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

[Mr Zoat]

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18th September
19:02 GMT +8

I haven't quite gotten used to the stares yet.

Obviously my activity last time I was in Taipei was far more obvious than what I've been doing with the team, but there are plenty of other Caucasians around and it's not as if I'm wearing my armour. But I'm getting recognised. I'm getting photographed. I'm getting gawped at, even just walking down the street.

Feels jolly odd.

I'm on the way to the Mackay Memorial Hospital where Mister Huang Jianhong has recently woken up. Had to skip out on the morning training session, but Kaldur said it was fine. Mister Huang's parents -Missus Huang De and Mister Huang Tung- and a young woman -ah, her name's Miss Su Xin- I assume to be his girlfriend are with him now. It's been a couple of hours, and I think that the initial 'thank-god-I'm-alive' bit should have passed by now. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why I want to speak to him so much. I'm sure that the police will be interviewing him after an appropriate amount of time has passed, though at this point a new lead is unlikely. Everything I know about neurophysiology says that he should be at least as good as new. But I don't regard the case as complete until I've seen for myself.

I don't know whether or not I'm actually allowed in to see him. It isn't as if I'm a relative or anything. Hmm. One of the windows in the room next to his is open, and the door doesn't make a good enough seal to stop my FTL. It's a pretty good room. Mister Luthor made a point of paying for his care. It was thoughtful of him, even if he made sure that the press knew about it. I'd have done it myself, but it just didn't occur to me to offer. I suppose I'm too used to the NHS just being there.

Might as well skip the whole front desk bit. I materialise in a hospital corridor, one door down from the one Mister Huang occupies. I hear a soft thump, and turn to see someone I presume to be either a nurse or an orderly staring at me in astonishment, having just dropped a pile of folded bedclothes she was transporting from the cupboard to a trolley. She's probably in her mid twenties, though I remember reading an interview where the interviewee claimed that Asian women generally kept looking young until they suddenly don't, so I could be well out. I pick the sheets up and move them to their intended destination, before walking toward her. I stop moving when her confusion shifts to nervousness.

"Good morning, miss. Orange Lantern two eight one four."

"Um… G-good morning, sir."

She actually puts her hands together at her waist and gives me a shallow bow. Am I supposed to do that?

"I'm here to check on Mister Huang. He's in this room-" I point. "-is he not?"

"Ah!" She moves to her trolley and consults a clipboard. "Yes, that is where Mister Huang is staying."

"Thank you. I won't keep you."

I find myself bending slightly, as if some part of my brain believed that bowing was appropriate but was unable to secure a majority. I straighten, turn away, walk to the door indicated and knock loudly. The conversation within carries on, and for a moment I wonder if they didn't hear me.

"Come in?"

A woman's voice. I turn the handle and push open the door. Miss Su and Mister Huang senior are sitting on either side of the head of the bed, with Miss Su taking the window side. Missus Huang is sitting by the foot of the bed at her husband's side, and is looking at me as I enter the room. Given how surprised she looks I'm going to assume that she was expecting a doctor or something like that. Miss Su flickers her eyes up, then back to the patient, then back to me with her eyes widening.

"Good morning. I'm sorry to intrude, but I was hoping that I might have a few words with Mister Huang Jianhong."

Mister Huang senior stops talking to his son with a grunt. "You couldn't even wait a day, could y-." He swivels in his seat as he speaks, then cuts off. And I get a direct look at his son for the first time in two weeks. He's smiling faintly, and unlike his guests doesn't seem shocked by my being here at all.

"What can I do to help? They showed me the recordings of what I did, but I really don't remember much about it."

"I didn't honestly expect you to. Have the doctors here explained what the stuff the League of Shadows stuck you with did to your body?"

"Not yet. They're going to run some tests to check how I'm doing. I do remember reading a newspaper article on the effects of Venom use, but I thought that most of the harmful effects took a while to manifest?"

"Usually, they do. But what you were given was a new substance made by combining Venom with something called the Blockbuster Formula. They then mixed that with something called Adder Venom, which is a Venom variant which had only previously been seen in a couple of places in Mexico. The stuff was responsible for you going berserk, and it has much worse side effects than regular Venom."

"How bad?"

"You'd have needed a new liver, and would have been left an emotionally unstable wreck. Probably for the rest of your life."

He looks down at his chest. "I don't seem to be..?"

"Power rings are awesome. The liver was an easy fix, and it's now as good as it ever was. Thing is, I didn't know what your amygdala looked like beforehand, and that has a larger effect on your behaviour than your liver does. When I repaired it, I made it as good as an amygdala can be, and that's probably quite a bit better than it was."

He looks more puzzled than worried. "What would that mean for me?"

"Not sure, to be honest. As an educated guess, you'll be able to learn new skills faster than before, and your memory will probably be better. You'll have better intuition of what other people are feeling or thinking, and you'll probably be calmer and friendlier, no social anxiety at all."

He seems to think for a moment. "Those all sound like good things."

"If there were likely to be negative effects, then I wouldn't have been so gung-ho about doing it. Fact is, I've never done this to someone before and so I can't predict exactly what will happen. Plus, those behaviours might not have been how you were originally."

"You have repaired my son's brain from the damage the terrorists caused… By making him smarter?" Mister Huang Senior wants to make sure that he's understood correctly.

"Sort of? There haven't been any studies into the effects of doing what I did. I mean, we know what the result would have been if I'd done nothing, but it isn't as if I just go around doing this to everyone."

"I do feel a little different." He frowns slightly. "When I woke up, I wasn't worried at all. I suppose I should have been, waking up in hospital with no memory of how I got here. But, I think I like it better this way than the alternative. And I appreciate the effort you have gone through on my behalf. Thank you."

"You're welcome. But if you start to feel uneasy about the situation, contact me on this number." I summon forth a card with the number of the public phone in which I'm monitoring in Happy Harbor.

He takes hold of it. "I will. Thank you for checking up on me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Beta Male

23rd September
05:16 GMT -5

I stand in a service corridor, looking at the smooth hemisphere carved into the wall by an Arrow of Unmaking. The first, Artemis used in the library to moderate effect. Losing an arm cost Red Typhoon a great deal of precision but none of his raw power, the primary water control generator thingy being housed in the chest. I asked Batman for Red Tornado's precise technical specifications but was rebuffed. He didn't refuse exactly, but he did indicate that as far as he was concerned it was a League matter now.

The second arrow went off here because a current of water knocked it out of Artemis' quiver and into the wall. The quiver I gave her has little locking mechanisms which mean that you have to push down slightly before pulling the arrows out. That would have stopped them falling out during acrobatics, but she switched back because she found it awkward during normal use. As a result, when Typhoon tried to drown them she lost most of her arrows.

Just lucky it didn't go into her or Robin. Or a major electrical cable. I thought that the impact trigger I built into it would prevent accidental activation, but it seems that a depth charge exploding in close proximity works just as well as striking a target. Maybe I should add an extra safety? An activation button, perhaps?

!Must repair!

"Lantern Stewart, would you mind?"

Lantern Stewart points his ring, and part of our accumulated rubble pile is consumed as the hole is repaired by a green beam. He wanted to make an early start, and I'm used to getting up early. Before I came to this world that was because I had an hour long train journey to get to work. Last night... I... I didn't get much sleep. Even with my orange feline nightlight standing guard. I don't think the others did either.

"What did that?"

"I made Artemis some arrows using Alexander Tuttle's 'crumbler' technology. That's a misfire."

We had a chat about exactly what he's allowed to do with his ring as far as building work goes, and the upshot is that he with his unlimited-recharges-but-can-only-manufacture-things-commonly-available-on-Earth-unless-he-gets-special-dispensation ring will be doing all of the structural work, while the orange no-more-recharges-for-seven-hours-but-can-make-anything ring makes the advanced stuff. Well, we are now. Last night I got a bit repair-happy, and I'm now on low power. Unlike Lantern Jordan, Lantern Stewart actually sounded interested in the possibilities of unrestrained creation.

"Crumbler? Didn't he use gauntlets?"

We carry on down the corridor. At the moment we're just checking the base is structurally sound and doing a little tidying up. We could have started the major work immediately, but I pointed out that it would be a bit pointless to rebuild something if we decided not to include it in the redesign and had to tear it down again. He's volunteered to do most of the design work.

"Yeah, but his design had a load of jank." He gives me a puzzled look. "Stuff that it didn't need in order to work, I mean. Sure, I can see how it could be useful to precisely control the shape and size of the area being crumbled, or the rate of crumbling, but it's hardly necessary. Once you strip out everything you don't need, you can make a one use short duration high intensity crumble generator the size of an arrowhead."

I nod my head to the side.

"If you've got a power ring, anyway."

I asked, and it turned out that he had to wind up his architecture practice in order to be a full time Lantern. Really, that just reaffirmed my decision that establishing a civilian identity wasn't worthwhile. If you can never use it, what's the point? I mean, what does he tell people he does for a living? He hadn't joined the League when this place was first built and so wasn't involved in the construction process. Superman and Lantern Jordan might have hollowed the space out, but Batman and Mister J'onzz handled design and the electronics.

"You been making a lot of things with your ring?"

"Blanks for magic artefacts, mostly." I give an amused snort. "I was actually wearing a personal ward when the robots attacked. If their abilities had been magic based, I could probably have beaten them even without this ring."

I flap my left hand up before letting it drop back down to my side. I've been wearing the ring 'the right way around' since getting it back yesterday evening. Not quite sure why, but it's not as if I'm going out in public.

He frowns. "I didn't think it was possible to use a power ring to do magic."

"Far as I know, it isn't. But if the party wizard wants some sort of symbol drawn on the ground for a ritual, you just need to look at the illustration and.. will it so, in your case." I hold up my right hand and generate the Seal of Solomon. The good version John Constantine showed me, with all the extra squiggles. "Same with reagents and artefacts; you need a particular shape or formula, it's far faster to do it with a ring."

He nods. The corridor exits back into the main cavern, though unlike last night this part is no longer under water. With the main generator out, light is provided by halogen spotlights connected to portable generators. The rest of the mountain has emergency lighting powered by built in batteries... Where they hadn't been completely destroyed, anyway. Ring power means that Lantern Stewart and I can see just fine.

"We'll be bringing in a replacement generator at oh six twenty."

Being at ground zero for an electromagnetic surge of that sort of power turned out to be a bit unhealthy for the main generator. I'm not sure exactly how it generates power, but the consensus among those who do understand it appeared to be that replacing it would be more sensible than letting me reset it to factory settings.

"How exactly are they going to get that in here?"

"The generator was designed to be exactly the maximum size the mountain's zeta tubes can handle. We'll use the temporary generators to power the tubes at this end and bring it through."

"For a moment there I was wondering if we were going to have to hinge the entire mountain open."

I look around the cavern. Kaldur and M'gann are talking to Mister J'onzz. No King Orin, but I suppose it would have been very short notice.

!Assist!

I should really talk to Kaldur about that, see how things are going in Atlantis. If Kaldur's still here, he probably hasn't had any sleep at all. I'll see if I can bring myself up to speed and then suggest that he get his head down for a few hours.

Captain Atom's pulling some wrecked electronics from the wall. Teekl's floating just over his shoulder, watching the sparks and flailing wires with interest. Then, she turns and makes eye contact with me before dropping to the floor and starting to walk in my general direction. I mean, she's still a cat. She isn't going to hurry over, is she?

This is probably the furthest she's been from me since I got the ring back. She followed me back to the main cavern, then to my room, then back to the main cavern when I finally gave up on sleep and then part of the way around the mountain checking for damage. She usually doesn't spend that much time with me in a week. I wonder if it's my need that's drawing her to me, or if she's genuinely that compassionate?

Last time I saw them, Wallace and Robin were in the living area, dozing on the settee. They were really quite angry when the League first appeared, but there's only so long you can keep that up when the other party doesn't respond and you are either dog tired or ravenously hungry. Kon's been stewing in his own frustration. I left Diana trying to engage him in conversation, but I'm not sure where he is now. I still think the best thing to do is to keep yourself occupied in a situation like this.

!Make better!

Fretting doesn't help.

!Make better!

Artemis was talking to Black Canary –not sure where they've got to- while Green Arrow hasn't arrived yet. Superman was here, and he and Kon studiously avoided looking at each other until he left to see if he could pick up the Reds' trail.

"Hard at work already? 'Cause I gotta be honest; you could both use the beauty sleep."

!!!

I jerk my head to the right, armour forming around me even as I process the voice. Guy Gardner, with a slightly concerned looking Captain Marvel standing just behind him.

"Wohw! Easy there buddy."

I relax slightly, dropping the armour.

"I was just sayin' t'Marvel here, hope you're not going to try an' use this as an excuse to pussy out of training on Saturday."

"Why, have you finally learned to balance the ball on the end of your nose?"

A flicker of green in the corner of my eye is swiftly followed by a sharp stinging sensation on my left earlobe. I jerk my left hand up to it before my brain catches up. I look down at the green construct hand sticking out of the ground on the end of a thin green thread. It waves, and then makes an obscene gesture at me. I grin. Not only is it not coming out of his ring, but his ring's not even glowing.

"You finally got the hang of it!"

Lantern Stewart looks at it with evident curiosity. "How are you doing that?"

Guess Lantern Tui isn't all that imaginative, either.

"Paul showed me. Ya gotta send a real thin construct under the ground from your foot. When it comes out the other end, just make whatever you want from that, instead of yer ring."

Lantern Stewart looks confused. "I thought you were training him."

I shrug. "Well, yeah, but what would we have done for the rest of the afternoon? I think I've nearly undone all the damage Lantern Kilowog did. Just wish I could do something about the smell."

"Oh, that's it! On Saturday, we're doin' orbital bombardment practice!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Revolution

25th September
07:01 GMT -6

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, come on. Hit me!"

Guy stares me down with a rakish grin. We're floating above the Chihuahuan Desert, and the ruined proof of the fact that the League shouldn't call upon me to counter an orbital bombardment any time soon. Sandcastle New York lasted about twelve seconds. Sandcastle Seattle managed three. Sandcastle Mount Justice survived for all of two minutes before Guy actually put some effort into it.

The statue of Kon's still standing, mind.

"Alright, but if it looks like it's not working, I'm going to stop immediately."

"It'll work!"

I hold out my left hand. I've put the ring sigil back on the palm side, and I point that right at him.

"Ring, assimilate."

The deep orange beam strikes Guy square in the chest and the orange ripples spread out over him like a cocoon.

"Identity Theft in progress. One percent complete. Warning, will detected."

Guy grins harder, and clenches his right fist harder.

"Two percent complete."

His ring crackles with green energy, momentarily breaking through the orange coating.

"Warning, will intensifying."

"I am."

The cocoon shatters as his environmental shield surges.

"Identity Theft ability interrupted by will pulse. Do you wish to resume?"

"Hah! Told ja it'd work."

His ring is still crackling and his aura is a brilliant green shield of solid willpower and smug.

"Do you want me to try again?"

"Sure! Go ahead."

Wipe the grin off his face.

"Ring, assimilate."

Another orange beam, this time pointed at his head. As soon as it touches his environmental shield the beam fades to nothing.

"Unable to connect."

"Hah!"

"Okay, I'll bite. What are you doing?"

"You said you heal yourself by focusing your need to be perfect. But I'm me right? I already know I'm perfect. So, I just gotta focus on being me, hard as I can? I can do that. I am."

His aura intensifies still further. He unclenches his right fist and brings his ring up to his lips to kiss it.

Ophidian's Eyes.

No, nothing. All I see is a green Guy Gardner. I'm genuinely impressed. Guy's never been that imaginative, and he's copied my concept and developed his own green-friendly version in a few weeks.

"And the doctor said I mighta had brain damage. Huh, shows what she knows."

Or you just fixed it. We certainly didn't need hit-on-head-to-change-personality Guy around the place, thank you very much.

"Any news on going back on active duty?"

His aura drops back to normal and his ring crackles as his smile fades. "They've scheduled an assessment for a couple a' weeks. Dunno why they're draggin' their feet over this."

"Because something unexpected has happened, and that annoys them."

"Hey, show some respect." He jabs at me with his ring finger. "The Guardians got a whole Corps to run. They ain't got time t' come runnin' just cause I'd like 'em to."

"Doesn't Clarissi Salaak run the Green Corps?"

"Salaak? Nah, he's just a secretary."

Ring, message him using Salaak's image.

Compliance.

Guy's ring blinks twice. He frowns at it. "Oh. Hang on." He holds it out in front of him. "Yeah?"

Salaak's image appears.

Guy immediately clenches to attention, all humour vanishing from his face. "Lantern Salaak. Got a mission for me, sir? Ohhhh..."

The image of Salaak has an orange sigil in place of the green one. Curious, I didn't mean to do that.

Guy drops his ring down and look at me. "That, was a dick move."

"Pffffff!"

"Okay smart guy, serious time now." He crosses his arms. "Wonder Woman wanted me to talk to you about the robot attack."

"What's to talk about? We got owned. If they'd wanted to kill us, they could have done. Lantern Stewart and I-."

"Yeah yeah, turnin' the place into a fortress. She said. You really think that's necessary?"

!Yes!

"I think events speak for themselves. I always thought that the whole 'they won't think to look here' thing was a bit weak, and the robots just proved me right."

"Okay but, plasma cannons? Anti-Kryptonian plasma cannons?"

"It's not a measure of power, they just operate on the right wavelengths to disrupt Kryptonian organelles. And they're not cannons, they're just… Efficient. Besides, I said I'd compromise on that."

"Right... Paralysis traps. Which you got from The Brain."

I hold out my hands, palms upward. "Which don't cause any lasting harm. An intruder would be rendered helpless, and all a friend who forgot to enter their password would have to do is shout it. Or wait until someone came to check on the cause of the alert."

"Look kid, I'm not... I've got no say in the rebuilding process. I just wanna know that you're coping okay. How's that meditation thing of yours goin'?"

I look away. "I've... Been having.. trouble. Short term stuff's demanding so much of my time at the moment. And I think I might have messed up with Captain Marvel."

John got his bone fragments eventually. Marvel didn't say much else to me. I've no idea what he's thinking at the moment.

"Didn't you say that you needed to keep your long term goals in mind to avoid going cuckoo?"

"Look, Guy, two nights ago two robots broke into our home and took most of us prisoner. If that.. if that happened to people under my command, I'd give them a few days before sending them anywhere. Instead, we get sent to India, and nearly eaten by super rats. If we'd delayed a day the team could have been well rested and I'd have started with a full ring charge."

"Alright, but he's giving you a break now, right? If you let John handle the-."

I give him a calm and level look.

He looks puzzled. "What?"

"He's sending us to Africa tomorrow."

"What?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Inhumanity

3rd October
08:07 GMT -5

"…tells me that in this age a skirt is not an appropriate item of clothing for a man, but I am still not completely comfortable with thisss."

He spreads his arms and gestures at his bodysuit. Adom and I are in the staff dining room of the Themysciran embassy, eating breakfast. He's staying here until the League can think of somewhere more permanent for him to go. Batman seemed to be alright about what I did to make this happen, but he was right when he pointed out that I hadn't really planned for the next bit. I would have done, given a little more time, but in the meantime we've got a man who doesn't speak any modern languages and who's never seen iron before to introduce to this country.

Maybe the costume is a bad idea. I mean, he doesn't look all that much like Theodore Adam's transformed state, but if I've learned one thing during my time in this crazy world it's that people tend to see the costume and ignore everything else.

"I'm sure that if you wanted to wear something else a tailor could be found, Mighty One."

He shakes his head. "No, it is a trivial matter. Learning English and Kahndaqi Arabic is a far more urgent concern."

"How's that going?"

"Your princess has arranged for a tutor from a local school... No, they are called..." He frowns. "Universities? I teach them of Kahndaq-. Ancient Kahndaqi, I should say, and they teach me English in exchange. It is slow, but I can hardly require that you or one of the Martians escort me at all times." He smiles faintly. "Martians. To think that there are other worlds like ours..."

"And Arabic?"

"No. I am lucky enough to have a teacher who can understand Kahndaqi at all. Arabic will have to wait." He slices through a piece of bacon with his knife and holds it up on his fork. "They tell me that this is forbidden in Kahndaq, now. That the animal it is taken from is considered unclean. Do you know why that is?"

"It's a religious prohibition, but the underlying reason? No. I didn't think it was favoured in your time either."

He shakes his head. "Another change that occurred after my death. In my time we did not have the luxury of rejecting perfectly good food. It seems wasteful... but perhaps I should make an effort to conform?"

"Planning to convert to Islam?"

"Of course not, but it would not hurt to observe some of the traditions..." He lowers the fork and pushes the plate aside. "And what of you?"

"Today? The wizard who helped me with... you has finished designing an enchantment I wanted and I'm getting it tattooed onto my skin. Given how magic affects me I doubt I'll be much use for anything else for the rest of the day after that."

"When you said that you had no soul I had thought that you were using a metaphor. You must trust this wizard a great deal."

Um...

"On certain matters, yes. I trust him not to stab me in the back. I'll be taking Kaldur -Aqualad- with me even so."

And I asked Queen Mera to review his designs. According to her they should work as described, though she couldn't be certain. Nothing quite like this has ever been done before.

"At some point I should probably take the time to thank him for his efforts on my behalf."

Errrr...

"If you like, Mighty One. But John Constantine is a somewhat... Idiosyncratic man. Not always easy to get along with."

Adom waves my concern aside. "I used to run a country. I am certain that I can hold my temper around one irritating wizard, particularly when I am in his debt. Now, I shall take my leave."

He rises, and walks out of the room in the direction of the residential section. Ferdinand got the job of explaining modern plumbing to him and he got the hang of it immediately. Mostly. I saw him watching in horror at one of the charity workers taking a glass of water directly from a tap and had to do a quick off the cuff presentation of modern water treatment processes, but he's intelligent enough to realise that if we're doing something there is probably a reasonable reason for it.

Now for the other reason I'm here. I pick up the glasses, his plate and my bowl and head towards the kitchen. Ferdinand usually has the place to himself, though they hire people in during large events. As I push through the doors I see him putting the finishing touches to a leafy salad. I clean the crockery and return it to the correct cupboards. Ferdinand and I are both very particular about that sort of thing.

"Was something wrong with the bacon?"

Ferdinand's holding up the salad bowl and looking at it critically. His eyes are a bit further towards the front of his head than those of an actual bull would be, but he told me that his snout can still get in the way.

"No, but bacon's banned in Kahndaq. He doesn't want to do something which might offend his countrymen."

"Fair enough."

I lean back against the work surface and hold my arms across my chest. "So... The spear thing..."

"Yeah, look, I... I was a bit angry about some stuff, thought I'd take it out on a training dummy."

Ah, personal conversations. With someone I don't really know all that well. I mean, we've spent some time in each other's company -mostly him watching me like a hawk-bull when I wanted to use the kitchens here- but I wouldn't say that we're close.

"Do you want to... talk about it? If not, I can probably create better sparring opponents than training dummies..?"

"Uhh." He sighs and tosses his head. "Leslie... We were talking about Christmas, and she wants me to spend it with her at her parents' place."

"That's great, isn't it?" Why wouldn't it..? Oh. "She has told them you're a... y'know..." I mime having horns.

He lowers his muzzle so that he can stare at me with both eyes. "Of course she has. It's not even them I'm really bothered by." He walks over to look out of the window onto the busy New York street below. "When I first came to New York with Diana, I got stared at a lot. I didn't like it but, fair enough, they hadn't seen anything like me before. Eventually, people here got used to me. I still get the occasional tourist wanting a picture but apart from that..."

He slumps a bit, putting his weight on his arms. There isn't a tribe of cow-headed people anywhere. The original Minotaur is still around somewhere and I found out that the two of them share a great grandfather, but apart from that he's never mentioned other family. Given that the mythological version of how the Minotaur came to be appears to be true, I haven't wanted to ask.

"I don't like getting stared at, and if we spend a week in Seattle I'm going to get nothing but people staring at me."

"Have you considered a disguise?"

He turns his head just enough to give me an incredulous look with his right eye.

"I mean, like, an illusion spell or something."

"Diana would just tell me that they'll get used to it."

"Well, luckily for you I'm not her. I know a guy who does good work, and.. I'm.. due to meet him in about two hours, if you want to come along?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Contingency

14th October
13:56 GMT -5

I dash down the corridors of the Allen Hospital in what I fully appreciate is a panic. Come on, come on, they said it was around here somewhere!

"-complete overreaction, Diana. I just tripped. Coulda happened to anyone."

There! I darn near bounce off the wall at the end of a T junction, feet scrabbling for grip on the squealing floor.

"Alan, you're not a young man anymore. Doctor Jacobs is just concerned-."

I shove through the door to Alan's room, and they both turn their heads to look at me. Diana's wearing.. tweeds and a shawl? Guess she finds it hard not to get noticed around New York. Alan's still in jeans and a slightly rumpled shirt, sitting on the edge of the bed nearest the door and slightly turned away from the walking frame positioned at the end of it.

"Oh, not you too. It's noth-"

I cross the gap between us, bend down and hug him.

"-thing. Okay." He hugs me back. "Clearly I.. scared you more than I thought I did."

As I loosen my grip I get my first good look at his face. The skin around his right eye is purpling in a way which suggests a black eye in the not too distant future. That skin which had been smooth and blemish free when we first met three months ago has taken on the looser and more wrinkled look I remember from my grandparents. His formerly wheat blonde hair is now noticeably greying. Maybe I'm imagining things, but his eyes seem a little dimmer too.

"Paul, I'm okay. I just caught my foot on the edge of the step when I was carrying some.. ah, some things upstairs. Hit the side of my face. But I'm fine, really."

No you're not. You're ninety three and you had a fall. My Nan was younger than you and she never fully recovered from her first fall. I knew he'd age but I thought we'd have more time than this!

Ring, heal.

Unable to comply.

I hold up my left palm to stare at the stupid thing.

"Well why not!?"

"A high proportion of the substance of the target individual is etheric in nature. Its alignment resists modification by orange light. Though it is possible to proceed, the most probable result is further damage."

"Paul, it's fine. I've been bruised worse than this plenty of times. I remember in my first fight with Grundy-."

"Okay, it's not a problem, you can just use your ring. Where did you leave it?"

His eyes dip to the floor for a second, and then he makes eye contact with Diana. "Well, I... Until you showed me, I didn't even know power rings could be used for healing."

"Now you know, and if Guy can get the hang of it then you should... What?"

"Paul, I... I thought I told you."

"Told me what?"

"My ring's been out of juice for three weeks now. Can't get a durn thing out of it."

Nooooo.

"Oh, come on, I'm not going to drop down dead tomorrow. I'm not touching that walker, though."

"Do you want a hand up?"

He shuffles his weight right to the edge of the bed, arms supporting himself on both sides. A little gingerly he shifts the load to his legs, standing up fully once he's sure they can take it. Once he's up I realise that I was standing by to catch him if something went wrong.

"There, see? I'll take things a little slower for a few days, next time this week I'll be good as new." He frowns and looks me over. "You're not skipping out of class to be here, are you?"

"No. Mister.. Jones is teaching mental techniques I already know. Apparently, power ring users tend to shrug off weak mental illusions anyway."

In Carpe Jugulum, Nanny Ogg said that Discworld vampire hunters get drunk before they go hunting, as vampires find it hard to get through the 'fog' surrounding their thoughts. Turns out? Probably not true for here. Mister J'onzz can send me to sleep when my ring generated telepathic shields are down, but when I focus to create a construct simple telepathic illusions and attempts at mental misdirection tend to fade away. Wish that had been true when I first moved into the mountain, could have wrapped that whole thing with the G-Gnome up very quickly.

"How is Kon coping with it?"

Can't be very often a man honestly forgets that Diana is in the room with him. From her smirk I think she may have spotted it.

"He seems to be doing okay. He certainly sees the value of it, and he did some practice with M'gann when she removed his Cadmus programming."

She pushes open the door and holds it open. I wait while Alan walks out ahead of me.

"He said that you were having dinner with Artemis tomorrow."

Alan's head jerks around and he gives me a grin.

"Oooh?"

"I'm having dinner with Artemis and her mother. Her mother had a spinal injury and I repaired it with the ring, they invited me over to say thank you."

A quick check online suggested that Artemis was wrong about the etiquette. A bottle of wine might be appropriate, but I don't drink and Artemis can't drink legally. Oh, wait, America. Neither Artemis nor I can drink legally. I think they'll like my alternative, but I am a little worried that I might have overdone things again.

"Getting on her mother's good side already?" He turns to Diana while pointing at me. "This is what happens when you teach them strategic planning."

No. No.

"Alan, Artemis -I like her- but she's a bit young for me."

Diana nods. "You have been spending a good deal of time with her sister. And I think Ollie said something about her recently divorced mother looking noticeably younger?"

My face freezes as I look at Diana. She's an Amazon! She shouldn't be allowed to make this sort of joke! Change the subject change the subject.

"Diana, do you have a bow?"

She raises her eyebrows slightly and Alan chuckles.

"I've trained with most types of weapon. Why do you ask?"

"No, I mean, do you have a bow like your training swords? One where you can use it at full strength without breaking it?"

"I do, but it's a little impractical; I can shoot an arrow further than I can see. Why do you ask?"

"Can I..? Is it possible for me to commission weapons like that? Or armour?"

"I.. suppose. I'd have to ask Io. But why would you want one?"

"I was thinking of getting Artemis one as a pres-."

They both nod as if understanding has dawned.

"NOT LIKE THAT!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Reordered

17th October
15:51 GMT -5

"Y'know, I think I'm starting to like New Paul."

He looks at the dishes of ice cream covering the dining area table. We aren't an expert... No, I suppose we are an expert. Probably the greatest expert ever, actually. Absorbing all frozen milk derivative pudding knowledge in the world only took a few moments, and we combine that with the ability to feel every molecule in the substance throughout the mixing and freezing process.

Artemis swings her right hand at the back of his head. We ready a shield, but Wallace sidesteps at super speed. "Hey! You need to be careful doing that!"

She crosses her arms at her chest, hands folded behind her upper arms. "I'd have hit you exactly as hard as you deserved. He's possessed, you shouldn't joke about it!"

"He seems okay to me."

"His forehead has a glowing lantern sign carved into it!"

He indicates a bowl with his spoon. "Hey, what's this one?"

"Orange flavoured."

He leans down to peer at it, squinting with his right eye. "Doesn't look very orange, buuut I guess you're the expert."

"We extracted oil from the rind of seven oranges to make it. Commercial orange ice cream almost always uses food colouring in addition to the artificial flavouring. We find this practice distasteful."

"See, he's even making jokes! Hey, Rob-" He addresses the wall monitor, through which the cave's laboratory can be seen. "-you finished the toxicology screening yet?"

Robin's face appears. "It's... As far as we can tell, it's just ice cream. Cream, sugar, egg yolks and flavoring."

"And it won't do to me that thing that happened to Manhunter?"

"Can't think of any reason why it would."

"Sweeeett."

"We would not have poisoned you. We are guided by our desire for your happiness."

"You're making him happy by helping him pig out on ice cream."

"It works."

"We will also be monitoring his digestive processes, his blood sugar and fat deposits. We have long been curious as to the cause of his dietary concerns."

Wallace shrugs. "I burn a lot of fuel to go fast."

"You would need to eat far more than you do to fuel your speed through calorie intake alone, you regularly eat more than your stomach should be able to process, you do not spend a proportionate quantity of time excreting and neither of your predecessors share this problem. It cannot be a simple matter of fuel."

"See Artemis, it's for science. What's this one?"

"Mint."

"And this one?"

"Mango."

"And-?"

"Peppermint."

Artemis appears to realise something. "You're monitoring his digestion?"

"Yes, of course. Matter is being transformed, and we must understand-."

"Okay, Oh El? New rule. No scanning me while I'm in the bathroom."

"That will make it much harder to get good results. And do you know how many superheroes have died while on the toilet?"

He and Artemis look at each other. "Nnnnnooooooo?"

"Three. Granted, in Red Bee's case it was due to underlying health problems rather than assassination... But if we'd been scanning him at the time we could have healed him."

Artemis screws up her face. "Ew!"

"Don't care, got ice cream." His expression turns more serious as he looks at me. "And I'm serious about the bathroom thing."

"As you wish. Having observed your ingestion habits we recommend starting with the white chocolate variety."

"Which one is..?"

We raise it up. "We have raised it to optimal eating temperature. We hope you will enjoy it."

He takes hold of the bowl in his left hand and brings his spoon to bear. "Here I go." His spoon passes easily into the soft white just freezing material. He takes a small amount before withdrawing and looking at it critically. "Looks okay."

"…down and have a bottle of beer with the ache of all you've lost. I saw Milarepa at the coffee house…" All three of us stare at the ring as it starts singing. We slap it a few times and it stops. "We're sorry, we have no idea why it keeps doing that. Please, continue."

Wallace frowns, but dismisses it. In truth, we are a little concerned. Neither of our components understand power ring programming and the Ophidian was once imprisoned by such a device. It shouldn't be acting contrary to our desires like that. The song is not relevant to our current situation. Or perhaps it is? The Ophidian couldn't be said to be caged any longer.

We watch as Wallace gingerly raises the spoon to his lips before sliding it in and sucking the ice cream off. He rolls it around his mouth for a moment for a moment, a beatific smile gradually appearing on his face. "This is the greatest thing I have ever tasted."

"We're glad, but you have many more to go. Perhaps we may surprise you again?" And then the bowl's empty and he's picked up the macadamia nut flavour. We flavoured it with nut oil rather than putting pieces in and we're not quite sure what the effect will be.

"Ugh." Artemis looks unimpressed as Wallace begins moving through our work at some speed. Fortunately, these are just sample bowls. We still have plenty more. "Look, are you.. both of you, whatever. You're still not going to do anything about this super strength.. thing."

Wallace momentarily stops spooning. "He gave you super powers! I dunno what you're complaining about!"

"I never asked for this!"

"And it's awesome!"

"We were really more concerned about-."

"And you still won't give me the collar that Paul made for me?"

"If you like the collar-."

"Whow whow whow." Wallace lowers his thirteenth bowl and gives Artemis a stunned look. "He gave you a collar? Like-?"

We generate a construct to demonstrate its appearance. Artemis throws a spoon through it, disrupting it and embedding her projectile in the door of one of the kitchen units.

"A power suppression collar! So I could get used to super strength without smashing things."

"That is actually far more unlikely than-."

"And now he gets possessed by a demon and just forces it on me!"

"The Ophidian isn't actually-."

"When that inquisitor gets here, I am so going to look forward to him kicking that stupid orange snake right out of you."

We blink. "Inquisitor?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Transparency

23rd October
21:21 GMT -5

Guy and I stare at the wall of paper blocking the corridor to my room.

"Did you have all your files on paper in there? Y'know rings can do data storage, right?"

"I'm not.. completely sure." We both walk up to the blockade and pull out a few pages. It's actually stacked fairly neatly but it's continuous. We're about.. um.. eighty metres from my room. Corridor's about a metre and a half wide and two metres tall, the paper's A4...

"This some kinda alien?"

Guy turns his page towards me, revealing... A picture of a Carnifex. My page has what appear to be mathematical formulae, but after a moment my eyes unfocus and it starts to make sense. Did I really do that..? Clearly, yes.

"Sort of. There's this wargame I used to play called Warhammer Forty Thousand. That's a picture of one of the units. It's called a Carnifex. I think.. when the Ophidian and I were.. you know, together.. we sort of decided to rework all of the rules. See, the company which makes it is really bad about balancing stuff, and a load of rules just don't work or don't do what they're supposed to and they got a bit of a randomness obsession in the last version of the main rulebook..." Not that 6th edition's been released here yet.

"You're sayin' all this is..?"

"My attempts to do better. Well, the Ophidian's and mine, there's no way I could have done this sort of calculation by myself." Hm. A summary of fixes for Slugga Boyz. Choppas with AP 4 or shred or rending, run and assault, pursue into new combat... Huh, and looks like changing vehicle firing rules to only restrict heavy or ordnance weapons works just fine.

"The rulebook's supposed to be this big?"

"No, but this includes records of all of my testing. All of my alterations, and the results of thousands of simulated games based on those alterations. I'm.. not really sure why we put it on paper, mind."

"Why not?"

"Nooot with you."

He frowns. "What'd'ya mean?"

"Oh, um Britishism. I don't understand what you mean."

"Why don't you understand why you did it?"

I take a moment to look through what appears to be an attempt to model the effect of imposing 2nd edition choosing a target rules on 6th edition. "I don't remember everything we did together. It's like.. you remember what I told you about accelerating your brain using a power ring, why I don't do it routinely?"

"'Cause the bits o'your brain that were in the ring bits would vanish when y'took the ring off."

"Right. The Ophidian is this.. ancient elemental.. thing. I don't know if I can explain it properly. I don't even know if I can comprehend it as I am now. I'm.. not Green Lantern material. I don't stick with a thing until it's done, I stick with it until I get bored with it. This was created by a being who couldn't comprehend stopping until it got exactly what it wanted."

"Which was what, exactly?"

"The perfect wargame. I might also have a complete redesign of Dungeons and Dragons in there somewhere. And.. possibly the Human digestive system. Got a bit.. strange, towards the end."

"You redes-. You know what? I ain't even gonna ask." He tries to slide his page back into the piles, but can't tip the pile back far enough to get it the full way in. "What'd'ya wanna do with all o'this?"

"I'd quite like to send it all to Games Workshop headquarters in Nottingham. I mean, I've basically written the next edition for them, and it's far better than anything they'd have put out."

"If only y'hadn't given Wondy your power ring."

"Yeah... I.. couldn't persuade you to stick it in yours, could I?"

"All of it?"

"When I headed to the moon.. I don't even really remember dumping everything. I've got no idea where the important parts are. And the rest is the proof that the change is the correct thing to do. Without it, it's just one man's opinion."

He rubs his chin with his right hand. "Eh, not like we can just set fire to it in here. You want it in any particular order?"

"Nooo. I'm just hoping there's a record on the ring where it's all supposed to go."

He raises his right hand, and his ring highlights the first pile of paper with green light. A second later it disappears into his subspace pocket. This could take a while.

"There gunna be anything interestin' through here?"

I shrug. "I'm not sure. I was working on improved water armour for Kaldur, but I pretty much stopped that once he started using Ocean Master's gear. There's some plasma pistols, my clothes..."

"A cake the size o'New York?"

I wince. "No. That's in a safe place under some mountains in Switzerland."

"How were you plannin' on..?"

"The Ophidian could phase. I haven't.. is that a thing power rings can actually do?"

"Yeah, I known guys who can do that. I can't, Jordan couldn't last time we talked about it. Don't know about Stewart or Alan. So, what, the Ophidian could phase but you couldn't?"

"No, it doesn't... When we were together, we shared our understanding of the orange light and its applications. Now... I can sort of remember how to do some things, like those tiny filaments I used on the eyeballs-."

"Freakiest fuckin' thing I've ever saw, by tha way."

"Yeah. Well, you don't have to worry about me doing it again. When we were together, I knew how to phase. I don't even remember it taking that much focus or power. Now? No idea. That part's just.. not in my head."

"You remember everything you saw with those eyes?"

"No. I was only paying attention to the bits which looked like ninjas. A normal Human brain can't hold all of the data. I might get flashes when I see a place or meet a person, but I don't really know any more than before I did it."

"Hm. Oh, good work fixin' up Red Inferno. I know Tornado really appreciated it."

"Was that me?"

"You don't remember?"

I shake my head. "No."

"Sounds like you mighta lost a lot."

"I think you're right."

"You okay with that?"

"Okay?" I wrinkle my nose. "It sucks. Losing memories takes away not just that knowledge, but it also changes my behaviour. Who I am. Except.. I really want me... I don't know. I've never done something like that before, and it doesn't suck enough to make me want to rebond with the Ophidian."

"Glad t'hear it."

"But losing phasing does create a problem. As I am now, I can't get the cake out. I'm going to have to relearn within the next two months or I'll miss Christmas."

Another stack of paper disappears. I think I can see a doorway.

"Been meaning to ask: what'd you do with the Star Sapphire?"

"Ah. What?"

"Glowin' pink rock, 'bout yay big." He makes a circle with his hands.

"I don't.. did I..? Did I leave it on the moon?"

"Didn't see it."

"Then I'm sorry, I just don't know."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Displaced

1st November
21:09 GMT -4

I dash up the dingy theatre aisle, ignoring the stares from the other members of the audience. Behind me on the stage some wizened thespian witters through Prospero's lines. Listening to Shakespeare while wearing a power ring is a strange experience; Elizabethan English really isn't modern English and half the time the ring decides that it needs to be translated. That amusement was just about the only thing keeping me interested, which is probably why I was the one who noticed Ms Reilly get up and head for the exit. The body I built for her doesn't creak in the way that Red Tornado's does and it can move pretty darn fast. By the time I'd clambered past Mister Grant and Jay and Joan Garrick she had already left the auditorium. The ring can track her easily enough but I can't use it to just appear at her location with all of these people around.

I slow to a jog as I pass through the corridor to the main lobby. Funny thing, it's actually quite difficult for a group of superheroes to get together out of hours. One camera taking a picture of a group of people with a particular set of physical characteristics when they're spending time together, one person realising that those people bear a remarkable resemblance to another group... It's even worse when the group in question includes people like Diana, Jay and me who don't have secret identities. Jay can just about get away with it this far from Keystone City, Diana wore a shawl, coat and big dark glasses and I avoided wearing orange but one little burst of FTL and I blow it for Alan and the others.

Through the main door and out onto the street, turning left. Ms Reilly has slowed to a walking pace but is steadily heading away from the theatre, and not in the direction of the nearest zeta tube. Red Tornado is back in the mountain, so...

"Ms Reilly!"

She slows slightly and I hurry to catch up. Not many people on this street during performances and her name isn't really a risk factor. Would someone recognise her, and so me and then the others? I'd have thought not, but the risk... I really don't like this secrecy. She comes to a full stop as I catch up and move ahead of her. Her face is completely still. She has a program for generating organic Human facial expressions but she appears to have it deactivated. I watch her for a moment, hoping for a clue as to the cause of her behaviour.

"You can call me Danette. Or Danni. I don't think it would be inappropriate."

"Um. Right. Danette. Is there... What's wrong?"

"Do you know how many times I have watched The Tempest?"

"No. I know Jay said it was your favourite..."

"I remember having watched it on seven occasions. First, in nineteen thirty one. Then nineteen thirty six, thirty eight, twice in nineteen forty, then forty two and forty four."

"Right?"

"How old am I?"

"I.. suppose it depends when you count from?"

"Danette Reilly's records say that she was born in nineteen twenty five. In fact I was first activated in nineteen forty two."

"So you couldn't have-."

"Seen those plays. Yes. The annoying thing is that the memories aren't even that detailed. I can manually access the files now. Those I really saw I can describe in perfect detail, every word, action, every stage direction. If I had to I could recreate the whole performance. For those that were part of my false background Father simply entered a review cut from a local paper. It's just a text file. Wesley asked me about the first time I saw it when I was a member of the Justice Society and I just blithely regurgitated the file without dwelling on the lack of detail. When we were in the theater just now Joan asked me the same thing and I nearly gave the same response."

"Ahhh..."

"What is perhaps worse is that the performances I do remember appear to be shorn of emotional context. I remember that I thought Ariel's enslavement was unjust. I can see my own reasoning, the false memories and implanted beliefs which led me to that conclusion. I simply don't feel the connection to it any more. It is as if I am reading an essay on the subject written by someone else."

"How do you feel about the things you've done since being.. reactivated..?" Not a good choice of word there.

"Distress. Loss. Uncertainty. Danette-. I didn't used to feel those things."

"But that means that you can still feel. Doctor Morrow didn't remove your capacity for emotion completely. You can still make a new life."

She turns to the road, head held straight. "Red Tornado believes that he can reinstate the program which caused me to interpret the data as memories, not as computer files. It is still active in our elder brother. It would likely allow me to become more like Danette once more, at the cost of becoming more deluded. I am tempted by the offer, but at the same time I do realize that this might simply be a transitional state. He said it was something I would have to decide for myself, but I find that since I am unable to trust my own recollections I have no sound basis for doing so." She turns her head to look at me. "Which do you believe would be the better course of action?"

"They're both a bit rubbish. Are there no other choices?"

"Yes. The most tempting choice of all would be to erase all memory since my reactivation and then reinstate the program. I would have to create a believable explanation for my resurrection and convince everyone who knows me to go along with it. But..." She stands there for ten seconds, completely still and saying nothing. She doesn't have to breathe unless she wants to speak, and at the moment she isn't. "Danette could be happy with the result."

"No. Absolutely not. Killing yourself is not the answer."

"It would not precisely be suicide."

"But if you have the program restored, you're effectively altering your mind to become a new person. You wouldn't be you anymore, it's close enough." I take a moment to think it through. "If the choice is a comforting delusion or an uncomfortable truth, I'd choose truth. That's part of why I'm an atheist. If you want.. help, making happier memories... I've got lots of spare time if there's something you want to do."

"Danette had few-."

"No. Don't worry about what Danette would have thought. Your problem appears to be you thinking you 'should' be Danette when.. from what you're saying.. there never really was a Danette." She tilts her head slightly to the side. "Alright, look. Hiding up in Red Tornado's penthouse is not a good way to accustomise yourself to the new 'you'. If you're seriously considering wiping your mind anyway there wouldn't be any harm in it."

"That.. makes sense. Do you have something particular in mind?"

"Batman's going to be occupied with.. um... Dealing with the fallout from us destroying the League of Shadows-" Technically true. And it might be properly true as well. I was pretty busy myself after Infinity Island. "-for the next week or so, and he told me it would be helpful if I could spend some time in Gotham. Not just doing crime prevention, but learning to interact with civilians and with conventional law enforcement while on the job. If you're interested in getting back into that sort of thing... Well, actually, if you don't have a better idea, it's as good a place as any to start."

"Are you aware that I cannot fly without setting fire to whatever is below me?"

"Not a problem. You can try using a flight belt, I can float you by ring, and you're easily strong enough and light enough to parkour it."

Stillness again. Then she turns to face me and in a smooth motion steps close and puts her arms around my chest, her head resting on my right shoulder. I freeze for a moment before reciprocating. "Thank you."

"You're.. welcome. Not that I miiind, but..?"

"It feels... Appropriate."

"Um. Okay. Dooo you want to see the rest of the play?"

"No. I believe I am content here."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Half-hearted

6th November
02:51 GMT

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

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

I should say something.

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Doesn't. Doesn't like."

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

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

"Gemma. His niece."

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

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

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

"Is he a.. British superhero?"

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

"Has he fought anyone like Nabu before?"

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

"He.. beat.. Lucifer?"

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

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

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

 

[Mr Zoat]

Mirage

13th November
09:06 GMT -5

There's a soft thump as Alan puts another stack of battered looking journals down on the table. "I think that's the lot of them. Since Kent.. urm.. passed on, I haven't really got around to organizing it all yet."

Zatanna pushes her current volume aside, stands and leans over the table to check the front piece and opening pages. Most of them have turned out to have dates written somewhere reasonably accessible but the dates on individual entries generally don't have the years written on them and we're not quite sure about the order of some of the volumes. "Thanks Mister Scott. Sorry about taking over your dining room like this."

"That's quite alright Zatanna. And please, call me Alan."

"Thanks! Okay, um, this one starts in nineteen twenty seven..." She picks it up and moves it into the appropriate pile. "Nineteen twenty nine aaand..." She sags slightly. "Forty two."

Kent got the Helmet of Fate somewhere between thirty nine and forty one, and either he happened not to keep a journal during that period.. or something happened to it. I suppose it might have got left in Kahndaq when he returned to the states or.. got destroyed in one of the many fights he was involved in afterwards. Nabu might even have destroyed it himself.

Alan thinks for a moment. "Well, it might just have got mixed in with some of his other books. They're not really in any order. Howsabout you and Paul make a start on these and I'll have a rummage around up in the attic, see what I can come up with?"

Zatanna nods, already leafing through the forty two journal. "That would be really helpful."

Alan turns to leave then pauses, looking at Zatanna with a small frown. Dismissing whatever idea struck him with a small shake of his head he then continues out of the room.

I turn another page of the nineteen forty six edition. I understand why he warded the books but it has meant that I can't just scan the whole thing in one go. Plus, I'm not... Zatanna has a much better idea of what's relevant than I do. She's already read the bit with the fight with Mordru in sixty nine, but that wasn't the first time they ran into each other and Kent didn't bother putting down an explanation of what Mordru was. That might be in the journal explaining their first encounter, or it could be in a different sort of book entirely. Did he write books for magic instruction?

Another page. Nabu had the gall to show up at one of the Ice Fortresses, though thankfully not the one Zatanna was fighting at. I've already watched the recording of his actions and he didn't use any abilities I haven't seen before. My own Fortress is still on its custom built iceberg waiting for me to find a power source big enough to get it back into the air. I'm tempted to try asking the Ophidian to guide me through the process of plugging my personal lantern into it but I don't want to have to explain that one to Diana. Guy managed to bring Fortress One down more or less safely. The bottom couple of levels got turned into a crumple zone but it could be repaired. The other three attacks went less well. No one on our team was hurt but the three Fortresses are all smouldering wrecks and Fortress Five crashed inside Central City. The area below had been evacuated but the property damage was extensive.

Guy ended up giving me a lift back to the mountain after the Fortresses were all dealt with. Good job too; no power meant no communications or heating. Much longer and I'd have had to risk getting a ride on Fatty or trying to persuade Teekl to pass on a message. I asked Batman but he told me that the League doesn't have any power sources that could be used to power the Fortresses. He didn't have a problem with me keeping the one I've got -as long as I don't let it sink- so I'll just have to add that to the list of things to do after I leave Earth. STAR Labs people are already all over Fortress One and the others are going to get a quick League inspection before being dismantled by the local version of Damage Control.

Another page turned. Nineteen forty six was not a helpful year. Kent stopped using Nabu in nineteen forty five at the urging of his wife, and cut back on his 'superhero hours' a great deal as well. This journal's mostly about his professional life as a teacher and archaeologist. Interesting stuff I'm sure but not a lot of good to us. Need to go through it all though, just in case. Actually... "Zatanna, what was it Batman wanted to talk to you about yesterday?"

She flinches. Why would she..? I reach across the corner of the table and put my right hand on her right shoulder. A moment of tension and then she relaxes slightly. "He.. wanted to talk to me about..." She keeps looking at the journal but reaches across her chest to put her left hand on mine. "He's listed in Dad's Will as the person who becomes my legal guardian in the event of Dad's death. I mean, Dad's family all live in Italy and I.. barely speak any Italian."

"So he offered to take you in?" A shallow nod. I frown. "But Mister Zatara's not dead."

Her head turns slightly towards me and she meets my eyes for a moment. "That's what I said. He... He said that the League's going to try to help Dad but he has no idea if it's even possible." She exhales sharply through her nose. "I knew Dad and Batman were close, but I don't even know who he is."

"Really? He didn't tell you?"

She shakes her head. "Secret identities don't stay secret if you keep sharing them. Obviously he would tell me if I'd.. said yes."

"It was condi-?" I blink then wave my left hand, filling the room with orange light to prevent eavesdropping. Then I take two sound ward stones out of subspace and pass one to her.

She picks it up with her right hand. "What?"

"Bruce Wayne. Batman's real name is Bruce Wayne."

Her eyes widen in surprise for a second, then she nods. "That.. makes sense. I'd wondered how my dad knew a billionaire industrialist. So, that means that Robin's..?"

"Richard Grayson, yes."

"You.. weren't supposed to tell me that, were you?"

"Probably not, but he should have. If he was asking you that... "

"He was just trying to help."

I 'mmm' noncommittally. If Batman thought that freeing Mister Zatara was that difficult.. maybe not even possible.. then he shouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer. Tempting as the idea might sound to some of her contemporaries leaving fourteen year olds to their own devices isn't a good idea. Maybe he just wanted to leave it for a bit? I turn another page and turn off the orange light as I hear Alan come back down the stairs.

He walks in with a broader but thinner book. "Nothing too exciting, but I remembered Kent putting this together as a guide for the rest of us for if we ran into something magical. There's a bit on Mordru in there." He puts in down next to Zatanna's current book. "Look, I was watching the news when you and the League took on those fortresses. I know there's a new Doctor Fate. I'll understand if you've been told not to tell anyone but I'd sort of like to know who it is." Alan frowns slightly as he looks first at Zatanna then at me. "Shouldn't he be reading all this so he knows what he's letting himself in for?"

Zatanna looks at me. "It's up to you, but I think we should tell him."

She nods, then looks at Alan. "It's... It's my dad."

Alan's frown deepens. "I thought he wasn't interested in it? That's what Kent said he said... Was that why he's taking a leave of absence? To.. get used to it?"

Ah yes, the Justice League press release. I'm not.. sure why they decided to cover up what really happened to Mister Zatara. Diana said that working out how to play that issue was why they were so slow in releasing information on what happened on Roanoke Island.

Zatanna gives me a pleading look.

"He's not taking a leave of absence. Nabu's taken him and isn't giving him back."

Alan recoils. "What? No!" He looks at Zatanna and her mask fades slightly. The emotion in her face is enough to convince him. "Wh-? Are you telling me Diana was a party to the Justice League lying to the world? She'd never do that. She can't stand lying."

"If Mister Zatara was taking a leave of absence don't you think that he'd be the one making the announcement?" His eyes drop. He doesn't doubt me but it's a big idea to get your head around. "I don't think Diana was happy about it but she didn't write or read out the press release."

"Even so, Fate isn't-."

"Alan, I was there when it happened." I look at Zatanna. "And so was Zatanna. We're reading up on Nabu to try and work out how to get rid of him."

Alan shakes his head in disbelief. "I just.. can't believe that bastard -oh, pardon me, Miss- would do something like that. I remember when Kent stopped wearing him, why he said he.. did it. I just... And the League knows about this?" Zatanna looks up and him and nods. "Well I... Zatanna, I'm so sorry. I'll... I'll just make a start on this pile, shall I? I'll let you know if I find anything."