With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

3rd August
21:29 GMT -5

"I'm not usually one for the 'hands on' approach, but this is too good an opportunity to miss."

I'm directly above the playing field behind the main Gotham Academy building. The seven remaining Monkeys are arranged in a loose circle around Kon, rockets inactive. Ivo's sitting on a nearby picnic table, watching with interest. There's no way seven Monkeys are a threat to him. What am I missing?

One of the Monkeys leans forward, and two beams of red light blast from its eyes and strike Kon in the chest.

"Ggghhhurrrhh!"

Another two join in. His t-shirt burns off and his skin smokes and oh no you fucking don't!

I haven't yet found a safe and reliable way to enhance Kon's Kryptonianness, but my studies have given me an insight into how Kryptonians recharge. And why the red parts of the visible spectrum can be a problem. My photon beam illuminates the area around him to recharge him even as my construct armour materialises around his body. Kon seems surprised for a moment, then looks up at me and grins savagely.

"Ah. And who might you be?"

I lower myself to just above ground level, between Kon and Ivo. "Yes, because helping supervillains is what I'm all about. Superboy, do you want the Monkeys or-."

The first Monkey explodes as he lunges through it, creating a crater which bowls over two more.

"Rightho then." I look directly at Ivo, who cringes and draws a controller of some description. Jam. He presses it once, twice, then throws it aside and starts to run. I don't even bother holding him in place as a ShockCrown construct appears around his head. He freezes, trips, and slams into the ground.

Ring, make sure he doesn't leave.

Compliance.

A window shatters. Turning, I see Kon rip apart the last of the Monkeys. A flash of OrangeVision shows that the window was pulverised by the remains of the second to last Monkey, propelled at great force.

"RAaaaaaggghh!"

"Kon, you injured?"

His face is a picture of frustration and rage, and the remains of his t-shirt have flaked off. He raises his left leg and stomps down hard on one of the larger pieces of Monkey, throwing up a large cloud of dust and creating another depression in the ground.

Their groundskeeper is going to hate us.

Ring, check his health.

Vital signs within acceptable parameters. No significant injuries detected. No harmful microbes or parasites detected.

Right. I land, and walk towards him, removing the armour constructs around us and sending my regular armour to subspace as I go.

"Kon, what's going on?"

"Rrrrruh!" He turns, head down, and stalks away from me, booted feet leaving deep footprints in the soil.

I should probably tell Aqualad and the others what happened.

!Kon needs me!

But I suppose Ivo's not going anywhere. Kon doesn't seem to be walking in a particular direction, so I leave the ground and drift along after him. After a few moments he slows, then stops.

"He thought I was Superman's son."

Ah. I float around to his front. He still won't look at me.

"Urm, strength, toughness, 'S' on the chest. It was a logical deduction."

"He kept going on about it. Comparing us. Saying I wasn't as good as he is."

"Kon, supervillains are arseholes. Talking you down is what they do."

He looks up. "But I'm not, am I?! I'm never going to be able to do the things he can do!"

I'm at a loss. "Maybe not, but Superman style isn't the only way to be a superhero. There's other skills you can-."

"That's what they showed me."

"What who showed you?"

His eyes drop again, and he exhales heavily. "The G-Gnomes. When I was in the tank. They showed me being as strong as Superman. Stronger. Fighting him and winning. And now I'm out, and I can't… They showed me him so many times. And even though they wanted me to hate him, I don't, I just…"

He looks up. The anger is gone now, and he just looks lost.

"He was the only person they showed me who was like me. Even when they made me fight him the whole time, I felt… I dunno, a connection. A similarity. And then I got out and met him, I, I thought…"

"You thought that he'd feel the same way."

He sags. "It was stupid. There's loads of other superheroes around."

I don't think a rational argument is going to work here. I land about a metre in front of him. I don't know what to do. I take a step closer. No response.

I need to know what to do.

!Superboy doesn't need nasty Superman. He needs me!

Another step closer. We're only ten centimetres apart now. I reach out and put my right hand on his left upper arm, next to his shoulder. He moves his head slightly, looking at it.

Then I step forward again and hug him. My left arm goes around the right side of his chest, under his right arm. My head on his right shoulder, my right arm over his left. My hands against his bare skin. Touching him like this, I can feel it as he tenses slightly. I hadn't really thought about it, but now I do I suppose it's quite possible that no one's hugged him before. Maybe I shouldn't have done this? Then I feel him lean into me a little, and his previously loose hands reach up to touch my back. I feel him relax a little. We stand like that for a few moments. I don't know if this is actually helping him, but I hope so.

"Hey! You got Ivo! Nice work g-!" Wallace skids to a halt just past the place where Kon pasted the Monkeys. "Oh. Um. Oh." He's staring. He bends his right arm back, right hand behind his head. "I'll just. I'll just be over here. With Ivo. You just, just carry on. With… Whatever."

He walks backwards, narrowly avoids tripping on a crater and then turns and walks back to the recumbent malign hypercognitive.

Kon takes a half pace back, his hands still touching me. He's actually looking at me as well, and I can see the ghost of a smile.

"Um, thanks. That felt… Nice. We should, we should probably, probably clear up the Monqis, or something."

"Yeah, I hear that term time starts soon."

 

[Mr Zoat]

4th August
01:06 GMT -5

"The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate STAR Labs. Ivo is in custody, and since he originated the tech I would strongly advise that the greatest possible security measures be put in place to ensure that he remains there."

We're standing opposite Batman, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter. Kon didn't have a spare t-shirt with him, so I've lent him one of mine. It just about fits; the shoulders and sleeves are a bit tight and he had to roll up the cuffs. Have to see about persuading him to try other clothes.

I returned to my original truck to see Sergeant Ramones safely to Star Manhattan, while the rest of the team dropped a still paralysed Ivo off with Metropolis SCU. They then flew what was left of 'Termanazo' -Robin's choice of description- to STAR Labs in Boston. No further incidents.

Just in case, I avoided using the ring directly on either part of the android.

I'm actually not sure why we didn't just use the bioship in the first place. Maybe the League were concerned about what would happen if Amazo reactivated in a confined environment? Some sort of public relations thing after the fact? Doesn't seem… Politic..? To question it. I know that I'm very junior here and there's probably something I'm not seeing.

Wallace keeps staring at me. Not sure why.

"Making sure the Professor remains in detention will be a League priority."

I'm glad that Black Canary's on top of things. If the police here are anything like in the comics then they're either incompetent or vastly outmatched. I took a few moments to look at the revised dead and injured count from the League's fight with Amazo and I fear the sergeant may have been being optimistic. Does this US have the death penalty? I'm not generally in favour, but I can see strong arguments for it in a place with people like Ivo. One man can do a lot more damage here than was possible back home.

Hm. Wonder if truth compulsion enchantments are used in trials. There must be some level of public awareness of that form of magic just from Diana's lasso. But then, I expected magic schools to be a fairly normal thing and they're virtually unheard of.

Martian Manhunter crosses his arms and narrows his eyes. "But we understand your mission encountered.. other.. complications."

What is he..? Does he mean where Kon went after Ivo? Because that was a reasonable decision if Amazo was down. Should I suggest something else? I'm honestly a little concerned that Ivo knew how to build red sun weapons.

Batman steps forward. "Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League."

Kon leans back a bit, and crosses his arms. It's… No. Might have been nice if Superman was even slightly interested in him, but apparently that isn't happening. Wonder if Diana's talked to him yet.

"Of course there's no shame in asking for help; that's why the League exists, because there's some problems even we can't handle individually."

Robin responds to what I assume he sees as mollycoddling. "Please. If we needed help we'd never get the chance to ask."

I have no idea what that sentence means.

"Look familiar?"

He holds up an arrow Wallace found while checking the area around Gotham Academy in minute detail while Kon and I stood guard. He was very thorough. Useful, as I wouldn't have known what to scan for. There were a number of wrecked Monqis that Kon says he didn't destroy himself, as well as several arrows like that one.

"You were following us."

One arrow does not a League posse make, but he wouldn't hear it when he aired his theory on the bioship ride back. The arrow has green fletching, but now I've had a chance to scan him the ring tells me that the shaft and the shape of the tip are noticeably different to what Green Arrow uses.

"Babysitting, you still don't trust us!"

Green Arrow steps forward and takes the arrow out of Robin's hand. He examines it closely, while Batman answers the accusation.

"We didn't follow you."

Green Arrow holds up one of his own so Robin can compare them. The head of his is curved, rather than serrated like the ones from the Gotham Academy. I had wondered about that; serrated arrows are designed to be hard to remove from flesh without causing further harm and seemed a bit.. nasty for a clean cut superhero. Robin sees it as the rest of us do.

"And that's not your arrow. But that means-."

Wallace is grinning. "Speedy!"

If it isn't an apple, it must be a banana. How does that make sense? Speedy uses red arrows, this one is green and brown. And I doubt he uses serrated heads either. But if it makes them happy…

"He has our backs."

Kaldur, if you seriously believe that then I've got an underwater bridge I can sell you.

Air displaces, and Wallace has the serrated arrow in his hand. "Souvenir."

Wallace and Robin walk off in the direction of the trophy room. I guess that part of the debrief is done then.

"Sir?" Batman looks at me. I glance in Kon's direction. "The red light weapons which the Monqis attacking Kon were using. Has that sort of thing been used before? Against Superman?"

"No. After you described the process by which it operates I spoke with Captain Atom. He tells me that it would be within his abilities to replicate the spectra necessary to achieve that effect. Possibly, Ivo learned of it from the recordings contained within the android, and redesigned their weapons with that in mind. But you're right, it is a concern, and the League will be on the look out for similar technology in the future. If Ivo learned of it from someone else, we will find them."

"What..? What do you intend to tell the school?"

"The team did a thorough job of cleaning up evidence of anything… Unusual. Sadly, criminal damage is not uncommon in Gotham. It is unlikely this will raise any eyebrows, and it shouldn't delay the start of the new term."

"Thank you sir. If you'll excuse me?"

A tiny nod, and I turn away to walk back to my quarters. Uh, I need sleep. With one thing and another I missed meditation today. Yesterday. Missing one day every so often shouldn't matter and I'm far too tired to maintain the necessary mindset now. No need to charge the ring. None of what I did took all that much power, and I'm not planning anything much first thing tomorrow. First thing today. Second thing.

I haven't even reached my door when I switch to my pyjamas. They're the only clothing I currently own without some orange on them. Blue tartan pattern trousers and a thin grey pullover. Only thing that came with me from home. A pulse of orange cleans me. I actually have to pause for a moment as my tiredness means that my usual revulsion at the prospect of dirt is dampened enough that the process is noticeably slower than normal.

"Paul, do you have a moment."

I turn, not even trying to keep how I feel from my face. "Kaldur, I'm about to fall asleep on my feet. Is this something that can wait at all?"

"I wanted to commend you for your decision to preserve the Monqi specimens intact. It will make reverse engineering them a good deal easier."

"I hate seeing useful things getting broken."

Anything else? Yes, it seems there is.

"M'gann tells me that you do not believe the arrow was fired by Speedy."

"Kaldur, there's a lot of arrows out there. If you want to know whether it was him or not, just phone him and ask. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Exfiltrator

9th August
09:52 GMT -5

I've now been in a world with superheroes for over a month.

The thought hits me as I leave my room having changed into beach wear. I'm not usually a fan of beach activity, but I have resolved to participate in as many group activities as possible. And who knows, maybe with the higher temperatures and -let's be honest here- nicer beaches than Eastbourne it'll grow on me. With the ring I don't have to worry about sun burn or cuts from small stones.

A world of superheroes is probably the only place in which my wardrobe would go unremarked. Back home I have an eclectic range of garments, bought years ago or -in the case of most of my t-shirts- won as prizes. Never tried to create a theme, and didn't really wear most of it. Here, I'm doing things a bit differently. Aside from a few white shirts everything is grey with orange decoration. As a result, everything goes with everything else and I'm immediately recognisable to anyone who knows me without standing out much to anyone who doesn't.

Currently, I'm wearing dark grey swimming trunks with a partial view of the Orange Lantern Corps sigil to the front of my left hip. I'm carrying a large thick grey towel with a slightly elongated Orange sigil in the centre. For obvious reasons the beach around the Mountain is private, and it's not like the sigil is widely known. I had thought that it might be a problem if anyone saw us on the beach attached to a known Justice League facility, but really the idea of this place remaining secret for any length of time was such a nonsense anyway that I decided not to care.

I've now been in a world with superheroes for over a month. Some things I've adapted to. The costumes no longer stand out as much. I've started getting used to new names for familiar things, and have updated my alternate history knowledge sufficiently that differences there no longer leave me dumbfounded. But the more I've learned, the less other things make sense. The separation of magic from mainstream study is a big one. Tech hoarding is another, and superheroes do it nearly as much as supervillains. I decided that if I wanted to change that, I'd have to prove to the League that I can have good ideas. Before I design an escape resistant supervillain prison on Ganymede, I need something on a smaller scale.

Suggesting appropriate people for League candidacy is one possible avenue, and recommendations for membership of my team another. I've decided to perform background research on people I think might be what the League's looking for, but whom they wouldn't ordinarily consider. Diana already knows that I can break secret identities easily, so that won't come as a shock. She hasn't said anything about that since. I wonder if I should ask?

League membership comes pretty much from word of mouth, which is why most members are American. There aren't any other Amazons in Diana's weight class and few of them would have the inclination to join up anyway. The latter is part of the reason why there aren't any other Atlanteans either, though Kaldur tells me that the opinion among younger Atlanteans is rather different. So; who do I know of that would be a good member?

Accomplished Perfect Physician is the obvious choice. A decent man, powerful enough to stand with the League and not so nationalistic that he'd create discord. Plus, if I remember correctly he's an actual medical doctor, and the League could do with one of those. Since he doesn't know anyone in the League he'd never be recommended through normal channels. Would the Chinese government let him? I think so. I doubt that they really want him in the Great Ten, or the equivalent group if it doesn't exist here. They signed off on the League's UN mandate, and I imagine that they'd like to see someone 'flying the flag'. So, put his name down for background checking if I can confirm that he exists.

Heh. I imagine it'll be a novel experience for the Chinese military: having someone hack them.

I can't think of anyone else. All the other superheroes I can remember well are American. Of those I don't remember well, I think there was an Arab guy who worked with Superman a bit? Might be able to track him down. Fire and Ice of course, but Fire's involvement in Operation Condor puts me off her a bit. No, hang on, she'd have been far too young to have been involved if that happened in this timeline. Uh, this is going to be irritating. I still can't rely on what I think I know.

Anyway. No one else stands out as a good candidate that wouldn't have already come to their attention. I can start investigating him this afternoon, if nothing comes up. As for team members, Zatanna is an obvious auto-include. We could do with a thaumaturgist and her father is a League member. She's a lot younger than I thought she'd be. Still no luck on Timothy Hunter or Rachel Roth. Actually had a go at tracing Ms Roth the hard way. None of the thirty two Rachel Roths in the right age category in the US appeared to match. I've given the ring instructions to make daily scans, but I'm not hopeful.

Once we finally got to speak to the right Abigail Holland I did a quick check. No Tefé. Abigail was understandably nervous about our presence but we eventually persuaded her to speak to Swamp Thing about establishing some sort of working relationship, though if he's anything like in the comics I doubt he'll go for it.

Other names? My first thoughts are of the younger Captain Cornwall and Red Star. Since the story I remember Cornwall from has him nearly kill his father due to his frustration at the latter's unwillingness to take superheroing seriously he seems like he would be both receptive to an offer and enthusiastic about taking advantage of it. If we can get to him before he reaches the patricide stage. Red Star I don't really know much about, but I think he was a member of the Teen Titans and again, I think his government would probably be okay about releasing him. I've already confirmed that Beryl Hutchinson is active as Squire, but I worry that Knight might fall apart again without her. Maybe? I'm sure that Diana would appreciate seeing some female names on any list I present.

The one person I'd really like to see join us is Amon. If he exists here then he's probably either an infant or in a slave labour camp somewhere. Plus, he won't be empowered unless I sort things out with Teth Adam. I think I'm going to need to retrace the Batsons' last steps to see if I can further clarify his origins. I'd like to help, but I can't afford to take unnecessary chances.

For a moment I actually considered suggesting Teth Adam for League membership. I remember him spending time with the Justice Society in the comics, but it didn't last and I doubt it could work here anyway. Theo's just done too much damage with his stolen powers.

We're meeting in the dining area. I think I can just about hear M'gann…

"…doesn't necessarily mean that. Maybe they just do things differently in England?"

I turn the corner and M'gann and Robin are already there. M'gann's wearing a yellow bikini top and yellow shorts, and she has a short red surfboard thing propped up against a work surface. She's also still green. Guess she thinks that the secrecy thing's a non-starter as well. Robin's wearing blue shorts, and has a small white towel around his neck and a ball in his right hand.

"Do what differently in England?"

"Ah-."

M'gann had her back to me. She turns and sees me. Her eyes widen. Do I have something on my face?

"What?"

Robin's smirking.

"Cooking! We were talking about cooking!"

"Oh. Look, I know Britain hasn't had the best reputation for food, but we've come a long way in the last decade or so. I grew up watching cookery programs, and we hardly ever ate take away or prepackaged food at home. Can't promise it's a national trait or anything, but I enjoy cooking."

M'gann's still staring. Is it the trunks? Were they a mistake? I haven't swum regularly for a very long time, but I used to wear them back when I did. Plus, I'm honest enough to admit that I want to show off my ring-engineered body a little. She can't be reacting to that, though. All the guys on the team are as buff as me, or buffer.

Kaldur and Kon approach from the kitchen, carrying picnic baskets. Kon just registers my presence, but Kaldur stares a little too. What is it?

"Um. I don't think I've seen you without-." M'gann's eyes flick over me, and she gulps. "Without your ring on."

"Oh, you still haven't. I'm wearing it now."

The whole team stares. Then, as one, their gaze drifts down towards my trunks.

"MY TOE! On my TOE!" I raise my left foot and point to it on my enringed long toe. "Minds out the gutter, people."

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
18:31 GMT -5

Batman, Red Tornado and Green Arrow stand with our newest recruit, waiting for us to respond to her presence. I wait for one of the others to say something. Kaldur, really. Nothing. Rolling my eyes, I step forward with my left hand extended.

"Orange Lantern two eight one four. Pleased to meet you, Artemis."

She seems a little surprised. A small smile and… Is that a blush? Hard to tell with that face mask thing. Not a bad effort, as masks go.

"Ah. Likewise." She takes my hand lightly, holds it for a moment and then releases. Not big on skin contact?

"Seems it falls to me to introduce the rest of the squad. You'll have to forgive them, they're a bit shy."

Another eye roll from me for her to see. I don't know exactly what Batman and Green Arrow were thinking, dropping her on us like this with no warning. Come to think of it, I don't know why they didn't give the first four warning about M'gann or myself.

I turn, and gesture to my team mates in turn. "Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad and Robin. Real names are extended on a case by case basis. Mine's on this card."

One appears and I hand it to her. She looks at it and raises an eyebrow. "Isn't this supposed to have your cell on it?"

The large areas of her face showing do rather ruin the otherwise sensible idea behind her mask.

"It's not a business card. I am physically incapable of saying my own name." I shake my head. "Don't ask why, I have no idea."

Kaldur finally gets his act together and extends his right hand. "Artemis, welcome to the team. My name is Kaldur'ahm."

She takes his hand with a nod, and the others step forwards to greet her. This whole thing brings to mind a group of dogs sniffing the posterior of a new member while the Human owners look on to make sure things don't turn nasty. I think I'd be a Collie…

"So are we getting a mission out of this?"

I think Robin would be something small and yappy. A Chihuahua, possibly. My Gran used to have one. Ancient thing, name of Fang. Blame my great uncle.

Red Tornado and Green Arrow look to Batman. "Yes. The briefing will be held once Speedy arrives."

Robin and Kaldur share a look. Kaldur speaks first. "Will Speedy be joining the team as well?"

Green Arrow winces slightly, but Batman answers. "He has been given that option, but so far has chosen not to make use of it."

"Yeah, said he wanted to go solo for a while."

Green Arrow isn't making eye contact as he says it. Looks like they had a bit of a falling out over the whole 'junior team' thing.

I don't remember Artemis from the comics at all. Not this Artemis anyway. I think that alien queen Booster Gold ran into was called Artemis, and there was almost certainly an Amazon by that name. I also don't remember anything about Green Arrow having a niece. A son, yes, and a couple of wards. No other family. Maybe Artemis is this parallel's version of Conner Hawke? Or Mia Harper? I haven't bothered putting either of them on my mental list of possibles due to me not really getting the whole.. bow thing.

It's a bent stick that fires pointy sticks. Even for trick arrow stuff, guns are just better.

Wait. Is he lying about the niece thing? Oh, yes, yes he is. Hm.

"Did he say when he was getting here?" I point towards the kitchen with my right thumb. "I ask because I'd started dinner. Wanna know if I've got time to finish…"

Green Arrow shrugs. "Roy said he'd get here at eight. He's usually pretty punctual."

I look at Batman. "Sir? Do you need me for anything in the meantime?"

He considers for a moment. "No." He turns to the rest of the team. "Reconvene at nineteen fifty. Aqualad, a moment."

Hm. Not sure what that's about. Team leader probably needs to know stuff about the newest member. With whom we've done no training at all.

My medium armour is replaced by my civilian clothing and Orange Corps apron (legend: You Know You Want This), and I walk towards the kitchen. Robin looks like he wants to hang around and wait for Wallace to turn up. Turns out that American school holidays can finish a lot earlier than they do in Britain, and he had to miss our time on the beach. A shame; I enjoyed it more than I was expecting and it would have made for a better team bonding exercise if he was present.

I suppose the rest will be starting back soon as well. I hope Kon agrees to attend. It would do him good, and I'm sure M'gann would appreciate having someone to keep her company. Means that I'll be rattling around here with Kaldur. Haven't had a really good personal conversation with him yet. I've read his file of course, but it would be nice to get to know him as a per-.

"What're you making?"

Oh. Artemis followed me.

"Chilli. I'd appreciate your input, actually. I know that chilli is a big deal in Green Arrow's family."

Maybe cruel, but she needs to learn that good cover stories don't just happen.

"Oh. Uh, of course."

I have two large frying pans full of beef mince on the hobs. I think of them as 'team' and 'Wallace'. I turn them back on and float up my notebooks while I wait for them to get back up to temperature. They're black covered, with orange bindings and an orange sigil front and back. One for League stuff, one for team stuff and the third…

The third is for my Corps.

I know I lack the skills that will be required to run it. Having seen the way the Guardians treat the Greenies I'd like a structure where authority is more in the hands of Corps officers. Since I can't be sure exactly who is available until I can get out into the wider galaxy I can't get too attached to a particular choice, but I've got a few names so far.

Since Starfire isn't on Earth, she is most likely still a prisoner of the Psions. The same may be true of her sister Blackfire as well. If Starfire is as she was in the comics then she'd make an excellent recruit. Her sister might as well, depending on the exact circumstances of their detention. I seem to remember that she was partially to blame for it? Not sure. Tamaranians seemed to get made into the galaxy's chew toy for a while, and I'd like to prevent that.

Though I wasn't specifically thinking of her at the time, Soranik Natu is the perfect example of someone who might use a ring for medical purposes and never get into a fight. How much she can actually get away with living like that will depend on the political and social situation on Korugar at this point in time, but I'd wish her all the best.

Who could actually handle running it? Who do I want for Clarissi? One name stands out, but will he be available?

The fat and oil in the pans starts to sizzle. I form a spatula and move it around a little. Time to haze the new girl.

"What sort of chilli powder do you think is most appropriate? We've got a couple of different types but it's all one to me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
18:36 GMT -5

It is fast becoming apparent that Artemis knows nothing about chilli. Asking whether or not I should add vinegar got an uncertain affirmative. Asking what type resulted in her looking wide eyed at the three types proffered before picking 'the brown one'. I say that I heard that the Arrows like it hot, she responds by telling me to use the whole jar of chilli powder, plus a generous measure of Tabasco sauce. I had to suggest that the rest of us don't have their tolerances in order to stop the whole thing getting ruined. Maybe she's more worried about the whole 'niece' thing than I thought she would be? Am I being a bit mean about this? Might be easier to just scan her background, but I really don't want to keep doing that sort of thing. Didn't J'onn J'onzz nearly get kicked off the nascent Justice League for doing exactly that?

Finally got the mince, onions, tomato and spice transferred into the large saucepan, and now it's on to simmer. I'm currently sitting in the air while jotting things down in the notebooks. The man I want as Clarissi is Vril Dox. Managing the Corps would be a trivial task for a man of his intellect, and his desire to create interstellar security will most likely make him a capable ring user in his own right. Legion, the Darkstars and my Corps as part of the same organisation? Suddenly the job starts to actually look possible. Depending on what point in his personal timeline this is, getting him will either be trivially easy or very hard. If he's-.

"What are you doing?"

"Planning."

"What are you planning?"

Her tone makes it clear that the unspoken word at the end of that sentence was 'ass'.

"Theft, brigandage, torture, the subjugation of all free peoples, and puppy golf."

Nonplussed. "Puppy… Golf?"

I put my feet back on the floor, look up, put my fists together and pull them back behind my shoulder. "It's like normal golf, only instead of a ball you-."

"I get it! I get it!"

I move my arms as if swinging a golf club. "Ruff!"

She grimaces. "You're disgusting."

"I try." I give her a smile. "I'm trying to plan -among other things- the future structure of my Corps. The sort of people I want in it, how I'll persuade them to sign up. That sort of thing."

"Wait. You can just give out power rings?"

"Noooooooott yet. That's something else I'm working on."

One of the things the ring actually does have instructions on is how to make more rings. At the most intense level of desire I could generate under test conditions the ring tells me that it would take me five months' continuous effort to forge one. At my actual peak output it would be more like a week, but there's no way I could sustain that. Think I'll put that on the back burner.

"Ah! But I'm being rude. How long have you been involved in vigilantism? I mean, if it's a family thing-."

Her eyes narrow. "You know." She turns away from me and clenches her fists. "Damn it!"

"You didn't put much effort into the cover story. If it helps, I don't actually care that you're not his niece. I'm not related to anyone around here either."

"What gave me away!?"

"Green Arrow's an only child and unmarried. Of all of the relations he might refer to as 'niece' to keep things simple, none of them are half South-East Asian."

I've actually got a fairly good idea which country, province and ethnic group that parent was from, but no need to completely freak her out.

And now she's right in my face. "Have you been spying on us!?"

Remember the cover story. "You, no. Him, yes. You got a ring scan when I wanted to check whether or not you were actually his niece. He got a thorough scanning when I first came to this planet and tried to work out what the hell was going on with the weird costumes."

Anger and confusion, now.

"You're an alien?"

"Ah, no. Parallel universe. With no superheroes. Point is, I was in a strange place without any backup, and I wanted as much information as I could get to keep myself safe."

She backs up a little. "Oh." She's looking to the side. Did I get away with it? "I guess that makes sense."

"Look, I don't know what your real name is, and I don't intend to use the ring to find out. I no longer feel the need to do that sort of thing. I know I can depend on everyone on the team, and they know they can depend on me. That's kind of what brought me and Superboy closer together."

"Ah..."

Now she's gone back to uncertain. Oh, right.

"You probably saw us fighting Professor Ivo's Monqis, right? You were at the school?"

"Um, yeah. I saw you both, y'know, together."

"You should have said something at the time."

"I… I didn't want to interrupt."

"We're professionals. The job takes precedence. And it might have been nice to get a little warning that you were going to be joining us."

"Batman and Green Arrow only came to talk to me after that. I'd been.. doing stuff.. since the end of July. Stopping robberies, stuff like that."

"I got the ring at the beginning of July. Waking up in orbit is not a fun way to start a day. But, you must've been in training for a long time to use a bow for something like that."

Wariness, this time. Surrender gesture with my hands.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

Looks like she doesn't.

"You really woke up in orbit?"

"Ermmm… Sort of? In space between the Earth and the Moon. I'm not sure I was actually orbiting."

She frowns. "So… Does your universe have Orange Lanterns rather than Green ones?"

"If we do, none have come to our Earth at any point in recorded history. I'm fairly sure that the orange ring I wear came from this parallel."

"How does that work?"

"I've no idea. If you find out, let me know. I'd quite like to tell my parents where I am."

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
19:53 GMT -5

Green Arrow said that my chilli was 'okay'.

I can now die happy.

He said that he usually serves it with crackers rather than rice. I've only really seen crackers eaten with cheese as the last part of a meal or as a snack. It would never have occurred to me to eat them with chilli. He also made significant use of the Tabasco sauce I offered him as a condiment. I think his super power must be heat resistance. I could probably have equalled him with my ring-granted resilience, but why bother? Food shouldn't be an endurance contest.

Aqualad turned up when I started slicing peppers to give Artemis a tour of the facility. I suggested that she claim a bedroom now to avoid disappointment later. Red Tornado sort of sat in for dinner, but Batman said that he wasn't hungry. Everyone else was, and I like to think that eating together brought us closer together. Wallace actually ended up missing dinner. I was a little surprised by that. I don't think American schools finish all that much later in the day than British ones. Maybe he got loaded with homework? Doesn't matter all that much. No matter how pained the idea made Green Arrow look chilli freezes perfectly well.

Now we're waiting for Red Arrow to arrive with our briefing. Hope Wallace gets here as well; he'll be annoyed if he misses it. Robin tried the comm link a few minutes ago and apparently he's on his way.

"Do'ya know what Speedy's been up to lately? We've sorta been out of touch."

I think that's the first thing Robin's actually said to Artemis. He isn't happy about the whole 'replacement archer' thing. I'm trying to work out if I should suggest getting a better weapon, maybe a nice coil gun or something? I might be able to build one that can fire the specialist tips DC archers like so much.

Not a boxing glove arrow, obviously. I have standards.

Artemis' cover story is still paper thin. Obviously she would have met Speedy if she were actually Green Arrow's niece, and she clearly hasn't.

"Um, yeah, I've seen-."

"Recognised, Kid Flash, Bee zero three."

The zeta tube glows with white light and… Oh my…

Wallace has prepared for the beach. Robin did try and tell him there was a mission in the works, but it looks like it didn't get through.

"The Wall-man is here!"

He has a sunshade, a picnic basket, some sort of music player, a beach ball, two other bags and he's wearing swimming shorts. Maybe trunks really are that unusual here?

"Now lets get this part-ay star-." He hurries forwards and trips on the sunshade's support pole. I catch him, remove some of his encumbrance and stack it to the side before propping him back up. "Uh, thanks."

"Wall-man, huh? Ha, love the uniform." Is it really a uniform if it's not uniform? At least I have the excuse that other Corps members genuinely do dress like me. Inasmuch as they dress. "What exactly are your powers?"

I think I'm getting to like Artemis.

Wallace just looks blankly at her. "Uh, who's this?"

"Artemis, your new team mate."

"Kid Flash, never heard of you."

Green Arrow steps forward and places his right hand on her shoulder. "Urp, she's my new protégé."

"W-w-what happened to your old one?"

"Recognised, Speedy, B zero seven."

Everyone turns their attention to the zeta tube.

His clothes are black, except for the red 'shoot me' sign on his upper chest. He's wearing some sort of straps around his waist and shoulders. There's a red bow over his right shoulder, and a black quiver full of red arrows. Short orange hair and the de rigueur pointless tiny mask. Looks like he's actually thought about what it makes sense to wear, but was too concerned about the mockery of his peers to go full unretard.

"Well for starters he doesn't go by Speedy anymore." Red Arrow it is then. Makes sense to me. "Call me Red Arrow."

Ah, should have made a bet with someone.

Green Arrow is first to respond. He sounds… Concerned? "Roy. You look-."

"Replaceable."

"It's not like that. You told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub?"

Maybe no one at all thought the cover story through properly?

"Can she even use that bow?"

Artemis steps up to him. "Yes, she can."

Wallace gets back to what he considered to be the most important question. "Who are you?"

"She's my niece." / "I'm his niece."

Red Arrow's going to know that's nonsense, isn't he? He doesn't say anything. I'm going to assume that someone who's been around superheroes as long as he has knows when not to argue someone's identity.

Kaldur steps forward to reassure his friend. "She's not your replacement. We've always wanted you on the team, and we have no quota on archers."

"And if we did, you know who we'd pick."

Wallace, we're going to have to work with this woman. Was that really necessary?

Huh, with Robin, Wallace and Kaldur moving towards their friend M'gann, Kon and I have sort of been shuffled to the back. I don't think any of us have actually met him before. No, hang on, Kon went with them the morning we fought Mister Twister. Maybe he just didn't make a good impression?

"Whatever, Baywatch. I'm here to stay."

She took that better than I was expecting.

Red Arrow takes a step towards his friends, and Kaldur tries to bring us to the point. "You came to us for a reason."

"Yeah, a reason called Doctor Serling Roquette."

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
19:58 GMT -5

Never heard of him. I did actually check the mad scientist files after the thing with Ivo too, so he can't be an existing supervillain.

Robin looks at his arm computer. "Nano-robotics genius-" Screens appear in mid air with parts of-. Her biography, and a current photo. I am so glad Diana wasn't listening to what I was thinking a second ago. 'So, you think that women don't belong in science, Orange Lantern?' Her eyebrow would be raised so far… "-and claytronics expert at the Royal University in Star City."

Royal? I think not.

"Vanished two weeks ago."

"Abducted two weeks ago. By the League of Shadows."

Wasn't that what Batman Begins renamed the League of Assassins? If we're going up against a bunch of people with swords, this is going to be the shortest mission ever.

"Whaw! You want us to rescue her from the Shadows?" Robin likes the idea. None of these people will have heard of Cliff Richard, so there's no point trying to make a joke of it. "Hardcore!"

Wallace fist bumps Robin. Seems he likes the idea too. Not sure what's so exciting. Frankly, I've read up on them and I'm fairly confident that I could take down a cell single-handedly. The only reason I haven't suggested this to anyone is that the cells are darn hard to find. If we already know where they are, this actually will be the shortest mission ever.

"I already rescued her."

Ring, has he filed a mission report? No, that would have been a bit much to hope for.

Red Arrow walks over to the display. A new screen with technical schematics pops up. "Only one problem. The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon."

Ring, take a copy of all this stuff. It might be useful later.

Compliance.

"Doc calls it 'the fog'."

No no no! Not nanotech! Not the blooming code word for nonsense techno magic! It could do anything here! The only thing I remember about how it's supposed to work back home is that it's supposed to be bad at dealing with heat. And I learned that from a Deus Ex discussion thread. And I haven't practised a maser cannon construct! "Comprised of millions of microscopic robots. Nanotech Infiltrators, capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete. Steel. Flesh. Bone."

One of the pictures is a slightly insect looking robot. How is that going to fly in a controlled manner? Would my shield block a nanoswarm? It should, it isn't made of matter and it's only porous to the things I want it to be porous to. Just have to remember to cover the ground and I should be safe.

"But its true purpose isn't mere destruction; it's theft. The Infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system-" We are now in comic book technology territory. Abandon the scientific method all ye who enter here. "-and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows. Providing them access to weapons, strategic defense, cutting edge science and tech."

So, not guys with swords.

"Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking… Yeah, sounds like the Shadows." The tone suggests that Artemis isn't impressed. Or maybe she thought the last bit was kind of obvious…

Hang on. I can do all of that.

…

It would actually be easier for me to take that data with the ring than it is for the nano fog stuff to get it.

I could get it right now.

…

I don't think I'll mention that to anyone.

"Like you know anything about the Shadows."

Wallace has decided not to let the perceived slight against Red Arrow of Artemis' existence go unmentioned. Is this going to become a regular thing? I mean, there's plenty of information about the Shadows in the League database and I suspect that Batman's given her access to the same sort of partial version that I got before the team started.

Artemis smiles, not at him, but he can see it from where he's standing.

"Who are you!"

Does he think that she isn't famous enough to be here or something? Red Arrow ignores him and carries on with the briefing.

"Roquette's working on a virus to render the fog inert."

Robin tenses. "But if the Shadows know she can do that…"

"They'll target her. Right now, she's off the grid." An image of a large building appears on the screen. There's a red dot, presumably marking the location of the Doctor. "I stashed her at the local High School's computer lab."

Green Arrow is concerned. "You left her alone?"

"She's safe enough for now."

Ring, check that, would you?

I blink heavily and I get an image not only of the Doctor and the lab, but also of every weapon within two hundred metres. She's fine, but the school really needs to do a locker search…

"Then let's you and I keep her that way." Green Arrow walks towards Red Arrow, hands down by his side, tone friendly. Superman, take some fucking notes.

"You and I? Don't you want to take your new protégé?"

Green Arrow goes to take another step, but Batman puts a hand on his shoulder. He pauses, and reconsiders.

"You brought this to the team." He gestures in our general direction. "It's their mission, which means it's hers now too."

"Sshh. Then my job's done."

He walks past us, straight to the zeta tube. We watch him go.

"Recognised, Speedy-."

"That's Red Arrow." He looks at the ground, apparently frustrated at the need to define himself in terms of us. "Bee zero seven. Update."

THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!

The zeta tube activates, and he's gone in a glow of white.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
21:51 GMT -5

"That's how nanotech is supposed to work where I'm from."

Artemis and I are walking down a dark locker-filled hallway. Doctor Roquette was getting a wee bit testy at me asking questions about her Infiltrators, so I took the hint and went for a patrol. I asked Artemis to come along because I need to get to know her better in order to properly assist her with the ring, and because putting her in the same room as Wallace for a prolonged period seemed like a bad idea.

"And I thought scientists were supposed to like talking about their specialist subject."

We're not really patrolling to find Shadow Assassins, or whatever they're called. I've instructed the ring to notify me of any weapons breaching the perimeter, and frankly it'll do a much better job than any number of eyes. Unless… What was his name? That shadow guy the Hawks fought? Blinth, or something? Don't really remember, and I haven't seen him in the files. Could turn himself into an actual shadow. Not completely sure I'd pick him up.

"Not when they're trying to concentrate."

Kaldur, Robin and Wallace are in with the Doctor. M'gann's on the roof. Kon's on patrol somewhere... Oh, the roof as well? Alright.

I stop walking when we get to the locker I was looking for. I turn towards it, and set the ring to the task of opening it nicely. Artemis stops as well, and puts her right hand on her hip.

"Are you robbing a locker?"

"Technically, yes." The door comes open and I float out a small selection of knives. I take hold of one with a blood flow groove running down the side and hold it out to her. "Think these can go and live on the Headmaster's desk. With a note of the locker number."

She frowns. "How did you know they were there?"

I close the locker door and relock it. I realise that America is a bit more relaxed about weaponry than Britain, but I doubt that even their relaxed uniform policies allow for knives of this sort.

"Scanned the whole place for weapons, just in case."

"Really?"

"Yep." My eyes flash orange. "There's a couple of flick knives and a flare gun over in the western corridor, but I think we can-."

**Miss Martian, link us up.** If we're not linked, how am I hearing that? Maybe because M'gann's hearing it? Maybe Kaldur's been practising with her? Despite their earlier moaning, the others have got the hang of telepathic communication quickly enough. **We do not want the Shadows intercepting our comm.**

M'gann tests the network. **Everyone online?**

Artemis winces, and rubs her head with her right hand. **Auwa. This is weird.** For some reason she's staring at her right hand.

**And distracting.** Why did M'gann add the Doctor to the network? **Coding a distributed algorithm virus on a kiddie computer with less RAM than a wristwatch is hard enough. Now I have to hear teen-think in my skull?**

Kid Flash fails to de-escalate. **Lady, do you always complain when someone tries to help you?**

I need to stop him. **Orange Lantern to Miss Martian and Aqualad. I don't see any point in intruding in the good Doctor's valuable headspace.**

Kaldur agrees. **Miss Martian, are you able to exclude Doctor Roquette from the link?**

**Sure. Just a moment… There, that aughta do it.**

There's a momentary pause.

**Doctor Roquette confirms that she can no longer hear us.**

**Good to know. Orange Lantern and Artemis resuming patrol.**

I mapped the place earlier. The Headmaster's… No, hang on, the Principal's office is two corridors and a flight of stairs away. Can't think the title without thinking of Princeps. Not sure if anyone would hear the difference with the ring translating.

**What are we actually looking for, anyway?**

"Nothing really. If the Shadows knew where we were, they'd have acted already. It's more to stop us dozing off than anything else."

**You're supposed to be looking for the Shadows, remember? I'm sure Red Arrow would have been happy to explain, if you hadn't driven him off the team.**

Not again…

Rage flashes over her face and she thrusts her head in Wallace's approximate direction.

**That's so not on me.**

**Kid Flash, please try to remain professional while we're on duty.**

**She started it.**

**Not the point.**

I don't hear anything else from him. I wait until Artemis' attention returns to our environment, then start walking again.

"You can just speak out loud, you know. If you want to talk to just me, rather than the whole team."

**I'm having… Uh…** She holds the heel of her right palm against her forehead. "Don't you have trouble keeping, y'know, keeping it separate?"

"No, not really. According to M'gann I have an unusually open mind."

She skips a step. **M'gann?**

**Yes? What is it?**

**No, uh, was.. talking to Orange Lantern. Never mind.**

"She and I spent some time practising telepathic communication. Seemed like a good idea, given how much we rely on it."

"Yeah, I can see what you-."

**Aqualad to team. I have asked Doctor Roquette to begin tracking the Infiltrator swarm. This will mean that the Shadows will be able to use the signal to track our location. Please remain on high alert, and report anything suspicious before investigating.**

I catch Artemis' eye. She nods.

**Orange Lantern and Artemis, message received and understood.**

**Superboy, got it.**

**Miss Martian, I'm ready.**

We reach an intersection and I stop. Making an opening gesture with my arms, I bring to life screens covering the surrounding area. Artemis seems a little taken aback.

"Whaw. Can you watch everything from here?"

"Nnnnn. Tried watching everything once, gave me a massive headache. The ring detects potential threats and draws my attention to them."

One screen is following a cat. I like cats, but it wouldn't be right, keeping one in the mountain. I instruct the screen to look for something dangerous instead, and it turns out that cat is the fifth most dangerous thing near the perimeter. Huh.

**Orange Lantern to team. Monitors are live, no sign of trouble so far. I will report every five minutes.**

Artemis walks up to the screen showing the front entrance, where M'gann has just been joined by Kon, who drops down from the roof. Artemis looks at him for a moment, then turns to me, left arm across her chest, right elbow on her left hand and her right index finger tapping her chin.

"So, you and Superboy, huh?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
21:56 GMT -5

"Superboy and I what?"

Nothing of note on the screens. The most notable weapon is a shotgun in the boot of a car about eighty metres from the front entrance. Is that good practice? I don't think that's good practice.

"The two of you seemed pre-tty friendly, when I saw you in Gotham."

"Yes, we're good friends. Four of us live in the mountain full time, and he, M'gann and I have spent a lot of time together this last month."

"But, the two of you, y'know-."

**Miss Martian, Doctor Roquette has located the fog. Reconfigure the bioship so Robin and Superboy can pursue.**

The bioship drops down into the field of view of the screen covering the front lawn, hovering just off the ground. Robin leaves the building, and he and Superboy jog over and board it. Superboy's actually more proficient at flying the bioship than I am now. Maybe because he has fewer preconceptions about how flying is supposed to work? Or maybe the bioship flies more like Kryptonians fly? Not sure.

The screen covering the front entrance shows M'gann walking back inside the school, while the one covering the lawn homes in on a bush… Oh. Hah! They actually are sending guys with swords!

**Ladies and gentlemen, we have a ninja on the front lawn. Weird mask, couple of bladed weapons. Ooh, a pistol bow. Haven't seen one of those before.** I move the screen out a little, giving me a better view. M'gann freezes on the front steps. **Don't stop. Either keep walking, or attack immediately.** She lowers her head slightly, and walks up to the doors. **Ah, cheeky devil's going for the fence on your right.**

M'gann surges into the air, hands outstretched in the direction of the first Shadow, who had been executing a rather elegant leap over the perimeter fence. The Shadow -wearing what appears to be a tunic and thigh boots- is suspended upside down in mid-jump, facing away from the school. Nice to know it isn't just the heroes whose ability to dress themselves sensibly gets stolen away. Ah, the first Shadow is a woman. I seem to remember that Ra's was somewhat patriarchal. Female Ubu's certainly weren't allowed to fight until… Nyssia? Talia's sister, whatshername, took over. Am I misremembering that, or is it just different here?

M'gann flies over to the would-be attacker, and I hear Kaldur give warning just before I do. **M'gann, do not get too close.**

M'gann lowers her so that the fence is between them. That won't be much of an obstacle if she turns out to be one of those ridiculously able comic book fighters. Not sure exactly how resilient M'gann is, and I really don't want to find out the hard way. In training, we found that while M'gann can hold many objects at once with telekinesis she can only maintain a really strong force in one place. She says it's just a matter of training and experience, but she could end up in serious trouble if she misjudges this.

**"Well, this is embarrassing."**

I don't recognise the voice. Female. Wait. I think I'm hearing the assassin. We've shared visual images before, but this is new. Interesting.

**Aqualad to Miss Martian. Try to find out who else the Shadows are sending. Orange Lantern, are you detecting any other Shadows?**

**Not at present.**

**Miss Em, if you need backup I can be down there in a sec.**

M'gann pulls her hand back, yanking the Shadow against the wire of the fence. **I think I can manage.**

**"You're the Martian, right? Guess I need to think quieter."**

**"Who else are the League of Shadows sending?"**

Think we need to work on interrogation technique during our next lesson.

**"I have no idea what you're talking about. I was just coming here to use the gym."**

**"R-iiiight."**

**"The middle of the night's the only time I can use it without a bunch of guys staring at my ass the whole time. Kinda flattering at first, but it got old really fast."**

I hear a burst of music.

**Can't get anything from her mind. She keeps thinking of this song.**

How to get around that? **You could try breaking her concentration.**

**I don't really want to hurt her if she isn't fighting back.**

**Can you get any information past the song that you could use to surprise her?**

I almost don't see it. The Shadow's arms move slightly, and something… somethings fly towards M'gann. She jerks back in the air and brings them to a stop mere centimetres from her face. Are those shurikens? Wait, that one-!

One of the projectiles explodes, covering the area in smoke. I can still see M'gann just fine, but I doubt she can see a thing.

**M'gann, go for height in case she follows up!**

**No, she's gone.**

M'gann rises out of the smoke, the Shadow's tunic still in her telekinetic grip.

Kaldur can't see what's happening. **Miss Martian, report.**

**The Shadow threw some knives at me. They went right through the fence, but I stopped them before they hit me. I didn't spot the smoke bomb until it exploded. She got away.**

Another monitor tracks the Shadow as she sprints away from the building. Sports bra. Practical, though not exactly well armoured. Maybe armour doesn't go with her build? Combat build, not physical build. I doubt that she could leap like that if she were wearing my armour.

**I'm still tracking her. She's leaving the area. Aqualad, do you want us to pursue?**

**No. The Shadows will try again. We need to focus on stopping the Infiltrators and protecting Doctor Roquette.**

Robin to Aqualad.

Rather than wear an earpiece that might throw off my hearing, I decided to have the ring relay radio communications. Sounds a bit… Off. I'm not used to hearing a voice other than the ring's in this way.

We're over Philadelphia. We've located the Shadow's next target. STAR Labs.

That wasn't the one with the Amazo parts, was it? Because that would be a bit of a problem.

We're too late.

I flick my right hand and an image of the collapsing building appears.

It's destroyed. Totally destroyed. The fog decimated it.

It destroyed one in ten buildings? I doubt it.

This is bad. STAR Labs is cutting edge science and now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy.

He pauses for a moment. Artemis takes a look at the orange rubble heap projection.

What's our next move?

Kaldur's already decided. We scan for the fog. Find it. We're moving the Doctor.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
21:58 GMT -5

**I don't really want to hurt her if she isn't fighting back.**



**Try telling her you think she has a nice arse too.**

There's a moment of silence. Then Kid Flash speaks. **I'm on board with that plan.**

M'gann's less sure. **Err…**

**You just need to stop her thinking about the song for a moment, right?**

**Well, yeah…**

**Reacting in a way which shocks her might well disrupt her concentration.**

**I… I suppose…**

Kaldur isn't keen. **Miss Martian, if you are not comfortable with the suggestion then do not make use of it.**

**No, it… It could work.**

Artemis stares at me as I cover my mouth with my right hand to try and prevent myself from laughing.

"Okay, that's mean."

"A bit. Funny though."

On the monitor M'gann's lips move. I've no idea what she's saying, but I doubt it's very convincing.

The Shadow responds by bending slightly and pressing her derrière against the wire of the fence. She then makes a circle with it.

M'gann jerks back in the air.

"Hah!"

She snerks, "Yeah, okay, that was funny."

"Serves her right for taking what Wallace said at face value. I give Superboy a reassuring hug and suddenly everyone on the team thinks we're romantically involved. It's ridiculous."

"I.. suppose it was, kinda…"

"Particularly considering what I've been doing in Japan."

Her face shifts back to neutral and she moves her gaze from the screen to me. "What have you been doing in Japan?"

I look at her from the corner of my eyes. And now the target has changed. "Ogre sex cult. With orange tentacles."

Stunned. "You, you what?!"

"Well…" I wave my huge grey right hand down my front. "It's all in proportion, isn't it? There's no way one woman could possibly-."

He expression becomes a gurning rictus of horror and disgust. "Oh, eww!"

She's actually gagging! I grin. "Funny you should make that expression…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
22:36 GMT -5

I still can't do stealth.

I could have carried whatever equipment the Doctor wanted to bring easily with a construct. Heck, I could have powered it and given her a roaming internet connection so she could keep working while conveying her in a sealed, vibration free and climate controlled module. But the whole thing would have glowed orange and everyone would have known where we were. And the Shadows have got to have someone who can threaten me, right?

I did briefly consider suggesting that we take her back to the mountain. It would make an excellent defensive position, but would rather give the game away about our residential location.

The Doctor vetoed my suggestion of Atlantis.

We ended up scurrying from place of concealment to place of concealment, stopping only for me to create a small screen with which to track the assassin we knew about and check for any we didn't. Aqualad and I carried the computer equipment by hand, while Artemis scouted ahead and M'gann hovered invisibly above us. Credit where credit's due, Kid Flash managed to knock off the bickering for the journey while he performed rear guard duty.

Oh. Rear. Right. He wasn't anywhere near her.

We've set up shop in the local internet café. Hang on… **Aqualad, if the computers are already here, why did we bother bringing this stuff?**

He turns to me from where he was standing just behind the Doctor while she works. **To set up a decoy. I will remain here with Doctor Roquette. I want everyone else to move to the Sailor's Rest Bar and Grill up the street. Miss Martian will assume the form of Doctor Roquette to act as bait.**

Ring, update on our attacker's location. I see her several streets away. Looks like she had backup clothing stashed somewhere. She gestures and… Oh, that's her backup, is it? **If I may make an alternate suggestion?** Kaldur nods. **The Shadow we encountered at the school has been joined by two others. None of them are carrying weapons which are a threat to me. Why don't I sally forth and deal with them before they get here?**

This seems to surprise him a little. **Members of the League of Shadows are highly skilled-.**

Give me strength. **They're armed with sharp bits of metal and glue guns, Kaldur. They are no threat to me. At absolute worst, one could slip past and maybe make it ten metres before I stop them. Artemis, would you mind covering me from a concealed position?**

Her eyes dart between us. **Aah, no. I.. can.. do that.**

**There. Not even ten metres and they get an arrow in the foot.** I raise my forearms, palms towards me, in a gesture of appeal.

**Hey, how come she gets to help?** Kid Flash doesn't want to get left out.

**Because we need our more experienced team mate covering Doctor Roquette.** That mollifies him slightly. **And because I'm going to be throwing heavy constructs around and we haven't really practised that. I wouldn't want to accidentally pulverise you. Artemis attacks from a distance.**

Kaldur doesn't look convinced. **I am not happy about sending you to face multiple opponents-.**

Armour.

The construct covers me completely. **Kaldur, take a Water-Bearer and stab me in the face.**

"What?" I think I shocked him.

"My armour is not breakable by levels of force a baseline human can bring to bear. And I'm not completely convinced you can break it either. Stab me. Punch me. Whatever you need to do to assure yourself that my assessment is correct."

He waits for a moment, then reaches out with his right hand, pushing lightly against the faceplate. Then, he pulls his arm back and hammers his fist into the armour. Chest, diaphragm and face each take a hit without noticeable effect. I don't move even slightly, though I do have to suppress the blink reflex when his fist comes at my eyes.

If I'd set the armour to 'reflect energy' I'd have broken his hand just then.

He looks at his hand, opening and closing the fist a couple of times. **Very well. Artemis, accompany Orange Lantern and cover him from a place of concealment.**

**Don't worry. This orange light is dreadful for stealth, but it's great for keeping people's attention.** Artemis and I walk towards the door. I open it, step aside and smile. **Ladies first.**

That gets an arched eyebrow, but she walks through anyway.

I'm not normally a violent man, but I'm actually kind of excited about this.

"So, which way are we going?"

Flight aura.

And up we go.

"Hey!"

We shoot five blocks in moments. "Faster than walking." We touch down on the roof of a warehouse. The air conditioning outflow should give Artemis plenty of cover. If she needs it for some reason. "Three opponents: the ninja from earlier, redressed, some guy with glue guns strapped to his wrists and a guy with a big hook for an arm."

I create images of all three of them. Their little party remains in a dispersed formation, but are heading in the same direction closely enough to support each other. Artemis looks at the images for a moment. "I don't recognize the ninja, but those last two are Black Spider and Hook."

"Anything I should look out for?"

"Are you serious about fighting them on your own?"

Incredulity? Please. I hold out my left hand, palm first. My right index finger points to the ring.

"Do you see this ring? This is an example of the most powerful tool ever devised by a species that reached the limits of the technology curve, and then used their knowledge to build more curve for themselves. While I am in no sense an expert in its application, I am more than up to the task, of taking down, three baseline Humans, armed with primitive weapons."

"Cocky much?"

"There is no challenge here! But, if you have any doubts, feel free to watch so you can drag me out of the way when I lose."

Now, who to attack first? Think I'll go for the spider guy. Want to get the chance to clobber him before Marvel Comics do.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
22:39 GMT -5

I'm nearly giggling as I lurk behind a warehouse, waiting for my first target to reach me. My lights are on low and the solid wall should prevent me from being spotted. It wouldn't matter much, but I'd prefer not to give them the chance to disperse.

OrangeVision live… Ah, there we are. Spider-Man… No, Black Spider, has leapfrogged past the other two and moved into cover on top of a greengrocer's on the side of the road opposite the other side of this warehouse. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to be using the web spray thingies on his wrists to assist his movements. Instead he seems able to vault and safely fall considerable distances under his own power. Maybe a metahuman? Or perhaps that's just what peak fitness baseline Humans can do here. Still not strong enough to actually threaten me, but I can afford to be a little rougher with him. The other two are at ground level. No time like the present, then.

Armour to full, I rise up behind the warehouse, a draconic four fingered claw manifesting around my target. It isn't quite instantaneous, but it's fast enough that he has no chance to dodge it before being lifted up two stories further and then slammed down into the middle of the road with some considerable force.

As I complete my arc to hover over the street about eight metres away from him -two other targets on his far side- I feel for a moment that maybe it would have been more satisfying to mirror the construct's actions with my own arm? Perhaps, but it would have been foolish and I want to avoid the mistakes the Greenies keep making.

Ring, keep him pinned and give me amplification.

Compliance.

"Good evening, members of the League of Shadows. I am Orange Lantern two eight one four."

A minor construct releases the wrist webbers from Black Spider and floats them over to me. Might be useful.

Ninja girl goes for height while Hook dashes forward more boldly, keeping the parked cars along the side of the road between himself and me as much as possible. Futile hope, or standard training misapplied? Another claw manifests around him and tosses him roughly into open space next to Black Spider. He rolls to a crouch.

"Okay, the ninja girl and the Spider man I kind of get, but what the fuck are you supposed to be?" A grimace, then he aims his hook and me and fires it like a harpoon. That bulky cybernetic actually has a chain in it. Unbelievable. A series of needle-like constructs pierce the links before the hook reaches me, arresting its movement and holding it in place. I send a line construct directly down from me into the ground and towards him. "Were all the good weapons taken or something?"

He snarls, and tries to pull it back like a fishing line. Nope. The line I send underneath him breaks through the tarmac and encases his hook-arm, then extends to generate an angle grinder from it. Now, how much of that arm is still flesh? Hmm. The cybernetic covers pretty much the whole arm, but some skin and nerve tissue -and enough blood vessels to keep them alive- is still intact. The bone and muscle appear to have been entirely replaced with the material used in more normal, natural seeming cybernetics. The bone replacement looks neat. I suppose they'd have to have reinforced parts of his body to take the extra weight and strain of the harpoon gun.

Didn't that come up in Global Frequency? About how you can't just add a little if you want to augment someone with cybernetics, because the body pulls itself apart? Think that was why the guy in Cowboy Bebop had a light and not very strong cybernetic as well.

Now he actually looks scared. Oh well. He yelps as the grinder slices neatly through the arm just above the elbow. Another souvenir. I drop the needle constructs and trigger the reel-in mechanism. Once it snaps back in place I stick the limb into subspace. We're going to need a bigger cupboard at this rate.

With the construct that had been holding his arm in place dropped, Hook falls to his knees, cradling his stump. His eyes are watering and his breathing is shallow and rapid. Oh hell, does he get pain feedback from that arm? I scan for the interface implants before sticking a ShockCrown over his head. He slumps bonelessly to the ground. Right, he's still in pain, he just can't move. Assuming that his arm is basically a customised standard model, destroying that and that should stop any signals reaching his organic nervous system. Another scan and yes, no impulses detected. Great.

Lifting Hook and Black Spider up -Black Spider showing some signs of life now- I spray them both with a good coat of Black Spider's own web solution before sticking them to the warehouse wall with the rest of it. Now, logically he'd keep a supply of solvent here… Yes, there we are. I know what I can do with that. I stick the dispensers in the still-hardening webbing next to Black Spider's head, and take off his helmet.

Hook won't be able to move for hours, and Black Spider isn't going anywhere fast unless the ninja cuts him free. Where'd she go? Ah, as far away from me as she can get in the time available. Rather than head towards the seafront and the Doctor, she's heading parallel to the seafront, over the rooftops. Does she really think that will help?

Ring, plot route.

Compliance.

A fraction's worth of blur and I'm standing directly in front of her. She's running at full pelt and doesn't have time to stop before crashing into me, and bouncing off my armour. Respect to her though, she uses her bounce back to roll away from me and into a crouch. A movement of her arms and three shurikens hit my construct armour, only to bounce off.

The area is fairly well lit, and I get my first direct normal-vision look at her. "Oh, GREEN! Green tunic and white mask! You're Cheshire, right?"

She draws two… Don't remember what they're called, knives like Raphael uses, and lunges for me.

"That's-." A group of clamps projected from my right hand grab each of her arms and legs -upper and lower- mid leap. She tries to twist out of their grasp, but makes no more headway than Black Canary did. "That's really not going to work."

Ring, scan for weapons.

Compliance.

A series of small claws projected from my chest home in on her every weapon. The two knives in her hands are pulled free first, with some resistance. Then the pistol bow, bolts and the shurikens attached to her back, and two weirdly blunt looking knives… Collapsible swords? Those exist? Whaw, learn something new every day. I snap the bolts in half before dropping the other equipment to the floor. Explosive pellets from her belt come next, then… Oh.

"Sorry about this, but if you will store things inside your tunic…"

She stiffens as the claws go inside her tunic. I feel really uncomfortable about this. Two normalish knives and a selection of throwing weapons join the pile on the floor. Maybe she really doesn't need armour with all this stuff in her clothing.

Please say she doesn't have a knife up her… No? Fffwww. That's a relief.

Having thoroughly disarmed her, I get a bit closer.

**Orange Lantern to team. Hook and Black Spider are stuck to a warehouse wall, and I've pinned and disarmed the ninja. Her codename's Cheshire, by the way.**

There's a moment, then Aqualad responds. **Good work. Do you detect any other Shadows in the area?**

Ring?

No threats likely to be in the category requested detected.

**Not at present. How's the program coming along?**

A pause, presumably to check with Doctor Roquette. **The Doctor informs me that it should be complete within half an hour.**

**Do you need Artemis and I back? I'd like to see if I can get anything out of the assassins before we hand them over to the police.**

**If there are no further attackers whom you can detect, then there is no need for your return. Try to find out if they know what the next target of the Infiltrators is.**

**I'm on it. Would you mind sending Miss Martian over? I'm fairly sure that I can keep Cheshire's attention away from annoying music.**

**Miss Martian, join Orange Lantern but stay invisible and out of line of sight.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
22:43 GMT -5

**Uh, Orange Lantern, do you still need me covering you?**

**Can't hurt. Move up so you can overlook my current position.**

Soooo… What do I remember about Cheshire? Nothing from the League database.

Ring?

No record on file.

Nice to know my memory's still working. All I remember of comic Cheshire is that she had a child with Red Arrow, poisoned her weapons -Ring, check? Yep.- and once blew up a country with a nuclear weapon. I only remember that detail because someone compared her action to that of Black Adam, commenting that it was hypocritical to consider her actions beyond the pale while not condemning him with equal vehemence.

First, that mask can go. An orange aura forms around her head as I unbuckle it and lift it off. Wait, that's her actual hair? I thought it was part of the mask! How much hair spray does she get through?

Ring, scan the mask.

Scan complete.

Huh. Decoration aside, it's pretty much the same as Crock's mask. Wonder if they have the same supplier?

Facial structure slender… Maybe Asian? Not sure. There's light here but it isn't great, so I can't judge skin tone. Her expression is fairly blank, but her eyes suggest that she'd quite like to tear my heart out right now.

"So, as I said, I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four. And you're Cheshire."

I move to a sitting position, hands clasped in my best 'sincere guidance counsellor' position. M'gann was right; I do like doing this.

"So, I don't know anything about you yet, but before we get started, is there anything you'd like to know about me?"

"Your real name, home address and a list of your vulnerabilities."

"Hm. Can't say it, don't have one, finite power reserve."

"How finite?"

"If you can hold out for two days or so, then I might have to recharge."

Her eyes move from my face. Oh, she's seen the ring. "That actually is a power ring, isn't it?"

"'Fraid so."

"I thought they only came in green."

I open my palm facing her, the glowing sigil clearly visible. "Actually, they come in a bunch of colours. It's just that everyone's heard of the green ones."

Another pause, as she looks away for a moment. "It wasn't the Martian who detected me."

"Nope, that was me. Oh, sorry, that can't be comfortable."

I use the clamps to push her into a sitting position, then extend them to create a comfy chair. She's still clamped to it, but she'll hopefully feel a little more at ease.

She looks more puzzled than relaxed. "Can't say I thought I'd ever be interrogated in an armchair."

"I'm a bit new at this. Please, forgive me if I get some details a bit wrong."

"I don't suppose it has a massage function?"

I grin. "It can if you give me a list of the targets which the League of Shadows is planning to use the Infiltrators on."

An incredulous look. "Really?"

"Sure. It isn't hard; I can apply pressure with a construct however you want."

Sometimes when I talk at cross purposes with someone, it's accidental. I have a bit of trouble following another's thought processes sometimes. More often these days I use it for humour instead. Cheshire blinks heavily twice before she dismisses what I said.

"Of course, I'm not actually trained in massage therapy yet. I've been thinking about taking lessons, but I've… Been busy with work."

"Are you actually planning on interrogating me at some point?"

"Well, yes, but… Ah! Shall we see how Hook and Black Spider are getting on?"

I make a sweeping gesture with my left hand, and a screen appears with the Chuckle Brothers in the centre. Hook's still out, but Black Spider has managed to take hold of the web fluid dispenser in his mouth.

"Oh, good effort there. Kinda like one of those crazy Japanese game shows, isn't it? Endurance, or something? Do you have that here? Contestant number one thinks he's about to get the web dissolving solvent, buuuut…"

He bites down on the trigger.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!"

We hear his scream from where we're sitting.

"Some complete bastard replaced the solvent with pepper spray!" I make a face of comedically exaggerated astonishment, right hand covering my mouth with fingers pointing upwards. "Who would do such a thing?!"

She's back to her serious face. "Are you allowed to do things like that?"

"Eh, no one's going to care about pepper spray. If I'd made Fear Toxin or Smilex…"

No expression again.

"Did you know that Smilex started out as an antidepressant? Not a lot of people know that. Never made it as far as Human trials." I pause for a moment. "Well, obviously it's been tried on Humans now. I think Fear Toxin was supposed to be for riot control. You know, make rioters too afraid to start anything. That did get to Human trials. The stuff can actually be useful in interrogations. In low doses, anyway. High doses…" I make a circling motion with my right hand. "So! Anyway, is there anything you'd particularly like to tell me at this point?"

No response. Oh well. Ring, what's her name?

Gotham North High School records list her as 'Jade Crock'.

Crock? Interesting…

"Miss Crock, it would really help if-."

"That isn't my name!"

Furious again.

"Okay, what would you prefer?"

Sour taste face. "Nguyen. Jade Nguyen."

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
22:47 GMT -5

"Right, well, Miss Nguyen-."

Ring, where does that name come from?

The surname is the maiden name of her mother, Paula Nguyen.

Who'd she marry to get the surname 'Crock'?

Lawrence Crock, aka 'Sportsmaster'.

"Huh, small world! I actually ran into your dad a couple of weeks ago."

"I don't care."

Ooooh, fierce. Not a good relationship, then. Worth knowing.

Ring, Ophidian's Eyes.

Everything changes. Scenery fades away to irrelevance. I still see Miss Nguyen, but I also see inside her mind. Not her thoughts, but her desires, her underlying fundamental drives. She needs structure and duty. She needs to be respected and to have someone she respects to look up to. I see glimpses of a face, sort of General Iroh meets pirate chief. I can't feel any drive towards conventionally moral behaviour. I suppose she doesn't define herself in those terms. And, yes, a huge jagged ball of do-not-want linked to an image of her father. I don't remember him being that big. Hmm.

Ring, end.

Back in the room.

"What did you just do?"

"Hm?"

"Your eyes turned orange."

"Night vision. Orange is, ah, kinda my thing." Not sure if she believes me, but she doesn't have any evidence to the contrary. "Would you like a biscuit?" A small plate with a chocolate cookie in the centre materialises from subspace. "I've finally got the hang of making them crunchy without being too dry."

She looks at it suspiciously.

"Oh, come on. If I'd wanted to drug you I'd just have done it."

"This is ridiculous."

"I need the feedback! The Martian tells me she likes them, but I think she's just buttering me up so she can skive off kitchen duty."

**Hey!**

I smile. **Miss Martian, you're in place then. How am I doing?**

**You're making her confused, but after a moment she goes back to counting pi. I'm getting some things, but not the location of the next attack.**

I float the plate closer to Miss Nguyen's right side, and remove the restraints from the lower part of her right arm. I still have hold of the plate with the ring though, I'm not stupid.

**I'll try and keep her off balance. Let me know when you have it.**

Gingerly, she reaches out and picks up the biscuit. Slowly she moves it towards her face, taking the time to study it carefully. An inch from her nose she stops and sniffs it.

I grin. "Not bothered by the power ring, but my chocolate biscuit's clearly a deadly weapon."

Perhaps realising how silly I'm making her look, she takes a tiny bite. Her face is a picture. In fact, ring?

Image stored.

Failing to detect anything untoward, she takes a larger bite. I hear the crunch.

"I understand why you don't want to be associated with him, you know. Supervillains are famous for making terrible fathers."

Her eyes narrow slightly. Another bite.

"You know Slade Wilson? Deathstroke the Terminator? Sword nut, blue and orange costume? Once it became clear that neither of his sons were going to follow in his footsteps, he decided that there was nothing for it but to turn his daughter into the perfect Stepford assassin. His chosen method? Obedience drugs. Only they don't work quite right, and she ends up completely obsessed with him. Rose Wilson ended up gouging her own eye out so she could be a bit more like daddy."

Another bite.

"Of course, she had it easy compared with Cassandra Cain. David Cain… He's one of your lot, isn't he? Anyway, to test a theory about how the Human brain processes information, he denies her access to any form of spoken or written language until she's in her teens. Completely messes her up."

Another bite.

"Finding out that he trained her to resist pain by shooting her, then shooting her again if she flinched, that cost me some of my faith in humanity."

Last bite. Nothing yet…

"Then you've got Raʾs al-Ġūl-."

"Lady Talia has never been mistreated by her father."

"Oh, no, not her. Always easier to get on with the obedient ones. No, I was referring to her elder sister, Nyssia. The one who ended up in a concentration camp?"

Her expression shifts slightly. Something there. Probably not enough for M'gann…

"Must be a relief to know that yours is in prison, really."

A blink of surprise, then hardening again. "How?"

She didn't know? "Like I said, I ran into him a couple of weeks ago."

"You really expect me to believe that-."

Ring, plasma crossbow.

I hold it up so she can get a good look at it.

"Look familiar? If it makes you feel any better, it didn't do much more to my armour construct than your shurikens did."

"You, beat Sportsmaster."

"The EMP mine in his helicopter didn't exactly help him, but yes. I knocked him out and the Justice League escorted him to Belle Reve."

"Hah!" An honest smile. I send the plate and crossbow back into subspace. "Did you hit him a lot? Please, say yes."

"Um, no, not really. The actual fight can't have taken longer than fifteen seconds. One construct to yank the weapon out of his hand, another to short out his motor neurons." She looks surprised, and a little impressed. Why? Oh. "Temporarily, temporarily."

Slight pout face.

"Might have accidentally bumped him into a few trees on the way back…"

The grin is back.

**She doesn't know! They didn't tell her what the target is.**

Darn.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
22:52 GMT -5

**Aqualad to Miss Martian, are you able to get anything useful?**

**The man using the Infiltrators is called Professor Ojo. He wears a helmet with a really powerful energy weapon built into the face. He might have a couple of other people with him, but they aren't fighters. I'm transmitting an image now.**

The helmet reminds me a bit of Triclops from He-Man. And that moustache? Really?

**I will inform Robin and Superboy.**

"So how did it feel, taking down one of the most feared mercenaries on the planet?"

Exaggerated facial cringe. "Honestly, I'd never heard of him. Thought he was Casey Jones until my team mates corrected me."

Puzzlement. "Who is Casey Jones?"

"Have you ever seen the film 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?"

"Yes..? Wait, you thought he was-?"

"It's the same mask!"

"You thought Lawrence 'Crusher' Crock,-"

"Yes."

"-Sportsmaster,-"

"Yes."

"-was Casey Jones, the idiot from the Turtles films."

"And. And the animated series'."

"Hahahahahahahahaha!"

Her head drops down.

"Hahahahahahahahaha!"

She's actually gasping for breath.

"Hahahahahahahahaha!"

"It's not that funny."

She gets herself under control and takes a couple of deep breaths. "Yes, yes it is. I almost want to go and visit him, just so I can tell him. Do they let you take cameras in? Do you think I could get a picture?"

"I've… Never looked into it."

"I could probably sneak in."

"It's supposed to be very secure."

"Eh, that's what they said about Stryker's Island."

That statement concerns me a little. The holding facility for the people Superman fights is not somewhere I want supervillains to think of as 'not all that secure'.

**Doctor Roquette has resumed tracking the Infiltrators. Orange Lantern, Miss Martian, continue to question Cheshire. I'm sending Kid Flash to stand by near a zeta tube in order to travel to whatever location the Shadows strike at next.**

"What's the pay like?"

"I'm sorry?"

"For being-" She waves her free forearm. "-Orange Lantern. I don't remember what the exact bounty on Sportsmaster's head was. Is that how it works?"

Maybe I should ask about that? There's probably some sort of reward. I don't need the money but it might be nice to make a charity contribution in my own name… Well, title at least.

"Miss Nguyen-."

"Oh, call me Jade." A dismissive gesture. "It's not like I can keep my identity secret."

"Ah, alright, thank you. Jade, I have a power ring, and a short flight from here at faster than light speed is the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt. And in that belt is as much precious metal as I could ever spend."

I rub my right thumb against my right index and middle fingers, a single platinum coin emerging from subspace. Paola chased me down in New York three weeks after my original visit and informed me of the existence of US Mint issued one hundred dollar platinum coins. Their metal value may not match their face value, but it's close enough that I don't melt them when I pick them up. She's negotiating with someone at the Mint to get a whole batch struck for me. For a decent percentage, obviously.

I asked about getting 'All Others Pay Cash' on them, replacing the odious 'In God We Trust' motto. Doubt it'll happen.

It's a bit of a strain, but I create just enough normal light around the coin that Jade can see it clearly. She appears to be thinking about things.

"So you're rich, powerful and handsome."

Wa?

"Um, thank you?" I return the coin to subspace.

"Who's the lucky girl? Or guy?"

"No, I'm... Single at the moment."

**But, Superboy..?**

**Artemis, he's a month old. That would be completely wrong.**

**R-? Really?**

**Really. Grown in a pod. You really should read our mission reports. I mean, I like him, but… No.**

"Hm." And now she's smiling and appraising and I'm remembering that I'm sitting across from an athletically attractive Asian woman wearing what is -basically- fetish wear. And she's tied to a chair. I was ignoring these things. Now I'm not.

Construct strength isn't a problem here.

Maybe I should have spent more time on the intimacy parts of the Hierarchy.

My hands have moved together into my preferred meditative posture. My legs from dangling to crossed. I breathe out. Her smile grows.

"You know, I should probably thank you for dealing with… With my father."

That sounds…

!Really good!

…like a bad…

Is it, though?

"Um, what do you..?"

"How about a kiss?"

!Really good!

That sounds like something I shouldn't do. On the other hand, she isn't armed, she's tied to a chair and I have a power ring. And Batman… Well, Talia and Selina.

The Hierarchy flashes through my head. This doesn't appear to be contrary to any other levels of Need. I've always been a bit reticent where this sort of thing is concerned. Maybe, now is a good time to change that.

I lower the chair to the rooftop, and drop to the ground myself. "Are you sure? I wouldn't... I mean, I don't want to pressure…"

"If you'd had to live with him, you'd understand."

!Really good!

I walk two paces forward, alongside the chair and her free forearm. I increase the height of the chair slightly, so her head is only slightly below the level of my own.

Ring, she doesn't have a cyanide tooth or something, does she?

No poison detected inside her mouth.

And I'm out of excuses, and the orange light has dealt with my reticence.

Ring, drop armour.

I lean forwards and across, head tilted slightly to the side. I tense slightly as her hand touches the back of my head, but I suspect that my inexperience is showing. She presses me forward gently, and I move with her, eyes scanning her face before settling on her eyes. Closer, and our noses rub against each other. Our lips come together. Soft, warm, and… slightly damp? Lipstick, probably.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th August
22:56 GMT -5

She removes her hand and I take that as the sign that I should pull back. I run my tongue along my lips. Hm, biscuit crumbs.

**Why are you KISSING the ASSASSIN?** Artemis is not amused.

**Her idea. Miss Martian, getting anything good?**

A pause.

**Hello Megan! You were trying to distract her!**

**I like to think I was keeping her attention focused at least a little, yes.**

**Right! Um, I've got the location of a few League of Shadows safe houses and informants. Nothing that really applies to this mission though.**

**That's a bit of… of…**

And now I'm sitting on the ground. Huh? How did that happen? Oh, that's a pretty sign over the road. Wonder if it distracts traffic?

**Orange Lantern, are you okay?**

Mind cuddles! I send a mental image of myself as a long fluffy orange snake all coiled around her and constricting in a friendly way. I feel her.. alarm? Why is she alarmed? Can't she see its big smiley snake grin?

**Artemis, there's something wrong with Orange Lantern!**

Maybe Martians just don't like snakes. HeEhEeHeE.

"HeEhEeHeE."

Oh, Jade's chair's disappeared.

I wish I had a comfy chair. Sitting up is sooo much effort at the moment. But Jade Jade Jadey Jade doesn't want to sit?

That's fine. I'll just lay here.

Oh look! A stick with a feather. Doesn't look like Jade likes feathers. Maybe it's from a super fast feather delivery company. InterFeather. InterFletcher.

"Hehehehehe"

No, I don't wanna get up.

Whaw, Jadey's a lot stronger than I thought. Being carried around is kind of fun. No more feathers?

Lots of feathers!

Ow. She dropped me. She must have been scared of all the feathers chasing her to jump off the building like that.

My head's dangling right over the edge. Someone really needs to clean that alley.

And now I'm being picked up again. But no one's touching me.

Hello M'gann!

**Hello M'gann!**

She doesn't look very happy. Maybe she needs more cuddles? Ugh, is she saying something? Everything's a bit….

"Paul, snap out of it!"

Ugh?

**He's been drugged.**

I can hear Kralder brut can't see? Huh?

**Artemis has gone after Cheshire.**

**I don't know what drug she used!**

**See if you can get him to focus on what's happening. He should be able to use his ring to purge his system.**

All of the voices?

"Paul, you need to use your ring."

Big face? Hand?

"Come on M'gann, he names his attacks, he told you what he called it. What was it?"

hfoiedgaspbh25xfjkbcvm,fg[pidgf

"Rightful…wholeness?"

Teehee, silly Martian. Wholeness Rightly Assumed.

"DAMN IT!" I'm on my feet and in the air immediately. M'gann's expression combines surprise with relief. Where's Jade?

I feel her. Artemis has her at arrowpoint. She's… Talking to her?

!My target!

A surge of orange and I interrupt their conversation. Eyes glowing, a swarm of Octopus tentacles projected from my chest yank her off the ground, completely engulfing her.

I drag her up in front of me. "That. Was rude."

I feel her pushing against the construct. Is she seriously trying to escape?

"Stop struggling. I've seen this film, and it doesn't end well for the Asian woman."

I tighten the construct's grip.

**Orange Lantern, are you well?**

**Yes, thank you Aqualad. I'm sorry…sorry about that. I realise it was stupid, but in my defence; poisoned lipstick?**

"You're choking her."

"What?" I descend to ground level. Artemis is looking at me like… Is she scared?

Ring, we're not choking Jade, are we?

Breathing of the subject is restricted.

Well, loosen up, then.

Stated request is contrary to user's desires. Unable to comply.

Ah, crap.

"Let her go, now!"

She's actually got an arrow notched.

"I'm trying!"

Okay, I'm angry because I was stupid. Of course she was going to try to escape. I shouldn't have thought otherwise. I shouldn't take it out on her.

Loosen.

The tentacles part slightly, and their numbers thin out. She's still being held securely and in some discomfort. I've got one around her mouth for good measure. She takes a deep and slightly panicked breath through her nose.

Ah, hell with it. ShockCrown.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th August
09:14 GMT -5

Ten hours, and I still feel stupid about it.

Robin, Kon and Wallace dealt with Professor Ojo and the Infiltrators easily enough, and the four Shadows have been transferred to a very secure holding facility. Apparently Hook and Spider broke out of a normal transport last time they were arrested and the police have taken it a bit personally. What's left of the Infiltrator control unit after Superboy landed on it is in a secure STAR Labs facility. Green Arrow told me that Red Arrow made sure that he destroyed all of the backup servers when he rescued Doctor Roquette, so that should be that.

Most of my team mates found my actions to be more amusing than anything. I think Wallace was actually slightly impressed. Kaldur merely described it as 'ill-advised'. Artemis, on the other hand, was livid. Not really sure why. I mean, yes, obviously it was unprofessional and could have gone very badly, but by now? I need to find out what's going on there.

Batman wants our reports by ten this morning, but mine's already on the system. Rather than mope, or wait for him to tell me things I already know I did wrong, I decided to make a delivery.

I'm standing outside the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit's headquarters in the New Troy borough of Metropolis City. It also serves as the main police station for this part of the city. I'm in civilian clothing and trying to look harmless. A scan shows me that Sergeant Ramones is on site. Not sure how this sort of thing is supposed to work, so I decided to just walk up to the front desk and ask for him.

The technology in the MONQIs wasn't anything very exciting by local standards, except for the battery unit. Most of the wrecks we recovered went to STAR Labs, but apparently they didn't need most of the ones I collected. A little work with the ring and I was able to turn a battery and two eyes into a nifty little plasma pistol. I say pistol, but with the variable focus they can match most rifles for range and their power is much greater than commercially available weaponry. I'm keeping a green one and a red one for myself -just in case-, but that still leaves eight green ones that I don't have any use for. Seems like something the SCU could make use of now, not when STAR Labs finishes deciphering how the battery was made.

Not giving them any red ones. Handing out anti-Kryptonian weapons sounds like a really bad idea. Think maybe I'll give one to Alan?

I walk up the stone steps and push through the front door. There's a porch area with metal detectors with another set of doors on the far side. As expected, the ring doesn't set them off. Then I'm into the main lobby, and I walk over to the reception desk. The chap manning it looks up from his monitor.

"Can I help you sir?"

"I do hope so. I'd like to speak to Sergeant Ramones of the SCU, if that's at all possible."

"Alright." He reaches for his phone. "If you can give me your name and why you're here?"

"Orange Lantern, and I have some guns for him."

He's still for a moment, then sits back and looks irritated. "Why don't you go waste someone else's time?"

Huh.

I lay my right hand on the desk, palm upwards, and generate an orange sigil.

"I appreciate this is a little unusual, but I feel it is worth your time. I met the sergeant on the third while transporting the components of a rather dangerous android to STAR Labs."

"Oh-! Uh-! Right, sorry!"

He grabs the phone and starts dialling. I cancel the construct and stand at parade rest.

"Sergeant Ramones? Front desk here. There's a guy calling himself the Orange Lantern here, says he wants to talk to you." A brief pause while he listens to the reply, then he hangs up. "He'll be down in a minute."

"Thank you."

A look around shows me a settee to sit on, along with a table upon which rests a copy of today's Daily Planet and a few magazines. I also spot the security camera, and wave and smile at it when it moves over my face.

Come here, let's have a read. Anything about that bridge collapse last week? No, too much time's passed for it to be new news and too little for anyone to have a detailed investigation complete yet. Anything by Mister Kent? Yes, something on an ongoing investigation into government corruption. Oh, and an opinion piece by Miss Lane. I'm not going to bother reading it, but given how much her appearance changes in every comic and animated series it's worth remembering her picture.

There's a bleep as one of the security doors opens. I turn and see the sergeant staring at me. Odd seeing him out of the full armour he had been wearing. Best grin on. "Morning, sergeant!"

"Hi. Wasn't expecting to see you again any time soon."

"Had some guns to drop off for you."

I appear to have left him behind a little. "Where from?"

"I basically took the MONQI's eyes and power cell and stuck them together. Nothing too complicated. Thought the SCU might want them."

"Oh, you're donating them. Right. Um, d'you wanna come through? Sykes,-" He turns to the chap at the desk. "-sort him out a visitor's pass, will ya?"

I fill in my details -apparently writing my name as Orange Lantern is perfectly acceptable- and clip the tag onto my vest. Then I follow the sergeant through the building.

"The sortsa weapons we use, can't test them in a normal firing range. STAR Labs had to build one special."

"Makes sense."

By the time we get there a few other SCU officers are waiting.

"So, where's the cape?"

A heavy set bald black guy jerks his chin in my direction.

"'Where's the cape?' as in, 'where is the superhero?', or 'where's the cape?' as in 'why aren't I wearing one?'?"

"Didn't know the limeys even had superheroes."

"I can see this is going to be a productive meeting Mister..?"

"Corporal Jase."

"Alright then, corporal. Since I have everyone's attention, I'll begin. This-" I hold out my right hand and call the case with the pistols in forth from subspace. "-is my little gift to the SCU."

I put it down on a nearby table and open it. Eight pistols sit there, sticking out from the padding in two slightly overlapping rows of four. I pick one up.

"I made these from parts taken from the monkey robots that Professor Ivo sent after his android. As I'm sure the sergeant has told you, they bored through the armour of the trucks in a few seconds."

"Can't believe he made them look like monkeys."

A thin blonde man.

"They aren't called mad scientists because they're angry. For the purpose of this demonstration, I'll be setting it to.. low.. power-" I turn the rear of the gun in their direction and show them the dial. "-and short range." Another dial. "If either range or power are not selected then the pistol will not fire. This is the safety. If both are selected, then it will fire. Do not pull the trigger accidentally if the safety is not on."

I walk over to the range itself. "The gun itself is much quieter than most kinetic pistols. On the low energy setting, all you'll hear is a slight sizzle as the air is superheated. On higher settings, there's a slight… Mm, not sure how to describe it. A sort of ringing noise. The beam is quite bright, though not painful to look at for a short time."

I check the range, then raise the pistol, one hand on the grip and the other supporting the barrel.

"The beam is not affected by wind speed or gravity. At least, not within its longest effective range. If the range is not set correctly, the beam will strike it in a diffuse manner, and so have a dramatically reduced strength."

Regular visits to the West Side Pistol and Rifle Range have allowed me to graduate from 'piss poor' to 'not so bad, English'. Hitting the target with this weapon is easy. Three flashes of green light later there are three glowing circles in the centre of the heavy sheet of armour they have as the target.

"Now, any questions?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th August
10:25 GMT -5

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Ah, it'd be too long if I changed it.

I walk to the mouth of the zeta tube and then out into the main area of the base. Wonder Woman, Red Tornado and Batman stop their discussion as they see me.

Oh, heck.

"Where have you been?"

Diana doesn't sound angry, but I'm a little clenched at the moment.

"Metropolis. I've turned some of the MONQI components into plasma pistols and I wanted to give them to the SCU." I approach to within three metres and then come to parade rest. I turn my head towards Batman. "I'm not late, am I, sir? Usually you take three hours to-."

He raises a hand to stop me. "I've scheduled the debrief for thirteen hundred hours. And from your report it appears that you are well aware of the serious error in judgement you made."

I wince slightly, and nod. "Yes… I.. am, sir."

"Then I see little need to labor the point." I sag slightly with relief. "You may also be pleased to know that Wonder Woman has agreed to take on a greater responsibility for Superboy's training."

!Is good!

I nod to her. "Thank you sir."

"She has also made me aware of a significant breach of League security. By you."

Oh. That. "Sir, if you've discussed it then you know why-."

His hand rises again. "Understandable, but still problematic for us. Firstly, I would like to confirm that you actually have the knowledge you claim to."

"Sir, Wonder Woman gave me an order not to use the name of a League affiliate without their permission or an order from you or her. I can't just… Well, okay, I can just say it, but the consequences are a bit severe."

Batman's eyes move to Wonder Woman, who nods slightly. "Very well. I order you to say my name. Once."

I create a barrier around myself and him, and make it as opaque as I can. "Bruce Wayne." I dismiss the barrier.

He considers for a moment. "I suppose, given the more complex ways in which you use constructs, it was inevitable you would become privy to sensitive data eventually. Have you shared this information with the rest of your Corps?"

"I don't… Not intentionally, sir. I'm not completely sure how the data transfer works. I… I've been assuming that using Green Lantern's lantern, I'm off the network. Certainly I haven't received any messages. My.. database hasn't been updated either."

Wait. 'More complex'? Did he just compare me favourably to the League's Greenies?

A shallow nod. "You had a chance to abuse this information and you didn't take it. I don't believe any further action on my part is necessary."

Now or never. "Actually, sir... I would appreciate it if you would remove the existing order. I've… Since Wonder Woman made it, I've been dreading the thought that I might say a name and be overheard by someone I didn't know was there, or I might say a name I didn't think was a secret, and violate the order that way. I mean, Kon introduces himself as Kon, but it's his real name and not many people know it. Does that count? Given the penalty I'm looking at…"

Wonder Woman stiffens slightly. Batman looks at her. "It… Might work like that. This sort of oath is used so infrequently…"

Back to me. "Consider it removed."

This version of Batman is much easier to work with than the one in Justice League Unlimited. "Thank you sir. That's quite a relief."

"One last thing. Considering what happened during your first practice session with Black Canary, I decided that it would be best if we found an additional tutor for you. Someone who could give you training in using your constructs in combat."

"Sounds sensible, sir. I'm going to assume you aren't referring to Lantern Scott?"

The zeta tube glows to life behind me. I remain standing where I am and try turning my head to see who's coming through.

"Recognised, Green Lantern, A zero four, Troia, A zero five."

Was that Alan's designation? Oh, no, no it isn't.

That's Guy Gardner. The uniform's different to the incarnations I'm familiar with, and so's his hair. Looks much better, actually. Sleeveless black and green shirt with Green Lantern sigil, black trousers and fingerless gloves. Not sure what they're for. Protection when he punches people? Doesn't look armoured, but compared with some…

He sees me and strides in my direction. I turn to meet him as Diana walks over to greet Donna, who was hovering a touch nervously at the tube mouth.

"So you're the punk who thinks he's a Lantern."

Hm. He's not a League member, so he doesn't outrank me. I tilt my head a little to the left. "So you're the idiot who got taken down by a bus."

"Oooooooooooh." He grins, and cracks his knuckles. "Smart mouth. Let's see how long you can keep that up for."

"Against someone who's been through Green Lantern training? Quite a while, I should think."

"Yeah, they told me you think we're a bunch of muscle brains."

Did I say that? "I don't think I called you all muscle brains."

"No?" He stretches his neck. "Guess I just take it personal when someone insults my teacher."

"Your teacher was Kilo-? Oh."

Poop.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th August
21:46 GMT -5

I'm still not sure why they believed me when I said that she just 'got away'. It isn't as if I keep the ring's capacities a secret. Maybe they just didn't want to push me while the paramedics were still scraping Black Spider and Hook off the pavement. Had to use the ring to judge their injuries that precisely. Heck, even had to heal Hook a bit. But, the upshot was that Batman didn't really have much to complain about during the debrief.

Nice to know that I'm not completely dependent on the ring. And that ninja training doesn't somehow make you the equal of someone with actual super powers. Hook looked quite shocked when I caught his weapon in my bare hand. Heh, and then used it to spin him around my head.

Good day, good day.

Today's been less… Fun. Productive, though. Researching Jade Nguyen née Crock took a while, as did making sure that I kept up to date with all of her movements. Nice though my augmented body is, I do rather draw crowds when out in public. Fun in Aichi -hah, and rather time-saving- but inconvenient here.

I was shocked to learn that the League of Shadows keep computer data files on their agents. Poor practice, keeping things like that where just anyone with a power ring could scan it. Once I get round to handing the operatives I caught to Batman, that should get me a place in his good books. Valuable intelligence, too, though I'm making use of it first.

One of the many nice things about my new skin tone is the camouflage it offers. If I take hold of the ring in the palm of my hand, no light is visible until I choose to use a construct. If I stand in an unlit room, using the ring to breathe for me, then even a fairly alert person might walk right up to me without noticing that I'm there.

This is the third safe house Jade's been to. I think me shutting down all of the others in the area has left her rather spooked, as well as cutting her off from League of Shadows resources. But, now it's time to make myself known.

I spent some time staring into her soul, as I held her struggling, helpless form aloft when I fought -I'm being generous there- the three of them. I think I may have a use for her. If she's sensible, it won't be the same use I have for her father. The other two were clearly chaff, but she may yet become wheat for my mill. Her identity is so tied up in her father, in wanting to fight against him… I find myself curious as to what will happen when I tell her what I did to him. She wants to become strong, but the only model of strength she has is that of the man she hates above all others.

Defining yourself in terms of someone else. So wasteful. Such a diminution of the self.

I hear her, now. She stopped at this place to check that it was undisturbed before leaving to purchase food. All of the phone numbers she tried failed to reply. I think I might have caused the Shadows' entire American network to go to ground. I hear the crinkle of those paper bags Americans use for groceries. The security on this place wasn't bad exactly, but it dances to the ring's tune now.

She's walked past the utility room where I'm waiting, and moved on to the kitchenette. She kept the lights off. I assume she doesn't want to advertise the fact that there's anyone here to those outside. A reasonable measure, if I were a conventional assailant.

As it is, I form a small platform under each foot and drift after her. I'm standing directly behind her when she puts the bags down on the work surface and flicks on the light.

"Good evening."

She's sprinting for the door before the reflexively thrown knife glances off my chest. I hold it shut. Cornered.

She turns to face me, crouching, kunai in her hands. She looks haggard, as I imagine a beast at bay would look. Not really what I was going for, but I'll take it.

"I'm sure that you realise by now that those won't work."

Her eyes are wide, staring. In theory, my own eyes represent the one point of vulnerability she could exploit. In practice, the angle is a very awkward one even without the ring defending me.

"I appreciate how you feel, you know. Everything you've done, everything you've achieved, and someone like me can just come along and ruin everything."

"What-? What do you want?"

"Good question. My objective, is the complete destruction of the League of Shadows. I'm sure you've seen-."

"It was you! All of them!"

I allow myself a slight smile. "Yes, yes it was. But there lies the problem. I can only act when I have information-."

"I won't tell you anything."

She's shaking a little.

"Jade, I already know everything you know. Now, I want to make you an offer. Once you've heard me out, I'll leave you in as much peace as you're likely to get. I want you to return to the Shadows. I want you to continue your work for them. Then, one day, when I'm ready, I will destroy the entire organisation. And you, you will give me the information which I will need to ensure that none of its members escape me. Then, once your comrades are no more, I'll aid you in starting a new life, away from all this unpleasantness."

"They'll know. They'll kill me if I make a deal with you."

"Then tell them. Simply tell Ra's, or the Sensei, or whoever asks what I asked of you. Have a laugh at my foolishness. If I die or otherwise fail, you've lost nothing."

She looks like she's getting a better grip of herself. Hmm.

"He tried to deal, you know." Eyes narrow. "Your father, I mean. Implied that things would go badly for me if I didn't let him escape."

"If you're planning to pay him back, you're in the wrong place."



"You don't know the half of it, little girl."

The Sportsmaster Construct-Lantern materialises next to where she left the shopping. No orange beam connects us, though I don't imagine that she knows the significance of that fact. He's been quite useful as both an information source and as a provider of training. Black Canary just doesn't teach certain things which I want to know.

Jade flicks her eyes at it, before dismissing it. "It's just another one of your constructs."

"'Fraid not, Little Girl. Orange Lantern here doesn't believe in killing useful people. Doesn't mean he always makes them an offer like you're getting."

"Would you like me to make him dance for you? Sing? Pretend to be a dog? His mind is more or less intact, but his desires are completely subservient to mine."

She lowers her knives, slightly. "You… You killed him."

"In a manner of speaking. We met on Santa Prisca, while he was trying to recover an enhanced form of Venom. Which I used. Potent stuff." I make a show of examining my right arm, turning my hand to watch the muscles move under the slabs of armoured flesh. "Jade, I'm trying to alter the world for the better, and I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty to do it. I would very much like you to be a part of the change. This man-" I look at the partially late Mister Crock. "-shouldn't define you. You shouldn't let your feelings toward him limit your own potential for growth. I can, and will, give you opportunities that the Shadows can only dream of."

I extend my right hand towards her.

"Will you join me?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Acceptance

27th July
06:12 GMT -5

This early in the morning I don't think it's much of a risk to just fly to Alan's house, as long as I don't land in his garden or something. A quick look around to make sure there's no one in the immediate vicinity, and I land in a woodland in Isham Park before switching to civilian clothing.

I still don't know what he wants. He actually sent the message directly via the ring, rather than using the secure comm line. I knew that it was possible to do that from the comics and the animated series, but I had assumed it was intra-Corps only. Guess I was wrong about that. Unusual way to get woken up, particularly given that he said it wasn't that important, but I owe Alan a lot and if he wants me to visit early in the morning without telling me why, that's what I'm going to do.

I tense slightly when I see the expensive looking black car parked outside Alan's house, with a man whom I assume to be the chauffeur leaning against the bonnet reading a newspaper.

Ring?

No weapons detected.

Where's Alan?

I see his living room. He's sitting in the same chair he sat in when we first met. Another, more weather-beaten old man sits opposite. They're holding an animated discussion, but it seems to be good humoured. I don't recognise-.

The hell? He just turned to look at me, my perspective point on the image. I'm not even how is what?

Returning my full concentration to my surroundings, I pass the car, jog up the drive and open the door.

"He makes pretty good time, too."

The other man's voice.

I move down the corridor at stride-pace and open the door to the living room. Alan and whoever… Kent Nelson? Fate? Oh. Both turn their heads to look at me. Alan's in his standard shirt and jeans, but Mister Nelson's in a full suit. A walking stick is propped up against the settee. He lacks Alan's vigour, but he still looks good for a man of one hundred and six.

"Alan. Mister Nelson. Where's the fire?"

Mister Nelson lowers his head slightly, a wry smile on his lips.

Alan shrugs. "Paul, I said that it wasn't all that important. If you were still asleep-."

"I was woken up by a giant orange head coming out of the ring."

He pauses for a moment. "Uh, I didn't mean for it to be giant."

"I'm lucky there was no one in the room above me. The top half of your head was projected through the ceiling. I just saw a giant chin. Didn't even realise it was you to start with."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

"No, it's fine. I hadn't even realised that I could communicate with Green Lanterns that way. I'll have to see about prank calling Lantern Jordan or something."

Mister Nelson shuffles forward to the edge of his seat before rising to his feet. He offers me his right hand, and I shake it. He barely comes up to my shoulders, but his gaze is clear and slightly fierce, the mouth set of a man familiar with disappointment. His hand is cold, and bony.

"I was surprised when Alan told me he'd taken on an apprentice."

"I think I was a surprise to him as well."

"Wouldn't have worked in our day. No computer databases for your ring to sift through. Though I can see things like that'll be a problem, going forwards."

I turn and sit on the chair underneath the window. Mister Nelson gingerly lowers himself back into the settee.

"I wanted you to meet Kent while he was in the city. He's heading to the airport to catch a flight down to New Orleans in half an hour."

The older man smiles slightly. "Always happy to catch-."

"Kent! You! The scrying pool."

He looks at me quizzically. "I'm sorry kid, but you're going to have to be a bit more coherent than that."

"When I went to Themyscira. Diana told me that someone called 'Kent' created a scrying pool for her to communicate with home, back in the forties. I hadn't-" I wiggle my right index finger back and forth. "-made the connection between that and you until just now."

"Oh! I remember that thing. Must have taken weeks to get the darn thing to focus properly. Was worth it though, to see the smiles on her and her mother's faces."

"Did you ever try creating any others? I'd have thought that long distance communication with coloured images would have been very impressive, compared to nineteen forties technology."

He shakes his head. "It wouldn't have worked. Magala and I needed to be on hand at either end to keep it working when they wanted to speak as it was. There just weren't enough magic users around in those days to build a network." He sighs. "There's even less, today."

Magala?

"Don't the Atlanteans teach magic? Aqualad seemed to imply that it was fairly common where he's from."

"It's the wrong style, the wrong sort of approach. But, if things keep going as they are, I might need to hire an aqualung after all."

Alan nods at him. "Kent's going to-."

I hold up my hands. "Don't tell me, don't tell me! I've been practising this." I take a deep breath, and close my eyes. Ring, Ophidian's Eyes.

M'gann tells me that this application of the orange light makes my irises look like those of a snake, with glowing orange vertical slits. I can't see it myself, because it replaces my normal vision with images of the desires of whoever I look at, and mirrors don't want things. I know the Greenies can't do this.

I turn to Mister Nelson, and I'm assaulted by images. A woman… His wife? The Helm of Fate. A tower. An idea… There's no image, but I can feel-.

"That's about enough of that, I think." My vision returns to normal. Mister Nelson's raised his right hand in a 'halt' gesture, a golden glowing ankh floating just in front of it. "Young man, looking into someone's soul isn't something you should do so casually."

Souls are a thing here?

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't think that was what it did."

I flick my eyes towards Alan. And get a shock. Mister Nelson didn't turn the Eyes off, he just blocked them from working on himself. And now I know exactly why Alan wanted me to have his lantern.

"Ring, end."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th July
06:17 GMT -5

"You really didn't think calling up an elemental to take a look at a person's desires didn't involve looking into their soul?"

I'm still a bit stunned, and take a moment to respond. "Um, no. The Ophidian is the embodiment of avarice. I thought… By the time a desire became part of him, it had been.. sort of.. projected? That it wasn't still in the person. So I'd be more looking at it than into whoever I was looking at."

He closes his hand, the ankh collapsing into gold flecks before completely fading. "I'll let you off, but that really isn't how it works." He turns to Alan. "Alan, you've still got a copy of my old book on elemental summoning, don't you?"

"Yeah?"

"Give it to Snake-Eyes here after I'm gone. I think he's going to need it." He turns back to me. "So? Tell me. What did you see?"

"Succession. The tower, and the Helm of Fate. You want an apprentice."

He smiles, and shakes his head. "No, I'm too old for an apprentice."

He pulls his pocket watch out of his pocket and opens it. Not sure why, there's a perfectly good wall clock.

"I need someone who can take over the whole thing, as soon as possible. I don't have all that much time left. And now, my best chance is to go down to Louisiana and talk to someone who's probably going to turn out to be another carnival huckster." He puts the watch away. "Offered it to Zatara first, but he didn't want it. Can't say I blame him. Working with Nabu isn't exactly the most pleasant experience in the world. All the others I've spoken to, they either felt the same way, or just didn't have what it takes. Now I spend most of my time chasing rumours. Still, I'm glad to meet you. If Alan can get someone to take up his lantern, then there's hope for me yet."

Think. Think. Adult magic users he could give it to. Only one name comes to mind. "Did you ever consider John Constantine?" I've done some research on him. Paper records aren't as easy to look through with a power ring as electronic ones, but it can still be done. What I've been able to get -including witness testimonies from the incident which sent him to Ravenscar- appears to match my recollection of the comics. To completely confirm I'd have to track down the other people who were there, and that certainly won't be easy.

He glowers at me. "No."

"Wait, you actually know who he is?"

"Yes, and I'd prefer my heir to have a slightly lower body count. And not to have spent any time in a secure mental institution."

"I'm sure you know as well as I do that sometimes, in this line of work, deaths are not avoidable. And as far as I know he's fully recovered, mentally."

Mister Nelson looks away, grimacing. "Do you know what he did to get sent there? How many people died in the Casanova Club Massacre?"

Wait. He's blaming Constantine for Newcastle? I checked that stuff bloody thoroughly, and nothing I could find indicated any deviation from what I remember.

"Yes, and apparently I know it rather better than you do. John Constantine and his colleagues arrived at the Casanova Club after the majority of deaths had already happened. As you say, there aren't that many magic users around these days, and they'd heard that the owner, one Alexander Logue, was one of them. When they got inside they found his ritual space a charnel house, the only one unharmed his daughter, Astra Logue. Upon further investigation, it turned out that she'd been sexually abused by her father's entire cult, for years. And when they brought her to their latest 'party', she snapped, and somehow managed to summon some sort of.. dukh… The witness reports I read described it as looking like a giant, inside out dog. Constantine decides that the only way to destroy such a creature is to summon and bind a demon of their own, but he makes a mistake during the ritual and rather than a weak, pliant demon bound to their will they manage to get Nergal, with no bindings in place at all. Nergal kills the dog thing, more for his own amusement than anything else, knocks Constantine around a bit, then drags Astra physically into hell. Constantine tried to pull her back, but just gets one of her arms through the portal before Nergal closes it, slicing it off. John Constantine was then remanded to Ravenscar Secure Hospital, where the guards took turns in beating him. For two years. I know he messed up, and you can be bloody sure he does, but I think at this point he's served his time. And I know all this because I actually investigated it, rather than doing what the police did in grabbing a mentally ill witness and blaming the whole thing on him."

"The police…"

"The police aren't trained to deal with stuff like that! Most of them don't even believe that magic is real. They just decided that the whole group were lying, despite the fact that their testimonies corroborated each other. The only reason Constantine went down for it was because he was still holding her severed arm when the police arrived."

"Paul, take it easy." Alan's voice. I'm standing. I'm standing over Mister Nelson. I didn't really think about getting up. I got so angry I just…

Breath out. Step back. Sit down. "I'm sorry. I think I got a bit carried away there."

I can't read Mister Nelson's expression. He's not exactly happy about my outburst, that's plain. But I think he's thinking about it. "That's alright. Things like that will make any decent man angry." He considers it some more. "You understand, I'll have to check everything you've said for myself. But if it pans out, then once I get back from Louisiana I'll probably be travelling to London next."

"Thank you."

"I'm not saying that I'll choose him. Even if the Casanova Club wasn't his doing, I've still heard a lot of bad things about John Constantine."

"A lot of them are probably true. He's intelligent, cunning, and by now he's experienced. But he's not particularly powerful, and he's had to fight things that are. He's had to choose a lot of… 'least bad' options."

A nod. He looks a little like he's sizing me up. "You know, when Alan said that your ring was powered by avarice, I imagined that you'd be rather different."

"I get that a lot. But having seen what happened to the head of my Corps, I have no desire to be consumed by the orange light."

"Not interested in taking up the mantle of Fate yourself?"

Alan interjects. "Hey, he's my apprentice. Hands off!"

"Heh, no, sir. As far as I know magic doesn't even exist in my parallel. I know only what I've read about it since getting here."

He frowns at that, then waves his right hand in front of his face. When it passes, his eyes glow white. Then it's his turn to be shocked. He jerks back, blinks, and his eyes return to normal.

"My God…"

Did he just see the Ophidian? I bloody hope not. "Give it to me straight, doctor. How long do I have?"

He shakes his head. "You're not ill. That wasn't what I was looking for." He takes a moment, organising his thoughts. "Are you a religious man?"

"Hah. Hardcore Dawkinsian atheist, me."

"I'm.. not sure what that means."

"Richard Dawkins? British biologist and atheist philosopher?" Blank looks from both Alan and Mister Nelson. "Guess he doesn't exist in this parallel. No, I don't believe in gods."

"Hate to break it to you kid, but I've spoken to several gods who would probably take issue with that."

"You've spoken to jumped up elementals with delusions of grandeur. There are no gods."

A pause, as he considers what I said. "Interesting way of looking at it. Well, since you asked me to be blunt; the world is full of magic. Even if they don't train at it, virtually everyone has some magic as part of them. In layman's terms, their soul."

I can see where this is going. "And I don't have one. Because I come from a place where magic doesn't exist."

"That would be my guess. I've seen a few people like that before, but they were the victims of magic attacks, and they didn't live very long afterwards."

I don't know what to think. If I've never had one, then nothing's changed. Be practical. "What does that mean for me?"

"In the short term, because as far as magic is concerned there's no definition for 'you', you'll have no resistance to magic effects at all. Alan told me about what happened when you went to the Temple of Gaea."

Ah, hell.

"You can expect that sort of thing to happen whenever you spend time in an area of high background magic."

Ah, hell.

"You'll also be much more vulnerable to offensive magic than most, although your ring shields should be unaffected."

"Any advice?"

"I'm afraid not. I've… I've never seen anything quite like it. It may well be that you'll start to develop one naturally, now that you're in a universe that has magic in it. Or, it could be that you just don't have the right, for want of a better word, the right 'parts' for it."

"No, I mean practical advice. I will be fighting magic users at some point."

His hand goes to his chin as he ponders the idea. "You might be able to get hold of some sort of artifact that could shield you. Ah, if I had a couple of months I could probably put one together myself, but…"

"You don't have time. Don't worry, I understand. I'm sure I can sort something out."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th August
15:59 GMT -5

Belle Reve is not easy to reach on foot.

For very good reasons, it's a long way from anything else, and I decided that just flying right in would not be polite. Though the anti-aircraft guns, missiles, and soldiers on guard duty don't pose much of a threat to me, I want to make it clear that I am cooperating as much as possible. League records state that this place has a brute force teleportation jammer and that Giovanni Zatara warded the grounds against magic attack. Superman himself tested the strength of the walls.

They really should have asked the Lanterns to help out with it as well.

I land about three hundred meters from the first checkpoint, and switch to my suit. Just to complete the professional image I've added an Orange Lantern Corps tie and belt buckle. Or maybe those make me look like a prat. The guards on duty in the booth can clearly see me, and I did phone ahead to arrange this. The road up to the entrance is completely straight, and I can see where the trees on either side have been cut back to clear fields of vision.

Hands in my pockets, I start to walk.

The fact that I phoned ahead is most likely why they aren't scrambling to assemble a squad at the outer gate. I timed things so that I could get here just after normal visiting hours. I don't want to disrupt things if I can help it. I also don't want to get marked out by the harridan who runs the place: Amanda Waller. Unlike in the comics she came up through the FBI, rather than the CIA. She specialised in metahuman crime and containment, and this prison is her baby.

I considered the comic and Justice League Unlimited versions of her utterly loathsome, her paranoia causing suffering on a scale most supervillains only dream about. Here, she doesn't appear to have done anything of that sort, though I get the impression she doesn't like superheroes all that much. You'd have thought that she'd be resigned to us existing by now, given that it's been seventy years since the formation of the Justice Society and how -aside from a blip during the Second World War- the American government has never had direct control over its caped population.

As I get closer I smile and wave with my right hand at the guards. They don't wave back, but the nearest does nod before picking up a phone handset. Checking that I have authorisation, presumably. There are fortified watchtowers just inside the perimeter, but the outer gate is merely mildly military in appearance. Three armed police accompanied by two Alsatians pass in front of me. I get a couple of strange looks, but a friendly smile and a wave seem to reassure them. I have an existence on official paperwork, but I'm not active enough in the open to be recognised by the general public.

The chap on the phone lowers it as I step in front of the booth. The woman next to him looks me over with a slightly incredulous expression.

"What, no costume?"

"I didn't really think it was appropriate."

Surprise. "Didn't realize you'd be English."

Best fake Carolinian accent.

"I don't rightly know why folks keep makin' that mistake. Ah was born in Raleigh, North Carolina."

She splutters with laughter. Fellow next to her just looks slightly confused. "Identification, please."

Diana gave me a 'Justice League Affiliate' photo ID. All it really means officially is that I'm helping them with an investigation. It has my picture, title and identification number, as well as a couple of authentication devices that are quite sophisticated by Earth standards. It also has the phone number of the Themysciran embassy in case they want to check. Legally, it means bugger all for me, but the League's deal with the UN includes the right to interrogate prisoners held by signatory nations, and places an obligation on those nations to allow it. There are get-outs, but for the most part even people like Waller don't make a fuss about it.

I place the ID on the indicated spot, and the panel swivels to take it inside. I then start playing 'spot the camera', but give up when I get to twelve. He looks at the card, and runs it through a scanner. In the distance to my right I can see the squat mass of the prison itself. Looks like a giant upturned bowl of concrete, though I know it's more sophisticated than that. Between here and there just off the main road sits a medium sized rectangular building next to which sits a vehicle that looks like a cross between a bus and an armoured van.

"Reason for visit."

Back to my natural accent. "Following up on a case with an inmate, one Jade Nguyen. Is inmate the proper term if they're awaiting trial, but haven't been convicted?"

"If they're inside, they're an inmate."

"You're the expert. So.. can I go in?"

He hands the card to the female guard, who takes a look, visually comparing me to the image. Is this some sort of intimidation thing? That photo was only taken four days ago, and my face doesn't change.

She hands the card back to her male cohort, who puts it on the swivel plate and returns it to me. "Keep it handy; they'll want to see it again at the main gate."

The male guard picks up the phone again, and a moment later there's a buzz and the small pedestrian side gate opens. As I step through I take a look at the distance to the prison.

"Is it going to wind everyone up if I fly there? Just along the ground, I mean."

The female guard smiles. "This is a no-flights zone, 'Orange Lantern'. But, the bus bringing the regular visitors should be coming this way in a minute or two. Head on up to the sheep dip building over there and you can catch a lift back."

"Why would the bus stop there?"

"We have to search everyone before they leave, then we move them onto another bus in case they had anything stowed away. Can't be too careful. The prison-side bus can give you a lift back to the prison. Warden doesn't want you here any longer than you have to be."

I renew my smile. "I understand her attitude completely. Thank you for your assistance."

I give a shallow bow, then turn and continue walking. There appear to be two rings of thin rectangular watchtowers, one a hundred or so metres out from the walls of the prison, and the other just inside the outer fence. I can see gun turrets both in the manned section at the top, and another set of turrets which must either be camera controlled or automated positioned about a third of the way down.

Ah. Those ones are tracking me. I give them a nervous wave, and make sure that my environmental shield is still in place. I'm not completely convinced that it could hold off weapons of that calibre at its current near-invisible level.

The 'sheep dip' building is only thirty metres inside the outer fence. I decide to wait leaned up against the wall on the prison side. I can see the bus leaving the prison gate now. The gate is a huge thing which rises up inside the outer wall when open. Hmm. Doesn't look that secure. Wouldn't some sort of turntable arrangement be better?

Out of curiosity I give today's visitors a look over. The ring identifies them all easily, but most only have a single line of text in Justice League files describing their relationship to the inmate. A few have minor convictions, but nothing that really warrants my attent-.

Hello, I know you.

Lisa Snart, better known to the world at large and the skating community in particular as Lisa Star. Better known to me as the sister of Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold. I check, but there doesn't appear to be anything untoward about her visit. Her Golden Glider identity doesn't exist here and her record is completely clear. Social service records from Central City appear to indicate that their father's abusive behaviour does carry over from the comics. A real shame, that whole situation.

Ooh, you've got more than a line of text. Hello, Huntress.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th August
16:08 GMT -5

The bus has wheelchair access at the back, but the guard decides to be an arsehole and get everyone else off and into the building first, leaving her sitting there. The access is probably how they got prisoners who couldn't be allowed to move under their own power on and off before this armoured van was repurposed as a bus.

"Can I give you a hand there?"

She looks up from her lap, taking me in without altering her facial expression. "Ah, well, if you wouldn't mind..?"

She looks over at the control mechanism for the lift. It's too far behind her for her to reach and still be on the lift. Eh. My construct picks her up by her wheelchair and softly places her on the tarmac.

"Oh…"

She's in her late forties now, but she was really quite attractive as a younger woman. She's been out of prison for under three weeks and I just got her daughter arrested. And her husband. I should probably talk to her.

I smile. "Good afternoon, Missus Crock."

Heck, she probably spent her six year sentence… ah. No, I suppose her injuries would have made that unnecessary.

I wonder if Jade mentioned me?

"Orange Lantern two eight one four, at your service." She's looking at me more carefully now. There's a wariness to it. "It is Crock, right? Jade said she was using your maiden name..?"

I didn't even think about… Yep, Lawrence Crock's in the prison up ahead. Would she have been visiting him?

"How do you know my daughter?"

Sharper. How do I explain it..? Right index finger raised I open my mouth, then close it. Full explanation, probably unwise.

"I… Kind of arrested her. I mean, I don't actually.. have.. powers of arrest on Earth, so, detained until the police arrived?"

She blinks. "Oh."

I point to the prison with both index fingers. "You.. were visiting her, right? 'Cause-."

"Yes. Yes I was." She nods, then looks away. "Why are you here?"

'Because I wanted to apologise for nearly throttling your daughter to death' probably isn't the right answer.

"Well, I know that recidivism rates are lower for inmates with good social networks outside prison. I… I guess most people Jade knows are with the League of Shadows and I don't think they're a good influence, so.. I thought I'd… Y'know.. try and help? I mean, she might not even be in all that long."

That surprised her. She's looking me right in the eyes. She's probably quite a good judge of character, but it's a skill that's wasted on me. I wasn't exactly complex before getting the ring, and I've even less motive for subterfuge now. Want to do it, do it.

I give her a smile. She considers. "I'm not sure she'll want to talk to you."

I shrug. "Doesn't really cost me anything. But we did.. sort of.. have a conversation before I knocked her out."

"You knocked my daughter out?"

"Urm…" Didn't think that through. "W.. well, technically the construct I used just paralysed her. It's pretty much the lowest level of force I can use to end a fight. And she used poisoned lipstick on me first!"

Maybe shouldn't have mentioned that. Oh, no, she doesn't seem bothered.

"Poisoned lipstick." She shakes her head slightly. "That takes me back."

"Hey!"

Oh, the guard's back. As he stomps toward me rifle in hand I hold out my identification card. He snatches it out of my hand and glowers at it. I risk a slight smile. I want to seem friendly and helpful, but not smirky and irritating.

"Oh, it's you. You missed visiting hour."

"The Warden was kind enough to agree to allow me to conduct an interview outside of normal visiting hours."

He glares at me. Is that eyeballing? For goodness sake, I'm taller than you, more muscular, and I have a power ring. How scary do you think you are?

He thrusts the card back at me. I take it.

"Thank you."

He turns his attention back to Mrs Crock. Oh, you better not…

"Ma'am, if you could come with me please?"

Huh. I guess it's just me he has a problem with, then.

She puts her hands on her chair's wheels and pushes a quarter turn, then stops them and turns her head to me.

"Orange Lantern, thank you. I don't want my daughter taking the same path that I did, and I'm grateful for what you're trying to do."

"It's not a problem."

A slight nod, and she resumes wheeling herself towards the building, the guard in tow.

Right. Bus.

I walk around to the door at the front. The woman I assume to be the driver is standing outside, talking to another armed guard.

"Excuse me?"

"Through there."

She points to the building. Oh, for goodness sake. Light armour.

"I'm not visiting. I'm conducting an interview. I've already presented my authorisation, but here it is again anyway." I wave my card at them. "I'd very much appreciate a lift up to the prison. I've rather picked up that I'm here on sufferance, and I suspect that the Warden would rather I got in, conducted my business and left, as soon as possible. Can you help me?"

Surprise. They look at each other for a moment, and the guard indicates with a slight inclination of his head that it's her decision. "Yeah, of course."

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

I turn back and step aboard the bus.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th August
16:17 GMT -5

I'm sitting in the seat just behind and to the left of the driver. The bus has actual seats, rather than the benches which the prisoner transports have. I suppose it's from the space they save stripping out the power suppression tech. I'm slightly curious about whether or not those collars would work on a power ring. Maybe they couldn't block if I was wearing it, but could prevent me summoning it? If the Greenies haven't volunteered to be guinea pigs, I'm not breaking ranks.

The main door opens with a very loud whirring, and we pull into the middle of an open area inside the prison.

"Looks like the Warden wants to speak with you."

A look out of the windows on the opposite side shows a stern looking Amanda Waller flanked by two guards. Unlike the other guards I've seen, they have full body armour and plasma guns.

Why plasma? Surely coil guns are easier to make?

I get up, suit up and step off the bus to meet her.

"That's close enough." Waller's voice. I stop, having just stepped around the side of the bus. The two guards have their guns levelled at my chest. I really couldn't take a shot from those with my shield at its current strength, so I strengthen it into visibility. The guards tense slightly as I do this, but return to normal when nothing else happens. "Check him."

Another guard, similarly armoured, runs forward. In place of a gun she carries what looks like a hand held metal detector. I hold out my identification card, but this is ignored. She runs the metal detector thing over my legs, torso, arms and finally around my head. Then she steps back.

"Sorry Warden, can't scan through his shield."

"Hmpf."

"Is there some sort of problem?"

"Yeah. You, in my prison."

Sigh.

"Warden Waller, I want to talk to one woman, for an hour at most. Then, I'm out of your hair. I don't want to cause any trouble."

This version of Waller isn't as fat as the others I am aware of. Her hair is tied back into a tight ponytail. Mine was like that, before I came here. I had thought that I liked it, but if it didn't survive the ring transforming me I must have been less keen than I thought I was.

"Fine."

The guns are lowered, and I reduce my shield strength. Waller motions forward a man behind her.

Okay. This guy actually is a little intimidating.

"Assistant Deputy Warden Bendemann. Show him to the prisoner."

He catches my eye. "If you'll follow me please?"

He leads me to a blast door, then places his right hand on a palm scanner. A glowing line moves from the top to the bottom, before the device chirps and confirms him. His name -Bendemann, A- and his rank appear at the bottom of the scanner. Next, he leans forward and peers into a device that somewhat resembles the fifty-pence-to-operate binoculars that I remember occupying seaside viewpoints during my youth. Haven't seen them for a while. Lastly, he raises his hand to his personal communicator.

"ADW Bendemann, moving to corridor adjacent to visitor room B, one guest."

A moment, a clunk, and then the blast door slides to the side. Gosh, that's thick.

He steps forward into the corridor. It's narrow, and lined with metal. At the other end is another door like the one he just passed. Can't see anything dangerous. I walk after him, and the door closes once I'm through.

For a moment, I feel a slight.. pressure..? On my shield. Doesn't seem to be an attack. "So, do you have to talk to a control room to get through every door?"

He looks back at me. "No. Just the ones leading to either a high security zone or an external door. The control room's off-site, so even if the prison got completely taken over, the inmates couldn't open the doors."

"Well, I'm impressed."

He doesn't smile, but his face does take on a slightly satisfied air.

Then the alarms go off.

"Blaarp blaarp blaarp blaarp blaarp blaarp blaarp blaarp …"

The ring adds noise filters to my ears, but Bendemann's still getting the full volume. He pulls his communicator up to his mouth with his right hand and covers his left ear with his left. "God damn it, what..! Well of course it doesn't work on him, you think he couldn't..! Yes, of course you-" The alarms cut off. "-should… Thank you."

He puts the communicator back on his belt, and snorts derisively. "Usually we scan everyone going in. Obviously, you're blocking it, and Control decided to be a bunch of circle jerkers and follow the normal procedure. I'll have words with whoever's supposed to be supervising them later."

"Thank you. Um, you know that compared to the ring, any other weapon I'm carrying is more or less decoration, right?"

"Yeah. I've seen Green Lantern in action."

"Which one? I'm being tutored by two of them."

"The black guy." He places his palm on the scanner for the next door.

"You know, he's the only one I haven't actually met yet."

I haven't had a proper conversation with Lantern Jordan, but we've been in the same place a couple of times. I think I make him uncomfortable. Maybe I should ask Lantern Gardner about how the Corps is responding to me.

Iris recognition next, then the communicator.

"ADW Bendemann, moving to visitor room B, one guest."

The door opens, and grants us access to a large oblong room, divided in two by a wall below and a clear screen from waist height. On either side of the screen is a line of bare metal chairs, fixed to the floor, with dividers separating them into cubicals. On the visitor side is a telephone handset, while on the inmate side a speaker and microphone are built into the dividing wall.

In addition to the Assistant Deputy Warden, there is another armed and armoured guard on this side, and two on the prisoner side. Jade hasn't been brought through yet. Or should that be brought back through? It isn't all that long since she spoke to her mother. I was half expecting them to have left her here. I have a quick look around, then walk over and take the seat opposite the prisoner side door. And here I thought I'd get a nice interview room or something. I'll have to ask if this is standard, or if the Warden's just being truculent.

The security here looks pretty good. One of their proudest boasts -and one which I've learned that they repeat to every new inmate- is that Superman can't break through their walls. That may be true, though I suspect that he could given time, but all of these electronics are child's play to a power ring. If one of these people ever gets selected by a ring, they're in big trouble. Even the stuff that isn't accessible without tearing through the armoured walls can be manipulated remotely with these things, and off the top of my head I can't think of a way to prevent it. Maybe, some sort of enchantment? But that would mean messing about with the general purpose wards. Some sort of telepathic network, like the Genomorphs?

The guards on the prisoner side become more alert, and I hear a buzz as the door unlocks, then slides open.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th August
16:22 GMT -5

Jade comes out first. There are chains around her ankles and wrists, and those chains are linked together with more chain. She's wearing an orange jumpsuit, and her hair's straight and tied back. She looks different, in the light.

She scans the room. I raise my left hand and give a royal wave. She blinks in confusion, then staggers forward a pace as the guard behind her pushes her out. She glances back and for a second forms a half-snarl, before biting it down and walking over to the chair across from mine.

"Afternoon Jade."

The guard who escorted her takes up station next to the door. We aren't getting privacy, but at least we can pretend they aren't listening to everything we say.

She regards me blankly for a moment. "I didn't expect to see you here."

No real life in her voice as she says it. I suppose it doesn't pay to wear your heart on your sleeve in a place like this.

"Turns out, I can request an interview with any prisoner I want." I put the tips of the three central fingers of my right hand against the screen. "Biscuit?"

I'm not completely happy with my latest triple chocolate batch, but from what I remember prison food is usually fairly bad. The biscuit appears from subspace on the other side of the screen, and she stares at it for a moment.

"Jade, it's no more poisoned than the last one was."

"Why are you here?"

Her face hasn't really changed, but there's a definite edge to her voice. Okay, let's just say it.

"I wanted to apologise. I feel that I used excessive force to bring you down at the end, and I certainly shouldn't have said… What I said. I did it, because I was very angry about the poisoned lipstick thing, but I should never have let you get into a position where you could use it. My own.. inexperience…"

Her face has shifted slightly, though I'm not sure whether it's to confusion or incredulity. "What did you say?"

"You didn't hear?"

"I was too busy trying not to suffocate."

"Oh. Um, then, does it really matter?"

"You came here because of it."

Stern, this time. Now I'm blushing. My eyes drop. "Um, alright. It was something like, 'Stop struggling, I've seen this film and it doesn't end well for the Asian woman'."

She blinks, incredulous.

"I know, I'm sorry, it was a disgusting thing to-."

"Hahahahahahahahaha!"

…and breathe out.

I roll my eyes.

"Well, if I'd known you were going to find it funny…"

A genuine smile. I think. "Are you even allowed to watch that kind of movie?"

For a horrifying moment I imagine Diana walking in on me watching La Blue Girl. Would she count as a strong female protagonist..? No, no, don't think about it.

"Probably not encouraged to, no."

She breaks off part of the biscuit with her right hand, and puts it into her mouth. She crunches down, and chews. "You know, I thought you were just trying to get information out of me. But this is actually how you are, isn't it?"

She could have waited until she'd swallowed to say that? Eww.

"Yes, pretty much. I mean, we were trying to get information out of you as well."

She stops chewing for a moment. "The Martian."

"Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they're not there. Counting pi was working, mostly." I shrug. "Sorry."

She shakes her head. "Ugh, no, I should have kept my guard up. And don't worry about the… The tentacles." She suppresses another laugh. "I've been hit worse in training than you hit me. How were you still moving?"

"What, 'cause of the poison? The ring could easily remove-."

"No, while it was still affecting you. I thought you'd either shrug it off or fall over. As it was I had to jump off the roof to avoid about a hundred orange arrows flying at me."

"I.. don't.. remember that bit too clearly. I think I meant them as a gift, but I was pretty out of it."

Another biscuit fragment.

"A gift."

She's worse than my granddad was.

"I sort of focused on how pretty the feathers on Artemis' arrows were. Artemis, that's the blonde with the bow you were talking to just before I caught up with you."

Quizzical. "Are you supposed to tell me her name?"

Eh? "Come on, that's not her real name, is it? Who's going to actually name their daughter Artemis? An Amazon?"

Oh. I think that biscuit went down the wrong way.

"So, anyway, to my drug addled brain, you avoiding her arrows meant that you didn't like them, so I needed to make prettier ones."

"The, the <cough>, the drug is supposed to work within a few seconds."

"I was enjoying our conversation, so the ring worked to keep me awake. Since it didn't occur to me that a drug could be administered that way, I didn't tell the ring to guard against it, and once it started affecting my mental state I mostly stopped caring. One of my team mates had to prompt me to get me to cleanse my system."

"Isn't that a pretty big weakness?"

"Yes, it is. So I'm actually grateful that I found out about it fighting you. You know, rather than someone who could actually threaten me." A brief scowl from her. "Why'd you pick me up anyway?"

"I didn't think this 'Artemis' would fire on one of her own team mates. Fortunately, your armour was arrow proof."

I nod. "Arrows and small calibre b- wait, she shot me?" Did I tell her that was safe?

Scowl replaced with sinister smile. "A couple of times."

"Was I still glowing orange at this point?"

"Yeees?"

"Eh, s'fine then. So, other point of my visit. Your mum's out of prison; I bumped into her on the way in. Your dad's in prison, -about eighty meters in that direction, actually- and with his record not likely to get out soon, if ever. I'm not asking you to betray any information you have about the League of Shadows, because I know you won't. But, both your mother and I would like to encourage you to disassociate yourself from them. What would it take to persuade you to do that?"

She avoids my gaze, and slumps slightly. For a good thirty seconds, she says nothing. Then, slowly, she looks up. "More cookies than you've got."

I cross my arms. "Well, excuse me if I try anyway."