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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

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5th November
22:16 GMT -2

"This is a lot more boring than I thought it would be. I thought this man was supposed to be a wizard?"

We're in Sephtian's workshop. Robert looks both impressed and nervous about being somewhere very few surface dwellers ever get to go. Gemma seems less impressed. Has John made her jaded, or has she built up unrealistic expectations based on what she thinks he does?

"Sorry about that, Miss Masters. It looks a lot prettier from the outside but we're in a bit of a hurry here. If you can get your parents to agree to it I don't mind bringing you back here in the future."

The idea of getting her taught magic in a safe environment has a certain allure, though I'll have some way to go before her parents will agree to that. Now, where would Sephtian have left the other Spell Eaters? I really hope he's doing them one at a time. If he's doing the first stage of the whole lot before moving on we could be in a great deal of trouble. Workroom, workroom. He's remodelled quite a bit since I was last here. Ah! There they are! I don't want to use FTL with passengers underwater if I can help it, so I start moving in the direction of the double doors leading to the workroom.

Bubbles trailing from his feet and hands, Robert comes up alongside me. "So, we're not picking anyone else up from Britain?"

"I picked you because we need all the magic users we can get, and with you being a thaumovore that's doubly true for you. Why, did you have someone in mind?"

"I dunno. Squire? Rush Hour Three? I think they'd be young enough."

It's funny. Despite knowing I'm underwater and being well used to flying I still have a momentary impulse to walk along the rows of work benches rather than just fly over them. "They are, but they're not essential. You are. I might end up getting them later, depending on how things go." I head towards the small transparent dome on a small table near the ring shaped desk in the room's centre. It's a minor shield spell, probably powered by the pressure of the water around it. My hands pass through with no resistance and I take the three hopefully complete Spell Eaters therein. It shuts down as they pass through it. No good way to test them as I don't want Robert wasting his acquired charge. Actually, having him drain some nonessential stuff around here might not be a bad id-. No. Don't mess around with things you don't understand unless you have to. Feeding him on that sword Artemis and Zatanna got off that William Hayes loony is a much better option.

"What's this place for?" Gemma's swum in behind us. Do I need anything else from here? Don't think so. I was going to ask him to design some improved binding chains, but he doesn't really have the production capacity. The way things are going he's going to need to upscale massively to meet my demand.

"Making these." I hold the amulets up. "They don't quite make the wearer magic proof, but they're not far off." They're actually even better than the one I'm wearing, but since I'm no longer exceptionally vulnerable it doesn't make much sense for me to prioritise myself for one. Depending on who we're up against they should probably go to the melee fighters. "The arrangement on the ceiling allows everyone working at the benches to channel their efforts into an object at the centre while Sephtian makes sure all the different bits of the spell integrate properly. This is a-" I swing my arms to encompass the room. "-snapshot of the future of industrial arcane technology."

"Feels weird." / "Feels weird."

Robert and Gemma jerk their heads to look at each other as they make the comment at the same time. They're both sensitive to magic and they're not used to this type. Makes sense it would throw them off a little. I swim over to Robert and pull Gemma to us with the ring. "Robin, I'm heading back to the cave now. All mask-wearers got their masks on?"

"I'm the only one in the cave with a secret identity. We're good."

The tubular shape of the zeta tube construct surrounds us. "Three to the cave, training room entrance."

5th November
20:16 GMT -4

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six, Cornwall Boy, A one zero, Gemma Masters, A one one."

I stride out while the other two take a moment to get their bearings. What can I give Gemma to do to keep her out of the way? Ah, that might work. Teekl, please come to the training room. Someone wants to meet you.

Teekl come when Teekl feel like it.

I get an impression of her moving nonetheless. Robin's standing in the middle of the room surrounded by holographic screens. "Hey Oh El."

"Oh my God you're Robin." Gemma's hands go over her mouth as she tries to contain her excitement.

"The one and only." He gives her a wave and a smile. "And you're Gemma Masters."

"Yes! How did you- Oh, right, hah! The computer just said it."

"Uh, Oh El..?"

"She's John Constantine's niece, and represents one hundred percent of the children I know who aren't superheroes. I want her somewhere safe."

"Does magic run in her family too?"

"Yes, but not in a good way. I'd rather she not be involved in... Where's Zatanna gone?"

"Kaldur brought his whole class. They're in the hangar, because-."

"Can't get out of the water, right. You got anything?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing on satellite, and with the news channels down there's no good eyewitness reports of anything that could explain this."

"Um." We both look at Robert, who shrinks slightly. "Sorry. Is there.. like.. something I should be doing?"

"Cornwall here can absorb other people's magic to power his own."

"That wasn't in the file you gave Batman."

"We just found out. Know anything about scrying or divination?"

"Little bit. Some geomantic stuff. I mean, if you've got people working on it already-."

Robin shrugs. "Every little helps. Oh El-."

"Yeah. Come with me. I'll show you down. Robin, if you can't find anything could you please keep an eye on Liverpool? We ran into a mob of Praexis Demons and I want to make sure there isn't some apprentice summoner going crazy down there."

"Sure, but that wasn't what I was going to ask. You were in Gotham when this started."

Oh. "Yeah."

"How.. bad was it?"

"I was on the Vincefinkel Bridge. Twenty nine dead and.. lots of injuries." I close my eyes for a moment, picturing it. "I stopped the situation there getting worse, but if you extend those sort of figures across the city... Or the world..."

He nods, visibly shaken.

"Add in the risks of exposure and starvation... A load of healthy children getting scared isn't the problem, we're going to need paramedics and primary caregivers back in the next few hours or things are going to get even nastier."
 
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5th November
20:24 GMT -4

"And this is the hangar."

"Whow." Robert looks appropriately awestruck as he takes in the large cavern, before pointing hesitantly at the bioship. "Is that.. an alien spaceship?"

"Yes. It belongs to Miss Martian. Very useful. This way please?" I lead the way to the right, down the steps to the open area where I see that the others have gathered. M'gann, Kon, Artemis and Wallace are still out rounding up unattended small children around Happy Harbour. Low traffic density plus low speed limits have apparently kept the casualty count down locally and with the best will in the world I can't think of a way to use their abilities to aid the search.

"Wot's that?"

Gemma's hanging back a bit, pointing at one of the visiting Atlanteans. Maybe this whole thing will shock her out of her magic fascination? Hm, no. Wishful thinking. "The big guy in the water's Blubber. Atlantean with whale traits grafted on. No idea how he got in here." I sort of assumed that Kaldur would just get Garth and Tula. Blubber can cope with the low pressure here well enough but he can't support his own weight out of water without suffocating. He could have swum in through the hangar doors but it's an awfully long way here from Poseidonis. How did they get him from the zeta tube to the water? "Cthuloid-looking fellow's called Topo. Another Atlantean." I hadn't realised that he could walk on land. He's standing a short distance from the discussion going on between Kaldur, Tula and Garth. I point them out. "Aqualad, Tula, Garth." Garth's facing in our direction. He nods at me and I wave my right hand in response. He looks slightly puzzled by my guests then dismisses them with a small shake of his head. Kaldur's in Ocean Master gear sans helmet, which is sitting on the concrete steps behind them. "Zatanna Zatara and Lori Lemaris." Zatanna's by the water's edge talking to the mermaid. Lori notices me and I assume she says something because Zatanna glances my way before pointedly looking away. Not sure what that's about. "And the Creature from the Black Lagoon over by the steps is La'gaan." And William Batson is sitting next to him. I can't use his real name and he doesn't look like Captain Marvel at the moment. Maybe I should just make something up?

Kaldur says something to Garth and Tula which prompts them to nod in agreement before turning away and walking over to the water's edge, Topo following on behind them. Kaldur stands still for a moment and then walks to meet me.

"Orange Lantern. It is good to see that you have remained with us."

"Fat lot of-. Yeah. Got anything so far?"

"The worldwide nature of the spell, combined with its obvious power and complexity, makes it very hard to trace an origin point. And it seems that the League of Shadows were not the only ones to learn how to avoid unwanted attention." I nod. Supervillain networking at its worst. "Cornwall Boy." He offers Robert his right hand and to his credit Robert only hesitates slightly before taking it. "Orange Lantern speaks highly of you."

"Um. R-right. Thanks.. thanks for having me. I'll try and make myself useful."

Kaldur nods, then turns his attention to Gemma who is standing a little back from us. "I do not believe we have been introduced."

"This is Gemma Masters, John Constantine's niece. Gemma, Kaldur'ahm, our team leader."

Kaldur holds out his hand to Gemma, who clasps both of hers to her chest. After a moment Kaldur lowers his hand. "Miss Masters, I understand that this must seem strange to you but rest assured that we are working as hard as we can to find out what happened to all our elders."

"Uh.. uh-huh..."

"Orange Lantern, have you tried speaking to the Ophidian?"

"No. And... And I should have done. Sorry, I should have-."

"Ah!" Gemma leaps past me, trying to hide from something.. Teekl. Teekl nudged the back of her legs while lioness size and is now sitting down and regarding Gemma with amused curiosity. "What the hell is that!?"

"That's Teekl. Iiii was going to ask her to keep you company. She's perfectly safe." Teekl gives me an incredulous look. "Safe to her friends. Usually." She's still looking at me. "Teekl, cooperate! Important things are happening!"

The tip of her tail flicks. "Teekl be nice to kitten."

"Right. I'm... I'll go and check on the Ophidian. R-. Cornwall, stick with Kaldur."

"Okay, I can-."

The hangar disappears as I transition to the corridor just outside my room. Another post-joining improvement: the filters in the ventilation system are no longer fine enough to prevent my filament FTL. I open the door and quickly stride to where I keep the box containing my personal lantern.

"Reveal."

Whatever's happened to the world my subspace storage still works. The lantern... Damn it. Whatever reduced Robert's power looks like it's had its effect on my lantern as well. Rather than the brilliant glow it's had since I stuck the Ophidian in there it looks dull, glowing only faintly. No, that's not... It's at least as bright as its old 'two-charges-available' mode, just darker than I've got used to.

"Ring, lantern status."

"Lantern physically intact. Power drain detected. Error, unable to locate source."

"Is the lantern at risk?"

"Lantern integrity not at risk. Rate of power drain constant."

"Is the Ophidian still in there?"

"Lifeform 'Ophidian' not detected."

"Can the lantern be restored to full functionality?"

"Nature of error unknown, unable to effect repairs."

Great. Anything else? I don't need to recharge at the moment. "Occlude." The lantern vanishes once more. The Ophidian is certainly older than eighteen, if that really is the cut off point. But William Batson isn't, and Captain Marvel is William Batson. I also don't know enough about the Amazons to know why some of them weren't affected. Are they the magic users? Ones who had some sort of defence? But if that was the case, wouldn't loads of Atlanteans have avoided being affected? Gah, I don't know. What's the next step? Without the Ophidian there's no way I can stabilise world conditions by myself. With a drain on my lantern I can't even constantly work at small scale change reliably. No, stick to the counterattack strategy. I need to keep as much charge as possible available for that.

I blink, and for a moment I see the mangled wreckage on the bridge. Damn it.

Next step, Marvel.

I transition back to the hangar, next to William and La'gaan.

"Neptune's beard!"

"Hey, ah, thanks for giving me access for the zeta tubes."

"You're welcome. Um, what am I supposed to call you at the moment?"

"Billy. Billy's fine. There's lots of Billys around."

"Alright, Billy. Adults aren't here, we are. I don't know that Captain Marvel would go to wherever they are, but every moment we delay sorting this out more children die and I'm having trouble coming up with a better idea. Are you up for giving it a go?"

He shrinks a little, and looks away. "Ah, noooot.. really."
 
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5th November
20:33 GMT -4

"Ah. Mind if I ask why?"

"Because I'll just.. disappear! Captain Marvel might have the courage of Achilles, but I just have the courage of-." He looks around. "Of me."

"I've always been a bit suspicious of that one. Achilles knew he was invulnerable, right? So... How was what he did brave? How does fighting people who can't hurt you require courage? No, Patroclus was brave, for daring to fight beside him while lacking that invulnerability."

He keeps looking down. "Yeah, but... I mean, what if they're all..."

"They are not dead."

I appreciate La'gaan's confidence, but I can't be that sure. "Do we know that for certain?" He recoils slightly. "No, seriously, I don't know enough about magic to recognise the effect. Could what we observed have killed them?"

He has to think for a moment. "No. Finding everyone over a particular age everywhere on the planet-."

"Not everywhere. I'm still here, and Thirty one thousand out of one hundred and eighty thousand Amazons are still on Themyscira."

"R-right. I don't know what would have prevented..."

"Wait. How did you manage that?"

I look down at where Garth is standing. "Ring, remove torso armour."

"Compliance."

Garth's eyes widen as he takes in my tattoos. The cuts and brands inflicted during the more recent work have faded into near invisibility, but they're just about noticeable when I move. Garth comes closer and I walk to the steps to meet him. "What are those... What is that supposed to do?"

"The tattoos cause any attempt to scry for me to fail. They've been tested -not by me- against the most powerful life form in Hell. If he couldn't see through them, I'm probably safe.. from..."

Garth makes a scooping gesture with his left hand, his own tattoos glowing as he does so. A thin tendril of water rises from the pond and moves through the air to pool just beside him, forming an upright circle. He lays his left hand on it and it shimmers. Through the rear I see a picture of the steps I'm standing on, La'gaan and Billy. And not me. "That's..." He looks up as if to check that I'm actually here, then turns back to his water screen. "That shouldn't be possible. Who did this?"

"John Constantine. You remember, the-."

"The wizard you brought with you..."

"That's him." I shake my head. "I'd really like to talk to him about this at the moment."

"How long does the effect last?"

"Should be permanent. John can carve runes directly onto a person's soul, so it-."

"That's not-!" He looks at the water window thing again. "No, clearly it is. I hadn't realized he was that skilled. Were you wearing your Spell Eater talisman when the.. event happened?"

"I never take it off, but I was assuming that it couldn't have drained a spell this big."

"It couldn't, otherwise the spell itself would have shut down. But the combination might have prevented it from detecting you."

"Would it help if I took it off?"

He nods. "If we could monitor the effect as you disappeared, it might give us a better idea of how the spell worked. Of course, if it isn't the Spell Eater that kept you here, nothing will happen."

"Are we out of other ideas?"

He sighs. "We're training to be battle mages, not researchers. If we-."

"Okay." I put my right hand on the Spell Eater. "Do you need me to do something first?"

"I don't think... We can't use a spell to track you because your amulet will just absorb it-."

"And I can't take it off because that will trigger the disappearance."

"Right." He makes a small gesture with his right fingers and a small amount of water separates from his window. "But if you swallow this, we should be able to track it. And we can probably put... Tula! Kaldur! We've had an idea!"

They walk in our direction, accompanied by Zatanna. I try meeting her eyes, trying to get some idea of why she's annoyed with me. She spots what I'm doing and makes a point of looking away, arms folded across her chest. Hm. Think this is the first time I've seen her in Mister Gambi's armour. It's black with white lines which look like they're supposed to suggest the shape of a dinner jacket. Trousers rather than tights, thank goodness. Still wearing her hair loose but I'll take what rationality I can get.

Kaldur looks from me to Garth while Tula squints at my chest. Given Atlantean clothing standards I'm going to assume that she's just looking at the tattoos. "What is your idea?"

"We think that Orange Lantern will get transported to wherever the adults are if he takes off the Spell Eater. If we monitor it carefully we might be able to get some idea of the nature of the spell. The risk is that he almost certainly won't be able to come back if we do it."

Kaldur looks from me to Tula and then to Garth. "That.. sounds.. complicated. Were you able to get anything useful from the Ophidian?"

"Turns out that the Ophidian either isn't talking to me or is over eighteen."

He nods. "Robin told me that Batman and Zatara disappeared within a second. Would there be enough time for you to gain useful knowledge?"

Tula thinks for a moment. "Maybe. I don't know..."

"Would it be possible to drain power from whatever part of the spell causes the disappearances without shutting it down completely? Would that help?"

Garth frowns. "Doesn't your Spell Eater drain as much as it can all of the time?"

"Yes, but-. Cornwall! Over here! You remember how you were afraid that I was a magic drinking abomination?" Garth and Tula drop their gazes for a moment as Robert reluctantly leaves the shelter of the wall under the bioship's landing platform. "Turns out that Cornwall here is a thaumovore." Tula and Garth simultaneously turn, look and take a small step away from him as he comes within touch range. "The men of his family appear to have an innate ability to drain magic from others and add it to their own reserves. He disintegrated a mob of Praexis Demons rather swiftly before we got here, and he should be able to disrupt or at least slow down the spell effect enough that you can get whatever readings you need. Cornwall?"

"Um, maybe? I haven't had a lot of practice."

Kaldur looks at him. "Exactly how much practice have you had?"

"The Demons, and there were these sharkmen I turned back into normal Humans." The Atlanteans just about manage to conceal their horror. "That's it. Nothing before today."

Kaldur turns back to me. "Do you understand the risks? We have no idea where you will go, if indeed you go anywhere."

"I accepted the risks when I took the job. I'm as well equipped to survive the process as I can be, and I really don't see a future in a world where everyone just vanishes at eighteen." My armour reappears, Spell Eater on the outside. Construct armour appears on top of that. Just to be doubly safe I add my MindShield construct.

Kaldur nods. "Very well. It would be best if everyone was involved in this." He gestures towards the water's edge where Blubber, Lori and Topo have clumped together. I nod and head towards them.
 
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5th November
20:46 GMT -4

Nothing!

Fucking... Nothing!

I'm standing in the training area, having taken over manning the monitoring and communications station from Robin and I'm still annoyed about that. I took off the Spell Eater and nothing happened! All that build up, I felt like a complete idiot. Garth said that I was probably protected by the tattoos instead and I can't exactly turn those off. Well, maybe I could, but it turns out that Robert's magic sucking is a magic ability and he couldn't feel the magic making up the ward.

The Atlantean contingent are working on some sort of detection network that should be able to pick up major alterations in the Earth's magic systems without directly picking up the warded ritual site. I... I feel a bit useless. When I first got here I thought about prioritising disasters for the attention of the emergency services, only to kick myself for forgetting that there aren't any at the moment. I didn't prepare for this.

I've been hearing about the activity of some of our peers. A group from Japan whom I've never heard of called the Super Young Team have been making regular reports of their activities, including organising their fans to perform house to house searches for young children whose parents have disappeared. The power of social media. Kaldur plans to make a similar broadcast when he gets the time. Elsewhere in Japan an individual identifying themself as 'Hammersuit Zero-X' was noted as fighting some sort of monster. I can't get any pictures and the pilot appears to be less interested in self promotion than their countrymen. I've never heard of any of them, but when this is over they're all going in the notebook.

Several people have been active in Dakota City including Rocket. No Static, I noticed. No Big Bang event has happened here as far as I can tell so maybe we've got him to look forward to. Donna phoned in earlier. She's attempting to organise things in New York but very much wants to be in on the attack when we find the source. I mentioned the thing about Amazons remaining behind but she couldn't come up with any explanation as to why that happened either.

Most disappointingly, no reports of anything that could be the focal point of the spell which is causing this. No reports, no pictures... I've got the ring doing an analysis of satellite imagery but I can't properly describe what it's supposed to be looking for. Next step is to just start scanning for every magic using supervillain there is and working out which ones we can't find, and that's just-.

I look around as I hear footsteps. Zatanna walks down the corridor behind me and starts walking towards my position. She looks like she's deep in thought and isn't really paying much attention to her surroundings. She gets most of the way across the room before looking at me and then stops dead. No one else around and I don't really have any ideas on what I could be doing to fix the world so I suppose now's as good a time as any to find out why she's annoyed with me.

"Hi Zatanna."

"Um, yeah. Hi."

"Have I.. done something to offend you lately?"

"No." She crosses her arms. "What makes you ask?"

"Because I've got much better at reading body language since I got this ring. Also, your aura is tinged with red."

"I'm just worried about my father." She resumes her walk in my direction, stopping on the other side of the closest hologram screen and motioning her hand to turn it around.

"Right." I bring up a summary of events in New York. "Things seem to be staying quiet in your neighbourhood."

"Uhuh."

It's still night in China, so I don't have much information on what's happening there. Is there a Great Ten youth team? I don't remember one from the comics. "Mind me asking what you were doing when this all kicked off?"

"I was here, talking to Artemis about the team. And you were busy setting fire to the Pope."

I stop and look at her. "Is that what this is about? Zatanna, I've never been to a Guy Fawkes Night celebration where they burned a dummy dressed as the Pope. I mean, yeah, they burn the Guy, but the major events stopped burning the Pope before I was even born."

"But you said..?"

I shake my head and shrug. "I just wanted to get out of going to the dance."

"Setting fire to the Pope isn't something you should joke about."

"Okay, one, setting fire to a dummy in robes. The few places that still do it do it because it's traditional, not because they hate Catholics. Two, not the current Pope, the Pope from a period of history in which the Catholic Church was trying quite hard to persuade Catholic European countries like Spain and France to invade England and convert us back to Catholicism by force. Ever heard of Bloody Mary? The queen, not the drink? Queen Mary Tudor, who had over two hundred people burned to death to try and achieve that end after having her immediate Protestant predecessor decapitated. I don't have a problem with the Catholic Church as it is now and I don't have a problem with the current Pope. He's not exactly at Pius the Thirteenth levels of awesome but he's alright. Four hundred years ago when the commemorations started the Church was a very different organisation and I think it's worth remembering that. Third, you don't see me complaining about Independence Day, despite all the complete nonsense you lot get taught about British colonial policy. I'm not saying I'll go to a parade or anything but I'm not going to sit in my room hiding under a Union Jack with Men of Harlech and Jerusalem playing on a loop." I pause to take a breath. "And I went totally overboard with that, didn't I?"

She nods. "A little, yeah."

"Sorry. And, I'm sorry, I hadn't realised the thing about the Pope would be that offensive. If I had, I wouldn't have said it."

"That's.. that's okay. I'll forgive you for that." She frowns. "What do you mean, 'complete nonsense we get taught about British-'."

"The fundamentality of the right to liberty proclaimed by rich slave owning white men. And they did have representation, it was-."

"Recognised, Kid Flash, B zero three."

I think that was probably a lucky distraction.

"Hey Oh El, hey Zatanna. Any progress?"

I shake my head. "The Atlanteans are working on it. How's Happy Harbour?"

"About as peaceful as it could be. Think we've got all the kids out of the cars now."

"Ah. I'm sorry, how many died?"

He blinks in astonishment. "What? None? Why'd you... Oh. You were in Gotham, right?" I nod. Good to know that wasn't replicated everywhere. "How bad..?"

I look down, right fist tapping against my mouth. Zatanna's staring at me as well. "Fairly bad. Would have been.. convenient, to have a ring better adapted for medicinal uses."

"Right. So, um, hey, how come you're still here?"

"The consensus is that it's probably my warding tattoos."

"See, I've kind of got this bet going that you've been lying about your age." I tense, then try not to. "I think you're really under eighteen and that's why you weren't affected." Aaaaand breathe.

"No, I'd definitely be in the target age group. I don't think it even works off that. It didn't affect thirty one thousand Amazons and M'gann's still here."

"Really?" Puzzled frown. "I thought M'gann was, like, sixteen or something. Are you saying she's really eighteen?"

"Wallace, M'gann's forty eight."

"What."
 
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5th November
20:53 GMT -4

"Don't worry about it, Slayer. King Orin ordered Wotan locked up so well I doubt he can even move, let alone cast spells." King Nanaue Sha'ark grins at me. I think he's grinning anyway. The way his mouth's structured makes it a bit hard to tell. "Same with Orm-" He grimaces. I think. "-and anyone else in Atlantis who could have done something like this. It's you surface worlders who can't keep your magic using criminals under control."

"I rather suspected, thank you." Sha'ark would be taller than me if he were standing fully upright. As it is the tops of our heads are about level. He came along with the others but he'd been lurking under the water until just now. He can move about on land but he's not exactly elegant doing it. He only came up because he wanted to meet the man who crippled Orm.

Zatanna moves her hand through the holoscreen, removing Wotan and Orm from the Guess Who board of our potential suspects. There's still a lot of faces on there. She sighs. "This isn't going to work. There's no way they could have avoided being affected by their own spell without being outside of its area of effect."

"So we're probably looking for someone under eighteen?"

Sha'ark turns his head to the side to get a better look at the images. His head isn't quite the same shape as a natural shark as his eyes are more forwards-facing. "Why is it eighteen anyway?"

Zatanna looks at him curiously. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"In Nanaue, you're adult at sixteen. If whoever did this was trying to get rid of people who could fight back shouldn't they have set the age limit lower?"

"Is that a clue?"

"Not unless you know where they could have got a spell to do exactly that. The sort of person who… Who'd do this... I don't think they'd be worried about that sort of thing."

"Hm. Carnage doesn't bother me, but this is pathetic. If you're going to remove the world's most powerful warriors, you should attack immediately, not wait for them to work out how to stop you. Are you sure nothing's happening out there?"

"No, I'm not. Nothing shows up on satellite and I'm monitoring discussion forums, but if something were happening in the parts of the world that're still asleep, or... Okay, that isn't helping. We agree that there must be someone under eighteen doing this?" Zatanna and Sha'ark nod. "Alright. I don't know of anyone under eighteen who would do this, but I know a couple who could. Zatanna, if I give you a name can you send a message to a person?"

"Maybe, but who..? Are you talking about.. that Timothy Hunter guy?"

I shrug. "It would be convenient if we could get hold-."

"Who's this guy?" Sha'ark points at a picture of Klarion.

"Klarion, Lord of Chaos. Nasty piece of work. I stole his cat."

"Why's he on the adult list?"

"Because he's at least forty years old. In fact, according to Kent Nelson's notes he's an ancient eldritch abomination who just chooses to look like a child."

"So, not him then?"

"Wouldn't have thought.. so..." Wait a second. Mordred. As far as I can tell he doesn't exist here, but when he used his version of this spell in Justice League Unlimited he remained behind when he should have disappeared due to being at least a thousand years old. "Last time I saw Klarion he didn't have access to most of his magic due to his lack of a familiar. He still looked Human."

Zatanna brings his image to centre screen, expanding it. "Do you think he could be behind this?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure how to check except by finding him."

"But if he doesn't have a familiar, where is he getting the power from? I mean, that was how you beat him, right?"

My mind flashes back to the well fed Praexis Demons. "Dread to think. He might just have got a replacement, I don't know what the requirements for a familiar are."

"The animal needs to be emblematic of the wizard adopting it, and have some sort of social bond to them." We both look at Sha'ark. "What? I go to the Conservatory to study these things. You think anyone in Nanaue would tolerate being ruled by an idiot? If he had a cat, he'd probably want a cat again."

"Klarion didn't strike me as an animal person. How strong a bond?"

"Familiars are animals. If you feed them, that's usually enough." Another Praexis Demon flashback.

"Would something else work? A Demon, or something?"

"A Demon?" He thinks for a moment. "I don't know. I've never read about it, but if the Demon were fully intelligent, I don't think so."

Come on out, Fatty.

A fat hand emerges from the ring, flaps around and then somehow the Praexis manages to.. fall out of the ring and belly flop onto the floor.

Zatanna takes several steps back. "Is that..?"

Fatty looks up without getting up. "Food?"

"No. It's a Praexis Demon I assimilated. So far it's only demonstrated intelligence equal to that of a monkey."

"Food now?"

"Maybe less. They're weak as Demons go, but if you fed it..."

"Consorting with Demons is a death penalty offence in most of Atlantis. I don't know anyone who would know how to make one a familiar." Sha'ark seems disconcerted by the idea.

Zatanna looks horrified. "Why would you take something like that?"

"I wanted to know why it was in Liverpool, and asking it didn't seem likely to work. And I was curious if it was possible to take a Demon permanently out of circulation using the ring's assimilation function. Normally, when you 'kill' a Demon you just send it back to Hell. I'm not one for temporary solutions."

"Do you think.. Klarion..?"

"Honestly, I think we're speculating too-."

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern."

I raise the ring to my ear. "Orange Lantern here."

"Billy has volunteered to transform. With luck, we will soon be back in contact with the Justice League. Have you found anything?"

"No, not... The only youngish magic user who could be doing this we've been able to come up with is Klarion."

"That does not bode well."

"He wasn't just going to disappear. Doubt he'd have any allies with him. I think the fight's winnable if the first wave use Spell Eaters to protect themselves and cover him in magic suppressors."

"Do you have any leads on his location?"

"No, sorry. Do you want Zatanna down there for when Billy tries it?"

"Yes." She nods and walks towards the lifts. "While we wait for news of his success, please, keep looking for any information that might help us."

"Of course. Orange Lantern out."

Not like there's anything else I can do.
 
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5th November
20:59 GMT -4

"-am!"

I step away from the rapidly dispersing cloud of smoke as Billy appears in the training room, rapidly looking around to get his bearings. He's smiling like a loon so I assume-.

"It worked! Batman, Zatara, Red Tornado and some British guy, they're in the mountain! Only not this mountain, it's-!"

"A copy of the world where all of the adults went?"

"... Yeah." He peers at me. "How'd you know?"

"It was one of a range of possibilities, and given how you reacted it seemed to be most likely." I raise the ring to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Kaldur, good news. Billy's back and our elders are alright. You should probably come up here."

"We are on our way."

"Orange Lantern to team. Please return to base as soon as reasonably possible." I lower the ring. "Billy, when you say 'some British guy', can you describe him?"

"Uh, blonde hair, blue suit, long coat and he was holding an ice pack to his head."

John. Wait. "Ice pack?"

"Yeah. Guess he hit his head or something. But the main thing is everyone's okay!"

"No they're not. What you mean is: the majority of adults are physically okay. I can only imagine how bad the panic is worldwide. Have they had any more luck than us tracking down the perpetrators?"

"No, not yet. Zatara and the British guy were working on it. They said something about scrying for bad guys until they get the right one."

I look back at the list I was working from. That could take a while.

"I don't suppose they told you where Danni w-."

There's a blast of displaced air as Wallace comes to a halt next to us.

"Who's Danni, Oh El?"

"Danette Reilly. The gynoid?"

"Oh yeah, you were with her in-. Wait. You abbreviated her name?"

"I.. suppose I did..?"

Wallace leans down to elbow Billy in the shoulder. "Y'know, for Oh El that's like second base."

Billy looks puzzled. "What's second base?"

"Uh..."

Wallace looks away, then looks relieved as the rest of the gang approach. Kaldur, Robin, Zatanna, Garth, Tula, Sha'ark and La'gaan file in. Floating around Garth and Tula are a small cloud of glowing stones. Our detection network, presumably. The plan had been to have me fly up into orbit and spread them out in a grid while the Atlantean contingent conducted the scan from the ground. Would have taken ages to scan the whole planet like that, but if we can narrow it down even a little...

Kaldur fixes his eyes on Billy. "What news?"

"There's, like, two worlds. Adults on one, kids on the other."

"My dad's okay?"

"Zatara's in the cave right now. He's standing right over there." He points near where I'm standing. I can see the tension visibly leave her. I hadn't noticed it earlier. I suppose I'm not the only one who tries to keep busy.

Kaldur looks a little relieved too. "Does Batman have orders for us?"

"He says you should keep looking for wherever the spell's being cast. I don't think they're having much luck with that either."

"Have they managed to identify the perpetrators?"

"No, they're trying to work it out based on who they can't detect."

"We do need to know if someone we haven't heard of might be handling the youth end of things. The only one we've been able to come up with is Klarion, and he's supposed to be out of action."

Garth takes hold of one of the rune stones and walks forwards to give it to Billy. "See if you can take this with you when you transform. If we're lucky we can create a sympathetic link between it and the ones on this side."

"Got it. Anything else you want me to tell them?"

"No. Take the stone to Zatara and return once we know whether or not it can be used to communicate."

Billy nods. "Sha-!"

"Wait." Billy cuts himself off, and the others look at me curiously. "Is it really just Mister Zatara and John there trying to work out how this happened?"

"Well, yeah. Everyone else is out trying to keep order."

"Please pass on my suggestion to Batman that the League's priorities need to be reassessed. Panic is unfortunate but inevitable given the situation and the League is ill equipped to act as a police force. Everyone capable of aiding in the search in any way should be on that."

Kaldur frowns. "I do not think that abandoning-."

"Tell Batman to imagine a world where in every hospital, every clinic, every doctor's surgery... Doctors: gone. Surgeons: gone. Anaesthetists: gone. Critical care nurses: gone. Any child who was undergoing surgery when the separation occurred is most likely already dead." The faces around me whiten. What, didn't they think about this? "Most children who were in critical care wards will be dying without the constant attention they need. Small babies-" I wince and rub my brow. "-who were being bathed when their parents disappeared stand a good chance of drowning." My voice hitches. "And good as autopilots are I don't know how long we've got until planes start falling out of the sky with no pilots. Major roads are covered in crashed cars, the injured and the dead and there aren't enough of us to help. I will be astonished if we keep the death toll to a mere five figures -most of whom will be children- and I will shout the praises of any deity who feels like chipping in, we cannot afford-." I take a ragged breath as my mind's eye sees the bridge again. "We can't afford to pay any unessential attention to secondary objectives. Please pass that on."

Billy stares at me wide eyed, mouth open. "O-okay. Sh-shaz-."

A flash of lightning and a puff of smoke and he disappears. I turn to see the others still staring at me. "What? Didn't you realise? This isn't two people in silly costumes hitting each other. This isn't theft. We aren't dealing with an ideology that could be engaged with. This is mass murder on a planetary scale at least. This makes the Injustice League look like amateur hour, and most of the victims will be young children."

Tula swallows. "The... The stones are ready. If you take them i-into orbit we can get started."

I nod. "Oh, um, if I'm not here when Billy gets back, tell him to get the Greenies to call in reinforcements from their Corps. Someone who knows how to do rapid planetary surveys." I use the ring to take hold of the stones. Garth shakes himself and takes one of them back. Right, for the communication attempt.

"Um, sorry to bother you..." Gemma and Teekl emerge from the trophy room. Gemma's hesitant, slightly crouched. Teekl's as confident as she always is. "You've.. probably thought of this, but.. to scry for someone you need something they've owned, right?"

Garth turns to her. "No, but it makes it a lot easier. Why?"

"Well... Didn't Klarion.. used to own Teekl?"
 
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5th November
21:23 GMT -4

Fifty miles up, I move the enchanted stones to their next position. They really aren't designed to be used like this. In Atlantean cities they have things like these spread out through the streets to monitor thaumic shifts for much the same reason that the surface world monitors solar radiation. Moving them around makes it much harder to detect anything. If I had a thousand of these we'd already have a location but there's no way to make that many new ones in the time in which we have to complete this mission or rework the ones currently in use in Atlantis.

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern. Zatara has identified Blackbriar Thorn as being among our enemies, and confirms that Wotan remains in his cell."

"Understood. Any news on the Lanterns?" Teekl cooperated surprisingly well with the scrying but her link to Klarion barely exists in arcane terms, what with her no longer being his familiar and becoming a Construct-Lantern. The best we could get was 'somewhere in the south-east of the United States' but at least that's more than we had before.

"Lantern Stewart has confirmed that the effect is limited to Earth."

Blubber was in a bit of a state when I left. Whales can't breathe water, and neither can Whale-form Atlanteans. His people used Whale-form shapeshifting before the sinking and are the only ones to live in homes with air-filled spaces in the modern day. Though obviously dangerous the only real alternative would be moving to Venturia. It's the only Atlantean city-state with territory above water, but it's also the most autocratic and usually the risk is perfectly manageable. Adults have a spell-song for extracting oxygen dissolved in the water and children usually accompany them until they're old enough to learn to do it for themselves. Which means that as of a couple of hours ago any of them caught outside their homes have had to hold their breath and swim for an air pocket. They should mostly be alright as their lung capacities are as good as the natural Whales they pattern themselves after. But if any get lost, or panic and try to swim for the surface...

"What about reinforcements?"

"No news yet. Move to the next location."

I'm moving quite large distances. It's up in the air as to whether they'll work as intended at all. Only advantage of there hardly being any magic users in this country is that anything artificial-looking is probably our target. I'm over North Carolina now, near the coast. Why is Klarion doing this? There aren't really any other examples of confirmed Lords of Chaos. I suppose this is certainly chaotic, maybe that's the point. Maybe the people we're fighting are just that bad. Perhaps their desires are just too... Inhuman. I blink and trigger Ophidian'sEyes and the dark world below covered in points of light near major areas of inhabitation is replaced with something that looks like one of those satellite images we used to look at in secondary school geography. It's practically impossible to make out individual sets of desires at this range and with this many people. I think I'm glad about that. No. I don't think it's helping, nothing's standing ou-

Mommy! Daddy! Help!

I clutch my head, clamp my eyes shut and try and shut the Eyes down. Agh! Individual desires might be imperceptible but the collective whole is strong enough. Need to try again. Need to refine it. Ring, track individual desire-clusters. I want to.. to skim the desires.

"Nothing again. Move to next location."

I take the stones south, watching the desires as I go. Rather than listening to a crowd like before and being overwhelmed when they shout in unison this is like hearing a great many quiet voices in succession. They're going so fast that I don't know if I'd spot anything...

Oh no. I'm hearing them cut out. I'm seeing them go dark. I thought.. ah.. I thought that by this point most of the deaths would have already occurred. They probably have but that doesn't mean

Exaltation, joy, speed, lights out.

that more people.. more children, aren't going to die while I'm doing this. I take a second to see what that last one was about and see a freshly burning car, smashed up and flipped on its roof. Joy riding idiots. Why..? Why would they..? Focus. I know that what I'm doing is the best way to end this but I'm really starting to understand why most superheroes prefer the inefficient way. This is... More going dark. North Carolina has about nine million inhabitants. I should have expected this. Even on a normal day people would be dying. I don't know if this is unusual or not. I hope it is. The glow of orange just makes it more obvious when the dark patches suddenly appear, however small they are.

"We have something! Hold position." Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease. "Move to position out to sea, just off the coast."

I can't use FTL transfer without them losing the connection and I can't risk the delay that would cause but I think this is the fastest I've ever flown anywhere. I want to ask what they've picked up but I can't risk distracting them. I scan the area below me with the Eyes again but I don't even know if they'd work through the ward. More fading out.

"Move south. There's some sort of distortion effect."

I comply. "Is it him?"

"I am uncertain. Given that these readings are indirect it must be incredibly powerful but it does not match what I felt during our last encounter with Klarion."

"Would having a new familiar to draw power through change the feeling?"

"There are too many unknown factors. Decrease height to twenty miles."

"Decreasing height. Is it worth notifying the League?"

"Not yet. I do not wish to alert them until we have something solid."

Below me the American coastline tapers off towards Florida. To the north there's a fairly impressive river mouth and off the main coastline there are a few small islands. I switch between daylight-augmented vision, normal vision and the Ophidian's Eyes, trying to spot something that could be relevant just a little sooner. The ritual site could well only be a few metres across and from this height unless it really stands out it's a faint hope, but I have to try, damn it!

"Twenty miles, holding position."

When this is over I think I'm going to have to be a bit more forceful about the research and development thing. Now that I've cleared local space there's really no reason why we couldn't install a magic field reading network. Unlike normal spy satellites I don't think the Security Council would object to us tracking something they don't use in any significant way, particularly if this is the result of not doing so. I cringe and close my eyes as a series of orange lights disappear, fire consuming a street. No fire services. No adult on hand to grab a fire extinguisher at the first sign of smoke. I can't tell what started it. Dodgy wiring? An unattended deep fat fryer? It isn't just the new disasters, it's all the small things adults are better equipped to deal with than small children, accidents always producing casualties at the top of the predicted range because all of the things that could ameliorate the situation aren't happening.

I could try getting the ring to analyse visible light, but at this height I'm going to get a great deal of blur. Long range scans are unreliable because of the wards. I hate this powerlessness!

"Orange Lantern, we have something. Decrease height to ten miles and move fourteen miles to the south west."

"Height decreased, movement complete. I'm directly over-." Ring? "The Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge."

"We have your location. The technique we're using can only give us the approximate location of what we're looking for. Are you able to see anything unusual?"

"No! Sorry. Sorry. Give me a moment. Ring, membrane and visible light analysis." A pale orange glow extends across the sky behind me. Shouldn't really be noticeable from the ground. Were there anyone down there to notice it. Water, sand, grass... "Can you suggest a direction?"

"It would-. One moment." He goes quiet and I extend the light-sensitive film further. Still nothing. "Try to the north."

"Moving north." I follow the sandbank north and a little to the west. I've no idea what makes a good ritual site. Would Klarion bother with conventional camouflage? I really don't know. "Coming up on Roanoke Island." I try to avoid looking at the inhabited areas in any detail. We haven't heard any reports and someone would have said something by now, wouldn't they? Wait, what's-? "Got something." A blur of purple in the middle of a woodland. Shouldn't be there and a direct scan with the ring says that it isn't there. I move directly over it, dropping the membrane construct as I do so. My eyes can see it well enough now. There's a glowing, five pointed star drawn on the ground down there and kneeling in the centre is a colossal purple humanoid. Five streams of purple light flow from its back to small circles at the points of the star. Four are empty, but the fifth...

"I have visual confirmation. Klarion's on Roanoke Island. And he's got a friend."
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:29 GMT -4

"Relaying visuals now." Giant purple genie thing. Bedlam. I can't see whatever his name was, the boy it bonded to in the comics. Maybe Klarion took that role or stole Bedlam from him. Does this mean that Klarion still doesn't have much of his own power? If it weren't for the wards I could scan him to make sure that he still reads as a baseline Human. Certainly his proportions are still more 'correct' than the first time we met.

I don't see a shield.

Directly behind me the railgun construct appears. I know he can't detect me with magic. He could see me with his eyes, but I'm still ten miles up and I'm not actually glowing all that much. I know I'm perfectly capable of firing my projectiles hard enough to level a good chunk of that woodland. If he is Human at present then he'd be reduced to meat in seconds.

And I really want to kill him.

I can't see any other magic users. If that Bedlam is anything like the one in the comics then it can rearrange reality as soon as it notices us. Should I take the shot? No. What set of actions is most likely to result in Klarion's death?

"Billy is notifying the Justice League now. Assuming that the adults taking part in the ritual were occupying the other points of the star there will be three others in addition to Blackbriar Thorn. That.. being in the centre. I have never seen anything like it."

"My first guess would be a Djinn but I can't claim to know anything about its capacities for certain."

The best outcome is most likely to result from us working together. "Did you give Billy a picture of the symbols he's using? John will want to see it."

"Of course. It would probably be best if you returned to the cave. I do not want Klarion to learn of our coming until we are ready to strike."

I can't use FTL until I'm out of his line of sight. An orange streak across the sky would be a blatant give away. I keep my distance, flying in a curve towards sea level. I don't see him looking around. A summoning would probably be able to see me if he had them on sentry duty. I have the ring show me a map of the land's contours, plotting the earliest time I can FTL back and pick up the others. Being an island that means that I have to go further than I would like. Can't risk going supersonic because I haven't bothered practising and the noise would attract his attention. With FTL available practising it just didn't seem worthwhile. Briefly I consider travelling underwater but I haven't practised that post Ophidian and I don't know how brightly the travel corridor would shine.

It feels like five minutes by the time I get enough land and tree between Klarion and myself that I feel confident that I will not be spotted. I plot the FTL transfer as close as I can to the ground -sure, it'll be spotted, but it's not like Klarion is watching news reports- and in a flash I'm at the external Happy Harbour zeta tube. Come a long way since the first time I came here with Diana and Alan.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

The ring protects my eyes from the glare as I walk into the main training area. The team's all here, along with Donna and Robert at one end of the group and Garth and Tula at the other. Sha'ark, Gemma and Teekl are lurking near the back wall while the others are standing in front of the main holo display. A pile of heavy chains and manacles covered in runes made of gold filaments sits under it while it displays the images I took of the area.

"-am!"

Billy reappears, takes a second to get his bearings and then scurries up to Kaldur. "Green Lantern confirmed it, they're on Roanoke Island. Four guys: Felix Faust, Blackbriar Thorn, Wizard and some guy in a black cloak he didn't recognize. The big purple guy doesn't show up on that side."

"Does Batman have a plan?"

"He thinks we should attack both places simultaneously, in case they can warn each other. Um, and he thinks we should do it quickly." He looks at me nervously. "Batman said you were right about stopping them as soon as possible being the most important thing, but without the League around.. people are getting scared."

"How scared?"

"A mob attacked STAR Labs in Gotham. By the time the police got it under control the whole place was on fire. I guess... Things like that, they're gunna be happening in a lot of places, aren't they?"

"Probably. The faster we end this the faster it stops." Except for those whose children have already died. I don't dare even think about telefragging.

Kaldur picks up a set of manacles. "These are used by Atlantis to imprison powerful magic users. Placed around Klarion's arms and legs they should prevent him using his magic."

Wallace gestures to the image. "Do they come in giant size?"

Ring, Spell Eaters. The three of them appear just in front of me, held up by my orange aura. "No, but these do. I'm not saying they'll make you magic-proof but.. near as I can do."

Robin looks from them to me. "Don't you need one of them? I mean, given what happened last time we fought him..."

"I don't have that special vulnerability anymore, and-" I tap the armour in the centre of my chest. "-I've still got my first generation model."

"Kid Flash." Kaldur holds out the manacles to him. "You stand the best chance of getting close enough to him to use these." Wallace takes hold of them and gives a sombre nod. I float a Spell Eater over to him and slip the thong around his neck.

"That will protect you from direct attack and generally cause magic around you to fall apart. If he conjures fire it will still burn you. If he makes himself physically more powerful like he started to last time we fought it won't help at all."

"Got it."

"Superboy. Troia." He picks up a length of chain. "This will be less effective, but with luck it will suppress Klarion's power to something we can cope with." Kon puts the chain over his right shoulder and they both catch the Spell Eaters I send their way. This is the first time he'll be wearing the Nth Metal armour on a mission, but he's done plenty of training with it. Sadly it doesn't have the same magic-negating effect as Hawkgirl's mace in Justice League Unlimited. Other than letting him fly I'm not sure how much help it'll be.

"Ah…" Robin points at the manacles. "I know Kid's got the best chance of putting it on him, but shouldn't we all have one of those just in case?"

Garth shakes his head. "There aren't any more. Those are the strongest we could find. The sort of manacles used on regular prisoners wouldn't stand a chance of working on a Lord of Chaos." Robin nods.

"Miss Martian. Do you believe you would be able to conceal us under a telepathic illusion?"

"If.. Klarion's.. mind is like a normal Human's... Probablyyy." She doesn't sound certain. Heck, she's got good reason not to.

"Do what you can. Our best chance is for Kid Flash to get close without being spotted. Cornwall." Robert appears to be doing a bit of a deer in the headlights impression, but he manages a nod. "When we reach the ritual area, your first target is the spell warding the area against detection. Once it is down I want you to try and disrupt the ritual directly." Another nod. "During our previous encounter Klarion favoured attacks of pure magic, though he may change tack if he realizes that approach is ineffectual."

"I'll manage. I'll have to."

"Garth, Tula: Roanoke is a small island. I want you at the water's edge ready to strike at Klarion as soon as the ward is down." Scry targeted water artillery. Useful, plus it gets two people we haven't trained with out of the immediate fighting area. "Orange Lantern. Do you believe that you will be able to assimilate the Djinn as you did Teekl?"

"It's not impossible, but I wouldn't want you to depend on it. In theory the ring should work on just about anything but I just don't know enough about it... Or how long it might take."

He nods. "Try anyway. The rest of us will do our best to distract Klarion from his magics. Remember, our primary aim is to end the spell as quickly as possible. Attacking Klarion is only worthwhile in that it makes that goal easier to accomplish." There's a short pause. "Does anyone have anything they wish to add?"

"Just one thing. I'll be taking my lantern with me. If we're able to break Klarion's focus and remerge the worlds, I doubt it'll just go away. And the only thing I'd feel confident taking that thing on with is the Ophidian."
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:36 GMT -4

Looks of surprise and dismay from my team mates while Robert, Garth and Tula just look puzzled. Right, I suppose they haven't read the reports of what I did while under the influence. As far as I remember we didn't go under water, though we did spend enough time in the UK to rename Pevensey Castle as Westham Castle. Probably didn't make the news. It's such a stupid thing; we could have tracked down Klarion then, but instead we focused on correcting a signing error that doesn't even exist in this parallel.

"Are you sure that is wise?" Kaldur sounds concerned, but I don't hear a better alternative. "Last time you bonded with it, your ability to focus was severely compromised."

"I know, but even if it happens exactly the same as last time I'm fairly confident that at the very least I... We would remain focused on the Djinn for the duration of the fight."

Garth frowns. "What are you talking about?"

Kaldur glances sideways at his friend. "Orange Lantern's personal lantern is home to a powerful Avarice Elemental. When they bond, his power increases dramatically."

"How dramatically?"

"He-. They did not strain themselves in rotating the moon full circle."

The newcomers take a moment to absorb that. Tula recovers first. "Why aren't you using it now? With something that powerful-."

"Because he goes crazy!"

Artemis doesn't like the idea, it seems. "That isn't why. It isn't here. I checked my lantern earlier. I mean, it's an ancient Elemental, of course it's over eighteen."

Robin frowns. "So where is it?"

"The lantern was in subspace when the separation happened. I.. assume it's in the copy of my lantern on the adult side. If it was loose I'm sure Batman would have mentioned it."

"What happens if you move the lantern and it isn't in the same place as the one the Ophidian's in when the spell ends?"

"Um. Oh. Not sure. That's... That's a good point, actually." I was worried about telefragging, but if the lantern moves to Roanoke while the Ophidian stays behind... "No, you're right. I can't risk it. Aqualad, once the merger occurs I can transport myself back here and pick it up, but Robin's right. I shouldn't take it with me."

Kaldur nods. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah." Sha'ark moves away from the wall and takes a few steps towards our group. "I need Slayer to take me back to Nanaue before you kick things off."

"Why?"

"What he was saying earlier got me thinking. King Arp'ax and all the Councillors are on the adult side. I'm the only ruler left. My blood tells me to fight, but my head tells me my city needs me." He snarls. "And it tells me I can't fight on land well enough to make a difference."

I look at Kaldur and shrug. "I can drop you off on the surface above the city. I'll only take a couple of seconds."

"Very well. Once that is done, return here to transport the bioship to Roanoke. Billy, inform Batman that we will begin our attack at twenty one forty five eastern standard time."

He nods. "Right. Shaza-!" He's gone in a cloud of smoke.

I head towards Sha'ark as Kaldur turns to the group. "Make any remaining preparations and then head to the bioship. We leave as soon as Orange Lantern returns." There's a collective nodding and they head to the lift, Zatanna hanging back a bit. Probably wants to talk to Kaldur about something. I reach Sha'ark and create a zeta tube construct.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six, King Nanaue Sha'ark, A one two."

We rematerialise in Happy Harbour. "Haven't done this with a sharkman before, so if you feel unwell let me know."

Nanaue is in the North Atlantic, north of the Greater Azores and roughly on the same latitude as Edinburgh. Atlantis covers a large area but virtually all of its population is concentrated in its sprawling city-states. Nanaue doesn't bother with a census, but official estimates give it a population somewhere between two and three million, virtually all of them sharks. The world flickers and we're hanging in the air a long way above and a little to the south of it. It's raining, and with all the clouds there's little to distinguish the sea from the sky.

"Can you find your way from here?"

"If we're in the right place I'll smell it when I get in the water."

"Okay, well, thank you for your help-."

"I never understood why High King Orin liked the Justice League so much. I always respected him as a warrior, but what does the surface world have to do with us? Now I get it. One powerful enemy can tip the sea into the sky and you lot stop just long enough to work out how to cut his hands off."

"We can do more together."

"You might have something there. Hm. Those scampi you and the Cornwall boy caught. If your king-."

"Queen."

"Whatever. If your queen doesn't know what to do with them, send them our way. I'll see they get straightened out."

I nod and release him. He turns face down in the air and shimmers blue as the sea rises up to meet him. I don't just mean the waves, a whole area about forty metres across extends upwards. All of Kaldur's Atlantean friends have specialised in their preferred areas of arcane combat and Sha'ark is a very capable aquatic melee fighter. Sharkman mages are more muscle wizards than mid range blasters like Kaldur, which unfortunately means his assessment of his usefulness in a fight on Roanoke was completely accurate. I watch for a moment through the water as he shoots downwards at a pace that a torpedo would envy, then create another zeta tube construct to transport myself back to the mountain.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I emerge in the hangar and transition to the air just above the bioship as my team mates come through the lift doors. Tula and Garth could really do with some armour, but if their part of our strategy works they shouldn't see direct combat. And I suppose if it doesn't then a little ceramic plating isn't likely to do much against a Lord of Chaos. I watch as they all pile into the bioship. I should probably stay out here, given how crowded it must be getting in there. I'll need to drop the bioship off a little way away; it's still unarmed and we want to attack from an ambush if at all possible.

But...

Kaldur's plan involves doing things the superhero way. Nothing he said was wrong exactly but I doubt he even considered the more militant approach. I am quite capable of railgunning the site. If Klarion has been brought down to Human physical normalcy then I can assimilate him. In fact, if Fatty is anything to go by it won't even be that hard. Klarion didn't strike me as one to practise deferred gratification. If. If I can pull it off, then whatever the Djinn can do shouldn't be a problem. Or... The ritual symbol. If I can just shoot the ground underneath it, would that disrupt the process?

I consider as the hangar doors open and I plot the best flight path. Deliberately firing to kill. How badly do I want this? It won't be like Clayface; if it works Klarion will be meat paste. I blink and see the bridge again. Yes, I think I can live with that. I raise my left hand slightly and surround myself in construct armour. **Everyone ready?**

**All set.** M'gann's mental voice sounds distant. Usually before a mission there's a little excitement, a little... Not fun exactly, but at this point Wallace or I would try a little humour. Not this time.

**Course plotted. Prepare to engage stealth once I disengage. Transition in three, two, one.**
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:42 GMT -4

We appear just above sea level, just north east of the Kitty Devil Hills. M'gann engages the stealth system as I rise up from the bioship, extending the finest filament I can into the sky above me. I need to check that-.

**Aqualad to Orange Lantern, is-?**

**Confirmed, Klarion and the purple entity are still in place. Relaying image now.** I open my mind to the rest of the team, showing them what my optic membrane construct is showing me. Beneath me I see the distortion in the air as the bioship begins its approach.

Am I actually going to do this? Not the murder attempt -and it is murder, I don't have any sort of legally recognised authority to shoot criminals dead- but acting outside the agreed upon behaviour of my ingroup.. that's a little harder. Should I say something?

**Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Would it be helpful to disrupt the physical structure of the ritual site?**

**At this point it is most likely that it would not.** There's a brief pause. **Tula and Garth are in the water and heading for the shore. We will be landing momentarily.**

**Understood.** No response from Klarion or Bedlam yet. I should be undetectable to them but the others aren't. On the other hand the woodland should conceal their approach from visual detection but with my armour glowing I'd be quite visible. Keep to the plan, or attack immediately myself?

I see the bridge again.



Right. I transition to a point three hundred metres above the ritual site. From here I can easily see Klarion and Bedlam with my unaided eyes. Bedlam looks unwell, while Klarion's standing in a fairly relaxed pose in his space in the magic circle, soaking in the power flowing from Bedlam.

"Ring, firing solutions."

Target plots appear in front of me as a circle of railgun constructs appear in the air around me. Multiple points of impact should disrupt the ground of the ritual site. I'll shoot Klarion and Bedlam as well. Bedlam will most likely ignore it but this could end Klarion. Before Wallace or after? I know he can perform complex actions at super speed but... No.

The railguns hum, higher in pitch than they used to. I have the ring calculate the effect of the kinetic energy on the ground. The forest is acceptable collateral damage but the nearby village of Wanchese isn't. Done.

**Stand clear, stand clear. Ordnance inbound.**

**Orange Lantern, what-!?**

The guns around me flash and dust erupts from the ritual site, obscuring my view. The purple glow of Bedlam is still there, but I can't tell whether I got Klarion or not. If you haven't found the body... I transition down into the billowing dust cloud, emitting beams of orange light in all directions in an attempt to feel out the environment. There's a distortion as they pass through Bedlam but he doesn't seem to be reacting either to them or to me.

**Orange Lantern, what did you do!**

**Bombarded the ritual site in an attempt to kill Klarion. Given that we aren't seeing his accom-.**

My armour shuts down and I fall to the ground.

**Ufff!**

"Well, look what the cat didn't drag in." A wave of orange light pulses outward, drawing the dust from the air. The ground I'm laying on is broken, as if someone took a giant rotavator to it. The ritual site is unaffected, protected by a glowing purple dome. The power for the dome flows not from Bedlam himself but instead rises from Klarion's left hand like evaporating nitrogen. I try raising my armour again but nothing happens! Klarion smiles at my confusion. "Get over here." An orange hand materialises in the air next to me and forcefully grabs me before pulling me through the air to hang in front of Klarion. He's hacked the ring! How the hell has he done that? I try reaching for my pistol but the orange hand pins my arms to my sides! Don't think it would do much anyway. "Have you got any idea how hard it is to find a Lost City? I had to spend weeks in that stoopid desert, and even longer making sure the spell didn't affect you." The hand rotates and then flicks me across the ground with force. Ow! "But it was worth it!" I get my arms up to protect my head but even through my body armour I'm going to get a bruise.

I take a moment to look at the ring. It looks dirty, orange light barely showing through the caked on dust. Wait. Lost City. Dust. There's something about that... Klarion grins and steps through the shield protecting his ritual site. Purple power stops flowing to him from Bedlam and instead goes directly into the shield. Klarion raises his hands and a giant orange Klarion appears above him, leaning over me and grinning in the inhuman way he did before I took Teekl. That was it! In the comics, Vandal Savage tried something like this on Alan! I don't remember how he got out of it, but I know how I'm going to.

"Now, how do I make you give me Teekl back?"

I reach across with my right hand and pull the ring from my finger.

"Hey, what-!" The confused face of the construct evaporates as I shove the ring into one of my pouches and scramble back to my feet. Klarion looks up in the air in confusion for a moment before locking his eyes on me. "How do you keep doing this?! Bedlam!"

The purple colossus turns slightly. If I had to guess I'd say it was genuinely unwell. Nonetheless, it raises a purple right arm and sends a wafting stream of purple energy through the barrier into Klarion. He throws his head back and drops his arms to the sides. When he returns his gaze to me his eyes glow with purple light. "Y'know, if you'd let me keep using the ring I'd have played with you for a bit. Now, I'm just gunna squash you!" He makes a punching motion with his right hand, I tense, and a circle of ground five metres away is flattened by a tremendous physical force.

Eh?

"What?" Klarion looks at his hand in bewilderment. Recovering quickly, he points his right middle and forefinger at me like a gun, and a brilliant beam of purple energy.. goes.. straight.. past me? I start moving clockwise around the ritual area as he charges an electrical blast in his hands. The lightning bolts strike the area around me to Klarion's visible frustration. "Aagh!" He can't aim at me. He can't aim at me! He concentrates, walking forwards to keep me in sight, and fires off another bolt. This one hits me in the chest. There's a small pain and I feel the muscle around the impact site clench, but my body armour is well insulated enough to take it! Thank you Mister Gambi!

**The Djinn's called Bedlam. He's charging Klarion but doesn't otherwise seem to be participating.**

Klarion's mouth glows and I lunge forwards to press myself against the side of the purple shield as he vomits forth a wave of purple fire. It misses -just- and I don't feel any heat from it. Startled, I look at the ground and see that the upturned soil has been transmuted, replaced with brick, glittering jewels, sand, some sort of slime and a strange blue bush that doesn't look anything like earthly plant life. When the flames peter out I start moving again, trying to get to the far side of the shield. Klarion watches me from the other side, not bothering to respond until I reach the opposite side from him. His eyes appear to have reverted to normal.

"Bedlam!" The Djinn's hand points to him again and purple light envelopes him. Glowing eyes again. Is he becoming vulnerable?

**Klarion appears to burn through the power Bedlam's giving him quickly. I suggest waiting until he does so again and then sending Kid Flash in with the chain.**

**What did you think you were doing?**

Kaldur's understandably annoyed. **I was trying to kill Klarion as quickly as possible. And I should point out that he had no warning before I strafed the ritual site and the shield was still there. If Kid Flash had gone in first he'd just have run into it.** Again, I share my vision of what is happening in front of me.

**Why aren't you using your ring?**

Kon sounds more concerned than angry, though I can hear anger there as well. **Klarion did something to it to take control of it. I took it off to stop him.**

**Sit tight Oh El, be with you in a sec.**

**Wait 'till he's discharged!**

Looking across the circle, Klarion appears to have reached a decision. "Oh well. If I can't blast you, I'll just have to pull your arms and legs off." He crouches slightly, and his body stretches in the same way it did near the end of our last fight. His arms and legs lengthen and become far thinner than is humanly possible. He gains an extra set of elbows and knees and at least two fingers on each hand. His spine lengthens and bends, giving him a permanent stoop. His fingers grow and gain talons for fingernails and his face... His face regains some of the inhumanity he displayed on top of Nabu's Tower, glowing purple eyes and obvious monstrosity.

Then he pushes off the ground and clears the shield dome in one easy leap.
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:46 GMT -4

He swings at me with his right talon but I'm already moving out of the way. Ah! Not fast enough though! His claw clips my left side and flicks me into the air. I roll as I land, my left hand instinctively checking the area struck. The dyneema outer layer is ripped clean through and the plates beneath are scratched but unbroken. Not super strong then. I get my feet underneath me just as he swings again and I dive out of the way. Okay, big, strong, not all that agile. Still got no way to hurt him.

"Oooh, are we having trouuuuble?" He fans his hands out towards me as I get up again, a ball of purple fire growing in size and intensity. Maybe I can use the shield to make it hard for him to manoeuvre again? I'm up and running again. A moment later I hear a rapidly closing roaring sound and.. for a second the right side of my body feels.. strange. Not painful, but as if the sensory input was for something of a different size or shape and wasn't being interpreted correctly. Phantom limb where the missing limb was made of tentacles. I glance at myself and for a moment see my body wreathed in pink fire before the flames are evaporated by the Spell Eater. If that had been a normal fire I would have been unpleasantly burned just then. "Gah! Not again!"

I risk a look back, slowing as I do so. Klarion stares at his hands as his eyes flicker between purple and normal. Right. I draw my pistol and take aim. **Kid Flash, whenever you're ready.** I fire.

Blam!

My first round misses, his unusual body shape throwing off my instincts. The noise makes him look up in surprise.

"A gun? You can't have-."

I aim more carefully and fire again.

Blam!

It clips the side of his body.

"Ah!"

I can't tell how much that really hurt him. Not much by the look of it. He starts towards me again. Right, his torso's facing me. It's not going to get any easier.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

A hastily materialised barrier blocks the shots, but he stops coming towards me and he definitely looks worried. And it's not quite big enough to-.

Blam!

"OW!"

-protect his feet. He looks faintly ridiculous hunched up like that. Right, six shots, pretend to be out. Lower the gun. He hops a little but he doesn't look seriously injured.

"Klarion, you're under arrest for over a thousand murders and sorcery most foul." Which is technically a crime in its own right in the US. Thank you snapped.com.

"Oh, boo hoo." He shrinks back to his normal size, a little of his cockiness gone. "Bedlam!"

Gun up. Blam! Blam! Two hits, upper left chest and left shoulder.

"A-ah!" Klarion goes down on his back, and in a rush of displaced air Wallace materialises next to him and clamps the manacles shut around his wrists and neck. I take a moment to breathe. Did we just..?

I hear running and look around to the direction Wallace just came from. Kon and Donna lead the way, flying into Bedlam's barrier and punching it repeatedly. Robert's a little behind them, the same distortion his father used on them both in London forming an aura around his body. He slams to his knees, laying his hands flat on the ground. Right, the anti-scrying ward. Not sure that should be a priority now.

**Aqualad to Orange Lantern. Are you injured?**

**Not that I can feel.** I take a moment to make sure everything's still there. Yess... Can't check under the armour and without the ring to regulate things I'm swimming in so many endorphins that I'm not sure I'd feel it.

"Citsym reirrab, espalloc!"

I need to talk to Zatanna about the white patches. Without those she'd have quite effective camouflage. She's staying back, but I see the shield start to buckle where she's pointing at it. Robert stands and joins in. I start walking in her direction. With no ring and the rest of my ammunition in my presently inaccessible subspace pocket I'm a near total liability at the moment. Shit, no ring. I fish it out of my pocket and look at it. Still covered in hardened gunk, and my armour doesn't come with a utility belt. Maybe if I find Robin-.

"Bedlam!" Oh, what's he doing n-. Oh shit. Bedlam turns towards where Klarion lays on the floor and the flows of energy to the other points of the circle disappear. Then the barrier drops and Bedlam compresses and flows directly into Klarion's mouth and eyes. Wallace backs away in a hurry as Klarion rises into the air, the chains around his arms and neck glowing brilliant purple for a moment and then exploding away. The injuries I'd managed to inflict on him vanish and he turns his inhuman grin towards Wallace. Wallace starts to run, but a series of purple lightning bolts strike at the area around him with enough force to make the ground explode! He evades two, but the third strikes him directly and the blast from the fourth sends him careening into the tree line.

I start running directly away from him. I haven't got any way to hurt him. What can I do? **Aqualad, I strongly suggest having Cornwall take down the ritual site as soon as possible.**

**Cornwall, do it. Garth, Tula, target Klarion. Kid Flash, status.**

**I'm.. I'm okay. Worried there for a minute. That ward thing really came through.**

Robert takes a few awkward steps forwards into the circle and Donna and Kon fly at Klarion, chain stretched out between them. It hits him in the stomach and pulls him through the air a few metres before his body glows purple and he stops dead. Donna and Kon turn and try yanking on the chain harder to no effect as he turns to face them.

"Stop bothering me."

His hands glow brilliant purple, then he points them directly at the two of them and fires. Both drop the chain, Kon evading, while Donna follows her Amazon training and blocks with her bracers. I wince, but enchanted mithril and Improved Spell Eater combine to result in her merely being knocked flying. Kon flies along the deck to attempt to ram into Klarion with his fists only to be intercepted by a far stronger looking purple barrier which brings him to a full stop.

Then Klarion hits him with another purple beam and he slams into the ground hard enough to cut a furrow.

"Guess I don't need that stupid cat after all."

He looks up and waves his right hand, a torrent of water presumably launched by Garth and Tula striking another shield.

"Kcatta ruo ymene neesnu!"

I'm no good like this. I need to get into cover, and see if Artemis can lend me her crossbow. Won't do much good while he's in God Mode, but it would at least-.

**Er, Aqualad, sir? There's some sort of yellow crystal in the middle here.**

"Rrrrragh!" The water covering the ground where Klarion blocked the Atlanteans' shot surges upwards and engulfs him, freezing solid as it does so. That's Kaldur, right? I can't see him.

Arrows strike the ice, embed themselves and then vaporise it. Unmakers with delayed timers. I didn't see the point but Artemis wanted them. Can't see Klarion now. Did she get him?

**Ignore the crystal. Focus on draining the ritual site.**

I see the glowing lines making up the magic circle retreat from the far edges inwards towards where Robert's kneeling. Figures flicker in the air. I think I see Batman.

"No no no no no no!"

Klarion rematerialises in the centre of the magic circle which immediately reignites in brilliant purple. A stomp of his foot causes the ground beneath Robert to leap upwards, throwing him into the sky. I instinctively try to generate a construct to catch him, then feel rather foolish.

No, I can't do anything else here.
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:50 GMT -4

**Garth, Tula, target the barrier.**

I make it two thirds of the way to the tree line before I spot Artemis and start heading to her position. Something roars behind me but I don't stop. If the people there can't deal with it then it probably can't be dealt with. Artemis looses another arrow towards the shield before ducking back into cover. If a tree even provides cover against Klarion at the moment. I duck in behind the next tree along.

"What did you think you were doing!?"

"Our priority is to end the spell as soon as possible. Killing Klarion immediately was more likely to do that than binding him." I look back at the ritual site where he's reraised the dome shield. "Don't suppose you've got any anti-magic arrows, have you?"

"There aren't any!"

"Right. I need to get Sephtian to work on more offensive antimagic stuff."

She notches and looses again. "Is this really the time for a shopping list?!"

Oh, that's clever. The water being fired by Garth and Tula is getting turned into steam just before it hits the barrier. Kaldur worked out how to do that with the trident during one of our experimental sessions but this is the first time I've seen it used in the field. Not much use in Atlantis compared to freezing but blooming useful on the surface.

"Klarion did a number on the ring and my gun's empty. I'm out of offensive options."

"You can't hide from me with baby magic. Etsat ruoy nwo enicidem."

The howling vapour suddenly redirects towards an apparently empty area of ground. Why would-?

"AAAAAAAAGGHH!" Kaldur appears in the vapour as it turns back into water before cutting off completely. He drops to his knees. He did the intelligent thing and wore the helmet, but Ocean Master's armour isn't sealed. His hands, feet and face just got hit by boiling water.

Oh no.

**Aqualad's down. Miss Martian, get Aqualad to safety. Superboy, Troia, alternate hitting the barrier and evading. Tell me when your Spell Eaters start getting hot.**

**Right.** / **You got it.**

M'gann's invisible and without the ring I can't see her, but Kaldur's steaming form rises into the air and heads back from the combat zone at high speed. I see Donna swoop in as Klarion raises his hands to the top of the dome and purple lightning lashes out from all sides.

**Cornwall, Zatanna, we need that barrier down.** From the far side I see Cornwall's cape flap as he runs back towards the circle. A lightning bolt hits him in the chest, staggering him. He steadies himself, then surges at the barrier even faster. I actually see a wave of force ripple right across it where his fist strikes it, then he plants both hands on it. Klarion looks at him in puzzlement.

"Evael Noiralk faed dna dnilb!"

Klarion's glowing eyes alight on Zatanna. "You don't have what it takes to magic me."

**Zatanna, the barrier. Get the barrier down.**

Purple electricity runs through Robert, forcing him to his knees. **Robert, can you cope? We can get you out if you need-.**

"I can manage!"

"Artemis, please notch an unmaker and loose at Klarion the moment the shield fails. Shoot to kill."

**What?**

Surprise but not irritation. "I'm a utilitarian. Every moment we delay more children die. I don't care who's on the adult side, he's the most powerful of the group. We've already demonstrated that we can't hold him. Do you have a better idea? Because if so I would very much like to hear it."

Her eyes dip for a second, then she nods and pulls her bowstring taunt.

"Thank you." **Robin, I don't know what conventional explosives will do to-.**

"-am!"

Billy appears in the middle of the combat zone and blinks in confusion as he takes in the scene. Klarion turns to look at him and raises his hands.

**M'gann, get him into cover!** Billy is flung sideways as a purple beam blasts through the space he had been occupying. "Billy, get over here and never teleport into a combat zone like that again."

He scurries over as Kon, Donna, Robert and Robin all capitalise on Klarion's distraction to pound unrelentingly on the shield. I can see purple wisps of power flow into Robert before Klarion returns his attention to his assailants and fires a stream of what look like shards of purple glass from his hands directly through the shield at them. Donna evades but Kon and Robert are both struck and go down as Billy makes it into cover near me.

"It's-. It's the gem! It-!"

I hold up a hand to stop him. **Miss Martian, please add Billy to the network.**

**Added.**

**Billy, you can provide your information to everyone telepathically. What does the gem do?**

"I can? Oh, um-." **It's what caused this. It's what's keeping the worlds apart. Destroy it and we win.**

**Oh, is that all?** What could we do what could we do?

**You could dig underground with your power ring and-.** I hold up the dirt-encrusted ring. **Oh.**

That spinning dig thing Superman did in Christopher Reeves' Superman film would never work in real life. Phasing? **Miss Martian, come over here and take my Spell Eater. The best way to get-.**

"Zatanna, stop!"

**Robin, what-?** A brilliant golden glow appears over the combat area as Nabu manifests a pointless giant ankh to pose in front of. **Who put on the fucking Helmet?**

**It was Zatanna.** A host who's familiar with magic. Nabu must be thrilled.

"Klarion. This ends now."

Nabu's golden ankh blast is met by a purple beam from Klarion, who doesn't look overly worried by this development. M'gann appears as she touches down besides me.

"You said Nabu didn't want to let Wally go last time."

"We can't worry about that now. She's got his full attention. Here." With some difficulty I get the thong out from under my armour. "Put it on, get under the shield, get the gem and then get out. Clear?"

"I-I'm not sure. I've been practicing phasing with Uncle J'onn, but-."

"If you can't do it then you can't do it, but now would be a very good time to try. Get up close to the barrier and try to duck under it."

She nods, takes the Spell Eater from me and fades from view.

Godsdamnit. I did not want to see Nabu again.
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:53 GMT -4

**Billy, how are things going on the other side?**

**The magicians were way more powerful than they were supposed to be. Batman thought that big purple thing was sending them power.**

**And it stopped when Klarion absorbed it?**

**Er, yeah, I guess. The guy in the cloak's keeping up a shield but without the extra power we've got them on the run. Um, where's Aqualad?**

**He got badly scalded, Miss Martian put him somewhere out of the way.** Okay, Nabu and Klarion are still beam-of-warring it. I can't believe that neither of them have managed to learn anything more sophisticated. **Cornwall, can you drain Klarion's beam?**

**I can try.** He moves around the side of the barrier while Klarion ignores him, walking his hands around its surface as he goes. I can't tell from here whether it's having any effect.

"Billy, I think we've got things under control here. Get back to the adult side and help them get the gem."

"Okay. Um, should I tell Zatara about..." He points at Nabu. Have to say, that costume looks good on her. Better than it did on Wallace anyway. Maybe they can work something long-term out? Having Nabu back on the active roster would be useful if it turns out he can actually be trusted. Maybe I was being too cautious?

"Probably a good idea." **Superboy, Troia, Kid Flash; status reports?**

**I'm fine, but I think Superboy's bleeding under the armor.**

**Kon, how bad?**

**I'll heal in a minute. The purple.. spike.. things are fading. Spell Eater's getting pretty hot, though.**

**Troia? How's yours doing?**

**It's warm to the touch.**

**Right. Superboy, stay back until you've fully healed. Troia, start hitting the barrier again.**

**Right.** / **Right.**

**What about me? I'm -ow- good to go.**

Realistically, what can Wallace do? **Do you see a jewel in the middle of the pentagram?**

**Yeah?**

**If the shield drops, grab it and get it to Nabu.**

**That's it?**

**Unless you've developed a magic disruption potion and brought it with you, yes.** I can feel his frustration through the link. **Kid Flash, I don't honestly think that brute force is likely to take down the barrier. Getting the jewel makes us win. Are you with me?**

**... Yeah, okay.**

**Garth, Tula, any-?**

**Garth's looking after Kaldur.**

Damn it. **How bad?**

**He'll-. He'll get better. It looks worse than it is...**

**As long as he's not going to die we can probably fix it. Right, I need you to scry the shield spell and tell me if we're actually doing anything to it. I honestly have no idea.**

**I can do that. It'll take a moment.**

**Tell me when you have something.**

With Robert's help -I think- Nabu drives the ankh back towards Klarion's shield. Klarion snarls and makes a downwards gesture with his right hand. What did-? "Agh!" I see a purple circle form around Robert as he's sucked underground with a yelp.

**Cornwall, stay calm and hold your breath. Miss Martian, are you in position yet?**

**Almost!**

A purple beam knocks Nabu's ankh aside then Klarion starts flinging exploding purple balls up into the sky, forcing Nabu to take evasive action. Returning my attention to the circle I barely see it as the jewel disappears. I tense, but Klarion appears too caught up in his duel to notice. Nabu takes advantage of a brief lull in the explosions to fire a golden bolt of eldritch energy at the shield. Klarion seems unfazed. Is anything we're doing having an effect on him?

**P-? Orange Lantern? The shield's definitely weakening, but he can restore it in a few seconds. If you want to take it down you have to keep attacking.**

**Thank you Tula.**

Then Nabu blurs and Zatanna drops a metre in the air before reassuming his costume. What?

"When the world divided the Helmet split in two! You're not all here Nabu! And you're losing hold of that poor-"

M'gann rises from the ground, supporting Cornwall with one arm and holding the jewel in the other.

"-soon to be dead-"

**Fate, catch!** The small yellow jewel flies towards the recovering Nabu as Cornwall heads back towards the shield dome.

"-girl. What?" Klarion does a double take as Nabu catches it. "How did you get that? Give it back!"

"No, Witch Boy, you have wrought harm enough this day. Yam eht owt emoceb eno ecno erom!"

And then things get strange. The barrier around Klarion shimmers as a tall thin figure in a dark grey robe appears in one of the other focus points, his head slightly bowed and his arms fanned out. A small forest of black thorns covers the ground but substantial portions of it appear to be on fire. I catch sight of John on the far side pulling himself free of brambles that appear to have pinned him to a tree. Batman dodges as Faust hurls a barrage of flame at him, only for it to turn on its creator as Danni seizes control of it. A barrage of green bolts slam into the shield dome from above courtesy of Guy and Stewart and are swiftly joined by an even larger ankh. Red Tornado fires a tornado at William Zard, only for him to hold up.. something, I can't see it from here, and send it up into the air at Mister Zatara, who's standing on a floating pentagram. Red Tornado realises what's happened and abandons the ranged attack, but Zatara's-

"Sdniw eb dellits."

-completely fine, right. Robert, Donna and Kon are all up and hitting the shield again, quickly joined by Marvel and Diana. Klarion appears to have abandoned the offence.

"Oh well. Fun while it lasted." The shield around the ritual site flickers from purple to a pale grey as a red oval opens in the space next to him. Bugging out. I'd rather capture or kill him but that doesn't seem to be on the cards. "See ya later, armadillos. Unless I see you first!"

Zard and Faust look around in panic and are swiftly knocked down for their distraction. Robe guy doesn't look particularly bothered. His shield appears to be holding.

**Tula, how's his shield holding up?**

**I... I'm not sure. It doesn't read like any form of magic I'm used to. If I had to describe it I'd say it's a bit like-**

Two beams of ghostly white energy pulse from his right hand, corroding Guy and Stewart's armour constructs and knocking them out of the sky.

"Green Lanterns. We will continue this another time."

**-a power ring.**

His shield collapses as he fades out of existence.
 
Last edited:
5th November
21:57 GMT -4

I make my way in John's direction as my team mates and the Leaguers gather in the centre of the clearing. He appears to be dangling a piece of burned and twisted wood on the end of a shoelace while walking over to a thick patch of blackened brambles. The piece of wood jerks suddenly.

"There you are."

He looks up and sees me. Yikes, that's a nasty bruise. John points at the wood. "Crack this open for me, would you?"

"And how would you like me to do that, exactly?"

"Well excuse me, but you look just like this guy I know who's got a power ring." I hold it up. "Fuck me, how'd you manage that?"

"Klarion had some sort of magic dust. Managed to bypass my armour construct and Spell Eater." For a moment I consider tossing it to him and asking him to have a crack at it, but it occurs to me that John Constantine and orange power ring probably shouldn't be mixed.

"Constantine." Ah! How the heck did Batman sneak across an empty field? "You were permitted to accompany us on the understanding that you would offer technical assistance only. At what point did you decide that it would be acceptable to kill Blackbriar Thorn?"

"Just the man I was looking for. You got one of those sharp batarang things?" He holds out his right hand. Batman scowls at him. "See, the thing about Blackbriar is, he doesn't exactly die, does he? It's like shooting the Bog God; put a bullet through his head and what have you done? There's no brain there, just more moss. Only looks Human out of habit." He wiggles his outstretched fingers again to no effect. He rolls his eyes and turns back to the wood, carefully taking a grip on an exposed section of charcoal and snapping it off. I wave him aside and hit the indicated area hard with the butt of my pistol, cracking it further. "That should do it." I stand aside and he sticks his hand in up to the elbow and reaching around inside what appears to be a hollow tree trunk. "Ow! Got the bastard." He withdraws his arm, hand holding a short but surprisingly vital thorn vine. There are a few small leaves along the length and a cluster of roots around the lower end. John looks at it for a moment, then holds it out to Batman. "Used to be I'd hand him over to Alec, but we're not really talking these days. Should take about three months for him to regrow, based on past performance. Make sure he's somewhere secure when he does, right?"

Batman's face eases slowly away from the scowl. He takes the proffered vine, looks it over and then places it inside his utility belt before turning away and heading for the gathering below.

"How the heck did you take down Blackbriar Thorn?"

"Sympathetic magic, mate. I had a bit of his body from last time we met." He holds up a fag butt. "He got close enough, and..." He holds up the piece of wood on the shoelace and brings the two objects together.

"Whaw. Thought you kept saying you were out of your depth with this stuff?"

"I am, you just can't see the blood in this light. Pinned me to that friggin' tree-" He nods at it. "-with his brambles and I couldn't do a thing until the purple supercharge he was getting from that yellow crystal cut off." He turns to look at the huddle. "Hadn't realised he still held a grudge. Come on, I need a lift home."

We start down the shallow incline, stepping over the remains of Blackbriar's signature attack. "What happened to your eye?"

"Got cocky, is what happened. Used an enchantment to make people not want to see me, then snuck in your mountain. Thought I might learn something about what happened. Batman spotted that people weren't looking my way and punched it just in case." He stops for a moment and looks at me. "And you better have a bloody good reason for getting Gemma involved."

"Mob of Praexis Demons outside her house." He reluctantly nods approval before starting on again. "We left a note. Though while we're on the subject, what do you think Mister and Missus Masters would say about her going to school in Poseidonis?"

"Terry would tell you to fuck off. Cheryl would castrate you with a rusty spoon. Not sure I'd stop her."

"So that's a 'no'."

"Of course it's a 'no' you stupid... Those Atlantean kids. You had them in the mountain looking for Klarion, didn't you?"

"Yyyyyes. Not sure how much Gemma saw..."

"'Course she saw, she's a Constantine. Fffffffffffuck. She's gunna use a spoon on both of us."

"Aren't you going to stop him?"

Nabu-in-Zatanna is levitating just over the centre of the former ritual site while Wallace gestures at the place Klarion disappeared. He has a point, but if there's one thing I've learned from our last two encounters with Klarion it's that Nabu doesn't trump him.

"To what end? Klarion is chaos personified. He cannot be contained."

Sounds like someone's not trying hard enough. I seem to remember him saying the same thing about Teekl. Guy nods at me as John and I reach the rear of the huddle. He's running a green strobe over his chest, presumably undoing whatever damage the black beam did.

"Guy, Kaldur took a pretty nasty hit. He's with a couple of other Atlanteans in the bioship, would you mind getting him to an Atlantean hospital?"

"No problem. What happened to him?"

"Klarion redirected steam onto him. Gaseous water at over one hundred degrees centigrade."

"Yikes. I'll get right on it."

The afterimage of a glowing green filament marks his leaving. Captain Marvel's wrapping the enchanted chain around the unconscious Zard and Faust. They should be weak enough to be contained by it. Kon and Donna are standing with Diana on the far side of the group. They both look fine, but... Ah, there's Robert. Can't tell his expression with the mask on but I know it's pretty unnerving being around this many new people. Especially when the one who decides to talk to you is Batman.

"…k you sir. I-I-I really appreciate this."

"We'll need your parents' approval before this becomes definite, but you've demonstrated the skills and the character that we're looking for."

He just nods as Batman turns away and walks to where Mister Zatara is trying to stare down Nabu. "Fate!" He takes a breath, getting his worries under control. "Great Nabu. Release my daughter."

Nabu stares at him for a moment. Wait, he's not going to-? "No." Shit. "Witness the havoc wrought in these hours." He spreads his arms out as if to encompass the world. "The world needs Doctor Fate, and the girl's natural affinity for the mystic arts.. makes her the perfect candidate."

Shit.

"You can't do that!" No, Artemis, he can. That's why no one put him on before now.

"She has her own life to live!" Robin, he doesn't care about it. We need an order-based argument, and I'm coming up with nothing. Think think think.

Wallace tries next. "Kent would never allow you to-!"

"Kent Nelson did object most strenuously. So I released his spirit to the afterlife. He is gone."

I've got nothing. I've got nothing.

Mister Zatara slumps slightly, then spreads his arms to the side. "Then take me instead. My-."

"No!" John pushes his way forwards. "You! Nabu! Take me."

The venom in Zatara's glare is tempered with surprise. "John, this is not the time to-!"

"Shut up." John pokes him in the chest. "She needs you. Well? Magic's run in my family's blood for thousands of years. I'd be a far better host than-!"

Nabu glares at him. "You?! No! You reek of Demons and damnation. You are barely less chaotic than Klarion! You are useless to me."

Zatara gently pushes John aside. "But I am not."

"True. In many ways you would be a superior host. But if I remove the Helmet, what guarantee have I that you will don it?"

"My word." Oh gods. This is actually going to happen, isn't it? "Ekat em daetsni."

Nabu looks down at him for a moment, then floats down to the ground. John isn't any happier about this than I am. "Giovanni, don't do it. We can find-."

Mister Zatara puts his right hand on John's right shoulder. "John... This time, it isn't your fault." He looks at him for a moment, then walks over to Nabu. Nabu looks at him for a moment, then raises his hands and lifts the Helmet from his head. As Zatanna's face is revealed the uniform fades away. Still under Nabu's control, she lowers it to her chest. Her eyes open narrowly at first, then they widen.

"Dad!"

"Zatanna!" They embrace. I don't suppose there's any chance he'll have an attack of common sense and just throw the bloody thing away? From the devastated look on John's face I don't think so. "Remember. I love you." Mister Zatara kisses his daughter on the forehead, before taking the Helmet from her unresisting hands. He looks over our group. "Take care of my girl."

"You have my word." Batman, that's not going to fix this. Gahh! If my fucking ring wasn't broken I'd fly that stupid Helmet into the sun!

Mister Zatara raises the Helmet over his head and Zatanna belatedly realises what's about to happen. "No! It was my fault!" Robin takes hold of her from behind. She struggles, but he's far too strong. "Dad, don't-!" He closes his eyes as he lowers the Helmet. "Dad!"

His eyes blaze golden as Nabu takes control. Then uniform appears, and we all know that's it. Mister Zatara's gone. I'm glad the Helmet hides his face. It makes him easier to hate. He looks at Zatanna for a moment, then turns towards Faust and Zard. "Leave these to Fate." He gestures at them, and then he and they rise into the air before disappearing in a ball of golden light. Zatanna drops to her knees and my team mates surround her to offer support.

What do I do?

No. What do I want?

I walk up to John and put my face close to his.

"John, I'm not prepared to accept this. Can I assume that you're not either?"

The look he gives me, I can see why Demons are scared of him. "Too bleedin' right I'm not."

"Right. Get back to London and get some stuff together. I need to get the ring fixed. Then..." I nod to myself. No doubt at all. "Then we're going to work out how to kill Nabu."
 
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5th November
21:59 GMT -4

I take a moment to admire the blasted landscape. Frustrating as impotently wailing on Klarion's shield was, I'm still inclined to call this a success. William in particular impressed me with his resolve. Of course, I knew that this was almost certainly this parallel's version of the World Without Grownups storyline, but there was no reason for him to believe that there was anything other than oblivion awaiting him post transformation. Anyway, it wasn't as if either side could help the other, and whoever the adults were up against they couldn't have been as powerful as Klarion. William accepted my idea of utilising the Sword of Beowulf to enable him to participate in the fight in place of his usual Captain Marvel abilities. Turns out that the Sword agreed with Shazam's character assessment and even without the wisdom of Solomon William is sufficiently intelligent to master 'stay in cover and fire lightning at the bad guy'.

Wotan, Zard, Faust and what's left of Blackbriar Thorn sit bound in the Atlantean magic-suppression chains I took out of subspace once I'd crushed the focus gem. Batman, Red Tornado, Wonder Woman, Mister Zatara and Lantern Stewart were managing I suppose, but even Batman doesn't carry the equipment that I do. Bit of a blow that Klarion got away but if I'm honest with myself I know that I'd have had to be very lucky to complete an assimilation on someone like him. Now we just have to explain to Nabu that if he doesn't give Zatanna back he's going to get dogpiled by twelve superheroes who'll swiftly teach him the value of teamwork and we can retire for the evening.

Why isn't that happening?

"Take me instead. My skills are already at their peak, my body is physically stronger, better able to withstand the strain of your power."

Oh. That's actually quite clever. In any fight there's room for things to go wrong. If he can be persuaded to just take himself off we can throw the Helmet into the sun without taking the risk. I knew there was a reason I was studying under these people.

"All true. But if I remove the Helmet what guarantee have I that you will don it?"

"My word." He's a magnificent actor, really. I must go and see his magic show at some point. "Ekat em daetsni." Hm? Take me instead? Would that work on Nabu? Might be overplaying it. Whatever. Nabu appears to be taking the bait, dropping down to ground level. Hah! High heels! I hadn't noticed those until just now! Right, right, Helmet off, come on. Some of us have things to do this evening.

"Dad!"

"Zatanna!" They embrace. "Remember, I love you." Wait. He isn't actually going to..?

Yes, yes he is.

I'm stunned. He's actually going to do it. He kisses Zatanna on the forehead, before pulling the Helm from her grasp. He looks to the Leaguers. "Take care of my girl."

Batman replies for them. "You have my word." What? There's-. What?

Zatara raises the Helmet-.



Oh, this is completely stupid!

As Zatara goes to put the Helmet on his head and seal his fate -hah!- I extend a grapple line and pull it from his hands.

"Hu..? What are you doing?!"

"Something intelligent for a change."

I catch the Helm in both hands and look at it for a moment with OrangeVision. It shows me more than it used to; Father Box's work I suppose. The pale gold aura of order-based protective charms is present, but there are tiny cracks of orange light. He has opened himself to the idea of Want. An error, I think.

"I will remind Nabu who rules this world and it is not the dead! Ring! Assimilate!"

Orange light invades the Helm from where my hands touch it. Almost immediately I feel Nabu attempt to resist. Insufficient.

"Identity theft twenty percent complete."

"Your selfish desire for a body stolen from another undermines your defences, Wraith."

Another surge of orange. All but the front piece is mine, now.

"Identity theft seventy percent complete."

"This world is mine! These people are mine! You! Are! Mine!"

Everything but the eye sockets is glowing orange. They glow with arcane power as he tries something, anything, to stop the process. But my wards are at full strength, and he has no mortal vessel to bind him to the world.

"Now you will learn what it is like to wear you."

There's a final flash of orange as the process is complete.

"Identity theft complete. Nabu of Cilia, you belong to the Orange Lantern Corps."

The Helm is now faintly glowing orange. The outline is the same, but the eye sockets are slightly narrower and there is an Orange Lantern sigil over the faceplate. The sigil looks like it's been cut, but the surface remains smooth as I run a thumb over it.

"You… You have made me break my word…"

"Dad, he-."

I hold up my left hand. "No, no, he has a point. That sort of thing can have mystical significance." I take the helm in both hands again and hold it up level with my eyes. "Lantern Nabu. Direct command. You will be obedient and subservient to Giovanni Zatara in all matters. Confirm command."

"i CoNfIrM."

The voice is strained, distorted, but it's unquestionably him. "Glad to hear it." Turning, I use my right hand to toss the helm to Zatara. He catches it, still looking more than a little stunned at the turn of events. "You'll make a better Fate than he ever did."

He looks around. He moves his mouth as if to speak, but no sound emerges. He looks to the ground, then his daughter, and then the Orange Lantern Corps Helmet. Then, he turns it and places it on his head.

There's a flash of orange-tainted golden light as he rises into the air. Another flare of light as a similarly miscoloured ankh appears behind him and a gust of wind blasts out in all directions. He remains floating, and raises his hands to stare at them as if seeing them for the first time. He's gained a cape and his suit looks like it's been dry cleaned.

"I'm… I'm in control. I can feel his power, his knowledge. They are mine now!"

"And you still fulfil your oath." I roll my shoulders and stretch my neck. Not a bad day's work. Shame about all the deaths, but if these people weren't such a bunch of fucking sleepwalkers…

The assembled League members are staring gormlessly at the newly ascended Giovanni Zatara. I interpose myself. Time to let them know how I feel about their inactivity.



"Aaaaggghhhh! Are you all! Completely! Retarded!?" Shocked expressions. "Aaaaaaaaaggghhhh! Right!" I transition to the bound prisoners and haul them up by the chains. "Since I clearly have to fix every fucking problem myself around here, I'll deal with these gentlemen as well." A burst of FTL takes my prisoners and me over the North Pole before a Boom Tube takes me to my actual destination over the Great Wall of China.

6th November
10:03 GMT +8

Lantern Stewart didn't look particularly on the ball but that and Father Box's efforts at stealth should prevent him from locating me immediately.

Father Box deflects the radar scans as I take a look around. Now, where would Chairman Jiang of the People's Republic of China's Standing Committee on Metahuman Affairs be at this time of the morning?
 
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5th November
22:16 GMT -4

I sit cross-legged in front of my personal lantern, with my hands palms up in my lap. The tainted ring sits in them. Lantern Stewart hesitated when I asked for a lift back, then couldn't get me here fast enough when I queried the wisdom of leaving the Ophidian to its own devices. Sadly, it looks like mere exposure to the lantern isn't enough to fix the ring. If I can't make this work I'm looking at a month to create a new one and then struggling on for a further six with no AI support. I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it's time to ask the Ophidian for help. I stare deep into the lantern's glowing core.

"Ophidian."

No, of course that won't work. It doesn't have ears. It doesn't have eyes. It perceives the universe as shades of desire. I close my eyes and try to see as it does, as the ring lets me see.

Ophidian.

Not enough. It understands need most easily. Why do I want it?

Firstly, the ring is mine. No. The ring is me. Over the past few months it has become so much a part of who I am and what I do that I'm not sure how I'd cope without it. It should be here, it should work, it is wrong

Wrong.

that I am denied it.

Secondly, the ring is mine. It is both my property and the tool I use to gain all other things that I want. It is the weapon and the medicine that protects and restores me. If it is vulnerable then everything is vulnerable, and

Unacceptable!

that is not acceptable.

Third, Zatanna Zatara is mine. She is my friend, my team mate, a part of my ingroup. Giovanni Zatara is mine. He is my teacher whom I respect

Mine!

and a vital component of Zatanna's happiness. If he can be taken from me in the name of expediency, who else is at risk? Might Zeus decide to send Diana to Tartarus? Might the Guardians decide to investigate Alan's elemental nature by dissecting him? I need this ring to protect those who are mine.

Mine!

babum. babum.

Something, there's something... I think I can feel it, a long way off but coming closer and so powerful. I hear a pulse, a heartbeat, the pure idea of avarice shorn of all particularity. Keep going.

Fourth, I will not be cowed. I am not prepared to let Nabu get away with strong-arming us. I don't care who or what

Mine!

babum.

he is. And with the ring? This is something to strive for that is on my level. I could chase muggers all year and be bored to tears by the level of threat they pose. Nabu needs someone like me to stop him. Everyone

Greater purpose?

BAbum.

needs me to stop him.

I feel its eyes on me now. Last step.

Fifth, these events defy my ideas of how the universe should work and what it should become. The old should not constrain the new, should not force it to fit into its patterns. The world is wrong. This should not

Should not be

be happening and I

BAbum.

happening and I will not

will not tolerate it!

BAbum.

tolerate it!

This place is mine, not his! Mine, not his!

These people are mine, not his! Mine, not his!

BAbum.

Zatanna is

"Ours." Around me is the colossal presence of the Ophidian, strange and overwhelming and yet... Somehow familiar. "My Agent. We are of one mind. The Order-Lord's actions are unacceptable."

The ring is damaged.

"Yes."

Will you aid me?

"Declare our intent to the universe. Make your oath to me."

BABUM.

My eyes snap open. I can still feel it, the heartbeat of universal avarice.

BABUM.

And I know what I want to say.

"This is my cause, this is my fight!
Shine through the void with orange light!
I've claimed all within my sight!
To keep what is mine, that is my right!"

The ring rises from my hands, shaking, orange light shining

BABUM.

under Klarion's muck like sunlight through a tear in a blackout sheet. The corruption burns away, flaking off and disintegrating

BABUM.

as the ring purifies itself. I gingerly hold out my left hand and it gently slips on, a wave of orange passing through my body. In the quiet I hear the heartbeat still.

BABUM.

"Thank you, my Embodiment."

"Agent. I am with you. Go forth in my name."

I stand, taking my personal lantern in my right hand and putting it on my desk. I know what I want to do, and I know how to do it. I repair my armour and return it to subspace as I raise the ring to my left ear. "John, prepare a summoning ritual. I'll bring the focus, and with a little luck I'll have Zatanna and Teekl with me." I lower the ring. His phone will ring until he picks it up and then it will play that message. I take a deep breath, then open my door and walk towards the training room.

As I see it, this is a kidnapping. Nabu won't harm his host himself, even if we attacked him. Not that that's a good idea, not until we have a much better idea of how he works at least. Who can we ask? Klarion? Probably not. Alan's still got most of Mister Nelson's books. The ring can sort through them for information in no time. I vaguely remember something about him encountering Nabu for the first time somewhere in the Middle East, but I might just be remembering Doctor Strange's origin story. The other members of the Justice Society might remember something Mister Nelson or Nabu himself said from last time he was active. Alan, Diana, Jay and Danni would certainly tell me anything that might help. Mister Grant? He probably would, we haven't really spoken much.

Wait. Am I overthinking this? Nabu said that Mister Nelson had passed on to whatever afterlife awaited him. I know where his grave is. Could we.. talk.. to him? Nabu said that Mister Nelson didn't approve of his decision and it would only be a temporary ritual. I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea, but I can't think of a logical reason not to. Have to ask when I see John next.

Do I bring the rest of the team in on this? No, not yet. I don't know how telepathic Nabu is, or how good at reading people. Need to know only at this stage.

"Recognised, Robin, B zero one, Superboy, B zero four, Miss Martian, B zero five, Artemis, B zero eight, Zatanna, B zero nine."

I keep my face neutral as I walk towards them. If I'm keeping this from them for now -or at least keeping how far I intend to go- then I need to get Zatanna alone in a little while. From the way Robin and M'gann are supporting her I assume that she's still in shock. Zatanna herself is weeping, her eyes bleary and her whole body shaking.

Kon notices me first. "You got your ring working okay?" I nod as I keep coming. "Where's Kaldur?"

"Hospital, an Atlantean one. He's-" I take a moment to have the ring check on him. "-going to be fine."

The group come to a halt as I reach them. I look Zatanna over for a moment and then step forwards and hug her. As I do so I flare my aura outwards. With all that's happened today I doubt anyone will think much of that. It serves to camouflage the sonic stabiliser effect which cancels the noise of what I'm about to say. As she relaxes into the hug I put my chin on her shoulder and whisper into her ear.

"On the flight back I had a few ideas about getting Nabu out of your father. If you're up to it, come and find me in half an hour."

I pull away, hands resting on her shoulders for a moment. She's still crying, silently, but the tremors have faded a little and there's a focus in her eyes that wasn't there before.

We're coming for you, Nabu.

BABUM. BABUM. BABUM.
 
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Half-hearted
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    • Half-hearted

    6th November
    02:51 GMT

    At this time of the morning London's streets are almost completely silent. A couple of hours from now the first delivery vans of the day will make the first deliveries. Five hours from now people will wake up to find that they slept through the murder of hundreds of thousands of children. I imagine that they'll consider themselves lucky. Will they reflect -as they should- that their offspring's survival was a matter of pure chance? A few hours this way or that and the majority of casualties could so easily have been in Europe rather than... I don't actually know where they are. I doubt we'll know the final death toll for days. Anywhere rush hour was, I suppose. The Americas and East Asia, perhaps?

    Teekl's walking on my left. She's at lion size, ignoring her surroundings and keeping pace with me in a decidedly non-catlike manner. Zatanna's on my right. She's got her arms crossed at her stomach and every so often she rubs her upper arms with her hands. I had thought that she might be cold, but she kept doing it after I extended my environmental shield around her. I'm not sure... I don't know what else I can say to support her. She used the half hour to change and clean herself up a bit. I'm finding her face a little odd like this; part of cleaning up involved removing her makeup. I hadn't realised that she was wearing any. I suppose that's the aim when it's applied with skill.

    I should say something.

    ...

    I look down at the perfectly cubical cardboard box in my hands. Best I could do for a talisman of order. I hope making it with the ring isn't a pr-.

    "Do you..?" Zatanna looks away from me to her right. "Do you really think this will work?"

    "This?" I exhale. "No, it's... It's not very likely. I mean, it might work. I don't know enough about order magic to really know, but I would have thought... I mean, if they were likely to take exception, I don't think Nabu would have done it."

    She stops dead in her tracks, her face creasing on the verge of tears again. "Then why, why are we..?"

    I turn to face her and put my hands on her shoulders. "Because it might work. Because in the short time I've had to think about this, it's the least violent thing I've been able to come up with and I think we should try it before trying something riskier. Because I don't think, even if he finds out about it, Nabu will do anything about this."

    "Couldn't.. I mean, the Ophidian..?"

    "Could she beat him in a straight fight?" Zatanna nods, still looking down at the ground. "Maybe. Maybe. If she had some way to stop him just.. teleporting away. But I sincerely doubt that Mister Zatara would survive the fight, at least not without being-" I flick my right hand in Teekl's direction. "-assimilated. Also, I'm... Nabu... I haven't seen him at full power, as powerful as he is now, with your father as a host. It's.. hard to judge exactly what he's capable of." She nods and I see drops of water splash onto the pavement.

    No, that won't do. I move my right hand to her chin and force her head up. "Zatanna, listen to me. This is not a murder. This is a kidnapping. Whatever happens today, we will free your father. I just don't want to give you false expectations. This will take some time, it could be weeks, months, even years. Not everything we come up with will work, but the end result will be Nabu either back in the Helmet or dead and your father free. Do you understand me?"

    Her breath is ragged and she only meets my eyes for a moment before looking away, but she manages a nod. A little shaky, but I'll take it. "Okay. O-okay."

    I step in for a hug before turning and slipping my right arm behind her back. "Come on. Not far now." John phoned me back while things were calming down in the cave. He's at the Tate Club now. He said he'd try to get Clarice and Albert there but that he couldn't promise. I try scanning the place but -surprise surprise- the ring can't tell me that it's there at all. I had to tell John about the scry ward problem because I wanted him to try and come up with a way around it. Could he have warded the place because of me? Because of Nabu? Or would a club built to host magic users of dubious legal status have been built with wards incorporated into its design?

    "Hey, um. How..?" Her voice sounds a little steadier. "You called the Ophidian 'she'?"

    "Yes. Nottt sure how I know that, actually. We had a brief chat when I got back to the cave. She doesn't like what Nabu's done any more than I do."

    "Why does..? I mean, I'm not complaining about the help, but.. I didn't think..?"

    "Because you-." 'Because you're mine' probably isn't the way to go with this. "Because you're my friend, part of my team, part of how my.. world.. is. Should be. What Nabu's done, disrupts that, hurts you. And since I'm her Agent that.. reduced her as well."

    This whole thing shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. Zatanna needs sleep. I can go without if I need to but I don't think there's much I can really do to fix the world after something like this. Oh! Damn it, I need to go back to Gotham and pay the people at Tikka Nights for dinner and check up on Miss Robinson. Ah, both of those can wait for a more civil hour, I want to be around in case Zatanna needs something.

    "This... John Constantine. Who is he? I know you've talked about him and I know Dad didn't like-."

    "Doesn't. Doesn't like."

    Her eyes flick up to me for a moment, then she nods. "Doesn't like him, but I don't know why. And he tried to take the Helmet."

    "John..." Where to start? "You're probably better off asking him. Who he is, well, um, born in Liverpool, mother died in childbirth, brought up by his father. His father was murdered by a serial killer known as The Family Man about seven years ago which means the only people left in his immediate family are his sister Cheryl and-."

    "Gemma. His niece."

    "Yep. He's been involved with magic since secondary school. Not particularly powerful but cunning, intelligent and knowledgeable. Don't think we're going to outmuscle Nabu so he's probably the sort of person we need."

    "But how did-. How does he know Dad?"

    "I really don't know. Your dad performed on stage in the West End during the nineties so they might have met then. Clarice... Ms Sackville mentioned that she knew, um, both your parents. Anyway, John doesn't... The things he's been involved in over the years, a lot of his friends have died as a result. That might be why your dad was so worried. I don't know why they fell out, or when."

    "Is he a.. British superhero?"

    "Uhoow, um, I wouldn't... Not in the conventional sense. He does fight supernatural opponents but, no secret identity, no costume, he's not exactly an icon of clean living and he frequently uses his arcane abilities for personal gain. Also, he doesn't think of himself as being one."

    "Has he fought anyone like Nabu before?"

    "His most powerful opponent to date was a being known as The First of the Fallen. At the time, he was the de facto ruler of Hell."

    "He.. beat.. Lucifer?"

    "No, Lucifer left of his own accord about, um, thirty years ago? Threw everyone out and locked the gates behind him."

    "The.. Plague of Ghosts? That was Lucifer leaving Hell?"

    "Yes. Well, you understand I haven't been able to ask anyone directly involved, but as far as I know, yes. The whole.. mess.. only started to get sorted out when Duma and Remiel reopened it. They have de jure authority over the place, but the Demons listened to the First. John outsmarted him repeatedly, and he died with a golden two-pronged sword embedded in his chest. So, yes, fought and beat. If anyone can work out how to free your father, it's him."
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • 6th November
    02:59 GMT

    There wasn't anyone on the door when we arrived at The Tate Club, though that didn't really surprise me. The cleaning staff -at least, the ones who clean the more mundane areas- would have left an hour ago. Once inside the building I have no trouble scanning its interior and locating John in one of the first floor rooms. Since I don't want anyone phoning the police I light the way through the empty halls with the ring rather than putting the lights on. It's nothing like as creepy as I thought it would be. I mean, this is the centre of borderline evil magic in London, shouldn't there be nameless things skittering just in the corners of my eyes or something? It could be the Spell Eater, but Zatanna doesn't seem to be picking up anything either.

    She's leaning on me a little more than she was and she appears to have stopped crying. I wish I could do more but I've never been in the position she's in. My grandparents are all dead but for three of them it was after a prolonged period of ill health and my paternal grandfather died before I was born. Everyone else I... I suppose the nearest I've felt to how she's feeling was in the training scenario after I found out that Alan and Diana were dead, but in that case we were already doing everything we could to fight the things responsible. I also know how I reacted. I don't think Zatanna would do anything that extreme while there was an alternative but I'm probably going to hold off sharing my knowledge of demonology for a little while just in case.

    The closest stairs up to the first floor are a little out of the way. They're also fairly narrow and in a part of the building that's less well decorated than the bits we just walked through. I suppose that's because they don't want regular guests coming up here by mistake. Or maybe it's a metaphor about looking behind the façade? Or maybe this is just part of the 'below stairs' part of the building. Not sure. Doesn't matter. I release my hold on Zatanna to let her go up first and then follow along behind her. Yep, cleaning trolleys. Zatanna stops on the landing and I point to the door leading to the main corridor. Definitely better decorated through here. The carpet's complex pattern is slightly faded.. ah, I see, built in runes. Oooor possibly just mystic-looking nonsense. The lights on the walls are designed to look like candle sconces and the ceiling is decorated by plaster ceiling roses. Zatanna waits for me to put my arm around her again before we head in the direction of the room John's occupying.

    I go to push the door open and then realise that if John's actively doing anything that may be a bad idea. Doesn't look like he is but the ring doesn't detect magic energy. Or maybe I just haven't learnt how to yet? I reach forwards with my left and knock. Inside, the ring shows me John sit up from painting on the floor with a brush with a look of confusion on his face.

    "Yeah?!"

    I push open the door then stand aside for Zatanna to enter. Over her shoulder I see John's face go from confused to stunned. On the bare wooden floor John's painted some sort of summoning pattern. It doesn't look like the one for Demons; those are generally just a circle surrounded by warding sigils. This is angular, straight lines and arcs in regular patterns with a central space constructed from many straight lines overlapping each other. Next to him is a small pot of white paint and he's still showing the bruise Batman gave him. As I walk into the room I play a strobe of orange light over it to fix the damage. He's left his coat and jacket in a pile in the corner of the room, along with what looks like a rolled up carpet.

    Zatanna shuffles nervously. "Um, hi." John sits back on his haunches as he looks at her. "I.. I want to thank you for trying to take.. for offering to take the Helmet from-."

    John shakes his head. "No, no, it's... Giovanni, I owed.. I owe him. It's..." He tilts his head back to look at the ceiling. "Shit. You look just like..." He trails off, then pushes himself to his feet.

    "Like.. who?"

    "Like your mum. I mean, she was blonde, but apart from that." I glance at Zatanna. Don't really see it myself. John goes to pat his pockets, looking for a cigarette packet that's still in his jacket. He appears to realise this and looks over to it before deciding against getting one. Teekl walks over to the carpet and slouches against it, eyes fixed on John.

    I float the perfect box into the centre of the design and release it. Zatanna looks puzzled. "You're going to use that?"

    John nods and walks around to the far side of the painted shapes. "The whole point of Neo Vodoun is that regular stuff works just as well as idols of whatsit or icons of bumfluff. As far as most people are concerned a cardboard box is regularih'y and structure, much more than anything obviously magical."

    "The box is exactly one metre cubed. The corrugations are perfectly regular and it contains one A four sheet of plain white paper. The Elemental will need something to manifest in."

    "Yeah, we're not going for an Elemental. If we're serious about getting someone to overrule Nabu, we need someone higher up than that."

    "Another Lord of Order?" Zatanna looks understandably worried. "Is that really a good idea?"

    "Things like that, they need something to bind them to the world. Thiss..." He waves his right hand at the still drying paint. "This isn't enough to anchor one for more than a few minutes. If it looks like it's found a way to stick around, we can wreck the floor and break its connection."

    "But I thought the drawings were supposed to protect the people performing the ritual?"

    "With Demons, yeah. Lords of Order are a different kettle of fish. If we act with respect and don't do anything obviously chaotic it'll probably go okay. Not saying he's just going to say 'yes' or anything..."

    "Didn't Nabu say you were chaotic?"

    John gives a humourless laugh. "I'm wearing a charm that should make me look a bit more neutral. But if I'm on best behaviour he'll probably take it anyway. The one we're going to try and get hold of is supposed to be pretty diplomatic."

    Zatanna nods. "Where should I stand?"

    "Just over there." There are three points coming off the edge of the design. John's already next to one, Zatanna takes the second and I remove my Spell Eater and I stand on the third.

    "Are my tattoos going to be a problem?"

    "Shouldn't think so. He might not be able to see you, but it doesn't really affect how well you can use magic. Right, first step. Paul, you see the design on the floor?"

    "Yes?"

    "Can you extend it into three dimensions?"

    Ring, analyse.

    Logical geometric progression available.

    "    Yes." I give the ring the nod and orange lines appear in the air mirroring the design on the floor.

    "Can you do more than three dimensions?"

    Um. "Not without practice. Um, do we need-?"

    "No, we shouldn't need it, it's just..." He sighs. "Okay, the ritual's simple enough. Just say: 'By', then the names of three orderly things, then 'Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you'. I'll go first, then Paul and then you. Remember, this is Neo Vodoun. The more mundane the orderly thing is, the better. I'll say again, it's not like with a Demon. If you get it wrong it shouldn't matter too much, we'll just keep going until we get it right. If you can't think of something, just stay silent until you do. There's no rush. If I've started, all three of us need to have a go no matter what's going on in the middle. Anything you want t'ask?"

    "How do we.. talk to it?"

    "Really politely. Don't try to appeal to his emotions, he doesn't really have any. Use logic, rational arguments and back it up with evidence. Don't talk over each other. Take the time to think what you're going to say through before you start. He won't mind waiting but he'll get annoyed if you don't express yourself clearly." She nods. "Okay then. Ahem. By red letter boxes, red phone boxes and driving on the left, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

    "By a perfect diamond, by pure white light and the music of the spheres, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

    There's a short pause while Zatanna tries to come up with something. "By the passage of time, gravity and electricity, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

     
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    6th November
    03:07 GMT

    Control of construct lost.

    The orange light still floats in the air but the filament connecting it to the ring is visibly severed. Paint from John's abandoned tin streams through the air in defiance of gravity and replaces the orange with matte white. I don't think there was that much paint in the tin. We hold our breath for a moment as it finishes but nothing further happens. At least they've noticed us.

    John decides that we've waited long enough. "By brick walls, coastal defences and the national grid, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

    Um... "By Planck length, the Avogadro constant and the degree centigrade, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

    Zatanna thinks for a moment. I can sympathise. If we have to go around again I'm going to be having trouble myself. "By democratic elections, bank accounts and school timetables, Drol Nikredlik fo Redro, I nommus uoy."



    The cardboard box in the centre of the ritual space rises smoothly into the air and.. shrinks... No, not shrinking! It's expanding, but... My eyes ache and I have to blink and look away as the box opens up in what appears to my limited ability to perceive them to be new spatial dimensions. Limiting myself to brief glances I think I can see the piece of paper inside it through some of them. I think it's looking at me.

    Objective accomplished, I guess.

    After perhaps ten seconds the box seems to calm down. Now that it's no longer inwardly unfolding it doesn't hurt to look at but I start to feel cross eyed when I try following the line of one of its sides from corner to corner. Then, with no real warning, a bald fat man with a Fu Manchu beard, melon skin and pointy ears wearing a navy blue open robe, loincloth and quite a lot of jewellery materialises within the centre of the ritual space. He's holding the multidimensional box with no apparent difficulty and floats off the ground with his legs bent up under him. If he were standing on the ground he'd probably be about one metre sixty tall. As it is he's above us and is holding the box at convenient head height.

    "I have the honour to be the personal slave of Lord Kilderkin, a Manifestation of Order, here incarnated in the form of a sheet of paper."

    Part way between sublime and ridiculous. I'm not sure how the thing is supposed to be 'orderly'. His eyes aren't really focusing on us. Zatanna and I look at each other and then over to John.

    "Miss Zatanna Zatara." The box doesn't turn. The space around and within the box distorts and the box is facing Zatanna. "You mixed two forms of magic during an unfamiliar ritual contrary to the instructions of your moderatus. This is an incorrect procedure."

    She looks at me then at John in a minor panic. I make a small shrugging gesture. John nods at the box. She opens her mouth and closes it, getting herself together. "Lord Kilderkin, I apologize if I have offended you."

    There is a brief pause. Is Kilderkin thinking about it or waiting for one of us to speak? "Your apology is irrelevant and unnecessary. You acted contrary to both order and good sense. You are young and have been chastised by one who is your senior. How you feel about it, your degree of 'sorrow', is irrelevant. In species such as yours maturation is often marked by a gradual transition from chaotic to more orderly forms of behaviour. You are not yet fully mature. Endeavour not to repeat your mistake." The universe within the ritual space warps again and the box is facing John. "It is unusual for one such as you to call forth one such as I. Speak your piece."

    "Kilderkin, Giovanni Zatara is my friend and Zatanna's father. Nabu used Zatanna as a hostage to force him to agree to allow Nabu to use him as a host. We'd like to request that you instruct Nabu to release Giovanni, and are prepared to negotiate an exchange to facilitate that."

    "Please wait a moment while I review his case history." The space within the box spins and looking away looking away! "Please confirm; to the best of your knowledge, is the Lord of Chaos named 'Klarion the Witch Boy' presently active on this planet?"

    John points at me. If spending time with Diana has taught me anything, it's that being completely honest doesn't mean you have to say everything you know. "My understanding-" Space distorts again and I force myself to maintain focus. "-of the term 'Lord of Chaos' is not good enough to reliably answer that question. I can confirm that there is a magic user by the name of Klarion active on this planet. During our first encounter I either cut or substantially reduced his ability to use magic. When last I saw him he was dependent on an unidentified type of Elemental to power his spells. As such, I am not sure that he still qualifies."

    "How was this achieved?"

    "He used his cat, Teekl, as his familiar and bond to the Plane of Chaos." I lift the ring to display it to him. "I am an Orange Lantern. Assimilating Teekl allowed me to have her close the link. My understanding is that it will be difficult for him to form a replacement familiar bond."

    "As a Lord of Chaos Klarion had access to extremely large amounts of arcane power. However, raw power is not his only strength. Anyone who manages to become a Lord of Chaos would have to demonstrate an exceedingly high level of arcane skill." Something twists within the box. "Skill enough to generate a planar fracture to separate adults from children, for example."

    "My Lord, while I will not deny that he is dangerous he did that as part of a group, and despite Bedlam's power he used a crystal to channel the energy to make the ritual work. Furthermore, the ritual site was warded against scrying. Even if Nabu had a host the moment the spell started he would not have been able to locate it faster than we did."

    "I have more faith in Lord Nabu's abilities than that. If he had a host earlier he could have hunted Klarion and the other participants down before this became an issue."

    "If.. that's.. your price, we can do that."

    "It is not. Lord Nabu's skill set makes him uniquely capable in that regard. Though it is within my power to overrule Lord Nabu's decision I am strongly minded not to do so. What can you offer to counterbalance the loss of a Lord of Order in the field?"

    "Klarion's familiar."

    Another distortion results in Kilderkin looking at Teekl, who stands and regards him with decidedly unfriendly eyes. "RrAAAooooooowwwww."

    "She currently provides him with no power. I doubt that you could return her to him even if you wanted to and I do not believe that you do want to. Were she active your offer would be worthy of consideration. As it is I see no value in it."

    "If people find out that Lords of Order take over people's bodies they will want nothing to do with you."

    The box orientates on Zatanna again. "I do not believe that you are correct. You are distraught at the loss of your father, while worldwide millions grieve for their lost children. You will find that most of them would consider the loss of your father an acceptable sacrifice in order to prevent a repetition of that event and to prevent other similar events from occurring in future. As you grow older you will come to understand the value of objective utility. Your father may have sacrificed himself for you, but by doing so he will save far more lives than he could have done separate from Nabu. Furthermore, I believe that you have incorrectly predicted the actions of your superiors."

    What's that supposed to mean?

    "Alright then." John's face hardens. "Exactly what would you want in order to set Giovanni free?"

    "Something of proportionate value. Since the primary justification for his presence is the reciprocal presence of a Lord of Chaos, you will find me far more amenable to negotiation if Klarion is dead. If, as you say, he has been significantly weakened by you denying him use of his familiar then this task should be well within your abilities. Is there anything further you wish to discuss?"
     
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    6th November
    03:19 GMT

    "Oh, Zatanna, poppet." Ms Sackville gives Zatanna a boney hug. "John told me what Nabu did to Giovanni, that beastly thing!"

    "Zatanna Zatara, Ms Clarice Sackville."

    She was sitting at her accustomed table when we got back downstairs but got up when she got a look at Zatanna. Mr Case has gone to fetch a pot of tea. The lights immediately above us are on but the rest are off. The other tables are bare and the dark wood makes the place look even gloomier. Ours has a basic tablecloth and.. a photo album. Ms Sackville leads Zatanna to a chair and then sits down herself. I sit on Zatanna's other side, John sits next to me and Teekl flops down behind Zatanna and starts licking her right forepaw. Zatanna looks kind of drained. She didn't fall apart after Kilderkin and his slave vanished back into the Plane of Order or whatever it's called but I think she's still in shock over the whole thing.

    Ms Sackville pulls the album over. "I had Albert get this out of the loft." She opens it a little way in from the beginning. For a moment I wonder if it's going to be some black and white tissue-paper-between-the-pages job, but it's full colour. "We took these when your parents were in London, before you were born." Zatanna nods and pulls it closer.

    "I didn't... Were you friends?"

    "Not sure I'd say that. Your father might have grown up with stage magic, but he was still finding his feet with the real thing when we met."

    I see a photo which looks like it was taken in the room we're sitting in now. Albert looks younger, although still hard worn. Mister Zatara looks younger as well. Ms Sackville looks exactly the same. Missus Zatara... I'm not sure what John meant earlier. She doesn't look that much like Zatanna. I mean, there's a resemblance, but it's not all that. I don't remember Sindella Zatara from the comics at all though I had the ring acquire pictures when I started researching Zatanna. Don't know exactly how she died, but it was some time before Zatanna was two. The photo looks as if someone walked up to the group and gave them a few seconds to pose before taking it.

    Come to think of it, I've not... No, the ring can't track.. ah. Her paternal grandparents are both deceased, though she has aunts, uncles and cousins in Italy. Nothing on her mother's family. What exactly is she going to do now? Is she going to move over there? Does she even speak Italian? She can probably manage on her own for a while, depends how long dealing with Nabu takes. Have to ask her about it, tomorrow.. well, later today.

    Zatanna turns the page and Ms Sackville pulls her chair around a little towards her. "How did it go with that thing you summoned upstairs?"

    Zatanna reaches out to touch a page with her parents, John and a group of other people I don't recognise in a pub. "He-. He said that the only thing we could do that would make him order Nabu out of Dad would be killing Klarion."

    "It's what they do." John puts his elbows on the table and leans forwards. "You give anyone.. -anything- that sort of power and they can't resist lording it over people. If Giovanni was willing to put the Helmet on full time, he'd have been fine putting it on part time as well. They just didn't care."

    "So. Are we interested?"

    "I-." Zatanna looks at us, then drops her gaze back to the album. "If it's the only way... Maybe we could just hand Klarion over?"

    John shakes his head. "Catching him and handing him over'd be a lot more difficult, and it's not exactly easy to start with."

    "It occurs to me... Lords of Order and Lords of Chaos are.. similar, right? They work in the same sorts of way?" Tentative nods from John and Ms Sackville. "Then any technique we develop to attack Klarion would probably work on Nabu. I.. don't have faith in the forces of Order right now. Kilderkin had a point, we do need to do something about Klarion... But.. if this is how Nabu treats people..."

    John gives me an incredulous look. "You wanna get them both? Psssssh, don't think small, do you?"

    "If our primary concern is freeing Mister Zatara, then an alternative we may wish to consider is working with Klarion. He hates Nabu, maybe more than he hates me. Is that something we want to consider?"

    Zatanna looks straight at me and shakes her head. "No. Not after what he did."

    "Okay then. So, investigate both of them?" Nods all round.

    John pulls out a cigarette and taps it against the table. "First problem with that: we know sod all about them. I'm game, but it isn't exactly gunna be-."

    "How good's your necromancy?"

    He narrows his right eye. "Why?"

    "I know where his previous host is buried. Nabu said that Mister Nelson tried to persuade him not to do it. I can't think of anyone who'd know more."

    Zatanna's shocked. "You can't turn Kent into some kind of zombie!"

    John grimaces and shakes his head. "It wouldn't work like that. We do a séance, speak to his ghost for a few minutes." He pauses for a moment, looking at Zatanna. "I can do it, if that's something you're okay with."

    "I don't-. Is there something else we could try?"

    "A-. Green Lantern, the one from the Justice Society, has all his old books. He'd probably let us read them. I don't know how much help they'd be."

    Clarice looks at me sadly and slowly shakes her head. "Dear boy, don't try turning into John. We've already got one of him and he's plenty. Read the books first, then try the dark magic."

    I nod. Yes, that's probably a better idea.

    "Alright, second problem." John looks at me then Zatanna. "What was Kilderkin on about when he said that we've 'incorrectly predicted the actions of our superiors'? What have the Justice League people said?"

    I shrug and look at Zatanna. She looks down and shakes her head. "Batman just asked the others to get me back to the.. um, our base. I don't know what they're going to do about the whole.. thing."

    "John, Batman's Giovanni's friend, and the rest of them aren't going to tolerate this any more than I am. Only reason I didn't get Wonder Woman to join us was because I don't know how good Nabu is at reading minds." Her League file lists her as 'highly resistant' but I don't know if that's 'Lord of Order resistant'.

    "Yeah, well, I was his friend and look how well that turned out."

    "W-. What do you mean?"

    John shakes his head. "Oh, it's not... I'm not used to people who just-."

    Ms Sackville glares at him. "John, you owe her." He flinches. "She's going to find out eventually."

    "Find out what?"

    John sags, staring at the middle of the table. "Was in ninety seven. I was..." He breathes in deeply and then out again. "I'd run into this group called the Brujería. Right nasty bunch of..." He shakes his head. "Thought they were just some crazy cult, 'n they are, but they've got the power to back it up. They wanted to summon up some sort of primordial.. evil.. thing. Never worked out what they thought they'd get out of it. I didn't even find out exactly what they were up to until they were already onto me. They killed the people working with me and I only got out by dumb luck." He leans back in his chair. "And then I did what I always do: went to my friends for help. A bunch of us got together; Steve Dayton -he was a bit less mental in those days-, Richard Occult, John Sargent, Baron Winters... And Giovanni and Sindella Zatara."

    "Nineteen ninety seven... That was the year-."

    "Yeah." John nods, the misery plain on his face. "I was the one who got your mum killed. S'why... Why Giovanni hates me, an'... And he's right to. I've failed.. my friends.. a lot, but I've never done it to one who had a fourteen month old daughter before." He takes a breath and finally meets her eyes. "He hates me and you probably should as well, but... I'm not letting it happen again. I'm not... We're going to get him back, alright? I couldn't live with myself if-."

    Zatanna's chair shoots back as she jumps to her feet, turns and marches away from the table. I sit there in shock while John brings his hands up to cover his face. "Fuck."
     
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    6th November
    03:25 GMT

    Fuck. That was how Giovanni died in the comic, and this time it was... "John, Ms Sackville, that was not helpful."

    Ms Sackville glares at me. "She would have asked eventually."

    "But not tonight!"

    "Then when? When would be a good time to reveal something like that? If we're working together she'd be asking us about how we knew her father, 'cause she misses him. How long d'you want us to keep schtum for? A week? A month? Now, you're right; we can't let Nabu get away with this. Klarion neither. Working out how to-."

    Zatanna's collapsed to the floor next to the door we came through to in the main room. I exit FTL squatting against the opposite wall and try to work out how I can fix this. If she refuses to have anything to do with-.

    "Did you know?"

    "What?"

    "Did you know?"

    "No! I wouldn't have... There's no record. Missus Zatara's cause of death is listed as a stroke on every file I saw! There was-. I didn't-."

    "Dad never told me why he was so scared when you started talking about him. He wouldn't tell me-. How can I work with someone like him!"

    Take a moment. Think it through. "Zatanna, a few hours ago we were on Roanoke Island fighting Klarion. And if he'd been a bit more intelligent when I charged him, or a bit more on the ball when Billy appeared or.. or a bit luckier, any one of us could have died. Kaldur was in charge of our team. Would it have been his fault? Or after he was injured and I took charge, would it have been mine?" A pained, gasping breath and she bows her head. I squeeze my eyes closed and rub my forehead with my right hand. "They shouldn't have just sprung that on you like that. I'm.. I'm sorry."

    "How many of the others died?"

    Ring, access records. "The time of death of Mister Sargent suggests he died as well. Mister Dayton has a range of prescriptions, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers.. few other things. Of course, pharmaceuticals won't necessarily work if the cause is magical. Doctor Occult survived and I can't find good records for Baron Winters." Who else? I've got a long list of John's late friends stored. "Benjamin Cox, Franklin North, Emma Young and Anne-Marie Mason. All of them were friends of his. I've got no way to know which of the other deaths that happened at the same time were caused by the same thing, but there's a noticeable spike-."

    "Stop. Please, stop." I stop. "Dad knew, didn't he? About all those other people. And Mom..."

    "Almost certainly."

    "That's why he's so protective of me. I thought it was just him being..."

    "Yeah. What we do, is dangerous. No two ways about it. We train, we carry advanced equipment-" I tap the Spell Eater where it hangs on my chest. "-and we try and be sensible about our abilities, but... We can die. And not because we messed up, just because the sorts of people we fight are people who are capable of killing us."

    "So why did he join the Justice League? Why did he keep being a superhero?"

    "I don't know. I don't know what his reason was. Why are you doing it?"

    "I wanted to help people. I want to.. to be like Dad." She sits up a little straighter. "What about you?"

    "Have you ever looked over someone's shoulder at a crossword.. or test or something, and just found the answer really obvious? Sometimes, when I look around the world, at what people are doing, the way society works... That's how I feel. There's no reason for magic not to be mainstream. There's no reason for research into mad science type technology to be so slow. There's no reason... I want to make the world work properly. To do that, I need a good reputation and I need contacts."

    "You don't want to help people at all?"

    "I have an orange power ring. If I want to help someone, I have to care a great deal about what happens to them. For you, for our team mates, that's easy, but I had to abandon injured children in Gotham because their individual well-being didn't matter to me enough to trigger the ring. But, by doing so, I helped stop the spell that bit earlier. As a result, more people live." I look away slightly and shake my head. "I hope, anyway. See, the fact is, objectively, a life is a life. But it feels different when it happens to you, to people you care about. Except.. it's not, not really. Six people die and one man goes mad, and everyone else on Earth gets to live."

    "Is he really..? Is he the best chance we've got?"

    "If I knew someone better we'd be there instead. And-" I look at him through the wall with the Ophidian's Eyes. "-he's completely motivated to see this through. If you can't stand to be around him then-."

    "No. No, I shouldn't-. It's just... I don't remember Mom. All I had were Dad's stories and photos and now Dad's... And he just comes out with it..."

    I reach over and pat her on the knee. "Do you want to go home? Or, I don't know, we've got plenty of space at the cave if you want to stay there for a bit."

    "No, we need to finish.. sorting out what we're going to do." I stand and offer her my right hand. She takes it and pulls herself up. I have the ring open the double doors back into the main room and we walk through arm in arm.

    Albert's finished organising the tea. The pot and six cups are on the table and he's taken the seat between John and Ms Sackville. There's a hip flask next to John's. We slowly walk over. Zatanna looks directly at John. "Paul and I can talk to Green Lantern. What are you going to be doing?"

    His head stays tilted down but he manages to raise his eyes to meet hers. "There's.. this guy I know. He's involved in high level chaos magic. Dunno how much help he'll be but I can try and get hold of him."

    Ms Sackville nods. "I'll put the word out that we're after information on Klarion. Should be able to get hold of a few books on Order and Chaos. We can see if we can find out-."

    A phone rings. After a momentary delay Albert reaches into his jacket pocket and fishes a modern looking mobile out and answers it. "Wot?"

    Ms Sackville frowns at him but presses on. "See if we can find out anything helpful. You'd be amazed what people can just shove in a lock-up somewhere and forget about."

    Albert looks like the phone call is displeasing him. After a moment he holds it a little away from his ear. "'Ere, Clarrie. Some berk called Cyril's on the phone. Sounds like a nonce. Want me to tell him to fuck off?"

    Ms Sackville sighs. "What does he want?"

    "Somefink about Demons in Liverpool. Oh, 'ang on. John, it's yer sister."

    "What?" John suddenly comes out of his funk and grabs the phone. "Cheryl?" He winces. "Yeah, I-. I know, it wasn't-." He listens to her for a moment. "Yeah, look... Okay. Tell him I'll be there. Yeah, sure." He moves the phone away from his head and hangs up before passing it back to Albert.

    "Well?"

    "Don't ask me how, but Cheryl somehow got hold of Sir Cyril. You know, Knight?" I nod. "Those Praexis Demons you ran into wouldn't have just turned up on their own. He wants me to help him track down where they came from."

    "Right, I'll come with you. Don't feel much like sleep. Zatanna?"

    Ms Sackville shakes her head. "No. You're taking her straight home."

    I frown at her and look at Zatanna, who nods. "Yes. Could you.. take me back to the cave, please?"

    "Of course. John, I'll be back in half an hour."
     
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    6th November
    05:14 GMT -4

    "Uuh!"

    The punching bag lies strewn across the gymnasium floor in tatters.

    "Uuh uuuh!"

    A little further along the floor the heavy bag has suffered the same fate. A cloud of slowly settling dust marks the final resting place of the rubble bag and the heavy metal punching block lies in torn pieces where I've ripped it apart. I'm now working the force field pads in a frenzy of concussive impacts.

    "Uuh. Raah!"

    The energy shield around the upper right one fails under the impact of my fist. This isn't working. I came back from China in a filthy temper. I was alright going there, but being kept hanging around while they decided what to do about me left me plenty of time to think about what happened on Roanoke Island, and the more I thought about it... The angrier it made me. I hoped that I'd be able to work out my aggression with a little mindless violence in our gymnasium. It's been.. four hours. Haven't calmed down noticeably. I've got no idea what the others are up to and frankly I don't really want them to have to deal with me while I'm like this.

    I stare at the pads. "Ring, repair and recharge them." Nothing happens. "Rrrrrrhh!"

    Footsteps behind me. Boots, heels. I narrow my eyes, still facing the pads.

    "Wonder Woman. I wondered who it would be." She takes a breath to start speaking. "Before you start, I'm going to tell you what I occasionally had cause to tell my mother before coming here. I am in an absolutely foul mood and it's taking me quite a lot of effort to remain this polite. I'm really not fit for civilised company at present. Come back later. A few hours... Tomorrow, perhaps."

    "I'm afraid I can't do that."

    "Then on your head be it."

    "Grayven-."

    I turn on her, eyes blazing. "What the fuck was that! What did you people think you were playing at?! Mister Zatara nearly ended up spending the rest of his life as Nabu's meat puppet! You all just stood there!"

    She remains calm, gazing levelly at me. "Are you finished?"

    Words fail me. I growl under my breath and shake my head, not trusting myself to look at her.

    "Zatara agreed to take on Nabu to save Zatanna. His choice-."

    "Nabu was holding Zatanna hostage! No such deal could be considered to be freely made! You, or Stewart, or Batman... Any of you could have taken the Helmet from him!"

    "Angering someone as powerful as Nabu has other consequences-."

    "So we deal with them! That's what we're for, isn't it?!" I turn away and lean against the pads. "It shouldn't have had to be me. You're supposed to be his allies, his team mates, his.. friends. I don't even like him that much!"

    "You believe we should have interrupted."

    "Yes. Such a sacrifice would have been completely pointless. I... When Robin stood up to me when we were dealing with those godlings... He was right, and I was wrong. I was having too much fun to stop and consider the wisdom of my actions and he needed to blow up my objective to make me see that. My respect for him... And I thanked him for it. My friend, stopped me doing something stupid. You, you just..."

    We stand in silence for a few moments. Huh, I actually feel a little calmer now. Maybe I should have just found some random person in the street to shout at hours ago.

    "What did you do with our prisoners?"

    "Shouldn't you be out doing something? The ring estimates that the death toll from that spell was at least seven hundred thousand."

    "Grayven, I need to know."

    "It'll be public knowledge in three days anyway. Frankly, you can wait. If you've got nothing better to do I'm sure that you could make yourself useful helping track down Klarion."

    "Did you kill them?"

    I frown. Ooooh. That's why I'm getting prioritised. I suppose it's not an unreasonable guess. "Hundreds of thousands of children dead. That'll rise, of course. Injuries. Suicides. Only bothers me in the abstract, really. Everyone I know well enough to care about is old enough to look after themselves."

    "Grayven, did you murder them?"

    "Of course, that's the same for you, isn't it? Amazons don't have children, the only Justice Leaguers with offspring are Batman and Mister Zatara..."

    "Peter Garibaldi is the Themysciran embassy's media relations officer. He has two young sons and the first thing I did when the fight was over was make sure they were alright. Now answer me."

    "He was fortunate. You can find out when the bereaved do. Three days."

    I hear her hands slide over the rope of her lasso. "That isn't good enough."

    I turn around to face her again, grinding my teeth. "If I were going to kill them I'd have done it then and there where you could all see me do it as a judgement on your ineptitude!" I take a deep breath. "But while this incident has completely destroyed my faith in the Justice League my faith in humanity remains. Justice will be done."

    We stare at each other for several seconds. "What. Did you do. To them?" I just shake my head. "Grayven, ........................................."

    Her lips move, but I hear nothing. "Hah hah haaah! You just tried to give me an order, didn't you?" I tap my right ear with my right index finger. "Half second delay. If the ring thinks you or Batman are about to give me an order, I suddenly go deaf." Actually, Father Box handles it but I've managed to keep his existence a secret so far. The technique was obvious, really. It was just that before today I hadn't thought that I'd need it.

    This clearly doesn't please her. "You swore that you would obey my commands. We trust you with Alan's lantern because you made that oath."

    "I swore obedience to a woman I trusted and I don't trust you with that authority anymore. And if you were relying on that then you severely misjudged the situation. If you relied on that, if you used that oath to compel my obedience to every request you made, what do you think would be the very first thing I would do when the year was up? If you'd failed to make me want to follow your lead? When I was finally free I'd-. I gave you a year, not so you could restrain me, but so that you would..."

    I raise my right hand to my face. Oh. I hadn't realised that myself until just now. "So that you would have time to convince me that your way of doing things was right. Zard, Wotan, Faust and Thorn were all murderers before yesterday. All known to you and to the police. If it were just me, if I didn't care... If I'd gone to Louisiana to fight the Injustice League on my own... I'd have killed them all then and there. Wouldn't even have broken the law doing it. I held myself back because I.. I wanted to believe that the League's way of doing things was right. That mercy and restraint are really the best way to deal with these things." I shake my head, lower my hand and look straight at her again. "But they're not, are they? It doesn't work. Because four murderous wizards didn't die years ago hundreds of thousands of children died last night. And I may not care about them as individuals.. but I do care about the species as a whole. It-. It's appalling. It doesn't work. Doesn't work." I turn back to the pads and make fists, but my heart's not really in it. "Leave me in peace. In a few hours I'll go out and help with the damage limitation."

    "The fact that something like this happened doesn't invalidate the things we fight for. If we can't hold ourselves to a higher standard than supervillains then what are we for?"

    "Tell it to the dead." I punch the mid left target, then lean against it. "I wanted to be wrong so badly, you know? I didn't really want the responsibility of deciding everything for myself, not until I understood.. more. Now, don't have that luxury."

    I hear her take another step towards me. Oh, what does she want now?

    I feel her hand on my left shoulder.



    How dare she?

    "I'm stronger, faster and better armed than you get your hand off me!"
     
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    6th November
    06:57 GMT

    I nod at the young woman in the yellow, green and black tabard. "Morning, Squire."

    She looks up from her computer with her eyebrows raised, rolls her eyes at me, then looks back down. Beryl Hutchinson's sitting on the bonnet of a police car. She's fifteen in this continuity, actually a little older than Robin. Sir Cyril's over near the police cars talking to the Chief Inspector in charge of the operation. The whole area around this part of the dock was cordoned off by the Merseyside Police once John and Trevor Marrack narrowed the site of the summoning down this far. Another set of scrying wards is blocking us from working out precisely where it is, though since Demon summoning actually requires magic knowledge that might not be connected to everyone else suddenly finding out about it. Fortunately, Fatty and his friends left a trail that wasn't protected.

    I sent Teekl back with Zatanna and instructions to look after her. Spending all the time she has with Wolf appears to be bringing out her mothering instincts. At the side of the road there's an armed response unit nearby checking their weapons. UK police are trained in dealing with hostile metahumans but they aren't equipped with anti-Demon weapons and sounded decidedly unhappy about having to check the area building by building with no real idea about what they'd find. They brightened up once I made it clear to them that I'm taking point now.

    "Saw the interview you did in Taiwan." Miss Hutchinson's checking through three dimensional architectural plans of the buildings we're about to enter.

    "Don't suppose there's any chance you didn't see the cake thing?"

    A small smile. "Not bloody likely."

    I tighten the left corner of my mouth slightly. "Anything on the plans that doesn't match my scans?"

    She shakes her head. "So I did a ring-round last night." One warehouse disappears and is replaced with an office building. "Only British superhero under eighteen I couldn't get hold of was Cornwall Boy. In fact-" Another image. Storm drains, I think? "-Captain Cornwall didn't sound like he knew where he was. Worrying, that."

    "We don't get.. very good signal."

    "Who's 'we' when we're at home?"

    "Young people undergoing instruction by members of the Justice League."

    She tilts her head and looks at me out of the corner of her eye. "Sidekicks."

    "I believe the term my colleagues would prefer is 'partners'."

    "So, that'd be Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Red Arrow, Troia, Artemis, Zatanna and you, would it?"

    "Nnnnnnnnn... Most of them. I'm not really supposed to say what the full roster is."

    "Should I be offended?"

    "I only stopped to pick up R-. Cornwall Boy, because we were desperate for magic users. Your skills... Your unusual skills lie in data analysis and we didn't really have any data to analyse."

    She turns off the computer and gives me her full attention. "So what exactly happened last night?"

    "In summary, five extremely powerful and extremely unpleasant magic users somehow managed to divide the Earth in two and put nearly everyone over eighteen on one and nearly everyone under eighteen on the other. The League and.. hehr.. the sidekicks attacked the site of the ritual and stopped it, but not before a lot of people died."

    She thinks about it. "Car crashes.. an' planes an' that?"

    "Mostly. Europe got off lightly because of the time zone. In other places it was..." I see the bridge again, and rub my forehead with my right hand. Probably better I'm here rather than sleeping.

    "God." She looks to her left as she tries to get her head around the death toll. "I just.. I heard some crashes. Got the kids out and went up to the castle. Didn't realise..." She shakes her head. "Who was it that did it?"

    "Klarion, Blackbriar Thorn, William Zard, Felix Faust and some guy in a robe I didn't recognise. Klarion and robe guy got away, Batman's got what's left of Blackbriar Thorn and Zard and Faust are being detained at Nabu's pleasure."

    "Who?"

    "Nabu. Er, Fate, Doctor Fate."

    "Having trouble with the 'real names' thing?"

    "Nabu's naturally non-corporeal. I doubt he has a secret double life."

    "What's this robe guy look like?" I pop a screen out of subspace and display what I saw of him. She nods. "Dark Druid. Don't know much about him." She looks thoughtful. "Not sure anyone does. Show me that attack again." I replay him blasting Guy and Stewart. She shakes her head. "No, nothing like that. Last time I saw him, he was legging it after Cyril and me caught him trying to burn down a church."

    "Why was he doing that?"

    "A lot of churches in this country are built on the holy sites of older pagan religions. He was targeting them. He'd ritually sacrifice a bunch of animals and then burn them down."

    "Were the sacrificial rituals actually.. magic? Or was it just to freak people out?"

    She shrugs. "Never saw anything happen as a result. Might be worth getting Captain Cornwall or.. John Constantine?" I nod. "To check them out."

    "Do you know where his name came from? I didn't think druids really went in for-."

    "Oh. Um. That was me."

    "Dark... Druid..?"

    She blushes a little. "I was twelve, alright?"

    "I've heard worse. Think he got an upgrade from somewhere. If you could send me the reports-."

    "Alright you two, over here!" Sir Cyril waves us over. John and Mister Marrack are already with him. Miss Hutchinson drops off the car to walk over to them. I send the screen back into subspace. I need to make sure they let me go in first. I don't think Sir Cyril's ever worked with a Lantern before. Hm. A flicker and I appear next to John at FTL speed. Sir Cyril's head turns slightly but his helmet obscures any surprise he might be showing. I was slightly impressed to learn that his armour and weapons are enchanted. Might be more impressed if I had any idea how good it is. I mean, I've seen videos of it stopping rifle bullets, but I don't know the mechanism it uses. Miss Hutchinson's gear is a bit more mundane but still of high quality. She apparently had the sense to wear armour over her torso, though the leggings are unarmoured. "Right then. Someone's been summoning Demons. We can't be having that, so we're going to go in there and put a stop to it. We don't know how many Demons, cultists or what have you there are, and we don't know if there's any hostages."

    John removes a half smoked cigarette from his mouth. "Shouldn't be anything too big." He exhales a stream of smoke and takes a look at the target area. "It'd be too noticeable, even round here. 'Course, if a Demon's actually runnin' the show..."

    "Well, anyway, armed response is here to back us up. We're going in once the police've got all the exits covered. I'm going in first, Captain, Orange Lantern, Squire, you're after me. Constantine, I'll call you in if we find something magical we need you to take a look at."

    "Sir Cyril, I'm quite a lot more resilient than you. It really would make more sense for me to take point."

    He shakes his head. "If there's anyone there, they're going to be using magic. My armour's warded against stuff like that."

    Ring, remove torso armour. "So's my skin, sir. In addition-" Ring, restore armour and add construct-armour. "I can tank quite a bit more normal damage, as well as being able to relay information from my direct scans back to Squire. If it comes to it I can also run away a bit faster. Sir, I really think-."

    "Alright, alright. Made your point." He stands aside and extends his right arm in the direction of the closest building. "After you."
     
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    6th November
    07:34 GMT

    First building was an empty office block. Bare walls, mould and a couple of sleeping homeless people who were escorted outside. Once I got well inside I ran filament constructs throughout the corridors. Finding nothing, the others entered and John and Captain Cornwall tried detecting anything untoward. Nothing obvious, so we proceeded through the building at walking pace, stopping every ten metres or so to repeat the process. I wanted to go a little faster but Sir Cyril was pretty definite, and he's both in charge and has more experience than me. His justification was that there's no way for our target or targets to get out by conventional means so the most important thing is to be sure that we're not missing anything. Slow and steady might not always win the race, but at least it doesn't end up splattered all over the walls.

    Anyway, roof to boiler room, nothing. No cultists, no kidnap victims and no Demonic unpleasantness. John found that suspicious as cults and Demons are usually both pretty territorial. Next was a series of large gutted terraced housing and it was the same story there. No indication of demonic presence. John's confident that they couldn't hide themselves completely even if they could obscure their precise location, so we move on and the police tighten the cordon behind us.

    The five of us are now standing outside of a distribution warehouse. Not all that long ago shipping containers were unpacked and their contents loaded onto lorries to be transported across the country. Not really sure what happened. Import of manufactured goods is still big business in Britain. I know Liverpool's been through some hard times economically and our manufacturing output has decreased but shouldn't somewhere like this still be in operation?

    I look at Sir Cyril. "Point of entry?"

    Squire brings up an image of the interior. Of course, most of the equipment's probably gone. Looks like it's a choice between the old staff entrance and two fire doors. Any of us could open the main goods entrance and I could easily break through one of the walls but we're aiming to contain and that means no new places for potential targets to escape out of.

    "Not much to choose between them. Constantine?"

    John walks over to the outer wall and lays his hands against it for a moment before shaking his head. "Nothing."

    "Might as well use the closest, then."

    I nod and use a construct appendage to gently remove the lock before cracking open the door and sending a filament into the building. More filaments radiate off it, sending data to Squire's computer. Just confirms what we thought was there: corridors, what was once a locker room, stairs up to the offices and an entrance way to the warehouse section. I look at Sir Cyril and he nods.

    Ring, accelerated perception.

    Compliance.

    I appear in the locker room and scan my surroundings with my eyes, switching between normal and Ophidian vision. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure why they left the lockers here. Maybe they were too much of a pain to get out? Or maybe whatever estate agent picked this place up was hoping to sell it on in working condition?

    Normal perception.

    I still feel a little unwell using it, but better a little unwell than getting mobbed by Demons as soon as I appear. I send filaments into each of the lockers. Nothing. Ceiling space? No. "Locker room clear, proceeding to corridor." There was a card reader system but the lock appears to have been forced. Cultists or more homeless people? Can't tell. Nothing in the corridor but dirt. No obvious tracks... "Corridor clear. Come on in."

    I turn away from the door as Sir Cyril comes through, turning sideways so that his armour can fit. I put their position on my HUD and walk to the foot of the stairs. From the top or do the ground floor first? Hm. I hold out my left hand, palm flat to the floor. I'd rather have Teekl do this, but... I tap the back of my left hand with my right and Fatty falls out of the ring. It lays on its belly on the ground for a moment, its fat head swinging left and right. A moment later it stops and stares at me, its face hopeful.

    "Food?"

    "    Why are you laying on the floor when you can fly?" It looks to the side for a moment, then floats into the air as if someone is lifting it from the shoulders. It slouches into the air, looking at the ground in apparent confusion. "Go up the stairs and let me know if you see anyone."

    "Food upstairs?"

    "    Stranger things have happened. Go." Fatty accelerates up the stairwell. At worst he'll be able to give me a few seconds warning. Need to find out whether he can actually fight or not.

    "Erm, what was that?"

    I turn to Sir Cyril. "I assimilated that Praexis Demon last night. Now it works for me. Sorry, my other Construct-Lantern's far cleverer but I left her at home."

    "Rrrright. And it knows what it's doing, does it?"

    "I.. honestly have no idea." Sir Cyril doesn't seem to have another question so I walk towards double doors leading to the loading bay.

    Glancing back I see John taking a look around while Captain Cornwall watches him. "Feeling something. Dunno. Not very strong. Might just be an imprint from all the people who used to work here."

    I push open the doors ahead of me with a construct and send out feelers. Nothing organic feeling, though there are a number of slightly rusted shipping containers. I transition myself to the air in the middle of the room. Nothing even slightly demony, and Fatty's just looking at empty offices. There aren't any windows in here and the lights are off so it's a bit dingy. "Clear. Generating light emitting constructs."

    Sir Cyril leads the way again. He takes a look at the room and draws his sword. It looks like a simple arming sword, but down the flat of the blade on both sides runes are picked out in silver wire. They're glowing, but I don't know if that's in response to a threat or just what they do. He heads into the room and towards the right.

    As the light spreads across the room I take a look around. Abandoned and partially deconstructed shelving in the rear area, a few cardboard boxes and five metal shipping containers. Bit sloppy, but I suppose when your company goes under the motivation to do a thorough job just sort of leaves you.

    Captain Cornwall comes through the door next, air bending aura thing in place. Need to find out what that's actually called. He walks left towards the bay doors. John and Beryl bring up the rear. John looks around and smirks. "Alright, what's wrong with this picture?"

    Beryl thinks for a moment. "Should be more dust?"

    "Nah." He walks towards the nearest shipping container and peers at it. "This place has been out of use how long?"

    "Eight years."

    He nods. "Makes sense. And no one's going to bother clearing a place like this out completely. But shipping containers are expensive, they're designed to fit on the back of lorries easily and the door's right there. Why.. are they..-" He reaches out towards it with his right hand. "-still here?" He holds his hand just over its surface.

    Fatty falls out of the ring onto the top of the central shipping container. It lands with a thump, and.. there's another quiet noise from inside. It pushes itself back to its feet. "Funny painting."

    John's eyes narrow as he looks from Fatty to the shipping container. Then he presses his hand against its surface. "What're you hid- OH SHIT!" He yanks his hand back. "They're in the shipping containers! They're in the shipping containers!"

    I flick on Ophidian'sEyes and AGH! Fuck! For a fraction of a second I see a nightmarish network of black lines and what looked like the outlines of people before something... Something. Wholeness Rightly Assumed. Ah. Better.

    And then the giant baby tackles me out of the air.
     
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    6th November
    07:40 GMT

    The head is too big. It brings frighteningly sharp teeth down onto my shoulder construct-armour and all I can think about is how big it is. Its arms are scrabbling at the construct-armour around my head but there's no way... Urgh! It doesn't have joints! Its arms are disjointed and held together with long tubes of skin. Its legs are wrapped around mine and despite what I know about biology its grip is incredibly strong. What the hell is-? No. Don't think about that. Orange cracks form in front of my eyes. Ring, transfer.

    Unable to comply. Dimensional anchor in close proximity.

    We slam into a girder.

    "Empty."

    I focus and direct an infrasound beam at the monster baby's face. No apparent effect.

    "So empty."

    I form a band of orange power around the bits of its body I can see and try to pull it away from me. The limbs bend and distort, resisting my efforts. The head is more solid, however, and gradually pulls away. Which forces me to look at its face. Empty milky white eyes, chubby cheeks, gaping, distended mouth containing the claw-like fangs, thin wisps of hair across the dome of its head, snub of a nose.

    "So quiet."

    It chomps at me once, realises that it can't reach me and closes its jaw. Its actual mouth continues with the baby proportions and its body is baby-sized and this is fucked up.

    Ring, brand.

    Unable to comply.

    Orange smoke flows from the constructs into its eyes. What the hell is this thing?

    Warning! Energy drain detected. Seventy nine percent remaining.

    The fat little baby-fingers scrabbling at my head glow ghostly-white and poke holes in the construct-armour. They're an inch away from my eyes and I instinctively lean back.

    Proximity alert! Black light detected.

    Shit! Shit! Assimilate!

    A film of orange light briefly covers it before being sucked away.

    Unable to maintain connection.

    It opens its mouth again, teeth glowing white.

    Oh fuck the hell no.

    The bands of light harden into chains and my need to get this monstrosity off me wrenches it backwards. I alter my construct-armour, curving its plates and reducing the friction it's getting. I strain to pull my legs up to my chest in an attempt to break its hold on that part of my body. It jerks, trying to get a better hold even as my hold on its neck forces its head away and stretches its neck out away from its bloated baby torso body.

    "What is this thing?!"

    "A gift."

    With a disturbing fleshy slap it finally comes free, long and loose limbs snapping back like rubber bands. Who the fuck said this was a gift? The orange lights had dimmed as I focused on this thing so I turn them back to full power. Captain Cornwall and Knight are slowly backing away from a shambling mob of forty six people. They look.. sick, starved and they stumble uncertainly in my allies' direction. At the back Beryl stares at them in disgust while John only has eyes for the robed figure behind them.

    Dark Druid.

    "You recognise it, don't you Mister Constantine? Progress is such a wonderful thing. Why, only a decade ago creating an Invunche would have taken us years of work yet I was able to put her together in only a few months."

    He takes a step forwards. Fatty leaps at him from the top of a shipping container, mouth open to bite. Dark Druid negligently raises his right hand and blasts him in the stomach, disintegrating him. Ring, if you've got spare power, scan him. No, all it's showing me is a figure made of ghostly, sick looking white light. If that's his construct-colour then he must be blocking me in the same way Guy does.

    "Would you like to know her name? Do you think her parents are still looking for her? I wasss thinking of arranging a visit, but Klarion's offer was simply too good to turn down."

    "So. You're Brujería, then? Didn't think they took Europeans."

    "Oh, I won't say that convincing them was easy." He pulls back his hood. The left side of his face is almost normal, aside from the complete lack of hair. The right... The skin is heavily scarred, the ear torn ragged and his right eye glows with the same white light as this Invunche thing's fingers. On his forehead is a 'U' shape. No, not a U. Each of the ends curves outwards and splits in two and there's a small dot which could be an eye. Looks a bit like a double ended snake.

    I jerk to the side as the Invunche fires its hand at me, its arm stretching like elastic. The fingers penetrate the construct-armour and grasp at my face. A cluster of hook constructs cut into its flesh and drag it away.

    "Constantine, do you know what these things are?" Sir Cyril's holding his sword out with obvious reluctance towards the people encroaching on their position.

    "Not exactly."

    "John, can this thing be healed?"

    He looks up. "No. Sorry mate, but it can't. Once they do that to them-."

    "Her name is Katherine Maher. She screamed so hard when I broke-."

    Shield, Gamma Cannon.

    An orange bubble extends around us just before the radiation beam strikes the monstrosity. The skin burns away but the muscles beneath glow weakly with white light and resist my attack. The whole skin fries off first, arms and legs dropping off as the connective tissue is burned through. Fingers still glowing! I quickly focus the Cannon on them and watch as the hands burst into flame, the glow disappearing and the remains of the limbs falling to lay on the bottom of the shield bubble. Then I focus on the head.

    "Surprising ruthlessness from a superhero. You're right though, she couldn't be saved. The rest of them can. Good luck working out how."

    Sir Cyril sheathes his sword and punches the closest in the head as I finally burn the flesh off Kath-. Off its face, and start on the bone. That isn't resistant and its head starts to crumple. Gods, this is horrible. I'm just relieved that I can't smell it.

    "I think I'll try Manchester next. Or possibly Edinburgh? Or overseas again? There's so many possibilities."

    The man Sir Cyril hit staggers and starts to fall before a ghostly white glow envelopes his head and he rights himself.

    "So empty. So quiet. Share with me."

    He then strides forwards and lashes out, the glow of his fist narrowly missing Sir Cyril's breastplate as he backpedals away from it. As soon as he gets more than three metres away the shambler stops glowing and returns to its former listless state.

    "Railgun."

    It hums as it flings tungsten slugs at Dark Druid, passing straight through his body and into the floor. If he's a Black Lantern.. is he phasing?

    "I'll leave you to it, shall I?" He raises his hood and shimmers slightly as he disappears again, just like he did on Roanoke.

    Damn.
     
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