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

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:24 GMT -6

The door to the Hawks' hangar flashes as something explodes on the other side. I know the Hawks haven't warded their property so the fact that my ring scans are being so unhelpful is decidedly irritating. I've been attacked twice more on my journey -negative impact on each side- and as I got closer the damage that the house has taken has become increasingly apparent. How did I not feel the vibrations from this?

"Sirs, I'm outside of the door."

"Have you-? Eh. Have you had any success in working out how to harm them?"

"Not really, sir." Hitting them is easy, but they generally just disappear afterwards. No idea why the one which died like it was supposed to didn't do that… I didn't hit a different location or use a different technique. "My best suggestion would be to vary the type of assault until you find something they're not immune to."

Infrared shows me nothing, because they have designed this place to control heat transfers. I'm not going to risk sonic pulsing people with hearing as acute as theirs while they are actively engaged in combat. Gravity sensor shows me… Nothing much useful. The Nth metal stands out, but it stands out so much that it overshadows everything else.

Need to find time to practise with that…

"I thought you-. Hrah!" Ms Thal's still fighting then. Good to know that her injury isn't too debilitating. "I thought you had anti-magic weapons for things like this!"

"They appear and disappear too fast." The first slight hum from my railgun and they vanish from sight. I've never bothered with melee anti-magic weapons. Possible oversight? "Sir, do you need me-?"

"Orange Lantern, search the house. Find the creature that is controlling the smaller ones. Destroy it."

I nod inside my armour. "Sir." Put the directional magic sensor back on the 'want' pile. Maybe my next generation of power armour should be magic based? I turn away from the door, orange filaments radiating away in all directions. Assuming that the smaller ones are being continuously directed and not merely overseen, assimilating them is the best option for tracking their master.

Numbness, and for a moment I feel a powerful vertigo before the ring takes over from my clearly malfunctioning senses again. Proprioception and balance? Interesting.

"While you're doing that, do you know anyone who would want to steal our ship?"

"Every technology company on the planet, sir." What sort of range would minion control have? "Though of all of the names in my files, only Nylor Truggs is familiar with Thanagarian technology."

I start walking back through the house. Okay, minion control can have infinite range if the minions are bound closely to the caster, but the sensory deprivation effect doesn't appear to be coming from them. I didn't detect high levels of magic when I entered the building, so no one put some sort of ritual on the building in advance. That suggests proximity. I can't do Globe-Enshrouding Eyes without the Ophidian, but I should be able to fill a big enough volume of space with filaments to force whatever it is out of hiding. On the other hand, that Jizzer we ran into during the Star Conqueror incident could drain my power. Whoever set this up is considerably more intelligent than a drug-addled drop out. They would have seen that I was around before making this attack, and I doubt that they would have pressed on without some way to inconvenience me.

Or am I being too paranoid?

Everything goes dark again.

I add a construct psi-baffle. To no avail.

"Do you believe what he said about the future?"

"Yes. It's logical." I float upwards towards the first floor with my rune stone out. "Given the Thanagarian Empire's rate of expansion and the time span involved, the Earth becoming a protectorate after getting stomped on by the Reach makes sense."

"As proud as I am of my people, I don't believe for a moment that we could force the Reach off their prize."

"We're a long way from Reach space. They might well have just taken what they wanted and left." Or the Orange Lantern Corps killed so much of their Empire off they couldn't support the outpost any longer. "How are you managing in the dark, sir?"

"Sonic-" A tiny Demon twists itself through my filaments, stabbing at my head. "-sensors-" I shift the filaments, empowering them. "-in our-" It hits one. "-helmets."

Assimilate.

It evaporates before the ring can even report a connection. Properly dead. Well, as properly dead as Demons get.

"I have had little cause to use it in this fashion since training."

What changed? Filaments are weak and cheap. It's how I can afford to burn ring charge spreading them over such a large area. Vulnerability to orange light? Are they some kind of magic construct instead of being minor Demons, and the spells granting them existence got overloaded?

The lights come back on and… I can't smell anything. Odd…

Wait. Lights were off and it got hurt by orange light. Touch was gone and it got hurt by physical force.

…

How do I kill something with smell?

A Demon flashes into existence and lunges at me, shattering my filaments. I fill the air between us with Skunk anal gland secretions, because if any smell can kill-. The Demon goes limp and then evaporates head to toe.

Ah. That wasn't so hard.

"Sirs, it appears that the Demons are vulnerable to attacks based on whatever sense is being blocked. Use sonics when you're deaf, lasers when you can't see and physical force when you can't feel."

It's Ms Thal who responds. "Because of course we have those things in easy reach!"

Okay, I've filled the whole house with filaments now. That just leaves the immediate outside. I take a small phase-drone out of subspace, set it to rematerialise after ten seconds and send it upwards. Appearing inside a wall just once was plenty of times for me. I swing the rune stone a few times just in case… No. Return it to my pouch.

The drone reports no problem. I go invisible, phase and fly up after it, passing through the upper level of the Hawks' home, the loft and finally the roof before passing into the open air. Nothing visible. Now, with a combination of phasing, invisibility and scry wards I'm reasonably confident that if there's anything here it can't detect me. Down side, I can't detect them. The rune stone probably could, but it would become visible if I tried to use it. I turn slowly in the air, empathic vision turned up far enough that the dashes of colour I see from across the city actually start feeling… A little uncomfortable. Still nothing from my immediate environment. I turn in the air so that I can face downwards. The Hawks are clearly visible, moving around five-. Seven-. Four wisps of light I assume to be their attackers. Okay, that just means that there's a better ward on the boss Demon.

…

I'm not coming up with anything better than 'filaments everywhere'. Mass stealth drones with magic detection would work, as moving through the space the Demon occupied would trigger a response. But I don't have those and I don't think they'd be energy efficient…

Filaments it-. No, strong Demon and I've got plenty of power. Don't do something that would allow it to disengage.

An orange dome fifty metres in diameter appears around me as I drop invisibility and return to phase. The edge of the dome isn't a simple construct, it's shimmering and glowing with the orange light. Anything touches it, it gets an immediate burst of orange light and assimilation starts. It would take long enough that if someone is stupid enough to walk up to the outside they don't get turned into a construct immediately, but quickly enough that I don't think a Demon would want to fly through it.

Then I turn the dome's interior orange as well.

"Radiant Orange Presence!"

If you absolutely must call your attacks, then do so after you use them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:27 GMT -6

The Demon appears, floating over the rear of the house.

Identity Theft in progress. One percent complete.

Okay, that's… Weird.

I know that Ezekiel describes Angels as wheels covered in eyes, and I think I'm looking at their dark alter-ego. The general structure reminds me a little of a fullerene ball, the hard outer frame poking out slightly from the dark blue flesh surrounding it. More of the smaller Demons making the attack below crawl over its surface, occasionally pushing their way into flaps in the flesh and making their way inside. Or pushing their way out. In other places the flesh has what seem to be sensory organs. A muscle unclenches on one part of its surface and reveals segments of flesh covered in eyes of various-.

And the lights go out once more.

Okay, it opens its eyes to see and no one else can. Now, the small ones aren't much of a threat to me but they're not sentient. The large one probably is. The rules of engagement are clear and I am in full agreement with them.

"Demon, you are under arrest! Cease all offensive action at once! Failure to comply-"

The lights come back on. The eye flap is closed once more and new flaps are open, these ones revealing some sort of membrane which twitches as I watch.

"-!"

Oh, those are ears. So, did it not hear me? Ring, low intensity sonic shot.

Compliance.

Transmit: 'Failure to comply will result in you being fired upon.'

Message transm- And I'm covered in Demons. -itted.

Fourteen Demons cling to the outer surface of my construct-armour, stabbing and slicing at it. A couple slip and fall off, hitting the roof and shimmering for a moment before disappearing. Sound returns for a moment as tentacles sprout from the boss Demon and I immediately lose feeling. Tentacles are touch. Okay.

Identity Theft in progress. Two percent complete.

The Demon-ball turns slightly, faintly burning runes lighting up on its outer frame. I tense for a moment, but they aren't the ones which the Tar-Covered Corpse used to drain the rings. What would-?

A claw comes through my armour just in front of my face.

For a second I go slightly cross-eyed. The blade has sigils along the cutting edge, glowing with faint red light. Ring, record those would you, then transition us the fuck away!

Compliance.

Thank you.

The blade disappears from my vision, replaced by the orange glow of the Radiant Orange Presence. The assimilation is still in progress because the Presence allows me to maintain the connection constantly, a nifty little trick that could have come in really handy during my first encounter with Klarion.

And keep moving!

More of the small Demons appear around me, only to fall towards the ground as I'm no longer where they were aiming for. The Demon Ball -yep, that'll do for a name- appears to be spamming me, not just materialising Demons on me but saturating the area around me with the little menaces. I generate point defence constructs, but having to switch -there goes vision again- between different weapon types to be able to affect them at all is really trying. Light flicks back on and a laser beam is shrugged off. I switch to railguns and the lights disappear. All the time more small Demons -presumably the ones falling all around me- are crawling out of the flaps in the Demon Ball's skin.

Oh, this is inefficient. Praexis horde, I choose you!

Identity Theft in progress. Three percent complete.

The point defence constructs evaporate as my pet Demons appear, dropping from the rings and throwing themselves at their opposite numbers. Two from the initial wave are cut through, disintegrating in a small cloud of orange light before re-emerging from the rings. Others manage to get their teeth into their foes or just swallow them whole. One unfortunate Praexis gets its target into its mouth only for the… Mantis Demon to shove its claws through from the inside. The Praexis thumps the outside of its jaw with its stubby arms, frantically trying to push them back inside so it can swallow.

Most importantly, the rain of Demons falling on me is slacking off a little.

"Sirs, I have engaged the larger Demon."

"Yes, the little ones are not reappearing. Do you require help?"

"Not presently, sir. Suggest you stay where you are just in case this was supposed to be a tech raid."

"Very well-" The sound cuts out for a moment. "-changes."

"Sir." I create an elongated construct bubble in the air next to me, and inside of that create a construct railgun. As US and Louisiana law currently stand, I am perfectly within my rights to destroy the thing.

Identity Theft in progress. Four percent complete.

I load an Angel feather round.

"Demon, last chance. Surrender now or be destroyed."

"Your mouths consume our hands."

"I'm not hearing 'I surrender'."

"Our hands are consumed by your mouths."

The railgun hums, and as it fires a tiny breach opens in the end of the bubble. The Angel feather rounds blast towards the Demon Ball, a small Demon immediately appearing on its flight path and -numbness again- taking the hit, bursting into golden flame as it does so.

Looks like whatever the Demon Ball is doing to mess around with the local universe, it doesn't work on Angel magic. Bit of a nuisance that it can just watch and teleport a meatshield into place… And has far more of them than I have Angel feather rounds.

"Stolen magic destroys our hand. Are you also from Hell?"

It can't feel my soul, but it can feel the orange light and see the Praexis Demons. Considering the possibility that I'm a Demon myself isn't all that unreasonable from its point of view… No one briefed it. The very first thing it should have been told is 'Orange Lantern is a very dangerous Human'. Communication problem, perhaps? I know I shouldn't assume that just because multiple enemies using Hell magic attack at the same time that they're working together. Even if they almost certainly are.

Identity Theft in progress. Five percent complete.

"What if I am?"

"SKREEEEEEEEEEE!"

The fleshy patches in the Ball Demon's frame are suddenly pulled inwards, and through the holes that are left in their place I can see-

Identity Theft discontinued. Target no longer present.

-the same shining sandstorm that I saw through the portal in Azerbaijan. The runes on the frame are glowing brighter and the sand is billowing out, swirling around the inside of the orange bubble I created.

Ring..? Assimilate..?

Unable to comply.

The frame expands slightly, sections of it falling into the interior and being lost from my sight. The sand streams back into the newly enlarged opening and I'm getting pulled along with it! I resist as the Praexis Demons fly past me. Demons, suck the frame! No, no good, they can't keep their grip. Only mercy is that the Mantis Demons are going the same way.

Right, no more interruptions. I form a tube stretching from the barrel of my railgun to the frame and load a Mage Slayer. Fire. The structure cracks. Reload, recharge and fire again. The runes on the shot section flicker out and that part of the frame cracks and falls inward. The portal wobbles. Good. I move the end point, reload and fire again. Another piece of the frame falls inwards and the portal shuts down, what's left of the frame dropping to the Hawks' roof and smashing their tiles.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:35 GMT -6

Ms Thal scowls. "That's the thing that wrecked our home?"

What's left of the Demon's frame is resting just in front of their spacecraft in the hangar. I'm recreating the missing parts with constructs. My rune stone shows that there's still a lot of magic in the thing, but a quick check with my runic database says that the structure should be inactive.

"Not sure, sir." I check her over once more. "Feeling alright?"

She checks the motion in her right arm, torso and wings, doing a quick visual inspection of each part. Fortunately there wasn't any damage to her body's Nth metal deposits. She unfurls her wings to full extension for a moment, then folds then behind her back. "Yes. Thank you." Then the frown returns. "What do you mean, you're not sure?"

"I didn't recognise the type of Demon, but it looked like it voluntarily… 'Repatriated' itself. It's quite possible that this frame was part of a summoning or control apparatus of some kind, rather than being part of its body. If that's the case then it was more of a tactical withdrawal." I shake my head. "It may not even have lost very much."

I -on the other hand- lost most of my Praexis Demons. I assume that they're all in Hell, probably wandering about and attempting to the best of their limited abilities to comply with my last orders. Maybe John could use what's left of the frame to work out exactly where they ended up and we could open a portal to bring them back? I mean… I don't use them all that much anyway and I can just feed the ones I have left in order to make more…

Maybe I should have called out the Hellwraith, but that thing just creeps me the heck out.

Mister Hol stands up from where he was making a visual inspection of their ship's undercarriage. "There is no damage that I can detect. If their aim was to put our ship out of use then they have failed."

Like a lot of Thanagarian technology, the ship is a mixture of the highly sophisticated and the oddly primitive. Having access to Nth metal let the Thanagarians skip a lot of technological development. It's got a gravity manipulation system that's the envy of the galaxy but it has an ion drive for sublight propulsion that's not much more advanced than something Earth could build. The armoured plates show an advanced understanding of engineering… But the whole ensemble is designed to look like a Thanagarian bird of prey swooping down on its prey. Form over function? Who does that? Humans don't design warplanes to look like flying fists.

"Sir, what do you want done with Mister Hayes and the woman?" I was a little surprised not to be able to identify her, but I'm only accessing databases. If the most recent image is out of date or there isn't one at all then not being able to get a match makes sense.

Ms Thal looks at him curiously. "Katar? What are you thinking?"

"That this attack makes little sense. Whoever is behind this, they might well not have known that Orange Lantern would be here when they released the robot. We do not know what control mechanism they had for the Demon. But we have made no effort to keep his presence a secret today. When Harm fought Artemis and Zatanna he was outmatched, but prior to that he showed great skill and resourcefulness." His eyes narrow slightly. "I find it difficult to believe that he did not perform basic reconnaissance."

"Last time I fought a Sabbac, what everyone saw was me running away from him. We never publicised the role which the Sword of the Fallen played in what happened. Perhaps he thought that he could beat me because he thought that Mister Gregor did."

He nods slowly. "It's certainly possible. When is he likely to regain consciousness?"

"Never, probably." I look over to his recumbent body. "People don't usually survive long after having their soul torn out."

Ms Thal frowns. "If we can't interrogate him, why did you bother keeping him alive? He has already been sentenced to death."

"Several reasons. I'm not sure if his complete lack of spiritual presence would do anything to stop a telepath from taking a look, but I think it's worth experimenting. Assuming we can get the legal okay."

That gets an amused snort. "Hey Katar, remember when we first read about Earth and it seemed that people in costumes could do whatever they wanted?"

"I remember warning you at the time that it probably wasn't really like that."

Ms Thal nods resignedly. "What other reasons?"

"It… May be possible to restore him. It would be at the very cutting edge of thaumaturgical research-."

Her eyes widen. "You want to bring that monster back to life?" Her right hand tightens around the shaft of her mace. "Oh, I'm finishing him right now!"

"Sir, surely it's better to experiment on someone we don't care about, rather than trying an extremely risky arcano-medicinal procedure for the first time on someone we do?"

She doesn't let go of her mace, but her wings droop back slightly in a way which suggests that she isn't going to dive across the room at either Mister Hayes.. or me. "You can do that? Call people back from their afterlife?"

"Did you read my report on the Azerbaijan mission?"

"I-" Her eyes dart to the side for a second. "-skimmed it."

Mister Hol folds his arms across his chest. "I read it. You're saying that rather than calling a malevolent spirit back into someone else's body or into an energy construct, they could be summoned back into their own."

"Oh, it doesn't have to be a malevolent spirit. In theory, any intact soul could be called back. Oh." I nod my head to the side. "Aaaa-part from anyone who's gone to the Silver City. They aren't keen on necromancy there. But if the technique works, we'd basically be curing death. Or at least making it a chronic disease rather than a terminal one."

Ms Thal frowns. "'Making death a-'." She closes her mouth.

"And then you've got the fact that right now his soul is in Hell. It might be in the process of becoming a Demon -and I doubt that he'll have much trouble integrating Hell's magic into himself- or at the very least it's providing power and entertainment to the locals. Who are Demons."

Mister Hol nods. "That's the first good argument against the death penalty that I've ever heard. There is no point in killing someone if all that does is make your enemies stronger."

"Making an artificial afterlife would be the best solution… Very few bad people actually want to go to Hell."

Ms Thal's eyes drift away from him then focusing on the woman. "What about her?"

"The one thing I know about her is that she has a history of drug abuse. I doubt that we'll get much useful out of her but you're welcome to try."

"Oh, she'll talk to me." She gets up and walks towards the woman. "Wake her up."

"Sir, I'm going to respectfully suggest that you put down the mace first. She's not going to be in any fit state to-."

"She took part in an attack on my home and tried to kill us. I don't have any sympathy."

My eyes shift to Mister Hol for a moment, but I don't see any sympathy there either. "Alright sir." A filament connects me to the woman for a moment, then her eyes flicker.

"U-ugh?"

Ms Thal pats the head of her mace against the palm of her left hand.

"Orange Lantern." I look at Mister Hol. "I will contact the Manhunter and ask him to attempt to read our prisoner's mind."

I nod. "Do you want me to get in touch with Poseidonis?"

"No." He frowns slightly. "Something about this still does not sit right with me. Remain on duty for now." He looks back towards the door leading to the rest of the house. "Though if you are able to make repairs to my home, I would appreciate it."

"Who do you work for!?"

I wince at the shot of pure fear from the woman. "I'll get right on that, sir."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:45 GMT -6

I activate the workshop's computer systems. Like just about every piece of Thanagarian technology it makes use of Nth metal circuitry, but I was able to salvage enough to make it functional again. Other systems -the holotank amongst them- are just going to have to wait until Mister Hol himself can attend to it. Whatever that Demon acid was, it's turned back into mundane chemicals and sludge since the attack. I'm not sure whether that's just how it works or if it turned back when the Caterpillar woman did. I should probably see if I -or someone else- can get a sample of Demon Jizz for…

No, it's not really Sephtian's thing. I need to see if Nyssa's got time to take a look at it. But if it works as I think it does then I don't know anyone with the expertise to suggest ways to deal with it. Definitely going to ask Adom if he's heard anything from Blaze since his return to form, but other than that…

If the prosecution can prove that the woman took the stuff voluntarily then she's due for a couple of years' stay in Belle Reve. Given how close we are to there they'll probably stick her in there with a magic suppression chain on up until the trial date. Mister Hayes is technically dead and has no next of kin to claim the body or make a decision about his life support. I'm not sure who I'd have to convince-.

"Orange Lantern, is the communication system repaired yet?"

I turn as Mister Hol walks into the room. "Should be, sir. Is there a problem?"

"I am unable to contact either the Watchtower or the Hall of Justice." He steps towards the control panel I've been working on and I step aside for him. "I'm not certain how well you understand Thanagarian computer systems."

"Not at all, sir. I just say 'ring, do the thing'. Circuitry can only work in so many ways."

He brings up a diagram and checks it over. "I see."

"How is the prisoner?"

"Stewing pleasantly in her own fear. No, you're right. According to this we should be connected."

"Sir, I'm really not sure that's the best way-."

"Thanagarian law enforcement works to very different standards than Amazon law enforcement. We deal with actual crimes."

"Sir, the captain of Queen Hippolyta's bodyguard tried to kill Wonder Woman before she was a week old."

"I know. They tried to murder the infant daughter of their sovereign and their punishment was imprisonment." He presses a few more buttons, viewing each component in turn. "Do you think that the Demon might have done something to the system?"

"The best information I have is that Demons struggle with hinges, let alone computers. Do you know how resistant Thanagarian technology is to magic?"

"It would be rather hard to test, given that my species doesn't use magic. Why do you ask?"

"Because it's not impossible that the acid had an additional spell bound to it. Or…" I look towards the external door. "Harm might have spent some time preparing the ground in advance with some sort of communication blockage ritual. Do you have a local contact who uses magic?"

His jaw tenses slightly. Oh, come on. This is one of the few places in the country where it's relatively easy to find a minor magic user entirely competent in performing simple rituals! With the caster dead or fled destroying whatever effect is still lingering should be simple enough. "If that is the reason then we will have to contact Lord Fate and ask him to deal with it."

"No need to do that, sir. I'm sure I can get hold of an Atlantean who can do that job perfectly well."

"Would they be as skilled as he is?"

"I can't answer that precisely as I don't know exactly how skilled he is. But… If I asked King Orin for a state-employed thaumaturgist then the person who reported should be skilled enough to identify and unpick anything that's likely to be there." I have a horrible thought. "If that's even what it is."

Ring, locate Watchtower.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Maybe the problem is at the other end."

Unable to comply.

Oh shit. The rota for today had Mister Freeman and Major Adams on duty. Ring, locate area of space in which the Watchtower is supposed to be at the moment.

Compliance.

Empty space, stars… Match the positions they're supposed to be. Someone's trying to be clever.

"I can't scan the Watchtower, but there's no debris. It probably hasn't been destroyed. Someone's messing about with my ability to detect things."

He gives me a wry smile. "I feel slightly better about Thanagarian technology if our foes can manipulate a power ring as well."

"Power rings don't do well against magic."

"That sounds like a rather serious weakness."

"Ideally, Lanterns would be trained to use magic as well. It's on my to-do list." I was surprised to learn that the Green Lantern Corps does have at least one active sorcerer among its ranks, the unfortunately named Torquemada of Sector 3521. Just one, however. Another failure of the Green Lantern Corps' training scheme. Or perhaps most species don't use magic because they can't? Don't know. I know that John says 'anyone can do it', but I doubt he's spent a great deal of time with aliens. "Ring, Hall of Justice?" A picture appears clearly in my mind. "Still there. Of course, it's a little easier to disrupt a building on the ground than a space station."

"Would it not be far easier to disrupt your ring directly?"

"Um." I take my rune stone out of my equipment pouch and run it over the ring. Weak reaction, which could be anything from a minor spell to residue from my recent fight. "Maybe. Ring, contact Green two eight one four B." I'm not actually sure where Guy is at the moment…

Compliance.

An image of Guy's head appears over my ring. "Yeah, Orange? What is it?"

"Just testing whether this ring's communications were being disrupted. Are you on Earth?"

"Not right now. You need me back?"

"I don't think so, but don't start anything new just in case."

"A'right. Gardner out."

I lower the ring. "Sir, would you mind if I went to check on our allies myself?"

"Are you able to transport our ship with you?"

"I… Should be able to. I can find out very quickly."

"Shayera and I will accompany you. The ship is the only truly irreplaceable device we have here." He starts pressing buttons again. "I will arm some of the more aggressive security measures we have in place."

I shake my arms, several Praexis Demons dropping free. Fatty grins at me hopefully. "I'll leave these here as well. Next stop, the Hall of Justice."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:47 GMT -6

Lex waves at me languidly with his right hand. "So, what do you think of our colleague's work?"

On my side of the secure communication link I hold up the data stick containing Brain's attempt to calculate the possible dimensional topography of the King of Tears. "It's… Impressive. Calculating theoretical models for parallel universes about which so little is known…"

"I understand that he had some assistance from Klarion in gathering the original data."

"And suddenly I'm less impressed."

"Mordru checked it. It's all a little… Beyond me, I'm afraid." He shifts in his seat. "I realise that you are -quite understandably- upset about being excluded from the decision making on this."

I nod. "What was the vote?"

"The vote was on whether or not to use this method to destroy the Justice League, if it became plausible."

"No, I mean… Who voted yea and who voted nay?"

There's a very slight tensing of the skin around his eyes, but it vanishes as swiftly as it appears. "I'm not sure that it.. really matters."

"I can ask Brain for the discussion logs. I just thought that I'd be courteous about it and ask you directly."

"Very well. Savage, Ra's, Ocean Master, Brain and Klarion were in favor, while Queen Bee and I were against." Somehow I'm not surprised. The lunatics, immortals and the one being who might quite like learning what existing in eighteen dimensions is like. "To tell the truth, I'm still a little concerned. How do you rate your chances?"

"Difficult to say for sure. Assuming that Brain's calculations are mostly or entirely correct, I give myself an eighty percent chance of killing the King of Tears with damage to our side being within acceptable parameters. A few percent more with the damage being significant but survivable. My death, that of my field team, up to forty percent of the Human population of this world… After that, things get exceedingly dicey."

"The population was three billion in the nineteen sixties."

"That's why I consider that a victory worth measuring. Dicier is eighty to ninety percent, which would destroy the current Human civilisation. Dicier is the King of Tears being here long enough to permanently warp local space and killing everyone who could do something about it. Dicier is the eight percent chance that the King of Tears wins outright. And that's assuming that Brain's calculations are accurate. You can shave five percent or so off for every minute the revisions take, assuming that Father Box can continue to function in close proximity to it. And then they could be wildly out."

"Ploong."

I nod. "Quite."

Lex lightly strokes his chin with his right forefinger. "I take it then that you don't think this is a worthwhile endeavor."

"What are the League preventing us doing right now?"

He gives his head a very slight shake. "It isn't what they're actively preventing us from doing. It's about what they are passively discouraging the Human race from doing."

"Have you been convinced, then, since the original vote?"

"I'd rather the chance of victory was higher than eighty percent, but even if it is…" He makes a small shrug. "That's a four in five chance that the next day you'll be the head of the new Justice League and the biggest obstacle to our advancement of humanity will be gone."

Third biggest, right after Human nature and people like the Light. "I realise that there isn't anyone better to calculate this sort of thing than Brain,-" Except possibly Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, and I can't find him. "-but I know that you employ a good many members of the second tier of physicists. I would appreciate it greatly if you could ask them to go over his work."

He nods. "That's reasonable. It would be rather embarrassing to make a mistake here because his gorilla smudged his printout."

"Thank you. I'll feel slightly better knowing that a few more pairs of eyes have gone over this."

"It's no trouble. Was there anything else you wanted to ask?"

"No, that's it. Thank you for speaking with me." He nods politely, then deactivates the link from his side.

Hm.

Father Box, Hush Tube.

Ploong.

I rise from my chair, turn and walk through the Tube into the White House's secure briefing room.

18th June
11:50 GMT -5

Jon fans out his hands as I walk through. "Well? Good news or bad?"

"Lex says that he voted against." I tilt my head slightly to the right as I walk around to take my seat. "It's probably true, both because that would be in character and because he knows that I can check."

General Lane nods. "And the rest?"

"All in favour."

Adrian shakes his head. "I still don't think I understand what they were voting on."

"Essentially, there's a life form called the King of Tears. It exists in a plane of reality divergent to but accessible from ours. Some time in the fifties a minor supervillain you've probably never heard of teleported there when a minor superhero you've never heard of shot his teleporter with an arrow. He came back a few years ago… Changed. He made contact with Savage, but without Orm or Klarion egging him on he isn't quite dumb enough to make common cause with such a person. Instead, he plans to use him as a lure for his master. And for the Justice League. A few blasts of reality warping power in population centres, then a nice big wibbly-wobbly thingy where they can't help but spot it. The League attack in force, the King of Tears emerges from his portal and kills them all. I come in, use Brain's knowledge of its physics combined with my power ring to kill it… Or send it back, and use my acclaim to become the founder of the new Light-friendly Justice League. The question they were voting on was 'Is it worth the risk?'."

General Lane exhales sharply through his teeth. "I still say we should go after Luthor along with the rest. If he knew about this all along, that's treason and all kinds of other offences."

Caroline shakes her head. "Not unless we're at war with the… Subtle Realms. We might be able to get him on terrorism charges, though." She looks at me. "Do you know how great his direct involvement is?"

"As far as I can tell, very little. That's intentional on the Light's part, the public face doesn't involve himself directly in the most vile aspects of the work either in person or resources. Plus, he could always claim that he was doing what I am, waiting until a better time to act. That conviction might be a long time coming, and I doubt that it would really stop him."

Jon holds up his right hand. "We'll table the Luthor matter for now. What about the rest?"

Caroline indicates several large folders in front of her. "An attorney who only just passed their bar exam could convict the rest. Even Mordru, and that's without us having to use those anti-witchcraft laws too. These people are evil."

"Adrian?"

"Senator Knight's been falling over himself to help out, sir. We won't be able to get the Destructive Persons Act through in time for this, but it should be law before the end of the year."

"Grayven? You sure about the timeline? If we had fifty days or so we could probably get a placeholder law passed to cover this."

I shake my head. "I'm sorry sir. I had enough difficulty persuading them to give me a month."

"Very well then. General."

"Mister President."

"It has been brought to my attention that a group calling itself 'The Light' is assisting a foreign power to invade the territory of the United States. As Commander in Chief, I order you to use any and all means to prevent this from occurring."

General Lane smiles. "Yes sir."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:55 GMT -5

The Thanagarian ship is silent as it follows me into the sky while I send a filament in the direction of Washington DC. Someone clever is after me-. Ah, us, and I'm not going to assume that I can go wherever I want whenever I want. I'm not even completely certain that I can rely on a test transition if they can affect my senses like that. No, the Demon Ball could only block me, it couldn't do anything sophisticated. Though that does leave a question as to why I can't detect the Watchtower…

"Orange Lantern, we're ready." I glance back at the fighter where Mister Hol is at the controls. "Transfer us when ready."

"One moment, sir."

My biological sample appears just fine… Okay, the choice is either I transition us there or fly us there at maximum conventional speed and that would take half an hour at least.

"Transition in two, one, now."

The sky flickers, St Roch being replaced by Washington. My need to know bypasses my usual discomfort at using omnicognisance, data flowing into my ring-expanded mind. Every road, person, car, molecule of air… No. Something's stopping me getting a good read on the Hall of Justice itself. And someone-.

Something hits me! OW! My construct armour fails and my environmental shield flares and flickers. Another hit and the projectile is only lightly turned around by my armour's kinetic barrier before it triggers-. Crumbler tech! I don't bother with actual turrets, I just want lasers to fly from my body to intercept the remaining shots and they do, dozens of hair-thin beams shooting outwards and cutting them out of the air.

"Taking fire, sirs."

I widen my hands, an orange barricade made of hundreds of overlapping orange octagons appearing in front of us. The logical follow up for that attack would be-.

Black/purple fire leaps from the plaza in front of the Hall and people run screaming! Two figures remain standing as the crowd flees, one powerfully built figure in robes and wearing a horned helmet and the other an emaciated man with long greasy brown hair. The Demon -I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess Satanus- is throwing the fire from his right hand while his left is clasped onto the smaller man's right shoulder.

Oh shit that's Gary Lester.

"Phased targets detected. Locking target-."

"Civilian area, Shayera."

"Destabilisation pulse and sonic disruptor. Orange Lantern, I need a better angle."

The beam of fire is gouging its way through my barricade and this sort of barricade isn't cheap in terms of ring power. I remove my backup Spell Eater from an equipment pouch and shove it forwards, the barrier-octagons parting around it before reforming. As it touches the plume of flame the fire gutters and splutters and I don't hesitate, railgun turrets materialising and opening fire with Mage Slayer rounds at full power.

Satanus turns his right arm slightly, giving up on the spell in order to-. That's a force field projector. My shots strike and waste themselves against his purely technological barrier. I switch to a mix of Crumbler rounds and Mage Slayers as we pass over the plaza and a wave of something blasts out from the Thanagarian fighter. On the rooftops overlooking the plaza power armoured figures appear-. That's the same armour Truggs' people used when they ambushed us in the Smoky Mountains. Similar, anyway. A series of focused sonic blasts from the fighter hits the closest cluster, knocking two down while their squad mate manages to activate some sort of personal force field.

The first Crumbler round reduces Satanus' shield generator to a smoking ruin, and for a fraction of a second I allow myself to believe that I'm about to down the new ruler of Hell. A Mage Slayer shoots towards his face and a tiny yellow-grey portal opens just in front of it, swallowing it. For a half-second I watch it disappear into the distance in wherever he just portalled it to, then the portal closes and a series of new ones appears to consume the rest of my barrage. I grimace, then turn my railgun's attention to the newly unveiled mercenaries. Tungsten rounds slam into those who remained upright in the face of the Hawks' attack, personal force fields flickering and dying under the onslaught. Their armour fares slightly better, but with their energy barrier gone another blast from the Hawks' sonic weapon is able to put them down.

"Lantern! You just made me lose a wager with Mister Truggs!" I can see Satanus' grinning mouth through the shadows his helmet casts over his face. "I was so certain that Superman or Fate would reach here first!"

The portals are the same colour as the ones the Demon Ball used. I turn my guns back towards Satanus and fire a tungsten round. If he reacts in the same way -he does- then I'm not going to waste hard-to-replace Mage Slayer rounds. Just one shot at a time with two-seven-four second intervals. Force him to keep the spell going. And try to call the Praexis Demons back through.

Food?

Yes. This way for food.

The Hawks' fighter makes a circuit around the plaza, another disruption pulse going off and revealing another small group of mercenaries. I recognise the gear used by the neo-Nazis on the Watchtower almost immediately and before they can bring their elemental attacks to bear I plug each one with a Mage Slayer round.

"So swift! So certain! And so precise! What I would not give for men such as you to be among my own followers!"

"Do I amuse you, Saturnus?" I drop the Hellwraith from the ring on my right hand, instructing it to float under the ground until it's in a position to attack him. Oh, I really wish I'd brought either the Ace or the Sword with me!

"And you even pronounced it correctly! I take it that you have disposed of William Hayes?"

"He's in custody."

"Blackgate is going to need a few new guards. Though I should point out that he killed at least three of them before receiving the powers of Sabbac."

"What did you do to the other Hell Lords?"

He half-turns, showing me the back of his robe… And the faces I remember as belonging to the Demons whom the First sent back to Hell. "Normally their punishment would last only until the First forgot why he was wroth with them. But with the First's extended… Absence from his regular position, they remained vulnerable. Particularly to one whose power was already bound into theirs."

"I imagine that you shortchanged Mister Hayes."

"Not at all! He got nearly everything he asked for. I simply retained the ability to take it back once he failed. If he couldn't capitalise on the opportunity, then the fault was his! Perhaps he should have been less devoted to the idea of evil and a little more to rationality and intelligence! Did you like the Polyhedrite?"

"I was just calling it 'Ball Demon'."

"Yes, and you call the sublime work of alchemy which gives mortal Humans a taste of demonic power 'Devil Jizz'. I fear that naming things is not your strength."

"I was impressed by the complexity of the thing. I take it that it wasn't a Demon?"

"Oh no. It is a Lukhavim. The normal design stresses brute force, but Demons already have that in excessive quantities. By wiring in the intellectual capacities of the Human species using freshly damned souls in a technodemonic framework, I am able to create something far more sophisticated!"

I am in position, Master.

"All your own work?"

"Belial helped. Though I have been expanding my library of late. There is some truly fascinating work coming out of Atlantis."

With no further fire incoming I allow my barricade to fade away to a few plates, the Hawks manoeuvring their fighter to the opposite side of the plaza.

"Still, it would have required a great deal of skill to adapt Earth-magic rune layouts for Hell-magic systems."

"I take after my father in that regard."

"What do you want here?"

"I need more than arcane skill to establish myself as Hell's ruler. Destroying this monument to Human heroism -and killing a few of its defenders- will go some way to giving me the credentials of a war leader."

I don't use Ophidian's Eyes on the Demon Lord.

I generate seven additional railgun turrets. Internal only. "Sir, would you please shoot him with everything you have? I need a distraction."

"Alright." Hawkwoman sounds far less eager than she did earlier. Perhaps she doesn't find this sort of combat as exciting. "On three. One. Two. Three."

I open fire with tungsten rounds at the same time as the Thanagarian fighter opens fire with plasma repeaters.

"Hahaha!" Satanus interposes more portals to absorb the shots. "A weak effort! I had expected-."

Praexis Demons swarm from the rifts and latch onto his body while the Hellwraith rises through the pavement and grabs onto his cloak!

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
10:58 GMT -5

Satanus staggers sideways as the horde swarms over him, though I imagine that he does so more in surprise than fear.

"Aagh!"

Mister Lester is less sanguine, cowering away as much as he can with Satanus' hand still clamped onto his shoulder. Okay, I didn't ask John about him directly as I assumed that his fate was a bit of a sore point, but to the best of my recollection he had Mnemoth sealed inside him then got bricked up in a small room in Linton Smith's basement. Not that I think he wouldn't have sold him on to Satanus if the price was right.

Satanus responds, exhaling black/purple fire to burn through the Praexis Demon that had latched onto his face then turning his head in an arc to incinerate as many others as he can. They dissipate after a second or two then fall from the rings to renew their attack, several already showing the distended bellies which indicates that we're about to witness another wave of vomit-births.

Joy.

What next? The Praexis Demons can probably keep his attention but given how powerful I imagine him to be I doubt that they'll make much progress-

Satanus is briefly surrounded by a storm of lightning, which fries the Praexis Demons all over him as well as the Hellwraith. He gets all of half a second's respite before they're all over him again.

-in draining him completely, which is just about the only thing they can do to finish him. Tubbs!

The Praexis Demon I call stops mid-air and turns towards me.

Get into the Hall's zeta tube and fetch the Sword of the Fallen and the Ace of Winchesters from the mountain.

But food?

Go.

He slumps slightly. I go. Then he flies off towards the entrance of the building.

Satanus is lashing out with his free hand in a slightly more controlled way now. I think he's realised that the Demons aren't an immediate threat. Giving him think-time is not ideal.

"Orange Lantern, your… Things aren't giving us a clear shot."

Ms Thal sounds moderately disgusted by them. I wonder..? Oh, I'm a grandfather, that explains it. I suppose she won't have seen that happen before. "They can't die, sir. Feel free to fire through them. Alternatively, if you can secure the Hall or Mister Lester, that would be quite helpful."

"Who is he?"

"An associate of Mister Constantine." A grey/black portal opens next to Satanus and he grabs a struggling Praexis Demon by its head and shoves it through before closing the portal again. Yep, sending them to a different part of Hell will work perfectly well. "There's a rather unpleasant Famine Elemental called Mnemoth inside him. It killed eighty nine people last time it was in New York."

Satanus opens another portal, this time showing watery sludge on the far side. Just in case he's having to concentrate on that I open up with my railguns once more.

"Gah!"

Yes, yes he does. And agh-!

I drop through the air, construct armour gone and armour smouldering. Ring, what was that?

Massive electrical discharge detected.

And I didn't get advanced warning because..?

Unable to detect prior to impact. Probability analysis strongly indicative of conjuration.

Fair enough. I re-establish my construct armour and add an ablative sphere around me. Praexis Demons, next time he tries shoving one of you through a portal, try eating it.

I get a vague impression of obedience back through the link.

What exactly is this in aid of? Satanus is about as powerful as Demons come, yet he hasn't brought any backup with him that I can see. No cultists, none of those minor Demons that Mister Gregor or the Polyhedrite had. I mean, yes, I don't think I've done more than mildly inconvenience him so far…

Ms Thal dives out of the rear hatch of the fighter and flies into the Hall at speed while her husband remains on overwatch. He attempts another volley of shots from the plasma repeaters, but all this does is remind Satanus that he's there. Turning suddenly in the fighter's direction he negligently backhands a Praexis Demon towards a portal leading to an area of densely piled and still animate skeletons. In a surprising display of coordination, two other Demons grab hold of it and shove it upwards so that it hits the portal mouth first. The Praexis gulps, its mouth expanding, being sucked along the outer surface of the portal. Satanus looks back from throwing fire at the fighter, staring at the Praexis with the first genuine concern that I've seen in this fight.

The Praexis Demon grows, not getting fat but expanding, the solid orange of its body being corrupted with grey and brown.

"Raaaaaarr!"

"How-?!"

Perfect. Angel Feather round, fire.

A portal starts to form to intercept it but another Praexis gulps it down immediately, sloughing off to the side as it too begins its metamorphosis. Satanus is left wide open as the Source-touched round strikes him.

"RAAAAAAAAGH!"

Golden fire erupts all over his body, his clothing burned off and his skin blackening and charring!

"Gabriel!" Golden sand swirls around him as he opens a rift to Hell with himself at the centre. The golden flames gutter and fail. I suppose that makes sense. According to John, Hell grew up around the First after God told him to 'get out of my sight'. Presumably the Source's presence doesn't extend there.

"Enough of this!" Satanus releases Mister Lester's shoulder and the man falls to his knees before frantically scrabbling to get out of the way. "Clearly, I should have paid more attention when Truggs told me of your skill." I open fire with Mage Slayers again as he raises his right hand and blasts Mister Lester in the back. "Enjoy the reward of your labours."

The rift collapses around him, taking him back to Hell with it as flies begin to crawl out of Mister Lester's charred body. Mnemoth will be joining us in a moment or two.

"Katar! More soldiers in the Hall!"

Hellwraith, go and assist her. Praexis Demons, eat as many flies as you can.

The swarm swoop in, but the demonic flies are literally materialising from nowhere. It's quite possible that they're just a side effect of Mnemoth's spirit being close at hand rather than acting as his physical body. Plus, the Praexis Demons aren't the world's most agile fliers.

"So full!"

And I've got a distinct feeling that my new living Hell portals are going to be a problem. Okay, more flies and they're increasingly larger and more demonic-looking. The crowd -who had started to edge forwards like the filthy rubberneckers they are- start backing up again as the centre of the plaza blackens from the sheer mass of insect bodies.

I don't think that the Polyhedrite had desires of its own. But I can see from the filthy orange glow emanating from its small avatar bodies that Mnemoth does. It wants people to suffer and starve so that it can spread. Of course, having desires of your own to which you are totally beholden isn't an entirely good idea when facing an Orange Lantern.

Orange light envelopes the entire area in which it is trying to emerge, hundreds of connections forming between the rings and its central consciousness. It's intelligent but not particularly clever, as expected from a life form that flew into the blatant trap John and Mister Smith set up.

Ring, can we assimilate it?

Presence of intense unrestricted desire indicates little resistance to assimilation.

I imagine a cloud of orange Demon-Flies covering the skies.

No. I don't think I want that.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
11:01 GMT -5

Altering other people's desires is something I've been able to do for a while. I mean, I've probably been capable of it for as long as I've had this ring. Looking back I… I can certainly spot times when it's altered mine. Amplified them, anyway. Using that ability myself, compelling people in order to achieve my own ends… I'm not sure whether what I do is worse than telepathically altering someone or not. It certainly isn't any better. Doctor Jones hasn't shown any obvious signs of it lingering, but it's always a concern. I have little desire to turn other people into puppets on a permanent basis.

But in this case it's a Famine Elemental. It was brought into being by suffering, in a way I imagine is similar to that of the Idea of Evil in Berserk. As it spreads, it causes starvation and recharges from the starvation it causes. Nutrition just disappears from people's bodies, sending them into a frenzy in which they will try to eat anything that might alleviate the feeling. It has little personality beyond that and its only window on humanity is its suffering.

There are limits.

Ophidian.

I feel her awareness expand into me, and for a moment I/we see every moment of Human starvation, every crop failure and field-burning and plague that left farmers too weak to work their fields. And in that instance I/we see it as the Ophidian does. Barely relevant.

I pull away from her a little.

My Agent. Will we make it ours?

I can hear a slight hint of confusion. To her, it's another thing, and having more things is better. She doesn't -probably can't- understand why I'm feeling the way I am.

I don't want to ever end up like that.

"No. It may not use our light. Desire nullification."

Flies drop from the air as the Elemental's core self begins to fragment. It doesn't have much beyond its desires, and the more it tries to cling to them the worse it fractures as I dial them down. I can't quite cut it off completely, but it doesn't have anything else to cling to. I feel the parts of its soul begin to lose cohesion…

And realise that having a huge pile of famine-magic do that in a major city probably isn't much better than having the Elemental itself freed.

Praexis Demons with the portals!

The two of them turn their heads… The top parts at least, in my direction.

Lots of food coming! Do you see it?

"Huh?" / "Yay!"

I don't have time for their ineptitude! Praexis Demons, consume!

They shudder, then throw their heads back… The top of their bodies peels off, the tops of their heads flapping down their backs. Inside them, the Hellgates flicker and flare in disturbingly lantern-like structures. The stunned and recumbent flies rise off the ground, drifting in lazy arcs around the plaza as they are drawn inexorably towards the portals.

"Uh?"

The other Praexis Demons look a little disturbed, actively avoiding the flies and flinching whenever they look at their brethren.

"A-ah-ah."

"Quiet! They'll hear you!"

I turn my attention back to the crowd… Yellow, I see yellow. Why-?

I look back at the mob of Demon-Constructs surrounding two big ones with built in Hellgates sucking in the remains of Mnemoth. On the far side I see Hell itself, and as the physical and etheric remains of the Elemental enter it, they bulge and grow. I myself am… Glowing brilliant orange, the orange sigil blazing on my forehead.

Ah.

Ophidian, thank you for your help.

I gently push her presence away, and she acquiesces with only a brief sensation of confusion.

"Got it! Got it!" Tubbs flies out of the Hall of Justice, short chubby arms cradling the scabbard I use for the Sword of the Fallen. He starts heading towards me, then stops dead in the air as he sees his swollen brethren. "Huh?"

"Get over here."

He shudders, then complies.

Shayera comes next, Ace of Winchesters slung from its strap over her shoulder and her mace at the ready. Katar exits the Thanagarian fighter and swoops down to her as a haggard-looking tour group dashes out in her wake before-

"Agh!"

-stopping dead when they see my minions.

The space inside the portals pulses and twists and I have no idea what it is doing. I created these things and I've got no idea how or why they work! I'm pouring more power into a spell I don't understand… Heck, I doubt that anyone understands what it's mutated into now!

"Orange Lantern." Mister Hol flaps my way, taking care to skirt the Portal Demons. "Would you care to explain what just happened?"

"When I confronted the Demon Ball, a number of my Praexis Demons were sucked through as it disappeared. The small portals Satanus used to block our shots linked to the same place, so I could call them back through to swarm him. He started using portals to different places to get rid of them, so I told them to eat the portals."

Ms Thal clips her mace to her belt and raises the Ace, pointing it at the closest one. "What are they?"

"I don't know."

"Are they dangerous?"

"I don't know." I shake my head. "Probably. It's just that everything else they've eaten so far, they've either just ingested it or turned it into new Praexis Demons. This is… New."

Unstable Hellgates built into avarice monsters. And I presumed to lecture Ted about an Ape. If anything comes out, or if they change in some way…

I take the sheath from Tubbs and attach it to my armour. "Thank you."

Mister Hol grimaces. "Communications are still down. We have no way to contact Nabu."

I draw the Sword and fly towards the closest Portal Demon. Upside down on the back of its head its eyes flick in my direction.

"Uuuuuuh?"

"I'm still not really sure how intelligent you are. But I'm sorry about this."

I slash horizontally, cutting through its construct torso and head. The orange light of its body starts to fray, deforming and darkening. I think-. I quickly run my rune stone over it. Yep, whatever the Sword does to things just enabled the magic from the portal to run throughout the rest of it. I float upwards, slashing the portal and the lantern-structure anchoring it in place.

"Lantern!"

"Sir, this is the best idea I have and you told me that the League's expert wasn't available." I pull back slightly, watching as the Demon's face dissolves to mush. Come on, the portal should collapse without something keeping it anchored… It's certainly destabilising… Railgun. I fire a short volley of Crumbler and Mage Slayer rounds at the Portal Demon.

There's a flare of light as the portal collapses inwards.

Ring, did any of that mess end up inside you?

"Construct Lantern did not return to this ring. No changes to structure detected."

Good. I turn my attention to the second one.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
11:06 GMT -5

Ms Thal looks down at her husband as he crouches in front of the bank of computers which run the Hall's internal systems. "And we still have no idea why communications are down?"

"Everything seems to be in order here."

"And either no one's answering their mobiles or somehow public networks are being affected as well. Permission to try civilian phone lines?" Mister Hol extracts himself for a moment to look me in the eyes. "Given that the Light already know who everyone is and Satanus is a member, there doesn't seem to be any added risk."

"No, not yet. At New Year you were able to locate the Watchtower in spite of its cloaking technology. Could you do so again?"

"Sadly, no."

Ms Thal's mouth tightens. "Why not?"

"You remember that meeting a little while ago where -among other things- I asked Nabu why he hadn't warded the Watchtower yet?"

She nods in understanding. "He's warded it since."

"Convenient as it would be for him to have ignored everything I said, he does have a reasonably intelligent head on his shoulders." Someone's shoulders, anyway. "It appears specifically designed to block out the sort of thing we used to get in last time. If we could get hold of Nabu himself or a mage of equivalent power we could get in anyway, but…"

"If we could do that then we wouldn't have this problem." Mister Hol rises to his feet. "At this point I can't do anything more without replacing the whole system."

"Could you just fly to the Watchtower?"

"I can fly to its predicted location and wave some construct arms around. Alternatively, we could try the zeta tubes."

Mister Hol bows his head slightly. "If our systems have been compromised to this degree, I would hesitate to use them."

"The zeta tube system is designed to be isolated from the main computers, and it is extremely failsafe. Tubbs went through fine when he got the Sword and the Ace from their storage facility. If you're really concerned we can send him-" Ms Thal starts walking towards an equipment storage locker. "-and a robotic drone through first."

She opens it and reaches inside. "I've got a better idea." She turns around and holds out… Ring? A Thanagarian designed uninterruptible transponder. "Give this to… 'Tubbs', then home in on its location."

"Does it work through detection wards, sir?"

She looks at Mister Hol, who strokes his chin with his right hand. "I somehow doubt that it's ever been tested. Still, it doesn't hurt to play it a little safer."

I nod, and Tubbs floats forwards and reaches out with his stubby little arms for the device. "Does he understand what it is?"

"Does he need to?"

She presses the activation button before handing it over. Tubbs snatches it and looks at it speculatively.

"No, don't eat it. Fly through the zeta tube to the Watchtower and wait."

"I go." He zips off in the direction of the Hall's library.

"We should probably be right behind him. Going in through the tube will be easier than flying up there."

Mister Hol nods and the three of us fly after him through the Hall's corridors. Ms Thal pulls up alongside me. "I'm curious about the obvious contradiction in your beliefs about personal liberty."

"What would that be?"

"You were prepared to campaign with Luthor to get AIs rights, but you have Demons enslaved to your will." She smiles faintly. "I'm not even sure that's legal any more."

"It isn't. Legally, they're constructs and not Demons. That means that they're not covered. And I had good faith on that until today."

We come out into the library in time to see the flash of Tubbs' departure. "Recognized, Tubbs, C zero five."

"As the law currently stands, I'm obliged to release them. And I'd gladly do that if I had the slightest idea how to. Really, I've been lucky that something like what happened outside hasn't happened before." I check the mechanism on the Ace. Everything appears to be in order.

"Pass me the Sword." I look at Ms Thal. "You're going to be shooting and it's a lot more effective against Demons than my mace."

I nod and detach the scabbard from my armour, then pass it to her. "Sir, be very careful with this weapon."

She takes it, then clips the scabbard to her harness. "You'll get it back."

"Sir, it's a barely understood arcane weapon. We don't know what it does to people it hits or people who use it."

There's a ping, and Mister Hol looks up from his tracker. "Location confirmed. The Watchtower is where it's supposed to be. Any opposition?"

Tubbs?

I get an image of the Watchtower's meeting hall. Haven't taken my advice on moving the tube, I see. Tubbs can't identify weapons all that reliably, but there aren't any people around and no one is actively attacking him. "Looks clear, sirs. We can go right up."

Ms Thal shrugs. "Never hurts to be prepared."

"I'm not arguing." I hold out my right arm towards the tube. "Melee weapons first?"

She draws the Sword.

"Recognized, Hawkwoman, one zero, Hawkman, zero nine, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

18th June
16:09 GMT

Ms Thal is floating near the large window into the arboretum. Mister Hol is trying to access the Watchtower's computer, a breathing mask extended over his face. He glances up as I try scanning the Watchtower from the inside. "It might have been nice to know that the atmosphere had been vented."

"Sorry sir, but Tubbs doesn't breathe. He wouldn't have noticed. Are the two of you alright operating here?"

"It's only one atmosphere's difference. There." All of the holodisplays in the room activate, displaying the message 'Main hall'. "That's being displayed all across the Watchtower. Hopefully-."

Ms Thal flaps, diving out of the way as a beam of blue plasma blasts through the window. I fly towards the breach, creating a construct barrier between us and whoever that was who just took a shot at us.

"Brilliant idea, Katar!"

"Did you see who shot at you?"

She nods. "And you're going to love it."

Robot Hawkman ignites his wings and surges towards my barrier. I fire the Ace once, bullet failing to penetrate his outer casing. Then I pull myself aside and fire an orange beam from the ring. Some sort of pink energy flows over the android's joints as the beam hits, crackling as the pulse is… Absorbed, I think?

Warning: power drain detected. One hundred two percent remaining.

Yep. Absorbed. Wonderful.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
16:10 GMT

Still, it's not as if I don't usually attack indirectly anyway.

Ms Thal flies directly at it with the Sword held slightly to her right side while Mister Hol flies directly upwards, presumably trying to make it harder for the robot to shoot him. Since the plasma beams were just plasma I erect a construct barrier along with two construct railguns.

The robot flicks its right arm in her direction and Ms Thal takes a plasma beam to the chest. "Ough!" She's knocked back, her diving charge turning into an uncontrolled tumble. Plasma weapon is probably Earth-tech, given that her armour appears to have taken the worst of it.

"More of you are up here already?" The robot's face doesn't have any capacity for expression, but the voice sounds confused. How am I hearing that? Internal communications. The ring is interpreting it as direct speech. "I was sure it would take longer than this. Bloody autistic systems."

The voice is English… The armour is warded and insulated. That could actually be power armour, which is why I don't just shoot off the arms and legs as I move to protect Ms Thal with my construct barrier.

"I realise that this isn't America, but if you'll stand down-" A beam of plasma from a device on his left wrist splashes off my construct barrier. "-I'm sure that I can prevail-."

"Where are Major Atom and Icon!?"

The robot raises its right arm and fires a series of rapid pulses in Mister Hol's direction as he flies, weaving and jinking. "If they're where I left them, then they're still unconscious inside a secure cell. Let me just check."

I blink, and he's suddenly smashing into Mister Hol, his mechanical wings ablaze with blue plasma that leaves a brilliant trail in his wake. "Yeah!" The two of them crash into the far wall. "They're fine!"

"Eyh." Ms Thal pushes herself up as I switch from railgun to laser. Okay, automatic tracking, fire. The first quarter-second beam hits the middle of the robot's wings, but I can't see any damage. The second hits the rear of his knee. I see the metal reddening for a moment. Did the heat get transferred, or did I melt something? Not sure.

Mister Hol drops his mace and gets an Nth metal knife out of his belt, stabbing at the robot's eyes. The robot recoils from the blow, giving Mister Hol space to punch it in the throat. "Ah." Which isn't a good idea when your opponent is made of metal and doesn't have normal organic vulnerabilities.

The robot bends in the air and kicks off Mister Hol's chest before he can stab it again with his knife. It turns in the air, diving down towards-. The cheeky git is going for Mister Hol's mace! Though since they're now separate, cold gun, fire on the wings.

The pale blue beam hits the burning wings and the heat dies wherever it touches.

"Whaaaaa!"

Then it's his turn to tumble out of control, slamming back down onto the deck next to the mace and scrabbling for it as his wings super cool. Ice doesn't form as there's no moist air around to supply the water but very cold metal becomes quite brittle. He rolls as he gets his hands around the shaft, interposing it between himself and my beam.

So I make a second cold gun construct slightly offset from the first and fire that at his legs.

"Hey, that's-!" He… Hops, trying to avoid a light speed weapon. I'm limiting myself to temperatures that the Human body can survive in case that is armour, but the Human body can survive temperatures far below what it actually likes. I alternate, shooting legs, arms and torso until the ring's scan says that it's as cold as a person can get without risking frostbite.

Must remember to visit Mister Snart with a box of chocolates.

I cut the beams and walk slowly towards him. He tries to push himself up, metal plates on the outer surface of his armour cracking as he does so. "I would very much appreciate it if you would surrender now."

"You've super-cooled the metal!" He turns his head in my direction and I see where Mister Hol's knife has sliced into his head. Think I can be fairly confident that there wasn't anyone in there. "Truggs tried to tell me that the conductor system was a bad idea. That'll teach me not to listen!"

"Indeed. I've learned to my misfortune that he's a-" Hawkman lands just behind me. "-remarkably sagacious fellow. What exactly are you?"

"Oh, no. I'm not surrendering. I'm just not being a dick about beating you up." Pale pink light flows out of his joints and covers his entire body, silver metal darkening as it does so. "You see, cold doesn't do much to stop Dem-."

I raise the Ace and fire.

"YAAAAAAAGH!"

He convulses as the golden fire passes over everywhere the pink light touches, burning through the outer casing and revealing the mechanisms within.

"Sir, shots from the Ace of Winchesters destroy demonic magic. I strongly suggest that you stop using it."

Wait a moment. Pink Demon magic and an English accent. One match found…

"Richard Simpson?"

Mister Hol glances at me. "You know this creature?"

"He used to be one of John Constantine's friends."

"Emphasis on the-. Guh. On the used." His face is mostly gone, his epidermal layers have been eaten through to the inner mechanism in several places and I've got no idea how he's speaking or hearing. "You know him too? Did he finally fuck things up for someone important enough that superheroes got called in?"

"No. We're friends."

"Hah! Won't be long, then. Okay, spiritual firewalls back in place. That gun is a nasty piece of work. Ah. Bloody hell, this thing's wrecked."

Ms Thal leans forward slightly, Sword at the ready. "How can you tell?"

"Internal cameras. I'm connected to this whole place. Well, all the networked bits. I've shifted myself as far out of this wrecked chassis as I can."

"RaH!" Ms Thal lunges forwards, cutting through the metal with the Sword. The blade enters at the middle of the right shoulder then cuts diagonally down across the torso before exiting just above the left hip.

"And just in time too, apparently. Now where's that communications laser? I need to get back to Earth."

Ms Thal snarls, then turns her head my way. "I thought you said Demons had trouble with hinges."

"Hah!" Oh, I see. The signal wasn't actually coming from the robot, it's coming from main communications. "He wasn't far wrong. Hey, if you know who I am, you can fill them in. If you're here, that means that my part in this mess is over."

"Why are you working for Satanus!? You remember Newcastle, you remember what they're like!"

"Satanus got me away from Agony and Ecstasy after twenty years rather than ten thousand. He's not such a bad guy-."

"Excuse me! The Twins work for the First and I killed him."

"Did you? Oh. Alright, but Satanus is still the one who's making sure the First stays dead. And he took the time to free me from my… Education program. But I'll tell you what. Since you helped, I won't completely wreck the computers on my way out. So long!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
16:14 GMT

Mister Hol goes to work on the Watchtower's computers immediately. Ms Thal looks at what's left of the robot for a moment, then lunges at it, punching the very cold metal in what's left of its chest with her right fist. Metal fractures and snaps as it gets knocked backwards and falls to the floor.

I hold out my right hand and look at her expectantly. She keeps staring at the robot for several seconds, breathing hard. Then she remembers that I'm there and turns back around, looking at my hand with a frown. Then she resheathes the Sword, detaches the sheath from her belt, and passes it over.

"Thank you, sir."

She glances at the robot again. "Do I want to ask?"

"Richard Simpson was a practitioner of a sort of computer-based parapsionics. He assisted John in investigating a religious group called the Resurrection Crusade. They had arcane computer defences… His mind and soul were inside their system when the defences triggered. His physical body was completely destroyed, and John just walked away without trying to help."

"So he's become some sort of living computer program?"

"No, that made him a weak arcane being. But… After that, John was trying to escape a powerful Demon called Nergal. He couldn't get away, so he used Mister Simpson's equipment to transfer himself into a local computer network while Mister Simpson occupied his body. Nergal caught him, got him to explain how the system worked and then went in after John."

"Demons can do that?"

"Apparently. Needless to say, if Mister Simpson was still Human I'd have recruited him for KordTech months ago. So, Nergal goes in, John tricks him into projecting himself into some sort of anti-Demon trap… Then Mister Simpson decides that he'd rather keep John's body."

"Heh. Sounds like it serves him right."

"Except that as John points out, his body has lung cancer and only a couple of months to live. But, Nergal's brain dead body is just sitting there. So they do a swap. John gets his own body back, and a little while later manages to trick the First and his brothers-" I tap the hilt of the Sword. "-into fixing his lungs. Mister Simpson takes Nergal's body and all the Demonic energy bound into it and reconfigures it. John told me that he claimed to have become some sort of technology Demon. Except, that isn't allowed, and a couple of high level Demons turned up to force him to go through the proper process."

I sigh. "But with the First gone, the old rules of demonic society got thrown out of the window. If Satanus wants him freed with as much of his Human intelligence and initiative intact as possible, then that's what happens unless a Demon of equal power stands against him."

I feel a slight wind against my skin as the air supply comes back on. Ring, give me the bad news; there wasn't any wind when the window was punctured. All of the horses are dead, aren't they?

All horses are presently in their stable. Stable air supply still functional.

Oh, that's a relief. The horses will be a bit grumpy about being shut in, but after a few…

"Sir? Have you checked on Major Adams and Mister Freeman?"

"They're fine, but I'm leaving the door to their cell sealed until the atmosphere is fully restored." He presses a few more buttons and the main holodisplay appears with Batman, Red Tornado and Ms Lance all showing incoming communications. "Watchtower to League. Hawkman here. We've-."

Batman's first to react. "What's the situation?"

"We've retaken the Watchtower from a Computer Demon… Thing." He glances my way. "I'm running a full reset of the Watchtower's systems now. The zeta tube network should have been unaffected. Captain Atom and Icon have non-life-threatening injures and we will take them to the infirmary as soon as the atmosphere is restored."

"The horses are fine too."

Ms Lance looks off to the side, making a very quiet sigh-laugh. The other two don't react.

Ms Thal and I walk around to be comfortably within the arc of the camera. Now that I get a better look at him, Batman looks like he's been in combat. There's dirt and a little blood visible on his mask. Raquel was shadowing him today, hopefully demonstrating by example the advantages of a personal force field. Red Tornado looks fine, as does Ms Lance. Then again, I think she was working her civilian job today.

Another window lights up and Mister Allen's face appears, his eyes flick swiftly around the other floating heads. "Everyone else get attacked too?"

Batman nods. "A professional assassin by the name of Constantine Drakon."

"At least that's one less assassin we'll have to worry about."

Batman's head lowers slightly. "Unfortunately, he was able to disengage successfully. Were you also targeted?"

"Yeah, it looks like we've got a new Mirror Master on the loose. Do you think I could talk Zatanna into making Central City her regular beat?"

Ms Thal nods. "We had to deal with a robot, a Sabbac, a swarm of Demons-" I look away from the screen and cough quietly into my right fist. "-Satanus and a Demon-possessed robot."

There's a slight whir from Red Tornado. "I was not subjected to a targeted attack. However, someone transformed several dozen people in my vicinity into monstrous beasts."

Mister Allen frowns slightly. "That sounds like an attack to me."

"If it was intended as such, then they failed in their objective. They were unable to control their creations. Most fled in a panic, others lashed out at whatever was close at hand."

Ms Lance nods. "We were attacked by a huge alien with four arms."

Batman's eyes narrow. "The League's being targeted. Now that communications are back up and running I'll try contacting everyone. Stay on your guard. Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Orange Lantern. Stay on the Watchtower until I relieve you. Everyone else, if you have dealt with your assailant go to the Watchtower and prepare to deploy. Batman out."

Mister Hol nods, then deactivates the display and stares into space for a moment. "After today, I think we should try and persuade the others to reconsider their position on integrating weapons into the Watchtower's structure."

Ms Thal nods. "Weapons, shields and a standing security force recruited from the armies of UN Security Council members."

I blink in surprise. "Do you think there's any chance they'll go for that? I mean, I thought I was pushing things-."

They both look at me like I'm an idiot. Yeah. Okay.

"While we're on the subject of weapons, sirs." I take two cold guns out of subspace. "Might I offer you each one of these to augment your arsenals? I can be available to train you in their use just as soon as Batman-" Ms Thal takes the one closest to her and begins examining it closely. "-gives the all-clear."

Mister Hol nods. "I think I will take you up on that." He holds out his hand and I pass the remaining gun to him. He takes it and looks at it thoughtfully for a moment. "I see that you've remodelled it based on Thanagarian designs."

"Just these two, sir. I thought that it would help if it were familiar."

He nods, smiling. "Given what has happened, I feel obliged to let you know that today's exercise was in part an opportunity to review members of your team who might be capable of serving in the Justice League. Diana warned us that you were an over-achiever, but seeing you in action was… Impressive."

"Thank you, sir. But I was rather expecting to get black balled by Nabu."

"True, you were. But Batman raised the idea of moving to qualified majority voting rather than unanimity. If we reach agreement on that, Nabu's objections will no longer be a barrier."

I smile outwardly. "Well…. Thank you, sir. Ah-." I turn to Ms Thal, who looks up from her shiny new gun for long enough to roll her eyes and nod. "Thank you sirs. I'm not certain how frequently I'd-."

Batman's face reappears on the holodisplay. "All available Justice League members capable of operating under the ocean are to deploy to Poseidonis at once. They're under a major attack."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
13:19 GMT -3

Waterplough.

I haven't practiced with it. It's just one of those weird alien devices that John's ring had in its database that I looked at for half a second, thought 'when would I ever use that?' and dismissed.

I'm using it now.

The Poseidonis zeta tube was the first target for whoever this is, and the Poseidonis-side of the Dolmen Gate pair between there and the Atlantean New York embassy was the second. That was what notified us that something was going on: Ambassador Vallambrosa frantically trying to get hold of the League while we were all under Mister Simpson's communications blackout. With no other transport links between the surface and Poseidonis we're reduced to either arcane teleportation -a risky prospect when the civilisation you're teleporting to is heavily populated by magic users- or brute forcing it like I'm doing.

The waterplough construct does something to the hydrogen bonds in the water immediately before it, making it far less viscous than normal. I'm focusing on maintaining the construct while Mister Freeman, Diana and Mister Kent put their effort into shoving it forward. It's about four kilometres down to reach Poseidonis and we'll be there inside a minute. Just as soon as Nabu's freed himself from his opponent he'll be bringing another group down… Assuming that the fight is still going on. I sent out a call for the local Green Lanterns to return, but that would take anything up to half an hour.

"Orange Lantern, are you getting anything?" Mister Kent is gazing forwards in a way I recognise from Kon, magnifying his vision just as far as he can. Down this far even his vision can't get enough light to see the part of the spectrum visible to normal Humans, and that won't change until we're in the immediate vicinity of the city. Water's too good a conductor of heat for infrared vision, there isn't enough electrical activity or radiation particles for the rest of a Kryptonian's visual abilities.

Ring… Give me something!

Unable to comply.

"Sorry sir, but I can't. This isn't just normal warding, someone's made a real effort to keep me from scanning it."

Magic sensors have gone up my priority list. As well as talking to the Controllers about whether it's possible for me to learn magic or not.

Mister Freeman isn't fazed. "How long until we reach our destination?"

"Assuming that the silt-cleared area is the same as it was before the attack, we'll arrive in twenty seconds." I think, and a countdown timer appears on our side of the waterplough.

"Alright. We've got no idea what we're running into and none of us have any ranged attack options that work underwater. Wonder Woman, Orange Lantern: you're both more familiar with magic and Atlantis than Icon and I are. We're going to need you to guide us."

"Sir." / "Of course."

After Black Manta's embarrassingly successful attack on the city last year, the Atlantean military was put through some pretty intensive retraining on the subject of civil defence. One problem they've had is that there hasn't really been much for their military to do. The city-states don't fight each other anymore and no one else has the reach to attack Atlantis. Most of the things they do fight are dealt with by small groups of battlemages, not large combat formations. Superheroes rather than soldiers. I know that the High Command was showing a great deal of interest in the military applications in Sephtian's work, though I hadn't bothered keeping up with exactly what they were purchasing.

After the purges that occurred in the wake of Orm's departure Poseidonis' military strength is greater than it's been at any point in its recent history. That, and with a good chunk of it coming from other city-states an attack on the capital is bound to enrage the entire country. Taking those two points together, this may well be the worst time to attack there's ever been.

I hope.

One.

Zero.

The silt remains in place for a moment, then vanishes.

Diana reacts first, though I'm only a second behind. "Titanspawn."

I dismiss the waterplough as we accelerate through the water under our own power. The group of figures we're moving towards are things called Water Wraiths, though that is technically inaccurate. They're very roughly humanoid shapes made of water bound together by their innate magics. As we close the distance it becomes possible to see the water-smoothed stones that form bone-like structures inside their transparent bodies. These creatures are supposed to be very rare. Their precise abilities and level of intelligence have never been properly assessed, their few recorded appearances not leaving enough survivors. Themysciran myth claims that they are surviving servitors left over from before the fall of the Titanocracy, though how literally 'titanspawn' describes them isn't known.

Closer, and I can distinguish individual members of their group. Five of them, surrounded by smaller… Surrounded by man-sized figures, naked and with their partially rotten flesh exposed to the water. Aquatic zombies of some kind. The Water Wraiths must be about four metres tall, assuming that they can't just shift their forms. Already a sizeable chunk of the zombie horde are moving in our direction through the water, and doing so far faster than a traditional shambling zombie should be able to manage. The closest Water Wraith of the cluster half-turns and makes a curved gesture with its disproportionately long arms-.

And the water around us solidifies. It doesn't turn to ice, it just becomes immobile, the super strong people around me struggling to move. Okay, for something like a Water Wraith, control of water must be pretty instinctive. Mage Slayers don't move all that well under water but I brought the Sword with me-.

Wait a moment. If all it's done is make the water a solid unit. Ring, subspace it.

Compliance.

The water around us erupts into a storm of bubbles as the solidified section vanishes and the resulting vacuum sucks replacement water in. Diana has her own sword out and swims full speed towards the Wraith cluster while Mister Kent and Mister Freeman divert themselves into the densest concentrations of zombies. The first Water Wraith turns fully towards us, appearing to give us its full attention as another of its fellows diverts its attention our way as well. A superhero's task: draw the attention of horrifyingly powerful foes in the sure knowledge that we can take it better than anyone else they might take it upon themselves to go after.

I take a moment to look at Poseidonis itself spread out before us, tiny flickers of light shining out as the defenders make use of their electrical discharge based weapons. Hard water hemispheres are in place around the palace and the Conservatory, dark dots I assume to be attackers speckled across the outer surface of both. No plumes of dust that would indicate the use of explosives by the attackers. None of the fires that would have sprung up by now on a surface city under this kind of attack. I can identify the areas that are held by Atlantean troops, patches which look like they're overrun by more zombies… Can't tell what's happening well enough to draw conclusions.

Mister Kent and Mister Freeman reach the zombies and begin dismembering them. Punching and kicking don't really work underwater so they just grab and rip or squash. What sort of zombies..? I watch Mister Freeman crush a head and the rest of the body stops moving. Excellent, some sort of facsimile of life effect. That will make things simpler. The zombies' movements are reasonably quick, but other than grabbing and clawing they don't seem to have much offensive power and… What they've got isn't injuring the resilient League members.

The horde tries to redirect its motion towards Diana and I fire out construct cables, directing them to the zombies' heads and then using the attachment to form vice-constructs which tighten and crush. Destroyed, next, destroyed, next, destroyed, next… Part of the horde swims my way and I ignore it. My construct armour isn't as tough as Mister Kent's skin but I'm not seeing anything that suggests that they'll be able to best it.

The zombie huddle clawing at Mister Freeman explodes! Shredded body parts drift in the sudden current and Mister Freeman himself looks more than a little shaken. A Water Wraith makes a curling motion with its right hand and a focused shockwave blasts through the water towards Diana! She raises her bracers to block the attack, most of the force being deflected around the protective magics they contain. Even so, she stops dead in the water as the Wraiths throw out more pressure blasts in our general direction.

Since they clearly decided that the zombies don't matter, I move my orange strands from anti-zombie duty to intercepting the oncoming pressure bombs. The first two I detonate prematurely, clearing Diana's way as she resumes her progress towards the Wraiths. The third expands as I hit it, destroying my strand without detonating the bomb. Mister Kent braces himself, but unlike Diana he relies on toughness and not damage reduction. He's knocked flying through the water back in the direction of the silt-wall. Is..? No, his breathing mask is still in place.

Then a bomb hits me and I'm forced to focus on my own defence.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
13:22 GMT -3

At sea level, the pressure of the air on the Human body is 14 1​/2​ pounds per square inch. Where we are it's more like 300 times that. My colleagues are tough enough to take that, and even they are going to have to be careful about going back up again. My armour can take that, as can my environmental shield. Times like this really bring home exactly how tough we are compared to the most advanced conventional technology. We can be here, even fight here without too much difficulty. Anyone else would need a very expensive submarine to just exist here.

I think that in the fraction of a second between realising that a pressure bomb is about to hit me and it actually doing so.

Oh, I'm accelerating myself. Heh.

Of course, part of the reason why we can exist here is that the pressure is all around us. The water will try to compress the much lower pressure areas of our bodies such as our lungs -if my environmental shield failed I wouldn't be able to breathe, though with my chest reduced to mush I doubt that would be my primary concern- but does far less to solid structures like bones and muscles. Even if a projectile impacting at 4200 pounds per square inch could easily penetrate soft tissue, a ship sinking to the bottom of the sea can remain more or less intact for centuries. The point being, it's the variation in pressure that causes the damage.

Five pressure bombs detonate in close proximity to me.

The impacts are heavy, but I've had heavier. The nasty part -the part that's causing visible cracks to appear on my construct armour- is where the pressure waves interact with each other, creating focused channels of even higher pressure or areas of normal pressure between areas of much higher pressure. I reinforce the armour, pouring orange light into it and I really wish that I'd had time to recharge before I came out. A simple sonic scan shows… More bombs heading my way, though nothing like the overwhelming number I'm sure that they could throw out.

Possible reasons..? My accelerated speed leaves my eyes locked in place as my mind whirs. They don't know who we are and don't think we're a threat. They're absurdly powerful and we actually aren't a threat. They're playing for time and this is working well enough that they don't need to exert themselves. They're focusing on something else and can't afford to exert themselves.

Neither Mister Kent nor Mister Freeman were wearing Spell Eaters. Ring, analyse the difference in performance between the pressure bombs, Spell Eaters versus non-Spell Eaters.

No appreciable difference detected.

Fair enough. The compression is magic but the water itself isn't. All my Spell Eater is doing is detonating them a fraction of a second early.

My construct armour is starting to fracture in earnest. Unlike my super-tough colleagues, I'm not really feeling the violence of the Water Wraith's attacks. I'm getting… I'm getting numbers relayed by the rings, a sense of my relative position and mental images of what the assault is doing to the zombies. But as a Lantern… Combat isn't a kinetic experience for me until things go very wrong. It's a little unreal, slightly removed… I'm a drone operator rather than a fighter pilot.

Assume that the bombardment is maintained, my construct armour will fail in five real seconds. I think my power armour could take the attack for long enough that I could recreate it, but finding out in combat doesn't sound like a good idea. I can't perform a test transition under these conditions. Invisibility is pointless as they can almost certainly sense me by the motion I create in the water. One choice remaining.

I phase, construct armour fading away as I head upwards. I see silt carried by the violent pressure differentials shoot past -and through- my eyes. Unlike when I do this in air, the armour will struggle to rematerialise under water. At some point I'll have to actually either push a volume of water aside by ring power or find an air pocket at surface pressure.

Ugh, that was someone's liver!

How do they even make zombies with water magic? I rise a little further before reorientating myself to follow Diana. I suppose that if the zombies were Atlantean in life there might be enough of a water-based connection… No, that would just animate the flesh. Head injuries wouldn't be fatal-. Wouldn't be destructive. Traditional Vodun zombies with partial soul separation only rot if the living flesh is damaged and infected. They aren't affected by pain, but they get weaker in the same way a normal person would. Demon possessed corpses? Hm. I think that's more like it. Minor bound spirits controlled by greater spirits? Plausible, but testing the theory will probably be impossible. Oh well.

Diana's making definite progress. A combination of her flight ability, raw strength and agility and the defensive enchantments on her armour prevent glancing blows slowing her while her bracers block direct strikes. There's a gap in the bombardment as the water around her solidifies once more, but with a little effort I'm able to repeat what I did to the last piece.

The Wraiths' pressure blasts have torn all of the zombies to pieces, and my other colleagues… Aren't looking too healthy. I can see thin trails of blood leaking from their ears. Mister Kent is squinting at his surroundings and making a little progress towards our enemies while Mister Freeman has been knocked out of contention. Severe bruising and he's lost consciousness. Fortunately for him, his augmentations mean that he heals quite a bit faster than most people.

There's a ripple of motion from the Water Wraiths as Diana gets close enough that they stop trying to use pressure bombs on her. I see the water around her body ripple as it heats up to just below boiling point… That sort of spell takes a great deal of energy. By now I'm not far behind her, and I don't.. think I'm doing anything they can detect. I'm not displacing water, my scry wards should prevent direct detection…

I draw the Sword of the Fallen as I get closer to the nearest Water Wraith. Now, what part of their 'body' is actually them? The water, or is that just a convenience they use to mark their place in the world and maintain a connection to their preferred element? The stones, or are those just held in place by their internal currents? I mean, the only warning they're going to get is when I start stabbing. I'd hate to hit something unimportant.

Ah, it doesn't matter. Just have to stab everything.

Six metre things are really big close up. Like this I can see that the edge of their 'skin' I can see isn't a result of the water bending, it's caused by silt particles creating an effect a little like the black border around a cartoon character. Diana's only a little way behind me and they're still not paying her a fat lot of attention. Not as far as I can see. They don't have eyes, those holes in their head stone look completely decorat-.

What?

The Water Wraiths just collapsed, the stones which indicate the presence of their body just flowing away like flotsam caught in a powerful current. The only thing it reminds me of is the water spell that enabled the Saremites to escape Themyscira. I shove water aside and rematerialise, strands lashing out in the faint hope of being able to-. No. Too slow.

Diana comes to a stop, relief clear on her face as she glances my way. "Wonder Woman to Aquaman. Respond."

I turn away, running a quick scan over the zombie remains as I head towards Mister Kent. Oh, nasty. He's bleeding slightly from the puncta as well as the ears, having to blink repeatedly in order to keep his vision clear. "Sir?"

"Did you..? Uh." He shakes his head. "Did you get them?"

"No sir, but they appear to have left the combat zone. Sir, there's not much I can do about your injuries without first draining your solar reserves completely. Are you alright to continue?"

He nods, smiling as he does so. "I've had worse. Icon?"

I send out strands to pull him our way. "Down, I'm afraid sir. He'll be alright, but if you intend for us to push on to Poseidonis we'll need to put him out of the way somewhere." He nods, blinking again. "Sir, I don't know if it will help, but I can replicate sunlight well enough to recharge a Kryptonian. I don't think it will heal you, but-."

"Aquaman here."

I note the blue glow from both Diana and Mister Kent as I give Mister Freeman a scan. Transformed Terminans are a good deal easier to fix up than Kryptonians. No force fields being projected from every living cell. The fact that he's not mine means that I can't fix him completely in the time available for our next move, but he'll be a lot less miserable when he wakes up now.

"I'm here with Superman and Orange Lantern. We encountered a group of water-based Titanspawn and what appeared to be zombies."

"Titanspaw-?" There's a slight pause. "Understood. Most of the attackers are pulling back now, but we've still got undead in the civilian areas of the city. Move in and link up with the officers on the ground."

"We'll be there in a few moments. Wonder Woman out."

She looks at me expectantly, and I recreate the waterplough construct.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
13:48 GMT -3

"Slayer!" I think Ceyx is smiling. The shark-mouth makes it harder to tell, and apparently 'happiness' isn't part of the emotional spectrum. "You missed all the good fighting!"

His fellow guards seem less happy about the situation, eyes a little wide and weapons held at the ready. Few of them are carrying the melee weapons that were the standard armament during Black Manta's attack last year. I'm not sure if that's because the guards around the Conservatory grabbed whatever they could from the workshops before heading out or if this is just their standard loadout these days. The armour I remember from previous visits has similarly been replaced by a version incorporating an automatic version of the water armour Garth and Tula use. Their version requires a trained battlemage. These just need a little training.

"I've had enough fighting for today, thank you. But I'm afraid that I'm here on duty. Is your officer around?"

His mouth hangs opens slightly for a moment, showing off his teeth. "The officer's me these days. Ah, after the Tesserario, but he got stabbed by one of those sneaky Saremite gits."

I nod. Saremites… Renegades, who their Ambassador called Oceanus worshippers. And we just encountered Water Wraiths. This is looking bad. "Is the Conservatory clear?"

"Yeah." He exhales sharply, bubbles flowing from his gill slits. "Professor Sephtian's goggles made spotting their infiltrators easy enough. The zombies were… Bothersome." Another exhalation. "Fighting something you can't eat is just… Perverse." He gestures to his retinue with his right thumb. "So I just told them how to do it. Officer thinking."

"Quite. Congratulations on the promotion."

He nods. "Yeah, once they cleared out all of Orm's people even I could get promoted. Didn't even have to bite anyone." He pauses for a moment. "Poseidonis is weird like that."

"Do you need my assistance with healing?"

"Nah, the High Queen and the Professors saw to that." He looks past me, off the mesa and towards the rest of the city. "Can you tell me what's happening in the rest of the city?"

"The army is finishing off the zombies and the remaining Saremites have fled."

"You scare them off?"

"No. I was a bit slow fighting some water elemental things. They'd already pretty much given up by the time I got here."

"Hah!" He turns back towards his soldiers. "Not such a soft target now, are we?"

"No sir!" / "No!" / "Atlantis!"

"Or the attack was some sort of distraction." I glance at the ring on my right finger. Guy should be here soon, if he isn't already. I'm half-braced for an immediate message from him recalling me to the surface for whatever attack is next. "I don't suppose you've got any living prisoners, do you?"

"Euh. When the Saremites… They used some sort of spell to just… Flow away. Even took the bodies of their dead. Saves us cleaning up, but it doesn't tell us anything."

I look him in the eyes, then look at his mouth. "You bite any?"

He squints slightly. "What do you think?"

"Okay." I generate a construct pipette. "Open your mouth. I need a sample of their residual flesh or-."

He backs up in the water, both hands up in a warding gesture. "Hey! I.. respect you, but I'm not into that kind of thing."

Whu-? "I need a sample of their blood and flesh for tracking and necromantic purposes."

"Oh." He blinks. "Okay. Ah, that's fine. I just thought you might be, ah…"

"I don't know enough about Nanauvian culture to know what you thought I was asking… But I wasn't. Eating from someone else's mouth is-."

"Yeah yeah, just… Ah… Forget I said anything. And don't mention this to Alki." He opens his mouth slightly. "Ik oray?"

"Thank you." Yep, got a few nice samples there. I put them in a pouch rather than subspacing them, then dismiss the construct. Not entirely sure what putting things in subspace does to their sympathetic attachments, but there's no sense taking risks. "Okay, that's all I need."

"Okay." He looks past me into the city again. "The High Queen just told us to guard the Conservatory, but if the attack is over… Do you have new orders for us?"

"I'm afraid not." I'll need to talk to Sephtian about trying to come up with a form of uneavesdroppable arcane communications device. Atlantean command and control is… Not great. "I suggest sweeping the place for charms or remaining infiltrators-"

"We're doing that already."

I nod. "-but otherwise I don't have anything to suggest. Good work."

He thumps the left side of his chest with his right fist in salute. I respond with the Themysciran variant, something I don't do on the surface because it looks a bit… Nazi. Then I transition to the edge of the palace's exclusion field. The soldiers forming the internal guard start for a second, then recognise me and stand down.

"Orange Lantern." A battlemage with glowing tattoos swims a little closer. I think I've seen her around the place before, though I didn't hear her name. "King Orin and the other Justice League members are in the Small Council Chamber. Do you need someone to show you the way?"

"No, thank you." I can't detect things inside the palace any longer, but I have familiarised myself with the layout. I've also found a slightly better way of getting around than creating outboard motor constructs. The environmental shield around my armour ripples as I'm thrust through the palace corridors in the direction of the meeting room. If they're still here then I assume that the situation is under control and that there haven't been any other attacks.

Reaching the solid water portal, I slow and push my way through. King Orin, Queen Mera, Diana, Mister Freeman, Mister Kent and several Atlantean officers I don't recognise are either seated or standing around a table. The room currently has an air atmosphere, and none of the Atlanteans present have noticeable piscine traits.

"…inventory of what they took." King Orin pauses in his speech to acknowledge my arrival. "The object which concerns me most is the Diadem of Dominion."

Mister Kent nods. "That sounds ominous. What does it do?"

Queen Mera raises her right hand, creating an illusion of a simple metal torc with runes marked on the inner surface. "It was created by the ancient sorcerer Ahri'ahn as a gift to the king of Poseidonis. When active, it allows the wearer to take control of any arcane artefact they can lay their hands upon."

Diana studies the image. "And what activates it?"

King Orin's eyes narrow slightly. "The blood of the ruling king. Either from me, or from a member of my immediate family." Oh no. Ring, start scanning Canada. "Mera and Artur are already here. I'm having my father brought here, along with my half brother Marius. I've got soldiers heading to my uncle's home in Tritonis, but we haven't had word of attacks taking place anywhere else. I don't have any other immediate family-.

Subject not found.

Fuck. "Your majesty? May I.. speak to you for a moment?"

Eyes turn my way, and King Orin nods. "Of course. What is it?"

"I… Ah… You might..? Prefer it if we discussed this in private, sir?"

He shakes his head emphatically. "If you've got something to say, say it."

"We're too late."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?"

I dip my eyes. Rip the plaster off quickly. "After you completed your high school education, you spent the summer as a lumberer in Canada before moving to Atlantis full time."

"Yes, but I don't see how that's relevant."

"While there you had a relationship with a woman named Kako. Early the following year she gave birth to a boy, Koryak. Based on that timeline and observations on his physiology, including unusual strength and resistance to the cold, I think it most likely that he is a Pureblood Atlantean and your natural son. According to police reports he went missing two days ago. Witness testimony says that he was picked up from school by 'an odd-smelling man' who claimed to be his uncle."

I look up into the ashen faces before me.

"It seems that Prince Orm has returned from the grave, and most likely already has everything that he was trying to get."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Titanfall

18th June
13:52 GMT -3

Shock.

Stillness.

Queen Mera is avoiding looking at anyone. I don't know what she's thinking. I doubt that she's thinking of the equivalence between King Orin's relationship with Kako and his mother's relationship with Thomas Curry. I can see the violet strands linking them. Theirs isn't a political marriage as his mother's was. I hope that when I considered the recent history of an elder surface-born son inheriting the throne in place of the Atlantean-born heir presumptive, I was worrying unnecessarily.

King Orin himself is staring at me, though his eyes aren't precisely-

"How long have you known?"

-focused. I could ask exactly what part he was asking about, but under the circumstances I think that an open and honest answer would serve us best.

"I discovered Koryak's existence and probable parentage ten months ago."

That focuses him. "And you didn't think to tell me!?"

I look him directly in the eyes. "Sir, I didn't know that you didn't know until just then. Early in my stay on this Earth I discovered any number of things that I would imagine people would rather I didn't share. So unless I've got a mission-related reason to do so-."

I watch as his jaw clenches, biting down his initial response. A moment later he's got a slightly better grip. "We'll.. table this for now." He turns his head left, towards the Atlantean officers. "Do we have communications with the surface yet?"

One of them nods. "Telephone only, majesty. The zeta tube won't be repaired for another hour. The Saremites knew exactly what to damage in order to wreck it."

King Orin closes his eyes for a moment before glaring at me. "I assume that you have her phone number?"

I nod. "Yes."

He takes a deep breath, then turns to Mister Kent. "I'll speak with Kako, but I think it would help if Batman and Fate visited the scene. If it really was my brother, he doesn't know much about surface world criminal investigation techniques."

"Majesty, I-." Another Atlantean officer hesitantly speaks up. "I don't see how it could be P-. The former Prince Orm. We all saw him dead."

"There are ways to come back from that."

"If my brother had been dealing with Demons-!"

"The Lazarus Pit." King Orin stops immediately he hears Queen Mera speak. "I performed an arcane reading of the zombies as the attack began. I had hoped to be able to undo whatever spell animated them. There were two distinct forms welded together to grant them their unnatural animation. One, water magics such as any Atlantean battlemage might command. The other, I did not immediately recognise." She looks at me. "The only thing I have felt like it was the samples of material taken from Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit which you sent to the Conservatory."

Diana nods. "If Ra's al Ghul did show Orm how to create Lazarus Pits, he could well have had one prepared in advance of his execution."

I knew that was going to happen! As soon as the body disappeared, I knew-! Ra's had been hoarding the knowledge, but if he started teaching people… We can't rely on anyone staying dead. I'm going to have to suggest that the League formally recommend that all executions include the body of the deceased being… Rendered mystically inert or something. And I'm going to have to talk to Nyssa about tracking down every single potential Lazarus Pit location on the Earth. If that's… Even how they work here.

I suppose logically there's no reason to assume it was Ra's. Nyssa does work for Lex Luthor. And several League of Shadow members would have the required knowledge. No. Ra's… That actually makes a lot of sense. I had thought it strange, how quickly Ra's was able to hide from ring scans. What if he just went to Orm? Orm would have any number of places he could hide a few surface worlders… Certainly he could block ring scans. And if he asked for the secrets of the Lazarus Pit in return, well… Ra's wasn't in any position to turn him down.

Mister Kent looks at each of his colleagues in turn, his eyes skipping over me. "Every member of the Justice League was attacked today, but this was the only attack that appears to have a larger objective. Does anyone have ideas what he could be planning to do with it?"

"Oceanus." / "Oceanus."

Diana and I look at each other for a moment, then she resumes. "The Saremites worship Oceanus, and those Elemental creatures which we fought reeked of his magic. Orm could only have gained their aid by offering to assist them in freeing their patron."

Mister Freeman frowns slightly. "I have not heard of a supervillain or sorcerer by that name. The only 'Oceanus' of whom I have heard is the mythological Titan."

Diana's face is more sombre than I've ever seen it before. "That there are myths about a thing should not be taken as a sign that it does not exist. Oceanus is the Titan of the Seas. Though he did not side with the other Titans during their war against the Gods, he quarrelled with the Olympians later as they established themselves. Quite what was done to him I do not know, but usually those Titans who made themselves the enemies of Olympus were bound in some way which prevents them from using their powers against the mortal world."

Mister Kent looks concerned. "Just how powerful is Oceanus?"

"He is the eldest son of Gaea and Uranus. Every Titan has the greatest arcane power over their own domain, and his is the oceans and all they contain."

"He's a god?"

"No. Most Gods are far younger than the Titans, and their domains are far less a part of them. I don't know precisely what he can do with it, but it is reasonable to assume that he is several orders of magnitude more powerful than the creatures we encountered when we first arrived."

"And he's definitely hostile?"

Diana frowns faintly. "I can't say for certain. Only the Gods and other Titans would have met him in person."

King Orin clenches his right hand into a fist. "I doubt that Orm would do all this to liberate him if he had friendly intentions. Do you have any idea where Oceanus is being contained?"

Diana shakes her head. "No. But just as soon as we're done here I can petition the Gods of Olympus to give me that information."

King Orin nods. "I think that it would be best if you learned that location as swiftly as possible."

Diana nods. "Agreed. Does Atlantis require any further aid?"

"No. We can manage the cleanup ourselves. I should be able to send forces out to attempt to locate Orm's base of operations within a few hours."

"Sirs." Four sets of eyes alight on me, one most unfriendly. "When Hawkman, Hawkwoman and I confronted Satanus outside the Hall of Justice, he mentioned that he'd been acquiring Atlantean thaumaturgical writing."

Queen Mera frowns slightly. "We do not make a habit of sharing our research with Demons."

"No, your majesty, but if Orm still has supporters in Poseidonis… Possibly amongst the student population..? They might have been sharing information with him, then he could share it with his allies."

There's a slight glow from her skin. "Then I will locate them exceedingly quickly."

Diana rises from the table, followed by Mister Kent and Mister Freeman. "Orange Lantern, we will need a zeta tube."

I nod, transition to the far side of the table and create a zeta tube construct.

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Superman, zero one, Icon, one eight, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
12:21 GMT -5

"…more information I have on the diadem, the better the chance I'll be able to find some way to counteract it. I don't give any serious credence to the idea that he could control a Titan-."

Diana holds out her right hand in a clear 'stop' motion. So I do. "Paul. I think it might be best if you stay out of Orin's way for a little while."

Mister Kent and Mister Freeman have returned to their home cities. Neither have skills pertinent to the attempts to locate Orm, and both have authorities to pacify regarding the attacks made against them as distractions. Mister Hol and Ms Thal should be heading back to St Roch shortly if they haven't already. The warden of Blackgate signed off on transferring Mister Hayes to Belle Reve without argument, though I haven't had time to take what's left of the Demon Ball to the Conservatory. Oh, I doubt they'd have time for it.

I nod, conceding Diana's point. "Yes, obviously. But Sephtian is going to be busy-."

"And it would probably be best for him if he didn't immediately start covertly associating with someone with whom his king is very angry."

W-? "I… Really don't think that King Orin would be that petty."

"Finding out that he has a twelve year old son is no small matter."

"I know, and I get that he's angry with me. I just can't see him getting angry enough that he'd lash out at anyone else."

She nods. "You are probably correct. But we need him as rational as possible, and anything that looks like duplicity on the part of the people he needs to manage this crisis will distract him."

I suppose that under the circumstances perfect rationality is too much to hope for. I don't remember Koryak or his mother at all from the comics so I don't exactly have any pearls of wisdom to impart that could make this anything other than extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved. "Alright. Do you need me for anything?"

"Yes." Her face takes on a sterner aspect that I'm used to seeing. "I am not happy about you withholding that information. I would like you to explain to me why you did not inform Orin sooner."

"As I said, I've discovered all sorts of things-."

"This isn't an embarrassing tattoo or a questionable judgement call. This is Orin's son."

"A boy whose life I had no grounds to interfere with. A boy whose existence could have damaged King Orin's marriage, revealed his surface world civilian identity and who had.. eleven years to adapt to not having his natural father around. Why should I interfere in his current familial arrangements -including his relationship with his stepfather- on the basis of information I was.. probably wrong to acquire?"

"Because he's an Atlantean, and his stepfather -whoever he is- is in no position to help him understand what that means. What if he were to contract a disease that affects purebloods and not unmodified Humans?"

Ring, double check..?

None found.

"There aren't any. There are certain forms of offensive magic which can-."

"I think you may be missing the point."

"No, I think we're having a genuine disagreement. Unless you want me to share everything I know with everyone I know it about."

"If you know anyway and it pertains to them, I'm not sure why you wouldn't."

"Because people have certain ideas about themselves that they don't want disturbed. Learning about the true history of Mars has created a crisis in their government. Me telling J-. Green Lantern two eight one four A and B about some of the Guardians' less noble moments created a reduction in their confidence in their superiors and worsened my relationship with both. To no real gain, because the Guardians certainly aren't about to change the way they operate."

Something occurs to her. "Is there something which you know about me which you have not told me?"

Oh… Poop. "A.. couple of things."

"Alright." She smiles. "Tell me. Let us see what is so disturbing that you would hesitate to tell me."

"Diana, I don't think that's a good-."

She raises her eyebrows slightly. "You still have a full seventeen days on your oath still to serve. Do you intend to take advantage-"

"No."

"-of the fact that it is unenforceable?"

"No."

Her smile broadens slightly. "You may have noticed, I have fairly strong feelings where the truth is concerned. I promise you that there is nothing you can say to me about me that is true that will lower my opinion of you."

…

"Alright. You know that Dryads regard themselves as being Gaea's daughters?"

She hesitates for a moment, then nods. "You believe that I should think of myself in the same fashion, since it was Gaea who gave me life and not my mother."

"I'm the last person to speak against the relationship you have with your adoptive mother, or your relationship with Kon. But the fact remains that the magics in your body are those of the earth and not of war. You live like a demi-goddess when as far as I can tell you're Oceanus' youngest sister."

She waits for a moment, then holds out her hands palms upwards. "You see? That wasn't such an earth-shattering revelation. Unless you have more to say on the subject."

"Gaea didn't just reshape and empower the magics in the earth to bring you to life in the way she did the magics in plants to create the Dryads. You've got her in you. I still don't understand why you're as -relatively- weak as you are."

"Perhaps it is something that I must grow into. Or perhaps she wanted me to experience the full range of Human life before I experience apotheosis."

"Or perhaps the 'blessings' the other goddesses gave you were intended to suppress your innate abilities."

The smile fades somewhat and she raises her eyebrows. "That, is speculation."

"Nineteen fifty two. You returned to Themyscira, bearing a gift for a botanist friend of yours. A small plant."

"I remember."

"You stayed for a few weeks before returning to Europe, and then to America. Four years later, you returned to find that she had died." Diana closes her eyes, and nods. "From the descriptions I read in the Temple of Apollo, it seems likely that the cause of death was anthrax. Anthrax isn't found on Themyscira. At the time Themyscira had no contact with the outside world for centuries, save for you. You're immune to all disease. You can't even carry them, so there's no risk of infection via you."

She nods, her face sombre. "You believe that the plant pot contained anthrax spores. That my gift killed her."

"The blessings the goddesses gave Themyscira's female population make them resistant to disease, but they don't grant blanket immunity. She would have examined the plant closely, giving her the best chance of inhaling the spores. I checked the soil where the plant was planted after her death." I shrug. "I destroyed the remaining spores to make sure that nothing like that happened again." I look down for a moment. "There is obviously no way you could have known that was a possibility. But I hope that you understand why I didn't think telling you would help anyone."

"I suppose I do. Do you have anything else to share?"

"Not about you alone."

"Very well. Return to the mountain. I will contact you if Orm surfaces."

"Sir."

I turn away and walk through the Embassy's zeta tube.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I stride out into the-.

My armour and construct armour appear immediately.

"What the hell happened here?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
12:25 GMT -5

"Oh, that's easy." The training room's hologram projector flickers for a moment, then an image of Nylor Truggs appears. "I did."

I accelerate.

Ring, full spectrum scan. Demons, go.

There are craters indicating where explosives were used on the floor, punching through and wrecking power cables and projectors. Truggs holds his right hand out and watches as it fades into non-existence. The lights are out, the air… Completely still. The lower parts of the Mountain… Flooded. Someone actually blew up the water and waste processing system. There are bombs on the zeta tubes behind me, and I'm just fast enough to put a shield around the closest before it detonates. The second is too quick, the shaped charge blasting a neat hole through the tube's ring.

Eh, annoying, but it shouldn't take me more than a few minutes to fix. Downstairs will take a bit longer… No immediate threat detected. Decelerate.

Praexis Demons flow from my rings, assembling in groups of three and flying out down the various corridors. I note the blasts on the walls and ceiling where I installed the automated defence systems that were supposed to prevent this sort of thing.

Internal only. "Orange Lantern to League. Mount Justice facility has been compromised." I recall the attack by the Reds. And by Mister Napier. "Again. I give advanced warning that before the end of the day I will be upgrading it to sensible levels."

"Batman here. Do you require support?"

"I don't appear to be in any immediate danger. Who else is supposed to be here?"

"No one. Do you have any clue to the attackers' identity?"

"I'm looking at a hologram of Nylor Truggs. We spent the day being given the run-around by the Light. I don't need to be you to make a reasonable guess."

"How bad is the damage?"

"Central computer wrecked, the bleed torsion generator I installed to power the place… Neatly extracted, probably stolen. Hard lines to remote backups severed. One intact zeta tube left." I exhale. "So when I do do that full upgrade, at least no existing infrastructure will go to waste."

"Ah, hello? I got a monologue to do here? A little.. professional.. hero-villain courtesy too much ta ask?"

External. "Mister Truggs, I've had a very trying day and I've got a sneaking suspicion that it was largely down to you. Excuse me if I'm a little short tempered about you blowing up my home."

The hologram holds up both hands slightly out to the sides, a sort of surrender-shrug. "Had ta be done, had ta be done."

"Yes, I'm sure that you destroyed our holographic training platform for the good of the Human race."

"Ah, hehe…" The hologram looks down. "That was really more… Y'know, collateral damage. I had ta send all a' my reliable people ta the Hall of Justice." He frowns. "Did you know that the exhibits are all replicas?"

"Yes."

"'cause I didn't. Lyin' tour guides." He shakes his head.

Oh no. Internal. "Orange Lantern to Batman. Given Truggs' history I strongly recommend checking on everyone employed as a tour guide at the Hall."

"Agreed."

"Good job taking down Saturnus. I gotta tell yah, I dropped my popcorn bowl when you called your construct thingies back through his own portals. And when you sliced up your own pet Demon with a sword-."

"This isn't a game, Mister Truggs. Mister Hayes killed five people escaping confinement, and probably more on the way to St Roch. I don't know how many people the Demon Ball killed-"

He grins, pointing at me with his right forefinger. "I called it that too!"

"-but I doubt that it was a small number. And if I hadn't stopped Mnemoth-."

"Saturnus was panicking. He was supposed ta just pick that Gary guy up from 'Papa Midnite'-" He air quotes. "-and bring him back so we could work out how that.. that hunger thing inside a' him works." He leans forwards, his head momentarily passing outside of the bounds of the projector. "What did you actually do to it? Have you got like a… A big ole' hunger monster inside the ring now? Aside from the ones in there already, I mean."

"No, it's gone, destroyed, broken down to its raw energy and absorbed. As best as I can tell there is nothing left of it."

"Well, darn. Anyway, about the people who died? The Reach invasion killed about two billion. Their research an' the 'fuck you' bombs they let off when they left ta try and make sure no one else could copy their work killed another five. So as long as I kill less than that and stay focused on the project? Far as I'm concerned, I'm all good."

"These idiots aren't your best bet, Mister Truggs."

"Pretty sure they are now. I mean, I'm wan'ed for murder."

"If you cooperated with the authorities and with the League we could probably get your sentence commuted to life imprisonment. You could even have access to the facilities to continue the non-villainous parts of your work."

He adopts a thoughtful pose. "Yeah, let me just think no. I mean, really?"

"I have to give you a chance, Mister Truggs."

"But seriously: you have no idea where I am. There's like… Fifteen guys with guns here. If I said 'sure' I'd be doing the bullet dance before you could say 'Albuquerque'."

"They can't watch you all of the time. I'm sure that if you wanted to get away, you'd manage it."

"Look, I… I don't know what you think the 'pull' is here? We just scored a major win. Several, actually. And in a couple a' days, we'll score another one. You have. No. Leverage."

"I'm sorry that you see it that way. Now, if there's nothing else you want to say, I've got some home improvements to make."

"What? I thought superheroes were all about nemesis banter."

"You're not my nemesis. You're an intelligent and well motivated man who chooses to use his abilities for criminal ends. You're really no more important to me than any of your colleagues."

"Oh, cut ta the quick." He turns to his left, presumably to someone who is wherever he is. "Cut ta the quick? It's a Britishism 'cause I'm talking to a British guy."

"I'm Themysciran. And I don't think it actually is."

"Oh, I just can't talk ta you when you're like this. I was supposed ta tell you all this stuff… You've just put me off my stride."

"I can't track you, but I can cut your link to this hologram projector. Tell me or don't, I'm busy."

"Fine. Neptune's Trident -the one Ocean Master used ta use and that Aqualad's been swinging around like he knows what ta do with it- wasn't originally Neptune's."

"Oceanus. It belonged to Oceanus."

"Yah-huh. So the Light wanna use him ta scare people inta action, getting in control of the whole 'super' thing. He's going to make a big bang in the middle of the Atlantic. And when he does-."

"It will devastate everything on the Atlantic rim. But you know we're going to try and stop him. Why are you telling me?"

"I work for the Light. But my actual employer is… Our mutual friend. And-."

"Lex Luthor is rather quite attached to Metropolis. He wants action on supers, but he doesn't actually want the attack to be successful."

"Sounds reasonable ta me. Now, I gotta be-."

I put a railgun round through the projector.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
15:03 GMT -5

"Dude…"

Wallace openly gawks at what I've done to the hangar. Richard does a quick sweep of the place then looks down, wincing slightly.

"Ah, are you.. okay?"

Kon's a sweetie.

I float down from the mountain's hangar entrance towards him, Wolf and M'gann. I've been adding a selectively permeable force shield to the blast doors which I've already upgraded.

"No. No, not really. I've got a nasty feeling that Batman's going to be telling me to strip all of this stuff out when he's finished in Canada."

Richard looks up at me. "You might have gone a bit overboard, Oh El."

I frown, then shake my head. "No, I don't think so."

"No?" He takes a boomerang from his utility belt and throws it upwards. It makes it two metres before a dematerialiser locks on and eliminates it in a puff of green. "That looks a lot like lethal force to me."

"What? The system can distinguish between devices and people. The Light know where we live now. As far as I'm concerned, it was this or move house. And I'm not moving house for these people." Hm. "And anyway, Rhode Island law is quite clear on the subject of home defence against armed invaders. The Reds came in via the sea entrance and Truggs' people phased through the walls. And stole everything that wasn't nailed down."

"Um..?" M'gann shakily raises her right hand. "How do you know that? I mean, no one was here and you said they destroyed all the recording equipment."

"You know how I don't assimilate sentients?" Oh, for goodness sake Wallace. Really? "No." I shake my head and roll my eyes. "One of the Saremites who took part in the attack went for my personal lantern. Where the Ophidian lives."

"Ohhh."

"We've been having a bit of a chat. Oh, ah, M'gann? Don't try phasing through the walls anymore."

She looks rather nervous. "What happens if I do?"

"Probably nothing, maybe it hurts a lot and you get forcibly ejected."

"Oh." She gives me a small smile. "I thought it would be something-"

"Except the outer walls, which would probably kill you. Certainly, you'd lose whatever body part you stuck in."

The smile vanishes. "-like that."

"Oh, come on." I land just before them. "How often do you actually phase through the outer walls anyway?"

"Well, I'm not doing it now."

Kon shifts uncomfortably. "You put anything anti-Kryptonian in here?"

"I rebuilt the vertigo inducers, but Kryptonians have never been the most subtle people. I was really trying to make it impossible for anyone to ever get the drop on us again." I glance over at the rebuilt zeta tubes. "Kaldur not with you?"

Wallace has resumed peering around, trying to spot any other changes I might have made. What with the complete lack of bare stone in here anymore he's rather spoilt for choice. "Nah, he wanted to stay on in Poseidonis. Tula and Garth too."

"Oh well. I'll just have to get Zatanna to empower the new magic defences."

Richard's face has gone rather still. "Aaand.. what do those do?"

"Well, the existing geomantic wards only blocked scrying and detection. Since everyone knows where we are, all those were doing was preventing them from monitoring what we're doing day by day, which… Basically pointless. The new version incorporates a rather interesting spiritual prison effect. If the attacker doesn't know what they're doing, it sucks magic -and eventually their whole soul- out of their body."

"Ah… You don't… Actually mean..?"

"Alright, it's more like it locks it away from their body. It's not an instant death, and it would be very obvious to any magic user inside the mountain what had happened. On the other hand, Rhode Island law theoretically treats magic attack in exactly the same way as any other attack… So legally it's cool."

M'gann looks a little nervous as well. "You can.. do.. magic..?"

My forearms rise until they're at right angles to my body. My palms are upwards and orange light drifts down, swirling about my feet and solidifying into meaningless but impressive looking symbols. "I have been trying to orchestrate a magitech revolution. I've picked a few things up, a few designs. Once they're active, the Mountain will be proof against anything short of utterly overwhelming force."

Kon nods. "So, are the bathrooms working?"

"Yes, the bathrooms are working. I also took the opportunity to remodel the showers."

"Uh. They wrecked the showers?"

"They wrecked everything they didn't steal." I dismiss the mystic mumbo-jumbo and hold out my right hand towards Wallace. "Souvenirs of past missions?"

He looks pained, his mouth falling open. "Uh?"

"Smashed or taken."

Richard blinks. "The armory? Your workshop?"

"Looted and written off."

M'gann's eyes widen. "My..? My room?" Kon puts his right arm around her and she puts her hands on his arm.

"Some sort of incendiary. I restored as much as I could remember. I hope you…" My eyes flick to Kon and then back. "Backed up your school work."

There's a moment of silence.

Richard looks thoughtful. "So the attacks against the League and the Team were to keep us from noticing that we couldn't reach the Watchtower and to keep us away from Atlantis. But it was also to make sure that there wouldn't be anyone here."

"Good job there wasn't, actually. The Saremite said the attacking group consisted of twelve of Truggs' men and fifty or so other Saremites. I might have been able to fight that off, but there wouldn't be much left of them or of the mountain afterwards."

Wallace looks at me askance. "Hey, how come they didn't get your gun or your sword?"

"I kept those in my room. Tubbs isn't clever enough to have reported the state of the mountain to me if I didn't specifically instruct him to. They might actually have still been here when he flew through."

Richard looks around once more. "You've certainly.. done everything you can to stop them doing anything like that again. Why don't you.. show us what else you've done with the place?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
15:38 GMT -5

Wallace slumps in front of the former trophy cabinet. "Aww man."

Artemis opens her mouth for a sarcastic comment, then looks at his face and bites it down. I get a quick 'don't mention this to anyone' look, then she puts her left hand around his shoulders in a sideways hug. "We can always beat up more bad guys and take their stuff."

Wallace isn't much mollified. "It won't be the same. Everything in here was a memory of a mission-." He turns his head my way, craning his neck to look over Artemis' shoulder. "Hey Oh El, can't you just recreate everything? I mean, it wouldn't be exactly the same, but it would be better than…" He goes back to staring mournfully at the empty shelves. "This."

"I'm afraid that I didn't bother scanning most of the c-stuff you put in here." Completely true, not to mention the fact that I find taking trophies mildly distasteful. "And I gave Jade's knives back to her."

"Yeah, 'cause her working for the mob is so much better than-." Artemis gives him a sidelong eyebrow-raise. "Yeah, 'cause it's.. so much better now… Ah, her doing legitimate bodyguarding work."

"I'm glad you think so, Wallace. Artemis, do you want me to-"

"Recognised,-"

"-show you-?"

"-Zatanna Zatara, B-"

"Excuse me."

I transition to the zeta tube vestibule.

"-zero nine."

The lights fade away as Zatanna steps out of the tube and into my scanner array. She stops dead, looking up at it in puzzlement.

"Identification confirmed."

The force field covering the zeta tube vestibule deactivates. Zatanna gives it a cautious once-over before stepping through. "That's… New."

"I thought that an upgrade was in order."

Wallace and Artemis walk out of the trophy room, Wallace wincing slightly as he's forced to look at my alterations once more. "Yeah, you should see what he's done with the rest of the place."

Zatanna frowns. "But the zeta tube already does an identity check."

"It's far too easy to fool, and doesn't detect a whole host of things. Mind control, intoxication, certain parasites. Like Star Conquerors. Plus, my system isn't on the same system as the zeta tube's approved list. Subverting one doesn't help you get past the other."

She looks around the remodelled training area. I didn't do much to it, though the hologram projectors now incorporate force field generators. It's very nearly a proper holodeck, capable of generating virtual opponents. Mooks, anyway. The sort of power requirement for virtual opponents capable of hurting our toughest team mates or myself made that system unfeasible. "How bad was it?"

Artemis wrinkles her nose. "The whole place was a total write-off."

"I put your room back exactly as it was. Apart from a.. couple of new security systems."

"Wohs em ym moor." Her eyes unfocus for a moment. "That's not so bad. From the way Robin was going on I thought you'd turned the whole mountain into some kinda fortress."

"Just because it's a fortress doesn't mean that it can't have homely touches as well."

"And if you did tha-. Oh, you need me to do the magic part."

Wallace squints. "How did you know-?"

Zatanna rolls her eyes. "Obviously we need better magic defences. Doing them at the same time as everything else just makes sense."

I nod. "That's what I've been saying."

"The new ones are kinda…" He tries to think of a polite but accurate term. "Nasty."

Zatanna smiles faintly. "Do you know what my house does to anyone who tries using magic on the owners?"

"Ahhhh… No?"

"Neither do I. Dad said I was too young to learn about stuff like that. Wohs em eht skrowten." Her eyes unfocus again, and she blinks heavily as she takes in the sight. "Whoooow. You… Really went all-out. That's… Way more than I can handle."

"Okay, but can you activate it at a really minimal level so it charges up itself?"

"Um… I don't… Know..? I mean, I could, but for something this complicated I don't think that would work right."

Wallace thinks for a moment. "Hey, you could always get Fate to do it." My face hardens, as does Zatanna's. "Or.. we could not."

Zatanna looks down, giving her head a slight shake. "What was everyone planning on doing this evening?"

Artemis shrugs. "Talk about spending the day with the Justice League and all the fights we got into. Except all of us had supervillains try and kill us and Poseidonis got attacked again. Kinda takes the fun out of it."

I shake my head. "I don't think they did try and kill us."

"Oh, that undead stripper was trying to kill me pretty hard."

"Right. Except, they were sent by the Light, weren't they?"

Wallace nods. "Yeah, probably."

"So why didn't they just murder us all in our beds?" A tiny flicker of yellow light from each of them. "I mean, the Light have had our secret identities and home addresses since New Year, right? One of Truggs' mercenaries with that power armour they wear could phase through our bedroom walls and shoot us in our sleep."

Wallace shudders. "Thanks, Oh El. I'm gunna sleep really well tonight."

"But they haven't. That's the point." I shake my head. "I don't know what's going on. Savage and Klarion could have killed the entire League at New Year. They could kill most of us now. Instead, they… Invade our home in an unpleasant but not.. particularly harmful way, send 'assassins' we could reasonably be expected to overcome… I don't think you need to worry about being killed in your sleep. I think… For some reason, they've decided not to."

Artemis frowns. "But why?"

"Assuming that Savage wasn't talking out of his arse, maybe he thinks us competing with them makes everyone stronger. Maybe he's worried that they might miss one or two of their targets, then the survivors would… Take the gloves off. Or maybe he realises that the world -at the moment at least- needs the Justice League?"

Artemis looks unimpressed. "Or maybe he just doesn't want anyone else taking the credit."

Zatanna purses her lips. "Or maybe he's got.. some kind of.. weirdly convoluted plan that.. means we.. have to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and everything else is him manipulating us into doing that."

"Okay…" Wallace takes a step away from the rest of us. "Never thought I'd say this, but I think watching Rob interrogate that new Construct-Lantern would actually be less disturbing than carrying on this conversation. How about we go and do that?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
15:43 GMT -5

I let Wallace and Artemis get well ahead before leaning down, making my mouth level with Zatanna's left ear. "Please tell me that the staff wasn't here?"

Her eyes flick my way for a second. "Of course not. It's at home in a secure room inside a case that turns out to be full of chlorine gas if you aren't the right person to open it. The case is made of titanium and I put that quantum lock you gave me on it."

I nod, slightly relieved. I doubt that Orm would be able to wield the power of love, but Oceanus was married to Tethys. And I imagine that there must be magic-using villains capable of feeling love around somewhere. "That might not be enough. One of the things the Saremites stole from Atlantis was a relic that is supposed to allow the wearer to command any arcane artefact."

"One at a time… Or, anything he touches, or anything he feels like? And… Just the magic bits, or all of it?"

"I.. didn't.. ask." I sigh. "I pissed off King Orin in a fairly significant way… It didn't seem like an appropriate time to ask.. questions. Especially considering that this is now a-"

"Justice League matter." / "-Justice League matter."

We share a small smile.

"What did you do to.. annoy Aquaman?"

"I didn't tell him that he had a son." Zatanna looks at me with a confused frown. "Not Artur, another one. Um, before he went to live in Poseidonis full time. I found out during my mildly paranoid, find-out-everything-about-everyone phase."

"And you didn't tell him?"

"No."

"W-? Why not?"

"Several reasons." I sigh again. "On balance… I'm less sure than I was that my decision was the right one. I.. saw him.. with a life that King Orin wasn't part of… He seemed happy enough. No one was in danger. It didn't seem like something I should intervene in." I tighten the skin around my mouth. "And now it turns out that a critical magic artefact can be activated using his blood and Orm's already kidnapped him."

"What-? So if you'd just.. told him-?"

"I don't think so. Unless he actually moved to Atlantis -which is extremely unlikely- all telling King Orin would do would be to get Koryak's -ah, that's his name, Koryak- bodyguards killed. If he's really that important, Orm would have prioritised it and used whatever level of force was required."

"But they could have put in some kind of alarm or something. Couldn't they?"

"Yes, but Orm is a highly skilled magic user. And if Satanus has been keeping up with the latest developments in Atlantis then he certainly has. The only thing that would work reliably would be a whole squad of battlemages living there full time… And that's just against the level of resources Orm could bring to bear himself."

"You mean, there isn't anywhere that's safe."

"Oh, no." A tiny smile appears on my lips. "This place will be completely safe, once the wards are charged."

"And you only had to turn the mountain into a fortress to do it."

"Yes. I did. We're really going to have to look at the home security arrangements of everyone associated with the Justice League if this is the sort of thing the Light are doing now."

"Or you could just spend a few days tracking down Nylor Truggs." I get a small frown. "Why haven't you done that?"

"I was focusing on other things." Agh, no, shouldn't have put it like that. "And I thought… I don't know. He's a criminal but at least he was sane."

"He murdered an old lady so he could steal your ring. And that Japanese guy and probably a whole lot of other people we never heard about. I mean… I'm not saying stop the stuff you're doing? But… Maybe you should prioritise him a bit higher?"

"But the technology that allowed him to attack us exists now. We use it ourselves. I don't think.. arresting him again will make it disappear. We'd have to completely destroy the Light and make sure there wasn't enough left for anyone to take over." We stop just outside the door to the room where Richard's doing his interrogation. "And get all of the suits that have been built and everyone who's ever operated one."

"You don't think we can put the genie back in the bottle."

"No, we.. can. As with everything else, it's a question of how much effort you can put into it." I gesture to the door with my right hand. "Shall we?"

Kon and M'gann look around as Zatanna pushes the door open. Richard is taking a moment to write up some notes on his arm computer while Wallace and Artemis peer over his shoulder. Kon looks somewhat frustrated. "Paul, can you take over translating? This guy really isn't very good at Atlantean Greek."

The Saremite stands glowing at the centre of the room, orange sigil decorating his-. Her? Not sure, and I doubt that it matters now. "Ring, translation."

"Compliance."

Richard presses a couple of buttons. "So far the only useful thing we've found out is the total number of Saremite renegades Orm has working for him."

"Pretty useful. How many?"

"Not that many. According to him, there aren't all that many renegade Saremites in total. Aside from the fifty who attacked the mountain with Truggs, all of them who weren't already injured took part in the attack on Poseidonis."

"That's… Less than two hundred total. The attack on Themyscira had.. more than that. Did he say when Orm started working with them?"

"That's the weird thing. According to this guy, they're the ones who killed his father."

Eh? "What?"

"He was killed a few years before Queen Atlanna brought Aquaman to Atlantis."

"No, I knew that. I'm just… I thought he liked his father."

"Apparently, he did. About a decade later he led the attack that captured the renegade Saremites' base of operations. That's where he got his Ocean Master equipment from." He looks up. "Which means-."

"It's not the Trident of Neptune. It's the Trident of Oceanus. Nice to have that confirmed."

Wallace throws his hands up. "Neptune, Oceanus, what's the difference?"

"Atlanteans… Those who have religious inclinations, worship Neptune. The Saremites worship Oceanus. Knowing that he was using a weapon sacred to one of their people's god's enemies wouldn't have gone down too well. Especially with the… Conservative sorts that might be prepared to back him against King Orin. Truggs' people took it and the armour along with everything else."

Richard nods. "According to him, giving it to Oceanus is supposed to spare the one who does so from his wrath."

"Makes sense. There's no point releasing a monster that's just going to kill you." I nod. "Now ask him about Orm coming back from the dead."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th June
19:14 GMT -5

A building the robots were preparing to harvest comes alive with Chthonian Young as their parent bursts forth from the ground and grapples with an apparently implacable Assault Stomper.

"But that's just-!"

A glowing portal opens in the centre of the machine fortifications as a small tentacle-covered creature plays a strangely shaped flute, the outline of a vast translucent mollusc just visible in the air above it.

"How did-?!"

Out from the portal pour the Children of Abhoth in an unending tide.

And Artemis throws up her hands as her structures disappear into their mouths. "How did you even do that?!"

I lean around the monitors separating us. "I do play this game almost every day."

"But you always play machines! And you said magic was the hardest strategy to pull off!"

There's a small 'boom' as her Machine Harbinger loses antimatter containment and explodes in a plume of vapour, then a series of other detonations as her Particle Beamers try to hit the Servitor keeping the portal open.

"Oh, it is."

And hit just about everything else as the Servitor capers around and lets its big cousin take the few shots that are still on target before the Children reach them.

"The Old Ones are victorious! Mankind is doomed! Doomed! GEB'L-EE'H YOG-SOTHOTH!"

"Greh-gruget-grah!" Artemis becomes somewhat incoherent as Kon leans over her shoulder and takes a look at the full map. "What!"

"Uh." Kon's eyes flick to me for a moment, and I understand that he knows perfectly well what she did wrong -lack of pressure- but now believes that it wouldn't be a good idea to bring it up. "Umm."

"Ah, babe? Are you ok-?"

"Okay!" Her eyes widen. "Just give me, like, two minutes."

"We could do some actual sparring for a bit, if you want something you can actually beat me at."

She turns and walks away from the gaming set up, the index finger of her right hand pointed in my direction. "Two minutes."

Yeah, magic focus is kind of annoying to play against. I was a bit surprised that she-.

"Recognised, Aqualad, B zero two."

I half turn in my seat as Kaldur appears, taking in my additional security measures with his usual dispassionate gaze.

"Identification confirmed."

He strides forwards, heading in our direction. Bit of a nuisance that he decided to wear his original Aqualad gear today. On the other hand, having him openly wearing Ocean Master's gear would on most days cause more trouble than it's worth. And, Truggs might just have redirected forces in his direction.

"Kaldur, what new-?"

"Recognised, Doctor Fate, two one."

Kaldur pauses just inside the security scanner for Nabu to materialise. I get to my feet. If he's here then there's input from the League. Richard sent everything he had to Batman and then returned home. I forget sometimes… Quite often, actually, that he's only fourteen and that fighting Titans and underwater foes isn't something he's really equipped to do. Batman's attitude appears to be 'this is a League task, we'll let you know if we need you'. Which -to be honest- is pretty reasonable. I step away from the computer and come to an approximate parade rest.

Nabu stares at the identification system, a pale golden aura shining out from his robes. Hm. Either he thinks there might be threats here or he's taken a leaf out of my book and started having his defences raised at all times. Worth knowing.

"Identification not confirmed. Please lower any exotic defences which may be preventing a complete scan."

"Lantern." I smile slightly, raising my eyebrows attentively. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I decided that the standard Justice League system was too prone to being bypassed, so I improved upon it. I'm afraid that you'll have to drop your shield spell."

Nabu pushes his left hand against the barrier, which holds firm. It's as exotic a shield as I could safely introduce and I don't think it's easy for magic users to bypass. "Lower this shield at once."

"Nabu, that's not how security works. You've been both mind controlled and impersonated before. I hardly think it's unreasonable-."

Nabu raises his right hand, a golden ankh flaring into being for a second before it detonates. Golden light radiates outwards, running through the identification arch and disintegrating it in a flash of light.

It would be so satisfying to hit him right now.

And I think I'd get away with it. Artemis is still angry about everything and the game and now someone she doesn't like -though her dislike is hardly on a level with mine or Zatanna's- just wrecked a piece of useful equipment. Wallace is inclined to respect League members, but that's getting a mild frown from him as well. Kon's staring, and it's flat out hostile. Wolf's lip is curling slightly, though she isn't growling yet. I think that I may have put the idea into the zeitgeist that being disrespectful to Nabu is okay. I could slam him against the back of the vestibule with a construct… Amp up the orange until I can carry out the scan… Batman wouldn't tolerate League members bypassing the security he's put in place.

My eyes slide over to Kaldur who is watching me impassively.

No. I can wait a few weeks.

"Alright then." I pointedly turn away from him and face Kaldur. "Aqualad, how are things in Atlantis?"

"Poseidonis is secure, as are all members of the royal family not already taken." There's a tension in his voice that I'm not used to hearing. "Military battlemages have reached the location of Oceanus' temple. It has been long abandoned. At the moment we have no further leads on Ocean Master's location."

Wallace tilts his head slightly to the left. "Well, what about Canada?"

Nabu steps forward. "Orm -or whatever dark entity he now serves- has become quite skilled in covering his tracks. The Batman and I have identified all of his movements while on land. Beyond that, the trail disappears."

Kon's eyes dip for a moment as he thinks. "What about just waiting at wherever the Gods locked up Oceanus? Orm's gotta go there sometime, right?"

"Oceanus' prison is removed from the physical world. There is no location from which it can be readily accessed, and the very act of entering would most likely be enough to release him." Nabu turns his head towards me. "I have learned that you acquired a sample of blood from a Saremite."

I nod. "Yes. I had intended to take it to Atlantis once the initial panic died down a bit."

"Foolish youth. Time is of the essence. Hand it over to me at once."

The container I put the blood from Ceyx in is currently on a shelf in my reconstructed workshop. "I.. don't.. believe that I take orders from you, Nabu." I smile. "Try asking nicely."

"Orange Lantern." I turn my head in Kaldur's direction. I.. was.. underestimating how angry he is. With me. "This is not the time. Doctor Fate is this world's premier magic user, and the best chance we have for locating Ocean Master before Oceanus is restored to this world. My family, my entire people, are most likely to be his first victims should that come to pass. If you will not take orders from Doctor Fate, perhaps you will take one from me."

"Alright." I nod. Need to smooth things over with Kaldur later. "Back in a moment."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th June
06:27 GMT -5

"Hm hm-hm. Hm hm-hm​-hm-hm-hm​."

I look around from the frying pan as a tired-looking Wallace walks into the kitchen. "You have trouble sleeping too?"

"No? I'm usually awake at this sort of time." I use a pair of tongs to turn the bacon over. "The only reason I'm eating breakfast now instead of half an hour ago is that I had an idea about tracking down Truggs' mercenaries."

Wallace shambles towards the fridge and pulls open the door, picking up the orange juice carton. "What, like checking the backgrounds of the guys you and the Hawks picked up yesterday and seeing if any of their associates are unaccounted for?"

"Cht… Cht… Yes."

"Right." He steps away from the fridge, closing the door and heading towards where we keep the glasses. "Pretty sure Batman and Rob are already on it." He stops before reaching his destination, standing up a little straighter. "Wait a sec. Wasn't this place a wreck yesterday?"

"Wallace, you know how much time I spend in here." He nods, then takes another step forwards and kneels down to reach the cupboard. "Did you really think I wouldn't be able to recreate it?"

"Didn't recreate my room."

"I've been inside your room once, and I certainly didn't scan it."

He straightens up with a glass in his hand and puts it down on the work surface before pouring orange juice from the carton into it. "Doesn't really matter. Didn't have much in there anyway."

"Did you..? Stay here overnight for any particular reason?"

He puts the carton down, picks up his glass and turns around, taking a sip as he does so. "I was still kinda freaked out about… What you said, about them coming after us any time they feel like. I… thought they might-."

"Attack your home, which wouldn't be worth doing if you weren't there."

He looks away, nodding. "Guess I'm just not used to being in the line of fire the whole time. Usually if one of the Rogues wants to pick a fight with Uncle Barry they go after an armoured car or something."

"I'm… Much as I'd like to, I can't upgrade your family home's security very far. Not if you don't want it to be obvious that a suburban home has been replaced by a fortress."

He takes another sip, then fishes a small vial of his latest chi-infusion potion out of his pocket. "Don't think it would really be in keeping with the neighborhood. You about done with the stove?"

I pick up a rasher. It's appropriately brown without being burnt. "Yep." I pick up my plate with my left hand and use the tongs to transfer the bacon to the waiting bread before putting it down, stepping back and walking over to the table.

Wallace assumes my position, taking another swig of orange juice before putting the glass down and picking up the tongs. He points them at the rest of the packet of bacon. "You mind if I..?"

"No no, that's what it's here for." I squirt out a small amount of ketchup onto the unbaconed slice of bread and spread it evenly across the surface with a knife. It took me quite a while to get bread that was the right texture for bacon. When I was… Whow. First time I've… Thought about life on Earth Prime for a while. The bread machine always made the crust too crisp and the insides too soft. A bit of a crust is fine, but the interior really needs a combination of absorbency and sponginess that comes naturally to factory bread but is harder to achieve through home baking. "There are eggs and a few tomatoes in the fridge if you want them."

"Any hash browns?"

"There are some potatoes and a grater?"

He turns the hob up and puts four rashers into the frying pan. "Any waffles?"

"A waffle iron… And we've got the materials for waffle batter."

"Oh El… I get you've got this.. thing, about 'real food'. But sometimes it's okay to eat out of a packet."

I pick up my sandwich in my right hand. "Would you eat packet bacon?"

"Oh, now you're just being silly."

I take a bite into Scotland's finest. Mm. My improved sense of taste and smell certainly isn't the best part of the modifications the rings have made to my body, but it does make eating a much more satisfying experience.

"You got any idea what Kaldur wants us doing today?" I wince as I chew, my silence causing him to look around. "Oh. He still pissed with you?" I nod. "I kinda get why. I mean, I get why you didn't tell anyone, but… I think I probably would have. If it were me." I nod again as I swallow. It's not an unreasonable position to take. "I mean, if we'd known he needed protecting-."

"The League could have provided security for ten months? Security good enough to stop… About twenty people in invisible phasing armour carrying guns with crumbler rounds? Without severely interfering with the life of his family? And that wouldn't just draw our enemies' attention to him?"

"Huh." He turns back to the hob and starts flipping the bacon over. "Hadn't thought of it like that."

"I admit it's still a very debatable decision on my part." I take a small bite while I think. Nabu is doing what he can to bypass the wards protecting the Saremites, Batman is investigating the Human end. Unless… Either of them ask for help, there isn't anything for me to do there. I suppose that I could… Spread rune stones throughout the Atlantic. That might improve their reception. Of course, I don't have anything like that number of stones… Aaaand to get more I'd have to go to Poseidonis, which Diana told me not to do.

Okay, what else? I could get John to open a portal to Hell and assimilate a few Demons. See if any of them know something. If I won a straight fight with Satanus, that would make things a good deal simpler. Just forcing him to flee would probably weaken him politically… No. If what I saw when I went after Mister Gregor was anything to go by I'd be swarmed under. I don't have enough anti-Demon weapons that would function in Hell. Maybe drawing the attention of Duma and Ramiel to what he's been up to?

Angels. That would be like trusting Klarion. And of course, that's the alternate route, isn't it? Activate my plan to remove Klarion a little early. Dealing with a second member of the Light would serve to nicely balance things up after they wrecked my home. Might even motivate the rest not to do something like this again. It would risk alerting Nabu…

"Batman to Mount Justice."

I wave my arm in the general direction of the kitchen's communication system. "Orange Lantern here, sir." Wallace looks torn between coming to attention and attending to his breakfast. After a moment's hesitation he opts to remove the frying pan from the hob and face the monitor.

"I've been following up on possible leads on Ocean Master's location. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to conduct hundreds of interviews in person." From the background it looks like he's in the Batcave. "I'm sending you a list now. You have Justice League authority to request support from local police. Have the team interview as many of them as you can and forward potential leads to me."

"Yes sir. How-?"

The monitor goes dead.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th June
11:03 GMT -8

I walk down the street in the imaginatively named 'Normal Heights' area of San Diego, left hand pressed to the side of my head. I'm getting one or two odd looks, but since I'm out of costume I think most people are assuming that I'm just some guy on his mobile. "Mister Director, thank you for taking my call."

"I felt it best. Batman's report was somewhat light on detail."

"I'm afraid that we're in the middle of an incident, sir. We can't make a full report until we're certain that the situation is safe."

"I understand that. Nevertheless, the League are both suggesting that our fleets put into harbour and requesting that we offer them assistance from any advanced deep sea imaging equipment that we possess. If they are suggesting that our fleets go into harbour then they believe that Ocean Master may well succeed in releasing Oceanus and that anything on the sea would be at risk."

"That is my understanding, sir."

"And they understand that our more.. advanced equipment-" Xenotech or schizo tech, the sort of thing they wouldn't advertise that they have but might offer to use to help us if the planet is at stake. "-would be based on vessels far less able to survive an ocean-based calamity than our warships?"

"Mister Director, my normal practice is to assume that Batman knows everything." Except that one of his team mates sired a bastard, clearly. Unless he actually did-? No, not important. "Our best hope to prevent Oceanus appearing is to locate Orm before he can complete whatever ritual he is working on. But the oceans are vast, and the League does not have the capacity for universal surveillance."

"You are aware that Russia has no borders with the Atlantic ocean."

"We suspect that is where the ritual will take place. However, we don't know that for certain. We also don't know what the immediate effects of the ritual would be. If it takes place in the North Atlantic, the pressure wave might well be powerful enough to impact Russia's northern coast. And given their allies, they might well be performing the ritual somewhere entirely different. That's on top of the fact that we don't know exactly how good Oceanus' control of water is. It's possible that he can simply pull the water from people's bodies at range."

"That would be a concern. But the League does not require additional combat forces?"

"Unless you have specialists in water magic better than those the Atlanteans have already volunteered, the League doesn't need more force. If you wish to offer any other sorts of combat troops, I would suggest quite strongly that you carefully consider the likely conditions they would be fighting in."

"The only asset I have which could assist the League is currently performing a survey of our own coastal waters. I will ensure that the results are made available to the League."

"Is there a magic user on board?" He doesn't immediately respond. "Mister Director, I understand that you have security concerns but you will need magic assistance in order to get anywhere."

"Atlantis has experts to spare?"

"Yes. Atlantean industry and military is based around the use of magic. Their problem is getting to places. If you can give me a location, I can have a team sent to any Russian zeta tube within half an hour."

"I would prefer it if you could send them to your Fortress. You have returned it to the North Pacific upon completing your work on the South Pole."

"If you like, Mister Director. Please remind whoever will be making the pickup that they still aren't allowed inside."

"Acceptable. Please have them ready as swiftly as possible."

He hangs up. Ring, Watchtower.

Compliance.

"Orange Lantern to Watchtower."

"Hawkman here, go ahead."

"The Director wants the mages sent to my Ice Fortress. Apparently they've only got one vessel that can help us."

"Or one that they're willing to share. I'll contact Atlantis and have them make the transfer."

"Make sure they know to have a translation spell active. I doubt that the Russians have anyone who speaks Atlantean Greek."

"Would you also like to spend some time on Thanagar today? I believe that my grandmother may be rusty on her egg-sucking."

"You know that expression and you didn't know 'to be frank'?"

"Egg sucking has a Thanagarian equivalent."

"Wouldn't that be cannibalism?" Not that Thanagarians actually lay eggs. I'm not sure whether Static was joking or if things are just different on Thanagar 12.

"Hawkman out."

I lower my left hand as I lift up the latch on the gate to my target's home. The American, Russian and Chinese military are now co-operating against a shared enemy. Being involved in something like this is a bit strange. Shouldn't it take… More..? Naturally, China weren't prepared to put foreign mages on the Dragonwing, but unlike Russia and America they have their own. Feels strange, hoping that Nabu can do something right this time. I even had John shut the sickness induction system down. Not sure how much difference that will make…

I press the button to activate the doorbell and I hear a buzz from inside the bungalow. The owner and current occupant is a man named Noah Martinez, and two known criminal associates of his were amongst those the Hawks blasted into unconsciousness outside the Hall of Justice yesterday. Yet he's still here. No logical reason for them to have been recruited and not him. Not that I want to get my hopes-.

The door swings open on a chain and the muzzle of a double barrelled shotgun is pointed at my face. "I don't know who you are, but you can-."

My right hand darts forwards and covers the muzzle of the gun. There's a bang as he instinctively pulls the trigger, followed by a sudden rush of displaced air as my kinetic barrier redirects the force. Mister Martinez goes flying backwards away from the door, shotgun flying from his hand as he does so. I have the ring remove the chain, then push the door open the rest of the way and stroll inside. Mister Martinez is lying on the ground in a daze, but he's sufficiently self-possessed to grab his backup weapon out of his trouser waistband and level it in my direction.

"Given that I just took a shotgun blast, how much do you think that's going to help?"

"Fuck you! I've been shitting myself all day 'causa you people! I said no face to face meetings! You don't think Batman or someone's smart enough to come here?"

Curious. "I imagine that he's busy at the moment. Of course, that doesn't mean he might not send an associate." I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out my identification card. "You may refer to me as Orange Lantern."

His eyes widen and his gun dips slightly. "OhJesusfuck."

"I'm afraid that I'm a Hellenist. So." I crouch down a metre away from him. "Clearly you know why I'm here and.. you've.. rather nicely confirmed that you have the information I want. Where is Nylor Truggs?"

"I ain't tellin'-. I ain't tellin' you nothing."

I nod. "I see. Batman has been known to inflict various forms of physical injury on people who aren't forthcoming during crisis situations. But breaking fingers isn't really my thing." Which is not to say that I can't perform fear-based interrogations when the need arises. "Fatty, eat his left arm."

The Demon drops from the right ring with a grin on its face. "FOOD!"

"AAAAAAGH!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

"…only really known him for a few months." My brother shakes his head. "Darkseid would never be this subtle."

Oh, Scott.

I stride through the hush tube-

19th June
21:03 GMT

-and into the Justice League's meeting room about five metres from the head of the table on Diana's side.

"No,-"

Hands go for weapons, Jordan's ring is glowing brilliantly, Barda's right hand grips her mega rod and Kal-El actually gets to his feet.

"-but he might do this." I smile, arms folded behind my back. "Good evening. My ears were burning."

Batman is still impassive. Letting me get the grandstanding out of my system, presumably. Diana hasn't moved but she's watching me like a disappointed Hawk. Scott-.

"How did you do that?"

"Wasn't too difficult. You blocked boom tube access-."

"I blocked the hush tubes too. All except-." He looks at me honestly shocked. "All except the one in Mount Justice."

"Yes." I stroll onwards, walking down the side of the League's table behind Mister Zatara and opposite the Lanterns. Don't pay them too much attention. Don't let them square up and try and turn this into a physical confrontation. "You tore out almost everything I built for you, but that was just too good to give up, wasn't it?"

I feel Diana's eyes boring into me. "If you have done anything-."

"Diana, they're my friends." I turn my head her way, looking pained. "But did you know that if you know the exact magnitude of hyperinflation applied to the gravitons in a hush tube-."

Scott gets it at once. "You can track it, even.. piggyback it. I'd detect it if you tried that with a boom tube, but since a hush tube is designed to be almost impossible to detect anyway-."

"I just had to wait until you used it at least once, then set my equipment to keep the hyperdimensional passageway open." I stop at the open end of the 'U'. "It wouldn't be noticeable from normal space-."

"But my equipment would see it as coming from a friendly location. Oooohhhhh." He sags. "I'm going to need to revise our entire security policy."

I grin at him. "You got in? Well do-!"

"What are you doing here, Grayven?"

I move my eyes to Lantern Jordan for a moment, then turn my full attention to Mister Wayne. Serious face time. "Batman, I think it's time for me to come in." I dip my eyes, shaking my head slightly. "I've learned everything about Light operations that I'm going to, and I'm a little worried that-."

"Wait, what?" Mister Allen voices everyone's gobsmackedness, Diana looking at Mister Wayne with a combination of disbelief and steadily building outrage.

I hold out my right hand, palm upwards, and replay parts of the conversation Mister Wayne and I had last November, construct images of both of us floating over my hand.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"You met with Ra's al Ghul."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Information gathering. Sir, I was under the impression that you didn't want full reports on my undercover work."

The image flickers as I skip forwards.

"I simply don't want to risk those parts of the organisation on which I have good information going to ground."

"How long do you envisage this taking?"

"No real way to know."

I close my right hand as Mister Queen whistles through his teeth. "That's some next level stuff, Bats. You running any other agents you wanna tell us about?"

"I wasn't sure that I was still running this one." He glares at me from his position at the head of the table. "You murdered a man on national television. How do I know you haven't been compromised?"

"Alright, first off. Captain Adams, I have to ask: do you actually have a problem with what I did to Klarion?"

"As it happens." He looks directly at me. "No. I didn't."

"Hawkman? Hawkwoman?"

Two head shakes.

"Jordan?"

His jaw tightens. "I have a problem with you working with Sinestro."

"Jordan, it was a joke." I turn away from him. "Dear sister in law?"

"Was both of you dying an option?"

"Harsh." I turn to the head of the table. "Diana? Honestly?"

"I would have preferred a better way, but I did not mourn his passing."

"There you go, Batman. Killing a mass murderer shouldn't really be taken as a sign of greater villainy. Now, the reason I'm pulling myself out… In two weeks, my 'colleagues' are planning to use a man named Johnny Sorrow to call a creature called the King of Tears into our world. You will be lured to the point of emergence, and it will kill you all. Then, I and my associates will -having already prepared for this event- jump in and either kill it or send it back to whence it came, taking your place as the world's premier superhero team. I assume that you don't want that to happen?"

Mister O'Brian points at me with both forefingers. "What, having you lead a superhero team?" His face distorts into an unsettling parody of an actual smile. Probably the best he can do. "Not really."

Kal-El's eyes narrow slightly. "And you want our help stopping them before they get that far."

"No." I take a lever arch file out of subspace and float it down the table to him. "We will be destroying the Light in its totality. I will be taking care of the other leaders. It's the worldwide conclusion of their support structures that concerns the League."

Kal-El takes the file out of the air, still staring me down. "And why should we let you take the lead?"

"Because I have an order from President Horne authorising me to kill them and you don't. Well, alright; technically it says 'take into custody if that can be achieved without risk to yourself or any American citizens', but I think we're pretty clear what he means." I shake my head. "I'm not leading this effort. President Horne is overseeing things and General Lane is in direct command. It's going to be difficult getting people into place to carry out a complete clean up. We've got the entirety of the League of Shadows, Savage's mercenary groups and businesses, Brain's research centres and laboratories, whatever the heck Mordru has-."

"LexCorp?"

"Pursuing LexCorp is a little.. legally awkward. But what he's done has well and truly crossed the line. Lex will be presented with an offer he can't refuse. If he's sensible, he won't try."

Batman nods. "And if we say 'no'?"

"Having the Justice League on board would simplify things considerably but your participation isn't actually essential. There will be more deaths, both on the parts of our targets and amongst the police who will attempt to bring the Light down without sufficient metahuman support. And you will have more difficulty getting your budget approved by the US Ambassador to the UN next year."

Batman nods. "The League will need to discuss the matter. In private."

I nod. "Of course. If it helps your deliberations…" I take another file out of subspace. "This is the initial draft of the Destructive Persons Act. It will set a new tone for US policy towards both superheroes and supervillains. It doesn't apply to Justice League members, but you should probably be aware of it."

Mister Queen holds up his right hand, so I float it his way. "Let me guess: mass conscription or arrest, right?"

"No, a voluntary training scheme with privileges for those who undertake them. A crackdown on some vigilantes might end up happening, but that won't be for years if it happens at all. America's just too used to you people." I start walking up the room again, this time on the other side of the table. Jordan glowers at me as I pass. "I'll leave you to discuss things. Oh!" I stop. "Except one thing. Captain Adams? You're with me."

He frowns in consternation. "Like Hell I-" I take a letter out of subspace and float it over to him "-am." He takes it and breaks the seal.

"Signed by your commander-in-chief and your commanding officer. You're reporting to me for the duration." He looks it over then turns his head to the side with a grunt of frustration. "I'll quite understand if you consider resigning your commission preferable, but please, consider the benefits this course of action has. No more Light. Higher organisation gone from the world's supervillains."

"I guess it's not a crime if the President does it." The letter creases in his right hand as he stands. "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen."

"Glad to hear it. Father Box, hush tube. We've got supervillains to hunt."

"Ploong."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th June
17:03 GMT -5

Kaldur intently watches the screen in front of us. I'm not sure whether he's just being his normal intense self or if he's actually ignoring me. But, given that we're going into the field in a few moments it's probably best to clear the air as soon as possible.

"Kaldur. Do you have a moment?"

He doesn't look around. "Princess Diana has discussed with me the reasons for your decision. If it were I who had become aware of such information, then as an Atlantean citizen and as the pupil of my king, it is unthinkable to me that I would not have shared it with him. Having heard the arguments to the contrary, I still believe that what you did was wrong."

"I.. can understand that. Did Diana tell you what I told her about her history?"

He turns his eyes my way. "Do you mean to imply that you know something about me of which you think I am unaware?"

"Yes."

His eyes return to the screen, continuing to study the building layout before him. "Inform me after the mission."

I nod. "Alright."

There's a bang on the open door of the van behind us. We turn to see a fully armoured up Agent Bell looking at us. "You kids ready to go?"

"Are you?"

She flicks a switch on her shiny new plasma repeater, the gun humming as it feeds fuel into the plasma bottle. "I'd say so."

I walk to the doorway of the Federal TV Repairs van and jump out, power armour materialising around me as I stroll into the underground car park being used as a staging area. A moment later Kaldur joins me, his water armour forming a translucent barrier around his body. Roy looks up from where he's testing his new power armour adapted bow… As well as chatting up one of the female SWAT team members. Kon and M'gann are already on overwatch above the target location, Kon in full Nth Metal armour and M'gann in Starfish mode. This time we're also going in with thirty FBI SWAT officers.

Think you're the only one upgrading your mundane fighters do you, Mister Truggs?

"Alright everyone!" Agent Bell waves her right arm. "Stand ready!"

The SWAT officers activate their plasma repeaters and form up into fire teams as their corporals signal their readiness. Roy closes his helmet and puts an anti-magic arrow on string. Kaldur creates a water tower shield and whip with his water bearers. Everyone's carrying spell eaters.

Okay then. "Transition in three, two, one."

Orange filaments dart out and then the scenery flickers.

"Go!"

Roy's anti-magic arrow hits the decorative portico and my rune stone flickers as something fails. Pedestrians are already scurrying to get out of the way as the first squad storms through the front doors of the Hotel Midnight, taking up a position by the elevators. High above us I hear a boom as Kon hits the roof hard.

Linton Smith may be infamously untouchable by the New York authorities, but it's amazing what you can do with a Federal judge of the evangelical persuasion where magic use is concerned.

Another squad takes up position in front of the stairs, a third squad taking and holding the front desk, clearly petrified staff being handcuffed and stuffed out of the way. Kaldur and I walk in next. I check my scans -the general scry ward on the building having fallen with the impact of Roy's arrow- and note that the squad assigned to enter through the staff entrance has also breached successfully.

'Breached successfully'. Heh. Listen to me.

Agent Bell looks at me. "Well?"

"No trace."

She nods and presses her earpiece. "Superboy, Miss Martian. You have anything?"

"We've got a.. skull." M'gann heard my description of what he did to his sister, but seeing her skull in person is a little different. "Securing it and moving forwards."

"Squad two, you're with Arsenal. Head downwards to the gladiator pens. Secure anything that looks like it could be magical."

The corporal nods, then waves his troops forwards. "Follow the guy in the red armor."

Roy takes an Unmaker out of his quiver and looses it at the main elevators. The metal doors disappear, revealing the shaft beyond. He checks up, down, and then jumps down as the squad accompanying him prepare their ropes for the descent.

"Superboy to everyone. We've just encountered a.. zombie."

I nod. "Remember what I said. Linton Smith is a Vodun bokor. Those aren't undead zombies; they're people with their little souls removed, no will of their own. Just shout at them and tell them to stay put."

"Right."

Agent Bell comes up alongside me. "I'm a bit out of my comfort zone here. Can Smith be charged for that?"

"Yes. Yes he can."

The ring shows me the SWAT helicopter flying in, depositing the troops who will be backing up Kon and M'gann.

"Sergeant, hold the front doors. Orange Lantern, take us up."

This time I take greater care, sending a filament and a test object upwards and making sure that it materialises correctly before transitioning myself, Kaldur, Agent Bell and two squads upwards into the private parts of the hotel. Mister Smith runs his businesses out of this part of the building. Property, shipping and construction. One squad takes up position at the entrance, security guards raising their hands in the face of the troopers' plasma repeaters and FBI issue armour.

I realise that there's little chance Mister Smith will try to fight this out. He could, there are any number of unpleasant spells he could cast or spirits he could call upon. But much like John he prefers to fight indirectly. He'll cooperate up to a point, then arrange for blackmail or more subtle magics to be brought to bear to have the investigation blocked.

Teeheehee.

Agent Bell looks around the office. "Alright! Which one of you is in charge!?"

The only man wearing a tie nervously raises his left hand.

"Take us to Linton Smith."

The doors on the far side of the room open, immediately becoming the focus of three repeaters, a water whip and my railgun construct as the man himself strolls through looking perfectly at peace with the situation. I think he's lost a little weight since his last encounter with John, though it could just be the tailoring of his suit. Few people can make the grass skirt and shirtless jacket look slimming.

"Agent." He holds his hands out, palms forward. A gesture of appeal rather than surrender, but simultaneously showing that he isn't armed. Or rather, isn't carrying a weapon. "If you wished to speak with me, I do have a phone line. And a legal department."

Agent Bell lowers her gun, though the SWAT troops keep theirs on him. "Mister Linton Smith, you are under arrest for murder, slavery, blackmail and such other crimes as a full investigation may bring to light. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You-."

"Agent, if you wish to question me, could you not do so in my office? I don't think-."

"Warning: Spell Eater temperature increasing."

There's a flash of blue as Agent Bell shoots him in the chest with her plasma repeater. Its low lethality mode is a sort of static electrical beanbag round, but it still hits hard enough to knock the target off his feet.

"You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning." She walks forward, standing over him with her gun pointed downwards. If she fires then he's getting some nasty internal burns as well as broken ribs. "If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Lantern?"

I walk forwards, preparing the suppression chains as Agent Bell permits herself a thin smile. "You're not getting out of this one, you bastard."

"So, Linton Smith." I clamp on the first manacles and he starts to look a good deal less certain. "Where is Nylor Truggs?"