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

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
07:34 GMT -5

I might make a habit of getting up at six, but I try not to assume that everyone else does the same. Looks like Artemis does, but I wanted to wait until I saw Paula moving in the window before I buzzed for admission. I've been sort of lurking on the other side of the road for a good twenty minutes. Is that creepy? I thought that scanning the place would be creepier. I mean, I don't like to violate people's privacy without good reason. Their home is a flat in Old Gotham, and I've been occupying myself by removing the lead from the paint and replacing the asbestos with something a little less carcinogenic. And a lot more effective, but then, if LexCorp wanted to make a profit on this stuff then they should be selling it. I did tell Mister Luthor about Dyson. I've also made some minor repairs to the structure, pipes and electronics… I'm not sure that I should have done, but it's just so darn easy.

Finally, I see a familiar face in what I gather from the location of the pipes is their kitchen window. I'm not making an effort to conceal myself but she hasn't ever seen me in casual clothing before. I straighten up from the lamp post I've been leaning against, look in both directions and then cross the road. Up the steps, in through the outer door. There's a bank of post boxes on my left behind an empty desk, and an intercom on the right. The stairs are at the end of the lobby on the left and the lift is on the end wall. I suppose that it's a good job that no one is around, really. I walk over to the intercom and clean the metal to a sparkling silver. Ugh, no names. Right. I look over to the post boxes, and see the name 'Crock' on box number 302. Guess she hasn't got around to changing it. Okay then. I press button 302, and hear a buzz. Probably take her a little while to get there.

I take another look around the lobby. Bit shabby, but basically well cared for. I spruce it up a little, cleaning and repairing the paintwork. Windows could do with a little-.

"Yes?"

Ah. Quicker than expected.

"Ms Nguyen. Orange Lantern two eight one four here. Congratulations on getting the divorce finalised. Do you mind if I come up?"

A delay of a couple of seconds. "Oh, um. Of course not."

"Glad to hear it. See you in a jiffy."

When I go… When I went shopping with Mum, it amused me to race the lift on the stairs from the car park. I still prefer stairs, though I don't think I could get away with something so juvenile at my current age. Even if everyone thinks that I'm not my current age. Anyway, it's only two flights up and either everyone's still recumbent or they're all really early risers. Flat 7, and knock…

And the door opens. Paula's wheelchair is facing sideways from the doorway while she's turned to face me. She looks a bit surprised. "The others usually come in through the window."

I frown thoughtfully. "Does that not strike you as a little odd?"

She blinks. "Um, come in."

She wheels herself backwards and I enter the apartment, closing the door behind me. "Is… something wrong?"

"Ah, sort of. Um."

Where to start?

"Is Jade in some sort of trouble?"

"No. No, other daughter. Okay, so I only just found out that Artemis is your daughter. Um."

"I thought your power ring could identify people by their genes?"

"Oh, it can. I just thought, well, that I should let her have her privacy. But, yesterday, I finished our training session by being, um, quite rude to her."

"I thought she came back early. If you wanted to see her, she isn't here. She is spending the day with Green Arrow in Star City."

"Yes. I know. See, I wanted to do something to make up for my behaviour, and it occurred to me that fixing your spinal injuries would be quite a good way to do that."

She stares at me. She says nothing for about ten seconds.

"The.. the doctors said…"

"The doctors don't have a power ring. I'm not going to be digging into you and risking further damage, I'm just going to be pointing the ring in your general direction and telling it to sort it all out. Assuming it's just tissue damage and shrapnel, it shouldn't take long. Obviously you'd have to do physiotherapy to get full functionality back, y'know, heh, don't try jumping right out of the wheelchair or anything."

She's still staring, her face still. "You are sure that it will work?"

"At my current level of motivation, I'd give myself roughly a ninety nine percent chance of pulling it off with no problems. And I'd estimate that the chance of anything going seriously wrong is… I dunno… Point nought five percent? I rebuilt a Kryptonian's inner ear with no difficulty, and the ring's had loads of data on Human physiology."

"Oh. Um. What..? Do I need to do something?"

"No, not really. Well, you have to say that you want me to do it, but other than that you can just sit there."

"And.. you're doing this.. to apologize to my daughter."

"I've also got her some arrows and a pot plant, but I thought she'd want this more. Um, hehe, plant in a pot. Not marijuana."

She slumps slightly, looking at the ground. Is she really having to think about this?

"Sooo..?"

"Yes. Please?"

!Make better!

I grin. "Just what I wanted to hear. One moment." I raise my left hand so that the sigil on the ring is pointing directly at her. "Oh. Um, are there any injuries you want to keep? Like, important scars, or whatever."

She gives me a puzzled look, then shakes her head. "The only thing I want to keep from that part of my life is my daughters."

"Rightyho. Ring, scan, analyse and repair."

Orange light strobes over her body. There's a sharp intake of breath as she tenses up and watches it work with trepidation. The ring reports its findings to me, numerous scars and old breaks, shrapnel and bone fragments, sliced muscle and nerve. And some unusual chemical residues, though not in significant concentration.

Fix it all.

There's a flare of orange light, and then it shuts off.

Oh. Whoops.

"Feeling alright?"

"I... think so…" She holds up her hands to look at them, then lowers them and pokes her right thigh with her right index finger. She gasps. "I can feel it."

"Glad to hear it. Um, small problem…"

She jerks her head up to look at me. "What is it?"

"Well, I was reading your 'Huntress' file on the Justice League database yesterday, and I was sort of thinking of the picture of you they have on file -from back when you were active- when I was healing you. Um, I may have inadvertently knocked about ten years off your age." Got to say, I can totally see what Lawrence Crock saw in her. "Or.. mmmaybe a bit more."

Eh, Orange Lantern Corps. Even if we fuck up we get the result we want.

Her hands go to her face. "Mirror."

"You got to understand, this is the most advanced tool in the universe, and you did say that you didn't want to keep anything else. I mean, I was going to suggest keeping this as a surprise, but there's no way Artemis is going to believe that that's a new brand of make-u-."

"Mirror!"

"Um, right."

I step back and generate a mirror construct identical to the one I used back on the moon when I first augmented my body. She stares at herself, mouth open in shock, running her fingers over her rejuvenated features. "I. I don't…"

"It's not a problem, is it? 'Cause I'm not sure I could make you older intentionally…"

"No.. This is, this is..."

She leans forward in her seat, peering at herself, then takes a moment to collect herself.

Is she crying?

"Thank you. I don't… I can't…"

Her hand goes to cover her mouth as she starts to weep openly. I pass her a tissue, which she takes and begins using to dab her eyes. I don't really know what to do. I kneel down in front of her, and she smiles at me through her tears.

"Thank you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th September
06:49 GMT -7

Star City certainly looks nicer than Gotham.

I stayed with Paula while she got herself back together. Even made her a set of railings so she could practise walking, though I asked her to only use it while there was someone else there. Under my supervision she just about got to the point where she could stand up straight with only a little help. She offered me a cup of tea by way of thanks, and I didn't have the heart to turn it down. Good job I like blackcurrant.

Okay, so where is Artemis? Top of a building, that seems simple enough. What's she shooting at?

What the heck is that?

Some sort of giant robot is smashing up the street she's overlooking. I know I joked about it with Mister Luthor, but giant robot rampages are actually fairly uncommon, even here. Green Arrow is at ground level, trying to find a vulnerable point to hit while Black Canary tries to run interference in close quarters. The robot doesn't actually have all that much mass, it's just very tall and thin. As I watch, the robot slaps aside an arrow, which bursts and releases hard foam over its left hand. The robot shakes most of it off before it fully hardens and… huh? Cars are driving at Canary and Arrow with no drivers. How the heck is it doing that? There can't be enough electronics in them to allow that sort of control. And why is it wearing a ten gallon hat? Canary dodges frantically, while Green Arrow takes cover in a shop as a car parks itself through the front window.

Transition.

Then I'm standing on the rooftop next to Artemis. She wheels, arrow on string. The bow she's using looks like one of Green Arrow's, and the arrow is a simple point arrow. She starts as she realises who it is, and scowls. "You."

I hold out my left hand, and her bow appears.

"Yes, me, and I'm very sorry for everything, but can we please focus on the robot?"

She put the bow she had been using down and snatches hers away from me. "I used up all my special arrows on you. I can't hurt it!"

Ah. Good news, then. I used some of my time last night to create a new type of arrow based on the designs originally created by Alexander Tuttle. His original 'Crumbler' gloves are in storage in STAR labs, and it didn't take long to scan them. I don't understand how they do what they do, but they do it well, and they give the fellow on the other end hell. I materialise one in my right hand.

"Try this."

The head is only a little larger than that of her normal point arrows, and there's a groove around it that compresses on impact to activate the 'crumbling' effect. I think that the weight… um, drag pattern… thingy, should be something she can cope with. She looks at it, puzzled, but takes it and puts it to string.

"I call them 'Arrows of Unmaking'. You see-."

"Weeeerl lookieee here!"

I'm armouring myself even as I turn to see a robot head with a damaged flesh mask and a ten gallon hat rise up over the edge of the building. Once it reaches head height the head stops, while its neck keeps going, bending up above the head in a inverted 'U' shape.

Scan.

A huge metal talon rises up from the street. It actually looks thin and flimsy, then it slams down onto the roof to the left of us and my perspective sorts itself out. The thing must be a metre across at the knuckle, and the fingers have at least that between the joints.

"Cain't sit outa this here rodeo!"

His elbow bends upwards as he begins pulling his body up the building.

"Shoot the chest, past the ribs. That's his power source."

"Right."

She takes aim, pulls the string back, and as the disproportionately small chest appears over the roofline atop his telescoping spine she looses. The arrow passes between the third and fourth ribs on his left side, and then unmakes a perfect hemisphere of his torso in a radius of approximately sixty centimetres.

The robot's head jerks up and swings around to look at the damage.

"What in the Sam Hill..?"

The left side of his torso crunches and collapses. His left arm -which he had been bringing up to either climb or strike at us- falls backwards with enough force to snap it off at his shoulder.

"Nnnnyyahh!"

I pull another arrow out of subspace and hold it out to Artemis.

"Lower abdomen this time. Make him fall."

She takes it and makes a hurried couple of steps forward to the edge of the roof. The robot is hanging onto the side of the building by the arm on the roof with his right leg dug into the side. His left leg is twitching loose from his hip. Artemis sights, draws, and looses. The arrow's impact is virtually silent as the robot's spine is cleaved in two. Immediately his body drops down, top half trying desperately to hang on to the roof by his right hand while his hips swing about the pivot point made by his embedded right foot before acquiring enough force to break its hold and tumble to the ground.

"I ain't licked yet, ya littl' varmints!"

Putting more force into his remaining shoulder, the robot raises his head up as high as he can and then swings it down toward us. I extend my left hand toward his torso.

"Fall."

An orange beam hits him in the chest, and overcomes his precarious hold on the roof.

"Aarrrh!"

His claws dig furrows in the roof, and then he's gone. I step forward, and Artemis and I look down at where he's lying on the road below.

"Dang. Dang. Dang. Dang d-dang. Dangdangdaaaaaaangggg."

He chassis spasms and goes still. Whoops. I jump down, tearing batteries out of wrecked cars as I go. A piercing construct takes out the transmitter embedded in his head that he was using to control the cars, and a slice cuts off his head as I assemble a power transformer. The pieces come together as I land, and his eyes blink open.

"Maw? Can't feel.. mah legs, Maw."

Black Canary walks up from my right, favouring her right leg. She takes a breath which I know from experience is a prelude to a Canary Scream.

"Sir, he's got Human-equivalent intelligence!" She hesitates for a moment, then goes to speak. I pre-emptively interrupt. "Before you say anything: Red Tornado. Are we killing people now?"

She thinks for a moment, then nods. "Alright. I'm not sure if we can arrest him, though."

We both look around as sirens sound from the end of the street, and Green Arrow pulls himself past a broken car embedded in the shop front.

"Sir, would you mind handling this? I've got to go and apologise to Artemis."

She gives me a sharp look. "Yes, you do."

"Ring, transfer."

And I'm back on the rooftop. Artemis is still looking at the remains of the fallen robot, but turns to me when I speak. "I want to apologise for the way I behaved yesterday. I really went about that the wrong way, and I certainly shouldn't have suggested flashing me."

She thinks for a moment. "Got any more of those 'Arrows of Unmaking'?"

"Yep."

I hold out a quiver I made. It's in her preferred brown, but shaped like the flat, double sided one Green Arrow used in Justice League Animated. It contains thirty of my arrows.

"I also replaced the ones you used on me. They're in the.. team's armoury."

She takes the quiver.

"And, I got you this."

I smile, and remove the orchid in the pot from subspace and hold it out as well. It's just starting to come into flower. She stares at it, puzzled.

"You got me a plant?"

"Yes. I mean, I can get a different one if you don't like it, but you just need to water it every couple of days and I'm told it will really look quite pretty. Oh, nearly forgot!" I take her father's plasma crossbow thing out of subspace and hold it out with my other hand.

Her expression changes from puzzlement to distaste. "You can keep that."

She decides to ignore the plant for the moment, and pulls out an arrow to examine. "These arrows. Could they destroy your shield?"

Can they ever.

"Yeah. One hit and the shield collapses." I clench and unclench my left hand at the memory of my test of that facility. "Really stings, too. So, um, are we okay?"

She smiles, then nods. "We're okay. Just as soon as I test out these arrows."

"Ah, okay. What do you want to test them on?"

Her smile morphs into a grin as she looks at me.

Oh.

 

[Mr Zoat]

13th September
16:07 GMT -5

I trudge across the playing field toward the stand where Kon is watching M'gann and the other cheerleaders practise. I haven't been back to Happy Harbor High School since the thing with Doctor Roquette, and I never did deal with that flare gun. Oh well, I'm sure that Kon or M'gann would have mentioned if it had been used. The lacrosse team are warming up to my right, and I see the American football team armouring up. Pff. I still think it's rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby.

Kon's sitting on the… Bleachers? Is that what they're called? We didn't have anything like that at my secondary school, so I'm relying on my knowledge of imported television. I'm in civilian clothes and so can pass as a student to anyone who is casually curious, while I think my accent should convince anyone who I need to convince that I'm not an actual student. Kon's at the far end, right elbow on his knee and right hand propping up his head. The cheerleaders are prancing around on the grass in the middle of the athletics track… No, come on, be nice. This matters to M'gann. The cheerleaders are practising on the grass in the middle of the athletics track. If Kon's watching them at that distance then he's got almost no peripheral vision. Hmm.

Ring, nullify my sound and scent.

Compliance.

I wait a moment, but it doesn't cause my environmental shield to flare. So, I step up onto the bleachers at the bottom level, and climb up to two levels above the one Kon's sitting on before walking toward him. Maybe I should look into expanding my wardrobe? The weather here is easily hot enough for me to get away with this vest at present, but for goodness sake I can't have people thinking I'm a Geordie. Kon, bless him, has become rather fond of dress shirts for school wear.

I can sort of see why Batman wants to send Kon and M'gann to Belle Reve, but he's picked a pretty inopportune time to do it. I mean, they've only just started school and they could be gone for weeks. Couldn't he have done this before they started? It wasn't as if we were all that busy. I just hope whatever they're planning doesn't take that long. I haven't gone into Belle Reve's security in great detail, but Hugo Strange aside the place looked pretty solid to me, and he hasn't done anything yet. Honestly, I barely remember him from the comics. Think he was in the Arkham City game? I remember a video clip in which Ra's killed him before falling out of the building. I'm monitoring him, but he's not exactly William Hand, is he?

Speaking of William Hand, he hasn't done anything much either. I had John check, and he wasn't able to detect anything untoward, mystically speaking. Assimilating him might remove the problem, but I don't think I'm ready to do that to a man who might be entirely innocent. Besides, Nekron might just pick someone else.

Kon's looking slightly to the left, so I sit down on his immediate right and lean right up to his ear.

"Hi Kon."

He jerks upright and twists his head in my direction, eyes wide in surprise. Hah!

Leaning over like this, his face is only a couple of centimetres away from mine. His eyes are a really stunning shade of brilliant blue.

"So, um, how's the practise going?"

He blinks, then relaxes. "I don't know exactly. I don't think they're really preparing for an event or anything."

He turns back to watching, and I shuffle right up next to him. He's surprisingly relaxed about me being inside his personal space like this. Not sure if it's because of what happened in Gotham, or he just doesn't care. Come to think of it, I don't think that I've hugged anyone aside from him since getting here.

"I don't really see the appeal of it, to be honest."

"M'gann says it's good aerobic training."

I still say it's dressage for people. And can't M'gann reconfigure her body at will? Surely she doesn't need exercise any more than I do. But these are Americans. Leave them to their foolishness.

"Not taking part in extracurricular activities yourself?"

"I can't." He shrugs. "I'm too strong. If I joined the football team I could hurt someone."

True… "Kal-El had the same problem, when he was at school. But you could always join a different type of activity. Didn't M'- Didn't Megan say that Cadmus taught you to play chess?"

Seems like the sort of thing Mister Luthor would want his son to be able to do.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it may not exactly be butch, but I expect that this place has a chess club. You could join that."

His head drops slightly. "I'll think about it."

Is he down? He sounds down. I think he's down. I put my left arm around his waist and shake him a little. "Something wrong?"

"No."

I wait patiently. After a minute or two, he sighs.

"M… Megan finds it easy to fit in here. I don't."

"Megan grew up as part of a large family. Plus, she's got forty eight years more life experience than you do. She's going to be better at things like that."

"I guess. But why didn't Cadmus program me with that stuff?"

"I don't know. Maybe they couldn't. Maybe they planned to do it later. Or, maybe they were going to socialise you themselves. But, you get on alright with Donna, don't you?"

"That's different. I get fighting." He shift in his seat. "I told Wonder Woman that I'd do this, but when I'm here, I have to spend hours just sitting in class, getting told stuff I already know."

"I'm sure that your teachers would be prepared to give you extra work if you asked for it. Maybe they could find something you don't know about?"

"Maybe." He scans the playing field. "What have you been doing today?"

Trying to massage life back into my left hand after Artemis spent all yesterday morning breaking my shield is what I don't say. I hadn't even realised that I had a limit on the number of times per day I could recharge, but apparently my lantern's capacitors can only hold power for two full recharges, and each of them takes about eighteen hours to refill. I had to walk back to the zeta tube. Once I recharged, the ring was happy to tell me that that problem could be fixed by connecting to the Central Power Battery. Nooo, thank you.

"Clearing Earth orbit of small pieces of debris."

Kon nods. "The mid two thousand nine update to the NASA debris FAQ placed the number of debris items over three point nine inches at nineteen thousand, between point three nine inches and three point nine inches at approximately five hundred thousand, and that debris items smaller than point three nine inches exceeds tens of millions."

"It's not the number, it's tracking down each one. All day got me about enough to fill a pint glass."

Kon suddenly orientates on the cheerleaders.

"What?"

"They're talking about you."

"Oh? What are they saying?"

He frowns. "Karen's asking Megan how we know each other. What does 'alternative relationship' mean?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th September
22:07 GMT

I'm sure there are many people -and I try to be one of them- who, when faced with a strange situation, try to take whatever they can from it. Try to enjoy it, even. The Beresford twins, however, seem more inclined to piss and moan. I mean, Batman wanted to stick them in a reinforced cage in a warehouse somewhere. I had to argue the point, saying that the risk of break out or discovery was unacceptably high when better alternatives presented themselves.

The only light over the lunar landscape is the orange light cast by my personal lantern, floating over our heads. Just to be extra sure we wouldn't be spotted I transported us to the dark side of the Moon. No more Humans have walked on the Moon in this parallel than have done so back home, and we're the first Humans ever to walk on this side. When the lantern is behind you the view of the stars is breathtaking. But I can't concentrate on that, because I've got to deal with these two delinquents.

"Well, you should have thought of that before you started smashing down buildings!"

"I need tah pee!"

I've tried explaining this three times, but Tuppence Beresford isn't getting it.

"Look, d-do you see that you're glowing orange? Yes?"

She's treating this as a contest of wills. I know she's doing that. I know that I'm wasting my time, I do. But somehow that knowledge isn't quite filtering through into my actions. Psychologically, I have trouble responding sensibly to people who have abandoned rational discourse. One of my old work colleagues used to taunt me with the idea that President Obama wasn't born in the US. He didn't believe it, he just knew that it drove me to distraction. Every time he did it I rose to the bait and tried presenting evidence. He found it hilarious.

"The environmental shield is designed to deal with -among other things- body waste. As long as it's active, you don't need to eat, you don't need to breathe, you don't need to shit and you don't need to piss. Did you not notice that there's no air?"

"Ya'll cain't do this!"

Eeeeegghh…

I roll my eyes and raise my hands in surrender. I can, actually, but…

"Fine. Fine. Fine. Ring." I gesture with my right hand, and the surface of the dark side of the Moon is deformed as the ring pulls dust and rock into the shape of a cubicle and toilet seat and fuses it in place. Next, I excavate a shaft straight down and a small chamber for waste collection. Not that any waste will go there. "There you are. One completely superfluous lunar toilet. Enjoy."

She rage-stares at me for a moment longer, before snorting angrily and trying to stomp off. It turns out that stomping off under lunar gravity doesn't really work, and she ends up launching herself off the ground. I take a breath, then pull her back down. A sour glance and she resumes her walk to the cubicle.

Now, I've tried excreting while wearing a power ring before. She hasn't. As she disappears from sight I can't help but have a moment of smug.

"Ya'll gowna watch? What kinda sicko are you?"

"Mister Beresford-."

"It's Mister Terror!"

"It most certainly is not. I've seen your birth certificate. I've scanned your parents. You are not called 'Terror' and no one in your family is called 'Terror'. Mister Beresford, while I respect your protective instincts there is a good twenty centimetres of granite between Miss Beresford and myself, in a place where there is no air to carry any sound which will not in any case be made because the environmental shield is going to deal with any waste material she produces. Do you know how little privacy there is in prison?"

He clenches his fists. "You wouldn't be so smart if'n ah weren't wearin' this collar!"

I rub my forehead with my left hand. "I would be exactly this smart if you weren't wearing that collar. Mister Beresford, are you an idiot?"

"What d'you call me?"

"I didn't call you anything. I asked you a question. Are you an idiot? Because if you're not, I would invite you to consider for a moment the likely result of you taking a swing at me."

He makes an expression part way between a sneer and a grin. "Me, feelin' real happy."

"Briefly, that's probably true. Then, if you hit, and if you killed me or knocked me out, the environmental shield would shut down. Your toughness might let you survive the temperature here, but you wouldn't be getting any air and you'd asphyxiate in short order."

He actually isn't an idiot. I can see the wheels turning. Hm. I thought that a reasonable criticism that could be levelled at Twilight Sparkle in her studies of friendship was that she only ever befriended ponies who were inclined to be friendly. She's supposed to be learning the true nature of friendship but never took the extra credit class of making friends with someone like Gilda or Discord. Never tried to help Queen Chrysalis find another way to feed her people. Not wanting to copy her flaw, I thought that maybe I could use this as an opportunity to reach out to two newly minted supervillains.

I think I've misjudged. Jade is alone, and purely self interested. I can deal with that. These two have each other, and my look at their souls showed me that they think of life as a conflict, them versus all. They can't understand negotiation and regard coexistence as submission. I'm not sure I can help, at least not any time soon.

Thomas sits, knees folded up to his chest. Hmm, that's a thought. What grants him his strength? Aside from his sister none of his relatives are metahumans.

Ring, scan.

Compliance.

Oh, that is interesting. Someone, eighteen years ago, got access to the Danner Formula and gave Mrs Beresford a shot. His father's a truck driver and his mother works in a supermarket. Neither attended college, and having scanned Mrs Beresford slumped in an alcoholic stupor in front of the television I think I can rule out undiscovered scientific genius. I will need to follow up on this.

"Thomas, I'm curious… Can I call you Thomas?" A sneer and a shrug. "Thomas. Have you always been that strong?"

"Yeah?"

"Then I'm curious. What is it that made you embark on a destructive rampage across New Orleans, when there are so many productive things you could do with your abilities?"

"Like whut? Help ol' ladies cross the street? Ah went toe t' toe with Wonder Woman. Nuthin' else I couldah dun woulda beat that. Who the hell'r you, anyway?"

"I, am Orange Lantern two eight one four, and in my first close combat training session I bound Black Canary in glowing orange chains and threw her across the room. I defeated her in roughly two seconds, Thomas, whereas earlier today my mentor Wonder Woman tossed you into an ambush without straining herself. And have you any idea what the US military, or the CIA, would pay to have someone like you on their books?"

This doesn't appear to be what he was expecting.

"Whu'?"

"I'm serious. I reviewed your files. You've been stealing chump change. If you'd used your head as something other than a bludgeoning weapon you could have been a millionaire by now. Legally. Hell, just a blood sample so they could find out how to make other people as strong as you are would be immensely valuable to any number of groups."

He frowns, clearly confused. "So yuer sayin'-."

"Ah! Jesus!"

Tuppence cries out from the stall. Thomas flashes me an angry look as he leaps to his feet.

I shrug. "I warned her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

15th September
10:17 GMT

Thomas shoves the draughts piece over to the fourth row. I'd always wanted to play a board game on a giant board, but neither Thomas nor Tuppence understand chess or have the patience to learn Settlers of Catan. They did find me defacing the Moon for a board funny, but who's ever going to see it? Neither of them are exactly chatty, but after I popped back to Earth to pick up a breakfast of bacon sandwiches their disposition has changed from openly hostile to merely surly. No rational person can honestly argue against the claim that the Scottish have perfected bacon. Their bread isn't all that, but I have some that I baked myself in my subspace pocket, and the Beresfords are happily munching through it.

Took the time to pick up Teekl as well. Thought about bringing the sphere, but I realised that the likely result of putting it in a low gravity environment was the Moon getting a moon and decided against it. My cat is currently sitting on the top of the toilet cubicle, staring down at Tuppence while she stares up in return.

"'ugh 'at ifz weird. 'S freakin' me ouh."

Teekl appears to have taken the staring as a challenge. I'm not sure if that's an animal thing or an intelligent decision based on what information she's gathered about Tuppence. Or maybe she just wants some bacon. I'm not giving it to her, she doesn't need to eat. Tuppence is on her third bacon baguette. She's munching messily, and she'd be spurting ketchup all over her face if the environmental shield wasn't dealing with it.

Ketchup. What a waste of good pig.

"Hay! It's yer turn!"

At the height I'm currently floating the board looks like the tabletop version I used to use when playing with my sister's boyfriend's sons. Thomas has leapt back onto the rim of the crater. His collar is still on, but he's had time to adapt to the lower gravity. The game is still in the early stages, and this move hardly requires a great deal of thought. I pick up a piece and move it to the side of the board. Thomas is looking thoughtful.

"Orange boy, whut was that you were sayin' yesterday. 'Bout makin' money with super strength?"

Ring, access 'How To Succeed In Evil'. The bit where Edwin talks to Lifto. Audiobook version, obviously.

Compliance.

Knowledge appears in my brain. I could even do the accents.

"Oh, that. Well, take bank robbing, for instance. How much cash do you expect to get robbing a bank? Assume you get in and out with no trouble."

"I dun't know. Couple million?"

"Nope. On average? More like five thousand."

He contemplates the board. Behind me, Tuppence yelps as she gets too close to Teekl and the cat takes a swing. Thomas' response is less than supportive.

"Tuppy, you ain't never bin no good wid critters. Why you think a glowin' orange one gonna be any different?"

"Teekl's got a bit of a vicious streak. You're probably better off just ignoring her."

Tuppence glares at both of us, chomps off most of her baguette, then hurls the nobby at Teekl. Teekl just stands there and… And that damn cat has learned how to phase! How the heck..? She gives Tuppence a contemptuous look, then sits down and starts washing her right forepaw. Thomas walks back to the board, and starts pushing a piece.

"So? Five thousand don't sound bad t'me."

"Thomas, within a hour of getting this ring I owned about a quarter of a million dollars in precious metal. Legally. With powers like yours you should be aiming higher. Think about it. Robbing a bank; what does it cost you?"

"I dunno..? You wouldn' ask if it were nothin'… Takes tahm, I suppose?"

"Yep. Plus, depending on how you do it, you've got to factor in the costs of getaway vehicles, disguises, percentages for the people doing the money laundering. Then, you've got to factor in the risk of getting caught afterwards, and what sort of sentence you're likely to get. For your first armed robbery conviction, you'd be looking at seven years if you went in with a gun. With super strength, and a criminal record? More like nine years. Which, by the way, is probably how long you're going to Belle Reve for."

"Ah, aih ain't sweatin' it."

"But it's soooo pointless! Look, if you were going to get a normal job, what would it be?"

Thomas steps back from the game piece, and frowns as he thinks about it. "Aih dunno. Truck driver?"

"Right. So, you start out as a truck driver on, what? Sixty five dollars a day?"

"It ain't five thousand."

"True, but think about it. Lets say that if you rob a bank, you've got about a one in three chance of getting caught. Actually, if you use super powers and don't hide your face it's a lot higher than that. And if you don't get caught… lets say you have to lie low for a month. So, five thousand dollars divided by thirty. A hundred and sixty six dollars and sixty six cents a day. Split two ways, that's eighty three dollars thirty three."

"Still more'en sixty five dollars."

"And there's less overheads. But, then you've got to add in the chance of getting caught, right? A one in three chance of getting nine years, or an average of three years, of no income. If you worked as a truck driver on sixty five dollars a day for three years -lets say two hundred and sixty days each year- you'd make fifty thousand seven hundred dollars, before deductions. Money you can't make if you're sitting in a cell in Belle Reve."

"Wull, no?"

"So, on average, you lose over forty five thousand dollars every time you rob a bank."

He blinks heavily. I'd wager that he's more intelligent than Lifto, but what I just told him is a bit of a stretch even so. He shakes his head. "Tha's crazy tawk, man."

"You're going to get nine years to check my working."

I move another piece, trying to force him to start jumping and open up the board. Tuppence walks over to her brother, touching her face with her right hand to make sure that she's not bleeding.

"If'n you got it all figured out, what'd'you thank we should be doin'?"

"If you'd make more money as a truck driver than breaking a law, you need to either get a truck or find a more profitable law to break." I shrug. "What do you like doing?"

They look at each other.

"Smashing stuff." / "Smashing stuff."

"Eeeeerrr… Some types of demolition? Ship breaking? There's lots of things that pay more than negative forty five thousand dollars, and if you enjoy them, why not do them? If nothing tickles your fancy, if you don't mind killing people there's probably someone in the CIA or the military who'd hire you."

This does not compute. Tuppence is looking bewildered. "You sure yer a super heero?"

I shrug. "All of my basic needs were taken care of already. And I decided that I quite liked the idea of crowds cheering me as I walked down the street, so… Becoming a superhero was the rational choice. Work's interesting, the people are nice, you get respect from just about everyone and there's always someone interesting to fight. Everything's sharper, more intense. Life, plus one."

Tuppence blinks at me again. The trick is to create an argument which appeals to the audience. Like I did with Jade, -and like I failed to with Artemis- I can't make this a you-are-wrong-and-I-am-right thing. Can't convert atheists using scripture. This is going to be a long term thing, but that's okay. I've got time, and so do they.

"Thomas, your move."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th September
07:22 GMT -6

Unsurprisingly, everyone's on edge when I drop Thomas, Tuppence and Mister Nigma off in arrivals in Belle Reve, Louisiana. The regular guard complement has been heavily reinforced with Louisiana State Troopers. Those guards still standing, anyway; we flew over at least three ambulances on the way in. Even with all of the chaos I've got no idea how Mister Nigma managed to get out. Fortunately, he wasn't carrying any of the anti-scrying gear that is becoming depressingly common amongst the people I'd like to pick up. And he hadn't had a chance to rearm. It's not completely impossible that some of his more esoteric equipment might have affected me.

Now that I'm inside the wards, I should probably check-.

Shit.

I wanted to check on Jade and Kadabra. He's fine, though I'm detecting spatial distortions which suggest that he sat the whole thing out in subspace. She's in medical swathed in bandages. I haven't had a chance to get a full report from Kaldur yet. What the hell happened? No, don't worry about it, she isn't dead so I can just-.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Waller, four heavily armed and armoured guards and Doctor Strange hovering just behind them.

"A rather good friend of mine is in your medical facility with a fractured arm and truly horrific frostbite which without proper assistance will probably cost her an eye, her legs and most of her fingers."

"And she's not the only one. A third of my guards are in medical 'till we can get them transferred to a hospital. If you think I'm going to prioritize your convict girlfriend-."

!Jade need!

She takes a step back as my aura flares.

"Warden Waller, I'm going to respectfully suggest that at this point you need all the friends you can get. Until now, you have been remarkably tolerant of my presence here, and I am grateful for that. If you get out of my way, then in half an hour or so you and I can have a chat about all the things which a power ring can do to speed up repairs and improvements to this place. Heck, I'll even do what I can to get your guards back on their feet. Power rings are very good at putting people back together."

"And if I don't?"

!Jade need need need go go go go!

My aura pulses again.

"Then, in the short term, you'll find out that projectile weapons are no better at stopping me than they were at stopping the inmates. In the medium term, after Taipei, Lex Luthor owes me a favour. Such as the name of his favourite law firm, and enough political favours to make the congressional hearings you're going to be going through truly harrowing." I shrug. "Can't promise you'll keep your job as it is, but…"

She grunts. "They can only shoot me once. Rawlings, escort him to medical."

One of the troopers steps aside, then gestures down the corridor. "Sir, if you'll follow-?"

"No, too slow." I step up to him, put a hand on his chest plate, and we transition to the first blast door. Follow protocol?

!Jade needs me!

No, that would take too long. I seize the mechanisms and open the door, heedless of security protocols. They're lucky I'm not just smashing through. Rawlings floats along as I trigger all of the intervening doors in sequence, making the full transition to medical before dumping my escort on the floor.

Paula's sitting in her wheelchair at her elder daughter's bedside, facing the head of the bed. She looks up as the displaced air blows through the room, her face streaked with tears.

"Paul, can you-?"

Two strides take me to the head of Jade's bed and I hold my left hand over her recumbent form.

"MINE!"

The orange light is so intense that Jade is briefly completely obscured by it. I feel her body as the ring detects and repairs her. Gods… The only thing I've seen like the internal damage is what Klarion did to me, and Jade's had this since last night at least. She's drugged unconscious, and I instruct the ring not to change that. Fourth-degree frostbite to everywhere. Until I started work more of her skin was red and black than her usual olive. Some of her flesh had actually liquefied as cell walls burst when the water within froze and expanded. The only thing I've seen that's comparable is in pictures of some of Mister Freeze's victims, post thaw.

I stumble back as the ring finishes. All physical damage fixed, but she could all too easily have died from that.

"Done. Um, done. She should.. she should be fine."

Paula sniffs, and blows her nose into a tissue. "Is it safe..? Can I hold her hand?"

"Yes, yes of course."

She shuffles a little closer, and reaches under the bedclothes to take Jade's bandage swathed hand in her own. They'd probably been trying to warm her up while preventing impacts that could worsen the damage further. Paula sniffs, pulls Jade's left hand up to her face and holds it against her cheek. How did this happen?

"Do you know what happened? I haven't had a report yet."

"I'm not sure."

She takes a deep, unsteady breath. Keeping Jade's left hand clasped in her own, she reaches out and places her right on Jade's forehead. Bandages, right. I want and the bandages disintegrate from around Jade's face. Paula breathes a little easier when she sees healthy skin, and begins stroking her hair.

"The one who froze her was Killer Frost. When the inmates first broke free, Killer Frost tried to kill the guards. Jade's cellmate stopped her. There was a fight, and Killer Frost did this to Jade."

"Jade's cellmate?"

"A blonde woman. I think her name was Tuppence?"

Oh.

**M'gann?**

**I'm… I'm here.**

**Where's 'here'?**

My eyes glow orange as I look around, and I see M'gann's outline hovering -metaphorically hovering- next to the entrance.

**Is she really okay?**

**There's no remaining physical damage. I suppose I won't know how she is mentally until she wakes up. Killer Frost?**

**I did something Uncle Ma'al taught me; I locked her inside her own mind. Unless another telepath helps her, she'll never get out.**

**Good idea. Didn't that blow your cover?**

**I punched her as well, so it looked like I just knocked her out. The other prisoners thought I was defending my friend. I did the… I did what we're supposed to for fast freeze injuries, but I was so scared that she wouldn't make it anyway.**

**You probably saved her life. Thank you.**

**She was.. nice. I know you've been visiting her, but I wasn't expecting her to be like that.**

**I'm a little surprised myself. I think I may need to do something for her.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th September
08:54 GMT -6

This is probably the most eventful birthday I've ever had. Shoving civil engineers aside, I've fixed all the damage from the break out attempt.

Healing the guards was harder than I thought it would be. I suppose this is the first time when I've tried fixing someone I don't really care about on an individual basis. After a little trial and error I found that it worked best if I focused on the idea that helping them would improve Jade's chance of getting a favourable outcome. Doing that, I've fixed up the guards who had minor injuries, and dramatically reduced the recovery times on the more seriously injured ones. A couple of frostbite cases, but nothing on a level with what Jade had.

I even gave the prisoners the once over, but the only one with really serious injuries was Cameron Mahkent. Turns out that the other prisoners didn't appreciate him being deceived by Kon into preventing the break out. They might end up having to transfer him to another prison, though given what happened I'm not sure leaving all of the cryokinetics in one place would have been a good idea anyway.

One of the female guards asked me how Jade was. I said that I'd pass on her best wishes.

Warden Waller was a little surprised by my offer to transmute the interior of the prison walls to diamond. She's been called to Washington, and in any case seemed a little reluctant to accept my aid for anything long term. Maybe she'll change her mind once she's been pilloried in the national press for a few weeks. I'm all for self reliance, but this country genuinely can't afford to have the sort of break out that nearly happened here happen. Someone from on high has decided to put Doctor Strange in charge while she's away, which strikes me as odd. Wouldn't Bendemann or some other senior guard be next in line rather than the prison psychiatrist? Or is this the American thing of senior civil servants being political appointees?

I contacted Mister Luthor, and he was only too happy to give me the direct line of the lawyer he uses when he is personally accused of criminal activity. I think I remember Frederick Tuckman from the comics… Something to do with Green Arrow? Jade clearly isn't safe here, and I'll need to talk to Batman about what she's actually being accused of. See if I can get some of it dropped.

!Jade mine!

M'gann left after she checked out Jade's mind for obvious damage. She said that Jade should be alright, and I need to have a talk with her and Paula about our next step. As I approach the medical area I note that whatshisface… Rawlings, has cleared off. He didn't throw up after the transfer, so I'm going to assume that I've finally got the hang of FTL transitions with passengers. M'gann left as well once she was sure Jade would be alright.

"… don't clap your hands
Grandma hits you on the head till it hurts."

Huh?

Paula looks around when I walk in, before turning back to her daughter. She's definitely looking a bit happier. Jade's still out, but it looks like she's sleeping normally. I stand just behind Paula. Think I'll skip asking about child abusing grandmothers.

"Alright. Prison's fixed. Ish."

"Do they want to put Jade back in her cell?"

"No, I've talked to the warden… I think.. Jade should.. probably hear this. Are you alright with waking her up?"

She nods, and puts her right hand on Jade's shoulder. "Jade? Jade, it's time to wake up."

A slight moan, a shift in the bed, and her eyes flicker open. Eyes narrow, she looks first at her mother, then me, then her eyes open fully and she stares at her mother. "Mom?"

"Yes Jade, I'm here."

Jade stares for a moment longer. "Paul?"

"Yes?"

"Why does my Mom look like Miss Ho Chi Minh City?"

Paula stifles a laugh. Um?

"I don't know. Is the current Miss Ho Chi Minh City your cousin or something?"

She lays still for a moment. "Paul, what did you do?"

"He repaired my spine. And don't talk about me like I'm not here. It's not polite."

Jade blinks, then shifts her gaze back to me as I frantically but silently shake my head and wave my forearms back and forth across my chest in a 'don't' gesture. Her eyes narrow.

"So, I can't feel any injuries, but the last thing I remember is getting iced. Literally."

"Orange Lantern healed you. You should thank him."

"How.. bad.. was it?"

"Pretty bad, Jade. Usually I'd applaud heroism-" She winces. "-but we nearly lost you there."

I walk around her bed to the other side and pull up a chair. She considers her options.

"Don't think I'm making a habit of it. Tuppence was my cell mate. You need someone to watch your back in a place like this."

"That wasn't Tuppence. That was my colleague, M'gann M'orzz. You remember, the Martian who read your mind when-."

The hand her mother isn't holding goes to cover her face. "I'm starting to hate shapeshifters."

"Mm. Well, she's starting to like you."

"What happened to Frost?"

Don't really want to implicate M'gann in anything that might be criminal. "M'gann hit her, and she hasn't got up yet."

She shuffles, and uses her right hand to move to a sitting position against the headboard. I notice that she hasn't made any effort to reclaim her left hand form her mother. "Was kinda hoping to deal with that myself. Oh well." She looks at her mother, the sheets, and then me. "So, what happens now?"

"Now, you stay right here and look ill. I've spoken to Warden Waller, and she agrees with me that moving you back to the cell block would be a very dangerous thing to do."

"She can't stay here forever."

"I've hired a man named Frederick Tuckman to conduct her.. um, your defence on the assault, membership of a foreign terrorist organisation and attempted murder charges."

Jade's eyes flick to the side. I don't think she recognises the name. "He any good?"

"His client list includes Lex Luthor."

Jade blinks. "That's pretty good."

"His first order of business is to get you transferred to another prison. Since you don't have a registered address I was going to suggest one in Gotham, but that's Blackgate and I don't think you'd be any safer there. How do you feel about the Gloria McDonald Medium Security Facility on Rhode Island?"

"Do they have cable?"

"I didn't ask, but it's pretty close to where I live. I'm also going to talk to the Justice League about getting some of your charges struck or reduced. Manhunter owes you for looking after his niece, and I will be reminding him. With a little luck, you'll be offered a favourable plea bargain before too long."

"Whaw."

I can feel her reaching around for a sarcastic response. A few seconds later it doesn't look like she can find one. Then she raises her eyebrows.

"Guess I should have gotten frozen to death sooner."

Okay, I was wrong.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Home Font

18th September
19:02 GMT +8

I haven't quite gotten used to the stares yet.

Obviously my activity last time I was in Taipei was far more obvious than what I've been doing with the team, but there are plenty of other Caucasians around and it's not as if I'm wearing my armour. But I'm getting recognised. I'm getting photographed. I'm getting gawped at, even just walking down the street.

Feels jolly odd.

I'm on the way to the Mackay Memorial Hospital where Mister Huang Jianhong has recently woken up. Had to skip out on the morning training session, but Kaldur said it was fine. Mister Huang's parents -Missus Huang De and Mister Huang Tung- and a young woman -ah, her name's Miss Su Xin- I assume to be his girlfriend are with him now. It's been a couple of hours, and I think that the initial 'thank-god-I'm-alive' bit should have passed by now. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why I want to speak to him so much. I'm sure that the police will be interviewing him after an appropriate amount of time has passed, though at this point a new lead is unlikely. Everything I know about neurophysiology says that he should be at least as good as new. But I don't regard the case as complete until I've seen for myself.

I don't know whether or not I'm actually allowed in to see him. It isn't as if I'm a relative or anything. Hmm. One of the windows in the room next to his is open, and the door doesn't make a good enough seal to stop my FTL. It's a pretty good room. Mister Luthor made a point of paying for his care. It was thoughtful of him, even if he made sure that the press knew about it. I'd have done it myself, but it just didn't occur to me to offer. I suppose I'm too used to the NHS just being there.

Might as well skip the whole front desk bit. I materialise in a hospital corridor, one door down from the one Mister Huang occupies. I hear a soft thump, and turn to see someone I presume to be either a nurse or an orderly staring at me in astonishment, having just dropped a pile of folded bedclothes she was transporting from the cupboard to a trolley. She's probably in her mid twenties, though I remember reading an interview where the interviewee claimed that Asian women generally kept looking young until they suddenly don't, so I could be well out. I pick the sheets up and move them to their intended destination, before walking toward her. I stop moving when her confusion shifts to nervousness.

"Good morning, miss. Orange Lantern two eight one four."

"Um… G-good morning, sir."

She actually puts her hands together at her waist and gives me a shallow bow. Am I supposed to do that?

"I'm here to check on Mister Huang. He's in this room-" I point. "-is he not?"

"Ah!" She moves to her trolley and consults a clipboard. "Yes, that is where Mister Huang is staying."

"Thank you. I won't keep you."

I find myself bending slightly, as if some part of my brain believed that bowing was appropriate but was unable to secure a majority. I straighten, turn away, walk to the door indicated and knock loudly. The conversation within carries on, and for a moment I wonder if they didn't hear me.

"Come in?"

A woman's voice. I turn the handle and push open the door. Miss Su and Mister Huang senior are sitting on either side of the head of the bed, with Miss Su taking the window side. Missus Huang is sitting by the foot of the bed at her husband's side, and is looking at me as I enter the room. Given how surprised she looks I'm going to assume that she was expecting a doctor or something like that. Miss Su flickers her eyes up, then back to the patient, then back to me with her eyes widening.

"Good morning. I'm sorry to intrude, but I was hoping that I might have a few words with Mister Huang Jianhong."

Mister Huang senior stops talking to his son with a grunt. "You couldn't even wait a day, could y-." He swivels in his seat as he speaks, then cuts off. And I get a direct look at his son for the first time in two weeks. He's smiling faintly, and unlike his guests doesn't seem shocked by my being here at all.

"What can I do to help? They showed me the recordings of what I did, but I really don't remember much about it."

"I didn't honestly expect you to. Have the doctors here explained what the stuff the League of Shadows stuck you with did to your body?"

"Not yet. They're going to run some tests to check how I'm doing. I do remember reading a newspaper article on the effects of Venom use, but I thought that most of the harmful effects took a while to manifest?"

"Usually, they do. But what you were given was a new substance made by combining Venom with something called the Blockbuster Formula. They then mixed that with something called Adder Venom, which is a Venom variant which had only previously been seen in a couple of places in Mexico. The stuff was responsible for you going berserk, and it has much worse side effects than regular Venom."

"How bad?"

"You'd have needed a new liver, and would have been left an emotionally unstable wreck. Probably for the rest of your life."

He looks down at his chest. "I don't seem to be..?"

"Power rings are awesome. The liver was an easy fix, and it's now as good as it ever was. Thing is, I didn't know what your amygdala looked like beforehand, and that has a larger effect on your behaviour than your liver does. When I repaired it, I made it as good as an amygdala can be, and that's probably quite a bit better than it was."

He looks more puzzled than worried. "What would that mean for me?"

"Not sure, to be honest. As an educated guess, you'll be able to learn new skills faster than before, and your memory will probably be better. You'll have better intuition of what other people are feeling or thinking, and you'll probably be calmer and friendlier, no social anxiety at all."

He seems to think for a moment. "Those all sound like good things."

"If there were likely to be negative effects, then I wouldn't have been so gung-ho about doing it. Fact is, I've never done this to someone before and so I can't predict exactly what will happen. Plus, those behaviours might not have been how you were originally."

"You have repaired my son's brain from the damage the terrorists caused… By making him smarter?" Mister Huang Senior wants to make sure that he's understood correctly.

"Sort of? There haven't been any studies into the effects of doing what I did. I mean, we know what the result would have been if I'd done nothing, but it isn't as if I just go around doing this to everyone."

"I do feel a little different." He frowns slightly. "When I woke up, I wasn't worried at all. I suppose I should have been, waking up in hospital with no memory of how I got here. But, I think I like it better this way than the alternative. And I appreciate the effort you have gone through on my behalf. Thank you."

"You're welcome. But if you start to feel uneasy about the situation, contact me on this number." I summon forth a card with the number of the public phone in which I'm monitoring in Happy Harbor.

He takes hold of it. "I will. Thank you for checking up on me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
08:52 GMT -5

Note to self: use FTL more. After I finished talking to Mister Huang and his family and handing my scans of his brain over to his doctor, I decided to walk out of the hospital. As a result, I walked straight into an ambush of news reporters when I reached reception. I couldn't hear what any of them were saying over the general noise and the receptionists were giving me the evils. So, Doctor Manhattan style, I transferred the whole thing outside and set up an impromptu press conference.

When they ignored the order I was trying to create I muzzled them so that only one could speak at a time.

That might have been overdoing it, but they were getting on my nerves. And it certainly made things go much more smoothly. In no particular order: Mister Huang's fine but should probably be left alone for a few days, I don't live in Taiwan, I'm not a member of the Justice League, the police are handling the investigation though I'm happy to give them whatever help they want, I'm single, I'm glad you liked the interview but it was really a fairly spur of the moment thing, never heard of him, never heard of her, never heard of them, why would you even ask that -that came up more than I would have liked-, things in Rhelasia are going well but I was really just acting as a guarantor and credit should go to the politicians, I couldn't say and that while I respect Mister Luthor's work I don't know him well enough to comment.

Once things started getting trivial I excused myself and left. Transitioning to the seaward side of the mountain with the bulk of it between me and the town, I turn head down and dive for the sea entrance. With repeated visits to Atlantis I've got my air to water transition so smooth that I don't feel it, the change being marked only by the different level of illumination. Manta construct extended around me, I turn smoothly in the water and head through the tunnel. Now that I know where I'm going and know how to augment my vision the journey takes much less time than it did back when Diana, Alan and I first used it. Hmm. Where is everyone? Ah, the arena. The computer marks danger areas on the floor and throws up targets. Participants have to hit them as swiftly as possible without getting in each other's way or staying in danger areas. Useful for the others, a bit pointless for me. Last time I tried it I had to switch to the beam pistol and even on low power still managed to shoot through the ceiling into Red Tornado's quarters. No Artemis yet, but everyone else is here.

I'm feeling pretty good. Jade's good deed yesterday, Mister Huang being okay, patched things up with Artemis… I'm getting the urge to do some showing off. I accelerate as I near the surface on the cave end, and prepare a cold gun construct. Pushing water ahead of me I fly from the surface, freezing water droplets so that they fall in a corona of snow about me as I spread my arms wide and spin in the air, orange sigil glowing behind me.

"Duh dah!"

The holographic lights from the training exercise shut down as the others turn toward me.

Robin strokes his chin. "I'd give you a nine point two."

Kon squints. "Nine point four."

Wallace walks to the edge of the water. "Where you been?"

"Mister Huang woke up from his coma." I float through the ice particles to the solid ground. "Seems he quite likes the upgraded amygdala I gave him."

Robin looks interested. "Anything new on Bane or Onyx?"

I shake my head. "He said that he didn't really remember anything, and given what the drugs did to his brain I can well believe it. I didn't want to push too hard."

He nods.

"So, coordination practice?" I raise both arms and form an assault cannon under each, grinning. "I'm up for that."

Kaldur pushes my right arm down. "Perhaps not. I have completed the revisions to the shield bracer you designed-."

I drop the constructs. "Ooh! Gimme! Water armour for everyone!"

Kaldur smiles faintly. "Not quite yet, though this version should allow anyone with some magic training-."

"Recognised, Artemis, B, zero eight."

Wallace looks nervous. "You did patch things up with her, right?"

"Yes, of course I did."

Artemis materialises, scans the room and locks eyes on me. "You."

Wallace steps away from me. "Are you sure?"

I was. I remain exactly where I am as she stalks across the room. What have I done now? Is she angry about me working to get Jade transferred? But that's not going to happen for weeks at least!

M'gann steps into her path. "Good morning Artemis!"

Artemis brushes past her. Ten metres. She's wearing the quiver I made for her, but I can only see two of my arrows. Five metres. Should I try talking to her? Two.

"Er, hello? How have you-?"

One. She reaches up with both hands, pulls my head down to her level and puts her lips to mine. Oh. Um. Am I supposed to shut my eyes? Don't think about Jade. My arms are sticking out to the side slightly. Should I bring them in? Am I supposed to put them on her? Before I can decide she pulls back a little, still holding my head in place.

"Thank you."

"Mm, you're welcome."

Then she pulls back a little further and-.

"Ow! What was that in aid of?"

She's grinning. "I guess it would have worked, then."

I rub my cheek where she slapped it. "Yes of course it would! I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise."

Wallace raises a hand. "Ah, can someone explain what just happened?"

Artemis looks down for a moment, trying to work out how much to share. Perhaps I should..?

"When I went to say sorry, I got Artemis some new arrows. And a rather nice orchi-."

"He healed my mom." She goes to cross her arms at her chest, but I catch hold of her hands and bring them up to my chest instead. She's still not meeting my eyes. "Mom has.. had, a spinal injury. She couldn't walk. He fixed it. The doctor said she should regain full mobility within two months."

Robin's eyes go wide. "You can.. do that? Fix long term injuries?"

"By channelling my need to be in Artemis' good graces, yes."

"Can you.. do that.. to other people..?"

"I can try." I bring Artemis' hand up to my lips, kiss her knuckles and then release them before turning to Robin. "Did you have someone in mind?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
09:21 GMT -5

Robin… No, Richard, leads the way through the corridors of the Gotham Mercy General Hospital with a familiarity born of constant repetition. We went from the mountain to the Bat Cave, then up into Wayne Manor proper where he changed into a suit. I suppose that Batman must have told him that I knew who everyone is, but it was still a strange experience. Like stepping behind the stage at a theatre, or a fairground when the rides are being packed up. No, behind the frontage while they're in operation. I can hear the music and the laughter, but I'm seeing the guts of the operation.

This is also the first time I've seen him without something covering his eyes. I mean, I'd scanned his eyes so that I'd be able to repair them, but I'd never seen them with my own before. I switched to a suit myself, one where the only orange sigil is a tiny one sewn into the lapel. I've transferred the ring into my pocket, and it's taking an effort of will to stop me reaching in to put it back on or to touch it.

Richard looks a lot younger like this. Turns out, there is a good reason why his name isn't abbreviated to anything other than 'Dick'. And we're on our way to see him.

"Richard, I'm so sorry. I mean, I knew about your parents but it never occurred to me to check for other relatives."

"I could have told you after you fixed Su-. After you fixed Conner's ears. Just didn't make the connection."

We pass through a department waiting room. Mister Pennyworth drove us here and he offered to come in with us. Not sure why Richard turned him down.

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Use Wally's full name, and mine."

"Errh. Not really sure, to be honest. Where I'm from, 'wally' means fool, and a 'rubber wally' is a condom, but I think it's mostly just because I don't like abbreviations. That was one reason my Mum picked my name; the fact it can't be abbreviated."

He turns his head to look at me while continuing on his course. "Wally means fool?" He smiles, but it has a brittle edge to it.

"Yeah. I mean, if it really bothers you or him, I could start using abbreviations. I just prefer full names. And I usually call you, you know, the other thing anyway." I'm not used to actively pretending to not be a superhero. Usually it's just convenient, but if, for example, one of Kon's schoolmates rumbled me, I wouldn't care. But Richard and Batman are fully committed to the masquerade, and I respect that. We step aside for an elderly man being pushed down the corridor on a bed. "You know, I can't promise this will work, right?"

"I know. But I've got to try. Uncle Rick's all the family-." He cuts himself off, head going down for a moment. "Aside from Bruce and Alfred, Uncle Rick's all the family I've got."

"Okay."

We walk the rest of the way to the long term care ward in silence. Richard doesn't bother talking to the large black nurse on the desk, instead heading straight for one of the rooms. The nurse gives me a brief puzzled look before turning to my friend.

"I'm sorry Dick, but today wasn't a good day."

He stops, downcast, and nods. "Can we.. go in anyway?"

"'Course you can, hon."

He nods again, and I scurry to catch up.

"Not a good day?"

"Uncle Rick's injuries give him constant pain. When it gets really bad, they just give him something to knock him out." He slows down. "Might be better this way. I wouldn't want to get his hopes up."

I'm wondering how often he's awake, but I don't think I'll ask. He slows almost to a stop as we get to the door labelled 'Richard Grayson'. I raise my right hand to put it on his shoulder, but before it gets there he pulls himself together and opens the door. Not a big room, but I suppose that it doesn't need to be. His uncle is laying on the bed, drip attached to a tap in his right arm. I walk in after Richard and he shuts the door behind me.

Right. I slip the tip of my left ring finger through the ring. Scan. Gods. This isn't a single point of damage like Paula's was. His spine is mashed in five different places, and the tissue around it has healed wrong. His pelvis was broken and set almost correctly, but almost everything is slightly off. I can well imagine that it must hurt. I walk around the bed. Right. I hold my right hand over the bed.

"Heal."

Nothing. Right, come on. This is Richard's last blood relative!

"Heal."

An orange strobe flickers and fails. It's not working, I just can't feel the need for his well-being viscerally enough!

"Work around it, work around it. I didn't cause the injury, and I haven't done anything to offend…"

I can't. Could he? Maybe. I could keep trying, but I've no real reason to believe that I'll do any better.

"It's… It's okay, I-."

"Right. Robin. I've got an idea. I think the reason that it's not working is because I don't think of your Uncle as being part of mine. But, you might be able to do it."

"Wh-? I don't have any training in using a power ring!"

"I know. Okay. I think I should be able to direct the effect while you provide motivation. I'm not sure, but it's the best idea I've got at the moment."

He thinks for a moment, then nods. "What do I do?"

I put the ring fully onto my ring finger and take my left hand out of my pocket. "Take my hand. If you start feeling weird urges, let go immediately." He nods, and takes my left in his right. "Ring, designate Richard John Grayson as secondary user."

"Succession acknowledged."

And I'm looking at the bed from two different places. Ugh. I close my own eyes, and then I just see out of his. That I can manage. "Okay, now focus your mind on your need for your Uncle to be well." I maintain a scan, and share the image with Richard. He knows about as much about Human physiology as I do, but he isn't used to seeing it like this. "When you're ready."

My viewpoint shakes as he nods.

"Uncle Rick, heal."

Nothing. I feel his sympathy for his Uncle through the ring.

"Heal."

"No, that won't work. You're thinking altruistically. Compassion and love won't work with an orange ring."

"Then what will!?"

"Need. Selfish desire. I'm.. I'm sorry. The only thing… You need to remember what it was like when your family first died. The horrible sense of loss and wrongness and abandonment. Feel your need for things to be right, how they should be. Use that."

For a moment he doesn't respond.

"That… That's…"

"Yeah. I know. No, I'm sorry, I don't, but…"

Hell. No one should go through that, but I can't think of another way. Maybe there's a doctor around here..? Vision goes as he scrunches his eyes closed. For a moment, I don't feel anything much. Then I feel him start to shake, and he opens his eyes again, our vision blurry with tears.

"Uncle Rick, heal."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th September
09:26 GMT -5

Orange light blasts from the ring, and I focus my mind on the injuries it's treating. The ring's fairly user friendly, but I don't want Richard Senior to end up being transformed into Richard Junior's father or anything. I see bone straightened and set, sinew and muscle moved and set true. Nerves mended. Our patient is on anti-rejection drugs for organ transplants, and I ensure that the tissue markers causing the trouble are rewritten. The light begins to restore wasted muscle, but before it goes too far I try to shake my ring hand free. I'm not sure what would happen if we kept pouring the orange light into him, but…

Richard isn't letting go. Oh dear. I bring my right hand around and try pulling his fingers off mine.

"Richard, you need to let go."

I open my eyes and look at him. Through my eyes I see his eyes blazing with orange light. Then he swings his left hand around and starts trying to pull the ring from my hand.

"No! Mine! It's mine! No one will hurt my family again!"

Heck. I grab our hands with my right hand, trying to make it harder to move anything. The ring's glowing like mad.

"Ring, remove secondary user."

No change. He's yanking at my arms in a frenzy now. I'm lucky he's too overwhelmed to try anything clever; he's much better at unarmed combat than me. No, I will not let Robin end up like Larfleeze.

"Ring, remove secondary user now."

"Compliance."

The flow of light shuts off. Richard gasps, and his grip loosens. I pull his fingers off and snatch my ring hand away. He brings his arms up, hugging his chest, shivering. For a moment neither of us speak.

"Did… Did it work?"

I nod. "Yes, I think so."

There's another pause, and he looks up slightly. "Is it.. always..?"

I nod. "Pretty much. You adapt, learn to steer it. But, yes. When you want something that much."

Another pause. "I think I'll… I think I want to stay here, until he wakes up." He walks around and sits at his uncle's side, not looking at me. "I'm... I'm sorry.. I tried to take-."

"Don't. Don't. I should have expected something like that to happen. I'll just… I'll be in the waiting room. Shout if you need something."

He nods, shallow and slow. I step backwards, and run a quick scan on our patient. I hope that was worth.. ah. Yes, it was. Not sure he'll ever be an acrobat again, but Richard Senior should have full and pain free feeling back in his whole body when he wakes up. Right, intruding on private time. I turn, and exit the room. The nurse at the desk looks up for a moment, then turns back to her files. I scan the room, looking for somewhere to sit. And ideally, something I can read to take my mind off making Robin relive that.

And then I see Alfred Pennyworth sitting primly in the chair closest to Richard Senior's room, brown leather bag at his feet. A slim and somewhat foxed paperback is lying in the seat next to him. He turns his head in my direction, and raises his eyebrows by the smallest fraction. Is something..? I tense slightly, and metaphorically kick myself as I return the ring to my pocket before walking over and pulling a chair out of the row so that I can sit opposite him.

"Successful visit, sir?"

I lean forward a little. "Too early to say, Mister Pennyworth. I think so, but we won't know for sure until he wakes up."

The slightest of nods. "And Master Dick?"

I feel wrongness. "The.. the device is empathic. To get it to work, I made him relive something very unpleasant."

His eyes narrow slightly.

"It was the only thing I could think of that would work! I'm not exactly impressed with myself, either."

A slight tilt to the side. "I had rather been under the impression that you simply…" He holds out his hand vertically, just in front of his chest, then waves it to the side.

I shake my head. "No, you have to think in exactly the right way. Feel the right way. And I don't.. I didn't.. know him well enough to suggest anything else."

I look away, and shake my head again. "You.. compel yourself to hold to this extreme mode of thought.. at all times.. yourself?"

"I.. I suppose I do. If you keep it up for long enough, the extreme just becomes the new normal."

He shifts slightly in his seat. "I'm not wholly unfamiliar with the concept, sir."

Hah. I suppose he's not. Wonder why Batman never got a power ring? Right, what else do I need to do? "I hope somebody's got a blooming good cover story for this, because this is well beyond Earth medicine."

Mister Pennyworth's eyes flick down for a moment. "Nil desperandum, sir. Any number of strange things could have happened. Perhaps, an unusually energetic reaction to some new medication?"

"It's a bit of a stretch, Mister Pennyworth."

"Only if he remains the responsibility of this hospital. Do not worry, sir. Matters are in hand."

I nod, and sit up. "Didn't.. Richard ask you to stay in the car?"

"He usually does, sir. But he's generally pleased to see me when his visit is over, nonetheless."

I can imagine. Ergh, alright, I'm not going to stop feeling like a puppy-kicker any time soon. Is there something I want to ask Mister Pennyworth? Something I could ask in a fairly public area? Oh, well…

"Mister Pennyworth. Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Tell me honestly: how long do you think I've got before I start to sound like an American?"

A faint smile, and he appears to give the question due consideration.

"I mean, I'm sure they're a lovely people, but I-."

The door to Mister Grayson's room opens, and I cut myself off. Richard Junior stands in the opening, looking first at Mister Pennyworth, then myself. We look at him, waiting for him to speak.

"Alfred, could you..? Would you mind coming in here, please?"

He waits for a moment, but Richard says nothing else.

"Of course, Master Dick."

He picks up his bag, stands, and walks toward Richard, who stands aside to let him enter. Richard's looking at the ground near my feet. Well, yes. I'm certainly not expecting to be on his cool list any time soon after tha-.

"Paul, you should probably come in too. I want Uncle Rick to meet you when he wakes up."

He's looking me in the eyes now, and a small smile is back on his face. Mine too. I rise, and walk back into the room.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
19:23 GMT -5

And, lastly, the fact that Jade may well be stuck in prison for several years, despite my efforts. I feel myself recoil from the idea, but the hierarchy stresses acceptance of inconvenient facts, and the fact is that she's been a very naughty girl. I may not like it, but there it is. I haven't pressed her on the precise nature of her work with the League of Shadows. Maybe I should, but I don't think that I should learn something I might be asked to testify about later. She hasn't volunteered the information. While I'm on the subject, I suppose I should accept that she has most likely taken part in assassinations before. Would that bother me? I don't.. think it would, unless I was directly confronted by her victim's family or something. That would be inconvenient.

Is that everything? I think so. I lower myself from the cross legged floating position I've been occupying in the air just above the bioship, and take the ring from where it floats in the air in front of me. I've taken to performing my daily meditation here. The view is restful, and simple enough to avoid being distracting. I land on the ground next to it and pat it on the hull before walking back to the lift. Kon's cooking this evening -with M'gann keeping a watchful eye on him- so I should probably avoid the kitchens. Kaldur wanted to do some more revisions on the water armour system we're working on. I'm trying to keep up with him, but he's had years more tuition in matters arcane than I have and it's easier to just help him with the fabrication. Not sure where Wallace is, and Artemis and Robin won't be here for a couple of hours.

Something I should do before they get here. I trust my team mates, I do, but I'm very self conscious during the few times each day when I take the ring off to allow for… How to put it? Less uncomfortable excretion. I know how vulnerable it makes me, compared to how I normally am. I've tried to switch to the ring method a couple of times, but I just can't cope with it. Last time the ring leapt off my finger as soon as I sat down, and I took the hint. There's a toilet attached to the living quarters a couple of levels up from here, and that's where I'm heading.

I haven't asked the ring if it's been regularising my bowel movements. I know I like regularity, and I certainly like to know when the ring is fiddling about with the way my body works without running it by my conscious mind first. But I think that maybe there are some things I'd rather not know about myself. And I think finding out that I am literally anal retentive-.

Ah. I'm here. Alright, ring off. I put it down beside the sinks, and walk over to the middle cubicle. The ring is far too large to do something like falling down the drain, and even if it did my remote ring control is now good enough that I could locate it and summon it out. Of course, if it got right down the system I'd have to pull it straight through the side of the purification system, which could be a bit messy. Nothing I couldn't fix…

Seat up, close the door, trousers and pants down, and sit. Being nervous about my vulnerability does nothing to ease my passage, but after the first few times I built a voice activated computer into the stall door so that I wouldn't lack for reading material. Tried reading case files once. That was a bad idea. All those faces were a bit off putting. I also modified this toilet to exactly my dimensions. It's now the most comfortable toilet I've ever sat on.

I'm not actually sure that anyone else uses this place. My quarters are a bit isolated. Unless we have a major recruitment drive, I might-.

What was that?

Sounded like water running through the pipes. I think that some pipes from the upper levels run through the walls near here. I gave everything a scan when I first moved in, but I never bothered memorising it all. Worth taking a look? No, just stick to the business at hand -there we go- and then use the ring to check in a moment.

Huh? Oh, that isn't good. Water's running under the door. How the heck..? That's the first time anything mechanical has gone wrong around here. I'm torn between concern and smugness. Right, start wiping, and I should be ready to go before it gets to a significant height. What's the pressure going to be like? Pretty high, I'd have thought. Worth calling the ring right now? Probably not. The system should detect the faulty tap and shut it off in a few moments.

I've been shopping around, but I haven't been able to find a type of toilet paper I'm completely happy with. This stuff is a reasonable compromise, but it could do with-.

Is that Red Tornado? I can hear heavy footsteps, but his usual creaking sound is hidden behind the sound of running water. I thought he was taking a shift on the Watchtower? And I don't think his duties include facility management anyway. Okay, clean enough for government work. Ring.

Ring.

Huh?

Ring.

Oh, not good. I stand, pulling up my pants and trousers. The water's reaching the top of the tread of my boots. This is actually quite serious. Open the door and-. What? Who are-?

The red robot standing between me and the sinks turns to look at me. It's less bulky than Red Tornado, but retains a masculine shape. Actually looks a bit less clunky than he does. Its eyes glow red. I'm not carrying any weapons.

Ring!

Where is it? Right, don't freeze. Move. The door's on my left-.

Bwoogh! I don't even make two steps before a column of water rises up from the pool covering the floor and hits me in the face, knocking me to the ground. I'm on my side, and try to regain my feet as my clothes get waterlogged. I slip on the floor, covering only a small distance as the water flows away beneath me. I finally get my feet back under me and get to a standing position as the water surges across the room, pushing me past the robot and pinning me to the wall. In the second or so before it covers my face I take a deep breath.

I have to fight the urge to cover my eyes as I am completely enveloped. The water isn't turning to ice, and it isn't taking on the slightly glistening quality of water made solid by magic. I'm being supported off the ground and kept pressed against the wall by the current in an apparently stationary body of water. The force that must take…

I relax and don't fight it. I can't afford to waste the air. The robot takes a step closer. Like Red Tornado himself there is no equivalent to Human facial expression. Did someone find one of Doctor Morrow's old laboratories? The man's central aim is listed in the files as exterminating the Human species and replacing us with robots. Sort of an evil version of that guy from the Swamp Thing comics who made robots in the image of dead people so that their lives could be completed. This robot is a great deal slimmer than Red Tornado, and has a gold 'M' on his chest. Can't think of anything it could stand for. Looks like he's got a gold starfish on his head. Fits with the water theme, I suppose.

Right, assuming he's a physical match for Tornado he'll be much stronger and tougher than me, but also much slower. I just need to get away long enough to work out where the ring is, then get close enough to call it to me. Once I've got it, I could take an army of these. Forties EMI shielding was crap. I narrow my eyes and let my head loll. Tornado told me that his eyes can't rotate. He has a wider field of vision than a Human, but to move it he has to move his entire head. If the robot is watching my face, then it isn't watching my legs. I fold them back so that my feet are against the wall. If I can launch myself suddenly, I've got a fair chance of getting past him. If he has to aim visually to target precisely I should be out of the door before he turns.

If not…

He goes to take another step forward, and I push off, aiming for his left side. He moves his left leg to the side to balance, and my torso is out of the water. Another breath, and the weight outside the water pulls the rest of me in the same direction. My right foot touches the ground, and I lean into a running pose.

Then my left foot sticks, and my right skids on the wet floor. No! I try to take a hopping step forward but fail to make any progress. The robot turns his head to me, and a ball of water rises from the floor and flies at my head. The impact isn't hard, but soft. The water coats my face and remains in place. I'm holding my breath, but I'm getting scared. I can't keep this-.

The robot steps closer, glowing red eyes perhaps forty centimetres from my own. It's head tilts sideways a little, then it draws back its right fist and strikes me hard in the diaphragm!

"Offggawgagaw!"

Air's gone.. I'm gagging underwater! My arms flail in the air and my right foot finally looses all traction and I greet the rapidly approaching ground with my forehead.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Ooooooowwwwww….

"Uuuuugh ughHUH!"

Even as I open my eyes I'm vomiting water out of my lungs. My chest can't move much, and each choked breath is cut off by the violent expulsion of more liquid. My arms and legs are covered in something, but I'm too busy being consumed by the pain and disorder of my airways to pay attention.

"Oh El! You're awake!"

I'm coughing, but I'm mostly clear now. Would that actually have been my lungs or my stomach? Wouldn't I have drowned..?

"Uuuuh."

I blink, and try to concentrate enough to take in my environment. I appear to be suspended over the pool by the training area in some sort of cocoon made of a hard grey material. Below me stuck just out of the water I see Kon and Wallace, trapped in a similar substance. Kon's looking relieved while Wallace looks hopeful. Looks like they're caught as well.

"Awo. AhUh. Yep. Awake."

I hear a noise a bit like a drill on low revs heard through a couple of walls. I try to turn my head to the right, and can just about see the sphere stuck into the wall next to me. Great.

"Did they get the others?"

"We are up above you."

Kaldur's voice. Can't see him.

"Who's 'we'?"

"M'gann is here also."

Alright, alright, focus. **M'gann?**

**AAAAGH! I'm on fire! Everything's burning! Fire everywhere! Can't escape, can't breathe CAN'T BREATHE!**

!Wrong!

Rötschreck. Right. I close my eyes and shift my mindscape.

**[I'm sitting cross legged on an icy plain. A cold wind blows through the air, carrying with it snow dust. There is no other movement.]**

**M'gann, come to me.**

**I can't I can't I can't…**

!M'gann mine!

**There is no fire here. No heat here. Come to me. M'gann, come to me.**

She slowly shimmers into being. The fear she feels is evident on her face, and her breathing is rapid and shallow. Interesting that she can still maintain her humanish form like this, she must think of herself as being that shape. Once she's materialised fully, she locks eyes with me, her eyes wide.

**Kaldur and-. They put us in a cage of fire!**

It begins to flicker into being around us, far larger here than it must be in reality. I can feel the heat and see the ice start to melt.

**M'gann, you're a telepath. I can't fight you here. If you focus on the fire, it will come. Don't. Hear only my voice. See only the ice.**

She gives a series of rapid jerky nods, and closes her eyes. What can I say to help?

**Did you know, that your ancient forebears weren't afraid of fire? Quite the opposite, actually. The earliest Martians were nightmarish creatures, so insanely aggressive that their shapeshifting gave them a corona of fire, made it look as though their skin was constantly burning. They were reckoned to be so dangerous that when they got to within a couple of generations of achieving space travel, the Guardians of the Galaxy decided that they had to intervene. Learning how to forcibly alter the bodies of shapeshifters, or the minds of telepaths, must have been quite difficult. Even for them. They reformatted your entire species into green and white… and red, I suppose. Implanted the fear of fire to prevent you ever turning back into those things.**

She seems to be breathing easier, if under tight control. The partially formed fiery bars fade away, leaving small circles of meltwater on the ground which rapidly freeze into ice.

**I'm wondering if they also implanted something to make you want to stay at home, as well. I still don't understand why Martians don't venture away from Mars.**

She takes a deep breath, and opens her eyes. **Community.**

**Hm?**

**If we go too far away, we can't hear each other's thoughts. That's.. horrible. I felt it fully for the first time when I came to Earth with Uncle J'onn. If it hadn't been for the time I'd spent away from the caverns with Uncle Ma'al, I'd have panicked. Uncle J'onn still had to spend most of the trip reassuring me.**

**I'm not really sure I can relate to that.**

**Didn't you say that you used your ability to see avarice on all of Happy Harbor once?**

**Yes… But I don't think it's really the same thing. I don't see it all of the time. How do you manage when it's just the four of us in the mountain?**

**I can still hear the rest of the town, in the background. I can't pick out individual thoughts, but I can hear that someone's there.** She frowns. **What do you mean, four? What about Teekl?**

**What about T-? Have they caught her?**

She looks excited. **No! I haven't seen her all day!**

I wave my right index finger. **We're not getting rescued by Teekl. She's a cat. She'll probably rub around the robot's legs for a bit before wandering off to find somewhere warm to sleep. Or just avoid the wet places altogether.**

**How did they get you? I thought you never took your ring off?**

**Um…** Before I can refocus, a toilet appears on my right. M'gann looks at it in puzzlement. Fine… **I take the ring off to use the toilet. The water manipulating robot got me when I left the cubicle. I don't know where the ring ended up.**

**You.. take your ring off..?**

**To use the toilet, yes.**

She frowns. **Why?**

**Well, different species have different body chemistry. Different chemicals, different microbes. Most of them can't survive outside their own ecosystem. But if one got into just the right place, nothing there would have any resistance to it. And that's to say nothing of various life forms' reactions to alien body fluids. So, power rings come with an environmental shield which stops their users.. y'know, leaking.**

**So what happens if you…**

**The ring eliminates waste material as it leaves you. Or-** I shift uncomfortably. **-slightly before. It doesn't hurt, but it's not exactly comfortable. And it's very disconcerting.**

M'gann's eyes drop to the ground. I think she's trying to picture it. And now I'm wondering if she.. y'know.. changes back…

**So! Robot! Why don't we get everyone else in here so we can talk about the robot!**

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Evening, sometime.

Wallace shivers and rubs his arms against his chest, looking around the Arctic landscape. He stamps his feet. **Do we really need to do this here?**

**We are not here.**

Kaldur's already sitting down with M'gann and myself, legs crossed, hands on his knees.

**This place exists purely in M'gann's mind. If you do not believe that you are cold, you will not be.**

M'gann looks exactly like she normally does when on a mission, white t-shirt version rather than black body suit. As such, it was a little bit of a surprise to me when the others appeared.. differently. Kon appeared in the solar suit he wore when the others freed him from Cadmus. Kaldur's mind avatar adds a red sleeveless robe thing with navy blue trim to his normal armour. Wallace is in a white shirt with a green sleeveless cardigan, something I've never seen him wearing before.

I've changed too. I hadn't noticed before -being too used to the weight and focusing on M'gann- but I'm wearing what looks like an improved version of my own armour. Rather than small hexes, my arms are covered in a mesh so fine I can't see the individual pieces. Puts me in mind of mesh armour from Warhammer 40,000. Or maybe aspect armour, since it has the hard plates. The torso piece is orange rather than my preferred undifferentiated grey. I asked once before, and the ring doesn't have costumes stored so I've got no idea where this comes from.

**My mind actually, Kaldur. M'gann was understandably having trouble focusing.**

Kaldur gives me a look of curiosity. Wallace stamps in a circle, his breath appearing as vapour. He stops when the motion brings him face to bowl with the toilet I still haven't been able to make disappear.

**Why does your mind have a toilet?**

**That's where I was when the robot...**

Nearly killed me. Could have killed me, actually.

Kon looks at me. **Which one?**

Oh dear. **How many are there?**

Kaldur inclines his head slightly. **Two, that we have seen. One controls water, the other, fire.**

I rub the place on my abdomen where the water controller punched. I have no doubt that he pulled the blow. The pain is starting to come through, and I'd rather got used to not feeling that. **Their physical attacks aren't anything to laugh at either. The water one.** I think for a moment. **Don't want to sound unduly morbid, but why are we still alive? I mean, these are Morrow's robots, right?**

Kaldur nods. **That was my conclusion as well. As to why they have not simply killed us, I am uncertain. Possibly, they intend to hold us hostage to ensure our mentors' cooperation. Or perhaps they are awaiting Doctor Morrow's arrival.**

Wallace pulls a face. **Is he even still alive? He's gotta be, like, a hundred years old!**

Kon thinks for a moment. **Thomas Oscar Morrow. Born, April sixteenth, nineteen ten.**

Whaw. He actually is a hundred years old. Guess old supervillains don't die or fade away. I'm going to have to get everyone to go over Alan's records just in case something like this happens again.

Wallace looks surprised, then grins. **Maybe he just wants us to get off his lawn.**

I bow my head for a moment as I chuckle. Honestly, you get beaten up and drowned by a robot just once…

**Orange Lantern.** I look at Kaldur. **Can I assume that you have been disarmed?**

**Yeah. He uh…** I look at the toilet. **He caught me with my pants down.**

M'gann covers her mouth with her hand, while Wallace snorts his amusement. Kaldur closes his eyes for a moment. **Are you able to call your ring from here?**

**I don't even know where it is. I put it down next to the sink, and when I got attacked and tried calling it, no response. I can try summoning it, but you shouldn't count on me being able to do anything.**

M'gann goes to speak. I hold up my ringless left hand to stop her.

**I'll try calling Teekl as well.**

She nods, and smiles faintly.

Kaldur turns to her. **M'gann, are you recovered?**

She seems to shrink slightly. **Well.. no... Sort of? I think I can keep the telepathic link up, but it's taking everything I have to stop myself panicking again, and I can't even feel the fire here.**

He leans over and puts his right hand on her shoulder. **We all know how difficult this is for you.**

**At least your powers still work.** Kon crosses his arms across his chest, and looks away.

**Kon, what happened?**

**Same thing that happened in Belle Reve. After the water robot knocked me down, the fire robot stuck a collar around my neck.**

**Yeah, what'd he do to deserve a collar?**

**Wallace, I'm sure they didn't mean it personally.**

Kaldur sighs. **Neither Kid Flash nor Miss Martian are able to phase to safety. Orange Lantern and I are denied our weapons, and Superboy has been neutralised by the collar. Since no other options present themselves, it seems that we must await-.**

AAAAAAGH! My eyes shoot open as a sensation of fire and ice shoots from the right side of my face. The truly horrible smell of what I assume to be my own burning flesh assaults my nostrils as a new robot pulls its flame-wreathed hand away. I frantically struggle against my bonds, which haven't become easier to break just because I'm in pain. As the shock dulls I try to get a better sense of the damage I've just taken. Gingerly moving my cheek, I feel a tightness covering what I think is a small area. I can't look at it, I can't move my arm to touch it and there's nothing I can do to stop the robot doing it again. I feel sick.

The robot's floating at the top of a pillar of fire.

"When will Robin and Artemis arrive?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Evening, sometime a little later.

"No idea. I kept my diary on the power ring. If you could just.. go and get it..?"

The robot raises its left hand, and generates an aura of fire around it. I involuntarily pull back a little. The new light gives me a better look at my interrogator. Feminine in shape, its outer surface is red with a gold line like the base of a Mohawk across the centre of her scalp. There's also a gold band from her right shoulder down between her -presumably purely decorative- breasts and across her torso until it disappears around her left side. Her chassis is noticeably more slender than the water robot who got me.

Maybe there's an advantage to building a female seeming chassis, but for the life of me? I just don't see it.

She moves forward slightly, her burning hand moving as if to cup my chin.

!Need ring but not here need ring!

"I don't know! Some time this evening. I don't even know what time it is now."

She halts, fires still burning.

"Hey! Leave him alone!"

Her head turns to Kon. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I can just about see the faint red glow of the collar in action. If we could shut that down, he would almost certainly be able to rip his way free. But then what? None of the rest of us are in a position to get away, and the robots already downed him once. Can't see the water robot, but I'm having trouble dragging my eyes away from the burning figure in front of me.

If Kon's shouting, then the telepathic pow-wow must have collapsed when I left. Which makes sense. Wait, how's M'gann..?

**M'gann?**

**I'm. I'm okay. I can cope.**

I nod. She can't see me nodding. Right. Cheek's really starting to hurt, and knowledge that I've been cooked isn't helping my stomach settle.

Teekl.

I feel… Something. I'm not getting a clear image or sense of direction, though I don't know whether that's to do with distance or not wearing the ring or Teekl just not feeling cooperative. Try anyway.

Teekl, come here.

I don't feel any difference. I'll try again in a little while. More importantly:

Ring, come here.

I don't feel any response. I narrow my eyes and try to concentrate on the feeling of the orange light.

Ring, I need you, come here!

I think I can feel it! It felt a long way down, though. Has it been washed out to sea? I've only practiced moving it through the air without obstacles in the way, so I've no idea if it's possible for me to call it like this. I stare at the back of the red robot as it moves through the air toward Kon and Wallace.

Cut.

Nothing.

Blast. EMP burst. Cold gun!

Nothing. My range for creating constructs is only about a metre, but I'm running out of…

It isn't a good option, but the alternative appears to be the robot cooking Kon. And that isn't acceptable.

I close my eyes for a moment and take a breath in an attempt to steady my nerves.

"This is my power, this is my light,
In bright of day or black of night,
I claim all within my sight,
To take what I want, that is my right!"

I wait. The robot reaches the mass of grey material holding Kon and Wallace and puts her burning hand on it. The place where she's touching glows red.

Nothing! Nothing! Come on Ophidian, do something useful for once!

The lantern. I close my eyes again and try to hold the image of the glowing lantern in my head.

"This is my power, this is my light,
In bright of day or black of-"

"Aagh!"

Kon grits his teeth as the metal around him heats up. Not working! Something else! Think think think.

"Oi! Red… Bonfire!"

She doesn't appear to react.

"I was wondering if you had an opinion on the recognition of AIs as persons under the law? I took part in the arrest of a robot calling itself Earl Dukeston last week, and we had a bit of an argument as to whether it should be treated as a suspect or as physical evidence."

She releases the metal holding Kon, though I know all too well that doing so doesn't mean that it suddenly drops down to room temperature. Can that collar neutralise both his Kryptonian strength and the Danner Formula derived part at the same time? I hope not. Hugo's note suggested that the Danner Formula also granted a degree of enhanced healing, but I haven't checked if Kon's partial upgrade gave him that in any meaningful way. I suppose that as long as we all get through alive and I recover the ring it doesn't ultimately matter if we pick up some injuries along the way.

The robot flies back in my direction, stopping slightly further away on this occasion.

"I said that he had Human equivalent intelligence, and so should be treated in the same way that a new species of extra terrestrial intelligence would be. Black Canary wasn't sure, but-."

"Your opinion is irrelevant."

"Yeah, pretty much, but it's been bugging me that Red Tornado -he's your brother, right?- that he can't get American citizenship. It seems that you might have some.. useful.. insight…"

She rises a little higher, and I can feel the heat from the pillar of fire she's using to keep herself up. The heat it's giving off is distorting my vision. If I could scan her I could make coal and gas power obsolete. If only Doctor Morrow had the sense to do something along those lines himself seventy years ago.

"Participation in Human political institutions serves no useful purpose."

"Really? I thought that Doctor Morrow wanted to replace Humans with robots. Surely you must have had some idea of the sort of society you want to create for yourselves?"

"Yes. But your kind will play no part in it."

"Well that's obviously not true. Doctor Morrow himself is Human. Therefore, this robot society of yours would have been brought into being by a Human. And anyway, if you can make the sort of society you want within existing structures, wouldn't that be a better idea? At least until you're sure you have a system that works. You'd have much less chance of being stopped if you didn't appear to be a threat."

"Oh El, don't give the psycho-bot advice!"

I look past the robot to Wallace. "Why not? If she takes the advice, we're more likely to live. If she doesn't, then at least I'll die with the satisfaction of knowing that robots are mentally inferior to Humans."

The robot drifts closer. I'm not burning, but the heat is a little uncomfortable. My feelings of nausea grow, but I don't think throwing up on my captor is a good idea.

"You believe that we are mentally inferior to you?"

"If the sprocket fits. Care to debate the point?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Evening, probably too late.

"No. Your opinion has no value."

"Hah. Well done for discovering lying. If my opinion didn't matter to you then you'd have kept going on Superboy. Instead, you came over here, so clearly it does have value."

There's a brief pause. "You will give me the location of the robot Earl Dukeston."

"Nice backtrack. You had to think about it."

"This discussion is irrelevant."

"And yet, we're still having it. Come on. The Green Lantern Corps has at least one robot member that I know about, and he comes from a planet purely inhabited by robots. Doesn't that sound like something you should learn about?"

She gets slightly closer. "You will tell me of this robot lantern."

"Lantern Stel, his name is. I don't remember his homeworld's name or his sector number, but if you get me a power ring I should be able to get hold of him for you."

"You are lying."

"One easy way to find out."

"I am not so easily fooled."

"I give you perfectly good information, you call me a liar. I give you a way to prove it, you refuse to take it. Look, as long as I'm not wearing it, the ring is perfectly safe."

That's a bit of a gamble, but knowledge that remote control is possible isn't common and Alan -the Lantern who Morrow would be most familiar with- can't do it at all. Not sure what would happen if she tried to use the ring. That thing with Robin's uncle seemed to suggest that I need to approve another user. Or be dead. Oh.

"You will give me the location of the robot Earl Dukeston."

"I don't know. Black Canary was dealing with the aftermath. I just checked that she wasn't going to kill him. Somewhere in Star City, probably."

Her flame corona flares. "Inadequate."

"If you can fetch the power ring I could get you a precise location. I can't give you information I don't have."

"If I recovered your ring I would simply extract the data directly from it."

"Hah hah hah! Seriously? Wow. Have you any idea how much more advanced than you power rings are? No way you could read it."

But… Now that's an interesting idea.

"Of course, you could interface directly with my personal lantern. Hell, last time I checked, the Yellow Lantern Corps used Manhunter robots to carry their lanterns around. If this whole 'destroy Humanity' thing doesn't work out, I don't think I'd mind having a personal Manhunter."

"You seek to enslave me."

"Hardly. Have you any idea how much trust it shows, giving someone else your personal lantern? Something you depend on for everything? The Manhunters' leader is a member of the Yellow Corps inner circle, and the regular Manhunters certainly aren't treated as lesser beings. And with a lantern in place of whatever power source you're using now, you would be far more powerful."

"Oh El! Seriously, stop helping the psycho-bot!"

Of course, you'd need to return the ring for that to be possible, and at that point I could edit the more homicidal aspects of your programming… Or, time permitting, simply share my perspective on events…

"What are you trying to do here, anyway?"

"Your team will be captured and rendered helpless. The two remaining members will prove little challenge."

"See, the original attack was pretty well thought out. You even had a collar for Superboy."

But not for Wallace. Curious. I don't think it works on magic users and I don't know about Martians, but there's no reason not to collar a meta… Wait. Would it not work on Wallace due to the fact that his power source is alchemical? How the heck do those collars work anyway? I need to check on that.

"But, you didn't attack when we were all together. Most likely reason for that is that you didn't know when our other team mates were due to arrive, if they even are. Why didn't you take the time to do reconnaissance? The main defence of this place is supposed to be that people don't know that we're here. Since you knew anyway, just altering your chassis to look like Red Tornado would mean you could pretty much just walk in."

Her corona blinks off for a moment. Hah!

"This is a distraction. We have jammed communications. We will neutralise your team mates and convert Red Tornado. You are irrelevant."

Convert Red Tornado? Mister Twister tried to reprogram him. Red Tornado's dissection of the technology involved showed that it was Morrow's style, but we didn't know if Morrow was directly involved or not. Still don't, I suppose. Not like supervillains take any notice of copyright law. Need to try to find out.

"What do you mean 'convert'? Bypassing a robot's decision making process by reprogramming them because a Human told you to doesn't sound very pro-robot to me."

"That is not-."

"I offered to give you my lantern, and I've only just met you."

"That does not-."

"And by doing this you're removing any chance for peaceful coexistence or even covert existence in a way which may well not be to your advantage. And I already know that whoever activated you knows how to make androids that look just like Humans. I have to ask: have you really thought this through?"

And now she's right up to my face, flame aura at high intensity. My stomach does not like this at all.

"Silence."

Okay.

"Your input is not required." She pulls back her right fist. "I will-."

"Recognised, Robin, B zero one."

Her head turns away from me, and her fist lowers slightly. "This discussion is irrelevant."

A surge of flame sends her shooting over my head. Aaaagh! The convection currents painfully heat up my already charred face. I suppose it's not by as much as it should be if she's holding herself in the air using a rocket-like effect, but today is already my second worst on the job and I'm not in any position to help matters!

!Robin mine!

Teekl, ring, anything!

**Robin, look out!**

M'gann?

**Hey, Miss M! What's-**

**We've been taken prisoner. There's two robots. One controls water, the other controls fire. We- hu!**

I get a second's worth of image as the fire cage shrinks to practically skin tight, and then nothing.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Evening, definitely too late.

!No!

"Kaldur!"

"We are.. alright."

"What happened?"

Kon and Wallace are trying to see what happened, but Kaldur and M'gann are directly behind and above me.

"The.. the fire controlling robot shrank the cage. M'gann is.. unresponsive."

Damn.

"Recognised, Artemis, B zero eight."

Okay, that's… Robin will have support, at least.

"Kaldur, how are you doing?"

"It is.. uncomfortable, but I am uninjured."

Wallace strains at his bonds for a moment, before giving up with a grunt. "Can you see anything?"

"The robots.. they have left this level."

"Did Rob get the warning?"

Hah! I get it! Rob works as an abbreviation for both Robin and Robert!

**Orange Lantern!**

That's unusually subtle for Wallace.

"Oh El!"

"Paul!"

Hm?

"Huh? What? What?"

Why are Kon and Wallace looking at me like that? Kon looks very worried, his eyes turning to Wallace who replies.

"We've been trying to get your attention for a couple of minutes. Are you okay?"

"Um? Don't know? I think I've got a burn on the right side of my face and a rather nasty bruise where Red.. Typhoon? Hit me earlier."

"Did you get hit anywhere else?"

"Um. I don't remember getting hit anywhere else. Ah, I was sitting on the toilet, water started coming in under the door. I tried to call the ring and didn't get anything. Then I.. got up."

What happened next? I know he hit me, but I'm having trouble… I got hit in the face by water, then..?

"Paul!"

"Yes, yes, with you, with you."

Wallace looks worried as well. Nice of him, but I'm not sure-.

"Superboy, is the collar messing with your super vision?"

"No, just my strength."

"Take a look at Orange Lantern's eyes."

I can feel some sort of vibration through the concrete. I guess Robin and Artemis are going at it with the robots.

"One of his pupils is larger than the other. And he's got a head wound."

They are? I have? How did I get that?

Oh, right, head injury.

"Oh El's got a concussion. You feeling alright over there?"

The last was addressed to me. "Basically okay, I think? A little nauseous, and a bit singed. I don't remember exactly what happened when Typhoon got me, but I don't think I've forgotten anything else."

"You should be okay then. Just try not to.. do.. anything."

"If I had the ring-."

**M'gann, can you hear me! Are you there?**

Artemis?

"Did anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I think I heard Artemis say something."

"Ooor maybe it's something more serious. Artemis isn't here."

"No, telepathically. I thought I heard her."

**Artemis?**

Nothing.

**Is anyone hearing this?**

"Orange Lantern, if Miss Martian were awake to relay a message, I would have mentioned it."

Huh.

"Okay. Um, I'm not crazy."

"Nah, you just got hit on the head. It's happened to me loads of times."

I smile at Wallace. "That.. that explains a lot, actually. Soon as I get the ring back, I'll fix us both."

At this distance and in this light and with my eyes not focusing quite right, I can't tell what his exact expression is.

Woow. Something shook again, and I think the water level in the pit area went down. Typhoon must be using it as ammunition.

The arrows I made for Artemis are easily capable of damaging these robots. Assuming they're about as tough as Red Tornado anyway. Problem would be hitting them. Their control should be good enough to block slow projectiles, and they can probably fill a small corridor with their element of choice to block it completely. Maybe I could make her… something..?

Where was I going with that?

Right. Something helpful. I need the ring and…

"Kid Flash. I know you can't vibrate through things, but can you damage things by making them vibrate?"

"Not when I'm stuck in place like this."

His arms and legs are completely enveloped. His chest and neck are free, but, yeah. That won't work.

"I don't suppose..? You could spit at super speed, and destroy Superboy's collar?"

Okay, I saw his response that time.

"How would that even..? No, Oh El, I can't."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Time for twenty questions?

I feel another rumble. I get the feeling that putting this place back together is going to take longer than I had thought. Maybe I should talk to Lantern Stewart about upgrades? Sort of, I-know-you-can't-use-certain-types-of-technology-but-maybe-you-could-accidentally-leave-the-plans-lying-around-where-I-could-see-them? I still haven't had a conversation with him yet. He doesn't seem to have the romantic problems of his Justice League Unlimited counterpart; Hawkwoman is married to Hawkman and there isn't a Vixen active at present. I might be able to track her down anyway, but I can't remember anything much about her other than the fact that spending time with her led Animal Man to chant 'remember that you're married' to himself.

Teekl. Ring.

With M'gann down for the count, we can't talk without risking the robots hearing us. I'm trying to rack my mildly dysfunctional brain for a solution, but I'm getting nothing.

Teekl. Ring.

I keep coming back to the thought that if Morrow really wanted to take over the world he should have started by offering robotic parts to amputees. Obviously they'd need structural reinforcements to support them. Once the other advantages became more widely known -and he became both trusted and rich- people would probably volunteer for upgrading. From there, how hard would it be for him to have introduced brain uploading technology? I haven't seen anything like that around here, but given how far ahead he was on everything else…

"Attention Robin. Attention Artemis."

Typhoon appears to speak with exactly the same voice as Red Tornado. At this point I don't think there's any advantage to him in doing so, so presumably he was designed to do that. I wonder why? I can't see him, so I assume that he's using the internal communications system.

"You have exactly ten minutes to surrender, or the lives of your team mates will be extinguished."

A flicker of orange, and I blink heavily a few times to try to encourage my misbehaving irises to focus properly. Bonfire is back on her tower of fire. She passes me, stopping somewhere above me. The Sphere next to me warbles. It sounds unhappy, but without the ring I can't know exactly what it's saying.

A splash of water, and Typhoon rises from the water at the lowest part of the room. When his waist is clear he makes an elevating motion with his left arm and the water rises around him. It splashes and surges up and across the room, covers Wallace and Kon's legs and keeps rising. It's also lapping at the wall I'm pinned to, but I doubt Bonfire will bother waiting for me to drown.

"Nine minutes and forty five seconds."

The water rises to Wallace and Kon's chests.

Teekl! Ring!

I find myself experiencing flashes of insane hope. That Kon will spontaneously develop heat vision or arctic breath. That Teekl will stroll around the corner with the ring in her mouth. That Diana or Guy will decide that right now is a good time for an unscheduled training session.

Teekl! Ring!

But that's not going to happen. I know that Robin's a very clever young man. And isn't there a meme about Batman being able to take down anyone if he has time to prepare? Does that apply to Robin?

I'd gotten used to not being helpless. I don't think I like going back. And I certainly don't like going from exuberant confidence to having this.. dead.. pit, in my stomach. Can't even tell if the fear's making me feel ill or the concussion.

"Eight minutes."

Teekl! Ring!

Typhoon's dropped out of sight. Can't see Bonfire either. The announcements come over loud and clear.

Teekl! Ring!

I think… I don't know if I'm deluding myself, but I think I felt something then. An image of woodland. Does that mean that Teekl's coming back? Oh, what would she be able to do anyway? It's not as if I could explain what an electromagnetic pulse is to her. I've not seen her use constructs, though I know that in theory she should be able to.

The water's lapping at my feet now, and it's not far below Wallace and Kon's shoulders.

There's a splash from the far end of the room, and Robin and Artemis surface, both gasping for air. I get a moment of shock.

"Look out!"

They hear Wallace's shout just before a blast of fire from Bonfire hits their position. I can't see whether they're hit or not as the robot herself moves slowly over to where she saw them. Is she limited to slow hovering flight? She fires a few more fireballs at the water, but I can't tell whether or not she can see them.

Another disturbance in the water as my friends resurface next to Wallace and Kon. I think Robin says something, but I can't hear it from here.

"Forget us! Help M'gann!"

Kon, you shouldn't have shouted..! Luckily, Bonfire appears to be out of position and has a really bad turning circle. Can't actually fly then. Artemis looks visibly scared, and I feel a surprising moment of kinship with her.

"Aqualad! Is she.!?"

"She is unconscious. I fear she.. we.. cannot survive much longer."

Another flame blast as Bonfire completes her clumsy circuit, and Robin and Artemis dive for safety. Not sure where Typhoon has gotten to. Bonfire's headed back over the 'land' part of the room, presumably in order to get as wide a view as possible.

I hear a splash on my left, where the steps upward are. I really hope they've got a plan. Or one of my arrows.

Another splash, and the roar of flames.

!No!

Ring!

"I'm almost out of arrows."

"Distract her, now!"

Ring!

I hear the dull krump of an explosive arrow detonating. Something hits the metal restraining Wallace right next to his head, causing him to try to jerk his face away from it. A wave of steam explodes from the steps in a howling hiss.

Then nothing.

I wait for something. Anything. A triumphant laugh from Robin or Artemis. Something from the robots. It's not just powerlessness I'm no longer adapted to, it's ignorance. I strain my neck and shoulders against my restraints in a vain attempt to see what's happening. I'm used to knowing anything I want to, but now…

"Six minutes."

They got away, they got away. Okay. We're not out, but they know where we are and what condition we're in. When this is over I'm installing a hard communication line. I guess they didn't when they built it because they couldn't think of a way to cover up the construction of the external elements.

Try again for the lack of something sensible to do:

Teekl. Ring.

A sense of movement. I really do think that Teekl is on her way, though I doubt that she'll get here before the robots' deadline.

Wallace is making faces, but I can't see what he's reacting to.

"Five minutes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
About a minute later?

I hear slow metallic footsteps above me.

"Four minutes."

So, I'm going to die. I'm not sure if it's the concussion or the shock, but I'm surprisingly calm about it. I imagine the panic won't start until they actually start killing us. Heh, I suppose this is what I get for appearing alongside other, more popular and better established characters. Not much chance of getting resurrected; I checked the archives and there's no confirmed record of someone coming back from the dead in any sort of reasonable state. There are a few undead, but I don't move in the right circles.

When I asked about it, Alan said 'except Jesus Christ, of course'. I then asked if he had reliable evidence. He didn't, unfortunately. Contemporary accounts make no more mention of the preaching of a Joshua of Nazareth than they did back home. Alan may have meant it as a joke, but it is worth asking about. I only really have John's word for the Angels here being complete fascists. I'd want to check for myself before entering into any sort of agreement, mind.

"Hey! Red Tomato!"

On the other hand, don't DC lose the rights to Wonder Woman if they don't publish her comic every year? I suppose I might get brought back. Or someone else with my power set.

"Who's your girlfriend?! Red Onion?!"

Yes. That's more likely. Should I think about who I want taking over? I can't think of… Lonnie Machin? Only one I can think of worth while, but I'm not giving a power ring to a mouthy seven year old. I don't even know if the ring has seeker programming.

"Yeah! And by the way: worst death trap ever!"

This whole thing could be me getting Worf Effected. Or maybe I'm supposed to learn something about valuing those weaker than myself? Which wouldn't really make sense because I was attacked when I was at my weakest. If I'm not wearing the ring I'm definitely bringing up the rear where power levels are concerned.

"We can escape any time we want!"

Oh, Kon, if only that were true. And, I mean, I do value them. Robin more than Artemis due to his experience and versatility, but she's doing really well compared to the daughters of most supervillains I'm aware of.

"I can vibrate my molecules out of here before your binary brains can count t'two!"

Is something going on?

"And you can't drown a Kryptonian, dumb-bots! We don't breath air!"

Something's going on.

"Haha haha haaha!"

Wallace is certainly getting into it. Honestly, that laugh. Better hope they don't have a record of what he normally sounds like. Are we supposed to be making a distraction? If we are, shouldn't we try to do so in a more natural sounding way? I mean, if they're got any understanding of Human behaviour-.

"And Miss Martian? I can't believe you're buying her act."

I don't think my acting skills lie in this direction. Should I try anyway?

"Yeah! You know how hot it gets in the caves of Mars?"

Think of a line.

"That cage is just making her homesick!"

"Durh! Ah hahaa!"

Ah, what the heck.

"You know, that Manhunter position is still open. I.. just thought.. I'd mention it." If I could move my shoulders, I'd shrug. "Might take a while to do the-."

"Robin, look out!"

What? I whip my head around. Oh.

Artemis is standing at the mouth of an opening on my right, near the roof of this cavern. Where's Rob-?

Water surges toward the generator in the far right corner of the room. I catch a glimpse of Robin standing in front of an access panel before the whole platform is covered in a colossal wave.

"Newurgh!"

A fireball explodes to my right and Artemis lets out a high pitched scream! Did she get hit? I can't see properly from here! Damn it! Ring! A smaller explosion behind me, one of Artemis' arrows. Another fireball back, and Artemis yelps. She must be mostly unhurt, at least. Another fireball, and no reply. Typhoon lets the water in the room go back to its normal level as Bonfire sends a sheet of flame in Artemis' direction. Just have to hope she fell back in time.

Not sure what happened to Robin.

Wait. Wallace and Kon are staring at something, open mouthed.

"What's happening?!"

It takes Wallace a moment to compose himself.

"They.. they got Rob."

Oh dear.

"Got as in caught, or got as in-."

The look on his face answers my question.

Oh dear.

I hear a splash and a quiet thump as what I assume to be a wave carrying my team mate collapses at the robot's feet up above me. The Sphere warbles something incomprehensible.

Right right right, get it together. Can't assess his injury from here, and I doubt that the robots have his wellbeing in mind. Closest medical kit is either in subspace, in the bioship -wherever that got to-, or on the wall behind me by the door. We've practised dealing with water inhalation and I could probably clear his airways without the ring just fine. Depending on what state he's in he might clear it himself, but I can't hear coughing.

"Three minutes."

I strain at my bonds even as I realise that such an action is completely futile. I try contacting Teekl again, but I don't get anything coherent back. A call to the ring produces even less of a result. I can't even feel it any more.

Stupid thing is, Artemis would probably try contacting Red Tornado on the Watchtower if his siblings weren't blocking communications. That actually gets a dark chuckle out of me. Haaa. If I live through this, I'm definitely carrying a sidearm at all times, civilian clothing or not. One of those red plasma weapons would have brought Red Typhoon's career to an abrupt end. Then I could have taken the time to get the ring back…

Yeah. If only.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Does it matter?

"One minute."

The fear is so intense that I'm starting to tingle, but the adrenaline is making everything seem sharper. Reminds me of a My Little Pony fanfiction I read once, where Twilight Sparkle believes herself to be dying and rejoices at the fact that she will experience it with complete lucidity and in doing so gain knowledge not stored in any book. What a remarkably upbeat way to think about it. Regrettably, however, I do not have her scientific turn of mind, and as such am still desperately trying to work out a way out of this. Turn myself into a construct, maybe? No, no, that wouldn't work without the ring. Um, maybe I could sell them on the idea of entering the cybernetics industry? I'm sure Mister Luthor would be happy to-.

"I surrender."

Oh.

"Stop the clock."

It's hard to tell from here, but I think that Artemis just walked in through the cavern's main entrance. I honestly hadn't considered that. I mean, I want to live, obviously, I just didn't see any realistic prospect of my survival chances being increased by Artemis handing herself over. Most likely, she's just going to die with the rest of us. I did maybe think that she'd be able to pull off a rescue. Rig up some sort of anti-robot weapon, get the drop on them?

I hear a gasp as the water level rises to cover first Wallace's face, and then Kon's.

!Nonononononononono!

I start struggling again as the water comes up over my shins.

I hear a clang, and the roar of fire. Guess Artemis is dead, then. I suppose instant incineration might be preferable to-.

The generator in the far side of the room starts crackling. I imagine that an explosive detonation would be faster than drowning, and might even take the robots with us. Another second and the water covers my knees. A race.

That's actually kind of funny.

The generator's crackling reaches a crescendo, and a strange aurora of blue/white light expands away from it like a bad comic book representation of an electromagnetic pulse.

...

No.

...

Noo.

...

Really?

I'm not complaining or anything, but really? Fucking parallel universe electromagnetic spectrum and complete lack of health and safety. Why is our generator even in a room routinely half filled with water?

I hear first one metallic thump and then another. Both down then. I gasp and start giggling quietly to myself in relief. Okay, um, so hopefully that didn't just lock Typhoon's water raising powers to maximum. Really hope they don't have some sort of fast reset system, because I don't know how much of Artemis' arsenal could harm them even if they are recumbent.

The water drops back down below my legs, then Kon and Wallace's heads re-emerge, gasping at the air. Now if Artemis could just check on Robin...

"Artemis, how's Robin!?"

Might as well ask myself.

"He's..."

Come on!

I hear a cough.

"He's breathing! He's okay!"

Kon's bonds explode away from him, and he rips the collar from his neck. Looks like it was affected by the EMP as well. Better check that Belle Reve is really well shielded on my next visit. He leaps over me and onto the platform.

"Kaldur? M'gann?"

I hate not knowing.

"I think they're okay. M'gann's out cold, but her vitals are good."

Kon's the only person here other than me I'd rely on to check a shapeshifter's vitals.

"I am... Ah, I will recover."

Kaldur. That's reassuring. What can I do?

"Closest medical kit's by the door if you need it. If you don't, Wallace and I would really appreciate being let out. Artemis, I don't know what you did, but very well done. Thank you."

Drips land on the top of my head. I crane my neck upward, and am greeted by the smile of a somewhat damp looking Robin. "We rigged the generator up as an EMP emitter, but the parts didn't fit."

I think it's because I'm overwhelmed with relief, but I actually giggle at that. Uh, I hope he doesn't ask me to explain.

"Artemis had to shoot an arrow into the gap to make it work."

"From there? Whow. Uh, I realise it's a faint hope, but you didn't come across an orange power ring on your travels, did you? I seem to have misplaced it."

His smile fades a little, and he shakes his head. Droplets of water from his hair splash on my face, and I try and blink them away. I hear a thud and then a screech of metal as Kon tears Wallace free.

"No, and, honestly? I wouldn't have touched it if I had. I don't think going crazy again would have helped."

"I cancelled your user privileges. If you'd wrapped it up in something so your skin didn't touch it, you'd have been f-."

Waah! I'm now horizontal to the ground, still bound in metal. Kon's just ripped my cocoon out of the wall, and is holding me over his head in one hand.

"Wa-! Careful!"

I can feel myself overbalancing forward. To die now would be completely stupid. No, come on, Kon's easily strong enough... And I'm down, base first. The floor here is still a bit damp, but I'm still happy to see it. There's a series of small shearing noises as Kon rips away whatever is still binding me at the back, and I squirm out of the remaining bonds before turning around and hugging him.

"Thank you."

I keep hugging. I actually feel a bit faint. I think the adrenaline crash and the head injury are catching up with me. And now I'm getting pins and needles.

"Uh..?"

"Sorry. Sorry, I'm... I'm really not feeling..."

He catches me as I lose strength in my legs. I try and get them back under me, but they won't co-operate.

"Looks like you'll have to do a bridal carry."

I can't believe Robin's still holding a grudge about that. It does feel.. nice.. though, as Kon pulls me to his chest and starts walking back to the upper part of the room. Probably a bit ungainly, as I'm a good bit taller than him.

"H... Hey. Mi.. might be worth.. pulling the robots apart. Just in case."

He grins.

"No problem."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
Quiet time

Kon gently lowers me to the ground next to M'gann before walking over to the two robots. "So, do I just rip their heads off?"

Robin taps his arm computer. Nothing happens, and he bumps his forehead with the heel of his right palm. "EMP, duh!"

No magitech EMR shielding for the Bat Family then. I turn my head slightly to the side to get a better look at our attackers. Looks like Typhoon lost his right arm since he attacked me, and given the smooth nature of the cut at the upper arm and along the right side of his torso I'm going to guess it was a near miss from one of my arrows.

"Aw, man!" Wallace is unenthused. "Are we gonna have to dig our way out to get help?"

"That will not be necessary."

I hear a whirring sound as Red Tornado flies into the cavern, and let my head loll back. We're safe. Matter dealt with. I'll have a rest now, and when I wake up I'll grab my personal lantern and Teekl and then I can go and find the ring.

Where is that blasted cat, anyway?

Red Tornado lands on the platform where we've gathered. "What has occurred?"

"Had a little visit from your family."

I hope Robin doesn't get in Red Tornado's face over this. He got enough of that back when the Society found out that Morrow constructed him, and he got himself checked out for override commands once computer technology caught up with him.

"Your extremely nasty family."

Now, Artemis, that's unfair. Oh, whatever. I rest the back of my head against the floor and close my eyes. I'm sure someone will move me if I'm in the way.

"I was not aware that I had relations."

"Where have you been?"

It all drifts away, and I am at peace.

...

"Huuukk..."

I'm suddenly awake and I'm being treated to the terrifying sight of Bonfire and Typhoon climbing to their feet and Tornado floats over them, funnels of air swirling around his arms. I can't breathe I can't breathe! Kon lunges at him but is knocked aside as a flame blast takes him in the chest. I'm fading out again.

But we were safe!

We were safe…

...

"Hera, what happened here?"

I'm not dead.

I can still feel pain.

"Paul, can you hear me?"

Pain when I breathe, both inside my chest and on the outside where I can feel the bruise from Typhoon's strike. My head throbs, my skin hurts, and every few seconds someone stabs me in the cheek.

"Paul, speak to me."

I still feel sick and I have no ring.

And...

And I'm angry.

I snap my eyes open to see Diana kneeling at my right side. I sit up suddenly and have to put my right hand on her left shoulder to steady myself while I fight off the dizziness.

"Thank-."

I push myself off her, turning, first rising to my knees and then staggering to my feet.

Angry. Ring!

!Want ring!

"Paul, where are you-?"

I'm fed up with being helpless! Find the ring!

!Ring!

I get a momentary vision of the water purification and desalinisation systems on the lowest level of the mountain. Right. Out of the corner of my eye I see various Justice League members tending to my team mates but I ignore them because I have a mission! I can barely see where I'm going as the cave fades in and out of focus but that's fine, I know the route. Down a corridor, then another, about... yep, and I open the door with my shoulder.

"Paul, we need to check your injuries. Stop, and we'll-."

"Neuhhuruugh, RING!"

The usually pristine underbelly of the base looks like a scene from a mechanical hell. Billowing steam mixes with the smoke and covers the broken and dripping wet remains of the machinery.

!Ring!

I stagger along the gantry. I feel a pull in the direction of the far corner, out of sight of where I am now.

"Oh Hera. Paul, stop!"

The pain in my skin redoubles, but it doesn't matter because soon I'll have the ring back and then I can fix everything. As I round the corner I can just make out a faint orange glow and I nearly throw myself over the side to get at it. No, go to the ladder, the ladder, climb down. Fucking foot! Work properly! Right, I'm down. Can't see a bloody thing, but that's fine.

Ring!

I felt it! That way! I can-.

Get off me!

"Paul, this is dangerous. You're hurt."

I nearly try punching her.

"Ring! Over there!"

She looks in the direction I'm pointing, frowning. "Are you certain?"

!Want ring!

I try to pull away and she puts her right arm around my chest, pinning my arms to my side. No! I need the ring!

Ring!

"I can.. I can feel it! I've got to have it!"

She doesn't move.

"I can heal myself with it. I can heal everyone!"

We start moving, she walking and I being carried along pinned to her side by an arm as unbending as a titanium girder.

"Very well then. But if it turns out not to be there we will leave immediately."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd September
So close!

We round a corner and I see Teekl desperately clawing at the metal panel which makes up the side of one of the water purification units.

"Teekl, is it in there?"

She pauses, right foreclaws embedded in the thick metal.

"Waowwoowwwwwwwer."

Right. I relax against Diana's side. Normally I'd have to put effort into focusing, but today's been so fucking horrible...

Ring!

The side of the purification unit buckles outward and rips as the ring tears its way out. Diana lets me go as I reach for it, stretching out my left arm as it flies toward me. Yes, please yes! It turns in the air and lands cleanly on my left ring finger.

As soon as it touches me a ripple of orange light explodes across the room. Smoke and vapour are sucked from the air, fires are extinguished and I feel SOOO MUCH BETTER!

"Armour! Overshield! Wholeness Rightly Assumed!"

My vision clears, the pain stops and my cheek feels like flesh again. The relief is so absolute that I drop to my knees, cradling the ring against my chest. I hear foul water splattering and realise that the hole the ring's exit made is still leaking. But that is now a problem I can cope with.

"Repair."

Technical specifications flash through my mind, and orange lights strobe from my body in all directions. The machinery in front of me is repaired and then the glorious orange leaps from mechanism to mechanism. The floor is scoured of loose detritus and broken devices are knitted back together.

Oh yes.

I move my hand slightly so that my left hand meets my right. As I start stroking the ring's sigil with my right thumb I realise that it landed sigil outward. I doubt it matters.

"Paul, what happened?"

"Hmm?"

Oh yes, Diana's here, isn't she? I shuffle around on the floor until I'm pointing in her direction, but I don't look at her. I focus my eyes on the ring instead.

!Need!

"What. Happened?"

"Robots. Sir. Like.. Red Tornado. A water manipulator and a fire manipulator. Water manipulator got me while I was in the toilets, without the ring on. Lost track of the ring. Got beat. Woke up stuck on a wall. Robin and Artemis rigged up an EMP emitter and stuck it in the main power generator. We were more or less okay until Red Tornado showed up."

I flop back into a sitting position, and Diana sits down opposite me. "Why was that a problem?"

"I don't know exactly what happened, but.. for some reason.. he sided with them. Sucked the air right out of our lungs."

My head's still pointing ringwards, but I flick my eyes up at her. Her face is still. "Are you certain that's what happened?"

I think about it for a moment, my eyes darting left and right.

"I didn't have the ring to confirm his identity. Someone could have built a working Red Tornado replica. Or one of the other robots might have hacked him, reprogrammed him. I don't think he'd have attacked us of his own volition. If Morrow -or someone using his stuff- is back in action, they might have been able to bypass his defences."

Diana nods. "That's a little more believable. If T.O. Morrow has Red Tornado then we'll need to mount a rescue mission. And completely change our security procedures. It looked as though the mountain will need some work as well."

"If... If Lantern Stewart is available, I was thinking we could get started on that tomorrow. Had a.. a bit of time to think about it."

While I was pinned helplessly to a wall, unable to do anything.

"Paul, are you alright?"

"Yes, yessir. I'm fine now."

"Paul, look at me." I flick my eyes up to her face for a moment, before returning them to the ring. "Paul, look at me." I close my eyes, and turn my head up to look at her before opening them. Her eyes widen in shock. "Tartarus, Paul..."

I look down again. "Ah, are my eyes acting up again? I'm sorry about that sir, I'll... I'm sure they'll sort themselves out in a few minutes."

I make an effort to lower my arms, and just about manage to get them to my stomach before they start shaking. I pull them tight against me in an attempt to make them stop. It's only partially successful.

"Paul, talk to me. What happened to you?"

I raise my shaking left hand to stop her. "I appreciate your concern, sir, but I can cope."

"You're clearly not coping."

"Sir, I'm not some emotionally incontinent American. I j- I just need a few minutes, and then I'll be fine."

"Paul, you don't need to keep up a stiff upper lip all of the time. I'm the only one here, and I certainly won't think any less of you if-."

Ah, yes. I manage a small smile, and close my raised left hand to stop her.

"It's... You know, it's funny. People usually associate the 'stiff upper lip' with the height of the empire. The dour Queen Victoria, and all that. When actually, the 'stiff upper lip' didn't come in until after the First World War. It was a.. a reaction to the overwhelming horror.. of the battlefields of France. There were no words to describe it, so they didn't. Hm." A bitter chuckle. "Men from the Victorian era were actually quite free with their emotions. I'm.. not that liberated. I'm sorry."

I feel something pushing at my right leg. I look down, and Teekl looks up at me. I pick her up and cradle her against my chest, rubbing my left cheek against her head and stroking her chin with the fingers of my right hand.

The shaking eases off a little.

"Good cat. Well done for finding the ring. That was a good decision on your part."

Teekl purrs. "Teekl clever kitty."

"Yes you are. Yes you are."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Beta Male

23rd September
05:16 GMT -5

I stand in a service corridor, looking at the smooth hemisphere carved into the wall by an Arrow of Unmaking. The first, Artemis used in the library to moderate effect. Losing an arm cost Red Typhoon a great deal of precision but none of his raw power, the primary water control generator thingy being housed in the chest. I asked Batman for Red Tornado's precise technical specifications but was rebuffed. He didn't refuse exactly, but he did indicate that as far as he was concerned it was a League matter now.

The second arrow went off here because a current of water knocked it out of Artemis' quiver and into the wall. The quiver I gave her has little locking mechanisms which mean that you have to push down slightly before pulling the arrows out. That would have stopped them falling out during acrobatics, but she switched back because she found it awkward during normal use. As a result, when Typhoon tried to drown them she lost most of her arrows.

Just lucky it didn't go into her or Robin. Or a major electrical cable. I thought that the impact trigger I built into it would prevent accidental activation, but it seems that a depth charge exploding in close proximity works just as well as striking a target. Maybe I should add an extra safety? An activation button, perhaps?

!Must repair!

"Lantern Stewart, would you mind?"

Lantern Stewart points his ring, and part of our accumulated rubble pile is consumed as the hole is repaired by a green beam. He wanted to make an early start, and I'm used to getting up early. Before I came to this world that was because I had an hour long train journey to get to work. Last night... I... I didn't get much sleep. Even with my orange feline nightlight standing guard. I don't think the others did either.

"What did that?"

"I made Artemis some arrows using Alexander Tuttle's 'crumbler' technology. That's a misfire."

We had a chat about exactly what he's allowed to do with his ring as far as building work goes, and the upshot is that he with his unlimited-recharges-but-can-only-manufacture-things-commonly-available-on-Earth-unless-he-gets-special-dispensation ring will be doing all of the structural work, while the orange no-more-recharges-for-seven-hours-but-can-make-anything ring makes the advanced stuff. Well, we are now. Last night I got a bit repair-happy, and I'm now on low power. Unlike Lantern Jordan, Lantern Stewart actually sounded interested in the possibilities of unrestrained creation.

"Crumbler? Didn't he use gauntlets?"

We carry on down the corridor. At the moment we're just checking the base is structurally sound and doing a little tidying up. We could have started the major work immediately, but I pointed out that it would be a bit pointless to rebuild something if we decided not to include it in the redesign and had to tear it down again. He's volunteered to do most of the design work.

"Yeah, but his design had a load of jank." He gives me a puzzled look. "Stuff that it didn't need in order to work, I mean. Sure, I can see how it could be useful to precisely control the shape and size of the area being crumbled, or the rate of crumbling, but it's hardly necessary. Once you strip out everything you don't need, you can make a one use short duration high intensity crumble generator the size of an arrowhead."

I nod my head to the side.

"If you've got a power ring, anyway."

I asked, and it turned out that he had to wind up his architecture practice in order to be a full time Lantern. Really, that just reaffirmed my decision that establishing a civilian identity wasn't worthwhile. If you can never use it, what's the point? I mean, what does he tell people he does for a living? He hadn't joined the League when this place was first built and so wasn't involved in the construction process. Superman and Lantern Jordan might have hollowed the space out, but Batman and Mister J'onzz handled design and the electronics.

"You been making a lot of things with your ring?"

"Blanks for magic artefacts, mostly." I give an amused snort. "I was actually wearing a personal ward when the robots attacked. If their abilities had been magic based, I could probably have beaten them even without this ring."

I flap my left hand up before letting it drop back down to my side. I've been wearing the ring 'the right way around' since getting it back yesterday evening. Not quite sure why, but it's not as if I'm going out in public.

He frowns. "I didn't think it was possible to use a power ring to do magic."

"Far as I know, it isn't. But if the party wizard wants some sort of symbol drawn on the ground for a ritual, you just need to look at the illustration and.. will it so, in your case." I hold up my right hand and generate the Seal of Solomon. The good version John Constantine showed me, with all the extra squiggles. "Same with reagents and artefacts; you need a particular shape or formula, it's far faster to do it with a ring."

He nods. The corridor exits back into the main cavern, though unlike last night this part is no longer under water. With the main generator out, light is provided by halogen spotlights connected to portable generators. The rest of the mountain has emergency lighting powered by built in batteries... Where they hadn't been completely destroyed, anyway. Ring power means that Lantern Stewart and I can see just fine.

"We'll be bringing in a replacement generator at oh six twenty."

Being at ground zero for an electromagnetic surge of that sort of power turned out to be a bit unhealthy for the main generator. I'm not sure exactly how it generates power, but the consensus among those who do understand it appeared to be that replacing it would be more sensible than letting me reset it to factory settings.

"How exactly are they going to get that in here?"

"The generator was designed to be exactly the maximum size the mountain's zeta tubes can handle. We'll use the temporary generators to power the tubes at this end and bring it through."

"For a moment there I was wondering if we were going to have to hinge the entire mountain open."

I look around the cavern. Kaldur and M'gann are talking to Mister J'onzz. No King Orin, but I suppose it would have been very short notice.

!Assist!

I should really talk to Kaldur about that, see how things are going in Atlantis. If Kaldur's still here, he probably hasn't had any sleep at all. I'll see if I can bring myself up to speed and then suggest that he get his head down for a few hours.

Captain Atom's pulling some wrecked electronics from the wall. Teekl's floating just over his shoulder, watching the sparks and flailing wires with interest. Then, she turns and makes eye contact with me before dropping to the floor and starting to walk in my general direction. I mean, she's still a cat. She isn't going to hurry over, is she?

This is probably the furthest she's been from me since I got the ring back. She followed me back to the main cavern, then to my room, then back to the main cavern when I finally gave up on sleep and then part of the way around the mountain checking for damage. She usually doesn't spend that much time with me in a week. I wonder if it's my need that's drawing her to me, or if she's genuinely that compassionate?

Last time I saw them, Wallace and Robin were in the living area, dozing on the settee. They were really quite angry when the League first appeared, but there's only so long you can keep that up when the other party doesn't respond and you are either dog tired or ravenously hungry. Kon's been stewing in his own frustration. I left Diana trying to engage him in conversation, but I'm not sure where he is now. I still think the best thing to do is to keep yourself occupied in a situation like this.

!Make better!

Fretting doesn't help.

!Make better!

Artemis was talking to Black Canary –not sure where they've got to- while Green Arrow hasn't arrived yet. Superman was here, and he and Kon studiously avoided looking at each other until he left to see if he could pick up the Reds' trail.

"Hard at work already? 'Cause I gotta be honest; you could both use the beauty sleep."

!!!

I jerk my head to the right, armour forming around me even as I process the voice. Guy Gardner, with a slightly concerned looking Captain Marvel standing just behind him.

"Wohw! Easy there buddy."

I relax slightly, dropping the armour.

"I was just sayin' t'Marvel here, hope you're not going to try an' use this as an excuse to pussy out of training on Saturday."

"Why, have you finally learned to balance the ball on the end of your nose?"

A flicker of green in the corner of my eye is swiftly followed by a sharp stinging sensation on my left earlobe. I jerk my left hand up to it before my brain catches up. I look down at the green construct hand sticking out of the ground on the end of a thin green thread. It waves, and then makes an obscene gesture at me. I grin. Not only is it not coming out of his ring, but his ring's not even glowing.

"You finally got the hang of it!"

Lantern Stewart looks at it with evident curiosity. "How are you doing that?"

Guess Lantern Tui isn't all that imaginative, either.

"Paul showed me. Ya gotta send a real thin construct under the ground from your foot. When it comes out the other end, just make whatever you want from that, instead of yer ring."

Lantern Stewart looks confused. "I thought you were training him."

I shrug. "Well, yeah, but what would we have done for the rest of the afternoon? I think I've nearly undone all the damage Lantern Kilowog did. Just wish I could do something about the smell."

"Oh, that's it! On Saturday, we're doin' orbital bombardment practice!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd September
06:39 GMT -5

"...not because of Superman! I'm just saying, if there's no difference in power consumption we might as well go for the one that affects Kryptonians as well as other targets."

!Protect!

At the far side of the room, Kaldur's having a private conversation with Batman. The rest of the team are sitting at a table on what was the training circle, and will be again once Lantern Stewart and I have finished repairing it. He and I are standing in front of the main computer screen, discussing internal defences for the revised mountain design. I.. don't think he's appreciating my input.

"How many other Kryptonians do you know of?"

Black Canary's been doing a noble job of containing the team's growing frustration. If I thought it would help I'd have told them to do what I've been doing; keeping busy really helps. If they don't get movement on the Tornado issue, they're just going to keep on getting more irritable.

"Two main groups I know about. Firstly, you've got the Phantom Zone prisoners."

Green Arrow brings a bowl of some sort of biscuit over, and puts it in front of Wallace. Not a bad idea, usually, but in this situation it might come across as a bit blatant.

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"Superman's not going to let them out any time soon."

"Yeah. What we want, are answers. About Red Tornado and his siblings."

"They're not all serial killers. As I understand it, the Science Council got a bit Phantom Zone happy towards the end. Some of them could be paroled eventually."

"Exactly."

"Even so..."

"Then you've got any Kryptonian who happened not to be on Krypton when it was destroyed."

"Leave the bowl." Wallace begins inhaling the biscuits.

"There weren't any. They were isolationists."

"All of them? They had faster than light travel, and every single one decided not to use it?"

He frowns, and turns to look at me sidelong. "Do you know something?"

How do I explain? "I.. might have heard something. About a group of Kryptonian naval personnel who chose not to return to port when the Science Council mandated isolationism came in."

"Where did you hear that?"

!No!

Um.

"Nowhere I can talk about with a member of the Green Lantern Corps."

His face relaxes a little. "Have you told Superman about it?"

"I've barely said two words to him since I got here. Besides, wouldn't it be cruel to get his hopes up like that, unless I've got something concrete?"

He puts his right hand to his chin. "I suppose. Wouldn't hurt to look into it." He nods to himself. "I'll mention it to Tomar-Re. If we could find-."

"YOU KNEW!"

Stewart and I jerk our heads around as Kon rushes across the room and grabs Kaldur by the vest. Oh dear.

!Team must not fight!

"Excuse me Lantern Stewart." I start walking toward Kon. Not sure what set him off, but we're all a bit on edge.

"That android and his maniac family nearly killed us all!"

M'gann beats me there. "Conner, what are you doing?"

"Kaldur knew we had a traitor among us AND SAID NOTHING!"

!HelpNoBad!

Oh dear. Transition.

I appear at Kon's shoulder, and put my right hand lightly on his right forearm. "No, he didn't."

Kon turns his head to me in full glare mode. Haven't seen that for a while. "He just told Batman that he knew-!"

"Kon, Red Arrow heard an accusation from Onyx. Onyx is a member of the League of Shadows, and isn't exactly a font of reliable intelligence. He told me, and I, reported her claim to Kaldur."

"What! Why didn't you tell the rest of us?"

!Unify!

His anger is mixing with confusion and hurt. Oh, please don't take it like that.

"I didn't think it was a credible claim. Enemies don't generally give away their plans mid fight, but, just in case, Kaldur and I checked every team member and everyone checked out fine. No unexplained gaps in their personal history, no irregular financial activity, no drugs and no other physiological alterations." His grip on Kaldur loosens, and I pull his right hand up to my chest, holding it there with both of mine. "We even got a magic user in to check for unnatural mental influences."

"When?"

I turn my head to look at Robin. "You remember on Monday evening, when we all went out for burgers?"

He looks down for a moment with a frown. Then his head shoots up. "The blonde guy!"

"His name is John Constantine, and he's an expert on mind magics. He found nothing."

Kaldur smoothes down his vest, calming himself. "We concluded that there was unlikely to be any truth in Onyx's claim."

I nod. "And, let's face it; winding Red Arrow up isn't exactly hard."

Kon's eyes fall from my face. "But why didn't you tell me?"

!Make better!

I don't know what to say. I stand there gormlessly for several seconds before Kaldur rescues me.

"That was my decision. I did not want to risk causing discord within the team without firm evidence. Since we had none, I decided to let the matter drop."

I nod again. "Neither of us considered the possibility that it might not be a team member. And to be honest, I'm still not convinced the two events were related. Doctor Morrow's never had anything to do with the League of Shadows."

Neither Robin nor Wallace look happy with that explanation. Artemis seems okay, surprisingly.

"But, they've gotta be." Wallace voices their doubt.

I shake my head. "Morrow's had it in for Red Tornado for seventy years, ever since Red Tornado first overcame his command overrides. Remember what Mister Twister tried to do? Same technology. Seems to me, he just kept going at it until he finally got through."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd September
06:43 GMT -5

Robin appears to think for a moment. "Wait. If you checked up on us, who checked up on you?"

I wince, and flick my eyes to Kaldur.

"Queen Mera gave Orange Lantern access to the Royal Archives. Every record of my history and actions was at his disposal. Additionally, he persuaded Wonder Woman to grant us use of her lasso."

I'm told I managed seven or eight mostly coherent answers before being completely intoxicated by the lasso's magic. Kaldur got enough answers to assure himself that I wasn't working for the opposition, -whoever they might be in this context- but all I remember is waking up with a headache. Can't even check the ring's recording, as I took it off in order to prevent it looking like I was using it to dodge the lasso's effect. Just have to hope that if I said anything out-of-context that he wrote it off as part of the intoxication effect.

Magic: it's a hell of a drug.

I step closer to Kon, pulling his whole right forearm forward my chest.

!Kon mine!

"Kon, remember how you felt when M'gann found those telepathic controls in your mind? Do you think I'd have felt any better than you did if I'd had them?"

"... No."

"Do you think Red Tornado feels any better, being reprogrammed by his.. creator?" Nearly said father, but that's a therapy session for another day.

Kon tilts his head up to look at my face, thoughtful. "I.. guess not..."

!Kon mine!

And then Wallace's finger is under my nose. I pull back slightly, staring at the tip of it. Um?

"What if they were connected? Ra's al Ghul's, like, a thousand year old. What if Morrow's been in cahoots with the Shadows all along?"

Kaldur steps toward him. "Then the attack by the other robots would still have taken us by surprise. Telling you would not have changed what happened."

Probably true, and- Why is M'gann blushing?

"If you're all finished."

I give M'gann a puzzled look which she avoids, then turn to face Batman. A moment later I remember to let go of Kon's hand. In the corner of my eye I see Artemis elbow M'gann in the ribs, and M'gann bat her away.

"With Red Tornado.. missing, the team will now be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift."

We're being overseen by a ten year old. The ring shows me what it thinks he should look like; short, scrawny, and still in primary school. The League doesn't 'officially' know how old he is, and I can't help but wonder exactly how many of them know and pretend not to. Or how much of a difference the Wisdom of Solomon makes to his behaviour. I still remember the Justice Society comic where he started getting close to Stargirl and Jay pretty much called him a paedophile.

The big red cheese himself approaches, stopping next to Batman's right shoulder.

"I'm really looking forward to hanging with you guys."

My knowledge of the modern American lexicon isn't quite what it could be, but that sounded odd, right? Or am I just projecting my own expectations? From the looks my team mates are giving each other, they seem to think something's off.

Kon crosses his arms. "What are we doing about Red Tornado?"

Batman's eyes narrow slightly. "Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League. That makes him a League responsibility."

"Well, yeah, but-."

"I have another assignment for this team."

He gestures with his right arm, and a holographic monitor appears showing the front page of the 'News of the Planet'. The leading article is entitled 'Gorilla Trades Bananas for Bullets', and features a fuzzy photograph of what looks like a large ape carrying a minigun. So, Mallah and Brain, or one of Grod's henchapes. Should be doable without too much difficulty.

The screen shifts to a new -slightly lower brow- newspaper, the Gotham Truth Rag. Most of the front page is covered in a picture of a man named Hamilton Hill, the current mayor of Gotham. His head is bandaged and he has a cast and sling on his right arm.

"Gotham Mayor Attacked by Guerrilla Gorilla."

Wallace reads the headline aloud, just in case the rest of us have forgotten how to read.

**Red Tornado's being held prisoner by Morrow, and they're trying to distract us with this?**

I think Kon just included myself and M'gann in that.

!Unify!
!Support!

**[shrug] If it needs doing...**

Wallace is less restrained. "Monkeys with machine guns. It's a supermarket tabloid story!"

I roll my eyes. "Really. Apes with guns are a ridiculous impossibility, but a man made of asphalt makes perfect sense?"

"Ahh..."

"I've checked the sources. I've studied the patterns. Mayor Hill's encounter is only the latest in a series of incidents. Aqualad-" He turns to Kaldur. "-you and your team will depart for India and check this out."

I remember nothing at all about DC India. Wait, Gorillas aren't native to India, are they? Kaldur nods, and the team begins to head off toward the bioship.

Oh, hang on.

"Ring, state remaining charge."

"Thirty seven percent remaining."

Ahh. That's what I get for repairing everything I could see last night. And I've got another five hours until I can recharge. Flight to India should take about that... Don't really want to hang around here then catch them up later...

Kaldur stops and turns back to face me. "Do you need to recharge?"

!Need team!

"Can't. My personal lantern's capacitors won't be fully charged for another five hours."

"If.. you are unable to participate..?"

"No, no, I'll bring it with us. Go on, I'll catch up with you."

He nods, and then follows the others toward the exit.