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

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
19:27 GMT -5

I smile through the rain at Jade as she spots me in my car parked outside Miss Inzerillo's home. She hesitates for a moment, then heads towards me. The door oozes open as she reaches the passenger side door and she slides herself in.

"Going my way?"

She glances at me briefly, then turns her head away so that she's staring out of the windscreen. "Is it working?"

"Somewhat. Initial indications are that you can't resurrect people who've reincarnated, which… Makes sense, if you think about it."

Mr Bantowa and Mr Megat turned to dust just as their employer did. Mr Ganguly still hadn't calmed down when I dropped him off with Ambrose, but he was physically fine. Mr Karokaro and Mr Gohain came out of it pretty much as Captain Gwak did: fine in mind and body but something they experienced after their deaths horrified them. Hopefully, horrified them into becoming decent people but… Eh. As long as Jade isn't the one who sends them back it isn't my problem.

"So… How many people I killed are walking around again?"

"Four out of the seven we've attempted so far."

She wiggles back in her seat a little, still not meeting my eyes. "What have you been telling people?"

"As little as possible. I told the North Rhelasians that it was an experimental medical procedure. The bodies of the other six I took covertly."

"If people who used to be dead turn up in their old hometowns, someone's going to notice."

"Captain Gwak is in the custody of the North Rhelasian military, but he was clearly distraught with guilt about his prior behaviour and they.. had already.. basically executed him."

"I don't think Double Jeopardy works like that. With the League of Shadows gone they might decide to execute him properly."

"He was a traitor."

She wiggles her head a little, presumably not sure what to think about it. "What about the rest?"

"Ambrose is keeping hold of one who came back a bit incoherent. The other two, I dropped off in their home towns with a thousand dollars in cash. Neither of them knew who any of us were."

"I'm fairly sure they can do an internet search."

"If anyone asks, it's an experimental medical procedure. Medium to long term, I wouldn't mind incorporating Lazarus Pit alchemy into something that could be used en masse."

"How many times can you do this?"

"Don't know. Ambrose estimates there are probably about fifty sites worldwide, minus any that have been used for what we're using it for. Enough to resurrect the people you killed and still have a few left over to emergencies."

She gives a small nod. "What happens to the ones who don't come back?"

"They're stuck in whatever body they reincarnated in. It… Might be possible to find their new bodies, but they might well not have their past life memories and I'm… If they're Human then they're only going to be a few months old."

"If they're Human?"

"Hinduism holds that a bad person gets reincarnated as something lesser. An animal.. or a plant. And given the people involved, we could be looking for a seedling or something." I make an amused snorting noise. "That's what I love about this world: death just isn't that big a deal."

"Not everyone gets Lazarus Pits."

"No, but you get souls. Gods build afterlives specifically to house you after you die. And if you don't want to do that, just pick the right religion and read the right spiritual literature and you can come back with a lot of your memories intact. Death isn't so much 'death' as it is a temporary physical disadvantage. It's a much better deal than what we Earth Primians usually get. Where I'm from, people die if they're killed."

"Mm."

Jade's.. actually looking away from me.

"What?"

"Killing these people was a big deal for me. I wasn't.. as involved in the sort of magic that you know about. I thought we were like Earth.. Primians."

"Do you.. feel differently about it now?"

"I feel worse. It might just be my brain thing going back over my memories. I remember.. stabbing them, shooting them… I remember the feel of the blade going in, their faces, then… The smell… I'm not a.. total psycho. I didn't keep playing it through my head for fun, but it never… Bothered me."

"The fact that you feel bad about it now is.. is a good sign."

"Because it means I'm not evil?"

"Because if you're genuinely repentant that means that I probably won't have to invade Hell."

She makes a quiet amused snort, and glances at me for a moment before looking back at the street again. "I thought I had to ask God to forgive me?"

"It's not my religion. If you want to ask Father Mattias about it-?"

"No, I-." She shakes her head. "I don't even know if bringing them back really.. matters."

"I think that the ones we've brought back so far will appreciate the opportunity to straighten their lives out."

"And their families?"

"Captain Gwak was being spat on by a thousand generations of his ancestors, so…"

"Hah! Guess I probably shouldn't convert to Dao Mau then."

"There's no real advantage unless you have your own children, so I'd say 'no'."

"Why's that?"

"Oriental shamanistic religions usually involve dead ancestors playing an ongoing role in the lives of their descendants. So if you wanted to do that, it's not a bad religion to pick. In Hellenism, they'd consider the idea quite.. creepy. Despite there being a literal physical pathway down to Erebos on Themyscira, hardly any of the Amazons have ever used it."

"Even if I did have children, I'm not sure that I'd want to put up with being constantly spat on for a chance to speak to them once a week."

"Is this a serious thing? Do you.. want to know what your ancestors think of you? Because loyally serving a master and killing in his service probably wouldn't have been regarded as negatively during their lives as it is now. You haven't broken an oath or committed a great act of betrayal, so the situation isn't the same as Captain Gwak's at all."

"Let's put a pin in it."

"Okay. Um, I.. thought about it? And I think that Hades would probably be okay with having an assassin as a worshipper?"

"No, I mean… The whole 'religion' thing. I…" She finally turns to face me. "I killed a lot of people, and now I feel bad about it. I.. should feel bad about it, and… I don't think dealing with it practically is really going to fix things."

"Do you want me to.. stop resurrecting people? Because we haven't got to the innocent people yet and I'd-."

"No. No, worth doing, but… It isn't going to fix things for me."

"Okay. Well." I reach over and place my right hand on hers. "If there's anything I can do to help, tell me, alright?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
21:15 GMT -6

I look up, smiling faintly as Mr Talbot and the Blacks file into the briefing room. And.. smile slightly less as Mr Doom follows them in.

"Mister.. Doom. I wasn't aware that you were lending your efforts to this endeavour."

Mr Talbot takes a seat to my right and the Blacks sit to my left. Mr Doom remains standing at the far end of the room. "After being made aware of such improbity, did you truly expect me to simply walk away before the matter was resolved?"

Might have preferred it.

"I suppose.. not. Please, take a seat." He nods politely, then walks around the table to sit down next to Mr Talbot. "How's the work coming along?"

Mr Talbot clicks his briefcase open. "It-."

"A biggeh bunch of fookin' monsters I've never seen." Chester leans forward, jabbing his right forefinger in my direction. "Hundreds a' total bastards we'd all be betteh off without. I've had the patience of a fookin' saint heyah."

"I appreciate your forbearance, Chester. Mister Talbot?"

He pulls a ring binder out of his briefcase and pushes it in my direction. "I handed Jean a data stick containing a copy of our records. That's a summary: a damning indictment of nearly our entire legislative and judicial system."

I pull it over to me and start scanning it. Hmm. "Would it stand up in court?"

Mr Talbot frowns. "Of course not. Telepathic intercept evidence, gathered without a warrant? The CPS wouldn't touch it."

"Ignoring procedural issues. If you ignored the 'how' of how you came by this evidence. Do you think that an unbiased jury would convict?"

His eyes grow slightly vacant as he considers. "Most…" He nods. "Certainly enough. Not all, mind, but we could get enough to collapse the system."

"And the other part of your task? Finding replacements?"

"That's…" He glances at Ms Black and Mr Doom. "Proving trickier. Directly approaching the MPs not involved would put them under too much suspicion, and they are being closely watched."

Mr Doom nods. "In other circumstances, I might feel glad that so great a proportion of Britain's elite have gained at least a basic education in the arcane. Sadly, it does make our job that much harder."

"At.. lower levels, we have carefully spoken to the leaders of major city councils… I believe that it would be possible to establish a functioning government with the people available."

"How exactly do you.. see it working?"

He raises his eyebrows. "I rather assumed that was up to you. If you want trials, we would need to pass some sort of emergency legislation to cover standards of proof and levels of punishment. That requires at least one MP, at least one Lord and.. royal assent. And it would be a laughable fig leaf to pass legislation with so little."

"Or..?"

"We could just not bother and make it up as we go." He shrugs. "It worked for the French. And that's even assuming that we go to the effort of taking these people alive."

"I'm a little.. surprised to hear you suggest that. Being a police officer."

"Hm. Police armed response units are allowed to fire on their own initiative if they or a bystander face an imminent threat to their life. Considering the resources our targets could call upon, I think I could justify using that level of force against… At least some of the better magicians. And all of the Satanists. Imprisoning the leading politicians risks a counter-coup by well-intentioned soldiers…"

"Do you think that it's worth putting what you've found into the public domain from the outset?"

Chester grins. "Be a right fookin' laugh."

"It would prejudice a jury, but if we're not planning on using one..?" I give a noncommittal shrug. "That would buy us a significant amount of time… We would still need to have a process in place, though."

"Emergency rule by the remaining parliamentarians for two months while we conduct rapid show-trials on the worst and most senior offenders, followed by a special general election. The new government would ideally pass no legislation save that necessary to regularise the trials, and would be dissolved once the trials were complete."

"That might be longer than a normal parliament."

"Most of the trials, then. Ideally… Two years? Come up with a trial structure you think would work, and… Well, your contacts will probably be the best organised political force in the country after all major parties get decapitated. It shouldn't be too hard for us to 'politely suggest' that they opt for that. And after that… We've done our best. The country can have another general election, and we can wash our hands with the place."

"I don't intend to wash my hands of my country." His eyes dip as he considers my outline. "Who were you planning on putting in charge?"

"I believe that the member for Croydon North is the most senior untainted MP?" He nods. "Then her. The idea being that we're leaving as many parliamentarians in place as we can. As for the short parliament… Would you like the job?" He sits back in his seat. "You do seem to be the logical party, you have the exposure and the organisational experience… People will be looking to you for guidance."

"I'd.. need a constituency."

"You live in London-."

He shakes his head. "No, no good. My MP may be a bloody communist, but at least he's an honest one. Oh, I suppose I can find somewhere." He thinks for a moment longer, then looks at his neighbour. "Doom? Do you have anything to add?"

"Assuming that the elections are free and fair, I can tolerate a degree of.. emergency legislation. As long as it is of limited duration. I would be most disheartened if that sort of thing became more commonplace."

"I was a policeman, Doom. I don't much like this either. But if it must be done…" He nods, returning his attention to me. "When do you intend to give us the go-ahead?"

"I don't want to.. place undue pressure on you. If you need more time, you can have more time. But… It would be convenient for me if we executed our attack… Reasonably soon."

Chester perks up. "We really doin' it? Thought you might be getting' cold feet, cock."

"Far from it. Well?"

"We'll need to bring everyone we intend to work with together. I'll prepare a highlights reel for them, make sure they're on board with our way of thinking. And I think it would be best if we had local people carrying out the initial wave of strikes as much as possible, rather than relying on G-Gnomes. I doubt that you want to end up fighting the Justice League because they think you're trying to take over the country."

"I'll make an appointment with them and show them your highlights reel. Oh, and invite along a few of Britain's more capable superheroes. That'll help with public confidence." He nods. "How do you feel about leading a strike squad yourself?"

"I'm nearly sixty. I may be in reasonable shape, but that's a task for specialists like the Blacks."

"But would you like to? I'd have thought that finally getting the bastards-."

"There is little I would like more, but I'll live with it just so long as they are brought down."

"But… If you could..?"

He eyes me suspiciously. "What do you have in mind?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st September
21:29 GMT -6

Mr Talbot looks across the scrubland surrounding the home of the Orange Central Power Battery. "Of all the places I thought that my life might take me, an alien world was far from the top of the list."

Ms Black looks around. "I think we've lost Chester."

Ring? Ah. "Let him. The women of the Orange Lantern Corps are perfectly capable of looking after themselves. And we don't really need him for this." In fact… "Why don't you take a few hours off as well? Nothing that happens here will have any impact on your work on Earth, and it can't be much fun living under that sort of pressure all of the time."

She turns back to me and raises her eyebrows. "Are you telling me I need t' get laid?"

I frown. "Noo. There are any number of recreations here, or you could take an air car to Tamarus and go sight-seeing. I'll let you know when we're ready to leave." She nods and starts walking out across the grounds towards the main amphitheatre. "Though if you want to, Tamaranians are very liberal about that sort of-" She holds up her right hand and shows me her index and middle fingers. I smile at the back of her head. "-thing!"

Mr Doom bows his head slightly, a small smile on his lips.

"You're welcome to join her."

"You will not be rid of me quite that easily. I think that my influence as a moderator may be required."

I shrug. That would have been too easy. I turn to Mr Talbot-.

"I hope that you don't intend to make that sort of suggestion to me."

"Wouldn't dream of it." I take a few steps back towards the corridor entrance. "If you'd like to accompany me?"

Mr Talbot looks up at me, mild suspicion evident in his expression. "Why are you pushing this?"

"It's an Apokoliptian thing. Not all of our Elite are the greatest fighters, but even a scientist like DeSaad is perfectly capable of leading an attack if he has to. And anyone who wants warriors to follow them into battle needs to be a good deal better than 'capable'. Plus, installing you as Prime Minister pro tem becomes easier if you're visually associated with the pointy end of the job."

"Is that all?"

I lead the way back into the building. Mister Talbot keeps up with me while Mr Doom hangs back. If he's anything like most street wizards he's trying to get a feel for the local energy channels. And those are far weaker in Vega than on Earth. "Not… Specifically this. But… Linked to why I want to get this started… Another ally of mine has expressed an interest in.. liberating an elderly relative of his who is presently being housed in the.. Dee wing of the Tower of London."

"A wizard?"

"A.. bio-artificer. He made-."

"Fiendstein."

"That's the fellow."

Mr Talbot nods. "I went to see those cells, once. I don't much like them, but I remember what that man did."

"He's in his eighties, mad as a fish and he's stuck being housed in patently inhumane conditions. I want to see him released into his family's care. They'll keep him housed in secure accommodation for whatever time he has left. In America, in the middle of a former nuclear testing area."

"And if I say 'no'?"

"I'd be disappointed, and probably sue the British government once things were settled down."

"Not threatening to pull the plug on the whole enterprise?"

I nod and wave at a couple of Tamaranian Lanterns as they pass us in the corridor. They both bow briefly.

"Don't be absurd. I have a sense of perspective. Reforming the British government is far more important than liberating one man."

"I'll agree to a review of the case, with a view to releasing him on compassionate grounds unless the evidence is exceedingly damning."

Cranius will be pleased. "Thank you."

He nods. "So, what's this weapon your armourer has for me?"

"Weaponer."

"Is there a difference?"

"One's her title, the other isn't."

We reach the doors to Weaponer Lysis' workshop. Given what she's been working on, I thought that keeping it as far away from the Orange Central Power Battery as the site's defences would allow was the correct thing to do. She seemed happy enough, but I nonetheless generate construct armour as the door opens.

"Weaponer Lysis?! Are you decent?!"

She doesn't even bother turning around from her work station. Not that her cybernetic eyes actually require her to look at someone to see them. She's wearing new and slightly Apokoliptian-looking light armour, the tron-lines glowing with the power of her ring. "Would it matter to you?"

"It would interest me, sociologically speaking. Seeing you adapt to Tamaranian social customs, I mean."

She doesn't deign to respond.

"How are you getting along with Clarissi Dox?"

"He is.. competent. And entirely acceptable as a go-between. Ah." Now she does look in our direction. "And this must be our test subject."

"Excuse me?"

Several emblems flash up on her display, and she almost immediately shuts it down. "Ooh. Grayven.. told me that you… Hm. I suppose I might not need the blast shields and restraints…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Weaponer, if you could perhaps lead the way..?"

Weaponer Lysis turns away from her station and heads towards another heavily fortified door as I lead Mr Talbot and Mr Doom around the laboratory. "You see, the most powerful tools in the universe are power rings. Unfortunately, they're rather hard to make. And harder still to use properly. The Guardians have quite rigorous selection criteria for their Green Lantern Corps.. and.. they've found a way to make it impossible for anyone else to make green rings. Orange rings can cause.. rather severe psychological issues for their users. I manage fine but there've been one or two 'incidents' with the Tamaranians... And then there's yellow, but… I rather doubt that you'd want everyone you meet to be terrified of you. But…"

The door to Weaponer Lysis' hazardous testing area opens, revealing a red-glowing personal lantern, with a matching uncharged ring held in a clamp next to it. And Lysis herself on the far side of a heavily armoured and force field protected observation booth.

Mr Doom takes a step back, staring at the ring in alarm. "It is a manifestation of hatred and rage, a tiny fragment of the Bull Which Tramples The Universe. Mister Talbot, I most strongly advise you to have nothing to do with it."

"A power ring." I step aside as Mr Talbot approaches it. "Not something I've trained with. How dangerous is it to the wearer?"

"We're not.. sure. Animal tests resulted in the subjects going into a berserk frenzy, then dying."

"I'm glad that I'm so valuable to you." He cautiously holds out his right hand towards it. "Yes, I… I think I can feel it. Puts me in mind of how I felt when I wrung that lunatic Webster's neck with my bare hands."

"But you don't feel like doing it again?"

He glances back at me. "I've never stopped feeling like doing it again. I've simply learned to channel the impulse better."

"And that is why we think you can handle it. If you can't, my entire Corps stands ready to hold you down and take it off you."

"Hm." He leans forward to study it closely. "Is there anything else I should know before I put it on?"

I shake my head. "The basic functions are either automatic or instinctual. We can have a training session once you've adapted to it."

Mr Doom shakes his head. "Geoffrey…"

"I'm sorry, Cursitor, but the chance to be on the front line is more than I can pass up. How do I go about taking possession of this?"

Lysis presses a button to communicate with us. "The final part of the process requires it to attune itself to your hatreds. Put it on, then hold it up to the lantern and hate."

"My dear Ms Lysis-" Mr Talbot opens his right hand, and the ring leaves its cradle to float onto his right ring finger. "-I do not need prompting to hate."

"Geoffrey Talbot of Earth. You have great hatred in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps."

For a moment, his eyes flicker red, red mist precipitating out from the ring. Then he lets out a very quiet snort, and his eyes revert to normal. "Then I just..? Hold it out..?"

"It's customary but not essential to speak a devotional oath when you do, but merely focusing on your hate is quite sufficient."

He nods, and holds out his right hand.

"I, Geoffrey Talbot, do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the people of Britain in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law."

When the lance of red energy flares from the lantern and strikes his ring he doesn't even flinch.

"Charge at one hundred percent."

"Good." He clenches his right hand, red mist swirling from the ring and then dissipating. "Now let's get some practice in."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd September
09:03 GMT -5

"How are our happy campers?"

Ambrose shrugs as he ambles over to the cell door. "Not enjoying being back in the world of the living all that much." He slides the first hatch open-

"-owhnrghnooraagh-."

-and closes it again.

"Has he.. been doing that since I brought him here?"

"Pretty much. He quietens down sometimes, but that's about it. He hasn't slept, he doesn't want to eat or drink and he goes berserk if I try going in the room." He looks at me curiously. "What's he saying?"

"He's just.. sort of incoherently moaning."

He nods. "Explains why I couldn't translate it. What do you want done with him?"

"What do you mean, what do I want done with him? We need to try and calm him-."

"You do realise that he's come back from Hell, yeah?"

"I.. considered it a possibility."

"Look…" He sighs, looking away for a moment. "Hindus, ancestor worshippers, druids… None of the places they go to are…"

"Appalling affronts to sanity which serve to disprove the moral righteousness of the Source?"

"More like 'mind-bendingly awful'. I don't know what it says about the Source. Point is, no matter how much of an asshole they were, none of the other people you tried this on go there. But someone called 'Ganguly', living in Malaysia but coming from India? Probably a Muslim. Same with the others."

"And he didn't make the cut for the Silver City."

"Angels are pretty fair. Given what he was doing, it's a fair bet he didn't keep up his end of the deal. So down into the ditch of Hell he goes."

"And that's why you should always shoot the missionaries." Ambrose gives me an amused snort. "No, seriously. If the aim is to weaken the forces of Hell, why would you ever try converting people to a religion that gave them a better than average chance of going there? You'd just be giving the Demons more fuel."

"I guess the prophets thought people would sort themselves out if the alternative was eternal torment. I suppose they overestimated people."

"He was down there fifteen months. In your professional opinion, is he likely to snap out of it?"

"In my professional opinion?" I nod. "No idea."

I bow my head slightly and close my eyes. "Thank you, Mister Bierce, for that extremely helpful answer."

"I've called souls out of Hell before, and they were mostly… Okayish. I've never tried putting one in a living body before. That could be the problem."

"I hate to bring it back to this, but… Ah."

He rolls his eyes. "John Constantine."

"Y.. es. Are you aware of the existence of his demonic alter-ego?"

"As a matter of fact, I've been getting letters from him." I frown at him, left eyebrow raised. He smirks. "No word of a lie. I think he's using me as a Constantine stand-in as well."

"But getting back to the point: if people can go to Hell and not go completely mental, am I right in assuming that he will be alright eventually? Do we just need to.. play him the Indian equivalent of Care Bears on a loop? Get an Imam in?"

"I'd rather not."

"I know most Muslim denominations aren't keen on magic, but I'm sure I could find one who'd look on this as an opportunity to save a soul."

"No, I mean the Care Bears thing. I have Demons in here sometimes."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"He isn't acting like someone who'd just been tortured. Sure, that would explain it if he jumped whenever he heard a noise or saw someone. It doesn't explain the babbling."

"So, what? Do you think the Pit did something.. wrong?"

"Exotic alchemy, geomancy and Hell magic? That would be my guess. Could still be temporary, or…"

"I could have caused permanent damage to the structure of his soul." He nods. "Do you know..? How it works. Going to Hell."

"What, like, exactly how bad you have to be?"

"No. Clearly, you can be bad and still go somewhere else. I mean… How… Attached do you have to be to monotheism to be caught? And what happens to atheists?"

"I guess that once they experience consciousness without a body, they start believing. And they just default to whatever religion is normal in their culture."

"I.. hesitate to ask, but given how similar to John-."

"Hah! Oh, don't worry about me. I've got a deal with Coyote."

"Sensible. Considering, anyway. Any idea for how we can fix them?"

"I've warded the rooms so no more Hell magic can get in. Another set of runes should be draining away what he's already got. That should sort him out. Or at least get him to the point where he can sort himself out. But you're probably going to need to put him in restraints so we can force feed him before too long. Human bodies don't last long without water."

I nod. "Can you get another couple of cells like this set up? I'm not totally sure on the religious preferences of our next few subjects-."

"Look. Paul. Are you really sure you should be doing this at all?"

"Yes. Why do you think I shouldn't?"

"Because we don't know anything like enough about how this magic works? We don't know what the longer term consequences are. And okay, you don't care all that much about the criminals, I get that. But you said you want to use it on Jade's innocent victims as well."

"Just because they weren't known to be criminals, that doesn't mean that they hadn't done enough to get sent to Hell. So I've got the choice between taking the risk that they might come back a bit confused, or leaving them in the worst place in the universe. The longer I wait, the longer they're in there. If they are in there. If they're anywhere else other than the Silver City, we can ask them. If they're in the Silver City… It probably won't work."

"Or you'll have the Angels on your ass."

"I've been working under the assumption that I'll have to fight them eventually anyway." I slide the Sword of the Fallen out of its sheath. "If this worked on the First…"

Ambrose puffs out his cheeks. "Okay, how about the fact that you're sending the people exposed to their afterlives off on their own without monitoring them. There's all sorts of things that would love a living host."

"I may not be monitoring them full time, but I am keeping an eye on them." Lantern Xor's first job for me. "But that threat is something we also need experience on. Anything else?"

He looks unconvinced, but gives his head a small shake.

"Right. I'll get to work on the next group."

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:17 GMT -3

Jade looks.. decidedly unenthusiastic as Nyssa puts the finishing touches to the Lazarus Pit. She didn't seem unduly bothered by seeing Mr Okereke's face… Seeing it again, I suppose. A minor official in the Kenya Ports Authority, he decided that he wasn't willing to look the other way when the League of Shadows wanted to ship materials without the proper documentation. Of course, he probably didn't know that it was the League of Shadows he was refusing… Anyway, Jade was available, so she was dispatched to dispatch him.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm remembering what it was like when I killed him."

"Difficult?"

"No. Two cameras and no guards. He had a pistol but he wasn't carrying it."

"Then..?"

"I didn't hesitate. And it wasn't that I didn't hesitate because I was worried that the other Shadows would think I was weak. I didn't hesitate because I didn't care. I was ordered to kill him, so he was going to die."

I nod. "How did you feel afterwards?"

"Satisfied. A little frustrated, actually. I'd been trained to be the best, and my target didn't even put up a fight. I could have killed him before I joined the League." Her eyes dip. "Dad would be proud."

"Do you.. want to talk to him afterwards..?"

She rolls her eyes. "And what exactly would I say, Paul?"

"I..? Don't know..?"

She looks up at me, her eyebrows slightly raised. "Is your empathy misfiring?"

"No, but it only shows me simple emotions well. And it's probably better if you can-."

"If I can talk about my feelings."

"Has not talking about them worked?" Beulah directs her grundywomen to lower Mr Okereke into the Pit. One of them is new: a failed resurrectee she was able to animate with her own magic before it could decay, replacing one she sacrificed as a test subject. Grundywomen can't be resurrected, which does tend to support the 'Lazarus Pits require a soul' argument. "You're never going to be in a safer place than you are now."

"Deal with it or forget about it?"

"I do realise that people aren't that rational. I'll support you in whatever way you need. Tell me what I can do."

She watches the bubbling Pit for a few moments.

"I feel… It seemed to be rational at the time, but now I'm just… Unsettled, that I could think like that. At the time, I was glad that the League took me in. Trained me. Gave me a purpose. But it didn't even occur to me that they were having me do exactly the things Dad would have had me do. I'm not even sure the training was much different."

"It was what you were used to, only not as bad."

She glances at me. "I'm a little worried I have a type."

I nod. "Is that why you haven't wanted to train to use an orange power ring?"

"You haven't exactly been broken up about the people you killed."

"Should I be?"

"I.. don't know. I was brought up to be a mercenary. You had a regular childhood. If power rings can turn old you into you…" She shakes her head.

"So it's not so much that you feel guilty about the people you killed as that you don't like.. your former self who did the killing."

"I can't help that they're dead." She goes back to looking at the Pit. "Even if you can. And bringing them back doesn't change the fact that I was happy to kill them. I just don't ever want to go back to being someone who's willing to kill anyone."

I nod, then wave my right hand in the direction of the Lazarus Pit. "So..? Should we just..? Get him out, or-?"

"No. I'm not saying 'don't finish', just… Bringing them back from the dead isn't what I needed."

"You know, that repenting-your-sins-and-trying-to-become-a-more-moral-person thing you just said you were doing sounds an awful lot like Christian-style morality."

"I did grow up in America."

"Hell is still a distinct possibility here, is what I'm saying."

"With all the work you've done on Lazarus Pits, should I be offended you don't want me around permanently?"

"Oh. In that case, I'm going to need some tissue samples. Just in case you die in a way that doesn't leave a body." Huh. "In fact, I should probably get those from everyone."

"I don't mind you having a tissue sample, but what religion are your old team mates again?"

"Oh. Yeah. Maybe I can.. talk them around? They wouldn't have to go on indefinitely if they didn't want to-. Although Nyssa has a version that just regenerates the living. That would be a far easier sell. And then I could work up to persuading them to change to a nicer religion. But going back to y-."

"Pavlos?"

"Hm?" Thana is walking towards us, looking rather concerned. "Problem?"

"I am.. uncertain. I have lost contact with his shade, which does not surprise me at this point in the proceedings. But… It felt…" She appears lost for a way to describe the experience. "Strangely becalmed. Are you certain that this man was a monotheist?"

I shrug. "No, but most Kenyans are. Could it have been purgatory? Because if that exists and we can resurrect people from there, that would be really conve-."

"Purgatory is a lie promulgated by the Papists to extort the gullible." Beulah turns her head in our direction. "My people have studied the matter most assiduously."

"With magic or by studying the Bible?"

"Both. Though since I know you care not for the Bible, I will tell you that while we do not intrude on the spirit's reunion with its Creator, we have watched them pass into his Presence."

"Well… Maybe he wasn't a monotheist, then. I'm not sure what-"

Warning: spell eater temperature increasing.

"-native.. religion-?"

The slime of the Pit boils and bursts as Mr Okereke leaps! His flesh is somewhat tattered, but more disturbing are the wings of flesh extending from his back as a second rib cage and the bleeding nails hammered through the bones of his arms and legs!

"Satanus says 'hi', Lantern!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:21 GMT -3

The universe slows, my immediate surroundings blurring for a moment as my power armour materialises around my body. My right arm reaches for the Sword of the Fallen at the same time as filaments dart towards my colleagues. Jade and Thana get construct armour almost immediately, while the other filaments move through the air at what feels like a crawl.

Euanthe is stepping away from the horror that was once a port official, but her epidermis is already darkening and hardening into brawling bark. Nyssa has drawn a pistol, but is quite sensibly trying to increase the distance between her and the Demon. Beulah is going for her pistol, an aura of burning purple already forming around her left hand while the grundywomen leap through the air at the malefactor.

Railguns.

The first grundywoman takes a demonic fist to the face, head deforming at the point of impact. She falls aside, but the Demon isn't quite able to strike the second fast enough to prevent it grabbing onto his torso. The Demon just grins as the grundywoman tightens her grip, then the spikes inserted along his limbs glow and extend, stabbing through his undead attacker. The spikes don't do much more than poke holes, but she immediately goes limp as the spells animating her fail.

Euanthe gestures and vines redolent with the power of the Green shoot upwards from the earth, grasping for the airborne Demon. He rolls in the air, ducking behind the vines as Beulah's fire blast strikes the place he was a heartbeat before and incinerates them.

Angel feather rounds and fly.

The shockwaves from my shots blast the grass back and tear the leaves from nearby trees. And I think I see the Demon wink an instant before the sludge of the Lazarus Pit vomits upward to envelop him. The kinetic force of the railgun round impact causes the goo to ripple and undulate, as if someone had taken a hammer to a lump of oobleck. He's knocked back, but-. Of course. He's controlling the Pit indirectly. The Angel feather round would only burn up demonic magic if it came into direct contact. The magic in the Pit-gunk somehow absorbed a lot of force, but that's perfectly possible for mid-tier magic users.

Fine. Mage slayer rounds.

The Pit-gunk pulls down, taking the Demon with it.

Um, what?

I float directly over the Pit, railguns pointing directly downwards.

"Anyone know what just happened?"

Beulah points her pistol at me, not bothering to try removing her construct armour. "Warlock! You called up a Demon!"

"Clearly, but how? We certainly didn't mean-."

"You called back a damned soul! Did you think the master of that place would fail to notice?"

Actually… Yes. Satanus… Worked out what I was doing based on… Three disappearances? Hell is vast. I mean, yes, if he knew exactly what we were trying to do it would be predictable, but he'd have to have good enough intelligence both on me and on the domains of the other Lords of Hell. And he'd have to know exactly who Jade had killed. That's… Scary-good.

"Fine, but we can kill Demons." He's not physically in the Pit… "What's he doing now?"

The ground around the Pit sinks, some sort of foulness bubbling up from underneath. I hurriedly lift Nyssa, Jade, Thana and Beulah off the ground while Euanthe roots herself, a powerful tree trunk blasting upwards from the ground just behind her and a root network expanding outwards in all directions. The remains of the grundywomen start being absorbed into the ground almost immediately, the foul ground digesting their dead flesh.

"Pavlos! He is using his body's connection to the land to open a portal!"

Fiddlesticks. "Can you stop him?"

"I can restrict his influence somewhat, but I do not understand the magic he is using well enough to truly counter it!"

"Beulah, you know much about Demon magic?"

She points her pistol downward and fires, the ectoplasmically enhanced shot doing little to the morass beneath us. "Fighting, yes. Banishing, certainly. But whatever devilry this Devil is about, I've not seen the like before."

Oh dear. "Logically, if a Demon was able to bind its own hellish magic to a site of geomantic power-."

"It will open a gate. One that will not be worn away."

"Right-oh." I generate four additional railguns and start firing with mage slayer rounds, scattering my shots across the parts of the morass furthest from Euanthe's roots. "Anything you can to do counteract that would be much appreciated."

She kneels on my construct platform, hands held together in prayer.

"While I wouldn't turn away divine intervention-."

A white-burning witch-sign appears between her palms. Never mind then.

Below, the mage slayers appear to have nullified the Demon's attempts to alter the ground… At least on the surface. I'm still getting confused scans from underground. Target those patches. Okay, if he does manage to open a gate it shouldn't be that hard to kill any escapees before they get somewhere with people in it. In extremis I can use Praexis Demons, but a simple transition-stab would most likely work as well. This has.. gone badly, but it isn't catastrophic just yet.

Hm. If Euanthe gets a firm perimeter established, grabbing everything inside that and throwing it into space could be a sound op-

Blood splatters across the front of my faceplate.

-tion. Where did that come from?

Another splatter, but my colleagues' armour is holding fine. It's not coming from them. The Demon hasn't reappeared. It doesn't appear to be coming from anyone, and it's not the sort of splatter you get from a wound. It's more like.. rain…

The forest vanishes, a dimly-lit basalt landscape replacing it, and the rain of blood from the literally hellish clouds above us increases in intensity.

Oh dear.

The horizon towards what used to be the west undulates and… No, that's a horde of minor Demons heading our way.

"Paul, what just happened?"

"This is Hell. The Demon wasn't opening a portal to call in reinforcements. He was trying to draw us in."

A shimmering image of a red-skinned man in Roman armour appears a short distance in front of us. "Orange Lantern."

"Satanus."

"Welcome to The Odium. Hell's industrial heartland. I thought that you might appreciate the opportunity to look over the modernisation campaign you inspired."

"No. Send us back or I destroy it."

"Really? My auguries show that the Snake of Avarice is no longer with you. Do you think you're powerful enough to kill all demonkind?"

"I'd give myself a better than even chan-"

Beulah shoots the illusion, which shimmers and fades to nothing.

"-ce."

I look at the oncoming horde, and ready my railguns.

Praexis Demons, go.

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:23 GMT -3

Praexis Demons spill from my rings and fly at what is for them a reasonable speed towards the army of abominations. Looks like an irregular formation, monstrosities formed of twisted Human forms and/or bits of animals, no two looking quite alike. Some squirm on their bellies like snakes, some undulate like caterpillars, some fly on insect or avian wings and others run on two or three or six or eight or more-than-I-can-easily-count legs. Some have simple weapons, other carry things that look more like tools while the great majority appear happy to rely on their natural weapons.

Beulah shoots me a foul look as she reloads her pistol. "You use Demons."

"Technically, they stop being Demons when I assimilate them, since they contain no Hell magic and are entirely made of orange light. Do your people use living slaves?"

"No, such is an Abomination."

"There you are, then. Looks kind of similar, isn't the same thing."

"Be that as it may, should we survive I am done aiding you in this."

Can't really complain about that.

Jade draws her swords, glancing sidelong at me. "Can we beat them?"

I target the largest of the oncoming Demons with an Angel feather round and fire. "Against all the hordes of Hell?" It strikes home, causing him to throw back his head and scream in agony as the golden fires consume him. "In a straight fight, no. However, I'm reasonably confident that I can slaughter enough of them that they'll either let us leave or flee."

"Reasonably confident, huh?"

The Praexis Demons hit the horde's front rank, immediately causing it to cave in on itself as they start biting everything in reach and the Demons on either side of their line turn to try to envelop them. Almost at once they start flowing from my rings once more, but if I unfocus a little I can also feel them reproducing from the mana-rich Demon flesh.

"I've seen better odds. Thana?"

"A-ah, yes?"

"Can you feel anything around here that isn't hellish?"

She shakes her head. "Lord Hades has no power in this place. Even if he would hear my prayers here, he-."

"We're in Hell. I'll take a portal to anywhere. Back to Earth would be nice-."

Nyssa's looking upwards. "Lantern…"

I follow her oh shit.

The clouds part slightly as a swarm of aircraft break through and head in our direction. Unlike the horde heading towards us across the open terrain, these are clearly the product of a technologically sophisticated civilisation. Part aquatic predator and part rune-covered mechanical war machine, they swim through the air as their emaciated crocodile pilots prepare their weapons. And floating just behind them is a golden humanoid wrapped in barbed wire.

He waves politely.

Railguns the fuck now.

I see tiny flares of light as they open fire with some sort of projectile weapon, bullets of kaahuite punching into the rock around us. Should probably try and collect some of that… I generate a shield construct as the cybersharks start getting their shots on target, the kaahuite striking and pancaking against the construct as its inherently destructive magics get to work. I'm forced to selectively make holes after the force of the initial impact is absorbed, letting the blobs of glutinous metal plop to the ground.

"Me taking all of you up against the fliers gives slightly better survival odds than me leaving you here." Agony is the most senior Demon I've seen so far. "Other options would be appreciated."

Now let's see how physics work here.

Mage slayers rounds strike cybersharks, glowing red arcane barriers manifesting around them and then being drained by the anti-magic properties of my ammunition. Sharks shudder in the air as they start taking hits, demonic machinery vibrating as the shockwaves from the supersonic impacts pass through their bodies. Pilots cry out and break off from their attack dives in an attempt to evade, which is really what I'm trying for at this point. As the fastest members of the horde -a group of skeletal figures on ruddy-glowing bikes- start getting too close for comfort I reinforce the platform beneath my group's feet and lift us upwards.

Cybersharks start to fall out of formation from damage, and with us out of easy melee range I mentally command a group of Praexis Demons to break away and chase them down. Plenty of food in those things. Next, I generate a small bank of cold guns and shoot anything that looks like it's burning. Some go out, frozen just as solid as a conventional flame. Other flaming Demons just brush it off, moving to evade the beam in some discomfort and then returning to their full incendiary glory as soon as they manage it. One or two impressively dressed Demons just take it, or become ethereal and allow it to pass through them.

Fine. Now, cross my fingers, aim a railgun at Agony, load an Angel feather round and fire.

"Oh, no, no-"

He lazily raises his right hand, the barbed wire biting into it swirling outward for a moment and-

"-no."

-striking my supersonic round in the air for an instant before the round carries on to its target…

Who catches it with no apparent difficulty. Thaat's not meant to be possible.

"Delightful as the torment of Heaven's fire would be-"

Praexis Demons start targeting cybershark riders, pulling them from their seats and chomping them to pâté.

"-I do have-"

I focus my fire on him, cold beams doing nothing and mage slayer rounds being met with barbed wire caresses before being ignored. My first couple of orange energy pulses draw a raised eyebrow when I fire them and a disturbing-

"-a job to arh-uaha-ah!"

-sigh of pleasure as they do little more than mar his skin.

"I'm open to ide-."

GruughhhhhhhhhA!

My vision whites out as every nerve ending in my body suddenly signals horrible burning agony! My muscles convulse and I slump bonelessly in my armour.

Spell eater exceeding critical temperature.

Replace it!

Uhuh! Better.

"Down! Take us down!"

I try looking sceptically at Beulah, but I'm wearing a faceplate and my face is still humming with pain. "Yeah. Sure. Why?"

"I have a weak sympathetic link to the Dryad. If God smiles upon us-."

"Good show, going down."

The ranks of Demons beneath us let out a howling cheer as we fall, and those who can spare attention from the ever-growing Praexis mob ready their weapons as I target them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September
21:26 GMT -3

"Cleanse the ground!"

How many mage slayer and Angel feather rounds do I have left now? Not as many as I'd like… But this isn't the time. I dismiss the railguns and switch to all-cold guns, sweeping the ground below us at full power. No sense in being conservative either; we either get back now or we'll have to hide somewhere in Hell, and if we have to do that then I'll either have time.. or we'll be dead. Demonic fires flicker around the demonic bikers as they try to avoid being frozen, but they're nothing like powerful enough. Of course here Demons aren't quite as vulnerable to anything so base as physical destruction; they can maintain their physical forms with only the power freely available all around them.

That's why I thrust giant shovel constructs into the mass and shove their fracturing parts aside, dropping us into the gap as fast as I can. Next: railguns. I take advantage of the lower angle to fire full force mage slayer rounds into the closest edge of the horde. The closest few fade and falter, while the kinetic force of the shot is enough to drive those behind them back as well.

That.. giant Slug demon with a palanquin is getting a bit close…

"Beulah?"

Shimmering witch signs float over both of her hands. "Cleanse, blast you! I need the demonic taint gone!"

"But there was a Demon on the other side-?"

"I will not use Demon magic!"

Ah… Right… Maintaining fire and-.

The Slug convulses, and a foul blob of something bubbly and magical flies through the air and splats over my construct barrier. It immediately starts both eating through the construct and tainting it. I-. And I can't get rid of it.

I shoot my own construct with an Angel feather round. Golden flames flare through it, causing a moment of decidedly uncomfortable feedback through my rings. Then I regain control as the taint is burnt out, thrusting my shield outwards while replacing it with another.

Then I target the slug with another round. It hits home with the expected burst of golden fire, but… The Slug… It's actually made of many.. smaller slugs and… A lot of them die, but the structure as a whole carries on just fine. Forget that. Cleansing. I fire Angel feather rounds into the ground in a rough circle around us at low power, then aim my railguns a little further away and fire again. A haze of translucent golden fire wafts across the hellish landscape…

"Good enough?"

Beulah's visibly straining, hands shuddering as if witch signs are electrifying her. "Nearly…"

Jade points upwards. "Paul…"

I follow her-. Ah. Fiddlesticks. Agony has abandoned his former reticence and has followed us down, smiling curiously as he does so.

"Escaping? A theoretically sound approach, but I'm afraid-" The barbed wire around his legs lashes out and.. somehow sticks in the air. "-that my manipulation of the Selvage is far-"

"Gaaarh!"

Beulah's eyes roll back and her whole body convulses as the witch signs fade and die. Praexis Demons!

"-too good for that to be a realistic prospect. Satanus wanted to see if I could block your access to avarice as well… But it looks like that won't be ne..cess-." He looks up as the massively expanded Praexis horde bears down on him. "Ah. A moment." He raises his arms, the barbed wire covering them flying outwards and tearing through the mob. A flicking motion, and the greater proportion of them are flayed apart and don't return to my rings. "Creatures with no capacity for pain or pleasure. How distastef-."

My railguns form a circle around him and shoot. His head jerks towards my guns and his eyes widen slightly, the barbed wire around his torso swirling to intercept the oncoming projectiles around him. None penetrate his defences, but I don't see any spare strands…

I form a new railgun beneath him and shoot him with my last Angel feather round.

It strikes him in the crotch, golden flames enveloping his skin and incinerating his barbed wires. Immediately Beulah rights herself and recreates her witch signs as Agony writhes in the air with a massive grin on his increasingly skull-like face. "It's a good pain!"

I don't bother with railguns, I just shoot a pneumatic ram construct into his chest and thrust him in the general direction of the demonic army.

"Clear?"

I see an arm stick out of the palanquin's curtains and gesture for the foremost Demons to advance across the burning rock. A few obey, shuddering in pain as it eats into their bodies… But the flames dim in response.

"Beulah?"

"There!"

The witch signs flare, momentarily blotting out the hellscape. When they fade, we're standing on the patch of bare earth surrounded by forest. Far more forest than was here a few minutes-

"Pavlos!"

-ago. I turn around to see-

"rAAAAAAAGHH!!"

-the Demon who sent us there being shredded by the razor sharp thorns running throughout his body.

"Are you all back?"

I check, Beulah slumped in Nyssa's arms, Jade watching our surroundings for the next attack and Thana standing rigidly in the centre of our group.

"Yes!"

The brambles squirm and contract, all that's left of Mr Okereke falling apart as the thorns cut him to pieces. The nails that had been stuck through him fall free, and I swiftly envelop them in small lumps of iron.

"Link broken?!"

The wooden Ogre that Euanthe has become shoulders its way through the foliage and plants her right hand on what's left of the Demon. "It is as broken as I can make it. The power of the Green outshines all other influences!"

"Good sho-."

Jade jabs her right hand at me. "That was not good."

"Alright. No, not.. good in absolute-."

"Going to Hell is not good! We would have died and our souls-!"

She bites the rest of her diatribe down, trying to regain her composure.

I nod. "You have a good point. Trying to carry on now that Satanus knows how to do that would be.. foolhardy." She grudgingly nods. "So if we limit ourselves to people who aren't monotheists-."

"NO!"

Um..?

"Look." Jade steps up into ideal stare-down range. "I get you're trying to help. And to start with it was nice… In a weird sort of way. But this needs to stop. If this is what happens when we bring people back from the dead, I'll learn to live with the consequences of what I did the normal way."

"If that's w-?"

"And you need to not… Go.. crazy when I say things like this."

I send my armour back into subspace and nod solemnly. "Alright. I'll.. try. Ah, everyone? I'll.. fly you all home."

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th September
17:13 GMT -5

Jade takes a moment to look me and my bouquet over as I stand in the doorway, then steps back to allow me inside.

"I… Asked Doctor Mist to check the site." I look around and fail to spot a suitable vase, so I take one out of subspace and put the flowers in it before setting them in the middle of her kitchen table. "Apparently, Euanthe did a good job of sealing it."

"Without creating a killer forest?"

"It was a.. forested area anyway. Nothing like as interesting, spiritually speaking."

She nods, taking a moment to look at the flowers. "What else did Doctor Mist say?"

"He.. wasn't exactly impressed with the fact that I was bringing people back from the dead. He.. seems to regard it as 'cheating'." I look at the floor for a moment. "I've.. added an equipment harness to my power armour. I'll be carrying the Aces around with me from now on."

"That's.. not the problem."

I nod. "Yes, I… I know. You told me that the problem was having killed them, not the fact that they were currently dead. And I ignored that and focused on the resurrection part."

"And got us pulled into Hell."

"That… Wasn't something I could reasonably have foreseen."

"Did you know it could happen?"

"I knew that some of the people we brought back had been in Hell. Ambrose and I had procedures in place for dealing with that, with… For dealing with small amounts of Hell magic, making sure that no one could track it. But I had no idea that it was possible for them to possess a corpse while it was being infused with geomantic power. The whole… Thing with Thana checking was supposed to ensure that the person we were targeting was.. actually who we thought they were, but…"

"But it turns out that Satanus knows more about Demon magic than you do."

I look up. "Yes. Demon-magic isn't.. really well-explored by professional thaumaturgists."

"And what happened to 'I've read the Book of Truth'?"

"Satanus.. wasn't in it. I recognised Agony-."

"The golden one with the barbed wire."

I nod. "Yes. And I could try summoning him, but he'd know it was me and he wouldn't have to come. And the people who wrote the book didn't write it with people who could brawl with high-end Demons in mind. I could.. identify most of the other Demons either individually or collectively, but I.. don't think that's really the point."

"No." Jade thinks for a moment. "How are the others?"

"Thana isn't.. coming out of the Temple right now. Beulah tried shooting me again. Nyssa thinks.. suspending the study is the right thing to do, though she did say that she wouldn't mind taking a look at the successful resurrectees. Euanthe was.. pretty upbeat, actually. Which.. given what happened to her-."

Jade scowls. "And what did Ambrose say when you gave him those nails?"

"That.. they could probably be used to make another Ace for.. when I have to fight Angels. And.. that the people he was looking after looked like they were starting to recover a bit, so that's… Still not the point." I take a.. slightly wary step towards her. She doesn't back away. "I tried to deal with the way you were feeling in a rational way rather than an empathic way. I can't.. exactly relate to how you feel, as the only person I felt guilty about killing got better-."

She frowns. "You felt guilty about killing Ra's?"

"No, Matthew Hagen. Missus Wayne's mudman turned out to be able to survive being baked by gamma radiation. My point is, if you want to talk about it, I'll actually listen and not.. do anything crazy… No matter how logical it seems… I'll do it. Alternatively, I.. can get hold of someone with experience in counselling child soldiers or... Harleen?"

"I'm not sure that confessing to committing a string of unsolved murders to a prison psychiatrist is such a smart thing to do."

"She takes her patients' privacy very seriously. Or…" I spread my hands out to the sides. "Whatever you want. What do you want?"

She half-turns away. "I don't know how to deal with a guy who says he'll do anything for me and actually can."

"Well… You can… Think about it. Though there was… One other thing…"

"Mm?"

"This…" I tilt my head back for a moment. "I didn't think we'd be having this conversation for a month or two…"

"What conversation?"

"I'm really powerful. And the few enemies I have are either really powerful or really good at hiding. I didn't predict a horde of Demons, but fighting a horde of Demons is something I'm prepared to have happen to me."

"And you don't think I'm powerful enough."

"It's not that you're not powerful enough. Superman's girlfriend is a baseline Human woman. But… She's got basic self-defence training and can use a handgun. She isn't directly involved in superheroing and has no.. pretensions in that direction. So Superman can get into whatever fights he wants and she… She knows she's not part of that. And it only bothers her when someone throws her off a building or throws a car at her. On the other hand, your.. self-concept is tied up in your abilities as a fighter."

"I fought Nabu with you."

"We had preparation time and you had a weapon specifically designed to disrupt his magic. This time Demons just turned up unexpectedly."

"I know that. And I know that being around you is-. You expect these things and I can't do that."

"And it makes you angry. Quite understandable. What do you want to do about it?"

"I-." Her eyes narrow slightly. "You were planning for this conversation?"

"Well, yes. I know that your skill in combat means a lot to you, and I know what a Lantern can do. Assuming that we stay together -and I do want to- it was inevitable that the relative difference in capacity was going to come up at some point."

"And what exactly did you decide I should do about it?"

"I'm.. not…"

"You may as well say it."

"The obvious alternatives are that you improve your capabilities, or that you find something else to do. I can train you with a ring-"

"No."

"-or… I mean, you're only twenty, you could retrain for.. anything. Anything you want. Or you can keep doing what you're doing now. I don't think you'll find it satisfying-. "

"Okay."

I stop and wait.

"You've… Given me some things to think about. Thank you for the flowers."

Ah.

I nod, turn, and walk out through the doorway.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Alienated

29th September
07:17 GMT -6

Ms Wor-Ul barely looks up from her weeding as I step off the veranda of her house, a crate containing some of the nicer Kryptonian relics from Amalak's hoard in my right hand. "What do you want?"

I stop on the soil and squint at her tub of weeds. "Why are you doing that?"

"Preserving my cover." Her hands move quick, faster than a Human could with any accuracy. Not super fast, though. "The fields need weeding, I don't want to risk hiring someone else to do it."

She-. How did-? Ah, she's not squatting on the ground, she's floating just off it in a squatting position, moving along as she eliminates the invading plantlife from everywhere within arm's reach. That sort of precise-and-constant-movements-that-she's-not-really-thinking-about flight is pretty hard to do, and I speak from personal experience there.

"And you can't use weed killer because..?"

"Do you have any idea what Earth weed killers do to Kryptonian plants?"

Fair point. Probably. I actually don't know if they do anything…

"Alright, but you could probably get some sort of drone-weeder..?"

She looks up, frowning at me like I've said something particularly stupid. "How could I justify Kirsten Wells affording something like that?"

"Stealth.. drone weeder..?" Yeah, okay. "Anyway, while I was out going to and fro across the universe and walking up and down on it-."

"Spare me. I get enough bible quotes from the locals."

"I picked up a few things that might interest you." I hold the case out slightly in her direction.

"Why, did you go to Krypton?" She stands, peeling off her weeding gloves as she does so. "If that's a crate full of glowing rocks I'm not exactly going to be impressed."

"Ms Wor-Ul, I have no desire at all to harm you. I came across some artefacts of Kryptonian origin and you were the first person I thought of."

She frowns as she walks towards me. "And not the boy scout or your friends Kon-El and Match? Interesting choice."

"You're the only Kryptonian I know who's actually from Krypton." I crouch as she reaches me, laying the case on the ground in front of me. "Of course, if you don't want it I imagine that Kal-El will be only too happy to take it off my hands."

"Alright." She crouches down in front of the case and opens the clasps. "Let's see what you've found in the galactic flea markets..." She opens the lid and there's a very slight intake of breath. I can see the shock in her eyes that momentarily breaks through her usually controlled manner. She actually hesitates in commenting on it, gently picking up some sort of.. commemorative plaque and carefully examining it. "Where did you get this?"

"It used to belong to a mercenary commander by the name of Amalak. He was something of a collector of Kryptonian memorabilia."

Her eyes start to glow. Just a little, but I'm watching for it. "I think I need to talk to him."

"Do you have supernatural powers? Sorry, heh." I look away for a moment as my desire to quote Terry Pratchett overwhelms my common sense. "I mean, he's dead, so unless you've trained as a necromancer…"

Her eyes turn upwards while the rest of her remains completely still. "How did he come by it?"

"It's a little hard to tell; between the Spider Guild and the Crown Imperium's fleet his records were in a poor state when I got access to them. From what I read-" A data crystal emerges from subspace and floats out in front of her. "-it looks like he was either hunting down surviving Kryptonians himself or-."

"Ro." She takes hold of a headband decorated with Kryptonian characters.

Ah. "I'm… Sorry. Someone you knew?"

She shakes her head slightly, returning it to the case. "Did you find anything else?"

"Yes, but I put the best bits in there."

"I'd… Like to go through it. All of it."

I nod. "Fine with me. I had a few things I wanted to discuss with you anyway."

I stand, and she takes a moment to carefully return the items she moved to exactly where they were when she opened it before closing the case again. "We knew... Someone was targeting us. I never heard the name 'Amalak'…"

"He was the more intelligent sort of mercenary commander. He was from a planet called Timaron, it was-."

"One of the Possession Worlds." Ms Wor-Ul stands, keeping a solid grip on the base of the case. "I visited it a few times."

"Anything you want to tell me?"

She shrugs as I lead the way back toward the hush tube opening. "No, not really. Technically, they were part of the Kryptonian Empire but we didn't intervene a whole lot in their internal affairs. We paid for supplies, protected their civilian shipping."

She looks around curiously as we walk through the tube and out into the command area of the Hny'xx facility. My Lanterns overran it a few days after the fall of the Citadel and managed to capture it largely intact. I've had the Genomorphs tidying things up a bit since then.

"You.. missed General Zod's putsch attempt, didn't you?"

"Mm. Heard about it. I didn't like the Science Council either but you didn't see me turning traitor."

"You went AWOL."

"Sure. That was my life, but I accepted the results of the election even though I knew it was stupid. And look what happened: Krypton got destroyed and there weren't any ships to evacuate anyone. Maybe if the General had won then we wouldn't be going extinct."

"As far as I've been able to piece together, General Zod manufactured a confrontation with the government of Timaron and carried out an orbital strike. The resulting dust clouds nearly wiped out the planet's population. Amalak got evacuated as a child, but most of his species died."

Her face twitches. "Rao. I knew the General was a nasty piece of work, but… That…"

"Did you ever meet him?"

"He wasn't even born when I left." She looks around again. "What is this place?"

"This is where they were growing the new generation of Citadelians. Essentially, it's a giant cloning facility." I stop and look at her. "Do you want it?"

She frowns. "Me? What for? I don't have any use for Citadelians."

"As you said, your species is on the verge of extinction. I have a staff experienced in cloning Kryptonians and the best facilities you're likely to find, as well as plenty of Kryptonian genetic records. I would rather your species did not slip into non-existence, and I would like a Kryptonian to be in charge of the project. Interested?"

Her eyes widen slightly. "Defences?"

"Isolated location, and I can have two hundred Lanterns here within a few minutes. And… Ten as a standing garrison? Plus fixed weapons, epic shields and interdiction fields as well as conventional soldiers."

"I-." She averts her eyes and shakes her head. "I'm not a scientist, I can't-."

"You're a military commander. This means that you have organisational skills. And you also have a knowledge of Kryptonian sociology that no one else does. No one else could raise a new generation to be Kryptonians rather than monochrome Tamaranians."

"It's… A lot to think about." She stares about us. "I'll need to look over the whole place."

I nod. "Of course. I've planned out a tour. Oh, and one other thing. Since you raised the point about defences…" I generate a construct image. "You'll never guess what we found buried underneath Texas…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th September
18:03 GMT -6

I feel a little nervous when I see Warden Waller waiting for me. I'd like to say that it's a bit late for her to have second thoughts, but the truth is that she can cancel this little excursion at a moment's notice.

"Warden Waller. I thought that Deputy Warden Bendemann was handling this?"

"Since I'm the one who's going to have to explain it to the Senate Judiciary Committee if anything goes wrong, I thought I might as well see you off myself."

"Do you.. actually have any reason to think anything will?"

"Oh, I've got a-" She holds up a ring binder and shakes it at me. "-whole mess of reports telling me that they're behaving, they're getting educated and staying away from bad influences. And I've got a state Governor who heard about them helping you back in January and who's been asking me about commuting their sentences."

"The State of Louisiana wants to let someone out of prison early?"

"Uh-huh."

I shake my head. "I don't understand you."

For a brief moment she nearly smiles. "I don't either. This is the man who laughed when I told him the reason why I wanted to build this prison in his state was because they wouldn't let me hang them."

And she's.. probably not joking.

"I.. honestly don't think that totally commuting their sentence is a good idea. Did he.. give you some idea of the figure he had in mind?"

"And why would I tell you details of a private discussion I had with the Governor?"

I shrug. "You brought it up. We're both trying to rehabilitate them, and… They're not really the deferred gratification types. If they know that what they've already done has materially improved their position, I think it would help make sure that they keep going."

"I'll make you a deal: if this whole thing happens without incident, I'll talk it through with you."

I smile warmly. And maybe a little smugly. "There aren't going to be any incidents, so that's fine."

She looks unconvinced, but activates her radio. "Warden Waller to Correctional Sergeant Haynes. Bring them on through."

I turn and stand at parade rest as the armoured door behind me slides open. Two plasma gun armed correctional officers walk through and take positions on either side of the door. Then with a quiet "Get moving." Tuppence Beresford trudges out. She's wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and a blue denim jacket, solid working boots… And of course that fetching prison-issue choker. She flickers her eyes to the armed guards waiting for her and then dismisses them. I get a suspicious glare, but I just grin and wave until she starts to feel awkward and looks away.

A similarly dressed Thomas comes out a moment later. He spots me and smiles and waves back. "Hey man."

"Convict."

"Ah." He comes to something that might generously be called attention. "Warden."

Two further correctional officers follow on behind them, guns raised.

"Thomas and Tuppence Beresford. Contrary to my expectations, you've actually shaped up since coming here. As a consequence, I have signed off on Orange Lantern's work release program. For exactly twenty four hours you will be under his direction, no less than eight hours of which will involve performing useful labor under his direction on the project you have agreed to."

Thomas nods. "Yes 'm."

"If I hear anything about the two of you taking advantage of this, it'll be the last time it ever happens. Am I clear, convicts?"

Thomas nods, while Tuppence just sort of shuffles slightly. "Yes, Warden." / "Yes Warden."

Waller breathes deeply, then activates her radio. "Warden Waller to Control. Deactivate collars on prisoners Beresford, Thomas and Beresford, Tuppence."

The red lights flash, then fade. Tuppence yanks hers off immediately while her brother takes a little more care. Both hold them out as the prison officers on either side lower their guns to approach and recover them, Tuppence smiling as she hands it over and stretching to loosen up her re-empowered muscles.

"God help us." Waller turns to face me. "They're to be back no later than twenty hundred hours and you have to feed them."

"Understood." She looks away, waving her right hand in an arc from me to them. "Thank you." I walk towards my new charges. "Shall we be off, then?"

Thomas shrugs. "I dunno, man. Shall we?"

I'd love to believe that was intentional. "Transition in three, two, one."

1st October
06:06 GMT +6

Since I've travelled with both of them like this before, neither Thomas nor Tuppence react much to the sudden scenery shift. He looks around vaguely before turning to me for directions while she starts studying the ship hulks. A few of the locals turn to stare in our direction, but this place doesn't really come alive for another hour or so.

"Welcome to the Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard. We'll be starting over here-."

"Ah! You're here!" Magnificus Sivana gets out of the rugged off-road vehicle he'd been waiting in, accompanied by site supervisor Mr Hazari. Magnificus has gone for work boots, khaki Bermuda shorts and a similarly coloured short-sleeved shirt. "Ready to get to work?"

Tuppence pulls a face. "What you doin' heyah?"

Magnificus stops as the mud sinks slightly further than he was expecting, evaluates, then strides through it anyway. "I'm joining in."

"Don't y'all got fancy doctor-work to be doin'?"

"Yes, but I'm here anyway. I don't mind a little physical labor now and again." He looks like he minds a little physical labour now and again. "Oh, watch out for the mud when you're leaping. It won't support your landing."

"Thanks, man. Good t' finally meet y'all." Thomas extends his right hand, and Magnificus doesn't hesitate. Honours in the resulting squeezing contest are about even, though Magnificus disguises his reaction slightly better.

Tuppence looks Magnificus over disinterestedly. "Mah double not comin'?"

"Oh, no, she's-" He and Thomas let go, honour apparently satisfied. "-here. Beautia volunteered to help out in the local medical center. You'll meet her at lunch."

"Mister Lantern?" I turn my attention to Mr Hazari. "You are welcome to start on any of the-" He points toward the shore. "-three ships there. Just break them up and drag the parts to the high tide line. Our workers will handle the sorting."

"Any potential hazards?"

"We took out most of the fuel after they were beached, but there are probably still fumes in the fuel tank area. Otherwise, no. Not for people as resilient as…" He points to my work detail.

"Thank you, we'll get started right away then."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st October
12:21 GMT +6

"Tuppy!" Thomas hoists a sheet of steel hull over his head. "Catch!"

Tuppence turns around, giant marine propulsion unit held in both hands over her head. "Whut?"

Thomas throws, sheet metal spinning through the air from the partially dismantled hulk like a giant Frisbee.

Tuppence is already tossing the engine- "Doc, catch!" -to Magnificus as she takes three hurried paces-

"What? Agh!"

-in the direction of the oncoming oblong then leaps, shooting through the air and intercepting it as it starts to fall in earnest. Their momentums cancel each other out almost perfectly, and the local workers hurry to get out of the way as Tuppence lands in the mud with a plop and an explosion of silt!

She pauses to catch her breath, then shoves the plate into the mud and checks herself over. Yeah, I think there's… Maybe a square inch in total that isn't covered in grey-brown sludge right now. She tries wiping her face, then flicking as much off her hands as she can. Her attempt accomplishes little.

"YAH BIG COOYON!"

Thomas appears to be cracking up. Tuppence spots this, and goes to pick up the hull plate-.

Ah, no. I transition next to her and she spots me just as she's winding up for her retaliatory throw. She sort of waves the plate around for a moment, not wanting to throw it with me right there but not prepared to retreat in the face of her brother's prank.

"Allow me."

A wave of orange light passes over her from her feet to the top of her head, removing mud as it passes. She looks at her hands, lets go of the plate with her right hand so she can check her face. "Uh. Thanks." She sticks the plate on her shoulder and starts walking back to the drop-off point. "Ah guess."

"You're welcome." I float after her, accelerating until I come alongside her. "I couldn't help but notice..?"

"Whut?"

"Are you growing your hair?"

"What if'n I am?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just making a social enquiry."

"Burman's women's side barber."

"Really? Wow, that.. doesn't sound clever."

"She ain't exactly bad at it? But I ain't lettin' her nowhere near me with a razor."

"You know, I could… Probably get you a hair dresser..? If you wanted one? Someone who wasn't a serial killer?"

"Naw… I kinda like it."

I nod. "Enjoying the day so far?"

"Beats gow'n t'class, I guess."

"So -given the choice between a normal day in Belle Reve and doing this again..?"

"I'd come back. Probably." I smi-. "What yew lookin' so happy fawah?"

"You've found a legitimate job which you enjoy. That's a big part of getting you to the point where you can be released from prison."

"How much we gettin' fer today?"

"I'm paying for lunch."

"Uh." She grunts, then tosses the hull plate so that it spins in the air before landing and embedding itself point first next to the others. "I'll have the Lobster."

"Having checked the water quality around here, I wouldn't recommend it." Ring, radio.

Compliance.

"Thomas, I was thinking we could break for lunch now. That alright with you?"

He waves his right arm, nods, then turns around to lower himself off the side of the ship before letting go and falling to the ground. The resulting mud wave is deflected by the lumps of metal already covering the ground by the ship, and he makes his way towards us in a series of somewhat more conservative leaps.

I turn back to the scrap pile, where Magnificus is directing people who do this for a living on a daily basis how to take an engine apart. "Magnificus, are you joining us?"

He looks around. "Yes, alright. Do you have somewhere in mind? If you don't, I.. know a place in Dhaka..?"

"Fine with me." Thomas lands and has to stagger to absorb his momentum. Mister Hazari looks around and sees the four of us together. "We're going to take an hour for lunch."

He waves back. "Okay!"

Magnificus looks at his somewhat soiled apparel. "Lantern, would you mind..?"

I wave my right hand, orange light giving him and Thomas a quick clean up. Thomas smiles. "Shuwer beats prison shawahs."

"Hey." Tuppence jerks her chin at Magnificus. "Doctor Magnificent."

"Magnificu-. Magni, just call me Magni."

"Raaht. Doc Magni. We actually related or whut?"

"Father assures me-" Our surroundings flicker as we appear just outside the local medical centre. "-that we're not. Beyond.. being from the same ethnic group, obviously. Tia?!"

"The whut group?"

"Physical features. Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes. It was most likely an evolutionary response to the low levels of light in Northern-."

"An' the formula we gaht don't do nuthin' to make us smartah?"

"Nothing.. significant. It would make you resistant to head injuries… We still aren't entirely sure what all of the effects are, but-."

"Hello!" Doctor Beautia Sivana strides out of the medical centre, dressed in the shapeless sort of clothes recommended for Western women visiting Islamic countries. "I'm Tia, and you must be Thomas and Tuppence."

Thomas leans a little closer to me as Tuppence regards her doppelganger. "Not related, raht?"

"Thomas…"

He grins and nods. "Yeah, Doc. Tommy Beresford. Please t' meet cha. How's it… Ah, how's it gawin'?"

"Malnutrition, poisoning and deformities from industrial waste, five different diseases that don't exist in America any longer… About what I was expecting." Beautia turns to Tuppence. "How are you finding ship breaking?"

"S'okay ah gyus? Lot more fun than sittin' in Belle Reve."

Huh. First time I've heard her address a new person with something other than hostility. Interesting. "Magnificus, where was that restaurant?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st October
12:34 GMT +6

"…'Sivana' like the midget guy?"

I am seeing an entirely new side of Tuppence right now. And other than Magnificus' famous ability with condescension I'm really not clear why. She wasn't even this nice to Dr Munro. Contrary to my expectations of Magnificus' tastes we're in a tourist-orientated restaurant rather than a more prestigious establishment. Which is fortunate, as I don't think I'm renowned enough around here to walk into whatever restaurant I want and be guaranteed a table. We've been issued with menus and drinks, and Thomas has fallen silent as he tries to work out exactly what he's being offered.

"He's.. not actually a midget. Dad's just short. And he's not even that short; he's just a little under five feet."

Magnificus nods. "We both take after our mother, physically speaking."

"Sounds lakh you gaht the best a' both."

Beautia folds her menu and puts it to one side. "Dad won't tell me exactly what he did-"

Thomas elbows me. "Hey."

"Yes?"

"-but he always said that's what he was aiming for. I'm not sure exactly how…"

Thomas tilts his menu my way. "What is alla theus?"

Normally I'd treat a question like that as a joke. But I don't think that's the correct thing to do here. The menu is in English, but I'm.. assuming that he's not used to this sort of restaurant. "Bangladeshi food. It's all perfectly edible."

"Yeah, but… What's a 'pakora'?"

"A fritter, basically."

"So that one theyah is 'fried chicken'?"

"Fried in spicy batter, but essentially, yes."

Thomas smiles with relief. "And here I thawt this wuz gow be hard."

"Never eaten Indian food before?"

"Naw, man. Hey, ah, what you having?"

"Mutton bhuna khichuri with mixed vegetables."

He frowns. "What sort a' animal's a 'mutton'?"

"A female or castrated male Sheep over two years old. Though… In this part of the world it can also mean 'goat meat' for some reason."

"Then why don't it just say 'Sheep bunna kicurry?"

"I think it was the Normans, but-"

"Are you ready to order, sirs?"

"-that's a history lesson for another day." I look around. "Are we?"

Magnificus looks a little sceptically at Tuppence, who responds by pointing somewhere in the middle of the second page of the menu. "Thayat one."

I suppose that if you've never had this sort of food that's as good a way of picking something as any other. It also means that she doesn't have to ask for help. Sort of makes me wonder how the two of them managed after they left home. I haven't wanted to bring it up for fear of alienating them, but they were on the road for over a year before they rampaged badly enough to come to League attention. They must have been eating alright, and their clothes were clean when they ran into Wallace and Kon so they were either recently stolen or they'd been doing laundry. And I don't remember that being on their charge sheet. Given their mother, they'd probably have had to learn how to clean things at a fairly early age…

"And you sir?"

"Mutton bhuna khichuri with mixed vegetables, thank you."

I pass my menu back, and he piles it with the others. He gives us a short bow and then turns around and heads for the kitchen.

"So, you think ship-breaking could be the career for you?"

Magnificus shakes his head. "Oh, good heavens no. Give me a nice clean laboratory any…" Something occurs to him. "You weren't talking to me."

Beautia smiles at his discomfiture, while Tuppence looks like she's about to take offence. But her eyes flick to Beautia and she just snorts instead. Heck, if this is all it takes I'm going to get in touch with Ms Brauer and see if she minds doing some mentoring.

"I imagine that they'd take you on if you wanted the job…"

"No, no, not about me. Thomas?"

Thomas turns his head to look out of the window. "I dunno, man. I ain't never-" Magnificus twitches. "-had a regular job befowah. They gawt places like that in America?"

Magnificus shrugs, so I nod. "Yes, though nothing quite on this scale. I'm not sure they could provide you with enough ships to make it worth your time."

"Hey, thayt's even bettuh. We could jus' stawp by a few days a month."

Tuppence shakes her head. "They ain't gonna pay fer a few days a month."

"Actually, they might. If you think about it, if it costs them slightly less to hire you than to hire a whole team plus equipment, then-" Assuming they're confident that you'll behave yourselves. "-they'll pick you. That's just good business sense. The only reason I'm sure about the workload is because super strength doesn't help with sorting or processing the parts of the superstructure, and they make their money selling that. But, since they can only get so many ships in…"

Thomas nods. "Makes sense ah geuss."

Tuppence frowns. "Hey, how come we ain't they'uh raht now?"

"Because US law makes hiring you to do jobs like that legally complicated while in Bangladesh they don't care. Once you're released it's easier, but until then their insurance wouldn't cover the risks."

"'Cause they think we gonna go crazy or somethin'."

"Because you might drop something on someone and they'd be financially liable for the damage. They understand cranes. They don't understand super strength."

"Hey." Tuppence looks thoughtful. "What wuz that you wuz sayin' 'bout them havin' all kinds a' diseases 'round here?"

"Um, well… Parts of the world like this don't have the same sort of immunisation program or healthcare that the US does. If children don't get immunised, they can get sick from the disease and the disease is around because people still carry it. And those regulations that make companies liable for the consequences of their action exist for a reason; it's practically impossible for someone here to get compensation from their employer if they get injured."

"But it ain't a problem fer us?"

"Danner enhanciles aren't immune to disease, though we are resistant to side effects, injuries and poisons. Assuming that you had your shots, you shouldn't have anything to worry about yourself, but-."

Tuppence shrugs nonchalantly. "Sucks t' be them, don't it?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd October
00:04 GMT +3

"Thana?"

I step nervously into the Temple of Hades. I've visited here every day since the Hell incident, but each time another priestess -a woman by the name of Natasa- told me that she wasn't available. I hadn't even realised that there was another priestess of Hades on Themyscira. I mean, logically it makes sense that there would be more than one priestess but after their forebears went crazy the job rather slipped down the totem pole as a status symbol. I certainly hadn't seen anyone other than Thana in here in a professional capacity before that. Huh. Given that I might eventually end up here permanently, I.. do.. sort of need to smooth things over with her.

"Natasa?"

No, she's not here either. I could scan for her, but that does seem somewhat intrusive. Particularly given that the reason I'm here is I think I've… What's the word? Scared her? Trespassed against her?

"Identify yourself."

An Amazon soldier I don't recognise walks out of the crypts, a shield decorated with a wreathed skull on her left arm and her right hand on the hilt of her sword. I'm.. not seeing much from her, just the black eddies I get from Thana when she's communing with the dead.

"My.. Amazon sisters have taken to calling me Pavlos, though I'm afraid that I can't speak my real name." She.. doesn't appear to recognise it. Odd. "The Orange Lantern? The one who… Ah… Instigated the incident that led to Thana spending a few minutes in hell last week?"

"Ah." She releases the hilt of her sword. "Natasa told me that you had wanted to propitiate her."

"Right, and I'm.. sorry about the lateness of the hour, but Natasa said she might be available if I came back.. now. Is she?"

"She is." A woman… Thana, appears to materialise out of thin air as she lifts a helmet from her head. "I apologise for keeping you waiting, but I had urgent business to attend to." She's.. dressed warmly, and in addition to the helmet has a pack on her back.

"Quite understandable. Are you.. going somewhere?"

She nods, stowing the helmet under her left arm. "Indeed. Captain, why don't you go and complete your preparations?"

"Yes, priestess."

The.. captain? Bows, then strides back into the crypts.

"Thana, I want to apologise. My preparations were inadequate. I should have waited until my Atlantean contacts were available before pressing on with my investigation."

"Oh, that is quite alright. I had every opportunity to refuse to take part, and I should have noticed that there was something wrong with Mister Okereke's shade."

"Oh. Ah, I'd rather gotten the impression that you were avoiding me. I thought that I'd offended you rather worse than I.. appear to have done."

"Oh, I'm not offended. In fact… I should say that I'm grateful."

Um? "You are?"

"Oh yes." She looks down at the ground for a moment. "Eternal torment. Such a deceptively simple phrase. I wonder if it's truly possible for a person to understand the concept until they.. are forced to experience it for themselves."

"I… I don't know. I hope not."

"You hope..? Ah." She nods. "I suppose that would be kinder." She takes a moment to examine the decorations on one of the walls, the ones detailing the fates of those the Olympians singled out for 'special' treatment. "Prometheus, condemned to have his liver pecked out. Painful, extraordinarily painful. But it could not kill him, and he only endured it for thirty years before Herakles killed the Eagle."

"And Zeus didn't just send a new one?"

"I believe that Zeus was distracted at the time. Lord Hades believed that the punishment was excessive, and chose not to remind his brother once his schedule became clear."

"Oh?" I smile. "What was her name?"

"Ganymede."

Ah.

She walks a little further along the diorama. "Sisyphus, obliged to roll a stone up a hill whose summit he will never reach. Hardly agonising. Many labourers must do more each day, and he was a quite unpleasant man." She sighs. "But true eternal torment, great pain being inflicted constantly with no hope of release at all… Horrifying."

"Yes. It is."

She looks at me with mildly disappointed affection. "You don't understand, do you? I am attuned to the spirits of the dead. That did not stop-" Oh shit. "-simply because we were in the domain of another god. Satanus called the region we were in Hell's centre of industry. Do you know what sort of industry they are engaged in?"

"No."

"Once their psyches decay too far into madness as a result of Hell's torments they transform shades into reflections of whatever device they require. Both the process and the results are… It is unspeakable. A violation such as…" She shakes her head. "I could see their suffering. Feel the echo of it in my own breath… It was such an obscenity, and I did not even begin to understand it until I saw it myself. Thank you for showing it to me."

"You're welcome? So… Where have you been?"

"I have been in Asphodelopolis, consulting with Lord Hades as to what to do about it."

"I've been thinking about that myself, but as big a threat as Satanus is, I don't think that an attack is going to be a realistic prospect for the foreseeable future."

"I agree. But I wasn't talking about that." She glances back towards the crypt as the captain emerges once more, followed by a small squad of other Amazon guardswomen. All are carrying packs for travel and all show the same black blur when I try looking into them. "I do not believe that there is much I can do for the poor souls already there, but I can try to prevent others from being sent there. I am travelling to New York and..." She takes a deep breath. "And then onwards wherever I must go, to preach against the evils of the God of Monotheism and convert as many as I can away from the foul faiths which condemn people to such a place."

…

"I see. Um. You appreciate that about two thirds of the Human species are monotheists of various stripes, yes?"

She nods. "My resolve is no less for that. In the face of such a horror, I can do no less." The guardswomen come to a halt just behind her. "I would have gone on my own, but Lord Hades felt that it would be better if I took a retinue for my protection."

I take another look at her companions. And on several of them I see thick scars on parts of their bodies where strikes would have been lethal.

"And as proof of my own god's generosity."

"You understand that this offer will appeal most of all to some fairly unpleasant people?"

She nods. "I don't care. No one deserves that. The worst person it has ever been my misfortune to meet is Herakles, and even he…" She shakes her head. "No. No one. Punishment for wrongdoing is just, but not forever."

"Right. Well. I wasn't expecting this, but I wish you all the best of luck. Feel free to get in touch with me if you need anything."

"Thank you, Pavlos. I will."

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd October
12:34 GMT -5

Jade narrows her eyes in a distinctly unimpressed way. "What do you mean, Catwoman can't keep up with Batman? She was stealing from rich people in Gotham for years without getting caught for longer than five minutes."

I take a moment to look around the restaurant, but either no one is paying attention or 'IRL Who Would Win' debates are so common here that no one cares. But… I take out a sound scrambler anyway. "Catwoman was most successful when Batman first started, when he was mostly fighting organised criminal gangs and corrupt officials. The reason why she was so successful was that he generally had better things to do than chase down a cat burglar who didn't kill people. On the few occasions they did run into each other, she was able to get away. That isn't the same as being able to win an actual fight."

"She took on Carmine Falcone and his bodyguards armed with inch-long claws. They had guns. Falcone had that scar across his face until Dent killed him."

"I didn't say she couldn't fight. I just said that she's not in Batman's league. Look." I raise my hands to forestall her retort. "If two people in costumes operate in the same sort of area and one is a vigilante and the other is a criminal, they get linked in people's minds. That doesn't mean that they're actually an even match. Very few of Batman's opponents can win a fistfight with him. Mister Cobblepot can't, Mister Nygma can't, Ms Pye can't… Even Mister Napier needed preparation and a lot of luck. Talia could, because she used highly lethal weapons and he wouldn't, but you have to go down the list to Doctor Langstrom or Mister Reardon-."

Jade frowns in puzzlement.

"Man-Bat? The Ten-Eyed Man?"

She looks incredulous. "Batman.. fought a man with.. ten eyes."

"He has photosensitive cells on his fingertips and I know it sounds stupid. The point is, it's possible to be an extremely successful criminal in Gotham without being able to fight Batman one on one. Most times Batman has come close to death were due to traps, ambushes or 'industrial accidents'." I smile. "Though Holly probably deserves a special mention for stabbing him on his first night out."

"Hol-? Holly stabbed Batman?"

"Please don't tell her. I really want to see her face when she finds out."

"How can she not know? He is kind of distinctive."

"He was dressed up like a drifter, pretending to be a local while he took in a few crime hotspots. He hadn't even settled on the whole 'Batman' thing back them."

She raises her eyebrows. "And you know this how?"

"Batman has a scar right where it would have gone in, and there's a report matching what I remember on the Justice League's database. And Holly once mentioned something that sounded very much like the incident in question."

"And I thought killing a Justice League member was supposed to be hard."

"Batman isn't on the League because he's good at punching people. Which is -again- why the Catwoman comparison falls through. Because even if she was as good at fighting as he is, she doesn't have most of the other skills that he does."

"She might not be as good a detective as Batman, but she can track down criminals perfectly well."

"And the rest?"

"She doesn't have a Catmobile, if that's what you mean."

"Catwoman's perfectly capable of investigating street crime locally. But more to the point… Batman started work in Gotham about twelve years ago. Since then, the crime families have gone underground and the city's government is far less corrupt. He fought a campaign, and he's largely won it. And he didn't do it just by punching people."

"And Catwoman cleaning up East Side doesn't count because..?"

"Because there's no strategy. She only went sort of straight because she made enough money that she no longer needed to steal." And because of her interesting personal relationship with Batman, but that isn't public knowledge. "But take.. drugs. Okay, she beats up a dealer and ties them up somewhere where the police can pick them up. The demand is still there, so someone else comes in. Net change as far as the area is concerned, nothing. Maybe a slight spike in local prices."

She sits back, crossing her arms. "So you're saying I'm wasting my time."

"Depends what you're trying to get out of it. But if you're trying to improve Gotham in a lasting way… Then… Yes. If you're just beating up acceptable targets for the exercise, then, fine…"

"I can't infiltrate the gangs to bring down the supply network completely because I'm too well known. And I need a job that actually pays me. I don't have any special skills relating to rehab except locking addicts in a locked room until the symptoms stop. That was part of my training."

"Your father or the League..?"

"Does it matter?

I look down at the remains of my lunch. "I suppose not."

"I can't start a business because I only really know how to do one thing and I don't think my probation worker would really want me passing those skills on."

"Offering.. self.. defence training is an option. I know a couple of people in the Gotham Police Department..?"

"I don't think Detective Bullock really has the build to use my style." She raises her eyebrows expectantly. "Isn't this where you offer me a power ring again?"

I shake my head. "You don't want a power ring. You know you don't want a power ring."

"I thought you were supposed to be good at this."

"Talking to women?" I shake my head. "No." She snorts. "Okay, look: you can afford to take time out of employment to do training. But, I don't think you'll be satisfied with something that doesn't involve fighting. You don't want to work as an assassin, you don't want to join the military and joining the police would be tricky. Have you considered looking further afield?"

She looks away to her right. "Every country I'd seriously consider working in would check my background."

"I was thinking more 'another planet'." That gets raised eyebrows, but she doesn't say no. "The Orange Lantern Corps is one of a number of Maltusian-run military organisations. I doubt that the fleet or marines would interest you, but the Darkstars do infiltration, sabotage and reconnaissance. And they mostly do it against the Reach, who are super evil. What they do broadly matches your skill set. And they're down on operatives because a number of them just transferred to the Orange Lantern Corps."

"I don't speak any alien languages."

"Most people don't. They provide translation devices, or you can get lessons."

"That… Could be interesting."

"I can create Darkstar-style armour to your specifications if you want to try it out. And I.. happen to know where some Kobra cultists are hanging out…"

She relaxes her shoulders slightly, resting her hands on the table. "I suppose giving it a try wouldn't hurt."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th October
09:27 GMT -6

"…investigation for his Court Martial."

Arnus' 'Augustus Freeman' personality is as different from his 'Icon' personality as Clark Kent is from Superman. Gone is his taciturnity and growly delivery, farewell his static posture. Mr Freeman is all smiles and animation and I'm forced to wonder which -if either- is Arnus' real personality.

"I will testify without hesitation."

Lantern Xor on the other hand is still barely animate. Outside of combat, he doesn't let his emotions show all that much. Graak has left his former client's shoulder in order to peruse Arnus' office, clearly rather enamoured with the comforts which our civilisation allows a successful lawyer.

"I wouldn't be quite that eager. Exactly how much reading have you done on America's legal system?"

"I sleep. I eat. I read and study. Last time I stood before magistrates I lost my freedom, my name and my voice. I will not enter a fight unprepared again."

"I don't recommend thinking of it as a fight. Particularly given how we're having to fight the image of you being an 'alien invader'. I'll go over-."

"Image?"

Lantern Xor's hands have formed fists, and Graak looks around from the leather-bound book he was reading with a look of alarm.

"Do they care more about appearances than truth? Am I simply to go from one travesty of justice to another?"

But he doesn't smash anything, which is definite progress.

"Not.. exactly. The problem is that in a lot of these cases, the penalty that gets levelled depends on things that can't be determined by a study of the physical evidence. A jury or a panel of officers have to be persuaded to… Let's say, correctly understand a person's motivations. And while they're supposed to limit themselves to evidence and testimony, it's unavoidable that they're going to interpret the way a person giving evidence behaves when they try and decide whether they're a credible witness or not."

Lantern Xor calms down a little.

"And since you're from a totally different culture and species, that's obviously a little awkward for you."

"I will not lie."

"I wasn't going to ask you to lie. I'm going to teach you how to present yourself so they believe you when you tell the truth."

Lantern Xor doesn't look entirely happy, but his anger is subsiding.

"What will happen to the General?"

"That's up to the Court Martial. If I were the one defending him, I'd probably try and make out that he had to make a decision based on incomplete information, that as far as he knew based on the police reports you were a belligerent attacker and needed to be taken down as quickly as possible to prevent things escalating further. That fact that he's written any number of reports on the potential for using military force in policing metahuman criminals shows he might have his own biases, but it'll be hard for the prosecutors to prove that he acted purely for that reason."

"You will not be able make them punish him?"

Arnus shakes his head. "I won't be prosecuting the case. The military has appointed a prosecutor, and General Hardcastle will select his own defence attorney. I'll be in court, but I'll just be there to advise you."

Lantern Xor snorts. "The American military tries an American general. My expectations are low."

"Even if some of them agree with him on using military power against superpowered criminals, General Hardcastle didn't make any friends amongst his peers when he shot up an American town. To say nothing of how his blatant disregard for the lives of the American civilians in the area is playing on Capitol Hill and in the news. Taking time to heal them was an extremely intelligent move."

"They were not military, not attacking me."

"Even so, it's strong evidence that you weren't planning on attacking Thayer's Notch when the police started shooting you." He looks at me. "Did you have anything to do with that?"

"I suggested that it couldn't hurt. But he's using an orange power ring."

He nods. "He had to want to do it in order to make it work. Okay, that's good to know. But… I do need to know why you didn't just leave town as soon as you got attacked. The police didn't have anything that could have hurt you, and even if you couldn't get away from the military the collateral damage from fighting them outside of town would be far less than fighting them inside it."

"I will not flee from an attacker. Especially one in uniform."

"I understand the attitude, but that's a problem in Massachusetts. A civilian who comes under attack is obligated to retreat rather than attacking unless that's.. clearly impossible. In your case, you could reasonably be considered to have known that the police issue firearms couldn't hurt you after the first few shots bounced off your skin. The prosecutor in your case will almost certainly make the argument that you had an obligation under law to leave the area. Did you..? Think they had heavier weapons available?"

"I did not think about it."

"Do you have a..? Lot of military experience?"

"I have been a soldier for two thirds of my life. I was a Warhound of the First Array."

"Okay, so… Would you say that you responded in the same way you would have on a battlefield?"

Lantern Xor frowns. "If I were on a battlefield I would have attacked them first."

"Alright, but if you suddenly found yourself confronted by.. enemy soldiers you weren't expecting..?"

"I would have recognised their weapons, so I would have prioritised them differently. But I would have attacked in the same way."

"Alright, that's something. Do your people have any enemies in this part of the universe?"

Lantenr Xor considers the question, then calls up a galaxy map and studies it intently for several moments. "Not that I have fought before."

"The reason I ask is that if you might reasonably have believed that you were attacking people allied to your species' enemies, it becomes a lot easier to justify your reaction."

"We might. I had little interest in high politics. I had not even thought to find out our location until you asked me."

"You didn't know where Earth is?" Lantern Xor shakes his head. "How did you get here?"

"Something went wrong on the prison transport. They didn't tell the prisoners what it was, but the containment system failed when main power did, and by the time I had freed the other prisoners the crew had already evacuated. The automatic navigation system locked onto Earth as the closest survivable destination. I expected there to be other survivors here."

"You broke the other prisoners out?"

"They would have died in their cells if I had not."

"And the crew didn't have time to open the doors?"

Lantern Xor shrugs. "I do not know why they did what they did. I am not responsible for their behaviour."

"No, of course not. Okay, we're going to need to go over a lot of details about your personal history and species' legal system. And we've got another police interview in a couple of hours. Now, I know-" He glances at me. "-that you've been living on Paul's Ice Fortress, but it would help me manage your case if you could start living inside US territory. Is that something you're prepared to do?"

Lantern Xor nods, grudgingly.

"Thank you. I'll-".

"I can move the Fortress back-."

Arnus holds up his right hand. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I'll have my assistant sort something out, somewhere secure and large enough for you. Why don't you.. tell me about your full military record?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th October
13:47 GMT -5

"You do not want to raise any more people from the dead?"

Euanthe and I are sitting in the grove at the top of Mount Justice, enjoying the autumn sun. She doesn't really look confused, but by now she knows that Humans do things that don't make sense to her and I'm pleased that she's learned to check.

"Not at the moment."

"Does Jade not want you to return the people she killed to life? Does she still hate them, or fear their vengeance?"

"No, she doesn't hate or fear them. I mean, she doesn't like being reminded of her guilt-."

"But if she feels guilty because they are dead, and now they are not dead, why does she still feel guilty?"

"Because people don't feel based on rationality. It's… It's mostly that she doesn't like having been the person that killed people in those circumstances. Jade was lukewarm on doing it anyway, and I was mostly doing it to assuage her guilt."

Euanthe nods. "And you cannot travel to the past to prevent her from having killed them."

"Not easily, and that would change a load of other things as well... Plus, Satanus knows what I'm doing and will almost certainly be trying to find her other victims, and as we can't be completely sure where their souls ended up, it also isn't a good idea for that reason." Euanthe frowns as she tries to adjust to a meat people mindset. "How did you feel about confronting Demons again?"

She grins, the soft bark of her faux-mini dress darkening and thickening and growing curved thorns until she's doing a decent Demon impression herself. "It felt good. It was wrong and should not be in the world and I made it leave and die."

"I'm not totally sure whether or not what you did resulted in Mister Okereke ceasing to exist. More likely, a little bit of him returned to Hell and will regenerate eventually."

"I do not mind. I am happy to kill him again and again." Her armour dress is accessorised with bramble knuckledusters as she clenches her fists. "I think it was a shame that I did not travel to their home with you. There would have been so many more of them to kill."

"And you might have had trouble accessing the green to empower yourself. And their magics might have been more effective, and the place itself might have been toxic to you."

"Perhaps. And I do not think that eating more of the Great Warrior's flesh would help with that." She crawls across the ground between us and leans forwards until her bark-cowled face is centimetres from mine. "How do I learn to kill Demons better?"

"Um. There probably… Are ways, but I'm afraid that with most of my magic-using contacts occupied with other projects, and given that what happened last time I didn't have thaumaturgists studying what I was doing was that I got sucked into Hell…"

"What are they doing?"

"Studying how to.. make a high-powered anti-Demon magic user. Once they've done that, we can look into it. And until then, I'll call on you whenever I'm planning on fighting Demons so you can get more experience."

"Will that be soon?"

"Um. Pppprobably not. I.. can ask Diana to notify you of Demon-related Justice League cases? To be honest, I'm not planning on going after Satanus for a while, so…"

She slumps back dejectedly, bark coverings thinning.

"You could always try looking for Demons yourself? I wouldn't recommend confronting them on your own in case something goes wrong and you need backup, but Demons are persona non grata in most places. I doubt anyone would mind about you attacking them."

Notification: Kal-El has completed his press conference.

"Ah." I try to get up, then realise that I've been undergrowthed again. "Euanthe, would you mind letting me get up?"

She tilts her head to the side as the creepers retract. "Was it right to make that forest near the first pit?"

"It would have been better to discuss it first, but-" I rise to my feet. "-on balance, yes."

"Would I be able to fight more Demons if I made more forests?"

Ah..? "I don't.. quite see the link. I imagine that there being a stronger green presence would strengthen you slightly and weaken them… Maybe you could find sites of demonic magic and plant forests over them?" She smiles and-. "But check with the local Humans first!"

She smiles and waves as she drops into the soil of the grove floor.

…

Oh, she's managed this long. Now, Metropolis. I fly upwards far enough that the presence of the green isn't quite so overwhelming, then I step out. Kal-El's barely-noticeable and classically small town American set of desires doesn't exactly leap out at me, but it's visible enough that finding it doesn't represent much of a problem.

I appear on the roof of the Daily Planet-

"Orange Lantern. Didn't realise you could teleport."

-building, nodding politely at Ms Lane as I do so. "I learned all sorts of things while away from Earth. Kal-El? Are you ready to go?"

He nods, but opens his mouth to respond slightly slower than Ms Lane does. "'Kal-El'? What's wrong with 'Superman'?"

"It's not his name."

She folds her arms across her chest, shifting her weight to her right hip. "Sounds like you're throwing stones from a glass house there, 'Orange Lantern'."

"Ms Lane, you are welcome to call me by name. Or you may address me by my rank; it's Illustres. But I grew up in a world without superheroes and I can't help but find some of the naming conventions daft."

Kal-El nods. "He used to call me 'sir' the whole time."

"What stopped him?"

"I stopped working for the League. Are you ready to leave?"

She nods, then looks to Kal-El. He nods as well. "Kon's going to meet us at the Fortress. Kara's.. not.. ready to go out in public quite yet."

I frown slightly, then glance at Lois. She shakes her head. "Don't worry, I'm not going to try interviewing her. Getting a first hand look at Krypton is plenty to keep me busy."

I nod. "Very well, then." Orange filaments connect me to both of them. "Transition in three, two, one, transition."

Metropolis disappears and is replaced by the arctic wilderness, Ms Lane shivering for a second before I extend an environmental shield around her. Ahead of us Kal-El flies over to the front door and opens it.

"Welcome to my home away from home."

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th October
20:27 GMT

Ms Lane stares out through the faceplate of her helmet at the slowly drifting continent-sized chunk of Krypton. "I'm seeing it, and I still can't quite get my head around it."

I don't bother nodding. It wouldn't be visible in this armour. "I can't either." I hold out my right hand, generating a construct of an exploded -hah- view of the late planet. "This bit here."

She studies the image, her eyes moving from it to the floating rock as she tries to reconcile the two in her mind. A moment later she gives up. "Think I could use that for an infographic?"

"Sure."

"I.. went there once." Kara drifts in our direction. "Krypton's first spaceport was.. built outside Erkol, I visited it with my class."

"I thought space travel was officially disapproved of?"

"We aren't-." She sighs. "We weren't a monoculture any more than humans are. A lot of science council-associated families wanted to preserve places like that: where our species took great strides forward in our development. It's just-." Kal-El floats up behind her and lays his right hand on her left shoulder. "I just wish there'd been more ships available. No one was allowed faster than light ships. If they'd had-."

I hear her sob for a moment, then she turns her communicator off.

Kon snorts. "Guess you were right about Zod."

Kal-El looks my way. "What was that about General Zod?"

"Oh, I just… I thought that if his coup had been successful, he'd have built more ships. So.. this…"

"He'd have built warships. He'd probably have invaded Earth by now."

I don't know enough about the psychology of Dru-Zod the Younger to properly evaluate his likely behaviour. It's been.. what, forty years? Conquering and settling his neighbours might well have taken up all of that time, particularly if someone made a decent counterattack. And he wasn't widely popular; it's quite possible that he'd have faced internal resistance, even from the rest of the military council.

"Possibly. We'll probably never know for certain."

From the look on Kal-El's face, he's strongly considering saying something else on the subject. Then he turns away to stare in-system. Ms Lane gives up trying to appreciate the size of the colossal rock and follows his gaze. "Is all that kryptonite safe?"

"I-" I was thinking of saying 'I wouldn't recommend breathing it', but.. perhaps not. "-would think so. Your space suit is rated against that level of radiation and your force field makes sure of it. If either fail I'll shield you with an environmental shield, but outside of the strongest concentrations kryptonite radiation isn't rapidly fatal to humans."

Communication system shows the Kryptonians have a discussion between themselves. Probably trying to comfort Kara. I did.. say this might not be the best idea for her.

"So, what, as long as I don't wanna have kids it's nothing to worry about?"

"No-." Huh. "The chance is low that your reproductive health would suffer, and if that happened I could get hold of a purple healing ray or Atlantean biomancer fairly easily, so… Don't worry about it."

"Mm." She reaches for her suit's controls and awkwardly turns herself around. "Still can't get over kryptonite not being a problem any more."

"It's still not safe. It could kill them if they swallowed it or breathed it in, and a kryptonite laser or plasma weapon would still be fairly lethal."

"First time I interviewed Superman, he bent some steel bars to show how strong he was. Once he'd been working in Metropolis for a while I started to think he was indestructible. Then, someone found the first piece of kryptonite and suddenly… He could get taken down by some thug with a glowing rock."

"Has Metropolis really not had superheroes before?"

"No one on Superman's level."

"No one's on Superman's level. He's the strongest and most durable superhero I'm aware of, to say nothing of him being the fastest natural flyer. But.. most of the difference is by degrees; I could find you a dozen people who could bend steel bars in their hands."

"My point is, have you seen Metropolis' crime figures lately?"

"No? Why, what's happening?"

"Way down. First time he just ignored someone waving a kryptonite crystal at him, all the gangs who'd been depending on the stuff booked it."

"And the figures in neighbouring regions went up?"

"Not all the way. Small amounts of kryptonite aren't expensive or hard to get hold of. Other weapons that can hurt Superman aren't anything like as common. I think they're having to lay low."

"Good show." I switch over to broadcast. "Are we ready to move on?"

Kal-El turns to my direction. "Yeah, I think so."

"Plotting course to Har-Zod's redoubt." I warp space, bending the universe around us to give us a view of the Rao system as we travel. The three Kryptonians and I start flying in the direction warped, but Ms Lane appears to be having a little trouble with her thrust controls. I attach a filament tether to her instead, pulling her with me as we head inwards.

"So why are you doing this?"

"Kon's my friend, and Kal-El's done enough for the world that I don't mind doing him the odd favour."

"I mean, specifically: why are you taking a Kryptonian moon base?"

"That's…" Hm. "I have been meaning to ask you something as well. I'm sort of feeling like… Did you ever watch Friends?"

"I've heard of it."

"The episode where Phoebe and Rachel work out that Monica and Chandler are dating? And they try and get them to admit it by having Phoebe hit on Chandler?"

"Ahhh…"

"And then Monica and Chandler work out that they know, and I don't even remember why, but they decide to try and make them admit that they know? And Joey's privy to both sets of revelations-."

"Are you going somewhere with this?"

"What do you know? Because for me it's confusing what I'm allowed to say around you."

"What do I know about Superman?"

"Yes, and the League in general? I mean, I haven't wanted to pry, but I also don't want to give away anything I'm not supposed to."

I hear a quiet laugh from Kal-El. "I think what Orange Lantern's trying to ask is whether you know who I am when I put my glasses back on."

"Could be awkward if she didn't."

That gets a chuckle from Ms Lane as well. "Yes, I know about his amazing double life as a mild-mannered reporter."

"And… What do you think happens in the Hall of Justice?"

"Tours for sightseers?"

Ah. "Well then, quite aside from its value as an archive of Kryptonian society, I noticed that Earth has barely any orbital defences. So I thought that we might stick it somewhere near Earth and then expand it."

"You want the Justice League to have a space station?"

Ooh. Someone's going to be in for an unfun conversation when his girlfriend finds out about the Watchtower. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'orbital battle fortress', actually. But I leave that up to the Kryptonian contingent."

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th October
20:42 GMT

"…a military dictator."

Ms Lane has her hands on her hips as she interrogates the neural imprint. Har-Zod doesn't appear to be particularly troubled by her hostility.

"I'm afraid that I don't have files on your planet's government. As such, I wouldn't know how to characterise the precise differences between them. I would not describe myself as a dictator. I was head of the military council during a time when the military council was pre-eminent, but the council as a whole was elected to that pre-eminence by the population as a whole. And that pre-eminence itself was hardly an unusual state of affairs. Krypton's first contact with alien races came when we were invaded by the Vrangs. After their occupation force was destroyed, it became quite normal for the military to set policy with regard to our interactions with other species."

"The.. Vrangs?"

"An alien species which occupied Krypton during our industrial age." His head shrinks, and an image of the military council's organisation chart appears next to him. "The military council was comprised of senior officers retired from active service, the field commander of Kryptonian military forces and the heads of each branch of the services. Depending on election results, additional individuals from areas not directly associated with Krypton's fighting force might also act in an advisory role."

"So if it got popular enough, the military could take control of whatever it wanted."

"In theory, the military council could take control of anything the people of Krypton wanted it to. In practice, that should not have ever happened. What I meant to imply was that at times it made sense to coordinate closely with the science council in the design of new ships or with the labour council in planning ship building projects. The results of elections would determine exactly how forceful that 'coordination' would be. Likewise, when the military council was not pre-eminent we would follow the policy direction set by whatever council was."

"I should also point out that it was the science council who thought that isolationism was a good idea."

"Hm." Ms Lane steps away from the display as I come closer.

"Har-Zod, do you have any particular problem with us moving this base?"

"I would have liked to remain here, in case any other surviving Kryptonians manage to make the return journey. But I suppose the chance of that isn't particularly high."

"I'm happy to leave beacons in place to relay any message you wish to send. And I think we can give them Earth's location. It will just take them a little longer to reach you."

Ms Lane raises her left eyebrow. "You're giving Earth's location to potentially hostile aliens?"

"I'm not doing anything which the Voyager probe isn't doing. Besides, anyone who can track Kryptonian FTL could follow Kal-El's wake and find us eventually. This is just a slightly more polite way of doing it."

Har-Zod's head nods. "That's acceptable. Do you intend to try to move the whole moon?"

Hm. Not sure. Putting Xenon at a Lagrange point would work, but it might also cause the governments of Earth to throw a bit of a fit. On the other hand, digging this place out is… Well, it's doable, if not exactly quick. And it can grow more space if we need it to by consuming some of Luna. Someone might spot it if we put it on the light side, but if we put it on the dark side we could keep it secret…

Of course, while I sort of have the final say since.. I'm the one moving it, it would be impolitic to ignore what the Kryptonians think of the situation.

I raise my right hand to my right ear. "Orange Lantern to Superman."

"Go ahead."

"Har-Zod's given the go-ahead. Have the three of you talked things through?"

Ms Lane stares at me for a moment. "You were serious about the League having an orbital battle station?"

"As both a non-signatory and as a non-state actor, the League is exempt from the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. The UN has de jure accepted that, otherwise they couldn't allow space-capable League members into space. The League is presently the Earth's only way of stopping space-borne aggressors reaching Earth and their capacity to actually do that isn't anything like as good as you might think."

She opens her mouth to respond, but Kal-El gets there first. "And this has nothing to do with you constantly installing new weapon systems in.. your own facility."

Subtle. I know that he means the Mountain, but Ms Lane might think he's talking about the Ice Fortress. "The reason I do that is the same as the reason why I'm arguing for this. Either the League has military responsibilities, or it doesn't. Since none of you told me that I was mistaken during my performance review when I assessed you on it-."

Ms Lane blinks. "You gave the League a performance review?"

"Yes, and if you want a copy you can ask them for it. Anyway, if you actually want to do that job, you need deep space sensors which the Guardians can't turn off on a whim, you need weapon platforms and.. preferably ships. And I don't mean Batman's space plane."

From the lack of response I'm going to guess that he's still mulling it over. Either that or I was excessively frank again.

"Or if you want to um and ah about this a bit more I can drop Xenon off outside the Sol system while you discuss it amongst yourselves and clear it with the Security Council."

"That does sound a little more sensible."

"No, it sounds more reasonable. In fact, it forces you to take people out of their comfort zones without giving you the advantages that a space-based facility would provide, and thus is less sensible."

"Kal, I… I know Earth is less advanced than Krypton was, but Paul's right. It isn't safe to not have some sort of defence system. And if there was some kind of natural disaster-."

"Earth doesn't have the same structural problem Krypton had."

"We…" I can hear the reluctance in Kon's voice. "Do… Have super volcanoes and crazy supervillains… I'm not saying we need this, but it.. could be useful. Y'know. Just in case."

And I'm getting Joeyed again. Kon and Kal-El both know that the League has a space station, giant floating target that it is. Lois apparently doesn't. I imagine that the arguments I'm advancing in favour are similar to the ones raised when the League discussed whether or not to use the Watchtower. I still don't agree with the decision to keep its existence a secret. The number of supervillains who could even try to reach it is tiny compared to the ones who could reach the Hall of Justice, located conveniently as it is in the middle of a major city. Carrying on using the Mountain would have made more sense, seeing as it's a reasonable distance from Happy Harbour and Happy Harbour has a low population anyway.

Of course, what I really want is for the team to start using this place. But that's probably a stretch too far.

I hear Kal-El sigh. "Alright. We'll move the moon, but I don't want you taking it close to Earth. Could you put it in orbit around Jupiter?"

Ring? "Yes, though if that's the route you want to take my personal preference would be putting it in a off-plane orbit around our sun."

Ms Lane looks at me askance. "Isn't that a little dangerous?"

"I've already asked another member of my Corps to visit us to help me with another project I'm working on. I doubt that she'd mind babysitting it."

Kal-El thinks about it for a moment. "Okay, whatever you think best. Will the rest of us be able to meet her? I'll be interested to see what sort of people you've been recruiting."

"That shouldn't be a problem." I step away from Har-Zod. "Shall we start back now? Even with all three of you pushing, I imagine that it will take us a while to get up to speed."

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th October
21:14 GMT

"I've heard people joke about Superman being strong enough to push a planet, but this is something else."

The universe sails past us in a cylinder of orange and white as the Kryptonians put their backs into it. Obviously, just having them shove Xenon wouldn't do very much, so I've got a construct spreading the force out over the.. west..? The western side. The effort involved in sustaining that along with the warp itself is preventing me from helping with the thrust, but it looks like they've got it covered.

"Second time on a faster than light planetoid for me. Though I should point out that without anything to push from, their strength is basically useless. It's really more their resilience combined with the power of their flight that lets them push it."

"Any reason you couldn't just teleport it back?"

"I teleport to people. Teleporting to someone I know on Earth while towing a moon didn't sound sensible. Plus, I'm not sure what happens when I try to bring very large objects with me. Besides…" I spread my arms out to the sides. "Look. Look."

"You enjoyed it so much the first time that you just had to try it again?"

"You're now part of a very exclusive club. I doubt that more than a handful of people in the universe have done this." Skrk. No, a mile high club joke would not be appropriate. "The stars are all the more beautiful without an atmosphere, but like this you've got a horizon so your brain-."

"Yeah, I'm… Trying not to look at it. I don't usually get air sick, but-."

"Oh." Ah. "I can give you some travel sickness pills?"

"I can cope." She turns to face me, carefully focusing her eyes on my face and not the breathtaking -or in her case stomach churning- panorama behind me. "So is this what you spend your time doing?"

"How do you mean?"

"Superman… Clark, splits his time between his work for the Daily Planet and being Superman. He patrols Metropolis, he helps the emergency services, things like that."

"I.. suppose you could say it's the sort of thing I do? I like locating useful technology and knowledge and putting it to better use. Even if nothing else comes of this, at the very least Kon will have access to a record of Kryptonian history."

"And he couldn't get that from Clark?"

"Um? I suppose he could, now. I started.. planning this before their.. recent rapprochement…"

"I thought you didn't want that to happen."

"Is this about what I said to Kal-El last New Year?" She nods. "Kal-El.. avoiding Kon didn't really give me the best impression. Then I… Then Diana agreed to adopt him after taking him on as a student… And then Kal-El decides that now was the time to reach out to him. A month earlier or later and I'd probably have been friendlier about it. But that really wasn't the time. Now? Sure, no problem. If Kon's happy, I'm happy."

Kon was.. a bit vague when I asked him how it went. I suppose that Lex wouldn't have bothered giving him any farming-related programming, and Themysciran farming techniques are a little more primitive than what farms in Kansas employ. Still, he seemed pretty upbeat afterwards. Not sure what I'll do if he asks about Lex's side of the family. Lori's about his apparent age, but Kon's genetic heritage is public knowledge. And Kon hasn't spent a good chunk of his life idolising Lex.

"So what have you got going on at the moment?"

"Batman asked me to locate…" And another Joey; she almost certainly doesn't know about Nabu. "A couple of magic users who have the potential for League membership, as that's an area of weakness in their current line-up. I've so far got one, and a second who needs a little work. And there were some.. magic field experiments I ran… Got some useful data-."

"Experiments you were running with the North Rhelasians? Experiments that created a forest out of thin air which the military cordoned off from the locals?"

"A series of experiments of which I performed one in North Rhelasia. The forest was a result of an oversight on my part; I didn't explain to a dryad friend of mine why making an enchanted forest wasn't a good idea."

"Because the locals will just cut it down for firewood?"

"Because the locals might try to cut it down for firewood and be brutally slaughtered by spriggans."

"That explains the military build-up."

"Yes, and I've explained why it wasn't a good idea and she won't do it again."

She nods. "These wizards. Who are they?"

"I doubt that you'd have heard of Doctor Mist. The other… I suspect that you'd know her actual name and she hasn't selected a nom de guerre as yet. Doctor Mist is a multi-millennial African magic user of considerable ability. Beyond that, I suggest asking him yourself."

"Any comment on the recently appeared Blue Lantern?"

"He used to be a member of the Justice Society, and he's a good friend of mine."

"And the resemblance between him and retired television executive Alan Scott?"

"He's just got that sort of face."

"Rrrright. So what else do you do?"

"Else?"

"You know, like other teenagers do? Do you have any hobbies? What sports teams do you like? Do you have a girlfriend.. or boyfriend?"

Ah. "In order? As little as possible. I didn't become a superhero because I wanted a normal life. Uplift is my hobby, and everything else has rather fallen by the wayside. I have no interest in sports beyond a small feeling of residually nationalistic pride when England wins something. I do have a girlfriend, and she's coping admirably with.. me. And that's all I'm saying about her."

"Alright, so why did you become a superhero?"

"Kal-El became a superhero due to noblesse oblige, Batman due to a drive for revenge. With me, it was an act of desperation to preserve my own life. As I told Ms Dearden, by the standards of Earth Prime this world is mad and has all too many novel and horrifying ways to die. Heck, your population is a billion less than my own Earth. I needed to keep my ring going and I needed training."

"So you dived straight into a bunch of dangerous situations to keep yourself safe?"

"It's not the ones you see coming that get-"

"Approaching destination."

"-you. Orange Lantern to push team, we're nearly there. Feel free to stop pushing once the universe reappears."

"Thanks for the notice."

"Ms Lane, if you watch-" I point upwards and to my left. "-there, you'll see something truly remarkable. But it might also make you quite ill. Up to you."

"Great."

"Three, two, one, end-"

The universe reappears, our view mostly consisting of the surface of Ater Clementia.

"-warp."

"WRAAAGH!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th October
21:21 GMT

"…GOD DAMNED LUNATIC!"

"Ms Lane-."

"WHY WERE YOU FLYING US AT A PLANET?"

"Our relative velocity-."

"YOU HAD AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE NOT FILLED WITH PLANETS TO AIM AT!"

"The universe is filled with all the planets, Ms Lane. Look, we're safely orbiting around-."

"And how could you be sure the Lantern down there could catch us!?"

"Lantern Mother of Mercy is a planet. Catching moons is what planets do. See those big spine-?"

"I'm trying not to look at it."

"Basically, those are Mother of Mercy's gravity sensing organs. She could feel-."

Kal-El flies over Xenon's horizon at some speed, barely sparing Ater Clementia a glance. "Lois, are you okay?"

"Just..! Super."

He looks at me. "I take it this was intentional?"

"Yes, of course it-."

"Then I'd appreciate it if you could give the rest of us a little more warning in the future. And no, telling us that we're going to see another Orange Lantern isn't the same as warning us that we're about to run into a planet."

"We were never going to hit the planet." I hold out my left hand. "Mother of Mercy, back me up."

A projection of her central nexus appears next to me. "I felt the Illustres' spatial distortion as soon as you left the Rao system. Catching you was simple. I have already put Xenon into a stable orbit around me."

"And the lack of warning?"

"I thought that it was a better visual spectacle like this. The planet just appearing like this. But, I will certainly take your concern onboard and avoid doing this again."

"Thank you." He turns, looking at the sky. "We're in the Sol system, and… From the position of the planets we're near Mars' orbit."

"We're at right angles to Mars' orbit."

"And did it occur to you to make sure that the Martians didn't object?"

"Yes. I popped by for a quiet chat with Prince J'emm a couple of days ago. You see, the biggest barrier to Martians repopulating the surface of their world is their weak magnetic field. So I thought that I'd bring in the Orange Lantern Corps' greatest expert in geophysics to see if she could sort that out for them. Don't worry, she'll check with them before she starts manipulating their planet's core."

Ms Lane seems to have regained a degree of composure. "I know that putting another planet in the star system won't significantly affect the orbit of anything already there, but if she's planning on getting close to Mars, won't that cause earthquakes?"

"I used gravity to fly through space before I became an Orange Lantern. I am perfectly capable of preventing the gravity distortion created by my mass from affecting anything else."

"You see? No-" I raise my right hand to wave as Kon and Kara fly towards us. "-problem. Do you-?"

"Is that…" Kara stares at Ater Clementia. "Planet.. supposed to be there?"

"Yes, that's an Orange Lantern."

"The-? The whole planet is a Lantern?"

"No, but I cover its entire surface. The Illustres has rendered my name as 'Mother of Mercy'."

"What are you?"

"I am unique. I cannot be readily compared to any life form with which you are familiar. Parts of my body function like plant material, others like animal tissue and the rest is organic technology. I understand how to create and use it instinctively. Now that I have a power ring and personal lantern, my few restrictions have been lifted."

"I…" Kara shakes her head. "Huh."

"We're close enough to Earth here that I can zeta tube everyone back. Or you can mount the first ever tourist expedition to Ater Clementia-."

Lois definitively shakes her head. "Perry's gunna want a piece on why there's a new planet in the system on his desk tonight."

"He needs to work on his work-life balance."

She gives me an odd look. "Yeah. He's the weird one."

"No, he's fairly normal. But I don't have high blood pressure and too much cholesterol and hence am at a far lower risk of heart attack." I wave my right hand and a zeta tube construct appears. "After you."

"Recognised, Lois Lane, A four six."

"Kal-El? Kara? Heading back to-?"

"Actually? I was talking to Kon, and…" She glances at him and he nods reassuringly. "I think I'd.. like to meet your friends."

"Oh? Great. They're lovely people-" I set my communicator to 'just Kon'. "Are Canis or Blaze-?"

"Canis is out with his Aunt, and Blaze is at KordTech."

Back to 'all'. "-and I'm sure they'd be delighted to meet you."

Kal-El nods, smiling. "I'm glad you're feeling up to it. I'll just tag along in case-."

"Actually? I think.. this is something I need to be able to do by myself."

Kal-El regards her carefully for a moment. "If you're sure. Call me at the Planet if you need anything."

"Recognised, Superman, zero one."

Kara takes a deep breath, then floats towards the zeta tube. "Okay. Here I go."

"Recognised, Kara Zor-El, A four five, Superboy, B zero four."

I turn to Mother of Mercy's projection. "I hope you enjoy your time in our little system."

"I have found that I enjoy meeting new people."

"Contact me if you need anything."

I float through the zeta tube.

8th October
16:24 GMT -5

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six. Identification confirmed."

Looks like just about everyone's here, and Kara's working through her initial nervousness. Roy waves, his modified light armour moving more easily than it used to. M'gann's talking nineteen to the dozen to Kara already, and-.

"Hey, Oh El." Wallace blurs to a stop just in front of me. "You sticking around today, or-."

Kara spins, her eyes metaphorically blazing. "You're Kryptonian too?! Why didn't you-?"

"No, I'm sorry, I'm not. Wallace, I told you that would happen eventually."

He looks at her, then looks at me. "What?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th October
17:34 GMT -5

"Plato?" Raquel looks more curious than surprised. "I thought you liked Theory of Justice?"

I slide the next batch of chopped celery into the cauldron-like saucepan. I'd rather gotten out of the habit of cooking for this many people. But given the amount of time I've been spending in the mountain since my return to Earth I can't really complain about getting kitchen duty every so often.

"Sure, as a work of political philosophy. It just occurred to me that the only work of philosophy that covered superheroes was Republic."

That gets a frown. "What you talking about? You were the one saying that Truggs was right about superheroes being a bit crazy but not crazy enough. Doesn't that match what Nietzschie-"

"Nietzsche."

"-said about creating new moralities? That it was confusing, uncomfortable and most people wouldn't do it."

I nod as I start adding the stock. "Yeah. Yeah, fair point. It's just that from what I remember of Nietzsche, he thought that once someone did it-. "

"They'd stick with it 'cause they'd already decided their old moral code was stupid. Whereas what you and Truggs think the League is doing is trying to stay within their old moral code while doing something that.. sometimes can't fit inside it."

"I'm not sure that Nylor and I see it in quite the same way. But broadly…"

She squints slightly. "Anyone ever tell you you've got a nasty mind?"

"Not that specifically, no. But what I took away from Nietzsche was that having a morality you don't believe in is self destructive. So if none of us feel like joining the police force but insist on saying that police are important to law enforcement…"

"That's a contradiction 'cause we don't act like we do. We fight crime, hunt down criminals and none of us really care what the police think about it 'cept when they actually try an' make an issue of us being vigilantes."

"But if we don't actually believe in law and order, what do we believe? Or what should we? I mean, to my mind that's at least as important as hand-to-hand combat training. We're not just going to have to hit things in the field, we're going to have to make decisions with massive legal and political ramifications."

"More you than me."

"Really? Have you ever been to Arnus' homeworld?"

"No. But… Huh."

"Right. If he ever does decide to visit home, he'd probably-."

She shakes her head. "I asked, and he told me he thinks of Earth as home."

"Oh. Okay, well, his former home. You'd be the first Human to visit there. Not.. a government or UN appointed diplomat. You. And they'd probably form policy relating to us based on what you said. Remember how you felt when I said I'd started making more kinetic belts? Not doing that was a decision you made."

"And you think I was wrong."

"I think you were wrong. I don't know you were wrong. And I don't know what metric you were using to make that decision."

"I didn't even think about it." Her eyes unfocus slightly as she sits back in her chair. "If you wanna make the world a better place…"

"Take a look at yourself, and then make a change."

"Which is how you got to Plato. Because of how he said guardians should be educated to be guardians, which is kinda what's happening to us."

"The guardians weren't supposed to own property. Superheroes don't get paid. The difference is that the Guardians' upkeep was paid for by the state, while we're volunteers doing it pro bono publico. I still find it amusing that the most avowedly capitalist nation on Earth idolised Kal-El, a man who has never been paid for the work he does as Superman."

"Do you think he should? Hell, do you think I should get Icon to release more Terminus technology?"

"I don't know. What metric do you think you should use to decide?"

She glances aside. "Whether Icon'll let me or not."

"Heh. Well yeah, that's… Important. Given that he hasn't for.. two hundred years? I think we can guess what he thinks. But if we're talking about cultivating virtues in ourselves-."

I look around as the door opens and Kon wanders in, followed by Roy and Kara. "Didn't Plato say that guardians shouldn't marry and people shouldn't know who their biological parents are?"

"There's a logic to that. If-."

A look of distaste passes over Kara's face. "If they don't know who their family are, they can't show them any preference."

Raquel shakes her head. "No, they'd still identify with other guardians more than anyone else. And I'm pretty sure that anyone with a calendar could make a pretty good guess about which kid was whose."

"Which leads us onto the problem of groupthink, and Mill and Taylor's insistence that free discussion on all topics was essential-."

"When are we eating?"

We all look at Roy. He shrugs.

"Sorry to bring down the tone, but…"

"About two hours." Chicken legs, bay leaf and turn up the heat a little… "You getting hungry already?"

"Just wanna know if I've got time to rebuild my armour's targeting system before dinner."

Kara sags. "I'm really sorry-."

"Hey, it's not a problem."

"What happened?"

"She-." / "I-."

They look at each other and Roy shrugs. She sighs. "Earth technology is… It's so much more primitive than what I had on Krypton. I keep thinking that I should be able to use what I know to improve things. Except it's so much less advanced and.. just.. alien that nothing I know applies to it. And I got frustrated and I.. kind of forgot I had super strength, and…"

Ooh. I look at Roy. "Can you fix it, or do you want me to-?"

"Really, it's not a problem. I like working on my armour." He turns away, smiling as he does so. "I'll be finished before dinner."

Maybe Red Arrow gave me a rather slanted impression, but he's surprisingly easy-going.

Raquel sits back so she can look at Kara without straining her neck. "If you're having trouble with your flying, you could try out the ring course."

"I'm.. not sure that it's a good idea for me to fly inside a mountain. I can fly through mountains."

Kon shakes his head. "It's not a problem. After I bounced off the walls and ceiling a few times we added in kinetic barriers. If you miss your turn now you just stop."

"Okay…" She nods, perking up slightly. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. But… Do the barriers cover the floor as well?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th October
11:12 GMT -5

"So… What you're saying is, it's impossible."

"No! No." Sephtian shakes his head. "It clearly is possible, in.. the same way that.. your people understood how a fission bomb could be created well before they had the means to actually build one. We understand how the arcane structures in Blaze function. If we wanted to create another like her it is quite possible that we could manage it. And we understand what she needs to look like after the transition has occurred."

Ted's made a real effort to help the Atlanteans feel at home here. Moving weather control system production away from KordTech's main research centre made a lot of sense, and he's having the building which used to house it converted into an Atlantean style arcane laboratory. And given the subject of the project they're currently doing for me, one of the really high security ones. Unfortunately there isn't a high security way to move Blaze from the mountain to here… Well, not yet.

"But you can't actually make the transition."

"The Demon you fought in Guyana was able to maintain a link using the remains of the soul of the man it once was, combined with the magics of the Lazarus Pit. That kept the Earth end of the gate open."

"Yes, I realised that."

"The Human soul naturally combined the elements. Blaze does not have a Human soul. She has a structure of Hell magic which behaves somewhat like one. There is no attachment point where we could begin to replace the energies."

"Is there any way around that?"

He makes a sinuous wiggling gesture. Yes but no. "If we had an object or creature who could combine those energies, we could use them. Have you located the First?"

"No. And if we haven't at this point then I don't expect to." The Greek police were grateful -even if they weren't sure they could believe me- when I explained who 'Theo' was, and since he killed at least eight people during his stay in Greece they're as alert as they can be.

"I am aware of no other source of such magic. Are you?"

"No, I'm afraid-." Huh. "Maybe."

"If you are referring to a mythological artefact, I would not expect.. complete certainty. But without one we are forced to start from first principles."

"And how long will that take?"

"Perhaps three decades? We will of course learn a great deal… But I suspect that you would like results sooner." He watches me for a moment. "If.. I may ask..?"

"What do you know about Christian mythology?"

"We have all been doing some reading. But a faith two thousand years old -not counting the Hebraic tradition which preceded it- will create a great deal of literature. If you could be more precise..?"

"The Garden of Eden. More precisely, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge."

"The most empirically-based interpretation I could imagine is that it was a reference to the transition from hunter-gatherer society to settled farming. Knowledge in that instance representing early Humans taking control of the land and causing it to conform to their desires. Since that is usually accompanied by an increase in disease and decrease in general health, that might explain the 'curses' Jehovah bestowed upon the people for defying his will. And the difference in his treatment of Cain and Abel-."

"And the less empirical interpretation?"

"There is literally a tree somewhere which grants people the ability to comprehend ideas which are considerably more complex than those their social world contains within it. Perhaps which even creates sophoncy itself. Though that idea does rather fly in the face of the fossil record. On the other hand, it is very hard to observe evolution, While the orthodox view is that greater brain size amongst hominids is a result of random mutations in favourable conditions, it is not impossible that it was the result of externally applied magic. But not on two people; the gene pool would have been too small, even if they were prepared to mate with more mentally simple hominids."

"But the specific description; the God-like ability to know good from evil and choose between them?"

"There are any number of evils which cannot exist in the most simple societies. Professional thieves cannot work their trade if they must follow the herds. There is little to steal, and all of the other members of their tribe would see them. It is nearly as hard in small farming communities, particularly before currency was invented-."

"This is a little outside your normal area, isn't it?"

"I had to study surface society in order to understand what I was reading." His head fronds ripple. "But what you want me to say is that the fruit is a magic banana which will enable us to perform the arcane transfiguration you require."

"Banana?"

"Banana or mushroom or apple or tomato or pomegranate or perhaps something else entirely. If you actually get to the Garden of Eden, I recommend taking samples of everything. Several, perhaps."

"But does it.. sound like something that could work?"

"Based on the limited information available to me… Yes? Perhaps? It would.. prove an interesting object of study in its own right, regardless of how helpful it would be to our current project."

"One miscellaneous fruit from the Tree of Knowledge coming up. If I'm not back in an hour, watch for a crater."

"Might.. it be prudent to wait until.. one of your allies can accompany you? Your.. last fight with monotheistic elementals did not go as well as it might."

True. I doubt that Euanthe would be much help, my team mates are either at school or… They'd want Batman to sign off on it. And… Helpful as getting access to Eden would be, I am.. basically planning on directly defying the Lord of Hosts here. I mean, I'm working on the assumption that the Silver City is going to have a collective aneurysm when we finish Blaze, but I might have been able to talk myself out of it. This is straight up breaking, entering and theft. And if the Cherub with the flaming sword is still on station, assault with a deadly weapon as well.

Am I..? Really doing the right thing here? I mean I.. think I am. If we can get this to work, it doesn't just get Blaze into the field, it might let us teach morality to all sorts of beings not inclined to learn it through conventional methods. And… Angels don't have free will. This isn't like dealing with a Human where I could try trading something… And if I try, then any help my tattoos would give me in avoiding attention will be gone.

It's like Nabu, but with lower stakes.

I don't think I'd be bothered all that much by it afterwards, but… Is that a sign something's wrong in itself?

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th October
11:22 GMT -5

I float over New York while the phone of the Zatara residence rings. No cheating; heads I get Zatanna who will most likely support whatever I want to do, tails I get Mister Zatara who will almost certainly try and talk me out of it. In either case, arguing against their position will give me at least a reasonable outline of both sides of the argument. Assuming that one of them does answer, otherwise I'm going to have to give Father Mattias a b-.

"Yes?"

Tails it is, then. "Mister Zatara, do you have a few minutes?"

"Of course. If only because I am worried about what you might do if I say 'no'."

I'd say 'thanks', but he does have a point. "Right. You know I'm working on turning Blaze into.. something other than a Demon?"

"Zatanna may have mentioned it once or twice."

"I may have found a way to do it in a few weeks, rather than a few decades. Unfortunately, it involves stealing an item or.. items."

"And you do not believe that you could simply purchase the items in question?"

"I'm happy to try, but the.. prospective seller has traditionally been rather against that sort of thing."

"The Justice League can get a court order to legally confiscate magic artefacts in a number of countries."

Hm. "Including Iran?"

"Hm. No, I don't believe so. But the Justice League might be able to persuade them to confiscate one for the purpose of improving our ability to fight Demons. What exactly is it you are looking for?"

"A fruit from the Tree of Knowledge."

There's a few moments of silence.

"You wish to go to the Garden of Eden,-

"Is that Paul?"

"-and steal one of the fruit which God specifically instructed Adam and Eve not to eat?"

"It is! Nioj ni enohp llac!"

"Yes, but they did, and -philosophically speaking- I rather like have the capacity to know right from wrong." Huh. "Though since I come from a parallel universe and therefore aren't descended from Adam and Eve, I suppose that I.. don't."

Bananas are smaller than my head, but I think I'll wait until we see what it does to Blaze before I try eating it.

"You're finally going!"

"Good morning, Zatanna. And, maybe. I wanted to run it past your father first."

"Can I come?"

"Um. If I actually go-" I hear Mister Zatara taking a breath. "-and it's reasonably safe, certainly."

"You believe that you can sneak past the guardians set in place by God?"

"I snuck up on the First of the Fallen. The Book of Truth isn't exactly clear on relative angelic power levels, but he's about as powerful as they come and he didn't detect me until I started stabbing him."

"You will not face just one Angel in the Garden. Genesis states that God placed many Cherubim in the Garden, as well as a flaming sword."

"Actually, it says that the Cherubim were placed in the east of the Garden, so as long as you stay away from the east they shouldn't be a problem. And the flaming sword guards the way to the Tree of Life, not the Tree of Knowledge."

"Zatanna!"

"I didn't write the Bible, Dad."

He takes a deep breath. "Be that as it may, you are talking about stealing from God. That is not something to take lightly."

"And that's why I'm talking to you about it first. Now, I could say… Since I'm not descended from Adam and Eve, the ban on entry doesn't apply to me and it was clearly a public space before that. But I'm mostly planning on doing it because with Satanus becoming more active we need better anti-Demon weapons."

"Can I assume that you have developed a way to fight the Cherubim should they detect you?"

I glance at the case I'm using to carry the kaahuite-enhanced Ace-type rifle I had built for that exact purpose. I call it the 'Hellblazer', because, why not?

"Yes, though I'd rather disengage and flee. I'm not sure that Angels are moral agents, but if Genesis is even remotely accurate then I doubt that they'll pursue beyond the borders."

"If you have already decided to do it then why did you bother to contact me?"

"Because sometimes… Things that seem perfectly rational to me don't seem rational to other people. And I think that I may be missing things. Given how non-interventionist Jehovah is these days and how he's apparently fine with people injecting themselves with Essence of Demon, I'm struggling to see how what I'm planning is worse. But that might be me. Is taking fruit from a tree a bigger deal than I think it is? Would it kill the Tree and condemn everyone to ignorance?"

"Possibly. The translation 'knowledge of good and evil' is not necessarily entirely accurate. The phrase could also mean 'knowledge of all things'."

"So Adam and Eve were forced to live out their days as simple farmers, never able to build any of the amazing machines they could now envisage or go to any of the fantastic places they now knew existed? That might be worse than the 'pain in childbirth' thing."

"Pain and death. Death in childbirth hasn't gone away."

"Zatanna, I'm happy to make exo-wombs my next project, but they're not exactly easy for other people to build."

"The point I am trying to make is that it might not give you what you are looking for."

"Knowledge of all things would work nearly as well. Even if it actually only gives accelerated learning or something, that would still speed up the research." Ooh. "Unless it turns out to actually be more along the lines of a Two Thousand AD obelisk or something… No, that could still be helpful."

"And if you are wrong, and the Cherubim do follow you, for having trespassed against God's garden and stolen from it?"

"They're free to press charges in an Iranian court. Having my hand cut off really isn't a problem for me. Otherwise, I will beat them down using escalating levels of force, starting from the lowest amount that has an effect and then increasing until I use the Sword of the Fallen. Which -as previously stated- works on anything. The immediate area around the entrance is inhabited, but there's a lot of desert once you get past that and it's as good a place for a super fight as anywhere."

"I see that you have given this some thought."

"On and off since last year. Any other problems?"

"Does the idea of enduring God's personal wrath not bother you?"

"Not my god. And there are plenty worse than me. So… No. Not really."

"Then I have nothing else to say, and I pray that you are right."

"Great! Og ot s'luaP noitacol!"

There's a puff of violet mist next to me as Zatanna appears and immediately starts falling.

"Aagh! Ylf!"

Recovering, she rises through the air until she pulls level with me.

"Do I need to change before we go to Iran?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th October
19:31 GMT +3

"That's it?"

We look down from high above the mid-sized oasis town built in what looks like the middle of nowhere.

"Welcome to Enoch. Population… About twelve hundred. Primary industries: textiles, goat herding, moisture farming and smuggling."

"Wohs em regnad." Her eyes flare violet.

"I thought I was."

Her eyes dim. "Automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades."

"And possibly a few theurgists."

"Wohs em cigam." Another flash. "A few low-level artifacts and practitioners. I don't think they're much of a threat."

"And if I told you the number of people who used to say that about John Constantine..."

She turns her head to look at me. "Have you heard from him? I've tried getting in touch a few times, but he isn't answering."

"No. He told me not to get in touch for a while and it's only been a few months. Is there a spell that could send him a message without requiring him to reply?"

"There's a spell that does just about everything."

"I'll write him a letter." The area next to the plateau matches John's description. Since Angela somehow wasn't detected going in or out, they haven't increased the guard at all. Detection appears limited to three men and a couple of wires stretched over the stone pillars marking the entrance. "Ready?"

"Do you really think it's not safe for me to go in?"

"Unless Jehovah has personally let you off original sin… Maybe. I don't know. After getting sucked into Hell I'm feeling a bit more cautious. You don't have my tattoos-."

"Dad won't let me get tattoos until I'm eighteen."

"I don't think they'd work unless you rewrote your soul at the same time. And don't do that."

"John didn't have the best magic education. I can't do it permanently, but I'm pretty sure I could make tattoos that work like Kaldur's. I'd just have to charge them every time I used them."

"Or you could put it on armour."

"No, it has to be something living."

"Okay, this… I'm having all kinds of ideas, but we should get this done first." I need more magic researchers… "I'm going to be phased, and I'm not going to risk communicating with you just in case the giant wheels with eyes can detect it."

"Oh no, that's the Ophanim. The Cherubim are the ones with the four faces: Human, Eagle, Ox and Lion."

"Fewer eyes." I take my armour out of subspace, and check my weapons. "Sounds good. Keep an eye out, and use your best judgement." She nods, and I phase out.

Dox briefly tried to explain how -despite not being able to interact with the world- I could still perceive it. I'm mildly pleased that I made it into his second sentence before he lost me, but I still don't really understand it. I remember the issue of Planetary where the Four's Invisible Woman expy couldn't see without a special visor. It made sense, but… I mean, the visor was invisible too, wasn't it? I thought maybe it was sensitive to light that was slightly forward or backwards in time or something, but when I said that Dox just groaned…

I make it to just above street level without any noticeable reaction from the locals. Huh. Guns and.. a couple of rugged off-road vehicles aside, this place is pretty much as I imagine it was when they built it. No good transportation links… So most things they can't make here don't get here. No electricity, outhouses for toilets… No refined sugar. Must be good for their dental health.

Zatanna didn't mention the gate area being enchanted, but I carefully float around the guards and wires just in case. Through… No warning from my spell eater, so I haven't been sent somewhere. It literally is a magic wormhole. That would be fascinating to study in its own right, but I don't think that the locals would be onboard.

Angela had to scrabble up the side of the plateau when she came this way, but my armour's flight system can manage it far more easily. Up and over…

Huh.

Okay, yes, to desert-dwelling nomads I can see how this would be paradise, but it doesn't really look… Special. The waterfalls are pretty enough, especially with the rainbows which the light creates as it refracts through them, but…

Waterfalls from two sides feeding into a lake. Cheat. Still, as Samuel Vimes remarked: two types laugh at the law, those who break it and those who make it.

Plenty of woodland for fuel, food and shelter. I rise a little further, getting above the canopy and looking out across the Garden. A long way in and on both my left and right I see two flecks of white/gold which I'm going to tentatively assume are Cherubim. Much as there are creatures who can hear it when you speak their name, there are some who can tell when they're under observation. So my interest will have to wait.

Now, how to find two trees in a forest? Working from Genesis, it should be one with precisely one fruit missing. Except that was thousands of years ago, and trees generally fruit every year. And we're currently out of season. Unless it's a mushroom after all… And a mushroom tree would certainly stand out…

Okay, where's the centre?

Map available. Please note that 'Garden of Eden' has irregular topology.

Show me.

An image appears in my mind. Hah! East indeed. The place is large, far larger than it could have been if the local terrain matched what I saw around Enoch, but it isn't as infinite as it looks. Things repeat. It loops back on itself. You can keep walking in one direction forever but you'll start seeing your own footprints after a while. Gravity is the same as on Earth proper, and light is behaving as if a straight line was a straight line… There's no horizon. I didn't spot it at once because-

I momentarily fight down a wave of nausea.

-the trees cover up where it should be. Ugh.

I lower myself until the panorama is a little less offensive to my stomach.

Okay, so there's dust or moisture or something in the air, so you can't see forever. I can see birds and insects… Which must be eating something. So… Look for a clearing where they aren't eating? Because if they were then there would be intelligent immortal animals around the place.

I pick a direction at random and start flying a search pattern. I may have underestimated how difficult this part would be. Though I suppose that if I'm being forced to spend time somewhere, an idyllic oasis isn't a bad place for it. Hm. There are dead twigs on the ground. Do I risk scooping one up? I'd have to dephase something… No, that can wait until I've got the fruit. I can come back for it or get it on my way out.

I wonder if there are any extinct species here?