Chapter 39: Reincarnations
- Location
- Maryland
Chapter 39: Reincarnations
Cordelia opened her eyes, blinking at the light. Her vision was blurry at first, but eventually her eyes focused. She turned her head and looked around. She was in a plain, unfamiliar bedroom. Sunlight was streaming through the window, so it was daytime. There was also a familiar face asleep in a chair.
"Xander?" she asked.
He stirred from his nap and opened his eyes. "Cordy, you're awake!"
"What happened?" she murmured, trying to figure out what was going on. The room didn't look like a hospital room, but it also wasn't one of the rooms in the Hyperion, and she obviously wasn't in her room at home in her apartment.
Xander got a serious look on his face. "What's the last thing you remember?"
She paused and thought. She remembered that psycho blowing up Caritas, then Darla had dusted herself to give birth to Angel's son. They had gone back to the Hyperion...and come under attack. Then Angel had gone off to threaten Wolfram and Hart. Then...oh! Her eyes widened. She remembered her twenty-first birthday party, and collapsing, and then Skip had done the It's a Wonderful Life thing. "I collapsed from one of my visions at my birthday party. How long have I been unconscious?"
Xander winced. "It's complicated."
She looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Xander, how long was I out?" she asked more sternly.
"Your twenty-first birthday was about eighteen months ago," he said quickly.
"Eighteen months!" she shrieked. "Oh my god...where am I?" Was she in some kind of long-term care facility?
"Yeah, about that..." he started to answer.
At that point, Anya stuck her head into the room. "Hey, she's awake! Hi, Cordelia!" She smiled slightly manically.
Cordelia turned and looked at Xander's fiancee. "Hi, Anya." She turned back to Xander. "Xander where are we?"
"Oh, you haven't told her about the aliens yet?" asked Anya.
Xander put his head in his hands. "Not yet, Ahn."
"Xander?" said Cordelia, gritting her teeth.
He looked up from his hands. "Fine, Cordelia, we're on an alien planet. Gaia is the homeworld of a race called the Nox. They're pretty cool. We brought you here because you were in a coma in Los Angeles, and our hosts and some other friends had the technology to heal you."
Cordelia just stared at him, her mouth open. Finally, she asked, angrily, "Is this some kind of prank? It's not funny. Where's Angel?"
"I'm going to go get Ianthe!" said Anya as she quickly left.
"Angel's back in Los Angeles, but there's something you need to know about him," replied Xander.
Cordelia noticed in passing that she wasn't wearing a standard hospital gown. She was wearing a gown, but it seemed to be made of some kind of smooth, really comfortable natural fiber that she didn't recognize. That was actually quite surprising to the former fashion maven, enough to be distracting in her confused state. "What's that?" she said absently.
"He's the CEO now of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart," said Xander.
"Are you on drugs?" she asked, honestly wondering if he was delusional. "ANGEL is running Wolfram and Hart? You realize that they've been messing with him for years? Angel would never join them."
"He did it to save his son's life. A lot has happened in the last year-and-a-half. You should hear the whole story before you jump to conclusions," said Xander, trying to placate her.
"Fine. Tell me," she commanded.
Xander hesitated. "Anya went to get a doctor. We should wait until she's checked you out. Um, also, don't be freaked out by what the doctor looks like."
Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest. "Let me guess. She's an alien? What, is she a little grey alien with black buggy eyes?"
"Not quite," said a deep female voice from the doorway. Cordelia looked over...and stared at the giant purple lizard standing in the doorway. The idea of there being aliens suddenly wasn't so far-fetched. The lizard continued. "The aliens most like what you described are the Asgard, but there aren't any here right now. I'm Ianthe, by the way."
"Are you one of the Nox?" asked Cordelia quietly. To her credit, she was sublimating most of her rising panic at the giant carnivorous reptile. Part of her wondered if she wasn't far too accustomed to scary things.
The female lizard moved from the doorway to her bedside. "No, I'm part of a group we just call the Family. You're being hosted by the Nox. They're quite good at healing, but I want to check you out myself. If you give me your hand, I can check your health?"
Unsure what else to do, Cordelia held out her hand. She watched as Ianthe took it, then stared fascinated as little tendrils burrowed into the flesh of her hand.
"You're doing well. It looks like you've completely recovered physically. I'll clean up some of the after effects for being asleep for so long..." said Ianthe.
Cordelia immediately felt more alert and awake. "Wow, that's better than coffee. Have I really been asleep for eighteen months?"
"Less than a third of that, actually," answered Ianthe. The lizard looked at her with what Cordelia could strangely tell was sympathy. "From what I understand, when that demon grafted demonic DNA to your genetic structure, he opened you up to possession. A large part of the time before you went into a coma was actually spent either possessed or being heavily influenced by that possessor."
Cordelia started to panic, though she calmed fairly rapidly. At some point in the future, she would realize that Ianthe had probably calmed her through her healing ability. "Did I hurt anybody? What happened? Why can't I remember any of it?"
"A lot of things happened," said Anya. Cordelia looked over and saw that Anya was sitting next to Xander, holding his hand. "None of it was really your fault. It involved at least two prophecies, travel through time and to hell dimensions, an apocalypse, a fallen higher power, mind control and Wolfram and Hart." Xander had let her watch the episodes of the Angel television show.
"Wow," said Cordelia. "Is everybody OK?"
"Everybody is alive, but lot's of stuff happened," said Xander. "Gunn and Fred broke up. Wesley and Angel had a falling out over Angel's son and a mistaken prophecy. Connor was kidnapped, and that's a whole story that we need to go through..."
"Your team got hit by a memory spell and everybody went back to being a teenager for a day, even you," added Anya.
Cordelia winced at that. While seeing the others as teens might have been amusing, she had no doubt that her own behavior would have been every bit as embarrassing.
"We need to fill you in on what's happened...and some of it is going to be really painful," said Xander. "But we're going to need your help. Angel and the others are really working for Wolfram and Hart, and we need to pull them out before they end up dead...or worse."
Cordelia didn't need to ask what, "or worse," meant. She grew up in Sunnydale. Instead, she asked, "Who's we?"
"Us, Buffy, Faith, Giles, Willow, the baby slayers," said Xander. "Plus, we've got the Family and some extra help."
Cordelia looked back at Ianthe, who said, "The Family encountered Xander while he and some folks were lost in a different dimension, and we helped him find his home. We're also helping the Scoobies clean up a bunch of other issues."
"Huh," said Cordelia, trying to absorb everything that she had been told. "Wait, who are the baby slayers?"
"When we collapsed the hellmouth in Sunnydale, Willow cast a spell that activated all of the potential slayers, including the ones who had come to Sunnydale to escape killers that were trying to destroy the slayer line," explained Xander. "Now we have a bunch of slayers instead of just two."
"Willow's even dating one of them," added Anya.
Cordelia looked even more confused. "Did she break up with Tara?"
Xander's and Anya's eyes both widened, and they shared a look with each other.
"What?" asked Cordelia. "What happened?"
"Um..." started Xander. "Cordy, Tara was murdered not long after you collapsed at your birthday party."
"What? You said everybody was still alive! I mean, I didn't really know Tara, but Willow told me about her..." said Cordelia, horrified.
Xander winced. "I'm sorry. From our perspective, it happened more than a year ago. I meant everybody working with Angel is still alive."
"Did anybody else I know in Sunnydale die?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"Hard to say. You see, Sunnydale is kind of...gone...?" said Xander slightly hesitantly.
Cordelia just stared at the two of them for a moment. "Did anything else important happen while I was out of it?"
"Xander left me at the altar during our wedding," said Anya, "but then he died saving my life and I forgave him."
The former coma patient looked over at the lizard doctor and asked plaintively, "I am awake right now, right?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Harry got up from the bed where he and Karrin had been reading before sleep. Harry had a spell book loaned to him by Doctor Strange, while Karrin had a book on small unit tactics gifted to her by Natasha. The reading was interrupted by a knock on the door. Harry expected Willow, as either Bonnie or Maggie would have just burst in (which is why they had a lock on the door). Instead, it was Saurial, and the lizard woman was carrying a couple of boxes.
"Harry! I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Of course, Saurial would have known if she had been from her enhanced senses, but it would be rude to say so.
"No, just doing some studying," said Harry. He moved aside to let Saurial into the room. "What can I do for you?"
"Hi, Karrin," said Saurial, nodding to the woman. Karrin had put down her book and was watching from her perch on the bed, and she nodded back. "I have things for you. Beware lizards bearing gifts!"
"I think that's Greeks," said Karrin with a small smile.
Saurial paused for a moment as if considering, putting a clawed hand to her chin. "No, Ianthe and Metis are the Family members with Greek names. I'm pretty sure it applies to all lizards." Taylor's dad had certainly been slightly hesitant about his gift from the Family, despite how visually appealing she found it.
Harry looked at her boxes and asked, "What did you bring me? I'm afraid I didn't get you anything."
"No worries," she said with a grin. "First, you'll want to put these on." She opened up the smaller box and pulled out a pair of bracelets. "Hephaestus and Aphrodite agreed to provide gifts to the sons of Margaret Le Fay. These are yours."
Harry took the offered bracelets. They were thin bronze bands marked with a forge hammer in a repeating pattern, and he could tell they were magically powerful based upon the slight spark when he touched them. "What do they do?" he asked, intrigued.
"They should shield your magic so that it doesn't interfere with technology. Obviously, Family tech and some of your crewmates' tech is already immune, but those will let you use a normal cell phone or walk into a hospital without wiping out all of the heart monitors," explained Saurial.
Harry blinked his eyes, then looked down at the bracelets and said, "Cool!" He slid the two on his wrists, then watched as they shrunk down to grip his wrists tightly, before apparently fading out of existence. "What just happened?"
Saurial peered at his wrist, then shifted vision over to a mode that Varga suggested. "Interesting. They're still there. Try willing them to appear."
Dresden concentrated, and with just a tiny ounce of will, the bands came back. He then willed them back to their original size, and they both expanded to be large enough to remove. As an experiment, he stopped thinking about them, and the two contracted and vanished again. "Well, that's convenient."
"I wouldn't mind having a gun holster that worked that way," commented Karrin, impressed.
"That should be doable, actually," said Saurial. She thought about it for a second, then produced a small silver ring. "Here, try this on."
Karrin took the ring and slid it on her ring finger. "Now what?" asked the former police woman.
"Think about holding a security baton," suggested Saurial.
Karrin's hand flexed intuitively, and one of the Family's tactical batons appeared. Her eyes lit up, and she asked, "Can you make this work with a firearm?"
"Sure, but let me give Harry his other present," said Saurial. She opened up the second box and pulled out a laptop computer. "Harry, allow me to introduce you to the wonders of portable computing. I worked this up with Dragon. We thought you probably had some pop culture to catch up on, so this is pre-loaded with access to about forty different streaming and broadcast services across four different universes. Kevin and Randall also loaded up a good selection of video games."
Harry's mouth dropped open a bit, then his face broke into a smile. "Awesome! Thank you! I may even start to understand what Molly and my daughters are talking about."
Karrin was obviously less impressed. "Given how much time he's likely to spend on that thing now, you definitely owe me a ring holster."
"Not a problem," said the lizard woman with a smug grin. "I've got something for Willow, though, too, so I'll leave you two alone to explore Harry's present." She left the couple behind and went off to the other side of the apartments to find Willow and Kennedy.
"Oh, hey Saurial," said Kennedy as she opened the door. "What's up?"
"I have a gift for Willow," said Saurial.
Kennedy led Saurial in to where Willow was sitting at her desk, working on her laptop. Saurial pulled another box out of extradimensional storage as the redheaded witch looked up. "Delivery for Willow Rosenberg!" Willow snorted as she noticed the Western Union cap temporarily perched on Saurial's head.
Willow took the box and lifted the lid. "What's this?" she asked, puzzled. She obviously recognized Hecate's wheel on the ring, but there wasn't any other indication of its purpose.
"Somebody familiar with you created a ring that should help you keep your mind free of foreign influences. It's supposed to also warn you if you do anything in violation of the rules of magic," explained Saurial.
The witch considered that. "Which rules? I mean, I assume it's more than just the Wiccan rede. Is it the rules from Harry's universe?"
"I'm pretty sure the creator of the ring will let you know somehow," said the reptilian female in a more serious tone. "I'm also pretty sure there will be consequences for ignoring the warnings."
"Who created the ring?" asked Kennedy.
Saurial smiled. "Hecate." The resulting expressions on both young women's faces were quite amusing. "Speaking seriously, I'm quite sure that this ring will give you some powerful protections for your mind. I'm also equally sure that the goddess will take a dim view of any...careless actions."
Willow swallowed and nodded her head. "I guess I deserve that."
Saurial considered the witch. She knew that she and her girlfriend had been speaking with the Nox, which was better than Buffy had managed. She took pity on her. "It isn't all bad, Willow. That ring means that you don't have to doubt yourself as much. I'm pretty sure this means that Hecate is watching out for you." While the young woman had a tendency toward careless overconfidence with magic, she was equally and ironically also prone to self doubt. If the television show was at all accurate, then the girl's mother needed a talking to.
Saurial took her leave from the two women. Before she called for transport back to the ship, Harry appeared around the corner. "Saurial! I meant to ask you...you said Aphrodite had a gift for Thomas?" Given the vampire's reaction to true love, getting a gift from the goddess of love was...curious.
"Yep. You should call and ask him about it." Saurial triggered her communicator and said, "Beam me up, Irish." Just before the transporter beam engaged, she looked at Harry and said, "She gave him an amulet. I'm pretty sure it makes him immune to sunlight...but I don't know if he'll like the way his skin sparkles when he puts it on." With that, she disappeared.
Harry stood there for a second, before saying to the empty air, "But he's not that kind of vampire?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ramoth was satisfied with the progress made in absorbing Weyland-Yutani. Not every asset was immediately useful, however. The company still owned colonization rights to LV-426, but the terraforming colony of Hadley's Hope had been destroyed, as had the follow-up research base the company had established later to investigate the now-destroyed derelict spacecraft containing the xenomorph eggs. The AI had considered reopening the planet for colonization, but Sergeant Stone's broadcast had let the entire Sol system know about the atrocities committed there. The signing bonuses needed to attract new colonists to that particular location were likely to be prohibitive.
Having said that, habitable planets weren't so common in the galaxy that it made sense to leave it empty, even if the atmosphere still wasn't pleasant. The solution presented itself in the form of a request from Dragon to find a location for a shipyard and training facility. Somehow, the group from Xander Harris' universe had managed to acquire the assistance of several Goa'uld warships, including the Jaffa crew. The warships needed refitting, and the Jaffa and many of the new slayers needed training in the realities of demon-hunting. The DWU's tinker, Vectura, was also looking for a large construction slip for a starship for a pending project. Having a pariah planet available solved the need for real estate while also making it less likely that they would have to deal with trespassers.
The AI did a search and located an abandoned space station approximately fifteen light years from LV-426. She hired a bulk hauler to tow the station to its destination. Then she drafted up some plans for how to refit the station and hired a construction crew. Half of the crew would ride the station as it was being towed and work on the interiors, then the remainder would finish off the work in orbit of the destination. She also contracted to have the components for an orbital drydock big enough for Vectura's needs to be delivered. With any luck, the whole thing would be ready in less than a year.
As a double-check, Ramoth accessed the schematics for the Goa'uld Ha'tak. Her first impression was that Goa'uld aesthetics were somewhat lacking in taste. While the gold was excessive, the use of actual flaming torches and braziers in a starship was baffling. The plasma cannons were fairly impressive, and the hyperdrive and shields weren't terrible. The fighter craft were...just lame, and the standard kit for the Jaffa was like a mix of Ren-faire and Flash Gordon. For the sake of completeness, she added a work order for the construction of a concrete pyramid on the surface large enough to serve as a landing pad in case they wanted to ground one of the ships. While the ships could land without one, they needed the structural support if they wanted to shut down the main reactor while grounded.
She sent a note off to Dragon about the arrangements, then moved on to the next task in her queue. Setting up the arrangements had taken almost thirteen seconds, though some of that was communications lag. The next message was a status update from the subprocess tasked with looking for references to the Family's home universe. The program had actually located what appeared to be old fanfiction based on the original story (which was sadly still missing). It was buried in an archive of old personal Websites. There were two distinct complete stories. One was focused on Taylor Hebert and a group of antagonists at her school. The second was a slightly longer story involving the Undersiders, the ABB, various members of the Protectorate and Wards, and a scene with several unknown characters referred to as Numbers Man, Doctor Mother and Contessa interacting with a pair of the Triumvirate. Ramoth compressed the stories into a single file and sent it off to Metis for review.
Her next task was a request for a supply drop at the complex where Harry Dresden and his family were staying, including a rather surprising quantity of consumer electronics...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It was two o'clock in the morning, and Legend was standing next to Emily Piggot and Armsmaster. Around them were arrayed the other members of the Protectorate ENE, as well as a large group of PRT troopers armed with a full loadout. Also present were Raptaur, Saurial, Ianthe and Metis...and the four lizards were discussing something among themselves.
{We have a bit of a problem,} said Saurial. {Apart from Coil and his mercenaries, the Travelers are in residence as well...and one of them is a massive Case 53 locked in a vault in the basement.}
Ianthe and Metis shared a glance. {What do we know about the Travelers?} asked Ianthe.
Metis consulted a data tablet. {Trickster is the leader and a swap teleporter. Ballistic is a blaster who can turn objects into bullets. Sundancer can summon a miniature star. Genesis is a shifter of some kind.}
{There is a young man and a young woman in a wheelchair, neither of whom are in costume. Either of them may be Genesis,} suggested Raptaur.
{The Case 53 has been seen elsewhere, though she hasn't been connected with the Travelers before now,} continued Metis. {She apparently eats people whole.}
Saurial frowned. {There's another factor. When I scanned the Case 53 with my tricorder, it flagged the fact that she's not from this dimension. In fact, none of the Travelers are from here.}
{I don't believe we have time to play with Mr. Calvert this time,} said Raptaur. {Between the Travelers and Dinah Alcott, it would be best to handle this as quickly as possible.}
The reptiles all came to a common understanding, and Saurial went over to Legend, Piggot and Armsmaster. "Something has come up. We need ten minutes."
Legend shared a glance with Piggot and Armsmaster. "Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Legend.
"No, just be prepared to move in for clean up when we tell you," said Saurial.
"Wait...what?" said Piggot, but the lizards were suddenly gone. There was a pause, then she continued, "Where the hell did they go?"
Armsmaster spoke into his microphone. "All units, does anybody see the Family?" After listening to the responses, he shook his head. "Nothing."
"I can take to the air and see if I can find them," said Legend, "but that would almost certainly alert Coil and his men that we're here."
"We could wait," suggested Armsmaster. "Ten minutes is not that long a delay."
Piggot pursed her lips together, obviously unhappy but not wanting to compromise the mission. "Fine. We give them ten minutes."
They waited in silence for a couple of minutes before Legend asked, "How long did it take you to deal with the sabotage to the PRT and Protectorate networks, Armsmaster?"
The armored cape looked up from his tablet. "Four days. It would have taken a lot longer if the Family hadn't given Dragon and me a list of all of the exploits that were discovered in their universe. Their version of Coil apparently used the exact same methods to compromise their network as ours. It's an interesting point of commonality between our two universes."
"Yet we strangely don't seem to have a native family of giant lizards," commented Piggot. "I have to say I preferred it that way."
Legend turned away to hide a smile, then said, "Honestly, Emily, the Family didn't cause the situation with Coil. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn't filled us in on the details."
"I don't trust things that seem too fortunate, Legend," complained Piggot. "It's too convenient that they show up out of nowhere, chase off an Endbringer, of all things, and hand us what we need to take down a local super villain."
Legend regarded her with a small frown. "You do realize that they're the reason Brockton Bay recovered so quickly from Leviathan's attack?"
Emily's brow pinched in puzzlement. "I know they helped with some of the cleanup, but they didn't stay for that long."
"Actually, Legend is correct," commented Armsmaster. "Dragon sent me before and after photos from right after the Leviathan attack and then from after the Family were done. They actually repaired almost all of the critical infrastructure in Brockton Bay in an impressively efficient manner."
"How badly damaged was it before they fixed it?" asked Piggot.
Armsmaster considered the question. "Without them, some parts of the city would probably still be without power and clean water, and the damage to transport and medical facilities would almost certainly have resulted in additional deaths."
Emily Piggot wasn't a fan of capes in general. She was less of a fan of toothy nonhuman creatures. Legend was one of the few capes she respected, however, and having Armsmaster refer to something as, "impressively efficient," was high praise from him. "I'll withhold judgement for now," she replied, "assuming they help us capture Coil as promised."
The three of them waited another three minutes, when suddenly the Family were there in front of them. Emily started, much to her annoyance, and even Armsmaster's eyes widened noticeably. The purple lizard, Ianthe, had a young girl in her arms, while Raptaur was carrying a tall, thin man in a white costume like a sack of potatoes.
Ianthe quickly said, "I need medical assistance here." Two PRT medics moved forward to take the girl from the giant lizard. "Coil addicted her to a cocktail of tinker tech drugs. I've removed the physical addiction and the side-effects and sedated her. She is going to need psychological counseling to deal with her experiences, though."
"We'll see to that," confirmed Legend.
"This," said Raptaur, "is Coil, otherwise known as Thomas Calvert." The lizard dropped the unconscious villain to the floor.
Emily Piggot stepped forward, reached down, and pulled off the mask. "Son of a bitch," she said with a certain degree of satisfaction. She looked up at Raptaur and asked, "What about the rest of his men?"
"We've disabled the booby traps on the entrance. All of his mercenaries have been sedated and restrained. Be warned that Coil has a long escape tunnel that leads to the Bay. We haven't had a chance yet to disable the traps there, and they are lethal. We can help with that, but we also need to go disable the traps on a couple of backup server sites around the city," explained Raptaur.
Emily looked at Armsmaster. "Armsmaster, go." The tinker nodded and started to get PRT troops moving into the base.
"Legend," said Saurial quietly. "I need to speak with you about something in private. It relates to our last topic of conversation."
Legend controlled his reaction, but nodded and said, "Meet me on the roof."
After making an excuse to Emily, Legend flew up to the top of the high-rise that held their staging area. Saurial was already waiting for him.
"Coil had a team known as the Travelers in residence. We've taken them into custody," started Saurial.
Legend quirked an eyebrow. "You took them into custody? You didn't just sedate them and leave them for the PRT?"
"We took them, and there are three reasons for that. The first is that one of them is a Case 53 who is an S-class threat," explained Saurial. "The second is that the Travelers are not from this dimension. The third is that all of the Travelers are Cauldron capes, including the Case 53."
It took a moment for the Protectorate leader to recover his composure. He considered what Saurial was saying, and asked, "Are you saying they're from your dimension?"
"No...they're different from both of our dimensions," said Saurial. "We have them sedated, but we're going to be asking them some very pointed questions. We'll be happy to share what we learn with you, but we need you to cover for us with Piggot, and more importantly, Costa-Brown."
Legend regarded Saurial cautiously. "You realize I have no authority over the PRT?"
Saurial smiled in a disquieting fashion. "We know. However, I believe you do have some influence over Alexandria?"
The blue-and-white clad hero stared hard at Saurial, wondering if the lizard woman was really implying what he thought she was implying. He found her knowing gaze was likely a confirmation, apart from being disquieting. "I'll do what I can," he agreed.
The rest of the morning was almost anticlimactic as the mercenaries, each helpfully labeled with a name and rank on their clothing, were taken into custody. Oddly, one of Coil's medical staff was simply labeled, "Asshole," as a rank, and also seemed to be the only one both aware of what had happened and thoroughly traumatized by it. Interrogating the other mercenaries made it clear that he was in charge of drugging Alcott, something the Family apparently took exception to.
Legend contacted Alexandria and managed to convince her to cover for the disappearance of the Travelers, albeit only by promising her an explanation later. Telling her it was Cauldron business helped quite a lot. Emily Piggot was suspicious, but that was offset by an evil glee at having Calvert in custody with enough evidence to put him away forever. She was only grudgingly accepting when the Undersiders showed up at PRT headquarters the next morning to turn themselves in, with the only explanation being, "Metis told us to."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The entire Justice League (well, almost all of them) were meeting on the Watchtower to meet with Guy Gardner and John Stewart, both of whom had just returned from Oa. Interestingly, both men were wearing a modified Green Lantern uniform that had elements of green and blue with white accents.
"Welcome back, gentlemen. Can you tell us what's been happening with the Guardians?" said Superman in his normal, polite tone.
Guy and John shared a glance, but John started to speak at Guy's nod. "A lot of things have changed," began the Lantern. "The Guardians have recovered from their changes." Dealing with a Guardian who was anything but coolly logical had been a little disconcerting at first. Having one demonstrate a sense of humor was downright disturbing to John, not that he said anything about it to the Guardian in question. "They've reorganized the Corps and changed our priorities."
"Reorganized how?" asked Batman.
"While some Lanterns are still responsible for sectors, others are being reassigned to specific specialties. Guy is still this sector's Lantern, but I'm now the Lantern responsible for Earth Matters," explained John.
"Earth matters? How is that different from this sector?" asked Flash.
J'onn frowned and said, "There are more planets in this sector than just Earth, you know?"
Flash winced at the Martian's comment. "Right, sorry..." he said awkwardly.
"I don't know if you've noticed," said Guy, "but this planet seems to have an unusual number of reality-spanning threats, alien invasions, dimensional breeches and other weirdness."
Stewart continued. "Earth is one of a small number of locations that the Guardians refer to as a nexus...a place where for whatever reason, a large number of crises occur on a regular basis. I'm now specifically responsible for Nexus Earth."
"Doesn't the League already focus on Earth?" asked Wonder Woman. "While we don't restrict ourselves to just Earth, the vast majority of our work is here."
"The role of the Corps has changed slightly. While we're still tasked with enforcing the law, our prime directive now is to look out for events involving time travel, dimensional breeches, or other events that threaten the stability of our universe and notify the Guardians in case they need to intervene. The Green Lantern Corps is now known as the Guardian Lantern Corps," explained Stewart.
"Is that the reason for the new uniforms?" asked Zatanna.
John nodded. "Yes, the colors of the new uniforms represent a mixture of willpower, hope and life."
"The weakness to yellow is finally gone, too," added Guy with a certain smug satisfaction.
Batman typed something into a computer pad. "We'll have to run some tests to see how you perform now that your abilities have been enhanced," commented the Gotham vigilante. "Is that all that's changed?"
"The Guardians are trying to bring in the other Lantern Corps, even the Yellow and Red. They're also reaching out to the Family for assistance with redeeming the Manhunters, a group of robots created by the Guardians that predate the Green Lantern Corps," said Stewart. "They're also going to be sending delegations to various worlds to negotiate responsibilities for law enforcement."
"And they're creating a prison to hold criminals that can't be held by local law enforcement," contributed Guy. "For some reason, they call it the Birdcage."
Batman narrowed his eyes. "How are they going to determine which criminals go there?" There were a number of repeat offenders in Gotham that could arguably be described as immune to imprisonment, and he was not looking forward to having Lanterns trespassing in his city.
Stewart looked at Batman, suspecting the man's concern. "That's part of the negotiation, and the expectation for Earth is that the League will be part of that." He looked over at Superman. "One caveat is that it won't apply to head's of state of foreign polities, so Darkseid would be off limits." Superman just nodded his head in understanding.
"Anything else?" asked Aquaman. He wondered how the negotiations would deal with a balkanized world like Earth, and whether Atlantis would be invited to the table.
"One more thing," said Stewart with a sigh. This was the part he was dreading. "The Guardians would like to have a summit of representatives from major worlds for an annual meeting to discuss matters of consequence. They've chosen a representative for Earth."
There was an extended pause while the members of the League waited for Stewart to tell them the name. Finally, Green Arrow lost patience and prompted, "Well? Who is it?"
Stewart closed his eyes, and said, "Plastic Man."
"WHAT!" said the hero in question, his jaw quite literally dropping to the ground with his tongue hanging out.
Gardner snorted. "Turns out Ganthet was a massive practical joker before he lost most of his emotions. He's actually a big fan of Plas."
Plastic Man shifted his appearance to an Elvis caricature and said, "Uh, thank you! Thank you very much!"
John Stewart could swear he could hear Batman grinding his teeth.
Cordelia opened her eyes, blinking at the light. Her vision was blurry at first, but eventually her eyes focused. She turned her head and looked around. She was in a plain, unfamiliar bedroom. Sunlight was streaming through the window, so it was daytime. There was also a familiar face asleep in a chair.
"Xander?" she asked.
He stirred from his nap and opened his eyes. "Cordy, you're awake!"
"What happened?" she murmured, trying to figure out what was going on. The room didn't look like a hospital room, but it also wasn't one of the rooms in the Hyperion, and she obviously wasn't in her room at home in her apartment.
Xander got a serious look on his face. "What's the last thing you remember?"
She paused and thought. She remembered that psycho blowing up Caritas, then Darla had dusted herself to give birth to Angel's son. They had gone back to the Hyperion...and come under attack. Then Angel had gone off to threaten Wolfram and Hart. Then...oh! Her eyes widened. She remembered her twenty-first birthday party, and collapsing, and then Skip had done the It's a Wonderful Life thing. "I collapsed from one of my visions at my birthday party. How long have I been unconscious?"
Xander winced. "It's complicated."
She looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Xander, how long was I out?" she asked more sternly.
"Your twenty-first birthday was about eighteen months ago," he said quickly.
"Eighteen months!" she shrieked. "Oh my god...where am I?" Was she in some kind of long-term care facility?
"Yeah, about that..." he started to answer.
At that point, Anya stuck her head into the room. "Hey, she's awake! Hi, Cordelia!" She smiled slightly manically.
Cordelia turned and looked at Xander's fiancee. "Hi, Anya." She turned back to Xander. "Xander where are we?"
"Oh, you haven't told her about the aliens yet?" asked Anya.
Xander put his head in his hands. "Not yet, Ahn."
"Xander?" said Cordelia, gritting her teeth.
He looked up from his hands. "Fine, Cordelia, we're on an alien planet. Gaia is the homeworld of a race called the Nox. They're pretty cool. We brought you here because you were in a coma in Los Angeles, and our hosts and some other friends had the technology to heal you."
Cordelia just stared at him, her mouth open. Finally, she asked, angrily, "Is this some kind of prank? It's not funny. Where's Angel?"
"I'm going to go get Ianthe!" said Anya as she quickly left.
"Angel's back in Los Angeles, but there's something you need to know about him," replied Xander.
Cordelia noticed in passing that she wasn't wearing a standard hospital gown. She was wearing a gown, but it seemed to be made of some kind of smooth, really comfortable natural fiber that she didn't recognize. That was actually quite surprising to the former fashion maven, enough to be distracting in her confused state. "What's that?" she said absently.
"He's the CEO now of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart," said Xander.
"Are you on drugs?" she asked, honestly wondering if he was delusional. "ANGEL is running Wolfram and Hart? You realize that they've been messing with him for years? Angel would never join them."
"He did it to save his son's life. A lot has happened in the last year-and-a-half. You should hear the whole story before you jump to conclusions," said Xander, trying to placate her.
"Fine. Tell me," she commanded.
Xander hesitated. "Anya went to get a doctor. We should wait until she's checked you out. Um, also, don't be freaked out by what the doctor looks like."
Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest. "Let me guess. She's an alien? What, is she a little grey alien with black buggy eyes?"
"Not quite," said a deep female voice from the doorway. Cordelia looked over...and stared at the giant purple lizard standing in the doorway. The idea of there being aliens suddenly wasn't so far-fetched. The lizard continued. "The aliens most like what you described are the Asgard, but there aren't any here right now. I'm Ianthe, by the way."
"Are you one of the Nox?" asked Cordelia quietly. To her credit, she was sublimating most of her rising panic at the giant carnivorous reptile. Part of her wondered if she wasn't far too accustomed to scary things.
The female lizard moved from the doorway to her bedside. "No, I'm part of a group we just call the Family. You're being hosted by the Nox. They're quite good at healing, but I want to check you out myself. If you give me your hand, I can check your health?"
Unsure what else to do, Cordelia held out her hand. She watched as Ianthe took it, then stared fascinated as little tendrils burrowed into the flesh of her hand.
"You're doing well. It looks like you've completely recovered physically. I'll clean up some of the after effects for being asleep for so long..." said Ianthe.
Cordelia immediately felt more alert and awake. "Wow, that's better than coffee. Have I really been asleep for eighteen months?"
"Less than a third of that, actually," answered Ianthe. The lizard looked at her with what Cordelia could strangely tell was sympathy. "From what I understand, when that demon grafted demonic DNA to your genetic structure, he opened you up to possession. A large part of the time before you went into a coma was actually spent either possessed or being heavily influenced by that possessor."
Cordelia started to panic, though she calmed fairly rapidly. At some point in the future, she would realize that Ianthe had probably calmed her through her healing ability. "Did I hurt anybody? What happened? Why can't I remember any of it?"
"A lot of things happened," said Anya. Cordelia looked over and saw that Anya was sitting next to Xander, holding his hand. "None of it was really your fault. It involved at least two prophecies, travel through time and to hell dimensions, an apocalypse, a fallen higher power, mind control and Wolfram and Hart." Xander had let her watch the episodes of the Angel television show.
"Wow," said Cordelia. "Is everybody OK?"
"Everybody is alive, but lot's of stuff happened," said Xander. "Gunn and Fred broke up. Wesley and Angel had a falling out over Angel's son and a mistaken prophecy. Connor was kidnapped, and that's a whole story that we need to go through..."
"Your team got hit by a memory spell and everybody went back to being a teenager for a day, even you," added Anya.
Cordelia winced at that. While seeing the others as teens might have been amusing, she had no doubt that her own behavior would have been every bit as embarrassing.
"We need to fill you in on what's happened...and some of it is going to be really painful," said Xander. "But we're going to need your help. Angel and the others are really working for Wolfram and Hart, and we need to pull them out before they end up dead...or worse."
Cordelia didn't need to ask what, "or worse," meant. She grew up in Sunnydale. Instead, she asked, "Who's we?"
"Us, Buffy, Faith, Giles, Willow, the baby slayers," said Xander. "Plus, we've got the Family and some extra help."
Cordelia looked back at Ianthe, who said, "The Family encountered Xander while he and some folks were lost in a different dimension, and we helped him find his home. We're also helping the Scoobies clean up a bunch of other issues."
"Huh," said Cordelia, trying to absorb everything that she had been told. "Wait, who are the baby slayers?"
"When we collapsed the hellmouth in Sunnydale, Willow cast a spell that activated all of the potential slayers, including the ones who had come to Sunnydale to escape killers that were trying to destroy the slayer line," explained Xander. "Now we have a bunch of slayers instead of just two."
"Willow's even dating one of them," added Anya.
Cordelia looked even more confused. "Did she break up with Tara?"
Xander's and Anya's eyes both widened, and they shared a look with each other.
"What?" asked Cordelia. "What happened?"
"Um..." started Xander. "Cordy, Tara was murdered not long after you collapsed at your birthday party."
"What? You said everybody was still alive! I mean, I didn't really know Tara, but Willow told me about her..." said Cordelia, horrified.
Xander winced. "I'm sorry. From our perspective, it happened more than a year ago. I meant everybody working with Angel is still alive."
"Did anybody else I know in Sunnydale die?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"Hard to say. You see, Sunnydale is kind of...gone...?" said Xander slightly hesitantly.
Cordelia just stared at the two of them for a moment. "Did anything else important happen while I was out of it?"
"Xander left me at the altar during our wedding," said Anya, "but then he died saving my life and I forgave him."
The former coma patient looked over at the lizard doctor and asked plaintively, "I am awake right now, right?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Harry got up from the bed where he and Karrin had been reading before sleep. Harry had a spell book loaned to him by Doctor Strange, while Karrin had a book on small unit tactics gifted to her by Natasha. The reading was interrupted by a knock on the door. Harry expected Willow, as either Bonnie or Maggie would have just burst in (which is why they had a lock on the door). Instead, it was Saurial, and the lizard woman was carrying a couple of boxes.
"Harry! I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Of course, Saurial would have known if she had been from her enhanced senses, but it would be rude to say so.
"No, just doing some studying," said Harry. He moved aside to let Saurial into the room. "What can I do for you?"
"Hi, Karrin," said Saurial, nodding to the woman. Karrin had put down her book and was watching from her perch on the bed, and she nodded back. "I have things for you. Beware lizards bearing gifts!"
"I think that's Greeks," said Karrin with a small smile.
Saurial paused for a moment as if considering, putting a clawed hand to her chin. "No, Ianthe and Metis are the Family members with Greek names. I'm pretty sure it applies to all lizards." Taylor's dad had certainly been slightly hesitant about his gift from the Family, despite how visually appealing she found it.
Harry looked at her boxes and asked, "What did you bring me? I'm afraid I didn't get you anything."
"No worries," she said with a grin. "First, you'll want to put these on." She opened up the smaller box and pulled out a pair of bracelets. "Hephaestus and Aphrodite agreed to provide gifts to the sons of Margaret Le Fay. These are yours."
Harry took the offered bracelets. They were thin bronze bands marked with a forge hammer in a repeating pattern, and he could tell they were magically powerful based upon the slight spark when he touched them. "What do they do?" he asked, intrigued.
"They should shield your magic so that it doesn't interfere with technology. Obviously, Family tech and some of your crewmates' tech is already immune, but those will let you use a normal cell phone or walk into a hospital without wiping out all of the heart monitors," explained Saurial.
Harry blinked his eyes, then looked down at the bracelets and said, "Cool!" He slid the two on his wrists, then watched as they shrunk down to grip his wrists tightly, before apparently fading out of existence. "What just happened?"
Saurial peered at his wrist, then shifted vision over to a mode that Varga suggested. "Interesting. They're still there. Try willing them to appear."
Dresden concentrated, and with just a tiny ounce of will, the bands came back. He then willed them back to their original size, and they both expanded to be large enough to remove. As an experiment, he stopped thinking about them, and the two contracted and vanished again. "Well, that's convenient."
"I wouldn't mind having a gun holster that worked that way," commented Karrin, impressed.
"That should be doable, actually," said Saurial. She thought about it for a second, then produced a small silver ring. "Here, try this on."
Karrin took the ring and slid it on her ring finger. "Now what?" asked the former police woman.
"Think about holding a security baton," suggested Saurial.
Karrin's hand flexed intuitively, and one of the Family's tactical batons appeared. Her eyes lit up, and she asked, "Can you make this work with a firearm?"
"Sure, but let me give Harry his other present," said Saurial. She opened up the second box and pulled out a laptop computer. "Harry, allow me to introduce you to the wonders of portable computing. I worked this up with Dragon. We thought you probably had some pop culture to catch up on, so this is pre-loaded with access to about forty different streaming and broadcast services across four different universes. Kevin and Randall also loaded up a good selection of video games."
Harry's mouth dropped open a bit, then his face broke into a smile. "Awesome! Thank you! I may even start to understand what Molly and my daughters are talking about."
Karrin was obviously less impressed. "Given how much time he's likely to spend on that thing now, you definitely owe me a ring holster."
"Not a problem," said the lizard woman with a smug grin. "I've got something for Willow, though, too, so I'll leave you two alone to explore Harry's present." She left the couple behind and went off to the other side of the apartments to find Willow and Kennedy.
"Oh, hey Saurial," said Kennedy as she opened the door. "What's up?"
"I have a gift for Willow," said Saurial.
Kennedy led Saurial in to where Willow was sitting at her desk, working on her laptop. Saurial pulled another box out of extradimensional storage as the redheaded witch looked up. "Delivery for Willow Rosenberg!" Willow snorted as she noticed the Western Union cap temporarily perched on Saurial's head.
Willow took the box and lifted the lid. "What's this?" she asked, puzzled. She obviously recognized Hecate's wheel on the ring, but there wasn't any other indication of its purpose.
"Somebody familiar with you created a ring that should help you keep your mind free of foreign influences. It's supposed to also warn you if you do anything in violation of the rules of magic," explained Saurial.
The witch considered that. "Which rules? I mean, I assume it's more than just the Wiccan rede. Is it the rules from Harry's universe?"
"I'm pretty sure the creator of the ring will let you know somehow," said the reptilian female in a more serious tone. "I'm also pretty sure there will be consequences for ignoring the warnings."
"Who created the ring?" asked Kennedy.
Saurial smiled. "Hecate." The resulting expressions on both young women's faces were quite amusing. "Speaking seriously, I'm quite sure that this ring will give you some powerful protections for your mind. I'm also equally sure that the goddess will take a dim view of any...careless actions."
Willow swallowed and nodded her head. "I guess I deserve that."
Saurial considered the witch. She knew that she and her girlfriend had been speaking with the Nox, which was better than Buffy had managed. She took pity on her. "It isn't all bad, Willow. That ring means that you don't have to doubt yourself as much. I'm pretty sure this means that Hecate is watching out for you." While the young woman had a tendency toward careless overconfidence with magic, she was equally and ironically also prone to self doubt. If the television show was at all accurate, then the girl's mother needed a talking to.
Saurial took her leave from the two women. Before she called for transport back to the ship, Harry appeared around the corner. "Saurial! I meant to ask you...you said Aphrodite had a gift for Thomas?" Given the vampire's reaction to true love, getting a gift from the goddess of love was...curious.
"Yep. You should call and ask him about it." Saurial triggered her communicator and said, "Beam me up, Irish." Just before the transporter beam engaged, she looked at Harry and said, "She gave him an amulet. I'm pretty sure it makes him immune to sunlight...but I don't know if he'll like the way his skin sparkles when he puts it on." With that, she disappeared.
Harry stood there for a second, before saying to the empty air, "But he's not that kind of vampire?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ramoth was satisfied with the progress made in absorbing Weyland-Yutani. Not every asset was immediately useful, however. The company still owned colonization rights to LV-426, but the terraforming colony of Hadley's Hope had been destroyed, as had the follow-up research base the company had established later to investigate the now-destroyed derelict spacecraft containing the xenomorph eggs. The AI had considered reopening the planet for colonization, but Sergeant Stone's broadcast had let the entire Sol system know about the atrocities committed there. The signing bonuses needed to attract new colonists to that particular location were likely to be prohibitive.
Having said that, habitable planets weren't so common in the galaxy that it made sense to leave it empty, even if the atmosphere still wasn't pleasant. The solution presented itself in the form of a request from Dragon to find a location for a shipyard and training facility. Somehow, the group from Xander Harris' universe had managed to acquire the assistance of several Goa'uld warships, including the Jaffa crew. The warships needed refitting, and the Jaffa and many of the new slayers needed training in the realities of demon-hunting. The DWU's tinker, Vectura, was also looking for a large construction slip for a starship for a pending project. Having a pariah planet available solved the need for real estate while also making it less likely that they would have to deal with trespassers.
The AI did a search and located an abandoned space station approximately fifteen light years from LV-426. She hired a bulk hauler to tow the station to its destination. Then she drafted up some plans for how to refit the station and hired a construction crew. Half of the crew would ride the station as it was being towed and work on the interiors, then the remainder would finish off the work in orbit of the destination. She also contracted to have the components for an orbital drydock big enough for Vectura's needs to be delivered. With any luck, the whole thing would be ready in less than a year.
As a double-check, Ramoth accessed the schematics for the Goa'uld Ha'tak. Her first impression was that Goa'uld aesthetics were somewhat lacking in taste. While the gold was excessive, the use of actual flaming torches and braziers in a starship was baffling. The plasma cannons were fairly impressive, and the hyperdrive and shields weren't terrible. The fighter craft were...just lame, and the standard kit for the Jaffa was like a mix of Ren-faire and Flash Gordon. For the sake of completeness, she added a work order for the construction of a concrete pyramid on the surface large enough to serve as a landing pad in case they wanted to ground one of the ships. While the ships could land without one, they needed the structural support if they wanted to shut down the main reactor while grounded.
She sent a note off to Dragon about the arrangements, then moved on to the next task in her queue. Setting up the arrangements had taken almost thirteen seconds, though some of that was communications lag. The next message was a status update from the subprocess tasked with looking for references to the Family's home universe. The program had actually located what appeared to be old fanfiction based on the original story (which was sadly still missing). It was buried in an archive of old personal Websites. There were two distinct complete stories. One was focused on Taylor Hebert and a group of antagonists at her school. The second was a slightly longer story involving the Undersiders, the ABB, various members of the Protectorate and Wards, and a scene with several unknown characters referred to as Numbers Man, Doctor Mother and Contessa interacting with a pair of the Triumvirate. Ramoth compressed the stories into a single file and sent it off to Metis for review.
Her next task was a request for a supply drop at the complex where Harry Dresden and his family were staying, including a rather surprising quantity of consumer electronics...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It was two o'clock in the morning, and Legend was standing next to Emily Piggot and Armsmaster. Around them were arrayed the other members of the Protectorate ENE, as well as a large group of PRT troopers armed with a full loadout. Also present were Raptaur, Saurial, Ianthe and Metis...and the four lizards were discussing something among themselves.
{We have a bit of a problem,} said Saurial. {Apart from Coil and his mercenaries, the Travelers are in residence as well...and one of them is a massive Case 53 locked in a vault in the basement.}
Ianthe and Metis shared a glance. {What do we know about the Travelers?} asked Ianthe.
Metis consulted a data tablet. {Trickster is the leader and a swap teleporter. Ballistic is a blaster who can turn objects into bullets. Sundancer can summon a miniature star. Genesis is a shifter of some kind.}
{There is a young man and a young woman in a wheelchair, neither of whom are in costume. Either of them may be Genesis,} suggested Raptaur.
{The Case 53 has been seen elsewhere, though she hasn't been connected with the Travelers before now,} continued Metis. {She apparently eats people whole.}
Saurial frowned. {There's another factor. When I scanned the Case 53 with my tricorder, it flagged the fact that she's not from this dimension. In fact, none of the Travelers are from here.}
{I don't believe we have time to play with Mr. Calvert this time,} said Raptaur. {Between the Travelers and Dinah Alcott, it would be best to handle this as quickly as possible.}
The reptiles all came to a common understanding, and Saurial went over to Legend, Piggot and Armsmaster. "Something has come up. We need ten minutes."
Legend shared a glance with Piggot and Armsmaster. "Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Legend.
"No, just be prepared to move in for clean up when we tell you," said Saurial.
"Wait...what?" said Piggot, but the lizards were suddenly gone. There was a pause, then she continued, "Where the hell did they go?"
Armsmaster spoke into his microphone. "All units, does anybody see the Family?" After listening to the responses, he shook his head. "Nothing."
"I can take to the air and see if I can find them," said Legend, "but that would almost certainly alert Coil and his men that we're here."
"We could wait," suggested Armsmaster. "Ten minutes is not that long a delay."
Piggot pursed her lips together, obviously unhappy but not wanting to compromise the mission. "Fine. We give them ten minutes."
They waited in silence for a couple of minutes before Legend asked, "How long did it take you to deal with the sabotage to the PRT and Protectorate networks, Armsmaster?"
The armored cape looked up from his tablet. "Four days. It would have taken a lot longer if the Family hadn't given Dragon and me a list of all of the exploits that were discovered in their universe. Their version of Coil apparently used the exact same methods to compromise their network as ours. It's an interesting point of commonality between our two universes."
"Yet we strangely don't seem to have a native family of giant lizards," commented Piggot. "I have to say I preferred it that way."
Legend turned away to hide a smile, then said, "Honestly, Emily, the Family didn't cause the situation with Coil. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn't filled us in on the details."
"I don't trust things that seem too fortunate, Legend," complained Piggot. "It's too convenient that they show up out of nowhere, chase off an Endbringer, of all things, and hand us what we need to take down a local super villain."
Legend regarded her with a small frown. "You do realize that they're the reason Brockton Bay recovered so quickly from Leviathan's attack?"
Emily's brow pinched in puzzlement. "I know they helped with some of the cleanup, but they didn't stay for that long."
"Actually, Legend is correct," commented Armsmaster. "Dragon sent me before and after photos from right after the Leviathan attack and then from after the Family were done. They actually repaired almost all of the critical infrastructure in Brockton Bay in an impressively efficient manner."
"How badly damaged was it before they fixed it?" asked Piggot.
Armsmaster considered the question. "Without them, some parts of the city would probably still be without power and clean water, and the damage to transport and medical facilities would almost certainly have resulted in additional deaths."
Emily Piggot wasn't a fan of capes in general. She was less of a fan of toothy nonhuman creatures. Legend was one of the few capes she respected, however, and having Armsmaster refer to something as, "impressively efficient," was high praise from him. "I'll withhold judgement for now," she replied, "assuming they help us capture Coil as promised."
The three of them waited another three minutes, when suddenly the Family were there in front of them. Emily started, much to her annoyance, and even Armsmaster's eyes widened noticeably. The purple lizard, Ianthe, had a young girl in her arms, while Raptaur was carrying a tall, thin man in a white costume like a sack of potatoes.
Ianthe quickly said, "I need medical assistance here." Two PRT medics moved forward to take the girl from the giant lizard. "Coil addicted her to a cocktail of tinker tech drugs. I've removed the physical addiction and the side-effects and sedated her. She is going to need psychological counseling to deal with her experiences, though."
"We'll see to that," confirmed Legend.
"This," said Raptaur, "is Coil, otherwise known as Thomas Calvert." The lizard dropped the unconscious villain to the floor.
Emily Piggot stepped forward, reached down, and pulled off the mask. "Son of a bitch," she said with a certain degree of satisfaction. She looked up at Raptaur and asked, "What about the rest of his men?"
"We've disabled the booby traps on the entrance. All of his mercenaries have been sedated and restrained. Be warned that Coil has a long escape tunnel that leads to the Bay. We haven't had a chance yet to disable the traps there, and they are lethal. We can help with that, but we also need to go disable the traps on a couple of backup server sites around the city," explained Raptaur.
Emily looked at Armsmaster. "Armsmaster, go." The tinker nodded and started to get PRT troops moving into the base.
"Legend," said Saurial quietly. "I need to speak with you about something in private. It relates to our last topic of conversation."
Legend controlled his reaction, but nodded and said, "Meet me on the roof."
After making an excuse to Emily, Legend flew up to the top of the high-rise that held their staging area. Saurial was already waiting for him.
"Coil had a team known as the Travelers in residence. We've taken them into custody," started Saurial.
Legend quirked an eyebrow. "You took them into custody? You didn't just sedate them and leave them for the PRT?"
"We took them, and there are three reasons for that. The first is that one of them is a Case 53 who is an S-class threat," explained Saurial. "The second is that the Travelers are not from this dimension. The third is that all of the Travelers are Cauldron capes, including the Case 53."
It took a moment for the Protectorate leader to recover his composure. He considered what Saurial was saying, and asked, "Are you saying they're from your dimension?"
"No...they're different from both of our dimensions," said Saurial. "We have them sedated, but we're going to be asking them some very pointed questions. We'll be happy to share what we learn with you, but we need you to cover for us with Piggot, and more importantly, Costa-Brown."
Legend regarded Saurial cautiously. "You realize I have no authority over the PRT?"
Saurial smiled in a disquieting fashion. "We know. However, I believe you do have some influence over Alexandria?"
The blue-and-white clad hero stared hard at Saurial, wondering if the lizard woman was really implying what he thought she was implying. He found her knowing gaze was likely a confirmation, apart from being disquieting. "I'll do what I can," he agreed.
The rest of the morning was almost anticlimactic as the mercenaries, each helpfully labeled with a name and rank on their clothing, were taken into custody. Oddly, one of Coil's medical staff was simply labeled, "Asshole," as a rank, and also seemed to be the only one both aware of what had happened and thoroughly traumatized by it. Interrogating the other mercenaries made it clear that he was in charge of drugging Alcott, something the Family apparently took exception to.
Legend contacted Alexandria and managed to convince her to cover for the disappearance of the Travelers, albeit only by promising her an explanation later. Telling her it was Cauldron business helped quite a lot. Emily Piggot was suspicious, but that was offset by an evil glee at having Calvert in custody with enough evidence to put him away forever. She was only grudgingly accepting when the Undersiders showed up at PRT headquarters the next morning to turn themselves in, with the only explanation being, "Metis told us to."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The entire Justice League (well, almost all of them) were meeting on the Watchtower to meet with Guy Gardner and John Stewart, both of whom had just returned from Oa. Interestingly, both men were wearing a modified Green Lantern uniform that had elements of green and blue with white accents.
"Welcome back, gentlemen. Can you tell us what's been happening with the Guardians?" said Superman in his normal, polite tone.
Guy and John shared a glance, but John started to speak at Guy's nod. "A lot of things have changed," began the Lantern. "The Guardians have recovered from their changes." Dealing with a Guardian who was anything but coolly logical had been a little disconcerting at first. Having one demonstrate a sense of humor was downright disturbing to John, not that he said anything about it to the Guardian in question. "They've reorganized the Corps and changed our priorities."
"Reorganized how?" asked Batman.
"While some Lanterns are still responsible for sectors, others are being reassigned to specific specialties. Guy is still this sector's Lantern, but I'm now the Lantern responsible for Earth Matters," explained John.
"Earth matters? How is that different from this sector?" asked Flash.
J'onn frowned and said, "There are more planets in this sector than just Earth, you know?"
Flash winced at the Martian's comment. "Right, sorry..." he said awkwardly.
"I don't know if you've noticed," said Guy, "but this planet seems to have an unusual number of reality-spanning threats, alien invasions, dimensional breeches and other weirdness."
Stewart continued. "Earth is one of a small number of locations that the Guardians refer to as a nexus...a place where for whatever reason, a large number of crises occur on a regular basis. I'm now specifically responsible for Nexus Earth."
"Doesn't the League already focus on Earth?" asked Wonder Woman. "While we don't restrict ourselves to just Earth, the vast majority of our work is here."
"The role of the Corps has changed slightly. While we're still tasked with enforcing the law, our prime directive now is to look out for events involving time travel, dimensional breeches, or other events that threaten the stability of our universe and notify the Guardians in case they need to intervene. The Green Lantern Corps is now known as the Guardian Lantern Corps," explained Stewart.
"Is that the reason for the new uniforms?" asked Zatanna.
John nodded. "Yes, the colors of the new uniforms represent a mixture of willpower, hope and life."
"The weakness to yellow is finally gone, too," added Guy with a certain smug satisfaction.
Batman typed something into a computer pad. "We'll have to run some tests to see how you perform now that your abilities have been enhanced," commented the Gotham vigilante. "Is that all that's changed?"
"The Guardians are trying to bring in the other Lantern Corps, even the Yellow and Red. They're also reaching out to the Family for assistance with redeeming the Manhunters, a group of robots created by the Guardians that predate the Green Lantern Corps," said Stewart. "They're also going to be sending delegations to various worlds to negotiate responsibilities for law enforcement."
"And they're creating a prison to hold criminals that can't be held by local law enforcement," contributed Guy. "For some reason, they call it the Birdcage."
Batman narrowed his eyes. "How are they going to determine which criminals go there?" There were a number of repeat offenders in Gotham that could arguably be described as immune to imprisonment, and he was not looking forward to having Lanterns trespassing in his city.
Stewart looked at Batman, suspecting the man's concern. "That's part of the negotiation, and the expectation for Earth is that the League will be part of that." He looked over at Superman. "One caveat is that it won't apply to head's of state of foreign polities, so Darkseid would be off limits." Superman just nodded his head in understanding.
"Anything else?" asked Aquaman. He wondered how the negotiations would deal with a balkanized world like Earth, and whether Atlantis would be invited to the table.
"One more thing," said Stewart with a sigh. This was the part he was dreading. "The Guardians would like to have a summit of representatives from major worlds for an annual meeting to discuss matters of consequence. They've chosen a representative for Earth."
There was an extended pause while the members of the League waited for Stewart to tell them the name. Finally, Green Arrow lost patience and prompted, "Well? Who is it?"
Stewart closed his eyes, and said, "Plastic Man."
"WHAT!" said the hero in question, his jaw quite literally dropping to the ground with his tongue hanging out.
Gardner snorted. "Turns out Ganthet was a massive practical joker before he lost most of his emotions. He's actually a big fan of Plas."
Plastic Man shifted his appearance to an Elvis caricature and said, "Uh, thank you! Thank you very much!"
John Stewart could swear he could hear Batman grinding his teeth.
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