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

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
17:21 GMT -5

Hub City.

Pre-Batman Gotham without the architectural pretensions. The bit of Illinois that the rest of Illinois likes to pretend doesn't exist. And… I don't know. It was a hole during prohibition, it's been a hole since and it was probably a hole before that if we had the data to know for certain. Detroit says 'we're not Hub City'.

And it's not worth fixing. If I arrayed all of the countries of the world in order 'most in need of intervention' to 'least in need of intervention', I'd still have to go through hundreds of places before this was my highest priority. America-crap is still America, and this place by itself doesn't manage to turn a first world country into a third world one. The effort involved to completely overhaul everything would be huge, and there are plenty of places where that could more usefully be done. A lesser effort -such as The Question is supplying- barely manages to keep the rot from spreading.

The people manning the morgue barely bother looking up as the faceless man pushes the door open and lets himself in. This place is… Not as clean as it should be. It's not dirty-dirty, but it's far from medical facility standards. I see… Broken locks and wear and tear. No one manning the front desk. The computer there still had a cathode ray monitor, and that was locked to the desk.

"Where is she?"

"That is-" Please don't. "-the question." He looks over to one of the mortuary workers, who is listlessly leafing through a newspaper.

He looks up. "What?" I get a momentary look of interest, then he goes back to looking at Mister Sage. "You know the deal."

"Not my case."

I can't tell where he's looking without scanning through his mask. Which it turns out I can still do. I suppose that not everyone can keep abreast of the latest in thaumaturgical developments as well as maintaining two identities. Bruce Wayne had an inherited fortune, Victor Sage has an ill-maintained lighthouse. Heck, I could have one of my rings alter my vision so that I can see his face as if the mask weren't there. But… I don't. Because ridiculous as doing this with a man with no face is, it would somehow feel more ridiculous doing it with a man with a normal face.

"You pay bribes now?"

"Fighting mortuary technicians takes too much time."

"Fine." I raise my left hand in benediction. "If I started paying bribes now-" Holly doesn't count. "-I'd never stop, but-" Up to date computer equipment appears, dirt vanishes and equipment shimmers orange and then is as good as new. "-I can stretch to giving you the equipment you need to do your job."

The man takes a look around. "Saves me an annoying job tonight." He eases his chair back, and languidly rises to his feet. "Right this way."

"What made you contact the Question about this?"

"Someone gets killed, someone gets paid off. Or threatened. Even if it's shooting a thief in some warehouse. Technically, this isn't a stand your ground state." He shrugs. "This time, nothing." He comes to a stop in front of a drawer. "Gotta get my payoff some how."

"At least you're-" He pulls out the tray, watching my face as he does so. "-reliable." The body is in reasonable condition, and the bullet wounds-. I frown. "Did the security guards report her saying anything after they shot her?"

He grins, his disappointment at my stronger than predicted stomach washed away by my 'out of town' attitude. "You think they're saying anything?"

"Do you have anything useful to add?"

He raises his hands and turns to walk away. "Close her up when you're done doing whatever you're doing."

I raise my left hand and run a scan. "Why did you think this was worth my attention?"

"Officially unidentifiable bodies are not uncommon in Hub City. But some effort is usually made to identify them in case someone will take exception. This one was genuinely unidentified. Not local or state."

Curious. "Not reported missing, or you're sure she's not from around here?"

"Not reported missing, no police record in state. Nothing in the Alliance database."

"Uploading police reports to the Alliance database might be a little problematic, even for superheroes with good working relationships with the local police." I lift my hand away. Ring, ruthlessly plunder databases until you have a match.

Compliance.

"The bullet impacts don't appear to have been the cause of death. She might have lost use of the arm, but…" Yep, same as the other ones. I create a scan of her brain. "See here?"

"An aneurysm?"

"Technically, yes. But not a natural one. There have been a significant number of thefts across America recently where any thieves caught died with this injury."

"A suicide implant?"

"No residue my ring can detect. And Maryanne Sugden, fifty four, from Missouri, had no criminal record. Just like the rest."

"Mind control?"

"It's possible, but it's virtually impossible to detect after they're dead, certainly impossible after… That."

"More questions. Do you know what was stolen?"

"If it fits the pattern of the others,-" Which Kaldur told me when the alternative was asking me to wait outside of the third pawn shop. "-an icon from a dead religion."

"Magic?"

"Possibly, but probably not. The thefts in progress we stopped just involved small unenchanted statues. There are spells that can be cast with things like that, but if that's what you're doing it's usually just as easy to carve your own." I dismiss the brain scan with a sigh. "Would the victim of the theft be willing to provide more information?"

He bows his head slightly. "Define 'willing'."

"Not that I wish to interfere with any ongoing investigations you're performing, but I see no need to be confrontational about this. We're investigating a death we now know whoever it was didn't cause. High muckamuck criminals usually take other organisations stealing from them very personally."

"True. Pride takes the place of actual honor. That may be enough to motivate him." He reaches out for the corpse, right hand passing over her blood splattered eyes and lightly touching her forehead. "The death of criminals doesn't trouble me. However, if what you say is true then she… Wasn't…"

"Question?"

"Strange." He withdraws his hand.

"What is?"

"When I first tried to fight the wickedness of this city, it overwhelmed me. I came to the attention of many evil men and a few evil women. I left, half dead, and sought a new approach."

"What sort of approach?"

"Do you know of Nanda Parbat?" I nod. "While there, I learned to listen to the spirit of the world around me. Even after death, I should be able to feel the echoes of a person's life. When I touched her, I felt nothing at all."

…

Oh dear.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
18:44 GMT -5

Jeremiah Hatch stares moodily at me from behind his desk. "The hell do you want?"

There are two armed men behind me, but as far as I can tell they're just here as set dressing. Their guns aren't anything like powerful enough to harm me through my armour, let alone my environmental shield.

"Two days ago security guards in your employ shot a woman by the name of-."

"That was legitimate-" He waves his whisky glass in a vague motion. "-self defence."

"Surprisingly, you may well be right there." He frowns. "The woman's name was Maryanne Sugden, and as far as I can tell she had absolutely no motive to steal from you. No criminal record, no evidence of narcotics, no debt… I can't even work out why she was in Hub City."

"A regular mystery."

"Which is why I'm hoping that you'll be willing to help me. It looks like someone is altering the minds of innocent people and using them for theft."

"Not a bad line. Have to remember it."

"The programmed thieves kill themselves when captured or… Disabled. This makes the thefts difficult to stop, because we need to locate the perpetrator of the mental conditioning." I shrug. "Capturing the thieves gets us nothing except the responsibility to explain what happened to their family."

"So you think it's just some nutty costume criminal like the No Face?"

"I don't want to make assumptions at this stage. Costumed criminals usually have… Certain psychological tells which don't appear to be in evidence here. The thieves aren't uniformed, don't have any unifying characteristics at all, actually. No one is openly boasting about our inability to stop them…"

"You're telling me it could just be some guy in an office."

"It's possible. Given the… Low value of the items stolen so far, my guess would be some sort of test run for the process."

"Low value?! Those were antiques!"

"Mister Hatch, I am not an insurance claims adjuster. I am questioning you because I am interested in stopping someone using mind control, not because I am interested in any other types of crime which may be happening. I have.. rapidly become used to Hub City."

He actually smiles. "Yeah, it's a hole, ain't it? Kinda makes you want to burn the whole place to the ground and start over?"

"I don't think I'd start over. But please, any information which you may have neglected to share with.. whatever passes for legitimate authority around here, may serve to prevent things being stolen from you in future. And allow me to track whoever stole from you this time."

"And then what?"

"I stop them from doing it again. And then I study their methods and work out how to prevent anyone doing it again."

He smiles faintly, then pushes his chair back, gets up and walks over to the window. "And Hub City?"

"I don't want to spend more time here than I absolutely have to."

He nods, his back to me as he toasts his home city through the window. "Damn thing was, she didn't even really try to get away."

"Didn't she?"

He turns back around. "I spoke to the guys on duty myself. Needed to make sure none of them were in on it. But all their stories lined up and checked out. Blew the lock on the fence with a small explosive, rushed the warehouse and opened the door the same way. Got into the computer while the guards checked out the initial explosion, went right to the crate… Well, I still say they're valuable. To a collector, maybe."

"Statues?"

"Authentic antique figurines. I handle shipping all kinds of things."

"And they ignored everything else…" Wait. "Off the record, were there drugs in the case?" Ah, yes, I see there were.

"There's no cause for that sort of accusation. I'm a legitimate businessman."

"And the sad thing is, by Hub City standards you may be right. Can you confirm that there were other, clearly higher value items in the crate along with whatever was stolen?"

He nods. "Yeah, I think I can."

"Did they take anything else?"

"A few things got broken, but…" He shakes his head. "Stealing to order is a thing, right? Guess someone really wanted a statue of Satan."

"Do you have a picture?"

"Yeah." He walks back to his desk and puts his drink down. Then he takes a small key out of his pocket, unlocks one of the drawers and takes out a card folder. He opens it and flicks through until he gets to a picture. "Here."

Not 'Satan'. Cernunnos. Which breaks the pattern a little, as neo-pagan groups have revived his worship. Still, it's not a big thing, and we don't exactly know what the criteria are anyway. The statue itself looks old enough. The style is… First century, or maybe a decent replica. I'm not an art historian.

I make a point of visibly scanning it. "Thank you. I'm sure this will be helpful. You were.. saying that she didn't try to escape?"

He nods as he returns the paperwork to his drawer. "Two guys stayed on the gate, one in the control room watching the cameras and calling for backup and three went after the thieves. Two of them inside: dead woman and some other guy. They split up... Long story short, she was carrying what they stole so my guys went after her. The other thief got over the fence, and she tossed it to him right before running back inside. Security didn't notice she wasn't carrying it any more, and took a shot… Too late to get it back."

"The man?"

"It was dark." He shrugs. "Police found the car he got away in two days later. No prints."

"Genetic material?"

He frowns. "Where you think this is, Metropolis?"

Alright. A man, or an unusually butch woman. Possibly working alone, athletic and… That's it. I'll check the car, but it's not that hard to avoid leaving genetic material for a few hours. Then if the statue's warded I'm out of luck.

"Have you had any other thefts like this?"

"Where the thief committed suicide by security guard?"

I nod. "Or where the object stolen was a small and apparently low value statue?"

"No. Neither. Usually they try real hard not to die."

"Do you have any other statues like this?"

"No. And I don't think I'll get any." He picks up his glass. "Looks like it draws the wrong sort of crowd."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
22:26 GMT -5

"…really nice people." Alan sounds genuinely chipper, something that's been happening a lot more since he became 'active' again. "I'm not sure what's got Batman so riled up. They're good kids. If we'd been this organised back in the fifties…"

I glance over to where Mr Sage is meditating cross legged on the bonnet of the car used as a getaway vehicle for the man who robbed Mr Hatch.

"I don't think he's riled up, exactly. It's his job, what he does for the Justice League. He makes sure that potential problems are investigated so that he's ready if they become actual problems. If they're not, then great."

"You still in Hub City?"

"At the moment. I'm just taking a look at the getaway car with the Question."

"So… Are you coming home tonight..?"

"Well... Ah, don't wait up, but I'm currently planning to."

"That.. Question guy. Ah… See, there was this one crazy guy back in the sixties, wore a suit and a metal mask. The Question kinda reminded me of him. Is he on the up and up?"

"I think so. I remember the man you're talking about, and I think that if the Question were like him then the murder rate around here would be a good deal higher. And he'd be dead from the retaliation." I look over to him again. No, still not stirring. "He's trying to commune with the car at the moment."

"Is it a… Magic car?"

"No, but it turns out that he's a minor magic user. I haven't seen him do anything beyond basic psychometry, but it's one thing I can't replicate with my rings."

"Good luck with that. I'll see you when-. Oh! That reminds me. How far have you got speaking to the members of the Justice League?"

"Not.. much further. It's something I want to do face to face, and with secret identities and everything it's hard to find time."

"And I get the feeling you're not exactly eager."

"You're right, I'm not." I sigh. "Did you..? I haven't heard you say anything about having a falling out like this in the Justice Society."

"That's because we didn't. I don't know whether that was because we mostly stuck to our own beats or because we mostly had the same moral beliefs, but I honestly can't remember us ever having something like this hanging over us for any length of time. I mean, there was that thing with Sandy… But by the time any of us knew that he was okay… Mentally okay, Wesley had already fixed things."

"It's not really the same thing. Mister Hawkins had gone on a rampage before being contained. Yes, with the benefit of hindsight… Getting him somewhere isolated and checking that he was still crazy might have been a good idea, but I'm not sure how practical it would have been. And that's… Not what happened with Nabu."

"I know. I know. Personally, I'd just try and get it done as quick as possible. Try the people who'll argue the point with you the strongest, get it out of the way."

So… Hawks? Well, no secret identity problem there. "Yeah… You're right. I'll.. try and prioritise it."

"You do that. Okay, you have a good evening."

"Good night, Alan."

I let the phone construct evaporate, then take a few steps towards Mr Sage. The problem with self-taught minor magicians is that while they might get quite good at using their particular abilities, those skills aren't transferable to other parts of the arcane world. If he can do what he claims to be able to do, we could find something jolly useful. If he can't, I can't get someone else in to do it. It's not Ambrose's thing, and brute forcing it high magic style would be inefficient to say the least.

Mr Sage slides off the bonnet and onto his feet with a squeak of the suspension. "We need the key."

"For the car? I can just start it-."

"Without the key, the car is not whole. If it is not whole, then it cannot lead us." He starts pacing. "We need the key."

Ah. He's still in the trance. He's only semi-aware of his surroundings as he tries to do what the echoes in his soul are telling him to. He needs to do things step by step… How vital is the particular key? The thief will have touched it, but only briefly. The car was stolen after all, and we already know who the owner is. The key wasn't recovered, but I can create a replacement easily enough. I can't get the original key, and if he's trying to drive the car then walking the route probably isn't an option.

I fabricate a perfect copy of the key. "Question."

He snags it out of the air with his left hand without looking around, already reaching for the car door. We don't have authorisation to take the car anywhere, but he's already lowering himself into the driving seat and slotting the key into the ignition. For one moment I'm tempted to get into the car beside him, a residue of schematic patterns from before I could fly faster than light at will. Guy you're travelling with gets into a car, you get into the car as well, right?

Mr Sage closes the door and slowly accelerates. I remember from How To Succeed In Evil that driving up to a locked gate and accelerating in low gear is the best way to break it down. Fortunately, Hub City doesn't spend more on its impound gates than it does on anything else. A filament flicks out, unlocks the lock and opens the gate before Mr Sage can reach it.

He doesn't look at me or the gate, just accelerates and turns right when he reaches the road. Okay, this place isn't manned at night… I take a sheet of paper out of subspace, and… I don't have Justice League authority. I'm literally just stealing a car. Okay, accessory to Mr Sage stealing a car… Ah… 'Dear Madam/Sir, borrowing this car as part of an ongoing Justice League investigation, will return if reasonably practical. Yours sincerely, Orange Lantern.' I take an envelope out of subspace as well, put a fifty dollar note inside along with the letter because Hub City and deposit it on the front desk. Then I close the gate, lock it, and take off after Mr Sage.

He's driving… Erratically. Not that I know how he normally drives, but he's weaving-

A woman panics as he drives into the wrong lane ahead of her, and veers towards a wall for a moment before my construct catches the vehicle and deposits it in a nearby lay-by. Mr Sage comes to some sort of sense, getting back into the right lane and driving down… I think he's heading out of Hub City. He's just turned onto the main thoroughfare. Police… He just drove past a squad car and nothing appears to be happening. Oh, he's not speeding. They don't have any sort of car recognition device built into their vehicles. I think I've turned my cynicism up too far.

Empathic vision shows his mental focus as he manages to drive safely. I never actually watched John when he-. Okay, not safely, but he drove through that crossing in one piece and no one crashed. A few damaged brakes -I'll fix those- and he's still driving more or less regularly. I never actually watched John when he was riding the synchronicity wave. I've never seen what happens around him. Maybe this is why John doesn't drive, he just walks or gets a lift. I could ask Mr Chandler-? No, he'll be asleep now.

I send a message to the League and to the team. Just an update. I'm not really expecting to find anything other than an empty room with a few traces of temporary occupancy. That's been the pattern, after all. Still, it doesn't hurt to keep everyone up to date. Like my old manager used to say: any of us could be hit by a car tomorrow.

Mr Sage has left Hub City proper and is driving through what looks like it was some sort of suburban industrial estate. Most of the units are empty, but… He's stopping in a car park and turning off the engine. I transition downwards, appearing just in front of the car.

"Here?" He just stares for a moment, then opens the driver side door and gets out of the vehicle. "Question?"

"I can't hear it." He stares around in apparent confusion. "I can't hear it."

"Nice to know whoever it is has found a way to block you too. I was beginning to think I was being singled out. Shall we do this the old fashioned way?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
22:34 GMT -5

"Of course." He adjusts his coat, apparently unconsciously. "But the fact I can't hear it is significant."

"There are counter magics that can disrupt magic detection. I know a magician who can remotely cause any written or electronic records about him to spontaneously vanish."

"No, it's more than that. I can't hear anything here. If they had some way to disguise their trail I would still hear the echo of all of the other trails. The street here is dead."

Hm. There aren't enough 'street shamen' for there to be standard terminology, let alone good records of the state of the mystic systems of America's cities. "Is it.. similar to how you couldn't feel anything when you touched her?"

"No." He hesitates. "Perhaps. In the morgue I could hear the sound of the city, you, a little from the other bodies. Here, it's as if the city has stopped existing."

"Are you aware of anything which could cause that sort of phenomenon?"

"New or heavily redeveloped streets are sometimes quiet. Not quite part of the city yet. This is new."

"Can you guess what could cause it?"

He takes a last look around and then heads towards the closest industrial unit. "A better magician than me."

I float after him. "A slightly better magician than you, or a really strong magician?"

"I don't know." He looks at the door, then reaches into his coat pocket.

"Allow me." I attach a filament to the mechanical code lock and open it. "Question, I don't know your style at all. I don't know what's possible with it, or how hard it is, or what level of experience it requires. If you were trying to do this, could you?"

"No." He hangs back slightly as the door opens and I attach a filament to the burglar alarm, then pulls a small torch out of one of his pockets and strides forward. "All I can do is listen. The teachers in Nanda Parbat said that someone at one with their surroundings could do other, more dramatic things. But I had a job to go back to."

This company describes itself as a building supplies warehouse. As we walk through the empty building I send filaments out in all directions. Nothing that shouldn't be here as yet. Pallets of wood, cement, brick…

"And I imagine that killing the spirit of a place is fairly antithetical to what Nanda Parbat is about."

"Quite." He accelerates, moving quickly along the main walkways in the warehouse area. "This appears to be in order."

I nod. "Offices next."

Not much in the way of offices here. I suspect that most of the business is somewhere more central and this is just a pickup and drop off point. Ring? Ah, yes, there's an office towards the centre of the city, in a subsidised redevelopment zone. It wouldn't be practical to have large lorries drive in that area.

"If a thief dies in the commissioning of their theft, then they've brought it on themselves." Mr Sage checks the desks while I scan the server. Nothing relating to this case, though I'll make the results available to him in case there's anything else suspicious about the company. "However, if their minds have been altered they cannot be considered morally culpable. I assume that the Justice League does not have a secret pro lethal force policy."

"You assume correctly."

We head back towards the door, Mr Sage turning off his torch before we reach it. "You stated that the thieves died in all previous encounters. Do you have a plan for keeping this one alive?"

"Neither physical restraint nor telepathic suppression are sufficient. None of the magic users present said that they felt anything when thieves at the other locations died. Autopsies didn't show any kind of implant. I'm coming up short on things it could be. I have a purple healing ray, and I can use constructs to interface with every part of his body… But I can't guarantee either of those will work because I don't understand what's killing them."

He takes a quick look around the exterior before motioning me to follow him. Next unit, this one allegedly empty.

"The safest technique would simply be to monitor them rather than intervening directly."

"Unless we can get a lead on whoever's doing this, and that enables us to prevent it happening to anyone else. And since we really don't know what's going on or why a bunch of worthless statues are being stolen… We've got no way to make an informed decision."

The lock on this door is broken. I switch from 'investigation' armour to 'combat but in reasonably narrow corridors' armour and lead the way inside.

"You favour intervention."

"Yes, but I know that's not necessarily correct."

"How many dead so far?"

"Eleven that we know about. Six from the original investigation, five including Ms Sugden who turned up in various morgues with the same mortal injury. The original thefts only came to our attention by chance and the original briefing was to capture a mundane criminal gang." Dust, cobwebs, some damp… I lead the way deeper into the building. "I suspect that Batman would want us to hang back and observe. Attempt to follow them back to a controller."

We start checking abandoned rooms. This used to be a courier office. Now it's just dead.

"A sound idea. You still believe it would be better to intervene."

"In the unlikely event that we can approach one of these people undetected, I'm happy to hold off. But I would remind you, we don't know what the trigger is. If it does go off, the first I'm going to know about it is the target falling over with parts of their brain turned to mush."

"Difficult."

I take the offices while he goes through what used to be the sorting room. No sign of recent occupancy. A few discarded folders with mouldering paper work. Whoever stuck around to clear the office out did a reasonably thorough job-.

I hear the faint rumble of a car engine. Immediately I turn my environmental shield down to the minimum and I see Mr Sage's torch go out. Ugh. Did I miss some sort of alarm? We didn't conceal the car, but I doubt that Hub City police would follow up on us taking it quite this quickly. If it's something to do with the theft, would they recognise it? Can I risk scanning?

Mr Sage carefully picks his way across the office. He's got some sort of light amplification glasses on, but I've used those things and they're not the easiest to navigate with. "Who is it?"

"Power ring scans are detectable."

"Mm." He gets a… That's a periscope, out of his pocket and heads for a window. Taking care to keep out of sight himself, he removes his glasses, puts one end to his right eye and the other onto the glass.

I doubt that he can see much. There aren't any artificial lights out there, and that periscope doesn't appear to have any enhancements. I could take an infrared sensor out of subspace, but subspace evacuations are even easier to detect than ring scans.

"One figure. Humanoid. No apparent weapons. Heading for a disused unit on the opposite side. Knows where they're going."

"Did they see the car?"

"Can't tell. Also can't tell if there is anyone else inside their car." He pauses, then steps back from the window. "They're inside."

I'd prefer to intervene, but I'm trying to get back in with the team…

"I'll check their car, bug it if it's suspicious, then we'll monitor them from here."

He nods, then turns back to the window.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
22:40 GMT -5

I remember the film 'Ghost Dog'. There was a quote… I don't remember where it was from originally. Ring? Ah, Hagakure. And apparently the line in Ghost Dog 16 is 'In the words of the ancients, one should make his decision within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break through to the other side.'

I'm not a wannabe samurai. I'm an Orange Lantern, but that entails that I do what I want to alter the universe to be more like I want it to be. It is a way which encourages introspection, but only outside combat. Mr Sage is watching someone through a periscope, a passive action which contains a minimal risk of discovery. And I'm not scanning with my super advanced xenotechnological hyper-tool because they might be able to detect that.

I carefully pull both rings from my fingers, then manually trigger my armour's phasing system to drop through the floor.

Irritating thing about encountering an ability I don't even begin to understand is that I don't know what else I don't understand that the user can do. If the person out there is something to do with this and not just picking up their house keys then they might have detected my phasing and killed the man we're trying to recover. Or they might have installed some sort of sensor in all of these buildings and know we're here already. Or they might have had some disenchanted Kobra Bestowed muck around with local magic, take a payoff and leave them to their own devices.

I don't know, and I don't know what it is that I don't know.

I drift through the ground in the direction of the car. One of the systems that got cut back to make this armour was the flight system: it's there, but it's not what you'd call fast. Now, how to approach this? I saw the direction in which the figure went, and I can easily keep the car between myself and that building. In addition to being invisible. Does it matter-? Agh! Annoying!

I drift up through the ground, the underside of the car suddenly being right there as my head pierces the asphalt. Drift up a little further, careful-. Someone ins-! No. Some body, tied to the passenger seat by the cord around their neck. Body still somewhat warm. Recent, then.

Not here for their house keys.

In most cities I'd inform the local police at once. In Hub… I think I'll leave it until we're done here. Without using a light or the ring I can't get a good view of their face… Given their approximate dimensions, there are any number of people on Hub City's missing persons list it could be. But the great thing about being dead is that your condition is unlikely to deteriorate.

I move around to the front of the car. This number plate hadn't been reported as stolen an hour ago, but if the owner was murdered when it was taken there's no reason to believe that it would have been.

I sigh. Nothing.

Okay, check the angle… Phase in, attach a tracking device to… The underside of the wheel arch. Tap twice to activate the molecular bonder, hold for a second… Done. It won't let us track the car, because if we can track it then so can anyone else with the right gear. Instead, it will respond to a particular sort of energy wave and give us its location when we choose to look for it. Safer, but less useful.

No point attaching a second. If they can find one, they can find two. If they can't find one, adding a second just increases the chance they'll find either of them. But… What now?

Were I a less enlightened Orange Lantern, I'd either be charging in or having some sort of episode trying to hold myself back. As it is, I'm… Confounded. There is no way for me to know the course of action most likely to keep the last thief alive. Assuming that was him. Assuming that he's in there. I would let him die if that was what it took to locate the ultimate perpetrator, but there's no guarantee that would work. Another body gets me no more information than I already have.

Tracking device on. The options are fall back and wait, or advance. And it's my decision. Yes, I could pass it on to Kaldur or Batman. I'd need to leave the area to do so, and there's the risk of detection… But any form of monitoring risks detection. And I'm well aware that I'm already verging on paranoia now, but… If they couldn't detect observation, what are the chances they could stop me? Heck, motivated like this I could simulate the parts of the brain that were collapsing as they collapsed and replace them when the effect ended. So: intervening it is.

Do I get extra help? I could retreat and call in… Who? Doctor Balewa and Angelica both have skills which I lack, but neither have specific knowledge of this case. And from the description in the team's reports, death happens quickly once the process begins. Something that matches my examination of the injury. John Fate might be similarly useful… Really, the time to call him in was when Mr Sage started driving, except there was no way to know this would actually lead to a contact and I'm sure that he's a very busy man.

Alright then. I'm going in, but I'm not going to rush things. I walk around the car-.

There's a note in the driver side window. Couldn't see it from the other side, but in the starlight I can just about make out the orange sigil drawn on it. Settles that question. I take a half-step away from the car and slide my rings back on, keeping my environmental shield to minimum. Immediately I regain the ability to see my surroundings. The person inside… Male, black, business-casual dress. As far as I can see the envelope is just paper. I can't see any poisons, electronics or arcane sigils.

Ring, scan the writing.

Compliance.

'To the Acolyte of Greed'

Close enough.

'What you seek is inside, and will be offered to you freely if you have the wit to take it. Come without fear.'

Lure or genuine offer?

Again, an imponderable. My presence in Hub City isn't a secret, but I can't know if they just put this here on the off-chance or if they actually know I'm here. Does luring me in actually get them anything? The sort of weapons that would be needed to successfully ambush me don't really care about precise relative locations. At most, it would buy them a fraction of a second. And it may be pride talking, but I'm increasingly dubious about my own worst imaginings.

Okay, going in. I raise my left hand towards Mr Sage's window and send 'going in' in Morse code ring flashes. Then I phase and drift towards the unit the car driver headed into. Not the front door, obviously. Assuming that the units were built according to a standard design I can go through the wall here and enter the neighbouring unit. Empty of anything concerning. I drift further in, heading towards the back of the building. Turn up empathic vision a little… Two people, both shot through with… Veins of black? One is otherwise fairly normal, while the colours in the other are translucent. Barely there at all. Something weird is going on, but frankly I've seen worse. And since they're not reacting I can assume they can't feel this.

Excellent.

Phased and invisible, I float through the wall behind them. The main lights are off, but there's a window letting in starlight and I can just about make their faces out. Karl Wilson, thirty seven, from Nebraska. Pale skin, orange hair and moustache, faint colours and not wearing any sort of concealing gear. Like the others, no significant criminal record. Almost certainly the thief. The other person is a bald mixed race woman with many scars and a number of facial piercings which would shock me if I hadn't met Raquel. I don't recognise her face. She's dressed in baggy trousers and a tube top, but it looks like it's a sports bra type thing rather than a normal garment. Something for exercising in. The other distinguishing items of clothing are the bandages wrapped around her forearms.

She… Reminds me of something. I'm not sure what. I've read so many comics -and League intelligence files- that… Well, they don't blur together, but there's a lot of very similar looking distinct things in my memory. Nothing about her triggers one specifically.

Oh well. I'll ask in a minute, when she'll want to give answers as much as I want to hear them. I could phase in and brand them both, but the displaced air might clue them in that I was there fast enough to trigger the suicide effect. Another approach. Record her face.

Compliance.

I float back through the wall, phase in, then send a filament underground in the direction of Mr Wilson. Tagging his foot is fine… Physically healthy. Nothing odd in his blood or bone or muscles… Or peripheral nervous system.

That black. Not as all-encompassing as Dark Druid, not as controlled as Ms Sackville. I could paralyse the woman right now, but… They both have the black. Could be sympathetic, magic or thought-activated… No, I need to purge them both at the same time.

Ring, filament to her as well, then brand.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
22:44 GMT -5

Branding in progress. No resistance from unknown woman. Branding of unknown woman complete.

And Mr Wilson?

E-error error ERROR.

Make her want to help me.

Compliance. Alert! Unknown woman already wishes to help you. However, her concept of 'help' is significantly divergent from yours. Concept amended.

Thank you. Dare I ask exactly how she was planning to 'help' me?

Cult indoctrination.

Nothing serious, then. And what's that 'error' stuff?

error.

Yes, I got that. Explain the cause of the error message.

Unable to comply. If cause was know-.

You would have stated it, yes. Is there anything about him other than that black stuff that stands out as unusual?

No.

Are you able to preserve the structure of his brain?

No special impediment detected. However,-.

You can't tell what's going on, so can't be certain. Fine. Construct bio-regulator sarcophagus. Muffle sound, then use construct blades and cut through this wall.

Compliance.

Buzz saw constructs make short work of the plasterboard and corrugated steel. Another construct grabs the doorway-sized portion as it comes free and leans it up against an adjacent wall. The revealed room is illuminated by the glow of my constructs and the glowing sigil on the unknown woman's forehead as she stares beatifically at me. I didn't pay attention to it during my first look, but the stolen statue is standing in the centre of the room and…

Someone's covered it in blood.

"Good evening." I walk into the room. Full scan, please.

No further anomalies detected.

The orange sigil is struggling to form on Mr Wilson's forehead. For a moment it's complete, then it shimmers and flickers and vanishes again. Decidedly odd.

"Would you be so good as to-" And she's kneeling in supplication. "-tell me what's going on?"

"I was awaiting your arrival. Now, I wait at your pleasure."

"What have you done to Mr Wilson's brain?"

"Nothing, O Acolyte of Greed. Our Master speaks, and the dissolute who hear his words become like that."

"And those who are not dissolute?"

"We hear His truth, and are moved to serve Him."

"And how exactly are these thefts serving him?"

She raises her head slightly. "What reason would you have?"

What is she-? Oh. I nod. "Because I want it. No greater or lesser reason than that." I look at the sarcophagus holding Mr Wilson. "And if you've burned out a man's soul anyway, you may as well use him for something."

Her head dips again. "You grasp the lessons readily, Acolyte."

"Who is your master?"

"Our Master Is."

That's tremendously helpful. "Does he have a name?"

"Our Master transcends labels, rather it is we who bear labels to distinguish us from him."

"Did he..? Used to have a label I might have heard of?"

"If so, I do not know it."

"Do you know where he is at the moment?"

"No."

"Do you have a way of communicating with him?"

"His spirit moves through us. We are His hands as He is our will."

So, magic. Area effect compulsion? They feel a slight nudge to do something, not overwhelming, but enough to recognise it as him. Reasonably clever. "Why do they die?"

"Loyal in life, loyal in death."

That doesn't really… No, she's a cultist, I doubt that she's been told exactly how her master's mind control works. "How did you know I was here?"

"Your arrival was recorded on a superhero fansite. This-" She glances at Mr Wilson. "-dissolute one noted that you attended the morgue. Since your friends amongst the Justice League's sidekicks are investigating the thefts, it seemed likely enough that you would come here for me to attend in person."

"Have you been ordered to meet me?"

"No. I did it because I wanted to."

"And what did I do to deserve that honour?"

"You mastered Cain's lessons without instruction!" She's smiling, and her expression is making me uncomfortable. "Cain himself required the example of Har-Mammon to comprehend the power of greed."

Cain. Religion. Oh.

"The Dark Faith. Cain went to Har-Mammon, and the city's ruler tried to bribe him to go away. The more he gave, the more Cain wanted the rest where before he would have been happy with… What was it?"

"Water."

"But now he'd had a taste of the rest, he wanted it all." I bow my head slightly. "That parable stuck with me. Which means that you're a member of the Order of the Stone."

"You know it? You've..? Been inducted?"

"That depends what you mean." What were the lessons again? "I've deceived people who trusted me, killed people I didn't need to, stolen things that it was convenient for me to have and taught others what I've learned. All for the greater good."

"And lust?"

"Never really been a big part of my character, but my girlfriend has no complaints."

A few, actually, though not about that so long as I'm not using the rings. Hm, maybe I should consult with her about this? She's got more experience of personality cults than I do.

"You have learned much, Acolyte. But Cain teaches us to indulge at will, not control."

Alert! Neurological decay occurring!

"And it seems that the Master wants you to receive another lesson."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
22:48 GMT -5

"Oh yes?" Ring, construct neurons. And assimilate the black. "And what would that be?"

Att-error. At-at-attempting to comply.

"Superheroes tend to risk themselves to help worthless people, and berate themselves when they fail. None of my order would do so. This dissolute one is here to show us what you do."

My construct neurons are flickering and failing just as fast as the brand is. I'm restoring them just as quickly, but this isn't a viable strategy. Replacing the tissue is just resulting in the new tissue being destroyed as well. "I'm not sure I understand why it matters."

Black isn't death per se. I've seen any number of dead and dying people without the tiniest hint of black in them. It's more… A longing for nullity, or drawing on power that feels similar enough. So what I'm looking at is an implanted desire for death. But while doing that to a person might result in risk taking behaviour or suicide it doesn't usually result in living cells dying of their own accord.

"Cain's lessons are for all who have the wit to hear them." She stands, drawing a knife. "I was supposed to attempt to put out one of your eyes as Cain did unto the Caitiff, but I don't think I need to now."

Hooray for mind control. My mind control.

"I've been blind before. It didn't stick."

Okay, synthetic neurology. Not really true cybernetics, just novel chemical structures. No, lasts a fraction of a second longer but gets destroyed as well. Ring, rate of power consumption?

Approximately point eight percent per second.

No rush, then.

Total charge will be consumed in approximately two minutes.

Yes, I-. Never mind.

All three significant examples of black I've seen so far are magic based. Let's try that. I take a mage slayer round out of subspace and have the construct sarcophagus press it against Mr Wilson's head. No effect. Either not magic, or the round would need to be touching the location the spell is bound to. Opening up his skull seems like a bad idea.

My rings had a bit of an episode when I tried assimilating the black. It's not as if I want the black for itself; becoming a Host of Nekron sounds like a very bad idea. What else, what else…

His other colours are faint. I should be able to imbue him with orange light. That might-. That almost certainly will cause problems in its own right. And it might cause the black light to lose its connection. Mr Wilson… The missing person file mentioned that he went bowling..? Ugh, no, too specific. Can I manage generic desires? Maslow level one.

Food. Yes, his digestive system is running on empty. I suppose that whoever… Wait, that… Thing, they were going to sacrifice Batwoman… Bruno Mannheim. Bruno Mannheim 16 is a minor crime boss… No recent records, and no history of cannibalism. Still, it's a lead.

Neural structure decay reaching-.

Right right sorry. Food. Hunger. The basic desire to eat. The empty feeling soon to be sated. The satisfying crunch, the warmth, the sudden alertness of a burst of sugar. The calm relaxation, the smell.

Water. Dry patched tacky mouth cleared out and cool and damp. Sweat and dirt and stress wiped off and sent down the drain. Warmth. Life returning to your extremities on a cold day, the play of sunlight on your skin on a clear day. Rest. Come on, I can feel how tired your body is. The lack of focus as you relax and everything fades away.

Ring, progress?

Black light infection still present.

Next level it is, then. Know that you are next to a superhero who has your wellbeing foremost in his mind, and who will be escorting you to a very secure location when this is over. Walls all around, and competent personnel to guard you when you sleep.

Progress?

There is no measurable decrease in the extent of black light infection.

Alright. Um, since Mannheim or whoever's doing this clearly knows that I'm here: ring, message Alan and ask him to come to my current location at best possible speed. Include my location.

Compliance.

Infusing him with my desires hasn't worked. Imbuing him with desire externally doesn't appear to work. What do I do what do I do?

That…

I take Larfleeze's ring off my right ring finger, reach into the sarcophagus and put it on his left middle finger. Cease branding efforts.

Compliance.

The ring fizzles and crackles on his finger as it attempts to make a connection. What else, what else..? My tattoos. They are designed to hold and channel energy into me. I create constructs in their image on Mr Wilson's skin. And… She said that he heard her master's voice.

Inducing short term memory loss in humans is relatively easy. Harming long term memory is… Not. Even for a telepath, they'd usually have to wipe everything and start from scratch to remove the chance of things coming back. That or renew the effect every so often. Short term memory suppression is possible, though most methods involve turning off conscious thought.

Minor innate orange light resonance detected.

Progress! I'm only using enough orange light to drive most people insane-. Actually… Ring, if the black light infection vanishes, cancel all of my efforts at once.

Compliance.

Ah… Okay, if I'm working on the assumption that my desires -even the fairly common parts- can't embed because there's nothing to embed in… The Honden. There… Should be an imprint of every desire he's had there… And… I'm down one Ophidian and I can't risk withholding my constructs for a moment. But… My ring and his ring both have connections to the Central Power Battery. Could that work? Well, it worked when the Ophidian was with Larfleeze…

I take my personal lantern out of subspace, and touch it with my left hand.

Ophidian.

No, nothing. Alright, she's got a whole Corps to listen to now and I don't want to save this one man anything like as much as I wanted to prevent the rest of my friends being killed…

"Will his death hurt you?"

"No, not really. I don't even know-" That he's on his second marriage, two children from the first and one from the second, has good relations with them and.. never needed court orders to oversee his relationship with his ex-wife, at least. That his employer considers him reliable and gave a glowing account of his character to the police when questioned. That he's got a couple of parking tickets on his police record but paid them both promptly, and one fine for smoking marijuana when he was nineteen. "-him."

I'm not denying he's a person. He's just not my person.

"Then why are you trying to fix him?"

"I want the world to work in a certain way. People who are productive members of my society being turned into someone else's instruments is contrary to that. Not because it is injurious to them -plenty of things injure people whom I don't care about as individuals- but because it's a frustrating distraction. It means I've got more work to do to fix things. Like this! Have you got any idea how much work I could be doing now if I wasn't saving one guy?"

"Then why do you?"

"Would Cain have let Har-Mammon retain its independence? You can't put something like this in front of me and expect me to walk-" There's a sudden flare of blue light from the exterior door. "-away. BLUE LANTERN, IN HERE!"

The woman starts, her eyes widening as she turns to the door. "He must-!" Then she reorientates on me. "Purpose=Failure."

 

[Mr Zoat]

2nd November
22:50 GMT -5

I frown. "No it doesn't. BL-!"

Alan comes in through the door, plate armour style blue construct armour around him. Lantern Stewart and I barely had to spend any time beating that habit into him at all. "What have you got?"

"Karl Wilson. He's been mind controlled, and his controller is trying to make his brain collapse. His emotional resonance is almost nonexistent. I've been trying to infuse him with orange light with partial success, but it's not enough. He needs your help."

He nods. "Of course. Ah… How?"

"See the symbols I've put around his body? Copy those. And.. try and.. project things that make you hopeful into-." I put a construct manacle around the woman's arm as she lunges for me, the sigil on her forehead now glitching in the same way Mr Wilson's was. "Into him."

"Alright." He raises his right hand, blue cables extending from his ring and attaching themselves to Mr Wilson. "What's her story?"

"She's a member of the Order of Stone. Evil worshipping warrior monks." She swings up her right leg, kicking at my head. I catch her ankle in another construct manacle and then float her back against the far wall. "And-. Actually." I put a construct muzzle on her. "She's got the same thing he has, but it doesn't seem to be affecting her in the same way."

Alan squints slightly. He still doesn't find fine detail as easy as I do, but blue lines in the pattern already traced by my construct begin moving across Mr Wilson's skin. "I.. think I can feel what you're talking about. What is that?"

"Not sure, but it doesn't look too healthy. Any joy?"

"Black light infection fading, Orange Lantern. Mister Wilson will be restored shortly."

"Blue Lantern?"

"She's been getting more talkative the longer I wear her. Should I be worried?"

"Not unless she turns yellow. Fear isn't useful without a yellow ring."

"Alright then."

The blue ring's right. I can see the black lines fading slightly. Maybe if we had other colours to go with it we could go faster? Seems logical, but I don't particularly feel like having a tête-à-tête with Sinestro, so… That can wait. I reach into the sarcophagus and recover my ring, because I don't think dealing with that should be the first thing Mr Wilson has to do when he awakens.

Rings, total charge remaining?

Fifty four percent.

Drat.

"This isn't a viable long term solution."

"Seems to be working fine to me."

"One Blue Lantern in existence. Two Orange Lanterns on Earth, one of whom has agreed not to use his ring until his trial date. Between zero and four Green Lanterns. Orange Lanterns don't come more powerful than me, and I couldn't purge him on my own. That means we need to grab… Green Lantern A is on Earth at the moment, right?"

"I haven't spoken to him since our last training session."

"Even if three of us makes it faster, that means it takes three Lanterns to fix. Per person. We need a better solution-" The last black strands evaporate, and the colours behind them surge-.

I step back, cancelling my infusion constructs. Alan glances my way.

"That it done?"

"Hope's a little less… Dangerous than avarice. Give him a moment or two."

Ring, is his brain still collapsing?

Decay has ceased.

Restore his brain to its original organic state. I'm.. not exactly sure what happens to a human who has not-exactly-organic parts to their brain for a prolonged period, but I don't have any reason to find out.

Compliance.

Mr Wilson's eyes snap open. "Uuuuuuumgh?"

I transform the sarcophagus into a camping bed and set it down on the floor. "Okay, Blue Lantern, that should do."

Alan withdraws his hand, his construct fading. "How are you doing, sir?"

"Uh?" He shudders. "Like-. Like everything I've ever tried has been a total failure. Oh God."

"Sir, do you remember your name?"

"Um. Karl. Karl Wilson."

"Do you know where you are?"

"Aaaah…" He looks around, spotting the woman attached to the wall. "Wh-?"

"Mister Wilson, please try to focus. I appreciate that you've been through a trying time, but I need to assess your mental state."

"Right, right, sorry. No." He shakes his head. "No, I don't. I don't… I don't remember…"

"Don't worry, sir. That's probably for the best."

"Oh. Oh God, what did I do?"

"That we know about, one act of petty theft. I-."

Alan puts his right hand on my chest. I stop talking. "Which wasn't your fault, and neither was anything else you did while you were being controlled."

Mr Wilson looks stunned for a moment. "Ah. Yeah. Of course not."

"Now, I realise that you've been through a traumatic experience, but when you've had a chance to-."

He smiles. "Actually, I feel pretty good right now. If you want to ask me any questions, you can go right ahead."

I glance at Alan for a moment. "Thank you, Mister Wilson, but I think we should probably wait until you're in a police station." He nods cheerfully. "Blue Lantern, if you'd be so good as to escort him outside?" Alan offers Mr Wilson a hand up. He takes it, and they walk out of the room. I dismiss the bed construct and turn back to the woman. "And now you. What exact-?"

Ah. Darn.

I lift her body off the wall, pick up the statue and follow Alan out of the building.

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th November
09:21 GMT -5

Batman nods. "And the statue?"

"Since.. I couldn't prove that it was stolen property, I returned it to Mister Hatch. He was sarcastically grateful." From his expression, I think that Batman is well aware of Mr Hatch's business practices. "On that subject, sir, if you wish to pursue Mister Hatch, I would be perfectly happy to sub in for you in Gotham while you carried out a comprehensive investigation."

"That's irrelevant at present. Do you believe that the monk you encountered was behind the thefts?"

I shake my head. "Now I know who to look for I can start going through CCTV records, but I rather doubt it. I don't know whether she was the source or if her 'master' was making personal visits… Heck, since we still don't really know what the black stuff I was seeing was, I don't know whether or not it's something all members of the Order of the Stone can induce."

"Where did you first hear about the Order?"

And this is why it's important to take the time to cover yourself in advance of talking to the World's Greatest Detective. Especially if you're known to have a perfect memory. "They were mentioned in the League of Shadows' database, and again in various police reports passed to the Justice League. The same with some parts of their philosophy. I have a.. particular interest in alternate moral systems." I sigh. "Unfortunately, theirs is rather stupid."

"Purpose equals failure."

"It doesn't mean anything to me. I mean, on one level, yes, if you're not trying to do anything then you can't fail to achieve it. I'm just not sure why she said it to me like that."

"Was anyone else close enough to hear when she did?"

"Mister Wilson, but otherwise no. The Question was still in the building opposite and Alan hadn't arrived yet."

Batman bows his head slightly. "How reliable is the Question?"

"He's been working in Hub City for years. He's had appreciable success against the city's criminals, and has a number of scars which would have come from life threatening injuries. Empathic vision shows that he's genuinely committed."

"And his allegedly magical abilities?"

I shrug. "Plausible. It didn't make my rune stone glow, but since he's claiming to be using a form of psychometry that's not too surprising. It's something Nanda Parbat could probably teach someone who knew nothing about magic within the available timeframe. You'd need to have an actual magician speak to him to draw a firm conclusion."

He nods, then turns and walks away from the table to look down through the armoured glass into the examination area where Dr Balewa is studying the woman's corpse. I fall in just behind him. Mr Wilson was examined first of course, but they couldn't find any trace of whatever it was which caused the black light I saw. Dr Balewa was able to confirm that a part of Hub City has been gutted of arcane energies, but… He could also list several entities that could have done it and couldn't come up with any idea why they would have felt the need to.

Doctor Balewa is currently painting lines on the woman's naked corpse. Something to aid him in measuring particular flavours of arcane energy, I assume. It looks a little like what I've got-.

"Would the person who made Blue Lantern's ring be prepared to make any more?"

"I don't know. I'd imagine that he'd charge quite a lot, and I don't have another candidate."

"Hope isn't that rare."

"You're welcome to ask him. I'd.. suggest having Lantern Stewart and I have a crack at the next one. Or myself and Zatanna. I still don't know exactly what it was that finally broke its hold."

Below us, Dr Balewa raises his hands, closes his eyes and starts chanting.

"You would recognise it if you saw it again."

"Yes. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Even in those.. few people who have appreciable amounts of black in them anyway."

"We don't know how many there are or where they are. We don't know if there's an upper limit on the number there can be. We have no way to stop it, and we can only undo it by having Lanterns present before the suicide effect takes place."

Dr Balewa frowns as he concentrates.

"The other statues?"

"There were no traces of magic on them, or any exotic phenomena we could detect. They've been returned to their owners."

"Geh." The tips of Dr Balewa's fingers smoke and smoulder as he staggers away from the examination table!

Batman leans forward and presses the intercom. "Doctor Mist, report!"

Dr Balewa angrily shakes his hands, the smoke dispersing. "A minor side effect, Batman. I am afraid that I must confirm the Question's assessment. The woman's body is completely devoid of arcane influences. I cannot feel any part of her soul, or her life."

"Was her soul stolen or destroyed?"

"No." Below us, his body… Simplifies, colours merging and textures smoothing-. He vanishes, then reappears in the room with us. Batman and I turn to face him. "The magic involved in such a thing would leave its own mark, both upon her and upon her surroundings. There is nothing. It is not merely her soul that is missing, but every other arcane influence which I should be able to feel."

"Was her soul..? Nullified? Or have they just wiped her body clean?"

"If I am to seek out her soul in the hereafter, I will need more information on the practices of her Order."

"They regard morality and restraint as weakness, and learn to channel their desire for vice into a drive to act. I don't know what they believe as far as afterlives are concerned."

"What spirits do they worship?"

"A re-imagining of the biblical figure of Cain. Instead of being punished by Jehovah and leaving to found the first city, he wanders around the ancient world, steadily learning more and more about how to empower himself and control others with their cardinal vices: deceit, greed, lust and murder. I've no idea what they think happens to their souls. I don't even know if they believe in souls."

"Are they a large Order?"

"The League of Shadows didn't think so. I don't know."

"Doctor Mist." We both look at Batman, who is looking thoughtful. "Could the arcane presence you are looking for be hidden in a way that would make it impossible for you to find it?"

"No." He considers for a moment. "There are ways in which they could blur specific details, but that there was something there? No."

"How can you be certain? There are other ancient magicians-."

"And they are all younger than me, but that is beside the point." He looks at me for a moment, then gives a slight nod. "In… My early life, before…" He looks at his robes. "Before this. I had been a minor magician for a long time, and I wished to… I had been born a slave, and though I had risen far I still wished to know if there was more to life than I had experienced. So, I passed my authority on to my eldest son, set a great wooden pillar at the most powerful geomantic site known to me and sat upon it. I meditated, my spirit drifting free from my body, for… I do not know how long. I… Saw so much, all of the magics of the Earth, peoples I had never seen in the flesh, lands I had never walked upon. And as my body died… Just for a moment-". He smiles at the memory. "-I saw something beautiful." He shakes his head. "Batman, I have seen life's purpose, and now it is my owen. That." He points to the window. "That is not life. That is…"

He shakes his head.

Ah. I can't say I'm entirely surprised.

"Anti-Life. It's Anti-Life."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Rampage

5th November
15:47 GMT +1

"Mister Grayven?" I look up as the Danish civil servant who fielded my request to speak to the Prime Minister as soon as possible appears from a nearby office. "Mister Lykketoft will see you now."

Mother Box.

Ping.

Boom!

"Ah-?"

I stride through the boom tube into Prime Minister Lykketoft's office. "Sorry to barge in like this, Mister Prime Minister, but it's actually extremely urgent."

"Not at all, Mister Grayven." He stands and offers me his right hand, which I shake somewhat urgently. "I'd offer you a chair, but…"

I shake my head, brushing the matter off. "Not a problem, I'm used to it."

He smiles, sitting back down. "Are you here to purge the Danish political establishment? I'm sure there are one or two people we could afford to lose."

"No sir. While I can't speak for the ability of your political establishment, in terms of probity you're doing quite well. I'm here because I've recently discovered that the National Museum of Denmark has in its collection three extremely dangerous magic artefacts, and I would very much appreciate it if you could arrange for them to be moved to somewhere a little more secure." I am completely serious.

"What… Ah… What artefacts are those?"

"A group of three necklaces with red beryl pendants dated as coming from the tenth century. They don't." I am authoritative.

"Are they older?"

"Almost certainly, but that's not the problem. Earlier this year a magic portal from a parallel universe opened briefly in Philadelphia, and a single individual from the other side came through. She's been working for me since, and…" Urgh. "I'm embarrassed about it now, but it only just occurred to us to look for people or artefacts which might have come through the portal previously." This is an immediate concern.

"And that is what we have?"

"So she tells me. All I can feel myself is that they are enchanted in some way, but she spent some time reading up on powerful arcane artefacts before she came through, and they match the description of a group of gems used by a trio of kelpies one of their historical heroes fought and 'banished'."

He nods. "And what do they do?"

"When active, they cause everyone in their immediate vicinity to become both aggressive and unusually receptive to the orders of the ones holding them. The more people they affect, the strong the effect gets, until… Everyone zombifies, in the original Vodun sense of having part of their soul removed. And then giant fish demons appear, and…" I shake my head. "It would be really bad and you've got them in a glass cabinet." Your preparations are inadequate.

He nods, a little stunned. "That sounds like something we should move."

"I'm glad you agree. Now, obviously I wouldn't presume to tell you where to put them. You have facilities?"

"Well… Ah, we have a high security metahuman prison-."

"I'm going to stop you right there. Does putting soul-sucking necklaces next to career criminals sound like a sensible plan to you?"

"I… Suppose not. Would a.. bank vault work?"

"Do you have a bank vault designed to resist magic-based attack? Because any magic user worth their salt will be able to feel these things."

"Is destroying them an option?"

I shake my head. "I asked, and, ah..? Short version? Uncontrolled magic discharges are very bad." Obviously.

He nods. "Do you have a suggestion?"

"Atlantis has facilities for handling artefacts like this. The Justice League could probably find somewhere reasonably secure to keep it contained." I shrug. "Giovanni Zatara lives in a house with all sorts of protective enchantment upon it. Either could work safely."

"And you? This.. expert you have? Does she know how to contain it?"

I nod. "Yes, but according to her, containing them isn't hard. You just.. don't put them on. The challenge is keeping other people away from them. My home is -obviously- highly protected with Apokoliptian technology, Atlantean magic and a species of telepathic warrior drones. And Sunset -that's her name, Sunset Shimmer- thinks that if she can study them in more detail it will become easier for her to trace any other objects that might have come through."

"Other objects?"

"As far as Sunset remembers, the one who created the mirror habitually sent dangerous objects through. We're only just starting to study how the magics of her home parallel interact with Earthly magics… Well, I don't think we have to worry about portals from there becoming a frequent occurrence, but I'd like to be able to tell you that for certain."

5th November
10:23 GMT -6

The boom tube collapses behind me as I drop the three crystals onto Sunset's work bench. She stares at them and then at me in surprise. "They gave them to you that quickly?"

"Emergency powers are for emergencies. The Danish government has authorised us to securely store them pro tem. We don't own them, so don't destroy them."

She walks over to take a closer look. "I wonder what happened to their owners?"

"According to the curator, Prince Haraldson was reputed to have killed a great many monsters before his disappearance. There was no specific mention of any kelpies, but if I had to guess…"

She frowns as she picks one of the amulets up, and I hear a faint… Music..?

"Hm." She puts it down again. "The bound spells are definitely still active. I think I'd better put a ward around them until I'm ready to start experimenting."

"You don't feel like going on a mind controlling rampage?"

"I don't want other people's power. I want to increase my power. I never wanted to hurt anyone."

"Ahhhha…?"

"No! Really!" She holds my gaze for a moment, then looks away. "Okay, maybe I… Thought about... Bucking Celestia in the face with alicorn-level earth pony strength once or twice, but I don't want to take her power. Someone's got to raise the sun."

"You don't want to do that?" I raise my eyebrows slightly. "I.. couldn't help but notice that your insignia is also a sun."

"Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I automatically know how to raise it."

"Don't I.. seem to remember something about it originally being-."

"Moved by a team of unicorns." She rolls her eyes as she starts drawing designs for the containment ward on her workshop's CAD program. "I don't put a lot of faith in Hearth's Warming stories."

"I was thinking that if it used to happen and it doesn't any more, that's a massive failure in contingency planning. One sniper gets a lucky shot at Celestia and the planet no longer has a sun." Sunset looks up, frowning. "Really, they should have a team trained up and practising regularly just in case."

"Huh." Her eyes move away for a moment. "Yeah, you're right. I guess I should be glad that it's not just me Celestia's bad at sharing with."

"So what does your insignia represent?"

Circles appear on her screen. "Right now? Nothing. I'm not a pony. I don't even have a cutie mark any more."

"Sun-."

She rolls her eyes. "Learning and using magic. And I guess it's a sun because everypony knows that the greatest and most powerful magic user in the world is Celestia. So after I've become an alicorn I'm going to see if I can trade it in or something, because I don't want a memento of her on my haunches forever."

"Maybe… You should think about it as… You've got one sun per side, right? Maybe it's about finding your own sky to shine in. You know? Two suns would burn the world, but one each-."

"That's not how it works." She looks over at the necklaces, and then back to me. "But… Thanks… For trying. And for… All this."

I beam, then spread my arms wide. "Hu-?"

"No."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th November
17:22 GMT -6

A rooftop in Central City, out of line of sight of any security cameras and within convenient travelling distance for a man who can run at light speed. He was supposed to be here twenty two minutes ago, but Wallace said that's pretty normal for hi-.

Then he's there, the coffee cup I put out already in his hand and at his lips.

"Thank you for taking the time to see me, Flash."

"Ignoring you didn't seem like a good idea." Mister Allen lowers his cup slightly as he looks at me. "Sorry I'm late." He shrugs. "You know how it goes."

"Only from Kid Flash. Though I imagine that if I had a secret identity to maintain I'd see the other side quickly enough." I gesture to the other chair with my left hand. "Would you like to sit down?"

He nods and takes his seat, putting his cup on the arm rest. "So. Bats has got you visiting everyone in the League."

"Batman suggested that it would help restore working relationships in the long term, yes."

"How far was I down the list?"

"Seventh. Diana, Batman, Mister Zatara, Green Arrow, Superman, Icon, you."

His face mask conceals his brows, but I think he's frowning slightly. "You meet up with the GLs all the time."

"Yes, and we.. talk about lanterning. Or the Russian space program." Having worked in administration, I appear to have the ability to appreciate Lantern Savenlovich's travails better than our other colleagues. "I mean, what do you think the chances of getting a heart to heart with-."

He nods. "Gardner."

"I was going to say 'Jordan', actually. Guy and I might have done, if we weren't mostly concerned with inter-Corps relations."

Another nod. "Alright. What did you want to say?"

I shrug. "What did you want to say? I was putting the whole thing behind me. The only reason I'm bringing this up at all is because Batman made me rejoining the team contingent on me doing so."

"You want to get back.. on the.. team? Aren't you.. eighteen?"

"Nineteen. And M'gann's forty nine and we're not sure how old Canis is. Do you think I've learned everything I-"

He inclines his head slightly. "No, I-."

"-need to?"

"-suppose I don't." He leans back a little. "You're saying this is for my benefit?"

"Flash, we can talk about baseball for half an hour if you want. I'm ticking a box, but I'll answer honestly any questions you have."

"Okay, ah… First off, I always thought Nabu would change his mind after a while."

"Okay."

He watches me for a moment. "You don't.. care..?"

"It's not impossible. I have not at any point claimed that I had access to all pertinent information. I don't understand his thought processes well enough to suggest if or when he might have relented, but it certainly wasn't impossible."

"No, I mean… Do you not care why I wasn't as gung ho about it as you were?"

"I-." I take a moment. "I don't consider eight months' careful investigation to be 'gung ho', Flash. I do consider eight months to have been a reasonable time period for him to have made alternate hosting arrangements on his own. Perhaps he would have after nine months. Or a year. It's an imponderable. I also don't think there's any point in me asking you how long you were going to wait. Though if you did have a figure in mind, feel free to share it?"

He tilts his head slightly to the right for a moment. "No. I can't say I did."

I shrug. "There you go. We can't discuss our different decision making processes because you didn't make a decision."

He leans back. "I suppose you're right as far as that's concerned. If he'd stayed on Kid Flash… I don't think I'd have killed him, but… Maybe."

I nod. "So… How 'bout them Stars?"

"We're not done yet. Kid Flash showed me your holiday report."

I do briefly consider a remark along the lines of 'One of you read my report?!', but I decide against it. "Fortunately, I very much doubt that such methods will be required anywhere near Earth."

"How many people did you kill?"

"I really don't know. Depending on how you assign the team efforts… Maybe a few million? Very few of whom will be missed by anyone. I take it you read the parts where I described Citadelian rules of engagement? And their behaviour in general?"

"Oh-" He nods in a very definite manner. "-yes. When I'm talking to you I want to make sure I know what's going on. And how did.. killing millions of people make you feel?"

"I didn't feel much. When you're not actually seeing the bodies, there's much less trauma, even for normal soldiers. Given how I detested their whole vile state, I didn't even feel bad intellectually."

"Did you feel..?" He looks at me with morbid curiosity. "Good..?"

"Mildly satisfied. One chore down, Vega made a bit less repugnant. I was happy about freeing Captain Comet and freeing their slaves, but… No, it didn't feel especially good."

"And when you killed the ones who helped you?"

"The ones I mind controlled into helping me. They weren't much different to the ones I'd killed. Literally, given that they were clones. Yes, I could have put them in prison, but that's really not how Vega works. No prisons exist for that sort of thing. I could have handed them over to the Tamaranian government, if they had the facilities. They would have killed them out of hand. The Crown Imperium would probably have had a show trial… Then killed them. Marooning was an option, but they didn't have wilderness survival skills and I didn't want to risk them rebuilding."

"Sure, it's all… Very logical. You do know that Robin's fourteen, right?"

"Yes. I'm also aware that he's seen quite a number of murders already."

"I'm not talking about his exposure to death-. Though you better believe I had a talk with Batman about that. I'm talking about their exposure to you."

"Um-." I blink. "Okay?"

"Kid Flash told you I never wanted him involved in this, didn't he?" I nod. "If he'd turned eighteen and he still wanted-." He shakes his head. "Maybe. You know how violent what we do can be. I try keeping him away from the worst of it, let him fight people like Snart who pull their punches. You're a soldier?" He shrugs. "Fine, so's Captain Atom. But I don't want kids learning to be soldiers. They've got to have normal lives outside of this, and.. frankly I hope they give it up. I sure don't want them regarding what you do as 'normal'."

Huh.

"I… Understand your concern. And while working for the Justice League I will follow Justice League rules of engagement. And I certainly won't glamorise what I do."

He picks up his cup again. "I guess that'll have to do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th November
19:47 GMT -6

Ms Thal drops a would-be mugger to the pavement, frustration visible in her expression. She hasn't even taken her mace out. Not really surprising; she's strong, tough and well-trained enough that a opportunistic assailant would have to be very lucky, even if she didn't just swoop down on him. And while operating in 'policing mode' she doesn't use her mace as it's rather too lethal.

Even for Louisiana.

I descend slowly as she waits for the police. "I appreciate there's-" Now the mace comes out. "-never a good time-"

"What do you want?"

"-for this sort of conversation, but I was wondering if you'd like to talk about Nabu?"

She beats her wings, shooting into the air to gain a slight height advantage. The mugger isn't sufficiently coherent to take advantage, but I take a moment to attach plastic ties to his ankles and wrists.

"You've got some nerve…"

She's staring at my face, her focus total and.. frankly a little disturbing. Ring, blur.

Compliance.

Thank you.

"This isn't a job for people who don't. And I'd lose respect for myself if I was afraid to face…" I shake my head. "What? My acc-."

"One of the people you accused of abandoning an ally to an enemy."

"Well… You… Did that." Her hand tightens around the mace's grip. "And maybe you did it in ignorance, maybe you.. were busy, the situation wasn't given your full attention… But the result was…" I look around. We're a bit low to be openly talking about this, really. "I think I made it clear what I thought of the results when last we spoke."

"And now you… What, you want to be friends?"

"I'm aiming to rejoin the team. Batman wants me to talk out the Nabu situation with each League member first. We don't have to reach an accord… In fact, you can tell me to get lost right now-"

"Get lost."

"-and I'll just have to hear that from your husband as well, and I can go."

She reaches up to activate her helmet's communicator. "Katar, come to my location. The Orange Lantern wants you to tell him to get lost."

"I get the impression that wasn't actually what Batman had in mind, but I'll be fulfilling my end of the bargain. Really, if there's anything you want to get off your chest at all-."

"You directly accused me of cowardice before witnesses. If you were Thanagarian, I would have challenged you to a duel."

"And how would that have changed anything? Realistically, I don't have any chance against you without my ring, and you don't have much chance against me with one. So why don't we just say we had a duel and toss a coin-?"

"Orange Lantern." I float back in the air, bringing Mr Hol into view as he glides past me to float beside his wife. "I may share your opinion that a duel is not appropriate in this situation, but do not trivialise it. Or the offence you have given to both my wife and myself."

"If I thought that was trivial, I'd have told Batman he was being ridiculous about this whole thing and that it would blow over. So?" I sit cross legged in the air. "'Get lost', it's two words."

"Do you understand why what you did was wrong?"

"I've heard several people's opinions on why it was wrong, certainly. That I should have talked to the League, that I should have indulged Nabu more, that I'm-. Actually, Flash made a good point about me being a PEGI category above what the team's supposed to be. And.. it costs me nothing to hear your version. So, go ahead. Tell me."

"You should have asked us to join you."

"Why?"

"Because as you pointed out, Giovanni Zatara was our team mate."

"And not because you had something useful to offer? Do you have some particular anti-magic technique I'm not aware of?" I shake my head. "Even if I thought I could trust you -which I didn't, given that you agreed to let Nabu join in the first place- I wouldn't have involved someone who wouldn't have been able to materially assist."

"Katar…"

He takes a deep breath. "Even if you thought that we had nothing to contribute to the planning, unless you believed that we would have sided with Nabu, you should have informed us and asked us to participate. We would both rather have fought Nabu -even if that meant dying- than let him continue to hold our comrade hostage. And we both feel that was regardless of how efficacious involving us would be. For a Thanagarian soldier, there are few things more shameful than leaving an ally in the hands of an enemy."

"Then why did you? How many meetings did you have, Hawkman, where you sat with him and heard his voice speak from a stolen larynx and saw him look at you with stolen eyes? If that was supposed to be the worst thing a Thanagarian can do-."

"I was gathering information. Preparing to act against an individual who would have been an extremely difficult foe."

"And the vote?"

"How would sending him away have helped?"

"I would still trust you if you'd done that."

"Should I value your trust more highly than Zatara's life?"

"Should you have valued the trust of the superhero closest to his daughter, who is unscryable, who started a revolution in arcane technology and has numerous magic contacts? Who literally chained Nabu up at New Year? Yes, probably. How were you planning to do anything against him without me?"

"I had not yet gathered-."

"Yeah, you and Batman both, apparently. So.. I've.. caused you great offence by not including you in my plan even though you weren't including me in yours."

Ms Hol's wings are fluttering, a sign of extreme agitation. Mr Hol merely grits his teeth before continuing. "Not including us in the planning is insulting, but we did the same to you and in any case it isn't a mortal insult. Not attempting to include us in the attack is."

"Right, I'll bear that in mind in future. I'd rather there not be a next time, but…" I shrug. "Anything else?"

"I still want to fight you."

"Fine. The next Lantern training session is on Wednesday. Show up bright and early, but don't expect any satisfaction. Good evening."

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th November
14:21 GMT

"You, er…" The police officer assigned to keep watch over me leans in a little bit. "You.. like… You know Batman then, do yuh?"

I'm sitting in a small office in Cardiff Central Police Station. With Alan making friends with a cross section of Alliance members and the team somewhere in southern Africa, I've been assigned to check John Fate's background.

"Ah… Yes? I wouldn't say we're social acquaintances at this point, but we've been colleagues for a little over a year now. I've been on a number of missions at his instruction."

"Could you.. like… Get his autograph fer me?"

"I can… I can certainly ask for you, but he.. hands those out only very occasionally. Usually for charity, after Superman has smiled at him for a couple of minutes."

She grins. "Ah, that'd be brilliant!"

"As I said, no promises, but-" A CID officer walks in, and the police officer moves away slightly. "-I'll certainly ask."

"Alright, Constable Williams. I think I can handle this one, thank you."

"Right you are, sir." She heads towards the door. "Shout if you need anything fetching."

"I will." The detective looks me over, apparently not very impressed. "What happened to the fancy armour, then?"

"I didn't think it appropriate to the situation. And it's not exactly chair-friendly." I open my hands, letting her get a good look at my power rings. She's a stout, middle aged woman with short brown hair. "If you want to phone the League and confirm my identity-."

"What do you think I just did?"

"Good, so you know who I am. Would it be possible for me to ask you some questions?"

"Just as soon as I'm shuwer we're not going to have some lunatic start knocking over buildings."

"No, no-. Ah, not as far as I know. I'm just checking the references of someone who might be working with the League at some point."

"Don't have a lot of costumed mental cases around here. I think we'd have spotted them."

"I don't think that the individual in question wore a costume." I take a picture out of subspace, showing John Fate's face attached to an approximately-correct body wearing a suit. "Does this man seem familiar at all?"

She frowns with mild irritation, then her brows unfurrow slightly in recognition. "He does a bit, though I'm jiggered if I know where from."

"He claimed that he offered to assist the Cardiff police during a series of ritualistic killings with a magic motive."

Her eyes widen. "That's never John Constantine. You send him on a body building course, did yuh?"

"You're right, that isn't John Constantine. Not unless something very strange is happening." Moderately strange. John's a common first name and Constantine is three thousand five hundred and sixtieth most common. My own is too rare to feature on any of the lists I saw. It might not even exist here. "But he claims he was around here at the same time."

"Might be." She reaches out for the picture and I hand it to her. "Several of the officers involved in that were moved off front line duties. Mental health." I nod sympathetically. That sort of thing doesn't bother me any longer, but mutilated bodies are a bit of a shock if you're not used to them. "I can show them the picture."

"I'd appreciate that. I just need to confirm that he was here and trying to be helpful."

"Alright. I'll get that done for you. Is there anything else?"

"I would appreciate a copy of the relevant case files. I'm not expecting a copycat or anything like that, I just want to make sure that I'm being thorough."

"The Justice League can request that. I'll have it scanned and sent via the proper channels."

A couple of days' wait, then. And it's mildly painful that it isn't all on computer. "Thank you."

I offer her my right hand, which she takes briefly before indicating the door. "Can you find your way out?"

"Yes, thank you. I'll look forward to hearing from you." I raise my right fore and middle fingers to my forehead in a mock salute,

-then step out and back-

6th November
09:25 GMT -5

into the city of Chicago for my next Justice League member meeting.

"Hey, ah, Nancy? I'll call you back. Looks like my nine thirty just arrived."

Mr O'Brian in civilian mode. He can't really hide what he is, but he makes an effort. His suit and shirt are red, material from that weird.. leotard.. thing he was for whatever reason wearing when he took the chemical bath which turned him into living rubber repurposed into office wear. His hair looks stranger still, a solid unmoving mass stuck on top of his head. He's not wearing his gog-. No, he is, the goggles have just merged with his eyebrows.

"Do you have a moment, Plastic Man?"

"Eh… Sure." He falls backward, morphing into an office chair as he does so. "Sit down, I'll get someone to make you coffee."

"Thank you, but I don't drink coffee. Also, I'm…" I shake my head. "Not sitting on you." I generate a construct chair and sit down opposite him. "I'm sure you know why I'm here."

"Because you need someone to sportscast your match with Hawkwoman?" He shifts back into humanoid form, his right hand now holding a microphone. "In the red corner, all the way from Thanagar, give it up for-!"

"No. Nabu."

The microphone merges with his hand, his whole body sagging. "Yeah, well, see, I didn't actually know-."

"Diana told me. You somehow managed to miss that he was possessed."

He shrugs. "It's not the first thing you think of. I mean, what was his name-?"

"Kent Nelson."

"Right! Kent Nelson was fine wearing the helmet for decades."

"And Nabu wanted to keep Kid Flash as his host-."

"Ah, hey." He holds his hands out in a placatory gesture, expanding them to three of four times normal size. "I wasn't even on the League when that happened. I didn't get access to the reports until New Year."

"And you didn't read through them."

"I read some. The ones about things we were actually doing. There are a lot of reports in there!" He returns his hands to normal size. "I don't even particularly think you were wrong, but… I thought if there was anything going wrong with Zatara then Batman or someone would have said something."

I could bear a grudge about this. Being on the Justice League should mean that you do the blasted reading. But I think this episode has already given him the kick he needed on that score.

"I.. suppose that's.. fair. Anything you want to ask me?" He shakes his head. "Then… Have a nice day."

I raise my fingers to my forehead again.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th November
10:09 GMT -6

"Uuuuuuuuugh."

Ms Thal wheezes, her right hand grasping spasmodically for the Nth metal mace I've sensibly moved out of arm's reach. Since I regard this whole thing as stupid, I haven't been using the sort of high-lethality ordnance which Thanagarian duelling custom would allow me to. I've -I sigh as I think it- been using… Giant… Orange… Boxing gloves. Of course, at this point they're pretty powerful boxing gloves, because… While she isn't the only Justice League member to severely irritate me where Nabu is concerned, at least the others were prepared to discuss the matter without challenging me to a duel.

But… This is a bit much.

I look over towards Mr Hol. "Is that it? Can you call it now?"

He makes eye contact with me, then gives his head a small shake.

"Oh, for goodness-." Ms Thal staggers to her feet, using her wide spread wings to maintain her balance. "You're clearly in no condition to fight and I don't like you well enough to heal you. Why don't you stay down this time?"

"Nrgh."

She.. either weaves, or narrowly avoids collapsing, then begins a staggering run towards me. I shoot her in the face with a construct bean bag round, forcing her to stop, staggering back to maintain her balance. A construct circular saw cuts through her helmet's strap and a construct hand hurls her battered helmet aside. It appears to have protected her face reasonably well, but the lower part of her face is already swelling from bruises and I can see a dozen cuts from where I slammed her into the desert.

"Please. Give up."

Out of the corner of my eye I see Alan say something to Mr Hol, who waves him off.

Another stagger, then she squares up to me again.

"Okay, can I yield? I literally-" I create a flimsy boxing glove construct, then let it evaporate. "-don't want to hurt you sufficiently strongly to make a construct. You win, well done. Honour is uphel-."

"No." She takes a step closer. "Fight me."

I fall back slightly. "Alright, you've convinced me that you'd have fought against Nabu. I doubt it would have been much more one sided than this."

"Not… Not convincing you."

"Look, if you're willing to get your face beaten in pointlessly-" She takes three hurried steps closer and swings her right fist. I turn it aside with my right hand and punch her hard in the face. She takes it.. pretty well. Stupid extra tough skeletal structure. "-I'm sure-" She tries to hit me with her left wing, but I counter with a construct shield. "-that you'd do it where it-" I step right as she pulls her wing back and swing a fist at the unprotected underside. That gets a wince. "-it actually mattered."

"I'm not-" She manages a clumsy hit on my faceplate. "-doing this for you!"

"Fine." I create a construct covering her mouth and nose, then start replacing her air with Thanagarian-safe-ish knock out gas. Another pair of constructs bind her arms and wings. "I hope you've impressed yourself, then."

She struggles, but Thanagar knows its people and this stuff is designed to weaken them fast. As her eyes roll back I remove the construct feeding her the stuff and create a stretcher construct for her. Then I wheel toward Mr Hol. "Is that enough?! Or do I need to hit her a few more times?"

He flaps his wings once to leave the ground and a second time to enter the combat area, gliding towards his wife. I move the stretcher towards him as he lands, his helmet staring at her as he uses the sensors to check her condition. "She is unable to continue. You are victorious."

"Wooowh. Is she going to try this again when she gets up? Am I going to need to give her a power ring just so I don't feel so-?"

Alan follows Mr Hol, and I pass Ms Thal to him. There aren't any medical facilities around here… There isn't anything around here, that's why we started doing this here. The Hawks' ship has basic medical equipment… Ugh.

"Why did you offer to surrender?"

"Because it was pointless! She's going to be recovering for… Two weeks?"

"I doubt that I'll be able to make her stay still for that long."

"Which means that no one gains anything from this. If it meant I didn't have to beat her unconscious, why wouldn't I surrender?"

"Pride in your abilities as a warrior?"

"I'm not doing this to win a flipping contest! I wear this ring to make the universe a better place. That did nothing!" I grimace. "The last Thanagarians I met weren't this mental. At least I don't think they were, maybe they were just hiding it better."

"Some.. parts of the military take.. certain parts of Thanagar's military traditions more seriously than wider society. Were these Thanagarians civilians?"

"No. Mercenaries. Nice bunch. Met them in Vega. Had a few drinks, helped them with a riot and got them a job training the Tamaranian military up while they rebuild."

"I'm not aware of any Thanagarians being in that region of space. What is the company called?"

"The Blades of Alstair." Who-. Oh.

"I see." I can't tell whether Mr Hol's frowning or not, but I suspect that he is. "No. They wouldn't have adopted that tradition unless Hyathis ordered them to. Excuse me." A downbeat of his wings and he's flying back towards his ship.

Yeah, probably shouldn't have mentioned that I was on good terms with them to an agent of the Thanagarian government.

Lantern Jordan drifts down. "Well. That was a… Thing."

"And let's hope that really is it."

He looks mildly curious. "What, you never felt like challenging someone to a fight?"

"Not for honour-related reasons. But while we're all taking five, and you're actually on Earth, do you?"

"With Guy once or twice, sure."

"No, not-. Batman's got me talking to every League member about Nabu."

He shrugs. "Why? You got a way to bring him back you're not sharing?"

"No."

"Then what's the point? However I feel about it, you did it, it happened."

"That's what I said. But are you sure? Nothing you want to ask, nothing you want to get off your chest?"

"I still don't think you should have killed him."

"Okay, what should I have done?"

"Kept working at it until you had a way to take him down without killing him."

I shrug. "Diana took the chains off at New Year. Given how powerful and skilled Lords of Order are, I would have to have been very lucky to get another opening like that."

He raises his eyebrows. "You're saying you couldn't do it?"

"I'm saying I don't know how to do it and I don't know if it could be done."

"Because if Zatara was alive after eight months, he wasn't in danger of dying. Look, I wanted to fly for the US Air Force. And if.. things had gone differently, I'd probably have killed plenty of people by now. But I'm not. I'm a space cop with a fancy ring. Superheroes aren't military, they're police. The Justice League isn't a military."

"The Orange Lantern Corps is a military."

"Maybe that's the problem. The US military doesn't do policing outside of disaster zones, because that's not what it's for. The rules of engagement are different, for good reasons. I don't have a problem with you wanting to be a soldier. But if that's what you want?" He drifts back slightly. "Then this is the wrong organisation for you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th November
13:08 GMT -5

"No, I think I understand."

I watch Jade as she takes another bite of her sandwich, shaking my head slightly. "You do?"

She chews for a moment, then swallows. Then she carefully watches my face. "And you actually don't."

I shake my head again. "If I did, I wouldn't ask."

"It's about confidence. She needed to know that if she had to fight someone more powerful than her, she could do it."

"But.. she could. She actually does that several times a year. Everyone knows that."

"Did you?"

"I… Yes, I.. honestly assume that of everyone on the League. I didn't ask her because I didn't think the risk-reward made sense." I watch her take another bite, the news program playing in the background saying something about a series of earthquakes in Argentina. "Is that.. something you… Feel..?"

"Not… Exactly."

I lean forwards slightly. "Please don't ever pick a fight with a ludicrously out of your league superhero."

"If your enemies know that you're willing to fight them, it changes how they evaluate whether to attack you or not. They know beating you would cost them more."

"Oh no." I frown. "Thanagar's doing a John Byng."

"Or training their soldiers to think like Meiji Restoration era samurai. Who was John Byng?"

"A British naval officer executed for not 'doing his utmost against the enemy' in the eighteenth century. Voltaire put a joke about it in Candide, ah… 'In this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others'." She.. nods. "The result.. was supposed to be that British officers became more aggressive, always attacking when in doubt."

"And they ended up controlling the largest empire in history."

"There was a bit more to it than that, but… It may have helped." I frown. "So that's what it looks like on the ground."

"What would have happened to her if she didn't challenge you?"

"Noth-." She raises her eyebrows. "Ah… Assuming that she included it in her report… I don't know. The most recent copy of Thanagar's Articles of War I've got predates the Equalisation Plague, two hundred years and a major social upheaval out of date."

"A dishonored samurai who didn't commit suicide after being dishonored would be reviled by other warriors and lords. And so would their family."

"I-." Can I.. say..? "Hawkwoman grew up in a military orphanage, so-."

"So her sense of identity is entirely tied up in being a loyal soldier and her entire 'family' would think the same way she does."

And who does that sound like? "Jade." I reach across the table and put my right hand on her left forearm. "If you want me to beat you unconscious as well-?"

She smiles, a slight hiss of air escaping from her lips. Then she rolls her eyes. "No, I'm-. It's been an adjustment, but the League of Shadows' disciplinary system didn't work like that. Experienced operatives were too valuable. And Ra's didn't want anyone thinking that a code was more important than him."

"So.. you.. don't feel-?"

She raises her eyebrows. "Can't you see?"

"I… Could. I choose not to."

She nods, turning her left arm slightly so her hand rests on my forearm. "I don't feel the need to.. lose a fight to maintain my identity because I've changed my identity. I chose not to be an assassin. She's still a soldier." I nod. "And I'm not really keen on losing fights or picking fights I can't win."

"But Hawkwoman was fine with it because anything else looked dishonourable to her." I shake my head. "I'd like to say it's crazy, but it's.. no."

"No." She pulls back her left arm slightly, so that our hands are clasped. "Challenging you to a fight without some sort of equaliser was crazy. Challenging you at all was just being true to her code."

She takes another bite of her sandwich, her eyes moving briefly to the people staring at us -me, really- from the other parts of the deli. I've got sound suppression on so they can't hear what we're actually saying, but at this point my visits and relationship with Jade are public knowledge.

"Thanagarians don't have equalisers to power rings. That was actually a factor in the formation of their policies towards aliens during their expansions; they knew that they couldn't risk pushing the Corps more than a certain degree."

"How close are they to Earth?"

"Pretty close in interstellar terms, not close at all in terms of absolute distance. They could send a fleet here, but unless we look like we're becoming an imminent threat it seems unlikely that they will." I shrug. "They don't have any rivals in this direction, but integrating other species into their empire… Well, settling their worlds over their objections, takes time and effort."

"Do you think the Hawks are sending information home, so-." I'm already nodding, and she narrows her eyes slightly. "You knew that?"

"It's obvious. But since we're not planning on picking a fight with Thanagar, there's no harm in it." Couldn't even if we wanted to. The one benefit of the Equalisation Plague was that in the aftermath internal disputes became unimportant, whereas Earth doesn't have a unified space program. When we finally get serious about space it probably will end up being a superhero-led effort. "In fact, reassuring them benefits us."

She takes another bite of her sandwich. I deliberately look past the gawkers -and the manageress who is making it clear that the seats are for patrons- and give the television my attention. Depending on the situation on the ground, an earthquake might-. No, it's moved on to covering a flare up of hostility in Kashmir. With that part of the world being a good deal more stable on Earth 16 than Earth Prime, I can probably leave that to local diplomats.

"How are your meetings with the Justice League going?"

"They're manageable. I'm getting a much better idea of where they think I went wrong."

A small smile. "Do you agree with any of them?"

"The Flash had a point, and I think… Green Lantern echoed it."

"Oh?"

"He's not happy about children being involved. And he's especially not happy about someone with my body count and modus operandi being involved with children."

"Children who can run at the speed of sound and break someone in half by talking backwards."

"Impressionable children who might decide to use those abilities in non-superheroic ways if I make a good enough case for it. And it is true that I'm a bit of an awkward fit." I shrug. "How are things in the mob? Any interesting assassination attempts?"

"One, by Two Face." She grimaces. "Or it might have been, but I get paid to protect the principal, not fight crazy people. I'm actually… Thinking about quitting. A corporate intelligence firm in San Francisco got in touch. They're interested in employing someone with my background."

"I imagine that's more up your street. And less likely to involve anything illegal. Want me to check them out for you?"

She looks at me sternly. "I'd like you to check them out as well. They look legitimate to me, but I don't have all of your resources."

"Not a problem. What are they called?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th November
16:49 GMT -5

The train of lawyers, politicians and bereaved family members walks past me down the hall, Adom and Mr Tuckman waiting until there's some clear space before following them out of the meeting room. The lawyers are muttering to their clients, none of whom look particularly happy about the outcome. I wait until they're all past me before rising from my chair to approach my colleagues.

"So? Result?"

Mr Tuckman manages a satisfied smile. "There's still room for individual challenges, but I think we've convinced most people that 'Theodore Adam' and 'Teth Adom' are two legally distinct people, and that Teth Adom bears no responsibility for Theodore Adam's actions."

Adom is still looking fairly sombre, though that might just be as a result of Mr Tuckman's strongly phrased advice that he wear a suit. "I have no wish to insult the families of his victims, but I refuse to believe that this is the best way for them to gain redress. There were more jurists present than relatives."

Mr Tuckman looks just a little bit smug at that. "Welcome to America."

"No." Adom shakes his head. "That could have been resolved in mere minutes if a single individual had the authority to make a determination, subject to learned advice. Instead, it has been months. It serves neither me nor them." His eyes narrow slightly. "When I rule Kahndaq once more I will ensure this cannot happen there."

Mr Tuckman raises his right eyebrow slightly. "The Kahndaqi people might have something to say about that."

"My people will see my wisdom. And they will learn not to question me."

Best head this off. "Any problems? Or was it all…"

Adom's jaw tenses for a moment. "They required that I return to my mortal form."

Mr Tuckman nods. "Yeah, that was a little uncomfortable. I didn't realise that he still looked like…"

I frown mildly at Adom. I hadn't either, but then William Batson still looks like William Batson when he turns back. Why should Adom be any different just because he and his host are both adult men?

"A problem I will solve by not turning back at any other time."

Obvious solution, but perhaps here isn't the place to bring it up. "Mr Tuckman, do you need us for anything else?"

He shakes his head. "No, not today." He turns to Adom. "I'll contact you with a copy of the written text for your approval once it's been drafted. Should be within a week."

Adom nods, and offers him his hand. "Thank you."

Mother Box, hush tube.

Ping.

10th November
15:52 GMT -6

Adom and I walk back into the Mountain, hush tube closing behind us. "You know, I've been meaning to ask: beyond the gods' blessings, have you considered..? Looking for other advantages? Better weaponry, or further augmentations?"

He glances at me suspiciously. "As I have said before, I am content with the power that I have."

"Hey." I shrug noncommittally. "If you say so. But you're the one who wants to fight Shazam. And -correct me if I'm wrong here- last time they weren't enough. Were they?" His jaw clenches. "Adom, I'm your ally. I'm offering you aid to make both our lives easier. You don't have to take it, but it's there."

He considers for a moment, then his face relaxes slightly. "Your pardon. Having been betrayed by the one I once considered my friend and mentor, I find that I am… Reluctant to put my faith in those who make similar offers."

"Think nothing of it."

"I do not believe that there is a power I could gain within a short span of time that would improve my ability to liberate Kahndaq. No, my time is better spent in study. But… In the fullness of time, I may consider such measures before confronting him once again."

I nod slowly. "Perhaps something more trivial, then?" He raises his eyebrows slightly. "William's transformation changes his face. I should have realised that you still look like Theodore Adam under-" I wave my right hand at his face. "-that.. before now, and I apologise for my lapse. If you like, I can change that, make your faces match. Cosmetic work is far less involved than alterations to your arcane architecture."

"I would need to.. change?" I nod, and he grimaces. "I am loath to speak the Wizard's name even once more." He considers for a moment. "But, I appreciate you making the offer. I have no great fondness for looking like a murderer. Perhaps I will-."

He cuts himself off as the door to one of our secure storage repositories opens and Circe walks out. "Oh." She frowns at Adom's choice of attire. "Did someone die?"

I nod. "Theodore Adam. Legally speaking. Not that anyone will miss him all that much."

"Oh, you finally got that sorted out. Well done."

"A minor trial of my patience. It was no great achievement." Adom hesitates for a moment. "How is your school progressing?"

"Plans are being finalised and the demolition is done." She looks at me. "I decided to bind the rat thing in a crystal and put it in storage."

I nod. "Fine, as long as Miss Shimmer checked the seals."

She rolls her eyes. "Yes, even though I've been sealing elementals since before the rise of Rome, I had Sunset check my work."

"I'm sorry if it's inconvenient, but it's a standard process and a second pair of eyes-."

"Yes…" She waves her right hand dismissively. "Yes. I understand. And I do enjoy talking to her. Did you know that her people dealt with a Lord of Chaos?"

I nod. "I think she mentioned it."

She smiles. "I'm constantly surprised by what even I can learn from talking to her. Particularly concerning beings like that."

Adom raises his eyebrows slightly. "You have encountered a Lord of Chaos yourself?"

"I… Misjudged a situation involving a Lord of Chaos named Oggar." She carefully watches his face. "You recognised the name, Teth Adom. Did you know of him?"

He nods. "I did. He was once a mighty ally of the Wizard, but broke with him due to his own egotism. He felt that his power meant that he should have been the leader of their alliance rather than the Wizard's subordinate. After that, he wandered the world, finding his amusements where he could. I encountered him only many years later, when he decided to attack my nation in an attempt to wound the Wizard by proxy."

She looks curious, her eyebrows rising slightly. "You survived his attention, then."

Adom nods. "I had learned to use the Power of Atum to increase my ability to resist baleful magic. But it would not have been enough to stand against a Lord of Chaos. The Wizard lent me a portion of his own might, the Power of Ribalvei, so that I could stand against Oggar's magic."

Circe looks distinctly impressed. "You mean to say that you.. won?"

"Once I closed the distance, I unleashed the full extent of Lord Montu's berserk rage. Oggar's physical form was strong, but not strong enough to withstand my attack."

"And?" She shrugs. "He is a Lord of Chaos. Could he really die from mere physical injury?"

"No." A thin smile. "But he could feel pain."

Circe's smile on the other hand isn't even slightly thin. "You hurt him so much that he fled?"

"In a manner of speaking. I broke his body, and then waited for his magic to repair it. And then I broke it again. And again. And again, until he abandoned this world and returned to the Realm of Chaos."

"How long did that take?"

"Perhaps twenty days of constant activity."

She smiles, this time one of genuine pleasure rather than social lubrication. "Really?" She steps forward, linking arms with him and pulling him in the direction of the nearest living room. "Oh, I am going to want more details than that, pharaoh."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
17:32 GMT -5

"So… This is it, huh?" Dr Highwater carefully lifts the Medusa Mask from the padded Justice League case Lantern Stewart transported it in.

"Yeah."

Lantern Stewart doesn't look entirely happy about this, but KordTech has all of the licences required to analyse supervillain technology and is the only surface world site with enough qualified magic users to produce useful results with arcane equipment. If anyone is going to do something with this, it's KordTech.

Dr Highwater performs a brief visual inspection. "Mask is gold in color, but weighs more than this volume of gold should. Mask…" He prods it. "Is immobile, despite reports that it can form expressions. Mask has no visible way to attach itself to the wearer's face, despite reports that it remains attached during strenuous physical activity."

"Kid Flash was able to pull it off Roger Hayden's face just prior to his arrest."

"But why didn't it fall off?" He holds it up slightly. "I mean: look at it."

He's right. Not only is it taller than a normal man's face, it isn't clear how it was able to stay on Mr Hayden's face at all.

"It's a shame Charles Halstead wasn't able to provide a better explanation before he was committed." Dr Highwater tears his eyes away from the Mask to look at Lantern Stewart. "You're sure Mr Hayden hasn't suffered any of the same side effects?"

Lantern Stewart shakes his head. "Not according to the prison shrink."

Yes, that was something I hadn't known before I started reading up on the case. After getting a whole life sentence and passing his equipment on to Psycho-Pirate 2, Psycho-Pirate 1 gradually lost all ability to feel emotion. There are emotion-affecting magics which could have that effect, but that wouldn't explain why it stopped doing that for the second wearer.

"Mister Hayden claimed to have amalgamated the many masks Mister Halstead used into a single mask."

Dr Highwater nods. "Then I think we're ready for human testing."

I nod, and create a frame construct around the Mask. I remember that the comic version of this mask gave medium awareness but I haven't seen any sign of that in the League's records on either of the local Pirates. Which I suppose might mean that the Earth 2 version got that power not from the Mask but from living through the Crisis.

Lantern Stewart leans slightly to the left. "That seems a bit sudden."

"After.. what happened to Bobo, we decided that testing telepathic equipment on animals wasn't a good idea."

"How's the little scamp doing?"

"He's reached eighth grade now."

Lantern Stewart frowns. "Who's 'Bobo'?"

"He's the chimpanzee KordTech tested the updated Thinking Cap on. We've removed it now, but it appears to have given him human-equivalent intelligence." But not the capacity for speech. His vocal systems just aren't the right shape, so he mostly communicates by writing. "We're not.. really sure how, but we're not going to be testing it on any other chimps."

Lantern Stewart looks decidedly uncertain at that news. "So you're skipping straight to human testing?"

Dr Highwater nods. "Nothing in either Psycho-Pirate's background indicates a particular level of arcane knowledge, and Abraham Carlyle and Wolf Krieger were able to use it without any adverse side affects. This is just a quick trial run so I can get some idea of what it feels like to use, so I can pass that on to the arcanists so they can narrow down the range of things they're investigating. And we're not allowed to do human tests on objects of this class without a member of the Justice League being present."

"So it's my fault." Lantern Stewart nods. "Great."

"I don't think you understand exactly what this can do for the Green Lantern Corps."

"Make us all feel fear so we can train to work through it?"

"Why not just amp up your will?"

He frowns. "Is that possible? I didn't think that 'will power' was really an emotion."

"Should be. And the best thing about it is that it can affect as many people as the wearer can see. Marginally useful for a single Green Lantern, but in any situation where you need a whole task force…"

He nods. "One Lantern can hold back and enhance all of the rest."

"If they're a natural empath, they could use what they're doing to the rest of the force to enhance themselves as well. And they can suppress any conflicting emotions that the rookies are feeling."

"I don't think that's a good idea. Rookies shouldn't be in that sort of situation." He nods slowly. "But I take your point. That could dramatically cut down the casualties during major operations."

I beam. "Thank you for volunteering."

He blinks. "You want me to put that thing on?"

"No, of course not. Doctor Hightower is going to put it on and use it on you. I've already got recordings of how strong you are without it from our training sessions, now we just need to find out how strong a pre-m'eelam na'aquall Sector Lantern gets with it."

"Why don't we use it on you?"

"Do you want another giant cake?" He bows his head slightly, smiling as he does so. "Besides, I need to be available to yank the mask off Doctor Highwater if something goes wrong."

He nods. "Alright, but take things slowly."

Dr Highwater nods. "Of course. We don't even know if I can use it yet." He steps up to where I have the mask suspended in a head height frame. "Here goes."

He presses his face into the inside of the mask for a moment, then pulls it back. There's a slight tug on the frame, but otherwise I don't see anything unusual.

"Feel anything?"

"I felt it stick to my face, but I didn't get any sort of impression of the emotions around me. It might be that it only senses strong emotion, or it might be that the effect is only one way; it can create emotions but not detect them in the people around it."

"It put a small amount of pressure on the frame when you pulled back. It looks like it does stick. Try again?"

He nods, and presses his face back into it. "Okay, I'm-. It's moving, the mask is moving with my mouth as I speak. That.. feels.. weird."

"Yeah." Lantern Stewart walks around to the front. "I can confirm that from the outside. It looks different from how it looked when Krieger was wearing it, but that might be because your face is a different shape from his."

"Okay. If you're ready, I'll-" Lantern Stewart's ring flashes. "-try to-."

"Just a moment." He holds his ring out. "Go ahead."

"Batman to Green Lantern. The team was investigating a LexCorp facility in Argentina. They've just missed one of their scheduled check ins."

"I can head down there and take a look. What were they investigating?"

"A geology research center. I had no specific intelligence that they would meet any significant threats there."

"Understood." He glances at me. "Orange Lantern is here as well. Should I bring him along?"

"As if I'm giving you a choice."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:37 GMT -3

The world flickers around me and what the hell happened here?

This part of the world is a wasteland anyway, but the added lines of molten rock suggest that Kon needed to unleash-.

The air turns white as something very hot armourarmourarmour! Okay, regular heat vision, not Kon's version. Deflect towards the ground! The rock beneath me begins to liquefy as the beam pours heat into the volcanic rock, then cuts out. Appropriate response-

Lantern Stewart generates a construct shield.

-is kryptonite radiation. Since my run-in with an asteroid made of the stuff, I've had the opportunity to get hold of kryptonite samples of a variety of colours. Gold kryptonite is safest-.

A grey shape blurs past me, slamming into Lantern Stewart and sending them both careening out of-. Shit, where's he gone? Ring, accelerated per-.

Perception already accelerated.

There's a small landslide as part of the caldera wall explodes. There, right, moving! Saturate the area with gold kryptonite radiation and show me who we're fighting!

Compliance.

Predictably, Mr Luthor's done something to the area to disrupt ring scans, but optical scans show-

Lantern Stewart goes for height and distance, battering ram construct shattering as his opponent rams through it!

-a large, naked, grey-skinned humanoid with a pearly white horn jutting from his forehead. I'm guessing that's Doomsday 16, but if so then this version has kept his humanoid form better than the comic and animated versions. Though the bony plates covering his back are forcing him to hunch over somewhat and though he's notably over scale when compared to a human his proportions are fairly normal for someone seven feet tall. I think he's even got facial hair.

I don't remember anything about Doomsday being affected by kryptonite, but I don't remember him flying either and I've got the gun ready and he isn't faster than light. The laser strikes home and.. he isn't slowed in the slightest. Fine, green, and fire. This one… There's a slight shimmer before it hits his skin and nothing. He doesn't even look my way as his right fist crunches through Lantern Stewart's construct defences. I can't tell exactly what injuries he just took, but from the slow motion look of shock on his face and the approximate speed… Shattered lower ribs and severe internal bruising at least.

"Stewart, orbit."

And I transition forward, x-ionised broadsword coming out of subspace as I reappear. Construct armour to deflect. Doomsday's head is already turning my way, eyes lighting up as Stewart weakly tries to push away-. Innate interdiction? Darn.

My sword cuts into Doomsday's side as the heat vision is once more reflected away by my construct armour. This time the angle causes it to shoot skywards, then as he tosses Stewart aside and lunges at me the deflected energy spins in an arc across the sky! That could have hit-! He punches my right arm, construct armour cracking at once. I move the sword into a guard posit-. He redirects his heat vision, striking the side of the blade and melting through it. Fine, crumbler gauntlets it is-

There's a flash of green as Stewart disengages.

-then. Light flash, maximum intensity, kryptonite-enhanced smelling salts, ultrasonic pulse and punch the fuckwhereish-!

Blooughf!

I can't keep up, blows are slamming into my construct armour too quickly for me to perceive even with my mind accelerated. It's cracking and gone, kinetic barrier blocking the next few hits-. Right bubble.

I get maybe a second to look at him and then his heat vision starts up again, slashing across my armour! Agh, yep, that hit the projectorphase!

There's a sort of grunt from Doomsday as his arms blur and his eyes burn as he tries to strike me. I try flying away as fast as conventional ring flight allows me, but he's keeping up easily. Flying down through the ground around an extinct volcano while a Kryptonian weapon life form is trying to punch me seems like a bad idea… Where's the team?

I step out-

-and I reappear in.. what looks-

"Who the hell are you?"

-like a barracks, someone in full body armour levelling a gun at me.

"He-. Ugh." Kon tries to push himself up off the floor, his face covered in cuts and swelling with bruises. Sunlight shines out from him, but that doesn't actually make him heal much faster. He's not wearing his armour, but rather yellow LexCorp-branded overalls. A scan through it shows that the rest of his body isn't in much better condition than his face; his left arm is broken in three places and he's got fractures across his ribs, skull and spine.

Shit. Okay, that's going to result in a nasty concussion-

I take a purple healing ray out of subspace and shoot him with it.

-but the Danner Formula will knit his internal injuries together faster than those suffered by a normal human. He holds out his right arm and I carefully pass him the ray, being sure to maintain the beam.

Other overalled figures lay on the beds. Some have tourniquets over severed limbs, others have their uniforms torn away so bandages could be applied to lesser injuries. Visible skin appears to have… Grey, discoloured patches. I quickly spot Kaldur and Canis, both unconscious. Kaldur doesn't have any visible injuries while Canis looks like a normal person would if someone took a cricket bat to their face.

One of the injured shakes for a moment, then lies still.

"Superboy, what's going on?"

"You see the big grey guy?"

"Yes. Briefly."

"He happened." The man with the gun semi-slumps back against his own bed. Looks like volcanic gas inhalation. And a few bruises. "Fucker just came right out of the ground and started-." He emits a wheezing cough. "Started burning everything. Some sort of mutant kryptonian."

I take out another ray and shoot him, then pass it to him. "Use this on everyone."

He takes it, then looks at Kon who has just stopped using it on himself and is testing his left arm. "Ah, okay."

"Right. Big grey guy-."

Kon stands. "Do you know where he is now?"

I send my battered armour back into subspace, then shake my head. "No. Green Lantern A had to fall back, and I teleported here."

"Great." Kon nods. "This place is designed to be Kryptonian resistant. Lead lined everything, structural reinforcements and-"

"Wards."

"-w-. Yeah. Radio can't penetrate, which is why we missed our check in. And the reason it's like this is because this is where Luthor gets most of his kryptonite from."

The guard looks around from raying one of his injured colleagues. "Nothing illegal about digging for minerals. Plenty illegal about spying on private property."

"My team's the reason why you're still alive!"

"Digging for kryptonite, fine. And you didn't know there was a kryptonian down there as well."

"Seismic scans and ground penetrating radar showed nothing like… That thing." He exhales sharply. "Not that I think any of us would have recognised it."

"Alright. I wasn't briefed on your mission. Start from the beginning."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:39 GMT -3

Kon's sitting on his bed while the LexCorp loyalist walks around with the healing rays. As expected, no one regrows limbs and the dead don't rise, but cuts close up and broken bones start to knit together. Kaldur remains unconscious, while Canis groggily grunts and unsteadily pushes himself upright.

"Batman told us that LexCorp had started sending extra personnel out here, along with a lot of specialist equipment-."

"And that's no grounds for the Justice League to do anything! We applied for and received all of the appropriate licences from the Argentinean government. LexCorp is a legitimate business and does not have to explain itself-."

"Look. I'm asking so that I can try and learn why there's a crazy mutant kryptonian flying around outside. The more you interrupt, the longer that takes. So please stop talking unless you've got something pertinent to say."

"Fine. I'm sure the League will be hearing from LexCorp's lawy-." I glare, and he stops talking.

Kon smiles in thanks. "We.. took a look around-" Because clearly we're not talking about the bio-ship in front of LexCorp employees, who will no doubt be debriefed in considerable detail once this is over. "-and planted a few bugs. And then we sat back to watch." He shrugs. "We spotted the kryptonite right away, along with the cloning cylinders."

"Human cloning is illegal in Argentina."

Kon glances down the line of injured and diseased LexCorp employees. "I doubt they were planning on cloning humans."

"Okay. And the disease?"

"Canis said some of the workers smelled sick, but someplace like this… If someone caught a bug, everyone would get it."

Hm. While we're on the subject. Ring, what's causing that skin condition?

Novel bacterium, not on file. Symptoms will include increased aggression followed by dizziness, lethargy, comatosation and death.

Explains why he sounds so angry despite the lack of red light. Time frame?

Varies. Approximately one week from first symptoms appearing in an otherwise healthy adult.

"Oh dear."

Quick check. Kaldur's infected. Canis isn't, and neither's Kon. Canis said that New Gods of any power shrugged off conventional disease, so that isn't surprising. In Kon's case, alien physiology.. or his personal environmental field might be keeping him safe. Kaldur's infection is in the early stages. If they've been here less than a day that's a blooming fast rate of infection. Ring, transmission vector?

Bacterium is capable of airborne transmission.

Oh dear. I'd cure him, but he'd be reinfected almost immediately. This whole place is going to need to be quarantined very carefully.

"When did the rash start appearing?"

Kon shrugs and looks at the guard. He shrugs too. "I don't know. Three days ago? Why, is it Kryptonian too?"

"It might be. I don't have complete files on Kryptonian diseases. However, given the physiological differences between humans and kryptonians I'm not considering it especially likely."

"Is it.. serious?"

"Yes. Fatal within a week."

"Ah…" He looks down the row again. "Shit."

"I'm assuming that you weren't doing biological weapon testing-."

"No! No.. micro-scale.. stuff. The cloning cylinders were for synthetic life forms."

Kon glowers. "Improved genomorphs in a country that doesn't recognise them as being people."

Oh.. dear. "Can you please confirm for me that the psychotic kryptonian outside isn't one of yours?"

"We aren't fully set up yet. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't. You can see for yourself!"

"That wasn't actually a 'no'."

"I don't-! Okay, look, I can't swear to it or anything. I'm Deputy Head of Security, not the Director! But I've been through the labs plenty of times and none of the equipment was in… Y'know, full use yet."

"And if anyone knows how to keep a kryptonian/rhinoceros contained, it would be LexCorp."

"What?!

"The horn?" I generate a curved horn construct on my forehead. "You saw the horn?"

Kon shakes his head. "I saw him for about two seconds before he hit me. Once."

I generate a construct image. "This is what he looks like. And he's immune to gold and green kryptonite."

Kon frowns. "Didn't you say kryptonite works on kryptonians by using the same mechanism we use for collecting solar power?"

"Yes, but there're ways to block one without blocking the other. But we're.. skipping. You spotted the cloning cylinders..?"

"We wanted to find out exactly what they were cloning. And why they were doing it here."

"We're not cloning anything yet! I just told you-."

"The first stage of the infection results in unusual irritability. So I'm not getting annoyed. But please try and stop."

"Ah… Anyway, some of us snuck in, some of us held back… Then there was some kind of explosion-."

"From the excavation site." The security deputy nods. "A lot of our injuries happened when it first broke through. When you're that fast and that strong you don't need to be coordinated to kill people."

"Did you break through to where he was, or did he-."

"I don't know! We weren't even digging for more lab space, just for more rock samples."

"Okay, so we don't know why he woke up now. Then what?"

"I was there, in disguise. When he used his heat vision I tried talking to him in Kryptonese. That was when-." He moves his left arm. "He wasn't even looking at me, he just heard it and bang."

"But he didn't kill you."

"I don't think he was specifically trying to kill anyone. Just.. lashing out."

"Did he say anything?"

"No. I think he…" Kon concentrates. "I hit my head pretty hard, but I think he was.. groaning?"

"Yes." Canis nods. "But not one of pain. One of confusion. Bewilderment. As if the universe itself was utterly incomprehensible." It was quite tuneful. Ah, for a violin!

"You and Kaldur?"

"Aqualad was concussed when a flash of heat vision made part of the machinery explode. I was kicked in the face. At least twice."

"Everyone else?"

The security deputy points at the door. "Still here. The martian said she was doing something to its mind to make it forget about us. And Robin is going through our files. Like I said: lawsuit."

"Right. We need to check in with Robin, then I'll use my ring to contact the League. Because a rampaging super-kryptonian is definitely League business."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:41 GMT -3

Wallace looks around as I walk in, then smiles and raises his right hand to wave. "Hey, Oh El. You take care of the crazy kryptonian already?"

I look at him for a moment, then take my armour out of subspace.

He looks at the bent and battered plates and the burned slashes, then nods slowly. "I'm guessing 'not', then."

I return it to subspace. "Immune to kryptonite. Green Lantern A had to pull back. I teleported here."

He grimaces. "Immune to kryptonite? That's cheat-" Kon follows me into the room "-ing. All the different types of kryptonite, or..?"

"I tried gold and green."

"Not blue?"

"Fight lasted less than a minute. I needed to get out before he found a way to bypass my phasing as well as my kinetic barrier." I gesture to the door on the left with my thumb. "Is it safe to go in?"

Kon nods cautiously. "It depends on how fast he's moving. Miss Martian has trouble affecting him when he's moving at full speed. She nearly lost him when he left the facility the first time."

"And the-."

The door opens, and a moderately bandaged Tula walks out. She blinks in surprise as she sees me, then nods. "Batman sent you when we didn't check in?"

"Me and Green A. I'm afraid we lost. You found the wards?"

She nods. "They're not demonic, but I could taste the blood in the air. Ritual sacrifice, maybe something Aztec or Mayan." She sees my expression. "No, the sacrifice wasn't human. One or more large animals, but they were definitely killed to bind the spell."

"Lex found another expert. Someone local. But it's holding?"

"Between the changes we made to the spell and Miss Martian… He hasn't come back."

I nod and walk past her into the room she just left. Garth is studying the symbols etched into the walls to my right while M'gann's sitting cross-legged against the opposite wall, her eyes open but glazed and unseeing. Kryptonians aren't any more resistant to mental influence than humans, Torquasm Vo masters excepted. But when someone moves as fast as a kryptonian can move it can make it hard for the telepath to maintain contact. Wallace discovered that while sparring with M'gann, and Mr King said that he had the same problem with Ms Tyler.

"Miss Martian?"

Garth glances my way. "Did you fly in or teleport?"

"Teleport."

"If this-" He returns his attention to the wall. "-isn't blocking your teleport, we should be glad that kryptonians can't see people's souls."

"Paul?"

I return my attention to M'gann. "Yes. Are you managing?"

"Conner-."

"First place I went, he's all healed up."

She nods weakly. "It's… Hard.. to stop him remembering we're here." She looks up slightly, her eyes still somewhat unfocused. "Can I..? Let go..?"

"I could teleport in but I can't scan out. And I didn't have time to study what he wanted."

"He wants to die. It's the only clear thing I can feel from him. I think he's… Ill, or insane or… I don't know."

I nod. "How are you coping?"

"I can… Keep him from coming back. But-. You remember you said I should… Think about working with the mentally ill?"

"Yes."

"I-. I don't think I could do it. Not.. if this is…"

"On the bright side, if the disease the LexCorp employees have contracted somehow came from him, he might just be like that because he's physically ill."

"Really?"

"Kryptonians can get ill, even when they're powered up." I shrug. "Maybe. I still need to examine where he came from."

M'gann lowers her head again as Garth nods. "Robin's already taking a look around, but he doesn't have a power ring." I nod and turn back towards the door. "Kryptonians can't get immunity to magic, can they?"

"Not by any method I'm aware of them having historically. Having trouble?"

He smiles wryly. "We've modified it so that he should think that he can't sense us." He gestures to some.. vaguely familiar inscriptions. "But if we have made a mistake, then the first we will know about it is when an insane super alien smashes through the wall and kills us."

I smile back. "There's some good news, then."

"Could you..? Could you beat him?"

I tilt my head to the left for a moment. "I don't know. I.. can kill most things, but he's… Very fast, very tough and very strong."

He nods. "We can keep hiding until M'gann gets exhausted. Unless he decides to go somewhere else. How far can kryptonians see?"

"Depends on the atmosphere. On a clear day? Perfect vision to the horizon, which they can magnify so that it's as if it's standing next to them."

"So he can already see all of South America."

"If he's looking, most of it. And he can see radio waves and hear.. just about anything he focuses on. If he wants to find a population centre there's nothing we can do to stop him."

He frowns, and looks around the room. "No, we.. could… With more time, we could modify this to stop him perceiving the rest of the world and stop him noticing that he can't perceive the rest of the world."

"If you can-" My ring blinks. "-manage, that's a good plan." I head back out, raising the ring to my ear. "Orange Lantern."

"Paul? Oh, thank God."

"Hi Alan. Green Lantern A made it back in contact? Is he alright?"

"Physician sung him back into full health. Are the kids okay?"

"Miss Martian's getting a bit worn down, but apart from that, yes."

"That's a relief. Is that really a kryptonian down there?"

"Aside from the kryptonite immunity, he certainly acts like it. There's also been some sort of disease outbreak here that might be linked to him. I'm looking into it now."

"Okay. Batman's getting a strike force put together, but it's not going to be able to reach you for an hour at best. And we're going to need to hear everything that happened first."

"Okay. Let me just find Robin and I'll give you a full run down."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:46 GMT -3

Richard looks around for a half-second as Wallace and I walk into the laboratory. "Hey."

Several of the other scientists give me a considerably more wary look, but swiftly bend their efforts towards their work. A cone-shaped part of the facility has been punched out from the rock below, the sky above obscured… Presumably by the hiding spell. Rubble litters the area where rock and interior walls were thrust outwards rather than up, and while they made an effort to clear away the human remains there's still quite a lot of blood.

"What happened to Rocket?"

He looks out of the hole where the wall used to be at Doomsday's emergence point, eyes alighting on our-. On his team mate where she sits inside a kinetic bubble. "Grey guy punched her so hard it overloaded her kinetic belt. She can't turn it off. Can you get her out?"

I send a filament underground-. No, that would be too easy. I write 'Air okay?' with a construct in front of her. She gives me a depressed nod and a half-hearted thumbs up.

"Not in a way that was reliably safe. Any progress on the disease?"

He looks at me for a moment, then looks at the researchers. "Because you can heal us, but not them." I nod. "Know anything about the disease?"

"Nothing about its origin or how to regularise a cure."

He nods. "If it's an alien disease that can actually infect humans, we're probably not going to have antibodies that can kill it."

"Healing potion?"

Wallace shakes his head. "Already tried it. Helps with the symptoms, but it doesn't do anything about the actual disease." I nod. "Y'know, if anyone's got antibodies, it's gunna be that guy outside."

I nod. Assuming they're human-compatible as well. "No other.. team members?"

I'm assuming that if any of us had died they'd have said something, but no Artemis, Robert or Roy makes me-.

"No." Richard shakes his head. "The Arrow Clan are busy and Cornwall Boy is on some kind of vision quest."

"Alright. Kaldur should be up soon but the League-."

"Ah, Oh El?" Wallace points behind me. "Something-" I turn as two large black creatures-. No, red glowing sigils and curved horns. Genomorphs. Step through a shimmer in the air and take up position around the hole in the ground. "-you forgot to mention?"

"Ah, no? Those-." Horns at the sides of the head and curved downwards, actual rune glyphs, built like oversized gibbons… "Those are G-Oni. I didn't know they had any of those finished."

Wallace takes a half-step back, shifting his weight so he can dash forward at a moment's notice. "And who was it told them using demon magic was a good idea?"

"Technically, as long as you-."

Their horns glow for a moment. Then one drops down into the hole and the second ambles towards us. I suppose that they'd know me best.

"Hello." I stride forward, making myself the obvious target in case anything goes wrong. "The Justice League didn't tell me you were coming. I'm afraid that M'gann-."

"Blood. Speaks."

I nod politely. "I hadn't realised that Dubbilex was going to give your type the ability to speak."

"Not give." It opens its mouth a little more widely and I can see that its teeth are covered in what looks like blood. "Take."

Concern… Increasing. "And what brings you here?"

"Source. Of our blood. Where?"

"Th-?" They're.. made from.. that-? Okay, I suppose-. Some of them do have a certain Doomsdayish look to them. I just don't remember any comic version of Doomsday being telepathic. "Up in the air somewhere above us. He's extremely hostile and possibly not in his right mind."

"Why not. Here?"

"Given the damage he did, we felt that keeping him away would be a better idea. At the moment we're-."

"You. Keep away?"

"Yes, we're keeping him away because-."

For a fraction of a second I see the runes on its skin burn with purple fire-.

Then I'm slammed against the far wall as the torrent roars into the place I was standing.

"Sorry, Oh El, but they don't-"

The G-Oni turns, fire blazing forth once more. I generate a construct shield as Wallace throws himself-. The flames go through the shield and I'm forced to transition a metre right to stay out of the cone of hellfire!

"-seem to be the nice-"

The one in the pit blurs as it claws its way to the surface and lunges at Wallace!

"-kind of-"

He moves sideways, rolling under its claws then coming to his feet with practised ease before throwing a small pellet at its outstretched limb. It hits home, smoke violently hissing from the G-Oni's skin as the essence of vitriol goes to work. It doesn't react in pain, but it does slow as its runes turn a deeper purple and the smouldering decreases.

"-demon monster!"

The flaming one lines up with me again and in the corner of my eye I see a somewhat panicked Raquel gesture frantically at the bubble which means she can't move energy bolt! Two shots of orange light hit the G-Oni in the face and cause chunks of flesh to vaporise. In response its runes flare grey and its form wavers into intangibility.

"Orange Lantern to everyone."

It lunges at me, shadowy claws slashing towards my head! I swing two construct blades through its torso to no effect-.

Minor power drain detected.

No significant effect, before flying upwards to keep Raquel out of its arc of fire.

"We're under attack from magic-using genomorphs."

Wallace gets in behind the G-Oni dashing after him, throwing a vial at its back. This time it isn't just smoke that erupts; white-gold flame envelops its body, and it rolls around on the ground in a frantic attempt to put it out.

Looks like G-Oni kept the weakness to holy water.

The one pursuing me makes several leaps off thin air to try and reach me, then looks over to its burning brother and then leaps away, passing through a nearby wall.

"And we've lost sight of one! Look out!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:49 GMT -3

I take a set of manacles out of subspace and clamp them to the still-burning g-oni as Wallace dashes off in the approximate direction the other one left in. "Robin, can you-!"

He uses some sort of bolas to attach a small device to its forehead without having to touch it. "Go!"

Ring-

I start flying in the direction Wallace headed in.

-can you detect it?

Not at present.

Great. Okay, most people are in the barracks but Kon's there. The magic room where the people keeping Doomsday away are located is probably its destination, assuming-.

"Hruagh!"

Garth's voice. I don't transition, because that's a good way to smash into someone. But I do accelerate, corridors blurring gahh!

I tumble to the floor, orange light flaring over my body as I try extinguishing the hellfires enveloping my left side! I don't want to burn! Agh, how are they strong enough to-? I dart back around a corner as the g-oni exhales again, spell eater finally turning hellfire back into normal fire so I can tend to my burns. Did Dubbilex literally feed these things demons?

"Contact, my location."

It comes forward, exhaling again. Fine! Railgun, mageslayer rounds. Not enough room for me to dodge properly, but the same goes for-.

The g-oni has about a half-second to spot my railgun before the flames gutter and it goes shadowy, my round passing harmlessly through its ethereal frame and punching through the wall behind it! Aaah… Magic phasing or altered states of being… If I had any angel feather rounds left I could have used those-.

"Mine too. It's trying to-." A disturbing roar drowns out Wallace's words.

"Superboy and I will protect the sick." Kaldur's up, good. "This facility will not survive if he returns. Describe the attacker's abilities."

"Breathes hellfire, which bypasses-" I just about see the claw coming through the ceiling in time to dodge, the tips of the talons justow! "Ugh, which bypasses armour and force fields. And selective phasing, which lets them do the same with their claws while hiding in the walls."

Just before the claw is fully retracted I see-. Wait, that's my-. Ring, physical status of my tattoos?

Small portion from right abdomen removed.

Oh.

"Yeah, and they can move pretty fast too!"

Manual restore of the ink… Just have to hope whatever's doing duty as my soul can cope.

**A-agh!**

The walls shake as I hear M'gann's exclamation of pain.

Right then.

Orange spikes shoot out in all directions, piercing the flimsy walls, floor and ceiling. I feel a tiny drain from seven o'clock high-

"Banishment works, but it hit M'gann. He can think about us again!"

-and brand you ungrateful bastard! I'm the reason you're legally a person!

Branding in progress.

Good. Maybe when it's complete, I'll-.

Connection lost.

Know no more than I do now. Right, ring, monitor for-.

"It's trying to-!"

And now my ring scans are working again. Doomsday's heading this way, though not at anything like his full speed. If this Doomsday is Kryptonian, I'm assuming that he gets an expanded visual range as part of the package. LexCorp means lead lined, but there are probably things he can see anyway. Wall's too thick for body heat-.

"Ward just failed. He's heading this way slowly."

"Maybe he's ugh." Kon doesn't sound hurt, so I'll assume that was an exertion-grunt. "Calmed down? If LexCorp was doing the same thing to… To him they did to me and Match…"

I start flying towards the magic room. "Lost contact with my G-oni."

"The one in the walls here…" I arrive to see Wallace uncomfortably prodding a mound of rubble and shredded genomorph while Tula stands back. "Ah, I think it.. died when Aquagirl did her anti-magic thing, but the other one vanished."

"Our attacker has similarly vanished. Injuries?"

M'gann walks out of the magic room, using telekinesis to dribble healing potion over the burns covering her forearms. **I'll live. Networking everyone now.**

**Bah. I had hoped-** Canis walks out of a connecting corridor. **-for better. When is the insane kryptonian arriving?**

**No injuries here.** I get a brief glimpse of Richard looking around the laboratory again. **And the G-oni Kid Flash set on fire… I think it's dead.**

**Ah… Darn it. I didn't even use that much.**

Tula crouches down, tattoos glowing as she holds her hands out towards the pieces of meat that used to be a g-oni. From her grimace I'm going to assume that she doesn't see anything wrong with killing demonic life forms. **I.. can't feel anything other than demon magic in the remains of this one. If you used something that nullified such magics, it would probably have been made hollow. The shock alone-.**

Alert! In-.

"The kryptonian's coming b-!"

I frantically create construct barriers as the ceiling collapses and the walls explode! Tula scrambles back as a concrete pillar falls towards her, narrowly getting her foot out of the way as it smashes down! Plaster, concrete, mangled electronics and office equipment follow it, making a solid feeling dome above us.

**Mghrh.**

Behind me, Garth uses water projections to hold up the wreckage above him and M'gann. Okay, probably easier to crumble this than actually put it back in any sort of order…

**Canis?**

**Uninjured, but trapped. Th-.**

**He's here.**

Fuck. **Aqualad, we can't get to you.** "Tempest, Aquagirl, M'gann, can you hold the ceiling up without me?"

Tula nods as she and Garth send more water out of their armour, running it over every visible surface.

Wallace watches them work. **Really wishing I could move through solid objects. Aqualad, what's he doing?**

**He is simply watching Superboy. He is ignoring both myself and the diseased LexCorp employees.**

Sounds positive. Because the only thing in there I'd rely on being able to hurt him would be Kon's heat vision. Kryptonians aren't magically immune to suns simply because those are the most common source of the wavelengths which empower them, but neither is anyone else in that room.

**Okay.** Garth nods at me. **That should hold.**

I nod, don my still-battered armour and phase out.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:53 GMT -3

I can see Kon's desires clearly. Kaldur's are somewhat dimmer, possibly due to him wearing magic armour.

Doomsday…

I hadn't ever given much thought to what Doomsday wanted. In the comics I'm not sure that he ever really had a motive. I did see a comic where he started getting intelligent and ended up trying to fix Superman being killed by Gog, and his Earth 12 alter ego either wanted power and control or was just following his programming to kill Superman. Oh, and he got possessed by Brainiac that one time. But Doomsday himself never really had a motivation beyond 'smash things'.

This one?

Frankly, I can't tell. There are patches that are dull, dull as Mr Wilson under the influence of the Anti-Life. There are flashes of light of all colours, appearing and disappearing at random as far as I can tell. That suggests either that he's insane or that someone has messed with his mind. Of course, if we're dealing with the undirected living weapon version from the comics… That might well just be what he looks like.

On the other hand…

Comic characters are family resemblance characters. There are certain characteristics to 'Superman' that make him Superman, but not every version of Superman is the same. The difference between 'I don't like that version of Superman' and 'that's not Superman' is more or less in the eye of the beholder. Klarion 16 looks right, but he's far more powerful than any version of Klarion I recognise from the comics. On the other hand he does look right, whereas this Doomsday doesn't look like 'Doomsday'. No bone spurs, the shell and the single horn… To say nothing of the fact that Doomsday can't fly or use heat vision, obviously.

So… What if it's someone else?

I break through the rubble wall and see Maybe-Doomsday floating just above Kon, looking down at him.

"Who. Who are… You?"

The voice is slurred, as if the speaker hasn't got full control of his own mouth. And there's a wheezing tone, as if he's inhaled a lungful of dust and hasn't got it out yet. If my x-ionised sword actually did anything during our brief fight, the wound has completely healed over.

Kon folds his arms across his chest. "I'm Kon-El. Who are you?"

Kaldur's visible straining to hold the rubble thrown aside by the grey kryptonian's entrance. I don't want to set him off, but… Have to risk it. I start grabbing bits of rubble from Kaldur's watery grip and piling them in the clear areas of the room.

"Ron. Dor."

"You're kryptonian, aren't you?" This.. Ron-Dor trembles slightly, but I can't see any corresponding emotional resonance. I don't know what's going on with him, but it must be extremely confusing for your emotions to bear no link to what's happening to you. "How did you get here?"

"Iiiii… I don't…" Hm. Kryptonians do have an equivalent condition to senile dementia, and confusion and fear are certainly symptoms. "Sickness…"

Okay, we can.. stick him alongside Match. If we can keep him this calm, anyway. Lashing out in a panic is a lot easier to explain than-.

"I. Made myself. Sick."

O.. kay… Not sure what that means. Kon glances my way, but this armour doesn't really allow me to convey body language and I don't want to risk breaking Ron-Dor's focus. Actually, with the Faraday cage.. firmly broken along with everything else… Ring, location of Kara Zor-El?

Kara Zor-El is presently located in the Kent residence in Smallville.

Phone them.

Compliance.

"If you're sick, we'll.. try and help. We just need you to calm down, okay?"

Kaldur breathes a sigh of relief as the last of the rubble is made safe, his tattoos dimming. Okay, if we can turn whatever's left of the ward into an anti-magic field to keep the g-oni away, we might-.

A grey blur as a g-oni leaps from the wall.

Kon seeing it and rising into the air to push Ron-Dor away.

Ron-Dor's eyes starting to light up-.

I'm forming a reflective shield and fuckfuckfuck! Two burning beams scythe through the barracks, slicing through three people-

"Airaaghr!"

-before I can interpose my shield and it's not reflective enough! Most of the energy is now burning through what little of the facility is left intact above us, but my construct is still receiving enough that it starts to fail almost immediately!

Kon's efforts to move Ron-Dor aside come to nothing as the man flails, sending Kon spinning into the far wall just in time for the g-oni to stab into the grey kryptonian with demonically augmented claws! It envelops his right side, talons sinking into his back and chest while its teeth bite into his shoulder! He spins and flails some more in response, smashing through an occupied-!

I frantically stick deployable kinetic shields around them, two immediately getting overstressed by the force of the impacts. Kaldur tries to hold him in place with his water bearers but Ron-Dor doesn't even seem to notice that he's being bound. I just about catch another blast of heat vision with a new construct deflector before Ron-Dor gets a decent grip on his attacker and squeezes. The g-oni's runes flare hot pink for a moment, then its body comes apart in his hands!

Okay, that's-.

The pink glow stays as the surprisingly small wounds the g-oni inflicted heal over.

Ron-Dor blinks, then-. I brace at the blast of air as he takes to the sky again.

Shit.

Hello? Who is it?

What-? Oh. "Hi, Missus Kent. I'm a friend of Kara's. Would you mind putting her on?"

Al-right, just a minute. Kara!

"Orange Lantern, are you able to track him?"

Ring, show me-. "Heading south west toward San Miguel de Tucumán-. No, he's already there."

He looks around to assess the state of the room and the injured.

Who is this?

"Hi, Kara. Sorry to bother you, but it's a bit urgent. Have you ever heard of a 'Ron-Dor'?"

Hu-? Ah, yes. Rondors are an extinct Kryptonian species, kind of like a cross between giant armadillos and unicorns. Why do you need to know?

Grey, with a single horn. Starting to work out the sort of thing that's going on.

"And can you think of any reason why a kryptonian would be big, grey, have a horn and be insane?"

Nam-Ek? I didn't think he actually existed, but he's supposed to be the one who made them extinct searching for a way to make himself immortal.

"Thanks, brilliant, call you back."

I hang up as Kaldur reaches a decision. "Follow him. Protect the people around him if he continues to be violent, and if possible protect him from the g-oni. I will direct reinforcements to you-" Kon picks himself up out of the rubble. "-as soon as they become available."

I nod, then I'm gone.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:56 GMT -3

San Miguel de Tucumán is a city of about a million people in northern Argentina. I've never been before, but from this height it reminds me of the better planned American cities; the roads all laid out in grids rather than the higgledy-piggledy European design. The area surrounding it looks like farmland and-.

Dust and chunks of road fly into the air as probably-Nam-Ek slams into a road and bounces into a building and I really hope there wasn't anyone in the way.

Kryptonian-tier brawls in cities are very bad. The sort of devastation I flat out can't cause, two Kryptonians can do in seconds without really trying.

I transition down as the screaming starts. Some places have drills for this sort of thing. Others are unlucky enough that this is a regular enough occurrence that everyone's learned how to respond. Here, people who have reached what they think is a 'safe' distance have already stopped running and turned back to look at the rubble Nam-Ek is pulling himself out of. Several have taken out cameras-.

"Run, you idiots! Run!"

Construct armour, start making repairs to my armour… The problem with integrating so many advanced systems is that that process takes longer than it otherwise would. Kinetic barrier gets prioritised, because I once calculated what would happen when a properly motivated Kryptonian hit someone like they meant it and the target basically gets vaporised. Not sure what went wrong with Raquel's system that it generated a persistent bubble, but I'll just be using the personal defence type so it shouldn't matter too mu-.

The building Nam-Ek's pulling himself out of visibly shakes and fuck he took out a load bearing column! I send filaments into the building behind him and create a girder construct to prop up the upper two floors. People are… Some of them are fleeing, but all too many are seeking cover inside which is a bad idea in super fights of this level.

Nam-Ek staggers into the road, drunkenly turning his head around as he peers at the city surrounding us. "Nam-Ek. Please! Calm down!"

He doesn't react to his name being spoken, so… Still wrong name?

My ring blinks for attention.

How would I fight him?

Filaments begin reaching around for materials to replace the column as I consider it. He's not showing any injuries from his landing or even from the g-oni's claws. Repeatedly shooting him isn't likely to work. Decapitation with an x-ionised blade or the Sword might work. Branding, perhaps, but it wouldn't be easy given that I can't see him wanting anything in particular.

Answer.

Orange Lantern, report.

Lantern Stewart certainly sounds better. "The kryptonian is in San Miguel de Tucumán and I'm not confident of my ability to contain him."

If you've got any kryptonite-.

"Didn't work." I do have the radiation signatures for other colours of kryptonite now, but that sounds like a good way to make the situation worse.

Flash and Superman are heading your way from the nearest zeta tube.

"Good. Orders?"

Damage mitigation. Superman knows how to fight these people. Just try and stop him killing anyone.

"Got it."

If they start punching each other… No, no, that could work. The surrounding landscape is relatively empty. If Kal-El gets him out of the city-.

Two g-oni shimmer into being behind Nam-Ek. Both blur towards him, grabbing him before he has a chance to fly away and digging into him with teeth and claws! Right, mageslay-.

Nam-Ek's eyes light up and nononoshield!

Two beams of red light burn through the neck of one of the g-oni and lash across the road, melting the tarmac, turning the paving stones red, turning a car to burning scrap and scorching the frontage of one of the buildings before I can get my shield in the way! Nam-Ek doesn't turn it off, he just turns himself to try and line up his shot better!

Ring, predictive-!

Another shot, this time lined up with the centre of a building where people are watching-. Why aren't you running away yet?! I send construct signs with 'EVACUEN AHORA' written on them down… Balcarce street, apparently. Better shield and moveitmoveitmoveit!

His eyes flare again, and this time I'm only just able to send the energy skywards as the g-oni claw around him to escape the burning heat! A second later my shield fails and a lance of heat pierces the building! The people inside have fled the site of the strike, brick and glass melting and the soft furnishings within catching fire from the intensity of the radiated heat alone.

The column in the initial building is repaired, so I abandon that and focus on-. Nam-Ek's gotten a grip on one of the g-oni, but this time it isn't ripping quite so easil-.

Another explosion of air and he's gone, passengers with him. Street reasonably intact, fire-. I dismiss the evacuation sign and generate cold guns, giving it a short burst of the physics-breaking beams. Out, good.

Now, where's he gone?

North east, towards Paraguay. He's tearing at them as-

A red blur precipitates out of the air next to me.

-he ploughs into and through the ground in an attempt to force them to release him.

"Where'd he go?"

"East-north-east, sir. I'll create a marker when I arrive."

I transition, firing up a broad beam of orange light as I appear and fuck! National Route 24 is only two lanes here, but the force of Nam-Ek's passage has torn the land apart and the cars are going too fast to stop! I take hold of them with construct crane grabs, lifting them over the new cleft in the landscape and-

Mister Allen is already past me, looking for an angle of attack. He's not like Wallace, where I can sort of keep up with what he's doing if I accelerate my perception of events hard enough. I couldn't even say where he is.

-setting them down on the road beyond. Ah! Inefficient! A bridge would-.

Another flash of heat vision, this time intersecting with a car before I can get a shield in position. The tires are on fire and metal frame molten as the car skids to a halt. The people inside-. Flash fried. Nothing I can do for them.

I generate a construct bridge over the torn area, put a 'SIGUE MANEJANDO' sign over it and move the wreck off the road into an adjacent field. Given the speed-. He's already out of effective range. My effective range, anyway. Okay, can't stay here, people are using the bridge… I start shoving earth back into place. I don't have time to properly restore the road. Shove, shove… Get enough gravel, fuse it into a.. temporary surface. Cool.

Right, good enough. I lower the angle of the bridge until it evaporates into the new road surface. Ring, where's Nam-Ek gotten to?

…

I watch in drop-jawed horror as he ploughs through the lower floors of a block of flats in Asuncion, the building fracturing and tilting in his wake.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th November
19:58 GMT -3

Transition.

Ring, show me the structure.

I can't try supporting with some sort of giant scaffolding construct. The shockwaves and demonic fire have done too much damage to the skeleton frame for the building to be able to support its own weight. I'm going to have to try to grab the whole thing -from the inside- and replace those parts.

This is going to be heavy.

I don't bother with filaments this time. The air between myself and the building turns orange, constructs burrowing in through the walls and merging with the still-whole parts of the skeleton. Large construct girders smash their way through the lower floors to attach themselves to the foundations as I frantically try to hold the whole thing together without crushing any of the people dashing about in a panic inside. Or worse, crouching and praying in terror in really inconvenient places!

The building's still tilting, but at least the rate at which the tilting is increasing has decreas-.

A chunk of fascia falls off from the foremost side, near the top. Everyone in the street below has had the sense to run, but the problem isn't just the failing skeleton any longer. The whole of the interior and exterior is starting to fail. I construct a construct mesh over the front… And, that floor and that floor and-. And-. And a bunch of arrows pointing to the exits because if I didn't have to worry about you stupid people I could just-! Throw this stupid thing into space with less effort!

Now.. get.. upright… Yes, good, keep going… I mean, yes, at this point the whole thing is more construct than building, but my effort will not be wasted! No, stop falling apart! I'm in charge here, you stupid building! See these rings?! Right, thank you!

Okay, that's… Upright, Now, to just… Fuse that, replace the missing parts of the skeleton with… Materials from the surrounding environment… Ugh, they're going to have to tear it down anyway unless I-. No, no, I've got an ongoing job to do. Put some cables between the parts of the skeleton to hold the floors up and make sure that the stairs are safe…

That'll have to do.

I remove my construct and turn away, trying not to look at the remaining chunks of the fascia as they part company with the building's exterior.

At least nothing else has collapsed while I've been busy. Ring, location.

Location available.

Why is he flying through central Brazil? What's he.. heading for? Is he just flailing around until he hits something which he can't punch through? Should I try talking to Dubbilex-? No. Someone will be doing that already. My job is to stop him hitting anything e-

Another blur, this time a blue one, shoots overhead.

-lse. Transition.

Far above Nam-Ek, I can see Flash's activity as he acts to remove people from their path. Not individual actions, but their results: people appearing in groups outside of their houses, vehicles and previous route of travel with confused looks on their faces and with slightly windswept appearances. Having Mr Allen convey you isn't anything like as traumatic as moving at near-light speed should be, but it still feels a little like standing in a wind tunnel.

If he's limiting himself to that, then he's out of offensive options. Against a flying opponent, that means that arm-generated tornado blasts didn't do anything very much. Did he get Mr Mercury to show him how to bestow and steal speed? I never thought to ask. An object thrown by someone at super speed doesn't automatically act like an object moving at the speed it appears to be actually would. At full speed, they usually go a couple of metres and then explode due to the air resistance.

Okay, if Nam-Ek started rampaging due to coming under attack by g-oni -either due to an entirely understandable reaction to things trying to eat you or something to do with their magic- then it seems reasonably logical that blasting them off would help him calm down. How to-?

Below me, he throws one off only for it to shimmer out of reality and then reappear ahead of him, leaping into his flight path while he was looking away. They're definitely getting stronger and tougher.

How to hurt them? If he can heal from attacks then I don't have to worry too much about harming him. I don't want to get within arm's reach for a crumbler gauntlet attack-

Armour systems fully repaired.

-and a railgun shot wouldn't… Firing down is inaccurate at these speeds and firing along risks a miss flying into something at supersonic speeds, which would be rather terminal unless Mr Allen caught it. Radiological weapons in a rainforest would be bad. And probably wouldn't even work. Gravity based weapons strong enough to actually hurt them, similar problem. Okay, apart from general purpose anti-magic and theurgy, what are demons weak against? Bigger demons?

And doesn't the fact that that was the first thing that occurred to me show that I've spent too much time with John Constantine.

What else..? Iron? Was that just fae, or..? Doesn't matter. A shotgun style blast of supersonic iron filings shouldn't cause much environmental damage, will pack a punch and doesn't have to be completely accurate. And if it has some extra effect on demonoids, then so much the better.

I generate a railgun, a far fatter one than usual, and start charging up the capacitors. While it's not going to cause long term damage to the area, in the medium term it's going to shred the rainforest quite effectively. Have to ask Euanthe to come here and fix it up afterwards.

"Orange Lantern to Flash, permission to engage."

"Whatwith?"

"Supersonic iron filing shotgun."

Another plume of earth erupts as Nam-Ek tries to scrape the g-oni off by burrowing underground.

"Goforit."

Scanning, calculating… "Sir, you'll need to be further away than that."

"Fastestmanalive. Givemeasecondnotice."

Okay, wait for them to come up for air. I can already see the Amazon river-. There! I form construct thrusters to go with my construct armour and blast after them.

"Firing in one."

Aim the gun and-.

The rings stop all external sound as the blast of millions of tiny slivers of metal shoving through the air reverberates around me. Trees evaporate, the air turns to dust and the ground beneath jumps at the force of the shot. I use my thrusters to jump away and start scanning for-.

Nam-Ek and company fly freely out of the far side of the new dust cloud.

"Didn't work. Resuming monitor du-"

And then Kal-El slams into the melee, making a dust cloud that makes mine look like a fart by comparison.

"-ty."

I watch as he grabs one g-oni, carefully breaks its arms and legs and then tosses it aside. The second gets what must be the weakest heat vision shot I've seen to its eyes. It recoils for a half-second, then ducks its head behind Nam-Ek's body and-.

Nam-Ek uppercuts, striking Kal-El right on the chin and sending him careering into the sky.

Okay, if he's not helping…

Ring, sonic detonator.

Compliance.