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

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
17:57 GMT

I turn side on, holding up the door-shield and bracing the metal against my shoulder and left leg. I didn't really get a good look at the corridor when I cut the door free, but I think it was straight-.
Resist.
FSHOOM.
Resist.
The first rocket hits the door, flames exploding against the metal and expanding outwards around the edges. Incendiary? That won't be a problem, then. I inch forwards.
Resist.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Resist.
More air is displaced, but there's little heat. Not sure what that was. Smoke, maybe?
Resist.
BANG!
Resist.
Something strikes me on the cheek. Not.. hard… I bring my right hand around and feel the inside of the door. There's a noticeable dent on my side adjacent to my face. Anti-armour? This door must be pretty darn well armoured to take that. Okay, anti-armour rockets can hurt me, but they would need repeated strikes in the same place to do much more than bruise.
Resist.
Hitting my face right now… That would be bad.
Resist.
I try picking up the pace, but the fact I can't see where I'm going is constantly making me hesitate. I hear another 'fwoosh' and move to the side, raising the door-shield slightly in the hope that if it's another anti-armour rocket it'll hit somewhere else.
Resist.
Instead, there's a comparatively slight impact and then a slight pushing. Don't know what that is. Push forwards-. Ah, there's some sort of sticky material on the floor. Nothing like strong enough to hold me in place but it's slowing my already glacial pace even further as I'm forced to push harder and shove.
Resist.
Some sort of hard foam? More of that glue stuff? No idea. But I think I'm.. past it.
Resist.
Tap. Tap.
Resist.
Okay, take a risk. I accelerate to actual walking pace, daiklave dragging along the wall. Hopefully, when I reach an opening it'll be one on both sides.
Resist.
A different noise this time, followed by a hissing I know indicates a gas weapon. I'm pretty much immune to conventional poisons but I still need air. If all of the air around me gets displaced and I can't get my environmental shield back up I'm as stuffed as anyone else. Faster, then. I accelerate to an awkward jog, my right foot kicking what I think was a gas grenade forwards. After two more steps I encounter it again and this time kick it harder, listening for the sounds of it striking something. Klink, klink, roll and klunk as it stops. Assuming that was in more or less a straight line…
Resist.
This could hurt.
Resist.
I run forwards, trying to judge the distance.
Heal.
"I can see you, alien."
Heal.
The daiklave stops scraping as I try to zero in on the voice.
Heal.
"Let's see how you handle this!"
Heal.
Okay then. I leap in the direction of the voice, daiklave thrust forwards. There's a series of fwooshing sounds from my direction of travel. Someone's dumping their rockets.
Unstoppable!
I can feel the backwash as the majority go wide and the thump as two don't. More than a few people have assumed that someone my size would have to be slow and clumsy. In actual fact, divine aura plus super strength means that I'm pretty darn fast!
Triumphant!
I bring the daiklave around where the voice was coming from, feeling it bite into metal and shear through! Excellent! And… Now I'm falling? The daiklave is still cutting through something..? I strike out with the door-shield, getting a 'clank' sound for my trouble. Okay, something big and-.
Heal.
And that's the floor. I hit it at a fair old clip with no warning to allow me to bend my legs. The brick comes off worse. There's a feeling of space around me but no movement from the air in front of me. I lunge and slash with the daiklave. The edge bites metal and slices through, the slight jarring sensation being easily absorbed by my hand.
Heal.
I have no idea what I'm fighting. Big robot? Mech? Golem? No, not a Golem, I can hear electricit-.
Heal.
Doouf! Something heavy just… Landed on me.
Heal.
"I'm going to kill you, alien!"
Heal.
"Good for you."
Heal.
Still hurts. Okay, she didn't sound particularly shaken up so I'm going to assume giant robot full of missiles. I push upwards, trying to either find an edge or at least push it aside. Risk of self destruct? Eh, it's probably got a scuttling device around the clever stuff but I doubt it has a built in nuke or anything. If it has, it would have fired it. And the rockets activating within their launchers won't do much more than knock me across the room… However far that is.
Heal.
Still, better safe than sorry. I bring my daiklave around and slice at what I believe to be the chest of the probably-robot. The blade passes cleanly through, then I stab it into the stone floor and feel inside the groove with my right hand. Armour… Half an inch thick. Okay, stab with the daiklave, then shove hard.
Heal.
I hear clanks and the shriek of metal against stone followed by a sudden bang. That must be where the wall in that direction is. Okay, so the cell was… That way…
Heal.
"OPEN YOUR GOD DAMNED EYES AND LOOK AT ME!"
Heal.
I could respond with 'TOGTFO', but that would involve talking. And using internet memes as banter is beneath me.
Heal.
I can't hear any 'fwooshes', so I'm going to assume that nothing else is in position to shoot me. Instead I stalk in the direction her shout comes from, swinging my daiklave back and forth in a way which I hope looks like I'm being menacing instead of just trying to stop myself walking into a wall.
Heal.
"LOOK AT ME!"

Door-shield up.

"LOOK AT ME!" / "LOOK AT ME! / "LOOK AT ME!"
Heal.
From different places that time. Okay, either there's three more robots or she's worked out that I'm navigating by sound. My left foot brushes against a decent-sized piece of debris and I stab the daiklave into the ground, dip down, pick it up and turn, hurling it in the direction of the furthest of the voices. One , t-. There's a complex sound, a crumpling followed in quick succession by a smash. Okay, that was most likely a wall-mounted speaker. And… More debris. She knows that I'm not looking…
Heal.
I pick up pieces of debris and throw them in a compass rose, trying to get an approximate idea of the shape of the room. A few dozen clangs and clunks later I've worked out that I'm in a rectangular room about ten metres by twenty. From the sounds of it there are other doorways, but from their placements I'm going to guess that they just lead to other cells. This definitely isn't the Tower of London. Those cells are far more cramped.
Heal.
Clang, clang, clang.
Heal.
Ah, excellent! That sounded like it hit a stair and bounced down a few steps. Sword waving again I head towards them. A bit odd that a room this big doesn't have any furniture, but I think I'll assume that they cleared it out. Nothing… Nothing… Wall. Okay, run the sword along the wall until… There!
Heal.
Heh. I'm feeling rather pleased with myself here. Ambushed, blinded, and I'm still going to get out of this okay.
Heal.
"You're too slow, alien!"
Heal.
She needs a new hobby. Advanced robotics are something I'd like it if Humans did more work on, but if all she's doing is building weapons I think I can live with myself if I kill her. I tap the daiklave against both sides of the staircase. Stone walls, and fortunately not spiralled. Plenty of room for me. Steps are… Okay, feels like the distance is even. I can afford to go a bit faster.
Heal.
"Now you're going to be trapped in here forever!"
Heal.
…
Heal.
…
Maybe I should go a little faster.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:04 GMT

"Let me out!"
Heal.
Tap. Tap.
Heal.
Not sure exactly what was supposed to happen that would result in me getting trapped, but as far as I can see it hasn't mat-. As far as I can hear it hasn't materialised.
Heal.
Tap. Tap.
Heal.
The pain in my eye sockets has died down considerably. That might mean that I have eyeballs again, but the pain hasn't gone and it still doesn't… Feel quite right. Think I'll leave it for now. My throat on the other hand feels hunky-dory.
Heal.
"You utter arseholes! Let me out of here!"
Heal.
Tap. Swish.
Heal.
Open air? I swing the sword around a few more times, feeling out the edge of the space. There's an opening in front of me which appears to emerge out of a wall. There's a slight movement in the air, though whether it's from a well-ventilated room or from the outside I genuinely can't tell.
Heal.
Hmm. So, my choices are: one, follow the wall around until I find out the size of the space or two, call out to the desperate-sounding Mister Kipling and have a chat. Jumping towards his voice sounds unwise; he's my only source of input since Miss Dolmann stopped taunting me. And he's nothing like as tough as her robots, far more squishable.
Heal.
"Excuse me, Mister Kipling." I take a few steps forwards, door-shield held to my side. "May I have your attention for a moment?"
Heal.
"Oh, it doesn't matter. What do you want?"
Heal.
"A cake would-."
Heal.
"I'm not getting you a cake! Don't you understand what they've done?!"
Heal.
"No. I'm not even entirely certain who 'they' are. I didn't start any of this."
Heal.
"What do you mean, you didn't start any of this?"
Heal.
I shrug as best I can with both hands occupied. "I thought I was going to be fighting SHADE today. I had my lure, I had my people in place… And then one of my operatives fails to report in and the next thing I know, here I am."
Heal.
"Vera Black is a wanted fugitive and her brother is a serial killer! You're planning on overthrowing the government and taking over the country!"
Heal.
Hm. Yes, yes, yes… No. Not even in the short term. Why.. would.. he.. think that? Actually, why would he think that I was planning on overthrowing the government? Sure, I threatened to do that if whatshername didn't buck her ideas up during that committee hearing but that's about as far as I got. How closely have they been keeping tabs on me? Okay, so they might know that I've been investigating things, but Ra's has had people doing that and they don't think he's planning to take over the country. They're just paying him the hush money.
Heal.
"No I'm not. I mean -no offence to your country or anything- but that's a bit small potatoes for me."
Heal.
"Then what are you planning?!"
Heal.
"I'm planning on taking over the planet."
Heal.
"Ha! Then maybe it's for the best that we're trapped."
Heal.
"Not sure I follow you."
Heal.
"We can't get out, you fool! All your plans are for nought!"
Heal.
"No, I got that. What I don't understand is why me becoming ruler of the planet is a bad thing. If you could just… Talk me through the reasoning…"
Heal.
"You-? You want to discuss it?"
Heal.
"Do you have somewhere you need to be?"
Heal.
"I was planning to try and find the wine cellar and drink myself to death, actually."
Heal.
"It's actually quite.. hard to kill yourself in a short timeframe by drinking wine. I mean, spirits, sure. But with wine..? If no one was helping you, you'd probably lose consciousness before drinking enough. You'd certainly lose the hand-eye coordination required to open the next bottle."
Heal.
"I'm going to try."
Heal.
"Alright, fine, but.. my question?"
Heal.
"What's so hard to understand? Mankind does not want to be enslaved to an alien tyrant, to have our home world used as the base for an alien empire!"
Heal.
"Okay." I put down the door-shield, propping it up against the wall behind me. Then I return my daiklave to its clamp on my back. "This is just me, right? I mean, my brother and sister in law were here when I first arrived and I haven't brought any other Apokoliptians with me."
Heal.
"And?"
Heal.
"So: I, the Emperor of Earth, would be an alien. But all of my lieutenants would be Human… All of my military officers, all of my directors of industry and all of my civil servants would be Human. Research scientists: Human. My own daughter and heir: Human. So how exactly is this Empire that is made almost entirely of Humans.. an alien empire?"
Heal.
"What?"
Heal.
"I mean, you're basically saying that an alien can't be Emperor because he's an alien." I take a small risk and frown slightly. "Are you a racist, Mister Kipling?"
Heal.
"J-." There's a pause as he tries to come up with an answer. "No, of course not. But you're still trying to overthrow the British government and it's our job to stop you."
Heal.
"Mister Kipling, if either Father Box or my power ring were working right now I would show you the sorts of things that your government officials get up to, and it would turn your stomach."
Heal.
"Is that enough to justify Black killing our Members of Parliament?"
Heal.
"Four rapists, two paedophiles and a cannibal? Yes, I'd say so."
Heal.
"W-? No, that's preposterous. They can't possible have covered up so many criminal acts."
Heal.
"They didn't. They hushed it up. I've got the evidence. I just wouldn't be able to find anyone to do anything about it. That's why I'm sheltering Chester Black. And preventing him going off half-cocked."
Heal.
"Prove it."
Heal.
"Alright. Unlock my power ring and I will." He doesn't immediately respond. "If you're so sure that we can't get out -and while you're drinking yourself to death I will be making an attempt- then it can hardly hurt."
Heal.
"It-." I can just about hear him sigh. "I can't. I worked the spell I used to interrupt your portal into the castle's defences. Hostile artefacts that it has been applied to won't function while they're in here."
Heal.
"So I can't show you the thing I need to show you in order for you to help me get out until we're already out." I nod. "Tricky."
Heal.
"Oh, no. Screw 'em. I'll help you get out regardless, as long as I'm included in the escape plan."
Heal.
"Oh. Bit of a.. change of heart there."
Heal.
"Thought I might as well put a brave face on a hopeless situation. I'm actually fairly self-interested."
Heal.
"Drinking yourself to death?"
Heal.
"If I go down then I'd take you with me. But -between you and me- I'd rather not go down at all." I hear another sigh. "I mean… Look at that."
Heal.
"Look at what?"
Heal.
"Maybe it would help if you opened your eyes."
Heal.
"Sadly that's impossible. Major Kelly crushed my eyeballs. Could you please describe it?"
Heal.
"You ever see the film 'Labyrinth'? With David Bowie?"
Heal.
"Yes?"
Heal.
"Like that, only made of castle. The man who first enchanted this castle designed it so that it could disassociate itself from reality if it ever became overrun by one of his enemies. It's castle to the front of them, castle to the rear, castle to the up and the down and the round and round. An infinitely repeating mile cubed."
Heal.
"Oh. I'm rather sad to be missing it. Sounds like an amazing visual spectacle."
Heal.
"It's just stone. The problem is that nothing in here can affect the outside."
Heal.
"Can things outside affect.. this..?"
Heal.
"They can turn it off, but they're not going to. I'm sure that I'm perfectly expendable."
Heal.
"But things from outside can come here?"
Heal.
"Some things, yessss…"
Heal.
"Then we may as well keep ourselves busy seeing if we can scavenge parts for a radio from Miss Dolmann's robots."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:23 GMT

"Which doesn't help me at all, because I don't know what a germanium diode looks like!"
Heal.
"Okay, that's fine." I nod. Not unreasonably, Mister Kipling's background is in magic -and English literature, curiously- and not electronics. I only know how to put an ersatz radio together because Richard thought it might be important for us to know. "I don't suppose the robots have aerials anywhere on them, do they?"
Heal.
"I'd have spotted that."
Heal.
"Wall mounted communication devices?"
Heal.
"There are tannoys on the walls in a few places. Are they any use?"
Heal.
"Might be. I don't know much more about this than you."
Heal.
"Oh, what good does it do? Do you really think that something as simple as radio waves could breach our dimensional bubble?!"
Heal.
"No, not really. But once we have a working communications device of some sort I can wire in the Transferral Node from my sword and that will allow us to listen in to my allies' communication devices."
Heal.
"Transferral Node? What's that when it's at home?"
Heal.
"Apokoliptian technology. It lets me connect a device to my soul. Did you notice how your amulet thing pulled my sword for a second or two and then lost its grip?"
Heal.
"Not specifically. I was busy trying to plan out my next move."
Heal.
"Alright, well, without that, my big sword is a nasty bit of kit but it's still basically a sword."
Heal.
"What's so special about it?"
Heal.
I reach back with my right arm and take hold of the hilt before releasing the clamps and bringing it around to my front. "X-ionised edge with Nth metal chasing. Nothing sharper or more resilient in the universe, and that's leaving aside the force field disrupting properties. The Apokoliptian construction of the rest lends resilience and resistance to magic and reality warping. Usually."
Heal.
"The spell should have stopped that."
Heal.
"Yes, it did. Fortunately I was able to extend my soul into it and push the effect away. It reactivated at full power immediately." I stab the daiklave into the stone floor. Alright, let's assume that the radio idea is a bust. "Do you think that you could funnel additional raw magic into me?"
Heal.
"Not enough to make a damn bit of difference. The castle is designed to keep all of its magic to itself. It took me months just to work out how to extend the weapon-nullification effect."
Heal.
"Can you reset it? Having my ring and Father Box back would give me a lot more options."
Heal.
"No, it's designed to resist that. Adding, yes. Taking away is a little beyond me."
Heal.
We both spend a few moments in silence, thinking the problem over.
Heal.
"Where exactly is this castle?"
Heal.
"At the moment? I believe it's a semi-stabilized portion of the Dreaming, though I could be wrong. The owner wasn't around to consult when our little company took possession."
Heal.
"No, I mean... Normally."
Heal.
"Western Scotland. Used to belong to a man named Cursitor Doom, but he was declared dead decades ago."
Heal.
"Any way to get in touch with him?"
Heal.
"Not as far as I know." I hear him move. "Not a bad idea, if we get desperate. If there is a way to get a message out, it would almost certainly go to him."
Heal.
"Why would we have to be desperate?"
Heal.
"He wasn't declared dead on a whim. Britain doesn't have enough competent wizards that we could easily afford to lose him. We searched, with means both conventional and arcane. Not a sniffle. What sort of weaponry does your Father Box have?"
Heal.
"None, so far as I'm aware. Why?"
Heal.
"Oh, it just sounded like an odd thing to call a gun. The spell should only affect weapons."
Heal.
I almost ask Father Box if he's been holding out on me. "He has an extensive database of weapons of various sorts. Would that set it off?"
Heal.
"No, or it would have shut off your brain as well. And mine, come to mention it."
Heal.
"Boom tube generation?" No, doesn't sound like it. "Matter reorganisation?"
Heal.
"Probably. If you remove the component that performs that function then it may start working again."
Heal.
"If Himon or Desaad drop by I'll ask them to do that."
Heal.
Hm. I suppose that now is as good a time as any. I hold out my right hand.
Heal.
"In blackest day, in brightest night,
Beware your fears made into light,
Let those who try to stop what's right,
Burn by my power, Prince Grayven's might!"
Heal.
…
Heal.
I wait.
Heal.
No, nothing. The ring's totally dead.
Heal.
"Poetic. What was it meant to do?"
Heal.
"Summon my personal lantern. But with the ring dead, it can't connect to the subspace pocket where I keep it."
Heal.
"And the fact that we're stuck in a pocket universe of our own doesn't help." He's not wrong. "I may have an idea. How much 'communication' has to be going on for your Transferral Node to function?"
Heal.
"No idea. Honestly, it was chancy with a radio."
Heal.
"Does it need to be physical, or would a spell suffice?"
Heal.
"Um. A spell might be better, actually. But I somehow doubt that you're powerful enough. No offence intended."
Heal.
"No, but… We have an intact speaker, we have bits of robot which presumably communicate with each other somehow, and we have a network of spells hardwired into the stones of this place. Given the dimensional nature of the trap, their size is effectively infinite. I hear that large aerials are useful in these matters."
Heal.
"Might be on to something there. Of course, we still need to actually find a way out, but it's a start."
Heal.
"With us trapped here Penny lost access to her drones. We don't have to worry about them attacking us. A few months ago she had me charm a couple of the smaller ones. I don't understand the circuitry but I remember her description of the components. If you cut one open then I should be able to salvage what we need for that."
Heal.
I nod. "Is there a nexus to the spell network on the castle? That would be the ideal spot."
Heal.
"Yes, Doom's workshop. We can set up in there after we get the parts we need." I hear his clothing rustle as he gets to his feet. "This way."
Heal.
Yes, a physical cue to the direction. Very helpful. Ah, fuck it. I have to open them sooner or later. My eyelids stick together as they haven't since last time I had an eye infection. I can feel some parts sticking more than others, and the slight tearing sensation as some of the stuck parts become unstuck. Flashes of brilliant white light stab at my brain through the narrow opening.
Function as I demand!
"Come on, y-. I thought you said Derek blinded you?"

"I undo my own injuries. Slowly." I keep them as near to closed as I can, peering around me. Slight degrees of differentiation appear, brown-grey and… Light brown-grey. "How do they look?"

"Like you had cataracts, then someone stabbed you. Can you see anything out of that?"

"Not much, but at least I don't risk walking into walls." I nod at the moving blob. "Lead on, MacDuff."

"The line is 'lay on'. Lay on, MacDuff. And since we're not charging an enemy it doesn't apply."

"Alright. Lead on Mister Kipling. And remember that I can survive longer than you without food or water."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:32 GMT

"What did you actually… Ugh."

I try making out what Mister Kipling is working on. The image is a little clearer now, but I'm a way off getting fine details. "Problem?"

"No, no, done. I don't know how you plan to wire your sword in, but the robot and the speaker are thoroughly bodged together."

"Right." I reach back with my right hand, take hold of my daiklave and spin it before jamming it point first into the stone floor.

"Hey! Less fancy swordplay when you can't see what you're doing!"

"Not an option. I'm the Apokoliptian God of Conquest. When I perform spiritual acts I must do so in a thematically appropriate mode, leaving my mark on the stone." I bend down, feeling along the blade. Open.

"What did you do to Derek? I didn't think anything could hurt him any more."

"See the little sword in my scabbard?" Ah, Apokoliptian technology. The wires exist purely to convey the idea of connection. I detach one from the Transferral Node and then gently feel around for a suitable connection point on the object Mister Kipling has put together.

"Yes. Wasn't that what you used to decapitate Klarion?"

I nod. "It was made to slay the First of the Fallen. Sabbac Two used it to cut off Captain Marvel's arms. I have yet to encounter a creature it can't harm."

"I thought he was invulnerable."

"I don't believe in invulnerability. I was a bit surprised by how much punishment he took-."

"Oh, the Eye knitted him back together after every hit. I was wondering how you finished him off. Stab to the brain as you did with Sabbac? Or was separating his head from the gem enough to prevent further regeneration?"

"No idea. I was blind at the time, so I just used your amulet." I find a suitable attachment point and stand, both hands going around my daiklave's hilt. "Okay, I'm probably going to need your help making this work. Watch what I'm doing and nudge it along if you see an-."

"My amulet?"

"Yes. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Puts us on a bit of a clock, yes. That thing is only designed to keep someone contained for a few minutes. The only reason why he isn't already free is because we're on our own demiplane."

"So did he get wiped or will he reappear the moment we break out?"

"The latter. Give it here, I'll see if I can-."

I shake my head. "I don't trust you that much."

"He'll know I've helped you. He won't consider saving myself to be an adequate excuse!"

"So are you.. going to ask me for sanctuary, or are you just planning on hiding and hoping it blows over?"

"As long as he doesn't see us together I'm sure that I can come up with something. He wasn't expecting me to actually fight you."

"I'll think about it. Now, let's focus on the job at hand." I tighten my grip around the hilt. This is the first time I've tried anything this complicated…

He was right. I can feel the daiklave, the robot parts and -dimly- the castle itself. Ugh, the minuscule nature of this false universe makes me feel unwell as I try to make sense of it. No, no. I'm not the God of Intellect. Think like a conqueror. I stop feeling out the pattern and pull. I have taken this castle! Slain or subjugated its defenders! By Right of Conquest this is my domain!

The speaker crackles slightly as I feel the castle trying to resist. Doesn't feel directed at me in any sort of complex way, just the resistance of any system already in motion.

"Allow me, Mister Grayven. Just a… Little… Alteration…"

And everything snaps into focus. I still don't know what the parts of the system do and I'm not about to try fiddling with them. I might hit whatever it is that is keeping my ring inactive and I might hit whatever it is maintaining this demiplane and dump us into the Dreaming. Or worse, the Bleed. Instead, I try feeling outwards, letting my Conqueror's Ambition run wild. I will take all that is out there! Summon My Vassals!

"…ast as me, but he is far stronger than I am."

My eyes snap open as I hear Miss Amane's voice. Come on, keep talking.

"Iname, the man you are fighting is almost certainly the British superhero Tri-Man."

Glad that Doctor Robbins is keeping things organised.

"A superhero? No, tell me what he can do!"

"Enhanced speed, strength and augmented vision. Don't bother trying to hide."

"Understood."

"And avoid lethal force if at all possible! The last thing we need is a fight with Superman as well."

"Yes Ma'am."

I raise my eyebrows at Mister Kipling. "Anything you feel like sharing at this juncture?"

"Compartmentalisation is the name of the game, I'm afraid. I didn't even know other offensive operations were being planned."

"Mister Tawny, report."

"Tawny?"

"My Tiger." Actually, what exactly does she expect him to say?

"Forgive my taciturnity, Doctor." What? That's.. his voice, but without my ring I shouldn't get a translation. Since when can he speak English out loud? "Fighting giant invisible robots is not as easy as I make it look."

"You have a talking Tiger?"

"Apparently." And how is he working a radio with paws?

"Is Miss Selton safe?"

"Giant robot, so, no. She's not injured, and-. Ah, one moment. Bally blighter's trying to get clever."

I turn my head towards Mister Kipling. "Giant robot?"

"The Brain has a monstrous chassis. I've no idea why they thought it was a good idea to deploy it in Superman's home city."

He's not that hard to distract. Had one or two plans to arrange for that to happen myself. "Giant invisible robot?"

"Presumably they want plausible deniability. Oh, you mean 'how is it invisible'?"

"Yes."

"Technology derived from Crandell's gauntlet. Not really my department."

This sounds like a fight I should be involved in. I mean, I suppose the point of having competent subordinates is that they can fight without me watching over them the whole time… "Do you know where Vera Black is?"

"As far as I know she's still in the house you were trying to get to. With Chester around we were limited to using robotic drones for observation and couldn't risk a strike team being anywhere near the place."

"Would anyone else using a hush tube to get there end up here?"

"Not now, no. Why, did someone come through before you?"

"No." Find My Heir. "How about someone leaving it?"

"Wouldn't affect them."

"Attack a fooking school fulla fooking kids, will yeh?!"

Ah, good. Sounds like Chester's in fine form. And looking after Lynne. Must remember to thank him. "Any idea why your people are going after the Centre for Paranormal Research?"

"None."

"Alright, sounds like my people are managing. Any ideas on getting us out of here yet?"

**Daddy?**

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:35 GMT

I drop my customary mental shield immediately.

**Lynne!**

"Ow! What are you..?" I ignore Mister Kipling, trying to focus instead on the flicker I feel from the soul now so similar to my own. "That's not going to work. Nothing gets out."

"Could you recreate this place from scratch?"

"… No?"

"Then clearly you don't know everything there is to know about it. Now, where would whatever arcane device is used to bring us back to Earth Sixteen be kept?"

"Earth what?"

"There are parallel universe versions of Earth, ours is Sixteen, don't question it. Where?"

"Ah… Either the Queen's House in the Tower of London or GCHQ. Or, maybe somewhere else. It was in the Tower when I saw it, but that was last year and they might well have moved it since."

"What, Grayven's heeyuh?"

"If he is, he's keeping dashedly quiet about it. LOOK OUT!"

"Manchester Black, if you don't have something useful to say then keep quiet. Mister Tawny, don't shout warnings over the radio. Lynne, what do you mean?"

"You know how he does that thing with Uncle Scott and Aunty Barda, where there's two different types of speech happening at the same time? It felt like that."

"What did he say?"

"I-. I didn't get any words. Just… I felt him."

Okay, good. Getting somewhere.

"How the hell did you do that?"

"I gave my daughter part of my soul. I had thought that doing so might mean that I count as being both here and there. Not that it does a lot of good if I can't get a clear message across."

"Curious. I didn't think that would…" Mister Kipling quietens for a moment. "But that could mean… Alright, if we're isolated from everywhere but the Dream -and that's testable- we should still be able to use that to send messages to the waking world. If we're careful."

"And if we're in the Bleed?"

"Then we can't, but as I said, it's testable. We just have to go to sleep, and I'm already trained in lucid dreaming and dreamstate manipulation. Of course, if we're in the Bleed, and we have no source of additional power, then this place will experience planar collapse once the protective spells decay. In which case we'd be fucked."

"And if we're in a little fold in the Earth's own arcane planes?"

"Thhhhen it will either naturally decay and return us to our starting location -though that could be over a very long period of time- or it could be permanent."

"I might be able to survive the Bleed for a little while, depending on when my power ring reactivates. But still, suboptimal."

To put it mildly. Apparently Desaad actually tried throwing lowlies in a few times to see what happened. He stopped because it didn't produce good data, but according to Father Box his studies suggested that a New God should be able to brace themselves against the raw chaos in much the same way we ordinarily reinforce aspects of ourselves. Sinestro's input on the matter covered what the Weaponers and Guardians knew: power rings can maintain your coherence, but it sucks the energy out of the ring very quickly.

"Do you have a magician working for you?"

"Yes, with contact details for more."

"Okay." I hear his footsteps as he starts pacing. "So, communication is possible. We just need to find a form this place isn't designed to prevent. Keep trying."

"Lynne, this is… Your father speaking. Can you hear me?"

"Have you felt him again?"

"No, not yet. I've tried talking like that before and I can barely do it. I'm not as powerful as he is."

Yet. Communicate My Will! "Lynne, hear-."

"I heard him again!"

"Okay, the trick is for me to be at my most-" Grayveny. "-godly. I have to be absolutely in tune with my domain, but I can get through."

"Morse code! We could try Morse code."

"Lynne's twelve! She's not going to know Morse code."

"No, but Chester will."

"I mean, she's probably not going to know that Morse code is a thing."

"Whatever are you teaching her?"

"I'm trying to teach her how to be a child." I squeeze my eyes shut in an attempt to ignore the visual distraction of blur-o-vision. "Look, I'm connected to the castle's magic networks. Can you make sense of any of it?"

"Even if I could, I don't have the power to-."

"Teamwork, Mister Kipling. You can use me for power. Do not abuse this privilege."

"Very well." I hear the sliding of cloth and a slight bump as he sits down. "Can I just point out the incongruity of trusting me with your soul and not with my own equipment?"

"Heard and ignored. Get to work."

He exhales steadily. "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao."

"Was that Uncle from Jackie Chan Ad-?"

"Concentrating here. It's a perfectly viable Taoist-."

"Fine. Sorry." I focus as well, expanding my awareness around My Bulwark. It takes a moment, but after a little effort I begin to recognise the patterns in the infinitely repeating sets of spells. Speak Plainly. And then… It's like they aren't infinite. I see it as one thing in infinite places, each…

That's actually quite beautiful.

"A-hah! Found something!"

"A way out?"

"No. But. Once I took a look at your connection to your daughter, I checked to see if there was anything else similar. And there is."

"Is there someone else here?"

"No, it looks like it's set to trigger automatically. If we're lucky, it's the thing which is connected to the system which triggers the isolation."

"And if we're unlucky?"

"Well… This place does have working toilets."

Ah. "Are there any other such triggers?"

"There are thousands of triggers. But it's the only one which looks like the one you made. It's probably a communication channel of some kind and I could spend the rest of… However long I've got until I die of thirst, trying to make sense of everything else."

"So the choice is..?"

"Unless you can subvert it in some way? Leave it on or turn it off."

Control The Communication!

I feel that part of the magic network become more… Quiescent, but that doesn't tell me what it does.

Answer Your God!

The link shimmers, telling me that it is working just as well as it can. That appears to be the limits of my ability.

"Turn it off."

I feel a slight tug as Mister Kipling uses my connection to cut the string.

"Notice anything?"

"No. Feel anything?"

A vague disquiet that my domain is now slightly smaller. "No. Let me know if-."

And I collapse to the floor as the whole network is yanked away from me.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:39 GMT

Ow. Really ow.

"What in the name of unlubricated buggery was that?"

"Ow." Feels like a chunk of my soul just got torn off. What the fuck was that?

"I can't feel the castle! Grayven, get up! Or die!"

"Eh." I plant my right palm on the floor and push myself into a slumping position. "What do you mean 'or die'? How would that help?"

"I could probably survive for weeks if I had your body to eat." I hear him get back to his feet and dust himself off. "Longer if I freed Derek and cut the Right Eye of Zoltec out of his chest with your short sword. Or I could just free him and ask him if he has any way to return the castle to normal space."

My right hand trembles as I attempt to come up to all fours. "That would seem to involve less risk."

"What happened to you?"

"He trifled with things that would not stand to be trifled with."

I don't recognise the voice. Male. Sounds… Older. Upper class, in a BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer sort of way. I orientate my head in his direction, seeing a black blob with a pale strip running from the top down to the middle. "I generally find that trifling is all a matter of who has the bigger spoon. And elbow power."

"Curious. Though I think that I will prove that owning the kitchen comes with the greater advantage."

I don't have time for this. "Mister Kipling, who is-?"

"Doom?" He sounds confused. "Cursitor Doom? But you're… Dead."

"No, merely taking an extended leave of absence. And what, pray tell, are you?"

I frown. Thinking is… Hard. "He's a wizard, given name of Mister Willoughby Kipling. And who are you?"

"As Mister Kipling surmised, I am Cursitor Doom. And you are intruding."

"Not my idea. I was heading… To a house in Berkshire. My portal was interrupted." Wait, why did I just-?

"And your presence here was enough to justify casting it loose from its moorings in the material world and setting it adrift in the subtle realms? What manner of man are you?"

"I'm one who doesn't usually-" I stagger to my feet, right fist swinging in the blob's direction. "-answer questions this readily."

My fist stops dead against thin air. I didn't feel any pressure, nothing to indicate that I'd encountered a barrier. My arm.. just.. doesn't.. move. Eh? Oh, I am not having good luck today.

"Violence. The first refuge of the brute. That does not speak well for-."

"Excuse me, I was kidnapped and had my eyes gouged out while allies of the one who did it attack my friends and family and why am I volunteering information like this?"

"You flooded the mystic energies of my castle with your essence. But you failed to take into account that I -as the owner of the castle- had a superior connection to it. And the castle was more than willing to hand over to me every mote of the power which you impressed upon it."

…

Oh shit.

"You're holding a chunk of my soul." Not an insurmountable problem. A soul is.. after all, basically a magic energy construct. I've still got more than enough energy to keep me going and an hour or two in the mana infuser should top me up to functional levels. But in the short term it's going to leave me weak and…

Oh.

A magic user has a chunk of my soul. That means that he can do pretty much whatever he likes to me, limited only by his own knowledge. Again, there are ways around it, but they mostly involve sitting in a magic circle while your allies hunt down and off the blighter responsible. In a situation like this…

"What do you want?"

"I left the leasehold on my home to an ally of mine, a Mister Crandell. I knew that he in turn had passed it on to a group of specialists in the employ of the British government. I see by the expression on your face that you know what I have it in my power to do to you. I have never been one for senseless violence, but I will have an answer, creature. Who and what are you?"

"My name is Grayven. I am an…" I briefly try to stop myself and my jaw starts spasming as the words try to escape. "A-p-p-pokkkkoliptian New God."

"New God? And what do you mean by that?"

"A god is a purposive arcane energy life form. A New God is flesh and energy both. I am man and god both."

"You came close to subverting the protections I placed upon this castle with brute force. I suppose that there may be something to your claim. What set you at odds with your hosts?"

"They discovered my plan to-" I can't stop but can I steer? "-detain and punish certain criminals in the British government." It seems that I can. Useful to know. "These criminals are well placed within the establishment, and were able to prevail upon Major Kelly to act against me."

"You have evidence?"

"Yes. Lots. Not all of it of flawless providence, but yes."

"And they have no other concerns about you?"

"Apparently the fact that I'm an alien is an issue for some."

"And, ah… If I may, sir?"

"Yes, Mister Kipling? You have something to add?"

"He also became a close associate of the President of America and amassed a group of exceedingly powerful henchmen. He's also a close associate of several known supervillains. There was concern that his influence might not be entirely legitimate, or natural. Aaaand he threatened to guillotine the entire royal family."

"No, just those in the immediate line of succession. Also, what happened to teamwork?"

"I no longer need you in order to escape." I feel him pat me on the right shoulder. "Good team up, chum."

Motherfu-.

"Mister Grayven?"

"My medium term objectives coincide rather well with the President's concerns. I also have a great deal of knowledge he lacks, and that makes me useful. Yes, I give people superpowers. That hardly makes me unique, and I'm giving those under my command direction, guidance and instruction in their use with the aim of serving the greater good of… Everyone, really. I'm trying to persuade the supervillains in question to use their fantastic abilities in more productive ways than simply lashing out at those who attract their ire. It's a work in progress. I don't use mind control as a long term thing; it's an uncomfortable reminder of Apokolips and I don't think that the advantages outweigh the costs. A lot of the royal family are implicated in the misdeeds I spoke of and… It was really more of a threat than a firm plan."

"What did you intend to do with these… People, whom you say have committed grave crimes?"

"Kill the worst, try and sentence the rest as soon as the judiciary has been cleansed of those involved."

"I assume that you don't have this evidence you spoke of on you?"

"I have some. Unfortunately, I keep it stored on my ring and your anti-weapon charms have disabled it. Mister.. Doom. I would be happy to share everything I have with you, but I need to return as soon as possible. My people are fighting for their lives, and with my soul in your hands you have all the leverage against me you need. Please."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"That the very moment the attack against them is over I will attempt to block your power over me."

"And?"

"And then take such actions as to ensure that it can't be used against me."

"And that is all?"

"There are thousands of things I haven't told you, but nothing immediately applicable."

"Very well then, Mister Grayven. We will return to the material world. You will be under my close supervision. I would advise that you not disappoint me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:43 GMT

There's a sharp intake of breath from Mister Kipling. Was that it? My magic sense vanished with my spiritual force and I certainly can't see worth a damn. Father Box?

…

"Mister Doom, I'm going to need my weapons back. We need to get to Metropolis, and unless you can teleport us a boom tube would be-."

There's a sort of fizzing noise from my right side. OHSHITAMULET! I twist around, falling back to the ground as I try and grab it with my right hand. My fingers brush the surface and I flick it away just as quickly as I can.

There's a flickering from the far side of the room where I threw it, then a new blob appears.

"Mister Doom, I would very much like it if-"

"Nice try, alien. But whatever magic makes that knife of Sabbac's work on me, it doesn't stay worked."

"-we could leave now. Please!"

"Major Kelly."

"Cursitor Doom. Thank you for detaining the prisoner. I'll handle it from here."

"Major Kelly, I am afraid that I must question you concerning accusations made in my presence concerning the moral probity of the British government."

He's not…

"No formal accusations have been made, but investigations are continuing. This alien is sheltering a known murderer. Now, get out of my way and let me do my job. What is it, Kipling?"

"I'm not sure that it's the best idea to challenge a wizard in his own castle, Kelly."

"Major Kelly, I am not unfamiliar with the concept of a government conspiracy. Well intentioned as you may be, I am afraid that I cannot simply ignore testimony given to me under truth compulsion. Particularly when the one requesting the handover may well be implicated."

G-uh! "I have no specific evidence which suggests that Major Kelly is personally involved in the crimes which I am investigating. Though Chester's reports do strongly suggest that he has violated various national and international laws at the direction of the Home Secretary in the performance of his duties."

"Did you become a member of a British police or security service when I wasn't looking?"

"I'm afraid to say that I did not."

"Then I'm not going to concern myself with your opinion. Move or be moved."

I hear a series of rapid steps from the direction of Mister Kipling. Then a sort of woosh.

"Regrettable, but he will of course survive the fall. Mister Kipling, do you intend to join us or remain here?"

"Difficult question. I think on balance I'd rather stay. But if you could keep me appraised..?"

"That will depend on the result of my investigation. Mister Grayven? Your… Devices should-"

Ploong.

Corpsman, what just happened?

"-resume their function momentarily."

Ploong.

I know!

Plooong.

Yes, Yes. "Mister Doom, I… I can barely stand. Your magics only require the smallest part of my essence to cripple me completely. Could I please have at least a little back?"

"Very well, but I would caution you against the abuse of my generosity."

I wait for oh, that's better. I push myself up on all fours, then cautiously get my right foot under me and gently push upwards. There's a moment of dizziness and I hold my hands out to the sides to try and improve my balance. It passes, and I'm able to stand once again.

U-uhhh.

Right, quick check. Sword of the Fallen, check. Daiklave… Sticking out of the floor next to a gaping chasm. A gaping chasm whose bottom I can't see. Extra motivation -if any were needed- to be polite to Mister Doom. I pull the daiklave free and attach it to my back. Anything I'm forgetting? The illusion amulet, but that was broken and I don't think I'm in any position to make demands here. Any biological material I left down in the cell should have been destroyed by the fire…

I'm waiting for an answer, Corpsman!

Weapon nullification spell. Father Box, boom tube to the Centre for Paranormal Research in Metropolis. And see if you can do something about my eyes.

Ploong.

Alright. Sinestro?

Even now, your physiology resists me. A three dimensional map appears in my head. Better?

Yes, thank you. Father Box?

Boom!

Cursitor Doom regards the portal without much expression. "A curious technology."

I use Sinestrovision to check myself over. Bit of a mess. One quick wave of yellow and I'm presentable again, my eyes excepted. Doing my best to remain confident-looking I stride through the portal-

31st May
13:46 GMT -5

-and raise my ring to my right ear. "Grayven to everyone status re-"

"Master!"

"-port."

Miss Amane appears in front of me, looking somewhat dishevelled. "Master, where were you!? I was dreadfully worried!"

"Iname, where's Lynne?"

"Daddy!"

I turn, Sinestrovision showing me Lynne dashing down the corridor towards me, with…

Is that Mister Tawny? Yes, must be. The hulking Tiger-Man walks lightly down the corridor after her, his fur glowing faintly golden as it ripples in a nonexistent breeze. I kneel down and spread out my arms just in time for Lynne to run into my chest. We embrace.

And I breathe out.

A few seconds pass like that. I hate not being… Able to react to things.

"Grayven."

I tilt my head upwards in the direction of Mister Tawny's face. "Mister Tawny. That's a new look for you."

"I've been spending some time in the mana infuser." He holds out his right paw-hand, razor sharp claws extended. "A curious sensation. I think bipedalism could grow on me."

"Casualties?"

"We took a few hits, nothing to create a scene about. Tri-Man is being transported to Stryker's Island and the central cognition unit of the giant robot is being held by the Special Crimes Unit."

"What about the bystanders?"

"A few broken bones here and there. And various minor injuries. No deaths."

I frown. "No Superman?"

"Busy with something or other."

"The rest of the League?"

"Hawkman got in contact but Doctor Robbins told him that we had things in hand. Apparently there's been a bit of a spate of attacks today."

Behind me, Cursitor Doom walks through the boom tube, which shuts down behind him. Mister Tawny turns his head to look at him, then returns his attention to me. "Why don't we pop back to the mountain for a bit of a note-comparing session?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
18:58 GMT

"Oh, come in, come in!"

Mayor Johnson waves at me from where he stands next to some kind of mobile notice board. Pinned to it is what appears to be a line drawing of London, with roads and railway lines clearly marked out. There are also fourteen coloured pins stuck in various places. Apparently satisfied, he turns away and ambles back towards the table.

"Thank you, Mister Mayor." I push the door open the rest of the way and walk into the meeting room. "Not the Assembly meeting room this time?"

He stops dead mid paper shuffle. "Oh gosh. Did you want to?"

"No. Um, probably? You.. may need to run my proposal by a few people, but I can't think of any problem with presenting it to you first." He nods, looking a little relieved. "Do you mind if I ask-" I point towards the board. "-what that's about?"

He grins. "Finally got the RMT b-." He cuts himself off and has a quick check around the room. "Blighters on the back foot. It's your doing, you know. You and that Sephtian fellow and your wonderful portals."

I pull out the chair opposite him and sit down. "I haven't kept up to date. Is it still going down well?"

"What, you mean the ones in Battersea?" He finishes getting his papers together and puts the pile on one side before pulling out his chair and sitting down on it. "They aren't attracting quite so many visitors as they did when they were first installed, but they're on the itinerary of every tourist who comes here. You know, I was thinking." He brushes his hair back slightly with his right hand. "Do you think the Battersea Power Plant would work as a sort of… Hub, for them?"

"I was rather assuming that you'd want to follow the existing underground route." I think for a moment. "Maybe? A hub-based system could work, but it would get pretty darn crowded at peak time with everyone going through the same area."

"Oh, no no no. I don't mean for the final system. But I was talking to the Atlantean UN Ambassador chappie about the delivery timelines, and their best guess is that it's going to take years to make as many as we need to replace the tube network." He waves his left arm at the board. "This is just supposed to be a temporary thing. You know, take some pressure off the network-."

I smile. "And put some on the RMT."

He leans forward slightly, inclining his head. "You didn't hear that from me."

I nod, taking a look at the board. "In that case, yes, depending on your predicted footfall. I'd be happy to put them in place when you're ready to go… Um, assuming that I'm on the planet at the time." I turn back to him. "No problem getting approval for the system?"

"Oh, you know, normal union hot air. Nothing substantive. PM's fine with it, our lawyers say that there's no legal challenge that could be mounted that would stand much chance of success. Once we're ready to go we're ready to go."

I nod, smiling. "I'm glad to hear it."

"So, um." He rubs his hands together in front of his chest. "What was it you wanted to talk about? Terrorists? Supervillains? Some sort of demonic portal opening up under the streets of London?" He grins jovially.

I shake my head. "No, I shut the portal down months ago. It's really more-."

"Wait, what? You did?" His eyes widen. "There actually was a portal?"

"Yes sir. But it's closed, sealed, and everything that came through was destroyed."

"Ah." He relaxes slightly. "That's a relief. So what was it?"

"I need a favour. It's a fairly big one, and I'm perfectly happy to compensate the City of London for any costs incurred."

"Alright. What do you want?"

"I want to fight a supervillain here. To be precise, I wish to lure them here in order to fight them here."

"Um." Boris frowns, tiling his head slightly to the right. "Why?"

"The supervillain in question is a Lich. An.. undead magic user of considerable power. Among the various feats of magic it can perform is teleportation. Now, I can.. jam most forms of technology based teleportation… But.. I.. can't reliably block magic teleportation. Fortunately, the chief shaman of London can."

"Chief… Shaman..?" He clicks his fingers. "Oh, don't tell it, it's that chap… What'shisname… Met him once…"

"His name is Ken Ondaate and since he works for Transport for London you might have met him on a picket line at some point. Otherwise, I rather doubt it."

"Oh." He frowns. "No, I was going completely in the wrong direction with that one."

"Mister Ondaate is an extremely powerful magic user, but his influence only extends as far as the city does. That's why-."

Boris holds up his right hand. "Sorry, just… Transport for London employs a wizard?"

W-? Oh. "Not in his capacity as a wizard. He does cleaning and basic maintenance. He just.. likes walking around under his city."

"Mpf." Boris shrugs with both hands. "Who am I to judge? I suppose he may as well do it here as in Tibet or somewhere." He puffs out his cheeks, then exhales. "And he can stop this Lich escaping?"

"Testing it.. is.. somewhat tricky, but we believe so."

"And then you can take it in a fight?"

"Again, I can't give a complete guarantee, but…" I nod. "Yes. My team and I believe that we can."

He nods. "And the risk of collateral damage?"

"The best information we have is that it will attempt to leave, and if unable to do so will focus on its attackers. If we're all dead, it should simply leave. The main problem will be from… Missed attacks. A directed energy attack or a projectile weapon keeps going until it hits something. That's why I want to sort the whole thing out in advance."

"There are a lot of people in London. If you're talking about evacuating a large area, that's…" He shakes his head.

"My current plan is to have the fight take place as much as possible in Hyde Park. That way, clearing out the immediate area shouldn't be too difficult."

"What about Richmond Park? It's far larger. If you could keep the combat zone down to the middle we might not have to evacuate anyone."

"Mister Ondaate's magic is stronger the closer towards the city centre he is. Richmond Park is sufficiently far away that he's not sure that he could maintain the spell." Boris nods. "I can provide mobile force field generators for the periphery of the park and I can set up all kinds of wards in advance, but I would advise that the buildings on the edge of the park be evacuated before the fight starts."

"Right. And how long do we have?"

"I'm aiming for the seventh of July."

"Oh." He smiles for a second. "I thought this was going to be a bit more imminent."

"This sort of thing needs a lot of planning."

"I'm glad you appreciate that."

"Beyond the evacuation, we'd need a police cordon keeping people away, road blocks and… I'd certainly appreciate it if there were paramedics on standby. Again, I'm obviously prepared to pay for all of it."

"That will help. What happens if you don't?"

"Don't… Fight him here?" Boris nods. "Then I'll have to fight him somewhere else. London is the best place I've been able to find, but we could do it somewhere else. The trap would be far less reliable though… I.. wouldn't like our chances of keeping the Lich contained. If it helps..?" He raises his eyebrows. "I realise that this has the capacity to go very badly wrong. I am willing not merely to cover the costs, but to compensate for the risk."

"In what way?"

"One week of my time. With a power ring, I can…"

"Chase down criminals?"

"Yes. I can also remove industrial contamination from brown field sites that no one is prepared to build on. Or I can skip the middleman and build cheap housing myself. Just give me the plans. If you're having trouble with the tunnels for HS Two, I can do that. And I understand that you had plans to build an island in the Thames Estuary to build an airport on? Just give me the plans and I'll do it. I don't usually do… Industrial things, but I'm willing to make an exception here. This is very important to me."

"Right." He nods again. "Is it alright if I discuss this with people?"

"I'd rather you kept the need-to-know down, but if you need to talk to someone, yes, that's completely fine."

"Okay then. Let me think about this, and we'll meet up again… Same time next week?"

I nod. "Thank you, Boris."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
13:17 GMT -6

I frown at the replay of the fight which took place in the Metropolis streets a few hours ago. "Something's not right here."

"I dunno, cock." Chester is leaning back in his chair, hands folded behind his head. "Feelin' pretty good about it meself."

His sister frowns slightly. "What d'you mean?"

Chester prevailed upon Doctor Robbins to open another tube for her once the fight got started. Apparently I had Mister Kipling sufficiently distracted that their attempt was successful. Miss Amane, Miss Selton, Mister Tawny and Doctor Robbins are also at the table. Miss Shimmer spent the whole incident in her laboratory. She didn't even realise that the mountain was in lockdown. Lynne is currently sitting on my lap and she isn't going to be moving for some time.

"Alright." I reach around my daughter to activate the holographic display. My people have monitoring equipment on them constantly, so reconstructing Chester's movements wasn't too difficult. "I stepped through the portal at twelve forty five-."

Doctor Robbins nods, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Without sending a drone through first. Or establishing contact by radio and asking Vera to come through."

Miss Amane scowls at her, but I nod. I'd like to have been able to spend some time in the mana infuser, but getting my eyes very nearly back in working condition has rather improved my outlook. "A valuable point, and one which you can work into the next SOP update. If I may continue?"

She gives me a curious look, then nods.

"A minute and a half later, Chester plonks himself down next to the man observing Iname and Miss Selton." Who is sitting at the far end of the table and trying not to look too intimidated. "Nothing on telepathy, so he tried conversation and managed to give away his own identity almost immediately. That prompted an immediate attack." The holographic image of Chester throws himself backwards as the other man lunges across the table, a pneumatic spike sprouting from his right hand and stabbing at my colleague. Chester finds his feet, spreads his arms wide and stares, his eyes glowing. His opponent crumbles into a mechanical heap. "Chester, for future reference, if you're not certain it's a robot, try leaving it in a shape which allows it to answer questions."

"It were one of Penny's, weren't it?"

"Probably, but you didn't know that."

"Fooker tries t'kill me, I'll kill him right back."

"Chester, I'm not saying 'don't cripple them', I'm just saying 'don't kill them before we can interrogate them if you can possibly avoid it'. If we don't know who we're fighting, we don't know who to strike back against."

"Dolmann's stuff is all remote operated. There wouldn't be anything t'salvage anyway."

"Lots of people build robots. The more intact they are, the better our chance of identifying them. Anyway." Chester looks for a moment like he wants to keep arguing the point, but he shrugs it off. "Moments later someone later identified as Jonathan Small -aka Tri-Man- flies through the front window of the shop containing Iname and Miss Selton."

We have surprisingly good footage of this part as well. Apparently, Metropolis is so well known for its superfights that shops invest in high quality cameras in the hope of getting sellable footage. I'm not sure whether to find that impressive or depressing. I am genuinely impressed by the speed at which Miss Amane reacts to their attacker, beaning him in the head with her handbag before grabbing a display stand to use as a weapon and signalling Doctor Robbins. The impact doesn't appear to hurt him, but being momentarily blinded causes him to veer off. Miss Selton reacts with wide-eyed astonishment before bringing her hands together in front of her and throwing a sheet of flame in Tri-Man's direction.

"A word of advice, Miss Selton? Creating broad swaths of fire in a room full of easily flammable objects should be avoided where at all possible."

"Um. Yeah. Okay."

"Short and precise ultra-hot bursts are the way to go when fighting for your life. Or running away."

"Ah." She glances at Chester. "You just told… Mister Black..?"

"Chester's a veteran professional. You're a teenaged civilian. I don't hold you to the same standards that I hold him." She nods. "Now, when Doctor Robbins gets the signal, she sends Mister Tawny and a group of G-Elves to the Centre for Paranormal Research-."

"Actually, I just meant to send the G-Elves." She glances at our newly-ascended Nishoba. "I didn't even realise that Mister Tawny could understand English."

"I am a fine example of a modern Tigris Sapien,
I'm combination Tiger, Man, and perhaps a little alien-."

"You don't need to prove it." Mister Tawny flicks his ears at her interruption. "I also sent a few drones, the ones with the advanced sensors. Those are what spotted the robot."

I nod. "I didn't see it pre-crushing. How big was it?"

Mister Tawny scratches his chin with the claw of his right index… Finger? "About eight metres, sole to scalp, and humanoid. I imagine that Ms Dolmann created it."

Vera nods. "The AI pilotin' it was The Brain. We used t' use it fer data analysis."

Chester exhales through his teeth. "Creepy fookin' thing."

"And the robot was flown into position by aerial drones -likewise invisible- which explains why no one crashed into it walking down busy Metropolis roads. And if we put the three images together-" I press a button on the holodisplay so that all three locations are showing, then play them from Chester sitting down. "-it looks like The Brain landed at the same time that Tri-Man launched his attack."

Vera nods. "So they both got their orders from Dolmann."

"While at the same time in Castle Doom I was busy pretending to be a child psychologist. So here's the question. Why? We knew that SHADE were interested in Miss Selton, but as far as anyone in…" I look at Vera. "Did your lot have a collective name?"

"Not realih."

"Kelly's Heroes knows, she's just one of many students at the Centre for Paranormal Research. Yes, one I've spoken to, but I've spoken to several and our first in-depth conversation was yesterday. That's not anything like enough time to build a giant robot, and I doubt that it's enough time to get one from the UK to the US either. Trying to snatch Lynne makes sense if they're trying to counter me, but why her?"

Doctor Robbins nods. "An informant? Do you think there's someone watching the Centre who tipped them off that you might be interested in her?"

"More likely a drone that removed itself once Dolmann realised that we could see through the invisibility, but it's possible. Except… I heard Kelly mention a 'Father T-' before Mister Kipling cut him off. And he mentioned 'friends'. The friends could be his superiors, but-."

"They could also be SHADE." Doctor Robbins turns to our tame Mancunians. "Either of you hear anything about your employers having anything to do with them?" A pair of shaking heads. "Okay, but so what? You think they made a deal with SHADE, trading information for Claire?"

"Could be. The other thing that bothers me is this." I shove the images of the ongoing fights between my people and Kelly's aside and open up a series of other pictures. "Kal-El doesn't respond to a fight in his own city because he's already dealing with a forest fire in California. Batman's been spending the day chasing around after someone called 'The Cluemaster' and apparently Doctor Poison has planted various toxic gasses in a number of cities and had the rest of the League rushing around to discover and defuse them. None of these cities-" I bring up a map. "-has a zeta tube, but each is within an hour's travelling distance of one that does. The League has zeta tubes in many major cities, and while their presence isn't exactly a secret, it isn't widely known. All that means that the Justice League has been fully occupied. We've been fully occupied and I strongly suspect that if I asked I'd find that my youthful former team mates were getting sent after Doctor Poison." I tap another button. "And there have been other crimes, keeping the attention of superheroes who aren't part of any larger groups. There isn't anything about today which suggests there's any reason for it to be a particularly high crime day, and the attackers don't have any known links."

"I was about to ask what's happening that no one with superpowers is around to see. But now I'm wondering who's looking after President Horne."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
13:25 GMT -6

I frown into the middle distance as the White House Chief of Staff gives me the bad news over the construct-phone. "Adrian, are you seriously telling me that you don't know where the President of the United States of America is?"

"I had a meeting with the House Minority Leader, he had a security briefing. I… I mean, he can't just have disappeared. What's got you so worried?"

"All of the members of the Justice League are currently occupied and a group associated with SHADE has had a go at killing me. Plus, as I told you, they've got form."

"In a parallel universe. That doesn't mean-. Oh, hang on. Yeah? Okay, that's great. Panic over, we've found him."

"'Found' as in 'spoken to in person', or 'found' as in 'heard a voice over a telephone."

"Over a skype set. She saw his face, and Julie's known him for years. I'm not going to bust in on him because you're having an attack of the paranoids. There are things I'm not authorised to hear."

"Ah. In that case, I'm sorry to have troubled you."

"It's fine. I mean, I'm glad you're concerned, but in this case there's… Really no problem."

I look at the drone images in front of me, showing me the White House where a frenetic Adrian Myer is shouting at members of the Secret Service and is very definitely not on the phone to me. The voice is perfect, the manner of speech… Whoever's doing this is very good.

Not only are they good, Corpsman, they are not feeling even the slightest trace of fear.

I raise my eyebrows at the other people in the room, Miss Shimmer and my domitor. I couldn't begin to understand the inscriptions they've scrawled upon the floor but there's a definite sense of something or other going on. Mister Doom is holding a pendulum over a map and I can see a slight tugging.

"Okay. Would you mind seeing if you can find room for me in the diary? Nothing too urgent, but there are a few things the President needs to be apprised of."

"Can it wait for your next weekly meeting? The next few days are going to be kind of busy for us here."

Mister Doom looks my way and gives me a single sharp nod.

"Ah… Yes, I suppose. I'll send a written report through normal channels, give you a chance to read up on it."

"I'll look forward to getting that. Goodbye, Mister Grayven."

My construct-phone beeps as he hangs up. "Mister Doom?"

"They are in Washington DC, but I am afraid that your belief that they would be ignorant of the arcane may have been excessively optimistic. The map gives their location as the Washington Monument, which is clearly impossible. If you have your drones perform a thorough search, you may still find a trace of him."

Father Box, boom tube.

Ploong.

A portal opens, and I hear a few gasps as passers by hurry to get out of the way. "Mister Doom, would you please accompany me?"

He takes hold of his pendulum and nods again. "Of course. If I were to get closer it would be far easier for me to locate him."

Miss Shimmer looks a little nervous. "Do you need me as well?"

I shake my head. "Not unless you've become an expert battlemage in the last few months. Thank you for your assistance."

"You're welcome." For a moment she looks like she wants to say something else, but then slightly lowers her head.

I raise my right hand to my ear as Mister Doom heads through the tube and looks around him. "Chester, Vera, Iname, immediate deployment. We're heading to the Washington Monument. Tawny, Jean, secondary targets." Then I stride through the tube myself, closing it behind me.

31st May
14:28 GMT -5

Surprisingly, my presence seems to calm the crowd somewhat. Sinestro, find him. I've invested too much-.

Corpsman.

Sorry. The people who tried to abduct my daughter are currently winning.

Better. I can't find him, but there does appear to be a chamber below us.

Right. "Mister Doom? Anything new?"

"I am very much afraid-" My three colleagues step out of thin air. "-not."

"Manchester Black, scan everything." He hesitates for a second, then nods, his eyes glowing a ghastly black-tinted green colour. And I focus. This was far easier with the orange ring, but I can still use my yellow ring to see fear. I know from looking in a mirror that it turns my eyes into glowing points of bright yellow light surrounded by darkness. Like Parallax itself were staring out of my face. A quick check that it's working -Chester fears powerlessness most strongly, Vera fears for him and Miss Amane fears failing me- and I look downwards.

Got you.

"No idea who grabbed the President, but I can feel the man himself clear as day." Chester's eyes normalise. "Right below us."

I look his way again, prompting him to frown as he sees my eyes. I blink them back to normal before nodding. "I agree."

Vera raises her eyebrows very slightly, shifting her forearms into their weapon configurations. "We going in by hush tube?"

Are we? Yes, of course. Tempting as making a giant yellow boring machine and burrowing through the ground is, whoever deposited him down there might just spot that and either kill him or-. Sinestro, teleport jam.

I was wondering when that would occur to you.

I've had a rough day. Father Box, open a hush tube close as you can to those coordinates and send in.. drone squadron two.

Ploong.

The reason I have subordinates is because they're useful. Yes, it's not exactly dramatic, but I'm standing next to a Human magician who is keeping a nontrivial amount of my soul in a small box. I'm feeling unusually cautious today.

Ploong.

Same to you. Alright, getting feedback from the drones. One President Horne, one… Muscular looking guy with a goatee. Looks familiar from somewhere. Sinestro, who is that man?

Doctor Joel Baines Cochin, Corpsman. I see that SHADE has high standards for its agents. He's a three-time Nobel Prize winner.

I've yet to see a man outthink my fists. I send the drones further in, moving around the subterranean workshop. Computers and.. a part-built robo-president. Excellent.

"One target, an unarmed scientist." I generate a construct of the room. "No real reason not to take him alive, but since he's probably going to be executed anyway don't strain yourselves. Ready?" I get nods. Father Box, hush tube.

I toss a flashbang through first, let it detonate, then step through myself.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
14:30 GMT -5

I form a fusion cannon on my right forearm and point it at Doctor Cochin, who blinks to clear his eyes. "Hands where I can see them, Doctor."

"Gra-." President Horne looks somewhat the worse for wear. His suit is scuffed and torn, his face is cut and a magnetic sensor balaclava has been put over his head. "Grayven?"

"I apologise for the delay, Mister President. These bastards had someone take a shot at my daughter. You alright?"

"I'll... I'll mend."

Chester and Vera appear behind Doctor Cochin at the far end of the workshop. The Doctor himself doesn't seem unduly troubled by this. Oh, he looks over his shoulders one after the other to confirm their relative position, but he doesn't move otherwise. If anything, he looks a little bored.

Hmm.

"Chester, crush his robot, would you?"

"Sure thing, cock." He raises his right hand melodramatically, eyes glowing. Then he makes a sort of slapping motion, the partially complete president-bot coming apart at the seams.

I keep staring at Doctor Cochin. I think he might have just sighed a little, but that's about it. "Doctor Joel Cochin, you're-."

"Baines."

"Excuse me?"

"Professionally. Baines Cochin. I long ago decided that 'Joel' was too plebeian for someone of my abilities."

"Alright. B-Man, you're under arrest, dawg." Still no real reaction. Not hopelessness… Something's off here. "Though I think it unlikely, you may find the courts more merciful if you-."

"Why do you insist on doing that?"

Never pass up an opportunity to learn something of your opponent. "Doing what?"

"You aren't a well-educated brute. You don't even really like playing up to it all that much. And yet, you insist on doing it. I can only assume that you do so to be tiresome. If we could perhaps skip ahead a little? I am perfectly capable of writing and memorising the computer code my automaton requires in my head. You are not distracting me significantly."

"Yeah… And what were you planning on running that code on?"

"The robot I build after I either kill you or detach your arms and legs and blind you. I haven't decided which as of yet." He raises his left hand to his shoulder, pointing at Vera. "Miss Black I will kill. Mister Black I will almost certainly leave alive. I think that his abilities will remain useful to me."

"Think I might not be all that keen on werkin' for yeh if yeh killed me sister."

Doctor Cochin ignores him. "Do you know what the worst thing about telepathy is, Mister Grayven?"

"Finding out how boring people really are?"

"Close, but I already knew that the Human race was -by and large- insipid. No, it's finding out what sort of people telepathy itself is wasted on. Chester Black is a telepath and telekinetic almost without-."

"Telekine."

For the first time I see something other than boredom in his expression. "Excuse me?"

"Telekine. A telekine is someone with telekinetic abilities who can perform feats of telekinesis. It's one of those irregular-."

The workbench hits me in the face too fast for me to create a construct barrier. I'm knocked back a half-step as a combination of environmental shield and divine resistance absorbs what has to be five hundred pounds of metal travelling at about ten metres per second. My vision is momentarily obscured but I clearly hear a fizz as Vera opens fire and Chester's grunt as he struggles to apply telekinetic force.

"You see, I doubt that I've spent more than-" I shove the workbench aside and raise my right arm, fusion cannon glowing. "-a few hours with 'telekinetic abilities'-" Doctor Cochin is standing in the middle of a whirling bubble of green-black power. What's Chester doing? "-in my life, and I can already use the ability better-" The shield buckles slightly where Chester points, Vera rapidly deciding to abandon her coilguns for plasma. "-than the infamous Chester Black."

Doctor Cochin's eyes glow green-black, and Chester grabs his head with both hands.

"Gah!"

"I wasn't expecting you to win, but this is weak." His eyes glow again, and I feel a slight pressure around my mental shields. "Ah, that's a little better." Vera's plasma fails to breach his telekinetic barrier, so with a snarl she switches to purple death rays. "Perhaps I should reintroduce myself, Mister Grayven. I am-." His face twitches as Vera's beams strike his side, passing through his telekinetic barrier as if it weren't there. "Excuse me." He turns away from me towards Vera, a wave of green-black energy connecting them briefly as she goes flying backwards with her forearms crumpled. "There." He turns back around. "I am Agent Paragon of SHADE. 'Paragon' as in, better than everyone else. I'm stronger than you. I'm a better telepath than Chester Black and-" His body blurs and Miss Amane pinwheels out of the air next to him. I generate a grav-chute construct to catch her. "-faster than Amane Misa. I'm also more intelligent than President Horne, but let's be frank: that's no great challenge."

"So, what?" Sinestro, status of Vera and Chester? "You're SHADE's supersoldier? I'll admit to being impressed with your abilities, but I can't see why you're working for them."

"You just had your power ring check the health of your subordinates."

O-kay, that's a little worrying. My mental shields are… Still there. Is he just good at reading people?

"And no. SHADE didn't make me. Fortuitous genetics made me the fine specimen of metahumanity you see here today."

Vera will need her arms replaced and Chester might well have concussion.

Beside me Miss Amane brings her warscythe to a guard position. Okay, Doctor Cochin is clearly the talkative sort. I need more information. Does he just happen to have speed and telepathy? I had been considering experimenting to see whether a cloned copy of Chester's brain would survive the Garrick Formula…

"So what can you do, exactly?"

"I combine all of the abilities of everyone within a radius of about five miles. Not robots, but everyone else goes into making me me. I was a little surprised that my abilities work on you… But becoming a god is only my due, really."

Hm. If he's using the intelligence of everyone within five miles it's probably far easier for him to learn telepathy than it is for Chester. And add to that my own divine aura of conquest boosting it…

I fire my fusion cannon while simultaneously firing cold fields at the air around him. "Iname, flee."

"Master, I-!"

"Now. Ten miles."

There's a crackle in the air as Doctor Cochin hits a cold field. "Ow!" If he's using my toughness as well-.

Ah fuck.

"Mister Doom, drain as much from me as you can without killing-" There's a wave of displaced air as Miss Amane runs. "-me."

There's another series of crackles as the cold fields are remotely triggered in a wave of green-black guh.

This time I'm ready. This time my environmental shield keeps me upright. But that doesn't seem to have slowed down Doctor Cochin anything like as much as I'd hoped that it would.

"Yes, yes. Remove my sources of power. Even yourself. But you see Mister Grayven, there are still hundreds of thousands of people within my range providing me with str-."

I take my radion blaster out of subspace and shoot him in the face.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
14:34 GMT -5

I drop the radion blaster to the floor to recharge and lunge forward as he staggers back from the shot. Radion blasters aren't just deadly poisonous to us New Gods, they hit every bit as hard as normal blasters as well. I pull my daiklave to my hand as he begins to recover. The flesh has been burnt from his face, his eyes are destroyed -hah!- and the bone of his jaw is clearly visible around his mouth. Something around here is making him very tough and it certainly isn't me at the moment.

Yellow filaments flick out ahead of me, triggering the last two cold fields between us and clearing the way for my melee assault. As I begin my swing his empty eye sockets flare the familiar green-black and a wave of that same light expands outwards from him in all directions, passing over my environmental shield with no noticeable effect. My daiklave comes around towards his neck and his head turns towards it, the glare from his eye holes intensifying as he tries to push it away.

Normally I'd just… Power through, but… Agh…

I plant my feet and generate construct armour around myself as I try to wrestle my daiklave forwards. I can feel him scrabbling around the outside of my mental shields, and while they're good, with my divine aura's reinforcement basically gone they aren't inviolable. Sinestro, psi-baffle.

Added. The pressure doesn't vanish, but it does fall away somewhat. Though I would warn you-.

That he still isn't even slightly afraid and the only good source of fear is President Horne. I know. But now that I've got-

I make a little progress forwards.

-his full-

My right hand goes to the pommel and I shove the point of the daiklave towards his green-black glowing face.

-attention…

"Drones, fire."

Five drones drop stealth around the room, their blasters and purple death rays orientating on Doctor Cochin. His wide-spread telekinetic field lets him feel them almost immediately, the small wavering of his concentration allowing me to get the point of my blade to within a centimetre of his chest. I held the drones back because he could destroy them easily with Chester's abilities. But now? Now he can't afford to divert his efforts from stopping my sword.

"Gggguuuuraaaaaahhh!"

Beams and bolts strike his back and his sides. Automatic targeting is much less accurate than shots made with my spiritual guidance but that's offline until Mister Doom re-empowers me. The punishment he's taken makes his concentration waver again, and I start to feel the first trickle of fear.

Then the tip of my daiklave strikes his chest, biting into the left side of his chest between the second and third rib and cutting neatly through the flesh. I don't know exactly how far his toughness is boosted by his powers but it isn't anything like tough enough to stop an x-ionised sword.

"RAAAAAGH!"

His jaw falls open, his partially destroyed tongue flaps and his flesh evaporates as his telekinetic field collapses and the shots from my drones strike home unimpeded. My daiklave shoots forwards and I'm forced to use my armour's strength to hold it back.

Then I smile, and slice left.

His head and shoulders fall to the floor while his body remains upright for a moment. The continued fire from the purple death rays means that the blood doesn't spurt but it does pump and flow at a considerable rate.

"Drones, cease fire and resume cloak."

The fire cuts out immediately and the drones vanish.

I look down at Doctor Cochin's head, then pull the radion blaster back into my right hand and obliterate it completely with a single shot.

"Drones, heal my companions." Revitalising purple light plays over Chester and Vera. Chester stirs to life while Vera raises her ruined arms slightly and curses under her breath. "Don't move. Some of the cold fields are still active." I dismiss my construct armour and raise my right hand to my ear. "Sterling work, Mister Doom. Now, please restore me."

"Is the President well?"

I turn to where President Horne is perking up slightly under the influence of the purple healing ray. "He's been better, but nothing that a little rest won't cure."

"Very well. I should warn you that the loss in transition-."

"Don't worry about it. I'm already planning to spend tomorrow sitting on the mana infuser and doing as little as possible."

"As you wish."

I wait a moment and oh that's better. Now to-.

"Bit slow off the mark, weren't you?"

I half turn, making momentary eye contact with Vera. "I'm afraid that I'm the thinky type. We can go over what you want with your replacement prosthesis tomorrow."

"Oh, aye." She maintains eye contact for a moment, then turns to her recumbent brother. She takes two steps towards Chester and then nudges him with her right boot. "Oop you get, lazybones."

"Fukof."

I walk over to President Horne, stowing my daiklave on my back and my radion blaster in subspace as I do so. "Feeling better, sir?"

"Much." He nods. "Thank you."

I reach around his head, pull his balaclava up over his head and take a careful look at him. Sinestro?

No implants that I can detect. No bacterial, viral or nanotech agents. Some drug residue but the purple healing ray has dealt with it.

Good show. I reach down to the clamps holding his arms in place and pull them apart. "Soon have you out, sir."

"My family, are my family safe?"

"Their Secret Service bodyguard is presently being augmented by my people. Little gets past the G-Gnomes." I kneel and rip the clamps off his legs. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah, ah…" He staggers free, stretching his legs and trying to bring them back to life. "What about the Republicans?"

Huh? "I.. doubt they were involved, sir. He clearly said-."

"No, they… He said, they only bothered picking me up because they were starting to think I could win the election next year. Which means they're probably going to target the potential Republican nominees. And if they're ready to grab me out of the White House I can't think of a reason for them to wait."

"Mister President, I have finite resources. I need to see you safe first." But he's got a point. Trying to arrest and dissect political opponents is awkward at the best of times. I stand, raising my right hand to my ear. "Doctor Robbins, send Miss Iname and groups of Genomorphs to the locations of the top… Three? People most likely to be the Republican candidates for the White House next year. Senator Knight and… What'stheirnames…"

"Already on it."

"Good." I lower my hand. "Father Box, boom tube to the Oval Office."

"Ploong."

President Horne looks puzzled. "What's a 'boom-'?"

BANG!

He jerks back, shielding his face with his right hand. "Aren't those usually quieter?"

"The President got kidnapped. Now is not the time to take the Secret Service by surprise."

"I suppose not. Well?"

I put construct armour around him before stepping through the portal. Six agents point their side arms at me. "Chill out, guys. Just me."

"Grayven!" Mister Myer emerges from behind the huddle. "Have you found-?"

"I'm okay, Adrian." President Horne walks through the boom tube. "Everyone, stand down." The guns are lowered, though the agents look decidedly unhappy with the situation. "Patrick." He looks at one of the agents. "The room where I was being held is on the other side of-" He glances back. "-that thing, along with the remains of my captor. Secure it."

"Yes sir."

Mister Myer hurries up to him as the Secret Service personnel dash past. "Jon, let me get you a doctor. You should-."

President Horne holds up his right hand to ward him off. "I'm fine, Adrian. I'm fine. What I want you to do for me is get a press conference assembled. I need to address the American people."

Myer looks at him sceptically. "Are you.. sure you-?"

"Never surer. Get it done."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
15:04 GMT -5

I lean down slightly-. I check our immediate surroundings and crouch, bringing my mouth down to roughly the level of Mister Myer's ear. "Mister Myer, are you sure this is… Really a good idea?"

He watches as members of President Horne's media relations team scurry around to get things ready for his speech. His Press Secretary -a woman named Susan Elseth- appears to have given up on trying to dissuade him and is alternating between pacing and biting her right thumbnail. "Maybe. Maybe not." He tilts his head to the left for a moment. "And call me Adrian."

"Okay… Adrian… I ask because I know Humans-."

He look at me with his eyebrows slightly raised. "I know you don't quite get Human social mores, but that's usually the point where you'd tell me your first name."

I'm pretty sure that this isn't how press conferences are supposed to be organised. Horne himself is off in an office somewhere with Adrian's deputy.

"Apokoliptians don't go in for the personal name/family name name structure. Grayven is the entirety of my name." I don't know what's going to happen. That.. bothers me. "My sister in law took the second part of my brother's name as a family name when they moved to Earth, but that was just to help with fitting in."

"Oh, I hadn't realised. So your daughter is..?"

"Lynne Wayland. She kept her original name after I adopted her. Look, what exactly is the President planning?"

He looks away, nodding to himself. "You, ah… You actually study Jon's campaign? Any of his elections?"

"No. But I've invested quite a lot of time in-."

"You don't hear me complaining about you not giving us any idea what you were planning on saying when you got your Presidential Medal of Freedom. That whole 'trials in absentia' thing gave me a lot of work."

"Yes, I get that. And… I'm very nearly sorry. But I'm asking you-."

He chuckles under his breath. "Sorry. Oh… Jon… Jon's a good friend of mine. We've know each other for decades. He's a good man, a good administrator. But I'll admit that I don't think anyone's ever accused him of having the sort of presence or charisma a really great statesman has." He nods to himself. "Just occasionally, though-."

He cuts himself off as President Horne marches towards us down the corridor, Secret Service detail hurrying along behind him. "Adrian, they ready for me?"

"Yes sir."

The President looks up at me. "How are the loyal opposition?"

"Knight wants to talk to you now. The others are accepting my protection at face value."

He nods. "Bring Knight here, I'll talk to him right after this."

"Yes, Mister President. May I ask-?"

He smiles. "Keep watching. I'll think you'll like what I have to say."

"Yes, but-." I hesitantly raise my right hand as he brushes me off and walks past me, members of the press corps jumping to their feet as he comes into view and heads to the podium.

Oh, I am off my game. I should have been able to encourage him to at least give me a clue with my spiritual force… No. I need to settle things with Doom before I try that again.

President Horne takes his place and looks around the room at the press corps, making eye contact with a few and giving the occasional nod. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, everyone tuned in at home… Thank you for getting together on such short notice. There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about today, but I think the first item I need to tell you about is that a little over three hours ago I was kidnapped in broad daylight from this very building by a super powered criminal."

There are a few gasps, but it isn't the first time a President has been targeted by a supervillain.

"As best as the Secret Service and my associate Mister Grayven have been able to determine, his intent was to copy my brain and then replace me with a robot duplicate. The separation of powers means that taking control of the Oval Office wouldn't be quite enough to suborn the government of America, but it would have allowed his sponsors to advance their agenda contrary to the interests and the democratically expressed will of the American people."

"And perhaps the worst part of what happened is that this wasn't a costumed lunatic. No, this was something far worse. This action to circumvent our democracy was organised and funded by a federal agency." Eyes widen. "I don't know how many of you remember the All Star Squadron. It was the government run superhero organization set up during World War Two to try and make a capable but disparate group of men and women into something we could use to beat the Nazis and the Japanese. To that end, the War Office brought together not just superheroes but intelligence people and experts in unconventional warfare, people whose job it was to make sure our people were where they needed to be and knew what they needed to know in order to get the job done. After the war, that part of the organisation became a federal agency called SHADE, the Super Human Advanced Defence Executive. Even today, they train and educate people throughout federal and state law enforcement in how to handle metahumans and supervillains."

"And it's those sons of bitches that just tried to have me killed."

President Horne takes a moment to gather his thoughts, his eyes drifting over the assembled news crews. "You know... I always figured that if something like this happened, it would be the NSA. Guess I owe those guys an apology."

I raise my right hand to my ear. "Grayven to Doctor Robbins. Hush tube Senator Knight to my position at your discretion."

"Will do, Gray. I'll be happy to stop listening to him moaning at the Genomorphs."

"…imagine what they hoped to gain by doing this, but the best I've been able to guess is that they think that there's something lacking in my response to recent superhuman attacks. Hesitancy is something I've been accused of on more than one occasion, and it's an accusation that I think it's time I addressed."

"Some members of the Republican party… Even some members of my own party, accused me of doing nothing in the aftermath of the Roanoke Island incident. And more than a few took the opportunity to run their mouths off about what they would have done, or what I was doing wrong. And it's true, I did not come up with any new policy initiative in the immediate aftermath. You want to know why? The truth is, not only did I not know the first thing about magic but hardly anyone in the US federal government knows anything about it. There was a truly astonishing gap in our knowledge and therefore in our ability to defend ourselves. What I was doing -rather than blowing a whole lot of hot air- was reaching out to our allies in Atlantis and to those Americans who do know something about the subject so that I could form informed policy."

"While I was doing that, Senator Knight brought forward a Bill that would have criminalized the few people in this country capable of helping us prevent anything like that happening again without doing a single thing to impede our enemies. And I seem to recall that he got an awful lot of good press out of it." Senator Knight walks out of a hush tube just in front of me, quickly orientating himself towards the stage. "A Bill which was brought up by King Orin during our discussions as a matter of considerable concern to his people, because virtually every Atlantean is a magic user. And as far as American citizens go… For God's sake, you don't close the nuclear missile gap by arresting nuclear physicists or rocket scientists. You close it by putting them to work for you."

Senator Knight's eyes widen. "Oh, you God damned…"

"And as for Senator Cray's idea of conscripting US superheroes… Senator, you're welcome to try serving Superman draft papers if you like, but this administration will have no part in it."

"What this administration will do is hunt down those criminals lurking in our government institutions. What this administration will do is bring forward laws that will allow law enforcement officials to use greater degrees of force in apprehending or if necessary killing super powered criminals. What this administration will do is create a new federal agency with a remit to study and where appropriate act against super powered threats to the citizens of this country. And in all these things this administration will be guided by evidence, not by rumor or fear-mongering."

"As of right now, SHADE no longer exists. Every federal agent acting under SHADE's authority now has a warrant out for their arrest. I will say to all those agents not involved in the conspiracy to replace me: hand yourselves in. You will be interviewed and then most likely released immediately. And to SHADE's senior employees, those who intentionally evaded congressional oversight for decades and just tried to kill their Commander-in-Chief… We're coming for you. And there isn't going to be any place where you can hide."

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
17:15 GMT -5

Mister Doom sets down the datapad he was reading from, his mouth turned down in distaste. "To think that they have fallen so far."

I take a moment to regard him across the table. "Are you satisfied as to the authenticity of the information?"

He looks directly at me. "Are you?"

"Yes, for the most-." Grh. "Could you… Not do that, please?"

"Hm." He picks up the pad again. "I see that a good deal of this was acquired from the League of Shadows."

"Yes."

"I have -upon occasion- had dealings with them myself. How would you characterise your relationship with them?"

I pause for a half-moment. No compulsion effect. "Thank you." A slight dip of his eyes. "I have a good working relationship with Ra's al Ghul and I am romantically involved with a serving Shadow. We're trying to-."

His eyes narrow. "You have a good… Working… I would like an explanation for that."

I briefly consider answering 'she needed the training and stayed on because she likes the work environment', but decide against it. "Ra's al Ghul makes money through murder, extortion and the selling of intelligence. So -more or less- do most nation states. More to the point, he has a longer term view than most rulers. He and I are part of an alliance which aims to improve the lot of Human civilisation. Part of our work requires the sorts of operatives that he commands. Not an ideal situation, obviously, but I hope to gradually encourage him to redirect his energies towards the less malevolent part of his work."

"The League of Shadows has been a pestilence on this world for over two hundred years."

"So I kill Ra's, and every League of Shadows cell on the planet goes underground. Someone grabs one of his hair follicles and sticks it in a Lazarus Pit. I lose him as a source and interrupt League operations hardly at all. Ra's voluntarily signed up with an organisation that is finally kick-starting the schizo tech revolution this planet has been crying out for for seventy years. I've even got plans for America's first magic school, and after today I think I can count on President Horne's support. I can't reliably stop him, but by establishing a rapport I can channel him."

"…had enough thinking time." The door to the meeting room is shoved open and Chester storms through. "Well?" He stares at me, throwing up his hands. "We goin' and getting' the bastards or what?"

I meet his stare calmly. "Or what."

"Are you serious? After everythin' that happened today, you're just gonna let them get away with it?"

"Chester, we weren't acting because we lack the information necessary to create a replacement government. Has anything that happened today-"

"The fook is your-"

"-changed that?"

"-problem!" He takes a right turn and starts pacing. "They try killin' me? Fine, just another rosy day at the office." He swivels sharply, facing me again. "But they went aftah Lynne! A school fulla kids! In America, which I'm shower is gunna go down great with your pal Jon Horne. What-?"

"Chester." I point to the far side of the room.

"What?" He frowns, looking around. "You playin' with dolls now?"

"Those are the original robots used by Eric Dolmann. I acquired them from Penny Dolmann's home half an hour ago. In their place, I left a robotic representation of her. Turn the key in the back and it bleeds from every orifice before exploding."

"'s start." He turns back around. "But what else?"

"Chester, I am completely furious about what happened. But fundamentally, nothing has changed except that the opposition have lost some resources. And before too long they will lose their allies in SHADE as well."

Most SHADE-certified agents responded to President Horne's edict almost immediately. Might take a while to process them, but as General Lane told me: most of them didn't know that SHADE was an actual organisation. Those who did and tried going to ground will be brought in presently.

Those conversations will be less polite.

"I am simply not prepared to send a civilised country collapsing into anarchy because one particular offence was personal. The timetable remains in effect. Continue your work. Once I have completed Vera's new arms I will send her to join you once more. Once you have completed your task, then we will move against our adversaries directly."

He tilts his head noticeably to the left, continuing to stare at me. "Are y-? Fine. Fine." He waves his right arm dismissively in my general direction and then he trudges back out of the door. He slams it behind him as he leaves.

I watch the door for a moment before during back to Mister Doom. "Is there anything else you would like to ask?"

"No, I don't believe so." He rises, pushing back his chair as he does so. "I do not trust you, Mister Grayven. But I find that I struggle to strongly disagree with those things that you have done to date. And I doubt that anyone else is engaged in the work of restoring the government of Britain to moral probity as you intend to. I will continue to watch you, however. If I detect any sign that your associates are converting you to their methods more than you are converting them to yours… You may well imagine what I will do."

"No."

His eyebrows rise very slightly. "Excuse me?"

"I am not prepared to be brought into line with threats. You just told me that you agree with what I'm doing. Do you make a habit of threatening your allies?"

"I would hardly describe us as that."

"Why ever not? In fact, why are you not volunteering to provide me with information yourself? The more I learn, the faster and more precisely I can act. The lower the quantity of collateral damage."

"Because I have been absent from this world for some time. Before I take such a risk, I would learn more about you and those whom you describe as your friends. I have no desire to unseat one corrupt establishment merely to replace it with another."

"Then join in. You can keep a better watch on me standing next to me than you can from a castle that is even now being occupied by armed police. And once you have assured yourself that I am genuine, you would be better placed to shape policy to something that is… Appropriately non-villainous."

"That is…" He bows his head and narrows his eyes as he considers the suggestion. "Not something I will reject out of hand, but… No, not yet." He looks up again. "But in the spirit of future cooperation, would you be so good as to open a portal that would return me to my customary abode? I believe that I have uninvited guests to evict."

"Certainly. Just as soon as you return the rest of my soul." His face tightens slightly. "I know perfectly well that knowing its shape gives you very nearly as many options for acting against me as holding it. But you having it diminishes me, makes me less capable. Apokoliptian technology works on the spiritual strength of the one wielding it. You taking a tough line on this could get me and mine killed. Not to mention the fact that it's damn rude."

He regards me passively for a moment. "I.. suppose that you may have a point. Very well." He raises his right hand and ah! Back in business! "But I will warn you: having granted you this reprieve I will now take any backsliding on your part as a personal insult."

I smile. "Then I will avoid giving you cause. Father Box, if you would?"

"Ploong."

The hole in space opens and Cursitor Doom sweeps majestically through it before it closes down.

I wait for a moment, then slip my new goggles over my eyes and check the area. Nothing that I can see. Sinestro?

So far as I can determine, Corpsman, the area is clear.

Good good. I rise and head for the door, gently pushing it open and walking out.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st May
17:22 GMT -5

Chester falls in behind me as I walk in the direction of my secure communications room. "You all back in full werkin' order, then?"

"More or less. I didn't get back everything, but the reduction in power isn't anything significant."

He doesn't say anything for a moment. "Well?"

"Thank you, Chester. Very well done." I smile what I suspect is a moderately sinister smile. "Completely in line with your established character. I'm not sure how critical it was in convincing him that my actions were rational and sagacious, but I'm sure it played a part."

"Now that's somethin' I didn't get in me last job."

"What?"

"People sayin' 'thank you'. I mean, I'm still not exactly jumpin' fer joy about not going in and toppin' the wankers right now, but I get what you were sayin'."

"Good man."

"Still wanna know what took you so long with that Paragon prat."

I place my hand against the palm scanner leading to the Light's internal communication chamber. "I didn't know the full extent of his abilities and as far as I could tell your lives weren't immediately in danger. While it was generous of him to volunteer information about his capabilities, I couldn't just assume that he was telling the truth. Incidentally-" I turn my head to look at him. "-you should be certain to never do that."

"No fookin' fear, cock."

"In addition, my normal… Instincts, were absent due to what Mister Doom had done to me. If I left you hanging as a result, I apologise."

"To tell the truth, I'm more pissed off about him beatin' me at me own game. You wouldn't know any way t' help with that, by any chance?"

"I am happy to make the Awakening available to you. You may wish to train with the G-Gnomes. If so, consult Jean. There are… Amplification devices I could build for you, but most of the best utilise Apokoliptian technology. Files are on the database. Work out exactly what you want and I'll be only too happy to put it together for you."

"Eh, I'll take a gandeh." He nods at the door. "What you need to talk to the old Secret Society a' Super Villains about?"

"It's not easy to organise the infamously fractious supervillain fraternity to act in concert. Even just making the contacts you'd need to pay them to do it is a task fraught with difficulty. Now, SHADE might have done it using salvaged equipment, Doctor Cochin's power duplication and their own contacts… But the other group who could..?"

Chester frowns. "Your pals? What for?"

"Damned if I know, but I've been burned before for not checking what they were up to and I'm not about to do it again. Do you want anything else?"

"Nah. I'll go an' see how Vera's doin'."

I nod, then return my attention to the door. A quick tap and the force fields disengage and the bars unbar, allowing the door to fold away into subspace. I slowly walk into the room, the system already acknowledging my presence. Lights go from 'off' to 'conspiratorially dim' and the monitors which will show the faces of my fellow Light members activate.

"Mister Grayven. It is good to see you again."

Brain's already here then. I wonder if he ever leaves? Certainly, he could just leave his connection live at all times. His chassis isn't really designed for moving around a lot. "Brain. Hope you're keeping well." Wonder if he named himself after the other one? The Brain was built in nineteen sixty six, and when I finally got access to his university records I found that he was born in seventy eight, so… Might have done.

"Oh, like this, like that. I had until recently been involved in untangling the geometry of a parallel universe somewhat unlike this one. That it defied my analysis was a source of some frustration, given the timeline… But, I believe that I am making progress."

"Alien geometries aren't really my thing, but if there's anything I can help with..?"

"Perhaps I should say no more until we are all-" Savage's monitor comes on, followed a moment later by the one belonging to Ra's. "-fully assembled."

"Savage. Ra's. I apologise for the short notice."

"That is quite alright, Grayven." Savage looks… Happy. Hopefully that just means that someone's delivered him a new truckload of underage baboons, but I'm always a little nervous when Captain Caveman looks pleased about something. "With matters advancing, it is important to ensure that all members of the Light are on the same page."

Ra's' face appears to be in neutral at the moment. I give him a nod as the screen for Lex comes on and his eyes flick in the direction of each screen as he confirms who's already here. I nod to him as well -getting one in return- then focus my attention on the screen for Mordru.

I give him twelve seconds. "Our.. Noble Friend does know how to work-?" Mordru's face appears, though he doesn't appear to have actually turned the thing on. Some sort of communication spell using the technological link as an arcane one. Sort of impressive that he can do it while also showing a degree of laziness that he hasn't bothered to learn to use the same technology as the rest of us. A possible weakness?

"Now then, Grayven." Savage leans forwards slightly. "What is it that you wish to discuss?"

"Today's attacks across America. SHADE's being blamed, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't us before I perjured myself." Lex chuckles quietly, bowing his head. "So, was it?"

Savage nods. "I felt that it would be useful if the Justice League were fully engaged while I saw to certain matters."

I nod. I would like it if someday he managed to surpass my expectations in a good way. "Business or pleasure?"

"Both."

Of course it was. I don't roll my eyes. "I misspoke. Light business or personal business?"

"The final destruction of the Justice League."

…

I fan out my hands. "Did I miss a meeting?"

"No, Gra-."

"Because I understood that becoming a member of the Light meant that I got told what was happening. I don't remember us discussing killing the Justice League in concrete terms. I certainly don't remember voting on it. So what happened?"

At least Savage isn't smiling any longer. "The matter was decided upon before you joined us. Your being here does grant a certain… Flexibility that did not exist before."

"For future reference, Savage, I expect to be notified of plans I'm involved in."

"The original version did not involve you. The League would simply be drawn to the battleground of our choosing and eliminated. Without the protection of the Earth's premier super heroes, the nations of mankind would be forced to look to their own protections. Now, an alternative has presented itself."

Eliminated? A nuclear weapon of sufficient yield would probably do it, but the League don't habitually gather in the same place on Earth. "And what would that be?"

"That we may have our cake and eat it, Mister Grayven." I switch my attention to Brain. "Your argument that at the Earth's current level of technology certain threats are best met by superheroes was most convincing. In the original plan, we would have simply… Taken the risk. But… You have excellent relations with the governments of both China and the United States. Worldwide, you are a very popular man."

Lex nods. "We have one or two other operatives in mind, but the ideal outcome for us is for the entire League to die. You would then replace them with a new team, working in accordance with guidelines set by the Light."

"And how exactly are we planning on killing the Justice League?"

"Grayven."

I don't like the way Mordru is grinning.

"Have you ever heard of the King of Tears?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Undermined

10th June
14:57 GMT -5

Ted leans closer to me as we wait off-stage.

"We're good to go, right?"

I take a moment to look at one of the television screens showing the crowd of people gathered in front of the stage set up outside New York's newest power plant. Quite a lot of people. Journalists and technology correspondents mostly, and a few people who were invited specifically. I gave Boris a lift here at his request, and I think I've got an inkling that a station like this will be on his wish list. Diana's here as well as a show of support for me and my work and Alan arm-twisted an invitation from someone at his old agency. Just about everyone else I know is either at school or at work.

"Ted, the only thing that I can check which you can't is the generators themselves."

"Yeah, I know. Why do you think I'm so worried? Usually before one of these presentations I keep myself busy checking everything but this place is so simple that I've got nothing to do."

"You check everything?"

"Uh-huh."

"Don't you… Own the company?"

"Technically the shareholders do." He sets his jaw to the side as he thinks about it. "Though I have been thinking of buying back an absolute majority. Y'know, given the work we're doing… Just in case some of them turn out to be evil or something."

"Stupid worries me more than evil, but whatever you think best." Naturally, I've bought enough KordTech shares that we command an absolute majority between us. He's right; given the work we're doing, anything less would be foolish. Having Lex Luthor or Edwin Alva or… Some other business villain trying to stick their oar in would be irritating. I haven't told him because I don't want to look like I'm muscling in on his thing. Also… Because -and I don't like to think this- at some point I might need to nudge him out. Or at least into a different role. He really isn't temperamentally inclined to let the people beneath him do their jobs. In a small company, that's great. In a large company… Lex Luthor doesn't spend time in the flipping post room because he worries about falling out of touch.

Agh, and I feel bad about doing it. He's such a nice guy.

"You guys about ready?" Mayor Bloomberg raises his eyebrows slightly as he looks at us. "Because at this point it's kind of late not to be."

Last check… "Everything's ready to go, sir. The system functions as designed."

"I hope you don't mind me not cutting the city off from the nation's power supply just yet, Orange Lantern."

"Oh no, sir. To be honest…" I look at the screens again. "I'm half-expecting a supervillain attack the moment you throw the switch."

This whole thing has actually gone okay, potential supervillain threat notwithstanding. I mean, our project to rewire New York is nothing like complete. The substations are all done, but there are still people with houses covered in lead paint so I'm not exactly surprised that we haven't gotten around to rewiring everyone's homes in the time available to us. But we do have an agreement from the mayor that all future wiring will be made from Jovium and since we're the only source of the stuff that pretty much gives us a monopoly. All in all, I'm feeling pretty upbeat about this whole thing.

"Is there some information you didn't pass on to the New York Police Department?"

Ted looks confused. "How would that help?" Mayor Bloomberg looks mildly affronted. "I mean, Orange Lantern's here and Wonder Woman's in the audience. And there are already police all around."

There were a few protests around the site as Ted's people put it together, mostly amateur physicists who want me to believe they know anything about the Bleed and its potential dangers. Reminds me a bit about the people who went to court to try and stop the Large Hadron Collider being turned on in the belief that it stood a significant chance of creating a black hole. A few were families of people employed in conventional energy generation protesting about the jobs we'll be destroying. I don't feel bad about coal, gas or oil based production, but harming research into other forms of power does rather go against my stated aims.

"No, Mister Mayor. It's just that in my line of work supervillains tend to just… Show up. Um, we're ready when you are."

Mayor Bloomberg huffs. "You realise that I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for supervillains the whole time now?"

I shake my head. "I'm probably just being paranoid, sir." Um. "But just in case." I take a small portable force field generator and hand it to him. "You may want to clip this onto your jacket."

"A-?" He stares at me for a moment, before attaching it to his lapel. "Alright then. I think we're about ready to start."

I nod, and lead the way out onto the stage. No flashes. Ah, to have been alive in the age of flash photography. I still remember the little flash cube thing I used on my first camera. My last camera too, as it happened. Never could be bothered to put them in albums. Think I ended up throwing the lot out.

I stop at the podium emblazoned with the KordTech logo and look out at the crowd, making a point of making eye contact with Alan and Diana. Then I return my gaze to the approximate middle of the crowd. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming. It's, ah… It's been a little under five months since I announced that I was getting into the power generation business. A little less than that since Mayor Bloomberg was kind enough to allow us to use New York City as the first location to build one of these. And in a minute or so, you'll be able to see the system formally connected to the New York electrical grid."

No supervillains as yet. Promising.

"Now, I've been hearing…" I look theatrically over at where the protestors are standing at the far side of the fence. "One or two complaints at my use of alien technology to… One moment." I pull a copy of the Washington Post out of subspace and make sure the title piece is visible as I rifle through it until I come to the interview. "'Unfairly distort the energy supply market in this country, and reduce the ability of other parties to remain competitive.'" I shrug theatrically, paper in hand. "I'm sorry, I thought we were running businesses in a free market economy here! I didn't realise I was supposed to hobble myself so you can keep doing what you've been doing for the last… Hundred years? Human civilisation is crying out for better sources of energy. I'm not stopping anyone else doing what I've done. But I sure hope I'm stopping people who were planning on sitting on their arses. Ah." I switch my hands to a 'hold on' position. "I'm sorry, American audience. Their asses. Asses."

That gets a small laugh.

"Innovate or… Expect to go out of business. Part of the reason why I got involved in building this place is so that I can light a fire under the energy sector. And every year they don't come up with something that will let them compete, I'll open more. Our order book will be full for the foreseeable future. Get to work. Innovate. You've had decades and the most exciting thing that's happened recently is that you've learned to get oil out of sand." I nod a couple of times. "Very twenty first century. Sand… Really makes me feel space aged."

"We're only going to be providing part of New York's power for the next four months while we assure people that there aren't any problems with the system. After that, we'll be taking over all power supply for the whole city… And maybe a little beyond that. Anyone living in that area can expect to see their bills cut to one tenth, and we'll be investing that profit into charge points for electrical cars. Because it's going to be cheaper to fill up a battery than a petrol…" I frown. "Hang on, I have an app for this." I pull out my phone and press a few buttons. "Gas, yes, because it's a liquid and that makes perfect sense. Electricity will be a lot cheaper than gas."

I think I just saw Boris write something in his notebook.

"I'm not doing this for the money. Not only am I rich already, I don't get paid for this. Not one penny of the profit for this enterprise comes to me. I'm doing this in an attempt to kick start Human technological progress. To make sure that we have a tech-base fit for a twenty-first century space age civilisation. I don't want this to be a.. just-me thing." I bring my hands to my chest. "That defeats the object. I want lots of people to try and do the sorts of thing that I am. Human scientists with the knowledge power companies need in order to keep up with me are out there. So, to my competitors… Go find them."

"And now, to press the big red button and connect us to the New York power grid, please give a warm welcome to Mayor Bloomberg!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th June
16:19 GMT -5

Lois Lane looks at the outer casing of the Bleed Torsion Generator. "I was expecting something bigger. And more sparkly. And… Orange."

"I can go and get some glitter or paint if you think it would make a better visual, Ms Lane."

She gives me half of a small smile before turning to Mister Olsen. "Jimmy?"

The young photographer gives her a helpless shrug. "It's a grey box, Ms Lane. There's only so much I can do to make it look interesting."

"If you don't mind me asking… I was a little surprised that the Planet sent you."

"Oh? And what's wrong with me?"

"You aren't the Planet's technology or economics correspondent. I mean no offence, but wouldn't a-?"

Ted puts his right hand on my left shoulder and smiles at her. "Not that it's a problem. We've got people from plenty of tech magazines to talk to later."

She nods. "It's a reasonable question. The answer is, I got the gig because I'm the Planet's main superhero correspondent and because we've met before."

"I was rather hoping not to see everything I do get pigeonholed as 'super life'. This sort of work has the potential to revolutionise Human civilisation."

"I'll try and take it as seriously as it should be." I nod. "Though while we're on the subject, I didn't see Prince Kon-El in the audience. You had some kind of falling out?"

"No, but he's at school at the moment, and… It wasn't really practical to do this outside of school hours."

She knows from his original 'coming out' interview that he goes to school in the US, though obviously we didn't tell her which one.

"And the rumor that you're dating a former League of Shadows assassin?"

"I asked, she said no. She served the sentence for the crimes she was convicted of, and she's never been convicted of killing anyone."

"Okay then." She waves her tablet in the direction of the Generator. "For someone who isn't a technology correspondent, how does this thing work?"

Ted politely pushes me back a little. "Most forms of electricity generation work using what is basically a boiler. You burn coal, or methane or biomass, and you use the energy given off to heat water and generate high pressure steam. This steam then turns a turbine which converts the energy from the steam into electricity. Now, that's not even a twentieth century technology. A British guy called Sir Charles Parsons came up with the basic design in eighteen eighty four. There've been improvements since, but it's essentially the same device. Even nuclear power does pretty much the same thing, generating steam and funnelling it into a turbine."

"Then you've got renewables. Geothermal power gets its heat from the Earth's mantle, and wind and hydroelectric generators take their kinetic energy directly from their environment. Then you've got-." He grins. "Hey, I always get a kick out of this. Did you know that the photovoltaic effect was first noticed in eighteen thirty nine? A French physicist called Edmond Becquerel wrote a paper on it when he was nineteen. Of course, it wasn't until the nineteen fifties that anyone could make a solar panel that was anywhere near commercially viable."

"Thank you, NASA and the Soviet Space Program."

Ted glances at me, nodding. "Yeah, they needed something to power satellites and spacecraft once they were in space, and batteries just didn't have the life expectancy they were starting to need. Um, anyway…" Ted momentarily has the look of someone who has the chance to explain a subject he loves to someone who volunteered for the lecture, but doesn't want to scare them off and isn't certain where their 'scare point' is. "Okay, what do you know about thermodynamics?"

"Ah…" Ms Lane looks like she's not sure what he's decided her scare point is either. She's probably covered enough super… Stuff over the years that he could go in a little higher than that. "Energy can't be created or destroyed."

"Okay, but why not?"

"That's the First Law of Thermodynamics."

"What, so someone will come and arrest you if you create energy ex nihilo?"

I think he's pushing her. "No, that's just not how the universe works."

"Why not? Wouldn't it be really convenient if we could ignore thermodynamics and create energy wherever we want?"

"I suppose it would. Is that how it works? You're altering a universal law to make electricity?"

"Well… I think this is…" He turns to me. "Paul, you wanna handle this bit?"

I nod. "What I'm about to say is wrong in every particular, but is a… Lie that the greatest physicists in the universe use to have a hope in hell of understanding what's actually going on. The Bleed is the raw chaos from which stable universes emerge. The Bleed.. has no rules… Except when it does. The Bleed is infinite and yet full of finite spaces. Like all others, our universe is in the Bleed and yet held apart from it by the laws which give it definition. These generators-" I wave at the closest with my right hand. "-exist partially outside those laws. And if they're outside the laws, they can just create energy."

"And that doesn't risk causing our universe to collapse back into this… Bleed, right?"

"No, that can't happen. The maths proving it is… Far more complicated than I could understand. In slightly more comprehensible terms, lots of species use this technology. Earth is very much not the centre of the universe. If it were going to happen, it would have happened by now."

"How do they work?"

"Very well. Next question." That gets me a mildly indignant glare. "I don't understand how they work. I have a schematic, I build the object described, they work. That sort of ignorance is why I really hope that someone comes up with something better that they can understand."

"Like who?"

Ted shrugs. "Plenty of superheroes and supervillains come up with their own exotic power supplies. Any one of them could have become titanically rich by selling the technology. I mean, take Doctor Morrow, the guy who built Red Tornado. He built a robot that can make hurricane force winds. That could turn a turbine pretty well. People with the right skill are out there."

"Or Star Man One. He was operating from nineteen thirty seven and could fly into orbit with a stick-" I hold my hands out, palms spread to the length of the Gravity Rod. "-this big."

Ms Lane frowns. "So why didn't someone ask him?"

I do a mini frustration dance, forearms raised, head shaking. "I don't know. I mean, how clever do you have to be to work out that a device that can do that might be worth using to generate electricity?"

Mister Olsen shrugs. "I don't know. How clever do you have to be?"

"If you can build it, if in the nineteen thirties you can build a device that can generate force fields and allow a man to fly, then you should be clever enough. And if you're not clever enough, then at least one of the people in the electricity industry whose job it is to work out how to make electricity cheaply should be able to do it for you. I mean, they'd have destroyed the competition…" I turn away slightly, exhaling and shaking my head.

Ms Lane looks from Ted to me. "Is that going to be your next thing?"

"No, it-." / "We don't-."

Ted and I look at each other.

"One of the aims of this is to spur other companies into action. I have a power ring with a massive xenotechnology database. I know dozens of ways of generating electricity. I'm not aiming to establish a monopoly. If that happened, I'd consider the whole thing a failure."

"So you're leaving options available for other people?" I nod. "You wanna give them any hints?"

"Certainly. With Atlantis back in contact with the rest of the world, magic-based methods would be worth looking into. If that's too much like hard work, using Dolmen Gates to transfer power from a remote generation point to the point of need means that someone could… Stick some giant photovoltaic panels in near-Earth orbit and run a cable through a Gate directly to the ground."

"Dolmen Gates are those things that the Mayor of London wants to use to replace trains."

"And now anyone with ten million dollars burning a hole in their back pocket can buy a pair." She gives me an incredulous look. "We're hoping to bring the price down, but at the moment the production facilities just haven't been built."

Ms Lane nods. "Wouldn't mind doing a story on that."

"Then why don't you just ask me?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th June
19:54 GMT -5

Ugh.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I step out of the zeta tube and into the hangar. I don't mind doing interviews, but there were a lot of them today and it did get a bit repetitive. I had thought that I might feel a bit triumphant now, having completed that project. But I don't. It's like I've ticked one item off a very long list and immediately there's another item to get on with.

"Hey Paul. How'd it go?"

I look up from the rock floor as M'gann smiles down at me. She's wearing her uniform and a set of telekinetic amplifiers I created for her based on the designs I found on Lantern Stewart's ring. Since they can't shapeshift with her she's been a little slow to take advantage of them, and like any device that someone's not used to they need a lot of practice time before the user can get the most out of them. The amplifiers take the form of a thin cream band wrapped around the palm and the back of the hand, with tiny glowing purple spots dotted along the outer edge.

"The Bleed Torsion Generators are now providing New York with power. No significant problems were encountered."

Her smile grows. "That's great! Did you-?"

She cuts off as a huge, steam-wreathed wave leaps from the hangar pool and heads straight for us. I raise my hands, rings glowing, but M'gann's already ahead of me. She holds out her hands, her eyes glowing white as the water slams into an invisible barrier and splashes back towards the pool. "Careful!"

Garth's head comes out of the water- "Sorry!" -before ducking back down again.

Aquatic combat was the bread and butter of our Atlantean colleagues' training before they came here, and they haven't used it once while on the team. More than that, what the team really needs from them is their knowledge of thaumaturgy and their training was more focused on learning magics directly applicable to combat. They've pretty much been forced to multiclass during a time in their training in which they are supposed to be learning how to function as part of an Atlantean military unit. Usually there's a separate training track for battlemages and pure arcanists, with the latter not being attached to particular military units.

**Who else is here?**

M'gann turns back, looking pleased that I spoke mind-to-mind rather than by… 'Flapping my meat'. I've been making an effort since our visit to Mars back in April. I actually had to go back and study some of the less effective techniques for dealing with telepaths, since those revolve around misdirection rather than outright blocking them. But, I've got to a point where I'm prepared to engage with her in something like the fashion I used to.

I instinctively raise my barriers before I even think 'less than a month to go'. But at least I drop them immediately afterwards.

**Conner is sparring with Artemis in the training room. Robert and Zatanna are… Um.** She looks at me slightly awkwardly. **Doing something..? Together..?** She trails off and I nod in an attempt to encourage her to continue. Yes, I could just scan the place but passing on information like this is the fur cleaning of modern Human society. That, and our magic users at least are practising scry-deflection so my scan isn't as reliable as it used to be.

**Okay.**

She hesitates a moment before resuming. **Kaldur was sparring with Canis, but they should be heading-**

The lift doors open.

"…utterly pedestrian!" Strain the leash!

Kaldur leads the way out of the lift, wearing his Ocean Master gear and carrying the Trident. "I appreciate your concerns, but my training was primarily in the manipulation of an aquatic environment. Though I am reluctant to admit it, it is possible that I lack what is required to truly master the Trident of Neptune."

Canis follows on behind him. "What sort of talk is that?! I did not master hit and run warfare inside of a few months! It takes time and dedicated application." He shakes his head viciously. "Only a fool would give up an artefact of such power simply because it temporarily defies their mastery!" Nip the alpha's heels!

Kaldur stops and half turns back towards him. He's got good self control, but I've known him long enough to spot when he's forcing himself to maintain his usual level of politeness. "If you have some insight you wish to share, I am willing to listen."

Canis' eyes narrow as he nods. "You are not a God as I am, but your arcane power and the tattoos upon your body allow your metaphysique to act a little like mine. My divine powers are an outward expression of my soul, my passions. When I am moved to create it is as if the universe itself moves with my tools. But… If you asked me to study an.. architectural plan…" He shakes his head. "It would merely be my own intellect that undertook the task."

Kaldur nods. "You think that I should focus less on studying the spells that can be cast using the Trident, and instead redirect my efforts to using it for spells with which I am already accustomed."

Canis scowls. "Noo. Are you incapable of seeing it as anything other than a weapon?"

"I am a soldier. Combat is my occupation. If I cannot use it as a weapon-."

Canis tosses his head. "Only a Lowlie has their purpose assigned to them by their master, existing not at all beyond it. If you are any sort of person worth speaking to, there must be more to you than that! Open your soul to the Trident. Commune with the magics inherent to it, then… Do not fight. Express yourself through it."

Kaldur keeps looking at him as he considers the suggestion. "There… May be wisdom in that." He nods. "How do you suggest that I begin?"

**-this way now.**

I nod. **Nice to see Canis trying to make friends. Anyone else around?**

**I don't think so. I know Robin's out with Batman and Arsenal is helping Squire with learning to use her new power armor.**

I glance at the lift doors. Inexperienced power armour users are a recipe for widespread environmental damage… No. She and Roy are sensible people. I'm sure that they'll take the necessary precautions. Or at least call me if something goes wrong.

**Right, well… I should probably go and do some more work on the runic designs for Diana's armour. Oh, how are you finding-** I flick my right forefinger at her amps. **-the amplifi-?**

Water explodes upwards from the pool, the plumes waving in a Helix around the place where Kaldur is crouching on the water's surface. The water immediately under him isn't frozen… It looks like he's just increased the surface tension to the point where it can support his weight. He leaps sideways, spinning in the air and bringing the Trident around in an arc, making the plumes shift and follow him. His right foot touches the surface and he bounds back into the air, back flipping while bringing the Trident over his head. The water helix inverts, opening an air passage under the water into which he dives head first. The head and base of the trident are connected to the two streams, he's hanging off it as it drags him at high speed down and then across the pool near to the pool's bed before turning upwards again. Water is peeled away from the surface as his air tunnel breaks the surface again and lifts him high into the air above the hangar. The plumes then bend, creating an ice platform just underneath the apex of his leap. He lands lightly and then leans forward, the water protuberances following his lead and allowing the ice platform to slide towards the Bio-Ship's platform.

Canis is staring at him, eyes wide and breathing hard. And he's smiling. "Remarkable." "Stirring!"

Kaldur steps lightly from the ice platform, which then tumbles back into the pool. Following its descent, I notice that Tula and Garth have both surfaced and are staring at Kaldur too.

Kaldur holds the Trident out in front of him, looking it over. "It seems that you were correct. I was too narrow in my focus."

Canis steps towards him, his hands going to Kaldur's shoulders. "I have not seen someone embrace the concept so readily. It took me many years, even with the guidance of Mother Box, before I learned how to exist in such a harmonious fashion. This is no slight achievement! It should be commemorated!"

"If you think that it is appropriate, you may-."

Canis pulls him into a clinch and kisses him passionately on the lips.

Oooh…

Whoops. No one's explained to him…

He breaks his hold a moment later smiling in satisfaction, then turns away, a gobsmacked looking Kaldur staring after him. "You are a most impressive individual, Kaldur'ahm. Perhaps I should grace you with my presence more often."

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th June
09:36 GMT -6

I touch the fingers of my right hand to Chester's forehead. Awaken.

He continues staring at me, then turns his eyes upwards to look at my hand. "This gonna take long?"

When Chester decided that he'd quite like to be Awakened, he grew somewhat frustrated by my suggested timeline for actually seeing a practical benefit. Spending time in the mana infuser didn't appeal to him either, not that I'd have been entirely happy with him doing that on company time. He complained about it loudly enough that Miss Shimmer overheard, which leads us to where we are now.

Miss Shimmer's understanding of earthly magic has reached the point where she feels ready to undertake original research. Her suggestion was that I actively feed power from the mana infuser into Chester's soul at the same time as I perform the Awakening. While I wouldn't have been willing to do that during my first few attempts, Father Box has accumulated enough data on Human souls that it thinks that we should be able to do that safely. Miss Shimmer herself wanted a look at the process in action, and all of those factors together led us to where we are today.

There's a slight something in the arcane sigils that Miss Shimmer has surrounding us. A little outside the regulation runic circle there are a number of Atlantean devices whose purpose I don't entirely understand. Miss Shimmer herself is wearing a lab coat and a pair of brass goggles of her own design which she tells me are capable of letting her perceive magic energy directly with her eyes, rather than indirectly and imprecisely via her soul.

I must admit, I'm paying a little more attention to the process myself rather than just acting as a vector for Father Box. I can feel Chester's soul like this. When I Awakened Artemis I could feel her, but I had little understanding of what it was I was feeling. Now… I wouldn't be so bold as to call myself an expert, but I recognise certain… Parts? Flavours in the mix.

"Ploong."

I felt that! There's a definite reaction from Chester's soul as it begins to resist the power flow. I immediately remove my hand-.

"Couldn't you keep going? Something was happening-."

"I'm not going to risk something unfortunate happening to Chester's soul in order to improve your experimental data. Not while he's got work to do, and not unless the experiment is very important."

"So… That's it?" Chester holds up his right hand. "I'm a god now?"

"You're a weak New God. That felt like…" I turn my head towards Miss Shimmer. "Miss Shimmer? I'd have said about an eighth of what I've got."

"Hm." She lifts the goggles off her eyes and walks over to what looks to me like a small stone tablet with decorative stone hoops around the edge. Her eyes unfocus slightly as she points it towards us. "Maybe, but you started at a much lower level than most people. He's only gained about one twentieth as much as you have above the normal baseline for non-practitioners."

Chester shrugs. "Which means what, exactly?"

Miss Shimmer beams. "I have no idea! You're the first Human telekine to have undergone this process!"

"Oh, great."

"So what I need you to do is go into the training room and run through some standardised exercises so I can compare-."

"Errr… No thanks, pet." Miss Shimmer scowls at the back of his head as he returns his attention to me. "You need me fer anythin'?"

"No, Chester. If Mister Talbot has no immediate need of your services, you may consider yourself dismissed for the day."

"Cheers, cock." He puts his hands in his pockets and strolls towards the door. "I'm going to go and do some damage to me liver. If y'need t'get in touch, don't expect much intelligence out of me."

"Remember, somewhere visible but not in the home city of a Justice League member."

He waves his right hand dismissively as the door slides shut.

"Hm." Miss Shimmer is looking at… Some sort of graph? "I suppose it's… Reasonable data."

"Learn anything interesting?"

She looks at me like I've said something stupid. "From a sample size of one? Hardly. Still, I had no idea that an Awakened soul would resist additional power." She stomps her right foot in an adorably horsey gesture. "If only I had a better way of monitoring what was happening!"

"I'm perfectly happy to Awaken you, if you think it would help."

Her eyes widen. "No! That would completely ruin my objectivity. Besides." She slumps slightly. "I don't think I'm compatible."

"I had.. wondered. You've checked?"

She nods. "Getting a Human body didn't give me a Human soul. Deep down where it counts I'm still one hundred percent Pony." She looks down at her instruments for a moment. "Do you remember why I came here? Why I left Equestria, I mean?"

"You fell out with your mentor Princess Celestia over your desire to become an Alicorn."

"Right. Alicorns exist. Before I left I read everything I could about them, and Celestia isn't the only one to ever exist. Which probably means that there's a spell or.. some other way for regular Ponies to become Alicorns. And even if there isn't, I know what Celestia's magic signature looked like. Even if there isn't an existing technique -And there totally is.- I should eventually be able to create one on my own."

"So you need to study soul transformations."

"And-" She exhales sharply. "-just about everything else as well. I'm spending most of my time trying to work out what all of the Equestrian spells I know look like in Atlantean thaumaturgical notation."

"So that you can become an Alicorn even without Celestia's help?"

"No. So I can go home to Equestria and ascend in her stupid judgemental face and show her what happens when she tries to get in the way of me reaching my full potential."

Guess… Tearful reunion is off the agenda, then. "And then what?"

She frowns. "Well, at that point I'd know more about Equestrian magic than anyone except her. I suppose I'd take students of my own, so they didn't have to deal with her non-teaching."

"A word of warning?"

"Does it go 'friendship blah blah friendship blah'?"

I chuckle. "I don't think any Apokoliptian has ever said anything like that."

She rolls her eyes. "Go ahead."

"I would advise you to avoid defining yourself in terms of your opposition to Celestia. Instead, define yourself in terms of you, your traits, your characteristics, your skills and special talent. You're doing this to benefit you, not merely to spite her. She isn't worth getting fixated over."

"Mrpfh." Miss Shimmer doesn't make eye contact, folding her arms across her chest and flicking her hair aside. "She kinda is."

"Look, do you want to be the Alicorn of Magic or the Alicorn of Winding Up Celestia?"

"…" She slumps slightly. "Magic."

"Then there you go." I look around the room. "Can I leave you to clean up in here?"

"That's what G-Prometheans are for. I'm going to the Center for Paranormal Studies for the rest of the day." She looks up, pressing her right forefinger to her right ear. "Doctor Robbins? Could I have a hush tube, please? Thank you." She strides off, disappearing into mid air.

Hm.

No. I've put this off long enough already. Father Box, hush tube.

Ploong.

Doctor Robbins looks around as I walk into the control room. "Oh? Made a decision, then?"

"Yes. Much as it pains me, it seems that the Light are committed to their stupidity. Let's talk about what we're going to do about it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th June
06:28 GMT +5:30

Canis holds the Kobra cultist up with his right hand, fingers wrapped around the struggling woman's neck. She's struggling viciously, kicks striking his arms and chest repeatedly. Canis ignores her efforts. "Kaldur expressed his disinterest.. politely. I understand that some part of my approach was ill-conceived, but cannot fathom exactly what."

I generate a construct barrier between us and the Naga unit running out of the barracks, fire from their Kalashnikovs plinking off harmlessly. "You understand that Hum-. That in Earth-society, interpersonal relationships work somewhat differently to how they do on Apokolips?"

"Naturally." He tosses the cultist away with some force. She strikes a nearby corrugated iron wall and slumps to the ground. "Obviously, the use of physical force as a coercive measure was quite out of the question."

"Yes. … Good."

Beryl appears for a moment, binding the arms and legs of the cultist with zip-ties. Donna drops from the night sky, directly into the middle of the Nagas. Thing about Nagas is that you're never sure whether they've got superpowers or not. Reconnaissance didn't show anything suggesting superpowers and the guns imply not. No, from the way they're reaching for knives and grenades or raising their guns I'm going to assume that these are the unpowered variety.

"I respect his abilities as a warrior and I believe that he respects mine."

"There's a bit more to it than that."

Canis looks thoughtful for a moment. "Is he involved with someone? I am aware that Humans tend to be monogamous, but I have not seen evidence that he has an existing paramour."

"No, I don't think he is." The thing with Dana which I was trying to encourage appears to have.. not happened. Kaldur's mostly focusing on work, but… He seems a bit more cheerful than he used to be, having the other two around. There's still violet, but… Eh.

"I had thought that perhaps he and-." The door to the nearest hut opens and a woman dashes out… Nearly running right into Brut.

"Gwrrrrrrr."

"Ah!" She falls onto her arse and frantically tries to crawl away as he pads forwards, saliva dripping from his mouth. And.. she's.. four months pregnant? I send filaments into the hut… Nursery, right. Brut darts forward, closing his teeth around her right shoulder and lifting her to her feet. She'll have bruises later from that but I know that Brut won't break the skin without his master's instruction.

"Canis, please ask him to stick her back inside and then have him guard the hut."

"Very well." "Guard the den."

Brut snorts, then jerks his muzzle in the direction of the doorway as he releases her. "Rhrw."

"Madam, I strongly suggest that you get inside."

Her eyes dart to me for a moment, then she turns and runs back inside. "Devil dog! Oh Kali, strike it down!"

Ah, Kobra-brand Hinduism. I look around the settlement. Things seem to be dying down a little. I'll ask Tula and Garth to have a look at the particular form of scry wards this lot use. See if they were bodged together locally or they actually had a Bestowed in residence. Trying to track down every Kobra devotee is an exercise in futility, but they'll be a lot more manageable after a thorough decapitating.

"As I was saying before the Lowlie interrupted, I had thought that perhaps he and the other Atlanteans would form a group. But when that did not happen, I concluded that he was available."

"Do you want the short answer or the long answer?"

He looks around as Artemis runs forwards into the centre of the camp, then shrugs. "The short, for now."

"Most Humans tend only to be sexually interested in the other gender."

"Oh." He frowns deeply. "Really?"

"There are a lot of social factors affecting it… But basically yes."

"So his rejection stems not from his relationship with me, but from the fact that I am male?"

"The fact that he's not interested in men doesn't necessarily mean that if he were he'd definitely be interested-."

Artemis glances back, arrow on string. "What're you two talking about?"

"I am in search of relationship advice."

Artemis boggles. "And you're asking him?"

"He knows more of Apokoliptian culture than the rest of you. And he is involved with Zatanna. It seems reasonable to me."

"He isn't-." She turns to me. "You're still not, right?"

"No. Um, yes. Not."

A small growl escapes his lips, causing Brut to turn an eye his way. "Humans are strange and annoying. Are we finished here?"

I float upwards, over the huts. "Looks like. I'll do a full scan, then we can call in the Indian arm-."

A hut over to my right is torn in half as a hulking figure explodes from within! Donna looks up from the last of the Naga just in time to interpose her bracers as his right fist slams down on her. Still she's driven back, a grimace on her face as the ground beneath her feet buckles.

Quick as-. Nearly as quick as a Flash, Artemis looses a hard foam arrow at the… That looks like Venom Buster. At the Venom Buster enhancile's head. It strikes true, the payload swiftly enveloping his head. In a predictable response his hands go to his face and push as much of the gunk as he can along his cheeks. Usually that only works to cover the target's hands as well, but his large size makes it just about viable as a recovery technique. If Artemis hadn't fired twice more since then.

"RAAAAAAGH!" Both legs and most of his torso are enveloped, and the stuff coating his arms is hardening up nicely.

Donna glances at Artemis- "Thanks!" -before pulling back her right fist.

"Troia! Lasso. Squire, check that-" Squire reappears in the hut he broke out of. "-hut."

Artemis puts another hard foam arrow on her string as Donna unwinds her lasso. With Donna's divine origin established beyond reasonable doubt, Hippolyta opened the reliquary in order to give her a weapon equal to Diana's. The Lasso of Persuasion is a good deal less invasive than Branding or Assimilation, and harder to evade than telepathy. If the user has the strength of will to make it work.

Donna throws the hoop over his head and pulls it tight. "Speak openly and honestly. Where is everyone?"

His face twitches slightly. "All of those who remain loyal to Kobra are still here!"

"And everyone else?"

"Bah! Those worthless criminals who follow the False Kobra fled in the night of his overthrow. And those traitors who now follow the Cult of Savitr left here months ago. These are nearly all of the forces I have left. We aren't strong enough to do more than minor robberies any more."

Guess not everyone was on board with Lady Eve throwing Jeffrey Burr aside. Never heard of the Cult of Savitr, but I'll pass that on to our contact in the Indian army.

"Where did you get the Venom Buster?"

"Brothers and sisters who work in South America. We have a network for transporting goods. I don't know everyone involved."

Artemis and I grin as Donna nods. "You will tell me the names of the people you do know."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
09:11 GMT -6

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot around here, sir?"

Ms Thal's mouth tightens slightly. "This is only the second time."

Opposite us, her robotic doppelganger crouches slightly, sword and shield at the ready.

"If whoever's controlling the robot is listening, the US military would love to buy your technology! You have absolutely no need to support yourself by theft!"

"Has that ever worked?"

"First time for everything, sir."

Today's field exercise involves each member of the team being paired with a member of the Justice League whom they don't normally work with. Beryl's squiring for Superman, Kon's prowling the mean and probably under-levelled streets of Star City, Zatanna's enchanting Central City and I'm down here in St Roch with the Hawks.

And someone's made a Hawkwoman robot.

"Tactical assessment?"

Scan. Ugh, surprise surprise. Sonic, infrared and radar? That's a little more helpful. "Single mechanical opponent of unknown strength, toughness, speed and skill level. Bystanders are already absenting themselves and she doesn't seem interested in taking hostages."

"'She', huh?"

"Unless there's something you want to tell me, sir. I can't detect any others and I don't detect any attacks on local financial institutions, indicating..? Pride attack? Personal vendetta?"

"I'm not seeing any Nth Metal. That's just a shield and sword."

Ms Thal's helmet isn't just for looking ridiculous. Though it does do that rather nicely. There are some pretty sophisticated sensors in there. That said… "Your sensors wouldn't detect the x-ionisation process reliably."

"Fine then. No energy barrier or phasic component. No exotic radiation." She lifts her mace. "This shouldn't take long."

"Sir, what exactly has it done?"

"Brandishing a weapon in a pub-." She spots me looking at her mace. "I have a licence."

"Yes sir, but-. Sorry, one moment." I turn back to the robot. "Excuse me ma'am, are you an artificial intelligence?"

There's a slight change in the direction of her head.

"I ask, because you may be unaware that recent changes in American law have granted AIs full citizenship, with all of the rights and responsibilities that entails." I hold out my hands, palms forward. "If you're under some sort of compulsion, we can-" I take a step towards her. "-modify-."

She lunges forwards. "Hhaaaah!"

My eyes widen and I transition a short distance aside to evade the swing of her sword. Okay, evading her should be simple enough. Then I can get a better idea of the technology being used and start working out who could have made it and where-.

"HhhhhhhhhAYAH!"

Ms Thal on the other hand opts to mirror the robot, pushing off thin air with a flap of her wings and pulling back her mace.

W-? "Sir-!"

The robot started turning back towards her as soon as I got out of its line of sight. As soon as it sees her coming on it accelerates again… Some sort of gravitic booster on the back or built into the feathers? The two of them crash together, mace discharging its fury against the robot's shield and sword slicing at Ms Thal's wing guard. The sword sends sparks flying as it slides along the surface and the shockwave generated from the shield's force field reflecting the power of the mace-strike sends dust and debris blasting away from the impact.

Then their bodies come together and it's Ms Thal who gets knocked back. The robot wasn't moving significantly faster than her so it must have more mass. Ms Thal twists her mace, using the butt to lever the shield out of the way even as her back slams into the road.

Then the chains from my crane construct wrap themselves around the robot and haul her off my supervisor and into the air. Ms Thal instinctively swings her mace at the robot as she's pulled away, narrowly missing. "Kkkkkkrah!"

"Sir, if you don't use actual words my translator-."

She rises, mace constantly at the ready and eyes fixed upon the struggling robot. "I'm not seeing any signs of sophisticated intelligence."

"No, and empathic vision isn't showing anything. And that looked like attempted murder to me. Permission to dismantle?"

"Do you let Wonder Woman have any fun?"

"Sir?"

She lowers her mace slightly. "Yes, fine, dismantle it."

"Thank you, sir." Ring, visual inspection. Looks for a seam, weld or panel which could be re-.

The robot's wings glow brilliant blue white, burning away my construct hoist and spitting… Something through the air at us. Ms Thal dives aside and I fortify my construct armour. Construct… Takes the hit, getting moderately damaged. Blue fire now burns in the robot's eyes, on its sword and its wings have become apparently solid sheets of flame. No, that's plasma. How..? Is it..? I mean, there's no way it's making that with gas from its environment, and its internal volume isn't anything like great enough-.

It flicks its left wing, sending a sheet of highly energetic plasma in my direction. I generate a construct tower shield to hide behind and send a wide orange beam down into the road surface beneath me. My usual filaments really aren't going to cut it under these conditions. My shield is getting abraded, so I create a second behind it and then let it collapse.

Ms Thal zooms past her doppelganger, mace swinging through the robot's left wing. The flames buckle and flare outwards from the point of impact, causing the robot to fall to the ground in a semi-controlled tumble. The attack on me suddenly drops in intensity and I take advantage, sending a blade-construct up through the asphalt beneath her and into her torso. She jerks back, a slash from her blazing sword destroying the construct, but I can see the cut in her abdomen where my blade entered. Okay, that works.

I'm a little nervous about using a railgun inside a city, but I suppose it can't be helped. I move my railgun construct so that it's poking out around the shield construct, load a crumbler round and then-.

Ms Thal swoops down on the robot's back like a…

…

Like a hawk. Fine, I thought it. Her mace strikes the top of the robot's head, the metal of the cranium noticeably compressing under the assault. The robot staggers forwards, trying to remain upright. Too close for another mace swing, Ms Thal hooks her left foot around the robot's left ankle and flaps backwards. This results in her disengaging as well as causing the robot to fall face first into the increasingly molten ground.

Target centre of mass, fire.

My railgun hums as the crumbler round is launched, covering the intervening space in a fraction of a second and striking dead on target. The left wing joint, left shoulder and a chunk of the left torso cease to be, the rest of the wing fading back into metal as it loses contact with the main body.

Ms Thal immediately lunges at the opening, bringing her mace down for a final time on the left side of the torso. The robot's body cracks and shatters, legs going one way and the upper torso going the other as shrapnel from the outer casing and bits and pieces from the internal systems spray across the street. Ms Thal studies each part for a moment, presumably looking for anything that's still active or a self destruct device. Ring, see if you can scan-.

She crouches, picking up the robot's sword. "Think this would make a good battle trophy?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
09:43 GMT -6

"Peacock!" Ms Thal throws open the double doors leading to their St Roch residence. "We have returned from battle!"

I follow on behind her, the remains of the robot floating in an orange aura. The location of the Hawks' residence in St Roch is known to the general public -pretty much unavoidable when you fly in and out of it- so Ms Thal didn't bother with any sort of subterfuge on our journey back. I think she rather likes the attention we got.

Mister Hol looks up from his workstation, the holographic display in front of him playing a recording of our fight. Looks like it's from Ms Thal's point of view. He's wearing his basic uniform, but without the armoured plates or helmet. "Yes, I saw." He peers slightly to the side, getting a better look at it. "Thank you for bringing it back more intact than normal."

Ms Thal stops just in front of him and waves her new sword back and forth. "Where do we have room for this?"

"Oh, just put it on the bench there. I'll get to it in a little while." He gestures to the side with his right hand, indicating a work station as he gets up for a closer look at what's left of the robot. "I'm more interested in the robot's flight system. Powered flight of that sort on a planet like Earth could-."

"Hey!" Ms Thal shoves him lightly with her left hand to get his attention. "This is a battle trophy. I'm not letting you dissect it, I'm putting it on display."

"You still need to put it on the bench. I'll need to check that it isn't booby trapped before you hang it on our wall."

She stares him directly in the eyes. "There better not be a single scratch on this."

He nods, turning fully to face her with his wings slightly extended. "I'll try to stick to non-invasive methods, Magpie."

"See that you do." She leans into him, reaching up to put her hands behind his head and pull it down to a more kissable-.

I turn around, looking for a sensible place to put the robot. Ah, that's a… Holographic imaging tank. Okay. I run one last radiation scan over the head part. No electrical activity, no concentrations of heat, no alpha, beta or gamma radiation and… I take my rune stone out one of my armour's pockets and hold it close to the surface. A slight reaction, but it doesn't look like there are any aggressive enchantments running on it. That done, I deposit it at the far end of the tank and then repeat the process on the lower part before going back to trying to make sense of the smaller parts. I didn't get a great recording of where they came from and a lot of them were damaged by the impact and the heat. I think these.. sort of.. purple plasticy bits came from here-.

"Oh, don't bother putting them in there." I look around as Mister Hol lifts his face away from his wife. "The holotank's only worth using for large pieces. I can look at the shrapnel later if I need to."

"Right you are, sir. Ah." I look at the next table over. "Is there alright?"

"Certainly. Just grab a container first."

Container, contain-ah. I pick up a small plastic tub and deposit the shrapnel into it before putting it on the table. "Anything else, sir?" I look around to see Ms Thal leaving through a door in the far side of the room.

Mister Hol has already moved up to the control systems on the holotank. "No, you're dismissed. Showers are through those doors and on the right."

I… Don't know anything about Thanagarian attitudes to nudity, but-.

"Shayera will be using the one in our room."

"Oh. Right, yes. But I wasn't planning to have a shower, sir."

"No?" He glances up. "Even in a short fight, you can work up quite a sweat. Particularly in fully enclosed power armour. I suppose it's not a problem for me as long as you keep the armour on, but you may find that other people don't look on it too kindly."

"A benefit of environmental shields, sir." I return my armour to subspace. "I'm fresh as a daisy underneath."

"Convenient." He presses a few buttons and the scanners on the holotank go to work. Nothing I can't replicate with the ring, but the drawback to having as much data as I do is that there's too much stuff. Mister Hol has his workshop to look for things that are likely to be there. Plus, it doesn't take ring charge. "Something like that would certainly make life aboard Thanagarian navy ships a good deal more comfortable."

"I'm sorry to say, sir, that the shield is part of the whole thing. Force field based personal cleaning units have a… Patchy history."

"I know. The last time Thanagar tried to implement one it took a layer of skin off the user one time in three. Green Lantern was talking to me about America's space program, and I found it a little depressing that we still use essentially the same system."

"There are forms of techno-organic armour that deal with the problem rather well, sir… But you might not like who you have to deal with to get it."

"Do you intend to keep calling me 'sir'?"

"Sir?"

"I don't hold any particular rank in the Justice League and I'm not a member of the Thanagarian police force any longer. You aren't required to address me as 'sir'."

"Very well, sir. What would you like me to call you?"

He looks up again, a smirk on his lips. "I thought the local form of address was 'Hawkman'."

I exhale, bowing my head. "Yes sir, but to be frank I've always-."

He frowns. "To be what?"

"Frank. Er, open and honest? Oh! You're getting a-" I wave my right hand back and forth between us. "-translation. It usually manages a best match for non-literal turns of phrase."

"Hah. Have you any idea how duplicitous it sounds to need to specify that you're being honest this time? Why would anyone believe you?"

"I suppose… Sometimes people talk about a subject obliquely? Or hold things back?"

"I only speak two Thanagarian languages, but I don't think that either of them has a phrase like that."

"Is that a… Thanagar thing, or do the Lizarkon languages have the same feature?"

"I don't know." He presses a button and a cutaway image of the robot appears. "You'd have to ask one of them. Hm."

"Something interesting, sir?"

"The basic structure is quite a lot like the robotic duplicate of Shayera that was built last year by-."

"Johnny Law, sir. I contacted the prison where he's being held, and they confirmed that he's still there."

"Good work. Similar basic structural layout… But the controlled plasma reaction is nothing like anything I've seen on Earth before. The gravitic slingshot could have come from Earth, but only from a handful of places." He presses other buttons, magnifying particular systems. "To get the effect you observed when the robot moved or attacked, the plasma would have to be expelled at extremely high pressure. But that's not consistent with the comparative lack of damage to the surrounding environment."

"Some sort of exotic containment system, sir?"

"Probably." He nods to himself. "You're.. going.. to keep calling me that, aren't you?"

"I was planning to. But if you'd prefer 'Peacock'-?"

"'Sir' is fine. Now,-" He leans forwards. "-let's take a closer look at this."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:14 GMT -6

"Which brings the list of possible supplier-species down to seventeen." Mister Hol takes a moment to review the images. "Assuming that it's a government-approved action. Any progress with those runes?"

Without an obvious reactor or battery, all that power had to be coming from somewhere. That 'somewhere' appears to be three circles of rune-covered metal, with more plates of a similar design in other places throughout the robot's body. My rune stone glows a little more brightly when I bring it closer, though as far as I can tell the system is now 'dead'.

"It's not Atlantean or Nordic." I sigh. "But yes, I've got a match. Remember the demonic incursion in Fawcett City?"

"I'm unlikely to forget."

"I've only matched two runes to what I saw there, and the quality of the design here is much higher. But the general composition matches runes I saw at the Beelzebub and Belial sacrifice sites, as well as on the tower."

"Demon magic? That's a little surprising. Justice League files say that Demons are virtually incapable of doing anything creative."

"I wrote that file, sir. And while it's true to the best of my knowledge, I'm willing to accept that there are things outside of my knowledge. I also don't have the full measure of what Demons consider to be old hat, or what they know instinctively."

"A fully functional robot would be a significant departure."

"I'm not exactly chuffed that my challenge to energy providers was taken up by Hell, sir. Still, Demons aren't the only ones who use magic drawn from Hell."

"Cultists? Magic users who should really have known better?"

"Honestly, my first guess would be an Atlantean. This is… Really sophisticated. The design, the way it's made… It's very strange for a surface world magic user to know how to do this, or think in this sort of way."

"And Atlanteans do?"

"They do now, thanks to Sephtian and I."

"Arthur said that your projects have been quite a revolution. But from how he described it, it sounded like only a few people were fully in the know."

"Yes. But… That doesn't necessarily mean that someone directly tied to my project was involved with making this robot. Sephtian has been telling everyone at least the broad strokes of how he does what he does. He's… Very good at arcane smithing, but there are others who are just as good and it's entirely possible that they could have done some… Parallel inventing. Then you've got the people supplying Atlantis with computer equipment, they'll have at least seen some designs."

"Hn. Doesn't narrow it down as much as I'd hoped."

"It isn't by eliminating the impossible that you get at the truth, however improbable; it is by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities."

He nods. "Batman?"

"My favourite author, Terry Pratchett. One of his leading characters is the Commander of the City Watch in a… Fantasy city that actually functions like a city. He had a bit of a thing about Sherlock Holmes types when his experience of the job said that half the time it was luck."

"Hah! It's not quite that bad." He sighs. "Do you have any way of working out whether the magic elements of the design are doing anything other than powering the robot?"

"Yes, but it's called 'phone a friend'. I only know enough about Demon magic to say 'yes, that's Demon magic'. Or summon something I really shouldn't, but that's actually worryingly easy."

"I can't think of any species who have access to this technology and Demon magic other than Humans."

"And Thanagarians."

"Wh-?" He nods. "Thanagarians could get a hold of this technology, but we don't use magic. Certainly not to the extent that Humans do. If you meant that someone might have learned something from Shayera or I, we don't send home any information that detailed."

"Actually, I was thinking about Syn, sir."

He frowns, shaking his head. "I'm… Not sure I follow."

"I may be mispronouncing it. Some sort of Thanagarian Demon? Inhabited a body made of Nth metal?"

His frown deepens. "I… Are you talking about Onimar Synn?"

"Maybe? The Guardians don't bother adding information about mythology to the rings of people who shouldn't even be in the Sector it refers to. I'm operating on incomplete information."

"I suppose… It's possible. Before I came to Earth I assumed that he was either just a myth or… Some sort of alien whose presence survived only in myth. No one on Thanagar worships the Seven Devils. That would be like… Worshipping the Wicked Queen from Sleeping Beauty."

"Not even people who've heard of Earth and know that Demons can be real?"

His face hardens slightly. "I have to admit, it's possible. And I'm going to have to get in touch with my former commanding officer and make sure that the need-to-know on Earth is as small as it can be. But we've got sensors here capable of detecting significant concentrations of Nth metal and Nth metal is used in all Thanagarian starships. Our faster than light drives literally won't work without it. No Thanagarian ships other than ours have come to Earth while we've been here."

I nod. "So we're left relying on pure luck?"

"No." He uses some sort of tongs to move some of the Demon magic circles into a heavy duty container. "I'll get this to Doctor Fate. You take what's left to your consultants, and we'll see if we can learn anything." He closes down the hologram before turning to me. "The Demons who sponsored Sabbac. Didn't you report that Satanus managed to escape?"

"If the Demon Constantine is to be believed, he may have set up the whole thing to get rid of the competition. Or have planned it with that potential outcome in mind."

"Do you know anyone who knows anything about him?"

"Most Demons would know something about him. The only one who'd be worth putting effort into locating would be his sister, Blaze. And the only thing I know about her is that she's red. In her default form. And she can almost certainly change it." I shrug. "I can ask when I speak to John, but I'm planning on heading to Poseidonis first because Sephtian is the most likely person to be able to work out what this is supposed to do."

"I didn't think that Atlanteans used Demon magic."

"It's a death penalty offence unless carried out under a royal warrant, though knowing about it isn't a crime. Sephtian has access to everything and has a warrant. And a secure arcane laboratory with lots of safety precautions."

Mister Hol nods. "I'll forward our initial findings to Batman and then contact Doctor Fate. Then I'll ask local police to put out an appeal for information. I doubt that a flying robot-" There's a 'bang' as something hits the outside of the wall behind us, prompting us both to turn around. "-could have got-" Another bang and he's reaching for his mace. "-inside the city with no one seeing it."

Two sections of the wall bulge and then liquefy, partially dissolved brick and metal collapsing as a demonic Caterpillar throws itself through and into the workshop. A more human figure with a burning pentagram on his chest strides through after it.

"Harm believes he now has Its attention."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:18 GMT -6

A dragon talon construct grabs the front end of the caterpillar and shoves, bending its segmented body into a 'U' as it vomits. The blob of green slime slams into another section of wall and begins dissolving it.

"Harm?"

The man smiles. There are three red tattoos over the left side of his face, designed to look like a bleeding slash from some animal's claws. "Harm is pleased that It knows who Harm is."

"It's a funny name for a Caterpillar, but who am I-" The Caterpillar bucks and writhes, but my construct's grip remains strong. "-to judge?" Strange creature looking like a large Caterpillar and spitting solvent? Ring, anything in the database?

No good match found.

Probably demonic. It was a bit much to hope that Devil Jizz was just going to go away. I have a filament pick up my rune stone and float it over.

"Harm believes that It misunderstands. Harm is-."

"William Hayes. The chap who stole the Sword of Beowulf and got beaten by Artemis in under a minute. How are the ribs? And the shoulder?" The rune stone glows. "I seem to remember that they were horribly crushed."

Mister Hol is staring directly at Mister Hayes. "Orange Lantern, can you handle this man?"

"Him and… About fifteen copies of him. Why?"

"My home has numerous security devices. They have not activated. And Shayera does not usually take this long in the shower."

Mister Hayes smiles. "Harm has used his time wisely and learned a lesson on the subject of teamwork."

"It's fine, sir. I've got this."

Mister Hol backs away, mace at the ready until he reaches the door and leaves the room. Right then. See if I can get some useful information out of this idiot.

"So… Burning pentagram. I guess that makes you Sabbac Three. Congratulations on keeping your appearance Human."

"Harm is not concerned with Its opinion of Harm's appearance."

"Really? Because if you weren't a psychopathic murderer and… Maybe lost the tattoos..?" And I'm not even joking. He's a… Nice looking chap. And… Confident in his physical presence.

Kind of like if… Jade was male…

I take a half-second to check my Spell Eater.

"Harm understands that his masculine beauty can be somewhat overwhelming, but Harm does not dally with prey."

"Yeah, it probably wouldn't work. So. What are you and the Caterpillar here for?" He opens his mouth to respond. "Oh and… Thanks for clearing up who was behind the Devil Jizz." I shake my head. "I honestly hadn't worked that out. Satanus. Should have… Realised."

He sneers. "Harm does not use simple narcotics. Harm has found a purer method for channelling the power of evil."

"That's kind of impressive, actually. Usually it takes years to learn magic well enough to cast anything worthwhile."

"Harm is nothing if not dedicated." The Caterpillar wiggles its legs in his direction, drawing his attention. His eyes narrow slightly. "Some of Harm's followers are less dedicated. This is not something which Harm is prepared to tolerate."

What does-? My armour appears around me from subspace, construct armour appearing around both me and the Caterpillar. Just a little too slowly. Harm's right hand blurs and a huge gash appears in the Caterpillar's torso, corrosive Demon goop pouring out. Right, Sabbac, speedster.

Accelerated Perception.

I have no way to heal the Caterpillar in its current form. To repair it I'd need to return it to Human form. Sadly, the only anti-magic weapons I have on me at the moment are Mageslayer railgun rounds. I manifest ten from subspace on the inside of the construct armour that has just formed around most of its body and shove them inward. It begins deflating almost immediately.

Mister Hayes has already thrown a blob of goop at me. Assuming that the goop is as solventy as the vomit- Yes, the construct armour I put over the Caterpillar's injury has been dissolved. -then it will pierce my construct armour and probably my power armour with little difficulty.

Railgun, load Mageslayers.

A thick lead sheet appears out of subspace directly in front of my face a relative second before the blob hits, bubbling and dripping as the demonic gunk gets to work. A ring scan of my surroundings shows Mister Hayes picking up and flinging goop, what's left of his gloves burning and his hands smouldering. I transition left, towards the demonically enchanted pieces of metal still on the table. Goop sails past and strikes various pieces of equipment across the room as I send my research materials into subspace.

The Caterpillar has shrivelled significantly. It doesn't look Human yet, but- Mister Hayes tries to stick his right hand into its wound, then jerks his hand back with a scowl. -it looks like he can't get any more goop. What he's already thrown is busy eating through things and in doing so becoming neutralised. Mister Hayes glares at me, opens his mouth and exhales a cone of black/red fire. I transition right to avoid it, firing my railgun construct at his centre of mass.

The former Caterpillar has now shrunk to little over normal Human size and the construct armour has shrunk along with… Her, as it turns out. With no more acid goop coming from the wound in her left side the armour now encompasses the whole of her body. Mister Hayes grabs it and swings it to intercept the Mageslayer round. At the comparatively low power I'm firing the construct armour I created is easily capable of absorbing the shot and isn't vulnerable to the magic nullification effect.

Of course, if I don't hit the brain…

I dial up the power and fire again, once more aiming for his centre of mass. He moves the Jizzer to block, putting her upper right torso in the path of the shot with a cruel grin.

I drop the construct armour front and back.

The material the Mageslayer is made of doesn't penetrate armour particularly well. Sure, with sufficient velocity all things become possible, but the spells bound to it won't last. But in this case all that intervenes is weak Human flesh and bone, not even enough magic left to trigger the spell. Her body jerks and in my accelerated state I can see the shockwave pass through her body and the burst as flesh and bone fragments explode from her back.

Mister Hayes takes the rest of the shot directly in the centre of his chest, flying backwards with the pentagram on his chest flickering. I transition forwards, firing at his centre of mass again while I frantically try and knit back together the flesh of his Jizzer companion. Brain is… In less than stellar condition. Drug use, by the looks of things. Blood loss and shockwave damage aren't healthy but as I thought they are manageable.

The second shot strikes Mister Hayes directly on the pentagram, slamming him into the floor and leaving a crater. The pentagram is almost extinguished at this point and the Jizzer's body is knitting back together nicely. Manacle constructs flow around his body, orange light battering at whatever remains of his Asmodeus-granted exotic attack resistance. Hm. Based on what the First did, the spells on him should maintain a constant link to the caster.

Rings… Assimilate the spell.

Unable to comply. Energy not compatible.

I summon three Praexis Demons and desire them to swim along the bonds of arcane energy-.

The pentagram fizzles out.

Something is happening with Mister Hayes, but he's not-. I'm still accelerated. I drop back to normal speed. He's shuddering, gasping and choking. Can't see anything physically wrong-.

There aren't any colours. He isn't feeling anything. His brain… Looks like it's ticking over, but his connection to the emotional spectrum is gone.

Whatever spell turned him into Sabbac… It tore out his soul as well.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:21 GMT -6

The Hawks don't keep their medical equipment in their workshop, not the sorts of things I'll need anyway. Ring, remaining power?

One hundred eighty three percent remaining.

Right then. First step with the new Hollow Man is to keep his body alive while it tries to shut down. I hold out my right hand slightly and fabricate a heart rate stabiliser. This useful little gizmo sticks on the chest above the heart and maintains a constant heart rate. Quick scan of his body… No narcotics, though it looks like he's been injecting steroids. Next, I fabricate a… I call it a cortical stimulator, though that isn't its proper name. Just the thing to keep his brain ticking over. Hollow people aren't well understood even in Atlantis, but that covers what I need to keep his body functioning so that there's somewhere for his soul to go back to.

Assuming that it's all in one piece, and not shredded by whatever unholy magic he used to become Sabbac.

Then I take a set of titanium manacles out of subspace and bind him ankle, wrist and neck. Next come the magic suppression chains and spell eater. That should stop anyone funnelling power back into him. I don't… Think that he could be remotely reactivated with no soul, but it isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhgh."

I turn around as the Jizzer moans. She's not in anything like fighting shape… I listen for sounds of a struggle coming from the rest of the house. Nothing. I'm going to assume that the lack of sound, smoke and broken walls means that if there was anything that they've got it under control. That gives me the time to finish up with these two.

Ring, message to John. 'Got another man without a soul. Feel like making magic history? Also, less urgent, need to consult on thaumaturgical matters.'

Message sent.

Thank you.

Getting a message to Sephtian is less easy. There's a Dolmen Gate between the now expanded Atlantean embassy in New York and Poseidonis and Sephtian has modern computer equipment, but there isn't the sort of communication network in Atlantis that there is up here.

A set of conventional hand and leg cuffs emerge from subspace and attach themselves to her. As an afterthought, I also take out a set of overalls and put them on her. I don't know what she was wearing before she got jizzed up, but whatever it was it didn't survive her transition to Caterpillarhood.

Five Praexis Demons appear from the rings, three taking up station above the prisoners and the other two floating over to the holes in the wall. Nothing on scans, sonic or infrared, or empathic vision. Right. The situation here is as stabilised as I can make it without leaving. I need to check on the Hawks first.

"…"

The heck?

"…"

I felt my mouth move and my throat move but no sound came out. Mister Hayes was talking fine a minute ago…

No sound.

I transition backwards to the door into the rest of the house, turning to face it as I do so. I hesitate at the door… Oh, the workshop will need to be rebuilt anyway. I accelerate to a jog, barging into the door in full power armour and smashing it, the casing and a chunk of the surrounding wall aside.

It lands silently on the floor.

Some sort of small demonic creature throws itself at me immediately, dark slashing claws darting towards my armour's neck. It looks a bit like a cross between a Monkey and a Praying Mantis and is about forty centimetres tall. I hit it with a bolt of orange energy and it falls back, outer carapace smoking. No screech, no thump. I stamp my right foot. I feel the vibration but hear no sound.

Clever.

I look down at the fallen imp-thing, and-. My vision goes blank and a rumbling-clicking sound enters my ears.

"Orange Lantern to Hawkman."

"Hawkman here. We're under attack by some kind of Demon." I send out a pulse of orange light, an image of my environment appearing in my head. "It can block senses."

"I'm being blinded now."

"Do you need assistance?"

"No, I'm just having the ring put a map in my head. You?"

"Thanagarians have excellent hearing as well as vision. I only saw the primary Demon briefly, but there are smaller ones everywhere."

The little one that attacked me isn't there any longer. Evaporated or fled? No idea.

"Hawkwoman?"

"I'm here. Does your ring have data on Thanagarian physiology?"

"Of course. Are you injur-?"

My construct-armour buckles as something slashes it. Not breached, but… Where is the fucking thing? I manifest orange construct-blades around me and slash them in all directions. I don't… Feel any impacts. Still can't see it. Okay. I take my rune stone out of my equipment pouch and… Ah, no light. But there is a slight increase in heat when it detects something.

"Orange Lantern?"

"Still here. Something I couldn't see just hit my construct armour." I take a small biological specimen out of subspace and transition it a short distance in front of me. It reappears without any difficulty. Worth knowing. "Are you injured?"

"A few light wounds. Nothing critical, but I hate being injured in combat."

"I have good enough data to heal you as long as your central nervous system wasn't the part that was damaged. That would be trickier." I take a few steps into the large central area of the house. It's a bit too broad to be called a hallway, but its main purpose appears to be to connect other places to each other. "Can you tell me anything about the little ones?"

"Fast, aggressive and they don't stay down."

My construct armour registers another hit, this time on my upper right arm. Another swing with a construct blade. Nothing.

"Where are you, sirs?"

"Main hangar."

The world reappears around me. Have I got sou-? Wha! Ring, stabilise armour.

Compliance.

Sound and sight, but touch is gone. I'm still in my armour, but I can't feel anything. My Spell Eater doesn't appear to be activating… That's some pretty sophisticated magic, affecting the world in a particular area without directly touching the physical. It's okay, the ring can just take direct control of my legs and keep me going. The hangar is through the aerial combat training area and down one level. Perfectly navigable. Feels… Well, it doesn't feel anything. How is it that I can still see if I'm numb? Ring, can you fake kinetic input?

Attempting. … Attempt ineffectual.

The construct armour on my back registers another hit and I transition backwards before swinging my blades around again. This time the Demon-thing is sliced through in six places, starting to evaporate even as it falls to the ground. Bit better. Armour, pick up the pace.

Compliance.

Three steps and the room goes dark again. The ring restores armour control to me automatically and I jog towards the next door highlighted in my head.