With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)

[Mr Zoat]

17th April
07:23 GMT -7

"That sounds like a total disaster."

Doctor Roquette hasn't got any friendlier since last time I saw her. This is the first time I've encountered her on her own turf, and she's a good deal more self assured. She takes a sip of her second coffee of the morning while waiting for me to explain myself.

"No. A total disaster would have been one of the Star Hunters getting away, or reactivating a Mother Star. Or mind controlling our team."

"Uh huh."

"Fewer people were mind controlled by alien Starfish at the end of the day than were at the start. The two largest, most intelligent and most telepathically capable were killed-"

"I'm not sure you get points for it if they do it to themselves."

"-and we got several important leads on Devil Jizz supply on the east coast." Which is what the rest of the team are doing at the moment.

She grimaces. "Can you not call it that?"

"We.. rather felt that.. any of the other names made it sound 'cool'… I mean, the number of people who'd be interested in injecting themselves with something called-."

She holds up her right hand to stop me. "Fine! Fine."

"So, even though we're pretty confident that all of the remaining Starro-tech wafers got turned into actual Star Conquerors-"

"Who can now use magic."

"-we'd still like to increase our production of Cure-tech a lot. There are only a few laboratories in the world capable of growing Starro-tech wafers and people will notice if anyone starts walking around with a Star Conqueror on their face."

"Unless they just did what they did with Green Lantern."

I shake my head. "Guy lives on his own, doesn't have a normal job and can fly and it was still a risk. If Martian Manhunter or Miss Martian had scanned him or he'd actually had to stay away from his Star Conqueror for a prolonged period of time, the programming would have failed. It was a desperation move."

"And the Green Lantern Corps really couldn't track them down?"

"If the Green Lantern Corps could reliably locate Star Conquerors there wouldn't have been any on Earth. They took the ones we still had in captivity and they promised to look into it, but…" I shrug. "We checked the obvious potential hiding places: Liberty River and its offshoots, Gotham Reservoir and South City Park lake. They're not there."

"Great. Did Green Lantern know I worked on the original Cure-tech?"

"Iiiiiiii'm.. not sure. It was in the files, but he's not the best at doing the required reading."

"Oh great!" She sits back hard against the back of her chair. "Great, now I've got that to worry about as well."

"If you'd like me to help you improve your security here, I'm perfectly happy to do that. I can also leave you a couple of Praexis Demons as bodyguards… Permanently." Wait a second. "Or you could use your nanofog-."

"Current generation Fog only lasts twelve minutes outside a controlled environment! And it's incredibly expensive. I'd never get the University to okay me using it like that!"

"How 'incredibly expensive' is 'incredibly expensive'?"

"About half a million dollars for a thimbleful. And that's not even taking into account all the time it takes to make!"

I frown. "The League of Shadows had you make a nanofog container for them in two weeks."

"No, the League of Shadows read my work and spied on my laboratory for years in order to replicate my work. They only kidnapped me to rewrite the programming to do what they wanted it to do."

"Do you know what happened to their equipment? If you could get hold of it-."

"Yes." She nods. "Someone shot it with a railgun." Oh. Whoops. I suppose… Some of the things they had in storage… "And yes, getting their Fog containment vessel helped a little bit, but it's still a very expensive area of science without any profitable application."

"Your Fog can rebuild things, right?"

She sighs, finishes the last of her coffee and then stands, pushing back her chair. "I'll show you."

I follow her from the robotics office down the corridor and to the nanorobotics laboratory. She scans her key card to open the door to the outer laboratory. "After I got kidnapped, the Dean made some noise about upgrading security. All we actually got before the Justice League destroyed the League of Shadows were a few new keycard readers. Then we were deemed to not have 'exceptional need' any longer."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"What were they going to do against a supervillain anyway?" She walks forwards, towards a viewing window. "The nanotech gets created through here. The temperature and pressure are tightly regulated, there are force fields to keep contaminants out and the nanotech chamber is designed to only be remote accessible but I don't think for a moment that it would keep out a dedicated saboteur."

"How does it actually get made?"

"I came up with the designs and Doctor Raymond Palmer built the first generation of nanobots. After that, each generation have built their own successors."

"So… How many are in there at the moment?"

"Billions upon billions." Her voice is a little less aggressive when she says it. "They're too small to program so all the commands have to be handled remotely."

"And what can they make?"

"Just about anything if they've got the material. They have trouble handling anything much denser than lead and since they can't work on the subatomic scale at all they can't transmute matter. And you would not believe how long it took to convince Homeland Security they can't be used to build nuclear weapons."

"You've got a working nanofabricator?"

"Technically, yes. In practice there's almost nothing it can build that can't be created more cheaply using conventional means. And last month an ass of an ex grad student let a freshman in here and they thought it would be fun to shine a laser pointer at them."

"They're that fragile?"

"Like this? Yes. They're measured in nanometers. Proportionally, it's like you getting hit by a… A fifty kilowatt laser."

"Have you considered using magic to increase their resilience?"

"What?" She blinks, frowning. "No. Why would I?"

"An enchantment designed to protect mechanical devices could be placed in the vicinity of the fabricator and work without actually touching the Fog. And that's just off the top of my head." I tap my right fist against my lips. "I can get you the charm in a few hours, and I've got a power supply I can donate that will generate as much electricity as you want."

"That would… Help."

"I can pay for the increased Cure-tech production, and… There's a meeting I'd.. like you to come to next week. A few experts in their fields… Combining their efforts."

"Um. Anyone I know?"

"Sephtian. Ted Kord?"

"The guy who built the storm control drone?"

"One of our early successes. Normally, a species wouldn't have functional nanofabricators until they're a few hundred years more advanced than we are." I smile at her. "I'd like to shave a little off that, if you're interested."

"I'll… Check my schedule."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th April
09:41 GMT -6

Jade and I watch from the study room door as Lynne and Miss Amane read up on Darfur's history and Miss Shimmer switches rapidly between her latest arcane tome and English and Atlantean Greek dictionaries.

This is… This place is starting to feel like home.

"She's certainly dedicated." I turn my eyes Jadewards without shifting my head. "When I was her age Dad made us do unarmed combat practice against him if we didn't study hard enough."

"Yes, but unlike your father I'm a decent Human being." A slight rise of an eyebrow. "Humanoid being, then. I haven't disciplined her in any way. I'm not sure if the anti-life exposure permanently.. beat the childhood out of her-."

"She seemed okay yesterday. She played with the other children."

"I presented it as a fait accompli and she made the best of it. She hasn't expressed any affirmative interest in seeing them again, she just sort of.. accepts it when I tell her it will happen." I exhale quietly. "It might be my fault. I'm not sure exactly how much of my nature was transmitted when I gave her a portion of my soul, but I am certainly no child."

"What would have happened to her if you hadn't?"

"I don't know. Apokoliptians don't usually research ways to reverse anti-life infections. But… Izaya might have made a better job of it than I did."

"Who's that?"

"Izaya the Inheritor. Highfather. Ruler of New Genesis. He probably wouldn't have spoken to me, but that version of Scott was on good terms with him." It's a distinctly bitter thought. "I seek problems out and fix them, but I worry that in this case I might have been better to.. restrain myself." She smiles. "What?"

"I'm not used to you being in Dad mode." And there's the other thing. "It's only been a few weeks. You can't expect to fix years of abuse so quickly."

I nod, reaching across the hallway to take her left hand in my right, gently stroking it with my right thumb. "I'm sure that you're right. I shouldn't.. get properly worried for a year or so."

"I'll look forward to it."

"Are you..? Sure that you're okay.. with..?"

"With you having a daughter?" She looks away for a moment. "It's not what I was expecting."

"It's not what I was expecting. Though I… I probably should introduce you to my family at some point."

"Including your father, who you described as being like my father, only Kryptonian."

"No, no, he's… He's actually a lot more dangerous than that. I was really thinking of Scott and Barda. I imagine that… Having someone else to talk to about this whole 'New God' thing would be helpful. And they're on Earth…"

"What other family do you have?"

"Two other brothers. That I know about. It's not like I keep track of what Father gets up to. I've never spoken to Orion, actually. He was sent to New Genesis when he was only a few days old. He turned out… Okay, in a partially civilised barbarian warrior sort of way. Kalibak grew up on Apokolips and he's a violent brute. I'd advise avoiding him."

"And your mother?"

A subject about which Father Box -frustratingly- had nothing to say. I settle for just shaking my head. Jade turns her attention back to the girls. "I was thinking…"

"What about?"

"This whole thing. When I left home, if someone like you had been there to take care of me…"

"In Gotham? I doubt that anyone who offered that would have been-."

"Not a pedophile, Grayven. Someone like you."

"Or Batman."

"Cheshire, the Girl Wonder. That could have been fun." She takes a breath. "The point is, once I was sure they weren't playing some sort of game or that it wasn't just Dad pulling an elaborate training exercise, I'd have really appreciated it. I probably wouldn't have been able to explain it to them… I'm not used to being in that sort of environment-."

I tug gently on her hand, pulling her across the corridor into my embrace. "Hey. This sort of environment."

She rests her head against my chest for a moment, before pulling back slightly to look up at me. "This sort of environment." I'm gifted with a small smile. "It still surprises me. How you can be so big and so gentle."

"I refused to bend to Apokolips' demands on my nature. And I love you. I understand that helps."

"Uhh. If you're going to do that, can you please do it someplace else!?" We look around to see Miss Shimmer glowering at us. "Can't believe Humans go into heat every month." She pulls her tome up in an attempt to block her line of sight to the doorway.

"Ah. Right. Well, we… Do need to be going. Lynne, we should be back by lunchtime. You can talk through what you've found out about Darfur then."

She looks up. "Okay Grayven." And then back down to her book.

Oh well. Father Box, hush tube to Lex's secure meeting room.

Ploong.

The portal opens behind us, and I turn around to lead Jade through it into the LexCorp building.

17th April
10:44 GMT -5

"What was that?"

I frown slightly. "What was what?"

"When Lynne said 'okay'." She thinks for a moment as I look over the room -a sort of relaxed, soft chaired meeting room- and realise that Lex doesn't have a me-weight chair in here. Mildly inconvenien-. "She called you 'Grayven'."

I nod. "She did."

"You introduce her as 'my daughter'."

"Yes, that's-."

"It bothers you that she doesn't call you 'dad'."

A little… "Lynne's father was a man named Cyril Wayland, and by all accounts he was a decent chap. Robin still goes by the name he had before Batman adopted him, as does Troia. They've been with their new families for years, virtually all of her life in Troia's case. Yes, I would like her to call me 'dad', but… I assume that she will once she feels completely comfortable with our relationship."

"Is that why you're so worried that you're doing something wrong?"

"Um. Maybe. Part of it." I make a shrugging gesture with both hands. "She asked to come here, to be delivered to me… Did I accidentally brainwash her? She just felt obliged to come here and doesn't actually want to? I feel the.. rightness of her being there, but I'm older, I have more experience with it. And I feel love for her on top of that."

She reaches up, laying her right hand on my shoulder. "You did the best job you could in a terrible situation. You have nothing to blame yourself for. When I left home, it was a long time before I could trust anyone-." She cuts herself off, looking away. "And she had it worse. I always knew that I could get away, if I had to. She didn't have that. It'll take a while-."

Our heads snap around as the door opens and Ms Graves walks in, just ahead of Lex.

Time for the professional stuff, then.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th April
10:45 GMT -5

I step towards him as he comes fully into the room, my right hand extended. "Lex, good to see you."

The used car salesman smile is firmly in place as he takes my hand. "Likewise." He releases his grip and indicates the soft furnishings with his left. "Please, take a seat."

Heh. "I'd flatten those. Just a moment." High pressure office environment full of stressed people? There we go. The yellow strobes flick out over one of the soft leather chairs, fortifying the structure. "Right." I step away and carefully lower myself onto it. Gives slightly.. and… Yes. "You've got to remember, Lex, I weigh about two-fifths of a ton. Normal chairs just can't take the pressure."

Lex's eyes remain focused on my face while on the other hand Ms Graves' eyes flick uncontrollably to Jade. "I'll be sure to bear that in mind. Now." He sits down opposite while Ms Graves takes up position behind him. Jade remains where she was, hands unencumbered. She's -probably- a better fighter than Ms Graves, but doesn't have any of the personal assistant skills that have made her opposite number the de facto number two of LexCorp. "The Star Conqueror situation."

"The Atlantean study has been indefinitely suspended and the people involved are in hospital. All the Star Conquerors I encountered were completely disintegrated, no organic activity left. All examples of Starro-tech were also destroyed, with all members of the Atlantean expedition and the LexCorp research team accounted for."

He nods. "No records exist which could be used to prove any control connection between that laboratory and LexCorp."

"I assume you know how much Superman wants there to be and how much effort Batman will put into checking."

"I didn't get where I am today by leaving loose ends. Preliminary medical reports-" He holds out his right hand and Ms Graves puts a manila folder into it. "-indicate short term memory loss. They're being discreetly monitored, but I don't think that we will have anything to worry about on that front."

I nod. "The League suffered short term memory loss after we removed their Starro-tech at New Year, and the Green Lantern Corps' data on Star Conquerors confirms that it's normal for their liberated hosts."

"Their medical insurance was provided by a LexCorp subsidiary, so it will be easy for me to keep tabs on their recovery. Should I expect them to suffer any lingering effect of the aliens' presence?"

"You mean, will they identify with the Star Conquerors?" A shallow nod. I shake my head. "No, that never happens. And if the Star Conquerors had had time to fully reorder their thoughts they wouldn't have recovered. Assuming they follow the usual recovery pattern, they'll suffer a short term fugue with associated confusion, then nightmares, before gradually returning to their pre-infestation state. They should have made as full a recovery as they're going to within two months. Though it might be worth having a magic user examine them in case the chaos magic involved in the Starro-tech has some further effect."

Lex nods. "The Justice League has already sent Giovanni Zatara to examine them. Apparently, he didn't find anything." He puts the folder down on a coffee table. "Are there any other Star Conquerors under the Arctic ice?"

I shake my head. "There's no way to tell for certain without melting the whole ice cap. Any Star Conquerors still in there would have almost no metabolic or psychic activity and they know how to shield themselves from ring scans. I've planted some sensor drones and I'm sure that the Atlanteans will keep an eye out... That's really the best we can do."

"And if they appear elsewhere?"

"Yes, we need to talk about that. Lex, I really don't think that further investigation into the Star Conquerors is a sensible course of action."

"We can hardly protect ourselves through ignorance, Grayven."

"Star Conquerors are capable of interstellar telepathic communication. Telekinetic faster than light travel. The one that fled me might just have been trying to get away. Equally, it might have been going for reinforcements, or… My greatest fear, is that it was leaving in order to reactivate one of the really big ones."

He takes a moment to absorb that. "How big do they get?"

"Planetoid size. The Green Lanterns call them 'Mother Stars'. One of those anywhere near Earth, and this planet would be covered in Star Conquerors and that would be the end of Human civilisation. And if I'd been slower or a little unlucky, that could well have happened. Lex, I joined the Light because Humans aren't living up to their potential and I want to make that happen. I don't mind taking risks, either of my person or my resource base, but… For a fairly nebulous possible benefit, you risked everything to study these creatures."

"You disapprove."

"Risk and reward should be proportionate, and losing completely is not acceptable. Lex, I'm your alien guy. You don't have anyone working for you who knows more about this than I do. I accept that when this study started you didn't know quite what you were getting into, but once I fully joined the Light? You should have brought this to my attention."

"If you feel excluded from my decision making-."

"It's not about my feelings, Lex. It's about making effective use of our resources. LexCorp is your thing, I'm not disputing that. I don't.. expect you to share every little thing with me, but when it concerns the very reason why you brought me onto the Light in the first place, surely it makes sense to talk to me about it. Just as a consultant."

His eyes dip momentarily, then he nods. "You make a good point. I'll have a précis put together for you by Wednesday."

"Thank you. There are powers in this galaxy which humanity is not ready to joust with. Someday." I nod. "Hopefully sooner rather than later, but not yet."

"I am in your debt for preventing our reach exceeding our grasp. If there's anything I can do to repay-?"

"Yes, about that. I already know what I want in return." He raises his eyebrows slightly. "The Genomorphs."

"That's a… Fairly big ticket item."

"I don't want to own them. I want to know where they came from." I flick my hands upwards. "A functioning artificial intelligence in the nineteen thirties? Alright. It's surprising, but the circuitry which made it possible existed and a genius like Doctor Morrow could have come up with the programming. Interplanetary teleportation by zeta tube? Again, once you identify zeta radiation, quite possible. But a fully synthetic organic life form? If they'd been… Modified Humans, then I could credit it. They're not. They're novel. Humans don't have the technology to do that, and even if they did none of the Cadmus staff have the outstanding brilliance necessary for them to… Effectively do all the work in their heads. So, where did the original biological specimens come from?" Lex sucks in a breath. "Lex, if you've been raiding alien worlds I need to know about it."

"No, no." He smiles, shaking his head. "Nothing of the sort. Earth has no need to invade alien worlds for research material. Not when so many of them come here."

"Earth has had a statistically unusual number of visitors."

"As a boy, I found them fascinating. After I made my first few million, I began buying up alien artifacts, meteorites… At the start it was just a hobby. Then, Superman moved to Metropolis and I decided to take it a little more seriously."

"I'm sorry, can I just check: you know his name, right? Klarion had access-."

"Kal-El. But, yes, I know that he masquerades as Clark Kent." He chuckles. "It's funny, actually. One of my intelligence analysts correctly deduced his identity years ago using a facial recognition program. I fired her. It simply didn't seem plausible to me, that a man that powerful would choose to hide himself among mortal men." He sits back a little. "I'd apologise to her, but that would rather give the game away."

"So..?"

"My xenotechnology division was set up in order to study the alien materials and technology. Most of it was so badly damaged that we couldn't learn much. On the other hand, one meteorite I came to possess contained a minute fragment of what is now called kryptonite. Other pieces gave my company a notable advantage in several fields. But the one I found most… Puzzling, came from Cerro Galán in Argentina. Most of it was a fairly standard iron-nickel meteorite, but there were tiny grey.. fragments in it that were made of a far harder material. When they were fully analyzed, their physical structure was something like bone, but stronger than anything Human science can create. It took years of painful and extremely expensive investigative work before we could be certain, but it was once part of a living creature. The first Genomorphs were a result of our attempts to clone… Whatever it was."

"The G-Prometheans?"

"It didn't have anything quite like Human genetics, and my employees didn't have a complete organism to base their work on. But, yes, that was where the project started. Genomorph physiology proved quite mutable. The alternate forms are genuinely the work of the scientists of Project Cadmus. But their start.. came from somewhere out in space. And if you don't recognise it, it must have been a curious life form indeed."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th April
15:12 GMT -5

Lex is swivelling his chair around as I approach his office window, his right hand held up slightly to forestall any action from the security team who are charging through the outer doors. I wave my left hand and then raise it to my ear.

Ring, dial.

Compliance.

Lex smiles slightly as the phone on his desk rings. Not that I can hear it from out here. He doesn't pick it up though. Instead, he negligently holds his right hand out to the side while continuing to observe me.

"Lex Luthor's office."

"Ms Graves, pleasure to hear your voice again. Orange Lantern two eight one four here."

"Good afternoon, Orange Lantern. If you can wait a moment I'll see if Mister Luthor is available."

"You know I can see him through the… Never mind." Huh. "Actually, while I've got you." I turn to my right, looking out across the city. And making it harder for anyone inside the building to read my lips. "Have you given any more thought to the cybernetic upgrade I offered you? I've acquired a few new options since I first made my offer."

"Thank you, but I am quite happy with the arm I have."

"But you could be more than happy. And that's what I'm all about: wanting stuff. I mean, look at your boss. He's rich beyond the dreams of ninety nine percent of the world's population, is in charge of a huge multinational company, but does he stop wanting stuff?" I realise that I've floated out of sight to the people inside the office and turn around to float back the other way. "Does he ever say 'okay, I've got enough now, time to spend the rest of my life playing golf'? No, he doesn't. There's always something new to want, and you can want a better arm."

No immediate response.

"Come on." I turn my empathic vision up a little. "I can see how much you'd like to never have to feel that slight.. pull you get when you wake up in the morning and-."

"Orange Lantern, are you trying to buy off my staff?"

"No, Lex. No. I'm trying to give a gift to an attractive single woman. Nothing untoward going on at all."

"Perhaps you could try to do that out of office hours?"

"Oh, please. She takes as many days off a year as you do."

"Amusing as this is..?"

"Right. Would you mind if I came in? I've got something rather serious-" I stop outside his window and turn to face it again. "-to talk to you about."

"By all means. I had the window redesigned to slide open after Superman's first unscheduled-" I phase and float forwards, passing through the window. "-visit. Ah." I lower my left hand and he puts down his phone as I walk around to the 'guest' side of his desk. He swivels his chair back around to face me. "What can I do for you?"

"Had a… Spot of bother yesterday."

"Yes, I heard. Giant.. Starfish aliens? Were you able to destroy all of them?"

"No. Most, but… A few of the smaller ones got away. We're looking, but I'd honestly be surprised if we located them by anything other than pure luck before they choose to reveal themselves."

"That's a little concerning."

"If you know a better way to find them, I'm all ears. But that's… All really tangential to why I'm here. Last time the League encountered these creatures, a scientist by the name of Stirling Roquette was crucial to us developing a way to immunise people against the form of mental control they were using. After the thing in Gotham I went to see her again, and… She had an early nanoforge prototype."

"I'd.. heard about her research. I hadn't realized things were quite that advanced."

"I hadn't either. To be honest, I'd rather stopped thinking about her. She's agreed to meet up with some other inventors of my acquaintance for a brainstorming session. You know, cross fields, see if they can help each other."

"I assume that this will be happening in KordTech?" I nod. "LexCorp wasn't developing anything in the weather control field, so I don't have to try downplaying the significance of his most recent product launch. I was actually quite impressed."

"It's like I told you when we first met. Tiny amounts of magic can improve conventional technology in so many ways… Thing is… I like Ted Kord. I like him a lot. But he's… He's a good engineer. A good scientist. I've seen him in action as a salesman and it's inspiring. He conveys his genuine enthusiasm for the product brilliantly and keeps his spiel to a technical level the audience can understand. He'd be a good project leader. But as a manager? As the head of a company? He's terrible. He's basically had to appoint someone to do the actual CEO work because as soon as something 'cool' comes in he can't resist heading down to the workshop to play with it himself. He tries to micromanage rather than letting the extremely capable people who work for him get on with it…"

Lex looks politely puzzled. "I'm not sure that I can help you with that. Unless you're.. trying to jump ship from your own creation?"

"No. That's the sad thing. I'm not." I sigh. "Because you'd be perfect for it. I look at you and I can see -I'm talking literally here- your desire to use all the tools of capitalism to strengthen the Human species. You're a far better manager than he is… I'd like to be able to give this to you. But I can't."

"Because your peers disapprove of me?"

"Because you're a member of the Light."

Four seconds pass as he regards me. "I'm afraid that I don't know who or what that is."

"Lex, if I could prove anything I'd have brought the police with me. I can't. There's no way you don't know that they exist, and if you weren't a member they'd be a threat to you and you'd be feeding me the information I'd need to destroy them. So you're a member. Maybe the leader, maybe not. Maybe they don't have one." I sigh. "But Savage is a member, and he was involved in that Ice Fortress thing last year. Which means that any technology a Light member gets their hands on would most likely end up getting used for something puerile rather than something productive. The sheer waste of resources used in a failed assassination attempt which -even if it had worked- would only have provided them with a marginal benefit… And I know they were studying Star Conquerors, and it looks a lot like they suffered a fairly critical containment failure. And as a result, we've got a species that the Green Lantern Corps had trouble with loose on a world ill equipped to handle them."

My eyes drift away slightly. "On my home parallel, there's a television series. It doesn't exist here. It's called 'Avatar: the Legend of Korra'. In the setting, there are people who can manipulate the classical elements: earth, air, fire and water. Each of the four ethnic groups have an affinity for one element, and the skills and modes of thought required to use it define their culture. Now, when I first saw it, I thought that anyone from the right tribe could learn to manipulate their element, just by studying the signature martial art. So, everyone had the same potential and it was just a matter of spending the time and effort. But by the time Legend of Korra started, it was clear that that wasn't the case. People were born with the ability or not. Those who had it could learn to improve it, but if you didn't have it, tough luck. So in the city the series is set in, there's an element manipulating criminal syndicate and the police force only recruit element users of one type. And unsurprisingly, that causes a great deal of resentment."

"The main bad guy in series one is the leader of the anti-elementalist movement. He's a water manipulator himself, but his hate is genuine and he can use his abilities to permanently remove the element control abilities of others. Thing is, it never occurred to him that he could use the exact same ability to give element control abilities to people who didn't have it. Assuming they didn't resist, it would only have taken him about thirty seconds a time. If he'd done that, everyone would have access to all the things that the elementalists could do, and if they chose not to develop those abilities… Fine. But he was too busy hating himself and encouraging others to hate that he never stopped to consider the alternatives."

I return my attention to Lex. "I want the Earth to be able to stand on its own two feet in the galaxy. I don't want it to be dependent on superhumans any more than you do, not ultimately. So: please. Tell me who the Light are. Tell me where they are. I'll go after them immediately. I'll destroy the whole organisation root and branch and destroy any evidence linking them to you. You won't be implicated at all. And then we can work on this objective we share together, without any of those short sighted idiots undermining it the whole time."

"Please."

Lex's eyes shift momentarily to his desk, and then return to me. "I'm sorry, Orange Lantern. I really can't help you."

I nod. I really shouldn't have expected him to… "Okay then." I stand. "Thank you for your time."

 

[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]

19th April
10:27 GMT -6

I smile as Guy steps through the boom tube, power ring crackling. "Lantern Gardner. Welcome to my home."

"Hey… Gray…" Guy looks around, as if-.

"Oh, come on Guy, I wasn't going to invite you here and then ambush you."

"Yeah, well." His eyes return to me. "You kinda come with a warnin' label these days."

I nod, the corners of my mouth turned down. "So I should stop holding my breath for an apology from King Orin?"

He frowns. "Apology? What for?"

"I am -effectively- the Apokoliptian ambassador to Earth, and he -the Atlantean head of state- did punch me in the face in an unprovoked attack. And then needed me to bail him out after the big Star Conqueror mind blasted him." Guy tilts his head forwards slightly, his eyebrows raised. "I'm not saying I was expecting flowers or anything, but a verbal acknowledgement beyond a grunt would be nice."

He shakes his head. "Gray, you're a part'a the Light now. You should be grateful he just punched you."

"Oh? I thought the League had principles. Ideals you held to above what an ordinary man on the street might reasonably be expected to do. King Orin punched me because he allowed his passions to override his reason, not because I was doing something for the Light. Heck-" I spread my arms out, indicating the room. "-it's not like I'm hiding. If you want to make an accusation, do it. I turned up in court when my life was on the line. I'd gladly do it for a lesser charge."

"Yeah, that's what Luthor says too."

"And he would. You see, Guy-" I turn, draping my right arm over his shoulder and leading him out of the embarkation room and into the rest of the base. "-being the 'good guy' is rather dependent on you doing certain things and not doing certain others."

He brushes off my arm, but keeps walking with me. "You do remember that time they killed thousands of kids, right?"

"I remember that time Klarion did and they called me in to kill him. You remember how the rest of the Justice League stood around like lemons when Nabu demanded Giovanni Zatara serve as his host-slave?"

"And that time they mind controlled the Justice League?"

"You remember that time we proved that the Guardians of the Galaxy wiped out nearly all life on Mars? And left mind control tech in all its inhabitants up to the modern day?" I glance at him, left eyebrow raised. "Whose ring is that you're wearing?"

"They were tryin' t'do the right thing and they fucked up. It's not the same as doin' it deliberately."

I nod. "Tell me: all that technology I added to the Watchtower in order to prevent a repeat of New Year. Any of it still there?" Guy glowers. "Thought not. I'll be sure to let the rest of the Light know that you're wide open again."

"I ain't on the League. I asked around on Oa and Salaak agreed to upgrade the Watchtower."

I nod approvingly. "Good initiative, Guy. I approve. And I hope that the League do as well." Okay, now to ease off. "While you're here… I realise that it's expected, so I'll ask. If you're interested in switching teams-"

"I'm not."

"-I've got a thing for redheads."

He stops dead, his mouth hanging open slightly in shock. I make a clicking noise in the left side of my mouth and wiggle my eyebrows.

His eyes narrow slightly and his mouth opens and closes silently a couple of times. Then he closes his eyes, shaking his head and chuckling quietly. "Oh, fuck you, Gray."

"Yeah, sorry. Redheads are overrated. Burn too easily." I carry on down the corridor, heading towards the meeting room. "But anyway, I'm sure there's a reason why you've finally taken up my invitation."

"The League wanna know what you're doin' in Darfur."

"Very little."

"If you wan'ed me to believe that, you shouldn't a' used a boom tube."

"But.. some employees of mine have been working there. We were about to do a debriefing. Would you like to sit in?"

"Yeah. Probably should. You know you got no authority to be there, right?"

"What, I don't have the permission of a government that's been a party to genocide for… Five years now? Imagine how that undermines my righteousness. Guy, I stopped going to your meetings because I've stopped being so angry. I stopped being so angry because I don't have to put up with the Justice League any longer. They had years, did nothing, and now sent you to protest my actions."

I reach out and press the door open button set into the wall. The security membrane in front of us fades out, giving us access to the room within. The League may like to use heavily reinforced doors for things like that, but security membranes combine the strengths of physical barriers and force fields without undermining the strength of the surrounding walls by having them slide into a slot. Unlike a force field the membrane will stay functional without an external power source and this one is exceedingly resilient.

"Hello girls." Miss Amane jumps to her feet, Miss Shimmer looks up for a moment and frowns at Guy while Lynne keeps playing with the wrist mounted quantum computer I got her for her birthday.

Just a little more advanced than Richard's.

I stride into the room and plonk myself down in my chair. "Lantern Gardner's going to sit in on this one. Just to find out how badly you've broken international law." Miss Amane is still standing, hands behind her back in an approximation of parade rest. "Iname, you may be seated."

"Thank you, Master!"

Guy's still hovering near the door. "Grayven, how old are these girls?"

I point to Miss Amane with my right forefinger. "Eighteen." To Lynne. "Twelve. And before you say anything, how old was Robin?" That gives him pause. "And…" My finger wavers a little at Miss Shimmer. "Miss Shimmer, how old are you again?"

"In Earth-years? I dunno."

"You're an alien?" She nods. "What planet 're you from?"

"We never really had a name for it. Grayven keeps calling it 'Wilson' and-" Minor glare at me. "-he won't tell me why."

"You don't have a name for it? So, what, you're pre-spaceflight?"

"I'm not sure. That depends on exactly where space starts. But not with spaceships or anything like that."

"Do you know whereabouts your homeworld is?"

She nods. "In a parallel universe." She looks at me. "Am I going to have to explain this every time?"

"No, Guy can put it in a report and then the League will all know."

Guy takes a seat next to me. "What kinda parallel-?"

"I used to be a Pony. A Unicorn. My home country is called Equestria and the majority of-."

Guy leans closer to me. "Grayven, is she-?"

She glowers. "I'm not crazy, and don't talk about me like I'm not here."

"Unless you can think of another reason for her native language to consist entirely of equine noises, it's highly probable that she's being accurate in her description. Also, I was there while her portal was open and her understanding of magic is far more advanced than any surface worlder of her age on Earth."

"Okay. Err…" He looks at Miss Shimmer. "So how come you're Human?"

"The stupid portal turned me into one. I just hope it turns me back when I go through again."

"How're you finding being Human?"

"It's horrible! I'm nearly bald, I can barely feel magic at all, I go into heat every month and I keep falling over because I've only got two legs! Two! And no tail!"

Guy clearly doesn't know how to respond to that.

"Okay girls. What have you been up to in Darfur?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th April
10:34 GMT -6

"…tested it carefully, and it turns out that just so long as Lynne doesn't keep up contact for more than a few seconds, anyone whose mind she touches recovers after an hour or two."

Curiously, the other two appear to be deferring to Miss Shimmer. I suppose -coming as she does from a planet of magic-using Ponies- she's far more experienced in these matters than either of them. The United States 50's military were trying to train Lynne in these matters but I suppose they didn't get particularly far before she was hauled off by SHADE.

"It wasn't too hard to use your drones to let us target individual warbands, then we could stun them. Once they were out of it, Iname could run through a boom tube, take all their weapons and food and move them somewhere else."

"Which groups in particular?"

"At the start of the war, rebels mostly targeted the government military and the government's militias mostly targeted civilians. But now, they're all pretty bad even if some are worse. So, we hit everyone we could find."

I nod. "And whereabouts were they taken?"

Miss Amane smiles. "I gave the food to the refugees."

"And the weapons?"

"Yes, those too. Just in case."

"That might create problems later, but I can follow the logic." I nod at Miss Shimmer. "Carry on."

"There was one group it didn't work on. They had a dark wizard with them, and he could protect them from Lynne's power." She creases her face in distaste. "He did it with the spirits of people he'd killed. I don't know exactly how his spell worked, but anything she did he somehow made his spirits get hurt instead of the people he was with. He knew we were watching, and he made them visible so we'd know what was happening. He had..." She shudders. "Bodies nailed to wooden pillars around their campsite…"

"Sounds like someone thoroughly in need of a good hard killing. Did you do it, or do you want me to-."

"No, he's dead."

"And how did you manage that?"

"I welded a knife onto one of your drones and made it fly into him at the speed of sound."

Guy's looking steadily more and more uneasy. I -on the other hand- just feel curious. "And what made you do that?"

"Celestia didn't mind me reading stuff on how to fight against dark magic. I recognised the sort of spell he was using. It only works against magic." She glances at Lynne. "And other supernatural attacks too, I guess. From how he looked I think he could probably have survived being shot, so what we did had to technically be mundane while still being very powerful."

"Sensible. What next?"

"They were… They were the worst group. And… We decided that we needed to make an example of some people…"

Miss Amane nods emphatically. "Otherwise they would just go home, pick up more weapons and come back."

"So I destroyed their minds. Permanently."

That's the first time Lynne's spoken in this debriefing. I feel a little concern as I carefully watch her, trying to work out how she feels about that. Obviously I want her to be able to kill people if she decides that it is the appropriate response, but I also want her not to be afraid of her own abilities.

"Okay, and how do you feel about that?"

"I saw the bodies. If I let them go, they'd just kill more people. Wasn't that what you said would happen?"

I nod. "It's what I would have expected to happen."

Guy actually shudders. "Grayven, Lynne, that's…"

"Guy, you got that ring in two thousand and three. That was the year that the Darfur War started. At any point you could have got involved. You didn't. I handed the matter over to three teenaged girls because I had more faith in their ability to resolve it than I did in yours. And they did. Miss Shimmer?"

"Um, well, we… We had some G-Trolls take the bodies down and bury them. That was.. all the fighting groups dealt with. That just left the politicians." She looks down for a moment. "There had to be a lot of people involved in organising it. Probably more who knew what was happening. But there were only three who had international arrest warrants. Iname cut Ali Kushayb in half while he was surrounded by his bodyguard."

Miss Amane nods. "He was the most evil."

"I used the drone's purple death ray on Ahmed Haroun and Lynne-."

Guy's eyes widen. "You gave President Omar al-Bashir a stroke on national television."

Lynne nods. "Yes. I did."

I nod. Hit all the major points there, I think. "Alright. Leave a few drones on observation duty and keep an eye on both what they see and on the news."

Miss Amane smiles, her eyes shining with joy. "Did we do the right thing, Master?"

"By your evaluative criteria of minimising death total while maximising effect, you probably did. I'd have been more overt and argued my point publically, but remaining unseen has its advantages-."

"That's..! That's it?!" Guy's staring at me. "You just had your girls kill a load of people, and you think they probably did the right thing?"

"Nothing can be completely predicted in advance." I gesture and a holoprojector comes to life, flicking rapidly through a series of Sudanese government documents. "Between observation scans and data intercepts, I have more than enough evidence here to convince me that they were involved in orchestrating mass murder. What did you want us to do?"

"If they had international arrest warrants, you coulda grabbed them and handed them over!"

I shake my head. Poor, innocent fool. "Guy, on Earth Prime there was a man named Slobodan Milosevic. He was president of a place called Serbia, it doesn't exist on this Earth. He was charged with being involved in commissioning genocide in nineteen ninety nine and finally handed over to the Hague in two thousand and one. Six years later he died of a heart attack, still a free man, having used every delaying tactic he could to stymie justice. Explain to me the virtue of obeying such a clearly dysfunctional system."

He regards me with growing horror.

"You know… Now I think about it…" Miss Shimmer taps her chin with her right forefinger. "The same thing happens in Equestria. I read up on dozens of ancient evils that Princess Celestia banished or imprisoned, but I don't remember anything about her flat out killing any of them. Which means that eventually they're going to get out. And given that they were bad enough to make Celestia angry enough to do that in the first place… They'll just go back to whatever they were doing. Hurting more Ponies. Which means that the whole thing was pointless. Huh." Her gaze grows a little distant, a small frown creasing her brow. "When I go back, I'll have to ask her about that."

I give her a stern look. "Aaaaah?"

"Oh. Um. And.. try to.. kill them myself?"

I nod. "Better."

"Grayven, this isn't right. They're.. kids."

"No, Guy. What isn't right is the innocent living in fear while the guilty reign triumphant and unimpeachable. I'd hoped that your father taught you that lesson."

He snarls. "Don't go there, Grayven."

"What? He beat you constantly as a boy and the Baltimore police department gave him a hero's funeral. Just? I rather doubt it." I shake my head. "You know Lynne's past, and Iname and Miss Shimmer are both legally adult. They solved a problem no one else was willing to with a minimal level of force. And if you try giving me disingenuous shit about it I'll treat you the same way I did Diana when she tried that."

"And… What exactly do you think is gunna happen now?"

"Girls?"

Miss Amane smiles and activates the holo display.

"…calling it 'a miracle' this morning, as fighting stopped all across Darfur. The reason? Early this morning every single gun vanished from the militias' hands." A picture of refugees celebrating. "Combined with the deaths of the men whom many believe to be the leading architects of this brutal conflict, it seems that this conflict might finally have been brought to a close. As to where this miracle came from, no one knows. The sheer scale of the task suggested the involvement of the Justice League, but they have so far not given official comment."

Miss Shimmer nods, and Miss Amane turns it off again. Miss Shimmer then turns her full attention to Guy. "With everyone in the area disarmed, an African Union or UN peacekeeping force could keep things under control. The Vice President can run the north and the south can peacefully secede. No one could have done this with a body count this low except the Justice League and they didn't want to stop it. So… Yeah. What I think is going to happen now is a lot less killing than would have happened without us." I smile. "Good work girls."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th April
13:58 GMT -5

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

"Hey Paul!" That's a little odd. Ted was waiting for me just outside the zeta tube. The fact that there's a zeta tube on top of the KordTech building isn't a secret secret, but it isn't supposed to be common knowledge. He usually just waits inside the building.

"Good afternoon, Ted." I give his proffered hand a quick shake, and… He's putting his left arm around my shoulders. Okay, now I know something's not right. Behind his back I take my rune stone out of subspace while giving him a ring scan. No magic detected and no anomalies, aside from a slightly elevated heart rate. "Is something going on?"

"Lots of things are going on! We're, we're busy people."

"Okay. Ah, just a moment." I generate a zeta tube construct and then hold my left hand up to my left ear. "Okay Wallace, you can come through now."

A slightly tricky decision, but I think it was the right one. If he does this as Kid Flash then he can use the zeta tube whenever he wants. But -since none of the people we're meeting are on the 'approved for secret identities' list- he can't take his mask off or use any money he makes from mass production of his potions in his civilian guise. The alternative is coming here as Wallace West each time. No problem with people knowing his identity -unless someone tries kidnapping him for his alchemical knowledge I suppose- and no problem with him benefiting financially from his own work.

Unfortunately, that means that he can't use the zeta tube which so helpfully announces his identity to come here, because we can't think of a justification for 'Wallace West, intelligent but basically normal high school student' to have access to the League's secure transportation system. He can get the next nearest tube and run here… Though getting a bus or a taxi would be a better idea. Super speed might conceal the user's identity from everything but ultra speed cameras but the fact that someone is using it is very obvious.

Huh, kind of odd, that. At the moment regular people working out his identity is a bigger problem than supervillains doing it because the most notable supervillains already know.

Anyway, there are only so many times I can 'drop him off' here before it starts to look odd, so he's probably not going to be able to attend the weekly meetings. That and school. But a healing potion has such obvious utility that I couldn't not make this happen.

There's a flare of light and Wallace appears, dressed in the least superheroic way he could manage, carrying a satchel for his computer and a padded case for his samples. He blinks a little theatrically and looks around at the New York skyline, rube-ing it up magnificently. "Whaw."

"Hey there Wallace." Ted removes his arm and walks over to greet Wallace. "Paul said you had a healing potion for us?"

"Mister Kord? Ah, whaw." Wallace turns towards Ted and transfers his carry case to his left hand to shake Ted's hand. This action causes his satchel strap to slide from his shoulder and he scrambles to catch it with the hand now carrying the case. He awkwardly manages it, keeping hold of the strap as he shakes Ted's hand.

Think he may have taken the 'Clark Kenting' lessons a little too to heart.

"Just 'Ted' is fine, Wallace."

"Oh, okay. Um, just call me Wally. Everyone apart from Orange Lantern and my grandma do."

"Alright. I just.. need a quick word with Orange Lantern. Why don't… You take the stairs down. Janine can show you where we're meeting."

"Okay! Thanks Mister.. Ted."

Still giving it the 'innocent high school student' Wallace heads towards the stairs, rearranging the strap on his shoulder and looking back as if he's so totally thrilled to meet Ted that he doesn't quite believe that it's happening. He even does the Clark Kent thing of actually walking into the door because he isn't looking where he's going.

Ted leans closer to me. "Where'd you meet him?"

"Central City. I was at the university, talking to them about Leonard Snart. Pretty much just bumped into him."

Ted frowns slightly. "Doesn't Central City have a 'Doctor Alchemy'?"

"Sort of. The military took his 'Philosopher's Stone'-" And aren't interested in talking about it. Even I'm not sure where they stashed it. "-and his transmutation gun requires it in order to work. As far as we know he doesn't know how to make another Stone-" Though Alan was able to tell me about a couple of its former owners. "-so he isn't currently much of a threat. He used to be a chemistry teacher but as far as we've been able to tell he doesn't actually know anything about alchemy."

Ted frowns. "Name's kinda misleading."

"He originally called himself 'Mister Element'. If it makes you feel happier you can call him that."

"Wait, he wasn't a real doctor either?"

"Ted, you said you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah. That. Okay. Um… Well, the good news is that we managed to build a suit of power armor like yours with the invisibility system. And as far as we can tell, the mind altering effects are pretty minor."

"Good news. Wait, you haven't… Actually put someone in it without-."

"No! No. Well not exactly."

"Ted."

"We were doing test exposures with volunteer college students! We didn't give them power armor. That stuff's far too expensive to build a whole lot of suits for testing."

"Okay… That's a bit more reasonable."

"We did double blind short term exposure tests, they're all wearing monitors like the one's we're using to reverse engineer the Thinking Cap… They're showing signs of increased impulsiveness and a slight increase in aggression, but it's not enough to be worrying and Louis Crandell said that part of the effect only lasts a few months. I want to see if we can inoculate people with low doses before they start using it for real."

"A perfectly reasonable thing to test, but I'm kind of bracing for the bad news here."

"Iiiiit's Bobo."

"Bobo?"

"He's the Chimp we've been trying out some of our non-intrusive Thinking Cap designs on."

"Oh, how's that been going?"

"Oh, good. He can float small objects and create simple sensory illusions now."

I close my eyes, take a deep breath and then open them again. "Ted. Are you working up to telling me that there's an invisible telepathic monkey loose in New York City?"

"We don't know he's loose."

"Ted."

"'Cause, you know… He's invisible."

"Ted."

"I mean, we know he's not in his enclosure, but we're pretty sure that he thinks of the building as 'home' so he probably hasn't gone that far."

"What did we say, Ted? What did we say, when we first started this?"

"Ahhhh... No mad science?"

"Because our aim is to make people's lives better, improve the lot of the Human species and make enough money that the project is self-funding. What else?"

"You're… Fed up with well meaning scientists creating their own villains?"

"Completely fed up, Ted. Completely fed up." I squeeze my eyes shut again. "At least tell me that he hasn't got phasing or power armour."

"Why would we make power armor for an ape?"

"I don't know. Did you?"

"More of a test frame?"

"For goodness sake!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th April
14:05 GMT -5

Wooosaaaaaah.

I.. joked -when Ted and I started this- that we'd be lucky if we only created five supervillains doing this. That was why I insisted on detailed psychological screening for everyone who was going to be working directly with our novel equipment. It was why I upgraded his security so much. It was why each project had relatively narrow targets and anyone going off on a tangent was supposed to be reassigned!

NO. FUCKING. MAD. SCIENCE.

I was very clear. Very direct-.

Woosah.

Empathic vision on full, I take a look around the lobby. Nothing unexpected from the people around me and nothing to suggest the presence of an invisible ape. Orange lights strobe out from me as I run a full spectral scan. No, nothing on that either. On to the next location.

Seeing as how Ted's not an idiot, he's had Bobo's handlers leave a pile of fruit in his enclosure. Seeing as how Ted is probably only a little less annoyed about this than me, the handlers are in there combing each other's hair. Ted also tried to find a lady Chimpanzee, but it turns out that there aren't actually all that many Chimps in New York and most places aren't ready to turn them over for honey trap purposes.

Scan the corridor. Nothing.

Blasted Thinking Cap. If it was just invisibility I wouldn't have a problem. A weak omnidirectional pressure beam would reveal Bobo's location quickly enough. The problem is that the Thinking Cap doesn't quite do what I thought it did. After we acquired Dr. Hartford Jackson's research we found out (to my disappointment) that it isn't really a telepathy machine. It's a telekinesis machine. It can mind control people, but it does so in a fairly obvious brute force way and the one doing it doesn't get access to the contents of the victim's mind. The illusion creation function isn't as I had at first assumed a telepathic hallucination, but rather the application of what its inventor called 'mental force' on the environment, altering the properties of light in a particular area and causing false sensory feedback to anyone who touches what the user has 'created'. Oh, and it apparently increases the user's intelligence, which could well be why we're having this problem.

A few surprised faces look around as I open the door to a cubicle farm. KordTech's sales department. A lot of their stuff is special order, contracts being negotiated over a period of weeks to make sure technical reality and user expectations line up. Other stuff is actually kept in stock.

No ape.

And from the looks of things, if Bobo decides that he doesn't want to be found, it's capable of spoofing the ring.

I'm beginning to think that the Maltusians' reputation for paramount technological excellence was somewhat exaggerated.

On the other hand, Ted clearly has a non-implanted version of the technology which works. Yes. That's what I want to take away from this. And -depending on how much effort it takes to use- we might still be able to move into production. Or at least get something useful out of it. Mental illusions are useful, right? Unlike telepathy I'm not sure it's something that will be useful for me… But in power armour for general use, total invisibility would be blooming useful.

"Err, who are you?"

"Orange Lantern two eight one four." Nothing in the accounts office either. "Sorry to have bothered you."

"Is this about that Chimp that got away?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"Good luck."

I give her a polite smile. "Thank you."

Darn it! I'm not an ape behaviour specialist! But both Ted and I want this kept in house if possible and in community if not. I've never met Michael Maxwell or William Glenmorgan who are just about the only people in the superhero business who might be able to help. Bernhard Baker I've rather been avoiding, what with the whole Ambush Bug thing and how fourth wall breaking his comic was. Telepathy's an option, but M'gann is finishing her homework and making preparations for our holiday on Mars. I suppose I could pop by Gorilla City and ask for help, but I've got no idea how Bobo would react to the presence of a larger ape in his territory. Probably not well. Plus, he's been under the effect-.

Ugh.

Plus, he's probably been under the effect of the invisibility generator for a few hours. We're not exactly sure what that does to Chimpanzees, but the original version turned a well socialised laboratory assistant into a violent thief so I'm not all that hopeful. And now I'm remembering the scene in Lawnmower Man where the augmented ape tries to escape from the testing centre…

"Aaaagh!"

Theeeeere we go!

I transition into the canteen just in time to catch a table with a construct gravity plate before it can crush the startled cleaning staff. The front of a vending machine has been smashed in and something is making a mess as it rips into the goods contained within. A hungry and paranoid invisible ape.

At least it can't phase.

The table jerks off my construct and then flies back at me at full force. I create two draconic construct hands and catch it, gripping on to hold it against the force of Bobo's enhanced mental energy. I turn my head to the staff crouched down at the side of the room. "Sir, madam, I suggest leaving while the leaving's good."

They hesitate for a moment, then surge to their feet and sprint for the exit. Right, they're gone, PR restraint exercised. Ring, power armour.

Compliance.

Additional construct hands shimmer into being as chairs, tables and loose debris are hurled my way. Gas or tranquilisers, gas or tranquilisers? I send a filament in the direction of where I think he is and spray out a cloud of blue smoke. And… Nothing. Not even a traceable movement in the smoke. He doesn't want me to know where he is, so the Cap handles the rest. Correct what I thought earlier, that's bloody brilliant.

"Ooowaaah!"

Most of the debris falls from the air and while I can't see Bobo I can't really miss the heavy impact as a large Chimp wearing 'totally not power armour' slams into one of the tables I'm holding. The table cracks in two under the force but I've already interposed an orange hand to prevent Bobo coming through and striking me. Then the weight's gone. Okay, he can't fly with the Cap but he can use his telekinesis to boost his strength enough to do flying leaps. Assuming a slightly awkward fall…

Ah! Of course. I extend a construct to encompass the edges of the room and send orange lights strobing through the interior space, transmuting oxygen to nitrogen. An angry, physically active ape uses plenty of oxygen while the rings can keep me supplied without reference to local atmospheric conditions. Now I've just got to keep-.

One of the halves of the table Bobo jump kicked is suddenly shoved aside and I'm forced to create a construct shield to stop the oncoming ape train. Apes are wrestlers rather than strikers. Strong, but as long as I keep my barrier broad it should-. There's a series of impacts and it starts to crack slightly. It should hold long enough for oxygen deprivation to do its job. Then that should- There's another impact, weaker this time. -deactivate the enhancement he's getting from the Cap, which will give me the time I need to remove the armour, Cap and the invisibility module.

Something bangs on the floor, and I feel the pressure disappear from most of the tables I'm holding. Another bang, then a third, even weaker. Then a sort of gentle thump. I dismiss the floating hand constructs. Ring, add enough oxygen back into the air to prevent complete asphyxiation.

Compliance.

I extend thick probing constructs towards roughly where I think the recumbent ape is lying. They prod forwards gently, stopping when they meet solid resistance. Ape located. Pressure there and there indicates an arm and a shoulder which means that the head is here and this is the Cap. And the invisibility module is here…

A crisp covered and quite dishevelled Bobo appears on the ground in front of me. Time to get him out of this rig and back to his handlers.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th April
08:12 GMT -5

Wolf looks up at her foster father with sad, soulful eyes.

"No."

She whines piteously.

"No. You can't come with us." Behind us, the Sphere rolls up the ramp onto the Bio-Ship. "We tried putting you in a spacesuit and you freaked out." Given how strong she is, it didn't take long for her to extricate herself. "Mars gravity is a third of Earth gravity and we can't breathe the air outside the caverns."

M'gann tilts her head to the side a little. "Um, actually? You probably won't enjoy breathing the air inside them. I mean, you could, but the pressure and gas mix are different to what you're used to."

Kon turns his head back from where he's crouched in front of his pet. "I know. I did the reading." He reaches forwards to rub Wolf's face, and she raises her right paw and lays it over his left arm. Awwwww. Kon sags slightly, then gives her a last rub of the head with his right hand and stands up. Realising that she's lost the argument, Wolf makes a low moaning noise and then lies down to sulk.

Diana looks down at the family pet with a fond smile before raising her head to look at her son. "Kon, you have no need to worry. I will take good care of her."

"Yeah, I know. It's just, this is gunna be the longest we've been apart since I got her."

She puts her hands on the big softy's shoulders before pulling him into a hug. "She will still be here when you return."

"I know. Thanks, Mom."

"It is no trouble at all." She pulls away slightly. "Are you certain that you have everything you need?"

He nods. "Environment suit, check." Essential in order to avoid low pressure assisted autodefecation. Now with House El sigil decoration. "We've got food, water, and I'll probably be sleeping in the Bio-Ship."

"You should be able to eat at least some Martian food."

He grunts softly. "I'll give it a try. Some of us can't shapeshift our stomachs."

"Not voluntarily, anyway."

Diana turns her attention to M'gann. "Please pass on an invitation to your family to visit us whenever they like."

"Oh, I will. Buuuuut I doubt they'll go for it."

"Really? Have you told them that they would not have to endure mental isolation for more than a few seconds?"

"For most Martians, leaving your home city is a big deal. Even if it wasn't actually painful, leaving… Everything behind is definitely a minority interest. Sorry."

Diana nods. "Then I will simply have to find room in my schedule to visit them." She turns to me. "Paul. I trust that you have fully versed yourself in your duties as the prince's chaperone."

For a moment I feel a small worry that there actually is such a tradition. Ring, quick review? "There isn't any such role. Themyscira doesn't have a formal age of consent-" Kon and M'gann avoid looking at each other, their cheeks colouring slightly. "-because everyone's at least two thousand years old and the relationship between father and child wasn't considered important enough to have any particular social custom."

"It was a joke, Paul."

"Oh. Ahhh. Yes. I am fully aware of my responsibilities in observing Kon and M'gann at all times to ensure that their behaviour does not violate propriety, as well as restraining the hordes of amorous Martians who will no-" Diana folds her arms across her chest and waits for me to finish. "-doubt descend upon us upon our arrival."

"Are you done?"

I think for a moment. "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmyes." I frown. "Though, thinking about it, Mister J'aarkn has had three and a half months to spread the word."

M'gann shudders. "I think that's more likely to convince people to avoid us."

"Yeah, but anyone who saw his memories and then sees us is going to think about it."

She bows her head slightly. "And if they do, I'm going to be the one who knows about it."

Kon puts his right arm around her shoulders. "If it gets too much, you could always turn into a Star Conqueror again. I don't think they even have-."

M'gann half turns and shoves him in the direction of the Bio-Ship's ramp. "Okaythanksforseeingusoffgoodbye!"

Diana smiles as Kon is hustled into the Bio-Ship. "So. Aside from preserving my son's honor, what is it that you plan to do on Mars?"

"Introduce myself to the Martian government. Mars is in two eight one four, after all. See if there's anything they need done, what they want to do about the whole Burning thing. See if I can get hold of some military grade Bio-Ship components."

"And what does M'gann think of that?"

"She wasn't keen, then the Bio-Ship caught two rounds of Starro tech. Which it wouldn't if it had defensive telekinetic fields or reactive laser interceptors. As it is I have no idea what the rules on selling Martian military equipment are."

"You could have asked J'onn."

"I did. He didn't know. Apparently it's never come up."

"Paul! We're taking off without you!"

I perform a short bow. "I will return the young prince unharmed on Saturday, Highness."

"Good journey, Orange Lantern."

I transition into the Bio-Ship cabin. The Sphere is just behind the pilot station. Kon has seated himself at the front left and Teekl has curled up in M'gann's lap where she sits on the pilot's chair. As a construct she has nothing to worry about from the Martian atmosphere, temperature or pressure. Not sure what the Martians will make of her, but then I'm not sure what they'll make of the rest of us either. Hopefully, between the White Martian warrior, the Human-Kryptonian hybrid who glows with the light of the sun and the enlightened Orange Lantern they'll be so overwhelmed with the strangeness that they won't bother commenting on her.

I sit down at the front right as M'gann triggers the hangar opening sequence and lifts the Bio-Ship off the landing platform. "Do you mind if we clear Earth's atmosphere before you transition us?"

"No problem at all." I swivel the chair around to face her as she turns the Bio-Ship nose up. "Any particular reason?"

Kon nods. "We haven't really spent much time in space. I think last time was back when you went and hid on the moon and we had to come pick you up."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And… We weren't really in the right frame of mind to enjoy it."

"Um. If you want to stop off on the moon or wherever, we can do that."

"Naah. But it might be fun to float around outside the ship for a little while."

"You do remember that you can fly, right?"

"It's not the same thing."

"Okay, well, you should probably get your pressure suit on then. Because it's not going to be pretty otherwise."