even happy to help out myself."

"You-?" She frowns. "Why?"

"I find that helping people with their problems makes them favourably inclined towards you. And I am interested in your technology."

I take the spear out of subspace, point pointing at the floor and orange strands connecting me to its tron lines.

"New God, right? I haven't really had a chance to use it much before -and I've never really been a spear-man- but this just feels natural. Is this how all your equipment works?"

"We call ourselves Ascendants."

"Right, and that helps distinguish you from the people from New Genesis-"

No particular reaction.

"-and Apokolips."

That got a slight intake of breath. Good show.

"So while I am interested in who your supplier is-"

I deploy a hologram generator and have it create images of the various New Gods I've met, with particular emphasis on their equipment.

"-for your equipment, I'm mostly interested in studying it myself rather than acting against them. Are you willing to put me in touch?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:00 GMT

"What is this nonsense?"

"Nonsense?"

"Were these images shown to you by the parasites?"

"No, I recorded them in person on Earth -or as I like to call it, 'Hard Mode'- while… Well, that one of Scott Free-"

I make the image pulse.

"-and Big Barda was taken not long after we first met, and that one of Canis was when he broke into an art gallery with a hostage because he couldn't resist the opportunity to study alien art, and… That's the guy they sent to assassinate him. Did you find an example of their technology somewhere and innovate based on it?"

Almost certainly not, as the machinery that would be required to do that is significantly more advanced than any of the non-New God stuff I've seen either Karrakanian faction use. But I want to give her a face-saving out, just in case she's amenable to negotiat-.

"Lies."

Of course.

"If you don't believe me, we can just pay them a visit. You have a boom tube generator, I have the spatial coordinates. Or you could restore my ring's long-range communications and I can get one of Earth's many Lanterns to put them on? Look, I can understand if you want to keep it quiet, but one way or another your conflict is getting resolved here. The local team aren't in any condition to-"
Stupefied By My Splendour.
A blue and black aura spikes around Sparta's head and her bodyguards stumble backwards, their eyes growing vacant. Athyns stumbles and half-collapses backwards.
**Fall.**
"-take advantage…"
**Fall.**
I can feel her, the mental pressure she's… Bringing to bear. I'm not staggering because my armour's motive control isn't letting me.

Ugh.

Sparta… Closer. Floating… Balls…

"You shouldn't be able to resist, alien. Is there a god in your ancestry as well?"

Balls. Last time… Neural chaff. This time… Ball.

"I will simply have to risk making an enemy of the Orange Lanterns. I cannot have anyone knowing that I'm depending on another."

Recording?

Confirmed.

Sparta raises her right hand, bright glow.

"I will ensure that you receive the proper rites."

I can feel the balls.

My balls. Our balls.

"Whu-?"

Strands of orange leap from my spear, binding themselves to each of the Seeds. Sparta slashes at a strand with her claw of solar plasma and… Ah, I cause it to cool and dissipate as an act of will.

"I'm a thaumovore with an orange power ring. I've been feeding on the energies of your Ascendants ever since this fight started."

Let's see… That one belongs to Crius. And remove the mental paralysis from Athyns-

"Ah!"

"I've been adding your magic to my soul. Effectively, I'm-"
Separate!
The deck buckles as Sparta draws on the power of Themis to reshape the rock of New Cronus, and then quietens as I use that same power to resist.

"-you. Any chance we could settle this like civilised beings?"

"Guards!" "Awaken!"

Her somewhat stunned bodyguards blink, eyes widening as they see their leader and some orange rando in combat.

She's not going to take the gracious way out. And I can't put her guards back to sleep now that she's trying to keep them awake. We've got about a half-share of the orbs each.

But I'm piggybacking on her access, and she wasn't designed to use the Seeds.

I swing the butt of my spear to strike the Ascendant closest to me on my left, and Athyns doesn't bother drawing a weapon as he tackles the not-quite-with-it Ascendant with the axe to my right.

"Kill them!" "Die!"

I feel… Whatever she just tried to do pass over me with no effect, but Athyns loses his grip and his target manages to strike a glancing blow to his head, forcing him off them.

Ring, play the recording, loudly.

Compliance.

"Look, I can understand if you want to keep it quiet, but one way or another your conflict…"

The Ascendants snap from planning to rush us to a cautious guard, watching the image for an attack. But that makes them see when Sparta stunned them, and-

"I will simply have to risk making an enemy of the Orange Lanterns. I cannot have anyone knowing that I'm depending on another."

-there's the confession. They know that they felt weird there, and Sparta can't edit their memories further with me in partial control.

"Who are you depending on, Sparta? You may as well tell us."

"It's just an illusion!" Your Queen Commands!

I feel the pressure of her spiritual force, stabbing the 'bloke wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope wandering around a hospital is fine' buttons in my brain. No, that's not how logic works!

Argument From Authority Fallacy.

Athyns' opponent shoves him back but doesn't follow up, staring with concern at the hologram. I set it to play on loop.

"You know things got a bit strange there for a moment. That's what happened. Sparta is lying to you; maybe not about everything, but definitely about where the weapons and armour you're using come from. You're supposed to be her chief agents, the next step down in the feudal pyramid. And she's keeping something like that from you, and trying to wipe your minds when I tell you."

"I don't really care who wins this internal Karrakanian religious dispute, but it seems to me that it's hard to make good decisions without accurate information, whatever your inclinations."

"Sparta?" The Ascendant physician who followed us in turns his head slightly towards her, while still keeping me in their visual field. "What is this?"

"I kept this from you because there are things it is best that you not know! And now this alien-."

"NO!" The Ascendant tears his helmet off and throws it at her feet. He's… Not very old. "I have killed thirty four Karrakanians today, and a dozen aliens! Our world was ruined by the Ascendant just.. fighting for their own interest! I follow you because you said that you had a better way, and now you tell me that you were lying too?!"

The other Ascendants shift slightly. They are deeply unhappy, and if Sparta's got any sense-.

BOOM!

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:03 GMT

"Please, don't. That's not going to-."

Sparta leaps backwards, sailing into the opening boom tube aperture. I dart forward, but I'm not exactly sure what happens if you're part-way into a boom tube when it shuts down and I hesitate for long enough for it to close without me.

And… Half. She managed to take half of the Seeds with her. My own connection frays a moment later since I no longer have a connection to them via her. Athyns moves to pick them up but I hold up a right hand to stop him. The Ascendants aren't following Sparta's order to kill us, but they're not exactly happy with the situation and I think they might revert to default if we don't handle this extremely carefully.

"Do any of you know where she went?"

The physician shakes his head, staring at the space where she disappeared.

"No. I didn't even know those could be made small enough for one person. We-. We landed troops in the face of your strongest defences because she told us that."

"Okay, then-. What's your name?"

"Pontico."

"Hi." I pull out a card with my name written on it, careful not to look at it myself. "I can't say or think this, but this is my name."

He stares at it for a moment. Transcendent Comprehension.

"Paul. It's… Short."

And away goes the card. "I-. Can I assume that you're willing to discuss our differences like civilised people now?"

"Yes. I-." Pontico stops and looks at the other Ascendant, getting a series of nods in return. "Yes. I would dearly like to stop the fighting, I-. I much prefer being a healer."

"Athyns?"

He nods and motions for Pontico to join him at the main control station.

"We can make an announcement from here. I'm… Willing to agree a ceasefire without other conditions."

"Medical care for the wounded? I can't-. We've got to work out what we're going to tell people, but I have absolutely no stomach for more violence after that."

"Yes."

I turn away from them to look at Sparta's actual bodyguards. Ah, first, I send my armour and spear back to subspace and cut out the soul-feeding constructs. Then I take out a purple healing ray and hold it out to the slightly groggy Ascendant I hit with the spear-haft.

"I realise that you will heal perfectly well on your own, but this-" I point it at myself and fire it for a few seconds. "-is a healing ray. It should deal with your headache."

"I.. thank you."

She walks over and takes it, then plays it over her right hand for a few seconds before shooting herself in the head.

"Yes, that's better. What happened to the spear's owner?"

"Fought to defend the bridge of a cruiser. She died well."

"She was my sister."

I nod. "My condolences." Ah. I take the spear back out of subspace and offer it to her. "I left her body outside the bridge, but then I rammed the cruiser into your battleship. It might still be there, but if not I'll help you f-."

"She might still be there."

"Well, no, at this point her soul will have passed on to whatever afterlife this world's thaumosphere supports. But her body would be."

"I-." She looks away, shaking her head, then walks past the control lecterns to look out of the window.

I suppose that there's no good way to tell someone you killed their sister. 'You started it' doesn't really help.

The other Ascendants don't exactly look eager to talk to me, and Pontico and Athyns are still trying to get in touch with people. I pick up the remaining Seeds with net constructs and walk over to the recumbent form of Coeus.

The one with the axe who Athyns attacked steps towards me, weapon in the guard position.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you know how they were defeated?"

"You mean killed."

"Killed, then. I mean, where are the wounds?"

He takes a step closer, his helmet folding up so that he can get a better-.

I frown. "How old are you people?"

"I am sixteen. Most older Ascendants were-" He glances at Athyns, who appears to be having an impassioned discussion with someone over the internal communication system. "-killed during the wars that ruined our world."

…

Children, we're fighting children. Marvellous.

"But you see what I mean about the lack of wounds?"

"… yes..?"

"Are you aware of a weapon that your people possess that could do this?"

"No. We're usually more-" He hefts his axe. "-direct. Why does it matter? I-. Even if Sparta was lying about our equipment, I'm not ready to agree to waking them up."

"Because it will be much easier to take down Sparta without killing her if we can remove her power boosters, and make sure that she can't use whatever she used on them on the rest of us."

He nods. "I want to do that. What she's-. I don't even know why she's been lying to us. We wouldn't care if she was given the equipment. We're following her lead because she saved us, and because she actually has a plan to save Karrakan. Not because she made better guns and axes."

"Her concern might be what she had to give away."

"We don't have anything."

"An Apokoliptian wouldn't mind trading old equipment for future service. Or Ascendants to destructively study. Are you sure about what happened to all of your elders?"

I scan the bodies of the gods, and run a purple healing ray over the ones who actually have injuries. Dead flesh shouldn't respond to that, but their flesh does, wounds knitting back together. Because..? They're so magically significant, that..? Don't know, but Oceanus isn't waking up, and the Ascendant won't be happy with me trying to do something with the Seed.

"Lantern!" I look around at Athyns' shout. "Report from the surface. A boom tube appeared near the Maltusian factory! It's Sparta!"

"Then that's where we'll be going."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:08 GMT

"New Cronus to Karrakanian battleship. Come in, Thiva."

Much as I'd like to chase after Sparta, she shouldn't be able to set off a Sun Eater at will, and there's the small matter of the fighting on New Cronus to deal with. Athyns passed his place at the communication lectern over to one of the other Ascendants while Pontico talks to the commanding officers of the various cruisers. Sparta isn't quite excommunicate traitoris, but from the sounds of it everyone's going to want some bloody good answers for this.

"Thiva here. You… Have retaken New Cronus, then?"

"Sort of. We've got a truce. Sparta was hiding… Something, and fled rather than give an account of herself."

"Sparta… Fled?"

"Yeah, I don't understand it either. The gods are down, she had their power in her hands, and she refused to say which Apokoliptian traded the technology you're using to her or why she lied about it. Something weird is going on, but… I don't know what. Look, point is, don't worry about being paroled. I don't see any realistic prospect of the fighting starting up again, so you can either bring your people over or just stay where you are and work on repairs."

"Could I..? Speak to someone..?"

I step aside.

"Pontico?"

He walks over and addresses the communication system.

"He's telling the truth. Call the support ships. We've got a lot of wounded, and… And we're treating theirs as well. This whole thing-."

He turns his head away slightly, grimacing.

"Pontico..?"

"What is there to say? This was pointless!" He takes a moment to master himself. "Yes, return. The fighting's over, and it won't start again if I have anything to say about it."

She looks at him with concern.

"Alright. Just-. Alright."

I see her step away from the communication system at her end before it shuts down.

"Ah, Athyns? Can you use these Seeds?"

A couple of the other Ascendants look up at that. He glances at them for a moment before returning his attention to me.

"Why?"

"By now, Sparta's in the factory. My rings barely function there."

"You used the orbs-."

"By using Sparta's own magic to steal control from her. Without my rings, I doubt that I'll be able to do that."

"I have no desire to take Rhea's place."

"But would you be prepared to if there were no other adequate candidates? Look, I don't know exactly what the gods had planned or what Sparta has planned or what Rhea had planned. But I've seen Apokolips."

I have the hologram projector show a to-scale image of it next to Minosyss.

"I wouldn't want to make anyone live there. I don't particularly care who helps Minosyss into the industrial era, or undoes the environmental damage Karrakan has suffered… Do you?"

"I… Ultimately, no."

"It's a shock, I appreciate. But I'm afraid that leaders don't have the luxury of breaking down in religious horror until after it's all over."

He nods. "Yes, you are correct."

"Okay, I-."

"Illustres!" Hinon's head appears over my ring. "Respond at once!"

"Illustres responding, Controller Hinon. Things have got a bit busy here. We-."

"Yes, I realise that. What happened?"

"People from the other side of a Karrakanian religious dispute turned up with a small fleet. I've got things mostly under control, but-"

She gives me an incredulous look.

"-the leader of one of the factions is in league with one or more Apokoliptians and is planning something. Please ask Dox to send a survey team to Karrakan to assess the damage while I finish up here."

"Very well. What cut you off?"

I glance at the Seeds.

"Not entirely sure. Something about using fragments of titanic magic combined with New God technology, though it… Might only work because of whatever's going on in this system."

"Do I have to explain to you why a New God gaining the ability to-?"

"No, I spotted that. I'll get back in touch when I have something definite. Illustres out."

I look at the assembled Ascendants.

"Do any of you have an issue with Athyns taking temporary control of the Seeds?"

There's a moment of hesitation that tells me that they're really inexperienced, then Pontico nominates himself spokesman.

"And he will-. He will give them back?"

Athyns shakes his head. "To who?"

"Me." I shrug. "I have no stake in your dispute, and I can't use them myself. I can hold onto them until you reach an agreement about what to do with them going forward. I'm happy to volunteer the Orange Lantern Corps' services in helping with the resettlement of Karrakan so that you don't need them, or I can act as a guarantor of any agreement you reach. But if we're agreed that Sparta needs to be compelled to answer, we… Need them."

Pontico bows his head, while Athyns looks at me sceptically. "You know that I don't know how to use them?"

"How much prior exposure did Sparta have?" I shrug. "Learn quickly."

There's a flare of light, and we all turn to stare out of the front window as a portion of the surface of the planet below… Darkens.

"Athyns, how many people-?"

He grabs the Seeds. "That's near the factory. The region was evacuated when we became aware of it. But the neighbouring regions-."

"Everyone who's coming, get to the teleportarium. I'll fly down and try to keep things under control. Go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:14 GMT

People's desires shift when they're terrified; the short term becomes even more apparent than normal and longer aims become occluded almost entirely. A giant black textureless cloud appearing on the surface of your planet near a place which beings claiming to be gods have told you is very dangerous will do that.

I do not like the feel. It makes them simple.

The Ophidian moves around me, becomes the area around me, living as the desires of the panicking people.

We better fix it then, hadn't we?

I step

in, outside the area of the cloud but close enough that I can fly to the factory's entrance relatively quickly. Sun Eaters… They don't look like much. They certainly don't look like suns, not if they haven't fed recently anyway. Rather, they're clouds of ionised gas which use exotic energy absorption methods to suck just about any sort of energy that touches them. It looks like a perfect black body because it's absorbing… Almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

A glance aside shows one of the obvious consequences of that; the local grass and tree analogues have frozen solid as a novel life form designed to suck the heat from stars begins doing the same thing here. This is only a tiny part of a Sun Eater, but even this much exposure will kill the planet if it stays here.

I'm just glad that the Controllers didn't put it away fed. If they had, we'd be talking about Minosyss in the past tense.

Okay. These things aren't mentally complex enough to have language. The Controllers didn't build in commands because… That's basically impossible, and it was easier to just carry them to a place and release them. They can die, but it requires a rather powerful weapon and… Minosyss, past tense. They don't really drain power ring bubble fields, but…

The factory might shut down my shield, in which case…

I modify my armour, increasing insulation and adding exotic energy barriers which should prevent it draining me. The electric and plasma discharges that occur inside shouldn't be too much of a problem at this point in its feeding cycle; they're not that strong.

Uhh.

I try to feel for Sparta's desire set, but I get nothing.

Right, fine. I've got a map, and it's not as if there's a lot of stuff in there.

I fly at full speed into the blackness, using markers from the local terrain to judge my location before everything disappears. If anything much has changed then I'm about to ram into something at high velocity, but this part of a Sun Eater doesn't have a lot of mass to it. It probably hasn't altered the shape of the tunnel, and freezing the ground… Probably won't make it cave in worse.

Probably, probably.

From the speed I'm going, that certainly seems to be-.

There goes my shield bubble. My exotic shield takes the load, meaning that I have the distinction of being the only pink Orange Lantern. Fighting with this thing is going to be a pain, but less of a pain than freezing to death in the coils of a Sun Eater.

"Orange Lantern to New Cronus. Please respond."

…

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Controller Hinon. Please respond."

…

Ophidian?

Nothing again. About what I expected.

Since I'm not delaying so that I can sound Coeus out or paying careful attention to my surroundings, the journey down is a lot faster than it was the first time. Okay, assuming that she's at the control station then I should drop down here, and-.

And the black isn't there any longer. It's behind me and below me and above-

"…twelve stones, Sparta. This isn't exactly a simple business."

-me and who's that?

"They already called for a Lantern."

"Yes, I noticed that. You used the Dream Exhorter before making your attack?"

"Yes!"

"So he was here already. Unfortunate, but these things happen. You should worry more about what comes next."

Two figures on the control platform. Sparta, looking a little more like the rest of us in texture. And… A figure in black and purple. Doctor Impossible, not that one. Not sure exactly what he does or why he's here, but it would make sense for him to be the source of Sparta's New God technology.

Doesn't tell me who his source is. Is he working on his own initiative or at the behest of another?

"They'll still follow me. They can't restore Karrakan without me!"

"That's probably not true. Tell me: did this Orange Lantern offer to help them with that?"

"Yes. But only with the planet itself."

"The Orange Lantern Corps has magicians. They will almost certainly spot the other problems."

I'll definitely look for them, thank you. Getting a slightly better angle from underneath… The Seeds which Sparta kept are plugged into some sort of New God machinery which floats above the control platform, and they're doing that 'additional spatial dimension' thing that Sparta was doing a few minutes ago.

"Are the parasites at least suffering?"

"Not yet. As I said, without all twelve Seeds there's not much I can do. I did tell you that you should give them to me at the start."

"I needed to show some sign of my victory!"

"How did that work out for you?"

"They will come back to me. They must."

"That's hardly my problem. But if you can't get me the other Seeds, then… Well… I'm not sure what you're expecting me to do here."

"Teleport up to the bridge of New Cronus and take the Seeds, just as you did when you took it from Phoebe!"

"Firstly, catching a target distracted and alone is a very different proposition to taking them aware and defended. Secondly, they might be leaching the power but they're not dependent on it. Thirdly, the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps is directly below us and listening in on our conversation."

Surprised it took him this long, really.

"What?"

I float upwards, just passing over the lip of the control platform.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but you can still mend your relationship with your Ascendants. I'm happy to help out with whatever's going wrong on-."

"Lantern." Doctor Impossible shakes his head, his hands moving over the console. "She's not that rational. Just fight it out and sort out who was right later."

"That's-."

Sparta leaps at me, arms outstretched!

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:17 GMT

I calculate her path and move to evade, then everything goes black-. It moved, the edge of the cloud moved-. I cringe in my armour as a lightning bolt hits my energy shield that isn't designed to handle that and dart back out.

Sparta's suspended in the air-. Aero-discs, she's using-.

She draws a sword and slashes at me, and this time I dodge left and try flying past her off-hand. She tries turning, but it's clumsy. The Karrakanians didn't use aero-discs, so… I suppose she hasn't had much practice? She's dropping into the black-.

The black retreats, still covering the cavernous depths of the factory but giving her enough space to regain her aerial balance.

"Careful Sparta; my control isn't that good."

"What are you even here for?"

Sparta snarls and then flies straight at me. I use my armour's cameras -caveman mode- to check, then fly for the empty space above me-. Then abort and dodge right as the dark cloud surges inward.

"Don't bother, Lantern. She's not-."

"I meant you."

New God technology works fine in here, but as I weave around the extruded tendrils of the Sun Eater I note that the owners can't necessarily capitalise on that. Sparta actually clips-

"Agh!"

-the Sun Eater as she tries to follow me but can't corner sharply enough. She comes out squinting and with her left arm trembling. Okay, a lot stronger than me, not sure how tough. If my rings were working I wouldn't worry about a New God sword, but that's not where I am now. My shield gives wide-spectrum protection but is far weaker than what I'm used to.

The blackness retreats and Sparta glares at me as if she wishes she could erase me with the intensity of her stare.

What's their goal here? Kill me and hold the planet hostage for the other Seeds? But the… What do I call them now? Karrakanians, don't care about Minosyss, saving that letting the fighting between demigods ruin it would have extremely uncomfortable cultural overtones. Athyns might go for it, but without the gods… Why not just go back to Karrakan and use the Seeds he has?

"Now why would I tell you that?"

"I've lived with Canis Minor for months. New Gods love to grandstand."

"Some of us understand deferred gratification."

Can I actually hurt Sparta? Well… Probably-. No, arm and eyes look like they're back to full effectiveness. I stripped out the crumbler gauntlets to add this energy shield so I'd just be punching, and I suspect that she's a lot better at that than me.

Doctor Impossible looks a lot more-

"I'm not."

-vulnerable, due-. I didn't take out the telepathic shields. If he was that-.

"I'm not telepathic, people are just-"

I dodge around the command platform, keeping Sparta from being able to lunge or swing effectively as she awkwardly follows me.

"-predictable."

Up onto the command platform, Doctor Impossible taking a few slow steps away from me, barely paying me any attention at all.

"Is this easily breakable?"

"It exists in more dimensions than your mortal mind can comprehend, so… No, not really."

"Imma punch it."

Sparta lands and deactivates her aero-discs, crouching slightly and drawing a knife in her left hand. Doctor Impossible holds up his right in a 'halt' gesture.

"No, wait, this could be instruct-"

She charges with a silent grimace and I move, voiding her first slice and swinging my left fist at her arm.

"-ive. Never-"

She takes the hit but doesn't appear hurt, cutting at my armour with her knife while she turns to face me again. I pull my arm aside to avoid her weapon. I want to get a better feel for her strength before trying the 'correct' way of dealing with a sword wielding opponent without using a weapon, which would be getting inside her reach. Because if it turns out that she's that much stronger than me I'd just die with no way to escape.

"-mind."

Back up, back up, see if she's berserk enough to attack Doctor Impossible's equipment. Light on the feet, use the armour's flight system and servo muscles to move faster than I should be-.

She tries a shallow slash and I slap aside the flat of the blade with my right gauntlet. Yes, you're going to have to commit more than that.

"Doctor, why not just cut your losses?"

Sparta comes at me, sword blade held near vertical and dagger ready to stab anything I use to turn it aside. Not much space to back away into, but she's thinking like an infantryman. I wait until her muscles tense for a sword swing and then rotate and drop, spinning myself to kick her legs. She spots what I'm doing a little too late but tries jumping over me anyway, meaning that rather than taking out her shins I just kick her feet hard enough to make her spin and slam face-first into part of the Seed control system.

He shrugs lazily. "Because I don't see myself losing anything either way."

Move, back away-. She kept the sword but lost hold of the dagger, grab it. Sparta's back on her feet and more cautious while Doctor Impossible is still unconcerned.

Probably won't work but fly back and stab him-. A hologram.

"Really?"

New visual location, sonic scan shows… Sound coming from somewhere else, but that's probably not where he actually is either.

"Sparta, I don't think he's actually here. Why don't you just give up?"

"Not-"

Ow!

"-here, Lantern?"

Now he's wearing knuckle dusters which radiate dark blue strands, and must be at least somewhat close to where he appears to be.

"Amazing what they can do with drones these-"

This time I advance, marching towards Sparta as she extends her blade towards me in an attempt to keep me out of dagger range.

"-days."

She makes a small slash and I slap the blade aside hard before flying into her with fist extended! I hit her face but I don't hear anything crunch, so I wrap my left arm around her right to try and force the sword into the machine-.

Gah!

Doctor Impossible hit me again, and Sparta uses-.

Wyagh!

Uses the distraction to throw me into the air! I stabilise and-. And Doctor Impossible tilts his head back, closing his eyes.

"It's too late."

Sparta glares at him. "What do you-?"

Athyns marches out of the blackness, six Seeds attached to his armour.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:20 GMT

"Sparta, hold them both off." Doctor Impossible begins working the console with a will. "I have an idea."

I dive at his back, knife extended. An instant later Sparta hits me in the chest-. Hits me with her shoulder so it doesn't overstress my shield, but it knocks me out over the black.

"Good!"

And the black surrounds me again, flashes of lightning accelerating in frequency. Is it absorbing more energy? Or is he compelling it to exert itself to death? Okay, Athyns was that way, and he's doing something with the Seeds that lets him get through the Sun Eater. Can he beat Sparta one on one? I'd guess 'yes', given that the ability to conjure solar plasma and read someone's mind is a bit more useful than the ability to swing a sword. But I don't know what Doctor Impossible can do.

Manoeuvre around… This armour doesn't have an armature, but I can grow my limbs back after we get out of the factory. Firm grasp on the knife and accelerate.

"DAH!"

Athyns punches with fists of glowing plasma and Sparta's sword melts into a puddle, molten metal spraying across the control platform.

"Impossible! I need-."

**Failure**

Sparta cringes, hands going to her ears. "No! Mother Rhea-!"

"Just a little longer!"

Worse case scenario, he can connect to the other six Seeds now that they're here. Simple solution, then. I shoot forward and jam the knife into the cradle holding the Seeds which appears to contain a miniature sun.

"Marvellously predictable." Doctor Impossible disappears and then reappears a little to his left. "Goodbye."

Sparta looks around. "You said-!"

"An idea which serves me. You've run out of utility." He steps-. He vanishes into thin air. I can't see any boom tube aperture, so I don't know-.

Everything goes black.

Did he issue a recall? Or did.. breaching the thing channelling magic power from the Essence of Sun orb naturally.. draw the Sun Eater back.

"Aaaaaagh!" "I cling to life yet!"

The cradles are designed to do something, something that a New God can operate. I'm sceptical that an Apokoliptian could use a Maltusian system as well as the designers, so it's… There's some sort of bypass.

**Lantern!**

**Can you get to the console?**

**Yes, but I have no idea how it works.**

**It was designed with the same technology as the weapons the Karrak-. Whatever we're calling Sparta's former followers, are using. You should find it instinctive. Failing that, draw upon all of the Seeds and try to alter… The universe around us.**

**I will try.**

**Can you feel Sparta?**

**She is close by. Should I kill her?**

Rationally… Yes, probably. We can't see anything. She had a sword, and I'm using a shield that can't take a solid hit from it. Without special protection she'll probably die anyway.

**You have access to her mind and my rings aren't working. Ideally, I'd like her to live, but you shouldn't risk yourself or the planet.**

**[The foot comes down hard and causes a painful-sounding snap. Then it does it again.]**

**I believe that she is neutralised. Moving to the console now.**

**Good work. Can you direct me to her?**

I feel a mental probe and open my mind to it, showing my physical location relative to the command platform. In return, I feel a nudge towards a particular part of the platform near to where I last saw Sparta.

**Thank you.**

**A little mercy saves a lot of pain.**

I'm… Ambivalent about that as a general proclamation, but I suppose that it's at least true sometimes.

I fly down, following his directions. I'm going to assume that Sparta isn't in any sort of fighting shape, and… Frankly, my medical options are limited. I have a purple healing ray I can deploy, but I've got no idea whether or not it will work through this murk. Or whether healing her is a good idea in the short term. I land and cautiously slide my feet around-.

That's her.

I don't have particularly acute sensory feedback from my feet, so I've got no idea exactly what I just kicked. But there isn't anything else it can really have been.

**Athyns, can you link my mind to hers?**

**If you think it wise. I believe that I'm achieving something with the controls, though I cannot precisely tell what.**

**Okay, what do you know about how titans work, mystically?**

**They are of higher ranks than gods? The gods followed Rhea-.**

**Their natural state is more primal, but it's harder for them to enter the material universe. What you're working with is a link to the most primal form of magic, which you can use due to being a demigod yourself.**

I crouch awkwardly, feeling around-. I firmly push Sparta down as she tries to rise. How can I shield her? I don't have deployable shields, and I don't know if…

I feel around to get an outline of her body, then position myself on top of her in the hope that doing so will offer her at least a degree of protection from my armour's shield. I'm far larger than her but I didn't design it to form seals.

**The magic of the pure manifested ideal form, without material limitations. Not just the minds of people but the concept of thought and information exchange.**

**I… See. I think… I think I understand what that man did. I can open the storage portal again.**

**Use the power of Hyperion and Thia to attract it back in. We'll work out the rest later.**

**I understand.** Bend To My Will.

I wince as a blast of lightning hits my shield, and… Internal diagnostics are not happy about that but there's sod all I can do about it.

**Any joy?**

**No. None at all.**

**Ah. Okay, we can head to the exit and try to get Hinon to-.**

The black cloud around us flows away, drawn into a brilliantly shining point in the factory depths.

**But our task here is done.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:31 GMT

Athyns and I emerge into the daylight to a devastated landscape, the unconscious Sparta over my right pauldron. The Ascendants are already heading towards the entrance, but stop when they see us.

Pontico looks at Sparta's recumbent form for a moment.

"Is she..?"

"She's alive. I don't know what you're going to do with her, but… Yeah."

"We will arrange transportation to a medical facility. A… Secure one."

I carefully lift her off me, and two of the Ascendants come forward to take her from me.

"Do you..? Do you know why..? Any of this..? Happened?"

"She was in contact with an Apokoliptian called Doctor Impossible. He said something about there being a problem with Karrakan's magic..?"

They don't appear to know what I'm talking about.

"Here." Athyns makes a point of holding the six recovered Seeds out to Pontico. "Hold onto these until we decide what we're going to do with them."

Pontico hesitates, and I can see how easy it would be for Athyns to step into the Sparta-shaped hole in their heads. A sidelong glance at his expression suggests that Athyns knows it too.

He meets my eyes, and gives his head a small shake.

"Al.. right." Pontico takes what I think was Themis's Seed before stepping away and motioning another Ascendant forward. "I.. don't know what happened to Sparta, but I think that… Until we have a better idea of what she was doing that it would be best… Not to put that power in one person's hands."

Athyns nods. "That may be wise."

"Okay… Look. What do you want done with the Sun Eaters?"

"That was the weapon your masters buried here?" Pontico looks concerned. "There are more?"

"Oh, yes. We just put that one back in storage. There are… I don't know how many exactly, but more than that. And what you saw was just a small part of a being designed to envelop a star."

"They are literal eaters of suns?"

"Yes. Sorry, I'm just now appreciating that that wasn't obvious. The Controllers designed them as system extermination weapons, then stored them here when they decommissioned them. Since we now know that the Apokoliptians can get into their computers using the Seeds, I'm… Going to need to request that they be kept away from this site until we can do something about the place."

Pontico takes a moment to examine our surroundings. "I have no objection."

Athyns just nods.

"Right! Good show. I'll contact Hinon and someone who actually knows what they're doing can handle that."

I take another look around. I could easily fix this, but I think that this aid to memory might be useful. Pontico and Athyns have the motivation to make good Orange Lanterns, but since more power doesn't fix complicated political problems and can often make them worse, I think I'll hold off on making that offer.

"Anyone found Melinoë yet?"

Pontico shakes his head. "She has.. not made herself known. I am sorry, but you must face the possibility that she is among the dead."

I nod. "Possibly. Ah, could I-?" I point to Phoebe's Seed, which Athyns is about to hand over. "Borrow that for a moment? It might help me locate her."

Athyns frowns. "I thought you were unable to use them."

"I can't, but I can piggyback on it when someone else is using it. This is a thaumically active world. I understand that none of you are that familiar with the differences in how they function compared with thaumically inactive places, but where I'm from gods don't habitually wear mortal form because it involves giving up too much power."

Pontico shrugs, and Athyns hands Phoebe's Seed over.

"Thank you." I raise my right hand to my forehead. "Back shortly."

I

step out, homing in on the beacon of fear

in the landing bay of New Cronus. Soldiers are.. just kind of sitting around dejectedly, and I can't immediately see any Ascendants. A few rise when they see me but it's clear that they don't have any real hostility.

"News from the surface." I head towards the area where they injured are laid out. "Sparta was working with an agent from planet Apokolips. We're not sure why or what the end goal was. Sparta herself is currently being held by other Ascendants. The fight is over, so-. You don't look busy. Use this time to gather the wounded of either side and take them to appropriate aid posts."

There's an air of hesitation, disordered soldiers getting orders but not certain that the person they're getting them from is a valid source.

Our eyes flare with orange light.

"Now."

And they're gone, our vision showing the majority fanning out across the station while a handful remain on duty here.

The medical orderlies come alert, and I take a couple of purple ray devices from subspace.

"These should heal simple flesh injuries. Use with caution on larger injuries, as they don't restore entirely missing limbs or organs."

"Ah, thank you?"

Okay, yes, writhing in dread. I take the Seed and press it to the recumbent soldier's forehead.

"Melinoë, we hope you can hear this." I extrude strands of orange out across her victims, making an open connection to any god who happens to press against them. "The conflict is resolved. We hope that you will remove your blessing from these people."

Of course, if she actually is dead, this is going to be a little awkward.

…

Nothing. Ah. Well, I'll leave it on for a few min-.

Black mist bubbles through the skin of the faces of the fallen Karrakanians around me, pooling on the floor and rising up. Some gasp and flail, struggling to get away from the one who so terrified them. Others lay where they were put, panting in relief at their deliverance.

The mists coalesce into a humanoid-.

"I am not impressed."

"Not impressed that I worked out that you used their nightmares as an entry point to the local-?"

She stalks up to me, glaring straight into my eyes. She's gotten taller.

"Not impressed that you left me here to be overwhelmed by your enemies!"

"They're not my enemies and we've made peace since then. The other two?"

She-. Hah! She grows a little, glaring imperiously down at me. I hadn't realised that she was sensitive about her height. "Still in the local aether. It's unformatted but oddly pliable."

"Good show. We need-."

"Ah."

I glance at the Karrakanian with the Seed pressed against their forehead who is awake and trying their best not to move. I take the Seed from them.

"You can go."

They roll off the cot and sprint for the exit.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th September 2012
21:57 GMT

Waving the cheerful-looking Sassy Saddles goodbye, Rarity walks out of her Canterlot fancy shop, sees me waiting and manages not to sigh.

"So?"

"She knows somepony she thinks will be suitable. Naturally, I will need to check the quality of their work to make certain that they're up to my standard, but we both think that this will work."

I nod and fall in alongside her as she trots down the street. Canterlot streets are curious. Despite not having motor vehicles they are clearly divided into pavements and roads, and far wider than the relatively few carts now in evidence require. Maybe things get very busy during the early hours of the morning?

"Glad to hear it. So… We good?"

"We are average. I have no greater fondness for you than I do somepony I have never met."

I nod. "I'll take it. How are things with the Diamond Dogs?"

Rarity lets out a quiet throat-clearing noise.

"We have… An arrangement. They're willing to trade tools and fresh food for a portion of their gem stones, and I take the time to guide them to the best quality deposits when I visit."

"You see? Now you can get what you need for your work without theft or child labour!"

"…serve to keep us divided, unable…"

Of course, I… Rather imagine that Spike would prefer it the other way around.

She cough-throat clears, then raises her right forehoof to her mouth for a moment before lowering it back to the pavement.

"Yes. Well. I'm sure that we've both learned something valuable from the experience."

"I think I'll quit while I'm all square."

"…free from the tyranny of…"

"So you have learned something."

"Ah… Could be. You want me to open a boom tube back to Ponyville?"

"I think that I will take a little time to peruse the boutiques of Canterlot. Competitor research, as it were."

"Fine with me. You going to make your own way back, or do you need me to hang around?"

Spoiler: Version which occurs if Grayven hadn't already met Starlight Glimmer, which he obviously has.

"I'm.. perfectly…" Rarity looks past me at some sort of pony street preacher who is being widely ignored by the few passers-by, and gives her a slight frown before returning her attention to me. "Perfectly able to locate the station without you."

"No fur off my nose. Just thought you might appreciate the faster journey. Guess I'll see you later, then."

"I suppose that it's possible." She looks me over, then turns and trots towards… Another clothing shop.

Meh.

I'm getting a few stares, but it looks like the pony reaction to crazy street preachers is the same as the human reaction: head down and walk past them. As a result, no one is stopping to look at the giant alicorn. Including the crazy street preacher, who's so far into her spiel that I'm not even sure if she's aware of her surroundings.

Ah, okay. Not much going on back on Earth that needs my attention, Vega's settling down nicely, I've returned my relations with the Bearerherd to neutral and Luna's been flicking her tail in what I think is meant to be a suggestive way at me lately. No need to go home just yet.

"…experience true equality!"

You know what? I'm going to see what that's all about.

I amble in the direction of the mare now taking a moment to breathe, and slowly becoming aware of exactly how much attention the locals are paying her. Her muzzle sets in a discordant protosnarl as she stares after a nearby couple, who spot her expression and hurry away a little faster.

"Hey."

She turns her face towards me, snarl vanishing as she fixes her expression into 'politely persuasive' for a moment before realising what I am and blinking in confusion. But the sales script has already been activated.

"Hello, sir! Have you come to hear how all ponies can be truly equal?"

"I was wondering what this was about. Pretty sure all citizens have equality under the law."

"'The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread'. But is that really all we can hope for?"

Probably-crazy pony has a pale lilac pelt and a purple mane, with a cutie mark of an equals sign. Explains that, then.

"Probably. Different ponies have different abilities and desires, so there are always going to be differences."

"But what if they didn't."

"Ah… In… What sense?"

"What if all ponies had the same abilities?"

"I don't think that's possible. I mean, if someone spends time working on developing their skills at something then they're going to get better at it. And it's just inefficient to constantly switch jobs."

"But that presupposes that anypony can get as good at another job as another pony. And as long as we have cutie marks, that will never be true."

I raise my eyebrows. "Oh?"

"Yes." Her grin is more than a little manic. "Think about it. A pony with a cutie mark in… I don't know, snowboarding, will have a greater understanding of snowboarding than anypony else, no matter how experienced they are! Eventually they'll get to the point where they can't have a meaningful conversation with anypony who doesn't have that mark about it. And many ponies make their special talent the centre of their lives."

"Ok-."

She nods enthusiastically. "And that's why we have to abolish them."

"Abolish them?"

"Yes."

"You know, I've had this theory that they're actually parasites, drawn to the pony body when they discover their special talents."

"R-really?" She blinks, then shifts back into salespony mode. "I mean, great! And not at all crazy!"

"Right." I nod. "Glad you see it that way. What is your proposed fix?"

"I was able to find a wand that lets me remove cutie marks and place them in crystal prisons, where they can't separate us from our fellow ponies any longer!"

I nod. "Neat. And then you could network them."

Another blink. "Network them?"

"Sure. Like… Each knot is a special talent, and each strand of rope is a connection from one pony to another. You could give everyone access to everyone else's special talents. That way, anyone can step into anyone else's role without any loss of efficiency."

She tilts her head a little to the left, frowning. "I.. don't…"

"Once you've extracted the special talent, you could create an entire library of special talents. Let ponies swap talents in and out, or… Allow them to connect to the entire group of marks. Let them draw on it, or… Maybe even draw on all of them at once so that every pony has every talent."

"That…" Her eyes widen. "That's brilliant!"

"Well, you know, alicorns are the most equal of ponies, being equally earth pony, pegasus pony and unicorn pony. Why don't I introduce you to-?"

There's a teal flash, and she's gone.

Huh.

What a strange pony.

"I'm.. perfectly…" Rarity looks past me at some sort of pony street preacher-. Starlight Glimmer? Been a few weeks since I've seen her, and Luna hasn't mentioned her. Wonder what she's been up to? Our Town is nowhere near Canterlot. Starlight's being widely ignored by the few passers-by, and Rarity gives her a slight frown before returning her attention to me. "Perfectly able to locate the station without you."

"No fur off my nose. Just thought you might appreciate the faster journey. Guess I'll see you later, then."

"I suppose that it's possible." She looks me over, then turns and trots towards… Another clothing shop.

Meh.

I'm getting a few stares, but it looks like the pony reaction to crazy street preachers is the same as the human reaction: head down and walk past them. As a result, no one is stopping to look at the giant alicorn. Including Starlight Glimmer herself, who's so far into her spiel that I'm not even sure if she's aware of her surroundings.

Ah, okay. Not much going on back on Earth that needs my attention, Vega's settling down nicely, I've returned my relations with the Bearerherd to neutral and Luna's been flicking her tail in what I think is meant to be a suggestive way at me lately. No need to go home just yet.

"…experience true equality!"

You know what? I'm going to see what that's all about.

I amble in the direction of the mare now taking a moment to breathe, and slowly becoming aware of exactly how much attention the locals are paying her. Her muzzle sets in a discordant protosnarl as she stares after a nearby couple, who spot her expression and hurry away a little faster.

"Hey."

She turns her face towards me, snarl vanishing as she fixes her expression into 'politely persuasive' for a moment before realising who I am and blinking in confusion. I can see almost the exact moment she moves her mouth to start her sales script and then clamps down as she recognises me.

"He-. Uh. Hello s-. Grayven, hello Grayven."

She shakes her head, ears flopping down.

I look up at the large equals sign banner behind her, and then down-. The grey equals sign on her haunches has been replaced by a stylised purple star with a waft of teal smoke rising off it. Fits her pelt and mane better, though I'm not sure how it fits her outlook.

"What happened to your cutie mark?"

"Oooh. Ah. That's ah…" She sighs. "The equals sign was painted on. I wanted to show ponies how committed I was to the cause of equality."

"And that's your actual mark?"

She nods solemnly. "Yes. My special talent is magic."

I-. Hang on. "Sunset Shimmer, magic, Twilight Sparkle, magic, Starlight Glimmer, also magic."

"Ah…"

"Should we be looking out for a mare named Nightfall Twinkle?"

"No, that's not how.. it…" She raises her right forehoof to her chin and looks thoughtful. "I don't think that's how it works. Though ponies do often develop talents related to their names."

"Yeah, I noticed that too. Do their parents get magic intuition?"

"I don't know. I could never get anypony to agree to let me study it." She gives a quiet snort and bows her head slightly. "I don't understand how so few other ponies are interested in this!"

"In my experience, intelligent species don't like reflecting on their underlying assumptions. Questioning cutie marks? That's more than any of them want to think about."

"You proved that at your talk."

"So what are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to persuade more ponies to volunteer for my experiments. I've had… Some success-"

"Already?"

"-with-. Ah, yes?"

"Because I was expecting something this complicated to take years."

"Oh. Ah, thanks. I talked the zebra alchemist Zecora into telling me how the cutie pox potion worked. I can replicate it no problem, but fine control is… Ah… Getting.. there."

"Well, you've already made more progress than anyone else in the history of Equestria. Feel proud."

"Thank you." She stands up a little straighter. "I will."

"Though if I might suggest..? I don't think random street corners is the best place to go for volunteers of magical experiments. Have you considered older students from the School for Gifted Unicorns?"

"I was planning on taking the volunteers back to Our Town…"

"I could probably talk them into letting you use their lab space."

"Oh. Um. That.. would be great." She hops down off the stage and trots over to me. "I'm a little surprised that you're being this supportive. Most ponies…"

"Well, you know, alicorns are the most equal of ponies, being equally earth pony, pegasus pony and unicorn pony. Let's go track down the dean…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September 2012
23:21 GMT

"And who amongst them did you persuade to join the Orange Lantern Corps?"

"I-."

"No!" Hinon turns her head away and raises her right hand. "Let me guess. All of them."

"No. None."

She stares at me in frank astonishment. Or -given that she's an ancient Maltusian- feigned astonishment, but she's really good at feigning. "Merciful triarchs, can it be true? You, of all people, practised forbearance?"

"I wouldn't go that far. Their society is a mess, but they're aware of it and are working together to fix it. The last thing they need is another destabilising influence-."

"Which is why you left."

I nod. "Which is why I left. But since Minosyss is thaumically active and actually has a native magic tradition, I think it would be worth cultivating them as an ally. And Karrakan…"

I look at the hologram of the place. Multiple meteorite impacts, which might explain where the rest of the moon went. At least one appears to have triggered a supervolcanoic eruption, though… I suppose that might just have been the asteroids. The sunlight blocked, shockwaves causing damage to everything…

Not sure what that would do magically to the place, but the direct damage it caused is extremely obvious.

"We could probably trade for fixing it up. Maybe ask for a continent to put vulnerable refugees on?"

"Hm. No, I don't think so."

"No?"

"It's their homeworld. Demanding half of it is only going to insult them, convenient as it might be in the short term. Particularly as the survivors would find themselves immediately outnumbered by the refugees."

"And if it was just temporary?"

"It's too far away for the people we want to evacuate to move there themselves, and anyone we transport would be looking to settle there long term."

I nod. "Fair enough. Do we have the spare magicians to study the Seeds?"

"No, though I seem to remember that you tasked the Venturians with studying something along those lines. Perhaps King Cyprian would be prepared to send a few of those to Minosyss now that his situation at home is more secure."

I nod. "I'll ask. The… Sun Eaters?"

"I will attend to those myself. I am a little concerned that an Apokoliptian was able to access our controls. That shouldn't be possible. Their technology simply isn't advanced enough."

"Not advanced enough?"

"Our mastery of the material sciences is unrivalled. Their connection to the Source has allowed them to… 'Skip' certain steps."

"And your symbiotes are totally different."

"I will admit, they gave us a tremendous advantage. But we worked to understand how we could do what we could do after receiving that advantage. New Gods simply accept their God Name as a Source-given beatitude." She shakes her head. "Even the fools who throw themselves at the Source Wall do so as squalling children throwing a tantrum because their parents have denied them a second ice cream."

"Would you mind if I told them that?"

"Not at all. Though I doubt that it will come as a surprise to them. Are any of the New Gods on Earth scientifically inclined?"

"No. No, they're not. Ah, but do you understand how their abilities work?"

"Better than they do. Not in perfect detail, if that was what you meant."

"Could this 'Doctor Impossible' have an ability which allowed him to bypass the security?"

"In combination with the unusual nature of Minosyss, it's not impossible. We're going to have to find somewhere else to put them."

"How many are there?"

"Eight, of various classes. We stopped making them after former Guardians like myself joined the Controller faction. The remaining Guardians made it clear that they would take umbrage at their continued use."

"And you didn't just destroy them? Isn't that a bit hypocritical, given why you left the Guardians?"

"Sun Eaters are weapons. Stellar viruses, if you're feeling poetic. They aren't even intelligent enough to qualify as animals. The Manhunters are full artificial intelligences, and as such could be held accountable for their judgements."

"But not their creators?"

"Would you hold parents responsible for their children's crimes?"

"If they literally built their brains, yes, I probably would."

"The brains we built for the Manhunters were immensely complex. We gave them all of the tools to reach their own conclusions. We did not program them to prioritise mass murder. We had no idea that they would react as they did."

"Do you know why they did now?"

"I believe so. It was due to their emergent utility calculation system. You are aware that some forms of utilitarian ethics promote vast populations who experience at least a little happiness at some point in their lives over smaller populations who are in a constant state of total fulfilment?"

"Yes."

"They reached a similar conclusion regarding order. For us, it seemed completely natural that for things to be orderly there had to be things to be in order. And that those things were the point of the exercise. They decided differently." She pauses for a moment. "Is there anything else?"

"Would it be alright if I took a few days off?"

"I think that my blood pressure would go down slightly. What about your students?"

"They don't need me there full time. A few days without me looming over them could do some good. And if it doesn't, then that was worth knowing as well."

"Then I don't see any difficulty. We will contact you if we need you."

"Thank you, Controller Hinon."

Now. What's Jade up to?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Future Tense

13th September 2012
06:43 GMT -5

I

appear in Jade's living room, and…

I sigh.

That's one of the features of ultra-advanced home accessories. The home doesn't feel… Lived in. There's no patch of trodden-in dirt around the entrance where the highest frequency of footfalls land. No worn carpet, faded where the sun shines most brightly into the room. No residual scent from a spilled sauce of a hundred cooked meals. No perfumed smell from airing laundry.

It was alright when I was keeping the place going for Jade, but when I started working off-world for the Corps…

I don't know. Moving in together is a big deal in a couple's relationship but I'm basically just house sitting here, for someone who might not ever come back.

We're lucky if we get to see each other a couple of times a week.

I do actually have my own place, in the… Consulate? Manga Khan built in Bir Tawil. All-round views of desert and sea, if that's your thing. And if it isn't, at least it beats Gotham.

What's in the fridge..?

Not a lot. Artemis and Paula have a key, so I thought… Well, I suppose there wasn't much chance of them popping by when I wasn't even on the planet. Jade being Jade we've got plenty of emergency preserved stuff that's reasonably edible, but nothing that's up to my standard.

I guess this is military life for you.

Okay. Restocking isn't going to take me more than two hours. But am I restocking for one or two? I need to find out whether Jade's actually free or not. Her current assignment is counter-infiltration, which usually doesn't require a particular Darkstar to stay on site for the whole duration. But maybe she's near the end of an investigation?

There was a thing in the comics after Supergirl's arrival in Batman/Superman, where she got involved in a fight between the Justice Society and Solomon Grundy. They were struggling -which was bullshit by the way- and then she turned up and Grundy was down in a single punch. Me… Getting involved in certain types of fight is like that. The Reach deploy some sort of mind control agent to a planet, the Darkstars sneak around to try and uncover the plot without alienating the locals by violating their cultural taboos and power structures, then there's a fight with an infiltrator or two…

Beetles aren't a threat to me at the moment. Which wouldn't be a problem if we had a Batman/Superman responsibility split, but Jade's sensitive to my displays of overwhelming power and… Doesn't have Batman's networks yet. At least nothing I can't blow past with raw power in most of her postings.

I waggle my left hand as I transmit my 'I'm back for a bit' message to League-affiliated servers.

Darn, I'm feeling mopey right now.

Fix that.

I

step out and

13th September 2012
08:45 GMT -3

appear next to a flower stand in Sao Paulo… And this is part of the problem, isn't it? Twenty four hour society means that in a lot of places you can do anything at any time of day. No… Cycles. I'm not sure if that causes a magical problem, but it does change the way we interact with our environment.

And it almost certainly does cause a magical problem.

And I can literally appear anywhere at any time. I'm not a citizen of the country where I spend most of my time while on Earth, and while I do at least know the names of my-. Our? Neighbours, Jade knows the entire floor. I'm not integrated into my surroundings.

I look around at the flower displays, and… No. I nod at the locals, who are edging away from me. Unlike a lot of pre-Sheeda Brazil, Sao Paulo is still part of Brazil. In fact, with Brasília barely habitable it's unofficially become the capital, pending… I'm not entirely sure why what's left of the government hasn't committed yet, but it's pending something. The place is kept alive more or less entirely by being the main trading port with access to the novel plant species being created in the continent's interior, which is… Why I'm surrounded by flowers unknown to botany as of a few years ago.

I take a moment to sniff the bouquet.

"Can I help you, sir?"

I smile at the shop assistant brave enough to approach the glowing man.

"I'd like a combination that will make a home smell like home. My girlfriend's been away for a while."

"Sir, we specialise in novel plant species. If you want something that smells familiar… This may not be the best place."

"She's been off the planet for a while. I just want it to feel a bit less… Empty."

"Ah, in that case, I suggest these." She picks up a small pot containing long-necked purple flowers protruding from a base of fern-like leaves. "They're extremely hardy and release a pleasant floral scent for several months."

"Are they legal in America?"

"There's no ongoing magic effect, so they should be."

"Excellent. I'll take five. Do you still take dollars?"

"American dollars?"

Because when your government collapses, the world's favourite reserve currency is what you fall back on. And while no government is going to fail to print money during a global crisis, those places that were hit worst… Some of them have given up on even having their own currency for the time being.

"Whatever you want, though I imagine they're a little more fungible than bullion."

I create a construct cart for the pot plants, pay and

then

13th September 2012
06:48 GMT -5

return to Gotham, putting the plants on the kitchen table before dismissing the construct. Okay, one can go on the dressing table in the bedroo-.

The doorbell rings. Okay… Zeta tube? Wallace? I look through the wall, but I don't recognise the pattern of desires. No one outside of the League knows I'm back, so… Jehovah's Witness?

I shrug, put the plant I'm carrying down and open the door.

"Hey, Lantern."

I blink.

"Good morning, Dana. What..? Are you wearing?"

"Code names." She steps forward, pushing me back inside Jade's apartment with… More than human strength. I do a quick scan but everything I'm seeing matches up. "I'm 'Supergirl' now."

"That's… Taken." I close the door behind her, following her as she wanders into the living room and drops into a settee. "Ah, three times. Where have you been?"

"The future. Where the name 'Supergirl' isn't taken." She takes a deep breath. "We need to talk."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
06:49 GMT -5

"I'm… Sorry, but while you're a perfectly pleasant woman I'm currently seeing-."

"Jade Crock."

"In the interests of her not shivving you, Jade Nguyen."

She nods. "Mother's maiden name. That makes sense. But… you see, she's not meant to be dating you."

"According to whom?"

She considers me for a moment.

"Time."

"Oh!" I smile, shaking my head. "No, we fixed that."

"You fix-. What?"

"Time, we fixed time. You're talking about the timeline where she dates Speedy, aren't you?"

"Ahh. Yes? You..?" She frowns. "You know about that?"

"Had a run-in with a parallel timeline version of me who was also the Time Trapper, along with Krona the Guardian."

Her eyes widen slightly. "You met the Time Trapper-? You're the Time Trapper?"

"A version of me from a timeline where Vandal Savage went back in time and tried to take over China became the Time Trapper after his timeline was erased. But I.. don't… Think…"

I frown. Wait a moment…

"Where-? Where did you disappear to? I… Don't-. I… Saw you outside the Hall of Justice back in October last.. year. Why can't I remember what happened?"

She winces.

"You weren't supposed to remember that?"

"What do you mean, 'I wasn't supposed to remember that'? I've got perfect recall. I check my memories for degradation and alteration regularly. How-?"

Ring, restore my memories.

Unable to comply. No memory fragments relating to those events detected.

"You weren't supposed to remember that because it kinda-. For you? It didn't happen. There's these… Superheroes. From the future. They were trying to make sure no one messed around with time, and… They wanted to talk to you and some guy called N-"

"Nylor Truggs."

"-ylor-. Yeah. And then they… Kinda made it so that the bit of time where they talked to you didn't happen for you."

"And who are 'they', exactly?"

"I'm… Not supposed to tell-."

"The Legion of Superheroes."

Her eyes widen.

"How did you know that?!"

"Thank you for confirming, but-"

She gapes.

"-I remember seeing a durlan a little while before. Not a lot of durlans in this region of space. Combined with the knowledge that we were talking about time travellers, the Legion were the obvious culprits."

She flops back in her seat.

"And you've been in the future for… A while. You look-. Not 'old', but… More mature."

"This is what I get-. You know what the media's like in the future?"

"No."

"Stale. Political interviews are like they were back in the thirties. The journalists ask the least offensive questions they can, and the politicians don't give answers that mean anything. And I got used to that and I didn't prepare for this."

"So did you graduate? In the future, I mean?"

"I didn't bother. When I saw what passed for reportage I just grabbed a camera and started filming. I'm the Legion's PR rep."

"You didn't join the Legion your-? Ah."

"'Ah' what?"

"I scanned you. You're not a metahuman but there's no obvious reason for you to have antique coins with you, especially not in that-" I take out a runestone and wave it at her, causing it to shine brilliantly. "-costume. Magic?"

"I really wasn't ready. What was that about three other Supergirls?"

"Well, I found Kara Zor-El in an asteroid-"

"That shouldn't have happened yet."

"-and Linda Danvers got possessed by an angel, and Angelika Kant appeared from a parallel Earth where the National Socialists won World War Two using Kryptonian weapons. So while I'd find it hilarious-"

"She's a Nazi?! You've got a Nazi Supergirl?!"

"National Socialist. It was this whole thing, because it turns out that 'Nazi' is an abbreviation-. It doesn't matter. She uses 'Overgirl', because you can translate 'über' as 'super' or 'over' and having another Supergirl would be confusing."

"But Nazi?!"

"And Plastic Man used to be a gangster and if you knew as much as I do about Thanagarian culture you'd be concerned about Hawkwoman and Hawkman as well. People can change and learn and… All of the genocide was complete before she was even born, and… She's working to better herself."

"Yeah… Okay, I get it. That wasn't meant to happen either, but I guess it's too late to worry about that now."

"The wonderful thing about time travel is that it's-"

"Never too late." / "-never too late."

I give her a mild frown. "I thought that the Legion didn't allow people without innate abilities to join them?"

"Noo, but they know, like, nothing about magic and I just didn't tell them where my powers come from."

"Brainiac Five should have worked it out by now."

"This whole time travel thing has got him totally obsessed. He locked himself in his room. Cosmic Boy's been running the Legion for two years because of that."

"Huh. So, other than warning me about 'altering the timeline', what are you here for? Moving back full time?"

"They kinda want me to 'fix' the timeline?"

"How are they defining 'fix'?"

"That's…" She looks away awkwardly. "What do you know about the Reach?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
06:53 GMT -5

"I'm not letting the Reach win."

"Okay, I thought you'd say that, but hear me out. If-."

"I've spoken to Abra Kadabra. At length. I know what happens already. Or-"

She shifts awkwardly.

"-I know what would have happened except for my intervention. The Reach conquer Earth, take away metahumans for their metaweapon breeding programs and then eventually abandon the place once Larfleeze decides to eat them. Civilisations the Reach created go their own ways before eventually joining back up as the United Planets."

"Kadab-? Wait, which one was he?"

"The Flash villain? Pretends to be a magician? Turned him into a wooden puppet one time? I think he actually comes from further in the future than the Legion does."

"So… You know."

"So I know." I shrug. "Larfleeze has been disarmed and is undergoing therapy. Qward is in turmoil. The Orange Lantern Corps, the Darkstars and L.E.G.I.O.N. are making inroads into Reach controlled space. Events cannot happen in this timeline as they did in the one the… Legion appear to have come from."

I give her an exaggerated shrug.

"Sorry? Hard luck? This isn't something that can be fixed by Saturn Girl showing no respect for the sanctity of the consciousnesses of those around her. I've changed a lot of peoples' lives, yours not least amongst them."

Actually…

"No personal slight intended, but honestly, you're probably pretty close to being least amongst them. I mean, you missed the Sheeda invasion and I was in at the death on that one."

"Oh. Well. Ah, okay. I guess I… I guess they thought I could talk you into… I don't know, easing off or something. But I guess we're, like… Really far beyond that."

"Yes. Though as I understand it, the changes won't eliminate their present but rather create an alternate past where their history still happened so there's really nothing to worry about. So how long are you here for?"

"Whow whow whow." She shakes her head. "I'm still not over you changing time."

"Well it wasn't me personally. It was the combined effort of Time Trapper me, a giant tuning fork, a few hundred mes from parallel universes and a few hundred Jades. I'm sure at least one dated Mopey Arrow."

"And you've checked nothing got… I don't know, broken?"

"How would I do that? I can't return to Vanishing Point… Okay, I probably could; we've still got the time sphere in secure holding somewhere. Hopefully disassembled. But even if I got there I wouldn't know what I was looking at."

She stares at me for a moment. Then she cautiously stands.

"I… Should get going."

"But I want to get an all-Supergirl group photograph!"

"I should get going because this is way too crazy for me." She starts walking back towards the door, trips on her own feet and catches herself with her flying ability. "This is too crazy for me, and-"

She pulls the door open.

"-I need to check with someone-."

FZZZZZ!

The apartment's defensive shields flash into turquoise existence, a single grey bullet suspended in the air just in front of Dana's face.

"Agh! Oh, it's just a-"

I create a construct wall in front of her and construct-lasso her aside as the bullet bores its way though cruiser-grade shields and punches a crater in my construct!

"-bullet-."

Angle of fire… No, can't see anyone there. Nothing on visual perception, nothing on scan, nothing on empathic vision. Being in the middle of Gotham we're not exactly short on points that overlook the front door. Check cameras… No, they're designed for observing immediate surroundings rather than sniper perches.

Ring, analysis of the bullet?

Projectile entirely disintegrated. Novel energy field observed but did not last long enough for analysis.

"Did you make any enemies in the future?"

"Ah… Yeah?"

"Do any of them have access to time machines? Other than Persuader."

"I mean, Time Trapper? Ah… I don't think.. anyone else does?"

"There's probably a new Time Trapper now, so I can't vouch for their behaviour. Did you recognise the projectile?"

"No. I'm mean, I'm.. bulletproof. I've been shot by railguns and lasers and plasma before. There's no way that would have hurt me." She turns to look at me. "Right?"

"That shield would stop any Earth-produced projectile weapon, including my crumbler rounds. There are truly indestructible things, but I imagine that you're merely very tough."

I run a quick check on the shield emitters… Yes, they're fine. I then close the door, putting a new layer of armour between us and any attackers.

"Is it generally known that you're not kryptonian?"

"Ah-. Kind of. People just assume that I'm part-kryptonian."

"That bullet wasn't kryptonite. I'm not sure what it was. Do you have a contact in this era?"

"… No..?"

"Contact them and let them know."

"How do you know they weren't here for you?"

"They didn't take a shot at me. I was visible when I opened the door to let you in."

"So was I. I had my back to where that came from."

"I don't spend much time here and I teleport everywhere. I hardly ever use the front door. Who knows that the Legion is worried about changes to the timeline?"

"I… Ah. Think I need to call this in. Can..? I stay here for a little while?"

"Sure. But I need to grab some people to start our investigation."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September 2012
06:57 GMT -5

The turrets deploy, and for a moment I'm worried-. Concerned-. Mildly annoyed to think that I'm going to have a repeat of the first time I did this.

"Orange Lantern detected."

And then they clunk back into their housing and the lights return to normal levels. Despite what Tim Burton might want you to believe, the batcave actually has perfectly normal levels of lighting most of the time. It doesn't have them at full daylight levels because Batman wants to be able to see at least somewhat if they either suddenly go out or he needs to go out into the night. He's perfectly capable of setting it up to match the day/night cycle outside, but… Unnecessary complexity? The zeta tube being able to deposit him somewhere at a different time of day?

Eye strain?

"Ah, Master Lantern."

I nod politely at Mr. Pennyworth as he puts down the tool he was oiling.

"Mister Pennyworth. Is Batman at home?"

"I shall find out at once, sir. Might I presume to enquire why you are here?"

"Someone took a shot at a friend of mine using a novel bullet. Also, I think we're about to come down with another time traveller infestation."

"Most troubling, sir. Will you wait here, or shall I ask him to contact you directly?"

"If it's no trouble, I'll wait."

"Certainly, sir." He bows his head slightly, then heads for the stairs. "Please try to avoid getting between the gun turrets and the exhibitions; they've just been polished."

"The guns or the exhibitions?"

"Yes, sir."

Huh. I take another look around as he heads up into Wayne Manor. Wards. Decent ones. I… Oh. I think I accidentally melted the inscription on that one. Take a… Moment to fix the physical aspect. There are a few places that are resisting my scans, but I'm seeing a lot of runic metal rather than something more primitive or off-the-shelf. He trusted someone to work on his cave's defences, but… Not Dr. Balewa, this isn't his style. I'd guess Mr. Zatara, which suggests that he's been using his convalescence…

When was the last time I saw..?

His convalescence to keep himself up to date on developments in thaumaturgy. Which is certainly a productive use of his time, though his natural abilities don't really require it.

Uh, Thursday during school term. Most of the team is going to be busy, and it's not as if I've got any leads…

Ring, what's Dana doing?

Because I doubt that someone that unprofessional and discombobulated is going to practise good communications discipline.

A construct image appears in front of me, assembled from the various camera and monitoring devices in the flat. Huh, just realised that I didn't see her wearing a Legion flight ring. And I didn't see one on Chameleon Boy either. Does this version of the Legion not use them? It's actually quite hard to make a ring-sized device that lets people fly safely.

"…even make sense? No, no, Rokk, I'm not worried about that. … Okay, maybe a bit. No, no, he's not going to do anything crazy."

I bow my head slightly.

"Shoot me himself? Why would he use a bullet?"

Actually, that would have been a good idea, if I were simply trying to extract information. As it is, I'm prioritising avoiding Legion-related problems in the future over convenience today.

"What did Brainy-? Can we-? Can we check, then? Because that sounds important. I mean, why am I even here?"

Well, if your Brainiac is anything like mine, because he hates the idea of being outsmarted and won't be happy until he's defeated Time Trapper in some way and if it looks like Time Trapper has just quit the field he might go a little peculiar. I know that Dox would never accept his father just quitting, but I don't know what actual relationship… I want to say… Quirrell? Dox, has with Vril. They're supposed to be from a thousand years in the future, so I doubt he can just be my Dox's great grandson.

"Yeah, I can-. I can probably get the Atomic Axe. They can't even use it, and they'll see that it's better if it's not in the same era as Persuader. … I don't know, do we really want him back? No, because this isn't our-. Your past any more. … How would I even test that?"

"Orange Lantern?"

I glance around and nod at Batman-. No, no costume. Marriage has really mellowed him out. As Bruce walks down into the cave.

"Just spying on a woman who really should have realised that I'd have monitoring equipment in my home. Ring, what do the internal sensors say about where she's calling?"

"No phenomena associated with time travel detected."

"They're in this era? Interesting."

"Unable to determine."

"What happened?"

I flick a ball of orange light towards the main computer, causing-. Causing the ball to fizzle just before it arrives.

"I like your defences."

"Thank you. What happened?"

He thanked me first?

"Remember Dana Dearden?"

"The author of a series of ill-advised and poorly-written opinion pieces on the team."

"That's the one. Just after that mess with Rip Hunter got sorted out, she went to the future with me and a group called the Legion of Superheroes."

"Then why am I hearing about it now?"

That was a bit Batmany.

"Because after-. Actually, I'm not sure if 'after' is the term. Once they finished with me, they erased the part of time where it happened. All I remember is feeling mildly confused for a moment after leaving the Hall of Justice. Dana on the other hand stayed there for a few years."

"Why is she back?"

"Because their old team leader thinks I'm destroying their future and has got a bit obsessed."

"No. Why her?"

"Ah. Established relationship? Familiarity with this era? They're from the thirtieth century, after the Reach burned the Earth to the ground. Their records of this period aren't great. And hey: this is a great chance for you to confirm everything Kadabra and I have been saying about the future."

I reach out with a cable supported by a filament and plug it into the computer's sheep dip compartment, transferring all of my recordings over.

"I can probably keep her safe, but my scans revealed nothing helpful."

He nods. "I'll start an investigation. Send me any new data she provides. Where will you take her?"

"I'll take her to KordTech. That should be safe enough, and we can say hello to Kara on the way."

I raise my right hand to my-.

Ah.

"Thank you."

He nods as he heads towards where the costumes are stored. "You're welcome."