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

[Mr Zoat]

18th February
22:41 GMT -5

I'm forced to turn away from the training room's holo display as Teekl shoves herself against my shins again. I think she understands why she needs to stay inside but she really hasn't liked being confined even for a day. And there's only so many times she can clean Wolf's coat before getting bored. "Okay Teekl." I bend down and rub her head with my right hand. "How about I get you something to chase?"

She moves her head around my hand and stares at me. "Not strong-mouse."

"Not strong-mouse. Okay… I can get you a robot or a Praexis Demon."

"Oldman?"

I glance up at the entrance to Red Tornado's quarters. He's actually out in his John Smith chassis at the moment. His father's up there though, continuing his task of transcribing everything he knows about robotics, AI programming and elemental magic into our database. I've been tempted a few times to call him back into the ring to partake of that knowledge myself, but aside from the obvious moral issues involved in doing that to a person when they're in no condition to give informed consent I'm concerned about what putting that much knowledge into myself would do. My brain doesn't need even more exotic effects applied to it. "No, you can't have Doctor Morrow."

Teekl looks away in displeasure. "Fatman."

I flick my left hand out to the side and release one of my Praexis Demon swarm. Not Fatty or Tubbs and I haven't bothered naming any of the others. I think this one was created during the fight with Sabbac. It drops to the floor, sniffs and then waddles around to face me. "Food now?"

"Yes, you are. Teekl, all yours."

"Ahh?" Teekl crouches, bum raised and wiggling. The Praexis Demon spots her and for a moment looks confused. Then its eyes widen as it gets it. "Aaah!" It waddles around and flees, arms extended in front of it. Teekl takes that as her cue and dashes after it. It catches sight of her out of the corner of its eye and leaps into the air, flying as fast as it can manage down a passageway with Teekl at its heels.

Okay, back to work. Blume got to Jupiter's orbit, sort of. There aren't actually any planets in that part of the system at the moment. As I'm looking at it on this display, Earth, Saturn and Venus are on one side of the sun and the other planets are on the opposite side. If Blume's coming towards Earth then he's certainly in no hur-.

"Recognised, Artemis, B zero eight."

Oh joy. I look around as she steps out of the tube. I don't know how much she overheard, but whatever it was is making her glow red. Holly took me saying 'no' well enough, though she did say to let her know if I changed my mind. Karon was more relieved, though it was more of an orange 'comfortable normalcy not being disrupted' relieved than a yellow 'intruder fear' relieved. I might end up taking her up… But I probably won't. Certainly I need to talk to Karon about things first.

I give Artemis a mild smile. "Artemis, good evening. How was the rest-?"

Her posture changes from 'tense' to 'attack'. Since we're in the mountain I've got both rings on so even if she gets physically aggressive I should be alright. Still not sure-. "How could you?! How could you even think about doing that!?"

She marches closer. "Could you narrow it dow-?"

"To-to Zatanna! With them!"

Eh? "Zatanna's under aged, I wasn't going to inc-."

And now she's up in my face. "Oh, is that why?!"

Oh, for goodness… "Artemis, what are you talking about?"

"You, cheating on Zatanna!"

What? "Artemis, I'm not dating Zatanna."

That does not compute. "What?"

"She… What's the phrase? Asked me out at New Year. I turned her down, you know, politely but firmly."

The red recedes a little. "Oh. But-. You went.. out on Valentine's Day."

"We did?"

"Yes!" She waves her hands around as she tries to get her thoughts in order. "That.. place in England, with the.. fancy armor."

"I thought Valentine's Day was in March."

"How can you think Valentine's Day is in March!?"

Ring, when is..? Oh. "Being.. single.. and not seeing.. any… You know, advertising? I only watch television to be sociable and I don't really.. go to.. shops anymore…"

She stares at me while she tries to work out whether I'm serious or not. Then she sags slightly, looks away and shakes her head. "You're unbelievable. You're unbelievable!"

"Thank you?"

"If you're not dating, how come you're spending so much time together?"

"Because she needs my support. I was.. spending lots of time with Kon when he first started living here for the same reason. I take trips to India with Wallace-."

"What about when you come out of her room at night!?"

"Zatanna has trouble sleeping sometimes and I'm a masseur. We've.. found it helps. Look, she just lost her father, and -even if she wasn't outside my half plus seven-" By eight years. "-her depending on me like she does, that's not a healthy way to start a relationship."

Artemis frowns. "Half plus seven."

"I'm eighteen, she's fourteen. That would make me a creep."

A slight awkwardness enters her stance. "She's.. fifteen in, like-."

"That doesn't make her sound older. That makes it sound like she's a five year old claiming to be five and a half."

"Oh. Ah…" Red's almost fully dissipated, thank goodness. "Huh. What exactly did you say to turn her down?"

I think for a moment. "'I don't think kissing me is appropriate. Leaving aside the fact that you're four years younger than me, you're depending on me a lot at the moment, emotionally. And I'm here for you, I'd just feel I was taking advantage if we did that. I'm sorry.'"

"Well, yeah, that's… I'm just not sure she.. heard it, y'know?"

"I know, I can see the violet light, but I can't keep saying it, can I? That would be mean. And she still needs me so I can't just.. stop seeing her." Artemis nods. "We good?"

She gives me a slightly unhappy nod, then switches over to a smirk. "Two girls, huh?"

"I said no. Too many unpredictable emotional variables."

She snorts. "And you built Zatanna a suit of armor just as a costume?"

"And the bolt pistols and eviscerator."

"What's.. an.. eviscerator?"

"Imagine if a sword and a chainsaw had a very angry baby. Which showed unusually extreme hybrid vigour."

She takes a moment to process that image, she shakes her head to get rid of the image. "Back in Star City, how come you weren't wearing your rings?"

I turn back to the holo display and expand the image of Lantern Blume. "This chap."

"There's one of Larfleeze's Construct-Lanterns coming here?"

"Slowly but surely."

"But your tattoos mean he can't detect you, right?"

"Yes. However…" I pull over a hologram of the globe with patches marked in different intensities of orange. "This shows everywhere I've used orange light. Ring users can detect this. Since neither Blume nor Larfleeze know how strong I am they can't tell how recent any of it is, but they know someone with an orange ring has been here. If I use orange light in an unwarded location, they'll know I'm still here."

"That would be bad."

"Yes. Since I don't want to be on the bench permanently I'm trying to come up with a better solution."

"Could you give it that Truggs guy?"

"Can't find him. I even tried a quintessence waveform scan thing for an hour or two."

"But you still got his finger, right?"

I nod, ideas beginning to arrange themselves around that fact. "Yes. I do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th February
23:02 GMT -5

Uuugh. "My appraisal? My appraisal is that she's a homophobic bitch sailing upon a river of entitlement a mile wide at its narrowest point! Gods!" I try to rein it in. Remember the exercises Guy taught me. Woosah. "She wants to rule but she doesn't actually have the skills to do the job and treats the people around her who could help her get through the situation like dirt. My appraisal is that the Justice League should start looking for someone else to take over when the situation implodes because it will."

The Sphere warbles at me and I pat her hull as I lean back in my seat. Six days I was stuck with Princess Adilah. Certainly cured me of any lingering idea about a political marriage. She got crowned on Wednesday but Batman ordered me to hang around until a few hours ago. I'm going to have to come up with something brilliant to make up for missing Valentine's Day to Jade. First time I've actually had something to celebrate and I had to work instead.

"Are you really sure she's that bad?"

Over the phone Diana can't see me roll my eyes. "Queen Beena knew she wanted to rule the country since she was a child. She studied Political Science at university, read everything relevant she could that would help, worked long hours, sacrificed everything related to a personal life-."

"She was an usurper."

"She was an usurper who created political stability, reduced crime year on year and -once you account for the effects of sanctions- improved the economy. And frankly, I don't see why being the 'legitimate' patrilineal descendant of a great grandfather who was the French Colonial Department's favourite local patsy should be the measure of legitimacy. Queen Beena did the job."

"And you don't think Queen Adilah will?"

I shake my head. "Ask me again tomorrow. I'm having a hard time clearing her screeching out of my ears well enough to be objective about it. I mean, she studied art history! Art history!"

"She wasn't allowed to study-."

"Politics, yes. She could have studied economics or history. She could have kept up with events in her spare time! Heck, she could have requested asylum. All it would have cost her was the stipend she got from Beena but nooo!" Woo-sah. "Can I go off duty now?"

"Yes. But before you do, I want to let you know that we won't be taking any further action against you-" Duh. "-regarding Sabbac. Having reviewed reports from the scene at length we've been forced to conclude that your actions -while unfortunate- were both legal and probably necessary."

"Glad you think so. How's Marvel doing?"

"He's made a full recovery. We've returned the bottle of Innocent's Tears to the Closed Order of the Alexins."

Mpf, fine, wasn't expecting to get that back anyway. And it's not like I don't know where they keep it. "Okay. I'm going to take care of one or two things, then I'm heading back to the mountain. You want anything else?"

"I think we should have a further talk about your comportment, but that can wait until you are fully rested."

I'll certainly look forward to that. "Good night, Diana." I dismiss the phone construct and look down at the house below me. Kate said that she had things set up, but given that I didn't know until a short time ago that I was going to be freed-. Ah! Secret Service agents move into place on the patio, adding to those already in the grounds. Scan. All armed, but not with anything that could threaten me if it came to it. Not that I'm planning anything, oh no. Best behaviour. I've got a lot riding on this meeting going well. A flunky comes out to hold open the door and there's the man himself. President Horne, his Chief of Staff Adrian Myer and.. Kate. Good.

"…from a surprising number of people, Ms Spencer." Horne strolls out onto the middle of the patio as he talks, apparently completely at ease. "And this isn't exactly my first time at one of these cloak-and-dagger meetings, but I've left a lot of very powerful people back there and I'd like some assurance that this is going to be worth my time."

"I believe it will be, sir." Her eyes flick upwards. She can't see me but she knows I'm either up here or at the other end of a Hush Tube.

Right then. Calm and confident. Woosah. I rise and step off the Sphere, falling towards the patio until I get to about ten metres up and activate my aero discs to slow my descent. "Mister President." Horne looks up, curious but not alarmed, as agents cluster around him with their guns drawn and pointed at me. "Thank you for taking the time to see me."

He looks me over as I touch down. "Okay, guys. Stand easy." The distinctly unhappy looking agents lower their weapons and part as he walks towards me. "Your name's Grayven, isn't it? Caught the thing in Fawcett City on GBS."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry for the delay. I wanted to speak to you immediately after that but I had to prevent a civil war from breaking out in Bialya."

"The Secretary of State will be pleased about that. So: what did you want to talk about?"

"Mister President, what do you know about events concerning the Roanoke Island incident?"

He looks away for a moment. "A group of four magic-using supervillains cast a spell that split the world in two, adults and children. My grandkids slept right through but a lotta people weren't anything like so lucky. After the League shut it down China somehow got hold of the guys who did it and killed them."

"Essentially accurate, but missing one or two details. Firstly, I was the one who handed them over to the Chinese."

He looks me over again. "You're not exactly winning points with me there."

"Then the Justice Department shouldn't have tried to let Werner Vertigo get off scot-free. I had no faith in America's judicial system and took the course of action most likely to see them punished as they deserved." He nods. He's not agreeing with me, just taking in another data point. "Secondly, the Chinese killed four hirelings. The individual responsible for the ritual was able to escape and is currently at large."

"Jesus!" He turns to Mister Myer. "Adrian, did we know about that?"

Mister Myer shakes his head. "I think the Justice League's report said that there may have been other people involved."

"As one of the people on-site at the time, I can tell you there definitely was. Now, I'm sure that you are fully aware of exactly how much China's stock rose after that, even among the Republican right. That Texan Senator-."

"Senator Davis' motion of thanks was so uncharacteristic we nearly had him checked for mind control."

"Just so. Mister President, I am in a position to bring you the head of the ringleader, Klarion the Witch Boy." I generate a construct of how he was that night, at his most inhuman. Don't want anyone thinking he actually is a boy. "I have no way to bring him in alive, and if I did no one knows of any way to contain him. Including the League."

He nods again. "I doubt anyone could stop you. You clearly wanna do it." He shrugs. "What are you talking to me for?"

"I will undertake this action not as part of some private grudge or because I was incensed by his evil. I will do it to prevent his next attack, be it against America or some other country. And I would like some formal.. political sanction before I act. To be specific, I would like for a Presidential Pardon to be waiting for me once I'm done. In exchange, I am willing to-."

"Heh." He shakes his head. "Mister Grayven, you can't just let a President know that you're planning to murder someone and ask to be pardoned in advance."

"Mister President, you're looking at being the first elected President since Franklin Pierce to fail to secure his party's nomination to run again. You only won the last election because that thing with your opponent and the fifteen year old cheerleaders came out during the last week of the campaign. If the election happened now you'd lose to just about anyone the Republicans could throw up. You know this. I'm offering you a place on the podium alongside the man who killed someone responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, mostly of young children. The world is scared. America is scared. You have the opportunity to be responsible for the slaying of the individual who caused that fear."

"And what do you get out of it?"

"I have no desire to live the rest of my life on the run." I nod my head to the side. "Also, the opportunity to show the Justice League that the killing of sufficiently bad people is the right thing to do."

"Hn." He folds his arms behind his back and slowly walks towards the fence at the edge of the patio. "Still can't do it. I can't approve a murder in advance."

Darn. China it is, then. "That's… Unfor-."

"Of course… Were a person whose continued existence posed a clear and present high level threat to the American public… If a person like that were to be killed… This administration would likely respond in a practical way rather than a puritanical one." He leans on the fence. "Recognizing the relative dangers the two individuals represent to the country, and.. what a serving member of the military or the intelligence services might have done in a similar place. After all, having used the army to fight Colombian farmers I can't really claim to have clean hands."

I glance at Kate, who seems ever so slightly pleased with the pronouncement. I nod. "I'm glad to hear it, Mister President. That sounds like a measured and appropriate response. Thank you for taking the time to see me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
06:11 GMT -5

"Goooood morning campers!" I turn my attention away from the waffle iron and beam at M'gann, Kon and Wolf as they walk in.

Artemis looks up as well. "Hey guys."

Kon nods. "Hey." Someone's not full of the joys of spring. He's not glowing either, but dawn isn't for another twenty minutes or so.

"Good morning Paul, good morning Artemis." M'gann's her usual upbeat self. "What brings you to the cave so early?"

"I crashed here last night. I was on patrol with Green Arrow, then there was some stuff I needed to talk to Paul about… Zatanna not with you?"

I shake my head. "Zatanna does not get up at six o'clock on Saturdays." Artemis and I spent an hour or so last night sketching out a rough draft of a plan for dealing with Lantern Blume. It's not anything like ready to put into practice but I'll try and get hold of Diana today to talk… I glance at Kon. Right. Kal-El is taking over supervision duty this week, isn't he. He's given lessons before but this will be the first time he's been around full time. I'm not really all that sure why he volunteered. Okay, he doesn't have to be in the Daily Planet offices full time.. and most of the editorial meetings are probably during school hours, but I would have thought that he'd struggle to do the job and spend the required hours around here.

Right, waffles should be… Yep, done. I attach filaments to each of the four waffles and transfer them onto two plates. M'gann levitates plates off the work surface and over to her and Kon's places. Artemis looks around to me as I use the rings to transfer another load of batter onto the iron. "Don't think I've ever been here this early before. What time does everyone usually show up?"

"Kaldur's up at six, but he goes for a swim before breakfast. He should be here at about half past. Tula and Garth.. vary a lot. They haven't fully adapted to Eastern Standard Time and they're still spending a lot of time in Poseidonis… Zatanna's up at seven, Rob gets here about eight and Wallace usually turns up at about nine if there's a morning session."

"What about Robin, Raquel and…" Her face goes blank. "Wonder.. Troy."

She forgot..? I suppose we haven't used it much. "Troia hasn't come often enough to have established a pattern. Robin and Raquel usually get here just before the training sessions start." M'gann spreads blueberry compote over her waffles while Kon squirts on some golden syrup. Another convert! "I've been wondering something for a while."

**What is it?**

Ah, M'gann talking with her mouth full. "Do you three.. not know.. Robin's name?"

Artemis blinks in surprise, then turns to look at M'gann and Kon. After meeting blank looks she turns back to me. "No… Wait, you do?"

"I do, Wallace almost certainly does… I've sort of been assuming that Kaldur and the Roys do, but I wasn't sure about the rest of you. You want more waffles?"

"Ah, yeah." She frowns slightly. "Did you find out with your ring, or did he tell you?"

"With the ring, but I only really interacted with his civilian identity just after-."

"When you fixed Mom's spine." She nods. "Because he had to when you fixed whoever it was for him."

I nod. "I think it's a bit odd he still hasn't told anyone, but if that's how he wants it I don't think I should... You know, spill the beans."

Kon chews a piece of waffle and then swallows. "Maybe he just prefers being called Robin? I've only just started preferring 'Kon' to 'Superboy."

M'gann looks mildly put out. "What about 'Conner'?" Waffle in the mouth at record speed. Well done that Kryptonian.

"Aaaaaa-!"

Artemis snorts. "Or maybe his real name's something completely embarrassing. Oh,-" She turns around to look at me again. "-do you know what time Superman's getting here?"

"About eight I think. Though he could end up getting delayed by the Blume thing."

Artemis nods while M'gann shakes her head. **Blume thing?**

"-aaaaa-!"

"Yeah, one of that Larfleeze guy's Construct-Lanterns came into the solar system on Thursday. There's a bunch of Green Lanterns up on the Watchtower right now working out how to get rid of it."

Kon's eyes widen slightly. "Isn't that, like, really bad?"

"It's certainly inconvenient. It doesn't become 'really bad' until it actually reaches an inhabited planet or assimilates a Lantern. So far it's just ignoring them."

"-aagh!" The Praexis Demon flies into the living room area, over the work surface and tries to hide in the table lighting. Teekl runs with her claws extended along the floor after it, fur puffed up and eyes wide and staring.

"Hey Teek." Artemis moves her chair, leans down and reaches towards Teekl with her right hand before swiftly pulling it back when Teekl turns her frantic gaze upon her.

Ooh, someone's gotten over-stimulated, haven't they? I hold my right arm out towards the Demon's hiding place. "Back in the ring you go." The Praexis Demon peers over the edge of the light fitting for a moment before diving just as fast as it can towards the ring, disappearing inside. Annnd now I know exactly what it's been up to since I let it out last night. Teekl's a lot scarier when you're a fat dwarf rather than the Lantern in nominal control of her.

Teekl's eyes fix on the ring for a moment, her tail twitching. Then her fur flattens and she raises her right paw to her mouth and starts grooming herself.

"So what's the plan, then?"

"Hm?" I turn away from my Cat and look at Kon. "Basically, we pretend that one of the rings I called ended up here and that Nylor Truggs got it."

"You said you couldn't find him. You got a lead?"

"No. I have a finger. More importantly, I have a finger that used to wear the ring. The basic plan is that we have the Green Lanterns kill 'him' somewhere Blume can see it and just leave the finger behind."

M'gann frowns. "I thought Green Lanterns weren't allowed to kill people."

"They're not, but I doubt that Larfleeze knows that. And if he did, he hasn't been outside Vega for thousands of years. For all he knows they've changed policy. Anyway, once he's seen that, I destroy him from behind with Crumbler rounds. He reappears where Larfleeze is and Larfleeze gets told that there was an Orange Lantern here but the Greenies killed him. If we're really lucky that will be enough to make him call off the whole thing and go back to his cave."

Kon looks at his now empty plate as he thinks it over. "What happens if he comes here to check?"

"Then we have a hell of a fight on our hands. I wassss… Hoping that the Controllers could make me some sort of supercharged neural chaff generator for.. when I was planning to fight him. Try and take him alive. If he comes here... I'm probably just going to have to kill him with the Sword of Second and Third. I'm not entirely happy about it but I can't think of a better option. He's far too dangerous to be allowed in an inhabited system."

Kon nods while M'gann decides to change the subject. "How did dinner go?"

"It was going fine until this.. Gotham gangster decided to pick a fight with the restaurant manager. He and one of his bodyguards are now guests of the Gotham constabulary." I turn back to the waffle iron and flip open the lid. So nice to have ring-assisted cooking back. "Who's up for seconds?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
07:56 GMT -5

"Recognised, Green Lantern, zero five." I smile as Lantern Jordan steps out of the zeta tube. "Green Lantern, one seven." And Guy…

Wallace leans a little closer to Kaldur. "I thought Superman was babysitting this week?"

"Green Lantern, A three two." Katma Tui's next.

Wallace frowns and I smile at him down the line of my team mates. "This could take a while."

"Green Lantern, A three three." Green Man. "Green Lantern, A three four." Saarek.

Robin grins. "Guess it's a field trip."

"Green Lantern, A three five." Jack Chance, who's frowning at the zeta tube as he slouches clear. "Superman, zero one." Kon looks away slightly, then makes a small shrugging gesture with his face. "Hawkwoman, one zero." I wait for a moment but no one else emerges. Oookaaaay. Not really sure what's-.

Jordan approaches the line-up. "Okay team, since this is the only facility under Justice League control that's warded against detection by power ring I'm afraid that we're going to be borrowing your training area today." I notice how hard Rob's trying not to jump for joy. "In lieu of combat training, Hawkwoman's going to be giving a class on tactical planning in one of the briefing roomsss…" He stops and stares at Zatanna's new armour. "Huh."

Missus Hol takes it in her stride. "Orange Lantern, stay put. Everyone else, follow me."

I remain standing at ease as they file out. Near the back of the Lantern-huddle Lantern Chance nudges Lantern Saarek. "Thought this planet was isolated?"

"You thought correctly."

"'Cause I'm counting nine different species in this 'Justice League' alone, plus.. whoever sold them that zeta tube. That don't say 'isolated' to me."

Kal-El takes a couple of steps towards them. "Unless the roster's changed since the last time I checked, there are only five different species in the Justice League. And the zeta tube system we use was developed on Earth by a man named Doctor Saul Erdel."

Chance raises his eyebrows. "You can manipulate zeta beams and you still burn hydrocarbons for power?"

"I'm not sure I see the connection."

I do. As part of the speech I'm planning to give I've looked up the order in which other species have developed particular technologies. Non-magical teleportation before exotic power generation is practically unheard of.

"Okay, forget that. Different species." Lantern Chance counts off on his fingers. "Kryptonian, Human, whatever that Wonder Woman is-."

"I think you'll find that Diana's Human."

Lantern Chance shakes his head. "Not what my ring says. And then you've got.. Aquaman,-"

"Aquaman's Human."

"Humans can't live at the bottom of oceans and breathe water. Then there's a Martian and two Thanagarians-"

"Sir?" I look at Lantern Jordan and Lanterns Green Man and Tui also approach. "Have you had a chance to review my outline?"

"-an Aurakle-."

"I'm.. not sure I know what that is."

Jordan nods. "Yeah, and we've got some fairly major concerns. The whole point of having you train Green Lanterns in how to resist assimilation was to make sure we could confront things like Blume safely. Your plan requires all of us to fly out where he can see us and do something that will definitely piss him off."

"That Captain Atom guy. Some energy creature takes a shine to a normal person and merges with 'em."

"Captain Atom… Well, we're not exactly sure what happened to him, but he's as Human as most people on Earth are." Lantern Chance gives him a look of incredulity.

"Probably piss him off, yes. I'm happy to use our remaining time to train your lot in orange light resistance but we've got a very finite amount of time and I know from Guy's efforts that railgun constructs don't come naturally to greenies."

Lantern Tui frowns. "Why would we need to use railgun constructs? If we can learn to hurt 'Construct' Lanterns-" I can see how much that idea makes her uncomfortable. "-with our constructs at all, what does it matter what form they take?"

"You've got a full on artificial intelligence, who's gotta be a couple of hundred years more advanced than anything else I've seen around here. You've got a Terminan, an energy being stuck in a helmet and a thing made of some sort of organic rubber."

"Look, Plastic Man is Human as well."

"Whatever you say, pal."

I take a Crumbler round out of subspace and hold it out to her. "Because railguns and coilguns can fire these. Did Guy tell you what they can do?" Slight inclination of the head. Right. I rise into the air and fly backwards to the far end of the room. "Please create a construct barrier. Not around yourself, obviously." I toss the round into the air and form a railgun construct around it. Lantern Tui extends her right hand and generates a slightly convex rectangular barrier.

Lantern Jordan backs off slightly as the rest of the Lanterns form an arc to spectate.

"Metahumans can have a wide variety of physical characteristics, it doesn't mean that they stop being Human."

"In point of fact, Kal-El, I don't think that Diana's Human either. Given how she was created, classifying her as a young Titan makes more sense." He looks mildly embarrassed about talking in class. "I'm well aware that Green Lanterns are taught to focus on single powerful barriers for their defence in combat. In our training sessions Lantern Gardner and I have switched over to using multiple layers of ablative shields." I aim the railgun and charge it up. "Here's why."

There's the signature hum- "Ow!" -as the gun fires and the round shatters Lantern Tui's defensive construct. She opens and closes the fingers of her right hand in an attempt to work out some of the feedback pain.

"If it hits a construct, the construct goes down. At full speed I can fire one of these-" I take another round out of subspace. "-every second per construct gun, and if I really tried I could probably increase that further. Lantern Chance, you're familiar with firearms, aren't you?"

"Yeah?"

"Front of the class then." He trudges slovenly forwards, keeping both eyes on me. I move my railgun construct over to him. "Can you make one?"

He carefully looks it over and-. Ah, that's interesting; he doesn't point his ring at it as he scans it. "If it's that important, why don't we just carry a real railgun? Or a gravity pulse gun?"

"Because it's faster to make another construct than fix a real gun if someone damages it. I'm not talking about mass production here, just about Lantern combat. And.. gravity pulse guns are a bit of a risk in an atmosphere or close to an inhabited planet. The damage is getting done by the warhead, not the kinetic force, so a comparatively lower speed isn't a negative while racking up a massive number of friendly fire kills would be."

Saarek raises an eyebrow in a totally Vulcan way! "Would this not risk violating the Guardians' prohibition on the use of lethal force?"

"If you hit someone directly and they're not wearing a force field of some sort, yes. So don't. I give the ring-" I raise my left hand slightly. "-instructions on targeting and have it automate the actual shooting, though as I understand it that's a lot more difficult for you Greenies."

"Gun." Lantern Chance visibly strains as a green railgun… A green railgun that's slightly larger than mine materialises alongside mine. "Heh."

"Right then. Let's see if you can use it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
08:22 GMT -5

"…itdrokitdrokitdrokit…"

"Identity theft twelve percent complete."

"Come on Jackie, I'm soft-peddling you here."

"…itdrokitdrokitdrokit…"

The wave of orange is briefly pushed back a little, until an air rifle propelled paintball hits him on the cheek.

"Identity theft twenty two percent complete. Identity theft thirty percent complete. Identity theft-."

I shake my left hand and dismiss the effect. "Lantern Chance?"

Guy comes up alongside him and nudges him with his right elbow. "Looks like maybe someone shouldn't'a skipped basic after all."

Saarek looks thoughtful. "Or perhaps Lantern Gardner's technique is not something readily applicable to other Lanterns."

Lantern Chance wipes some of the paint off and flicks it onto the floor. "Like to see you do any better."

Results on creating railguns have been less than brilliant. With practice they can now all generate them but only Lantern Chance can maintain it under pressure. They all use the fat construct connections that Guy used to, though in this case that probably won't hurt.

"Just to check: can I assume that skipping basic training means that you've never done the M'eelam Na'aquall either?"

"The what?"

Lantern Jordan shakes his head. "Most Lanterns don't. Out of everyone here it's just me and Gardner." He thinks for a moment. "Do you mean you think Lanterns who haven't done it can't learn-?"

"Naw." Guy shakes his head. "I was doin' it before I did mine."

"Perhaps a new volunteer? Lantern Jordan?"

"Sure, I'll give it a shot." The glow of his environmental shield intensifies. "Hit me."

I don't want to assimilate him. But I do want to take it up to about sixty percent and then turn it off manually. Guess that's the testosterone talking again, but gosh darn it! I turned down a threesome yesterday. I need this.

"Rings." I hold my hands out to the sides and allow orange light to precipitate out in the form of a knot of mini-Ophidians. "Hitting now."

"Wait a sec-."

Mouths open they surge forwards and bite into his environmental shield, covering him in orange light.

"Identity Theft in progress. One percent complete. Warning, will detected."

Credit to Jordan, he did actually pay attention when Guy explained how it works. "From Will arises the Self. All that I am-" The air rifle paps as I aim it at his eyes. He doesn't react at all, doesn't even blink. "-I will to be."

"Warning, will intensifying." One of the snakes starts to shimmer and fade.

Come on! Make him mine!

"Identity Theft in progress. Five percent complete."

"I am."

Rays of green light burst through the orange cocoon. Aargh, I'm going to lose. I could… No, I'm not simulating a plane crash here to distract him, there's no way that Blume or Larfleeze would know to do that. Cracks form between the rays and-.

"Identity Theft interrupted by will pulse. Do you wish to resume?"

Darn it.

Jordan glows a brilliant green, both inside and out. He nods to his audience, looking pleased with himself. "And that's how it's done."

Guy nods. "Good job, Hal. Now let's see you do it while firing a railgun construct."

Some of the 'pleased' leaks away. "Well how about you show me how it's done first?"

"Lantern Jordan? That's what we do out in the desert. Gu-." Guy glances at me with his left eyebrow raised. Still annoyed, then. "Lantern Gardner can simultaneously fly, protect himself from assimilation, shield himself from Crumbler rounds and fire Crumbler rounds back at me. He has a little trouble with short FTL hops but aside from that I can't fault his Lantern to Lantern combat abilities."

Guy grins, spreading his arms out to the side and makes beckoning gestures with his hands. "Heh-hey, check me out."

"What precisely do you mean by 'short FTL hops'?"

"Should I be calling you 'Lantern Green Man' or 'Lantern Man'?"

"Uxorians do not generally have individual names. In my language my name just indicates that I am a male member of the Green Lantern Corps, a 'Man of the Green'. I've never really thought about how it should be parsed by people from cultures with multi-part names. Which sounds better to your ears?"

"Lantern Green Man it is. What I mean, is.. this." The room flickers as I move from where I'm standing to a position in the air next to the entrance to Red Tornado's room. "I can perform-" Flicker. "-short ranged-" Flicker. "-FTL jumps in order-" Flicker. "-to evade attack and improve-" Flicker back to the start. "-my position. I haven't got the hang of using the ring to phase quite yet. On the other hand-" I generate a railgun turret pointing at each of them, don my heavy power armour and generate multi-layered construct armour over the top of it. "-I've pretty much got the basics down." I look at Jordan. "No giant green boxing gloves here, thank you very much."

Guy grins at Jordan. "Oh no he didn't!"

Jordan takes a deep breath. "It makes sense to use familiar objects for construct attacks-."

"When you're just starting out, sure. But you've been doing this a while now. I mean, Guy hasn't used construct-armour that looks like American football armour in… Days, at least."

"Oh, you are not off my shit-list enough t'say that."

"Lantern Chance, I think the problem is that -having missed out on having Lantern Kilowog shout at you for months on end- you aren't used to sparring. It's not a 'real' fight so in your head.. you don't give it your all."

"If you wanna make a real fight of it, Orange, then be my guest."

"Thank you, but I don't fight against other Lanterns inside a mountain whose sides are the only thing preventing Blume from discovering me." I shake my left hand, causing Fatty to fall out.

"Food now?"

"See the bloke in the red coat, with the guns?"

"Uhhay?"

"You can eat him."

"Yay!" Jack draws his fusion pistol and shoots Fatty in the mouth. Fatty sucks the energy ball down and then belches.

"Crumblers are all that will stop him. Anti-assimilation techniques are your only defence. Think you can focus now?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
11:49 GMT -5

"I… I assert my individuality!"

"Identity Theft interrupted by will pulse. Do you wish to resume?"

"Well done Lantern Green Man." As far as I can read Uxorian facial expression he looks pleased with the outcome as well. "At least Blume won't be able to ow!" I open and close my hand as the Praexis Demon that just returned to the ring shares its experiences with me. I stare at Guy, who is tapping his right foot, staring at the ceiling and whistling. "Thank you Lantern Gardner for establishing that Construct Lanterns haven't somehow become immune to Crumbler rounds."

He looks at me with an expression of pantomimed innocence. "I dunno what you're talkin' about."

"You're the only one here aside from me who can do filament control."

"You should be glad these guys are such quick learners." The tone says sincerity. The eyes say something rather different.

"Okay, well done everyone. Why don't we have a break, recharge our rings, get something to eat. Reconvene at thirteen hundred local time?" Nod, or other affirmative gestures as appropriate. Jordan and the visiting Greenies begin heading back to the zeta tube.

"Lantern Chance, could I borrow you for a moment?"

He turns away from the others. "Sure. Hey, how many o'those Crumbler things you got?"

"Several hundred in my subspace pocket."

"Something like that could come in pretty handy back on Hellhole."

"I'm sure it could."

Guy smirks. "Careful there, Paul. Jackie's ring usually only works on his homeworld. The Guardians had t' give him special dispensation t' come here."

Jack looks rather proud of that fact. "What I do ain't pretty, but I'm the best there is at it."

Did he just mangle a Wolverine quote? "Guy? Kal-El? Would you mind giving us a moment?"

Kal-El looks at me askance, but nods anyway. "I'll tell Hawkwoman to recess the class. I'm sure they could use a break too."

"Thank you, sir."

"Ah. Yeah, I'll… Go find the kitchen or somthin'. Hey, Paul?"

"Yes?"

There's a flash of green and he's gone. Ring? Hah! Getting there! Kal-El looks at the space Guy had occupied for a moment before rising into the air and flying down the corridor leading to the classroom.

Lantern Chance nods. "So. You want something you don't want them to know about."

I hold up my left index finger and project a soundproof bubble shield around us. Then I take an anti-eavesdropping charm out of my pocket and hold it out to him. He frowns slightly before taking it from me. "No, not really. I just want to give them plausible deniability. If I wanted to avoid detection completely I'd have a third party telepath transmit a message to you when you're off duty."

"Your species isn't supposed to be telepathic."

"It's not a common trait, but there are a few Human telepaths."

"Sheesh. I got so used to my ring being right about stuff the whole time I got outta the habit of questioning it. Anything else not on here I should know about?"

"Did they just… Not update your database or something? Jordan, Stewart and Gardner's reports should have contained this stuff even if Abin Sur and Starkaor didn't spend enough time here to notice."

He shrugs. "My homeworld's a warzone. I don't have time to spend just flicking through the database."

"Okay. Um. A small subset of Humans -a good deal less than one percent of the population of six billion- manifest unusual abilities. These people are referred to as 'metahumans' and can end up being able to do just about anything, though an individual's abilities are usually fairly limited."

"So you've got telepaths, people my ring thinks are bonded Aurakles, people made of some sort of weird plastic, people who can breathe under water-."

"That last one was the result of magic engineering. And.. the.. middle two, the metahuman ability was more likely to be the ability to survive being exposed to the things that gave them those abilities. Plastic Man wasn't always plastic."

He starts assembling a new roll up. "Back home, there's a bunch of different species and I don't always know what they can do, but the ring could tell me. This place… You never know what you're getting into. Anyway, what was it you wanted for a supply of Crumblers?"

"There's a man, his name is Alan Scott. About seventy local years ago he got hold of a damaged Green Lantern ring and equally damaged personal lantern. The Guardians didn't send someone in to take it back because it was off the network, but the basic functions still worked."

"Okay. And?"

"Alan's an old man now. When I arrived on Earth, he gave me his lantern and… Well, it's difficult to describe precisely. In essence, his own body is partially a construct. In theory, if he kept his ring charged he could go on pretty much forever. As it is he'd be lucky to see out the year. "

"He can't have mine."

"Not permanently, no. And after this I imagine that the Guardians expect you to go right back to… Hellhole, you said?"

"Its actual name is 'Garnet'. Hellhole's just more descriptive." A green flame appears on the signet of his ring and he lights his cigarette with it. "So, you want me to let him recharge off my lantern and in return… You give me as many Crumblers as I can carry?"

"Maybe not quite that many, but that's the general idea."

"You've got three Green Lanterns here already. Why not just ask them?"

"They've been forbidden from doing so. And I imagine that the same general ordinance applies to our other guests. You, on the other hand-."

"Aren't covered by the rules." He exhales a cloud of surprisingly white smoke. I suppose there was no reason to assume that he was smoking tobacco. "Guardians excluded me from all that drok when they let me use lethal force. Which means I'm the only guy in the Corps who can do this, 'cause there sure as hell aren't any others like me."

"My alternative is a smash and grab on Apokolips and hope they kept some as trophies."

He thinks for a moment, taking another drag. "I'd take the deal -though you better believe you'll be giving me a good price- but after this is over I'm not going to be coming back. Unless a Construct-Lantern turns up in my Sector I'll be stuck on the planet again."

"I'm planning to get a new one built for him in about five months. I just need to keep him topped up until then. One full recharge should do it."

"Alright. Your money, or other fungible assets. Let's say… Ten thousand rounds?"

"I don't have ten thousand rounds, and I don't want to take the chance that someone on your homeworld gets the design. I'll offer you two hundred." He sneers. "And I'll throw in a freeze ray."

He waves his right hand dismissively. "Those things are never worth it. Never enough water vapour in the air to stop someone-."

"This is an Earth freeze ray. It fires a beam that reduces the target to zero degrees Kelvin."

"Heh, wipe that drok off your tongue or you'll start tasting it."

I take a freeze ray and an apple out of subspace. I attach the freeze ray to a construct targeter and pass him the apple. "One Earth fruit. Would you confirm that it's room temperature?" He rolls it around his hand for a moment before nodding. I take it back, drop my construct barrier and throw it into the air. At the apex of its flight I trigger the freeze ray. The beam strikes it dead centre and it crashes back to the ground, shattering on the floor. I smile at him. "Satisfied?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
12:13 GMT -5

"I think we might need to get a larger kitchen."

Robin nods. "I think you're right." Ten of our team mates plus Hawkwoman, Superman and Guy in our not all that large kitchen at once is not a great idea. Robin glances at Jack. "How come you didn't go with the others?"

He shrugs. "Not like I know any of them either. I spent about seven minutes on Oa total just after I got my ring. Apart from that, never left my homeworld."

M'gann uses telekinesis to valiantly rescue what's left of the bread from Wallace's super sandwich construction area and floats it over the crowd to the work surface on the opposite side of the kitchen. He turns back from talking to Zatanna to find that he's buttered lettuce. The Atlanteans are trying to get to the fridge but their way is blocked by Lantern Gardner, who's rummaging in the cupboard above it. Since he's only been in this kitchen once he clearly has no idea where anything is. Kon wants to get to the microwave but Kal-El is too close to it for comfort so he's stuck with a tub of frozen lasagne in his hand and from the way Missus Hol just grimaced I think Rob knocked her wing again.

"So, how did the planning exercise go?"

He smirks. "We spent three hours going over your plan for attacking Lantern Blume."

"How bad?"

"Some of it wasn't terrible. You know. For a first attempt."

Artemis rolls her eyes, picks Guy up- "Hey, what-?" -around the waist and carries him out of the way. Garth lunges for the suddenly available space and yanks open the fridge door before his path can be blocked again. Maybe we need some sort of lunch rota? Usually people just eat when they get hungry so things don't get this crowded. Dinner's a lot better organised. "Oh, hey Paul. Chance." Artemis puts him down and he steps away from her, straightening his jacket, before turning and smiling at her. "You been eating yer greens there?"

"Ah, mooore using an alchemical muscle enhancement formula. But I try and eat right too."

I take two plates out of subspace, each with a baked potato, a small salad, a knife and a fork. "I suggest avoiding the scrum."

"Thanks Paul." Artemis takes a plate and makes her way over to the table.

Guy looks less impressed. "What, no crab?"

"I've eaten crab once in my life, Guy. It was a weird tasting mush I've never wanted to revisit."

"You ain't had crab done right 'til you've eaten Baldamore Blue. Tell you what, if Blume don't kill us all I'll take the whole gang back home so you can marvel at my city's culinary brilliance."

"It's the way you can say such bullshit with such utter conviction that always impresses me."

"We can probably find a lime for you to squeeze on yours."

We stare at each other for a moment before we both chuckle and look away. Jack takes the opportunity to take hold of the plate with his left hand and pick the potato up with his right. "What is this?"

"That's a potato. It's a starchy tuber. Oven baked, so the skin's slightly-" He bites into one end and chews for about a second before realising that it's still oven hot and then doing the not-touching-the-sides-of-the-mouth-dance. I take pity and take a glass of water out of subspace. He puts the potato back down on the plate then grabs it and gulps down a mouthful.

Guy smiles at him. "You alright there, Jack?"

Jack swallows, then hesitates for a moment. "Yeah." He nods. "Tastes okay, actually. You make this with your ring or what?"

"I like cooking. Sometimes I'll just spend a day baking the same thing again and again until I get it perfect. "

"'Cause that's not crazy at all."

"As opposed to doing it once and not recording what went wrong? Anyway, when I get something down I stick whatever it is in subspace storage until I need it." Hmm. "If you like, we could probably include some fresh fruit and vegetables with those railgun rounds you wanted. I don't know how good our stuff is for your species…"

"Eh, maybe. See how long the Guardians let me stick around." Glass of water in one hand and plate in the other he walks over to the table and sits down opposite Artemis.

Robin gazes after him. "Of course, if the Green Lanterns start taking themselves out with baked potatoes we might need to rethink our plans. How did the training go?"

"They are now all capable of resisting assimilation and firing construct railguns. Lanterns Tui and Jordan can even do both at once."

"Might have longer than we thought to plan this." Robin calls up his arm computer. "Given how fast he was going we expected Blume to reach Earth some time next week, but it looks like he's stopped."

Odd. "He's not eating Voyager or anything, is he?"

"No, don't think so." He switches to a solar system view with Blume's position marked, just past Jupiter's orbit. "As far as I know there's nothing-."

"Oh yes there bloody is!" Ring, check for me. "That's where I keep the metal I've taken out of the asteroid belt."

Robin raises his right eyebrow. "Is that a problem? Does having more money make him stronger or something?"

"No, it's… I think that before he met Larfleeze he used to hibernate once he got a certain amount. It's just really inconvenient." Is it a problem? "I suppose… It makes Larfleeze slightly more likely to come here, but honestly..? It shouldn't matter."

The Atlanteans walk past us with plates carrying some sort of stuffed flatbread. Kal-El takes his soup bowl out of the microwave and moves away, allowing Kon to step in.

Guy nods at Robin. "So what's the plan, kid?"

"We realized that since we've got no idea what senses Blume's species has, creeping up from behind wasn't going to work. Not reliably, anyway."

"Even if I have my power armour phased?"

"There are ways to detect it, and if the Orange Central Power Battery came with a Maltusian database-."

"Yeah, you could be right."

"Plus, we found the whole 'cloning Truggs' to be pretty creepy."

"It wouldn't be conscious."

"Wait, what?" Guy looks from Robin to me. "You were gunna clone the guy?"

"I wanted Blume to be able to compare DNA samples-."

"Which don't matter because he can't scan you anyway."

"So what you're saying is, rather than having a fake fight-."

"You'll be fighting the Green Lanterns yourself."

"I know that I can cut off whole limbs and leave them behind, but that doesn't mean that I particularly want to."

"I know. Ideally, you'd leave one of your rings there as proof-."

"No."

"We figured. And it makes more sense for one of the Green Lanterns to destroy Blume than it does for you to do it. Just in case he can detect what fired the railgun rounds."

"I… Suppose. And.. one of the Green Lanterns does a rapid FTL transition so I'm not there after my 'death'? The only one of them who knows how to do that is..."

Guy grins. "Which city has the best food in the world again?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
19:52 GMT -5

Jack looks away from checking over his pistols for a moment to glance at Teekl. "Hey, how come we didn't practise with that.. four legged construct thing?"

Teekl looks up at him and makes the most harmless-innocent face I've ever seen her wear. "Maow?"

"Because I was fairly confident you could beat the Praexis Demon, and pretty confident Teekl would eat you."

Jack actually looks slightly pained by the implication. "Eh?"

"She was the familiar of a Lord of Chaos before I assimilated her. She's not an animal, she has Hu-. Um, humanoid equivalent intelligence. She can't use constructs herself but she can modify her own body and phase. And she likes hunting things."

Jack doesn't look like he believes me. Teekl rolls on her back and waves her legs in the air in a kittenish display. Oh, she's baiting him.

"Okay everyone, the probes have confirmed it." We both look around as Lantern Jordan starts his pre-engagement speech. "Blume's moving again, which means we're a go." After eating my entire metal reserve. Bastard thing. Maybe it won't have been able to fully digest it before we destroy it? "Remember, after Orange Lantern 'dies' we're going to try talking it into leaving first. Our lives will all be a lot easier without a bunch of Construct-Lanterns all over the place and Larfleeze is the only one who can call them back."

A last minute addition to the plan I'm really not happy about. Oh, sure, Larfleeze can project… Larfleeze could project through his Construct-Lanterns in the comic. I don't know if he can here. Buuuut even if he can't, he must have some way of keeping in touch. We can still destroy Blume to send the message back.

Jordan holds his right hand forwards and slightly up. There's a faint wave of green as his personal lantern materialises from subspace. I notice the other Green Lanterns are following suit, bringing out their personal lanterns for a recharge.

"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight."

Lantern Tui remains silent, light simply flowing into her ring without a verbal trigger. Jack slouches slightly. The Green Man, Guy and Saarek begin their oaths as well. Have to say, said as a group it loses something when they're all different.

"Bring light to the ring,
I charge thee--unveil every evil around me!"

"On worlds afar or scenes at home,
wherever the cause should make me roam,"

"…that evil's dark can ne'er demean.
The light of justice must be seen…"

"Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power--Green Lantern's light!"

A beam of green light flows from Jordan's lantern into his ring, causing it to sparkle brilliantly. I turn my head to Jack. "Not joining in?"

"I like to go last. Makes it more memorable." He clears his throat loudly. "You ready?"

"Blow me away."

"You who are wicked, evil, and mean,
I'm the nastiest creep you've ever seen!"

He grins, eyes wide, clearly not taking it even slightly seriously. From the expression on the other Lanterns' faces they haven't heard it before and certainly don't approve. I think Guy's muttering something.

"Come one, come all; put up a fight;
I'll pound your butts with Green Lantern's light.
Yowza!"

"Recharge complete."

That's a… Rather sexy ring voice. Jack continues ignoring the looks his fellow Greenies are giving him. "Hey, you got one?"

I float my own personal lantern up from the ground and take hold of it with both hands. I could use the Ophidian version, but if we're trying to convince Blume that I'm just a regular orange ring user… I'm not sure the mountain's wards could take her getting involved.

Let them come anyway!

Not yet, Ophidian. Soon, but not yet.

"This is my cause, this is my fight,
Shine through the void with orange light,
I've claimed all within my sight,
To keep what is mine, that is my right."

Orange energy flows from the lantern, into the rings and up my arms until I'm standing in the middle of an orange bonfire. Ophidian, that's not helping.

"Charge complete. Two hundred percent normal maximum power available."

"Nice. Where'd you get the second ring?"

"Lantern John Stewart's finger." I put my lantern back down and then float off the floor. "Think you can fight well enough to make this look even slightly realistic?"

"I've been fighting my whole life."

"Right then. I'll be in Sydney." I fly directly for the zeta tube. "You got the finger?" He nods and raises his middle one at me. "Oh, har-"

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

20th February
10:55 GMT +10

"-har." Beach house. Good place for changing. Power armour mark… Four..? Phase shifter, stealth generator, molecular reinforcement field, flight belt, backup flight belt, air purification system and combat virtual intelligence. Basically proper non-ring user power armour. Or a strangely man-shaped spacecraft. I sigh from inside my work of military beauty. And I'm going to have to wreck it. What a blasted waste. I activate the phasing and stealth systems and fly up through the roof.

Looks like the beginning of a nice day here in Australia. Early Autumn's my favourite time of year. Hmm. I'm not using a great deal of ring power to do this but Blume should be able to pick me up. A thought and the armour starts displaying his location as relayed from the Justice League probes. Blume's just over the horizon from me at the moment. Usually I'd just transition but since I'm trying to look like a beginner… I accelerate out across the Tasman Sea. My top speed is now a good bit higher than what caused me to lose control when I first started flying with Diana, though unlike Superman I can't react to things that happen suddenly at that speed. Not without ring assistance, anyway.

No response from Blume, yet. I leave the stealth system running and create the large orange barrier around me that I need for serious speed. Gives away my approximate position but not my exact position. Mach one, mach two, mach three… No booms yet. Working properly, then. I angle up slightly, gaining altitude. The Greenies should start intercepting me as I reach the edge of the atmosphere. From there I'll be using some of the less efficient forms of FTL on the ring's database to get somewhere Blume can't help but spot me. Unless he just comes in for a look on his own initiative. I don't think that'll scare people. They must be used to me making weird constructs by now.

Will detected.

I don't try and look round, letting the armour's HUD mark the position for me. That should be Jack now. A good distance-

A bolt of green light blasts past me.

-away. Hmm. I've got plenty of power to play with… I create particle beam turret constructs and fire at him. At this range single shot slower than light weapons are a matter of luck more than anything… He evades with little difficulty and a few seconds later the beams strike the Pacific Ocean far below us.

Will detected.

More Green Lanterns on course to intercept. Right then. Let's have a little fun.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th February
01:07 GMT

A railgun construct appears right alongside Lantern Jordan and teaches him the folly of using a kite shield in space. I'm only using titanium rounds so as to preserve the Crumbler surprise for Lantern Blume but long hours of shooting them at Guy means that I know exactly how much force to apply to bruise someone through an environmental shield. Jordan lurches away from the attack, curling up and surrounding himself in a bubble shield. A second later a green beam from Lantern Tui blasts my construct apart and a wave of green from Lantern Green Man destroys the rest of my trailing filaments.

They can learn!

A freeze ray splashes off my construct armour as Jack tries out his new pistol again. Only works on matter, Jack. I expand the glow around my left arm before stabbing it in his direction, firing a wide beam of orange light. He evades with a short transition before retaliating with… I'm not sure, some sort of gun construct. Sub light, Jack. Tut tut. Basically worthless in these conditions.

I bend gravity around me in a genuine Star Trek style warp jump, leaping closer to Lantern Blume's position. He's definitely moving and he's accelerated since we started but he doesn't exactly appear to be in a rush. He shouldn't be able to scan me directly but since Teekl and the Praexis can see me fine with their eyes I'm going to assume that he's spotted all of the light flashes. We're getting to the point in the exercise where I have to contact him by ring. And I can't check in with Guy first just in case he can pick up on that.

I dump fragmentation bombs out of subspace into my emergence area and continue in the direction of my old space-based piggybank. Might as well try and get a look at the damage he's done. Maybe he's so sluggish because he's glutted himself? Or maybe he just can't be bothered. How afraid is Larfleeze of regular Green Lanterns? No idea. He didn't seem to be significantly afraid of them at any time during the comics… But maybe that had something to do with the Controllers breaking the truce? Right, two light-seconds. I fire a series of laser pulses back towards the area I warped to, followed by a smattering of railgun shots. Pure luck if I hit anythi-. There's a flash as the bombs detonate. Really? One of them was dumb enough to play follow-my-warp? Honestly Kilowog, when my year's up we're going to have a chat about what you've been teaching these people.

We've left the Earth far behind now. Without the rings or my VI's visual assistance I'd have no idea where it was. Unnerving, rea-. I swiftly evade as green energy pulses blast past me. Sub-light attacks, guys… I drop my construct armour and reactivate invisibility and phasing, warp again and drop bombs again. Come on, don't depress me again. Okay, I can just about see Blume unaided and he.. shouldn't be able to see me. Deep breath. Ring, open a channel to Lantern Blume.

Please specify-.

I hold out my left arm in Blume's direction.

That one there.

Compliance.

No immediate response. Now, how should a desperate Orange Light neophyte sound? "Oi! You! Head-thing! Make yourself useful!"

There's a very slight change in how Blume positions himself. His mouth tentacles wiggle slightly. Did he hear-?

"Thief!"

Yes. Yes he did.

"I hunger for you!"

"You're food. You got eaten. You don't get hungry." I warp a little closer and his tentacles all yank towards the place I just appeared in. Mov-ing. He swivels around but I've already evaded. No constructs or energy blasts yet. No Larfleeze either. Would he recognise me?

Still moving around him I drop neural chaff generators out of subspace-. Another jerk of the mouth tendrils. He felt that. This time his mouth opens and orange light spills out. I rush to get out of the way… The chaff generators in the affected area are swiftly drawn into his mouth. He isn't opening it fully, but if he were? I could stand there with room left over above and below me. Blume's head part is about thirteen metres tall but he appears to be able to open his mouth to about six or seven metres. Looks like he doesn't have jaw bones. Okay, ring, monitor his response and detonate the chaff generators.

Compliance. All remaining neural chaff generators detonated. No noticeable response from Lantern Blume.

He's an alien with no organic brain. That was really a hope-attack more than anything. Still, it would have been nice…

"Show yourself, thief!"

"This isn't your ring! ISN'T! I got it, I'm KEEPING it!"

"Thieeeeeeef!"

Yes, this about sets the tone for Orange Lantern communication.

"My shiny metal! Where's my shiny metal?! What did you do with my metal, stupid head?!"

"I am Blume, God of Hunger!"

"You are Stupid Head, God of Heads! What did you do with my metal?"

Blume wheels around once more, spraying orange light around him. Dodge, pull back a little, dodge-.

Will detected.

Oh, thank goodness. And no explosions. I don't really want to show myself at this juncture so I'll let the Greenies handle this bit. They form a small cluster about a kilometre from Blume and Jordan generates a large Green sigil.

"Orange Lantern, your kind are bound by treaty with the Guardians of the Universe-" Heh, 'universe', right. "-to stay within the borders of the Vega Systems. Get the hell back there right now."

"Thieeeeeff!"

I drop stealth and phasing right behind him, armouring myself and shoving my hands forwards. Guy, you better be ready… "Thief this, Stupid Head." Destruction! The orange beam blasts from my hands, hitting Blume just above the collar.

"Raaaaaaaghh!" Blume lurches in space for a moment before wheeling around, eyes and mouth glowing brightly. Um. Okay guys, whenever-.

A beam of green energy hits me right in the chest. That's a bit stronger than is strictly necessary. Guess, ah… Guess Jordan's a bit annoyed about that railgun thing. I form a weak shield construct and block the follow up green light pulses, only for Jack to shoot me in the back. Oh, come on, there's no way he's going to believe-. That's a giant boxing gl- okay that actually hurt. Shield construct's gone, armour construct's cracking… I generate some construct missiles and launch them at the Greenies. Micro-transitions and a flare of green… Oh, come on! Okay, boring old railguns it is then. Maybe.. filaments aren't always the correct ow! Okay, he's taking the piss with these boxing gloves now. Just because this whole thing relies on me not fighting back effectively doesn't prove gahh!

Okay, enough. I set my construct armour to flicker. Blume's.. pretty much just watching, though that could be because of the green wall Lanterns Tui and Green Man have set up.

"Last chance to surrender, criminal."

"Eat a dick, Jordan!"

Hah! He actually looks shocked as I open up with orange lightning, forcing him to shield himself, giving Jack the shot. Simple green bolt this time and I drop my construct armour. Finger at the ready! "No! If I go down, I'm taking you with me!" I radiate orange beams out in all directions and use the brilliant light to transition myself to outside of my armour. Jack should detect-. He just froze it to minus two hundred and seventy three point one five degrees Celsius. And that's a plasma torpedo launcher. The ring shows me him grinning as he aims it. Okay Guy, timing is everything…

"The thief is mine!" Blume batters at the green barrier which begins to fail under his assault. Interesting that he doesn't seem to be attacking it directly, rather he's just ramming into it like a goldfish head butting its bowl… "Mine!"

The plasma missile strikes my armour and detonates in a brilliant explosion of energy. Immediately I drop my attack beams and release the finger. Okay Guy, you've got about-

Alert! Involuntary FTL transition.

19th February
20:11 GMT -5

-five.. seconds.

I look around as we hit the water, Guy's construct dragging me into the mountain's hangar. Back in Happy Harbour. We surface and he throws me onto the shore. I land and remove the rings.

"Did it work?"

He floats out of the water after me, removes the residual water and then shrugs. "Let's get upstairs and find out."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th February
20:13 GMT -5

"…best if y'don't use the Ophidian or do any real high-end stuff anyway."

I nod, arms folded across my chest as Guy flies us both into the training room. Slightly frustrating thing about not being a member of the Justice League is that -as long as it's for mission related reasons- he can order me not to use the rings. We already know that Blume can't detect me in here... At least when I'm limiting myself to only regular power levels… "And this has nothing to do with me having to spend a day bringing veteran Green Lanterns up to scratch at all?"

Guy grins. "Would I?"

My team mates, Kal-El and Missus Hol are already watching the holo screen in the middle of the room. Most of the people facing away from us look around as we fly in and Guy puts me down. It's a little hard to judge but I think that Blume is pretty much exactly where I left, holding a chunk of what I assume to be my armour in a chin tentacle.

"Supes." Guy nods at him. "Hawkgirl. How's it goin'?"

"So far so good." Kal-El presses something and a smaller screen appears, showing a zoom of Truggs' finger. It's directly in front of Blume at eye level and he's staring at it intently. "He's ignoring the other Green Lanterns but it looks like he's taken the bait. Can you patch into the other Lanterns' rings so we can hear what they're saying?"

Guy makes a fist with his right hand and holds it up. "No problem." His ring sparks and-.

"…still in violation of your agreement with the Guardians. Go back to Vega or we will remove you by force."

Orange light lances from Blume's eyes and disintegrates Truggs' finger. Ah, I already have full scans and tissue samples from it. "You will not tell me what to do! I am a god! I will travel to your planet and you will feed me gahhr-!"

Green Man and Jack just shot it in the mouth with a wide beam of green energy. Jordan shakes his head. "You don't make policy decisions, Blume. Put me through to Larfleeze or we'll treat the treaty as rescinded and take all his 'shinies' back."

"YOU IMPUDENT-!" Blume suddenly freezes, as if every muscle spasmed at once. Orange light begins precipitating out of his mouth, eyes and the orange sigil on his collar, coalescing into the form of a humanoid torso.

"So." Missus Hol's eyes narrow slightly. "That's Larfleeze."

"You have no right to stop me! My precious rings were stolen! They're my property!"

"You told the Guardians that you'd stay in Vega if they let you keep your Central Power Battery. If you can't keep hold of your rings then that's your problem."

I can see Larfleeze's nostrils flare as he snorts, his head shifting from side to side and his eyes darting around at the Green Lanterns surrounding him. Oh, that's right, he's probably never seen them before. Does he.. think they're some sort of strange new Guardian?

"No! I said I'd stay! Blume… Blume took his own initiative!"

"Dooon't give me that, Larfleeze. Blume doesn't have any initiative. And anyway-" Jordan points at the remains of my armour. "-the guy who took your stuff's already dead."

"I didn't get my ring back."

"Well, that's too bad. You shoot a Lantern, sometimes rings get destroyed. Do you want us to come to Okaara and shoot some more rings?"

Larfleeze's construct body leans forwards, the end of his snout stopping under a metre away from Jordan. "You don't have the power to take my things!"

"Oh don't I?" Jordan leans to the side a little. "How about we put that to the test?" Larfleeze snorts again. "I say I can destroy Lantern Blume over there without even using my ring. If I can do that, there's no way you could stop me."

Larfleeze's eyes narrow. "You're lying."

"Really?" Jordan holds up his right hand. "Guardians made some improvements to these rings since you last saw them. You've got no idea what we can do." He leans forwards slightly. "None of your property is on Earth anymore. Do the smart thing, Larfleeze."

Larfleeze's eyes dart around again. After a moment he appears to reach a conclusion, nodding to himself. He pulls back to his original position and raises his right hand. "I can't feel the ring. I can't feel the Ophidian. Maybe you're right." He nods again. "OR MAYBE I NEED YOUR RINGS TOO! BLUME-!" Blume jerks back to life and the Green Lanterns brighten their auras as they prepare to resist assimilation. "-CONSUME THEM!"

Behind Blume, Jack and Lantern Tui form railgun constructs as Jordan lazily shakes his head, makes a pistol shape with his right fore and middle fingers and 'fires' it at Blume. A second later Blume's construct body shakes and shimmers as a barrage of Crumbler rounds slam into it.

"Raaaaaagh!"

"Goodbye Larfleeze. Remember this."

Blume pops in what looks like a shower of orange dust. Jack and Lantern Tui drop their constructs immediately as the Larfleeze construct looks around at the now-evaporating tether which anchored him to Blume. "No! That's impossible!" His attention switches back to Lantern Jordan. "You're impossible!"

"Yeah, that's what Carol says. Don't come back, Larfleeze."

Larfleeze opens his broken-tusked mouth wide and throws up his arms as he evaporates from the waist. "Aaaaaaaaaaagh-!"

And gone.

The Green Lanterns stay on station for a moment, auras still glowing.

"Hey Hal, thought you said bullshit wasn't a job-skill?" I look around and see Guy holding his ring near his mouth, grinning all the while.

Kal-El gives him a disappointed look before pressing another button. "Green Lantern, report."

"He's gone, Superman. I'm not detecting any other orange power rings anywhere near the Sol system."

"Good work. What about the other Construct-Lanterns who were in other Sectors?"

"We won't know what that means for the other Construct-Lanterns for a while yet. Green Man?"

"I will go to ensure their return to Vega, whether willingly or-" He creates a railgun construct. "-otherwise. Now that we know they are not truly alive there is no reason to hold back."

Lantern Tui floats a little closer. "The rest of us should return to Oa. Now that we understand the underlying methodology, the Guardians will want us to demonstrate how to resist orange light attacks to as many other Lanterns as possible."

You're welcome. Oh dear, was that an order? Is Jack-?

"Hey, ah..." Jack floats a up to Lantern Tui. "I'd like to stick around for a bit. Make sure I got the whole.. green.. glow.. thing down."

Lantern Tui narrows her eyes slightly. "Lantern Chance, the Guardians only let you leave your world because it was under threat. Now that threat is gone-."

"We don't know it's gone gone. They could come back whenever they feel like it. And anyway, the Guardians ain't gunna let me teach anyone anything. Hellhole's going to be just as much of a frag-pile if I wait a day as if I go back right now."

Lantern Tui glances at Lantern Jordan, who shrugs. "Very well." She raises her ring. "I'm extending your permission for one Earth day. Automatic recall-."

"Yeah, yeah."

Kal-El nods. "Green Lantern, we'll see you back on the Watchtower." He presses a button to deactivate the holo screen, then looks up at me. "Give it a couple of days, then you can start using your rings outside again. Everyone else, dismissed."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th February
08:21 GMT -5

Alan sighs heavily and raises his ring.

"You who are wicked, evil, and mean,
I'm the.. nastiest.. creep you've.. ever.. seen."

He closes his eyes for a moment and gives his head a tiny shake.

"Come one. Come all. Put up a fight.
I'll…"

He gives Jack a withering look, then rolls his eyes.

"'Pound your butts' with Green Lantern's light.”

He waits. Jack's personal lantern does nothing. He gives Jack a puzzled look.

Jack shrugs. "You ain't finished it yet."

"Oh for God's s-. Yawzah." Nothing happens. "Yohzah?"

"No, no. Like this: Yowza!"

"Y…" Alan rolls his eyes again. "Yowza!" A brilliant stream of green light blasts forth and pours into Alan's ring, causing it to sparkle and gleam.

Jack regards it for a moment, stroking his chin. "I ain't ever seen a ring like that before. How old yah think it is?"

"I really have no idea." Alan's looking better. We tried getting his ring to infuse him with its remaining power directly before he recharged and it seems to have rejuvenated him at least a little. He doesn't look as good as he did when I first arrived, but he looks better than he has since just after New Year. It won't last, of course, but hopefully that should tide him over until I get back from Maltus. "It didn't come with any sorta database, and I haven't been able to contact the previous owner for the service-" The lantern shuts down. "-history."

"Feeling better?"

He nods. "Yeah, I'd say so. Thank you, Lantern Chance."

"Just hold'n up my end of the deal." He picks up his lantern in his right hand and returns it to subspace. "Ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"How long you been a Lantern?"

"Well… I, ah, I haven't been on active service for years. If you want to know how long it's been since I first got my ring, it's about.. seventy years now."

Jack purses his lips and nods. Looks like he's impressed. "I asked my ring once. Told me that Green Lanterns don't usually make it past four years on the job. If you're not active now, how long did you do it for?"

"Twenty five years." He tilts his head to the side. "Depending on what you count as 'full time', I suppose. I had a life to live outside of being Green Lantern."

Jack frowns. "Didn't this Sector's old Green Lantern die a little while ago?"

I nod. "Lantern Starkaor died eight years ago and Lantern Sur died eleven years ago."

His frown deepens. "So, Jordan and Guy and that other guy-?"

"Were called up in preference to Alan."

Alan shakes his head. "Are you still going on about that? I'm not sore about it."

"I'll be sore about it on your behalf, then. Harold Jordan got his ring because he was the closest capable person to where Lantern Sur crashed. Lantern Sur was dying and he wanted to be sure that he had time to explain what was going on to his successor before Legion arrived."

"Jordan got lucky?"

"However he got the ring, Hal's done a great job with it. And he did pass the evaluation criteria; I durn near tripped over mine."

"Yes."

"And Guy got his when Starkaor died?"

"Yes. Which was bullshit as well." That earns me a frown from Alan. "Pardon my language."

"That wasn't why I was frowning, Paul. I thought you and Guy were getting on okay?"

"We are. I mean… Look, I like Guy, but I'd be shocked if he was actually the most strong willed heroically inclined person in the entire Sector. Your existing connection to the green light should have made you show up like a bonfire in the dark! Even if you weren't active in two thousand, plus… It didn't exactly escape my notice that he's from the same planet, country and gender as his predecessor. And so's Lantern Stewart."

"America does encourage individualism, and we've probably got the longest tradition of super heroes of anywhere on Earth."

"Jack, how did you get recruited?"

"The guy before me… Think it was a guy anyway… His name was Pathavim Seth-Ottarak. Green Lanterns don’t last long on Hellhole-."

"On where?"

"My homeworld. Its real name's Garnet, but everyone calls it Hellhole. Anyway, they'd had a bunch of them die trying to fix it, so Pathavim told his ring to find someone who could cope with the place. Me. Wouldn't exactly say I've managed to clean up the place, but at least it isn't on fire the whole time anymore."

"Place like that must be a lotta work."

Jack shrugs. "It's what I'm used to." He looks around Alan's living room and out through the net curtained windows. "It's places like this that weird me out. I haven't heard a gunshot or a scream since I got here."

"Plenty of places where you can, if you really want."

"Nah. You people still use chemical-explosive slug-throwers. Only thing worse than no sounds is wrong sounds." He checks the freeze ray strapped to his leg. "Got the ammo for me?"

I take four cases out of subspace and deposit them on the floor. "Fifty each. Don't use them-" He crouches down and opens a case, carefully checking the contents over. "-all at once."

"Don't worry about it. I'm all about focused application of force."

"Are you sure the Guardians won't get on your case about this?"

Jack takes a Crumbler out of its padding and looks at it closely. "They prefer pretending I don't exist. I get tolerated 'cause I do the job, but they're not going to look too closely into anything I do. They even send the other guy, Larvox, to keep an eye on me sometimes."

"Even so…"

"I don't send in reports and I don't think you're going to tell them." He puts the round back, closes the case and looks up at us. "Well? Are you?"

"No, I wasn't planning to."

"Then there's no problem. You know…" He looks at me. "I'd have gone down to fifty. Once I'd checked out the freeze ray. I don't like screwing people over."

"They don't cost me all that much. Though… While you're here…"

"Yeah? What?"

I pull Stewart's ex-ring off my right ring finger. "If you ever get tired of Guardian bullshit… Send me a message."

"Oh, no can do." He stands, floating the cases up with him. "I made a deal with the Guardians. I'm in for life, less they break it first."

"Did they ever say you can't have other rings as well?"

Jack blinks in surprise. "That's a thing?"

"Do you want it to be?"

"Ah." He thinks for a moment. "Papa Chance always told me: 'if it looks too good to be true-".

"It probably is." I nod. "If that's your decision." I return the ring to my finger, then hold out my right hand. "Thank you for your help. With Blume and with this."

"No problem." His eyes glow for a moment, then he grips my hand. "Nice to get away for a while. Oh, and just so you know? I put money on you beating Larfleeze so, y'know, make sure you do, okay?"

"I'll do my best."

 

[Mr Zoat]

"Green Lanterns two eight two eight, one four one seven, seven seven three, report."

Lantern Tui wasn't surprised to realise that she didn't know the name of the Guardian they were reporting to. Upon returning to Oa the three of them had been summoned to a small meeting chamber within the Guardians' main complex. The customary Green Lantern sigils were emblazoned on banners placed around the room, but otherwise it was a plain room made of pale green metal with only a simple dais for the Guardian to stand on in the middle. Katma Tui stood on the right side of Lantern Green Man with Lantern Saarek to his left. She was reasonably satisfied with how the mission had gone, even if it had deviated from the original outline.

Lantern Green Man speaks first as he was the Lantern assigned to following the local Construct-Lanterns. "Our full mission reports and recordings are available in the archives, but briefly: just as Lanterns Tui, Saarek, and Chance were beginning their scheduled orange light resistance training with Orange Lantern two eight one four-" the Guardian narrows his eyes slightly in displeasure at the reference to anyone bearing the name 'Lantern' without using the green light of will, "-I detected that a Construct-Lantern, later identified as Lantern Blume, was entering Earth's system. I immediately travelled there myself in order to inform the Lanterns present in the system, and if necessary to defend the inhabitants of Earth in the event that Lantern Blume noticed Orange Lantern and decided to attack. Luckily, Orange Lantern had pre-established defenses against remote detection, and he was able to avoid Blume's notice. While Orange Lantern was unable to use his rings for a few local days, all present Green Lanterns along with the local peacekeepers were tasked with detailed monitoring of Lantern Blume. A plan was eventually made to convince Lantern Blume, and Larfleeze, that Orange Lantern and his ring had been destroyed in a mock fight with the available Green Lanterns. While eventual success is unclear, our initial impression is that we were successful."

A slight inclination of the head from the Guardian. "Lantern Blume simply allowed this to happen? This does not seem to be in line with our projected behavior."

"No sir. While he initially was willing to discuss matters, Larfleeze quickly ordered him to attack us, at which point he was 'unmade' with technology that Orange Lantern had acquired to destroy constructs." Saarek finishes his reply by having a small holo projector built into the floor show a schematic of one of the 'Crumbler' rounds that Orange Lantern had provided. Occasionally coloured projections were needed where undifferentiated green was insufficient. Katma was eager to see the look on Sinestro's face when he next crossed her path. Hopefully a look of utter shock before being blasted by green beams. Such a delightful find when she hadn't expected anything but some practice against hostile Orange Lanterns.

"Hmm. Interesting. I will certainly look into your recordings after this meeting is done. Now, what are your impressions of the Orange Lantern? We have the reports from all the Lanterns of Sector two eight one four, but I am interested in the perspective of those who do not share his species."

While Lantern Chance would have theoretically been the best to give this report, his comportment, or more precisely lack thereof, made him a subpar option. Katma decided to take the initiative, as she had spent the most time with Orange Lantern after Chance. "In terms of his personality, he is an intelligent and sociable person. While more informal than many of our own Corps, he would not be completely out of place here. He appears to be socially involved with many of the locals, despite expectations to the contrary, and largely appears to be merely a slightly odd member of his species. In contrast to Larfleeze, he seems capable of harnessing the orange light with minimal effects on his personality.

"Militarily, he would be a nightmare to fight. While his construct strength did not appear to be particularly strong, roughly on the level of a Green Lantern recruit most of the way through basic training, his propensity to multitasking, attacking from oblique angles, creativity in appliance and creation of constructs, and horde of non ring-based offensive and defensive options all mean that even a much more experienced Lantern would have an extremely difficult time in defeating him non lethally. In addition to this, he has some form of magic protection that makes him unable to be scanned directly. While during our mock fight, against six experienced Green Lanterns, I had the impression that Orange Lantern was barely fighting. While our own Lanterns were similarly not fighting to the best of our abilities, we were mostly only holding back in the level of force we used, not tactics. Later contact with Lantern Gardner confirmed my suspicions that Orange Lantern was fighting far below his normal ability, and actively not using many of his commonly used techniques."

Saarek inclines his head in apparent agreement, "I concur with Lantern Tui's assessment, both in terms of personality and combat. For one example, Orange Lantern taught all of the visiting Lanterns how to make railgun constructs. While this is not particularly noteworthy by itself, the fact that he was able to make this within such a short time of receiving his ring and with no instruction on how to do so, along with developing munitions that would have caught unawares even the strongest Lanterns, shows that he is not someone to be fought without appropriate preparation. Taking into account that he is most likely keeping his best techniques to himself, it would be illogical to send less than an Honour Guard strike force in to fight him if it became necessary, in order to avoid any casualties."

The Guardian takes a second to process what has been said so far. "Troublesome, but unsurprising. If the Orange Lantern has remained stable for as long as he has, it is unsurprising that he has learned to channel the.. orange light in so coherent a fashion. With good fortune, he will remain stable for his duration of his time on Earth. Lantern two eight one four C reports that he would be willing to help train our own new recruits to use their rings better, and possibly to 'compare notes' with veteran Lanterns. The Guardians will consider this further. I believe that covers the issue of Orange Lantern sufficiently for the present?" General signs of confirmation from the gathered Lanterns, "Now, Lantern one four one seven, I was informed that you allowed Lantern one seven to remain an additional Earth day in Sector two eight one four?"

"Yes sir. He wished to learn more about Orange Lantern and the local Green Lanterns, as well as receive additional training and equipment, before he returned to his planet. As he would be under the watch of two experienced Green Lanterns, I deemed his request appropriate."

"Acceptable." A slight pause as the Guardian considers her next words, "Lantern two eight two eight, return to your duty of monitoring these ‘Construct-Lanterns’. Lanterns one four one seven and seven seven three, report to Lantern Salaak to go over the technology and information you received from the Orange Lantern. Once it is properly processed you are authorised to leave Oa in order to teach other Lanterns the orange light resistance techniques, prioritising those Lanterns whose sectors were visited by the Construct-Lanterns. Dismissed."

Click to shrink...

 

[Mr Zoat]

Stars, Crossed, part 1

22nd February
09:59 GMT -5

"That's… Quite a lot of people."

"Sure is." Ted reaches up slightly to put his left arm around my shoulders. "They told me they were coming, but usually about half of them drop out." He turns his head to look at me, a small smile on his lips. "Can't imagine why that didn't happen this time."

"It's just been a while since I did anything in front of an audience of strangers."

"When was the last time?"

"Primary School production of Peter Pan."

He looks speculatively at me. "Oh? What role did you have?"

"Nana." He squints. "The Dog."

His grip loosens slightly as he gives me a look of stunned disbelief, gradually morphing into-.

"Bwah-ha-ha-ha!" He bends over, clutching his stomach.

Fine, then. "I was a great Nana." I stride out of the wings and onto the stage, giving a wave to the journalists who've gathered to hear our announcement. A handful I recognise -ooh, that's Ms Lane- but most of them I've never seen before. That's fine, we wanted a more serious crowd for this than the usual superperson reportage. I stop just past the middle point and generate a construct podium. I won't need it for most of the lecture but when I was practising I found that it helped to have somewhere to put my arms when I didn't have anything to point at. I rest them there and lean forwards slightly. "Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for coming. Ted will be on-" I look off-stage… Oh for goodness sake, he's fallen onto his knees. It's not that funny. "-a bit later to demonstrate some of KordTech's latest developments, but first you're going to have to sit through a short lecture on comparative xenosociology from me."

No one looks particularly upset at the prospect. Re-sult. "It occurred to me some time ago that the Green Lantern Corps must have built up a colossal database of information on.. just about every different type of civilisation across this galaxy. I'm -obviously- not a Green Lantern, but since that information isn't considered to be secure they were willing to share it with me. Millions of years of data is far too much for most people to examine in any detail… I mean, who hasn't gone on Encarta Populi to look something up only to emerge hours later-" A polite laugh from the audience. "-with no idea where all the time went. I had the ring-" I raise my left hand slightly. "-go through it all for points of interest. What I was really looking for is… Some way.. to evaluate how well we're doing. As a species. Just how good is our technology compared to what other species have? I mean, most people have seen pictures of Superman's Fortress-" My eyes alight on Ms Lane for a moment. "-which employs Kryptonian technology, but pretty much by definition any species that's managed to come here is going to be more advanced than us. Because otherwise we'd have gone there."

"First thing I discovered? A lot of species don't get past late medieval, and even fewer get past early industrial." I pause there for a moment and make eye contact with a random selection of journalists. "It makes sense, when you think about it. Industrial society requires fuel; you can get by on charcoal for a while but what you really need is coal. If the species evolves before coal happens in sufficient quantity and accessibility, they can't use it. In some places they don't even get that far; if the planet doesn't have tree analogues for easy growing fuel and building material they can end up getting stuck earlier."

"Of course, that's just technology, in terms of social organisation all sorts of things can happen. I actually came across one species where they have a planetary government despite not being able to use technology more complicated than a windmill. They travel long distances on the backs of animals and build their multilane roads with stone blocks." I trigger the stage's holo display, showing a part of the road network as seen from low orbit. It visibly covers a continent the size of Africa.

"So, ignoring them, how are we doing? In absolute terms, not all that well. Any species that continues to develop will get past the point we currently occupy. A better question then is: how fast are we developing, compared to how fast other species did when they were our age? And that's where this graph-" I change the image to a slightly wiggly line, starting bottom left and moving to the top right. "-comes in. Along the bottom-" I dismiss the lectern and walk over to point at the image. "-rank order, one to… Well, it's a big number. Up the side, 'development points'. I awarded points for how quickly the species reached a particular developmental milestone; first tool use, first copper smelting, first iron smelting, first mechanical engine, first powered flight, things like that. I also gave points for how widespread those things became; no points for developing it in a workshop somewhere and never using it like the ancient Greeks did with steam power."

"What I got was a very subjective line, but it should be enough to give us a rough idea. The result?" I create a construct baton and point. "We're just under two thirds of the way up the development speeds table." Another look around the room. "That's not bad. I mean, we're no Colu-" I point to a spot near the 'fast developing' end of the line. "-and we're certainly not Maltus-" I point to the very end of the line. "-where they went from discovering iron to 'you still use metal, how quaint' in the space of a day, but we're doing better than a lot of species did."

I turn away from the display and spread my arms out. "Pat yourselves on the back, Humans. Well done." A bit of laughter and people are generally looking happier. I'll soon fix that. "But there's always room for improvement. For example, I was awarding points for implementation. There are still large areas of the Earth out there that don't have running water, sanitation… You've heard that argument before, I'm sure. And to be honest, even if I restrict my analysis to the advanced parts of the world it doesn't change our rank that much. You can get a plane in most places, you can certainly buy iron in most places… What really brings us down is our failure to implement the most advanced stuff which we have anywhere at all."

The image changes again. "This is a picture of Earth's first interplanetary teleporter. Show of hands, who thinks it's been developed since two thousand?" I wait patiently while they look around and a few hands start to creep up. "Come on, don’t be shy. Okay, keep them up aaand raise yours if you think it was developed since nineteen ninety?" More hands. Most are now up. "Good, thanks for playing along. Nineteen eighty?" A few more. "Okay, thank you, you can put them down. That, is Professor Erdel's original zeta tube generator. It was built in the nineteen fifties. When it was first activated-" I set the display to do a slideshow of pictures taken from newspapers of the time. "-it caused brownouts and blackouts across three states and transported Mister J'onn J'onzz -the Martian Manhunter- to Earth from Mars. Take a moment to think about that. Earth has had interplanetary teleportation technology for sixty years."

"President Nixon approved the development of the space shuttle in nineteen sixty nine. It costs four hundred and fifty million dollars to launch a space shuttle today. Once you factor in all of the other costs of the program it works out costing over a billion dollars per launch. All that time, Doctor Erdel's company was being denied funding by the Federal Government. Despite having a product that was -by galactic standards-" I switch the slide back to the graph. "-something we might have expected to develop about two hundred years later. They limped by for decades on university funding, only able to make small scale models and tests. A ride to the moon via a current generation zeta tube would cost you about forty dollars a time once the system was set up. And today, the only people who use zeta tubes on Earth are the Justice League."

Another round of eye contact. "And if that fact makes you angry? Then you're in good company, because it makes me bloody angry. Human technological development is being retarded by stupid people. And I'm not having it any more."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd February
10:04 GMT -5

"Doctor Morrow was building AIs in the nineteen thirties and today they're just about the only ones that exist." The hologram shows a family photo of him with his three creations. "Why? Clifford DeVoe built a cybernetic implant that made him telepathic and telekinetic in the forties, a device that let a pudgy man in his fifties take on the Justice Society." The display shifts to show a newspaper picture from the time. "Not 'a member of the Justice Society'. All of them. At once. In a straight fight." I take a metal helmet out of subspace. "This is as accurate a recreation as I can make. This thing uses transistors, for goodness sake." I spread my arms wide. "So where's my gods damned telepathy machine?" I take the new and improved model out of subspace. It takes the form of a skullcap. "This is what it looks like if you make one using modern technology instead. We're still working on how to safely and removably attach it to someone's brain." I send them both back into subspace.

"But the thing that really got to me, the thing that reduced me to hissing, eye watering apoplexy? Doctor Thaddeus Sivana." A picture of the man in his younger days. "You all know him as a supervillain who occasionally goes on the rampage in Fawcett City before Captain Marvel stops him. But he was actually a legitimate scientist for far longer than he's been a supervillain. Know what pushed him over the edge?" I pause. "No, me neither. Pretty much the first thing he did as a supervillain was try and take revenge on those who rejected his ideas and destroy all publically accessible records of his work. But I've read the reports from the survivors. Smart viruses that could target and replace damaged DNA segments, economic hydrogen fuel cells… If he'd been a better businessman…" I sigh. "I had a conversation with Lex Luthor last September.. at the Rhelasian peace summit last year. He hadn't heard that before James Dyson went into business for himself he'd tried to sell his bagless vacuum design to Hoover. They turned him down. Later on, after it became a massive success they told him that if they'd known in advance they'd have bought the design and sat on it simply because they liked the market as it was. But for a quirk of fate British superheroes might have ended up fighting Vacuum Man." The hologram shows a mock up of James Dyson as a supervillain, but this time there's no laughter.

I hold out my left arm. **Now, please.** A moment later a G-Sprite flies in from off stage and lands on my arm. "Those of you who attended Dubbilex's public.. unveiling may remember these." I have the holo display play footage of our press conference. "This, is a G-Sprite. Cadmus Labs created them as… Just about the only commercially applicable result of their study into Kryptonian physiology. I should point out here that Cadmus is not in any way a wholly owned subsidiary of LexCorp." Ms Lane manages a wry half-smile at that claim. "All the stuff Kryptonians can do is… Well, it's basically impossible to replicate with Human technology. But that doesn't mean that it's no use at all. These little guys-" I run my right forefinger along its glowing abdomen. "-generate electricity. Inside here is a suspension of cloned Kryptonian cells. When they're exposed to sunlight… Or the right frequencies of artificial light, organelles inside Kryptonian cells undergo some rather interesting exotic energy processes. This gel converts it to electricity which G-Sprites are designed to be able to discharge safely." I take a metal cable out of subspace and earth the far end. **If you please?**

The G-Sprite flaps its wings and rises off my arm, extends its forelegs and flashes of electricity start leaping from their tips into the cable. "G-Sprites aren't intelligent. Even if the Sophont Recognition Act.. or whatever they end up calling it, passes, they wouldn't be covered. I've got a G-Gnome backstage relaying my instructions to it. Unfortunately, they really aren't practical for anywhere that isn't a bleeding edge biotechnology laboratory to use, and as such Cadmus has no plans to expand production." **Thank you, that will be all.** The G-Sprite stops shocking the cable and flies back off stage.

I return the cable to subspace and change the display back to the graph. "So let's go back to the graph. If we were actually using the technology that we have, how would we be doing? I'll show you." I recreate the construct baton. "We're currently here and we could be here." I point to a spot just inside the top quarter. "Quite a big jump. This is where we could be, and if you don't really care about advancing faster than alien species… Then think about how much easier your life could be."

I eliminate the baton, but leave the two points on the graph visible. "Superheroes usually limit themselves to law enforcement and helping during natural disasters. I don't want to live a life where all I do is stop things getting worse. That's why I've been working with KordTech to see what other underutilised ideas and technologies there are floating around and helping their development. For the next part of my act I'm going to need a volunteer from the audience and- " I generate a construct arrow over the head of an overweight neckbeard in the sixth row. "-since you, sir, were the only one to say the correct date for Doctor Erdel's experiment the moment I put the picture on the screen-" He looks shocked, points to one of his chins and mouths 'me?' at me. "-I'm going to give you first refusal. Well done, by the way. I respect people who know their stuff."

He stares for a moment then stands and begins making his way out of the row of seats. "Okay, if we could lift up the curtain, please?" It rises, revealing a pair of Dolmen Gates. "These are Dolmen Gates. Arcane technology. The Fae have used the same sort of system for thousands of years but this is the first time they've become commercially available to the rest of us. For those of you with your ears most closely to the ground, you may have heard that their designer and I did a demonstration for the London City Council a while ago. Before long, these will be installed in a specially designed building in London for people to get used to."

"What do they do? Simply put, anything that goes through one comes out of the other, including-" I rise off the floor and float towards the one on the stage's left, facing the ring. "-light." I can clearly see the audience out of the other ring and I give them a wave before turning back around and dropping to the floor. "Their range isn't unlimited, but we tested them with one on the Moon and the other in our laboratory and there was no problem there. Price per journey? Zero. No money. Let that sink in for a moment."

Neckbeard has climbed up onto the stage, hardly wheezing at all. I walk over to him and hold out my right hand. "Welcome aboard. What's your name?"

He shakes it. "David Roscoe. I'm from Seed magazine."

"Glad to meet you, David. What I need you to do is very simple: walk through one of the rings. Don't worry, they were checked over just before everyone came in, they're in perfect condition."

"Okay!" He grins, nods, looks at the one on the right and heads towards it.

I walk off to the side so that the audience can get a unobstructed view of each Gate. "Set up costs are 'we don't know yet'. They're made in Atlantis and there's no established exchange rate. Estimates are 'less than a billion dollars a time'."

Mister Roscoe slows down slightly as he gets to the right hand Gate. Doesn't stop though. He carries on straight through and reappears through the left hand one. "That it?"

"That's it. How did it feel?"

"Iiiit… Didn't really feel like anything. Just walking through air."

"That's how it's supposed to feel. Thank you for your help, please return to your seat. David Roscoe, ladies and gentlemen." There's a smattering of applause as he shambles back towards his seat.

"One last thing before I hand over to Ted. People have asked some of… Those of us who have access to alien technology: 'why aren't you sharing'? And a perfectly reasonable answer is: 'because we don't want to make you dependent on us for stuff'. All the stuff I've shown you, all the things Ted will be showing you in a minute are the products of Human ingenuity. Except this last thing. I had to think long and hard about this, because a lot of the arguments I'm using to justify doing this could justify a lot of things. I had to.. find a sector of the economy that was completely moribund, uncreative and generally not serving the interest of the population as a whole. A market failure, a monopoly… Something where the negative consequences were spilling over into other sectors and distorting not just world economics but politics as well."

"Simply put, the area I chose was electrical power generation. Coal pollutes. Gas pollutes. Green fuels aren't reliable and nuclear builds up waste we can't deal with other than by burying it. Perhaps more importantly, according to the graph? A species in our position really should have moved on to hydrogen or exotics by now. So that's what we're doing. The city of-." A stage hand wheels a trolley on from the wings. "Thank you. The city of New York has kindly agreed to be our field testing ground for a Bleed Torsion Generator. Things like this-" I indicate the device. "-are used for civilian power generation and non-critical military power generation by dozens of spacefaring species. This device alone can meet about a New York City and a half's peak power demand. We can't get that much to people's homes due to loss in transmission, but fixing that problem is something Ted wants to talk to you about now."

I pause for breath. Yes. This is… This is good. This is exactly what a superhero should be doing with his life. "I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four and thank you very much for listening."

The applause is thunderous as I exit the stage.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd February
09:17 GMT -6

I've got a buzz going. This is exactly the sort of thing a superhero should be doing: identifying a threat no one else can deal with and permanently removing it.

The people of Central City aren't quite as blasé about huge grey people walking down their streets as the people of Metropolis or New York are, but after a quick stare and a slight shrink back most of them clock that I'm not really doing anything particularly fearsome and settle for just keeping an eye on me. If my armour had pockets I'd put my hands in them to further defuse my potential for causing alarm. Since it doesn't, I settle for doing a sort of tuneless near-whistling. Before I came to this place I couldn't whistle beyond the occasional single note. Going venom buster took away what little ability I had. Now… A few notes.

Yeeeess, I missed my target date for killing Klarion buuut I didn't have a deadline, so killing him today isn't significantly worse than killing him when I originally planned to. Jade was surprisingly okay about me missing Valentine's Day, and the substitute date I set up in the habitat I've been building on Ceres for Ra's' resurrected animal species appears to have smoothed over any lingering irritation. Constructing the place took some doing, but the artificial systems for atmosphere regulation, gravity and keeping the whole thing from melting the planet around it are all set up. Really, I've done as much as I can until he lets me know what biosphere he wants me to start with.

I think.. Jade likes the fact that I'm making an effort at making allies with another member of the Light. Building bridges to further my career. I felt good about it… Until about half way through the conversation when I became painfully aware that I haven't done anything equivalent for a member of the Justice League. My team mates, sure, I've done things for them, but… I don't know, maybe a bit of effort earlier on…

I suppose that given how they're going to react to this, it's just as well I didn't waste the time. Ah, here we go; Global Broadcasting News' Central City office. I've left the Sphere and Mister Tawny behind for this one. I want to be clear that it's a solo effort. Just me, Father Box and hopefully Catherine Grant and her camera and sound men. Or women, whichever. I have backup journalists in mind if she turns me down, but this is her beat. Now, where is she? The car park? No no, we can't have that. Father Box, connect to the Hush Tube and get me down there.

Ploong.

Thank you. I step through into the grey concrete car park and let it close behind me. It's fascinating, my own development as a minor divine. I can now perceive the aperture of a hush tube unaided as a sort of white purple tunnel, though I can't quite work out how to fully describe how it moves in the English language.

"…setting up as soon as possible. I doubt anything's happening quite yet, but I want to get a good set-up location."

A couple of people in GBS jackets are loading things into a news van. Miss Grant herself is talking to her camerawoman next to the passenger side door. With hush tubes being.. hushed, they haven't heard me.

Hmm. I start walking slowly in their direction and pointedly clear my throat. Not enough noise to demand their attention but enough that they become aware that someone is sharing the space with them. The people loading equipment don't bother looking around. Miss Grant glances my way for a fraction of a second, returns her attention to her co-worker without really registering what it is she's seen, then turns back towards me with the 'Do I need to run?' look on her face.

"Miss Grant, good morning. How does the day find you?"

The camerawoman looks around and I can just about hear the "Oh shit." she mutters under her breath.

Miss Grant blinks and mentally steadies herself. "Um… Well, thank you." She gives me a slightly closer look. "You're Grayven, aren't you?"

"That's me."

"I saw the footage from Fawcett City."

"We met before that, actually." She looks a little blank. "Taipei? Rhelasian peace conference? I was a little larger?" I hold my right hand out to indicate my former height and receive a cautious nod. "You ended up cutting me from just about every rebroadcast?"

"Ah…"

"It's fine. Big grey man fighting other big grey men. Confusing visual, and it ends up being hard to know who to root for if you're channel hopping." I come to a halt about five metres from her. Far enough away not to loom, I hope. "Listen, have you got… Half an hour? It'll be worth your while."

"Well I…" She looks around to the rest of her crew, then back at me. "What did you have in mind?"

"I intend to lure the primary actor behind the Roanoke Island incident into an ambush, then kill him. Then hand myself over to the Central City Police." Not what she was expecting. "While we're waiting for him to turn up I can also give you more information on that whole period. I was.. in at the death, so I can tell you things which the Justice League never released to the public."

"You're.. going to kill him?"

"Yes, yes I am. I have no way to imprison him or depower him and the alternative is leaving him out in the wild to attack again, which I consider to be unconscionable." I smile at her. "I would appreciate a quick decision."

She looks at her co-workers again. They're all looking at her. "Ahh… Legally.. I don't think-."

"There's no way you can stop me or warn anyone who could. The most you can do is make sure that there is a good recording of it."

She's still a little stunned, but it looks like she's considering it. "Would we be safe?"

"No complete guarantee. I've set up a warded and force field protected viewing area and I've got a dead man's switch that will alert the Justice League if I die." The Sword of Second and Third is strapped to a scabbard on my left leg, and I run my left index finger over the pommel. "Knock down drag out fights with things like Klarion are a terrible idea so I don't intend to take long about it. If he's still alive after about ten seconds then I'm probably going to lose."

"Clarion?"

"That's his name. Klarion the Witch Boy. He's a Chaos Lord, which essentially means…" Hold on. "I should probably explain that on camera, don't you think?"

"I don't know…"

"Oh, come on. Your network got hours out of the execution of his co-offenders and you had to pay the Chinese for the privilege of using the footage! I hardly think you're in a position to be precious about this. You'll also note how I'm not in prison after I killed Sabbac Two on live television a couple of weeks ago."

Miss Grant opens her mouth slightly, then glances at the camerawoman who seems quite happy to let her make the decision. She looks down for a moment, then nods to me. "Okay. Do you want to.. do it here?"

"In the middle of a city? You crazy? No, I'm not fighting him here."

"Okay. Where-?"

"Father Box, boom tube."

"Ploong."

There's the signature bang and rush of displaced air as the tube opens in the air next to us.

"A field outside Central City, presently left fallow." I trigger my aero discs, rising off the ground and drifting forwards. "I've spent some time preparing the ground to give me every advantage." As well as picking a time Mister Barry Allen would be occupied with laboratory work and surrounded by colleagues in such a way that he couldn't easily sneak out.

Miss Grant looks out over the grassland for a moment and then grimaces. "Knew I shoulda worn flats."

"Allow me." A burst of orange from my eyes dumps her actually quite expensive but ridiculously impractical high heeled shoes into subspace and replaces them with comfortable walking boots. "Better? I'm.. storing the shoes, you can have them back afterwards."

"Thank you." She turns back to her crew. "Guys, finish packing up then come on through." There are a few nods and the camerawoman hurries around the van to get into the driving seat. "So." She turns towards me and starts walking towards the tube. "Mister Grayven, what made you want to become a vigilante serial killer?"

I make a show of giving the question careful consideration. "I think it was mostly Father's influence…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd February
09:29 GMT -6

"I'm here about…" She checks the distant mass of Central City behind her. "Twenty miles west of Central City with Grayven of Apokolips. Viewers may remember Grayven from his brutal slaying of Sabbac in Fawcett City two weeks ago." I nod at the camera. "Grayven, why don't you tell our viewers what you've got planned for today?"

"Thank you Catherine. Today I'm going to kill someone called 'Klarion the Witch Boy'. Klarion was the primary instigator of the Roanoke Island Incident which -as I'm sure your viewers will remember- involved adults and children being shifted onto two separate parallel Earths and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, mostly of young children."

Not sure how well grey skin shows up on camera. The makeup artist just sort of looked at me and sagged. Ah, I'm sure they can sort something out in post production.

"I had been under the impression that the Chinese government executed the criminals responsible for that."

"The Chinese executed William Zard… 'Wizard', Blackbriar Thorn, Felix Faust and Wotan. They were the ones who handled the 'Adult Side' of the split. Klarion was in operational command and personally handled the child side. He was able to escape via a portal to the Plane of Chaos and chose not to share his escape route with his comrades. Aside from one attack on the Justice League he's been keeping his head down ever since."

"If he was on the child side, does that mean that he's a child himself?"

"As a Lord of Chaos, Klarion is effectively ageless. It seems likely that he was able to ascend while he was indeed a child, but any attempt to work out how old he is now is futile at best. My concern is safeguarding the world from his deciding to repeat Roanoke Island tomorrow, something he's perfectly capable of doing."

"If he's so dangerous, why haven't the Justice League dealt with him?"

"While I wouldn't presume to speak for the Justice League, I would imagine that there are three main reasons. Firstly, finding a Lord of Chaos who doesn't want to be found is very difficult. Klarion can block scrying attempts… Attempts to locate him with magic, and as a result is very difficult to find. And if they were able to corner him he can shift to the Plane of Chaos again and none of them can follow him there." Miss Grant nods. "Secondly, the Justice League is primarily a reactive organisation. A supervillain commits a major crime and they move in to stop them. With Klarion voluntarily inactive he's rather slipped down their priority list. I mean-" I smile for the camera. "-it's not as if they're likely to run short of more urgent threats any time soon. As we speak fully half the League are in combat with ne'er-do-wells of various stripes. And most of them do have secret identities to maintain."

"That sounds reasonable, but the Justice League is a UN organisation-."

I raise my right hand. "Sorry, but that's not exactly true. The Justice League has a UN mandate, but they existed before receiving it and they run their own affairs. If it were withdrawn tomorrow I doubt very much that the group would split up."

"My point is, couldn't they have police in every UN member country on the look out for Clarion?"

"Well, that leads on to their third problem. If they found him, and he didn't flee, what exactly could they do with him? I've spoken to Giovanni Zatara, the League's magic specialist. He told me that he knows of no way to imprison Klarion, either through mundane means or arcane means."

"What about control collars, like the ones used in Belle Reve?"

"Like this?" I extract a control collar my size out of subspace. "Observe." I clamp it shut around my neck and activate it. "The collar is now trying to identify the mechanism by which my metahuman abilities work so that it can block them." The light flashes. "It now thinks it's finished, but as you can see-" I generate a simple construct sword. "-it can't stop the advanced technology of this power ring. It also-" I reach up with my right hand, grip it and rip it off, the collar shattering around my neck. "-does nothing to magic or aliens. If someone put one around Klarion's neck the only way it would stop him is if it made him laugh too much to keep fighting."

"You believe that killing him is the only way."

I nod solemnly. "I'm afraid so."

"The Justice League's mandate doesn't permit them to carry out 'field executions'. A number of analysts -mostly on the political right- have suggested in the past that this is a major flaw in their organisation. Do you agree with them?"

I sigh. "I'm.. not sure. The League are very idealistic people. It's a little like… I don't know if you are aware, but in Britain there is a great deal of public support for euthanasia, at least in the case of people who are terminally ill, in agony and capable of giving consent. But doctors won't hear of it, because they don't want that to be the sort of thing doctors do. They're there to make people better. The League view themselves as being there to assist police, doing things they can't. They don't want to start handing out summary sentences themselves because.. they don't want to be those people, even if an objective analysis suggests that it would be helpful in some circumstances. They also don't want to step on government toes. Taking authority to hand out sentences -especially death sentences- would be a major shift in power in the relationship between the League and nation states, and a lot of countries wouldn't countenance it."

"Why not?"

"The Chinese super functionary Socialist Red Guardsman has killed hundreds -perhaps thousands- of innocent.. or at least debatably guilty people in his career. He works for the Chinese government. Do you really think they would accept the Justice League -an organisation largely comprised of Americans- passing sentence on him? Heck, I doubt that most American congressional representatives would accept the idea. But even if some countries were, it simply isn't practical for the League to accept the level of oversight they'd need in order to maintain the appearance of due process."

"Do you think that the Justice League should be prepared to kill people like Clarion, even if they didn't have legal authority to do so?"

"You know? I actually don't. I'll be honest with you, I don't want them to be that sort of organisation, either. I'd really be more comfortable for nation states to agree on a mechanism whereby an international court could try people like Klarion in absentia and pass death sentences if needed."

"But no such court exists. Without it being there, do you think it would be better for the Justice League to kill people like Clarion to prevent them from committing more acts of terror, especially when so many lives are at stake?"

"That's assuming that the League could win that fight. Last time I saw him actually stick around Klarion was perfectly happy to fight against a whole team of superheroes and -despite their best efforts- he didn't look particularly hard pressed."

"But you believe you can kill him. What do you have that they don't?"

"I have the sword which killed Satan. I have a prepared field and absolutely no problem with killing an opponent when needs be. I won't hesitate, I won't listen to dishonest pleading, I'll just kill him."

"The… The sword which killed Satan? As in..?"

"Technically, the First of the Fallen wasn't Satan-Satan, but he ruled Hell and was in general completely horrible, so it's splitting hairs to argue the point. Oh, sorry, that wasn't me, that was a female Demon named Chantinelle, -good work there Elle- but we're getting off the topic there."

"… Right, yes." She goldfishes for a moment, then pulls herself together admirably. "And you're sure that this sword can kill Clarion."

"I've practised with it a little, and it appears to work as advertised. I can't be completely certain until I've actually used it on Klarion, because the only way to be that sure would have been to draw the attention of another Lord of Chaos and, well, that would have been a very bad idea."

"If Clarion tends to avoid direct confrontation, how do you intend to draw him here?"

"Your older viewers may remember Doctor Fate. He was a member of the Justice Society in the forties and fifties. He was a Lord of Order, and he was able to describe to me the process of becoming a Lord of Order. Now, I'm far too independently minded to undergo that process myself, but I have set up a ritual that will look like someone is attempting to undergo an Order-based ascension. The early stages of it at least. I also have the remains of Klarion's original familiar, which will allow me to make absolutely sure that he can hear what is going on. Someone attempting to become a Lord of Order on his patch is the one thing that is bound to demand Klarion's immediate attention."

"And what if he doesn't?"

"Then the fact that the man who killed his cat is here certainly will."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd February
09:38 GMT -6

"…getting Teekl's remains from the top of the Tower of Fate. Honestly, after it happened I just left them there."

I think that Ms Grant has gone pale, but under all that makeup it's a little hard to tell. "And what about the powder?"

"The ground up bones of Nabu's previous hosts. Oh, don't worry, not the most recent one. The owners of these bones have been dead for millennia. And they'd almost certainly approve of the use to which I'm putting them." I take a moment to look at the shape I'm making and compare it to my notes. Had to create a construct-windbreak, but… Yep, that's about right. God-vision shows a definite etheric energy flow so I'll assume that part is working…

"Could you describe the significance of the shape?"

"Certainly." I'm wearing a personal microphone while Ms Grant and her crew are within a force field protected viewing area. "Certain shapes channel magic energy, even in the absence of a controlling mind or spirit. Better still, they can magnify a magic user's facility for a particular form. Atlantean mages tattoo glyphs onto themselves and Lanterns like me wear rings with our own-" I create an orange sigil construct to illustrate my point. "-sigils on them. This is the design that would be used by a Human trying to turn themselves into a Lord of Order."

"What exactly would that involve?"

"I've never seen it happen, but… A Human soul is naturally connected to the arcane energies around it, in the world. Magic users learn to manipulate and enhance that connection. The ascension ritual severs that connection, replacing it with one to the Plane of Order." Hmm. "That's… A rather large oversimplification, but essentially accurate. One who went through the ritual would either be killed… Or rather erased from existence as 'impure'.. or granted a number of benefits, including massively increased arcane power."

Just the outer circle to go and I'm painfully aware that Klarion could turn up at any time. I don't have any idea how alert he is to things like this and I can't ask the members of the Light to tip me off. My drones are in position, stealthed and ready with purple death rays and blasters. No idea how useful those will be against Klarion but I really only need a fraction of a second's distraction.

Klarion shouldn't be able to observe the ritual site directly but Nabu started getting.. incoherent, when I asked for a detailed explanation. Honestly, I'm feeling a little bad about what I've done to him. What was it the former head of the Society of Leopold said in Vampire: the Masquerade? Killing an evil being is justified. Torturing them is not, because it harms the spirit of the one doing it. It's getting to the point where I think I should look for a way to put him out of his misery.

Okay, that's done. I take my x-ionised sword out of its sheath and hold it in my left hand. Another minor distraction which I hope will encourage Klarion to scoff at my attack. The Sword of Second and Third I transfer to a sheath on my left forearm. I still haven't got over quite how small it is compared with me. Certainly it doesn't look like a threat. Alright, ring, Father Box, create construct armour, boost Apokoliptian armour and monitor our environment for any sign of Klarion.

By your command.

Ploong.

"How long do you think it will be until he gets here?"

"No idea at all." Hmm. Teekl's remains should cause him to receive a 'ping' almost immediately. A simple scrying ritual for her would fail, but he'd be alert and looking. If he read the flows of power in the general area he'd felt her in then that would give him an idea of what was going on. At that point, would he come immediately or is he so cowed that he'd contact the rest of the Light and ask for help? No. If they weren't immediately on hand… That merging with the Djinn thing he does isn't immediate. Against an ascendant Lord of Order he'd make sure that he was prepared. Do that first.

I rise slightly into the air, unable to prevent myself from looking around and trying to anticipate where the attack will come from. Unless he's busy trying to reconnect with his chaos-magic better half. Would he make it a race? Or if he's succeeded… There really isn't any way for me to tell precisely-.

Ploong.

Witch-

Garrick.

-Boy detected.

He's standing just outside the circle of bone, his eyes glowing purple, his mouth twisted in an inhuman grin and his right hand raised and crackling with purple lightning. I surge towards him as the drones open fire. Purple beams of nega-life and orange bolts of divine destruction fly at him only to be negligently batted aside. Ms Grant's mouth is sluggishly forming itself into an 'O' shape as I pull the x-ionised sword back across my body, using my left arm's bulk to conceal me taking the Sword from its scabbard.

I think Klarion's laughing.

I think I am as well.

I pass through the outer edge of the bone circle and his lightning leaps forth to greet me. It passes through my construct armour like it's not even there and -agh- I feel the pressure as it assails my divine armour and strikes at my spirit directly. I bring the x-ionised sword down with a battle cry too swift for any around me to hear and with Klarion's attention fully directed at it I drive the Sword of Second and Third hard into his gut.

Everything around me speeds up as the Garrick Formula wears off. The drones mostly cease fire, unable to get a shot off without striking me. The purple lightning Klarion had been directing at me crackles and fades as he folds slightly around the blade in his abdomen.

"Huuh?"

"Die, wretch." I yank the Sword out of his body, pull my right arm back and then slice it sideways through his neck, letting his head fall to the ground. The Sword's magic should be enough to kill him… But just in case I stamp my right foot down onto his decapitated body and drive the Sword through his heart. Purple light seeps from his wounds and a dull moaning sound… Did I get that Bedlam creature too? Oh, lucky for me. Movements in the patterns of etheric energy… Nullification of all power. Not sure that it's hitting his 'soul self' as well, but that shouldn't matter too much without a directing mind.

I wait a moment longer as the purple light fades to nothing. The holes in his body don't bleed. In fact, taking a look at the cut surface of his neck it doesn't look like he has any actual blood at all. I can see bone and what could be muscle…

"My God. Tell me you got that."

I flick my eyes in the direction of the film crew. "Don't worry if you didn't. I had an ultra fast camera running on a drone."

"Is… Is he dead?"

"As far as I can tell, yes. If you wait here, I suspect that Giovanni Zatara will be along presently to confirm it." I bend down and pick up Klarion's head. The mouth is still distorted but the eyes look surprisingly Human. Hm. That went well. Next part. Ring, Father Box, interrupt GBS broadcast and transmit Ms Grant's recording in full. Add in my recording of the fight at your discretion.

Ploong.

By your command.

"But if you will excuse me, I have an appointment with the Central City Police Department. Father Box, hush tube." A hole in space opens in front of me and I sheathe my weapons before I step into the reception area of the New Brighton Police Station.

The police officer on the desk looks up, then sags slightly. "The Flash ain't available right now. Can't you freaks take a number or something?"

"I'm not actually looking for the Flash." I walk slowly towards the desk. "I just.. killed a man, and I want to confess and.. hand myself in."

"Ah, jeez, why'd I have to get…" The man rubs his forehead before glaring at me. "Can't you go bother-?" I set Klarion's head down on the desk in front of him. "Holyfuckingshit!" He leaps back and scrabbles for his gun. "Get on the ground! Get on the fucking ground!"

"I'm not doing that. I think I'm being quite reasonable about-." Twelve bullets in quick succession hit me in the centre of my chest. I ignore them. "Quite reasonable about this given that you've got no way to hurt me at all. Histrionics are not required. I am handing myself in voluntarily. Now, which way do I go for mug shots?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd February
10:02 GMT -6

"So…" I look down the line of holding cells at my fellow detainees. "What are you guys in here for?"

A man in a mildly dishevelled suit on the opposite side of the corridor looks up. "I got pulled-."

The tattooed youth in the cell one to the right of mine stands up. "Hey! You ain't supposed to ask that."

The man rolls his eyes. "I got pulled over last night for driving while intoxicated. I'd have been out first thing this morning if my lawyer hadn't decided to take the weekend off. Should be out in a few hours anyway."

"You know… I'm sorry if I'm intruding here, but I've got this counsellor? Who's.. been helping me with my anger management issues? If you like I can give you his num-."

"No, no." He shakes his head. "I haven't been drunk in charge of a vehicle since college. Thought I was okay…"

"What you in here for? You some kinda supervillain?"

I tilt my head slightly to the right. "How broadly are we defining 'some kind'-?"

He gets a better look at me. "You still got alla your fucking weapons!"

"This sword-" I point to my x-ionised sword. "-is the product of a classified US military project. No one in this police station is cleared to know about it. This sword-" I point to the Sword of Second and Third. "-is an arcane artefact and no one here has passed the certification to handle it. These-" I point to the ring and to Father Box. "-are sophisticated xenotechnological artefacts and again, no one has passed the certification. I quite literally can't hand them over without breaking the law further, and quite possibly getting the police in trouble. If they really wanted to confiscate them then they should have sent someone on the required courses."

The man opposite chuckles. "So you could just walk out at any time?"

"Yes, but if I wanted to do that I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of walking in, would I?"

"You…" He blinks, too hung over for my shenanigans. "What?"

"What'd you do anyway?"

"You see-." I hear the door at the far end of the corridor open and turn my head to see who-. "Diana! Good of you to come."

The man opposite gets to his feet and starts straightening his suit while the youth blatantly checks her out. She gives me a look of despair tinged disappointment. "Grayven, what have you done?"

"I.. broadcast it on worldwide television, I don't think there can really be any doubt." I lean forwards slightly and make eye contact with the police officer escorting her. "Ah, I'd quite like my phone call now, if that's at all possible?"

Diana glances at the officer. He raises his hands and shakes his head. "He was waiting for you." He looks at me. "Do you want to come to the phone or-."

"No, it's fine, I'll just use the ring. I just wanted to make sure that I was allowed to."

The officer looks at Diana. "He's all yours."

"Could we please have a private-?"

"No, I refuse to have any special privilege. I committed a crime. This is where I belong." I look from her to him. "Isn't it?"

"Above my pay grade, pal." He sighs. "Anything else, ma'am?"

"No. Thank you." She comes to stand in front of my cell. "Why did you do it?"

"Yeaaaah, was a bit melodramatic, wasn't it? Didn't mean to get all Tom Paris on you. Still, I wanted to make my point as strongly as possible."

"You showed you knew exactly the reasons why we don't do things like that and then you did it anyway. What you've done will work towards alienating everyone from superheroes and from the Justice League."

"Really? Let's take a straw poll, shall we?" I point to my right. "You asked what I did. I killed a man. It was premeditated and deliberate. I am a murderer."

The man opposite pales and retreats slightly in his cell. "Oh God."

"Hardcore. Who was it?"

"Klarion the Witch Boy. The mastermind behind Roanoke Island."

No response. Huh? I glance to my right and his face is… Blank. He can't have missed that, can he?

"You fucking with me? Because you better not be fucking with me."

"I stabbed him in the stomach, cut off his head and ran him through the heart. Using a magic sword so he couldn't weasel out of it." Back to Diana. "Has Mister Zatara checked yet?"

"He has. As far as he and Nabu can tell, Klarion is indeed dead."

"My little… My kid sister died during that." He switches his attention to Diana. "He really get the guy?"

She sets her jaw. "It certainly appears so."

"Fuck. Man, you're my fucking hero."

"You're welcome. Ring, phone." The construct appears and I hold it to my ear. Contact President Horne's personal secretary.

By your command.

"And you, sir." I nod at the man on the opposite side of the corridor. "Does the fact that I killed a mass murderer put you off the idea of superheroics in general?"

"Well I… I don't… Couldn't you have arrested him or something?"

"No, that was impossible, no prison could hold-." The phone is picked up. "Excuse me. Grayven here, could you please put me through?"

"Yes, of course sir. He's expecting you. I'll put you through at once."

"Thank you."

"This is hardly a representative sample, and it doesn’t change how-"

The phone is picked up.

"-the governments we rely on for cooperation will react to-"

"Grayven, I've seen the news."

"-one of us taking this sort of action."

External speaker.

"Good work, son. We'll get to work on the paperwork for your pardon right away."

Diana's eyes widen and I smile. "Thank you, Mister President."

"A lot of people will be able to sleep safer in their beds tonight because of what you did. Not just in America but all over the world. Now, you sit tight. It'll take a day or two to get it all sorted out. Whereabouts are you?"

"Central City, New Brighton Police Station. In a cell."

"What the heck are you doing there, son?"

"I wasn't sure if it was possible to be pardoned for something you haven't been convicted of. And I didn't want to get physically attacked by my own colleagues or anything like that. Thought it best to put myself in custody."

"Okay, ahh… I'll get someone to speak to the Chief of Police and the Mayor, let them know what's going on."

"Thank you, Mister President. I'm extremely grateful to you."

"Okay, I'd like to talk with you some more but I've got a thing…"

"I understand completely, sir. You're a busy man. Thank you for your time." End call. "Sounds like the government's cool with it too."

"You told him in advance."

"Told the President of America that I was going to murder a man?"

"And now you can join the Light." I nod to the side. "Give me your weapons."

"Certainly." I pull the ring from my left forefinger and hold it out. "Don't touch the inside, that triggers the mental influence effect." She takes it. "Aaand the sword." I detach the scabbard containing the x-ionised blade. "And the other sword."

She takes them. "So it isn't suicidal anymore?"

"Giving it up permanently would be. You're just holding it on behalf of the police. Once the pardon goes through you have to give it back. Heh, or it's theft."

She takes a breath to calm herself. "Anything else?"

"You can have my armour if you want, but I'm not wearing anything underneath."

"Father Box."

"Father Box is a sentient organism and my accomplice. He also doesn't have any weaponry." A little misleading, but essentially true, and her built in lie detector will confirm that.

She nods, then sighs. "I hope you're pleased with yourself."

"Thank you." I nod, slowly and deliberately. "I am."

 

[Mr Zoat]

"Get up."

Huh? Wha? I open my eyes. This room isn't-. Police station, right.

"Grayven, get up."

Batman? Ring, what-? Oh. Yes. Father Box, what time is it?

Ploong.

22nd February
21:49 GMT -6

Thank you.

I push myself up into a sitting position and look at him. "I don't think I'm supposed to have visitors at this time of night."

"I told you to get up."

I peer at him. His voice sounds… Different. Gruffer. Gravellier. Has he taken up smoking or is he just that angry with me? His costume looks a little different as well; the bat 'ears' are sticking out slightly to the side rather than pointing straight up. It's also darker than I'm used to, less armoured and the green highlights…

I blink and look to the wall to my left. The wall is nearly completely obscured by a matte black rectangle which crackles with dull green lightning. The very centre is a shimmering point of white light which pulses and releases waves that expand outwards toward the edges then disappear.

Huh. I don't recognise the technology. Father Box?

Ploong.

Looks like someone's been holding out on us, then. Keeping my eyes on Batman I rise to a crouch. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Come with me." He turns and steps towards the portal.

"Sir, I'm… Something of an amateur at being under arrest, but I don't think that's how it's supposed to work."

He turns his head just before reaching the aperture. "I gave you an order, Grayven. Get moving." He steps into it, his body shimmering for a moment and then vanishing.

Hmm. Well, that was an order. Can't really.. disobey. He went through the portal himself so I can't use the 'suicidal' get out. Darn. I really hope this doesn't mess up my pardon. I mean, it shouldn't, urgent Justice League need and all that… I dust myself off and step up to the portal. No smell, no vibrations in the air… Nothing on god-vision.

I step forwards into the portal. There's a moment of.. nothing, really, then I'm through. I'm standing on a metal platform. On this side there's a large metal rectangle surrounding the area of the portal; the projection mechanism, presumably. Four wide metal steps lead down to the floor level of what appears to be a laboratory cum workshop. The portal generator is the focus of the room, and there's an armoured control booth in the corner of the room.

Batman nods to the man on duty behind the armoured glass. "Shut it down." He gets a nod in return and the portal ceases to be. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"

The man steps out from the booth. "You weren't even gone for five minutes. Nothing's changed, perimeter defences are still holding." He glances at me. "This him?"

"Yes."

"I'm.. sorry sir, where are we? And who-." Wait a second. Shave his head, add a goatee and about ten years… "Lantern Stewart?" His jaw tightens and he looks away.

"We're on the Watchtower." Batman heads towards the blast doors at the far end of the room.

"The Watchtower doesn't have a room like.. this…" Wait a moment. Beard of evil? I activate my aero discs, rising into the air. "I am now sufficiently uncertain that you are Batman that I am prepared to risk ignoring your instructions. What the hell is going on?"

"You've been brought to an alternate dimension. We need your help."

"I.. don't think that's the right use of the word 'dimension'…"

"Did you design and build a portal capable of travelling between them?"

Um? "No?"

"Then we'll use my terminology." Batman stops by the door and holds his right hand up to the keypad. "Coming?"

I glance at Lantern Stewart. He's picked up some sort of beam rifle and is heading to the door as well. His body armour looks more impressive than I remember. It's decorated in black and green but there's no Lantern sigil and I can't see the glow of an environmental shield. What the heck is going on? Do I go with him? Does inter-planar travel trigger the 'voluntarily leave the system' part of my oath? Would refusing his orders? I mean, he is a Batman. I don't.. recognise the technology any more than I do the portal, and without a power ring Father Box's ability to override their systems is a good deal more limited.

May as well. I accelerate through the air after the two of them. "I'm still waiting for a full explanation."

The door opens with a hiss and Batman leads the way through, Stewart hesitating for a moment to glance back at me before following him.

"A full explanation would take more time than we have. In summary, the Justice… League, does not exist here. The Earth has been invaded and occupied and we have -perhaps- two days until its occupiers destroy it."

"I'm counting two Justice Leaguers here…"

Another glance from Stewart. "There's three, but none of us are capable of fighting them off."

"Why not?" Stewart looks away again. What the heck is going on?

"We aren't the Justice League. In this dimension the organisation we founded was called the Justice Lords."

!!!

Holy flashback, Batman! The Justice Lords, like in Justice League Animated?! But their chins look so normal! And… And their shoulders aren't as wide as they are tall! Okay, keep it together Grayven. "Different in name only, or was there an organisational difference?"

"To begin with, name only. John was our founding Lantern rather than 'Harold Jordan' and Aquaman's place as a founder was taken by Hawkgirl. The precise nature of the threats we faced has been somewhat different, but you'd recognise most of the criminals we've fought."

"Alright, so you've got three. What happened to the other four?"

"About eight months ago we used the portal to travel to another dimension in order to assist our counterparts there." Pff, y-eah! "The precise details are irrelevant, but the result was that those of us with superpowers had them removed. Currently, Superman is in the Fortress of Solitude, Wonder Woman is on Themyscira and the Martian Manhunter has returned to Mars."

"And the Flash?"

Stewart bows his head slightly. "Dead."

"And… What happened to your ring?"

"It got shut down by the power suppressing weapon."

"Bullshit."

He looks at me. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me: bullshit. Okay, I can accept that with no ring charge you might not be able to access your personal lantern, but eight months? Even the Green Lantern Corps aren't that lackadaisical. If you didn't check in for eight months they'd send someone to find out what had happened to you, even if it was only to confirm your death. If they did that, whoever they sent could either let you recharge from their lantern or take you back to Oa to get a replacement ring." He grimaces. "Do you expect me to believe that Salaak just forgot about you?"

"I was…" It looks like it physically hurts him to finish the sentence. "Discharged.. from the Corps. They.. disagreed with some of the things I'd done on Earth."

"Yah-huh. So Batman! Who's the lucky invader?"

He walks up to a console and presses a series of buttons. A holographic screen comes to life, covering the wall and showing me the enemy ships.

"They are."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Not…
Sure…

"A Thanagarian Command Carrier. Earth's been invaded by Thanagar?" I make an effort to recall everything Father Box told me about Thanagarian technology from my par-. My most recent parallel. Thanagar is located in Sector 2682 and is just about the only interstellar power anywhere near Earth. They.. could make such an attack but it would be a long way out of their way and.. frankly it doesn't fit their usual mode of operations. Alien worlds that find themselves within the borders of their empire usually get left to their own devices. Technologically… As long as it stays out of the atmosphere that Command Carrier can probably laugh off anything the Earth can throw at it, save for a nuclear missile strike that somehow bypassed its point defenses. Or maybe some sort of exotic weapon? That or super.. heroes…

And there aren't any Justice Lords to take the job on.

Batman nods. "They arrived last week. Initially, they claimed to want to help Earth defend itself against a species called the Gordanians. With no real way to defend against an alien attack, the governments of the world gladly accepted. The Thanagarians are building this in the Libyan Desert. They claim that it's a force field generator-."

That I recognise. "That isn't a force field generator. That's a quick and extremely dirty displacement generator."

Batman glances back at me before returning his attention to the image. "As I found out when I infiltrated a tour group and heard their commander discussing it with his government. I exfiltrated and attempted to share this information with the United Nations Security Council. Unfortunately, residual hostility towards the Justice Lords resulted in them ignoring it and proceeding with the construction."

Stewart nods. "And even if they did take notice, I don't think they've got anything that could get past the Thanagarian defenses."

I nod. "And where exactly do I come in?"

"Your boom tubes will let you bypass the Command Carrier's defence systems, while your New God physiology and your power ring-" Ah. "-should enable you to fight your way through their marines and disable critical systems, rendering them unable to complete their missions." He presses a button on the console and shuts down the image before turning back to me. "We've observed several dimensions we could have asked for help. I chose you because you have the combination of altruism and ruthlessness which the mission requires."

Stewart doesn't look entirely convinced. "That and the fact that we can't shield emissions from the portal for long enough to find anyone else."

"Thanagarian. So -just to make sure that they use the same equipment as the Thanagarians I'm used to- they'll have space age exotic energy ranged weapons and Nth metal melee weapons."

"That is correct."

"Might have a slight problem then."

"What is it?"

I clench my hands into fists and hold them out to him. "Notice anything?"

A slight narrowing of his eyes, then they widen. "What happened to it?"

"I killed a mass murdering magic user. Since it was murder I handed myself over to the police and.. gave up my weapons."

Stewart glares at Batman. "You didn't check?"

He looks down. "There wasn't time." He remains still for a moment and then looks up at me. "Are you able to undertake the mission anyway?"

"Do you have the layout of the ship?"

"Partial only."

"Then, no. I mean, I might be able to do it, but if this is pretty much do or die I wouldn't want to bet on it." I look at Stewart. "You don't have a spare ring lying around, do you?"

"I don't, and that Rayner kid isn't even on Earth right now."

Oh dear. Drones, maybe? "Alright then… What sort of manufacturing facilities does this place-."

"That isn't entirely true." Batman looks thoughtful. "There is a power ring on Earth that isn't claimed by any Lantern. Getting to it might be difficult-."

Stewart's eyes widen. "You can't be serious! That thing isn't-!"

"I'm always serious." He turns back to the control panel.

"Excuse me? Still here."

Batman sighs. "A little over a year ago, after hearing about the measures the Justice Lords had taken to preserve the Earth, Sinestro paid Green Lantern a visit. It ended.. acrimoniously."

Stewart sneers. "I'll say."

"Sinestro was killed in the fight. We never recovered his personal lantern but we were able to recover his ring. It's currently being held at the Stryker's Island Exotic Materials Containment Center."

Stewart nods. "Yeah, along with just about every other mad invention the Lords ever confiscated. It's guarded by an entire company of US marines, to say nothing of whoever SHADE's got on standby in case anyone tries anything."

"Shade?"

Stewart nods. "The Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive. They're the federal agency which got responsibility for organising superheroes after the Justice Lords got shut down."

"I rather got the impression that American superheroes treasured their independence?"

"They.. did, but after what we did no one wanted-."

"We have up-to-date plans of the facility." Batman calls up a cut away image of the place. "They've upgraded the defenses but the maximum security section should still be in the same place."

Ring, take… Ah.

Ploong.

Sorry. Father Box, take a copy. "Is this place secure?"

"The Watchtower has stealth capabilities. If that fails we have force fields, as well as substantial armor and armaments. We should be able to survive an attack from their fighter craft and the Command Carrier is obliged to remain on station above the 'displacement generator'. Still, I would rather avoid any unnecessary risk. Why do you ask?"

"While I could survive stepping out of the air lock and falling to Earth, I would much rather use a boom tube. Could they detect that?"

Batman hesitates for a moment. "I don't think so. Still, you should avoid travelling-."

"Directly, yes, I know. Father Box, open a boom tube to the roof of STAR Labs Metropolis branch."

"Ploong."

There's a bang, and… Huh, the edge of the aperture looks a little different to usual. "See you shortly." I fold my arms behind my back and stroll through the tube, letting the sounds and the smell of the Metropolitan area fill my senses. Looks like… Early morning, just before dawn. I suppose there's no reason to assume that the date matches both here and at home. Father Box, close it.

Ploong.

There's another bang as it shuts down. Thank you. Now, no major hurry. Okay, the planet being torn apart is a deadline but from the look of it I've got at least a day or two and the Thanagarians are going to want to pull their own people out before they turn it on.

I need to know whether or not these 'Justice Lords' are the same as the ones I remember from the Justice League animated series. Using the aero discs to keep my weight off the roof I float over towards a roof aerial. Time to gather some data.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th January 2004
07:29 GMT -5

That was enlightening. It's like… Quarian faces: a big secret to the gamer but common knowledge in the setting. Likewise, the Justice League animated series skipped over exactly what President Luthor did which led to the Justice Lords assaulting the White House and killing him. Here, everyone knows, and even now you'll struggle to find anyone who disagrees with them. There are a few on the American right who wish that his plot had worked and remained undetected, but they also don't like people of Hebraic extraction very much so they don't really count.

As for Justice Lord rule itself, Plato would have been proud. They were at once selfless and ruthless. Didn't go quite as far with schizo tech integration as I'd have liked, but Batman was the only one with any significant knowledge of industry and he was more focused on law enforcement reorganisation. Destroying things when you're a ridiculously powerful superhuman or superalien is easy. Actually getting people to do what you tell them, actually running a society, that isn't something that can be achieved by power alone. The way they cut through democratic and legalistic bloat to get things done was awe inspiring.

A lot of Luthor's people got purged, but given the stuff they'd been doing there isn't a lot of sympathy for them either. The Lords only ever had direct control of the United States, though other countries were prepared to follow their lead on certain matters because they were the superheroes who prevented World War Three. I used to say that was the reason why as far as I was concerned James Blunt can make as much crap music as he wants and I guess it works for world leaders as well.

Couldn't find any good records on how the Lords lost their power. The showdown at Arkham appears to have happened as per Justice League Animated and Superman and Hawkgirl both stopped here for medical tests after they got depowered. Something else Batman and Stewart didn't tell me: she's almost certainly dying of something that looks a lot like an autoimmune disease. Since she'd never been for a medical here before they couldn't tell why it was happening, but with resistance to Lords control growing and Batman unwilling to clamp down they apparently didn't think it was safe to leave her on planet.

Makes me realise how important Batman was to the whole thing; even with the Lords depowered, if Kal-El had persuaded him to mass produce Superman robots they could easily have stayed in control. As it is, mass protests led to Congress formally rejecting Lords authority less than a month after they lost their powers. The people working for them mostly got granted amnesties but the Lords themselves were told that they'd be executed if they ever came back. Installing SHADE to deal with the mess that came with the world's leading superhero team suddenly disappearing was one of the first things the new President did. President Horne here too, I note. His first term.

Ah, enough wool gathering. Father Box, open a boom tube to the Metropolis waterfront.

Ploong.

Thank you. It's curious, being thrown back on my own resources like this after putting so much effort into augmenting my equipment. For the first time in a long time I'm going to more or less be forced to brute force my way through a fight with no clever solutions available at all. I did pay attention to Diana when she taught us to brawl but mass combat of the sort I'm about to engage in hasn't been a focus of our lessons. I'm also starting to wish that I'd made a helmet for this armour. An anti-tank rocket to the face would actually hurt and I can't afford to get blinded. I'd heal it back before too long but it would cost me time. Normally I just use the ring…

Yep, that's Stryker's Island. More built up than back home, and the navy vessels on patrol are something I haven't seen before. No, they'd be Marine Corps vessels, wouldn't they? Of course, back home the interesting part -metahuman containment- is being closed down. Or was, anyway. Given the debacle Belle Reve has become they got funding to upgrade it to current generation standards while it's empty. The regular prison part is still there. Here, they don't really have any need for metahuman containment. Due to every supervillain getting a prefrontal lobotomy, often personally administered by Kal-El. It worked -obviously- but I can't help but think it was a wasted opportunity.

I sigh. Been preying on my mind as I brought myself up to speed. America's a remarkably stable country. A lot of places would have collapsed into anarchy after people like the Lords were removed, but here things kept going. Less efficiently, for the most part… But this Thanagarian thing shows that the Lords did at least one vital job that no one else has picked up. I could just take Sinestro's ring and use it to hack the Watchtower and send myself home. Seems… Petty, though. I could complete the mission I've been set, destroy the ship and the device they were sent here to build…

But what happens next time?

The Lords killed or mentally ruined a lot of supervillains, but if the Lords' Earth is going to have to meet the same challenges as the League's Earth did -and this Thanagarian situation suggests that they will- there are plenty left that are still up and coming. Should I help the depowered Lords get their powers back? I could probably fix Kal-El easily enough. Diana… I don't know, but her powers are similar enough to those of New Gods that we could probably work something out. I could give Sinestro's ring to Stewart once I've got the hang of using it, fix whatever's wrong with Hawkgirl, dump.. Flash's remains in a Lazarus Pit…

None of that really leaps out at me as being a great idea, putting people already widely reviled back in a position of power. Second option, stay myself? Or be ready to come back on demand? This Batman knew what sort of person I am when he came to get me. I think I'd be better appreciated here. I could.. get backing for an actual stellar navy… Have to find out what their version of Father's been up to lately…

Option three, see if SHADE are up to the job. I remember them from several different comics. In Seven Soldiers they did a pretty good job but later on they were shown as sinister or outright evil. I need to look into them more thoroughly, see what they're like here.



Of course, there's a fourth option…

I'll admit, it has a certain appeal. At the moment the local superheroes aren't responding to the Thanagarians because officially there isn't a problem. They're here to help. Is there still enough independence.. enough independents.. to form a new group? I'd need to get a look at exactly what SHADE is before I start trying to pinch their people… A vague.. proto-idea is forming in my mind. Leagues usually form spontaneously in response to some great threat. If I can get the idea that the Thanagarians are the enemy to enough people… Could that work?

Oh, leave it until I get back. Since I can't scan without a ring… Father Box, Boom tube to the top of the outer wall.

Ploong.

I stride through and smile at the stunned patrol. "Gentlemen, hello." Plasma guns snap up to their shoulders. "My name's Grayven-"

"We've got a security breach!"

"-and I'm here to steal all your stuff." They open fire. Centre of mass, I note. Not enough kinetic force to push me back and not enough energy to hurt me through my armour. I lunge forwards, shoving their guns aside as gently as I dare and forcing them to drop them. The one on the right goes for his sidearm while the one on the left turns and sprints towards the nearest alarm. I grab sidearm guard by the shoulder and hurl him after his colleague at maximum low lethality force.

"Dwahh!" / "Ugooff!"

The guard towers have spotted me and are trying to reorientate their heavier weapons. I duck down and pick up the discarded plasma weapon. Seems simple enough. Rip off the trigger guard, hold it up-.

"User not recognised."



Aowfuck that's bright! Okay, okay, hands are still in one piece, eyes -I blink- fineish. Huh. Clever, that. Automatically destabilising the plasma containment unit… I pick up the second, touch the trigger and hurl it at the closest guard tower before opening a new boom tube to the second closest.

"OHSHITHE'SHERE!"

Knocking people out without risking long term damage is an art, really.

"Uh-h." / "Rrr-ug."

Father Box, can you match their authentication signal?

Ploong.

Nice work. I step forwards and rip the heavy plasma cannon off its mount. Stun setting, stun setting… Rapid pulse? I raise the weapon to my shoulder and aim it at the guards now charging towards me down the causeway. Father Box, analyse shot.

Ploong.

I lead the shot enough that I shouldn't hit the closest guard and squeeze the trigger, unleashing a short volley. The guards scatter with a shout of alarm, seeking cover just as the main facility alarm starts to sound. Sporadic fire flies in my direction so I turn aside to shield the gun with my body and raise my left arm to shield my face.

Ploong.

Long as I hit somewhere armoured? You sure-?

Ploong.

Sorry, sorry, of course. I target the guards and carefully place shots one after another in their chest plates, where the armour is strongest. That's that dealt with. Over the alarm I can hear… Are those jet packs? Oh, shooting them out of the sky would not be safe. Still, I think I've got their attention now. They'll be directing their attention to the exterior… I consider the schematic Batman showed me. Father Box, Central Monitoring.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th January 2004
07:34 GMT -5

"Worthlesspeonscream!"

The man on the closest monitor bank turns his chair around with a frown. "Huh?" His eyes widen. "Aaaagh!"

I jab him in the diaphragm with my right hand and he folds up, gasping for air. The alarms in here aren't on but I can hear the general alert through the walls. The man's colleagues start looking around. "Okay everyone! I don't feel like killing you right now, so if you don't think you can fight me, feel free to flee." I half turn and indicate the room's only exit, only for the alarms in this room to start blaring. I look around and see the woman who pressed it staring defiantly at me. "I'm not even angry. Good show of moxy. But it didn't make you super strong and you still need to run now."

A man with a couple of bars on his shoulders stands up. He gives me a quick once-over then turns back to the room. "O-okay, everyone. We're evacuating now, just like the drills." There's a slight hesitation, then they start rising from their work stations. The first few hesitate as they approach me so I walk around the edge of the room away from the door. That gets them moving, and I'm pleased to see two of them help the man I struck.

The lieutenant is visibly counting them out, but spares a moment to glare at me. "I don't know what you're doing, but you won't get away with it."

"If you don't know what it is, how do you know I haven't done it already?"

He blinks. "Ah-um, what?"

"I mean, I got this far. Presumably I'm not an idiot. It's reasonable to assume that I've got something in mind. Isn't it?"

"You just let a bunch of hostages escape."

"Clogging up the corridors nicely until the armed response detail finishes evacuating them. Anyway, hostages pin you in place. I value my mobility. And I really would rather not seriously hurt any of you." I glance at the door. "Speaking of, you should probably get going yourself. I'm about to trash this place and you're not explosion proof."

A scowl, but a completely impotent one as he quick marches after his subordinates. Right. I raise the plasma cannon and rapidly shoot out the screens. Obviously I realise that doing that doesn’t do much to the computers doing the work but I only really want to take away their ability to monitor my progress through the facility. Aaaand, ah! I use the aero discs to brace myself before sticking my right arm through the concrete wall and ripping out the power supply to the alarm. The noise stops. Much better. Now-. The lights go out. Pretty good response time, that. I tear a console from its moorings and shove it in front of the door as a barricade. Nothing really flammable here… I'm certainly not hanging around to pull out the plastic from the wiring. Moving as quick as I can I add three more bulky pieces of equipment to the barrier. Over the alarms I think I can hear running boots… Time to go. Father Box, just outside secure storage, please.

Ploong.

Obviously, secure storage retains a guard complement during an attack. But-

"Agh!"

-they don't think with portals. And it turns out-

"Aaaaaaauu…"

-their armour's fairly weak around the neck. Note to self, carotid artery pinch works rather well. Normally there'd be a strike team sent immediately, but I just destroyed the room doing the monitoring and in any case the strike teams are on the wrong side of the facility thanks to my initial attack. And it looks like SHADE don't have any teleporters on duty… Hm, going well.

Secure storage has thick concrete and steel walls and a truly colossal vault door… Which.. is.. open..? Huh. I mean, I know how thick it is so it wouldn't really be any effort to boom tube past it… Why is it open? I raise my plasma cannon towards the opening. The lights inside are out. I could just 'spray and pray', this cannon doesn't produce anything like the force needed to destroy a power ring. On the other hand I haven't seen a full manifest. It's possible that some of the things in there going critical could.

Tricksy hobbitses…

Oh, my senses are acute enough that the odds of someone getting the drop on me are rather low. If I keep to the ceiling and move-.

"Guess who, motherfucker."

Huh-? Boagh! Ow, fuck! A brilliant beam of yellow light just… Agh, just blasted out of the darkness and hit me in the face! I blink away the lights as I rise to my feet, the glowing corona of a Yellow Lantern's environmental shield shining out of the dark of the secure storage vault. Lost the plasma cannon-.

"Always thought hiding these away was a mistake."

I raise my right arm to shield my face just before the beam strikes and it gets blocked by my armour. An amateur, then. Good job too. I am not confident of my ability to defeat an experienced Lantern as I am now.

"Lords took this off some alien they killed." The guard floats out of the secure storage area. No.. obvious distinguishing feature. Purple shirt? Rank insignia says 'Corporal'. "Marine Corps' a big fan of tradition. You are an alien, right?"

"I'm a New God, Human. I transcend biological definition."

"Yeah?" He raises his right fist, Sinestro's ring glowing from his middle finger. "Transcend this."

Wait a second… A glowing yellow manacle clamps around my left forearm and pulls it behind my back. I take a moment to assess its strength. Breakable… But I know that voice. It's different, certainly, but…

"Guy Gardner."

He pauses for a second, then grabs my right arm with a second construct and pulls it around to join my left. "Heh, even alien weirdos know my name."

Oh, this is ridiculous. Guy fighting on through his fears, sure. Mastering them? Though… The ring.. might not.. actually work off fear…

"You're a long way from help down here, Gardner." He's keeping his distance, and the ring glows like he's waiting for an excuse to shoot me again.

He glances at his fallen colleagues. "Lotta help they'd be."

"You don't have the courage to master that ring."

"You don't know nothin' about me. And anyway-" His eyes flare yellow. "-looks t'me like you've got plenty of fear yourself. Looks like death and… Gettin' your brain overwritten?" Ah, it does work off fear. "Bein' made someone else? What's that about?"

"A truly horrifying concept. But I don't need a power ring to know your fears, Human. Shall we talk about your violently abusive father? Your callous, disinterested mother? The way you sabotaged your own life in a pathetic attempt to.. what, prove them right?"

"Shaddup." He jabs the ring forwards and a hard Hannibal Lecter style mask-construct covers the lower part of my face. I test the limits of it with my jaw… Weak. I can still speak.

"Or perhaps we could talk about your brother, a man who could do no wrong." I smile at him. "And we both know how that turned out."

"FUCKAH!" He pulls both of his arms back, a glowing baseball bat construct forming in his hands. He lunges at me, swinging it at my head!

I exert myself, shattering the manacle constructs and lunging forwards with my aero disks, my left hand grabbing his left forearm and my right grabbing him around the throat, the baseball bat construct failing as he futilely tries to force me back. "Fear, Human, is something that you.. do not.. inspire.. in me. Picture me with Roland Gardner's face as I beat the stuffing out of you." I release my grip on his throat and slam him hard into the closest wall.

"E-hyeh!"

He's in no real danger with an environmental shield, I just need to weaken his mental connection to the ring. Back and into the wall again, but this time he just grits his teeth and takes it. Back and slam him into the ground. I take hold of his head with my right hand. Up down up down up down and apply pressure. "Feeling secure in your power, 'Lantern' Gardner? Or are you prepared to fail in this pursuit as you have in.. every.. other?"

"Ukk ooh!"

I grab his right hand with my left and touch the ring with my thumb and index fingers. "Ring. Recognise me."

"Nooorrahhh!"

"A superior potential bearer has been detected." The ring pulls itself off Gardner's finger and floats next to me for a moment. Sinestro set it to use his own voice! "Identify yourself."

"I am Grayven of Apokolips, son of Darkseid. And I would teach my foes to fear me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th January 2004
07:38 GMT -5

"Grayven of Apokolips." A yellow light strobes out and scans my body as I ease up on the whole 'smoosh Gardner's head' thing. "You have the capacity to instil... Adequate fear." Well, fuck you too, Sinestro. "You are hereby granted temporary custody of this ring." I hold out my right hand and the ring floats over to hang just in front of my middle finger. "Do not disappoint me." The ring jerks back, growing larger as it does so to fit over my finger and settling on the middle of my metacarpal.

There's a delightful flare of yellow light as the environmental shield kicks in, recolouring the tron lines on my armour to reflect my new power source. Okay, deactivate aero discs, stand up, chuck Gardner down the hallway -"Owff!"- and consider. No one's going to be afraid of a super powered alien who can't fly. There we are! So much better than aero discs. Now, let's see. Yellow should have fewer psychological effects on me than orange and frankly I didn't see that many problems with orange.

"Ring, you do know that Thaal Sinestro's dead, right?"

"My ring has a record of my death. Full functions will only be unlocked once you prove you are worthy of being my successor."

"And how may I do that?"

"There are three acceptable methods. You could hunt Green Lanterns down and kill them, if you have the strength. You could establish perfect social order through fear if you have the intelligence, or demonstrate a profound mastery of fear if you have the wisdom."

Guy pushes himself upright and stares at me with eyes full of impotent rage. "When you say 'full functions'..?"

"You will be granted access to my ring's personal lantern and database."

Don't really care about either of-. Wait a second. "Ring, state current charge."

"Forty seven percent of optimal charge remains."

Okay, that should be suffic-. The alarm cuts out. Huh. Wonder what that's about?

"All personnel are to evacuate immediately. S.H.A.D.E. operative en route."

Gardner stares upwards at an unseen controller. "No! I almost had the son of a bitch!"

"Hard luck Gardner. Hah, maybe next time."

"All personnel are to evacuate immediately. S.H.A.D.E. operative en route."

Hmm. I could just leave. Open up a boom tube somewhere, walk through. I doubt that they've got any way to track them, or at least track them and get someone there fast enough for it to mean anything. But I would like to get some practice in with this ring before taking on a ship full of Thanagarian marines… Preferably against someone who is an actual threat to me. And I don't.. really care about reputation per se, but I seem to remember-. Why rely on that?

"Ring, what unique functions does the yellow light grant?"

"The more fear you inspire, the stronger your constructs will become."

So building rep a bit does seem to be a good idea. Yes, let's get-.

"Another emotional spectrum component detected. Explain yourself."

Ah. "I usually use an orange ring. I don't have it with me at the moment. Is that a problem?"

"All personnel are to evacuate immediately. S.H.A.D.E. operative en route."

"Fuck it." One last hate-filled glare at me and Gardner runs for the exit.

"How did you come by it?"

"I don't know. It didn’t come from the Guardians if that's what's worrying you."

"An adequate answer. Proceed."

I hesitate for a moment, then focus on my fear of going too far, of losing myself and becoming the monster I pretend to be. A scan of the two guards I beat into a stupor shows that they don't have long term injuries. "Father Box, boom tube, five hundred metres directly up."

"Ploong."

I can just hear the roar of wind on the far side over the noise generated by the opening of the tube itself. I fly through, close the tube and immediately begin scanning for my-. A huge cloud of dust and rubble erupts from the Stryker's Island facility below me, focusing around… Map? Thank you. Yes, the secure storage vault where I was standing a moment prior. I hope the silly-. No, the guards are still fine, and I see…

Huh. Yes, I suppose it makes sense that she'd be here. A little surprised that there isn't a version of her back block!

Supergirl covers the distance between the ground and me in less than a second as a wall of yellow light materialises in front of me just in time to intercept her right fist. Forgot how fast they could-. The wall shatters and I Garrick don't have any Garrick! Um, fly backwards, suddenly lunge forwards and start synthesising-. She grabs my right arm and starts spinning me around. Stupid, the ring can handle my inner ears just fine. Okay, parallel universe so the Kryptonite samples aren't reliable, but… I don't have them because they're in the other ring.

Damn it!

She lets go and I cover the distance between where we are and the surface of the sea nearly as quickly as she did on the way up. Water explodes upwards from the force of my impact as I experience a moment of relief that she isn't a better fighter than she was in Justice League Unlimited. What was water going to do? That did less harm than throwing me onto Stryker's Island would have done. Or just throwing me upwards and punching me more. I let myself sink as the synthesis of the Garrick Formula progresses. She can still see me just fine but the water should negate her heat vision, freezing breath and even her speed to a degree. If I get time I should try and find out how that breath thing works as the Kryptonians back home certainly can't do it.

What did I notice about this Supergirl? Looked more.. serious than I remember from the series. Plus, she attacked me right away rather than attempting to talk to me. She wore a skirt in the animated series, didn't she? The one who threw me down here had a sort of dull blue jacket and trouser number with a small Kryptonian glyph -not an 'S'- over her left breast. Actually looks dangerously close to being sensible clothing, something a rational person could go out in public wearing. Shorter hair than I remember from the series. I wonder how involved she was in that whole 'Lords' business. Hmm, and as I contemplate her, she's contemplating me. Garrick done? Right, Kryptonite, green and gold. May not have my records at the moment but I can remember the molecular structure just fine. That should help her learn to fear me. Done?

"The fabrication is complete."

Thank you. Subspace it and up we go. I generate a large bubble shield just before I breach the surface and take a moment to watch the water pour off the sides. Hmm, perhaps I should spice things up in future? Large monster constructs rather than simple shapes? Mmm, probably wouldn't do much here. She seems content to watch me rise for the moment. Right, eyes to glow.

"Supergirl, isn't it?"

"Drop the ring, right.. now."

"Is this a holding action? I was rather expecting Superman."

Her eyes glow orange for a second and-. Right, Kryptonians in this parallel have stealth heat vision, none of the red lines in the air I've grown used to with Kon and Match. There's a slight distortion in the air as the beams of energy heat it where they pass, but otherwise I can't see it at all. Fortunately, I know how to use constructs to deflect it. The water off to my right explodes into steam as her beams superheat it for a moment before she gives up on that attack.

"You'll just have to make do with me, whoever you are."

"My name is 'Grayven', Supergirl. I believe you know my father." I fire yellow lines from my eyes, zigzagging them through the air before they home in on her. "Hello from Apokolips."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th January 2004
07:43 GMT -5

I see her eyes widen for a fraction of a second, then the air itself buckles around her as she turns and heads out to sea at high speed. I have the ring take control of the attack construct while I consider my next course of action. Ring, review local footage of Father. What do his..? Ah. Omega Vision here is orange, but can generate a sort of yellow flame effect around a target tough enough to survive the initial strike. It's credible that I could indeed be using it, and her fear is only going to intensify the force of the attack.

Out across the Atlantic Supergirl heat visions a section of the water, causing a vast plume of steam and vapour to explode upwards behind her. The faux Omega Effect passes through it without difficulty. I remember that in Justice League Unlimited Batman was able to avoid it by ducking behind a Parademon but unless I decided to pull the punch my construct would cut right through anything that squishy. If she ducks behind a ship that could be awkwa-. No, she's gone underwater. Can the Omega Effect go underwater? I don't.. know. She's heading back-. I send the beam into the surface of the water and generate a colossal discharge of force with the strike, sending shockwaves rippling outwards in all directions. Should cause a minor surge in water levels for miles along this coast… Not enough to cause serious damage.

Supergirl's slower coming back but she's making decent headway. Now, if I assume that this Supergirl is basically Kara from Superman Animated… Wish I'd actually watched that, now. Only really remember her from a couple of episodes of Justice League Unlimited and I don't think Braniac nookie is in this iteration's future. Detailed scan… Kryptonian physiology appears to work in basically the same way as back home so the Kryptonite should still be effective. I drop the bubble shield and replace it with ornate armour. Including a helmet, obviously. Heh, there's actually a constant frothing in the water in front of her face where she's got her heat vision on continuously. Probably anger, but it would be amusing if the trigger for it here is sexual arousal as it was in Smallville.

Okay, she's nearly Garrick. She breaks the surface of the water in a two-fisted lunge, crossing the distance between us in what seems like a second even in my accelerated state. Heat vision deflects off my construct armour and I can see her mach cone as I transition to her side and slam my right fist into the middle of her back.

"Grah!"

She starts to spin out of control and I take the opportunity to strike her again, a backhand blow with my left hand across her face. I pull my right back to strike at her diaphragm but she's starting to recover and speed up relative to me. She moves around my outstretched fist and uppercuts me in the faceplate with her right fist. Her face twists into a rictus of hate and determination as the construct cracks under the force of her assault. I swing my left elbow around to fend her off, catching her on the right shoulder and knocking her back. A sword construct forms in my right hand, the green Kryptonite I've created decorating the guard. I slash across the space she's occupying and she backs off immediately, taking a deep breath… Scan in detail. Ah, I ssssee. She's instinctively using strong nuclear force manipulation to stop the vibration of the air molecules in her lungs, or at least highly suppress it. I'm not sure why that doesn't ice up her lungs… Or maybe it does and she's just tough enough not to care? She exhales and I evade as air at a temperature well below the freezing point of water blasts past me, causing the water vapour in the air to precipitate out as ice crystals as it goes. She turns her head to keep up with me and her eyes glow again as she aims her heat vision directly for my eyes. As she empties her lungs I generate a tower shield construct and fly at her, bringing my construct sword around at her neck.

She jinks to my right and punches the sword construct in the flat of the blade with her right fist, shattering the construct and causing the Kryptonite shard to tumble free. Huh? She snatches it out of the air with her left gauntlet and crunches it to powdery fragments, a confident smile of challenge on her face. "Everyone tries the Kryptonite. You really think we don't have a defense against that by now?"

"And now I feel like I've been lazy." Ring? "Radiation shield, woven into the structure of your garment. Simple but effective. Though… You should probably avoid breathing in those fragments."

Her eyes narrow slightly and she dusts her hand off. "What do you want?"

"Now that I have this ring? I want to save this world."

She stares at me for a moment, then slowly raises her right eyebrow. "You want to save the world?"

"I can't conquer it if someone else has already destroyed it, now can I?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The Thanagarians-."

"Are building a shield to protect the Earth from people like you."

I smile. "Is that what they told you? Tell me, Supergirl… Did you have anyone who actually knows anything about spatial dynamics verify their claim? Because I recognise the device they're building and I assure you; when they activate it there will be very little of this system left."

Her smile fades and her right hand drifts up towards… Ah, an earpiece. Impressive that it stayed in place. "Why do you want to conquer the Earth?"

"Clearly you people can't be trusted to look after yourselves." I fold my arms behind my back in a classic Darkseid pose. "Though the people of this world are not without their merits, their civilisation lacks.. direction. A direction I am well placed to provide." I frown. "I mean no offence to your combat skills, but I was rather expecting to be confronted by the Justice Lords?"

"The Justice Lords don't exist anymore. We don't like it when people try to take over our planet."

"Ahhh. A pity." I raise my right hand slightly. "Though I suppose I'm not really at my peak… Perhaps it's for the best." She curls slightly as if preparing to charge me again. "Wait a moment… Please?" She relaxes slightly, her suspicion still clear on her face. "Do you have any great love for your current masters? I've seen recordings-" I hold out my right hand and generate a construct of her original Supergirl look, "-of how you used to look. Your smile seems more genuine, there."

She scowls. "And Apokolips is all about smiles."

"No, it really isn't. Apokolips is a horrible place. If I'd wanted to live there I'd simply have stayed. I don't, and didn't. Earth can be so much more than its small minded rulers will allow it to be. I want to see it reach its full potential."

"Are you seriously trying to ask me-?"

I dismiss the Supergirl construct. "Yes. Why wouldn't I? You're magnificent. Powerful, determined and beautiful. With you by my side the conquest would be far easier, both to accomplish and.. on the people. I try, but I was brought up on Apokolips. A member of my inner circle with a better knowledge of the functioning of Human society-."

"I would never work for you."

I nod. "I can respect that. In your position I would hesitate to accept a subordinate position as well. Hmmm." I study her for a moment. "I suppose…" I nod. "Acceptable." I hold out my right hand, palm upwards, and focus my mind on my fear of trusting those whom I can't predict. After a moment two metal bands of gold, platinum and copper appear. "Would you accept doing so as my equal in all matters?"

Her mouth hangs open for a moment. "No I would not-!" She gags. "How could you even-!"

"Oh." I frown slightly. "You are an adult, right? Because if you're not… I don't want to imply that.. I'm into that.. sort of-."

She lunges, striking me with both fists in the chest and pushing us high into the sky. Armour takes the impact, but I think I've achieved all I can here. I grab her wrists with my right hand, pull her across me and release before raising my right knee and slamming both arms down on her back, driving her diaphragm into my knee. The air shoots out of her lungs and she gasps as she tries to get her arms into position to push me away. She's… She's managing it. I'm straining and she's pushing me back. She's stronger than me.

Fascinating.

Distracting. Father Box, boom tube to low orbit.

Ploong.

A portal to nowhere in particular opens just behind me and I yank my left arm free of her grip to punch her in the face. Without having her anchored it doesn't do all that much damage but it does weaken her grip slightly. Her neck's too small a target for me to hit it… I aim instead for her chest and strike hard enough to knock her off me before flying backwards through the portal. She lunges forwards and I back up further, letting her pass through before closing the boom tube down.

Her eyes widen as she looks around, realising where she is. Barely any air in her lungs… I get one last glare and then she turns around and flies back towards the Earth at maximum speed.

Mission success. Now to return to the Watchtower with my loot.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th January 2004
12:49 GMT

Batman doesn't look up as I step through the boom tube from Masirah and into the Watchtower's operations centre. Stewart, on the other hand-.

"Did you really have to pick a fight with Kara?"

"Need? No." The boom tube snaps shut behind me. "But it was productive. There were things I was overlooking. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to tell someone what the Thanagarians are really up to."

Batman presses a button on his console, changing the view to a news report of my attack. Ms Lane looks a lot more.. worn down here. "Did you get what you went for?"

I make a fist with my right hand and hold out the ring. "Yes. The AI regards me as an 'adequate' user."

Stewart looks at the ring, clearly uncomfortable. Then he turns to Batman. "You need me for the next part? I.. wanna get back to medical…"

"No, that should be everything." Stewart nods, about faces and heads for the exit. Batman turns to watch him go, waiting until the door closes behind him before continuing our conversation. "We should get started on planning your attack."

"I had a look at STAR Labs' database. They said that Hawkgirl has an autoimmune disease." Batman hesitates for a moment before giving me a small nod. "They're wrong. Thanagarians don't get autoimmune diseases."

"Our knowledge of Thanagarian medicine is extremely limited. One of my objectives when I infiltrated their ship was to access their medical database. Unfortunately, I was discovered before I could reach it."

"I'll take a look at her before I go. Listen, I've been.. thinking about something." I hesitate.

"Go on."

"What happens next time?"

"Alien invasions are infrequent. The Justice Lords weren't the only superhero team on Earth. I've been arranging funding and training for others. By next time, some of them should be ready to take on the job."

"And if they're not?" He doesn't respond. "I mean, I don't mind coming back, but in future I'll be charging you."

"Did you have something in mind?"

"I told Supergirl what was really happening. With a little luck she'll take the initiative, but she's just one woman. The League are a team."

"You want to inform other people." I nod. "If information on what the Thanagarians are doing becomes public knowledge it could provoke an attack, and the Earth is in no position to fight them."

"I wasn't planning on telling everyone, just.. a few people. People who could take part in the fight themselves. Or… It doesn't have to be the Thanagarians. I 'villained it up' when I was talking to Supergirl. I don't mind playing the Galactic Conqueror myself if that is what we need."

"I chose to come to you because very few superheroes could take on this mission. Supergirl was probably the only local one who would have had a chance."

"What about your Captain Marvel?"

"He refused to work for SHADE and was forced to retire."

I nod. "How old is William Batson now?"

A slight hesitation. "Eight."

"I don't know your version, but our William Batson is almost painfully idealistic. If the fate of the planet was at stake…"

"It's possible."

"I can drop by your versions of my brother and my sister in law. I think I can probably talk them into it."

"Who are you referring to?"

"Mister Miracle and Big Barda."

"The escapologist."

"The New God of Freedom and the former head of Darkseid's bodyguard. They came to Earth to get away from all of that, but if it's followed them here…"

"I don't know enough about them to judge whether or not they would make good additions to a team."

"Do you feel that the Lords overstepped the bounds of what a team of superheroes should do?"

He hesitates for a moment, then nods. "Among other things, yes."

"They won't. They both grew up under Father and have no desire to recreate that civilisation. Their skills in their chosen fields are considerable."

"Very well. Who else did you have in mind?"

Mmm. "What is.. your relationship with Richard like?"

Batman freezes for a second, then turns back to his console and calls up some newspaper clippings. As expected, Richard here is a young adult. In his twenties, I'd say. It seems that he's fairly popular, locally. And.. is that a Robin? "Nightwing operates out of Bludhaven as a SHADE operative. We have very little contact."

"Might be worth cluing him in."

"I've tried. He isn't responding."

"Doesn't mean he isn't listening." I suppose I should ask. "How much.. Bruce Wayning do you do these days?"

"None. As far as Gotham is concerned, Bruce Wayne is a delusional recluse. Is there anything else?"

"No. If you don't hate the idea I'll start working out how to get them on board." He nods. "I'll go and see what I can do for Hawkgirl now."

"I'll continue monitoring the Thanagarians. I'll let you know if the situation changes."

I nod, connect the ring to this Watchtower's systems and open the doors between here and the medical bay before transitioning there. Feels.. different, doing it with a yellow ring. Or maybe that's just a function of being in a parallel universe? Stewart's sitting next to the bed Hawkgirl occupies, her left hand clasped in his. She looks.. withered. Prolonged illness will do that to a person, I suppose. Not enough exercise, body not processing food properly…

"What the hell do you want?"

"One moment, Mister Stewart." He fears her death, but only slightly. At this point he's pretty much made his peace with the idea. What he fears more is her suffering and his inability to do anything about it. Enough for me to use…

Wait, what? Where's the medical-?

"My ring is not a tool of healing. You will have to impress me a great deal more before I unlock the information you need to create medicinal devices."

Stewart frowns. "Now there's a voice I didn't think I'd ever have to listen to again."

"Though, if you kill this former Lantern I will permit it just once."

I think not. "Ring, unlock full functionality. Thaal Sinestro gave me permission himself."

"I find it unlikely that I wouldn't have put that data on this ring. Prove it."

I raise my right fist.

"In blackest day or brightest night,
Beware your fears made into light.
Let those who try and stop what's right,
Burn like his power: Sinestro's might!"

Fingers crossed…

"Close enough. Full access granted, Corpsman. Don't make me regret this."

Yellow light strobes out of the ring to a point about two metres in front of me. A moment later a yellow personal lantern emerges from subspace and a beam of yellow light blasts from its centre to my ring.

"Ring at one hundred percent power."

The lantern disappears immediately. Automated. Clever. Now, let's see what's wrong with Hawkgirl.