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

[Mr Zoat]

21st August 2015
22:44 Japan Time

"You were..? You were there? Ho-how were you there?"

Captain Thompson's sake-addled brain seems to be having difficulty with the idea that Lieutenant Itami was in Ginza when the gate opened. Honestly, I'm a little surprised myself. A thin orange film covers them both to translate drunk-English into drunk-Japanese, and vice versa.

Diabo nods.

"Did you hear something before it opened?"

"No. Nnnnn. No. It's a shopping district, yano? I was… Just shopping. Wasn't even armed. Just… Just started tryna get everyone away from them. Until backup came."

"We didn't know that cities this big could exist." Diabo isn't actually drunk -he values his ability to spot assassins too highly to allow himself to get that intoxicated- but he is tipsy. "In our… In Sadera, it's so much smaller, and there are so many more soldiers that we could respond more quickly."

"We could respond quickly." Captain Thompson drops his right hand to his side, deciding that reaching for a refill isn't a good idea. "Had helicopters ready to go. An' the guys in the embassy, the marines, there were only a couple a' blocks away. All they got to-to-to do was shoot a couple a' those pig-guys."

Diabo frowns. "Marines?"

"Yeah?"

"On land."

"Yeah?"

"So… Wouldn't they be soldiers?"

"Don't fuckin' tell them that."

That doesn't seem to make any sense to him, but he appears to let it slide, slumping back against the settee.

"Anyway…" Captain Thompson frowns as he tries to remember his place. "Anyway. I know… Y'know… Japan-American… Diplomatic stuff ain't so hot right now, but what was up with that? I mean, we've been friends for decades. My sister-in-law's Japanese, an' her family... Okay, they don't live anywhere near Ginza, but they might have. It's like… There's plenty of people I don't like much, but if they were on fire right in front of me I'd still put them out."

Lieutenant Itami nods, eyes not entirely focused.

"I think… I think… You know everyone's supposed to call it 'The Special Region'?"

"Yeah, why is that?"

Itami's eyes drop to the floor. "It's a… Legal thing. So that we can pretend that it's part of Japan."

Captain Thompson frowns and shakes his head.

"I'm-. We are the Japanese Self-Defence Force. Not the Japanese Army. Because the treaty we signed at the end of World War Two made it so that is all we are allowed. It's in the constitution. And we can't conquer new land, because it's in the constitution."

"But that's…" Thompson's frown deepens. "But you're… Doing it anyway?"

"Sort of. Yes, but… No?"

"Oh. Like Iraq. And Afghanistan."

"No. N-o, they keep saying that we're not doing it like that."

"How is it different?"

"They haven't got to explaining that part yet. We only just started fortifying the other side of the gate."

"I'm sure your generals know what they're doing." Captain Thompson chuckles. "Glad someone learned how not to do it from those shit-shows. Word of advice? Make sure that your local allies aren't heroin-dealing child-rapists."

"Ah." Lieutenant Itami appears to realise that he should pay attention to a statement like that, but his brain isn't cooperating. "Okay?"

"Yeah, you wouldn't think that was something you… Something you had to spell out, but here.. we.. are."

There's a moment of quiet contemplation.

"You know everyone's supposed to call it 'The Special Region'?"

"Didn't we just..? Yeah? 'cause they're pretending it's part of Japan."

"I think… There's a plan."

"Sure?"

"No. I mean… Making relations worse with America. Calling it 'The Special Region'. Some things… If all we're supposed to do is defend Japan, a Self-Defence Force is all we need. But if we start arguing with America and they move their fleet and close their bases, and we might have to fight China by ourselves, then we need a bigger army."

"Oh. Yeah…"

"And I think… I think there's a plan. Because most people wouldn't see what they were doing, they just see America moving its military away. Which would make them worried. So… Maybe they could get the support to change the constitution."

"I could see that. But… They couldn't know about the gate. Could they?"

"No, but it's… There's an actual attack. People in Japan actually died."

"Well, yeah?"

"But if Americans actually help… That ruins things. Because if they get to Ginza too quickly, then it looks like we need Americans. But don't need a bigger army."

"Oooooooooohhh… So…"

"Nothing. There's nothing… It might not be real. I don't think we have a plan for being invaded like that."

"Britain does."

Three sets of eyes lock onto my ring, though in Diabo's cause it's more because I just reminded him that I exist. Lieutenant Itami frowns.

"The… British army has a plan for Roman soldiers teleporting into Britain. That seems a bit… Strange."

"Yes. And for the Biblical apocalypse. And for being invaded by an army of elves. And for a lot of other things like that. It's a planning exercise the British Army gives to officer cadets. If they're good enough, they go in a drawer, get assigned a reference number and become the official plan for that eventuality."

"Huh." The Lieutenant nods slowly. "It's weird, but it makes sense. It would have been helpful if we had something like that."

"So… Look." Captain Thompson leans a little closer to Diabo. "Can..? Can your people open more gates?"

"No. We couldn't even open this one. Our gods open them for their entertainment, and close them when they get bored. They might open one to your country… The Sanderan Empire wouldn't attack you, but some other nations might. Or they might not. It's not up to us."

"Can we pay them to open gates?"

"I don't know. Maybe. They want things, but if we could persuade them to open gates somewhere useful we would have been doing that already. And we wouldn't have come here."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Captain Thompson flops back against the settee. "Man, we coulda saved so much time just asking you this stuff."

Lieutenant Itami nods. "We could have just told you."

Diabo nods as well. "And we should have just left the gate alone."

Captain Thompson picks up his sake bowel and raises it as a toast.

"To doing stupid shit."

Diabo and Lieutenant Itami smile.

"To stupid shit!" / "To stupid shit!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Pyrrhucy

14th February 2013
10:47 GMT -6

"… really odd."

Sunset frowns as she studies… A weird coloured blob of magic energy on the brass… Thingamy in front of her. I'm sure that it's a very efficient way of relaying information from her magic sensor arrays, but it's not exactly… Ignoramus-friendly.

"'Odd' in what way?"

She presses a few keys, and the blob shrinks and gets joined by some other blobs.

"Okay, so this is… I use Atlantis for a lot of calibration stuff, because they use far more magic than anywhere else on Earth."

I nod. "Makes sense."

"So this is all… Passive detection. I don't use it to get through their wards, just to give me a rough idea of how much magic is being manipulated at once."

"Okay?"

"And… When I started using it, it looked like this." Another button press, and the lights dim. "And then this happened." The intensity and size increases. "And if I compress the time since…" The lights gradually get brighter as the magic output of individual cities increases. And more than that, the area between the cities begins to glow more brightly as well. "It starts to do this."

I frown at her. "It might have been helpful to know this earlier."

She winces, nodding. "I didn't think anything of it. It was only dim for a few days; I thought the machine was just calibrating. And I only checked up on Atlantis when I wanted to calibrate it for looking at something else."

"Alright." I nod in acceptance. "Fine. So… Do we know what happened?"

She sighs. "I don't. Ahri'ahn's done… Something to keep Circe and me out. And not just.. this. Anything active just gives total nonsense."

"Because the machine isn't designed to make sense of whatever he's doing, or because he's disrupting your sensors?"

"Honestly, it could be either." She sighs. "Or both. With magicians as old as him, there aren't any good comparisons. His style and all the skills he's accumulated are going to be so unique that it doesn't make sense to try and assess him in terms of someone else."

"So no idea how he raised Atlantis?"

"I can tell you how he didn't do it. It wasn't water manipulation, because using that much magic would disrupt water magic worldwide and that hasn't happened. He hasn't manipulated magma in the Earth's mantle, because that would disrupt earth magic everywhere too. He isn't holding it up through levitation because it isn't a continuous unit and he still has to sleep sometime."

I frown. "Does he?"

"He's supposed to be flesh and blood. According to Queen Clea, he was really strongly against turning himself into anything that wasn't a flesh and blood Atlantean."

"Okay, couldn't he set the spell to keep going while he slept?"

"Not… Not without it being something I could pick up." She presses a few new buttons as the display changes again. "I think."

"How confident-?"

"I've been sending runic arrays into Atlantis using your drone things, and… Like, ninety seven percent? No one knows what he can do, but it's a lot easier to work out what other Atlantean magicians can do, and it's nothing like this."

"In that-"

"Grayven?"

"-case-. In here, moon of my heart!"

Luna trots in, looking slightly pained. "What manner of calamity has occurred, Our swain?"

"Ahri'ahn's trying to make a nuisance of himself. We're trying to work out how he's floating an entire continent."

"We must admit that We are surprised that you are not merely charging him regardless."

I face-shrug. "Given how powerful he is, it's a bit of a risk. I've put a lot of work into the Earth, and I'd rather not have to rebuild it from scratch because I misjudged his contingency planning."

"Or lose your own-" She winces again, blue light pulsing around her horn. "-life."

"Or that. Are you alright?"

"We assume that yon scintillating lights mean that some great working of magic has occurred."

Sunset nods. "More 'is still going on'. I don't suppose you've felt anything, have you?"

"Aside from the brobdingnagian ache We feel due to some ill-mannered and unskilled dullard twisting the dreaming world to suit their ends. Were this Equestia then We would hunt the miscreant down Ourself."

"Dream…"

Wait. Wait. Sandman. That… Sultan moved his entire kingdom into the dream, and made everyone paupers. Or rather, he talked Dream… Morpheus, into doing it for him. An early sign that Morpheus was a callous arsehole. But could that process be… Reversed?

"Luna, you told me that things in the dream world on Wilson could not break out."

"That is… Largely true. If the dreamer were in possession of sufficiently powerful magics, then the mental disquiet may cause some manifestation… But that is all that it is."

Hm.

I raise my hands to cover my mouth, and just for a moment find their size… Odd. Disconcerting.

"That's not how it works here."

"It is not?"

"No." I lower my hands. "Here, dreaming connects to a realm of shifting ideal forms and memetic loci of meaning. Things can go there, and things can leave. It's not… Easy, and there are difficulties, but…"

Sunset's already pulling levers. "You think that Ahri'ahn pulled something out of the Dream?"

"Can you check-?"

"Yeah, yeah, working on it."

I smile and pat her on the head. "Good lieutenant."

"Pretty sure I'm a.. captain."

"Let's not go crazy. Can you actually prove that's what he did?"

"Uh, yes, actually. Zatanna's dad's been really helpful with letting me borrow things from the Tower of Fate."

I frown. I didn't realise he still had access. I mean, good, but…

The image of Atlantis's thaumic systems vanishes, and is replaced by-

"Celestia."

-a stalagmite and a stalactite touching.

"H-?" Luna looks around, and then appears to realise that Sunset was just making an oath. "Ah. We understand that this is alarming?"

"He's making reality less real. No wonder King Orin and Queen Clea stopped responding. They probably think that they're some sort of ideal type monarch right now!"

I nod. "And how do we break that spell?"

"As far as I know?" Sunset shales her head. "We don't."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:47 GMT

Ms. Mallor winces as she looks at the content of what I've started to think of as the Book of Shadows, occasionally glancing down at the array that surrounds the device that reformatted Lantern Peldak's ring. Nothing from Ub'x yet, though I suspect that my message got through.

"This is… It doesn't make sense."

"In what way?"

"Ritual sacrifice hasn't ever been part of what we do here. There-. There were religions that made sacrifices to the Father of Shadows, but that was before Shadow Champions existed as an institution."

"How did the sacrifices end?"

She gives me a slightly awkward look. "People were being murdered. It only kept going as long as most people in those cultures thought they needed to. Usually, the moment those cultures had contact with a culture that didn't, it either stopped, or… Or it didn't, and there was a revolution that overthrew their priests and kings and sacrificed them."

"Reminds me a little of the Aztecs. I assume that the people doing the sacrifices were immune from being volunteered?"

"I.. don't know." She turns a page. "I wouldn't be surprised. Aztecs?"

"Culture from my homeworld. As far as I remember, they're the most recent one to practice human sacrifice. They demanded victims from their tributaries. When people from the next continent over where they didn't practice human sacrifice turned up and picked a fight with them, every single tributary rose up in revolt. The foreign invaders ended up trying to stop their allies wiping the Aztecs out."

She nods.

"Do you understand any of what she wrote?"

"Some of it. We have studied the Shadowlands as much as we dared. I hadn't.. thought about it, but it makes sense that our studying accelerated after the Father of Shadows departed. Lyssa Drak would have been a natural choice to lead those studies." She turns the page again, frowning. "I am concerned about what will happen if it becomes known that our powers can be replicated through murder."

"Does the book say how the book was made?"

"It's mostly a research journal. I assume that when I study it fully, I will understand the process."

"Or that's something that she learned from elsewhere."

"Does Sinestro know anything about magic?"

"He was a xenoarchaeologist. It's possible that he ran into something somewhere. And his sister supposedly used magic, though since literally no other Korugaran has ever shown any affinity for it I'm not sure that there wasn't something else going on. And he used to have access to the Green Lantern Corps' full database on magic and thaumically active locations, so…"

"He could employ someone easily."

"Yes. But… Unless there's something written in that book, we don't have any proof that Sinestro had anything to do with this."

"You said that the ring said his name."

"Sinestro's existence and history aren't secret either."

And Abin Sur knew his name and counted him as a friend when he founded the Indigo Lantern Corps… Unless things are completely different from the comics. He might well have put Sinestro's name in the system as a back-up First Lantern.

"Do you need any other resources here, or are you okay to keep working?"

"I'll probably need a physicist eventually, but I can find one for myself."

I nod. "And… To the best of your knowledge, is there anything that I need to worry about?"

"About what you did to get a feel for the Shadowlands?" I nod. "Richard Swift doesn't seem to have any trouble in using or controlling his power. But unless he comes here and agrees to be studied, I can't tell you anything about how your species connects to the Shadowlands."

"Fair enough. Either a Controller or a Qwardian will be along later to have a look at the machine. Best of luck with the reunion."

I step out, orientating on the giant glow that is the Orange Central Power Battery. Ms. Mallor is perfectly capable of handling that investigation on her own, and she has even more legal authority to do so than the local Green Lanterns. The Shadowlands probably aren't either a threat or an opportunity, but transferring her doesn't really cost anything and it might prove to be useful.

I

appear outside of Kalmin's laboratory.

I wait a moment, then press the bell.

And then I wait another moment, because I strongly suspect that Kalmin isn't in the best frame of mind at the-.

The door opens, and one of his acolytes is standing on the other side. He realises who I am, then winces.

"Sorry. But he's the only one-."

He steps aside, putting the gun he was carrying back into the doorside rack.

"He will see you. He is…" He looks me in the face for a moment. "About as happy as you might surmise."

"I'd have brought something, but I don't know what Qwardians give in situations like this."

"The last known location of our enemies. That way."

He points towards Kalmin's forge, and I'm a little surprised that I can't hear anything. Kalmin is usually quite happy to rant about why he's unhappy, but I suppose that he doesn't see the point if there's no audience?

I walk slowly in the direction indicated, to give him plenty of time to express his unwillingness to see me if that's how he feels.

"Weaponer Kalmin?"

"Illustres, come here."

I walk into his inner sanctum, where the yellow ring is held in a vice while Kalmin's equipment interfaces with it. Kalmin doesn't look around, instead remaining focused on his readouts.

"What news?"

"It's a hideous hack job, but it would work. Barely."

"'Barely' meaning..?"

"A ring needs to be acclimatised to the mind state of the user. It's less of a concern with green rings, as the user is supposed to be completely focused on whatever they're doing at that moment. With other colours, it's more significant. This was not configured for Lyssa Drak."

"No, I think we interrupted her before she could finish."

"The concept was sound, though. The ring will function. Though it was a good deal more subtle a way of gathering fear than I would bother using. Slower, too."

"But it could go undetected for a long time."

"If that was the goal. I knew Sinestro well. He could be patient, but once he had an aim in mind I doubt that he would be happy with such sloth. Or deliberate imperfection. I find it more likely that Lyssa Drak was trying to prove her worth to him, rather than that he was commanding her directly."

"You done with the ring?"

"I haven't destroyed it." I wait a moment. "Yes, I have nothing more to learn. Take it and be gone."

I walk over and pull it from the vice.

"Nar."

One more thing before I return to Earth.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:53 GMT

"Illustres." Diataria Lysis is keeping her face completely still as she looks at me from my ring projection. "What do you require?"

"A conversation with Thaal Sinestro would be nice. But failing that, how's my ring coming?"

"There… Has been a problem in the supply line. I am sorry, but I will need a little longer."

"These things happen. How's Ms. Drak doing?"

"It-? That was you."

"And some friends. Interesting approach. Kalmin wasn't completely contemptuous."

"How did you find out about that..?"

"It's a small universe. Do you have a personal lantern to go with it?"

"…yes. It will.. function. I had intended to fine tune it before notifying you-"

"Uh-huh."

"-that it was ready. I understand your scepticism, but Lantern Sinestro is quite insistent that we honour our agreements."

I nod. That does fit with his personality profile, assuming that he wasn't planning on attacking us immediately. But if she's about to suggest that I come to an isolated planetoid without an escort, I'm going to mock her.

"I suggest that I perform the handover on a planet-."

"Of my choice? Yes, what a good and completely reasonable idea. I'll bring a bodyguard, because I'm not an idiot."

"Ah. Yes. I take it that you have no objection to me doing the same?"

"As long as it's not Ms. Drak."

"No. Since you… Disrupted our operation on Talok, we don't have a spare ring for her."

"In the interest of us not stepping on one another's toes again, might I suggest that she find a way to touch the Shadowlands that doesn't involve the ritual murder of another Lantern? I doubt that Sinestro wants to start a war before he's ready."

"I will pass that on. Do you have a location in mind?"

Needs to be somewhere that doesn't look like an obvious trap from her perspective, too. Sending her to Earth would be stupid. Asking to meet on Korugar… Well, they wouldn't send Sinestro. … Probably. Ungara? No, not with their environmental problems. Too much risk to them if it turns into a fight. Mars would look like a trap.

"Can you get to Dryanna? It's just outside the Vega Systems."

"Your ally Commodore Amalak's base of operations."

"My occasional business partner Amalak's base of operations. We don't have a formal written agreement. And the scenery is actually quite nice."

She… Appears to glance at something off-screen. "Acceptable. I assume that you want it as soon as possible."

"Yes please."

"I can be there…" Off-screen again. "In slightly over one Earth day. Is that acceptable?"

"Completely fine. One bodyguard. See you then."

She nods, and the image vanishes.

Hm. Between Amalak's fleet and sensor network I don't think that I have to worry about getting swarmed. Sinestro's the only person with enough experience to maybe beat me in a fight, so I'm not too worried about losing to a single specialist. I'll be in full armour the whole time.

But who to take with me? Komand'r and Koriand'r are closest, but riding herd on Vega is a full time job. Xor is technically my partner, but I'd rather not call him away from his current assignment. Same with Vran, plus there's the possibility that she might jump ship. Jump back to her old ship.

One possibility, then.

"Illustres to Lantern Natu."

I wait. If she's operating, then she's not going to respond immediately. Actually, I suppose that Kalmin would be a reasonable choice, as I'm sure that he'd like a few words with his former student about her construction methods. But I don't really want him meeting people, or not here to watch his students. Other possibilities-.

"Yes?"

Voice only.

"Are you available for deployment?"

"I-. Ah can be? Casualties?"

"No. We're going to meet the person who makes power rings for your father. I thought that you might have some things you'd like to get off your chest."

"Is he going to be there?"

"Not as far as I know."

"I just woke up. I-."

"Sorry, I didn't realise. This isn't actually an order; I can get someone else. I just thought that it might be helpful."

"You're the Illustres."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that I should just ride roughshod over-."

"Will this help me?"

"He's up to something. I don't know what, exactly. You've lived without his input for most of your life, so I doubt that your relationship is so significant a factor in your mind that it's routinely weakening you. If you don't want to access the higher levels of power you could probably ignore it completely. The issue would be when Sinestro actually does something."

"Because I'd be distracted."

"Just so. It's usually best to deal with psychological issues before they manifest. But as I said, I can get someone else."

"Okay, yeah. Just… Give me twenty minutes."

"Certainly. Meet me at the Central Power Battery when you're ready."

"Lantern Natu out."

And the ring dims, and I begin flying in the direction of the Central Power Battery. Not really enough time to visit the training ground, and I don't really need to do any further preparation.

"Ring. Message to Darkstar Nguyen."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:17 GMT

"Prepare for transition."

Lantern Natu nods, checking that her stabiliser is securely attached to her armour with her left hand. The original spellwork used to allow me to drag a fleet through the Honden has been substantially improved to allow individual Lanterns to travel with me with a minimum of mental disquiet, though the team working on them is understandably distracted at the moment. Several of them expressed a desire to return to Earth after the Anti-Life broadcast happened, but the request was refused on the grounds that not only was it incredibly unsafe, but that other than Adam Blake they're the only uninfected humans in the universe. Our species can't risk them getting exposed.

"Transition in three, two,

one."

I feel the mass of desires that makes up Lantern Natu and sight the mass of desires that make up Amalak. I know him well enough that finding him isn't exactly hard, though it is interesting to note that his desire to expand his operations appears to have been well and truly

satiated.

We're standing on the roof of his headquarters, and I'm mildly pleased to note that not only are the automated defences already aimed at us, but Lantern Natu already has a dome shield up. Long practice evacuating people under fire, I imagine.

"We're authorised!"

The limited AIs controlling the guns takes a moment to compare me to their 'approved' list and then put the guns back onto standby before sending a high priority message to the Commodore to alert him.

"Good reactions, Lantern Natu."

She gives it a moment before dropping her construct and lowering… Her right hand. Interesting. Most humanoid members of the Corps copy me and wear it on their left hand. I suppose her home Sector has had more Green Lantern contact than the Periphery.

"I thought you teleported to people."

"Usually, yes, but I can vary the emergence point a little."

She considers that for a moment and then reaches the obvious conclusion. "Did you walk in on someone?"

"I can't tell where the target is located and… His species is going extinct. Ring, message to Weaponer Lysis. Tell her that we're here."

"Compliance. Message incoming."

"Answer."

"Illustres! Welcome back. Do I need to recall a fleet?"

"No, Commodore, that shouldn't be necessary. I just needed a neutral location for a meeting, and you were the first person I thought of."

"I'll be happy to host you. Do you need catering?"

"No, thank you. It's just a handover, and should only take a few minutes."

"Then feel free to avail yourself of the facilities."

"Thank you. Is there anything happening here that I need to know about?"

"No, no, not at present. I've even managed to improve relations with the Crown Imperium thanks to the additional trade revenue coming through your gateway."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"I am too! As a mercenary, I always want to have enemies, or friends with enemies. I just don't want them too close."

"True, true. Mind if we use plaza three?"

"I'll notify the training sergeants that it's off-limits until further notice."

"I appreciate that. Good day."

Lantern Natu looks out across the barracks and training grounds, a slight frown on her face. "Mercenaries?"

"Yes. One of the disadvantages of living next to a lawless and Lantern-free region of space is that it's pretty lawless. There were a lot of pirate groups in this region, far more than most worlds could afford to build a navy to counter."

"So they hire some pirates as private security contractors and have them fight the other pirates?"

"Basically. Although as time passed, those groups engaged in security work got used to working in a defensive way. Amalak has contracts with a dozen or more inhabited worlds, and no one he has a contract with has ever gone to war with anyone else he has a contract with. And now that law and order are emerging, he's switching over to shipping. Amalak himself prefers a recurring revenue model."

"Are you saying people pay him to conquer them?"

"More or less. Though his recruits come from-. Mostly come from the worlds hiring him. If he tried acting as a tyrant, they'd mutiny."

"What happened to his species? You said they were going extinct."

"General Zod of Krypton. He fabricated a conflict and killed most of the targetted population before trying to take over his own planet. He wasn't successful in the second part, but that was too late for most of Amalak's people."

"What happened to Zod?"

"He and his closest confidants were sent to a place called the Phantom Zone. It's an extra-planar prison where the inmates are unable to interact with the material universe. Krypton… Didn't have a death penalty at the time, so eternal imprisonment had to do."

"Eternal? They don't age?"

"I don't believe so. I can't say that I've really studied it."

Because the only person I might want to take out is perfectly happy where he is.

"How do they get in there?"

"The device that sends them there is about the size of a large gun."

"That could have medical uses. If we could send critically injured people there and take them out at a medical facility, we could almost eliminate field medicine entirely."

"Ah. I suppose we could. I'll talk to Kal-El about it once Earth's liberated, see what he can do. His species didn't use it like that, so I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some fairly severe-"

My ring blinks.

"-drawbacks. Answer."

Weaponer Lysis's face appears. "We are in-system. Are you prepared?"

I look up, and see the tiny fleck of yellow towards the inner edge of the Oort cloud. Earlier than she said, but it's not like I was expecting honesty from her.

"Yes. The locals know that you're coming. We'll be ready when you get here."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:27 GMT

Ah, it appears that Weaponer Lysis has selected a Citadelian as her bodyguard. Either that or another Branx/Okaaran hybrid, but from the way he's glaring at me that seems unlikely. Lysis isn't using a yellow power ring but the Citadelian is, though I can't tell whether that's a duplicate that Sinestro created or an actual yellow power ring.

I wave up at them as they come in to land.

"Weaponer Lysis. Good trip?"

"No." The Citadelian releases his yellow aura from her the moment she's on the ground. Not sure whether that's because he doesn't like her either or because he wants to keep his power available in case I try something. "Universal teleportation isn't a subject that I have cracked."

"I would have been happy to delay. I agreed to a day."

"You expect me to believe that you would have been content for the Anti-Life to continue working on your homeworld for another day?"

"Happy, no, but I don't believe that the wellbeing of the Earth is solely dependant on my actions. Certainly not to the point that a day would matter after a month and a half. But… Thank you for prioritising me. If you'll hand over the personal lantern then I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing."

"It will need to be properly paired with the ring. And even then, they won't be a matched set."

"I don't need one hundred percent optimal performance, just something that can produce yellow light on command."

She looks puzzled. "What for?"

"That's not your concern. If I need the performance improved, I'll talk a maltusian into taking the job."

I reach into my equipment harness and pull the yellow ring out. Then I flick it through the air-.

The Citadelian tethers it with a bubble construct and then floats it to Weaponer Lysis, glaring at me all the while. Lysis takes it and presses her fingertips against the inner surface. She bows her head slightly as she focuses her attention.

"I am glad that you aren't concerned with performance. This is far from anyone's best work."

The Citadelian's eyes glow yellow for a moment, but Weaponer Lysis remains focused on her task.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Will you at least tell me who you intend to wield it?"

"Batman."

"What species?"

"Human. He's been using fear as a tool for fighting crime for over a decade. He'd be an excellent recruit for Sinestro if it wasn't for the fact that he wouldn't work for Sinestro."

"Ah, yes, Bruce Wayne. He was on the long list."

"Doctor Crane is far too deranged to fit into an organisation that Sinestro would build. Vandal Savage wouldn't accept playing second fiddle. Bane's dead. I'm not sure who else you might want."

"Your world presents us with a plethora of potential recruits. I assure you that we will consider applicants carefully."

"Just… Wait until the Anti-Life is dealt with. I don't want to give Apokolips more tools."

Weaponer Lysis holds the ring out and her bodyguard grips it with a construct once more. She then reaches out slightly with her right hand and makes a twisting motion, a yellow personal lantern appearing from thin air. A curious design: a sphere with the yellow sigil emblazoned front and back with a hole into the core through the central circle of the sigil. There's a stand at the bottom, and a short handle at the top and another around the sides. Oddly decorative. I'd have expected Sinestro to either copy the Green Lantern Corps design as closely as possible or do something utilitarian. I wonder why it looks like that.

Another small motion of her right hand and the Citadelian moves the ring up to the access point facing Lysis, the ring glowing in response.

"Zok nan. Zok nan."

Weaponer Lysis's mouth makes an expression of distaste as she pulls out a small hammer and strikes the ring, once, twice and then thrice, causing it to pulse with light with each impact. Next, she returns her hammer to her belt and takes hold of the ring again. She focuses on it again for a few moments and then it releases a burst of light.

"There. It's as ready as it will be. If Batman were here in person I could do more, but it should serve."

The yellow glow surrounding it intensifies as the Lantern with her thrusts both of them at me, his glower still in place. I take them both, then send them to subspace.

"Thank you. I'll get in touch if Batman wants it tuned. Anything else you want to discuss?"

"No, I don't-."

"Yes." The Yellow Lantern's eyes burn with yellow light. "I have something to say to you."

"Okay. I'm right here."

He stares at me a moment before continuing. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"That's the problem with coming from a culture of clones. You literally look exactly like every other Citadelian."

"You called me here, and you're telling me that you don't remember me?"

I try empathic vision, but all I get is a sheer wall of yellow.

"You were one of the survivors, then?"

"I was the lead engineer of the Citadel."

"Oh, right, the guy I branded when you were too slow in releasing Adam Blake. You seem to have done alright for yourself."

"You killed all but a handful of my people, destroyed our citadel and nurseries and cast us from our homes. No voice in my head, no emperor or admiral, no past, no future and no hope."

"And yet, here you are."

"Here I am, on the very plaza where the last survivors of my people ran onto your guns."

Is it..? Oh, it is! I hadn't noticed.

"If you're looking for guilt or contrition, you're not going to get it. Every one of you had it coming, and you really should have taken my mercy while you had it. I don't have time to fight you right now, but feel free to ring me once the Reach are defeated."

"My name is Crad. Illustres Crad. And I will seek you out when I am ready."

I smile warmly at him. "Good luck with that!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:52 GMT

I watch as they fly out of the atmosphere while my ring switches between various forms of sensor to try and detect anything they might have left behind. I don't have any record of qwardians using disease weapons but that might just mean that they were very thorough. I-.

"What.. was that?"

"What, Illustres Crad? I decided to spare a few of his people who I'd used as thralls. Yes, it would have been more rational just to kill them all, but I… I wanted to avoid killing peoples like that when not every individual was evil enough to justify it."

"No, I read your reports after I put on my ring. I wanted to see how much of the pigeon-speak you came up with when you tried to recruit me was true. I mean, there was something… Different about how he used his ring."

"Yes. I think he's enlightened. Making him confront his deepest fears seems to have freed him from them in the same way that confronting my desires did for me. I doubt that they can replicate the process…" I frown. "Not sure what Sinestro fears enough to put himself through that, but a version of me from a parallel universe managed to do it through ruthless self-reflection, so, maybe?"

Speaking of…

I send my heavy armour back into subspace, then take off my rings.

Deep breath.

And then I put the yellow ring on.

A pale yellow aura surrounds me but there's no other reaction.

"Lantern Natu, please take off your ring and then say anything."

She frowns faintly. What I want is obvious, but she still hesitates.

"It's a wretch, isn't it? Taking it off? When everything you want to do is so much easier with it on."

Her face tightens slightly, and she grips her right with her left hand and slides it off.

"Am I showing signs of fixation?"

"Okay, still understood you, so unless you were speaking English then the translator function works. Feel free to-."

"Could you answer my question?"

I shrug, opening my empathic vision to trace the patterns of her desires. "Your fixation on your ring is entirely in proportion to its utility as a medical tool, personal shield in a hostile area and a weapon when you're part of a military. Power rings are awesome, and feeling off about being parted from one isn't a sign of mental instability."

She nods, sliding it back on her finger.

"Noticed that you didn't introduce yourself."

"And say what?"

"Anything you wanted. Despite the suspense this whole thing is creating, Sinestro's crimes are mostly political. The Orange Lantern Corps doesn't have any particular dispute with him. You could have asked them to pass on a message."

"I could. But standing here, I couldn't think of anything I wanted to say."

"Ah. Well."

The yawning abyss of inevitable oblivion.

Zon tak.

A construct image of Thaal Sinestro appears in front of her, body language copied from Green Lantern Corps records and Korugari recordings. Proud, stern and imperious.

Lantern Natu grimaces. "And that means, what? That I'm afraid of him?"

"Him, what he represents, uncertainty. All sorts of emotions that you don't really want to think about. Honestly, I think you should talk to him, if only to get to the point where you stop building it up in your mind. This was just an opportunity to start things-"

The construct shimmers and is replaced by one of General Zod.

"-indirectly-."

"Illustres!" Commodore Amalak strides out across the plaza, a small squad of guards arrayed around him. "Might I have a moment of your time!"

"Certainly. What can I-?"

"Our communication system here! We have exterior microphones!"

"Yes?"

"As I'm sure you know, I have a…" He notices the specifics of the Zod construct, trailing off as he looks it up and down. "Particular interest in Krypton. And that kryptonian in particular."

I… Review my conversation with Lantern Natu.

Fiddlesticks.

"He's still alive..! Apparently!"

"He's trapped in a limbo plane, but… Yes."

"And you didn't see fit to mention that? To me?" He looks away for a moment. "Your reactions to.. when I told you… They were slightly odd, but I assumed I just didn't know your species well enough to understand your facial expression."

"Alright. I didn't tell you because he's trapped, no one is letting him out, you trying to finish him off increases the chance of him getting out and because there was no benefit to me in you taking time away from your valuable work to pursue a vendetta. And I will remind you that you kept the plan to exterminate the psions from me."

"The psions didn't wipe out your species. It really isn't the same thing."

"No, alright, that's fair." And that's when I spot that the marines with him are the same species as him. Quick scan… Yes, all the soldiers of his species on the base. "Do you plan on going after him?"

"I've dreamed of being the one who finally kills that monster." He looks me directly in the eyes. "I don't think there's anything that could make me hold back."

"It's not like I want him left alive for some reason, I just don't see the point in going after him."

"Sometimes, it's not about good sense."

"I don't have a phantom zone projector."

"I heard you say-."

"I borrowed one from someone else. And he's on Earth, which is currently being Anti-Lifed. I'm not going to stop you getting access to the Phantom Zone yourself, but just… Just do it a long way away from a yellow sun, and remember that he's a very dangerous man."

"I don't have a phantom zone projector. I've heard of them, but the technology is lost."

"Al-right. Then in the interest of cordial relations, after Earth is liberated, I'll see about getting you access. Is that acceptable?"

He thinks for a moment. "Barely."

I nod, sliding off the yellow power ring and causing the Zod construct to collapse. Then I put my orange rings back on.

"Then I'll return when I have news for you. Good day."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
11:47 GMT -6

"…which isn't ideal, but it's the best I-."

I pointedly raise my left eyebrow at Sunset as I work on assembling the device.

"We can come up with."

Batman's only half paying attention as he feeds her data into his computer system. Of course, half his attention is at least as much as the full attention of a normal man. Mr. Zatara on the other hand appears genuinely fascinated by the thaumaturgical element of the work.

"And these devices will maintain the separation of the mundane world from the Dream?"

"Sort of." I seal the exterior of the device. "Technically, it uses the dissonance generated by the existing merger to reinforce the rules of the prevailing paradigm. It's a little like how New God technology empowers our souls, only using the entire Earth's thaumosphere rather than a New God. The drawback is that it doesn't make what he's doing impossible… Because-."

He nods. "Because we can still dream. It cannot be cut off completely."

I remember the Sandman comic where Morpheus was bound in a magic circle.

"Not… Easily. And the side effects would be severe even if it was successful, so I'd really rather not. So he could work around it. Or just send people to destroy them, because we're going to have to put them around Atlantean territory."

Batman calls up a new image, the spread of Atlantis's dream overlaid with a map of the surrounding ocean and closest landmasses.

"Do you have anything that will allow us to act within Atlantis without being ensnared?"

"Any New God could do it. The Source defines us, not dreams. Other than that, I don't think so. Sunset?"

"Uuuuhhhhmmmmmm…" She sighs. "I hate to say it, but I don't know if I could survive without being dragged in. Luna probably could… Or at least she could learn really quickly."

I frown. "'Learn really quickly' isn't good enough when the penalty is you get swept up in the dream magic of the man who caused the Bronze Age Collapse because he didn't like surface people getting above their station."

"Nonsense, Our-." Human form Luna staggers in wearing completely flat shoes along with New God armour. "Our consort. We are well-equipped to comprehend the baleful magics yon magician has unleashed."

"Luna, darling, have you ever swum before? In either form?"

She gives me a look of mild affront. "Have you ever entered another's dream before? In either form?"

"No, but-."

"With how dreamlike the realm of Atlantis hath become, We will be able to walk there with even less effort than We do upon the land."

"Princess Luna." She turns to Batman, swaying slightly but managing to remain upright. "Are you certain that is how your magic and the magic of Atlantis will interact?"

"Naught is certain, but 'tis the most likely eventuality. If it is not, then We will know once We pass the threshold. Should it not be so, we will simply have to swallow our pride once more and evacuate."

"Unless you want the old…" I make a poking gesture with my right hand. "Upgrade, Bat-God. Or…"

Oh.

"Not unless it's essential."

"No, I just-. Okay, in theory, something that could exist within the Atlantean mythos should be able to function within the dream… Zone.. thing. If it works like we think it does. Except I don't see someone like Ahri'ahn doing this unless he could put his finger on the scales, if you see what I mean. I think Diana would be fine without a connection to the Source. And I imagine the Shade will shrug it off like he does most things. But this… This shouldn't be possible without Morpheus's tolerance, and he's usually not keen on people messing around with the fabric of the Dream."

"Morpheus. The Greek deity."

"No, Batman." Mr. Zatara shakes his head. "Morpheus is far older and more powerful than the Greek pantheon."

I nod. "And he's still a bit peeved about that time a small group of humans locked him in a basement for seventy years, so we're kind of coming in at the low ebb of his tolerance for tomfoolery. I don't know what Ahri'ahn did to get around that. I couldn't even begin to speculate."

"I assume that if the world's governments send envoys, they will simply end up entranced."

Sunset nods. "There's an outside chance that they'll snap back when they cross the threshold coming out. Or they'll stay as whatever the Atlanteans dream foreign diplomats are like for the rest of their lives. Or… They might propagate the effect back to their home countries."

Batman nods slowly. He-.

"Mister Grayven?"

I raise my right hand to my ear. "Yes, Jean?"

"General Lane wishes to speak with you."

I make eye contact with Batman, who nods. "Put him on."

"Grayven."

"General Lane. I assume this is about our friends in the Atlantic?"

"Yeah, I've got… Some difficulty with some generals who are talking about some fairly extreme options, and I wanted to get your take on it first."

"Ah, you're on speaker and Batman's here, so we can both chip in. Go ahead."

"Okay, well let's get it out of the way: what happens if we nuke them?"

"Depends on how high up the bomb is when it detonates. My best guess is that if it was set for ground detonation then it would cease to exist once it passed the country's threshold."

Batman nods. "That is the estimate the Justice League is working with."

"And an altitude detonation?"

"We don't know exactly where the threshold starts, so-."

"What do you mean by 'threshold'?"

"Very simply, they're manipulating the laws of physics to make floating Atlantis possible. Manipulating to the point where they can say 'nukes don't exist' or 'pressure waves aren't a thing'. We're working on a way to shut that down, but… Sorry, unless you've got an ancient magician you haven't told me about, then there isn't-."

"Yes. We do."

I blink. "You do?"

"Calls himself Nommo Balewa. Turned up at the Pentagon just after this started. He seems to be taking what Ahri'ahn's doing kinda personally. Is he the real deal?"

"Doctor Mist?" I nod. "He's ancient and a magician. I don't know how good he is, but people don't live as long as he has by being weak."

"I'll see if I can convince the President to send him your way. You're in Challenger Mountain?"

"Until I deploy, yes."

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"Ahri'ahn expands his magic to the entire world and turns everyone into willing thralls convinced of the supremacy of Atlantis and Atlantean culture. Sufficient to say, we're not wearing kid gloves on this one."

"Okay. Let me know when you leave."

"Will do. End." I sigh as I regard Batman. "So other than Luna and myself, who are we sending?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
18:03 GMT

"…ready."

I nod to Vykin. "I appreciate that. How.. is it working with your team and Prince Drax?"

"He can only remain here for a few seconds before the link loses stability. Highfather believes that duration will improve as our recovery continues."

"How soon can you re-establish a link?"

"Perhaps once each day. That is unlikely to improve, and it is why he constructed Infinity Man in the first place. It is far less… Disruptive to send a robot rather than a New God."

I nod. "Is he going to build another robot?"

"Infinity Man was the work of many years. He is endeavouring to construct a replacement, but it will not be ready in time for your return to Earth."

I nod again as I stare out across the New Genesis forests.

"Will he be able to purify the old one?"

"He is uncertain. If the Anti-Life broadcasters are destroyed, then he believes that he can. If they are not, he does not think that he can do more than stun it for a few moments."

"And against Mannheim himself?"

Vykin shakes his head. "Your original plan was judged to have the highest chance of success."

So we can't get a cheap win against Finality Man without dealing with the network. And on the other hand, we can't purge the Earth without the network, and frankly I'm a little… Uncertain about deploying the Forever People close to something that dangerous.

"But you were unable to secure a source of the indigo light."

"There's a way around that." Probably. Not like I tested it. "But it's going to be a little difficult, and a ring would have been more reliable."

"You would risk not just your life, but the life of Orion and my team, on a plan you do not think is reliable."

"If there was a good or certain option, we'd be taking that instead. I don't have a better idea that doesn't involve taking years to learn entirely new skill sets, and I don't… I'm not sure that Earth has that long."

Vykin nods solemnly.

"I'll signal when it's time to go through. Should be at least two days."

"We will be prepared."

He offers me his right hand and I take it, shaking it solemnly.

"I'll see you later."

I fly upwards, leaving New Genesis behind in a matter of moments. Minimum safe distance and

step out, aiming at…

That's… Odd. I can't see Richard or-.

I can't-.

Focus on the desires of humanity and appear a little further away. And step

out. Okay, the solar system is still there-.

There are ships in orbit around the moon. I don't.. recognise the design-

Design not on file.

-and I can't think of a good reason for them to be here. They're not Apokoliptian, not unless they've had a radical change in style. Direct scan-. Blocked. That's a cause for concern. Not a reason by itself to destroy them, but…

I hadn't thought about what else might turn up to take a swing at Earth while we're… Distracted. Or they could be space Red Cross. There are Source-worshipping charity organisations in this Sector.

"Illustres to Lantern Scott."

My left ring shimmers for a moment, but I don't get a response. Not too surprising. If he's in the Tower of Fate or otherwise outside normal reality I wouldn't expect him to reply. Or he could just be asleep.

"Illustres to Lantern Gardner."

…

Alright, same issue.

"Illustres to Xenon base? Har-Zod, are you there?"

"Orange Lantern." Har-Zod's face appears over my ring sigil. "This base has been boarded and they're accessing my database."

"Okay, I can-."

"They have also planted explosives. I'm not entirely familiar with the design, but they look powerful enough to destroy this outpost."

And the last thing Earth needs is a small moon falling to earth.

"Are you at risk?"

"No, they isolated my system early in the attack and they've ignored me since. It's possible that they thought that I was the outpost's AI and aren't aware of what I am. I suspect that will change if I act intelligently."

"Who are they?"

"They were wearing heavy armour. All I can tell you is that they're humanoid."

"Can you tell me anything about the charges?"

"No. I no longer have access to internal sensors."

Darn it. I reduce my environmental shield and engage my armour's stealth systems.

"Can you update me on the League's progress on Earth?"

"Not fully. Superman is still alive, and… While not happy about the situation he appeared to be coping with it. In the sense of continuing the fight, not in the sense of accepting the truth of the Anti-Life."

"Are you affected?"

"I don't think that it's reached this far from the planet's surface yet. I feel a little down, but I think that's a normal reaction to the last surviving members of my species being in such a situation." He virtually sighs. "Mannheim has tightened his grip in some areas. In others… Local strong men who can function under the Anti-Life have taken control, for the most part nominally paying Mannheim homage."

"Have any League-associates died?"

"No. But from what I understand of Mannheim and Apokolips, killing them was never the aim."

"True. Right, it sounds like it would be a bad idea to try to liberate you at this time."

"I agree."

"I'm going to head down to Earth to link up with the League. I'll contact you when I have news."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
18:09 GMT

"Orange Lantern to Osiris?"

"Yes? Orange Lantern?"

"Good-."

"You're back? Do you have a solution?"

"I've got most of what I need. Can I enter Kahndaqi territory so we can talk about-"

"Yes! Of course!"

"-it in person." I breathe a sigh of relief. "Coming down now."

I have no idea what the current size of the North African safe zone is, so I aim for a mostly empty spot north west of Shiruta and fly downwards at speed.

"Did you know about the alien fleet near the moon?"

"A fleet? How many ships?"

"They were jamming my scans and not trying to move or fight. I'd guess that they had twelve capital ships, but they might just be converted freighters or troop transports. Twelve large ships, certainly."

"What does that mean for us?"

"Depends on whether Mannheim takes umbrage or not. It's too far for anyone except top tier superheroes or supervillains to attack. I'm a bit worried about what they're taking from Har-Zod's database, but hopefully it's encrypted to the point where no normal decryption tool can manage it."

"We are not ready to respond to attacks."

"And I suspect that they know that. If it's… Below a certain level then we'll pretty much have to ignore it. Heck, we couldn't even allow them to just do what they like to Mannheim's territory, not if we want to-"

I level off as I reach ground level, and land purely to enjoy the sensation of having my feet down on my homeworld again.

"-reclaim the planet in reasonable condition. Alright, I'm dead on twenty eight latitude and thirty four longitude. I'm stealthed but you can probably hear me."

"Yes." I look up as he comes in to land next to me. "But it would be harder if you were phased."

"Is it safe to reveal myself?"

"Earth is not safe at all. But as far as we can tell, Mannheim doesn't care about individual people."

I deactivate my armour's stealth system, and his head turns just a little from where he thought I was to where I am.

"How is Adom holding up?"

"He lives, though…" He looks pensive. "His strength wanes. Physically, there is nothing wrong with him, but he… Struggles to… Do certain things. To focus his mind. My sister uses her magic to fortify him, but there are many things that require her attention."

Hm. "Channelling that much magic continuously could do that."

"With Atlantis still isolating itself there is little we can do if his affliction is magic. Unless… You..?"

"You can have my purple healing ray, but I assume you've tried that." He nods disappointedly. "I can take a look at him, but since I'm not a magician there's not much I can do about it if it is magical. And I'm sure that whatever his problem is will be easier to deal with without the Anti-Life corrupting everything."

He nods. "What is your solution?"

"We seize the centre of the broadcast network and use seven different colours of power ring to channel pure life energy into it."

"You have seven different power rings?"

"No. I've got six. We're going to have to fake the seventh using either magic or the Medusa Mask. Should still work, though obviously it's not ideal."

"And what will that do?"

"The Anti-Life needs to convince people that it's true in order to control them. Once our broadcast goes out, everyone will instinctively reject it. I think."

He gives me a concerned frown. "How confident are you?"

"Well, there are no certainties, but it… Should work. There's nowhere I can go to test it other than Apokolips, and… I don't want Apokolips to learn about this."

"Will they not find out when we do it?"

"I'm not planning on giving Mannheim a step-by-step guide. He'll know that something happened, and we'll need to watch out for operatives coming from Apokolips for… Forever, probably. But I don't want to give him the specifics."

"But you have told me. Sharing information is a risk."

"Amon, last time they tried Anti-Lifeing you, you told them to go fuck themselves without super powered assistance. I consider you to be completely reliable."

He ducks his head slightly. "Thank you."

"But, yes, don't spread it out to anyone who doesn't need to know."

I should have thought that through a little better. Because he's right, even if it doesn't matter with him. If it was Kon or Richard I'd have told them, and they're nothing like as leak-proof. Would it matter? Probably not, but I didn't mean for Amalak to learn about General Zod and look what happened.

"What else has happened while I was gone?"

"Themyscira has… Gone. We are not sure where, though Wonder Woman has said that she is sure that it was not destroyed."

I think for a moment. "Reformation Island had some sort of shielding spell on it when I left. Is it like that?"

"No. There was a storm and it vanished, and the sea where it once was flowed over the hole it left."

That's-. That's annoying.

"And… Robin, Artemis, Match and Canis were… They confronted Mannheim himself."

Without really thinking I try to feel any of them. I get nothing. "How are they? Are they d-?"

"No. No. But they were exposed to the Anti-Life. They have not yet recovered."

"Not a problem. They'll be purged when the planet is." I frown. "Canis?"

"Mannheim told him that Darkseid was genuine when he cast him out. That it was not a test. And that he doesn't like his art."

Mildly… Surprised he hadn't realised that. I realised it during our first conversation. I didn't think that I needed to tell him… Perhaps I was wrong. Or perhaps he wouldn't have believed me.

"The victims of the Anti-Life who have taken control of cities, Mannheim is visiting them and taking something from their souls. It makes his power over the Anti-Life stronger."

"Is that what's making it difficult for Adom?"

"No, he began ailing before Mannheim began acting as he now does."

I nod. "Right then. No reason to waste time. How do I get in touch with Batman?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:20 GMT -2

The stygian depths of the Atlantic are unusually atramentous today, with the floating continent blocking out what little light might ordinarily reach the ocean floor. Though I'm being guided by the illusionary display on Sunset's stuff detector, the fact that Atlantis has pretty much been sheared off the bedrock means that the perfectly flat plain in front of me is almost entirely free of loose sediment or other subaquatic detritus.

"Grayven here. Depositing the last Argoribble."

I step away from the closest bunch of rocks and take out my spade. Normally I wouldn't bother, but Ahri'ahn strikes me as the sort of person who could probably track power ring activation. So manual digging is the order of the day.

"Why are you calling it that?"

Dig, and make sure that I keep each different sea floor layer separate so that I don't leave some sort of obvious sign to anyone who comes looking.

"Reality.. Generating Orb.. Radiating Baseline Earth?"

"You obviously just made that up."

"Fine, it's from an animated series I watched when I was a boy. The second time around."

"I gave it a perfectly good name."

"No, you gave it a literal description. I didn't call Wilson 'Intelligent Quadruped Planet', did I?"

"No-?"

"And that's literally what it is. No other planet in the universe has as many intelligent quadrupeds as your world." Okay, that's deep enough. I detach the last Argoribble from my harness and drop it in the hole, then put my back into covering it up. "Which is better, Argoribble or Iq'p?"

"Actually, Iq'p is a pretty close to an actual Equestrian word."

"What does it mean?"

"A plain with clear lines of sight."

Darn, that would actually work.

"Except it's not exactly 'Iq'p', it's a snort followed by an inhalation that would sound a bit like 'Iq'p' if you were trying to write Equestrian phonemes with English characters."

Someone's been spending too much time with Twilight. "Does it work in languages other than Modern Equestrian?"

"Ah… No."

"So when you get something that the diamond dogs, griffons, sphinxes and dragons all agree on, you can toss 'Wilson' out." I attach my spade back to my harness. "It's in. Stepping back now."

"Understood. Powering them up-"

"If the continent lands on me, tell Luna that I love her."

"-now and that won't happen. Returning Atlantis to normal won't be anything like that easy. And, ah… I haven't calculated it exactly, but I don't think you'd die if it landed on you."

"Yeah, but I'd get embedded in the upper sediment and digging myself out would be a huge pain, because the boom tube aperture needs-."

"Turning them on now."

Curious, I watch the desolate aquatic plain. There's no light down here, so…

Huh. Felt something just then, but didn't see a thing. Though if I felt it, Ahri'ahn certainly did. Guess now's the time to start the active infiltration part.

"Moon of my heart, are you prepared?"

"We are. We have the location of a somnolent mind, and shall begin Our ingress at once."

"Good show. See you up there."

And communication off, because I can pretty much guarantee that Ahri'ahn will have a way of listening in on it. Swimming is even worse, because between the weight of water above me and my own non-existent buoyancy I'd have to kick up a mountain of silt to get up there.

Mother Box, Hush Tube to Lex's airport.

Ping.
I Am Conquest.
And I walk through, into a faint snowfall onto an ice-slicked runway.
I Am Conquest.
The only part of Atlantis to stick up though the ocean surface is now adding its name to the list of the world's tallest mountains at approximately seven kilometres in height.
Mountain.
Air's thin enough that most people would struggle to breathe without assistance and the slippery coating is a fairly good way to get into extreme tobogganing.
Air.
The view would be amazing if I could see anything through the fog.
Fog.
I close my eyes for a moment and try to get a feel for the magic warping this place. Honestly, it doesn't really feel like anything; snow is snow and air is air.
Snow.
Wait, what?
Snow.
I bend down and scoop up a handful of crystals of solidified water. Since when does snow know what it is?
Snow.
I close my right fist, and wait for the warmth of my body to melt the snow trapped between my fingers.
Snow.
It doesn't melt.
Snow.
Doesn't necessarily prove anything; the air is extremely cold here. And while I could take shelter in one of the buildings and turn on a heater to see what happened, it's not exactly of primary importance anyway. Speaking of…
Snow.
I drop the snow and march towards the small air traffic control building. Since this was only a small airport for relatively small volumes of freight, there should only be seven non-Atlantean people stationed here.

The door is magnetically locked, but the only resistance as I push it open comes from the ice that has worked its way into the crack.

"Hello? I'm here to rescue you." Authority and Order.

"Mister Grayven, sir?" A man wrapped in multiple layers of clothing and at least two coats waddles in from the employee break room. "Oh, thank God. What the hell's going on?"

"Evil wizard refloated Atlantis. Is it just you?"

"Short of-. Short of breath. They're laying down around the heater."

I nod approvingly. "Good plan." I walk towards the break room, picking up the man as I go. As he said, the other six are huddled up against the cold around a large electronic heater. Interesting that the generator is still working. "The airport is closed indefinitely, so I'm sending you back to LexCorp's Metropolis office."

Muffled thanks greets the pronouncement.

Mother Box, hush tube.

Ping.

Since it's not visible, I just toss the man I'm carrying through before repeating the process with the rest of them before closing the tube.

"They could have walked."

I turn to Luna… Who is dressed in the manner of an Atlantean royal, hints of the armour I made for her poking through her dress here and there. Looks good on her, actually. And she's having no trouble standing upright or breathing.

"Are you managing?"

"Honestly, this is the most comfortable I have felt in this realm. I am curious to see whether that will remain true when we visit with Queen Clea."

I nod. "You and me both."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
13:24 GMT -5

"The old hometown just… Looks the same,
Like a derelict man who had died out of shame."

But that's Gotham, I suppose.

This place is going to need a lot of work once this is over. Not a lot of people out on the streets, and those are a mixture of long term homeless and… People who just don't have any real objective. Within their limits the homeless are better able to care for themselves…

Wasn't there an Authority comic where something like that happened? Someone broadcast a signal that made socially dominant people kill themselves? They haven't quite gotten to that stage yet, but they can see it from where they are.

Empathic vision shows threads of black clogging up everything in everyone I can see. No broadcaster, and no obvious organisation by a strong man figure.

"Orange Lantern to Justice League assets. Please respond."

"Orange Lantern. Proceed to New York."

"Mister Atom?"

"Ah, I apologise. Proceed to New York now."

"Right." I turn towards New York and accelerate. "You're working with the League?"

"I judged it to be the course of action most likely to result in there being a world for me to rule in thirty nine point four years. Approximated."

"What's happening in New York?"

"A group of Justified are attempting to raise an Anti-Life broadcast tower. A Task Force X group were assigned to stop them, but both groups are under attack from a group not on file."

"There are aliens parked around the moon."

"We do not have the resources to fight them effectively. Vexing."

The United States flashes by beneath me. Nice to see that the fires have gone out. "Lawrence Crock isn't there, right?"

"No. Currently in need of rescue: Cameron Mahkent, Tuppence Beresford, Wade Eiling and Abra Kadabra."

"Has Mannheim learned to do Anti-Life feedback through a power ring scan?"

"No."

I form a railgun construct and start scanning New York, wincing a little as I… Hear the whispers of the Anti-Life, and see that the state of the place is much more orderly than Gotham. Gunfire appears to be coming from Newark, and there's an Apokoliptian structure-.

Figures in airborne power armour use plasma throwers to force the… I recognise some of them as Alliance members, but their uniforms now have a degree of actual uniformity. Along with the helmets that mark them as Justified. Another alien in power armour is attaching… Teleport beacons to the large antennae sticking out of the top of the structure.

A building's front explodes, chunks of rubble shooting out as Eiling and… Anthony Woodward, try punching each other! Eiling's efforts have the most visible effect, but Woodward's metal face just snaps back into place while the tears in Eiling's skin aren't healing anything like as fast.

Woodward isn't vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses and I don't have a specific anti-metal weapon. Anything I could hit him with would do just as much damage to Eiling. On the other hand I doubt that Eiling is going to die in the next thirty seconds, so there's no particular rush.

Woodward somehow manifests a mechanical crusher from his chest and uses it to grab Eiling's head.

Okay, he is going to die in the next thirty seconds.

Particle beam.

Compliance.

A pale blue beam lances out, cutting a groove across Eiling's right shoulder and hitting Woodward full in the face. A tiny shift in the angle of the beam and it slices across the top of Woodward's head, confusing whatever passes for his mind enough that Eiling is able to free his right hand and tear the clamp off.

And now I've arrived.

Eiling shoves his hands through the hole in Woodward's chest and pulls, tearing a vertical cleft in him and literally ripping him apart. I grab both halves and shove them into two separate furnace constructs, melting them into solid masses before freezing both and dumping them on the floor.

Eiling grimaces at me as he gets his breath back.

"Lantern."

"Eiling. Situation?"

"Kadabra's still in the tower, Mahkent's laying face down in a ditch and the Terror girl got disintegrated." He grimaces. "And I got a voice in my head telling me it was all inevitable."

"You're not pardoned yet. Find enemies to kill."

He grunts, then leaps in the direction of the broadcaster. I scan to try and find where Mahkent ended up… Not in a ditch, but a squad of… Justified soldiers are demonstrating that if you don't mind killing the target it's perfectly possible to fight supervillains with guns. I rapid-fly in his direction, crumblers on construct cables punching through their helmets and jamming their central nervous systems. The one half-coated in ice gets a quick blast of hot air while I pull out my purple healing ray.

"Icicle!"

"Haah. Hahh. Hahh."

I drop the soldiers and dash into a building site, my construct barrier blocking the blast of ice he sends my way for a second before realising that I'm a friendly. The expression of guilt on his face would be funny of not for the three bullet holes in the upper right side of his chest, and the blood covering his hands.

"You look-" Filaments touch him and I begin knitting his flesh together. "-like shit."

"Fuck you, Lantern. Fuck this hurts."

"I realise it's not stylish, but I suggest body armour."

The bullets made a mess on their way out, but on the positive side that means that they're out. After I finish fixing the holes in his lungs and ribs and also give him a courtesy dry clean.

"Not worth it. They all use tungsten bullets. Go right through anyway." He grunts, then pulls himself up. "Where's everyone else?"

"Kadabra and Eiling are at the tower. Apparently Tuppence got disintegrated."

"Ah, shit. I liked her. So..?"

"Up and at 'em, champ."

He takes a deep breath, then nods. I fly up-.

The antennae on the top of the broadcaster shimmers for a moment and then vanishes. The aliens take that as their sign to evacuate as well, throwing plasma grenades at the ground-bound Justified before activating their armours' flight systems and going for height.

Railgun.

I fire three times, knocking out the main thruster from the alien closest to me before punching through their leg armour with the follow up shots. I don't hear a cry, but they fall out of the air a moment later.

Mr. Mahkent dashes along below me, throwing up walls of ice to cover his flanks. Eiling is at the tower, and takes advantage of the explosions going off to rip the entrance door out of the walls.

"Kadabra! Get out here! Time to go, before-!"

BOOM!

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
13:28 GMT -5

I grab the armour with a construct and bring it over to me. Having trouble scanning through it, but I can tell there's someone inside and that they're in pain through simple body language analysis.

"Pop your armour and get medical attention. Stay inside and I have to cut you out."

Mr. Mahkent looks decidedly unnerved as we both look for the aperture. "We need to go, dude."

Eiling pauses by the doorway. "Kadabra!" And then he heads back towards me, head turning to keep his eyes on potential avenues of attack. "Lantern, the icicle's right. Mission's complete."

I leave the person in the armour to think about it.

"What's incoming?"

"Whatever fucked up thing Mannheim's come up with this week. Y'know, sometimes, I don't think he even cares about the broadcasters. He just-."

His eyes widen, his arms come up and the ice flies… And pins a pigeon to a wall.

It flaps its wings pitifully for a moment, then is still.

"Still got fire control issues, Junior?"

"Fuck you."

Eiling snorts. "Couple weeks ago it was human-animal hybrids with super strength. Couple weeks before that, we got-."

"Death is life's objective."

Abra sprints out of the tower, then keeps running past us. I fly up into an overwatch position as Eiling and Mahkent begin falling back, orange bonds wrapped around the figure in power armour.

"Everyone else hear that?"

"Death is life done right!"

Eiling snorts. "At least the animals didn't talk."

"So lock and load!"

I deploy point defence constructs, ready to fire.

"And hit the road!"

"Where is the evacuation point? I can just fly-."

There's a green blur, and for a fraction of a second as my thoughts turn to orange light I see… Humanoid, small, cybernetic modifications making its head look a little like a skull. Going by the size-.

It skull-grins at me.

"The Jockeys ride tonight!"

The-. That's a radiation symbol shield!

The other side of the shield goes white as the nuclear device the… Thing? Was carrying detonates! I reinforce the shield as the pressure of the detonation pushes me back, and expand it as the nuclear fury expands outwards! Kadabra points his wand at it, muttering something under his breath, while Eiling grabs Mahkent and pushes him to the ground underneath him as the heat washes over us!

That was a person.

They're using nuclear suicide bombers.

I alter the targetting parameters of my point defence drone constructs.

The initial release of energy has pretty much stopped, the shockwave and incandescent light have passed us by. The area is still hot and radioactive, but we can move. I attach filaments to everyone and transition-.

Unable to comply.

That's not good. Okay, ah, flying? I can fly everyone out, but that would make us very visible so I'd rather get away on the ground first.

Kadabra waves his wand and a cold field envelopes the molten concrete around the site of the detonation.

"Everyone alright?"

Eiling's back smoulders as he pulls himself upright. Mahkent's ice skin is.. sweating a little, and his mouth is hanging open.

"Was that a nuke?"

"Sure, they got the rest of the US arsenal." Eiling pats out some burning… Skin. "Why wouldn't they have the nukes?"

"I hadn't realised that the US had suitcase-sized nukes. I mean, I know the Russians did-."

"Prototype fission hand grenades. Probably some Davy Crockett rounds someplace."

I shake the alien in power armour. "Are you paying attention in there? Is your armour nuke-proof?"

I-

"Hah hah-!"

My point defence constructs fire as I shift my construct shield around to cover the new direction, rays of light punching holes in the head of the-. Whatever these are. It falls to the ground as the flight system gets damaged, and-.

"Fun game!"

A third bomber appears, and all I've got time to do is change my barrier into a dome before-.

The world outside of my barrier turns white as its bomb goes off! I'm pushed.. down into the ground, Mahkent cringing as the space between the dome and the pavement shrinks! Kadabra's waving-. Making an electromagnetic field to encourage the plasma to expand away from us. Okay, good thinking-.

Eiling looks up. "Would it help if I push?"

"No, but thank you for offering."

CRACK!

Secondary layer, let the first fail and be replaced. Don't need to worry about the second bomb. Fission bombs don't cook off because they need explosive compression to begin the fission reaction. But there could be more coming in.

Are we anywhere near a sewer or storm drain?

No.

Never mind. Crumbler construct, bore down. I can always dig towards-

"Peek-a-boo!"

-freedom-. Fuck!

"Do I-? Do I try freezing it?"

Eiling snorts. "On your best day, you couldn't freeze a nuke."

No cracking this time, but I can feel the outer layers of my construct barrier being peeled off. Use the borer to dig out a cave and seal it against water.

"Eiling, down the hole. Icicle, after him."

"Right." He doesn't look back as he jumps down.

Mahkent looks down uncertainly, then looks up at the nuclear blast and makes his decision, jumping down and using ice claws to control his descent.

The brilliant lights are fading a little, and I see-.

External Motivation = External Control

A figure in dark armour appears through the burning and shoves their hand through my construct!

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
13:31 GMT -5

They haven't punched through with force, I notice almost immediately. Rather, they've pushed through and the construct is… Almost treating them like they're part of it, merging with-.

My eyes widen slightly as I realise that the orange light is slowly flowing from my construct up grooves in their armour.

External Motivation = External Control

"Kadabra, grab the alien and get down the hole."

"Ah-."

Oh heck. I activate my gauntlet's crumbler function and punch the Justifier's grasping hand! Their hand jerks back, but their armour is only slightly abraded, and… It's acquired a faint orange glow.

"Kadabra. By that rationale we're all controlled by things outside of ourselves." The Justifier recovers and swings with their left hand, prompting me to open a hole in the construct and putting a kinetic barrier in place instead. "We're only a slave to what other people dangle in front of us if we choose to be. If the price is too high, it's always correct to walk away."

He blinks, shaking slightly as he comes back to his senses as I take advantage of the Justifier being off-balance to wrap tungsten chains around their extended arm.

"Yess… Yes." He flicks his wand at the alien, who floats off the ground and then shoots over to the hole. Kadabra then gets on the armour's cuirass before causing it to descend with a wand poke. He rubs his forehead with his left hand as he drops out of sight.

I create a construct plug over the hole behind them and then I give the Justifier my full attention.

"Are you still aware in there?"

External Motivation = External Control

"Yes, you said. I'm not sure why you think that changes anything for me. I mean, what's the alternative supposed to be? Purely internal motivation with no reference to the external universe? If I wanted to be a lump of rock I'd have transmuted myself into one."

The Justifier isn't pulling to try to free themselves. I think they're looking at me, but the helmet makes it a little hard to tell. They don't have super strength and they can only absorb my constructs through direct contact. Though concerning, that's hardly my only avenue of attack.

In fact, since no new Jockeys have appeared and I've got them trapped, I should probably see about getting their helmet off. It's not… An efficient way to undermine Mannheim, because we don't have a safe space to put everyone we could free and we can't even guarantee that we can keep them free. But it looks like Apokolips has a new anti-Lantern ability and so I need to know more about it.

"I'm going to try removing your helmet now. Please, try to stay still."

Background heat and radiation are at levels my armour and environmental shield can easily deal with. I stick a construct manhole cover over the hole I dug, then drop the construct dome.

"I realise that as a Justifier you don't value your life, but please remember that as long as you're alive you have utility to Mannheim."

I transmute a solid metal clamp and attach it to their helmet before trying to find the seal, except… There doesn't seem to be one. No, there it is, but it's currently undone. I can just lift the helmet off.

I don't trust it.

I check very carefully for any sign that there's a booby trap or suicide device, but I can't… See anything.

I give myself construct armour and put a construct shield between us anyway.

"I'm going to lift your helmet off now. I realise that it's going to be a shock, but please try to stay calm."

I use the clamp to pull the helmet off over their-. His head, and-.

And my own face stares back at me.

So that's what he did with… At least one of the clones.

The clone stares at me. He's lost a little fat in his face, and his sclera are reddened by very visible veins, but otherwise… I mean, he's not me; the brains of the clones were blanks that I could load myself into, not conscious and functioning brains in suspended animation. It wouldn't be impossible to… Edit them into something functional, but that wouldn't make the resulting person think anything like me.

Though it probably means that he doesn't have an 'un-Anti-Lifed' form. So in that case I should… Kill him?

There's a flicker of orange in eyes, which… Which is awkward, because it suggests that he can have desires of his own. And if he can do that, then he.. could be his own person.

Okay. Um. There's… Actually no Anti-Life transmitter in his helmet, which means… That his brain is fully acclimatised to the Anti-Life and doesn't need constant reinforcement.

"Can you actually talk?"

He's not… Staring at me with hatred in his eyes. Or any surprise that we share a face. I think that Dr. Balewa might-.

"Boo!"

Hu-?

The light and the pressure's back, but my construct armour can take it. My clone's head on the other hand can't, and it's… He's… Ash. His armour-. What little I can see of it, appears to be surviving intact. So… What was the point? He can't have been trying to make me feel guilty. It might work on some superheroes, but I originally created the clone to body jack.

I shake my head and walk towards the hole. I should fill that in after I drop down, because-.

Charging. Charging. Ch-cha-ch-cha-chaaaaaa…

What? What just-?

There's a… Dark patch in my construct armour. And it's… Expanding, spreading out-.

I try dismissing that part of the construct, and it doesn't happen.

Um.

Move to the plug, activate crumbler gauntlet. Okay, if I get out of-. This armour should be able to take exposure to the aftermath of a low grade nuclear-

"Knock knock!"

E-h!

Ah…

The dark patch is spreading, and I-. My other clones are Anti-Lifed, so that's a no, even if it could have worked. My armour might be able to take nuclear detonations, but not at this close a range. Leaving the area risks the other three and our prisoner.

I don't know what that is. I'd guess something… Anti-Life orientated. Clone-me gets infected and then transfers it into me the same way I would have transferred myself into it. But I've been exposed to the Anti-Life before and while it was unpleasant it didn't have much of a lasting effect. Then again, Mannheim wouldn't do this unless he thought it could work.

I create a new bubble shield and-. It's got the same dull orange permeating it. Push it out, dismiss the cap, step in and start filling it in as I drop. Kadabra and Mahkent can deal with-.

External Motivation = External Control

Ah…

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:37 GMT -2

Our pathway through the Venturian streets curves upwards towards the third story of the palace and away from the main thoroughfare of which it is a part. Or rather was. Luna strides forwards with a degree of confidence that I find… Interesting, while I trail on behind.

The citizenry around us…

Venturia isn't the sort of place to segregate on the grounds of form. The ruling family are pureblood because their ancestors could afford that version of the spells, but it's been a very long time since they made a distinction between purebloods, gill necks and those with overt fishlike qualities. In my visits to Venturia I saw a wide variety of peoples swimming around the palace district without anyone finding it odd.

That is no longer the case.

The palace is now dry, where before Queen Clea held parts of it dry as a demonstration of power. Logically, if she were continuing the same policy now then she would keep parts of it submerged. Instead, the submerged areas are restricted to the outskirts and occasional displays of aquatic plant life in public areas.

The buildings look a little different too. Like they were built in the pre-sinking style, and are actually capable of maintaining their structure while out of the water. Windows and doors made of wood and metal have made a reappearance, entry points away from the ground floor have vanished so that there's no sign they were ever there.

Looks a little like Themyscira, to be honest. Aside from the occasional displays of overt magic. And the existence of men.

"Honeybun, are you sure they can't see us?"

"Neigh, they can see us most readily." She raises her right hand in casual greeting to a palace servant as they clean the interior of a window we pass, and the servant nods deferentially back. "But they can only comprehend us in terms of the dream in which they are trapped. Were We in Equestria, We would rouse them to full consciousness that we might discuss what had happened to them, but here that would be contrary to our purpose."

"And Ahri'ahn isn't going to notice this?"

"We are doing what We can to prevent our presence here from disrupting the dream, though your presence is far more perceptible than Our own. There is little that We may do to prevent him noticing us should he turn his attention this way due to some unrelated matter, though We suspect that he will focus his gaze on Poseidonis during this time."

"Is there anything I can do to make it easier for you?"

"Neigh, there is not. Your nature as a New God means that you hold fast where others bend. Your passing leaves a wake. That is why we should avoid proximity to others."

"And you can wake Clea up?"

Luna nods as we approach the target balcony. "Verily. That is the greater risk. If Ahri'ahn has realised that she is your ally, he may monitor her more closely. We will attempt to unpick his magecraft, but in such matters there are no guarantees."

The railing bends aside as we step onto the balcony, and the pathway which brought us here… Sort of fades into the… Wall? The ground below us? Like it was made of things from its environment and sort of..? Stopped being twisted out of place.
Reality is R-.
Luna gasps, her head jerking around to glare at me. "Stop that at once! We could feel you trying to layer the rules of the waking world 'pon the sleeping one! Our foes will feel that at once!"

"Sorry, sorry, it's just… I find this profoundly unsettling, you know?"

She smiles. "We do. And We are pleased that you are able to admit a failing to Us. It is… Gratifying, to aid you and in some small part pay back the aid you have given Us."

"It's nice to see you in your element like this."

"It is nice for Our element to be rel-e-vant…" Her expression changes to one of mild guilt. "Ah."

"Ah?"

"We may have… Changed your clothing… Somewhat."

I look down and… Now we match. I'm too broad for the look to really work; I look like a bodybuilder at a renaissance faire, but… I'll live with it. Particularly given how in-tune she would have to be with my God-Name to do something like that without me feeling it. If it weren't for Father, I'd propose at once because there just isn't a greater level of trust or intimacy.

"Nice. Now let's get in there and find Clea."

Luna leads the way once more, looking neither left nor right as she unerringly homes in on wherever Clea is. I don't know how it works exactly, but journeys in dreams-.

A golden barrier flares into being just as she steps out into an intersection, blocking my path.

"Your power and skill recommend you, magician."

Voice is coming from the… Left. They can't see me from where they are. I might be able to force the barrier, but that would definitely draw attention to me.

"I could scarcely feel your presence at all. I did not think that anyone in Atlantis studied Dream magic, but it seems that your family had its secrets."

Wait. Wait. I recognise that voice. I stabbed him in the face.

"We are Princess Luna. To whom do we speak, who is clearly not submerged in this baleful delirium?"

"I am Nabu of Cilia, Magi of Order."

Darn it! I knew he was going to reincarnate, I just thought he'd have the sense to keep his head down! The barrier… I don't know, it's glowing. The sword should have removed all of his accumulated power, but… Yes, okay, there wasn't anything stopping him building back up again. Klarion didn't, but he never really struck me as a strategic planner.

"And for what reason would one who prizes order above all merge the material world with the world of dreams?"

A… Passageway which wasn't there before has suddenly always been there to my right. I nod and follow it.

"I used the flaws of each to bring order to the other. Humans are messy in the contact of their affairs, but they are creatures of pattern. This in turn creates structure within the realm of Dream."

I can still hear them perfectly well, a grate in the upper part of the wall which used to exist for the purpose of allowing water pressure to equalise serving to allow me to eavesdrop.

"And your magic compels them to walk evermore within such patterns."

"Just so. They are still themselves, and can still make choices in their lives. But-."

"Those choices are bound by your power and art. And that of Ahri'ahn."

The passage turns off, and I quietly step out behind Nabu. I'm not sure if his original form was human-seeming or if he's had so many hosts in the intervening period that he now identified with that form more than any other, but there he is. Light Atlantean robes, shoulder length white hair and beard and that's about all I can tell from the back. There's a golden shield keeping Luna where she is but nothing at all between me and him.

"He is proud and arrogant, but he is powerful and highly skilled. Still, I am puzzled as to how he did not detect a dream magician as skilled as you. He should have done, and your wards are clearly only as good as they are due to your access to dreamstuff. Are you a child of Morpheus?"

"We are charged with ensuring that what you have done here doth not come to pass amongst Our own people." She raises her right hand, dark blue wisps effusing towards the golden barrier between them. "And We shall stop you here."

I draw the Sword of the Fallen.

"That is unlikely. I am here in the dream role of court magician. There is no story here that will allow you to best me in a contest of magics."

I step up to him, put the sword to his throat and resting my left hand on his shoulder. "But I think perhaps that one who has killed you before may be excluded."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:43 GMT -2

He freezes, though I note that it's not because he's afraid. He's merely recognised the danger and is frantically trying to work out how to handle it. I assume. I can't see his face from here.

"To refresh your memory, after you tried to possess Giovanni Zatara, I turned you into a construct and left you in place as his-."

"Slave. Yes. I remember."

"Advisor and power source. But as you went increasingly peculiar, I was eventually persuaded to stab you-" I tap the flat surface of the Sword of the Fallen against his breastbone. "-with this, destroying your construct-self and causing you to pop back into fleshy existence as you are now. I imagine that was a blast from the past."

"Do you expect me to thank you?"

"Nabu, you thanking me would be the one thing you could do to convince me that I was in the wrong. How's being alive treating you?"

"What do you want?"

"You can start by dropping the barriers trapping Luna."

"She could remove them herself; she has the strength."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "Yeah, but that sort of thing is easier for third parties to detect."

"You have learned. Or did you take that knowledge from me?"

"I wouldn't want you in my head. Still have enough trouble remembering parts of Vandal Savage's life. No, I've learned, and-. Oh. Did you know that I'm from Apokolips? Or was that after you were reduced to being a construct?"

"I was informed by Ahri'ahn."

"So, shield coming down, or I start altering your attitude with my ring."

There's a momentary delay, then the barriers turn from solid planes to golden mist before vanishing entirely.

Luna walks forward. "Nabu of Cilia, this evil enchantment will not stand. You may aid us as we undo Ahri'ahn and all his works, or you may stand against us and be cast down."

"I am devoted to Order. There is no torture you can inflict that will sway me from my path."

I nod. "I can respect that. Another question, then. When I stabbed Klarion with this-" I tap him again. "-thing, he came back without any particular magical ability. Now, I suspect that it left him with his knowledge but put him back to square one as far as power acquisition was concerned."

"A reasonable deduction."

"But why couldn't he just build himself up from scratch? He did it once after all. Now… Maybe, it takes time. Or he just didn't have the patience any longer. You'd have patience, wouldn't you?"

"I am as patient as stone."

"Mm, except, you see, you're… Not. Decades of Klarion not wrecking the world while Nelson left you on the shelf, and the moment you get a body again you act like your ability to counteract him is suddenly super important. You chose to become a helmet rather than do as nature intended and die. You never really trained up a successor; Kent gaining knowledge of magic was a side effect of you possessing him periodically, not something you actually worked at. So either you're astonishingly arrogant and actually believe that you are irreplaceable… Or you're simply rather fond of existing. Being alive in the world. Or both."

"But would you make a deal with Ahri'ahn to make the world more orderly? Maybe. Except I can't see him making the world more orderly. He strikes me as the sort to create a people of god-wizards who do whatever they like. No. I think that Klarion didn't get his magic back because he couldn't. And I think you made a deal with Ahri'ahn because a dream-warped world is the only place where you could regain yours."

"Then kill me. Again."

"No reincarnation this time, Nabu. Just you and the default afterlife. Maybe they'll put you and Klarion next to each other."

Navy blue mist swirls around Luna's hands. "Grayven. We have spent time enough on this miscreant."

The mist flows over Nabu's arms and neck. I release my hold and step back as it solidifies into a set of magic suppression chains.

"Honeybun, you know that thing we did-" She glances at me in alarm. "-where we used my honesty to conjure a connection to the Element?"

"You wonder if we could repeat the process here and compel him to speak truthfully." She stares at Nabu as she thinks it over. "That was a moment of revelation on your part. Is there some truth of equal magnitude that you are concealing?"

"Um. Having thought about it, I'm actually a little grateful to Nabu to give me the impetus to start defying the Justice League?"

…

Nothing.

"Perhaps why hearing his confession matters so much to you."

Hm. How to put my thoughts into words?

Honesty. It's not just about friendship. At a basic level honesty is required for any sort of social interaction to function properly. A merchant has to be honest about the quality of their goods for potential buyers to make a decision. But it's often in their short term interest to lie, or shade the truth so much that they may as well be lying. In a democracy, the citizenry need accurate information about the alternatives they are choosing between for the system to work, but those involved know that lies are much more effective in the short term. They get themselves into office at the cost of the faith of the people in the system and the respect they once had for the office. Honesty is giving true faith to civilisation over the cost of temporary embarrassment or discomfort.
Builder Of Civilisation.
"If Nabu genuinely believed that he was essential, then he needs a dose of honest self-reflection. If he didn't, then he's a hypocrite who sustained himself at a great cost to others. And either way, I want him to confront that, because my life becomes a lot simpler if I can just kill him and I need a better reason not to than I have at the moment."

"And I must hear this lecture from one who will not even use his own name? Who lies with every sight and breath?"

"Oh, sure. Just kill Darkseid for me and I'll tell everyone everything. I'd much rather do that, actually, because this whole New God thing comes with instincts that I didn't have before and they're telling me that I'm doing the wrong thing. Besides, this me is Grayven with 'my' virtues shot into him after absorbing 'my' soul, so I'm the only Grayven around."
Honesty Exultant!
"Perhaps this will aid Us." Luna holds up… The Lasso of Truth? I frown at her, because I can't see Diana handing that off. It's a sacred trust. "Neigh, it is not the real thing, but that has existed long enough to gain a substance in the realm of dream. We wove the strands of your truth and called this into being."

"Hit him."

"Perhaps we should ask about Ahri'ahn instead?"

Oh. Right. "Okay, but can we at least ask about his magic? I'm probably going to stab Ahri'ahn with it before too long and I want to know if it'll stick. So how about it, Nabu? Are you prepared to face yourself?"

"Are you?"

"Have you not been paying attention? Yes. Luna." I lower my left arm, grabbing Nabu's left forearm and holding it out. "Loop that around both of us."

"That seems unwise, given our mission."

"No good, dear heart. Nabu here has challenged me to a god-off. If I step back I lose power. But when I win, he won't be able to refute anything any longer. Ahri'ahn will keep. Vindication won't."

She doesn't look convinced. But she drops the noose around us both anyway.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
17:47 GMT -2

The corridor around us fades into the background as I-.

Huh. Maybe using absolute truth in an area halfway to the Dream wasn't such a good idea? I really just wanted him to talk-.

Lie.

Nabu fades from my grip in the same way that the world has, and… I see… Ideas, linked together. Some close, some distant, and there's a sort of… Membrane? Linking them? Sunset would probably know what it is.

Attend.

But the big orange glowing.. burning idea right in front of me feels unimpressed.

"Alright, I want a lot of things from him, but most of them would be satisfied by him talking openly and honestly about why he did what he did. I don't even hate him enough to want him to fall on his face. Ah, not as a matter of policy. Obviously I'd laugh at a pratfall, but as long as his… Malforming of my civilisation stops I'd be satisfied."

Truth.

Things come back into focus slightly. Luna, the corridor, Nabu stepping away from me-.

"Hey!"

Attend.

"What? Ah. I don't really feel even slightly grateful about Nabu setting me against the Justice League. I just intellectually realised that him doing that made breaking up with them psychologically easier later on. I really just associate him with getting angry."

Truth. Attend.

"What? I physically can't tell you my original name. At this point I'm as much-. I'm about as much Grayven as I can be without having been the original one, to the best of my knowledge."

Excuse.

"I mean, I could probably work around it. Let someone know. Is that what you want? There's no documentation with it on this Earth, and… Frankly, I don't think that anyone on my original Earth would connect me to the person I used to be. At this point I'm... More Grayven than I am who I was."

Truth.

"Is this working up to me saying 'I am Grayven' and actually meaning it?"

No. Attend.

I stop trying to work out what's happening back in reality… Or 'reality', and focus on Honesty itself. Or Truth? There's quite a lot of overlap, but a person can be dishonest without being untruthful.

No, come on. I just gave this speech.

Reality fades away completely as I picture the perfect empire that lies within my soul. Is my soul. The conceptual lights move around it, taking up their rightful place in its metaphysical structures. Perfect and impossible, like the Source itself. I will never create this empire; I cannot. No one can. That's the thing about ideal forms.

And yeah, there's the palace, and the high court, and the light of truth shining from them both and making that happen must be a full time job-.

"Yes, obviously I'd like to make that happen. But I'm not God-King of Earth. I'm only Suzerain because Darkseid finds it funny. Or… Something. Are you asking for me to make a point of including you? Because I have sort of thought about openly using truth compulsion in legal processes, like the Atlanteans…"

Huh.

"Did."

I consider how the concept of truth would relate to this situation.

"Guess you're pretty annoyed, huh?"

Lies.

"I was going to fix it anyway-."

Lies.

I look at the perfected empire again.

"Yeah, no. I get it. No using the Dream to cheat. It's a process, an end you're never supposed to reach. Something to make you want to do better than whatever you're doing. I'm not going to cheapen my own soul with shortcuts."

"yAAAGH!"

The perfect empire fades into… It's still there, but it's slightly out of focus. Nabu swims back into focus, only now he's fighting with… Someone? A figure made of the golden order-magic he usually uses, is holding him by the throat. A smooth and featureless face looks down at him and I can feel the contempt. Nabu himself appears to be having some sort of fit, spasming… It's not that he's being throttled, it's… Something else? I don't know what's going on in his head.

"Nabu, this is a test of honesty! Whatever you said to wind it up, take it back!"

"No!"

"It's your neck. You know that I'm perfectly happy for you to die. But the one constant in all your problems is you, and… Looks like whatever that is agrees with me."

"It's me."

I frown. "That's what Cilians look like?"

"It is when they ascend to a state of pure Order! But for you, it is the form I would still occup-guh!"

The glowing figure keeps its upper arms around his neck and shoves the lower ones into his abdomen!

"It doesn't like lying, Nabu. You're ancient. What's so bad that you won't admit it?"

"It's you, those like you! Do you understand what it feels like to have a body after spending centuries as a being of pure arcane Order?"

"… Nice?"

"Horrifying! Revolting! And so… Right! To have touch again, to feel the air on my skin! You cannot understand it until you have denied it to yourself!"

I frown. "Wouldn't you have gone a bit peculiar without it, if it was that big a deal to you?"

"When I had my own body I taught myself to ignore it! But once I transcended, maintaining that discipline seemed… Pointless. How could flesh compete with the purity of Order?"

"Really, really easily." Huh. "Okay, you made a bad decision and then got hooked. I'm actually a little sympathetic -just a little- but I'm also hurt by your ingratitude. I got you a body back. And you could probably have worked out an indirect way to use Order magic if you needed that as well. Why are you working with Ahri'ahn?"

"Because I'm weak! I wanted..! I want both, and in the Dream I can have both!"

The glowing golden figure tosses him to the ground, as the Venturian corridor fades back into being.

I watch him as he lays on the floor, trying to regain his comportment.

"You know…" I hold out my arm as Luna steps closer to remove the lasso. "There's no reason for you to stay here. People have physically entered the Dream before. When we win, you can petition Morpheus."

"No." He shakes his head. "That wasn't just a Cilian. That was… Me. I refuse to be this weak. I will aid you, and then I will enter a hermitage and I will not emerge until I have reached equanimity. One way or the other."

I nod. "Alright then. So what's Ahri'ahn up to?"

"World domination. Naturally."

 

[Mr Zoat]

External Motivation = External Control

Pull a thread, apart comes the garment.

External Motivation = External Control

And apart come I.

External Motivation = External Control

The weakness of eudemonia; the greatness of even a virtuous man can be torn asunder by bad luck, or… Just being outmatched. Virtues of character are useful, but not a guarantee of worldly success. In Christian morality it's completely different; virtue is always rewarded by God in Heaven, whatever tribulations are endured on Earth.

External Motivation = External Control

It feels bad. It feels bad.

External Motivation = External Control

I can be-. Have been-.

"Aaaaagh!"

"Kadabra! He's awake."

"Yes, yes. Hold still."

"We're still in a combat zone. Work and walk."

"MAaaaagh!"

"Can you shut him up?"

"Why don't we just take the rings off?"

"Possibly." Ugh. "And because they're a central part of his metaphysical self. That would risk making things worse."

"Doesn't the Bible say 'if the self offends you, cut it off'? Seriously, I'll-"

"Don't do-"

"-take 'em-"

"-that!"

"-off-."

"Wha-?"

I'm staring at… Eiling's chest. I'm draped over his shoulder, his right shoulder, his right arm anchoring me in place. Kadabra and Mahkent are close by, and Mahkent's got both of my rings.

"Okay. What happened?"

Eiling shifts slightly. "Kadabra, he himself again?"

"He is… Not right, but whatever was affecting him has abated."

Mahkent smirks, though his eyes don't leave my rings. "Told you."

Eiling picks me up and drops me on the ground next to him, and I just about manage to get my feet under me.

"What happened?"

Eiling looks down at me, weighing me up. "You tell us. You came down the hole raving like a God damned Section Eight. Kadabra and me had to punch a hole through to the storm drain."

"I-. I had clones of myself around in case I needed another body to jump into. Mannheim captured them. Did.. something to one to put part of the Anti-Life into it. Once it touched my construct it started absorbing the orange light. When the Suicide Jockeys killed it, the Anti-Life… It bypassed my normal protections."

"You need to get checked out?"

"I should be fine until-. Until we get back to the Tower."

"Yeah, that's a problem." Eiling nods at Kadabra, who waves his wand to call up a holographic image of the city.

Oh. That's a lot of soldiers.

"What makes you so interesting?"

"There's… A chance that Mannheim could use me to corrupt the concept of avarice."

Eiling narrows his eyes. "If he can do that, why the hell are you in the field?"

"Didn't know he could do that. Really hoped he couldn't. My plan for… Beating them rather hinges on it."

"Huh?" Mahkent looks away from my rings. "You know how to win?"

"Probably. But as you can see, I very definitely can be wrong about things. You finished with those?"

"What?" He blinks, then jerks his head back to the rings. "Oh. Ah, you..? Sure you should be touching these?"

"They're an Anti-Life infection vector, and I'm the only one here immune to the lure of the orange light, which is why you're finding them so entrancing."

I-.

"What happened to my armour?"

"Too awkward to carry. Tore you out of it. Same with-" I see the alien on his other shoulder. "-this guy."

"What species is he?"

He reaches across with his right hand and picks the alien up, then lowers him to where I can look at his face. "Same species as Kanjar Ro, whatever they are."

Weirdly skinny, pointed nose, large eyes and digitigrade legs.

"Dhorians. I thought they'd be too busy to bother anyone."

Kadabra raises his right eyebrow. "Why?"

"I gave one of their neighbours a major technological boost. Their cold war should be going hot against fairly soon. Okay, put him back."

Eiling does, though he's clearly agitated. "So, because of you, they're here to put the boot in?"

I shrug. "Kanjar Ro knew about us already. Looked like they were trying to steal Apokoliptian technology. And I suspect that they kidnapped Tuppence as well, but Kanjar Ro tried that with the Justice League so she's in good company."

I have-. Had data on Dhorian teleportation systems, so there's a chance that we can escape that way. Depends on how much attention they're paying. If it's automatic-.

"Far as I can tell-" Eiling points at the map. "-our best route out is to head towards the waterfront and then punch a hole so we come up through one of these buildings. There's no way they're not watching the exit, but if we're lucky, we should be able to hide out until they reposition their troops."

"How lucky do you feel?"

"With you combat-ineffective, not too lucky. Got a better idea?"

I reach into my pouch and slip the yellow ring on.

Nar.

14th February 2013
15:16 GMT -5

Yellow light flares as I remember the Anti-Life clawing at my soul and trying to take away my ability to act on the universe. No, don't be submerged. Focus it.

"That's a solid 'maybe'. Kadabra, wake him up. We need a chat. And Mister Mahkent? Give me my rings back."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:17 GMT -5

"I won't tell you anything."

Fortunate that this ring has a database on Dhorian physiology, though creating the constructs I needed to communicate the information to Kadabra was… Uncomfortable.

It's not about being afraid. It's holding your mind in a position where you're thinking about the thing you're afraid of, you're on the cusp of a physiological response, but you hold it off. Fear-edging, basically.

"Let me guess." Eiling cracks his huge knuckles. "He ain't going to talk."

Because naturally, the alien doesn't speak English, and his translator was built into his armour. This yellow ring translates for me just fine, but I'm not confident enough in my control to try extending that affect to the others. Kadabra's implants are analysing his speech and will start providing him with a translation eventually. Apparently the Antares four-way war was… 'Resolved' by the Reach before Kadabra's era and as a result he doesn't have their language on-file.

"Everyone talks. You know that."

"Not quite everyone. Some people die first."

Dhorians don't sweat or twitch as a nervous response. They pant and blink. Our friend is doing both, which would be nice if I wanted a power boost but doesn't really help me with fine control.

"Do you know who I am?"

A double-blink. "A Lantern."

"Me in particular."

Eiling shakes his head. "That didn't sound like name, rank, serial number."

"He knows the 'I won't talk' is bravado, I know it's bravado. He's just saying so that he can square it with himself when he eventually gives in."

"N-? No?"

"This isn't my first interrogation. Now, I know that you come from Dhor. I'm not sure what you're doing here, though I have suspicions. How's the war going?"

"We will soon triumph over our enemies!"

"All of them?" I sigh, rolling my eyes. "The whole reason why the war has gone on this long is because whenever someone pulls ahead, the other three gang up on them. No one even really tries anymore."

"We try. We just guard our strength."

I consider asking when the last time his people landed troops on one of their enemies' planets was, but that's getting away from our point.

"A bit of a risk you're taking, coming here. Weakness invites attack."

"Your world doesn't have the technology."

"No, I mean, back home. That's not a huge number of ships, but it's not a small number, either. They'll notice the change in your deployments. Strength invites coalition building but obvious weakness invites attack."

"Or maybe it reassures them that we are not a threat. Not when Alstair grows stronger every season."

"So Alstair's about to win and this is a desperation move." I nod. "Okay. Explains why you grabbed Tuppence Terror rather than the Justice League like last time."

"'Last time'? There was no 'last time'."

"Because Kanjar Ro tried the exact-."

"Kanjar Ro is a miserable traitor to Dhor! We aren't just copying him! This 'Tuppence Terror' was a target of opportunity!"

"Oh, so you're here for the Apokoliptian technology, then."

Three blinks, then he pulls in on himself and stops talking.

"I don't understand why you think that would be a problem. We certainly don't want it here."

"What?"

"We're being invaded, and you want to steal our invaders' weapons. Good."

"… Oh."

"Now, we don't want you kidnapping our people, but… I mean, why did you think we'd want to stop you taking stuff from our enemies?"

"No, now you… Put it like that, it.. doesn't make sense."

"The governments of Earth have no contact with anyone in Antares. The Justice League fought Kanjar Ro a few years ago, but I get the impression that you don't care much about him."

"He is a thief and a traitor."

"So there's no dispute there either. Now, be honest: do you think we could come to terms with whoever's in charge of your fleet?"

"Your people have been fighting this invasion for some time, yes?"

"Month and a half."

"Do you have examples of their technology?"

"Of course. Mostly, we're using it to try and decipher how it works so that we can counter it, but I'm sure we've got a few spare pieces we wouldn't mind parting with."

"So… You want to give us their technology, and for us to give you our prisoners back?"

I nod. "Yes, that's about the size of it. We've also got maps of where they've got interesting pieces located that we're happy to share if you want to attack them."

"That would be very valuable to us. I don't have the authority to actually agree anything, but I can-. Ah, if you get my armour back I can repair my communication gear and send a message."

"No teleport system?"

"Miniaturising the stabilising beacons is hard. I don't want to take chances with my molecular stability."

"Perfectly reasonable. Whereabouts in the armour is it?"

"The transmitter is in top of the backpack, and the rest is in the helmet."

"Thank you." I turn towards Mr. Mahkent. "Icicle, would you mind going back and grabbing the helmet and backpack of this chap's armour?"

He looks a little disgruntled. "Well, yeah, kinda. Why me?"

"Because Eiling can punch through walls if we need to escape and Kadabra needs to keep listening for his translator to recalibrate itself. And that wasn't a question, it was a politely phrased order. It's a British thing."

"Okay." He turns away. "I'm going. Don't blame me if I break the wrong bit."

"I won't." I turn back to the Dhorian. "So what's your name, anyway?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:25 GMT -5

Abra and the newly introduced Nohnar Ko are working on repairing his communication system. Looks like Team Mannheim did a bit more damage than I thought, and Eiling tearing him out of it didn't do it any favours. Eiling is sitting at the side of the tunnel and has his eyes shut. Not sure whether he's resting his eyes or 'resting his eyes', but I imagine that high-intensity combat still tires a person out, even with his augmentations.

Mr. Mahkent is.. giving me an odd look. And avoiding making eye contact when I turn to see if he wants to ask me something.

"Icicle, if this is about me asking you to go back and pick up the armour-."

"No-." He glances at the other three, and awkwardly sidles over to me. "Kinda?"

"I generally make a point of not looking into someone's head unless there's a good, mission-based reason to do it, so you're going to have to explain that one with… You know, words."

Finally, he looks me straight in the eye. "You really take the Terrors to the moon?"

"Yes. Made a giant draughts board and a toilet cubicle, and tried to encourage them to do something more productive with their abilities."

He frowns. "Tommy said it was checkers."

"That's what we call checkers in Britain."

"And… That was it." He looks bewildered. "You talk to them, and suddenly they're playing for the hero team?"

"No. Tommy started understanding that they might have been going about things in the wrong way, and Tuppence started thinking that there might be other right ways to get things. Where they are now is a result of engaging with Doctor Quinzel, building emotional bonds to upstanding citizens and me finding them an outlet for their abilities and… Frankly, their psychopathology."

"Tearing up ships with their bare hands."

"Nothing wrong with smashing stuff. It's a matter of finding things other people want you to smash. Take you for example. Is anything you've done fighting Mannheim anything you haven't done in your criminal career?"

"Killed a couple of guys. Hadn't done that before." He scratches his forehead with his right hand, then shakes his head. "Don't know if they were all there. Kinda… Hope they weren't."

"Mister Mahkent, are you hoping I can talk you back onto the straight and narrow?"

"I-. Kinda-. Don't.. know? I mean, if we're all getting pardoned after this, it-. It seems like I'm wasting an opportunity, y'know? I'm a 'steal stuff' kinda villain, not a 'burn the whole world down' kinda villain. And the world… It's kinda been burned down, y'know?"

"You would be wasting an opportunity, if you went right back into criminality. At the very least you should consider completing your education before getting back into it."

"'Stay in school'?" He frowns. "Seriously, dude? Not feeling the super persuasion right now."

"It gives you more options. More chances to find something that you might like to do with your life. Being honest? From my own education I use… Basic maths, English for report writing, and geography and history for general knowledge. That's about it. As a criminal you probably don't need to worry so much about written reports, but you could use accounting. And there's a lot of money in narcotics, so history, geography and chemistry would come in handy."

He gives me a small smile. "Ah, I dunno what school you went to? But they don't teach you how to make crack at Smith O'Neil High School."

"No, but they teach you how to handle laboratory equipment. It's all about transferable skills. It's not like I write reports on Shakespeare for Batman, is it?"

He straightens up, throwing his hands into the air. "You see! This is the sort of thing I-."

He grunts, cutting himself off. Not sure what that's about, but I think the best thing to do here is let him talk himself around to it.

"Try… Considering what society is going to look like when we win."

"If we win."

"If you're Anti-Lifed or dead, it's hardly going to matter what career you wanted to pursue. Better to have something to aim for."

He nods. Then starts nodding more slowly. Then stops.

"Ah. I got nothing."

"Massive infrastructure collapse. Economic collapse. Heck, honestly, the global economy was severely shaken up by the Sheeda invasion. This is going to finish it off."

"So… What?"

"So goods aren't going to be transported around anymore. Did you know that ninety percent of Earth's advanced semiconductors are made in Taiwan? They're used for basically everything with computer chips in them, which is… Everything. And Taiwan had no defence against Anti-Life, so that's not happening anymore. And with all the deaths, it might not start up again."

"So… I shoulda gone to electronics class?"

"If you know a supervillain who's into electronics, see if they need electricity-free cooling to start a business. Honestly-." I frown. "When you manifest ice, does it just turn back into water when it melts?"

"Ah, yeah? What else would it turn into?"

"How pure is the water?"

"Ah…" He frowns. "I think it's pure? I've been putting it in drinks and no one's said anything. Why?"

"Because the water supply is probably going to be messed up too. If you can make any amount of clean water wherever you are, that's a good money maker. See, my ice… Guy is-."

"Captain Cold, yeah, I know." He rolls his eyes. "Everyone knows."

"But he can't do that. His cold gun freezes what it hits. If he wants to cover something in ice then he needs a water source or one of his gel packs. He can't just make ice out of nothing."

"Yeah, but…" He screws up his face. "Water?"

"Do you seriously not understand how valuable water is? There are whole… Chunks of the country that would pay you to drop a couple of gallons on them once a week. Drive up, wave your hands around for a few hours, then leave. Completely legal."

He sort of gawps for a few seconds, then closes his mouth and shakes his head.

"Particularly after a disaster. Clean water is hard to come by. Now, with a total economic collapse, you probably won't be able to make much money, but you'll be able to barter very effectively. Use that to build connections with the community and invest in long term assets that will gain value as civilisation reasserts itself."

"I… Dunno. That's a lot to take in."

"It's like I told Thomas: if you make more money following the law than committing crime, you need to either go legit or find a better law to break."

"Orange Lantern!" Abra looks up from his work, smiling. "We have contact."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:29 GMT -5

"Trooper Nohnar Ko. Status?"

"I am in dreadful danger. Activating suicide charge."

Mahkent actually takes a step away, but I trust Kadabra to have found any self-destruct charge in the armour pieces we're working with.

"Understood. Contamination?"

"I've been better. But I might have an antidote."

"Stand by."

The communicator goes onto standby. Ko looks up at me. "It's a standard call and response set-up. They saw me go down in hostile territory, and the… What do you call them?"

"The soldiers are called Justifiers. The small flying ones with the bombs are Suicide Jockeys. They're using Apokoliptian technology, but they're not actually Apokoliptians themselves…" I look to Eiling. "Do we have a name for them?"

"What, everyone working for Mannheim? Bad guys. Charlie. Does it matter?"

Mahkent raises his right hand. "I'm pretty sure I'm a bad guy. Could we call them something more definitive, like evil guys?"

"You're fighting to save the world, Icicle. That makes you a good guy."

"Aw, I didn't know you c-."

"Today."

"No, we don't have a collective name for them. They're all people that Mannheim controls through the Anti-Life."

"We were kind of assuming that it was some sort of group within your society that made a deal with a more advanced species. This was all just… One man?"

"He had help, and a lot of the damage you can see from orbit is from the last invasion, but yes."

He thinks for a moment. "We're quite a long way from Dhor, but we'd probably be willing to send you construction equipment in exchange for mercenaries. We've made deals like that before."

"I'm afraid that everyone worth taking would be better employed working here to fix our planet. And given the distance involved, it wouldn't be all that easy for you to-."

The communicator buzzes, and Mr. Ko gives it his full attention.

"Not dead then, Trooper?"

Ko straightens up slightly. "I am in dreadful danger, s-."

"We've boosted the bandwidth to make this line secure. Though I approve of your communications discipline."

"Thank you, sir. No sir, I'm not dead. I was wounded in the legs but the local primitive faction healed me. They want us to agree a truce with them, and they're willing to trade 'Apokoliptian' technology to us."

"That's interesting. I assume that they're listening to what you're saying now?"

"Yes, but only one of them has a translator. He's a Lantern. The other three can't understand us."

"Put him on."

He shuffles away from his helmet, looking at me and gesturing to it. I take his place and pick the helmet up.

"Illustres here. Who am I speaking to?"

"I am Commodore Volgar Zo of the Republican Navy of Dhor. What authority do you have to negotiate?"

"The 'primitive' faction is commanded by a group called the Justice League. They listen to me, though under the circumstances I doubt their deliberations will take long. I personally have little negotiating authority."

"I would rather speak to a member of this 'Justice League'. I seem to remember… They're the ones Kanjar Ro tried to use in his coup, aren't they?"

"Yes. Though I didn't know it was a coup attempt."

Might explain Ko's visceral response, though I don't know if that was because Ro genuinely did a lot of damage or because the people in charge wanted to give the impression that trying to overthrow them was bad for everyone.

"You can study our history later. What can your people offer?"

"All of the Apokoliptian weapons and technology you came here to acquire. The surplus we currently hold, the stuff we don't need anymore once the war is over, all of our field intelligence on locations you can't see from space. Things like that."

"Prisoners?"

"No point. The only one who knows anything about their technology is Mannheim himself, and if you can take him then you've got whatever you need."

"No. I assume that you want back the ones which we already have."

"Yes, naturally. If you have no interest in cooperating with us, that's fine, but obviously we can't tolerate our people being abducted."

"Does that include the Apokolips-aligned humans?"

"They're mind-controlled, and we're hopeful of our ability to fix them. We're happy to share everything we've learned about how it works, but we want them back. Afterwards, if you want to offer people employment, that's between you and them."

"And if we don't?"

"I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. I can't bring my Corps to bear on this planet because they're not resistant to the Anti-Life. But your fleet is far enough away that they're not affected by it. And I doubt that your ships are Reach-quality. I have no active desire to fight you, but I'm responsible for my people."

"The Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps?"

"I know there aren't many Orange Lanterns active in this region of space, but I assure you-."

"We got a report about the self-moving planet. I don't doubt your organisation's existence."

"Good. So, we'll need a little while to make contact with our overseers, but once we do we'll pass on-."

"I also remember a report about someone with that title visiting Alstair. Just before their technological capacities began improving in leaps and bounds."

"Yeah, that was me. I needed their help with something. And now I need yours. I'm usually open-handed with trading partners."

"How… Nice."

There's a moment of silence. I look at Ko for some sort of guidance-.

The world around me glows blue, and I see blue auras flare around my comrades-.

And then we're in a cell, with a lot of guns pointing at us.

Eiling snorts. "This it?"

"No." A figure carrying-. Shit, that's a gamma gong! I send a beam out-. Too late! He strikes the gong, and everything-.

Stops.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:33 GMT -5

I try moving my right arm, and nothing happens. I-. I can't blink? Blink or move my eyes. Breathing is.. difficult. There's a small amount of give, enough that I can take shallow breaths, but that's it. It's not much of a problem for me as the ring can oxygenate my body fine without me breathing, but the other three are going to have difficulty.

The man with the gong carefully puts it down on a stand before walking closer. Nohnar Ko steps out in front of us and salutes him.

"Sir."

"Good work, trooper." Ah, so that's Volgar Zo. "Introduce me to your prisoners."

I think he's pointing at me, but I can't move my eyes to check and he's right in the periphery of my visual field.

"This one is an Orange Lantern. Two rings. I don't know what that signifies."

"Where are they now?"

"In one of the pouches in his undersuit. But they acted as a conduit to the Apokoliptian mind control effect. They might just be broken now."

I try moving my arms again. Nothing. I never asked Diana about the gamma gong; it just sounded like a stupid gimmick weapon, and… Kanjar Ro just wasn't that big a part of their history and had no affect on Earth in general. Supposedly, three strikes on that thing will stop an entire world in its tracks. One strike stopped the Justice League, though I've got no idea how Kanjar Ro was planning on making them actively do his bidding.

How is it doing that?

Kalcan ne zes-.

Demonstrate visually.

"A yellow ring? I thought that only Sinestro had those." Volgar Zo steps right up close so that he's the only thing in my field of view. "Did you kill him? Or do you work for him?"

Since I can't move my eyes I can't roll-

"Oh! Silly me."

-them. The git smirks at me.

"And the others? The large one?"

The ring shows me a field of pressure surrounding me and the other three. Nothing around the Dhorian soldiers, which means that it's… Directed by intent?

Is the field strength decaying?

Ri-.

With images. Actually, make that the default.

Hm. No, it's not. It's completely constant. Not activating my tattoos that I can feel, so it's not magic. Not plasma or magnetic, I could break out of those easily enough. Is the field present anywhere else?

Yes. Around the gamma gong itself.

"He is called Eiling. He is monstrously strong. He made a hole from their dugout to their sewer by punching the soil. This one is Kadabra. He's… Some sort of technologist. The pointer in his hand is a multi-tool."

I don't think they're looking at me. Force field only goes that far, so… I try sending a filament outside the boundary. It doesn't work, the yellow band hitting the field and going no further. Alright, I've got just enough room around my body that if I separate the components I can create a cold gun. Let's try that.

"And the living ice statue?"

"They called him Icicle. I didn't see him do anything."

"Could he actually be a living ice statue?"

"I don't know, sir."

"There are a great many strange things on this planet." He enters my field of vision again as he walks away. "Trooper, head to medical and get your injuries checked."

"I feel fine, sir."

"And you may well be fine, but I'd rather be sure. If you are, get down to the armoury and get issued replacement equipment, then consider yourself dismissed for the duty cycle."

Cold gun in place, so-.

A roar of displaced air and the crackling of ice crystals exploding out of… Mahkent's hands! His angle isn't good and he can't really aim with his hands, but it looks like he can change the angle a little as an act of will. Ice coats a strip across the deck towards the gamma gong, enveloping Nohnar Ko and two other soldiers along the way but missing Volgar Zo as he dives aside!

And fire.

My cold beam scythes through the embarkation area, and-. Gets blocked by the plasma shields of every single Dhorian including Zo. Ko won't be wearing one, but there's no point shooting the only Dhorian here who isn't wearing a force field.

I can break shields, but my crumbler rounds are in my other rings' subspace pockets.

Can I crumble the gamma gong's paralysation field? Try that.

Still can't move my arms. Fire again, wide beam. The soldiers are wearing helmets, but it doesn't look like they have their own oxygen supplies. If I freeze the air completely, then they're stu-.

Every soldier except for Ko flashes blue and then vanishes.

Oh. They've all got teleport beacons, and we're on their ship. There's no reason why they couldn't just leave. Ko's still stuck and they had to leave the gamma gong behind, but we've got nowhere to go-.

That's ice. Frozen water. Not the gel that Leonard uses. He's going to suffocate.

Mahkent tried firing ice again, but it's… Sporadic, pulses of ice erupting where he points. I didn't think to ask how cold his ice comes out, though I doubt that he's giving it anything less than his best.

Okay. Next thing. Cold beam at the gamma gong itself. Let's see if that works. No visible response from the gong, but let's see if I can move…

A tiny amount, and if the structure of the thing works remotely like normal matter then it's currently sitting at absolute zero. I can't make it any colder, and if it can still function then there isn't anything else I can do to it with a cold… Beam.

Would a heat beam work? I think the cold beam technology could be used to excite molecular vibration rather than suppress it, but I don't really have a good enough theoretical understanding of the physics involved to make the modification on the fly. I think I need to try manipulating a different type.. of-.

Mahkent is using his pulses of ice to… Push the ice he's already created towards the gamma gong. I'm not entirely sure what will happen when his ice finally envelops it, but the areas already about as cold as I can make-.

What if we strike the thing? Ordinarily I'd say that hitting a hit-activated artefact you don't understand is a terrible idea, but since none of us have any better options I… It's probably worth it.

Mahkent's ice pile-up just misses enveloping the gong, building up over and around it. But his ice isn't that cold, so if I super-cool that bit…

The ice cracks, and a lump falls and strikes the gong on the top, causing a small vibration-.

I step forwards as the field effect ends, Kadabra and Mahkent stumbling as they regain mobility.

Eiling collapses bonelessly to the deck, just as a shimmering blue light heralds the arrival of the Dhorian marines.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:37 GMT -5

I crouch and throw up a wall construct and-. Jam teleport scanners because they could just teleport us into space. Kadabra darts over to check on Eiling and Mahkent.. freezes up.

"Icicle!"

The teleport finishes and the soldiers open fire on us at once, high energy plasma projectors shooting violet bolts of charged particles into my construct, which… It's going to hold for at least ten seconds as long as I don't do anything else.

"Wall!"

"Ah-? What-?" He raises his hands, pointing it at my construct. "Yeah-yeah!"

A layer of ice forms with a wave of his hands as he-. He's blinking quite a lot.

"You alright?"

"It's my-! My eyes. They feel weird."

"You couldn't blink for two minutes. Give your tear ducts a chance to work and they'll be fine."

"What was that?"

"Gamma gong."

My construct breaks, and the soldiers start melting through Mahkent's wall.

"What?"

"Kadabra, status!"

"My eyes are a little dry-."

"Of Eiling!"

I wait until there's a hole in the ice wall and then fire, my energy pulse pushing through a soldier's personal shield and slamming into the armour beneath! They go flying backwards-.

And then awkwardly climb back onto their feet. I'm not hitting at anything like the power I'm used to. And I'm not inspiring enough fear to overcome that.

"He was suffocating. He requires greater volumes of air than we do. I'm transmuting nitrogen to oxygen to revitalise him."

Wall again, maintain teleport jammer.

"Icicle, when the next wall falls, cover them in ice."

"What if they just teleport away and then come right back?"

"I'm jamming the teleport sensor. It'll be difficult for them at least."

"But their guns still work."

"Want one?"

He grins. Slightly awkwardly, but he manages it. "Hey, are we in space?"

"Probably. I think we're on their ships in orbit around the moon."

"Yeah?" He smiles excitedly. "Far out!"

"It's not that far." My construct starts to fracture as the soldiers focus their fire at a single point in the centre. "Ready."

"Ah-."

"Wasn't a question. You are ready. Dropping the wall in two, one, now!"

I drop the wall, plasma fire bursting through the centre of the ice wall a second later. I send a grabbing arm construct through, tearing guns out of the soldiers grips a fraction of a second before Mahkent throws an arc of ice over their position. Soldiers are trapped in place once more, and this time they shouldn't be able to get away-.

Wait, why are they looking at-?

"Icicle, block the vents with ice. Kadabra, they're gassing us. How long until Eiling can move?"

"Uuuuugh-huh." There are two thumps, his right knee and right fist hitting the floor as he slowly levers himself upright. "God damn."

"Eiling, you alright?"

"Peachy. Where are we?"

"Alien ship." I step through the hole in the ice wall and pick up one of the Dhorian guns. Seems simple enough, and there's no palm reader. Despite the advantages, most stellar nations abandon that particular security feature the first time their enemies cut their soldiers' hands off so they can use their guns. "I don't think they're negotiating in good faith."

"Objective?"

"Recover captured humans, recover useful equipment, get them to go away."

He walks slowly towards the soldiers struggling to free themselves-.

I cut a hole through the ice to Ko, who gasps for air!

"Not clever. I-."

I hear a crunch, and turn to see that Eiling has his hands covered in blood and brain where he-. He grabbed a Dhorian soldier and crushed his head in his hands.

I feel the slight fizz as ambient fear increases, the soldiers realising that there's nothing they can do to stop us killing every one of them.

Eiling grins as he steps towards the next closest soldier, hands reaching-.

"That'll do, Eiling."

"You got a prison camp for them?"

"I was planning to disarm them, lock them in one crippled ship and send them home."

Eiling thrusts his hands into the ice and rips a soldier out by his head.

"You feel like talking?"

"Soldier, Eiling would like you to escort us to wherever you're keeping your prisoners. Now, our rules of engagement don't allow us to kill you if you cooperate-"

"Says you."

"-so it's-. Eiling, he can't understand you."

"What did he say?"

"I… Wouldn't worry about that. Because you're going to tell us what we want to know, aren't you? So it won't matter. Look, you clearly can't offer meaningful resistance. You're not slowing us down. Telling us what we want to know prevents us rampaging through your entire ship, because we'll just go to the places we want to go to."

"I-. Okay, okay. I'll tell you the way."

"Good show. But remember, if you were thinking of leading us into an ambush, you'll be going through the doors first."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:40 GMT -5

Eiling frowns as he crushes the guns that Mahkent and I aren't using. "But if you're jamming the teleporter, what's stopping them beaming these guys out the moment you leave?"

"Nothing. I could destroy the beacons in their armour, which should stop them beaming out."

Kadabra prods the armour our prisoner exited at our request. "That should not be necessary. I believe…" He waves his wand, then taps the armour twice. There's a faint 'hiss' as something overloads, which is echoed a moment later by every other suit of armour in the room. Kadabra stands up, looking pleased with himself. "A little feedback, because all of the beacons work on the same-."

"Talk yourself up after the mission." But Eiling does look slightly mollified as he prods our prisoner. "Lead the way."

He complies as I scan the ship's interior… I actually get a little more from the inside than I got from the outside. Either the shield is only designed to stop scans from the exterior or it isn't designed to stop yellow rings. Weaponer design, maybe? They wouldn't want to block rings they might use, but I don't plan on picking up an antithesis ring to check. No space that I can detect shouts 'holding cells', but at least I know where the bridge, drive and main generator are now.

Mr. Mahkent edges closer to me as we enter an adjoining corridor, holding his gun slightly awkwardly. "These are just 'point and shoot', right?"

"They're plasma-based, so there's far less recoil than with a projectile rifle. Though more than with a laser. The pulses will act up around strong magnetic fields, but otherwise, yes. Ah, no offence meant, but… You haven't used a gun before?"

He looks… Awkward, then… Kind of sad. "Dad always said… He wanted me to use my powers. Said I shouldn't need a gun."

"Huh. Well, it's.. good that you've focused on your powers, otherwise you'd probably have killed someone by now. But you should try and get some time in at a shooting range."

"I didn't think the Justice League liked guns?"

"Most members don't, but they're not hypocritical enough to complain about it when Superman has a super laser in each eye. I started shooting with a pistol a few days after I got my ring, and it's saved my life."

Eiling snorts. "No one taught you to use a gun? That's un-American. I taught Randy to-."

He stops for a moment, his shoulders tensing. The Dhorian stops as well, looking back at the hulking man as if he expects Eiling to kill him. But Eiling isn't the sort to let his current relationship with his stepchildren interfere with the mission.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mahkent isn't as sensitive to the mood as I am.

"Randy? That your kid?"

Eiling doesn't immediately answer, instead pointing down the corridor and giving our prisoner a small shove. He gets the message at once.

"I'll say this once, Icicle. DO NOT ask me about my family."

"You're the one-." I shake my head, which he spots. "Ah, sure dude. Whatever."

Kadabra looks thoughtful. "Do you expect to capture this ship, or is that merely the ideal situation?"

"We sort of need to. Unless they've got a very peculiar build, each of the larger ships can perform planetary bombardments. Along with their ship-to-surface teleporters, that's an immediate strategic threat that we need to deal with."

"I could try to access their computer system."

"Unless they've changed their designs a lot, Dhorian ships don't use central computers precisely to stop people taking control of their ships like that."

Eiling nods. "Smart. Lantern, ask this guy where all the soldiers are."

"Trooper, where is everyone?"

"P-protocol in case of boarding is for everyone to hunker in place until marines can counterattack. But they won't bother trying to secure empty corridors."

"They've taken cover until their marines remove us."

"He know where?"

"Where will the attack come?"

"I don't know. We've done drills for attacks from anywhere."

Eiling's jaw hardens. "That didn't sound like a location."

"Apparently there isn't any one 'intercept here' point. They've trained to do it anywhere. My guess would be prisoner containment."

"Going in or coming out?"

"Depends on the state of the prisoners. They won't want us to get reinforcements, but if the prisoners are in bad condition it would be easier to let us get in first. The real problem would be if they did the smart thing."

"Surrender?"

"Abandon this ship and have the other ships bombard it."

The guide shakes, though he manages to keep his footing.

Eilings nods. "That would do it. Think they will?"

"Not until at least one dedicated effort to stop us fails. They might not do it even if we free them. Depends what it looks like we're doing."

"How fast could they kill this ship?"

"Don't know. Ask me again if we reach their gunnery or bridge. I doubt that they can remotely deactivate this ship's shield, but we can't manoeuvre or fire back without complete control of the ship."

"Do they use fighter ships? Or bombers?"

"Not usually. They've probably got a few shuttles, but laser point defences and force fields generally make attack craft a waste of resources."

"Navy rather than air force, huh?"

"Basically. There are exceptions; some forms of technology that don't scale up well, that sort of thing. Thanagarians use Nth metal attack craft because they're far tougher, faster and more agile than anything else in the region. But that's about it."

Our guide stops in front of a heavy bulkhead door. He tries to open it with his security authorisation, but naturally it's been cancelled.

Kadabra steps forward to take care of it-.

"What's through here?"

"Cargo lift two. It can take you down to the cells."

"Kadabra, please have the lift rise to the top of the ship and then lock it in place."

"That should be possible." I hear a quiet rumble as the lift leaves. "And then the door opens…"

The door opens, revealing the lift shaft. I step up to the opening, carefully looking up and down. No soldiers sticking their guns out through the other openings in the shaft, none attached to the side of the shaft and no one obvious at the bottom.

"Looks clear."

I extend-. I extend-.

"Ah, sorry, normally I'd fly everyone down but I'm having trouble with using this ring…"

Eiling wraps his right arm around our guide and his left around Kadabra and jumps down, bending his legs lightly when he hits the bottom about fifty metres down. Mahkent points his right hand at the side of the shaft and fires a steam of ice, creating a pathway around the edge. I just step off and float down, landing at the bottom-

BOOM!

-just as the lift at the top of the shaft explodes!

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:44 GMT -5

"Fuck!"

Mahkent splits his focus, right hand creating an increasingly steep spiral around the shaft while the left fires upwards in an attempt to create a barrier to block the lift-.

I throw up a… Spider web construct in an attempt to aid him, only to feel it snap almost immediately. Another and it breaks as well and another-.

Eiling plants his feet and punches the door into the holding section, bending the tough metal. He punches again, a thin gap appearing at the bottom of the door as the metal deforms. He then ducks and heaves upwards, door control systems utterly overpowered by his raw strength.

Kadabra tries something with the emergency controls at the bottom of the shaft but swiftly abandons it and takes a running dive under the door the moment that Eiling creates an opening.

Our guide follows him a moment later, with considerably less grace.

Another, and, ah… Construct vehicle lift to try and keep it from hitting the ground before we're out of the way. Mahkent does a staggering run off the end of his ice slide, corrects course and lunges into a slide under the door. Eiling gives it another pull and then awkwardly ducks under it and-

Transition? No.

-I fly under just as the pressure from above overwhelms my construct and shatters it.

"Okay, everyone-?"

And then the wreckage lands behind me and flame washes over us! Block block block! No, not just me, everyone!

Mahkent throws out his arms and frost coats the whole area, his eyes wide. "The fuck was that?"

Kadabra shakes as he waves his wand at his burns, slowly healing them. Eiling just pats himself out while-. Eiling prods the flash fried corpse of our escort with his right foot. Looks like Kadabra was trying to do something with the controls which put him slightly out of the line of fire, with Eiling standing next to him. What just-?

"Bomb in the elevator. Probably supposed to go off when we opened the doors to ride down. They set it off once we were underneath, and-. It split the lift in half and threw the bottom half at us. That was the air inside the lift. Kadabra, I have a healing ray in my orange rings' subspace pocket. Do you need me to try to access it?"

"No, don't worry. I've never felt better." He smiles manically. "The shaking isn't from pain, it's from opioids."

"Are you alright to heal yourself like that?"

"Ah…" He looks around. "These burns should hurt but they won't actually slow me down. We're on an alien space ship, so the chance of infection is minimal. I suppose that could stop-."

"No, that's fine then. Fix yourself up."

"Hey, ah…" Mahkent looks a little spooked, but he has it under control. "Are-? There gunna be a bunch of laser turrets popping out of the walls?"

"Probably not. Lasers make sense for anti-missile and anti-attack craft work, but on the interior you really want something that-."

"Or any other kind of guns."

Scan.

"No. There are gas dispensers in the cells and internal bastions, but they've been abandoned. We've got a clear run, unless they've got interior scan disruptors."

"And if they do?"

I generate construct armour around myself.

"I suggest staying behind Eiling and I."

Okay, the layout is… Two interior bastions just inside the section. Offices immediately on the left side, prisoner processing on the right-. No, it's been converted for prisoner processing, but it doesn't look like a dedicated facility. A store room? That would make sense… So perhaps they only put prisoners on one ship? Technology on one of the others and supplies on the rest?

As Tuvok would say, logical, if speculative.

The actual cells consist of-. Yes, the bars are attached to a raised lip front and back, which is the easiest way to stick bars in front of what would otherwise be a storage module. There's a force field generator as well, built into the same unit. If it's supposed to contain someone with Tuppence's level of strength then the field would have to be on the inside of the bars.

Ah. I'd like to be able to refer to a database, but I don't think that the Dhorians have any material that can resist Tuppence's level of strength.

"Kadabra, Eiling, please check the control office. If you can get control of the local computers, please do so. Icicle, with me."

Eiling gives Kadabra a slightly sceptical look, but rips out the office's armoured door and leads the way inside. Mahkent looks around uncertainly.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a lot smaller than Eiling."

I nod as we head through prisoner processing and out into the first level of the cell block. "You could try creating ice around your body and reshaping it as you go."

"My power doesn't work like that. I can't move it or make it go away. Once it comes out, it's just there."

"Said the bishop to the actress."

"What?"

"But you could make a shield of ice, right?"

"It's… Heavy, but, sure. Would that do anything?"

"Against laser, plasma or explosive projectile, yes. Anything else, maybe. Also, there's probably some sort of magic amulet that can improve your ability to manipulate ice. Ask about it once we get back."

"You saying they're holding out on us?"

"I doubt that the people who could help you have the time to really focus on that." I glance at him. "If that was something you wanted, you should have asked before you got sent to Belle Reve."

"Yeah, but… Still…"

There's another bastion just inside the cell block, and then we're through into the corridor with the cells. No one in the cells closest to entrance-.

"Tuppence Terror! Shout if you're here!"

I start walking, and there's… A dishevelled man lying in one of the cells.

"Sir? Can you hear me?"

He doesn't look up, his gaze focused on the deck in a way that's all too familiar. Anti-Lifed.

"Orange Lantern, the cells are isolated." I nod as Kadabra's voice come over the intercom. "A woman matching Tuppence's description is seventeen cells in and on your left."

"Thank you."

I dash past.. several occupied cells, because Tuppence might be useful while as sympathetic as I am Anti-Lifed people will be dead weight. She looks up in surprise as I draw level with her cell door, and mouths something at me. I shrug, and generate a probe construct to start working on freeing her.

"Ah, dude?"

"Yes?" He's looking behind me as I interface with the cell's computer and fear that the AI isn't intelligent enough to handle this.

"Isn't that..?"

I turn around to see Nylor Truggs waving at me.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:48 GMT -5

I was wondering what Light-affiliates had been doing.

I don't wave back. Instead, I turn around and focus on infiltrating the security of the cell. Doesn't appear to be designed to resist construct infiltration, but since I don't know a thing about their computer security I just feel out the connections until…

There it is. A small pulse of electromagnetic energy and the field shuts down, a faint shimmer at the back of the cell showing me that it affected all six interior surfaces.

"Are you in one piece,-"

She stalks towards the bars, grabs two of them and pushes them apart!

"-Tuppence?"

"Yeah." She crouches slightly and twists aside to fit through the gap she just made. "Ah'm good."

"I'm glad to hear it. Any residual affect of-?"

She walks past me, though I notice a certain lack of her usual anger in her steps. It's more like she's actually having to make an effort to move.

"Tuppence, if you're injured, we need to know."

"Ah don't like bein' locked up, is awl." She looks around the cell block, taking everything in. "How we geh'in out?"

"That's a work in progress."

"Dude..?" Mahkent nods towards Nylor's cell. "I think that guy's trying to get your attention."

"Most likely." Tuppence tense but not angry? Not sure what's going on there, but I can worry about that once we're out. "I'm going to need to manually open each cell unless Kadabra can work something out and I'm not sure how much time we have. Tuppence, did you see anyone who might be useful, or is it all-?"

Tuppence punches the control unit for the cell next to hers, which causes the force field to lock in the 'active' position.

"Please don't do that."

"Why didn' that shut it awf?"

"Because that's not how anyone designs their cells."

I extrude a filament and try poking the surviving circuitry. Yes, she's tripped the safety feature and I'm not entirely sure how to reverse it. I don't recognise the person inside, but they're coherent enough to have perked up when they saw me. Good, they'll be able to move under their own power.

"Dude, I think he's signing something."

"Ignore him."

"If he takes off his pants, I'm gunna go hang out with Kadabra."

Could I create a crumbler device without a copy of the schematic? I've used it a lot, but it's a good deal more complicated than a cold gun.

I exhale, walk over to Nylor's cell and deactivate the force field.

"What?"

"Ah, if yah don't open the doors, the cell autamatically gasses the guy inside."

"I'm sure that you'll live. Do you know something useful?"

"Y'got Abra Kadabra with you?" He shrugs. "I know how he can jam the teleport scanner with his wand…"

"Tuppence, please break his bars."

"Oh, y'all suddenly fergot how yewer rings work?"

Nylor points at my hand. "Yellow. Not orange. They use your clones to Anti-Life ya?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Only reason yah'd take 'em off. The clever part's how I knew about the clones."

"Truggs, we-."

"Nylor." He grins.

"We're on a hostile spacecraft with an indeterminate number of prisoners we need to-"

"Twen'y seven."

"-rescue, thank you, and the Earth's still Anti-Lifed. Please, just… Stop. Wind me up later if you must."

"But you can fix it. You wouldn't be back if you couldn't."

"That doesn't mean it's alright to dick around while human society keeps collapsing."

"Nah, at this point-" he shakes his head. "-it won't make much-" Tuppence plants her feet and rips a bar out. "-difference. Thank you. That paralysis gong thing was pretty weird, huh?"

Tuppence glares at him for a few moments, then jerks her right hand so that the bar whistles through the air and stops next to Truggs' head.

"Bein' trapped, no bein' able ta move at all-."

I wrap my right hand around the bar as Tuppence draws it back. She could easily overpower me, obviously, but the feedback appears to snap her out of the impulse.

"We get it, Truggs. Kadabra is in the office at the entrance. Let me know when you're jamming the teleporter, because splitting my attention with an unfamiliar ring is actually a bit tricky."

He grins, nods to Tuppence and then turns and strides away.

"Ah…" Mahkent looks confused. "What was that?"

"Truggs and I share a personal philosophy, but have very different approaches to fulfilling it. I find him rather aggravating."

Tuppence grimaces. "He's an asshole."

"We'll need to talk about that later in private, but I'm afraid that if I feel compassionate right now the teleport jammer would turn off."

I walk over to the cell she damaged and start rooting around for the power supply. I can… Actually feel the fear of the prisoners, fear of captivity and their captors, and, in a few cases, a fear of being released. And I can feel how much easier that's making it to punch through the armour around the cables powering the force field. For a non-dedicated space this is pretty well designed.

There's a faint hum as the force field deactivates.

"There you are. Tuppence?"

She tosses her bar aside and rips the door out of the cell. I smile at the woman inside.

"I'm Orange Lantern, with the Justice League. Please join our colleagues at the cell block entrance. I'll be with you once the rest of the cells are evacuated."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
14:49 GMT -6

"…intended to inspire dreamers."

The Caliph stands at the edge of his balcony, hands on the railing. Luna, Nabu and I sit on the cushions behind him as he considers what we've said.

"It was not intended to allow one wizard to impose his will upon the world."

Nabu's Dream Baghdad transformation has just changed his robes a little and given him a turban. I've been transformed into something like a djinn… Or maybe an ifrit? I've never learned the physical difference, but my mystical senses have been brought to the fore while my mundane ones have receded a little. I'm wearing armour over my chest, but the Tron lines of my armour are now tattoos. Luna… Has ended up in something a little more risqué, though since it still covers more than what she wears as a pony I don't think she's really noticed.

"If I may ask, O Caliph, what did he ask when he came before you?"

Nice that he doesn't seem to object to her taking the lead.

"Ahri'ahn has visited my city many times, offering tales and artefacts to trade for knowledge and reagents. His latest scheme seemed grand, but I am the last man to think poorly of a man of ambition. He told me that he wished to see his homeland raised to the greatness that it had in his youth." He bows his head slightly. "And he showed me what had befallen my land since I chose to remove all wonder from it."

Luna nods. "The dreams of my own world are shallow compared to what you have here. Could they not rebuild what you once had?"

"It was my assumption that they would. That they would dream of my city and seek to recreate it. But, alas, it was not to be."

"You wish to reverse your own decree?"

"I do not believe that the Lord of Dreams would grant such a request. But I had hoped to play a more direct role in recreating the greatness my home once knew. Ahri'ahn told me that it was possible."

I frown. "Forgive my ignorance, O Caliph, but I did not think that a follower of Mohammad was supposed to engage in such practices."

"There is some debate amongst the scholars of my court how much involvement with magic is permissible for a Muslim. It is not ideal, of course, but I am responsible for the wellbeing of my people. Demons and foul sorcerers exist, and ignorance protects no one. For the most part, I employ infidels to handle… Direct matters, so as not to taint the souls of the faithful." He takes a deep breath. "Allah has granted the domain of Dreams to the Lord of Dreams, and so I may treat with him as I would with a foreign sovereign."

Total bollocks. He literally made himself a magical creature while his fleshy remains were left to live out their days broken in mind and spirit, basically the definition of what Mohammad banned when he cleared the animist shrines out of Mecca. All because he was afraid of something happening that he then deliberately made happen! It's a basic component of Judaeo-Christian-Islamic morality: you're not supposed to try and live forever! You're not supposed to sniff your own farts so hard that you can't take the idea that things in the future might be a little different and you're certainly not supposed to deliberately sacrifice other people upon the altar of your ego! You're supposed to spend your life striving to be worthy of Heaven! Fix what you can! Endure what you can't! He-!

Whooo.

I'm… Honestly a little surprised about how personally I'm taking this.

Ah…

Just… fix the table…

Haroun Al Raschid turns back to us as the glow dies down. He probably felt that, or something. He's basically the concept of a perfect king, and knowing when an ambassador is angry enough to accidentally break your furniture is probably a part of that.

"Is there a ruler in the lands of the Holy Prophet in whom I might place my faith instead?"

I mentally run through the list. There are plenty who aren't terrible, but none of them are exactly in danger of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire or anything.

"The current ruler of Kahndaq is a most excellent man, well liked by his people and dedicated to their care. But you would call him an infidel."

He waves that off. "My own ancestors were infidels before the coming of the Prophet. I shall consult my sages and consider his worth."

A fairly noncommittal answer, but I'll warn Adom once we get out.

Luna draws herself up slightly. "What aid did you give Ahri'ahn?"

He gestures to the other balcony, the one looking out over Poseidonis.

"He bound dreams of my city to his own homeland. He shared my insights with his king, those of my sorcerers with their magicians, the habits of my people with his. But… Not. He used his own magic to alter things. To change the way those virtues manifested." He walks over to that balcony. "It has been interesting to watch, but he has broken our agreement by attempting to extend his control over my lands. A shame."

I look at Nabu as he nods. He hasn't said much while we've been here. I would have thought that this is the sort of place that his order-instincts would hate, but maybe the Dream has been around so long that it's part of the systems of rules that govern the universe?

"Then will we have your aid in undoing his working?"

"My aid? No. I will merely withdraw my support. He will have to sustain his enchantment with his own magic, and I would warn you that his magic is substantial."

I don't grunt. But I will admit that even as a wave of something passes through the Poseidonis streets I grimace a little.

"I am uncertain of your intent, O Caliph. Do you wish for us to negotiate with him, now that he is weakened?"

"He has broken the terms of our agreement." He idly waves his right hand. "He is no longer my concern."

"I hear what you say, but that doesn't mean that you don't have a preference. I prefer to avoid alienating people where it is not necessary to do so."

"Hm." He nods. "Blessed are the peacemakers. What gods do your people worship, I wonder?"

"We worship the Source, a single supreme unified divine power. For practical purposes you may identify it with your god, though the manner of our worship is different."

"And are peacemakers blessed amongst your people?"

"Amongst my people? If they actually managed to make peace, they would have to have been blessed."

He nods. "And you, Princess?"

"My people do not worship a particular deity as yours do. But there are… Principles which we consider sacred. We value peace, but we have been at peace for so long that there are no noted peacemakers amongst us. In truth, our greatest heroes are those who still know how to fight, despite the lassitude brought about by a thousand years of peace."

"A thousand years of peace? Even I did not manage that." He exhales slowly. "My feelings on the matter… He does what he thinks is right for his people. It would be… More satisfying if he were encouraged to see the error of his ways, that he may repent and seek forgiveness from Allah. But if that proves impossible, then I will take no action against you."

I rise, and bow to him.

"Thank you for speaking with us, O Caliph. I will advise Teth Adom that you wish to speak with him."

"Do you think that he will respond well?"

"I think that converting him will be an uphill battle. But I imagine that it has been some time since you have had a challenge."

"True." He nods. "You are dismissed. I wish you fortune in your mission."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
15:57 GMT -5

"I don't wanna… I don't wanna go back."

The large Native American man at the end of the line is pointedly sitting at the back of his cell. He isn't actually Anti-Lifed, but… I get where he's coming from.

"Okay. Tell you what. If we capture this ship, you can stay up here."

That gives him something concrete to latch on to. He shakes his head, trying to focus through the fear. "The aliens took something from me. A glowing rock on a thong."

"I'll see what I can do. Do you know how to use a gun?"

"Yeah." He gets up and approaches the bars cautiously. "Fourteen years in the army. I know how to use a gun."

I nod, smiling. "Tuppence, if you please."

Another couple of yanks… And another yank, this is a big bloke, and he's out. I pass him my gun and he instinctively checks it, frowning as he fails to find an ammunition cartridge or firing mechanism.

"What is this?"

"Pulse plasma gun. It-."

He brings it to his shoulder and fires a shot down the prison unit, hitting the far wall and melting a circle of metal. Maintaining his aim he holds the trigger down, sending pulses of energy directly into the original impact point.

He lowers the gun. "Not a lot of recoil. With the glow, it's like firing tracers. Easy to correct your aim."

"Glad you approve. This way, please."

I fly back towards prisoner processing. I wasn't really scanning for magic rocks when I came through… And with my rune stones in my orange ring's subspace pocket I'd have struggled with that anyway. Okay, there are storage bins which could be for prisoner property. Would the Dhorians put weapons close to their owners?

Possibly. If they were planning on using them as slave soldiers or if they only converted one ship for secure transportation, it would make sense. Most people don't prepare for Earth-grade madness. There wouldn't be much risk of them escaping from containment cells like that, and there would always be guards around in normal operating conditions.

"Orange Lantern to Abra Kadabra. I'm looking for a glowing rock on a thong. Any idea where they're keeping it?"

"Bottom row, seventh along."

"Thank you." I force open the safe and take out the… Glowing rock on a thong, and… A furry helmet. Ah, I've seen worse. "Got it!"

He walks in a moment later and I hand both objects to him. He takes the glowing rock first and loops the thong around his neck, settling it between his pectorals. The helmet-.

"What.. cha'll wearin'?" Tuppence looks completely mystified.

"It covers my face."

He slides it over his head… Giving up all of his peripheral vision, as far as I can tell. But maybe the rock needs it to work? I've seen stranger things than that as well. So this is Super Chief 16. I only really remember the 52 version and the Ultimen version from Justice League Unlimited. So I'm going to try to keep him alive longer than both of them.

"Right, through here."

Everyone's waiting at the entrance. The Anti-Lifed people tend to obey instructions when they're issued in a commanding tone of voice, but they'll obviously be no use in a fight. The Dhorians have probably set up their marines throughout the ship by now, so it's going to be-.

"Hey, Orange!" Truggs smiles and languidly waves his right hand at me. "I talk to you for a sec?"

"If you must. We can-."

"Wait." Eiling has turned away from the exit and is staring at our latest recruit. "That you, Sergeant Standing Bear?"

"Yeah. What's it to you?"

"Heh." Eiling smiles with the left side of his face. "Nothing. I don't think we'll be attending any funerals for these guys, anyway."

Not.. sure what that's about, but I follow Truggs as he leads me into what was formerly the warden's office.

"What?"

"Guess you're wandren why I'm here."

"No. It's not my problem. Whatever bullshittery your employers are up to, I've got more important things to worry about."

"Like how these guys got here? Or why they're here?"

I roll my eyes in frustration. "Was it you?"

"No. More… You."

"Because I was dealing with Alstair?"

"And… O. And a few other places."

"And how do you know about O?"

"You included it in the information you gave that video game-" Oh for-! Goodness sake. "-company, who were making that Vega game for yeh."

That's.. right, I did. Not sure how he.. got hold of it. I mean, their office security wouldn't have kept someone of his calibre out and it wasn't exactly a secret, but it seems like a weird thing for him to have bothered with.

That game's never going to get finished now, is it?

"What's O got to do with-?"

"You gave them Dominion technology. Dominators don't like sharing."

"Right, but that was just an out of date computer. My supplier was confident that they wouldn't care."

"Eh." Truggs looks up at the ceiling for a moment. "They prob'ly wouldn't care if that was it, but the people of O and Alstair, they're clever people. Creative, you know?"

My heart sinks. "So they created improved versions and the Dominion found out about it. And took offence?"

"So they started wondering what else you'd taken. And they found out about that gate you gave Commodore Amalak-."

"That's not Dominion technology."

"Yeah, but it walks and quacks like Dominion technology. So the Dominion are now officially 'interested' in Earth."

"Great. And..?"

"And, they already have some infrastructure set up on Earth. Forward planning. They decided to rent it to the Dhorians as a test run."

"Which is how they got past the interdiction systems. I guessed it was either a zeta transporter or a boom tube." I think for a moment. "Why are you here?"

"My employers think we should get a small number of people away from Earth. Just in case. I needed to lure these ships-."

"You told the Dominion."

He shrugs awkwardly, smirking as if he finds being caught out more amusing than embarrassing.

"Every time-." I turn away, heading for the exit. "If they shoot you, I will laugh."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:02 GMT -5

Kadabra raises his wand like a conductor's baton.

"And… Go."

Eiling and Standing Bear exert themselves, pulling against my construct levers to completely remove the bulkhead door between the prison complex and the lift shaft. Tiny motes of glittering dust waft through as the hole increases in size, the soldiers we strongly suspect to be on guard waiting until they have a clearer target.

Kadabra's skills as an illusionist have increased to the point that if we were on a thaumically active world he wouldn't need a conductive medium like this. But we're far enough away from Earth that he's forced to revert to purely technological methods, creating a full-spectrum hologram showing that we haven't exited the prison yet.

Because as much as I'd like to do something clever like go out through a wall or something -and that is what I'd do if I had my orange rings and somewhere to put the civilians- smashing though to make an alternate exit would just result in them repositioning their troops thanks to the very obvious seismic shocks we'd be sending through the hull. But this is what happens when you're stuck at low power and can't just reshape the universe to your whims.

I sigh, quietly. I do not like this feeling, which is kind of stupid when you realise that I'm still more powerful than any human to have ever existed on Earth Prime. I guess it's what you've become used to.

A final clunking and tearing of metal, and Eiling and Standing Bear move the pieces of the bulkhead out of the way, allowing us a clear view of the shaft. Once the burning plasma fire guttered out there wasn't anything here to burn, though some of the metal is charred and warped. And above us…

My word. What a lot of guns.

Okay, as far as I can tell, the top part of the lift stayed at the top of the shaft where Kadabra wedged it, probably helped a bit by the explosion. But I doubt that it's solidly wedged, so it could fall down at any point.

Below that…

Troopers are positioned at every lift shaft opening, guns pointing down. Other troopers have clamped themselves around the shaft itself. They're all using standard pattern plasma pulse guns… I imagine it's because their doctrine calls for standardised production because Antares doesn't have a lot of free raw materials. Their soldiers have good armour and personal force fields because their people are a limited resource too, but they don't have wonder weapons because they're inefficient even if they work.

I don't hate these people. Objectively, they're no worse than Hyathis. Okay, a little worse; the deal she offered the Thanagarians was better than what the Dhorians offered their prisoners. But within the same division.

Can't see anyone with obvious officer markings. Alright, none of them are tracking me when I move, so I'm going to guess that Kadabra's hologram is working as intended.

"Shock and awe on my signal."

Eiling grunts, while Tuppence and Standing Bear nod.

Ring, connect to internal communications.

"Gentlemen, is there any chance that we could negotiate a peaceful settlement? I reiterate that as far as I'm concerned none of our core interests are in conflict here."

None of the soldiers move. Sealed armour, so it's perfectly possible that they don't get general broadcasts.

"A little while ago I spent some time with a man I admire, a kryptonian by the name of Kal-El. I've tried to incorporate some of his generous, open-handed and kind attitude into my work. And to a degree, it's worked. I'd really much rather work with you than against you, but we've reached the point where I can't afford to pull punches any longer. So we either reach an agreement, or we're going to do our level best to kill you all. And because we can't risk any reversal, after you're dead, I'll be travelling to your homeworld and permanently removing its ability to make war. Not because I hate your people, but because I have a duty to mine."

Still no response.

"So how about it? Everyone goes home with what they want, or no one goes home at all?"

I look up further. I.. don't know what I'm looking-

"A-huh wiener a-huh a-huh."

-for, and now I'm looking at Truggs, who's pretending to cough into his fist.

I guess sometimes you've got to be a bit of a wiener to stay a bit human.

And now I'm thinking of human sausage-.

"So how about it?"

"I don't know what part of us trying to kill you it is that you didn't understand, but the answer's 'no'." Volgar Zo. Still alive, still in command. "But if you surrender and-"

"Go."

Mahkent raises his hands, and a hurricane of ice shards roars up the shaft! Low level kinetic impacts, low level electrical discharges and thermal imaging disruption. Won't kill anyone but it's a big help. There are three woosh sounds as the strike team throw themselves upwards, because while we usually train super strong people to apply themselves precisely and carefully, they all… Well, can do things like this.

Throw their force around. Use your body as a projectile to smash someone else into paste. Superman doesn't want anyone to ever think about the fact that if he turns around at top speed and you're standing too close his cape will be moving fast enough to shear through your spine.

Because I need fear, and the Dhorians are similar enough to us that not being able to see the things that are killing them will do the job nicely.

Empathic vision shows me their fear as they suddenly don't know what they're supposed to be doing, and as Kadabra switches from illusion to jamming they find out that they can't retreat.

Shield.

The glowing yellow barrier appears, but it doesn't look like I'll need it for blocking many shots. There are some hitting, but it's doing more to catch the bodies of those torn loose from their moorings as the Dhorians keep their attention focused on the immediate threat fairly well.

But their fear is building because while they don't know if they're hitting anything or not they do know that the killing isn't stopping.

Huh. It actually feels… Good. I think there's some sort of feedback between my empathic vision and the ring…

"Heh."

But I remember that sensation, and I will not be indulging it, because it's impractical for Batman to confiscate my ring for a week this time.

One of the troopers tries struggling upright-.

"Stop moving. Yield. And I won't kill you immediately."

He stops moving at once.

"Good man. Helmet off, discard weapon."

He hurries to comply as a slight crackle indicates that someone wants to talk over the intercom.

"A-ah."

"Volgar Zo. Good to hear from you."

"Your offer, is-?"

"No. You can surrender, or you can try running. You have entirely exhausted my patience."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th February 2013
16:09 GMT -5

No one on the bridge, either. Tuppence and a few of the unpowered prisoners are shoving those we captured into their cells while Mahkent recovers the gamma gong. Eiling, Kadabra and Standing Bear have come with me, Kadabra because I need someone other than me who can interface with the systems and the other two because I'm not convinced that I can trust them out of my sight.

I can feel the fear on the other ships.

"They're pulling away."

Eiling frowns. "Explain that to me. They outnumber us. Why are they leaving?"

Kadabra smiles. "Because they know that they're in teleporter range. And they know that you can kill them easily if you can reach them."

I nod. "I don't know whether they're fleeing the system or just getting out of teleporter range, but neither is acceptable. Interface."

Eiling nods. "And let me guess: they didn't scuttle the ship because they don't want to make that easy. Should still have been able to flash their drives."

Cables radiate out from my body and bury themselves into each of the consoles.

"'Top Secret' information wouldn't usually be on bridge systems, it would be on the commander's personal computer. The belligerent parties in the Antares system are so close to each other that it's not possible for them to keep 'Secret' level stuff secret from each other, and decentralisation means that there isn't any one location to flash."

Warm up the drive systems. And weapons, because they've got their shields down so they can devote power to drive systems. Pop turrets and target capital ship drive systems.

"Kadabra, are you able to interfere with their systems?"

"Tricky." He walks over to the communications suite and waves his wand around. "There's only so much I can do with a conventional communications array."

I nod as our primary guns begin tracking targets. On ships like these that use ion thrusters there's only so much you can do to armour that part of the ship. Like with weapons, their role requires them to be exposed in a way that bridges and engines don't. I'd like to fire right away, but the guns are cold and need more time to be readied to fire. Something that would be easier with a trained crew, though given that the Dhorians aren't bothering with weapons at this stage perhaps I'm misjudging.

"Do what you can."

Weapons charging…

I've got sensors, though I can't see where the Dominion's gate is supposed to be. Assuming that Truggs was telling the truth, which I probably shouldn't do. The Dhorian ships still under their control have started pulling away but they're hardly in a position-

This ship doesn't have an interdiction field generator.

-to get away.

Eiling walks over to the main screen. "So it's a stern chase. How does that work out for them?"

Weapons charging. Preparing to fire…

"Not great. None of us have shields or weapons active so that we can start our drives faster. There's only so much power the drives can turn into acceleration, so once that's-"

I feel the shields start activating on their ships.

"-ready they'll activate shields. Darn it."

He raises an eyebrow.

"They got their shields up just before I got weapons ready."

I retrain the guns so that they're focusing on a single ship, and fire them.

And.. I've been spoiled by having access to a fleet built with Maltusian and Coluan technology. Most spacefaring species don't have weapons that powerful or accurate. The ship I aimed at saw that they were being targetted and started using their manoeuvring thrusters. Combined with the weak containment systems in the guns themselves, that means that I'm not getting enough hits to actually damage anything. Even at basically point blank range. Explains why they do boarding actions: shooting each others' ships just takes too long. I could aim at the smaller ships, but they're already pulling ahead and they're smaller targets anyway.

Deactivate guns, transfer power to rapid engine start up system.

Eiling looks askance at me. "If we're in the same class of ship, how do you plan on catching them?"

"I don't. I plan on teleporting onto their bridge and wrecking them. There's no real benefit in grabbing the small ships so we can ignore those. Of the twelve capital ships three of them are our size and the other eight are slightly smaller. I suspect that if we take the three largest then Volgar Zo will be on one of them and we can force the rest to surrender in exchange for me not adding another count of genocide to my charge sheet. Kadabra?"

"I would be concerned about them having another gamma gong, but otherwise it sounds plausible."

"Everyone got a gun?"

Three nods.

"We were caught by the gamma gong the first time because we assumed that we were heading up for a peaceful discussion. This time we'll have the drop on them. The gong has to be exposed to be used. If you teleport in and see one, shoot everyone near it and grab it yourself as fast as you can. Kadabra, are our sensors good enough to lock on through their shields?"

"No, but their teleporter network is still active, as are their communication channels. I'm already inside, and… I have it. We can now use their sensors to teleport."

"Impressive work. In-."

Tuppence walks onto the bridge. "They all got done put in cages. When we gettin' the rest?"

"Ah, now, if you're up for it Kad-."

"I believe I know where Volgar Zo is. Only one ship is at the centre of all fleet communications."

"Good show." I hand a spare gun to Tuppence, but I get the impression that she's not all that familiar with them. "Ready?"

Three nods.

"Kadabra, give us a countdown."

He waves his wand and creates a shimmering column around us. "Three. Two. One."

I raise construct armour and rope darts.

"Now."

There's a flash, and we're surrounded by surprised Dhorians. I fire my darts, impaling the ones standing next to instrument panels. Tuppence throws herself at the closest marine, shoving her.. right hand into his arm before using him as a blunt instrument to bludgeon his comrades. Eiling is very clearly watching for a gamma gong, carefully maintaining his awareness as he strikes anyone within arms' reach. Standing Bear-

"Stand down! We surrender!"

-has gone for Zo himself and is currently standing with one hand around Zo's neck having already ripped the teleport system out of his armour.

"Everyone stop." Eiling does so immediately, Tuppence gets a couple more swings in before discarding her weapon as I approach Zo. "You will signal the rest of your fleet to surrender as well if you want your species to survive the week."

Clearly terrified, he nods in agreement.