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

[Mr Zoat]

Fool's Canon

1st April
06:26 GMT -6

I open my eyes, shifting my right shoulder at an obstruction. Why am I-? Right, the lounge, because I gave Lynne my room. And… I lift my left arm, catching sight of the top of her head. And she didn't use it. Okay, so, priorities for today: finish the guest rooms. Need her input for hers. Find out stuff about her, birthday, how old she actually is… I'd guess somewhere around twelve? I'm going to need her whole personal history at some point, though that can wait. I'll need to sort out a school and… She's going to need some sort of immigration paperwork, isn't she? Ugh, I'm probably going to have to formalise that whole 'Apokoliptian Ambassador' thing? Probably easier than popping over to Earth 50 and getting her old paperwork from SHADE and creating law for parallel universe travel.

And I've got to work out how to tell Jade. Somehow… I suspect this isn't going to go over too well. Or maybe she'll be fine with it? I did talk to her about children after I got back from Earth 50 and once she reassured herself that I didn't mean 'imminently' she told me that she does want children. And the really horrid stuff like Lynne waking up at all hours of the night and needing us to clean up her excrement has already been taken care of. And, um…

"Mister Grayven. I see that you are awake." I turn my head as far to the side as I can, spotting Jean standing just inside the room. Took her a little while to get used to not asking me things telepathically, but as she pointed out the extra speaking practice is probably good for her. "Should I have breakfast prepared, or do you intend to sleep in?"

"Um." I look at Lynne again. She grew up in a military holding centre, right? I assume that they kept a fairly inflexible schedule. "Lynne, sweetie?"

"Mmmmnnmf."

"Are you awake?"

She grudgingly opens her eyes and looks around. "No?"

"Well, I'm afraid that your mattress is, so unless you want to go back to your actual bed…"

"Mmf." She sits up, still mostly on me. "I'm awake. Who was-?" She spots Jean, her eyes widening oh dear.

"Didn't have a chance to introduce you last night." I sit up slightly, picking Lynne up and then setting her down on the floor. "This is Jean. She's a G-Goblin and she more or less runs the place."

"Oh." Lynne calms down a little as I come fully upright and swing my legs over the side of the settee. "What are… G-Goblins?"

Jean looks to me. "If I may, Mister Grayven?"

"You know what you are better than I."

Jean's horns glow faintly-. Oh, that might not be a good idea. I lean forwards and rest my hands on Lynne's shoulders. And much of her upper arm, given how large my hands are. Hm. I'm not.. feeling any fear, and it doesn't look like Jean's suffering from the mind crush. At least, she isn't showing the symptoms the military facility which held Lynne described. Okay then, I guess I'll let them get on with it.

I shuffle sideways and rise to my feet. Pyjamas, right. A quick flare of yellow and my sharply-pressed trousers and tartan shirt appear. As part of my normalisation campaign I'm making a point of wearing normal clothes while out and about. Actually, replace the suit trousers with jeans and I'm copying Dad's preferred mode of casual dress. Oh, it is nice to be able to think that without thinking 'Darkseid'.

"Oh." Lynne shakes her head slightly as Jean's horns dim. "And… All of you… Think together?"

"In a manner of speaking. Forgive me for bringing the others in like that, but your mind was a little overwhelming."

Add telepathy training to the slate. Hm, if I check that no one on the Light wants Doctor Cizko for anything I could assimilate or brand… My eyes flick down to the yellow ring on my right forefinger. Ah.

How I weep for you, Corpsman.

Or I could just hire Henry or something. I mean, if she can burn out people's minds by accident she clearly needs some sort of instruction. I'll put Chester down as a doubtful… Wait, Mars! It's lousy with telepaths! M'gann said that she had a White brother, and if he's not interested or appropriate there'll be plenty of others.

I smile down at my daughter. "Lynne, what do you eat for breakfast?"

"I don't know. What do you have?"

Hmm. As New Gods, we can eat whatever we want. We can't get tooth decay, we can't get fat and aside from certain raw material requirements we can get away with eating pretty much anything. On the other hand, children need structure to their lives.

"I usually eat porridge, but since this is your first morning here… Jean, could you ask the G-Prometheans to prepare a Full English?"

Her eyes flare for a moment. "Done, Mister Grayven. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, get the work crew to focus on Lynne's room. Just get it liveable, we can worry about decorating it tomorrow."

"Of course, Mister Grayven." She bows slightly. "Miss Wayland." She turns away and walks out of the room.

"Her mind felt weird."

I lightly rest my right hand on her left shoulder. "She isn't Human. Have you spent much time with aliens in the past?"

Lynne shakes her head. "Not apart from people from Apokolips."

Right, I'm… going to be lying to her about that, aren't I?

"There's that, and the fact that all Genomorphs are part of a mental network."

"I know. I felt the others through her."

"Okay. Breakfast should be ready in about-."

Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Six minutes."

"Right. So, today we're going to be sorting out your living.. situation." She turns her head slightly-. "No, not like that. You're living here, but you need clothes, toiletries, stuff like that. You need to think about what you want your room to look like. Um. Were you enrolled in a school on Earth 50?"

"Doctor Hol was home schooling me." She looks uncomfortable. "Do I..? Have to go to school?"

"Have to? No. It will be far more efficient to have the G-Gnomes-. They're the little telepathic-."

"Jean showed me."

"Okay. It'll be far easier to have them load the factual information you need into your mind, and in any case it's probably best to give you time to get used to your new environment. But. Going to school will force you to learn all sorts of essential social skills and give you the chance to build social relationships with children your own age, as well as giving you formal qualifications which may well be useful to you in future." She nods. "But we can worry about exactly how that's going to work later. Come on." I smile at her and transfer my right hand to her back, giving her a small push. "Let's head to the canteen."

She starts moving, opening the door and then walking out into the corridor beyond. "Who else lives here?"

"Myself, Doctor Robbins, Mister Tawny, the Sphere-."

"The Sphere? What's that?"

"Like a circle, but in three dimensions." She turns back to give me a confused look, then gets it and rolls her eyes. "The Sphere is a New Genosian artificial intelligence that can shift between ball and flying bike forms. Then there's the Genomorphs: Jean, the G-Prometheans, and-" The corridor comes out into one of the workshop areas and I point. "-the G-Trolls, G-Gnomes and G-Elves."

She hesitates slightly, but now she knows what they are she isn't worried by them. Excellent. Now, what do we do after breakfast? What did my dad used to do with me?

"Lynne, have you ever flown a kite before?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Triumph of the Will

3rd April
09:26 GMT -5

"Ooookaaaay." Ted taps a couple of buttons on his tablet and then looks up at the… Ah, call it what it is, the stage. "Try the legs?"

Diana leans forwards, stretching her left leg straight backwards as she bends her right at the knee, her hands resting on her right thigh. She bends it a little further, then tries twisting her torso left and then right. Then she stands and bends her right leg behind her, taking hold of her right foot with her right hand.

Io looks her over. "It seems well to me, Princess. How is it to you?"

Diana lowers her right foot to the ground, then spreads her legs apart before bending to her left. "Constricting."

Io's face falls. "Which part, Princess? We can-."

"No, Io, the armor is perfect. It's simply that my normal Wonder Woman armor doesn't cover quite so much. I have become accustomed to the flow of the air across my arms and legs."

Ted starts walking in a circle around her while the motion sensors capture everything for later review. We developed this set up to try and make the computer in my power armour a bit quicker on the uptake, but Ted thought it could help with arcane armour as well. "We've only been talking about the enchantments we could put on it in the theoretical so far. Sephtian could probably come up with.. something if it's a problem for you. Of course… We can only make the matrix so complicated, you know? Might end up…" Head down again, he taps a few more buttons. "We could make a bunch of different versions if you can't decide."

Diana twists and throws a punch to her right, testing how far the armour can accommodate her. "Can you make me faster than a speeding bullet?"

"Top speed in the air, no problem. I mean, you'll want a helmet with a-" He waggles the tablet at his jaw. "-mouthpiece…" He turns to Io. "Io, you don't happen to have a super tough glass or something you haven't told me about, have you?"

"Would aluminium oxynitride not work just as well?"

"For the armor? Sure, but it's a synthetic material so-."

She nods. "It would interfere with the enchantments."

"Yeah." He taps his tablet again. "Maybe. We might be able to persuade the spells to just ignore it…"

Diana stands again and looks down at Io. "How were you able to make this so quickly without Paul's help?"

"The foundries here are far more advanced than those on Themyscira, Princess. Achieving an alloy that is nearly perfect for the transmutation is apparently a simple matter."

"I wouldn't say simple, but-" Ted shrugs. "-yeah. Automating the process of making the rings for the chain was harder. We don't usually have any use for armatures that small."

"That is why the armor I made for the guards on Themyscira makes no use of chain. Without the knowledge of enchanting Sephtian shared it would have taken until the end of the universe for me to transmute all of the links that would require."

"How do you feel about the design?" Ted points to her with his tablet. "We could stick some stars on the skirt if you start missing them."

"No, that won't be necessary." She rises slightly into the air, then drifts down from the stage. "The design is perfect. The armor is beautiful." Io beams, blushing slightly. Ted grins. "I am almost afraid to be struck while wearing it in case it becomes damaged."

Ted nods. "Just because you can take the hits, doesn't mean you have to."

"Who else do you plan to make such armor for?"

"Small wrinkle there."

Ted pulls a face. "Y-eah."

Diana looks at me. "What is it?"

"Senator Clyemne's been agitating again. Currently, we're not supposed to manufacture suits for any military organisation, which.. because Themyscira doesn't separate the military guards from police guards, includes the police."

"She doesn't have the authority to order that."

"It's covered by existing laws about supplying military equipment. We can make it for the Justice League, or other Amazons… Which means we can make some for Kon, Donna or me… Unless Lyta Trevor-Hall feels like coming out of retirement."

"That seems unlikely."

"And then we run into a bit of a roadblock. Themyscira doesn't trade with the outside world, so we can't pay them for the right to sell it. Or, we can, but they've got no use for the money. Giving potentially hostile countries better armour does technically weaken Themyscira's defence… This isn't something where I can just persuade my fellow citizens not to demand that I stop, this is… They'd have to actively change the law to make this possible. And I'm not that popular yet."

"Do you want me to try speaking on your behalf?"

I shake my head. "No, thank you."

Ted raises his right hand. "I wouldn't mind, actually. Oh, I'm not-" He turns his head to me. "-complaining, or anything. Kord Tech's share price doubled within a day of us announcing the weather control drones and our order book is packed, so this whole thing hasn't been a drain on our assets. But I'd like to know this is going to get used by more than a handful of people. Otherwise, I just-" He shrugs. "-feel like I'm kinda wasting my time."

"But it's not just this. I want Amazons to embrace the best of the modern world. Otherwise, we're going to have to fight them on every little thing. I mean, we're not even allowed to mass produce the purple healing ray. It's a gun that shoots life."

"A Nazi gun that shoots life."

"Also." I turn to Diana. "Bit annoyed you didn't tell me about that thing earlier."

Io walks around to join us as Diana shakes her head. "I didn't know that she had a working version in her workshop. Otherwise, I would have brought it to America myself."

"Okay, that.. makes sense." I return my attention to Ted. "And who knows what else they've got squirreled away where no one will ever hear about it."

"Princess? We have a purple healing ray here if you wish to use it on your arms."

Diana shakes her head. "Thank you, Io, but that will not be necessary. The wounds will be gone by tomorrow, and until then they serve as a useful reminder that I am not invulnerable. Paul: how do you plan on convincing our countrywomen to change the habits of three thousand years?"

"Wait until next September? Once the births start I don't think it'll be all that hard to convince people that I'm on the right track. Until then, I still think that increasing familiarity is the way to go. We need more arcane smiths anyway."

Io nods. "I have had three present themselves to me for training, though it will be months before they are ready."

I nod. "But… Then they'd either have to come here or we'd have to set up a modern foundry on Themyscira annnd I know that's a non-starter. We could trade suits to the guard in exchange for letting us sell some here. That just requires me to convince Philippus, and I should be able to do that."

Io looks thoughtful. "Perhaps if we focused more on the mithril type instead? The weight of orichalcum might be more difficult for those who do not share the Princess' strength and stamina. The guard does not use it and the metal is generally considered inferior for weaponry."

"Maybe some of your senators could visit us here?" Ted looks around the workshop. "We do sometimes show politicians around when we're competing for major orders. Io got pretty excited when she saw what we'd be working with-."

"Theodore!" Io glares at him indignantly.

"You did. And Paul.. said most Amazons have tried just about every profession sometime. Maybe it'll work for them?"

Diana nods in approval. "I am glad that you have it so well in hand."

 

[Mr Zoat]

A Star Reborn

12th April
07:27 GMT -6

"You… Completely sure-?"

"Eh-heh eh-heh eh-heh."

Miss Shimmer stares up at me through bleary eyes as her coughing fit comes to an end while her right hand fumbles for the tissue box. Nice to see that her hand usage has improved so much.

"Yeth."

Naturally -being a magically transformed Pony- Miss Shimmer had none of the usual immunities and resistances to local diseases most people take for granted. Or at least have injected into them in early childhood. I had just been giving her a daily purification with my ring, but we talked about it and agreed that bringing her immune system up to scratch was a much better solution.

She may be regretting that now.

"Okay. Aaaah. You know where the intercom is. If you need anything, just-." She presses a button on the control pad and the television comes on.

Oh no, it's Spongebob Squarepants.

"I'll leave you to it, then." I leave her room at a quick-march and close the door behind me. Shame, really. I had been hoping to include her in Thursday's lesson… Oh well. Might still be possible, but she really has to be better for Lynne's birthday.

"I take it that the young lady is little better, Mister Grayven?"

I shake my head. "No." I frown. "Can Genomorphs get ill?"

"Yes, but Human diseases have little effect on us."

She.. visibly hesitates. That's odd. "What is it?"

"I have a request." I wave my right arm in a 'continue' gesture. "A personal one, though I imagine that the results would be of interest to all Genomorphs."

"No need to beat around the bush. What do you want?"

"I wish to know of our origins, Mister Grayven. Through Dubbilex's memories I have seen all of the records relating to the development work done to turn our G-Promethean brethren into the other Genomorph strains. What I do not know is how they were developed. Cadmus has no record of it. I thought that perhaps Mister Luthor may be more willing to divulge the pertinent information to you now that you are a member of the Light."

I nod. Interesting question, actually. They're not direct copies of any species that Father Box or Sinestro have ever heard of and creating them whole cloth should be well beyond Human biotechnology. Or… I suppose a malign hypercognitive could, but I doubt that they would stop there. "I am somewhat curious myself. I can't promise that I'll be able to find anything out, but I will certainly ask him."

She bows. "Thank you, Mister Grayven. Miss Wayland is presently attempting to teach herself remote viewing in the 'rumpus room'. Your meeting with Director Williams is scheduled to begin in two minutes at the Centre for Paranormal Studies in Metropolis."

"Thank you, Jean. Father Box, hush tube."

"Ploong."

I step through the portal in the air and into the hardened room we built into the Mountain for full contact superpower combat practice. Lynne sits with a couple of G-Gnomes and a row of blank white cards lying on the floor.

"Square." She turns over the first, revealing a diamond. "Ohh."

"Poppet, time to go. Are you ready?"

"I guess." She sweeps the cards into a pile and hands them to one of the G-Gnomes. "Is this place really going to be my school?"

"Maybe. Depends…" I extend my right hand and take hold of her right hand to help her to her feet. "If the Genomorphs can find a way to safely teach you things telepathically, I'd rather send you somewhere more normal starting in the next school year. Otherwise, this place is.. probably the best place you could go." I lay my huge left hand over her right, sandwiching it between mine. "Now, if you really hate it, I won't insist. But this isn't like the people who tried to teach you things before. This is a charitable foundation run by civilians."

"I… I know." She looks away. "I just… Okay, let's go."

I'll… Just have to hope that she warms up to the idea. "Father Box."

"Ploong."

A new portal opens, and we step through.

12th April
08:30 GMT -5

Hm. Looks a bit like a hospital reception desk, actually. I lead Lynne in the direction of the receptionist. "Good morning. Grayven and Lynne Wayland to see-."

"Hello there!" We look around to see Director Williams walking towards us, waving his left hand and smiling cheerily. He's about three feet tall and completely bald, wearing what must be a custom lab coat with a shirt, blue jumper vest and navy blue bowtie. "I'm Doctor Williams." He walks closer. "And you must be Lynne."

"Hi?"

She appears to not be quite sure what to make of him. He certainly isn't visibly threatening, which is one of the reasons I think this might actually work. I didn't warn her that he was a dwarf, or tell her that he's a telekine himself. That can be something for her to find out on her own recognisance.

"Now, there's no need to feel nervous. For a lot of our students, coming here is the first time they've met anyone who can do the sorts of things that they can. Now-" He turns away and motions for us to follow with his right arm. "-classes don't start for another half an hour, but a lot of the children here live on site. Why don't I introduce you to a few of them while your father and I have a walk around."

"Um, okay." Lynne starts after him while I bring up the rear. "Why do they live here?"

"We're the only school like this in the entire country. Our students come from all over, and a lot of the time it isn't really practical for them to go home at the end of the day. Or even at the weekends."

Head that one off… "Lynne, you can always call for a hush tube."

"Oh, uh, most of them do, though. It's actually a major limiting factor in the total number of students we have. Some only come for a few weeks each year, but for the full time students, they either have to be local or… Well, their abilities are so overt that they need our help in learning to control them."

Normal parent question next. "What sort of class sizes do you have?"

"Class sizes for our normal education program range from eight to twelve children, but when it comes to teaching the children to use their paranormal abilities we use much smaller groups. A lot of the time teaching is one to one, so the student's development can be precisely monitored. There's a lot we don't know about how these abilities work, so we put a great deal of emphasis on safety, both for the children and the staff."

Lynne nods. "Do you have..? Other telepaths?"

"Several students have different forms of extra sensory perception. If you mean 'can they speak to each other mind to mind', there are a couple of other children who can do things like that." He smiles up at her. "Would you like to meet them?"

"No." She shakes her head, stopping dead in the corridor. "No. I shouldn't go anywhere near them. If they.. touch my mind by mistake…"

"Ah, yes." He glances at me, then returns his attention to her. "Mister Grayven did.. mention the tragic incident with your parents. But don't worry, everyone here knows not to poke into other people's minds without permission."

"She does have a point, Director. I wouldn't want to needlessly endanger anyone."

"Hm. Ahhh… Ah!" He sets off again with a spring in his step and we follow. "Since not all of our students are capable of conventional telepathy, it wouldn't really be hard to put you in a class where no one else was. At least until your control is good enough that it isn't a problem any more." He knocks on a door, waits for a moment and then pushes it open.

"Hey Doc."

"Good morning, Claire. We've got a visitor. Would you mind looking after her for a little while?"

"Sure. Why not?" The Director steps back as a teenaged girl with astonishingly long and flame-orange hair comes out after him. I get a momentary frown before she turns her attention on Lynne. "Hey."

"Hello?"

"So what are you in for?"

"I'm a telepath. I can turn off people's brains." She pauses, not quite sure where to go from there. "What do you do?"

"I burn stuff." Claire holds up her right hand and it's momentarily enveloped in flame. "Wanna come meet everyone?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Demeanour

18th April
08:06 GMT -5

I slump slightly on the settee, staring blankly at the television screen. I think I'm watching one of those long running American situation comedies, the ones that aren't actually funny but use so much canned laughter they sometimes trick you into forgetting. The Earth 16 version of Two and a Half Men or Everyone Loves Raymond. Or whatever.

"Hey guysssss." The air displacement from Wallace's arrival blows past me. Huh. I'm a little surprised that he's here this early. "Ahh, is Oh El still moping?"

The noise generated by the movement of Kon's pen across his homework momentarily pauses. "Uh huh."

"Oh-kay." Kon's pen resumes its motion as Wallace walks past the kitchen table and into the living area. I don't turn around as he plops himself down in the armchair to my right. "Hey."

"Good morning Wallace."

"What're you watchin'?"

"Whatever this is."

Out of the corner of my eye I see him carefully watching my face, trying to gauge my mood. "Still bummed out about Luthor, huh?"

"Mm."

"You don't think you were being… Kinda optimistic there?"

I sigh. "If only he'd been a little more avaricious."

"I thought Lex Luthor was all about avarice."

"No, he… Isn't."

He leans forwards slightly. "So.. what is it based on?"

"He's… Red, yellow and.. green. The base is red. He's… His core personality was formed in anger. "

"Doesn't seem very angry to me. I've seen pictures… You know, after Superman stopped him doing whatever he was trying to do… He always looks calm, or… A bit angry, but I've seen Uncle Barry's rogues after they get taken down. They get.. seriously angry. Luthor always looks like he's just shrugging it off."

"No, I mean-. He's not angry. I mean, the way he thinks is.. defined by anger. Some time… When he was young, something made him so angry that he's never stopped thinking like that."

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

"In his case… Yeah." I shuffle slightly on my seat. "He picked a fight with Superman when he first arrived in Metropolis because he literally can't stand the idea of there being someone he can't take down. It's like, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Ugliest Man. He can't stand the idea of there being someone looking down on him and judging him."

Kon's pen stops again. "Didn't the Ugliest Man kill God for doing that?"

Wallace blinks. "Huh?"

"In 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' by Friedrich Nietzsche, The Ugliest Man is a nihilist who hasn't learned how to create values or ideals for himself, but has genuinely rejected the ones normal in his society. 'Killing God' is.. probably a metaphor for rejecting the idea of revealed truth. For him, the morality of the church is at best one man's opinion and at worst an active attempt to deceive. But, without it, he can't really function."

"So you're saying… Luthor didn't take your offer because… You're too powerful?"

"I'm not sure. It could be that, it could be because he just can't accept something that good happening. Just.. instinctively suspicious. Or.. it might be that he's genuinely committed to the Light and is just taking the things he doesn't like them doing in his stride." I sag. "I just.. really hoped he would. At this point he's seen enough of what I'm doing to know-. In his head, to know that I mean what I say. He knows that the people I've brought together are producing genuinely revolutionary technology and are actually doing things with it. I should embody the things he likes about the Light better than they do, and without the baggage. It just.. didn't happen."

"What you gunna do now?"

"Nothing I can do. I can't make a stronger pitch than I did yesterday. I'll just… Keep doing what I'm doing and hope he comes around. Which he won't."

"I'm not really seeing how 'less Luthor' is a bad thing."

"He knows how international business works. He's a great organiser and he's genuinely committed to bettering the lot of the Human species. He'd have.. been a great help. But it's not going to happen." I raise my left hand slightly, unnecessarily pointing the ring at the television to turn it off. "So… Yeah. You..? Still on for tomorrow?"

"Psh, ye-ah. You really think my healing potions are something that can… You know, go all the way? I mean, they get a lot less effective if they're a couple of days old. They're not really something you can store."

"Sephtian can probably come up with some sort of enchanted bottle that can get around that. Prevent them losing their potency. Or…" Huh. "We could try seeing what happens when old potions are exposed to the purple healing ray?" I slump. "Sorry, I'm not really feeling the… Uplift revolution at the moment."

"You got a spare one of those purple ray things in your workshop, right?"

"Yeah. Um. All yours. Just.. don't try it on yourself without someone else being there."

"Obviously." He turns to his left, looking at the table where our team mates are hard at work. "You two looking forward to visiting Mars?"

"Um. Kinda… Nervous, actually. Meeting M'gann's family for the first time… Plus I.. can't actually breathe the air on Mars."

"Conner. I'm sure my parents will love you. I'm.. just.. not sure how they're going to feel about me."

Wallace looks puzzled. "Why? Because you haven't seen them for nearly a year?"

"I didn't exactly tell them I was leaving. Uncle J'onn checked with them after he found out I was on his ship, but…"

I half turn on the sofa so that I can actually see them as Kon reaches out with his right hand, laying it on M'gann's left. "They'll be fine. If they were really upset, they'd have said so when he told them."

"I'm…" Her head droops a little. "I'm not sure that them not being worried at all really makes me any happier. When you've got as many brothers and sisters as I have it's easy to get lost in the shuffle."

Wallace turns back to me. "You just dropping them off and coming back..?"

"No. I think… As a Sector Lantern, I should introduce myself to the Martian government. See if there's anything they want me to do for them. And I need to hear officially what they want to do about the whole 'Burning Martian' thing. And, it'll be my first time interacting with an alien civilisation in their own territory. Um, do you have any plans for spring break?"

"You bet I do! Once my homework's done I'm gunna hit the streets of Central City with Uncle Barry. He even said that if things are quiet I can handle it on my own!"

"Shame Artemis, Richard and Zatanna aren't off until next week."

"Yeah. Well." He shrugs. "It was the same last year. Y'know, for Rob."

"Geography done." Kon's pen clatters as he drops it on the table. "I'm free for the rest of the week."

Wallace looks around, frowning. "Seriously?"

Kon shrugs. "What can I say? The Genomorphs were pretty thorough."

"You know, they were looking for Human volunteers for knowledge implantation. If you're interested..?"

"Aaaaaaah…. Think I'll pass."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Family Day

21st April
21:03 GMT -5

"This is yah last warning, Tetch! Come out with your hands up or we come in an' drag you out!"

I've no idea how he managed it, but the deranged criminal somehow built a giant teacup in a disused warehouse along the Gotham waterfront. Gas fired flames lick the bottom, heating the cup and the tea therein to scalding temperatures. Around the edge are the bound girls who were nearly but not quite what the crazed man's madness said that he needs in order for the world to start making sense. He used his hat to mind control them here-. Well, not mind control exactly. It turns out that his hats just make people very suggestible rather than flat out controlling them. Whatever. Hat-persuaded the girls to come here, bound them and then turned it off.

Naturally, they all screamed up a storm and he stumbled off in confusion to find someone else.

"But we're all having such a delightful tea party. No Humpty Dumpty allowed!"

"They never take it." Detective Bullock draws his revolver before holding his phone up to his cheek. "Montoya, you in place yet?"

"Excuse me, Detective."

Bullock glances at Miss Shimmer, who has left the small cluster of people watching the unfolding confrontation. Her hair gets a flicker of a frown but she doesn't look enough like an Alice in Wonderland character to attract actual alarm so he ignores her. "Yeah? I dunno. Because there's a camera on the door and if I have them kill the power-. Yeah, well he's not here, so I guess the police are gunna-."

Miss Shimmer reaches the end of her patience and pokes him in his considerable gut with her right forefinger.

"What! No, not you, some kid. Hang on." He lowers the phone. "The only reason I'm not bustin' you for interferin' with an investigation is I got eight little girls to rescue from a nut job an' that takes priority."

"Oh. Well, is there any way I can help?"

"You live around here? You got any idea how I could sneak inside and put a couple a' rounds through that sicko's head?"

"No. But-" She opens her guitar case and takes out the contents. "I do have a sniper gun that can shoot through walls. Would that help?"

Bullocks eye widen. "Holy Mother of God. Where the hell did you get that?"

"Grayven. And I have a concealed carry permit."

"Grayven?" He makes the connection. "The guy who-." He looks the gun over. "You know how to use that thing?"

"Not really." She holds it out to him. "Do you?"

"Uhh…" He takes hold of it, resting the stock against his shoulder and peering into the target scanner. He then turns it in the direction of the warehouse. Having designed the weapon myself, I know that the scanner will immediately detect and highlight life forms in the direction it's pointed in. Actual marksmanship isn't required, the barrel only exists to let the coilgun round build up speed. It's the teleport function which makes the projectile hit the target. "Okay. One guy moving around-."

"If you press that button you can hear what he's saying."

Bullock frowns slightly, then presses the button.

"-above the world you fly,
Like a tea tray in the sky!"

He shifts the phone to his shoulder. "Montoya, I got a shot." He hesitates.

"Is there a problem?"

"Huh, guess I just got used t' the Bat handlin' these."

Miss Shimmer frowns. "So… Are you.. not a police officer, or something? I thought your job was to keep people safe, but if you're completely dependent on a man who dresses up like a bat-."

There's a sudden crack, and inside the warehouse Tetch crumples and falls back into his own tea vat.

Bullock lowers his gun. "I get by." He holds the gun out to Miss Shimmer. "Thanks."

"Oh no. You can keep it. In fact-" She holds out a business card. "-please give this to the Commissioner. Just in case he's interested in getting more like it."

Behind me, I hear a soft sound as someone who thinks that he's silent lands on the roof.

"I'll keep that in mind." Bullock looks at her, as if he suspects that there's something else going on but can't quite work out what it is. Then he shakes his head and hurries in the direction of the warehouse.

"Grayven."

"Batman. Nice night for it."

"You're using children as arms dealers."

I turn, smiling. "Oh, you of all people don't get to rag on me about that. Miss Shimmer is better equipped, better protected, older and engaged in less dangerous work than Richard was when you first took him out with you."

He walks closer, taking a moment to look at the people gathered below. "Is Tetch dead?"

"Hmm." Sinestro? Ah, I see. "Wait for it, wait for-. Yes."

"He was a sick man."

"Yes." I nod. "Yes he was."

"He was off his medication. I could have taken him in alive."

"Was he off his medication last time as well?" He glares. "And the time before that? Seven deaths total, all young girls. Maybe you should stop thinking of the medicated version of him as being the real him and recognise him for the deranged murderer he really is." I tilt my head to the side for a second. "Was. Anyway, Detective Bullock identified himself as an armed police officer and had a reasonable belief that innocents were in danger. No crime happened on my side."

"You could have stopped him even easier than I could."

"I can't be everywhere. Time the Gotham police learned to stand on their own two feet, far as I'm concerned. They carry guns, I'm giving them better, more precise guns. But hey! You're doing better than Aquaman. He'd have punched me in the face by now."

"Don't think I'm not tempted."

"Don't recommend it. But if you've got time to moan at me over a perfectly legal police action-."

"Is that what Darfur was?"

"No, but as I said to Guy, the government was okay with genocide so I don't consider their laws to be binding. And I didn't see you coming up with anything better and it did both stop the fighting and punish the guilty. But enough of something we're never going to agree on." I smile. "I have a story for you."

I give him a moment, but he doesn't appear to want to interject.

"One day a man named Jack Napier goes on holiday to the great city of Metropolis, taking a few of his closest friends with him."

"The Jack Napier you crippled. You did that intentionally, didn't you?"

"Rather than splitting him in half? Yes, pulling my punches was intentional. Anyway, he goes to Metropolis and pays a visit to a famous tourist landmark: the Daily Planet building. And while he's there, he connects drums full of Smilex to the ventilation system and sets it off! Lois Lane dies with a smile on her face. Perry White, same thing. James Olsen, Steven Lombard, William McCalman… All dead. Some guy called Clark Kent was out on assignment at the time, but everyone else? Gone. Mister Napier goes into hiding, pursued by your good self, Superman, and some new guy called Magog. Magog was Superman-level strong and tough and he had this laser.. trident.. thing."

"And for once? It's the police who find the criminal first. Heck, they even capture him without any fatalities, which was a near miracle. So, the three superheroes stand there watching them drag him off, and? Magog raises his trident and with a snarl incinerates him. Then he hands his trident to your good self and surrenders to the police. The case goes to trial quickly and he pleads not guilty. When the prosecutor puts him on the stand to query that, he says 'I'm glad I did it'."

I raise my eyebrows.

"Wanna guess how the story ends?"

Batman's jaw tenses. "The jury agreed with him and he was acquitted."

"No." I shake my head. "No. Oh, they acquitted him alright. But that's very much not how the story ends."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Zigzag

29th April
10:58 GMT +2

Jade looks around at the bustle of activity all across the archaeological dig site. "It's certainly classier than anywhere I've been on a date before. Not sure about the food…"

I shrug, left hand holding onto the box whose strap is slung over my left shoulder. "I can take you to somewhere in Shiruta afterwards. I should warn you though… I'm quite popular there. We might not get much privacy."

Though it hasn't been a priority of his reign so far, Adom is well aware of the value of tourism to the Kahndaqi economy. He also knows the location of a great many valuable sites that have been lost in history, though I know for a fact that there have been clashes with Cairo University's Archaeology department about how to treat them. For an archaeologist, historical sites should be preserved as much as possible. For Adom, a place sacred to the gods he worships should be repaired, repainted and put back into use. What exactly is to become of the now partially buried Temple of Zehuti hasn't been agreed on, but for now it serves our purpose nicely.

I frown as we head towards the recently excavated entrance. "I.. thought you said you didn't want to-."

"I didn't say we were. But this is."

"Look, I've had enough criticism about my romantic intention communication failures that-."

"I never said that I wouldn't flirt with you." She's not looking at me, but she is smiling.

I look directly at her, then wave at the archaeology student beyond her who's excitedly pointing his camera phone at us. "I said I was interested, you said it was against your professional ethics."

"It is. We were the League of Shadows, not the League of Ninja.. Escorts."

"But you're not an assassin any longer." That gets an eyebrow. "Not professionally. This is a.. hobby thing. The rule doesn't need to apply if you don't want it to."

We pass under the awning and start down the slope into the Temple proper. "Date with Sivana go that badly, huh?"

"There was a near-unstoppable time travelling gravity manipulator and Thaddeus Junior and Georgia stole everything from my subspace pocket." Jade stops and this time looks at me with genuine alarm. I shrug. "They gave it back, but it was pretty unnerving."

Got back everything the breach of the warehouse complex didn't completely burn up or melt to sludge, anyway. After their mother glowered at them for a while I got what certainly sounded like a genuine apology… Which -given how they normally behave- is probably all I can hope for.

I pull ahead of Jade slightly as we reach the first chamber. "Beautia and I will be meeting up again. I just want to be clear that you have… First refusal." She doesn't say anything. "How's the bodyguarding thing going?"

"It pays the bills."

"No problems with the other henchmen?"

"Not after they found out I'd been to Belle Reve. Besides, I'm not supposed to get involved in the 'family business'. I'm just temptation-free protection for the boss's daughter." Her face stills for a second, and the next thing I know her sai is out, fully extended at thin air. Her eyes have narrowed. "I know you're there."

"Between you an' the Bat, think I need to work on me hidin' spells."

John… Appears. It isn't the shift that I saw when Thaddeus turned off the invisibility generator. The best way I can describe it is the reverse of what Granny Weatherwax did in Masquerade. Parts of wall and floor I was perfectly aware that I was seeing before suddenly come together in my mind as being parts of John. He holds his hands open and to the sides, trying to make clear that he isn't a threat while at the same time not deigning to pay her knife much attention.

Wait a second. No cigarette. The rings run full scans on our surroundings, bands of orange light running swiftly over everything. My rune stone comes out of one of my pouches and I turn up my empathic vision, taking a good look in all directions.

"What's wrong with you?"

"No cigarette." The stone is glowing… John usually makes it glow brightly, but the Scholars of Zehuti were big magic users back in Adom's time. This whole place sets it off. Scans don't show anything I wasn't expecting.

"Oh, come on. I can go five fuckin' minutes." His hands and eyebrows flick up for a moment in appeal at the gross slur on his personal habits.

"Almost certainly him."

"So does that mean I put the knife down, or stab him twice just to make sure?"

John smiles, right hand patting the left of his coat before tensing up and lowering itself again. "Where'd you find this one?"

"'This one' grew up in Gotham City." Jade lowers her sai and returns it to her coat. "John Constantine. The League had a file on you."

"Oh yeah?" The left side of his mouth turns upwards. "Anything good?"

Zatanna walks through from the inner chamber. "No one who has a file on you has anything good to say about you. I thought you realised that."

"Charmin'." He looks around the room, then turns and ambles towards the doorway to the inner chamber. "Adom's warmin' up the wards. We can get started in a mo."

Jade nods, then glances at me. "And the defences here are good enough..?"

I shrug. "If you know somewhere better…"

Zatanna nods. "We don't know enough about what we're up against to judge it perfectly. But this temple is as well protected as anywhere else we could go without rousing even more suspicion."

Adom stands as we enter, his normal black and gold costume covered by white robes. A display of modesty before one of the gods empowering him. Not something he does for anyone else. There's a smell of burned perfume in the air. "My preparations are complete. We may speak freely."

John nods, then looks at me. "Did'ja get it?"

I open another pouch and pull out a Golden Apple. "I asked when we were dumping Apollo in a pig pen."

"She ask what it was for?"

"I said it would be a surprise. She didn't seem to think it was such a big deal. Apparently she's got a whole grove of them."

"An' that'll work, will it?"

"We'll find out." Filaments take hold of my box, pulling out the prototype elemental rifle I received from Sephtian's workshop. "In theory, it's this simple." The Apple flickers as my constructs push, then deforms as the gold it's made of says that it should. The metal stretches over the chamber of the gun, making it the most bling firearm I've ever held. I hold it out to Jade, who takes it, works the mechanism then nods.

Zatanna makes a small beckoning gesture with her right hand and a small stone rises off the floor. "Dleihs fo redro."

A small golden barrier forms around the stone as it hovers in the air. Order magic isn't Zatanna's speciality, but we've been studying what Nabu might be able to do so much that she's picked up a few things.

Jade raises the gun to her shoulder, sights and fires. The stone explodes, its arcane shield doing nothing at all. She lowers the rifle.

Zatanna looks at her cautiously. "Remember, the aim isn't to kill him. He's holding my Dad-."

"I know." Jade nods. "My job is to disrupt his spells unless ordered otherwise. Then shoot to wound."

I nod. "You've had plenty of time to look over our plan so far. What do you think?"

"It's… Basically well thought out. But as far as the ideal outcome goes, I'm worried about what happens if your arcane mana draining device doesn't do the job. I think you need-."

I nod, looking down. I was worried it would come to that.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Bindings

11th May
13:58 GMT

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Guy looks around from his place on the far side of the Justice League's meeting table as Diana and I walk towards it. "Hey Orange. Welcome t'the club."

I.. slow slightly, but continue my approach as Diana walks over to her place near the table's head. "Club?"

Superman nods. "I suppose you could put it like that."

Batman's here, as are the other Lanterns, Major Adams, William Batson, Mister Freeman, Mister Yao, King Orin and.. Nabu. If Mister Allen and Mister J'onzz were here I'd make a comment about this being the League's top tier. For a moment I worry that my talk last month resulted in half of the League getting fired.

Batman looks up from his datapad for a moment. "Take a seat."

That makes me stop. On the near side the occupied seat furthest from the head of the table is occupied by Nabu. Fortunately, there are more empty places on the far side. Giving Nabu a wide berth, I walk around the open end of the 'U' and pull out the seat next to Guy before looking into the League members' faces and trying to work out what's going on. Diana orders me somewhere, I go there, but a little more information would have been helpful.

"Orange Lantern." Batman presses a button and a blue holographic globe appears in the middle of the 'U', rotating slowly on its axis. There are a large number of markers on it, some green, some yellow and a few red. "Do you know what these represent?"

Ring? Hm. Some are military bases, some I can't scan... Those could be secure government sites of some kind. Countries marked are the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Britain...

"Are they nuclear weapon launch sites?"

Batman inclines his head slightly. "This is a list of the locations of every launch-capable nuclear warhead on Earth which we have been able to discover."

"Do their owners know that you know this?"

Superman tilts his head to his left for a moment. "We haven't told them, but that doesn't mean that they don't suspect that we know."

Diana smiles faintly as she looks at me. "The reason I asked you here today-."

And it clicks into place. "Is that in the event of a nuclear war it's our job to stop them."

This time Batman nods. "Essentially, yes. Intercepting-" The globe moves and various military vehicles and missiles appear. "-aircraft and missiles requires a very particular power set, including but not limited to supersonic flight and the ability to absorb and inflict significant damage." I glance across at King Orin, then back at Batman. "The Atlantean military monitors all sea-based nuclear launch platforms."

"It's a little more than that, Batman." Orin turns to me. "We also have battle mages on hand who could disable or sink them at short notice." A wry smiles plays over his lips. "A job which the recent popularity of anti-scrying wards hasn't made any easier."

"Sorry, sir."

"It's not your fault. Something like this was inevitable, eventually. I won't really start to worry until they start using wards strong enough to actually keep us out."

Superman nods. "I can sympathise. It surprised me quite how quickly the army took advantage of the fact that I can't see through lead."

I remember that in the comic which featured Fernus the Burning they had to intercept a group of nuclear missiles launched by the American military. They missed one, but that was with a seven person League and zero notice. I turn to my left. "I thought you Greenies weren't allowed-?"

Jordan scowls. "What, you really think we prioritize being in the Corps over all life on Earth?"

John nods. "We checked, and we think we'd have about half an hour before our rings were deactivated. Short range nuclear miss'les only take minutes to reach their targets. Even Salaak can't revoke our status that fast."

Guy rolls his eyes. "Oh, good job, now you said it out loud."

Then... I can't help but look over at Major Adams. I'm not sure exactly what rules he's acting under these days, but to my inexpert ears this is starting to sound a bit.. treasony.

He notices. "I'm not about to see millions of Americans die if I can prevent it. And they can only arrest me if there's still a government left."

"Ah, alright, well, I'm in. Haven't really... Thought about this much. Do we.. each have a.. sector, or..?"

Batman shakes his head. "Given how quickly we predict that events would occur, that just isn't practical. Since most League members are based in the US-" The globe stops rotating and icons showing the 'home locations' of the League members present appear. "-we would most likely be relying on Doctor Fate and the Lanterns to cover the rest of the world. Realistically, I doubt that even under favorable conditions we would be able to stop all of the missiles, but every one destroyed en route or prevented from launching will spare the lives of tens of thousands of people."

I nod. "Have you discussed more... Aggressive action against launch sites? It would be... Far faster to destroy them than to disable them."

William takes a steadying breath. He really doesn't look comfortable. "Have you ever seen the film 'War Games'?"

"Not all the way through, but.. I'm... Assuming you're referring to the opening scene where the launch operator wasn't prepared to fire despite receiving valid orders."

"So..." He shrugs. "How do you know the guy who's been ordered to fire is actually gunna do it? And if we don't stop all of them, well... We're gunna have to do a lot of work... Afterwards. People probably expect us to try and stop the missiles, but if we actually attack someplace then people might start seeing us as the enemy."

He does have a point. I could probably tell whether or not the people in a particular silo or onboard a particular plane would actually do it, but not from a great distance and not quickly enough to go from place to place for each of the thousands of sites worldwide. Personally, I think it would be more sensible to just do it, but... No, if this happens we'd have to start immediately. A limited exchange wouldn't necessarily result in all out war. Unless someone started destroying their launch sites. And by the time everywhere got their go-codes...

Batman nods again. "In the event of all out war, if even one percent of the nuclear powers' devices reached their targets-"

The world hologram changes, showing arcs representing nuclear weapons flying from their points of origin. First strike weapons like ICBMs and fighter-mounted missiles streak ahead. Ninety nine in every hundred wink out... A hundred and fifty are left. I remember that belligerent powers generally don't target population centres. The UK does because Trident's got poor accuracy, but the US and Russia generally point theirs at military and government targets. Of course, those are usually located in cities. Looks like the League think that India and Pakistan have the same lack of precision.

"-the immediate death toll might well be in the region of one billion people. In the aftermath, as the only active Lantern on Earth we would be relying on you to do what you could to minimise the effects of the dust clouds. A nuclear winter which destroyed that year's harvest would kill even more people than the initial nuclear exchange."

"You know, if... " I glance left. "If you'd be out of the Corps anyway... There's really no reason not to let Alan recharge himself. I mean, I could do the whole planet eventually but this is something that needs to be done as quickly as possible."

Guy and Jordan nod. Stewart glances at Jordan first, then nods as well. Jordan leans forwards to make eye contact with me. "Not sure how much time we'd have, but sure. We can try doing that." His jaw moves slightly to the left and his eyes drop to the table for a moment. "Look, I've never been 'okay' with the way that the Guardians insisted on freezing Alan out. It just wasn't my call to make."

I shake my head. "Never thought it was."

Batman waits a moment to see if we want to say anything else, then presses on. "You will be required to memorize the locations displayed on the screen, though given that you have eidetic memory that shouldn't prove too difficult. We meet here once a month to go over any changes in our target locations. Since we started these meetings the world hasn't come close to a nuclear exchange. In the event that it did, we would meet more frequently. It should go without saying that you are not to tell anyone about this."

"Thank you for not phrasing it as an order, sir, but yes. I realised." Do I ask? "Sir, there are things I could do to make it easier to stop an exchange. Laser drones placed along likely flight paths, that sort of thing? Do you want me to look into it?"

"No. I do not believe that a nuclear exchange is likely to occur in the immediate future, and the damage that would be caused to both the League and to international relations if your efforts were discovered makes it too much of a risk."

Major Adams nods. "He's right. Remember how the Russians acted when President Phillips tried restarting the Strategic Defense Initiative?"

I nod. Not 'Phillips' of course, but I do. "Very well, sir. Thank you for trusting me with this. If the worst happens, you won't find me wanting."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Escalation

15th May
10:37 GMT -6

"Okay, now, just sort of… Lean forwards a bit?"

Harleen tries to follow my instruction, starts to drift and then immediately straightens up again. I suppose it's a bit like using a Segway. All your instincts tell you that you're about to fall over, despite the fact that that's very unlikely.

I smile encouragingly. "Okay, and again?"

For a second she looks up at me, then her eyes drop back down to the ground. Which is about a metre away. "This ain't easy, y'know. How long did it take you t'learn, anyways?"

"I got the basics after half an hour or so." That earns me a minor scowl. "But, I had been flying with the ring for months before that, so I'd got used to the whole 'being in the air apparently unsupported' thing. Look, it's pretty much impossible for anything to go wrong. Even if you just fall out of the air, hitting the ground won't hurt. The belt absorbs kinetic energy."

"I dunno. That shuwer sounds like somethin' that'd hurt."

I hold up my hands, pull the left ring off with my right hand and then pull the right ring off with my left. I then stow them both in one of the chest pouches in my overalls. "There we go. Just the belt holding me up. Next?"

I flip over, the sky spinning across my field of vision until I can see the ground again. Ugh, that always feels weird when I do it without the rings. The kinetic belt has some inertial stabilising but it's got nothing on a proper environmental shield. Then I shoot forward, accelerating rapidly and boong, ramming face first into the grass-covered ground.

There's a sharp intake of breath from my flying-buddy.

"And I'm fine." Precise manoeuvring with these things is more difficult than large movements, but I twist around while still balancing on my head. "See? No problem."

"Okay." She blinks. "That's a thing."

"You wanna try?"

"I think I'll stick t'normal flyin'."

"Well, go on then."

"Oooooh… Kaaaaay?" She leans forwards in the air, accelerating slowly forwards and upwards. "How'm I doin'?"

"Like a toddler on her first tricycle, but you're going forwards and that's the main thing." I clench slightly, causing my own belt to reverse me back upwards. Then I twist, briefly moving to a position parallel to the ground before accelerating up to Harleen. "Come on! It's really instinctive. Inasmuch as there is a trick, it's to not think about it too much. I mean… You were a gymnast. You didn't think about where every part of your body was the whole time, did you?"

"Okay, but-" She moves her right forefinger into lecture position. "-if this goes wrong you bettuh catch me."

"I won't need to. Unless you fly into a laser or an electricity pylon-" I look around, seeing none of either. "-you're pretty much proof against anything that could hurt you."

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then leans forwards and jerks her hands back. Immediately she accelerates forward, forcing me to duck and dive to avoid being hit. "Wwaaahhhoooooo!"

I hold my right hand up to my mouth as she rockets away. "See!" Uh. Maybe I should get after..? Yes, yes I should. I assume the position and fly along in her wake as she powers through the sky… Well, so close to the ground perhaps I should say through the air, above the Kisatchie National Forest. She seems to be enjoying 'forwards' well enough, but the tree line is coming up and-.

She looks back. "This is great!"

"Pull up! Pull up!"

"Huh?" She turns her head to face forwards. "Ah!" She leans back, probably trying to stop. Unfortunately for her, the belt interprets that a desire to change direction, so rather than going at about fifty miles an hour straight forwards she's now going fifty miles an hour straight up. "Agh!" She flails briefly in surprise, then calms down a little and gets herself back under control, slowing to a stop about a mile above the forest canopy.

I follow after her at a slightly reduced rate, giving her a moment to get used to being in the air and to appreciate the view. She glances my way as I come up alongside her. "Well?"

"That was… Heh." She's panting, but the smile on her face says 'excitement' rather than 'terror'. "That was pretty great. Hah."

"Okay, next lesson: flying into the ground at full speed."

"Oh no. No." She shakes her head definitively. "That ain't happenin'."

I lean back in the air, lounging on nothing. "Alright. What do you want to do next?"

Another deep breath. "I wanna…" She nods to herself. "I.. wanna talk aboud last night. While I'm still buzzin' with adrenaline an' not.. fellin' self conscious aboud it."

"Okay." I nod. "Reasonable. Eris is-."

"Tha Greek Goddess of Chaos. An' you work fer Wonder Woman so I guess it makes sense, you knowin' her."

"I.. am actually a Hellenist. I do literally worship her."

"But that don't explain what she wuz doin' showin' up at my house, an'… Dressed.. in that."

"How.. blunt do you want me to be?"

She gives me a flat look. "Hey, I'm a counsellor heyah."

"Okay. I asked her to find a particular arcane artefact for me, and the owner was available to negotiate with right then. As to why she was dressed like that, I'm… I've been somewhat reticent on matters of romance and sex. Depending on how the mood takes her, she finds that either amusing or irritating. She dressed like that as a wind up."

"Ooh. That makes sense. I mean, she's still kind of a bitch, but…"

"Yeah." I clear my throat, momentarily averting my gaze. "Also… She wants me to end my reticence… Deliberately."

Harleen frowns, baffled. "How d'ja mean 'deliberately'? Like, you can't fall on someone?"

"No, she means that I have to deliberately choose a particular person, not just… Go with the flow in a way I don't find objectionable. Can you believe that I didn't actually pick up on the fact that you were propositioning me?"

"Oh." She looks more puzzled than offended. "Rilly? 'Cause I thought I was bein' pretty direct there."

"Yeah. I mean, I see it now, it just-. At the time, it didn't…" I sigh. "Okay, did I ever tell you that I'm a metahuman? I don't mean the rings, I mean…" I make a circling motion with my right hand.

"No." She shakes her head. "What, you got a power and power rings?"

"Not exactly. I got my power as a result of the power rings. I'm empathic. I perceive the emotions of those around me as coloured light. Most.. importantly, I see love as violet light. Last time someone propositioned me I knew… Because I could see… Violet. They were interested in me, emotionally… So it made sense that they might want to have sex with me. You… You're not violet. Not even a little bit."

"Well… We don't know each other that well. I mean… If you wan'ed to wait…"

"The question is not.. why I don't. I can or not. My question is, why do you? I'm pleasant company and I'm good looking, but would you be enjoying this flying any.. more, if we'd had sex last night? At the.. restaurant in New York, you mentioned a teacher at Gotham University in the same breath as Doctor Strange. Then you said that you just needed to find a guy who wasn't a jerk. If I turned my empathic vision up, would I see myself filling that hole?"

"Huh." She looks me over with notably less enthusiasm. "Didn't think you were that insecuwah."

"I'm not. I'm concerned for you. Not only do you not love me, there's no flicker that could become true love. You're not particularly libidinous, so it's not just the endorphin release from sex that you're looking for. Why do you want me? Given.. your history… Do you.. really think that another.. relationship with a man is.. a solution? Eris considers going with the flow to be a sin, and I.. kind of see what she means. If you're just looking for the next Strange-."

"Oh, go t' hell!"

She turns face down and drops through the sky, tears leaking from her eyes.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Undermined

10th June
14:57 GMT -5

Ted leans closer to me as we wait off-stage.

"We're good to go, right?"

I take a moment to look at one of the television screens showing the crowd of people gathered in front of the stage set up outside New York's newest power plant. Quite a lot of people. Journalists and technology correspondents mostly, and a few people who were invited specifically. I gave Boris a lift here at his request, and I think I've got an inkling that a station like this will be on his wish list. Diana's here as well as a show of support for me and my work and Alan arm-twisted an invitation from someone at his old agency. Just about everyone else I know is either at school or at work.

"Ted, the only thing that I can check which you can't is the generators themselves."

"Yeah, I know. Why do you think I'm so worried? Usually before one of these presentations I keep myself busy checking everything but this place is so simple that I've got nothing to do."

"You check everything?"

"Uh-huh."

"Don't you… Own the company?"

"Technically the shareholders do." He sets his jaw to the side as he thinks about it. "Though I have been thinking of buying back an absolute majority. Y'know, given the work we're doing… Just in case some of them turn out to be evil or something."

"Stupid worries me more than evil, but whatever you think best." Naturally, I've bought enough KordTech shares that we command an absolute majority between us. He's right; given the work we're doing, anything less would be foolish. Having Lex Luthor or Edwin Alva or… Some other business villain trying to stick their oar in would be irritating. I haven't told him because I don't want to look like I'm muscling in on his thing. Also… Because -and I don't like to think this- at some point I might need to nudge him out. Or at least into a different role. He really isn't temperamentally inclined to let the people beneath him do their jobs. In a small company, that's great. In a large company… Lex Luthor doesn't spend time in the flipping post room because he worries about falling out of touch.

Agh, and I feel bad about doing it. He's such a nice guy.

"You guys about ready?" Mayor Bloomberg raises his eyebrows slightly as he looks at us. "Because at this point it's kind of late not to be."

Last check… "Everything's ready to go, sir. The system functions as designed."

"I hope you don't mind me not cutting the city off from the nation's power supply just yet, Orange Lantern."

"Oh no, sir. To be honest…" I look at the screens again. "I'm half-expecting a supervillain attack the moment you throw the switch."

This whole thing has actually gone okay, potential supervillain threat notwithstanding. I mean, our project to rewire New York is nothing like complete. The substations are all done, but there are still people with houses covered in lead paint so I'm not exactly surprised that we haven't gotten around to rewiring everyone's homes in the time available to us. But we do have an agreement from the mayor that all future wiring will be made from Jovium and since we're the only source of the stuff that pretty much gives us a monopoly. All in all, I'm feeling pretty upbeat about this whole thing.

"Is there some information you didn't pass on to the New York Police Department?"

Ted looks confused. "How would that help?" Mayor Bloomberg looks mildly affronted. "I mean, Orange Lantern's here and Wonder Woman's in the audience. And there are already police all around."

There were a few protests around the site as Ted's people put it together, mostly amateur physicists who want me to believe they know anything about the Bleed and its potential dangers. Reminds me a bit about the people who went to court to try and stop the Large Hadron Collider being turned on in the belief that it stood a significant chance of creating a black hole. A few were families of people employed in conventional energy generation protesting about the jobs we'll be destroying. I don't feel bad about coal, gas or oil based production, but harming research into other forms of power does rather go against my stated aims.

"No, Mister Mayor. It's just that in my line of work supervillains tend to just… Show up. Um, we're ready when you are."

Mayor Bloomberg huffs. "You realise that I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for supervillains the whole time now?"

I shake my head. "I'm probably just being paranoid, sir." Um. "But just in case." I take a small portable force field generator and hand it to him. "You may want to clip this onto your jacket."

"A-?" He stares at me for a moment, before attaching it to his lapel. "Alright then. I think we're about ready to start."

I nod, and lead the way out onto the stage. No flashes. Ah, to have been alive in the age of flash photography. I still remember the little flash cube thing I used on my first camera. My last camera too, as it happened. Never could be bothered to put them in albums. Think I ended up throwing the lot out.

I stop at the podium emblazoned with the KordTech logo and look out at the crowd, making a point of making eye contact with Alan and Diana. Then I return my gaze to the approximate middle of the crowd. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming. It's, ah… It's been a little under five months since I announced that I was getting into the power generation business. A little less than that since Mayor Bloomberg was kind enough to allow us to use New York City as the first location to build one of these. And in a minute or so, you'll be able to see the system formally connected to the New York electrical grid."

No supervillains as yet. Promising.

"Now, I've been hearing…" I look theatrically over at where the protestors are standing at the far side of the fence. "One or two complaints at my use of alien technology to… One moment." I pull a copy of the Washington Post out of subspace and make sure the title piece is visible as I rifle through it until I come to the interview. "'Unfairly distort the energy supply market in this country, and reduce the ability of other parties to remain competitive.'" I shrug theatrically, paper in hand. "I'm sorry, I thought we were running businesses in a free market economy here! I didn't realise I was supposed to hobble myself so you can keep doing what you've been doing for the last… Hundred years? Human civilisation is crying out for better sources of energy. I'm not stopping anyone else doing what I've done. But I sure hope I'm stopping people who were planning on sitting on their arses. Ah." I switch my hands to a 'hold on' position. "I'm sorry, American audience. Their asses. Asses."

That gets a small laugh.

"Innovate or… Expect to go out of business. Part of the reason why I got involved in building this place is so that I can light a fire under the energy sector. And every year they don't come up with something that will let them compete, I'll open more. Our order book will be full for the foreseeable future. Get to work. Innovate. You've had decades and the most exciting thing that's happened recently is that you've learned to get oil out of sand." I nod a couple of times. "Very twenty first century. Sand… Really makes me feel space aged."

"We're only going to be providing part of New York's power for the next four months while we assure people that there aren't any problems with the system. After that, we'll be taking over all power supply for the whole city… And maybe a little beyond that. Anyone living in that area can expect to see their bills cut to one tenth, and we'll be investing that profit into charge points for electrical cars. Because it's going to be cheaper to fill up a battery than a petrol…" I frown. "Hang on, I have an app for this." I pull out my phone and press a few buttons. "Gas, yes, because it's a liquid and that makes perfect sense. Electricity will be a lot cheaper than gas."

I think I just saw Boris write something in his notebook.

"I'm not doing this for the money. Not only am I rich already, I don't get paid for this. Not one penny of the profit for this enterprise comes to me. I'm doing this in an attempt to kick start Human technological progress. To make sure that we have a tech-base fit for a twenty-first century space age civilisation. I don't want this to be a.. just-me thing." I bring my hands to my chest. "That defeats the object. I want lots of people to try and do the sorts of thing that I am. Human scientists with the knowledge power companies need in order to keep up with me are out there. So, to my competitors… Go find them."

"And now, to press the big red button and connect us to the New York power grid, please give a warm welcome to Mayor Bloomberg!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Titanfall

18th June
13:52 GMT -3

Shock.

Stillness.

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

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

"How long have you known?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I nod. "Yes."

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

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

"There are ways to come back from that."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oceanus." / "Oceanus."

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

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

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

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

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

"He's a god?"

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

"And he's definitely hostile?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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