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

[Mr Zoat]

What Lies Beneath

27th January
13:27 GMT -8

"Recognised, Green Arrow, zero eight, Robin, B zero one, Kid Flash, B zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six-"

I step out into the bare stone cave.

"-Artemis, B zero eight."

"So." I make a point of looking around. "This is the Arrow Cave."

Mister Queen sighs and raises his right hand to cover his face. "This is not the Arrow Cave."

Wallace turns back to me and nods. "Totally the Arrow Cave."

"It's just a cave that's far enough away from the roads that I don't have to move the zeta tube every couple of weeks and close enough to a campsite that I don't have to come up with excuses about why I'm here if I get spotted." Mister Queen starts through the cave towards the exit.

Robin pointedly looks at the cave wall. "Do all the caves around Star City have lighting?"

"No, but if anyone asks it's for spelunkers."

Artemis is grinning. "How about the equipment lockers?"

"Spelunking equipment can be very heavy. No one wants to have to carry it here every time."

"And it can't be easy to get the Arrow Car in such a narrow-."

"There is..!" He takes a deep breath. "There is no 'arrow car'. There was an arrow themed carnival float which I used once. I use zip lines or a normal car. One I can get insurance for."

Wallace nods sagely. "Batman does go through Batmobiles kinda fast. Hey Rob, how many was it last year? Three?"

"The third one wasn't a total write off."

"That's not what Two-Face says."

"Half the car was fine."

Mister Queen sighs and shakes his head slightly as we emerge into daylight. Three cars all with four wheel drive capacity are parked just by the cave entrance and Roy Harper is leaning back against the bonnet of the jeep. Unlike the rest of us he's in full costume. Quick scan… No, aside from Roy and.. him, no one anywhere near here. In New England the working day is coming to a close but here we're almost in the middle of it.

Roy straightens up. "Ollie. Robin. Wally. Artemis. Paul."

Robin smiles at him. "Hey Roy."

"I'm not..!" He bites it down. "I'm not Roy Harper."

Wallace shakes his head. "Actually, we checked the timelines. I never even met the other Roy."

Robin nods. "And I only met him once." That doesn't seem to help. "How's going solo working out for you?"

His head turns slightly away and down. "I'm getting nowhere. With the League of Shadows gone I barely even know where to start."

"Dubbilex couldn't help?"

"Couldn't or wouldn't. I was thinking that maybe I should have asked more aggressively."

"That.. wouldn't be a good idea. He's aware of physical harm, but he doesn't really feel pain pain. Plus, even if he didn't brain blast you you'd be swarmed under by G-Elves in seconds."

Mister Queen takes a step towards his protégé. "Roy, you've been running yourself ragged ever since New Year. It's not good for you and it doesn't help the other Roy." Roy's eyes narrow slightly and Mister Queen raises his hands to ward off his complaint. "But, since I know I can't persuade you to take a break, I thought we might try a new approach. Paul's got a technique for finding things that looks like it bypasses all defenses."

"Unless they're protected by magic. Hal already-."

"Actually-" I wave my right hand like a student uncertain about the answer to the teacher's question. "-the quintessence waveform scan should bypass magic… Most magic. You could probably ward against it specifically or.. some sort of planar distortion? I mean, if they've put him in a parallel universe or something you're out of luck, and if they've moved him to another planet we could be here a while. But if he's on Earth and whoever took him hasn't expended massive -and easily traceable- levels of resources…" I nod. "I should be able to find him."

He frowns. "Why didn't Hal try that?"

"Because it would have given him a brain haemorrhage. I can only do it if the Ophidian helps and I can't.. retain most of what it shows me. That's why I brought this." I unsling the box containing my personal lantern and open it. "A location should be doable."

"When can you get started?"

"As soon as James Harper gets out from behind that car." Roy stills slightly. "The one thing I dislike more than him being here at all is him maintaining the pretence that-" I turn my head in his direction. "-I don't know full well he's there!"

The other Mister Harper walks out from around the… Americans call them Sports Utility Vehicles, don't they? He's wearing full Guardian gear. "Orange Lantern."

"Mister Harper." I don't hate him. Nabu is an extremely intelligent being who makes his own choices. When those choices involve body jacking the father of a friend of mine… I'm an Orange Lantern. Taking it personally is exactly the correct response. James Harper on the other hand is an idiot who played the hand he was engineered to hold. True, it hurt many sentient beings and produced no useful benefit, but it did so because he lacks the mental apparatus to do anything else. Maybe he can learn to be something else.

"You knew, didn't you? Back at Cadmus when you came in with Superboy."

"Knew what?"

"That I was a clone as well. You grabbed me, scanned me with your ring and then you just left. I didn't start thinking about it until after Luthor fired me, but you knew."

"You're spiritually shallow and your genetics are extremely similar to those of Roy."

"Was 'Tomato' some kind of British insult?"

"No, it was a reference to the animated television series 'Big O', in which the entire population of the city are clones who think they're amnesiacs. The one man who wasn't is a senile tomato farmer and he constantly tells people what happened in a way no one else understands. Or something, it got a bit weird towards the end." I take a firm hold of my lantern and float the box softly to the ground. "It's probably best that you're here. Having multiple people with the same genes around might be confusing." I reflect on what I'm about to do. "More confusing." Deep breath. "Ophidian, quintessence waveform scan."

She touches my mind and immediately my awareness oooh whaw. This is never… Do Maltusians see the universe like this all of the time? Every mote of energy around me, every whiff that could be anything fully visible in every regard. I could stare at a single atom until the end of the universe and not even scratch the surface. Ophidian, I need to filter a little. I'm looking for matter that looks like this. For an instant the maddening detail fades a little, then it snaps back with billions of locations as I'm bombarded with every skin cell and hair that still has his DNA intact within it. No, more, concentrations. Show me the patterns of organs. Okay. That's.. probably him. In material terms there isn't much difference between a live person and a corpse, but in spiritual terms… Oh, I'm not going to remember this anyway. Just fix on the location…

And the beautiful picture fades away. Artemis catches me as I stumble backwards. "How long?"

"About three hours. You find him?"

I straighten up and nod. "Yep. We can pick him up when the world stops sparkling."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Doppelgänger

5th February
06:01 GMT -5

I open my eyes and look at the off-white hotel pillow beneath my head. This is not my beautiful house…

I pull the duvet tighter around me. "Ring, anything from the Controllers?"

"No messages received."

Sure, the ship couldn't just FTL into Maltus orbit but they don't maintain an interdiction field that far from their system. I know that the ship is at least in Maltus' star system by now.

"Status of automated defences?"

"Two intruders have been entangled. No further activations."

Unfortunate thing about a ring moderated body: no excuses. I only feel tired if I want to feel tired. No one would think it odd for someone to sleep in a little on a Saturday but all that'll happen to me is that I'll eventually get bored. And I've got plans with Zatanna today and.. I need to find out if she's made any plans for her birthday. Or if there's anything she'd like to do. I half turn in bed and push myself up into a sitting position. Ring, curtains.

Compliance.

Sunlight. I instinctively blink as it hits me, then roll my eyes at my own behaviour as the ring easily compensates. Normally on a Saturday I'd use the fact that I get up earlier than everyone else to prepare the kitchen. Get the waffle iron heated up and some fresh batter mixed. A little later on if Batman didn't have a mission for us we'd have training, lectures first and then some sort of physical session.

I still can't believe they actually…

No, if they're serious about making him 'part of the team' of course it makes sense that Nabu would be taking a week as our overseer eventually. And I'm certainly not begrudging Red Tornado his time off being 'John Smith'. I'm sure a few lectures on arcane theory and practice will do my colleagues a world of good. For myself, I will not spend a moment longer in Nabu's presence than mission priorities require.

I don't so much fly out of bed as drag myself upwards. Don't need to wash, don't really need to -a wave of orange passes over me- dress. Breakfast? Getting room service had a certain novelty value to it the first night but it's not as if the food is any better when delivered like that. Ring, grant maids… Wait, what's a male maid called? And.. maidians? Maid men? Janitorial staff access-.

Closest term is 'valet'.

Oh. Thank you. Maids or valets access.

Compliance.

I drift down and land next to the bed. Zatanna's not going to be up for another hour at least. John… Five hours ahead. He should be awake. Probably… I trudge over to the glass door leading to the balcony and push it open.

"Mmmmph!"

"Well, honestly, what were you expecting?" I don't recognise the man. Sweatshirt and jeans, male pattern baldness shaved near bald and a camera that fell from his hand as the entangler activated. "Do you know how often people try to kill me?"

"Murmuuuh?"

I float the camera up and have the ring check its memory. No, he didn't get anything. "Did you climb up? That would actually be slightly impressive." His just visible eyes flick sideways. "Snuck into the room next door and climbed across the adjoining balcony?" A nod. "Leave anything there?" A slight hesitation and then a shake. "Right ho." I connect a filament to him, pick him up and float him over the edge of the balcony.

"Mmmmn!"

I lower him at speed. Am I going to need to change hotels or will he spread the word that this doesn't work? I may be a C-list superhero but I'm not a C-list celebrity. I have no interest in appearing in some rag of a tabloid. Just before he reaches the ground I reduce speed, then open the entanglement trap and bring it back up. I hear a dull thump from below as I reset the trap. It's sort of nice that the Green Lantern Corps has put so much effort into low lethality weapons. The camera I just transition down next to him. Now, where's the other one?

I walk back into the bedroom and close the door behind me. Pretty cold here in Metropolis, not that I feel it. Don't want it to be too cold for the staff. Crossing the room I go through the interior door into the living area.

"Resufgnin!"

No, didn't make it this far. I switch the television on to GBS. I did try BBC News 24 for a while but it's just so repetitive. GBS is far more likely to carry alerts of things I need to know about right this second. I only glance at the screen as I cross the room towards the cloakroom. Don't recognise the reporter and there doesn't appear to be any sort of ongoing attack. Gotham? Oh, if Batman needs me he has my number. I pull open the door and look down at the bound woman. "Good work on picking the lock…" Wait, where's the camera?

"Fzew!"

No camera found.

Oh dear. Weapons?

The ring shows my mind's eye a picture of a nail file.

Yeah, that doesn't count. "I'm going to untie you now, and I'd appreciate an explanation." I touch the entangler with a filament and open it up, the silver ribbons retracting back into the device. The woman inside staring up at me defiantly is.. maybe late teens? Early twenties? Dull grey jogging bottoms and a hoodie combined with a Superman t-shirt. Her hair is brown, medium length and frankly a bit of a mess.

"What the hell was that?!"

"An entangler. Very useful device." She pulls herself to her feet, sparing a second to glare at it instead of me. "So. I'm Orange L-."

"I know who you are!" Actually, her voice does sound-. "You got me fired!"

I point at her with my right forefinger. "Dana Dearden."

"Got that right." Her right hand heads towards her pocket. What's she going to do, throw change at me? "And I'm going to-."

"I'm so sorry about that. It honestly didn't occur to me at the time that they might.. react in that way." I tilt my head back for a second, looking at the ceiling. "It wasn't until Diana -Wonder Woman- talked to me about it the next day… I mean, it was just a little oversight, right? A ticking off would have been more proportionate. I'd probably have realised myself if I'd been more on the ball." She frowns, apparently puzzled. "I phoned the studio a few days later to see if I could get them to change their minds…" I shrug apologetically. "They weren't really... The person I spoke to went on about journalistic ethics… Um, Malcolm.. someone?"

She blinks and appears to calm down a little. "Bernstein."

"Might have been. Anyway, I just.. wanted to laugh the whole thing off…"

"I can't believe he-! Grah!"

I gently press my left hand into her side to nudge her along as I head for the door out of the suite. She starts to be led along before she realises what's happening. "Can I… Buy you breakfast? I realise it doesn't really make up for losing your job…"

"Oh. Um." She looks a little bewildered. "Thank you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Prayer

7th February
07:17 GMT -5

"Would you like me to help you with that, sir?"

Thomas Curry looks around from his chest of drawers for a moment and sighs. "I can manage perfectly well. The other two are bad enough but it'll be a sad day when Tom Curry can't carry his own pack."

I was half-expecting someone older, but I suppose with King Orin only being twenty nine there was no reason why his father would be old old. He's fifty three and still physically fit. His hair's grey and his bushy beard puts me in mind of how my own father wore his in my youth.

The 'other two' being his Atlantean close protection officers.. or whatever they're properly called. Seeing as the king's father had no desire to live in what they considered an adequately secure environment they ended up having to move here to Amnesty Bay. They have to work their cover too. I suppose their resulting unusual familiarity with surface world culture might open up interesting opportunities for them as Atlantean-Surface World relations become closer. One of them -Alpheus- is awaiting our return to the kitchen with Mister Curry's wife, Mary Curry née Sullivan. The other bodyguard couldn't justify taking time off from his cover job to join us.

I never really had any interest in Aquaman in the comic so I've got no idea if that version of him had as many land-dwelling relatives as the one I know does. One much younger half-brother, currently at college, along with several cousins living in and around the Amnesty Bay area. Aquaman doesn't exactly have a secret identity but knowledge that Arthur Curry equals Orin is a secret, if only to make sure the rest of the clan have some privacy and don't become target-of-the-week for supervillains with a grudge against him.

Mister Curry checks his hair in the mirror, lifts the holdall over his shoulder and then turns around. "Alright then… What was your name again?" I hold up a business card. He frowns at it then at me before dismissing the oddity. "Lead on, Paul."

I nod and exit his bedroom, starting the walk down the staircase. The Curry family home is the old lighthouse keeper's cottage. Apparently Mister Curry's forebears used to operate it before the network was automated. The lighthouse itself is still in use and from the various pictures and nautical knickknacks attached to the walls I gather that this is something of a source of pride. Thinking about it, it can't have been easy, a single man with a full time job which often requires significant amounts overtime bringing up a child more or less on his own.

As I enter the kitchen I nod to Alpheus. This isn't in any way a high risk journey and I'm going to be there. Missus Curry also won't be joining us so it'll just be the three of us. As I understand it, King Orin always regarded Queen Atlanna as being his real mother and while relations between them aren't bad exactly they aren't particularly close.

"I'll be off then, Mary." Mister Curry crosses the kitchen and embraces his wife. "Should be back in time for dinner."

She leans in and kisses him on the cheek. "Give Arthur and Mera my best. And little Artur too."

"I will."

I hadn't realised that 'Artur' was even a name before Kaldur told me that was what the new prince was called. Still, I suppose it was a lucky escape; one more letter and he'd have been 'Prince Junior'.

Mister Curry smiles fondly at his wife as he pulls away, turning towards the back door. Alpheus exits first and I notice him do a quick check for possible threats before stepping aside from the door for Mister Curry to pass. To keep with the secrecy thing I'm wearing clothes which contain no orange along with a black bobble hat. And glasses. I mean, they work for Superman, right?

The local zeta tube terminus isn't anywhere near the lighthouse. It would be too hard to disguise the electricity consumption if it was connected to the town's energy grid and fairly difficult to hide the electromagnetic and heat radiation if it had its own system. Similarly, I could transfer us straight to Poseidonis but the orange glow was judged to be too much of a risk. Instead, we're going for a short drive in Mister Curry's car down towards the docks where the zeta tube terminal is housed in a warehouse owned -through a front company- by the Atlantean crown. They do occasionally use it for its alleged purpose but it's mostly here for King Orin's benefit.

Amnesty Bay isn't a big harbour but it is just about big enough to cope with smaller container ships and has much lower docking fees than the larger port cities of Portland or Portsmouth to the south. Most of what goes out here is manufactured goods heading towards Europe and the constant demand is more than enough to keep the docks and the local workforce busy. Back home… No idea if this place exists. If it does it's probably been hit pretty hard by the recession. I did a quick check here and apparently 'sub prime' mortgages were never a thing here due to some unusually farsighted legislation that attracted a surprising amount of cross-bench support. Even free market friendly Senators and Congresspeople have been heard publicly talking of the need to avoid perverse incentives in a way that only happened post-crash back home.

I really need to get around to looking into why.

As Harbour Master, Mister Curry does have a legitimate reason for checking up on warehouses near the waterfront. If anyone asks that's exactly what we're doing. If anyone watches they'll probably be curious about why we walked into a warehouse and didn't come out for twelve hours but if anyone's that interested then we're probably rumbled anyway. As it is no one's around when we get out of the car and Alpheus heads towards the door, the key for the padlock already in his hand.

We follow him inside. It's hard to spot unless you know what you're looking for, but this building is designed to shield any emissions generated within from external detection. A shipping container over to my right contains an Atlantean lightning generator and the transformer required to turn that into power a circuit can usefully use. Sephtian and I could probably replace the generator with something a fraction of the size… But if we're going to aim to replace the network anyway there probably isn't much point. I had some trouble explaining to Sephtian exactly how much electrical energy the surface world uses. Atlanteans don't, for obvious reasons. Since I'm.. fairly sure that I want to introduce a xenotech power generation system rather than a magitech one I don't think I'll bother focusing on that.

Alpheus pulls open the doors to the shipping container holding the zeta tube. This isn't part of the main system; it's strictly point to point. Too much risk of someone putting two and two together if they walk in on something. Mister Curry looks the device over as I give it a scan. No problems that I can detect. Alpheus pulls a lever and the interior of the tube runs through its start up sequence.

I wave my left hand and connect myself to Mister Curry with a thick line of orange, extending an environmental shield around him. He looks at it and then turns over to me. "What.. exactly should I expect?"

I shrug. "You'll be able to walk around with little more difficulty than you can on the surface. And breathe normally and speak normally. Though.. I ttthink they're setting up an air-room for you."

"Are you going to be hanging around all day?"

"I'll be one guard among many, Mister Curry."

He nods. "I suppose privacy's one of those things kings have to do without."

"Three." This zeta tube actually has a count down. "Two. One."

7th February
10:17 GMT -2

And we're in the water before the Poseidonis tube. Mister Curry doesn't start, but he does look a little apprehensively curious about the situation. Alpheus on the other hand looks a little happier. Purebloods don't need constant exposure to water but they certainly prefer it. "If you're ready, sir?" He hesitates for a moment, then nods. Plot route, open a tube and transition.

And we're inside the palace, near the royal quarters. After the incident last year where Ocean Master and his followers were basically able to swim into the royal bedchambers they've upgraded security somewhat; I certainly couldn't transition directly inside there any longer. The guards outside tense for a moment, but a moment later recognise us -it's probably the orange glow- and one of them turns to press the rune on the doorway.

Another swims forwards. "Identify yourselves, please."

"Guardsman Alpheus, with Thomas Curry and Orange Lantern, here to see their majesties."

The guard raises some sort of runic stone and waves it at us. He looks at it for a moment and then nods. "Identities confirmed." He turns his attention to Mister Curry. "Welcome to Atlantis, sir. This way please-."

The door opens and King Orin swims out towards his father, smiling broadly. "Dad! Glad you could make it."

For a moment Mister Curry Senior tries to swim up to his son's level. Realising that he can't, he waits for King Orin to drop to floor level in front of him. "As if I'd miss this." They embrace, and I note that their beards follow the same contours along their faces. "Mary sends her love. Now, where's this grandson of mine?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Spring in Blume

12th February
17:26 GMT -5

Mm-hm, mm-hm, hmmm-hmmm-hmmm!

…

Finally the song's out of my head! Goodness me, that was annoying! I lean back slightly in my chair in one of the mountain's side rooms. Sound proof room, I note. Diana and Bruce are just outside urgently discussing my recent conduct and I can't hear a word they're saying. I think I'm supposed to be stewing in my own nerves or something but I'm just feeling a mixture of relief and anticipation. Man Who Dresses Like A Bat just can't intimidate me anymore.

And I got the fucking Sword! "Heh heh heh." Yeeeeesssss!

Okay, laughing to myself, not a sign of a healthy psychology. But still! The Sword of Second and Third! With this, I can make good on my obligation to kill Klarion. Probably. It sliced up Sabbac easily enough and it killed the First… Worth touching bases with Mister Constantine..?

Ploong.

No, I wasn't ignoring you. I simply didn't think that you knew anything about Earth-made arcane weaponry.

Ploong.

You think so? I suppose that's definitive, then. Making avatar-death kill the core being… Doesn't really add anything against most people I might want to kill but against high end supernaturals it's just what the doctor ordered. Can I think of any reason not to kill Klarion? Opinion of my peers? No, not really. In a one off situation that might make it worth not killing someone to preserve the illusion that I'm one of them but I don't think I could go on doing that. There's no easy way to break the news to them that I'm perfectly happy killing people who are both sufficiently bad and sufficiently stupid and.. when you get right down to it… I don't like deceiving them.

I lean back further, putting my hands behind my head. Good day, good day. Now, how to actually go about-?

The door opens and my two overseers… Oh, plus one. "Lantern Gardner. What's up?"

"Grayven, you just killed a guy in broad daylight. What'd you think's up?"

Diana walks across the room in front of me and sits down on the right hand side of the settee. Guy moves to occupy the left while Batman remains standing. "Oh that, yeah. Look, before you start? I'll save you some time. Don't try and guilt me. I don't feel even slightly bad about it. Heeeyy, how's Marvel doing?"

Diana looks down at the ground, then nods once. "It looks like he'll make a full recovery. What was it you gave him?"

"Innocent's Tears. Not.. tears from actual innocents." Hmm. "Probably. It was a gift from Pope Innocent the Third to the Closed Order of the Alexins back when they were still in communion with Rome. I think they think they're tears from a saint or Jesus or something." I shake my head. "The bottle appears to generate a healing unguent ex nihilo… I don't understand exactly how it works."

Guy nods. "They let you borrow it?"

"Nooo, I stole it." He frowns. "Oh, come on. There's.. like, twelve of them left. Marvel needed it more." Diana joins in the frowning. "They can have it back, I just wanted to get it to Marvel before he bled out. It was the only thing I could think of that might fix a wound that sword caused."

Diana's eyebrows rise very slightly. "You are familiar with Sabbac's sword?"

"Oh, yes. Never thought I'd actually see it, though." I sit a little straighter and pull it free of the scabbard I made for it. Same principle as the x-ionised sword's scabbard; the blade can't touch the sides or it just goes straight through. This sword even does a number on force fields. Ooh, it's so great! With a firm grasp of the grip in my right hand I rest the flat of the blade on my left palm. "This sword was created by the Succubus Chantinelle from the remains of Hell's most powerful Demons. Heh-heh, and now it's mine." My smile fades slightly as they stare at me. "Okay, that was undignified, but I'm still very happy to have-."

"…in Fawcett City today." I look behind them as a holoscreen comes on, showing they got my good side! "A superhuman identifying himself as 'Officer Grayven'-" Hahahahahahah! Ms Grant delivers the patently ridiculous line with her usual aplomb. "-confronted Sabbac and brutally ended his rampage by decapitating him with his own sword. The death toll from Sabbac's attack currently stands at forty eight, and emergency responders have stated that they expect to find more bodies as the rubble is removed. Some viewers may find what we're about to show disturbing."

Bruce turns away from the screen as the report continues. If they got this much, that means that they also have the recording of the moment I killed him. Not that they'll show that on network news… At this time of day. Probably on VidULike already. Don't think I'll have a problem getting recognised in public anym-.

"Why?" He sounds.. tired?

"People were dying and I had no gentle way to take him down that stood an adequate chance of success." There's a tiny flicker as his eyes instinctively jerk towards Diana for a fraction of a second before returning to me. And the best thing is, it's true.

"There was nothing else you could have done."

A question, though there's no change in intonation. "No, there were any number of other techniques I could have attempted. That was just the one that stood the best chance of success… And I didn't think it was worth the lives of everyone who would have died in the meantime to try something else. Plus, I did follow the law; he clearly stated that he was resisting-."

"Grayven, direct order: hand the sword over to Wonder Woman."

"No." I return it to the sheath. "That's a suicidal order. This sword is the only thing I know that would reliably work against Father or other high end New Gods. Giving it up leaves me wide open." Actually, this.. could.. probably kill Gaea. What happens to the world if I..? Let's not think in that direction.

Diana shares a look with Guy. "The Bialyan government hasn't made an announcement yet, but news of Queen Bee's death is starting to spread. Grayven, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking 'it makes M'gann happy and President Harjavti's cool with it'. Also, 'there's no way she's going to be dumb enough to drive over a disputed border herself'. Though, again, the degree to which I'm prepared to be sad about it-."

"Will be measured in Bialyan dead when the civil war starts! Some of her generals are already marshalling their forces!"

Hmm. Had been giving that some thought… "Okay, look. I haven't broken any law by killing either her or Sabbac. But, the Bialya situation was a miscalculation on my part. I.. think I can fix it. Give me a few days to sort things out. And while I'm busy doing that you can decide how you want to discipline me."

"What?" Guy makes a shrugging gesture with his right hand. "You plannin' on taking over the country yourself?"

"No, I plan on looking after Crown Princess Adilah until she can be installed as Queen, and making sure she can actually do the job."

Diana's face hardens. "She's gone missing."

"And I've got a power ring!"

"Have you done anything to her?"

What? "No, not really." Curious look. "I killed her sister but I haven't had anything to do with her directly. But it's hardly a surprise that some of the people back home want her dead now and she's intelligent enough to work that out for herself. Look, I don't want Bialya collapsing on itself either. Someone who's used to the Singapore system could do wonders for the place."

A flash of colour draws my eye as the screen shows Mary Marvel smashing apart a Demon made of burning skulls. Fully sentient? Did she check?

"The Justice League cannot legally operate in Bialya." The other two looks around at Batman. Diana does not look happy. "You will provide me with updates on your progress every ten minutes and you will follow my directives."

"Of course, sir." I rise to my feet. "If you'll excuse me?" I get a nod. "Father Box, hush tube to Singapore." A hole in space opens next to me and… No, waving goodbye is probably wrong. I trigger my armour's flight discs and float through, closing the portal behind me.

13th February
06:30 GMT +8

Okay, I'm in the air high above the city-state of Singapore, no one's around… "Ring, dial Katherine Spencer."

I hear a ringing sound for a moment, then she picks up. "Gray. I saw what you did in Fawcett. Does this mean..?"

"Yeah. Think I'm about ready for… You know. Have you managed-?"

"He'll meet you, but I couldn't come right out and tell his people what you're offering. I can't say how he'll respond." I hear her sigh. "He's not exactly known for taking hard positions."

"All I ask is that he meet me. Thanks, Kate. I owe you for this."

"Just get the bastard for us, Gray."

I find myself smiling. "Happy to oblige."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stars, Crossed, part 1

22nd February
09:59 GMT -5

"That's… Quite a lot of people."

"Sure is." Ted reaches up slightly to put his left arm around my shoulders. "They told me they were coming, but usually about half of them drop out." He turns his head to look at me, a small smile on his lips. "Can't imagine why that didn't happen this time."

"It's just been a while since I did anything in front of an audience of strangers."

"When was the last time?"

"Primary School production of Peter Pan."

He looks speculatively at me. "Oh? What role did you have?"

"Nana." He squints. "The Dog."

His grip loosens slightly as he gives me a look of stunned disbelief, gradually morphing into-.

"Bwah-ha-ha-ha!" He bends over, clutching his stomach.

Fine, then. "I was a great Nana." I stride out of the wings and onto the stage, giving a wave to the journalists who've gathered to hear our announcement. A handful I recognise -ooh, that's Ms Lane- but most of them I've never seen before. That's fine, we wanted a more serious crowd for this than the usual superperson reportage. I stop just past the middle point and generate a construct podium. I won't need it for most of the lecture but when I was practising I found that it helped to have somewhere to put my arms when I didn't have anything to point at. I rest them there and lean forwards slightly. "Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for coming. Ted will be on-" I look off-stage… Oh for goodness sake, he's fallen onto his knees. It's not that funny. "-a bit later to demonstrate some of KordTech's latest developments, but first you're going to have to sit through a short lecture on comparative xenosociology from me."

No one looks particularly upset at the prospect. Re-sult. "It occurred to me some time ago that the Green Lantern Corps must have built up a colossal database of information on.. just about every different type of civilisation across this galaxy. I'm -obviously- not a Green Lantern, but since that information isn't considered to be secure they were willing to share it with me. Millions of years of data is far too much for most people to examine in any detail… I mean, who hasn't gone on Encarta Populi to look something up only to emerge hours later-" A polite laugh from the audience. "-with no idea where all the time went. I had the ring-" I raise my left hand slightly. "-go through it all for points of interest. What I was really looking for is… Some way.. to evaluate how well we're doing. As a species. Just how good is our technology compared to what other species have? I mean, most people have seen pictures of Superman's Fortress-" My eyes alight on Ms Lane for a moment. "-which employs Kryptonian technology, but pretty much by definition any species that's managed to come here is going to be more advanced than us. Because otherwise we'd have gone there."

"First thing I discovered? A lot of species don't get past late medieval, and even fewer get past early industrial." I pause there for a moment and make eye contact with a random selection of journalists. "It makes sense, when you think about it. Industrial society requires fuel; you can get by on charcoal for a while but what you really need is coal. If the species evolves before coal happens in sufficient quantity and accessibility, they can't use it. In some places they don't even get that far; if the planet doesn't have tree analogues for easy growing fuel and building material they can end up getting stuck earlier."

"Of course, that's just technology, in terms of social organisation all sorts of things can happen. I actually came across one species where they have a planetary government despite not being able to use technology more complicated than a windmill. They travel long distances on the backs of animals and build their multilane roads with stone blocks." I trigger the stage's holo display, showing a part of the road network as seen from low orbit. It visibly covers a continent the size of Africa.

"So, ignoring them, how are we doing? In absolute terms, not all that well. Any species that continues to develop will get past the point we currently occupy. A better question then is: how fast are we developing, compared to how fast other species did when they were our age? And that's where this graph-" I change the image to a slightly wiggly line, starting bottom left and moving to the top right. "-comes in. Along the bottom-" I dismiss the lectern and walk over to point at the image. "-rank order, one to… Well, it's a big number. Up the side, 'development points'. I awarded points for how quickly the species reached a particular developmental milestone; first tool use, first copper smelting, first iron smelting, first mechanical engine, first powered flight, things like that. I also gave points for how widespread those things became; no points for developing it in a workshop somewhere and never using it like the ancient Greeks did with steam power."

"What I got was a very subjective line, but it should be enough to give us a rough idea. The result?" I create a construct baton and point. "We're just under two thirds of the way up the development speeds table." Another look around the room. "That's not bad. I mean, we're no Colu-" I point to a spot near the 'fast developing' end of the line. "-and we're certainly not Maltus-" I point to the very end of the line. "-where they went from discovering iron to 'you still use metal, how quaint' in the space of a day, but we're doing better than a lot of species did."

I turn away from the display and spread my arms out. "Pat yourselves on the back, Humans. Well done." A bit of laughter and people are generally looking happier. I'll soon fix that. "But there's always room for improvement. For example, I was awarding points for implementation. There are still large areas of the Earth out there that don't have running water, sanitation… You've heard that argument before, I'm sure. And to be honest, even if I restrict my analysis to the advanced parts of the world it doesn't change our rank that much. You can get a plane in most places, you can certainly buy iron in most places… What really brings us down is our failure to implement the most advanced stuff which we have anywhere at all."

The image changes again. "This is a picture of Earth's first interplanetary teleporter. Show of hands, who thinks it's been developed since two thousand?" I wait patiently while they look around and a few hands start to creep up. "Come on, don't be shy. Okay, keep them up aaand raise yours if you think it was developed since nineteen ninety?" More hands. Most are now up. "Good, thanks for playing along. Nineteen eighty?" A few more. "Okay, thank you, you can put them down. That, is Professor Erdel's original zeta tube generator. It was built in the nineteen fifties. When it was first activated-" I set the display to do a slideshow of pictures taken from newspapers of the time. "-it caused brownouts and blackouts across three states and transported Mister J'onn J'onzz -the Martian Manhunter- to Earth from Mars. Take a moment to think about that. Earth has had interplanetary teleportation technology for sixty years."

"President Nixon approved the development of the space shuttle in nineteen sixty nine. It costs four hundred and fifty million dollars to launch a space shuttle today. Once you factor in all of the other costs of the program it works out costing over a billion dollars per launch. All that time, Doctor Erdel's company was being denied funding by the Federal Government. Despite having a product that was -by galactic standards-" I switch the slide back to the graph. "-something we might have expected to develop about two hundred years later. They limped by for decades on university funding, only able to make small scale models and tests. A ride to the moon via a current generation zeta tube would cost you about forty dollars a time once the system was set up. And today, the only people who use zeta tubes on Earth are the Justice League."

Another round of eye contact. "And if that fact makes you angry? Then you're in good company, because it makes me bloody angry. Human technological development is being retarded by stupid people. And I'm not having it any more."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stars, Crossed, part 2

24th February
11:56 GMT +3

Kandake stares in amazement as her right ring and little fingers reappear. After my first few healing sessions Sadeh suggested that I make a bit more of a drama about it. Just making it 'wave of orange and your arm's back' was weirding the Amazons out too much, particularly in the case of old or ancient injuries. So I've suppressed the nerves around the affected area and I'm taking it slowly. First, the scar tissue and the skin covering the place the fingers used to be dissolves. There's a slight intake of breath as it starts -despite what I tell them most of my patients expect it to hurt- but she looks more fascinated than anything else as a construct takes the shape of the missing bones before gradually filling in from the hand end with transmuted material.

Next come the nerves, blood vessels and tendons. Amazons had a surprisingly good knowledge of the internal structures of the Human body. She knows what the parts I'm regrowing are. Oh, she's trying to keep her hand completely still. I did tell her… With those parts complete I cover the whole thing in construct skin, taking care to match her skin pigmentation as the uppermost layer goes on. Match the length of the nail to her others… And, done.

I take hold of her fully restored hand in both of mine. "Now, I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone else. To lose your fingers may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose them twice would start to look like carelessness." I lean forwards a little. "Do try and be careful."

I release her hand and she holds it in front of her face, staring at her restored digits. She closes her fingers into a fist and the new ones lag a little behind their compatriots. She swallows, then touches her new fingers with her left index finger. "I can't… I can't feel them. Is that… Wrong?"

"No, it's to be expected, really. I've been…" I glance at Sadeh. "Well, actually, Sadeh's been keeping records on Amazons who've had body parts restored. With recent injuries there isn't a problem, but a substantial portion of those with older injuries experience numbness and a lack of responsiveness. Did you ever experience phantom limb pain?" She looks blank. "The sensation that the fingers were still there, did you ever feel like they were touching something?"

"They… Ached, sometimes."

"Right, that's pretty common. There are several theories about why that sort of thing happens… The one that I remember -and I don't know whether it's true or not- is that without any sensation, the part of your brain that used to interpret input from the fingers connects to other things. "

"Is this.. perman-?"

"No, it's not… It shouldn't be permanent. For obvious reasons there's not a lot of research on restored body parts, but from what the first few people whose old injuries I fixed have told me, you should experience a gradual restoration of sensation as your brain adapts to the new source of data. Human brains are remarkably clever things. Now, we think.. the best way for you to speed this up is to keep using them. Basically, we want you to-" I pick up a foam ball from a nearby table. "-take this, and we want you to spend an hour each day squeezing it in your formerly injured hand. Here."

Kandake takes it from me, feeling the texture. They don't have plastic on Themyscira, for obvious reasons. No rubber either. They could grow rubber-producing plants in this climate but they don't currently have much use for it. "Like this?" She gives the ball a squeeze.

I hold out my right hand and open and close it as if repeatedly squishing the ball. "Like that." She nods and repeats the motion. "We'd also like you to keep a written record… If you start getting any feeling back, if it hurts at all…" She nods. "After about a month, if you still haven't felt anything, there are other things I can do, but they involve fiddling with your brain and I'd rather avoid that if at all possible."

"I will do as you ask." She squeezes the ball hard. "Thank you." She turns and walks away to rejoin the small group of Amazons from her village who made the journey with her.

I turn to Sadeh. "Is that it?"

She nods. "Everyone who came. I don't think there's a single woman left carrying a wound on Themyscira now, thanks to you."

I smile. "Glad to help."

She frowns as I get up to leave the Temple of Apollo which doubles as Themyscira City's hospital. "Oh, I was thinking yesterday… Have you heard of Baroness Paula von Gunther?"

I nod. "Yes, Diana fought her during the Second World War. She.. came to live here afterwards. Died about thirty years ago."

She nods. "Yes. What you've been doing… It reminds me of one of the things she designed here."

"She… Built something that could regrow-?"

"No, no. She showed me once. It could regrow flesh and.. reattach severed body parts, but it could not restore them from nothing as you can."

"She built it here? That's amazing! Where is it, does it still work?"

"It's probably still in her workshop. As far as I know the last person to have seen it would have been the Princess."

"Still in her workshop? Why isn't it in.. here? If someone comes in injured..?"

She shakes her head regretfully. "It seemed very complicated. How would I know it was working properly?"

"Okay, that's… Reasonable. If you could show me where her workshop is I could-. I'm sorry, just a moment. Ring, what time is it?"

"Eleven fifty nine local time."

!!!

"TerriblysorrybutI'msupposedtobespeakingattheSenaterightatmiddaysorry."

I see her frown as the ring calculates the route. "We don't keep time that precise-."

I transition to just outside the small amphitheatre of the Themysciran Senate. It's at the centre of the city just to the left of the palace. The guards look my way, but they're become fairly used to me appearing and disappearing by now. No cry of alarm goes up at least. Right, right, ahhh… My usual armour disappears into subspace, being replaced by what I keep wanting to call a toga but isn't. Mala was quite clear about that and I have no desire to sit through another lecture on Amazon fashion. Fortunately, she was a good deal less certain about clothing for men so I'm cheating and wearing a himation rather than a peplos. The colours gave me some trouble. My signature colours are grey, black and orange and Amazons generally favour lighter colours for their clothes. I could just do grey with orange trimmings but I need to appear as a part of the group rather than as an external force. In the end I went for pale orange cloth with a darker orange border. Since they don't have an orange dye it draws the eye, but the style is more familiar while still being distinctively mine.

I hurry up akgh!

I walk slowly and carefully up the steps, nodding politely to the two guards on duty by the doors. "Haven't started without me, have they?"

"Probably." I vaguely recognise the guard who answered, but I don't think we've been introduced. "But I wouldn't worry. We don't keep a tight schedule here in the way you're used to." She looks past me towards the entrance to the palace. "In fact…"

I turn to follow her gaze. The royal party are approaching. Two guards to the fore, then Queen Hippolyta, High Priestess Menalippe, Captain Philippus and the two guards bringing up the rear. I recognise Zosime by her reflective skin. Should really see if she still wants to keep that at some point. The group climbs the steps and Hippolyta smiles at me. I bow… Well, as much as I can in this dress thing. "Majesty."

"Paul. I'm glad that I haven't missed anything. How were things at the Temple?"

"I think I've run out of people to heal. And Sadeh said something about a healing machine Baroness von Gunther built?"

"Ah, yes. I think I remember it. You're welcome to go through her workshop. I imagine that she would be pleased that someone is making use of it. Now." She nods to her escort at they open the doors. "Shall we?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Hullevow

2nd March
09:22 GMT +1

I put the amulet John gave me back into my jacket pocket as I lean against the wall opposite the church hall's toilet block. Should.. probably give this a few minutes… I actually wanted to talk to John about Hekatonkheires, but I lost heart when his response to me asking was a mystified "Y'what?" Finding-.

An interior door bangs and I take a mobile phone out of my pocket, pretending to be engrossed in the screen. A moment later a man whom I'm going to assume from his dress is an Orthodox priest of some kind walks out. He looks around as he leaves the toilet block and I look up, giving him a smile and a friendly nod. Ring, don't translate. "Father." Not the proper way of addressing a priest around here if you're a believer, but then.. I'm not.

He nods back and raises his right hand to wave at the ignorant tourist. "May God smile upon you, my son."

He means well. I return my attention to my phone as he looks up into the sky, then carries on down the path. Give him a while to get out of sight… Good. I slip the phone back into an interior pocket before ambling across the path and entering the toilet block myself. John's amulet is still tugging at my lapel so I know I'm in the right place. I was a little worried she might just vanish, but then; why would she? It's not like any of her enemies have the means to find her any longer. I can hear her singing softly to herself from the men's toilets, and... Heh, the graffiti on the walls covers a few spell glyphs. She thinks that she'd have warning.

John will be amused.

I push open the door and the woman redoing her makeup by the sink looks around in surprise. Respectable calf length skirt, blouse and woollen jumper… Not really what I'd expected her to wear, but I suppose she's playing a role. The face is neither her default one or particularly striking in its own right. I'm going to assume that she chose it to appeal to her target.

She frowns at me and the lip gloss tube disappears. "What are you doing in here?"

Indignation. She plans to pretend she picked the wrong toilet. Brush the whole thing off. Okay.

"This is the men's. Um. I can just… Wait?"

"Oh!" She looks around, her countenance changing to one of joviality. It's fascinating, really. Empathic vision is giving me nothing. "Silly me." She takes a step towards me. "I've been coming here for years and still manage to go in the wrong one." She pats my left forearm with her right hand. And.. there's the confusion. About a second as she tries to assess the threat level, then she steps back a few steps, still smiling. "Would you be a dear and wait outside for a moment while I finish up?"

"Ordinarily I'd be happy to, but I did come rather a long way to talk to you." I straighten up slightly, a mild smile on my face. "Miss Chantinelle."

She shakes her head. "I.. don't know anyone…" The ring pings my brain as my Spell Eater gets ever so slightly warmer. A second later Chantinelle abandons the pretence, glowering fiercely, her eyes shifting from brown to her default turquoise. "Who are you?"

"Someone interested in doing business with you."

Her face relaxes a little. Guarded but no longer aggressive. "Well… You might want to turn off your wards, then." She struts a pace closer. "You'll have more fun that way."

"Not that sort of business. I'm nothing like stupid enough to try that with a Succubus."

She looks me over salaciously, her body slowly shifting shape as she returns to her default mostly human form. Long, straight, dull brown hair parted in the middle, slender body and tiny fangs that are a lot less cute in real life than Japanese animation thinks they are. "I don't have to feed. Sometimes I just do it for fun."

"The priest?"

"Priests are always fun."

I narrow my eyes. "I don't think Orthodox priests actually have to be celibate."

"No, but they're not supposed to be un-celibate with their Deacon's wife."

I beam. "Oh, congratulations!"

She frowns, puzzled. "It wasn't that hard."

"No, on getting married! I realise that must have presented you certain practical difficulties-."

She blinks heavily, then shakes her head. "No, I'm not actually married.. to... I just took her shape to seduce the priest."

"Oh right." I nod. "That makes more sense."

She looks me over again, this time a little more cautiously. "Where did you get that ward from?"

"Same place you did. Weird not being able to see inside someone, isn't it?"

She exhales with frustration. "Constantine."

"He and I have a scheme in the works. And since I like to plan for contingencies, it seemed wise to come to terms with people who could mess things up before they got into a position to do so. I understand the two of you aren't on best terms-."

"Do you know what he did to me?"

"After you made everyone he knows hate him, he gave your last known location to the First. To be honest, even leaving aside the fact that I killed the First again a few weeks ago I think you're.. kind of even now. But, that's why I'm here, not him. I want to pay you off so that you'll agree not to interfere."

"What's the scheme?"

"I'm not going to tell you that."

She tilts her head to the side. "Now I'm curious. What exactly happens if I say 'no'?"

"I shoot you dead with the Ace of Winchesters." Her eyes don't widen, but her pupils do dilate slightly for a moment. "Though I would really rather not do that."

She nods and leans back against the… Ah. Since she can't read my desires she's going for generic appeal. Nothing too obvious, but she's gained a cup size, lost a few centimetres of height and her hair's grown a little lighter. I think her facial structure is changing slightly as well, becoming less harsh. "What am I being offered?"

"If I remember correctly, you told your lover… The Angel-."

"His name was Tali."

"Tali." I nod. "You once told him that you loved Hell… The screams, the landscape, the suffering… But also that you didn't identify with that value set. You hadn't grown up learning it, you'd just been…" I circle my right hand. "Created with it. It just.. happened to be.. how you are. Was that true?"

She glares. "How did you hear that?"

"I read it in a comic book. Was it true?"

"I.. suppose." She shakes her head. "Why does it matter?"

"What I want to offer you is power. Raw, arcane, lots of it. The downside -and why I'm not using this technique on myself- is that it would significantly affect the sorts of thing you value. But…" I spread out my hands and shrug. "If you don't care about that, and you get something you value now…"

"I'm not quite that casual about it."

"When was the last time you were completely happy, Chantinelle? Running? Hiding? The occasional clerical seduction? Ripping Gabriel's heart out? No. Not even that. It was when you were with Tali. I'm offering you the chance to feel that way again. No more missing Hell, wanting to go back even though you know any number of Demons know you as John's ally and would gleefully take their hate out on you. No more risking giving yourself away by feeding on people. I know you only just managed to dodge those Inquisitors in Kiev. You could be happy as yourself. How about it?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Black Reign

1st October 2010
19:26 GMT -5

"Orange Lantern. A word."

I take a breath and move my right hand down to my side. Attention isn't really practical in a swamp but I do a reasonable approximation. "What can I do for you, sir?"

Batman makes sure that I'm watching his face, then pointedly looks in the direction of Teth Adom. "Please explain why Black Adam now appears to be on our side."

"Simple enough, sir." I see his eyes move back to me and I strongly suspect that under his mask his eyebrows are raised. "Simplish. About five thousand years ago the wizard Shazam appointed Prince Teth Adom as his champion, the role Captain Marvel occupies now."

"I am aware of Black Adam's history."

I go to say 'ah, but you're not'. Fortunately, I remember in time who I'm talking to. "The authorised version turns out to have certain.. omissions. Firstly, the modern age supervillain 'Black Adam' was not in fact Teth Adom. He was an archaeologist named Theodore Adam who used Teth Adom's corpse to hijack his powers. Part of the process of doing so caused his empowered state to look somewhat like Teth Adom. Um." I take a quick look around, then raise a soundproof bubble around us. "Sir, can I assume that you know-?"

"That Captain Marvel's secret identity is that of a ten year old boy?" He changes the focus of his attention to William for a moment. "Yes. As such, I understand that changing shape is an intrinsic part of the power Shazam bestows."

"Right. So, when I found that out, I realised that the best way to neutralise Black Adam as a threat was to disrupt the spell which allowed him to steal that power. We fought, I managed to provoke him into calling down lightning and… The third time, I managed to manoeuvre him into position to be hit by it. Then I destroyed the amulet that was the spell's physical component and used a magic powder-" Please don't ask. "-to weaken the magic's hold to the point that Teth Adom's spirit could fight its way free."

"And take control of their shared body."

"I assumed that something like that would happen. That, or Adom would pass on to his people's afterlife and Theodore would be depowered. What actually happened was that their gods decided that they didn't like Theodore very much and had Ammut eat his soul. Teth Adom is currently in sole control of what used to be Theodore's body."

Batman nods slowly. "Why wasn't Captain Marvel aware of that?"

"I don't think that Shazam himself knew exactly what had happened. I think he saw someone dressed as Teth Adom using Teth Adom's powers to pick a fight with his current champion and rather jumped to conclusions."

"Why would his former champion want to fight his current one?"

"As I understand it, Shazam is the one who killed him. I only have.. his version of events. I'm not sure enough of what happened to say anything definite, and I can't.. check, anyway…" I shrug. "His desires appear to show that he doesn't have a specific grudge against anyone except Shazam and that he has other priorities at the moment."

Warning: low power. Six percent remaining.

I turn off the sound deadening dome. "Sir, if you want to ask him anything then I suggest doing it now. Another one percent and I lose translation."

"Tell me: what does a man five thousand years out of time want?"

"He still regards Kahndaq as being his country." Batman stiffens slightly, his gaze growing distant. "I don't think he's made any concrete plans, but given the state of-."

"What languages does he speak?"

"I'm not sure. No modern ones, certainly."

"The Republic of Kahndaq is not a member of the League's UN charter. As such, the League is not empowered to intervene in its internal affairs unless it threatens another state."

"Yes sir."

"Can I take it that this outcome was not entirely unanticipated?"

"Well, I knew it was theoretically possible. And my plan for dealing with it is a simplified version of the one where they were sharing a body. Sir, if this is about the fact that Theodore died-."

"No. Though I have noticed that you seem to be less disturbed by that than you were with Matthew Hagen."

"I didn't kill this one. My decisions leading up to it were entirely intentional… And, frankly, he deserved it more. I.. don't think I'd have been prepared to kill him, but I'm not going to pretend to be choked up about the fact that he died."

"How did you plan to handle integrating Teth Adom into modern society?"

"I have plenty of spare time, and he has the Wisdom of Zehuti. I was planning to hire a language tutor and use the ring's translation function to make it possible for him to learn Kahndaqi Arabic. Until he had a functional understanding of the language I'd be his main way of understanding the modern world."

"You could keep an eye on him."

"Um. Sort of. I don't think it would actually come to that…"

Adom and William fly over to the dome to help the other League members with the clean up. Wallace sticks his head out of the bioship, starts to say something, spots who I'm talking to and ducks back inside.

"Acceptable, with one modification. I am.. concerned, that your ring may impact your judgements on some matters. Changing a government by force has a great deal of opportunity to go badly wrong. I want a member of the Justice League to be on hand to make sure that he isn't a threat to the people you want to help. Human culture five thousand years ago was very different than what it is now."

"There's plenty of room at the embassy, sir. I'm sure Wonder Woman wouldn't mind having him as a guest for a while."

He nods. "But she doesn't speak Ancient Kahndaqi."

"I checked, sir. The language is dead. No one speaks it. Unless you ask one of the other Lanterns..."

"Does he know that?"

"I… I don't know."

Batman inclines his head slightly. "Martian Manhunter has the ability to telepathically use languages from someone else's mind." I did not know that. "He could assume the guise of a professor of Kahndaqi history. If we allowed Adom to believe that knowledge of the language was unusual rather than unheard of, it would give him an additional point of contact."

That… Should work. "Assuming that he doesn't block the telepathy with the Power of Atum."

"Captain Marvel has shown the ability to resist telepathic attack, but he has to exert himself to do so. So long as the telepathic contact is subtle, it should go unnoticed."

I nod. "It would probably be easier for him to learn from Mister J'onzz than someone who needed me to translate everything for them."

"Accompany the others back to the mountain, recharge, then return here. I will need to discuss the arrangements with Adom himself."

I nod, and he turns to walk away. "Sir? Do we know how many people died?"

"Casualty lists are still being compiled."

I close my eyes for a moment. I need to ask this. "Sir? Are they just going to send Napier back to Arkham again?"

"The Joker will be temporarily housed in the Belle Reve Penitentiary, pending a decision on where the members of the Injustice League will stand trial."

"Sir, Arkham couldn't keep hold of him the last seven times. What makes you think it will work this time?"

"Wayne Industries has secured a contract to upgrade Arkham's security. Having reviewed their work, I'm satisfied that he will find escaping again a good deal more difficult. Is there anything else?"

I smile. "No sir. Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Carpe Tempus

18th March
09:26 GMT -7

"Whoooooooohoooooooww!"

Niko shoots past the rooftop with a look of pure and unbridled joy on her face. She isn't a great flier, not yet. This is the first time since the procedure that she's been able to get properly airborne and I'm still half-poised to leap into the air and grab her myself if it looks like she's starting to flag. Plus, I think the lack of a left arm is throwing off her flight profile. More drag on one side.

"Ahh…" Cranius has Otto turn so that he can follow her. He isn't capable of sighing exactly, his respiratory system just doesn't allow him to store enough air for that sort of exhalation. But he is willing to make an effort for my benefit. "It is a wondrous sight, to see her in zhe air like zhis." Otto turns him back towards me as Niko climbs higher into the air. "I zhank you, Grayven. From zhe deepest part of my spirit. Without your knowledge of xenophysiology unt zhis…" Otto holds up the remains of my Nth metal sample. "Remarkable material, such a zhing would never heff been possible."

I wave my right hand dismissively. "Come now Doctor, don't sell yourself short. Without your mastery of metahuman physiology all I could have done is give her an autoimmune disease. Human bodies just aren't designed to make use of Nth metal like that."

"Collaboration. Hm. It is not a zhing which I am used to, but between yourself and my brozher… I zhink I could grow accustomed to it."

Niko dives directly for the rooftop before flipping over a mere five metres up and flapping downwards, the Nth metal swiftly nullifying her downward momentum. "This is amazing!"

"I'm impressed how quickly you've picked it up."

"I'm an Un-Man." She makes an uneven flap, then draws her wings around her as she twists in a spiral.

…

For a moment I'm rendered insensible by the beauty of the sight. She notices as she comes out of the spiral, granting me a more personal smile as she hovers once more. "I wasn't born to do this. I was reborn to do it."

Cranius smiles. "Well said, my dear. Do you.. feel tired? I would not want you to overstress yourself."

She immediately shakes her head. "I feel like I could do this all day." She thinks for a moment. "Maybe another half hour?"

Otto spreads his arms. "Even if zhis were not a validation of everyzhing I heff worked for, I could not deny it to you."

One mighty downward flap and she's gone again, this time heading out over Aberrance. Cranius and I watch her go. Ah, well that's the unquestionably nice part of the visit taken care of. Now… Business.

"How.. is the… Project work going?"

"Eh. We were.. able to conclude our business with zhe Gotham police unt zhe Justice League… Wizhout too badly upsetting our partners in zhe Department of Energy. I am not heppy with how zhings turned out… After zhe.. excitement, zhe network decided to delay… Well. In effect, to cancel. Buuut, such is fate, I suppose. We will recover."

"Made any progress in understanding Arcane's writing?"

"Yes… Somewhat. I believe zhat before zhe year is over I may heff regained zhe ability to uncreate. Unt.. wizh my brozher, several fascinating new avenues of possibility heff opened zhemselves."

"Doctor… You understand, my admiration for the pioneering work you do here is undimmed…"

"But you wish to make some criticism?" He swivels slightly on Otto's shoulders. "Grayven, you are family. Please, if you believe zhat zhere is some way in which our working here could be improved upon, you heff but to speak." His neck pulses. "I will not promise zhat I will agree, but I will listen."

"Thank you. I suppose… As I understand it, your current plan is to go for.. high impact modifications. You want to show… Want people to realise exactly how malleable the Human body is. To get the idea out there into the world that this is something which can happen. In a controlled way. The fact that you can do these things is something of which you are rightly proud. But -and this is my concern- the people who are interested in undergoing this sort of modification are.. a minority. A very small one. And will probably remain so for the foreseeable future."

Cranius is looking thoughtful, but he doesn't speak as I pause.

"Now, if you get a new television deal… Then, twenty, thirty years on… You may start to see wider acceptance. Maybe. Do you know how long you're going to live, Doctor?"

"It is impossible for me to say." His eyes narrow slightly. "You heff some ozher approach you wish to suggest?"

"I think… Look, the Human brain is rigged to see healthy Human bodies as beautiful. I know you don't, and I realise that there's no objective reason to consider the product of evolution as more beautiful than the product of a laboratory, but these are the preconceptions… Hard wired preconceptions we're working against." I pause again. "What do you know about multidrug resistant microbes?"

"I am not a medical doctor, but I read zhe trade magazines. Dependency on antibiotics is slowly but surely breeding a generation of bacteria who no longer have need to fear zhem."

"Only one major pharmaceutical company is even bothering to continue researching new types of antibiotics. The future appears to belong to bacteriophages, viruses which-."

"I know what a bacteriophage is, Grayven. Amusing as zhe idea is, I do not zhink zhat I could create an 'Un-Virus'."

"Right. But could you create an implantable organ that monitored the user's blood and could perform an intelligent filtering operation? Targeting elements that should not be there."

"Perhaps… Yes, I zhink zo." He frowns, deep in thought. "Some sort of addition to zhe endocrine system..? I may even be able to modify zhe pancreas zo zhat-." His eyes widen. "You feel zhat people would be more open to zhe idea of a subtle modification. It benefits zhem, it does not challenge zhem…"

"And it gets your technology out there. Once they've accepted the wedge's thin end, you would have an opening in which you could discuss.. other things. And by that stage-."

"Zhey would already be Un-Men." He hesitates. "I… Intellectually, I understand where you are coming from, but… I do not like it, Grayven. My work here… I pride myself on releasing people's true inner selves. What you are asking, it does not do zhat. It is… Ugk, pandering. To zhe norms of zhe Human flesh."

I shrug expansively. "You work with what you have. You're trying to convince Humans to do something highly counterintuitive. I really think.. a little pandering could help immensely. And hey, once you've got the basics of the organ design down you can hand it off to your subordinates anyway. It's not as if you'll need to install every single one personally." He doesn't look happy. "Consider it this way: the original method you were using was attracting freak show enthusiasts. This? This would attract-" I point at the buildings being occupied by pharmaceutical concerns. "-serious medical researchers and practitioners. If you pull it off, you steal a march on all of those companies who restrict themselves to tinkering chemically with Human bodies. Would you rather feature in National Enquirer… Or New Scientist?"

"Ah, zhe ego. My one weakness. Heh."

"Well? Do you think the idea has legs? Or-" I look around. "-ambulatory tentacles, at least?"

"I… I heard what you heff said in zhe spirit in which it is intended. Haaaaaaaa. I… Do not know. I see zhe reason, but all zhe time I heff in my head zhe idea zhat zhis is not what I am meant to be doing."

He looks away, trying to catch sight of Niko again. Trying to see the physical validation of his preferred form of work. No, she's moved behind one of the buildings.

"I.. will need to discuss zhe matter, with Janus unt with Crassus. Investigate how practical it is, howww.. much of my research can cross over between zhe two streams. From what has been said of our cash flow… I imagine zhat Janus will be in favor of somezhing swiftly marketable. Zhe Atlantean techniques for zhe growing of limbs, perhaps."

"I realise that this is a wretch, but I really think that getting a unique and valuable product out there will spread the Uncorporation name better than another set of Third Generation Un-Men."

"Yes. You are most likely right. But zhis thought does not fill me with happiness."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Date Night

24th March
21:47 GMT -4

I ring the doorbell of Holly and Karon's home. Remarkably, I was able to navigate the mean streets of Gotham without being unduly disturbed this time. I'm not sure if that's due to the word about me getting around or things just not being so openly lawless as they once were. I think I saw Artemis -or someone anyway- on a rooftop part of the way, but it might have been a trick of the light.

Tsaritsa will be held in the Themysciran embassy until such time as her long term location is agreed upon. President Horne appears to not be entirely horrified by the idea of sending her to Tartarus, but it's not as if the final decision will be entirely his. It was a bit off the cuff on my part, but Tartarus could be an excellent place for long term supervillain storage. Good luck getting anyone out of there, because if the Titans can't manage it…

The door opens. "Hey Hol-." Karon blinks in surprise. "Oh, hey Paul. Holly's not back from work yet."

"Actually, I was hoping to speak to you, if that's alright?"

"Sure, come in." She steps back from the door and I follow her inside, closing it behind me. The weather's still fairly chilly, so I'm wearing a suit jacket with a roll neck jumper underneath. I subspace the jacket as I head towards the comfy chair that I habitually occupy when I visit them here.

"I caught that play you were in on TV."

I look mildly pained. "You didn't."

"I didn't know you could act!"

"I can't-. Well, I can, but in that instance I was-" I sit. "-getting mind controlled by a supervillainess called The Queen of Fables." Karon sits down on the settee. "I only went onto the stage to try and arrest her and that's when her spell caught me."

"You got mind controlled by a supervillainess and all she did was made you act in a play?"

"She made me live the play as if I was the character I was playing. I honestly thought that I was Prince Pavlos of Themyscira while it was going on."

"Whaw. Do you, like, ever get a normal week?"

"Not really." I smile, shaking my head. "You know.. it's funny. You're actually the most normal person I know."

She looks like she's not quite sure what to make of that. "Thank you?"

"My favourite author is a man named Terry Pratchett. In one of his books, he wrote that… See if I can remember the quote… Ah, 'Individuals aren't naturally paid-up members of the human race, except biologically. They need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society, which is a mechanism by which human beings constantly remind one another that they are.. well.. human beings.'."

"What book was that?"

"Men at Arms, but I'm afraid it doesn't exist in this parallel."

"So I remind you that you're Human?"

"I have a soul made out of orange Snake. You remind me what being Human is like. And I'm grateful, because none of my other friends can manage that."

She shakes her head in bemusement. "You're.. welcome, I guess?" She glances in the direction of the kitchen. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Ah, yes please. Milk. Full fat, if you've got it."

She gets up, looking at me over her shoulder as she heads for the kitchen door. "Bit early in the evening to be on the hard stuff, isn't it?"

"Oh, you know us superheroes. Living each moment as if it was our last. Oh, I haven't checked: how are the plays going down?"

I hear the fridge door open. "Effects were better in the first one. Was that the Queen of Fables' magic?"

"Mostly." There's a 'chink' noise as she removes the cap from a beer bottle. "The sword I made while being guided by Hephaestus and Helios was actually real. Superboy's got it now."

I hear pouring. "And the fish?"

"Sadly, not real." Karon walks back in, glasses in hand. She hands me my milk glass before sitting back down. "Other thing I wanted to talk to you -and not Holly- about… Back in February."

She pauses for a moment, thinking back. Then her eyebrows shoot up. "Oh, you mean…"

"Yeah, the threesome thing. Um…"

We both glance away from each other.

"Ah… I thought you said you weren't interested..?"

"No, no. Look… One of.. my abilities.. is empathic vision. I can see.. patterns of emotional association in a person's mind."

"But I thought you didn't have your rings..?"

"No, that ability's innate. I… I don't need the rings for it. And what it means is, I know why someone's doing something. You weren't anything like as up for that as Holly was."

"Wait, is that why you said 'no'? I mean, I noticed at the time you didn't say why…"

"That was a good part of it. I mean, I'd be up for it in theory, but not if you didn't really want to or were only doing it to make Holly happy."

She's not looking at me. "I'd… Um…"

"You're not into men, it's fine. I'm not offended."

"No, it's… It was just kind of a high pressure situation… Holly just.. sprang it on me-."

"And you weren't sure how you felt about it or how you'd feel while actually doing it or how you'd feel afterwards because emotions aren't things you can just turn on and off." I nod. "I get it. I was in the same place."

She looks at me, a little surprised and a little relieved. "Oh."

"Like I said. Fine. Though in future, you might want to just tell Holly. 'Cause, there's a reason why I said that you're the most normal person I know and not.. her."

Karon nods. "So…" Her eyes flick back to me for a moment. "Theoretically… If I decided I did want to…"

"Assuming that I wasn't in a relationship at the time, yes."

"Huh. I'll.. bear that in mind."

"I also wanted to ask a favour. Not about, not about that."

"What is it?"

"A friend of mine is.. getting out of prison in a couple of days. She lived in Gotham before, but I don't think she really wants to move back in with her mother-."

"You want us to put her up?"

"To rent her a room. She can pay for it."

"What was she in for?"

"Membership of a proscribed organisation. But I broke up the organisation and she really does want to sort her life out. And I-" I point to my eyes with my right hand. "-can tell for certain that she's telling the truth."

Karon's back to looking at me, apparently relieved for the change in topic. "She do anything violent?"

"Only professionally. She was never wantonly violent."

She does a sort of cough-laugh. "That's not as reassuring as I think you meant it to be." She nods. "I'll.. talk it over with Holly."

"Thank you."

The front door swings open and Holly hurries in. "Hey K-. Paul!"

"Good evening, Holly."

She looks slightly blank for a moment, then grins. "Hey, we're going out for dinner with some friends tomorrow night. You wanna come with?"

I nod. "Yes thank you, I would. Where and when?"