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

[Mr Zoat]

23rd April
19:52 GMT +3

"So, just to make sure that I understand completely-."

"I doubt that you'll ever manage that."

Tartarus hasn't become any less relentlessly pitch black since my last visit, but this time I'm expecting it. Donna and I have construct visors on showing us the landscape as revealed by the rings' sonic pings. I remember her saying that she could just ask Tartarus to let her see but that doesn't seem politic with Melinoë right there. We took a sharp right just inside the gate and haven't seen hide nor hand of Cottus.

"The gods of many pantheons get into a huge fight with their forebears and eventually cast them down. Tartarus -some sort of primeval darkness Titan- got bound and used as a maximum security prison. Erebos… Who was also some sort of primeval darkness Titan..?"

There's a pause and I'm going to assume that Melinoë is rolling her eyes. My sonic pings aren't that precise. "Darkness isn't just darkness, Human."

"Of course. How silly of me." I pause to give her a chance to respond, but nothing is forthcoming. "Erebos gets bound and anchored to several different points with the four gates: one for regular dead folk, one for mortals particularly favoured by the gods, another to the Dreaming and the fourth to Tartarus. Hades also hooks himself up to Erebos, making him much more powerful than most of the other Olympians."

"Except Uncle Zeus and Uncle Poseidon, yes."

"Alright. First question: are you tied to Erebos in the same way?"

"No. Well. Sort of."

"Thank you for that wonderfully clear and helpful answer."

Our heads whip around as we both hear Donna giggle.

"I'm not tied to Erebos in the same way Father is. But he had so much of Erebos' magic in him when he.. sired me, that my own magic is… Similar. Sort of."

"I thought that everyone down here was-."

"I'm not dead! I don't need to have my vital breath replaced with bits of Titan!"

"Rightyho. Is Erebos still alive?"

"We think so. Obviously he doesn't talk to us, but the magic flows inside his body are too.. organic, for it to be completely determined by Father pulling it around."

"And Tartarus?"

"Probably."

"Because if something squirrelly happened here, asking the prison would be a good way to-."

"Hah! How could you possibly trust anything he said?"

"We could see if other sources corroborate his version of events, but okay. Is Hades tied to his magics as well?"

"No. Every bit of spare power Tartarus has goes into the bindings keeping the Titans trapped. And the other punishments going."

"Other punishments?"

"Sometimes some stupid mortal does something that gets Zeus so angry he sends them here as well."

"I thought that Hades had released-."

"He released the ones in the Punishment Fields. He can't overrule Zeus. These ones are staying put."

Makes sense I suppose. Alright, so Hades is powered by Erebos. That might throw off whatever results I could get from his blood sample. But his brothers are as powerful as he is. So… Poseidon… Oceanus? Don't know who Zeus could be using. Probably not polite to ask… I mean, I'm guessing Cronus himself, but I imagine that Zeus is already fairly angry with me and since the answer might well be 'all of the rest' I'm not going to push my luck.

"What exactly are we looking for?" I stop, frowning at Donna. Was that inten-? "I mean, where are we going?"

"Gyges, hopefully. Are we close enough?"

"Probably."

"Right then." I generate a pile driver construct and slam it into the ground. Pause, look around… Nothing. I retract the piston and slam it down ag-.

Earth cascades upwards as giant… I'm going to guess hands, it's a bit soon to tell with any certainty. Giant hands pull themselves free of the Tartarian ground. Unlike those belonging to his brother, these are thin-fingered, each disproportionately thin digit having at least eight points of articulation. Four point 'forwards' and a further two point in the opposite direction. No arms, just strange floating hands. As with Cottus there are a vast array of different sizes and.. shapes. I didn't notice with Cottus but some of these are armoured and others look smoother and softer.

And he hasn't thrown anything yet, which is hopeful.

As we watch, hands come together, fingers wrapping around other fingers to build a structure. Golly… Gosh. That's big. Oh, I see. No messing around making faces here, he's just making a massive humanoid.

Really massive. Cake massive.

"Princess and guests." His voice is decidedly odd, accompanied by a constant sound of hard surfaces banging and scraping against one another. "Welcome to my bailiwick. Do you wish to inspect the prisoners?"

"No. I know that you're keeping watch. My…" His huge head swings towards me. "Guest, has a few questions about your brother Cottus."

"I will not betray his confidences, but otherwise I will speak."

"Last time I came to Tartarus, it was to speak to him. He attacked me and I fled. Do you know why?"

"No."

I get ready to fly rapidly away, just in case. "I mentioned something about a living woman being made from clay."

The giant face has no real expression, just makes more clicks as the hands move around one another. "I do not know this magic."

"Does your mother? "

"Yes. Certainly."

"Does Cottus?"

"If he does, I have never seen him use it."

Fair enough. "If Cronus has been trapped here, how is it that he was able to create Deva?"

The hand man… I think that's supposed to be a glare. "He bound some of what little power is left to him to his own blood and spilled it on the ground to prevent it from being drained. We have already been chastised for this failure in our watch."

"Enough to create a whole person? A demigoddess in her own right?"

There's a pause and I'm mentally preparing to run again. "No. That power was stolen from our mother."

I frown, though I doubt that he can see it. "How?"

"Sympathetic magic."

"What did he use as the focus?"

"A small and stolen part of my brother's flesh."

I close my right hand around the small chip of Cottus I found near the entrance where my railguns hit him during my last visit. And suddenly everything starts to make a little more sense.

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd April
15:18 GMT -2

"No, it's quite impossible!"

The overweight fish-tailed Atlantean in front of me puffs up -metaphorically- and takes a slightly higher position in the water. I've never met Onesimus before and I can't say that he's making the best first impression. He's one of the experts in his field who're supposed to be helping Sephtian move into mass production. As I understand it, this was a bit of a step down for him. Like that.. Industrialisation era drama my class watched back in Primary School. A master weaver going to work in a factory because he can't possibly hope to keep up with the volume of cloth it can produce. I made everything he knows about arcane design wrong-. No, worse. Irrelevant.

"Which part of-?"

"We can't just drop everything we're working on to devote thaumatorium time to your…" He gulps water for a moment. "Frankly ludicrous request!"

Melinoë looks up from the arcane analytic equipment she was staring at. I'm not sure exactly what magic she's using to get around down here but when I offered her an environmental shield I got a rather haughty sniff. Thana elected to remain on Themyscira while we dealt with the Atlantean part of the 'quest'. Donna is next to me, breathing as easily as any Pureblood.

"What's ludicrous about it?"

"Have you got any idea how busy we are here? Just-!"

"Yes, I know exactly how busy you are." That seems to take some of the wind out of his air bladders. "I see Sephtian every week and I still make blanks for him… Though I understand that the rune printing system is just about out of prototyping."

He nods, reluctantly. "Then perhaps you can appreciate that we don't have the time to waste."

"If you need me to make the device-."

"And who could enchant it? And who could operate it, once it was finished?" He holds up his hands, palms forward, then brings them together in front of his chin. "Are you aware of exactly how complex a procedure is involved in analysing an arcane signature?"

I shake my head. "No."

"Let us say that we have an object strongly connected to a magic user's 'soul self'. And let us further assume that they have made no active attempt at duplicity, which a mage involved in some manner of crime certainly would."

Donna frowns. "I'm.. not sure that making me was a crime."

"It would be in Atlantis." Ooh, this guy just wants to be on my shit list, doesn't he. "A particular spell will have a near-identical formation regardless of who cast it. To analyse an object in enough detail to be able to tell with any certainty that it was cast by the one whose object we are analysing, we must examine it in the most minute detail. Do you know how complex the soul is? How many influences it may pick up, especially in a place as thaumically active as Poseidonis?"

"Nnnnno?"

"And these new devices don't help in the slightest. Before, any reading measurable by a device was so approximate that it was barely worth performing. Now! Now just tabulating the results takes months! For normal magicians! And for a god? And I can barely believe that I'm taking the suggestion seriously-."

"Why wouldn't you?"

I'm not sure that he realises that Melinoë's appearance is in any way unusual. Certainly he hasn't recognised who she is. As for what she is… I'm assuming not. He's got to be sensitive enough to magic to realise that she's not just another surface dweller, but the link between 'strange magic user named Melinoë' and 'Greek Goddess of Nightmares and Madness' hasn't formed in his mind. I don't think that Orcus has children, the Roman habit of appropriating Greek myths not having any bearing on the gods' actual lives.

"Because it's patently absurd! Gods having blood that could be subject to analysis, indeed! And even if that were the case, it would be orders of magnitude more complex than that of a mortal mage, which I've already said we couldn't do even if we wanted to. Which we don't."

Melinoë's eyes narrow. "How would you like to-?"

"Could you do something simpler?"

Onesimus shakes his head. "Like what?"

"Could you… Identify the strongest magic… Frequencies-"

"Resonances."

"-in an object?" Donna tenses her left cheek. "Does that make sense?"

"Well… That's… That's easier, of course. I'm not sure what use it would be."

"We're perfectly happy to accept that getting a precise mote by mote analysis is beyond the capacity of our current thaumic technology. We just want to see how similar the magics of several objects are to one another."

"I'd still need to-."

"Roughly how similar."

Onesimus thinks for a moment, his eyes unfocused. "If.. I.. could get the time… I…"

"I'm sure that I can talk Queen Mera into making an opening."

"How many samples did you have in mind?"

"Twelve."

"Fine." He waves his right hand dismissively. "Leave them in Dry Room One. I'll let Sephtian know that they're there when he gets baaaaaah-ah."

"You really are a louse." Melinoë's eyes are fixed on him as she stalks across the room. "You will perform the analysis yourself and you will do it now. Or you will keep seeing what you are seeing now for the rest of your life." She thinks for a moment. "And I will tell Uncle Orcus how unhelpful you were."

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh…" His eyes have gone totally black. Oh dear.

"Melinoë, that's.. a bit…" A bit assault on a chap who doesn't deserve it in a way which is rather seriously illegal. "Irritating as Mister Onesimus has been, I do rather need him to both perform the analysis and continue his work on this project. Would you please let him go?"

"You let him go too far. I didn't think you were that weak. I'll teach him his place and then let him go."

I move closer to her. Maybe disrupting her line of sight..? No. Ah. "Melinoë, you catch more wasps with honey than with vinegar. In the life of an immortal, what are a few minutes? Compared to the wonder of my goal, what are a few mean spirited words?" Donna looks genuinely worried. I can't really judge how much this is affecting him… I bend down slightly so that my head is level with hers. "I could try forcibly breaking your connection-" Her eyes narrow slightly. "-but I'm sure that you'd appreciate-" My hands go to the rear of her lower horns, fingertips pushing her head forwards as her eyes blink in astonishment. "-a different approach-" I give her what I hope is an affectionate smile. "-more."

She blinks, then I lean forward and kiss her. I don't linger, just press our lips together for a moment, but for the split second we're touching I can feel the location and texture of shadow in the room. There's a gasp from behind me as I pull back slightly, Melinoë staring at me in wide-eyed astonishment.

"Are you alright?"

"Melainia, she's Melainia oh gods preserve me."

"There, you see-."

She plants her hands on my chest and shoves me across the room! "Get off me, idiot!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd April
12:27 GMT -6

Donna looks around with a smile as I walk into the… Female… Accessory.. shop. Ugh, it's just like Claire's back on Earth Prime whenever I went there to get a birthday present for someone or for hair bands; I can feel my testosterone evaporating to shield me from the femininity of the place. Melinoë's eyes dart in my direction then return to the.. thing Mary Marvel née Bromfield is showing her the second she realises that I'm looking back.

"Any news?" Thana's a little closer to the door, most likely not feeling comfortable having all the weird things at closer quarters.

"Ms Deva didn't really care. She actually found the idea of someone suing Cronus for paternity amusing." She's very much not in my reform class and.. I.. don't really have the time to spend rehabilitating someone created as an instrument of vengeance by a bound and bitter Titan.

"Did you have any difficulty in persuading the Atlanteans to aid you?"

Now, think it through. Thana's speaking Themysciran Greek, but the other patrons and the shop assistants can't understand that or differentiate between it and Modern Greek. True, they're mostly staring at Melinoë's amazing cosplay but we are -sort of- here incognitoish. I don't want to risk anyone overhearing anything which blatantly says 'super person'.

Ring, switch to Themysciran Greek.

Compliance.

"Not really. I ended up speaking to a fish-tailed Atlantean called Onesimus." Who wised up pretty fast when he realised that the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness was standing in the same room as him. Apparently they still… Not 'worship', but certainly acknowledge her in Atlantis. "After being flabbergasted, telling me that even if it was possible it would take centuries and flat out refusing to look into it for me. But, we were able to persuade him."

"I'm sure that I wouldn't be able to understand the technical aspects..?"

"Normally when they analyse an arcane artefact they do a complete analysis. It would be…" A bit morbid, but so is she. "Like examining every part of the body of a murder victim in detail so that you don't miss even the slightest thing that might lead to the culprit."

She nods hesitantly. "Only.. the.. murder victim.. is a god?"

"Sorry, bad metaphor. What they normally do provides much more information than I need." Um. "Than I probably need, and if a simpler examination doesn't give me what I'll need then I'm going to have to work out how to improve their equipment before I do anything else."

"Ah." She nods. "So you would merely be comparing their domains, rather than the whole of their magics."

"Right. And they can do that."

So by Monday I should have a rough idea of the arcane relatedness of Euanthe (daughter by magic of Gaea and Uranus), Diana (daughter by magic of Gaea and blessed by the Six), Hades (natural son of Cronus and Rhea), Melinoë (natural daughter of Hades and Persephone), Ares (natural son of Zeus and Hera), Hera (natural daughter of Cronus and Rhea), Hippolyta (natural daughter of Otrera and Ares), Cottus (natural -I think- son of Gaea and Uranus), Deva (daughter by magic of Cronus and blessed by the Titans), Donna Troy (not really sure), Tartarus (really not sure) and -just for a giggle- Orange Lantern 2814, who incidentally is the only one not related to all of the others.

I mean, you joke about them all being more inbred than the Habsburgs, but think about it for a moment. Gaea is Zeus' grandmother and grandmother in law, being the grandmother of his wife and mother of both of his parents. Euanthe is Diana's.. half sister, at least. Hades is Diana's nephew, though maybe 'created by magic' and 'naturally borne' changes that a little. Melinoë is Diana's great niece and Deva is her niece. Hippolyta, her adopted mother, is her great great niece. It's a bit strange that Euanthe is so much weaker than the others… Or was, anyway, since I'm not completely sure how strong she is now. Maybe if Diana's creation hadn't been blessed she'd be more like Golden Age Wonder Woman, extremely capable but not really super powered. Or… I don't know, maybe Euanthe only has Uranus' magic innately and learned how to use the Green. I don't really know enough about Uranus' magic to comment. Gaea was supposed to create them using his blood, right?

"Is there some sort of Amazon betting pool I'll need to notify?"

Thana shakes her head. "When she first arrived, it was so widely assumed that she was sired by Zeus that no one was interested in placing such a bet. Now it will merely be a matter of curiosity."

"Melinoë getting on alright?"

"I was surprised by how muted the reaction to her was."

"How is she reacting to them?"

"She.. hasn't cursed anyone to endure eternal nightmares-" I cover up a nervous expression with my right fist. "-which is something that it is well within her power to do." She frowns. "Miss Mary said something about it being hard to get makeup for someone of her complexion."

"Well… Yes."

"One youth asked if she was 'cosplaying'-" That word must have been in English. "-as.. some sort of Elf."

"A Dark Elf?"

"It may have been. I only know because Miss Mary was kind enough to translate it for me. Melinoë has no elfin heritage. She does not even look like an Elf. Why would they ask such a thing?"

"Elves are depicted in popular fiction as looking very different to how they really look. I'm not sure where Dark Elves started being shown as grey skinned… Might have been Dungeons and Dragons-." And I've lost her. "It's a role.. play.. game… It's not important. The fact is, it would seem far more likely to them that she was a normal Human in costume than literally being a goddess… That he probably wouldn't have heard of anyway."

Thana nods. "I suppose I can see why he might think that." She pauses, as if not quite sure how to address the next point. "But if he did not recognise her, why did he apologise and flee when told that his initial supposition was incorrect?"

"In our society, it's considered.. impolite… To draw attention to physical abnormalities. Once he was informed that it wasn't a costume…"

"He thought that he had been rude… To a normal woman who happened to look a little unusual?" I nod. "I see."

"How have you been coping with everything?"

"I keep my eyes focused firmly on the ground. I thought that I was used to large buildings… I have seen visions of Lord Hades' palace, and of the structures of Asphodelopolis which are bound together with Erebos' own magic. But this.. Fawcett City…" She shakes her head. "I looked up and it gave me vertigo. I should have listened more to what our wandering theatre troupe said of the outside world."

"And the colours? The noise? The men?"

"Those, I was more prepared for." She looks thoughtful. "I.. was not born in the Old City of Themyscira."

Oh. Goodness. "You're doing exceptionally well for someone born on the Island."

She shakes her head. "I believe that the town into which I was born was technically in Thracian territory. We moved into Themysciran territory during… I don't believe that the war ever received a name. The town had two storey buildings. Themyscira City -which I only saw after joining the priestesshood- had buildings as high as four storeys. Here… It is not so much the height of the very tall buildings which concerns me so much as the higher average height, I think."

I glance back at our shoppers. Mary is attempting to attach a gold chain to Melinoë's left forehorn. I catch Donna say the word 'piercing' and the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness jerks back in horror. "Would you like to go up one?"

"I think that I shall leave that to the rest of you."

"Oh, come on." I glance outside. "Once you're running this fast it's easier to keep-" Doctor Sivana ♀ walks past the window. "-going. Would you excuse me for just a moment? There's someone outside I should probably say hello to."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd April
14:01 GMT -6

Doctor Sivana ♀ looks at me a little sceptically as she takes a sip of her coffee. "And she's… Actually the Ancient Greek Goddess of Nightmares and Madness?"

Said Greek Goddess of Nightmares and Madness appears to be going through a pink phase. Pink skirt, pink leggings, pink t-shirt with a picture of Pink emblazoned across the chest and a pink denim jacket.

…

Maybe I should have let Donna help the multimillennial goddess instead of an eleven year old girl who currently isn't using the Wisdom of Solomon.

Eh, she seems happy enough.

"She's actually quite pleasant company. One of my ongoing projects is to encourage a link between ancient magic practices and modern society and technology."

Her eyebrows raise ever so slightly. "And you're recruiting gods?"

"Yes, Hephaestus has been a great help already."

"What about Vulcan?" Momentary frown. "Or are they not separate deities?"

"No, they're separate. But Vulcan's even more cut off from… His job, if you like."

"Smithing?"

"No. He still does… Well, I haven't met him, but I had a chat with Hephaestus-" And Hera. Never hurts to consult more than one source. "-about it. He still makes things, but he doesn't god, if you see what I mean. No one worships him, very few people worship his pantheon… He spends half his time in their workshop under Mount Etna making wonders no one will ever see and the other half in a garage in Rubiera in Italy."

"Really?"

I shrug. "He likes machinery."

She appears to be struggling with the idea. "So people can just walk in and say 'there's a light on my dash and I don't know what it means, could Vulcan take a look at it'?"

"No, he doesn't go by that name. And I doubt that they use him for things where it's just a matter of replacing a part or resetting the engine management computer. He's very good at what he does."

"Is that what all the ancient gods are doing now?"

"Not all of them. But quite a few, yes. They usually had their domains because they liked whatever it was they were patron of. Hera's a relationship advice columnist-."

"Heh. And what does Zeus think about that?"

"They're divorced."

"You honestly expect me to believe-."

"He is a serial philanderer and she can do much better." I don't think that Doctor Sivana ♀ is quite convinced. "I can introduce you if you like?"

"And… What about..?" She looks over at where the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness is experiencing her first ever brain freeze. Frederick Freeman appears to find it hilarious. "Hades? Or Pluto?"

"Hades rules the Olympian dead from the hollowed out body of the fallen Titan Erebos. They get a handful of new residents each year. Pluto is a cartoon dog owned by Disney. He lives with Mickey Mouse. I don't believe that he's real as well, but I suppose I could be wrong. If you're referring to Orcus, I assume that he's doing the same sort of thing. I've never met him."

"Do.. you worship them? I mean, it seems a little strange that you'd worship someone who works in a garage."

I grin. "I worship Eris."

"I thought.. she was.. one of the bad ones."

"Chaos is what makes the universe more than rocks moving in perfect circles around one another. Eris.. the person, will wheedle, cajole, prod and pry to try and make people different from how they are. But…" I turn my palms upwards in a shrugging motion. "Are you today the same person as you were yesterday? Or a year ago?"

"I thought you told everyone that Klarion was a Chaos God?"

"No, he's a Lord of Chaos. A mortal wizard who turned their own soul into a giant mass of chaos magic. Eris' soul is that of an Olympian, Earth magic core with a chaos magic outer. Also, he's a mass murdering shit and she isn't."

She nods. "So, chaos isn't the problem, it's about how you use it."

"Like anything else. Yes. A fundamentally unproductive system changing may be for the best. A perfect system changing would be bad… But I'm not sure those really exist."

She nods, finishing the last of her coffee. "Listen, I've got.. this… Thing…"

I smile. "Need to wash your hair already? Am I really that bad?"

"No, it…" She sighs. "Actually, you're the reason why I'm not at the hospital. We're on the purple healing ray trial."

"Oh yeah? How is that going?"

"Brilliantly. The ray works exactly as it's supposed to. The hospital wants me to take a sabbatical to try and work out why it works. KordTech haven't been particularly forthcoming."

"That's because we don't know. Baroness von Gunther's work was a bit out there." But I smell an opportunity to fix that. "I can get you copies of her notes if it would help?"

She nods. "That.. would be great. I wouldn't give up working at the hospital for anything, but…" Another sigh. "My Dad.. wasn't a supervillain at home. He was the one helping me when I developed a strain of synthetic bacteria that destroys the rhinovirus. But now I'm working full time I haven't had time to get into a laboratory and do original research since…" She looks blank. "I'm not.. actually sure. God, it might be since I started my residency."

"That sounds like a waste of your talents."

"That's what the Chief of Medicine says as well." She looks uncertain. "It's just-."

"The results may help people but it takes far longer to get to the point where an actual person benefits than doing a shift in Accident and Emergency."

"Yeah, that. Magnificus doesn't care and the other two are nearly as bad as Dad. I sort of feel that I should be doing something like this? That's mostly why I went into medicine in the first place."

"To pay back some of the 'karmic debt'?" She nods. "I don't want to sound.. rude about your profession… But there are a lot of medical doctors and not very many… Um… 'Beneficent Geniuses'." That gets a burst of laughter. "I'm sure you can sort out a schedule that lets you spend some time on normal medicine if it means that much to you. But purple healing rays everywhere, that's…"

"Yeah." She doesn't sound completely convinced. "You're probably right. I guess ray guns just have a bad association for me." She sits back in her chair, looking me over. "I'd.. like to ask a favor."

"You can always ask, as my Dad used to say."

"Once a year, the Sivana family has a.. get together. I'd like you to come with me this year."

"When you say 'family'-?"

"Mom and my siblings. Dad's still.. wherever he ended up." She does a circular wave with her right hand. "I just like to bring someone along to make it bearable, and at this point it's you or Jack."

"Jack?"

"Daniels." She shrugs. "I'm a Danner enhancile, aren't I? It's almost impossible for me to get drunk, but if I down a bottle I can get tipsy enough to ignore Thaddeus and Georgia constantly bickering and Magnificus' inferiority complex. And I.. actually…" She looks away, smiling. "Would like to talk to you some more."

I smile back. "That sounds fascinating. When is it?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th April
07:56 GMT -6

"Now, remember:-" Doctor Sivana ♀ checks my tie for a second time. "-you're-"

"Not allowed to arrest your siblings." / "-not allowed to arrest anyone."

I put my hands on her shoulders, gently nudging her own hands off me to do so. "It's fine. I haven't forgotten anything you told me."

"Mom keeps the habitat on Central Time Zone Time-"

"Still haven't forgotten."

"-and.. I.. know that." She takes a deep breath and then slowly lets it out. "I really shouldn't be this wound up yet. The others won't be arriving for hours."

She's wearing a grey knee length skirt, a white blouse and a grey jacket, an ensemble which shouts 'camouflage'. An attempt ruined by the fact that the wearer is a gorgeous six foot tall blonde woman with super strength. I'm in a dark grey suit with orange pinstripes.

"You didn't say why we're going this early-."

"So I can catch up with Mom before everyone else arrives and she has to spend all her time 'Moming'."

"Is it.. really that bad?"

She flares her eyes as she nods. "Oh, you'll see."

"I do have one question, though." She nods, eyebrows slightly raised. "Is this a date?"

"Aaaahh…"

"I ask because I need to know what capacity I'm coming in. Is this a date, and if so how long are we supposed to have been dating? Because I doubt that you'll want to tell them that you.. grabbed me as an alternative to necking Jack Daniels until you could cope with them. Alternately, this is a fake date to demonstrate that you have a functioning social life, and if so-"

"Ou-ch."

"-same question. I can be vague about it if you want."

"Look, I have friends, I just-."

"Don't want them getting involved with the supervillainous part of the family. You're like Aimee Osbourne."

"Heh. Maybe. Only instead of swearing and shouting at each other they shout formulae and fire ray guns."

"I can use the rings defensively, right?"

"Ah, if things go badly enough that you're actually threatened, yes. But… I want to try and have a normal family day. Just once."

There's a beep from her jacket pocket. She looks down as she reaches into it with her right hand and pulls out her phone to look at the message.

"Bomb scare?"

"No, Magnificus wants me to make sure Mom has the right coordinates. Dad used to organise these things in hard-to-reach locations and make us work out how to get there ourselves. Mom's holding it on the Venus habitat because we can't turn it into a competition."

"I knew.. that your father had a teleportation system, but I don't know how it works."

"Oh, it isn't anything special, really. It works in more or less the same way as Doctor Erdel's original zeta tube. Dad always said that the fixed entry and exit point was a step backwards."

I frown. "Wait a moment. Wouldn't that mean that-"

There's a flare of blue-white light around us.

"-you have problems-" My brain catches up with my eyes, but my mouth presses on. "-with integrity.. loss..?"

"Hey Mom!" Doctor Sivana ♀ beams as she walks over towards the control booth, where a woman I'm going to assume is Doctor Sivana ♀… No, that's not going to work, especially if we're supposed to be dating. Beautia beams as she walks over to her mother and embraces her. I know the joke is that the older children took after their mother and the younger ones took after their father, but the resemblance is far from perfect. Venus is notably shorter than her daughter, and without the Danner Formula lacks the same muscle definition. She's also… How to put this? She isn't fat. I wouldn't even call her plump. But there's a little more body fat on her than there is on her elder daughter.

"Tia, honey! How have you been?"

Her accent is different as well. Transatlantic rather than Fawcettian. Okay, if this is a zeta radiation based system then… The four posts coming up from the platform must be the equivalent of our tubes. But that means…

"And who's this?"

"You fixed the problem with Doctor Erdel's original one-point system!" And curse not being allowed to scan any of this stuff!

Venus separates from her daughter and walks towards me. "No, that was Thaddeus. I'm an economist."

"Oh, right, sorry. "

"I can tell you how much it costs to build or run, if you like. And why that means that it's not practical for mass implementation." I step off the platform and she holds out her right hand. "Venus Sivana."

"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor." I bow, taking her right hand in mine and raising it to my lips. "Orange Lantern two eight one four at your service."

She smiles. "You probably shouldn't identify yourself with a number around here, in case Georgia or Junior get the idea that you're a robot." Her expression momentarily freezes. "Tia, he isn't-?"

"No Mom, he's not a robot."

"I only ask because last time-."

"Not a robot, Mom."

"Last time?"

Venus opens her mouth slightly, then closes it and turns to her daughter. "How long have you two been together?"

"We.. met back in February." Beautia comes around to my right side and winds her left arm around my right. "And we're going to be working together on reverse engineering the principles behind the purple healing ray."

Sophistry at its most off-the-cuff. Not a word of a lie but a strong implication that we've been together a while.

"Oh honey, that's wonderful! Your father's far less likely to claw his way back from whatever parallel universe he dumped himself in to wreak revenge if you're dating someone who isn't Captain Marvel."

I feel Beautia stiffen slightly. "Yeah, that's… Off the cards."

Hm. She's eighteen herself, so the age difference is only seven years and she's going to live for long enough that it isn't an absolute barrier unless she wants it to be. Maybe she prefers older men?

"It's probably for the best. So, Orange Lantern." Venus smiles at me warmly. "What do your friends call you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th April
09:31 GMT -6

"It's really that good?"

Venus has got a bit into the 'make the potential son in law feel welcome' routine. Though… By what Beautia was saying, maybe she wants to get the warm feelings flowing before the rest of the clan turn up and try to scare me off.

Luckily for Beautia the photo albums are back in Venus' home on Earth.

"No resistance to electricity or heat at all. I've got a spool with me-."

She raises her right hand. "I think.. maybe, you should pretend you don't have that with you. Magnificus and my younger two would probably find it fascinating…"

I nod. "And having two young supervillains and a slightly older borderline case interested in something isn't necessarily a good thing."

Beautia nods. "Last time Georgia got jealous of me over one of my boyfriends… Well..."

"I'm.. going.. to need more than a 'well'."

Venus looks away for a moment, hands moving over her tea cup. "She transferred his mind into a Possum."

"She-. She what?"

"And then she wouldn't tell us where the switch was to turn them back…"

"But… A Possum? There's no way its neural structures are complex enough to contain a Human mind. Was… He alright?"

Beautia shakes her head. "Her machine didn't literally swap minds. It just rearranged the connections between mind and body. Justin's brain was still in his body, but it was getting sensory input from the Possum's body. And the same with the Possum."

"I don't think that's technically easier. Ah, also: are there any Possums-" The Sivana women cover their smiles. "-on Venus, because it sounds like that's something I need to worry about now."

Venus shakes her head. "I don't think so. Ah, Sivanadroid?"

One of the robots who apparently maintain the place trundles over. Its construction is a strange mix of heavy industrial looking metal and technical sophistication. The face is a simple piece of metal, with a glowing blue line to indicate the mouth. The upper body is similarly immobile, a humanoid torso attached to a metal oblong rising from a caterpillar tracked base unit. The thing it most puts me in mind of is Pneuman from the Tom Strong comics, only marginally less creepy. And the electronics inside are far more sophisticated than the exterior would suggest.

"Ready for command."

"Do we-? Uh. Information request. Are any Possums presently located within the habitat?"

"No member 'species: Possum' detected by internal sensors."

"Thank you. Um,-" She rolls her eyes. "-Sivanadroid, dismissed."

"Have a good day." There's a whir as its tracks pull it away.

Venus shakes her head again. "I don't know why he designed them like that."

"He probably kept them mentally simple so that they couldn't rebel against him."

"Or maybe he finds completely predictable interactions easier to cope with."

Venus sighs. "That does sound like him."

"Okay, I've… I've got to ask. How did the two of you end up together?"

"Oh, looks aren't everything. When he was younger, he was... Different."

"Oh, I don't mean because he's ugly and you're… Not." That gets an amused smile. "It's just… I spent days trying to get hold of the designs for some of his early work. I can easily understand how someone that brilliant, that passionate about what he was doing, could be attractive. I'm just… From what I've been able to read, his interpersonal skills were never particularly good."

"Oh, no, that's all…" She leans back in her seat. "A lot of what people who say they knew Thaddeus said after he… Became a criminal… It was all either nonsense or 'reinterpreted' in light of what he did later. Not that the newspapers thought to fact check when they had a hot new supervillain to demonise."

I glance at Beautia, but receive no guidance. "Well… I… Never met him. What was he really like?"

"Surprisingly charming. Before he came to college his parents told him that he needed to improve his interpersonal skills, so he read a book on etiquette and assumed that would do. I think it must have been from fifty or sixty years ago."

"So.. he's… Autistic?"

"He's definitely on the autistic spectrum, but I don't think he's got the full condition. But he can get upset when things don't go the way he thinks they will." She takes a sip of her tea, eyes gazing into the middle distance. "We first met when he asked me to take a look at some of his grant applications. I thought that some of his claims were a bit farfetched… So he took me back to his laboratory. It.. was…" She nods, more to herself than to me. "Amazing."

"I know."

"So.. we completed the proposal and I… Kept going back. I wanted to see what amazing thing he did next. And… He programmed a robot to cook us dinner, and…" She shrugs, smiling fondly. "He wasn't good at people, but he did try. And… Later…"

"Information retrieved." One of the Sivanadroids trundles up, its chest opening to reveal a screen which flickers to life to show… My lecture back in February.

"But the thing that really got to me, the thing that reduced me to hissing, eye watering apoplexy? Doctor Thaddeus Sivana." The picture of him -which I now realise would have been from when he and Venus were courting- appears on the screen behind past-me. "You all know him as a supervillain who occasionally goes on the rampage in Fawcett City before Captain Marvel stops him. But he was actually a legitimate scientist for far longer than he's been a supervillain. Know what pushed him over the edge?" There's a pause, and Beautia shifts around so that she's got a better view. Incidentally pressing a little harder against my left side. "No, me neither. Pretty much the first thing he did as a supervillain was try and take revenge on those who rejected his ideas and destroy all publically accessible records of his work. But I've read the reports from the survivors. Smart viruses that could target and replace damaged DNA segments, economic hydrogen fuel cells… If he'd been a better businessman…"

The Sivanadroid's chest closes again and -job completed- it trundles off again.

Venus smiles at me again. "I'm a little impressed. Quite a risk you took, speaking well of someone like Thaddeus."

"I just wish I'd met him when you did."

"You were wrong, though. The business case was solid. I'm the one who wrote it."

I frown, shaking my head. "Then..?"

"Why the rejections?" She slumps slightly. "Honestly, I still don't know. Perhaps his claims just seemed so unbelievable that investors just didn't believe it. Or.. maybe.. larger companies didn't want the market disruption that he could have created. And the college wasn't happy about him trying to become more independent… And ego was definitely a factor, on all sides."

"You left the university in ninety one…"

"We certainly weren't short of work. Or money. But Thaddeus was always frustrated by the fact that he could only sell designs that were slight improvements on things that already existed, rather than anything truly revolutionary." She sighs again. "Lost opportunity doesn't even begin to cover it."

"At what point did you notice him starting to go… Off the rails?"

"I.. think it was when we first started talking seriously about children."

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th April
09:35 GMT -6

"I already heard part of that story from Magnificus."

Venus nods. "I didn't.. know about the test subjects.. at the time. Thaddeus had a lot of data on fetal development and.. I believed him when he said his techniques would ensure that our children had the best start in life they could get."

Beautia leans forward and pats her mother on the left arm with her right hand. "Mom, I started work in a hospital as a fully qualified MD at seventeen. I'd say it worked."

"There's.. more to life than how quickly you can start work. Your social skills may be better than your father's, but I still had to drag you out of your laboratory to go and make friends. And Paul's the first boyfriend you've ever brought home to meet the family."

"Mom."

I reach back with my left arm, putting it around her shoulder. "Do you know exactly what he did?"

"Thaddeus… He thought normal zygote selection techniques were wasteful. You have to fertilise a lot of eggs and then test them… So he did a full genetic work up of both of us and used that to calculate the optimal-" Mmmmmmmmmm! "-combination of genetic characteristics and womb conditions." She leans forward slightly. "And -let me tell you- I wasn't exactly flattered by that. Making a child is a very chemically complicated business, but Thaddeus was on top of it. I must have taken more dietary supplements during those nine months than the rest of my life put together."

"That sounds a bit…"

"He was.. trying to help. To do something good. And if anyone had actually been prepared to invest in the technology he developed we could have eliminated congenital deformity worldwide by now."

"And.. the Beresfords?"

"He never exactly said he was going to give our children super powers, just that they'd be as fit and healthy as humanly possible. I suppose he.. just had higher standards for Humans."

"I've certainly never had a problem with my strength."

Venus looks less certain. "You didn't have to breast feed two-" Beautia and I both cringe. "-super strong children." She notices our reaction and smiles. "Thaddeus ended up developing a sort of super resilient rubber nipple cover-" We cringe more as she mimes. "-which seemed to do the trick, but it still wasn't exactly comfortable. Fortunately, you both learned a degree of self control and spatial awareness before you did too much damage to our home. I don't know how the… How Missus Beresford managed with that."

"Breast pump and putting them on formula early. Please don't ask me how I know that." She was perfectly happy to talk, but her alcohol-lubricated ramblings were somewhat disjointed. Still, her children's rehabilitation is.. if not going well, then at least going. Magnificus has actually phoned them a few times, and his sheer condescension has spurred Tuppence into paying attention in class. "Their father used to take them out to an abandoned quarry where they could cut loose with their full strength." Which is almost certainly where the positive association with smashing comes from.

Beautia shrugs. "I never really cared about being strong. Dad.. emphasised intellectual development. I suppose I always thought that I was as strong as I'd ever need to be so I may as well focus on things that actually interested me."

"And.. Magnificus? I'd have thought.. at school…"

"We were always the youngest in our year. It wasn't such a big deal for me, but for him being shorter than the other guys.. did give him a few problems. And then he was.. too strong. If he got into a fight-"

Venus nods. "And that happened a few times."

"-he wouldn't just win, he'd mop the floor with them. He found it pretty hard to make friends."

"He was too clever for other children his age and too young for the other children in his classes." Two nods. "I suppose that.. in a way, Hugo Danner was luckier. He only outclassed the people around him physically."

Beautia rests her head on my arm. "I suppose that's why -despite everything- we've stayed so close as a family."

"Despite half of the family being supervillains?"

"Would you rather I leave Georgia and Thaddeus Junior with only their father for guidance? I'm not happy about the path they've chosen… But at least this way I can make sure that they're not doing anything too crazy."

"We're the only other people we all know who can understand what we're working on. Who can keep up with us when we start working on something beyond cutting edge."

"I've got the shade of Thomas Morrow on call. He's the only expert on thaumorobotics on the planet."

"I didn't say there weren't other people, just that we're the ones we know best. And there aren't many."

I nod. "Okay. Your father clearly had no illusions about his own physical attractiveness if he selected genes for appearance mostly from-" I indicate Venus with my right hand. "-you. Then why-?"

Venus raises her eyebrows. "Why do Thaddeus Junior and Georgia look like him with hair and him in drag respectively?"

"I wasn't going to put it quite that harshly, but… Yes, basically."

"That.. was.. when Thaddeus started to go more and more… Off. Our first children had the best of everything. With them… He said that if he compromised on some characteristics he could enhance certain others. Genes don't code for characteristics, they code for chemicals, so it seemed reasonable." Venus looks a little down, then perks up slightly. "Of course, since they didn't have super strength it was a lot easier on my-."

"Mom!"

"Thaddeus said that since intellectual ability was more useful for influencing the world than physical appearance he needed to do everything he could to maximise their intellectual development. Including discouraging them to have anything much to do with other children." She sighs again. "They both have better social awareness than he does, but otherwise… They have the same relentless, ruthless intellect that he has. Has now."

I frown. "But the Danner Formula wouldn't have made them less intelligent. It doesn't.. affect that at all. Unless he had some other alchemical formula for augmenting their brains."

"He said… And this wasn't until after the divorce. Because if he'd told me beforehand it would have caused the divorce. He said that that by denying them the ability to rely on their physical abilities, he was forcing them to rely on their intellect for everything. They weren't designed to be all that much more intelligent than Beautia and Magnificus, they were designed to be better motivated."

It makes a creepy kind of sense. "No one would give them anything, so they'd have to learn to take it." I frown. "That's-."

She nods. "Supervillain thinking. I've tried to encourage them to do other things… But.. it.. hasn't really worked. Particularly after the divorce. Thaddeus wanted to keep contact and.. he could help them with their projects more than I could. And then by the time he went full supervillain they were closer to him than ever." She looks pensive. "They sent me a message after Thaddeus disappeared to let me know they were alright, but this will be the first time I've seen them since then."

"Are they going to be alright with me being here?"

"I don't… They probably won't resent you more than they would resent anyone else." She takes a deep breath and then slowly exhales. "Okay, that's enough about my family. Why don't you tell me about yours?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th April
10:07 GMT -6

"So the ruddy Cat's just staring at me from the other side of the window, six metres off the ground above the concrete bit of our back garden. He sort of tries turning around, but loses his nerve part way through, because the window ledge isn't that wide." I mimic my cat's posture. "He looked a bit like he was thinking about trying to jump back through, but he was only a little Cat and I don't think either of us thought he could do it. So I ran downstairs and told my parents and Dad.. got a ladder out of the garage to go up from the outside and bring him down. And then a few days later he goes and does the same thing again. Only this time, before Dad can get the ladder up to him he jumps back through."

Odd to think about it, but this is the most I've talked about my family on Earth Prime since I got to Earth 16. Maybe it's… Sort of a taboo back in the mountain? They know that I've got no way to contact them so they don't bring it up? Don't know.

The travails of my family are a good deal less interesting than those of the Sivana family, but Venus has been politely nodding along. "We never really had pets in the house."

"What about those Crocodiles Magnificus had?"

"That was.. really more.. your father letting him help clean out his test subjects. They weren't supposed to be pets."

Beautia sighs. "Father ended up feeding them a mutagen and turning them into giant rampaging monsters. Poor little Herkimer. He was such a sweetheart when he was a hatchling."

"I imagine that Crocodiles are a bit more manageable when you have super strength. I'm afraid that I.. don't really have any stories that can hold a candle to that. Not from before I arrived on Earth Sixteen."

Beautia looks curious. "Earth Sixteen?"

"This parallel… Ah, the Earth of this parallel. We had an encounter with parallel universe versions of my team mates in February and they had some sort of numbering system."

She nods. "And let me guess: they were number one?"

"No, negative fourteen. I'm assuming it's a reference to some sort of constant, but I don't have any way to-"

There's a loud 'ping' from somewhere.

"-check." I take a moment to try and work out where it came from. There aren't any speakers, but… Ah, that's a sound induction wand! I didn't think anyone on Earth had those. Of course, with this being the pad of the Doctors Sivana, one of them probably independently developed it. "Is that important? "

Venus checks her watch. "Oh, that's probably Magnificus. He said that he might be coming up early." Beautia lets out an exhalation of frustration, earning her a warning look from her mother. "Be nice, Tia."

"Yes, Mom."

"Why don't the two of you go and fetch him while I check on the environmental systems."

"Is.. there a.. problem with them?"

"Not as such, but Thaddeus always thought it best to have Human eyes on vital systems every so often. And I've never been sure whether this base was one of the ones where he deliberately set the system to malfunction if you didn't or not."

…

What?

Beautia rises from her seat next to me, effortlessly pulling me up with her and then gently taking hold of my left hand and tugging me back in the direction of the zeta platform. I wait until we're out of earshot before asking.

"Deliberately malfunctioning environmental systems?"

"Dad.. sometimes.. liked to set us little.. practical tests. Oh, don't worry, even if it breaks down completely we'd still have hours of breathable air left. And Venus' gravity is approximately ninety percent of Earth's, so even without the artificial gravity we probably wouldn't notice the difference."

"I.. know, I'm just… How old were you when you were expected to do the eye-keeping for him?"

"Um… Six or seven? Crawling through the ducts was easier back then, but we had to use a step to check the control panels." She glances at my face and notices my stunned expression. "We knew what we were doing. Dad always said there was no point in getting an education if you weren't going to use it."

"Are we on.. Venus' surface here?"

She stops walking and closes her eyes for a moment, before starting forwards again. "Yes, I think so. There's usually a slight vibration when we're in the air."

"Can I assume that I don't need to draw attention to how amazing this place is and how valuable the technologies here could be to the Human species?"

"We have an agreement about not using each others' inventions without permission and.. Dad.. won't give anyone permission. Besides…" She looks around the corridor we're walking through. "There isn't anything here that humanity actually needs."

"Really? Because I imagine that a place like this has a pretty nifty power generator."

"Oh, it is. It generates power from something Dad calls the 'reality-Bleed membrane'. That's, ah…"

"I know what a Bleed Membrane Instability Generator is. It's on my xenotechnology database." I think for a moment. "How much trouble would I get into if I scan things around here?"

"I'm not sure. If Dad finds out that you used what you scanned to build something then he'll show up and destroy it. But I don't know if there are any actual automated anti-Lantern devices here. Dad hasn't really had anything to do with any of the Green ones."

"I.. note that you're referring to him in the present tense."

"Oh, he…" She flaps her left hand. "Might be dead. But I'm not going to assume anything. He's been declared dead, like… Five times, and there wasn't even a body this time." She releases my hand and heads towards the control console. I hover around just behind her, trying to make sense of the control system without actually scanning it. Just in case. "Seven.. relays… And…" She lowers a lever. "Activate."

There's a flicker of blue-white light from the platform, then a brighter flash as Doctor Magnificus Sivana appears. His hair is a little longer than last time I saw him and I think that he's put oil in it. He's wearing a white polo shirt and a fawn coloured leather jacket with a pair of blue jeans. I'm a little surprised, I hadn't thought of him as the dressing down type. He looks a little down, actually. "Good morning…" He catches sight of me and is momentarily nonplussed. "'Tia. And Orange Lantern." He steps off the platform, a slight frown wrinkling his brow. "You're.. looking… Well."

"Hello Magnificus. How's life treating you?"

"Oh, we.. finally got the go ahead for Human trials… On the Danner Formula, and one or two other things. I.. hadn't realised.. that the two of you…"

Beautia nods. "It's.. a little new, but I wanted him to meet the family early."

"Probably for the best." He's.. actually slouching. "I was.. going to invite Nyssa, but… She had.. a.. thing. Um… Have… Junior and Georgia turned up yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Uh-huh yet."

The three of us direct our attention to an apparently empty part of the room.

"We've been here for-" Whatever invisibility system Thaddeus Junior is using deactivates by increments, first revealing his face, then hands and arms, then torso and lastly his legs. "-nearly a week!"

"Hey Tia." Georgia's invisibility mantle fails in the same manner as her twin's. "Who's the hunk? And would it really be a problem if I cloned him?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th April
10:12 GMT -6

Magnificus looks pained. "A week?"

Thaddeus nods. "Yeah. See, we were trying to work out where Dad might have gone, and this was the only lab we hadn't checked out."

"But we're on Venus."

Thaddeus shrugs. "Yeah?"

Ow! I glance down and see Georgia looking disappointedly at the scalpel she just poked into my right arm. I might not be wearing armour but my environmental shield still works. Beautia snatches it out of her hand. "His name is Paul and yes, it would be a problem if you cloned him."

Georgia looks up at me, jaw set slightly to the left. "Are you sure? Because I could make some cosmetic modifications-?"

"Yes!"

Georgia tosses her head to the right and waves her left hand dismissively. "Fine."

"Not that I.. want to end up as a Possum or anything-."

Georgia scowls at me, and I suddenly get the 'Thaddeus Senior in drag' comment. "One time! And he deserved it! Stupid, deceitful-!"

"What exactly is he supposed to have done that justified-?"

"He only pretended to be nice to me to get close to her." Georgia points her right index finger aggressively at her sister.

"Ah. Well… That shouldn't be a problem, since I met her first."

She shakes her head. "Mom confiscated the Possumizer anyway."

"Hey, orange guy!" Thaddeus Junior waggles some sort of.. technological… "Where'd you get this?"

"That's an invisibility generator from one of Truggs' mercenaries. Are you working with him?"

"Nah, we stole it from your subspace pocket."

What? Ring, status of subspace storage.

"We were going for your lantern but I guess you left that at home."

Subspace pocket is currently empty.

What?

Georgia nudges her sister with her right elbow as she reclaims her scalpel. "Did you know he can cook?"

What?

Thaddeus Junior grins. "Yeah, turns out? Guardians don't bother locking subspace pockets." He shrugs helplessly. "Eh, what you gunna do?"

Find out how to bloody quick. "I should probably warn you that in our testing-."

"Yeah yeah, mental instability in unshielded users. But let's be honest here: with us?" He smiles at me and, yep, Thaddeus Senior with hair. "Who'd notice?"

"I thought there was some sort of truce in effect..?"

He tosses the invisibility generator to me underarm. It doesn't quite travel the full distance and I have to step forward to grab it. Ring, sub… Space. I guess. I mean, I can't carry it around all day. It's just.. whaw, I stick everything in there. Okay, okay, he can't have hacked the ring itself so at worst he's got hold of a few weapons, and he's shown the ability to make more powerful ones than anything I put in storage. He couldn't fit in my armour…

"Where's the rest?"

"Storage warehouse seven. Nice armor, by the way."

"Thank you, Thaddeus." Georgia tilts her head up, eyes rolling back into her head. Magnificus gives me a puzzled look. What? "I would be.. perfectly happy to just.. talk about the technologies I use in future?"

"Where's the fun in that? C'mon, we should go say 'hi' to Mom."

Thaddeus leads the way, but his shorter legs mean that the rest of us have to slow to a crawl to avoid walking into him. Magnificus sidles towards me as we go. "You know, since our first encounter in Qurac… I admit that the Kryptonian was a better fighter than me."

"He is trained for that sort of fighting."

"If we fought again, it wouldn't go the same way. I've been studying Systema and Judo with the mercenaries Lex hired to protect our research center."

"Have you been sparring with other super strong people? Because super strength fights are very different to the normal strength fights most martial arts are developed to be used in."

"N-. No. I mean, Arnold once or twice, but…" He frowns. "And exactly how many doctorates does 'Kon-El' have?"

"None, but he isn't one year old yet."

"He's-? What?"

Thaddeus glances back. "Yeah, Magni, it was in 'People'. He got made in an exo-womb pod and they had these weird telepathic aliens teach him stuff while he was growing."

"Oh."

"When you say 'how many'-?"

Beautia exhales sharply. "One. Are we really going to-?"

"My second thesis is nearly ready for submission."

Thaddeus grins, his posture becoming slightly more upright. "Two."

Georgia smiles confidently. "Three."

Thaddeus brings his right hand up to his mouth. "Soft subjects."

Georgia grabs his left shoulder with her right hand and jerks him around to face her. "Social psychology is not a soft subject!"

"Oh yeah? Where's your control group?"

We come to a halt as the younger Sivanas ignore their surroundings in favour of squaring up to one another.

"My control group! You can't even measure quantum energy states without changing your results!"

"That's because it's not possible, not because the underlying methodology is flawed!"

I turn to the senior Sivanas. "Should we-?" They've both fished out hip flasks. Oh. "Ah. Um, what was that about finding your father?"

Magnificus waves his flask. "Father was always meticulous about taking notes. They've probably scoured the laboratory Father was using when he disappeared -and the police evidence locker- for every bit of information they could find on exactly what he did to create that portal." He eyes a nearby corridor speculatively. "He might have left something around here, but if they've really been here for a week-"

"We have!" / "We have!"

"-they'd probably have found it by now." He takes a slug. "Father will either turn up or he won't. Whatever he made, he knows more about it than anyone else."

Beautia sighs as her younger siblings return to their bickering session. "And wouldn't that be the perfect way to spend the day."

Hm. She is the one I came here with. "Beautia, darling." She lowers her flask in surprise, blinking at me as I take her left hand in both of mine and bring it to my lips. "I find myself in need of directions to warehouse seven. Which I assume is far away from here. Would you be so good as to escort me?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th April
10:21 GMT -6

"Thanks."

Beautia walks slightly ahead of me as we travel along a corridor away from the main facility. Through the transparent walls dark storm clouds crowd out the yellow sky and splatter a liquid I know to be high strength sulphuric acid against our corridor. It's seven hundred degrees outside due to the runaway greenhouse effect and inside it's a pleasant twenty. This place has been here for years at least and shows not the slightest sign of corrosion.

People were turning this man down for grant money! Imbeciles!

"You're welcome. Do Thaddeus and Georgia argue like that all of the time?"

"Not all the time. Just whenever they're not distracted with work."

Ring, passive monitoring. Is anyone watching us?

Minor increases in activity in local circuitry. Cannot determine precise cause without active scanning.

"Magnificus seemed a bit down."

"Who exactly is 'Nissa'? Do you know her?"

"She's a daughter of the probably-late and largely unlamented Ra's al Ghul. She's been working with Magnificus.. and more than a few others now, in Lex Luthor's alchemical research centre in India."

"Alchemy?" I nod. "Maybe that's the problem. I doubt many universities award doctorates for alchemical research, no matter how original." He has a doctorate at eighteen and somehow still thinks that he's an underachiever. Bizarre. "Do you know what he's working on in particular?"

"Don't you?"

She shakes her head, eyes dropping to the floor for a moment. "Magnificus and I… We're.. very.. different people. You know how you said I wanted to be a medical doctor because of my family karmic debt?"

"I was half joking-" A brilliant bolt of lightning slams into the warehouse complex we're walking towards, momentarily lighting up the clouds. "-about that. I haven't found out whether karma is actually a thing or not."

"Let me know when you do." She smiles. "I'd like to find out how much overtime I need to put in."

"Or you could just convert to Hellenism. Hades is a very reasonable sort of God of the Dead." She snorts quietly. "But what's that got to do with Magnificus?"

"He doesn't care. I don't think he's committed any crimes exactly, but… His professional ethics-."

"When I first met him he was working for Queen Bee."

"There you go."

"Of course, now…"

"What?"

"He's working to understand the underlying principles of alchemy. And their first project is to get the Danner Formula licensed for mass use."

She stops right in front of the door, staring at me in astonishment. "Really!? But… That…" Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Everyone with super strength, super toughness and accelerated perfect healing. I… I have no idea what that society would look like."

"Good job you've got a sister who studies social science then, isn't it?"

She nods. "It kind of is a soft subject, but-" She turns to the armoured door's control panel and begins entering her code. "-that doesn't mean that it isn't useful. Where did Lex Luthor get his hands on that?"

"Some guy called Doctor Arnold Munro. He says he's Hugo Danner's son."

"Whaw, this is…" The door clanks, then opens with a slight hiss as the air pressure equalizes. "I've been wondering how long I could expect to live. How old is Doctor Munro?"

"Sixty two. Though I'd say that he looks about ten years younger. If he started using hair dye, maybe twenty years younger."

Beautia leads the way inside the storage complex's reception area. I suppose it had to be big enough for doom robots. "His hair's gone grey already?"

"I don't know, maybe he bleaches it. Or maybe the stuff they stick in cows in Brazil is so noxious that-" Beautia's eyes widen slightly as she slides forwards. "-they found something that overpowers Danner regeneration." Beautia 'lands' on the wall in front of us, then stands up at ninety degrees to me. Heh. "Artificial gravity on the blink?"

She lifts her right foot off the wall experimentally, then lowers it. "Apparently."

"Feeling any heavier?"

"I'd say.. about twice my normal weight." She lifts her foot up again. "Which is odd, because the artificial gravity system isn't designed to generate a gravitational field in this direction."

"Maybe one of your father's devices got turned on?"

"Oh, great. Well, 'down' appears to be-" She walks along the wall towards the door. "-in warehouse one, so at least I won't have to try the stairs like this."

I rise off the ground, orientate myself so that her down is my down and fly over to the opposite side of the reinforced doorway. "Should we wait and get Thaddeus and Georgia to have a look at it?"

"No, if it's only generating two g's then it's probably not that big a deal." She kneels down to enter a code in the door. "As long as the effect doesn't intensify, just disconnecting the power source should be enough to shut it down, and either of us-" She press the door open button. "-should be able to deal with it without any-" The door opens at speed. "-real difficulty."

We look inside, and a horned, three-eyed humanoid made of a black star-filled void stares back at us.

I blink. He's standing in the middle of an aisle. Around him, areas of the floor are marked out in yellow 'do not cross' lines. Within these areas are devices which I can't readily identify. Some are exposed, others are covered in shimmering force fields and a few just have tarpaulins draped over them. The tarpaulins are draped in such a way which suggests that he is now down.

"Is that one of your father's projects?"

"I.. don't.. think so..?" She kneels on the edge of the doorway. "Identify yourself."

The life form continues to stare. Ring, anything in the database about that?

Nearest match is Black Nebula of the Vanguard organisation.

Is she a good match?

No.

O.. kay…

"I am Beautia Sivana. Identify yourself."

"SIVANA." It begins walking towards us. "I AM HERE FOR THADDEUS BODOG SIVANA. YOU WILL TAKE ME TO HIM AND THEN YOU WILL DIE."