13th September
15:18 GMT -6
I watch as most of my team retreats to what I think is supposed to be minimum safe distance. Canis doesn't go
far back, but he's definitely retreated for his personal safety. Even Wolf doesn't need prompting to leave her father's side. Then I turn away from them and look out across the Chihuahuan Desert sands, and… At the wide swath that isn't so much desert as it is
glass.
I generate construct armour and look at Kon a
little nervously.
"What
exactly did Helios
do?
"
"Well, it's kinda…" He gestures vaguely in the direction of the end of the strip of glass. "Plasma. Like from the sun. Helios' magic lets me control it…" He follows my gaze, looking at the glass. "
Sorta."
"Which…
Bit of the sun?
"
"The instruments got
melted, but from the color Robin worked out that it's probably the same as the sun's surface."
"Six thousand Kelvin?
"
He shrugs. "Fifty-eight hundred."
I look left and right.
"Can I assume that Helios also gave you some sort of-?
"
"Heat containment, yeah, I know. Robin and Wally spent all evening trying to work out how it works. It looks like anything hit
directly gets the full heat, but everything near it just gets…" He flicks his right hand at the glass. "A
bit melted instead."
"So are you actually going to
show me, or what?
"
He takes a solid stance, looking forwards. "Can you put up a target or something? It's easier if I've got something to
aim at."
I send a series of filaments around the outside of the glass lane and then bring them together about 500 metres away, generating an archery target where they meet.
"Any good?
"
There's a tiny
puff of white-orange flame from Kon's eyes and
then-.
My rings darken
everything and all that I can see is an incandescent beam of blinding light blazing forth from Kon's eyes. My target construct is
obliterated, and the glass-coated rock behind it gets turned back into its molten state before Kon blinks and shuts it off again.
Ring, how hot was that?
Observations of beam temperature are inconsistent. Plasma stream most likely between two thousand and six thousand degrees Kelvin.
…
That's quite hot. Actually, that's-.
I smirk at him.
"That's hotter than Kal-El's, isn't it?
"
"Ah… Maybe? A bit? I don't think it would work so well if I tried using it for spot-welding, though."
"His doesn't work for spot-welding. Yeah, he can melt steel together, but it usually messes up the structure of whatever he does it to so much that it's only good for temporary fixes. Why did you think they had all those cranes around the Metro-Narrows Bridge last August?
"
Okay, air temperature is… Not much elevated, and the hurricane force winds that
should accompany something like that have predictably failed to materialise. I drop my construct armour and visually examine the burned swath of desert before us for a moment before turning towards Kon. There's a slight orange glow in the centre of each pupil, but he doesn't otherwise look affected. No burns on his face or armour, which is a good sign. Hang on, if plasma is coming from each eye
separately, shouldn't-? No, I guess Helios took that into consideration.
"I didn't actually go
back." He blinks again and the light fades completely. "I think you've probably spent more time in Metropolis than
I have."
Huh… Hadn't really… Put that together. I suppose that after Kal-El confirmed his decision to have nothing to do with him, there really wasn't any reason to.
"Does it always come out the same?
"
"No, I can… Cut it down a
little."
"And can you turn it
up?
"
He looks at me, then at the molten sand, then back at me. "You really think that's a good idea?"
"Not on a
planet, but if we're heading out into space…
"
He doesn't look too sure. "Isn't the
Rao system radioactive? And full of Kryptonite?"
"No, not..
really. The runaway fusion reaction that destroyed Krypton didn't convert
all of its mass into Kryptonite, and Krypton's mass was only
slightly more than Earth's is. There's a belt of Kryptonite-rich asteroids in Krypton's former orbit, plus Krypton's moons, but the rest of the system is barely more radioactive than the Sol system. And we know Kryptonians visited their system's other planets. Heck, depending on what happened to Wegthor there might even be salvageable
ships there.
"
"What, you don't know? Haven't you had a look already?"
I frown.
"Go to Krypton without you? No, of course not.
" He nods, and I notice the rest of the team coming back from their safe hiding point.
"I
did go to Daxam, but that was by accident and I.. didn't hang around.
"
"How do you go to a planet by accident?"
Wallace jogs up slightly ahead of the pack. "Oh El did what by accident? I mean,
Spider, so, what else?"
"This.
" I raise my left fore and middle fingers to my forehead
and step out then
13th September
16:22 GMT -5
back in again.
"Good afternoon Mister Garrick.
"
Mister Garrick looks up from behind his magazine. "Ah… Oh, hey Paul."
I pick up his old helmet.
"Glad to see you've recovered from the possession. Could I please borrow this?
"
"If.. you really want, but-."
"Thank you!
"
And out.
13th September
15:23 GMT -6
And back holding the helmet.
"I learned to teleport.
"
I pass Wallace the helmet, which he takes and quickly checks over. "Couldn't you do that
anyway?"
"No, this is
far faster.
"
He slumps slightly. "How
much faster?"
"Instant to.. anywhere in the universe where there's a person whose desires I can recognise.
"
"Eh-?" He shakes his head. "No, why am I even
surprised?" Something occurs to him. "Hey, do you think your constructs are strong enough to block Superboy's heat vision?"
"Dunno.
" My construct armour flares back into being.
"Let's find out.
"
