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

[Mr Zoat]

4th March
20:06 GMT

"You could be happier."

"Yes, probably." Five hundred orange strands fill the air, a tiny distortion revealing Kaldur's location. It's a bit like Heroes of Might and Magic V. You spend all that time levelling up Godric and Isabel and then you have to fight against them. With Wood Elves, ugh. Kaldur knows full well that he can't block my better attacks with any magic he can perform, so he… What was it he called it? Blessing of Squid Ink? Not quite invisible and not quite intangible but enough of both to be a pain in the arse. I can't tell what else he's doing, he's still fortified.

"But Fate's here. I mean, we were only supposed to be getting information for him anyway. And shouldn't we have briefed him?"

I have sort of been wondering how much he pulls his punches during training. "Nabu knows more about magic than either of us. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Alert! Spell Eater temperature increasing.

Because just because you've found one invisible assailant… Empathic vision's blocked, so I can't tell if they're being directly controlled or just motivated by inserted fear. "Kaldur, Garth, Tula! It's me!"

Kaldur's illusory spell fades away, revealing his location. It's a little like D&D invisibility; vigorous activity tends to make it fall apart. He's got his Water Bearers out and active but doesn't make any immediate move. Okay, positive move. "Kaldur, I think you're being influenced by Terror Thing again. Nabu's got the villagers contained-."

He brings his Water Bearers up into guard position, water ends outwards. "Webster. Not this time."

Ah fu-.

I barely see it as a circle of frost forms around us. I'm too aaagh! I don't, agh, know who Webster is, but Kaldur's brain is firing on all cylinders. I never ran into a fear projector myself, but I remember the sensation all too well. The sudden increase in alertness as the adrenaline kicks in, the mild nausea…

Alert! Spell Eater temperature increasing.

I'm not… There aren't a lot of things I'm afraid of. Not irrationally so, at any rate. Heights used to scare me, but… I've been flying everywhere. Even diving down from high up in the sky is fun when I'm in control.

Alert! Spell Eater temperature increasing.

Death scares me. The concept that my consciousness could simply cease. Oh yes, that's where I remember this feeling from. I haven't had any religious faith since I was old enough to realise that adults could be wrong about things. Even here, where I know from direct experience that souls are real and there is life after death, I've… Really been focused on extending my life, rather than…

Alert! Spell Eater temperature critical.

They're overwhelming it! Putting so much force into it… I dread to think the amount of raw power that takes. Okay, construct armour's gone. At my default resilience, any of the Atlanteans can beat me down. Why aren't they? Breathing hard, I raise my head to meet Kaldur's eyes. His tattoos are glowing just about as hard as they can, his stance... This is as much as he can do.

I hope?

"You fear."

I.. sort of.. flop around. "Beryl?"

"I couldn't feel you. I couldn't touch you. But now I can. They feared me and now I understand what I am. They understood how to connect me to you, and now I touch your soul as I do everyone else's."

Ordered yellow lights.

"Fate fears as well. He fears obsolescence. He fears failing in his duty. You can't fight what is already inside you."

I should… Say something clever. Ask it w-. What it fears. If there's anything of Siskin in there that hasn't been consumed. Instead I curl up on myself, clutching at my own face in a frantic attempt to deny the external stimuli. How can I-?

Inside.

I twist, grabbing at the box containing my personal lantern. Openopenopen!

Agent? Your mind is strange.

Join with me.

Gladly.

Ah! She's trying, I can feel a little of what we are when she and I are together, but the fear inducement effect is so intense that the snake part of us cannot comprehend it. I just about manage to stagger to our feet and face the thing possessing Beryl. Yellow, yellow and more yellow. It doesn't really want, but simply reacts to its environment. What we're talking to must just be the Siskin part. Okay, fine, but was he totally subsumed or is he still in there as a separate being? Is he just a mouthpiece, transcribing inhuman thoughts in a Human fashion, or does his mind still function?

I can see the yellow lights all around me as the assault continues. As the Ophidian, we don't precisely have fears and that's keeping it out. Perhaps I can disrupt it in the same way we reinforced Siskin? We exhale orange light into Beryl and the ordered yellow light shudders. For the briefest moment I feel normal. Kaldur glows a little less as the Terror Thing momentarily loses its connection to the Atlanteans as well. Is that it? No, they're still full of yellow. I have no idea who 'Webster' is, but… Webster. That was the name of Geotroniks' Head of Security. Would the people Geotroniks used to make it have been afraid of him? No, their notes made it clear that their paranoia had a single focus. Siskin's fear, then?

"Siskin!" We breathe out again, our exhalation passing through Beryl along her connection to the Terror Thing. There's a great deal of loss along the way; the connection is one of fear and not avarice. But we dimly perceive something at the far end, something that can still want in its own right. "I know what it's like to be consumed by an emotion! To feel at an intensity that the Human psyche wasn't designed to process! You can't win by force of will!" This would be much easier if we just had a white ring. "The only way out is to accept the sensation, no matter how-!"

"Easier said than done." Kaldur's mouth, but not his voice. "I've been trapped in this nightmare for twelve years. I've felt every fear exactly as it was felt by people paralysed by the intensity of their fears and I've felt it all the time. And the thing that I fear most has been eating my soul."

"What? Do you expect it to get better? Do you think you'll get any respite once it's finished?"

"I only hope-" I turn as Siskin switches to using Tula. "-that when it's finally finished I might finally experience oblivion. My every thought, my every feeling is one of absolute terror. Can you even begin to understand what that's like?"

"Yes. We can. The Ophidian and the Orange Lantern came to terms. I know it can be done because I did it."

"I don't believe you."

Ophidian, back in the lantern please.

Agent?

I know what I'm doing.

I reach into my armour and pull off the hot-to-the-touch Spell Eater.

Probably.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I don't think
it works like that

I'm running through the ruins of a burning city. Everything seems larger than it should be, and the cars are at least fifty years out of date. I can't find my house which is not really surprising, given that I live in a mountain. Siskin, you didn't live anywhere like this either. I've read your records. Did the landmines hit it?

Landmines? How would landmines hit a house? Siskin, this is a paranoiac's fantasy. Martha Tredville. There was something wrong with her brain that resulted in her fixating on the early part of her life, growing up in the Blitz. Given how old she was… Probably something to do with the onset of senile dementia.

I think perhaps Bombsite Bill lives there now.

I hear a noise off to my right, a cracking, squishing noise that doesn't so much fill me with dread as redirect the general anxiety I'm feeling towards a specific location. In classic monster film style Bombsite Bill himself tears a fur wrap free from the body of his latest victim and drapes it over his shoulder before turning to look at me in the manner of a cat watching a hamster bravely poking its head out of its ball right in front of it. He's wearing an old Prussian style helmet on his head and over the rest of him is a floral patterned dress! Okay, there's some blood and dirt on it, but he's wearing furs and a dress! He's tall, well muscled and his teeth are filed down into points and he looks like the retard out of The Goonies. That wasn't even scary when I was a child!

He shoves a crumbling wall aside, giving me a better look into the interior of the house. Corpses in varying states of dismemberment hang from the rafters while before him a large bomb stands resting on its stabilisation fins. From his belt he takes out two thigh bones, raises them up and looks at me expectantly. I raise my arms and okay, I admit that being forced to dance like this is somewhat scary-.

"You don't get it." Bombsite Bill shakes his head as he begins drumming on the bomb's casing with the bones in his hands. "You don't get it. I'm not afraid like the little girl Mrs Tredville saw herself as when Mercury took this fear from her. I'm afraid of becoming the monster." He pauses for a moment, looking at the explosive in front of him. "This doesn't even look like a real bomb. Do you really expect me to accept becoming this? A cannibal and a thief?!" He starts hammering away in earnest. "To feel that doing this is the most natural thing in the world!? You want me to embrace being this!?"

I'm forced to dance closer and closer as he brings the bones up high over his head. Puts me in mind of the first time I met Danni, pinned to a wall with her burning hand next to my face.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

I see the blast wave coming at me but at the same time it's Danni's hand and the purple of Klarion's glowing magics and it's all around me and I can't get out and it hurts and I'm burning burning burning!

Fortunately, it's not as if I've never been on fire before.

I stagger forwards through the inferno. The bodies Bombsite Bill had hung up around him are burning too, though Siskin's chosen avatar itself is unharmed.

"You're presenting this as a false dichotomy. The choice isn't between you becoming a monster and not becoming a monster. The choice is whether you become a monster that knows what it is, that holds back, or one that revels in its own nature. There's nothing inherently evil about the power of fear, any more than there is avarice. Also, this really hurts."

It's like that thing in Zebra Girl where Jack curses a serial killer to forever be in the place he least wants to be. Sure, he ended up spending ninety percent of his time in the Universe of Burning, but since it couldn't actually kill him he eventually got used to it to the point that he would rather be there than somewhere else.

"Fine. So I don't get good options. But this…" He shakes his head. "I don't think I can. I wasn't ever trained for this sort of thing…"

I reach over to one of the burning corpses, pull off a chunk of charred meat and hold it up to my nose. As expected, it doesn't really smell of anything. I open my mouth and bite down on it. It tastes.. a little of pork. I'm not sure whether that's because Human flesh really tastes of pork or because that was the idea Mrs Tredville attached to it.

"I could. Once I decide that something's necessary, I just do it."

A look distantly akin to hope appears on his face. "Could you?"

"Yes. But it's not me who has to."

"If you.. show me… If you can show me how, then I'll try. I don't know if I'll succeed… You may end up having to kill me… It, anyway."

What I went through with the Ophidian the first time certainly wasn't pleasant. At least, it wasn't at the time. If I did it now it wouldn't be a thing. Is this what Sinestro Corps members go through in the comics? The process was never really described in detail… "I'll give it a try."

Siskin nods. "Thank you. Whatever happens… Anything would be better than being stuck here."

The flames burning my body go out. I look at my left arm. Back to being my own arm, and despite being on fire for a relative minute or two it's entirely undamaged. "So how do you want to do-?"

And now my arm's gone, along with everything else. My skin… it feels rough. Uneven. I think I'm… Slithering? No. As I focus on my physical presence I become more aware of myself, of this fear's form. I open.. my eyes, eyes which cover my cankerous flesh and let me see in all directions as I burst forth from a concrete dome into a landscape of concrete buildings and chimneys. Blood, pus and lymph fluid leak from rents in my outer surface and strange veins and arteries are clearly visible across my skin. I shudder as I observe other types of tissues and organs strewn randomly across my bulk.

I'm cancer.

This is Sellafield.

Matthew Campbell's fear. He was a boy when Geotroniks took on his case. He'd lived in the vicinity of Sellafield when they were building the mixed oxide plant and his parents -his mother in particular- had filled his head full of all sorts of horror stories about the place. Their case notes state that his mother said that their neighbours died of cancer, but Geotroniks had little interest in checking up once the paranoiac symptoms manifested. The symptoms were the whole point.

I try moving, but the best I can do is a slow semi-controlled undulation. He was afraid that the cancer was going to suck out his juice, leaving him thin and dry. Perhaps he'd seen a picture of people suffering from radiation sickness? I don't seem to be cancer of anything or anyone, but nonetheless my eyes follow the dream narrative, immediately orientating on a distant house at the moment the Terror Thing's recollection of Matthew Campbell leaves the safety of his bed and peeks out at me through his window. Real Matthew was killed along with the other patients at Geotroniks, but what I'm looking at is a realisation of exactly how he felt during his episodes.

He gets a moment of horror at seeing me, then I'm moving faster, flowing over and through the buildings of the site towards him far faster than a creature like this actually could. If such a creature were actually possible. I know what's going to happen. I'm going to move towards his house. He's going to shrink away, hide in his bed. I'm going to pull the roof off and tear his sheets away, haul him up before one of my mouths and latch onto him. I'm going to suck out his blood, his very life essence, as he screams and wails.

And I'm going to have to affirm it. I'm going to have to think of it as normal, right and good while honestly believing that I'm doing this to a real child.

I need to do that to save Siskin. And probably my friends and the people of Minions as well, depending on how Nabu's doing.

I won't actually be killing anyone.

It needs to be done.

Want the ends, want the means.

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th March
20:09 GMT

I collapse onto the ground back in my own body, Matthew Campbell's screams still echoing in my ears. I hear two heavy steps as Beryl staggers before righting herself. Looks like… The ordered yellow structures are gone, though there's still a lot of yellow in there.

Kaldur gasps and drops his guard, the circle of frost surrounding us fading at once. "Kaldur, you alright?"

"There.. was a man…"

"Webster, Geotroniks' Head of Security, inner circle Mason and serial killer. The Terror Thing made you believe-."

His eyes widen slightly. "That he was you."

"Yep. Garth, Tula, Beryl?"

Beryl holds out her left hand in a 'one moment' gesture, bends over and enthusiastically vomits onto the road. Garth hugs his chest and strains to get his heart rate and breathing back under control. Tula's got her eyes closed and is muttering a prayer to Sedna.

"Tempest, Aquagirl, Squire. Are you functional?"

Beryl manages to look up and shakes her head. "What..? What happened to..?"

"I showed Siskin how to overcome the Terror Thing. Since you're free, I'm going to assume that he has its attention. Nabu-" Ring? "-looks like he's taken a battering, but the Terror Thing appears to be losing control of its vassals."

"Where's Rob?"

I freeze. "Bother. I-" Ring? Oh dear. "-I don't know."

"Can you return-" Kaldur takes a moment to take in the state of our colleagues. "-me to the village? I should brief Doctor Fate."

"I.. can, but I think I should pay Sephtian a visit, see if he's got the containment vessel ready."

"You said that he would require a few days."

"I'm hoping he was erring on the side of pessimism."

"Fate can most likely contain it with his power."

"Do you know what Nabu did to Onomatopoeia?"

Kaldur frowns slightly. "I do not."

"Neither does anyone else. No one's seen him since. Nor any of the people responsible for Roanoke Island. Siskin deserves our protection the same as everyone else, and unless it's that or lose containment of the situation completely I'd rather not risk him on Nabu's good will."

He nods. "Return me to the village, then go."

"Right." I tag him with a filament, then transition him to the near edge of the village. That should let him get a feel for the situation before charging in. Next step, my three other team mates get a quick burst of orange light, removing adrenaline from their bodies and carefully altering the functioning of their amygdalae to temporarily reduce their capacity for fear. Should help them get themselves back together a bit quicker, though most likely not fast enough to help with this fight. Next, I pick up the box containing my personal lantern. "Ring, zeta tube."

4th March
18:13 GMT -2

"Recognised, Orange-"

Ring, locate Sephtian and transition.

"-Lantern-."

Compliance.

And I'm floating in the water in Sephtian's office. The Professor turns as the wave of displaced water moves past me and the guards level their weapons.

"No! He's fine." They lower their weapons and at least one rolls her eyes as she recognises me. "Orange Lantern. What brings you here?"

"In a bit of a rush. Is the containment vessel ready?"

He blinks and his head shudders slightly. "No. I said a few days. And then I would want to test it."

"Oh… Dear."

"I have the.. prototype, the copy of the design you were given. Theoretically sound, but it isn't tested." Another shudder. "I.. it should work as directed. I would not want to bet your life on it."

"Superheroing is all about improperly tested prototypes. Where is it?"

"My.. workshop's dry room, but-"

Transition.

"-I fear that-" His head jerks around and he blinks again. "-the.. device may not hold up under stress. And the 'suction' mechanism you requested is entirely absent."

"We'll make do."

Sephtian's dry room is much like the one which Doctor Roquette and Dubbilex worked in while working out how to remove the Starro Tech. This was built a month or so ago for Sephtian to play around with arcane circuitry designs. Given the sensitivity of the work we're doing it had to be somewhere in which it could be kept under guard. I'm not sure how fast information propagates around Atlantean society but with this much work going on and so many students being involved it can't exactly be a state secret.

Sephtian points. "There. In the power flow analyser."

I see it. It looks like… It doesn't look like anything I can immediately call to mind. There are three dark grey rings of stone, held apart with thick metal cylinders. On the inner surface, machine drawn arcane circuit boards have been soldered into place.

I pass through the water window and walk over to it. "How resilient is it?"

"Oh, the spell system should be capable of coping with quite large strains. The physical components… Less so. I only intended to use it as a proof of concept. It really isn't anything I would recommend using in the field."

"Needs must when the devil drives." I connect a filament to it and remove it from the analytical equipment. "Where should I direct the energy flow to trigger the containment?"

"A… Magic user should be able to detect the entry point. Physically, it's slightly above the-" He points with his left hand. "-centre of the artefact."

"How will I know if it hasn't worked properly?"

"It.. will melt. Or possible explode. Or.. you'll.. be.. horribly devoured by whatever you were attempting to contain."

"Right. Thank you. I'll let you know how it goes."

"I really can't advise-"

Zeta tube back to Brighton.

"-this-"

Compliance.

"-course of-."

4th March
20:15 GMT

"Recognised, Orange-."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th March
20:16 GMT

I look down at Nabu as he throws his arms wide, Kaldur standing next to him and looking like he's ready to catch him if he collapses. Golden ankhs appear for a moment on the foreheads of the now aimless Fear Zombies, then fade as-.

I send constructs downwards to catch people as they collapse. With the Terror Thing's influence gone they're back to being normal-unconscious. I take a moment to lower them to the ground then float down to stand in front of Kaldur and.. Nabu. It's not just Kaldur being over concerned, Nabu looks like he's been through the wringer. The Terror Thing was soft-peddling Kaldur with a minor fear induction to provoke him into attacking me. Against Nabu it would have been going all out.

I'll file away the fact that he can feel fear for later.

For a moment, I contemplate taking advantage of his momentary weakness. Drug Kaldur with something that would let me blame his loss of consciousness on the Terror Thing, chain Nabu up again and hit his helmet with Mageslayers until he's gone. Might work, but… No. Do the job I'm here to do. He might be useful.

"Either of you seen Cornwall Boy?"

Nabu lifts his head slightly and I shift my gaze to Kaldur. I can't stand looking into his stolen eyes. "No. Cornwall Boy was not present when I arrived."

Kaldur thinks for a moment. "Though I am uncertain how much of what I have experienced today did in fact transpire, I do not believe I have seen him since this morning."

"The ring can't detect him, but the absolute worst place for him to be-."

Nabu's eye holes glow golden. "The pagan ritual site." He pushes Kaldur away and rises unsteadily into the air. "If the fear creature has him it may attempt to use his innate connection to geomantic energy systems to escape."

"Or just have him stick a copper stake in the stones and take its chances."

"Where would he find such a thing?"

Ring, most likely..? "Copper gardening tools have made a bit of a come back in the last decade. I don't know exactly what disrupting a ley line requires-."

"It may suffice. Come, both of you."

I'm about a second from transitioning away as the ankh expands past us and Minions disappears in a surge of gold. Great, fear, exactly what I need to not be feeling at the moment. Wait, how did-? Spell Eater, I haven't put one back on after I took it off to let Siskin give me access. That was.. an unfortunate oversight. As the golden glow fails I see that he's teleported us to the top of the bank overlooking the stones. I immediately transition three metres right and pull a new Spell Eater out of subspace.

"Abomination! You will be purged from existence!"

And he's off, flying towards the largest stone circle. My empathic vision shows the whole area glowing yellow. I can't see Rob and under these conditions a ring scan wouldn't be reliable.

"What is the purpose of that object?"

I heft the containment unit. "This is the containment prototype. The idea was that we could feed the Terror Thing into it, keep it locked away where it couldn't do any harm."

"Justice League rules of engagement permit us to permanently destroy Elementals or Demons." He winces. "Having been violated by this one, I can think of no reason to change that policy."

"I got it to release the four of you by-" The air over the stones is suddenly illuminated by circular bands of golden characters, ankhs and other things I don't immediately recognise. "-communicating with the still intact spirit of one of the psychics used in its creation. He's trying to get control of it. He certainly hasn't done anything that warrants killing him."

"But if his body has already been destroyed…"

"That doesn't stop Nabu. Heck, we know that the Terror Thing can interact with the world without using a host, that's what it's been doing for the last twelve years."

"What do you suggest?"

"Any idea what Nabu's doing?"

Kaldur peers at the runic circles. "He appears to be attempting to scour every remnant of the Terror Thing from the surrounding area. It is likely that once he is done, he will attack it directly in the ley line network. If you wish to persuade him to use another method, it would be best to hurry."

Or… I could let him believe that his technique worked and keep Siskin's survival a secret. He must know that I'm working on arcane weaponry. He's never really shown any interest… "Any idea where Rob is?"

Kaldur raises his Water Bearers slightly, allowing a small amount of water to flow. The trail of water bends slightly to the left and he starts down the slope. "This way."

Dowsing. That's a new one. Following local geomantic energy flows, presumably. Is Sephtian going to have time to come up with a device that lets people who aren't magic users perceive those? Could be useful… No, he's probably not. I need to find another competent non-evil magic user who I can offload some of that stuff onto.

We get about half way from the bottom of the slope to the middle stone circle before the water coming from the Water Bearers shudders. Kaldur stops and expands the water flow in case Rob isn't entirely himself. "Cornwall Boy! Are you here?!"

"How do I know you're really you?"

"Because Nabu brought us here and he wouldn't have done that if we were being controlled."

"What if he's being controlled?"

"Then we're doomed anyway, so why worry?" There's a pause, then Rob is ejected from the ground next to us. There's more than a little yellow in him, but it looks normal in character.

"Why were you under the ground?"

"I was hiding. Way I see it, it's not interested in space as much as conceptual connections. I thought maybe if I got here I could try draining it at the source." He shakes his head dejectedly. "Don't think I was really getting anywhere."

"How were you able to avoid being taken as the rest of us were?"

He holds up the Spell Eater I gave him. "I drained it to protect myself faster than it absorbed magic protecting me. Up until a few seconds ago when the bastard thing came right back here, then all I could do was try hiding. What's the plan?"

I hold up the containment vessel. "Any idea how to force it into here?"

"Um. I…" He looks away for a moment. "Maybe… If we connected it to the ley lines? If Doctor Fate's just going to blast it-" The runic pattern over the southern circle fades away. "-then it'll run into the only escape path available, right?"

"Okay… And it can't use that connection to get right back out afterwards?"

"We could destroy the circle." I raise my eyebrows. "I don't like it, but one circle more or less isn't gunna make much difference to the country's geomantic stability."

"Kaldur?"

"What of Siskin?"

"Whether he wins or not, keeping it contained is the best option in the short term. We can study what it is.. and whether he won or not, somewhere safe. Where we're in control of what it can get access to."

Kaldur nods. "One of the secure laboratories in the Conservatory of Sorcery."

"Yes. If they're okay about me summoning Demons there…"

"I would rather ask Fate, but-" We all look up as the northern runic circle goes out and Nabu begins building power. His floating becomes unsteady as the strain starts to show. "-he needs to focus on his task. Do it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th March
20:19 GMT

Rob nods. "Okay." Kaldur and I watch him for a moment. "Um. How?"

Kaldur and I look at each other for a moment. "I suppose you'd.. create an arcane link between the local ley lines and the containment vessel."

"Yeah, I got that. But, like… How? I mean, I don't think I could take the bloody thing going through me."

Then I remember that I'm talking to an inadequately trained fourteen year old and not a professional magic user. And from the looks of things Kaldur's reached the same realisation. Ooh dear. "Could you create a bridge that didn't directly put you in the path of the thing?"

Rob throws his arms up. "Maybe? I don't bloody know!"

"Cornwall Boy. If you do not believe you are capable of doing this, you need merely say so. After so much time has passed, saving Mister Siskin would-."

"No." Rob closes his eyes. "Sorry. Give me a moment." He takes a couple of deep breaths. "Right, I can sort of feel the entry point to the trap. If I put a little magic… Yeah, okay, got that bit." He opens his eyes and turns to the standing stones just as Nabu's runes contract, glowing more brilliantly. "That might be a bit more difficult."

"Okay. Don't rush. What do you think you need?"

He blinks, his eyes unfocused. "Fate's sealing off the stones, and the centre of the ley line system the Terror Thing's hiding in. And that means I just can't get at it. I mean, that's why he's doing it, to stop any bit of it getting out."

"Is there any way around what he is doing?"

"I don't… Uuuum…" He tries to think of something. "I think he's using the limits of the core of the ley line system as a guideline for his spell. So… Unless we can-." I take a copper stake out of subspace. "Oh. Yeah. That would work." He thinks some more. "Except -assuming that Mercury woman was right- I'd still have no way of knowing where the new connections were going to go."

"I may be able to force them to go in a particular direction." Kaldur thinks for a moment. "But it would only be for a matter of moments. We would have to time its release to the instant."

"Anything I can do?"

Kaldur looks at me. "It would be nice to have some assurance that Siskin still existed at all."

"Slap me if I take more than ten seconds." I focus on the empathic energies within the ley line network. Yellow, yellow and more yellow. I'm not really sure which bits are whom. Nabu's spell is sort of scrunching it up-. No, wait. There. The patterns are changing. Rather than being a peer-to-peer network, some parts of the ordered structure are shifting, moving to orientate themselves towards…

A bit that isn't wholly yello-. Ow!

"Ten seconds, mate."

I tense and relax the muscles of my right cheek. "I'm reasonably confident he's still in there. He appears to be making progress, though it's far too early to say that he's winning."

"Wouldn't it be better to just ask Fate to stop for a bit?"

I look up at the glowing figure floating above the centre of the middle circle. "Does he look like the 'stopping for a bit' type?"

"No, but…"

I take a few steps away and cup my right hand next to my mouth. "Nabu, we've had an idea! If you-!"

"Your part in this is done!" He doesn't even look around. "Leave this matter in the hands of Fate!"

I turn away. "Oh well."

"Yeah, but… Was that an order?"

"He doesn't actually have the authority to give us orders. Only Batman does, and we don't have the time to explain things in full to him. Which means…" I look at Kaldur. "It's up to you as team leader. We can take a chance on trapping it, and maybe saving Siskin in the process. Or we might cause the Terror Thing to escape. Alternately, we take no action and Nabu kills it for sure. Whatever you say, goes."

"Fate seems adamant that he does not want us to involve ourselves."

"He doesn't know about Siskin. And frankly, I'm not sure he'd care."

He looks down. "Is there anything that you can do to improve our chances of success?"

"I can.. probably pull it in the direction of the trap with orange light. It's not reliable, though. If Siskin doesn't have enough of it integrated into him… I.. can also create whatever focusing patterns you want on the ground, though I can't power them."

Kaldur nods. "This is not a simple choice. I…" He nods. "We will make the attempt. Orange Lantern, use the design-"

Fate raises his hands above his head and a huge golden ankh forms in the air before him. "Die, creature of nightmares!"

I'm moving towards the closest stone, stake and auto-hammer construct at the ready.

"-from Priscus' Spirits and Bindings!"

"I know it!" In an attempt to keep Nabu from spotting it I run the design under the soil as I strike the stone with the copper stake. I create an orange super sharp construct around it and bring the auto-hammer to bear. The hard rock resists for a moment, then fails before my magic hammer. Once it's got a decent way in I remove the construct surrounding the stake and stand back slightly. Focus. Okay, that's Siskin. I'm not sure if he's even aware of-. Nabu slams the ankh into the ground and the whole emotional network within the ley lines convulses. Okay, yep, he's aware.

"The lines're getting weaker! Making a connection.. now!"

Kaldur kneels and places his hands onto the ground, his tattoos glowing as he exerts himself. I try reaching out with orange light to pull Siskin in the desired direction but I'm struggling to find purchase with all of that yellow around! Okay, maybe… I attach a filament to the containment unit and feel as it begins pulling on the orange light. I spread the other end out, waving it around the inside of the ley line system.

Best I can do.

Golden lightning rains down into the ankh from Nabu, causing it to blaze brighter and shove itself further into the ground. I also see parts of the Terror Thing start decaying into nothingness, something I assume is Nabu's doing. I think it's noticed that the containment isn't as sure as it was. It's writhing now, churning and ugh, I'm starting to feel it.

Rob's eyes widen. "I think it's coming."

"It will be brief. You are strong enough to manage."

And with the texture of congealed sick being poured from a bucket, the Terror Thing flows -or rather gloops- out of the ley line network. I see… I think I see it trying to spread out in all directions once more, before noticing our channel. I pull, trying to drag at any scrap of orange I can see.

"I will be your end, creature!"

The golden ankh sinks fully into the ground and I see large chunks of the Terror Thing simply disappear. With only one place to go in order to escape certain destruction the rest leaps for the containment vessel.

"Augh!" I look around in concern, but Rob shakes his head. "It went past me. But that was…"

Everything I hooked any orange onto is now out of the ley line. I cut the orange connection just as the ground in the core of the circle shines brilliant gold and what's left of the yellow within vanishes.

 

[Mr Zoat]

5th March
10:36 GMT -5

"…you thought it was sensible to isolate yourself for an entire day following your first contact with the Terror Thing?"

We're arranged in a line in front of Batman. Feedback so far has been… Reasonably good. I got a nod when I realised out loud that I needed to create some sort of magic defence artefact that magic users could wear without interfering with their abilities.

"Mostly, because it hadn't demonstrated any sort of reaction to prior contact, either by my team mates or earlier by Captain Cornwall. The worst Aqualad, Tempest, Aquagirl and Cornwall Boy got was the same nightmares that everyone else was already receiving. Waiting a day to check might have been helpful, but equally it might have given it the chance it needed to strengthen its connection to a group of magic users. The type of contact I was making… I don't know of any other examples of what I tried, but -based on records of similar forms of magic- I believe that it was less intrusive than the simple dive we'd attempted the day before."

Batman nods. "Do you think that its change in behavior to an overt attack was related to your attempt to contact Michael Siskin?"

Correlation does not equal causation… "Having compared the timeline of the start of the hallucinations-" It seems that things started getting pretty weird around midday as the Terror Thing began exerting its influence over the waking world. "-to what I would have been saying about that time, I couldn't see any obvious causal remark. Of course, that's assuming that time was moving at an even pace." I shake my head. "I don't think that there's any way to tell for certain."

He nods again and takes a step back, taking in the entire line up. "I have one final question for the team. Why did you decide not to inform Doctor Fate that your extraction attempt was successful?"

I go to open my mouth, but Kaldur gets in first. "At the time, we were uncertain exactly what it was that we had. Orange Lantern also raised.. certain concerns, relating to Doctor Fate's treatment of those he has taken into custody on prior occasions."

Rob nods. "Orange Lantern tried telling him what we were going to do right before we did it. Doctor Fate wasn't listening."

Batman's eyes linger on me for a moment, before moving back to Kaldur. "The British government has asked that we pass on their thanks for dealing with this matter without anyone coming to serious lasting harm. Though it is unfortunate that the mission changed from observation to combat when it did, I do not believe there were any signs of that risk that you could have been expected to notice."

Rob takes a half step forward. "Sir, did-?"

"Doctor Fate and I will carry out a follow up investigation into the events of twelve years ago personally. Once I know enough to form firm conclusions, the results will be forwarded to our contact in the British government with my recommendation. Based on what I've seen so far, I think it likely that I will recommend that he be released."

"Thank you, sir."

"I assume that the containment vessel containing Michael Siskin is in a secure location?"

"Sephtian's got it in a secure laboratory. There are alarms, wards and a constant guard presence. We.. hope to be able to get a better look at what we caught in a couple of weeks."

"I'll look forward to your follow-up report." His eyes move down the line once more. "Dismissed."

We remain exactly where we are as he turns away and heads in the direction of the zeta tube. Training… With the six of us gone, nothing really got planned. If anything, the general assumption in the mountain was that Plastic Man -this week's supervisor- would be driving the rest of them up today. No one exactly seems to be upset about missing out, not when Tula and Rob finished describing what having a Fear Elemental sitting in your soul felt like.

"Recognised, Batman, zero two."

And with that, the Bat-tension is gone and we start to form a huddle.

Beryl looks thoughtful. "Sort of expected him to be scarier than that."

Garth makes a wry smile. "Given what we just went through, I would not be surprised if our ability to respond to normal levels of fear has become a little maladjusted." He looks at me. "Does Professor Sephtian want us there when he starts working with Mister Siskin?"

I shake my head. "I don't think he'd mind, but things have grown a bit. It's not just him and the students anymore… Which makes sense, because it was starting to get a bit silly. There're five professional thaumaturgists on the team… I haven't been properly introduced yet, but they'll be leading the work on moving production to a properly industrial scale so Sephtian can focus on the design work and teaching."

Tula nods. "I would be quite happy not to see Mister Siskin again for quite some time."

Kaldur frowns slightly. "I do not understand why Mister Constantine did not follow up on the matter earlier. If he knew that the Terror Thing might have survived, it seems that it would have been prudent to alert the authorities."

I make a shrugging motion with my right hand. "Ninety nine was Batman's first year on the job, so there wasn't a Justice League. He wasn't on speaking terms with Mister Zatara, he knew that the conspirators were involved at the highest levels of the government… Who was he going to report to?"

"I suppose that that is true."

"Not to excuse him or anything. He.. isn't a professional. Doesn't keep good records, doesn't do follow up… The number of times he's mentioned something in a completely off-hand way…" I shake my head. "Did I ever tell you that he once fought a wizard who'd transferred his soul into a Dog?"

Beryl frowns. "Some sort of Hellhound?"

"No. Just a normal Dog. He could use his remaining magic to cause other Dogs to obey him and so he could speak… Sort of. But that was it. He had the proportional strength and speed.. of a Dog. Of course, his pack nearly ripped John apart anyway."

Tula smiles. "Suddenly he sounds a lot less imposing."

Rob squints. "Can we get back to how the entire British government is full of Demon worshipping fascists?" His eyes open and he looks at Beryl then at me. "Did you, like, know that already?"

"I don't know how widespread it is. One of my uncles was a Mason and I don't think he would have been involved in anything like that. John said that the actual problematic ones were a small group, and the rest were probably just acting out of 'club loyalty'."

Kaldur nods. "In any case, Batman and Doctor Fate are better placed to perform an investigation than we are."

"Batman's own version of the Tarkin Doctrine."

Tula and Garth glance at each other, then Garth looks at me. "I do not know what that means."

Beryl tries to follow my train of thought. "Grand Moff Tarkin was a character in the film Star Wars. The Tarkin Doctrine was his belief that the Empire could keep the galaxy in line using the fear of massive retaliation."

I nod. "When Batman started in Gotham, the police force and government were massively corrupt. Now, they're… Well, significantly less so. Not because everyone got arrested, that would just have caused everything to break down. No. He went after the worst offenders, the ones who thought they were immune to any retaliation. By taking them down, he showed that no one was safe. The result? Petty corruption dropped to nearly nothing, because no one wanted to risk drawing his attention. Now, Gotham's not a great place to live, but it isn't much more corrupt than other places and it's getting better all the time." I make a shrugging gesture with my hands. "I'm not Nabu's biggest fan, but if I was an evil wizard he'd scare the shit out of me."

There's a moment of silence.

Kaldur turns to Beryl. "Do you desire to join the team on a permanent basis?"

She looks at him incredulously. "After the last couple of days?" She grins. "Of course I do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Black Reign

1st October 2010
19:26 GMT -5

"Orange Lantern. A word."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"And take control of their shared body."

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

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

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

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

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

Warning: low power. Six percent remaining.

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

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

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

"What languages does he speak?"

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

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

"Yes sir."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You could keep an eye on him."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Does he know that?"

"I… I don't know."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Casualty lists are still being compiled."

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

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

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

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

I smile. "No sir. Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th March 2011
17:06 GMT -5

"So… How come you're not wearing an orange jump suit?"

Zatanna looks a little uncomfortable on the other side of the partition between the prisoners -like myself- and those visiting them. Still, I do appreciate the company. Oh, the other prisoners are nice enough… And so are the guards, actually. I seem to remember from the comics that the Warden of Iron Heights was pretty fanatical about keeping metahumans inside, going so far as to drug Ms Baez in order to prevent her interacting with her legal representative. All I got was a quick 'you're not going to make any trouble, are you?' speech. Didn't even try and put a collar on me. Okay, sure, I'd just demonstrated on worldwide television that they didn't work on me, but that wouldn't have stopped some people. Anyway, I'm getting on fine with everyone, but I do feel the pull of familiar faces and I imagine that my friends are keeping an eye on their mentors' responses.

"They didn't actually have one that would fit." I shrug. "I also agreed to assist prison staff in the event of a break out. My cell is just inside the metahuman containment wing and they don't even bother locking the door."

"That.. doesn't really sound like you're in prison at all."

"And? Zatanna, I'm getting fan mail. In several cases, from national governments. Here." I pick up a couple of thank you letters from my side of the table and hold them up against the screen. "This one's from China, Russia, Montenegro for some reason… There's several bags from various people that I haven't gotten around to opening yet." I frown, tapping my right fist against my chin. "I suppose this is the first time since getting to this planet that I've actually had a postal address… Anyway, since I pretty much put myself here no one really believes that I'm going to abscond."

"But you did abscond."

"I explained that. To Diana. Parallel universe Batman. Dire necessity. A great time was had by all.. who weren't.. Thanagarians or.. working for SHADE." I take a look at my left hand. Considering the injuries I received it really is remarkable quite how swiftly I've healed up. Some patches of my skin aren't quite back to normal yet, but nothing actually hurts anymore and none of it impedes my movement. "And I came right back as soon as I was well enough." I watch her for a moment. "So… How are things with you?"

"One of my closest friends is in prison."

"I told you Kayla was a bad influence." I nod to myself. "Too much eye shadow."

"Grayven, this isn't funny. What if Batman kicks you off-." She cuts herself off and glances around. "-from.. the League."

"That's fine. I mean, it'll be a little awkward. I'll have to find somewhere else to live, but… If that's the price for killing Klarion, then that's fine." I look her directly in the eyes. "Does Giovanni know that you're here?"

She hesitates. "Y-es."

"And he's okay with that?"

She exhales. "He doesn't disagree with what you did, just the way you went about it. The League… They don't all think you were wrong."

"I'd have called Captain Atom a hypocrite if he did."

"Why are you so intent on pushing them away?"

So I can join the Light in a believable way. I'm not sure whether it was sitting in a cell for hours each day, my exposure to the Anti-Life or just getting Klarion out of my system, but I'm really struggling to remember the reasons why I thought that working with them might be a good idea in its own right. But I can't tell Zatanna that, or it would ruin the whole thing. "There was… Before I came to this Earth, there was a comic I read. It was called The Boys. There was one.. scene in it, where an officer in the United States army during the Second World War was introduced to their first superheroes. When he talked about it later, he said that while modern people grow up surrounded by superheroes and so are used to the whole thing, all he could think at the time was 'why the hell are you dressed like that?'. There are.. assumptions, that the League goes along with, even when they shouldn't. About what superheroes do, and what they don't do. I need to confront these ideas, or they'll just.. stay."

"I've actually got a paper to write on what you did."

I blink. "Really?"

She looks away for a moment "There was a choice of topics, but since I.. know you it seemed to make sense."

"What's the title?"

"'Is it ever appropriate to murder someone?'"

"Ooh, leading question." I consider for a moment. "Your school: are the teachers all Catholic, or does it just have a Catholic ethos?"

"All.. Catholic, I think."

"Okay, firstly, we need to agree on a definition of 'murder'."

"Intentionally killing someone who wasn't trying to kill you."

I cup my hands to my mouth. "Arrest the army!"

She rolls her eyes. "Wars don't count."

"Why not? Why is killing special when a country decides to do it?"

"Because their job is to keep their country's people safe. You can't ask people to do that and then arrest them for it."

"So it's okay to kill someone if you're keeping a group of people safe. But what if the enemy -whoever they are- are doing that too? If the people threatening your people are only doing so because you're threatening their people? Is no one a murderer? Is everyone? What if they were a private security force rather than a government backed military?" I shake my head. "No. Murder is about societal norms, not about killing, intentionally or not. Soldiers can get arrested for killing their enemies if they don't follow proper processes. American householders can kill in self defence, and some states have fairly generous definitions thereof. In some places a person can be killed for climbing over a fence if they end up on private property."

"Even if that's true, we have laws which define what murder is."

"Right. So the question becomes: is it ever alright to deviate from society's rules on when it is appropriate to kill? I suppose that does make me an interesting example. Clearly-" I wave the thank you notes again. "-a great many people think I was correct. So, second part: was what I did murder? I'm not a country-." I cut myself off as I think about that a little more. "Aah. Under Apokoliptian law, as Suzerain of Earth, it's perfectly fine for me to kill anyone who displeases me, but let's leave that aside for a moment. I'm not a country, so I can't declare war. I am not a member of an armed force who could be ordered to kill someone as part of a 'peacekeeping' activity." I lean forwards, grinning. "As an Apokoliptian, I love that name for it. If I ever take over Apokolips, I'm going to rebrand the Parademons as 'Peacekeepers'." I sit back. "I am not a member of a police force, so I can't kill someone who violently resists arrest."

"On Earth, murder usually means premeditation, intent and a fatality. When I killed Klarion, he wasn't specifically threatening me at the time. He may not even have been actively threatening anyone. I'm not insane and I wasn't intoxicated. I intentionally lured him to a place and attacked him without waiting to see how he reacted." I count on my fingers. "Premeditation, intent, corpse. It was murder."

"Third part, was I right to do it? Mmn, you can argue that however you like. But I suggest, challenging your teacher's preconceptions. Can I assume from the title that they aren't a fan?"

"No. He doesn't have a problem with most superheroes, but he thinks that punishment should be handled by the courts."

"Alright. Find an act of killing that he thinks was morally correct but which to the modern mind appears utterly abhorrent when considered rationally."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Moses. The Israelites' escape from Kahndaq. I'm going to assume that he wouldn't regard what he did as murder."

"The Israelites were being held as slaves. And I don't particularly want to argue with God about when killing is right."

"Right. No one does. Makes Father's job much easier. Look, I don't personally believe that any of that story really happened. And if it did, I doubt that it happened anything like the way the Bible describes it. Just treat it as a parable. 'Worship Jehovah, he's always got your back'." She nods. "What I want to talk about is the tenth plague. The one which killed the firstborn children. Now, it is most likely true to say that they benefited from the Israelites' servitude, but they can't honestly be said to have been active participants. Worse, only the Israelite households were spared. Nubian slaves, Babylonian slaves, wherever else they were from? Killed. Plus, in other chapters the Old Testament clearly states that the Israelites owned slaves themselves at various times, so it can't have been about slavery in itself."

I remember singing hymns about the event in primary school. Horrible, really. I mean, I was too young to know any better, but still.

"Let's assume that the deity in question had only finite power, because otherwise you get bogged down into arguments about why he didn't just teleport his people to safety. If an Angel can know to kill only the children at houses not marked in a particular way, it seems reasonable to me that it could know to kill only at certain houses. Moses' followers could have.. say, marked the homes of the slave drivers. Jehovah chose not to use that technique. He intentionally marked innocent children for death in order to shock other people. How do you feel about the story now?"

"I suppose." She shakes her head. "To be honest, quite a lot of the Old Testament is like that. I usually assume that the people recording it at the time either didn't understand what was happening or it got lost in translation."

Convenient. "Then contrast the event to my killing of Klarion. Klarion was a mass murderer in his own right, and had shown every intention of continuing in the same vein. I had no way to stop him other than killing him and I surrendered myself for judgement immediately afterwards."

She sits back. "Are you really saying that you're more moral than God?"

"No. Of course not. I'm saying I'm more moral than Elion, or whatever powerful but finite being we're using as Jehovah's stand in. Clearly, Jehovah can do no wrong. After all, he said so himself."

Zatanna regards me levelly for a moment. "I.. might.. edit that slightly."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th March 2011
08:16 GMT -5

"Are you sure this is how you want to play this?" Frederick Tuckman -my lawyer- sighs as he looks at me. "There are other options we could explore."

We're standing in a circle of armed police, just outside the courtroom where my fate will be decided. The police are mostly just there to keep journalists and my more enthusiastic fans at bay, but I do appreciate that Central City has thought to equip them with weapons that could hurt me. Eventually. Alright, so it would be a bit like when lasers were first invented: the press tried calling them 'Death Rays' and the inventor said that yes, you could vaporise someone with one as long as they didn't move for a couple of years.

I shake my head. "I don't want to be that guy. Not after all the fuss I've made."

"You are aware that Missouri has the death penalty for murder?"

"By gas or lethal injection. I only breathe out of habit and they don't have a poison powerful enough to affect me."

An usher emerges from the courtroom and nods to the leader of my detail. She motions two of her subordinates forwards into the courtroom and then looks over to me. I smile, give her a respectful nod, then follow them in. The courtroom itself is.. pretty much what I expected. A box for the jury on one side, a raised bench for the judge at the front with an American flag as a backdrop and a position lower down for the clerical officer, a box for me, defence, prosecution… The audience are quiet, but cameras click and camera phones are raised to capture my likeness. A few people I recognise. None of my friends, of course. They've got school and in Jade's case would probably be arrested. There are a couple of diplomats, however. China sent an envoy, who's looking at me with a notable lack of expression. A few other countries… No Alan. Thought he might come, but I'm well aware of the ructions this is creating in the American superhero community and wasn't banking on it. Clark Kent's here for the Planet.

No one's here for Klarion.

I don't wave. I'm well aware that I'm making a mockery of the judicial system here, and the people involved are both serious and basically decent. They don't deserve me making fun of them to their faces. So, I head to the box where I'll be spending the duration of the proceedings with no more than a polite smile, while Mister Tuckman walks over to the seat reserved for the defence lawyer. The state prosecutor pulls a slightly odd face as he takes the opportunity to look me over. I had thought that they might get in someone too new at the job to know the sort of damage they could be doing to their career, but this man seems to be in his middle years. Mister Tuckman has told them of my intent, so maybe they didn't think it was much of a risk?

This chair… Yes, there's no way that will support my weight. Kneel down or have the aero-discs take the strain? The second would look better, but it would also clearly indicate that I'm holding on to equipment that I shouldn't really have. Well, this isn't going to take long. Maybe I should just see if they'll let me stand for the whole thing.

Alright, looks like everyone's in place. Just waiting for-.

"All rise." Everyone does as the trial judge enters and takes position while the clerk's eyes dip to their paperwork for a moment. "The Central City Superior Court is now in session, the Honorable Justin Micklewhite presiding. The case being heard is The People of the State of Missouri versus Grayven." She doesn't hesitate as she gets to my name. I suppose that living around here she's probably heard stranger. "Please be seated."

Everyone sits down. I hesitate for a moment, then nudge my chair backwards with my right foot and kneel down instead. The Honourable Mister Micklewhite takes a moment to get comfortable, his eyes moving from myself to Mister Tuckman. "I will be frank. I dislike having my courtroom used for what I strongly suspect to be political posturing. I do not want to see any of the usual disruption we see during costume trials."

Mister Tuckman stands and leans into the microphone. "My client has no wish to create any such disruption."

"Any further disruption." The Honourable Mister Micklewhite seems at least a little mollified. "Has your client decided on what plea he would like to enter?"

"My client wishes to plead guilty to the charge of First-Degree Murder."

No intake of breath. No one's really surprised.

"And the other charges?"

"My client feels that the charges relating to his possession of exotic weaponry are 'reaching' at best. Missouri has no specific prohibition on the possession of 'death rays', and his 'blasters' are not strictly speaking plasma weapons. In addition, since he was well outside of city limits at the time the alleged attack took place, charging him with brandishing a blade-."

The Honourable Mister Micklewhite waves his gavel to stop him. "Does the prosecution wish to comment?"

Mister Tuckman sits and the prosecutor stands. "At the time the charges were filed, the District Attorney's Office had not been fully briefed on the nature of Mister Grayven's weapons. We apologise to the Court, but we needed to get specialists in to explain it to us. Under the circumstances… Well, we're going to be looking at recommending that the law be altered, but we're willing to accept that it would not be worth the Court's time to try it, particularly given that the defendant is already looking at a life sentence for the First-Degree Murder charge."

"Very well. The Court will consider the lesser charges struck, and formally record a plea of 'Guilty' for the First-Degree Murder charge." The prosecutor sits as the judge turns his attention to the jury box. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you for your time. You are dismissed. The bailiff will show you out."

I watch them go. This is interesting, actually. I've never seen a real life court case before. You'd think -given the stuff I've been involved with- that I'd be in and out all the time, but no. It's either been too secret or I've just provided a written statement.

"The Court will now move to sentencing. Does the defense have anything..?" He looks down at his paperwork. "Anything sensible it wishes to say in moderation?"

Mister Tuckman stands again. "The defense would like to remind the Court that the victim 'Klarion the Witch Boy' was an international fugitive and mass murderer. The very fact that no one is here in court to represent him today should give the Court some idea of how little he is missed. My client has repeatedly stated to me that he feels not the slightest bit of remorse over the killing, and would gladly do it again if the situation arose again." He looks at me for a moment out of the corner of his eyes, then sits.

The Honourable Mister Micklewhite nods. "Prosecution?"

The prosecutor stands again. "I would like to remind the Court that it is not for private citizens to decide how to enforce the law. But, since the minimum sentence for First-Degree Murder is life imprisonment and the State has no desire to seek the death penalty, we see no need for extended arguments." He sits.

The Honourable Mister Micklewhite waits for a moment. "Very well. If there are no further arguments?" Both lawyers give a slight shake of their heads. "Then the Central City Superior Court sentences the defendant to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole." He bangs his gavel.

"All rise."

I was expecting this. I'll probably take a few days-.

"Hold on a minute." I look around as-. That's… Hailey Becket, Missouri's current governor. She's literally just walked into the courtroom, trailed by television cameras. Oh, the judge isn't going to like this.

He doesn't. "Governor, you couldn't wait a few hours?"

"Imprisonment is expensive, and I see no good reason to keep Mister Grayven detained any longer." She nods forwards and a man in a suit carrying a wodge of paperwork comes to the front of the court. "I signed the pardon out in the hallway just as soon as your hammer came down." The man in the suit passes it over to the clerk of the court, who looks upwards at the judge and shrugs. "I would like to request his immediate-."

"Just.. get him out of here."

She looks over to me. "Mister Grayven! You've got a press conference."

I hesitate for a moment. That wasn't the plan. Is she trying to steal credit from President Horne or something? The armed police around me shuffle away slightly. I.. guess that means that I can go. I stand, then pause. "Thank you, your Honour. I'm.. sorry about this." He rolls his eyes as I walk out from around the defendant's box and stride in the direction of the governor, risking a small smile and an even smaller shrug in Kal-El's direction. His expression doesn't change.

Governor Becket waits until I'm just in front of her before holding out her right hand. "Hope you don't mind me springing this on you."

I carefully take her hand and pause for the pictures. "Not at all, Governor. I appreciate your timeliness."

"Okay, that should do it." I release my grip and she leads the way towards the exit. "No one's expecting the Gettysburg Address, but try and have something to say when we get out there."

"I'm sure I'll manage, Governor. If I may ask?" She glances back for a moment and nods. "I mean no offence, but I was rather under the impression that I would be receiving a Presidential pardon."

"You know, I took the actual phone call and I can still barely believe that Horne had the balls for this." She looks back again as we head towards the exit onto the street. "Murder's a State crime, Mister Grayven. The President pardons Federal crimes."

Whoops. Might need to.. bone up on the American legal system.

I nod. "So next time I kill them in DC. Got it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th March 2011

Freedom.

I deactivate my visual enhancements and take in the sheer blackness around me.

Behind me the sun of Earth is barely distinguishable from the rest of the starscape. I left planets behind almost one hundred thousand astronomical units ago. Technically I'm at the edge of the system's Oort Cloud, the furthest Sol's gravity meaningfully attracts foreign objects. Usually, this region is depicted as a dense cloud. As with 'asteroid thickets' this is complete nonsense. I wave my right hand in front of my face and watch as the yellow glow completely fails to pick out even the smallest mote of dust floating in the emptiness. No, this is only 'dusty' compared to a pure vacuum.

Although that's not to say this particular bit hasn't seen something of interest.

I reach out with my left hand and call the techno-Seed over to float in front of me. Scan. Father Box?

Ploong.

Inert. Depowered. But still useful. Subspace it. I have no use for a Brimstone -unless I particularly need to take the drudgery out of mass destruction- but the computer system which generates its mind will certainly be useful. The energy siphon? Hm, maybe.

I'm rather glad that the pardon covered me getting my stuff back. And amused to find that it does nothing to change my record. I've sent the surviving drones back to my Ceres facility. I strongly suspect that I'm going to need to do quite a bit of work on the place in the not too distant future. I'll need a new hush tube, and something to power it with. Worse, I am going to need to cut back on the orange ring use for the foreseeable future and I'm not sure how-.

Corpsman, I am beginning to think that you have an unfortunate fondness for dramatic gestures.

Oh, come now Sinestro. Can you imagine the look on Jordan's face?

In Universe Fifty Colonel Harold Jordan is a pilot in the American air force. I never met him and he never became a Green Lantern. Still, I would not be entirely displeased to observe the faces of whoever the local Green Lanterns are when they see this ring.

And not our version of Sinestro?

No.

I wait for a moment, but nothing else is forthcoming. Alright, think I'm about done here… Sinestro, zeta tube to the mountain.

It seems that your account has been cancelled. Would you like me to force a connection?

I smile. No, that's fine. I slide the yellow ring from my right forefinger and place it inside one of my armour's pouches. Father Box, boom tube.

10th March 2011
16:17 GMT -5

"…gunna… Walk in here." I float down onto the ground inside the mountain's kitchen and nod at my team mates sitting at the table. "Like nothing happened." Wallace slumps slightly as my presence contradicts him. "Hey Grayven."

"Afternoon Wallace. M'gann, Kon, Match, Mister Tawny, Ixy-."

**Hello Grayven! How was your murder?**

"Pretty good, thank you." I stroll over to the fridge and open it. "Zatanna, do you have a minute?"

She straightens slightly. Ugh, I'm gone for a week and everyone's forgotten how to keep a fridge stocked. "Um, yes? But are you supposed to be here? You did get.. convicted of murder."

"I'm a murderer, yes. Convicted? I think that implies the prosecution actually had to make an effort." I close the fridge. "Where's Kaldur? I wanted to talk to him about-."

M'gann stands. "He's on assignment in England with Tempest, Aquagirl and Celestial Archer."

"Oh. Whereabouts? I really want to-."

"Whatever it is, you can tell me."

I can? Ohh. "Oh, congratulations." Let's see. The mountain's systems should have registered me almost immediately, that sends a message to the Batcave and the Watchtower… They must know that they'd need Scott's help if they wanted to boom-proof this place… "Short version: I'm quitting the team to pursue my own projects. Wish you all the best but relations between myself and the League have deteriorated to the point-"

Warning: Will detected.

Where? Ah, thank you. "-where I don't think that further collaboration is practical. I'll send everyone contact details when I've decided where I'm going to live." The ring shows me Jordan, Nathaniel and Diana enter the mountain through the hangar zeta tube. "Obviously, I'll still be doing check-ups on everyone who's gone through the Awakening and I can be available at short notice if you actually need me for anything."

Kon nods, looking downcast. Match looks a little surprised before glancing at Wallace, who doesn't. Zatanna looks more puzzled. "I didn't think you could quit."

"Oh, let's be honest: it's not like they're going to want me around you-" The door from the hangar opens and the League members come through, Diana first. "-guys." I turn to face them. "No Batman? Do I have to give him my resignation in person, or will you pass it on?"

Nathaniel looks a little uncomfortable, inasmuch as I can read his body language while his skin is silver. He's the one I'd expect to have least problem with what I did. Jordan's ring is set to medium-glow and he's consciously reinforcing his environmental shield. He's never really been happy about me being here, wrong colour ring and all. Revealing what the Guardians did to the Martians just put the icing on the cake. Diana looks a little distant. I'm going to assume that she's got over her anger by now and is just… What, disappointed? No, saddened by the whole situation.

She makes eye contact with me and I smile politely. "Grayven, you're not resigning. You're going to stay here in the mountain. You're not going to leave unless you are directly supervised by a League member."

"I'm not sure that's a good-."

"That is an order."

I wait a moment to make sure that she's finished.



I jerk my head towards her and spread my arms out to the sides. "NO!" There's a small reaction from my audience. Surprise, and just a little… Hm. I straighten up, cocking my head to the side as if listening for something. "And listen to that."

"Listen to what?"

"The sound, Lantern Jordan, of giant scorpions not rushing here to kill me." I give Diana a slightly wiser smile. "Did you really think I'd put myself back under your authority?"

"You swore an oath."

"Yes. Fortunately, it had an escape clause." Diana's face visibly falls as she realises what I've done. "I gave Alan his lantern back half an hour ago. Now I'm a free agent again. And let's not mess around here; it was always a bit weird having a thirty year old man on the youth team." My eyes pass over the faces of the League members. "Anything else?"

There's no immediate response, so I turn away. Right, it shouldn't take long to pick up my-.

"You can tell me how you think your friends in the Light are going to react when they find out you can't recharge your power ring anymore. Exactly how happy do you think they'll be to have you on board when you can't fulfill your end of the bargain?"

Hm. Shall I?



Go ahead, Corpsman.

I spin on my heel, eyes glowing and yellow ring on my right forefinger, fist thrust in the Leaguers' direction.

Jordan's eyes widen.

"In blackest day or brightest night,
Beware your fears made into light,
Let those who try and stop what's right,
Burn with my power, Prince Grayven's might!"

My yellow lantern emerges from its subspace pocket for a moment, a yellow beam briefly connecting it to my ring.

"Recharge complete, Corpsman. Good to see you again, Jordan."

Jordan's face goes pale as I turn and walk out of the kitchen.