Gude-Willie Waught

31st December
05:53 GMT -5

"You're up early."

I look up from the workbench and see Zatanna standing in the doorway. "I am?" I look up at the clock. "Oh. No… No, I'm up late. Whoops."

She sighs theatrically and walks into the workshop, coffee mug in hand. "What are you working on?"

I grin. "Power armour."

"I thought you were working on the cold guns."

"Oh, finished them hours ago. Dropped a few prototypes off with the Metropolis fire department."

She walks over and sits down across from me at the workbench. "Don't they already have cold guns?"

Both index fingers up, lecture mode engaged. "No, they have freeze rays. Big, bulky ones they can't risk using anywhere where there are people because they'd get frozen to death. These-" I push part of a chestplate I was working on out of the way and pull a partially disassembled cold rifle over to show her what I mean. "-are ice guns."

"Okay?"

"A normal freeze ray works by… Well, I'm not actually sure… Explanation kind of went." I wave my right hand over my head. "Simple version, they use battery power to impede molecular vibrations. Somehow. Shoot something with it and that thing drops in temperature. Fine. Er, can I borrow that?" I point to her coffee.

"If you like?" She pushes the mug over to me.

I generate a freeze ray construct. "Works like this." I jerk the mug up and then down. Obeying the laws of motion the coffee keeps going and I freeze it in mid air. It thumps back down onto the bench, small bits of frozen coffee breaking off but the main lump staying solid. "Now, what do you notice?"

"You just ruined a mug of perfectly good coffee?"

"No, it's fine, you've just gotta…" I pick up the lump with a construct, brush it off and put it on top of the mug. A quick blast from a maser construct and the mug is half full of hot coffee again. "Okay, so what else did you notice?"

"You can just tell me."

"No ice. I mean, no extra ice build up around the frozen coffee. You see, there isn't enough moisture in the air to create the sort of ice build ups some cold effects generate. And yet, ice appears. Where does it come from?"

"The.. gun..?"

"Yep. But, someone like Doctor Fries has to use this whole compression system, keep the gas at very high pressure to get the effect he wants, and his accuracy at range is terrible. The advantage of that sort of system is that the harm done to the target is greatly reduced. The ice isn't usually much more than minus ten degrees so their body heat will start to melt it and it's hard to get it to layer on very thick. That's why he's only killed eight people rather than hundreds. Mister Snart's version -the one I ripped off- has better accuracy but a much lower rate of fire. He usually uses it as a sort of cold.. plasma.. blast.. thing, messing around with pressure and hydrogen bonding as well as temperature. These-" I pick up the rifle and give it a little shake. "-use these gel cartridges. You know that dome shouldn't have stayed up under its own weight? And I actually had trouble pushing through it when I got coated. That's be-caaause it isn't exactly ice as in frozen water. It's a sort of novel liquid crystal, a bit like Artemis' hard foam arrows, only it has weird thermal properties and.. I'm.. going on a bit, aren't I?"

"A bit. So what can it do?"

"When we captured the Ice Fortress there was no way for it to generate power."

"You said it was coming through…"

"Right, right. This has the same system! I mean, there's a local battery and a cable for connecting it to the armour's power supply, but it's designed to have reloads and power sent in through mini Dolmen Gates." I remove a panel on the rifle and show her the circle of dull grey metal. "Best of all?" I use the ring to pick up from the workbench two I'd removed earlier and apply a small amount of electrical power. Runes inscribed on the outer edge glow as the Gate forms. "Mass production! They're a standardised design. You just have to work out which bit of the inscription defines the target, and thanks to Sephtian's notes on his work I have. I mean I was just thinking about the potential for bulk transportation but… A firefighter could have a hose attached to a huge tank of water miles away with one of these at the bottom. Or just.. chuck it in the sea, or a river or something. The power requirements are large but compared to the cost of the infrastructure they could replace it's a pittance. Hey, check this out!" I stick my right forefinger in through one of the Gates and it appears through the other. I give it a wiggle and then grin at her.

"That sounds useful." She picks up her mug, sniffs at it and then puts it back down with an expression of mild distaste. "I'm not sure why you're so excited, though."

"You know how useful my subspace storage is. Now, everyone can have it. Just have a load of these lined up somewhere, dial the rune-tag and voila! You can make them small like in this rifle, or handbag size or whatever size. And I can store arcane artefacts without wiping out my power reserves. Here, you want a go?" I move the two mini Gates over to her.

She gives me and them a sceptical look before deciding to humour me and quickly jabs her right index finger through one of them. "How about the armor?"

"Yeaaaaah. Ssssslight problem with that. Power armour.. needs to 'learn' how you move, how to interpret your nervous system. Otherwise you'd risk pulling yourself apart whenever you moved. I'm wearing-" I reach up to the collar of my jumper and pull it aside. "-the undersuit and control collar, but I can't really start playing around with the armour itself until it's learned me. The armour's simple enough, though I did ask Red Tornado to ask Morrow about incorporating the improvements I made to Danni into a revised design."

"How strong does it make you?"

"You could arm wrestle Kaldur and win."

"Not Kon?"

"No, not with the version they were using."

"Does the invisibility thing work?"

"Sort of. When I took the claw back to Mister Crandell I had a chat with his MI6 handler. It uses a sort of exotic radiation, you need to be exposed to it for a while before you can use the invisibility function and it has a rather.. unfortunate effect on the Human mental state for a few months before the whole thing stabilises. There might be a way around it but I'd want to do a lot more testing before moving to Human trials." I frown as my explain-the-clever-thing-you've-done impulse winds down. "Wait. What are you doing up?"

She looks away. "I've.. been up for half an hour. I couldn't.. get back to sleep." She glances at the coffee mug. "Can't seem to fully wake up either."

Agh, she mentioned having trouble sleeping before. Should have… "Right. Before you go to bed tonight, come and see me." She blinks at me, blushing slightly. "My massage teacher insists that it's supposed to be good if you're having trouble sleeping and clearly.. ignoring the problem isn't helping."

"Um. I mean… Um. Couldn't you use your ring or something?"

"To suppress activity in your brain? Yes, but I'm not going to. Look, if you're really not comfortable with it then I'll try and think of something else… Whale song, maybe? Some sort of white noise? But, come on, it's me. I'm not.. going to do anything weird."

She shifts slightly in her seat. "Okay. Um. Tonight. Let's.. give it a shot."

31st December
07:11 GMT -5

Red Tornado's already waiting for us when Zatanna, Kaldur and I walk into the training area. Lantern Morrow isn't with him. He's probably still working on the armour.. or maybe that alternate android body Tornado wanted. Since I took control of him I've seen him create simple construct tools but I'm not sure if he has the full range of Lantern abilities. The only ability I remember Construct-Lanterns having in the comic was assimilation and I.. don't.. really think I want to test that. No one else is here yet, Kon and M'gann being.. together.. somewhere, and everyone else went home yesterday. Surprised Robin isn't here yet though.

The three of us come to a halt at 'lecture distance', Kaldur slightly ahead. "Red Tornado, do you know why Batman has asked us to assemble?" Really thought we'd got him out of the habit of dropping things on us with no notice. Ah well.

"No. I spent last night working with my father. I am as much 'in the dark' as you are."

"Howwww.. is he.. doing..?"

A slight creak as he turns his head in my direction. "I do not have a good baseline from which to assess his behavior. He is different from the android we encountered in Yellowstone Park but I do not know whether that is a consequence of his greater age and experience or the 'assimilation' effect."

"Have you told Danni?"

"Yes, as well as our elder brother. She intends to stop by later. Jim suggested that we throw him into the sun."

"That would just cause him to respawn... Not the point."

"Recognised, Kid Flash, B zero three."

Wallace walks out of the Zeta Tube in full costume. "Hey guys. Know why Batman-?" The three of us shake out heads. "Rob here yet? He's usually-."

A sudden wind rockets out of one of the corridors and blasts outwards across the room! I close my eyes for a moment on instinct, then open them to see a cheerful looking Robert standing at the epicentre of the blast. "Yes! Ride the Wind! Finally cracked it!" He beams at me. "Mate, this sword is amazing!"

"Oh great, another guy who's faster than me."

Zatanna smiles. "You're not at all bothered by the fact that the Sword doesn't consider you worthy of using it?"

He shrugs. "What does a dead Viking know about it?"

"Recognised, Robin, B zero one."

Robin walks out of the tube slowly, head tilted slightly down as Wallace waves to his friend. "Hey Rob! What happened, Catwoman turn you down again?"

"Batman didn't come home last night."

Wallace thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "He's a busy guy."

"I know, and it's not the first time. He just usually calls if he's on an all-nighter."

Robert looks at me and raises his eyebrows. "Son." He nods in understanding.

"Well, he called us all here so he's not hurt or anything."

"I know, it's just not like him not to follow-."

"Recognised, Rocket, B one one." / "Recognised, Superboy, B zero four, Miss Martian, B zero five, Wolf C zero three."

Don't think I've seen both tubes activating at once before. Hadn't actually realised that Kon and M'gann had left the mountain. Kon tightens his grip on the lead as Wolf sees us and tries pulling forwards. M'gann holds up a bag. "Who wants donuts?"

"Depends what sort."

Wallace is already moving towards her. "I'll have his."

M'gann opens the bag and holds it out towards Wallace. "Fried rings, still hot, sugar and no frosting."

"Thank you." I send a construct to pick one out of the bag and bring it over. "It's the only way to eat them."

"Mrut a fostin-" Wallace swallows his first mouthful. "-the best bit!"

I narrow my eyes. "Heathen."

Raquel takes a donut from the proffered bag and then takes another look around. "No Artemis yet?"

Kaldur shakes his head. "I am sure that she will be-."

"Recognised, Batman, zero two."

Raquel, Kon and M'gann scurry to get into the line up, M'gann concealing the donut bag behind her back while shifting her skin back to green and her clothing back into her team uniform. I glow orange for a moment as my new light power armour materialises around me. Obvious, really; the ring is perfectly capable of imputing data on my movements to the armour systems. It just didn't occur to me until Zatanna pointed it out over breakfast. The armour doesn't have enough bulk for me to go the Alan-in-Kingdom-Come route of physically integrating my personal lantern, but it's still bloody tough and I got a smile out of Zatanna by using the muscles in the legs to bounce off the floor like it was a trampoline. Super strength might be less adaptable than a power ring but it's still bloody good fun. The armour even has a helmet and gauntlets I don't mind wearing, though I leave the helmet off for now.

Those of my team mates who haven't seen the armour yet give me a curious look but our attention is soon turned towards Batman. He looks us over to make sure he has our attention and his eyes stop on me for a moment. Have I got some sugar on my..? Ring says no. Probably the armour. Guess he wasn't expecting results this quickly. He… Uuh. Odd. His usual green/yellow aura looks a little different today. Not sure why, he's all there.

Oh whaw. Is he hung over? That would be hilarious.

"Team, I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news. Last night I was able to locate the mole in our organization who has been passing information to our enemies."

NONONO! There is no fricking mole! I can't really sag inside this armour but I give it a try anyway. I was so sure there was nothing to that.

Wallace swallows the last of his donut. "So who was it? My money was on Oh El."

"Thanks, Wallace." Wait. Artemis isn't here. He doesn't think she was-?

A holoscreen appears next to him with an image of Red Arrow on it. "The mole was Red Arrow."

"Roy?" / "No way!"

Robin and Wallace are most shocked. Aside from Kaldur the rest of us didn't really know him that well and he's not all that expressive. I don't know; Red Arrow seemed alright to me. Still, I never put him through the same sort of background checking that I did everyone else. I suppose it's.. possible. Ring, location of… Oh, of course he's blocking it.

"Batman, that cannot be." It's subtle, but having spent as long around him as I can I can pick up the distress in Kaldur's voice. "He was Green Arrow's protégé, we have all known him for years."

"The Roy Harper you've known is a creation of Cadmus, cloned three years ago from material taken from the original." A new image appears alongside that of Red Arrow, showing him in his old what the fuck is that hat? Why would anyone go out dressed like that? "The real Speedy was abducted shortly after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick. The clone was pre-programmed with a drive to join the Justice League, which was why he was so angry over any delays to his admission and why he refused to join the team. This Roy Harper had no idea he was a clone or a traitor and his subconscious programming drove him to become League-worthy. So he struck out on his own, as Red Arrow."

"When he was finally admitted his secondary programming kicked in, and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage. Fortunately, I had already deduced that Red Arrow was a clone. We were prepared." Another screen, this time showing Savage. League versus pointy stick launcher guy and caveman man? Sounds like a stomp. "Savage is in custody but Red Arrow was able to escape." How the heck did he manage that? And what exactly would he have given Savage that he couldn't have done a month ago? "He is currently still at large."

Kon rubs the back of his head with his right hand. "If you guys hadn't rescued me from Cadmus…"

"What..? What happened to the real Roy?" Robin isn't even bothering to disguise how shocked he is. Actually, that's a bit harsh of him. The only Roy he knew was the clone version. He shouldn't just dismiss him because he's a clone.

"We don't know. He isn't at Cadmus." How many times has the League said that about someone? I'll get hold of Dubbilex once Batman's left. "We have to face the possibility that the real Roy Harper.. is dead."

I'm not assuming anything at this point, though from the slumping postures of Kaldur, Wallace and Robin I think they're convinced that Batman is right. Kaldur recovers fastest. "The clone Roy. The team will find him."

"Negative. Red Arrow's a member of the Justice League now." 'Cause that worked out so well last time he said it. "Leave him to us." He straightens slightly. "I'm needed on the Watchtower. Red Tornado-" He pats him on the back. "-stay with the kids."

Since when does Batman pat people on the back?

31st December
07:14 GMT -5

I'm not quite sure where it all turned around. Yesterday we beat up a small group of Apokoliptian soldiers and so guaranteed Earth's freedom from Apokoliptian influence. Other than me, obviously. A little later I got the hush tube working and got confirmation on the identities of the members of the Light. Their offer.. I don't know. Yes, I was prepared to consider it. Maybe even accept it, depending on exactly what it entailed. The barrier to entry was so high that I didn't think that I needed to make a decision immediately. And then…

Mister Tawny detects my mood and nudges the side of my right leg with his head. I reach down and scratch the top of his head. Then it all turned to shit. Keeping Jade and that side of things separate worked as long as they were separate. Batman knowing was fine, he can keep secrets and understood the value of my work. Sure, I think he thought I was going to hand Jade over to the authorities at the end but apart from that there wasn't a problem. Artemis knowing was fine because she was even more committed to secrecy than I was. My other team mates… They know I let Jade go the first time we met. That in itself would put me into the doghouse, even with Batman signing off on the whole thing. Pointing out to Artemis that Paula almost certainly committed other crimes… What the hell was I thinking?

No, I know what I was thinking. I was thinking 'this is obviously true, why are we talking about this'. I was thinking 'utilitarian calculations do cause people to do horrible things without being wrong, hasn't everyone studied philosophy?'. Thing is, I can't even… I wasn't angry. It wasn't anger. I guess when you're thirty relating to teenagers isn't an easy thing to do. 'Stone cold', Wallace said. Yes. Rational, utilitarian and stone cold. None of them could really argue the logical justification for killing Klarion but they were clearly discomforted by how naturally the decision comes to me. Even the ones who agreed with me…

I've marked myself out as something other. Something far more alien than Kon or Match or M'gann. For the first time since I joined the team I'm beginning to think that maybe this isn't the right place for me.

I'm a little late for Batman's morning powwow but I don't really want to.. interact with my team mates yet. Let things calm down a bit first, speak to Batman about the whole situation in private if possible -though it probably won't be- and then decide my next step. Maybe we could request a resolution from the Security Council authorising lethal force? I could just take that straight to the Chinese but this is the last time to cause further alienation if I have any intent of remaining here.

Ahead of me the team is gathered opposite Batman and Red Tornado and I head over to fall in behind them. This isn't the best time for another mission.

Batman makes brief eye contact with me. "However you feel about the situation, Grayven has not been passing information to the Light. The mole was Red Arrow." Batman calls up a holoscreen with an image of Moody Arrow on it. What, did he think we'd have forgotten what he looks like? And… Is Batman wearing a different cape or something? He looks… different, somehow.

"Roy?" / "No way!"

Richard and Wallace are most shocked. I'm… Not sure I credit it myself. Then again, there're any number of mind control techniques which could have been applied to him. But there's something else here, some undercurrent of events that's trying to make itself known to me. An itch right in the godhood.

"Batman, that cannot be." Kaldur makes a gesture of appeal. "He was Green Arrow's protégé, we have all known him for years."

"Unfortunately, the Roy Harper we have known for the last three years is another Project Cadmus clone." A new holoscreen shows an image of the Cadmus building but I don't bother looking at it. The feeling is there again, like there's something… Something wrong with Red Tornado as well.

"We've learned that the real Speedy was abducted and replaced immediately after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick."

Ring, show me his desires.

"The clone was pre-programmed with a drive to join the Justice League, which was why he was so angry over any delays to his admission and why he refused to join the team."

By your command.

"This Roy Harper had no idea he was a clone or a traitor and his subconscious programming drove him to become League-worthy."

Still there, still the same, but there's something curtailing them.

"So he struck out on his own, as Red Arrow. When he was finally admitted his secondary programming kicked in, and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage. Fortunately, I had already deduced that Red Arrow was a clone. We were prepared."

Father Box, any ideas?

Ploong.

Well of course they do but this is just about the worst possible time for me to ask them to pick a side between myself and Batman, even if he couldn't give me orders backed by Gaea. Nothing for it.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt but, are you feeling alright?" "Zatanna, Tao. Are you feeling.. something strange about-."

"Yes!" Zatanna gets a few puzzled looks, then realises what she's done. "Because.. you.. can't be too careful. I mean, if he's had access to League facilities for this long he could have planted some sort of poison or something." "There's some sort of magic working on them both. And from the way my order magic detection spell reacted, I'd say it was chaotic."

Batman regards her levelly for a moment. "Finding Red Arrow is the League's top priority. We'll know more about what he was planning-" I peer more closely at him. There, at the base of his skull. Desires not his own. "-once we've caught and interrogated him."

"Still sir, since I'm sure you're going to call it a League matter and tell us to butt out, could this team not be usefully employed in that capacity?" "Tao, on his neck. Do you see it?"

Tao smiles and slides his bow off his shoulder as if to put it aside. "I have no other plans for today." "I see it. Orders?"

I think Batman realises that something's off, but somebody didn't want to become a god-detective. "I.. appreciate your willingness to assist, but-."

I grin. "No trouble sir." "When I say 'now', Zatanna, paralyse them. Tao, put an arrow through it without otherwise harming them. Nod if you understand."

Tao and Zatanna both give tiny nods. Batman frowns. "That won't be necessary. The League-."

"Now."

Zatanna gestures upwards with both hands and giant golden triquetra appear around Batman and Red Tornado, pinning them in place. Tao has the Bow of Yi up and pointed at Batman, arrow already leaving his string before Robin can finish turning around to ask what we're doing. Red Tornado reacts as fast as he can think, winds already blowing around his arms and legs as my filament strikes the centre of his chest and bores into his responsometer, disconnecting it from his other systems. Fast, but not as fast as a New God. A split second later a second arrow flies through his neck, passing through his body but hitting something on the way through. Both Batman and Red Tornado loll in place, animating force temporarily removed.

"What the hell are you doing!"

Richard is too incensed to even reach for his weapons. Kaldur has his water bearers up and Artemis has an arrow on string. One of my x-ionised ones, I note. Match, Kon and Miss Martian are hesitating to act against us and Miss Ervin looks shell shocked. Wallace is right on the edge of dashing at me, and if he does the others will follow. Need to deescalate, but I'm shit at that.

"They were being controlled." Zatanna lowers Batman and Tornado to the ground and holds out her right hand. "Worra ylf ot ym dnah."

One of Tao's arrows is jerked out of the far wall and flies over to her. She takes hold of it around the shaft and holds it out to Richard.

One of the Starro things is speared on the point.

Richard takes his eyes off me to look at what Zatanna is trying to show him and his eyes widen. "No." The room's still tense but the rage isn't focused on the three of us anymore.

"Recognised, Captain Atom, one two, Plastic Man, one eight."

We turn and brace ourselves as the zeta tube lights up.

Things are about to get filthy.

31st December
07:16 GMT -5

Rob pokes me in the chest. "When'd you get power armour?"

I'm sure that as soon as we can come up with a convincing excuse we'll be ducking out of Red Tornado's sight in order to go after Mister Harper. I've even prepared a program which will cause the mountain's internal recording equipment to see us as still being here and automatically 'move' away from anyone who comes to find us.

"Truggs' people used it, so I copied it."

"Yeah, but that was yesterday. You can really just.. copy stuff?"

"As long as it doesn't have a supernatural component, yes."

Artemis smiles at me. "When do the rest of us get a suit?"

"Uhh, to be honest, I don't think you or Robin would get anything out of it. I mean, I can make you a suit but you're already stronger than it is." Oh, might as well be me this time. "But, Raquel, Zatanna? If you want a version for you we could.. head to the workshop and get you measured up?"

"I don't-" Raquel realises that everyone's staring at her. A half second passes and then I think she gets it. "-think.. there's.. any reason not to."

"We may as well all go." Wallace has acquired an extra donut from somewhere. "Not like we had anything planned." Hoping that Red Tornado will have an attack of amnesia and so decide not to follow us -or will remember and decide to just give us space to do our thing- the entire team begin moving in the direction of the workshop. Wallace makes an expression of distaste. "Wait a sec. Why aren't I getting offered power armor?"

"The motion control systems need to learn how you move so they don't rip your arms and legs off. You can try, but I think you'd just be too fast for its processor to keep up with you."

"Huh. Makes sense."

"I will accompany you."

We're looking away from Tornado as he says it, which is why he doesn't see me wince. Our eyes flick across each others faces and Kaldur gets nominated. He turns back. "We would not wish to call you away from your father."

Red Tornado stops still for a moment, then turns and looks up towards the iris in the ceiling. Is he going to-? No. He turns back to us. "My father cannot escape." Eh? Well, probably could actually, but why is he-? "I wish to ensure that there is no repeat of what happened during my disappearance."

Oh well. One of him, ten of us. We can split up-. "Paul, you put those cookery books in the kitchen, right?"

Quick work there M'gann. "Yes, most of them. What exactly were you-? Oh, hello Teekl."

My cat walks out of the passageway out of the training area which we were heading towards. As I crouch down and hold out my right hand she makes eye contact with me, leaning forwards to sniff in my direction. "Teekl smell."

And that's the problem with a talking cat, the phrasing could mean just about anything. Teekl herself has an unpleasant smell? She doesn't, not in the literal sense. Maybe it's a metaphorical smell? Was she just commenting on the fact that she was sniffing in case we didn't notice? Does she smell something in particular? I wiggle my outstretched fingers. "And what does Teekl smell?"

"Teekl smell…" She looks around our group, an almost.. puzzled expression on her feline face. Not seeing whatever she's looking for she walks forwards and briefly nuzzles my hand.

"That animal should not be wandering freely."

Robin looks as puzzled as I feel. "Ah, Tornado? The cave doesn't have a 'no pets' policy."

Teekl's ears orientate on Tornado's voice and her fur begins to stand on end. What's setting her off?

"I am implementing one."

I'm thrown back as Teekl expands to the size of a Liger and lunges through my team mates! Rob and Zatanna dodge out of the way as she leaps at Tornado! Swirling winds envelope his legs as he tries to get out of the way but he's too slow! She slams into his chest and they both go flying out of control across the room, propelled by his air blast. What the hell?! An air blast from his hands lifts her rear off him but her claws have dug into his shoulders, anchoring her in place as she bites down on his neck!

Shit! Shit! "Teekl, stop! Bad cat!" I fly across the room, a construct grabber arm forming as I exert my control to compel her to shrink back to her normal size. Red Tornado lies motionless on the ground, her claw rents clearly visible in his shoulders as the grabber construct pulls her off him by the scruff of her neck. "Teekl, what the hell..?"

Then I see the thing in her mouth and note the lack of tooth marks on Red Tornado. She's holding a piece of Starro-tech. She stares at me for a moment before spitting it out. "Teekl smell NastyBad Klarion."

I create a new grabber to hold the Starro-tech up for my team mates to see and take hold of Teekl myself, laying her along my left arm and stroking her with my right. "Good cat. Good decision."

She cranes her head back to get a more forceful head scratch. "Teekl know Teekl wonderful. Teekl wonderful and Agent lucky to have her."

"That's Starro-tech." Robin's looking closely at the small piece of arcanotechnologically altered flesh. "How'd Teekl get hold of it?"

Teekl turns her head to stare at him. "Teekl wonderful, intelligent, sleek and wonderful. She explain to dumb boy kitten, who is far less wonderful."

Rob grins. "You're getting slagged off by a talking cat."

"Heeeey." I tap her on the head. "Be nice."

"NastyBad Klarion control wind golem with squid lump. Teekl smell Klarion through squid lump, bite out of wind golem. You may now worship Teekl."

Kaldur hurries over to take a closer look at Red Tornado. "These injuries are superficial. He should not be unconscious."

Robin frowns. "But Red Tornado's been here all night. He went up to his room almost as soon as we got back yesterday, the Starro-tech went with Batman and the others." He looks at me and the other lifers. "Has anyone else been here?"

Zatanna shakes her head. "No, no one."

Ring, internal monitoring? "Internal recording says no, automated defences say no, external access says no, Zeta Tubes say you guys and Batman were the only ones.. who..." From the looks on their faces and on mine I think we all get it at the same time. "Teekl, exactly where on Red Tornado did you find it?" She looks up at me and shares the idea. The centre of his back. "Right where Batman-."

"Batman called us 'kids'. He never does that." Robin has his computer up, trying to scan the Starro-tech. "I just thought maybe he was.. tired or something, but if someone was controlling him..."

"They weren't familiar enough with his speech patterns or lexicon. And if they got Batman…"

Kaldur nods. "Then it is likely that the rest of the League has fallen as well."

"But not Roy." Wallace grasps for the cloud's silver lining. "If they got him too they wouldn't be trying to chase him down."

Raquel points at the Starro-tech thing. "If he was being controlled, won't Klarion know he's been disconnected?"

Shit. "Everyone got their Spell Eaters?" Everyone except Rob nods. Ring, shut down the zeta tubes.

Compliance.

"I just turned off the mountain's Zeta Tubes to external access. We don't have to worry about anyone else coming in." I think for a moment. "Not that that will stop the Flash running across the country at the speed of light and Starroing everyone anyway. Kaldur, I think we need to leave. Now."

"I think that you are right."

31st December
07:18 GMT -5

Orange construct armour appears around my team mates and Mister Tawny, Captain Adams' green..? Yes, kryptonite blasts, hitting both Kon and Match in the chests and being absorbed by the construct armour as Mister O'Brian lunges at us, expanding as he comes. What are their weaknesses?

Ah, yes. **Plastic Man, weaknesses, extreme cold.** An orange freeze ray appears in front of me and fires, hitting him on the left calf. The area struck solidifies as the device which is usually used to tackle out of control fires reduces the vibration of the molecules in the target area to nearly nothing. O'Brian stumbles but turns it into a roll and then bounces at us, fists swelling. M'gann gestures and he's yanked backwards into the air as Kon flies at Adams for a full speed punch to the head. I retarget the freeze ray at O'Brian's chest and solidify more of him.

Adams is knocked back by Kon's punch but doesn't appear to be hurt. He goes to counter only for Match to grab his arm. **Archer! Shoot him!**

Tao has an arrow on string but he's hesitating. **I cannot see his body clearly!**

**Captain Atom, weakness-** I draw my sword. **-x-ionised weaponry.** Hard to judge precisely, but if I'm careful about cutting away BWFG!

Foreign body detected.

My construct armour cracks in a dozen places as a red blur zooms around the room, striking faster than I can follow! Just in the corner of my right eye I can see a Starro-thing starting to phase through my face plate! **Flash-!**

**Aagh!** / **Ah!** / **Uncle Barry!**

Ring, infrasound, maximum intensity!

By your command.

One of the Starro-thing's tentacles is through my construct armour. Ring, assimilate the bloody thing!

Tiny filaments attach themselves to it from both the inside and outside of the armour, pulling it away from me. Identity Theft in progress. Progress negligible.

Odd, but as long as it isn't coming at me any more I'll live with it. Mister Allen appears to have gone face first into a wall when my infrasound took his sense of balance, my armour constructs protecting everyone else. I lost my freeze ray construct when he attacked and similarly M'gann lost hold of O'Brian. Kon and Match are playing pass the parcel with Adams, who suddenly evades, surging towards the ceiling and firing a concentrated blast at Zatanna!

"Esrever kcatta!"

The blast swings around just before it hits her and smacks Adams into the far wall.

**Everyone, stand down.** Kaldur's relaxed posture is completely at odds with our situation and-. Yes, the aura's back. **The League probably believe that we are infected-**

**Tao, Kal-.**

The arrow passes through Kaldur's chest and he collapses to the floor. Another hits Mister Allen in the left shoulder and I see the Starro-tech piece impaled in the ground next to him. Miss Ervin forms a shield around the still struggling Mister O'Brian to contain him as Adams pushes himself off the wall only to be hit by another arrow. A golden glowing slash opens along his cheek as Artemis' x-ionised arrow slices through his dilustel hide. **Tao, any good?**

**No, I cannot-.**

"Niatpac Mota, nruter ot ruoy Namuh mrof!"

A burst of golden light and his Captain Atom form is replaced by that of his Cameron Scott form, wearing a blue business suit. His eyes go wide as he falls towards the floor. "Don't shoot, I'm-!" Tao's arrow flies through his head, spearing the Starro piece just before he hits the ground hard.

Robin and Wallace are checking on their respective mentors as O'Brian presses his bizarrely distorted face up against Miss Ervin's barrier. Right, Flash could have just run through the walls but there's no sense leaving a back door for anyone else. Ring, shut down hangar Zeta Tube.

By your command.

Miss Ervin looks back at me as Tao lines up for another shot. **Someone wanna tell me what the heck is going on?**

**Someone used the Starro-tech we handed over yesterday to mind control the Justice League. Tao, Zatanna and myself could feel it and Tao can shoot the devices out of their bodies.**

**We got the whole Justice League coming after us?!**

I take a quick look around but the only strange presence I can feel is from O'Brian and the Starro-tech being held in my filaments. In Mister Allen's place I'd have covered the whole team in those things, not just myself and Kaldur. Do they have a limited supply? No way to know at present.

Three golden triquetra appear around the shield containing Mister O'Brian. **Nabu really wanted to teach Dad how to fight chaos magic. Since these things definitely use it…** "Tcafetra fo Soahc, eb edamnu!" Brilliant beams of golden light flare from the triquetra, passing through the force field and into O'Brian. He shudders for a moment and then goes still. I concentrate but I can't feel the alien presence from him any longer.

I smile. All hostiles eliminated. **Nicely done, oh Lady of Order.** Ring, assimilation progress?

No significant progress has occurred.

Very odd. Usually it either flat out doesn't work or there's at least some progress. I got Nabu faster than this. I intensify the construct holding the last surviving piece and float it over to Zatanna. She holds out her right hand and another triquetra forms as her eyes glow with golden light. "Wohs em tahw siht si dna woh ti skrow."

Wallace finishes checking that Mister Allen didn't break his neck when he hit the wall and then stands up. **So, wait: does this mean that Roy's in the clear?**

Ring, location of Roy Harper. Thank you. Father Box, connect to the hush tube.

Ploong.

**Because if the League were all infected-.**

"Why don't we just ask him?" I stick my right arm through the invisible portal, wrap it around Mister Harper's chest and pull him through.

"Huh?!" He looks back, sees me and brings the end of his bow around to strike my face.

I treat the attack with the contempt it deserves. "Mister Harper, we're not affected. And from the feel of things-" He drives his right elbow into my side. I continue to ignore it. "-you aren't either. We could really use more information on how the Starro-tech-."

He stills, looking around the room. Batman, Red Tornado, Plastic Man, The Flash, Kaldur and some guy in a suit lie on the floor while everyone in the team is covered in glowing orange armour. "How do I know you're not infected?"

I raise my left eyebrow. "You're still breathing, pointy stick launcher guy."

I move my right arm off him and he spins away, making sure that he can keep all of us in his field of vision and that his back has a wall behind it. His eyes narrow slightly. "That certainly sounded like a Grayven thing to say."

Zatanna's eyes dim. "It's Klarion. These things are full of his chaos magic. Etaropave." The Starro-tech disappears in a puff of golden-red smoke.

Mister Harper shakes his head. "I didn't see Klarion on the Watchtower, just Savage."

I nod. The caveman tribal alpha has to lead from the front. It appears that he was the link to Klarion as well as to Apokolips. Ring, scan the Watchtower.

Unable to comply.

Darn it. That's the second occasion, and it's far more critical now.

Robin stands up, having checked Batman's health, disconnected his belt and removed several concealed weapons. "We need a plan for getting rid of them and freeing the League. Red Arrow, tell us exactly what happened."

31st December
07:20 GMT -5

Kaldur turns to me. "Orange Lantern, Kid Flash, get to the armory. We will need our equipment and you will need your lantern."

Wallace dashes off as I nod. Leaving the Ophidian where Klarion can get her would be a suicidally bad idea. I see Robin start interfacing with the zeta tube as I transition to the fortified vault of the armoury, arriving just behind Wallace as he inputs his entry code. I already cut off external access, what's he..? Oh, good idea. The door jerks as the lock disengages and then its two sides start to swing outwards, a design feature which makes it hard to get in just by hitting it. External access may be cut off but they can still travel between the training area zeta tubes and the ones in the hangar. That will be quicker than dashing for the lift and then riding it down. The ring shows me Kon picking up the recumbent Red Tornado as they disappear. I transition past the still opening outer door to the inner door and input my code. Curse me for designing a vault I couldn't easily break into!

Wallace is at my side a heartbeat later. The outer door has to close before the inner one will open. I might be able to blast through but the walls are x-ionised and ridiculously strong. Probably better to wait. Potential threats? Mister Allen can run in, Mister J'onzz can fly through the walls, Nabu can teleport in… Probably. I haven't thought to check how much the geomantic wards I placed throughout the mountain's structure have powered up. Enough to stop him? Wouldn't have thought so. Enough to buy us the couple of minutes we'll need? Maybe. Of course, Klarion might not need to use them. I've seen him pull off long ranged teleports twice now. Can Accomplished Perfect Physician teleport? I've seen his Great Ten file but it isn't as if he had a good motive for being completely honest with them.

Outer door fully closed the inner door begins to open. I don't bother waiting for it and transition us both past as soon as there's a crack big enough. Right, what do we need? I grab Kon's armour and Kaldur's Ocean Master gear. Can't transition with either of them, can't subspace them, going to be a nuisance. "Kid Flash, can you carry these?"

He gives me a look of incredulity. "Ah, no? Do I look like Superboy?" I start grabbing the stuff I made for Robin and Artemis and shoving it into subspace. "Kaldur's stuff maybe."

"Right." I strip Kaldur's armour from its stand. The midnight blue bodysuit is actually fairly flexible and can be folded but the bracers, greaves, helmet and combined shoulder and chest piece are all solid and inflexible. I make their combined volume as small as I can before taking a holdall out of subspace and shoving them inside. "Here."

He slings it over his right shoulder and catches Neptune's Trident as I pass it to him. Kon's Nth metal armour is not going to be fun to carry but there's no way I'm leaving it here. The pieces actively try to repel my constructs so I shove them into a small crate and close the lid. Okay, don't need to take mundane body armour, I've already got spares in subspace and the design isn't secret. Flight belts go into subspace. Anything else?

**Kid Flash, Orange Lantern.** Kaldur? **Be advised that we are under attack.**

Nothing else urgent enough to wait for. I shove the crate containing Kon's armour through the inner door and input my code into the outer as Wallace dashes through after me.

**Anyone we know?**

**Icon, the Physician and.. Aquaman.**

Inner closes and outer starts to open. "Kid Flash, head to the Zeta tube and get down there. I'll grab my lantern and meet you down there."

"Right." He crouches slightly, preparing to sprint away.

Hang on a minute. I close my eyes for a moment. Teekl's going after Mister Yao as she doesn't have any bones he can shatter and Fatty's still in the ring but Morrow's in Tornado's room working on the android. I don't really like compelling any of them like this, but needs must. I reach out mentally towards him. Doctor Morrow, we're evacuating. Head to the Zeta tube and then to the Bio-Ship. His point of view changes slightly as he raises his head before walking in the direction of the stairway down to the training room floor. No no no. Doctor Morrow, you can fly. Speed up a bit please. His view shifts again as he nods and accelerates.

In front of me the door has opened sufficiently and Wallace heads through it in a blur. I have to wait a moment longer than him as I'm quite a bit broader. I dump the crate containing the armour on the far side of the outer door and transition into my room, reaching out to the apparently empty space where I left it as I materialise. My lantern emerges from its hidey-hole as the fingers of my right hand close around its handle and immediately I feel the Ophidian's awareness surrounding mine. I open my thoughts to her as I transition us back to the armour.

"Recognised, Kid Flash, B zero three."

"Foul and vile deceit! None may take our precious ones from us! They are not his to play with!"

"Recognised, Thomas Morrow, A two one."

I pick up the crate and have the ring fly us along the programmed route to the zeta tube. "Thank you for the support." No idea why the ring has such trouble with metamaterials. Enchanted or innately magical materials, sure, they don't scan quite right so clearly something light-disrupting is going on there. But Nth metal is far more mundane. I made it by squeezing lead. Right, construct armour up and activate.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

A stuttering blast of black and red light radiates outwards from Mister Yao's mouth for a moment before Teekl bites into his throat. Even as she does so her body seems to distort and twist, splitting up into not looking at that now! A second later she falls out of the ring and flies at him again. A strange sound comes from Fei's mouth and his wounds begin to fade. The internal defence systems appear to have deployed across the room but Icon's staying airborne out of their effective range and Mister Yao's either blocking them or ignoring them. King Orin's unconscious and paralysed under water -of course he could come in under water!- while in midair Icon tries to throw off Kon with little success. Looks like he hasn't been training against people his own strength either.

"Noci esol lla ecnatsiser ot yhtapelet!"

Icon jerks in the air and Kon throws himself free before he falls towards the water's surface. Before he crashes down he's jerked over land and dumped down next to a paralysis field generator. Should keep him out of the game.

A flash bang hits Mister Yao in the chest and detonates as I fly at full speed for the Bio-Ship. I throw the crate at Kon, who catches it and sprints into the Ship as Robin looks around. **Oh El, the doors are jammed!**

**On it, Robin.** Stuck due to physical damage? Ring, start scanning and deploy Fatty. Fatty, absorb any of that energy Physician puts out.

"Yay!"

The doors aren't just jammed, they've been partially transmuted. The parts they need to respond to instructions just aren't there anymore. A railgun construct forms alongside me. Crumbler rounds, maximum radius. The first gouges a chunk out without breaching. Why did I think x-ionising everything was a good idea! Second one.. does nothing? Some sort of force field? Physician's power uses sound to alter-. Right, ring, nullify sound in the target area and try again. A hum and another crumbler round fires, this time causing a tiny breach. Big enough for me!

**Orange Lantern, can you transfer the Bio-Ship-**

The Bio-Ship disappears in a flicker of orange. Robin, Teekl and Fatty are still in here and I transfer myself down to the landing platform. Teekl, Fatty, pull back! I form a sonic cannon in front of myself and fire it at the Physician. No effect; the sound appears to.. just.. stop a metre in front of him. He looks up past us and sees that the Bio-Ship's gone, then opens his mouth a little wider. I raise a barricade construct as that weird red/black light reappears, only for Fatty to roll into its path and open his mouth. I see the stuff roil within him as he expands like a balloon. Um, ring, sound nullification on the Physician and then shockcrown him. The filaments go around him to each side and lunge forwards only to break on some sort of force field. Hell with it. I redirect the filaments to Fatty, stick my right arm around Teekl and attach another filament to Robin. Transition.

We're in the sky above Happy Harbour, the Bio-Ship in camouflage mode just below us. Rear door's open so with another transition we're inside and our team mates look around as we drop to the floor. "Close the door and get us the hell-" A tear opens in the universe and the Physician steps through! Before he can do anything I hit him in the head with the most intense infrasound I can before shoving him out the back of the Bio-Ship with a construct claw. "-out of here. Zatanna, can you-?"

"Ah-ah… On.. eno nac tceted su!"

Hah. I slump back against the Bio-Ship's interior wall. Well. That's a relief.

Next to me Fatty grasps at his swollen belly. "OOoooooOOO." His head nods back and forwards in a motion reminiscent of someone about to retch. But he can't-. Oh yes he can! His mouth bulges wide, far wider than it's normally capable of doing, and the mass in his stomach heaves upwards and out! A large orange mass heaves onto the Bio-Ship's floor and.. picks itself up? The second orange Praexis Demon shakes its head as Fatty wipes his mouth, his stomach settling back down to its normal dimensions. Wallace, Kon and Zatanna all move to cover their mouths with their hands.

So that's how Praexis Demons reproduce.

I could have lived a long and happy life without knowing that.

31st December
07:22 GMT -5

"I…" He breathes out, and both tension and strength seem to flow out of him. "I was a sleeper agent, pre-programmed to infiltrate the League. I think.. the League of Shadows’ Sensei was my handler. He had a key phrase, 'broken arrow', that could shut me down. Put me in a hypnotic state so they could steal secrets for their superiors."

I nod. "The Light." **Miss Martian?**

Her right hand goes to her temple and her eyes glow. **It's gone. I can't feel any more hidden commands.**

"Or incorporate further programming. I'd then carry out all orders subconsciously, completely unaware of what drove me." He looks at me. "I think one of those orders was to gather whatever intel I could on you."

"I am fascinating."

"It wasn't just a social enquiry. I think they were scared that you'd ruin things for them."

"And here I thought you were shadowing me due to my irresistible sexual magnetism." The disgusted expression he makes is the most normal thing I've seen him do since I grabbed him.

"Batman said you were a Cadmus clone." Kon glances at Match. "Like us."

Mister Harper sags even further. "That explains it."

Wallace tilts his head to the side. "Explains what?"

"I still couldn't remember how they first got hold of me. But if everything I think I remember was implanted in my head by the G-Gnomes…"

Ring, detailed scan.

Genomorph genetic components detected.

"The ring confirms Genomorph genetic markers." I smirk. "Either that or one of your ancestors was into-." Glares all round. "Okay, not the time."

Richard steps forwards. "What happened on the Watchtower? And how come you're not under their control any more?"

"As a member of the Justice League I had access to the alien biotech you took from Riddler. When all of the League were assembled in one place, my programming… It was like being a half-asleep passenger in my own body. I just walked up to each League member in turn and infected them."

"Savage was able to make it work on five different species?"

I shrug. "In the wild Star Conquerors can mentally dominate anything with a mind. Not sure how it worked on a robot…" Ring, scan Red Tornado for… Oh, wonderful.

Zatanna nods. "Chaos magic could easily blur the distinction between organic and inorganic."

"And bloody nanotechnology. There's some inert nanoprobes still inside Red Tornado. Purging."

"Once everyone was under Savage's control I added him to the Watchtower's Zeta tube system as a guest and sent him a signal. He had the League kneel before him and just strolled in." Mister Harper shakes his head dejectedly. "That's when I got away. Apparently they didn't program me to infect myself. When I fulfilled my mission's last parameter my mind began to clear. I'm sure Savage planned to Starro-tech me, but he paused to… Bask. I escaped through the Zeta tube." Another sigh. "I've been dodging League members ever since."

Wallace walks up to him and puts his right hand on his left shoulder. "Hey. You're with friends now. We totally got this."

Miss Ervin shakes her head. "No, we don't got this. Savage has the League, Klarion and mind control squids. I read the report on what happened last time you guys fought Klarion." I glance at the Zeta tubes. No further attack appears to be forthcoming, so… The construct armour around my team mates evaporates. "We need a plan-."

"Ah!" / "Ugh!"

Kon and Match both wince in pain. Why, what-? No. Immediately the armour reappears around both of them and a moment later they've recovered. Match shakes his head. "What was that? It felt like my skin was on fire!"

"Probably residual Kryptonite radiation." Richard frowns. "That doesn't make sense either. Captain Atom can't generate different forms of radiation!"

"Hey, uh…" Match picks up something from near where Captain Adams fell. "Is this important?"

I'm momentarily nonplussed by the sight of a Kryptonian holding what appears to be… Yes, that's Kryptonite. In fact, I think I recognise that particular piece. From the slight widening of Richard's eyes I'm going to guess that he does as well. "If Captain Atom was focusing his energy through the Kryptonite crystal… But if he had that…" That's Batman's Kryptonite. When I wanted to scan some his cave was the first place I looked.

"Vandal Savage has access to the League's confiscated weapons and technologies." We all look around as Batman gingerly pushes himself up. "And most likely our database and memories as well. As of yesterday, none of our secret identities are secure."

"Batman!" Richard rushes to his side but Batman holds up his right hand to ward him off.

"I'm alright, Robin. Status of the team?"

"Aqualad got Starroed. Aside from that, we're all good."

Batman tries to rise, but stumbles and goes back to sitting. "Is the mountain secure?"

M'gann's eyes glow. "The only minds I can feel are in this room."

Double check. "Ring confirms."

"The zeta tubes?"

"I deactivated the one in the hangar."

Richard's eyes widen. "You mean this one's still open?!"

"Yes. We're going to have to fight them all anyway, and this way Savage can feed them to us piecemeal." He calls up his computer and frantically presses buttons, deactivating the Zeta tube. "You do understand that won't stop Mister Zatara teleporting here, yes?"

"Sdrol fo Redro, dleihs siht niatnuom morf lla eht srewop fo Soahc!" Golden light blazes from Zatanna and seems to seep into the walls. "That should stop anyone affected by chaos magic from getting in here."

Batman nods. "Celestial Archer. Do you believe that you could reproduce the effect you used to free me against the other members of the League?"

"Sir, I believe that Wonder Woman's bracers could block my arrows. I have never tested them against Nth metal. Aside from that, yes, I should be capable of removing the Starro-tech devices."

"Grayven, are you able to scan the Watchtower?"

"Sorry sir, no. Something's interfering with the ring. Perhaps if I were closer." Oh, that's an idea. "Zatanna, do you think your father would mind passing control to Lantern Nabu for a short time?"

She thinks for a moment. "No, he's not in control anyway. Would that work?"

"Should do. If all else fails I can just dismiss him and recreate him here. He's seen everything that's happened and should be able to teleport us up to the Watchtower once we have a plan of attack."

"Uhssh…." Kaldur sits up, his left hand holding his head. Will the others recover soon enough to be useful, I wonder? Mister Allen's showing signs of life as well, but I seem to remember something about him recovering faster than usual. Captain Adams appears to be down for the count though I can't see anything physically wrong with him.

Batman looks like he's wondering about that too. He turns his head to look at me. "Grayven, contact Nabu. We need more information before taking any action which puts the team at risk."

"If we could hold off on that, sir? I've no doubt that Klarion could detect me doing that. It would probably be best to wait until we were ready to go."

Ooh, I'm going to miss my appointment with my sister-in-law, aren't I? Or.. maybe she'd prefer beating up a Lord of Chaos to beating up me?

31st December
07:29 GMT -5

"Ekam lla gniyrcs stpmetta erongi siht pihs."

I breathe a little easier as the Bio-Ship accelerates through the sky over Happy Harbour. That should stop anyone doing something clever like scanning for our air displacement or something. I don't know about the other two but wide area ring scanning is something Guy is perfectly capable of doing. Huh, see how they like the boot being on the other foot for once. "That still leaves telepathy."

M'gann dips her head slightly. "Once we get further away from Happy Harbor it shouldn't matter. Uncle J'onn… He'd have to be up close to hear us."

"Shit." Rob just sort of collapsed into his seat when he got into the Bio-Ship and hasn't quite recovered yet. "Shit."

"Cornwall." He turns his head in my direction. "Not helping, chum."

"Not help..? The bad guys just took over the Justice League!"

"Which just proves that the League aren't unbeatable." I turn to look into the Bio-Ship's rear compartment. "Doctor Morrow, how's it coming?"

"Tornado's physical systems are fine. I'd need more advanced analytical equipment to work out what's wrong with his mind."

I glance down at the lantern next to my seat. "Doctor Morrow, you're a construct. If you want equipment, just make it."

"Oh. Yes, of course."

Wallace shudders and then turns back to face our team leader. "So what's the plan, Aqualad?"

"First, we need to locate Red Arrow and Artemis." He pauses, then looks down at the cat currently splayed out on his lap. "I… Teekl, do you believe that you could reliably identify Klarion's.. 'scent' if you were to encounter it again?" She gives him a look of withering contempt. Kaldur does not appear to be a cat person. Maybe it comes with being part fish? "I will take that as a yes. Orange Lantern, do you have any idea where Artemis might have gone?"

"No. She could be almost anywhere on the planet. I can't scan for her and I can't get access to the Zeta tube network's records to narrow it down. If I had to guess… Red Arrow knows her civilian identity. I'd guess she's wherever he is."

"After Roy went solo he installed equipment caches in several major cities. He told me the location of the one in Star City. Since Artemis operates-."

"Um…" Telling others a secret identity is a major no-no, but under the circumstances… "She doesn't. She actually lives in Gotham.. and commutes." That gets me a few interested looks, though not from Robin. Of course he knows. "I've got her home phone number, I'll give her a ring."

Kaldur nods. "Miss Martian, set course for Gotham City. I will direct you when we get closer."

Kon pauses in putting his armour on. We only really had time to grab essential stuff and the team pets so we're a bit.. under equipped. "Couldn't Paul just transfer us there?"

"I can, but I can't guarantee that doing so won't make us easier to detect. Aqualad?"

"Miss Martian, how long-?"

"Fifteen minutes at most."

"Then I think it best that we not take the risk. Once we have located our missing team mates our next step is to find some way to nullify the Starro technology. Doctor Roquette is an expert on nanotechnology and the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis is the finest magic research center on the planet."

Robin shakes his head. "Finding out how to counter the Starro-tech could take months."

"Yeah, I… No one's got more faith in Sephtian than me, but that's… Wouldn't it be better to beat the League into submission, power suppress them and then work on a cure? Or at least not hold off until we have one?"

Zatanna shakes her head. "The Starro fragment reeks of chaos magic. That probably means that Klarion's up in the Watchtower right now, along with Savage and whoever else they've brought in."

Wallace seems more bullish. "We can take Klarion." He doesn't get the immediate positive response he was looking for. "Can't we?"

"With Spell Eaters and Mageslayer rounds… Maybe. If he hasn't got anything too nasty prepared this time. I mean, if we won he'd probably be dead at the end of it. I certainly wouldn't be able to pull my punches at all. What worries me more is who else the Justice League might have called in. I mean, if you were a superhero and the League called you in for try-outs, would you turn it down?" Consternation all round. "Batman had my list of possible future recruits. We have no idea how many of those Starro things Savage has and no way to know who's been infected until Zatanna scans them or Teekl sniffs them."

Kaldur nods. "What do you propose we do?"

"Send a message to Queen Mera immediately. Tell her that King Orin's been mind controlled and to cut contact with the surface until she hears from us. And if we want to call in extra help, we need to do it now. Talk to them, check them for infection and bring them in before they can be nobbled."

"Whom do you suggest?"

I raise my right hand and begin generating constructs. "John Constantine, the most cunning bastard on the planet. And a noted wizard. Teth Adom. He fought and killed one of Klarion's predecessors." By doing nothing but ripping him apart for a month until he stopped trying to regenerate, but let's draw a veil over that. "Danni, because the easiest way to shut down Mister J'onzz is with fire."

M'gann looks over. "How about Brainwave?"

"Good choice. He'd certainly make getting around the Watchtower easier."

Kon thinks for a moment. "Donna and Barda?"

Robin puts his right hand to his chin. "Yeah, but Mister Miracle would be more useful if we have to sneak in. And from what you said he should be impossible to mind control."

Raquel thinks for a moment. "There's a guy in Dakota City Icon's worked with a couple of times. He's called-."

"Hardware. Could be useful but he's not a nanotech specialist."

"How do you even-?"

"Power rings are awesome. Kaldur?"

"A sound idea. I am certain that Garth and Tula will also want to participate in liberating our king."

"I'll start making calls. I'll contact the Frees first. Barda's boom tubes will be harder to track than ring transfers. Unless.. Batman's improved the League's boom tube tracking since our Bialya mission?"

Robin shakes his head. "The Green Lantern Corps black boxed most of the Watchtower's systems when they handed it over. Including the advanced sensors."

And they improved the sensors in case there were Star Conquerors around. Rod, meet back. I custom made you for it.

Rob perks up a little bit. "So… You think we can actually do this? Beat the Justice League?"

"Yep. No one's unbeatable. That said… Robin, I know Batman's almost certainly got a lump or two of Kryptonite around the place. I know he wasn't keen on me scanning it…"

"We can pick it up when we're in Gotham. I need to secure the Cave's computer and pick up some more equipment anyway."

Kon looks a little perturbed. "Batman's got Kryptonite? Why? I thought him and Superman were friends."

Think I'll let Robin field that one. "Because even if he trusts him, he can't bet everyone else's lives on him always being able to trust him. If Superman got mind controlled -like he is now- Batman needed to know that he had some way to shut him down. He didn't want to ever use it, but if he ever had to, he needed it to be there."

Kon blinks. "Whaw. I didn't realize…"

"That's what baseline Humans who want to be top tier superheroes have to do. There are morgues full of would be superheroes who couldn't hack it and I don't intend to add to them." I raise my left hand to my ear. "Ring, get me the Frees."

31st December
07:41 GMT -5

Barda sighs as she puts on her headdress. "I knew it was too good to last." "Mind controlled or not, I am not happy about having to fight the Justice League."

Mister Free pulls his balaclava over his head and takes a moment to straighten it out. "Actually, I think this is a record. And as long as our neighbors don't spot us, there's no reason why we can't carry on living here." "I'm.. not.. completely unhappy about getting a chance to break into somewhere protected by a Lord of Chaos."

Barda takes her mega rod off her belt and presses the activator. "Hmpf."

"I just want to thank you again for agreeing to do this."

"Diana is my friend. Savage and his Boy Witch will pay for what they've done to her." Mister Free's eyes meet mine for a moment and we both just manage to avoid laughing at 'Boy Witch'. "Where is our mustering point?"

"We'll be meeting up in Poseidonis, but if you don't mind there's a few people I'd like to pick up first."

Mister Free fishes his aero-discs out of their storage case and lays them on the floor. "Wouldn't it be easier for you to do that?"

"I was concerned that they might be able to track ring FTL."

He raises his left eyebrow. "So..?"

"I was hoping you could use your Mother Box to open-" He nods and looks away for a moment. "-a boom tube to get us there. I can suppress the sounds, as well as containing the radiation the League used to pick up the tube in Bialya."

"Yeaaah, about that…" "Do you want to tell him?"

Barda looks down at the Mother Box still sitting in the case they were keeping their more advanced equipment in. "That belongs to a warrior of New Genesis I slew for Darkseid. It will not serve me and it will not acknowledge Scott."

"Oh. Rather got the wrong end of the stick there. Then I suppose-."

"We can use my mega rod to travel." She holds it out in front of her. "Gather close." Um. Okay? Don't remember this from the comics. Mister Free finishes equipping himself and walks over to her left side. I stand to her right and wait. "No, closer than that."

"Really? Because we're going to be picking up whup!"

Barda clearly decided that she wasn't going to wait, put her hand around my chest and pulled me closer. Even with the weight and articulation of my power armour she did so with no trouble at all. She's nearly a foot taller than me, excluding her weird headdress thing, and I'm being forced to pretty much put my head on her shoulder. This is going to be interesting.

"Where is our first destination?" "Why must lower beings be so afraid of intimacy?"

She leaves the arm where it is. "Inwood Hill Park, New York. We're picking up Firebrand."

"Describe this 'Firebrand' to me."

"She's a gynoid first built by Doctor Thomas Morrow and then rebuilt by me to look more Human. She's strong, tough and can generate and control fire and heat."

Her headdress pushes against my face as she nods. "I have her. Prepare yourself."

"Why, what-?"

Yellow light flares from the mega rod, bleaching the colour from our surroundings before evaporating them. Ring, analyse this, would you?

Compliance.

"What in tarnation-!"

Colour returns to our environment, the green glow of Alan's construct sword and shield first, then the pastel shades of his living room. "Morning, Alan." I smile from Barda's shoulder as she moves her mega rod to a defensive posture. "Friends. Friends." I process what he's doing and frown at him. "And drop the constructs, you don't have power to burn like that!"

He relaxes and allows his constructs to evaporate in a puff of green. "You might want to avoid teleporting into an old man's living room. My heart isn't as strong as it used to be."

I pull away from Barda. "And it'll get worse if you keep using power like that."

"The Earth has another Green Lantern?" Barda isn't quite frowning but she does look a bit puzzled.

"Barda Free, Scott Free, this is Alan Scott. He used to be part of the Justice Society. Alan, Big Barda and Mister Miracle. They were kicked off Apokolips for being insufficiently evil."

"Well, as long as it wasn't for being excessively evil." He extends his right hand, glowing ring still on his left. I shouldn't fuss but he really needs to take that off as soon as possible. "Pleased to meet you both." Barda shakes first, then remembers to let Scott go so that he can as well. "Paul, Zatanna called ahead. They managed to get Tornado working. Danni's just-." He catches sight of something through the door. "Ah."

Danni walks in, wearing the improved armour I made her after we got back from Qurac. Ironically, it makes her look more like she did before I humanised her. "Orange Lantern, we are ready to depart."

"We?" I turn to Alan, already knowing what she means but wanting to be sure. "Alan, no."

"I used to fight Savage, back in the old days. And from what you said about Kent's old records Klarion more or less took over from Mordru. There's still some life in this old dog yet."

"How much?"

He gives me a wry smile. "If I knew that…"

"How much ring power do you have left?"

"Ahh…" He holds up his left hand. "Feels like… Three quarters?"

"Jesus, Alan, it's only been two months. You can't mess around with-."

He waves my concern off. "I used most of that when you went all snake eyes on us. Paul, Diana's my friend too. One of my oldest. And Jay loves Barry the same way I love you. I will not stand idly by and do nothing. Now, you can either take me along with you or you can watch me fly around near Earth space looking for the Watchtower the hard way."

Shiiiiiiiiiiit.

"You don't wear your ring for longer than you have to, you stay in reserve until we need you and you wear body armour this time."

Our eyes remain locked for a good five seconds before he gives me a very shallow nod. "Alright then." He looks down and slides his ring off his finger, taking it into his right hand. I'm… For a moment I consider grabbing it off him and hiding it until it's time for his weekly dose. No, no, there's always room for emergency measures later and I can see inside him how much he wants this.

Barda frowns. "Why would you not allow him to participate in this battle?"

Yeah, clearly this whole thing makes no sense to her. "Alan gave up his personal lantern so that I could function as a Lantern but he'll wither and die-."

"Hey!"

"You will. He'll wither and die if he runs out of power and I can't get him a replacement until next July at the earliest. And now he wants to burn power-." Deep breath. "Okay, everyone hug Barda. Next stop, Teth Adom."

Mister Free thinks for a moment, then understands. "You mean Bla-?"

"No."

31st December
14:46 GMT +2

There's a general clicking and shouting as the yellow light fades, depositing us in the middle of a small park near what has become the centre of government for the region of Kahndaq Adom's people tenuously control. A small squad of armed police from the Shiruta Provincial Guard have their Kalashnikovs levelled at us while one frantically shouts a request for backup into a radio. Hey, I made those uniforms!

I step away from Barda with my hands held up and open at shoulder height. Two lower their weapons half way as they recognise me but from the bewildered looks the man next to them is giving them he clearly doesn't. "Gentlemen, I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four. I would very much like to speak to His Excellency, if that can be arranged."

"Orange Lantern." One of the ones who recognised me -a sergeant- lowers his weapon the rest of the way and gestures for the others to do the same. "I am sorry for our poor greeting, but your arrival-."

"I know. Sorry about that."

He turns to the fellow with the radio. "Ammar, contact headquarters. Let them know that Orange Lantern is on his way."

"More attacks?"

The sergeant nods. "They finally gave up on aircraft, but they're sending mercenaries and assassins now. We have to keep a constant watch on all public places."

The Middle East here is actually.. much less violent than it was back home. I mean, back home there'd be suicide bombers all over the place in a conflict like this. As it is, the only places where the government still has any real control are the areas around Cairo and Alexandria. With the knowledge that Adom can and will intervene to prevent government aggression in other places they couldn't break free of President Muhunnad fast enough. Adom for his part has done his best to keep the death toll down. Not always possible of course and unfortunately the remaining areas are all under the guns of government loyal troops. He could take them but there wouldn't be much left when he did. We spent some time talking about how South Africa handled truth and reconciliation and he's said he's willing to be merciful in victory. I think he was genuine about it, though in practice it will probably mean that the second rank of offenders will be allowed to leave the country with the shirts on their backs rather than getting tried and executed. Really, our best hope is someone on their side realises that they've lost, shoots their bosses dead and takes the exile option.

Still, while I'm here... Ring, citywide omnicognisance, two seconds. Ugh. Hurts a little less than it… No, it doesn't really hurt anymore, it's just… Strange. I can briefly not just see everything that's going on around me but understand it, not just the actions but the reasons. It's a bit like when the Ophidian and I were merged, except that I can still understand people. I could… I might be able to get away with using it more often, but I'm still worried about what happens if my mind becomes accustomed to it and expands out into a structure which collapses. Or if I'd still be recognisably Human if I went by that route. I hold out my right hand and transmute a folder into being. "I can't detect any active explosive devices, but you might want to look into the people and places listed here."

He takes it from me. "Our thanks. I will ensure this is acted on."

"Please, go easy on the informants. The President's people have started taking families hostage."

"I know. I had a brother in Cairo. I'm not sure that I still do." Ammar comes over and whispers something to him. He nods and then turns back to me. "His Excellency has been informed and is waiting for you in his office. Do you require an escort?"

"No, thank you, we'll go straight there. Thank you for your help."

"You are welcome, sir."

I turn and walk back to the hero huddle as Alan tries to alter the position of his left pauldron. No time to fit him for power armour but what he's got should make him more survivable. "Barda, please take us to the antechamber of his office." We could have gone straight there but itchy trigger fingers and thin walls don't mix well, to say nothing of Adom himself. This whole thing is going as well as I could possibly have hoped and I have no intention of messing it up by being careless.

"First-." She fixes her eyes on me. "-you will tell me what sort of man this Teth Adom is."

"Uh…" I glance back. Translation's still on and we're drawing a curious but cautious crowd. How many of them have actually met him in person? "Why do you want to know?"

"You have said that he is not the Black Adam whom Captain Marvel fought. From what I have seen on the news, that seems to be true. But if we're going to trust a man whose first action was to try taking over a country I want to know more about him before I get within his reach."

"Alright. For a start, he didn't try to take over a country. Before he even came back here he learned everything he could about the modern world. The first thing he learned was modern languages: English and Kahndaqi Arabic, then French and the more minor Kahndaqi languages. The second thing he did was learn how the modern world functioned. He knew that he was ignorant of a great many things and he didn't want to do anything radical before he knew he was capable of doing the job. He only came back to Kahndaq full time when the government tried cracking down on demonstrations after the Roanoke Island incident. And he didn't try to take over, he only got involved to protect the demonstrators. Adom loves Kahndaq, but he knows that he isn't really a part of modern Kahndaq. The very morning before he accepted his current position he actually told me that he wasn't sure that he should take it while the country was in disarray in case he didn't know enough to hold it together. His strongest characteristic is his desire to act in Kahndaq's interests. Everything else, even his pride and temper -and he is proud and he has a nasty temper- is secondary to that. If the people of Kahndaq revolted on their own and established a new government he would respect it. When they asked him to become a figurehead all the factions can support, he agreed without hesitation and he'll do the job to the best of his ability. If they wanted him to become Pharaoh again -whatever that means for a modern country- he'd probably do that too. But he wouldn't insist on it, and if they want him to step down and become a nationalist superhero he'd be happy to do that as well." As long as he believed that the people doing the asking were genuinely acting in the national interest. I remember the short shrift he gave to those 'government in exile' people. Really, Nigel Farage could have taken notes.

"So you say. I have seen a few too many tyrants to take his word for it."

"Barda, I can look into a man's soul. I can see desire. I am a very hard man to lie to. I don't think he's perfect by any means, but neither does he. He has the powers he does because six gods decided that he had the virtues for the job. He always has six beings who are more powerful than he is looking over his shoulder. His pride will not allow him to give anything other than his all." And his need to prove Shazam wrong. William said that after what he thought was a successful time in Fawcett City on Halloween he mentioned the possibility of some sort of reconciliation between the two. Apparently his answer was quite vehement, but at least he didn't abuse the situation by trying to find out where the portal to the Rock of Eternity in Fawcett is. "He isn't good at mercy but he can do clemency. He hasn't fully adapted to modernity but he knows he hasn't and is willing to listen to advice. And he's my friend. Is there anything else you want to know?"

Barda keeps her eyes locked on mine for a moment and then gives a slight nod. I press myself against her side once more -I wonder if there's some way for me to extend the range of that thing- and the world goes yellow once more. When the light dims we're in the hotel that has been taken over to use as the Unity Council's headquarters. A few clerks stare at us but the soldiers here are mostly used to me appearing in unusual ways.

"Ah! Orange Lantern." A cheerful looking heavily bearded man in black robes and wearing a black turban raises his right hand in greeting. "I had wondered why His Excellency cut short my visit."

Adom did say that his current religious affairs advisor was much easier to get on with than his predecessors. He's been trying hard to get his head around Islam and this is the man whose job it is to help him. Ring? Proper form of address for an Imam? Oh. That's easy, then. "I apologise, Mister Khalil. I know how His Excellency values your help but this is rather urgent."

"Then don't let me detain you." He steps aside, leaving me with a clear path to Adom's office.

I turn back to the others. "Probably easier if I do this. And.. we should probably stop off at base before picking up anyone else." Danni doesn't have a problem with our method of locomotion but Alan looks a bit uncomfortable about being pressed up against Barda like that. Turning back to the door I knock twice and then press on through.

31st December
14:51 GMT +2

Adom is floating just off the floor, looking out through the balcony window. This isn't the largest guest room in the place -those have all been repurposed- but it does have a Cairo-facing balcony in case he needs to fly there quickly. Kahndaq's official capital is just under four hundred kilometres away and if he really guns it he can be there in ten minutes. I mean, he wouldn't be able to see anything much on the way and he'd be spitting out insects for the rest of the week but I very much doubt that the President's had a good night's sleep since Adom demonstrated that particular ability to a group of international journalists. After Suez came over to his side he did try modern dress, but it didn't last; he's back in his black and golds now.

"Mighty One. Thank you for seeing me."

"Your company is hardly a great burden." He turns and drifts back through the room towards me. His face is a little bit less impassive than it was, but I think at this point this is all we're getting. "You said there was something urgent that you wished to discuss?"

"I believe that this is a conversation we should have in private." I raise my left hand, sigil towards him. "Do you mind?"

He makes a dismissive gesture with his right hand and I send orange light flowing around the interior of the room. No listening devices within and any nonmagical attempt to listen from outside will fail. "What has you so concerned, my friend?"

"As we speak the entire Justice League -with the exception of Red Tornado- have been mind controlled. These little.. things." I generate a construct image of the Starro-tech. "We recovered them after a fight with people in the employ of an alliance of supervillains called the Light but… But I think we were meant to. At some point last night they were used on the League and now someone's running them like puppets."

"That is a grave matter. Do you know who perpetrated this attack?"

I shake my head. We don't really know much, do we? "No, not yet. We're trying to track down Red Ar-."

"Incoming communication, highest priority!"

That.. isn't an alert the ring uses. "I'm sorry. Ring, answer."

"Paul, we've got Red Arrow and Artemis." Zatanna's face appears above the ring. How is..? Magic, right. "They're not infected. We're heading for the rendezvous location now."

"Do we know who's behind this yet?"

"Red Arrow says that Vandal Savage was in control."

"Savage still lives?" Adom zooms across the room and peers at Zatanna's face. Huh. I've only heard him use that tone of voice for the Wizard before. I remember something about an Element Man and Savage from the comics but I didn't think that had happened here.

"Yes, Mighty One, he does. Zatanna, I'm with Adom now. Adom, we could very much use your help."

"The fact that Princess Diana is in need of me is reason enough for me to agree. But Savage… You have no idea what horrors that man inflicted on this region during my first life. Killing him again will be my pleasure. Do you intend to attack immediately?"

"No. We need to develop a way to free our mentors first before going after them aggressively. Either that, or.. a way to keep them contained while one is developed."

He nods. "It would be unwise for me to leave Kahndaq for a significant span if it can be avoided, and I know little of science." He puts his left hand on my right shoulder. That's… Whaw. He usually hates touching people. "Call me when it is time for the briefing and I will come, and fight beside you."

Do I..? Put my hand on his shoulder? I don't want to push him if he's leaving his comfort zone anyway, so I settle for putting my right hand on top of his left. "Thank you."

"It is my privilege to repay a small part of what you and Princess Diana have done for me." I remove my hand and he lifts his off my shoulder, putting it behind his back. "The report of your arrival mentioned that you brought companions with you."

"They're just outside. We need to get going, but if you want an introduction…" He nods and I lead the way out of his room.

"…running the meter, so…" Mister Free trails off as Adom and I emerge. "Teth Adom. I hear good things about you."

"I will endeavour to be worthy of them."

"Mighty One, this is Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Firebrand and Green Lantern."

"Yes." He inclines his head slightly to Alan. "I believe that we met briefly at the Embassy. My English at the time was not good enough for me to converse with you."

"From the sound of it you've come a long way."

"I'm sorry, but we need to go. Barda, to the rendezvous point. It should be obvious." But just in case I extend my environmental shield around them as we huddle up and she raises the mega-rod.

31st December
10:55 GMT -2

"That was quick." Sephtian's stuck his head through the glowing membrane which marks the transition point between the room we're in and the rest of the Conservatory. Surface worlder friendly air filled rooms are something he's been working on as part of the drive to improve diplomatic relations… Or get some, at least. "We haven't quite finished setting up yet. Did you bring the sample with you?"

"No, Zatanna's bringing it."

Alan and Mister Free walk over to a 'window' on Sephtian's left and take a look out across the Poseidonis skyline. Um, waterline? Alan gazes out in wonder. "Good Lord, will you look at that. Can barely believe it's been down here my whole life."

"Reminds me of an escape I did for my last tour." Mister Free pokes the membrane with his right hand, passing through it easily. He pulls his hand back and the water stays on the far side.

"You've disabled the zeta tube, right?"

"Yes yes, but King Orin hasn't tried to contact us since his 'acquisition'."

"How's Her Majesty taking it?"

"Her husband is being mind controlled by a mass murdering criminal, how do you think she's taking it?" His head shudders. "I've been instructed to extend you every courtesy and assistance."

"I'm sure that you can handle the arcane elements of the problem, but… Do you know anything about nanotech?"

"I hadn't even heard the word until today. In a way I still haven't; Atlantean Greek doesn't have a word for it. Young Kaldur had to explain the concept to me in English. I also haven't done any significant work with fleshcrafting for over a decade. Still, if we put our heads together, I'm sure we can come up with something."

Barda walks over to join her husband while Danni stays in the centre of the room. Fire gynoid, billions of tonnes of sea water.

"About that. What if there were a way to.. improve your knowledge?"

"In what way?"

"A telepathic network. G-Gnomes can share knowledge and skills amongst a group. Downside is that whoever you do it with will know everything you do. While it's active, anyway."

"You have someone in mind?"

"Doctor Roquette's a nanotech specialist. She's safe and she's never shown any interest in magic. The Genomorphs themselves should be able to provide the biotechnological knowledge. I realise this is a weird idea but I think it would speed things up a lot."

"Hmm. I have no principled objection. Maaaay be better to attempt to study the Starro artefact in a normal fashion first though."

"Yes of course. Barda?" She looks around. "Please take me to Cadmus labs. I need to talk to Dubbilex."

31st December
07:55 GMT -5

"Who is it?"

I nod at Scott and press the phone construct a little closer to my ear. "Guy, good morning. Glad I caught you."

"Hey Grey. Y'know, if yer gunna call my cell you should really do it from a phone that lets me do caller ID. I nearly just hung up on yeh."

"This is a burnable phone. I wanted to tell you that I'm not going to be able to make our session today."

"Oh? They call you up too? Thought you bein' with the Little Leaguers was kinda weird."

"Did who call me up?"

"The Justice League. Yeah, apparently they're doin' try-outs for future members. Wondy didn't clue you in?"

"No… Did they perchance say who else was auditioning?"

"No, Canary just called and told me to be on the Watchtower by eight. She still seein' Green Arrow?"

"Yes. Guy, I hate to break this to you but the League is currently being mind controlled."

"Oh, hah hah. Look Grey, it's probably just an oversight. Maybe they're doin' them in batches or somethin'."

"No, Guy, I'm being deadly serious. Ask your ring about Star Conquerors. Vandal Savage and Klarion are up on the Watchtower right now pulling the strings. I rather imagine that the first thing that would happen when you stepped out of the Zeta tube would be that you'd get nobbled too."

"Huh." He stays silent for a moment. "Well, that sucks. What're we doin' about it?"

I hold the phone away for a moment and press a button on the control console in front of me. "Tao, ready?" On the monitor I see him nod and I return the phone to my ear. "I'm opening a hush tube directly above you. Come on through."

I dismiss the phone construct as on the monitor I see Guy fly though the hush tube into the hangar area. From the lack of response on the part of Tao, Zatanna or Scott it looks like he's in the clear.

Barda gives me a curious look. "Of all the people Savage or the Boy Witch might have recruited, what makes him so special?" "Why do you care what happens to him?"

"Faster than light travel, a direct line to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the fact that power rings make their users supremely adaptable." "He's my anger management coach."

Barda raises her eyebrows at me. On the monitor Zatanna raises her arms and then the three of them appear near us in the training area in a flare of golden light. There haven't been any further attacks since we dealt with Mister O'Brian, Captain Adams and Mister Allen. In fact, we haven't recorded any League activity on the Earth at all. With my usually reliable scans being defeated by whatever protections Klarion has put in place we don't have perfect coverage but there isn't anything stopping me connecting to satellites or CCTV cameras.

At least, I don't think there is. Troublesome.

Batman, Mister Allen and Kaldur are up and coherent, though none are in any shape for a fight. O'Brian's sort of flapping about in the corner. No idea what's wrong with him. His body defies rational analysis. If he hasn't sorted himself out by the time we've finished then I'll consider worrying about it. Captain Adams' still out cold and like with O'Brian I don't have enough data on him or the Starro-tech to work out why. Red Tornado is similarly out of action. Shouldn't matter too much. None of the plans we've thrown about are anything that requires them. Scott's busying himself upgrading the hush tube into something that can get us past the Watchtower's defences. I still need to get its actual location from Nabu; Batman knew where it was when he left but I checked and they appear to have moved it.

"Hey.. Batman." Guy looks a little uncertain. Batman's upright but he's visibly unsteady and looks weirdly vulnerable like this. Not weak in absolute terms but it's such a departure from the norm for him that it emphasises the state, and I suppose Guy hasn't had cause to ever see him not looking in control of the situation. I on the other hand have seen what he looks like after going five rounds with Waylon Jones.

"Mister Miracle to Grayven."

The phone construct comes back up to my ear. "Go ahead."

"I'm about as ready as I'm going to get down here."

"Will it work?"

"If a whole lot of things work exactly as we're hoping, yes. Blocking their location is a lot easier than blocking a hush tube but I'm hardly an expert on chaos magic."

"Fair enough." I open a tube from him to me and he walks through. Guy takes a moment to get a good look at his costume and just about manages to conceal his amusement.

"If we're all ready." Everyone turns to Batman. "Grayven, give the briefing."

If Guy can manage not to crack up upon seeing Scott's costume I can keep my smug at having a better anti-Justice League plan than Batman in check. "At twenty three forty one eastern standard time yesterday Vandal Savage and Klarion took complete mental control of the Justice League using devices we have come to call Starro-tech." I float one of the arrow-pierced ones out in front for everyone to look at. "The precise mechanism by which they work is unknown at this time, though we think-" I nod at Zatanna. "-that it's Klarion who is controlling them using a sympathetic link between them and his own chaos magic. They work on baseline Humans, metahumans, Thanagarians, Kryptonians, Martians and Terminans so whoever you are-" Eye contact with Barda. "-they work on you. We don't know how many they have, though given the call which Lantern Gardner received it seems highly likely they have at least one more. Based on the fact that we haven't seen them anywhere else we currently think it likely that all remaining members of the League are on the Watchtower, along with anyone else they've brought up as reinforcements. That could be other superheroes they've called up for try outs and taken control of, or it could be people knowingly in the employ of Savage or his allies."

Images of the Light's membership appear on the holoscreen behind me. "His closest allies. The Brain may have contributed augmented animals of the sort we saw in India and Africa." Pictures of the Venom Bustered monkeys, vultures and crocodiles appear next to Brain's image and Mister Tawny takes the opportunity to snarl. "Queen Beena has an army, though denied Apokoliptian weaponry the threat they present is much reduced. Alexander Luthor is unlikely to risk his security force but may well have supplied deniable equipment to others as he's done in the past." Images appear of Metallo, the Kryptonite Man and Parasite. "Ra's al Ghul has ninjas, mostly armed with primitive weapons. Report all threats as you see them."

A cut away of the Watchtower itself appears on the screen. "The Watchtower itself has no internal defence systems other than locking doors, though Savage could probably make the Greenies under his control turn off the artificial gravity if he wanted. As such, everyone will be issued with aero-discs. Savage and Klarion are believed to be in the main hall. Klarion himself is the main threat on this mission. As we saw on Roanoke Island, my killing of his familiar hasn't quite rendered him impotent in the way I'd hoped. We really have no idea of the full range of abilities he and Bedlam possess." I give that a moment to sink in. "Our objectives are as follows. Firstly, liberate controlled members of the League and anyone else they've called in. At present, only Tao and Zatanna are capable of removing the Starro-tech devices. People freed have so far briefly lost consciousness and then awoken disorientated and weak. Don't assume that anyone we free will be in a position to help us within a useful timeframe. We also have no guarantee that attacking Klarion will interrupt control at all."

"Secondly, retake the Watchtower intact. The Watchtower's power systems are almost impossible to critically overload but if they've brought a nuclear weapon up it will do the job nicely. Third, apprehend Savage, Klarion and anyone helping them voluntarily. Savage's most notable ability is his immortality. He will eventually heal any injury, including death. As such, I recommend killing him as quickly as possible. He'll get up eventually but based on past encounters it should take him some time. Klarion…" I make eye contact with my team mates. "I've made my feeling on the matter clear. He is responsible for hundreds of thousands of murders, mostly of young children. At present, seventeen countries have sentenced him to death, including two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The testimony of our only expert on the matter -the Lord of Order Nabu- is that he cannot be contained in any sort of prison for any length of time and even if it were theoretically possible we have no such containment unit ready. I will tell you now that I will kill him if the opportunity presents itself." No one likes it, but I've come closer than I thought possible to getting them to accept the idea.

"Otherwise, standard rules of engagement apply. Given the lack of information we have about exactly what we'll find up there any plan has to be somewhat fluid. When everyone is prepared I will make contact with Construct Lantern Nabu and instruct him to take control of Mister Zatara in order to aid us. All being well he will reveal the location of the Watchtower to us and update us on the conditions we are likely to encounter there. Assuming that they haven't assembled an utterly overwhelming force we will open hush tubes and attack. The team will be transported to two separate locations-" These appear on the holoscreen. "-and aim to carry out ambushes on League members and such others as are present. You've all been equipped with Vertigo inducers and should deploy them everywhere."

I take muffler earpieces out of subspace and float them over to Guy. "With any luck they will incapacitate most opponents you will encounter. Robin and Kid Flash have also been issued with Gold Kryptonite lasers. A glancing hit on a Kryptonian will depower them for about two minutes. A solid hit and they'll probably be out of commission for months." Gold Kryptonite is a product of my research into Kryptonian physiology and Kryptonite. It took some effort, but creating other colours is much easier if you know they're there to find. Batman's contingency plan involved the green stuff but there's less risk this way. "The armour Kon and Match wear should prevent it from affecting them but watch out for friendly fire anyway. Barda, Mister Miracle, Lantern Gardner and myself will be attacking Klarion and Savage directly." Guy can't kill with his ring but he will be invaluable in fending off controlled League members. Scott will be trying to disrupt Klarion's control with his multi-cube. He vetoed my offer to put the thumbscrews on Barda's captured Mother Box and Father Box refuses to help him. "Naturally, hush tubes will be constantly available for site to site transportation. Does anyone have any questions?"

31st December
07:59 GMT -5

"Yeah." Wallace half raises his right hand. "What happens if Nabu can't get us in?"

"The Watchtower isn't particularly fast. I'll head up and start scanning the volume of space it may have travelled to while Zatanna and Mister Miracle get to work on other forms of tracking. Needless to say that would be an extremely sub par eventuality."

"I got one." Match looks more than a little concerned. "I've worked out with Mom… Ah, Wonder Woman a lot, and she's a lot better than me. How exactly..?"

"Simple. Don't fight her. Match, this isn't about some sort of cathartic beating up of our elders, this is about stopping the bad guys. If a particular person is a bad match up for you then let one of your team mates handle them. You might struggle against Wonder Woman but Rocket could easily contain her. Failing that, you don't need to win the fight, just keep her off Celestial Archer until he can get a clear shot." He nods. Should I..? "If anyone still has concerns, I am prepared to issue you with these." A small grey device which looks a little like a joy buzzer appears in my right hand.

Richard glares at me. "You couldn't mention those sooner?"

"Robin, this is an agony matrix. Not only does it cause incredible pain in the target, it also prevents them from losing consciousness. People affected have been known to commit suicide even after the effect has ended because the suffering was so intense. A few seconds' use on a League member should be safe but I've no idea if Klarion would even notice." I look around. "Anyone want one?" No takers. Back to subspace with you. "Anything else?" No one responds. "Very well then." I hold my left hand out in front of me, palm upward. "Zatanna, if you would."

"On ymene llahs tceted siht noissimsnart."

Wonder if she could do something like that long term? An inquiry for later. "Lantern Grayven to Construct-Lantern Nabu. Respond."

An image of his helmet appears over the ring. Unlike a normal inter-ring transmission the image is glitching and distorting. I haven't bothered speaking to him directly since Roanoke so I've no idea whether or not this is normal for him. "i ReSpOnD."

"Do you know where the Watchtower is located?"

"nOt PrEcIsElY."

"Are you alone?"

"nO NeVeR nEvEr AlOnE."

Odd. But not helpful. "Is there anyone other than Giovanni Zatara in your immediate physical location?"

"wE aRe AcCoMpAnIeD bY iCoN aNd LaNtErN jOrDan."

Tricky then. Jordan's easy enough to take if you get the drop on him and he's not shielding himself. I don't think Terminans have any particular weaknesses. Can he stealth it? Interfere with Klarion's control in a way the Witch Boy can't detect? On the other hand, does it matter? There's no way Klarion won't feel Mister Zatara leaving the network. "Construct-Lantern Nabu, in a moment I will remove my instructions regarding obeying Mister Zatara. You are to take Jordan's ring onto your finger and render Icon unconscious, then broadcast your location in a fashion we can detect. Do you believe that you are capable of following those instructions through?"

"tHe WiTcH bOy HaS nOt WaRdEd HiS tHrAlLs."

"I'll take that as a yes." Of course, if we're disarming Jordan anyway, it would behove us to ensure that he can't simply re-arm. Nabu, if you are successful I will open a small hush tube to your location. You will send me Jordan's ring. I look up from the ring. "Everyone ready?"

Nods all round. M'gann goes invisible, arrows go on strings, Miss Ervin and the Kryptonians rise into the air and Zatanna's armour glows gold. My team is split into two groups. Robin will be leading one group comprised of himself, Kon, M'gann, Mister Harper and Zatanna while Wallace leads Match, Miss Ervin, Artemis and Tao. Ambushes are the order of the day as sprawling brawls with the League members would only play to their advantages. Surprised me a little when I realised that with Kaldur not mission fit and myself being required elsewhere aside from Richard there wasn't really anyone left with leadership experience. Might need to do something about that as the team grows.

"Nabu, I hereby order you to take control of Mister Zatara." The eyes of the helmet image appear to glow for a moment and then the image disappears. I cup my right hand against my chest, making certain that it will obscure any green light. Is my will strong enough to wrestle control away? Should I just send it back to Oa? That would probably work. Even if he could call it back it would take ages to get here and that would serve to notify the Guardians that something was up. On the other hand, full database. All the high tech goodies of the Green Lantern Corps. No, you'd need to be a far better man than I to pass something like that-.

A set of spatial coordinates appears in the ring's database, along with a full layout of the Watchtower. Well done Nabu. I pick out an isolated corridor and open a hush tube next to Robin's team. M'gann heads through first, swiftly followed by Kon, Richard and Zatanna with Mister Harper bringing up the rear. I shut it down and open another in the arboretum. Wallace nearly dashes through on instinct but thinks better of it, letting Miss Ervin and Match go first before following them through. You know, this looks so much better with coordinated Apokoliptian uniforms. More professional, less like a group just haphazardly thrown together. Once Artemis and Tao are through I close that portal and open a tiny one next to Nabu to see how lucky I got. Nabu, portal open at your location. Send me Jordan's ring if you've got it, then proceed along corridor G six to meet up with Robin's team. No response. What? He passed on the location, he must still be-? Then I feel it in my hand.

Warning, unauthorised access attempt detected.

Ring, your user was compromised by mind control technology. If you work with me-.

You are hereby warned to cease any attempts-.

Fine. Ring, assimilate and data probe.

Ghghghghghgh.

Usurpation in progress. Data theft in progress. Emotional spectrum energy store detected.

"Ah, Grey? Should we be going?"

"Just a moment, Guy. I want to be sure that Klarion is well distracted." Ring, theft progress?

Two percent.

Can't afford to delay while it finishes. Which is a pain because I really want that dat-.

Eight percent.

Hm. I open a hush tube into the upper part of the Watchtower's main hall. Scott and Barda lunge through first. He'll be using his aero-discs to stay near the top of the room out of the way to do his thing. Barda just wanted the momentum. Guy and I transition through in a flash and then the hush tube closes behind us.

31st December
13:03 GMT

There are five people on the ground below. Klarion's sitting in the air surrounded by what look like holographic computer screens. His form is fairly Human at the moment, save for his eyes which are glowing purple and the three extra pairs of arms he's using to manipulate the controls. Savage stands a few metres away, looking at him. Next to him, staff at the ready, stands August General in Iron. Willing? No, I feel the Starro-tech inside him and in the young looking man in the green and yellow gi next to him. The same cannot be said for the hulking figure in power armour nearby, but then Socialist Red Guardsman is a bloodthirsty animal. Cutting off my allies. Clever.

**Grayven to team, Great Ten active on site.**

But not clever enough. Captain Fang spots Barda a split second before she lands and swings his staff at her. She parries in mid air with enough strength to knock him back before carrying on her own swing. Savage manages a brief moment of bewilderment before her mega rod strikes his face and keeps going without slowing down, utterly pulverising his head and sending blood, bone and brain matter flying across the floor. Captain Fang returns to the attack immediately but for once he finds himself facing an opponent who is his better in both skill and strength. Guardsman opens his armour's chest to fire on her and I send in a filament to disconnect the power supply from the weapon. I drop lower, orange beams from my eyes striking his armour's leg and arm joints, destroying the motor control systems and leaving him immobile. Guy creates a small squad of American football player constructs and rushes them at Yang Kei-Ying who flips sideways in an attempt to evade. Guy responds by simply making more of them. They grapple the Deadly Bother, smash him against the wall and then pummel him to the ground. Through his screen I see Gu snarl at me as he reaches for his ejection mechanism. Not wanting the whole place to get irradiated I destroy that as well. He hammers impotently on the inside of his canopy and I give him a cheeky wave.

"You're ruining my game again!"

I turn my attention back to the primary malefactor. Ring? Assimilate the little fucker.

By your command.

31st December
13:04 GMT

Orange beams lance down at him from my eyes only for Klarion to manifest a giant purple hand and bat them away. I don't try and keep control of the beam and allow it to flicker out. The research I've done on chaos magic so far shows that it's very good at circumventing attempts at precise direction. To say nothing of the risks of some sort of back hacking.

**Team one, Hawkman's down and we've linked up with Nabu. Zatanna's working on freeing Green Lantern and Icon.**

Captain Fang overextends on a thrust. Barda sidesteps, grabs his staff just behind the head and pulls it past her. He's more intelligent than to try and keep hold of it but is left without a way to block the mega rod strike to his side.

**Ah, team two, some sort of Yeti.. looking.. thing..? Do the Great Ten have a Yeti?**

I shut down my constructs and activate my personal force field as Klarion distends his mouth to exhale the same dust as he tried using on Roanoke at me. He really shouldn't have boasted about having a way to shut down Lanterns. **Yes, Doctor Hu.** The dust storm howls around the outside of my force field but can't penetrate. I smile, transition to an open space on the far side of the room and fire a broad beam maser at it. The dust moves to follow me and in doing so presents a perfect densely packed target, melting to slag as the microwave radiation hits. **Savage, Klarion, Red Guardsman, One Deadly Bother and August General in the meeting hall. Guy, don't let Klarion's dust touch you.**

"No problem!" He drops his linemen constructs, binding Mister Yang in heavy green manacles. No, that's not-! Mister Yang smirks and shimmers, another copy of him appearing next to him. Ugh. Sure, I don't think he's strong enough to threaten us but that was careless. Guy jerks back in the air as two more Mister Yangs appear, then shrugs and manacles them as well. Three hundred year old Human martial artist, meet power ring.

**Atom down.**

Klarion's frantically pressing buttons with six of his arms while the last two try chucking purple lightning at me. I create shields and leave them in place while I dodge. I'm still not really sure exactly how powerful Klarion is at present, so the knowledge that the energy discharge is easily powerful enough to destroy the shields is useful if a little disconcerting. **Robin, if you can spare Nabu-?**

**Kinda busy here! Green Arrow, Black Canary and.. Shaolin Robot. And there's some kind of drone weapon keeping us pinned down.**

Quick scan. **Immortal Man in Darkness is in the shuttle bay with the Dragonwing. Team two, hush tube is available.**

**Immortal.. Man..?** Clearly Wallace hasn't been doing his reading.

**A fighter pilot.** Tao doesn't sound happy about it. Is he unsure how much he's allowed to say? **Please, convey me to his location.**

**Convey all of us.**

**I-.**

**Tube opening.**

"You won't be so confident without that ring!"

Faint purple lights glimmer around me. I look down at my left hand but the ring stays put. There's something.. oppressive about it, but it takes more than twinkling lights to stop the God of Conquest. Not sure what Klarion's trying to do but not a lot appears to be happening. My ward shouldn't be enough to stop him if he makes an effort and I think by this stage I've sort of earned his hatred. Is this really all he's got?

"You're not even the real Grayven! How are you doing that!"

I glance at Guy and see that he's strapped vertigo inducers to the now fully numerated Seven Deadly Brothers' heads and dumped them at the side of the room. Captain Fang's still hanging in there but it looks like that's mostly because Barda can't work out how she can disable him in a way that won't risk killing him. A jab to the face staggers him then a strike to the side of his head with her mega rod finally sends him crashing to the floor. Guardsman's rocket motors flare for a moment before I send a filament burrowing into his armour to destroy the rest of his nonessential systems. The brief thrust is still enough to send him sliding across the floor on his face.

"I'm real enough." Assimilate. Again, the beams are swatted away but Klarion is forced to raise another hand defensively when Barda fires a blast from her mega rod and Guy opens up with emerald ring blasts. I fire again and he's starting to look worried. This would still be a good deal easier with a second ring.

Usurpation nineteen percent complete. Data extraction fifty three percent complete.

Go faster.

**Immortal Man in Darkness is down. And.. dead.** I wonder how well Tao knew him? Immortal Men don't have much of an active lifespan but their replacements usually receive their training in the Great Wall Complex before taking on the role. They might well have known each other.

**Hush tube opening to a flanking position on team one's attackers.** That leaves Thundermind and Ghost Fox Killer on the Great Ten side… Ring? No, Thundermind's still in Beijing. Lucky escape there.

**Green Arrow and Black Canary down.**

**Good work Artemis.** Can't find Ghost Fox Killer but she needs skin contact to use her instant death ability. Full helm on then. Where are the League's most powerful members? Nothing, not on the Watchtower and as far as I can tell not on Earth either. That just leaves-.

"Recognised, Captain Marvel, one five."

He's barely materialised before speeding across the room and smashing Guy into a wall! His left hand is around Guy's neck and he pulls his right back-

"Finally got it!"

-before his eyes cross and he sways dazedly where he stands. I glance up at my smug-looking brother before having another shot at Klarion. This time a small amount of the purple energy enveloping him appears to evaporate away from his defensive cover. Can I assimilate Bedlam separately? **Robin, we could really do with getting Nabu up here about now.**

Guy frees himself from Marvel's grip at the same moment as Barda runs out of patience and charges Klarion in an attempt to bludgeon him. Father Box tells me that the melee output of the mega rod is far greater than its ranged output, and with Klarion's attention fairly well tied to-.

"Oops! Don't got it!"

**Aquaman down. I'll send Nabu just as soon as he's free of the Starro-tech.**

Marvel swings around and flies at Scott. My reactions may not be as fast as his but thanks to the ring I can move about as fast. I shoot upwards, my right fist his meeting his diaphragm in a perfect uppercut, just about managing not to shout 'shoryuken' as I do it.

"Boopfh!"

Scott hurriedly beats a retreat and starts fiddling again. Marvel's not out yet, but the fact that my blow doesn't seem to have winded him is both the best indication so far of how much stronger my divinity has made me and how resilient he is. Punching him out will take too long, I'm not sure a submission hold would work. I seem to remember that the Stamina of Atlas means he doesn't need to breathe… What then? He's still wearing the Sword of Beowulf. William Batson might be pure as the driven snow -something I give until he hits puberty- but Klarion's turned himself into some sort of Chaos Lord Elemental thingy. How easy is he to provoke? I grin and draw my own sword. "Come at me, puppet."

An un-Marvellike snarl appears on his face as he takes the hilt in his right hand. "Abannan afol Beowulf! AHHHHHGGHHH!" Lightning crackles around him as the Sword thoroughly rejects him. Doesn't turn him back into William which is a bit of a pity, but he does go limp in the air. I sheathe my sword and fly at him, grabbing him by the hair with my right hand and slamming his forehead down hard against my right knee. Nothing broken, but the drop off in brain activity suggests that he's thoroughly out of it.

A blast of purple energy throws Barda back but doesn't appears to have injured her. She gets to her feet almost immediately, mega rod held in a two-handed guard position. Guy's created a huge vice construct and is squeezing it around Klarion's barrier. "Fine! I thought it was a stoopid plan anyway!" Five purple circles appear on the floor and rise upwards, leaving the remaining League members in their wake. Around them a horde of men with pale green skin, blank white eyes and black hair that's suffered an attack by a crazed gel enthusiast precipitate out from the air, all looking at me.

Ooh, hi Faust.

**Seriously, Robin. Nabu any time.**

31st December
13:08 GMT

Prescience of Mind.

Priority threat Superman.

An orange laser cannon construct with a glowing gold shard of cultured Kryptonite contained within appears on my left arm, targets and fires at Kal-El as he lunges across the room, striking him full in the face. He drops from the air as his capacity for flight vanishes.

Priority threat Ghost Fox Killer.

Her bound Ghosts fly in Kal-El's wake but I can't see the woman herself. They're more an irritation than an actual threat. Ignore them. I don't know her full range of abilities. Can she make herself Ghost-like? It would certainly fit her theme. Ring, monitor for minor temperature fluctuations.

Priority threat Wonder Woman.

Diana lunges for Barda, turning aside a mega rod strike with her right bracer and slamming her left fist across into Barda's cheek. Barda reels back but the clamps on the soles of her boots prevent her from going flying. With Diana inside her reach she drops the mega rod to grapple.

Priority threat Lantern Stewart.

Guy abandoned his vice construct as soon as the remaining League members appeared. Don't know how well he gets on with Stewart but from the way he's swinging that baseball bat construct I'm going to guess 'not well'. Stewart blocks with a shield construct and retaliates with a buzz saw, which Guy destroys with a blast of energy straight from his ring.

The Ghosts have surrounded me and are clawing at my construct armour. They can cripple someone by sapping their vitality but they aren't doing a thing to me. I'll ignore them.

Priority threat Hawkwoman.

I drop in the air and Hawkwoman shoots over my head, Ghosts being shredded and then reforming in my wake. Between the ring and my goggles the Ghosts did nothing to conceal her approach. Her Nth Metal mace can hurt me but she's too slow to be a major threat. I send a filament to tag her neck with a Vertigo inducer and she careens out of control into the wall.

"Little help, dear brother!?"

Priority threat Klarion.

Another transition takes me out of the path of some sort of purple cloud Klarion's putting out. One of his other hands points at Barda and fires purple lightning at her just as she knocks Diana down. Another orange beam encourages him to look to his own defence.

Priority threat Martian Manhunter.

Above me Scott ducks and weaves through the air, using the aero-discs to evade or ride out Mister J'onzz's telekinetic attacks. Scott is attempting to retaliate with his glove's concussion blasts but Mister J'onzz is presently intangible. That does present a minor problem. I have ways to bypass it but they're all a bit fatal. How about..? Hawkwoman's mace is still strapped to her forearm where she lies on the floor, her disorientation aided by a high speed impact between her head and the wall. I liberate it and hurl it upwards through the space Mister J'onzz occupies.

**Nabu's coming through now.**

The mace reaches his leg and hits him. He reels away and is knocked back into phase. I grab back the mace and stick a Vertigo inducer on him. Unfortunately it appears that Martian inner ears work too differently to Human ones and it doesn't do anything. Brutality it is then. I use a filament to spray him with petrol before hitting it with a maser beam.

"YAAAGHH!"

Klarion tries helping Stewart by flinging lightning at Guy and Nabu appears behind him. Love those hush tubes!

Data available.

Guy has to scramble to evade Klarion's shot and Stewart mercilessly takes advantage of the opening, using a hammer construct to knock him towards a rock crusher construct. In the room's other fight Barda and Diana are grappling on the floor. Looks like Barda has a slight strength advantage. Must be a while since Diana's fought someone seriously like this.

"i HaVe YoU nOw, WiTcH bOy!" Nabu throws his arms wide and two corrupted orange ankhs appear on either side of Klarion, glowing brilliantly as they suck what looks like purple dust out of Klarion's flesh.

"No! No!"

Priority threat Ghost Fox Killer.

Agh! I grimace and transition to the top of the room as three glowing green energy darts pierce both my construct armour and Apokoliptian armour, embedding themselves in the lower right front of my torso. Nothing critical but ow that hurts! Don't seem to be able to cut the sensation. Ghost Fox Killer's arcane technology weapon. Am I evil enough or is it simply Klarion's doing? She's standing near one of the room's doors, ducked down behind one of her Jade Lions. Would her death touch work on Klarion? Nabu's busy stripping his borrowed power from him so I can't risk distracting him. I send a filament in her direction and drop off a Vertigo inducer. She falls to the ground and the Ghosts in the air around me go still. Think I'll recommend the League adopt earplugs as part of their standard gear once this is over. Werner Vertigo might be a fool and a criminal but these things are jolly useful.

**Robin, Kid Flash, hush tubes are available. I think we're nearly done.**

I fire orange eye beams at Lantern Stewart, sending him spinning across the room and breaking his connection to the rock crusher doing its best to chew on Guy. Guy's breathing hard and what's left of his armour construct fails as I watch. Respect to him though, he only takes a brief moment to get his breath back before recreating it and sticking a clamp around Wonder Woman, binding her arms so Barda can finally punch her out. Klarion looks around desperately and Kal-El tries charging Barda from behind. He goes for a full nelson but deprived of his super strength she's in no danger at all.

Richard and Wallace step through a newly opened hush tube in the far wall. I lift the Jade Lion guarding Ghost Fox Killer off the floor. **Zatanna, please free Ghost Fox Killer first.** I feel her incomprehension through the telepathic link. **Woman in the green dress over there.** I try to communicate the idea of her relative location.

Artemis takes one look at the Ghosts and backs up a half step. **What are those things?**

Tao checks that they aren't moving and then notches, draws and looses at Lantern Stewart. **Ghosts. The souls of the villains she has slain and bound to her service.** The arrow goes through Stewart's chest and spears the Starro within. He falls unconscious to the ground. **With their mistress removed from the field they are of little threat.**

Kon and Match rush to check on Wonder Woman while M'gann looks around for Mister J'onzz. **What happened to him?!**

**A small amount of burning petrol. Not enough to cause lasting injury.**

"Hcet-orrats eb edamnu." Immediately the Ghosts reorientate on their mistress before floating over to form a circle around her. I put the Jade Lion on the ground and it walks over to Ghost Fox Killer while keeping its distance from Zatanna. Is she going to get up in time? From the looks of it Nabu's going to do a number on Klarion without external intervention. His little computer screens are gone and he's fallen to his knees with only three arms remaining.

Hm. No enemy effectives left on the field, discounting Kal-El who isn't getting out of that headlock anytime soon. Ring, assimilation progress?

Thirty nine percent complete.

It's not disarming an opponent anymore, it's straight up theft. Darn. Oh well, I suppose that the data was the main thing. "Gardner." I land and toss the ring to him. He catches it, looks at it and then gives me an interrogative look. "Jordan's. Took it off him so he couldn't use it. Feel free to smug at him when you give it back." He nods and grins.

"Gahh!" Klarion manages to lift his head up for a weak purple lightning bolt which is harmlessly nullified by Nabu's shield. Are we actually going to get him?

Priority threat Vandal Savage.

But he's-. Oh, right. He leaps to his feet, strikes Nabu in the kidneys from behind as he lunges for his weakened comrade. Do I take a shot? Savage sprouts arrows as Artemis and Mister Harper do their best to stop him but Tao's out of position and I haven't had a chance to speak to Batman about-. Purple light precipitates out of the air and folds in around them. Gone. Oh well. It's a bit annoying but perhaps this way I'll be able to kill him without my friends trying to stop me. Zatanna watches him vanish and then returns her attention to Hawkwoman. She and Kal-El have both stopped struggling now their domitor has left and they'll be truly free before too long.

Nabu glows orange for a moment as he restores his host body. "Good work, Nabu. Now purify your host and then relinquish control."

"i ObEy." His head tips back slightly and there's another orange flash before he reaches up and lifts the Helmet off. Mister Zatara blinks and shakes his head slightly, then smiles as Zatanna runs over.

Robin walks over to the hall's holographic control panel in order to get in contact with Batman while the rest of my team mates drift over to look out of the main window at the Earth below. Not a bad morning's work, all told. But now I've got more important things to do. By the time the League wakes up this place will have decent internal security systems, courtesy of Jordan's Sector House schematics.

31st December
11:55 GMT -2

"Mother always said I should have gone into dentistry but no, I just had to go into robotics."

"And we are most grateful that you did." Professor Vulko seems to be tolerating Doctor Roquette's moaning reasonably well. Given how discussions on normalising relations with the surface are going I suppose that it shouldn't surprise me that the Atlantean Scientific Centre has a room like this set up. It's air filled and maintained at a pleasant twenty one degrees. He explained that they weren't yet able to make a room like this at this depth without ongoing spellcraft to prevent the walls from being crushed, but there's nothing that shouts 'magic in use here' to me. It just looks like… Actually, the thing it reminds me of most is the Noveria research station in Mass Effect. Or maybe that research station from Deep Blue Sea.

Those aren't really good associations…

Anyway, standard plunge pool in the middle of the room kept down by air pressure, except it also has enchantments on it which allow the water to rise up in a column which reaches to the ceiling. Currently it's occupied by Sephtian. He did try, but if anything he was exaggerating about his ability to cope out of water. He just sort of flopped into this wheelchair buggy thing and I could see full well how painful his skin was getting.

"Download finished." I nod to Dubbilex and Doctor Roquette. "All the data you wanted is now on the server. You think of anything else you need, just let me know." The server was a gift from an electronics research company whose CEO is a friend of Senator Knight. They've been very interested in getting involved with arcane research, or at least in studying applications of existing magics; a brief explanation of refrigeration runes alone resulted in their representative drooling.

Doctor Roquette's left eye twitches. "About five years! And what happened to this?" She gesticulates at the Starro-tech device sitting on the electron microscope. "Was it brought in by a cat or something?"

"Yes."

"Doctor, please, a little comportment." I guess Professor Vulko's used to dealing with temperamental academics. "I realise this is difficult, but we're on a clock."

Doctor Sterling tries looking at Dubbilex again. "But…"

"I realize that the idea is a strange one, Doctor." He gently puts his right hand on her left shoulder. "But I assure you that there will be no ill effects. Genomorphs have shared information and experiences telepathically since our creation. No Human with whom we have interfaced has suffered anything worse than a mild headache."

She sighs. "Fine. But if I end up a vegetable because of you-."

"I could probably fix that actu-." I see the wince in Vulko's eyes. "Not the point. I'll just.. go and talk to the others."

The horns of the G-Gnomes we brought with us light up as I step into the water cylinder underneath Sephtian and transfer back to the palace's dry room. It's getting a little crowded in there but there just isn't any space to expand into unless we want to risk going somewhere on the surface. Sephtian said that one of his projects was a wearable air bubble but he doesn't have a prototype yet, not that he'd want to risk on a pressure vulnerable air breather anyway.

Danni's still deep in conversation with her father. Doctor Morrow said that while he didn't mind joining the science team he didn't really see what he'd have to offer since he knows nothing about either biotechnology or nanotechnology. Plus, he couldn't take part in the telepathic communion as he lacks an organic brain.

Kon and M'gann went sightseeing at M'gann's suggestion. Kon was getting more and more wound up about Klarion being in control of Diana and about there not being anything he could do to contribute to getting it fixed. Garth and Tula went with them. They're in the know about what's happened to King Orin but otherwise it's need to know only. Queen Mera wants to keep this very quiet, and I can understand why.

Artemis notices me in the murk -ring assisted vision meant that I hadn't realised quite how dark it was down here for most people- and motions for me to come inside. I push through the membrane and drop to the floor next to her. "How are the brain trust getting along?"

"Tolerably. They were about to set up the telepathic link when I.. umm…"

She smirks. "Got kicked out."

"Basically." I look over to where Mister Free, Mister Metcalf, Kaldur and Robin are huddled around a terminal. "How's it coming here?"

"Hardware wants to build a bunch of gravity sensors, Kaldur wants to do what we did to find Roanoke again, Miracle Man wants to build something to track a Zeta tube and Robin wants to try sticking a transmitter on a League member."

"All of those probably could work. And doing one doesn't necessarily stop us doing the others." I nod at John, who's standing next to one of the water barriers. "What's he been up to?"

"Mostly? Staring into space and asking why he's not allowed to smoke."

"It's probably a self hypnosis thing."

She looks at me dubiously. "Are you sure he knows what he's doing?"

"Reasonably."

"Would…" She glances at my lantern. "Would the snake be able to find it?"

"Maybe. I don't really want to try that until we have a way to remove the Starro-tech that doesn't require Teekl surgery."

"You really think they're looking for us?"

"I would, but we don't really know what Klarion's doing with them."

"Still no sign?"

"Ring?"

"No reports of Justice League activity have been shown on listed news networks."

"I picked up Icon and King Orin leaving the mountain but since then? Nothing." I shrug. "How's Red Arrow been doing?"

"Moping." She rolls her eyes. "Calling him 'Evil Roy' really didn't help."

I look over to where he's half-heartedly nodding along as Wallace gabbles at him. "It was a joke. And it's not like any of us actually met the original. How come he risked going to you for help?"

"We've.. bonded. He knows things about me no-one else on the team except you-."

"And almost certainly Robin."

She gives me a look. "He used that to check I was still me."

"That's not.. actually.. a very good test. If someone's being mind controlled the person doing the controlling usually has access to everything…" She scowls. "I'm just saying."

"Are we gonna be able to find.. other Roy?"

"Dubbilex said that the Genomorphs didn't know who any of the people Cadmus cloned were. He didn't even recognise Guardian when he came back to work on security." I shrug. "I'll help look and I'll try twisting Lex's arm, but you know he's just going to say that it was all Doctor Desmond's fault."

"How about talking to him?"

"Tried that." I think back to that particular prison visit. "He wasn't exactly cooperative and the Blockbuster Formula's done a number on his brain. M'gann or someone might be able to get something out of him, but I'm not hopeful."

She nods and walks past me to look out across Poseidonis. "D'you think I could survive out there now?"

"Urm. You'd drown."

"With an air mask. Ass."

Hmm. "I.. think so. You're more resilient than M'gann and she handles it fine. Might want to wear some goggles though, and you might have trouble moving around."

"Then can we get out of here, just for a little while? It's kinda claustrophobic in here, and I'm.. not really contributing…"

"Sure, we can do that." I take an air mask out of subspace and hand it to her. "I should be able to give you the tour by now." But before we go… I walk over to my personal lantern and kneel down next to it. "Ophidian, do what you can to focus their minds on their objectives and not their egos, will you?"

31st December
12:14 GMT -2

"So this is where Kaldur went to school, huh?"

Artemis and I float in the water just above the Conservatory of Sorcery. Unlike with John where I have to more or less drag him around in order to go faster than walking pace Artemis is strong enough to swim around Atlantean style. Her eyes are glowing orange where I'm enhancing them to allow her to see effectively. "For a while. He started studying here when he was fourteen and went part time when King Orin took him on."

"Wait, so he just..?"

"What?"

"Stopped going to school. I mean, does he have any qualifications or anything?"

"Um. No, I don't suppose he does. I mean, there's some civil exams I'm.. pretty sure he took, but he wouldn't have completed any normal courses."

"Kaldur's a delinquent?" She seems to find the idea amusing.

"No, of course not. This isn't like.. skiving off school to go on patrol. Kaldur's a member of the Atlantean military. King Orin's taken personal responsibility for his tuition. It's not just King Orin who teaches him, he's been there when Atlantean generals discuss the defence of the realm with their sovereign, when city-state politicians and senators bring him their problems. Just about anything that happens in court, he's seen. Kaldur's learning tactics and strategy, economics and politics as well as combat skills. If our team hadn't come together he'd probably have a commission in the Atlantean military by now."

She nods, turns in the water and starts swimming down towards the research centre. I follow along behind. Before we left I pointed out that her armour would probably be a bit constricting. Though at first she was dubious about my motives I was able to persuade her to change to a grey wetsuit with flippers. Even though the switch was instant she still insisted on me creating a screen construct when I did the switch.

"Queen Mera really teaches here?"

"She taught here before she became queen. She doesn't really have much to do with ruling the country. Well, she didn't. With Prince Orm… She might now, I don't know."

"Doesn't that make her really vulnerable?"

"There's guards to defend the place and she's a qualified battlemage. The Conservatory isn't quite as heavily warded as the palace but it's not far behind. Black Manta was such a problem at least in part because Atlantean defence plans revolved around defending against melee and magic attacks, not advanced technology." I stop and point at where Sephtian's people have started building the dome bubble generator along the rim of the Conservatory's mesa. "And when that's finished, those won't be a problem any more either."

"Some sort of force field?"

"Basically. It.. sort of makes the water disinclined to move. Like a bubble, but really tough."

"Let's go take a look." She turns away from the main building and starts towards it.

"Okay, but there's not really going to be much to see at this stage."

About a quarter of the metal ring which will be used to generate the bubble has already been laid out and a small group of Atlanteans are working on chiselling out the groove for the rest of it to run in. Their sharkman overseer looks up as we swim down to their level.

"Hey, Slayer! Who's your friend?"

"Good afternoon, Alkiphron. This is Artemis, Artemis, Alkiphron."

"Ahh… Hi."

Alkiphron has his mouth slightly open and I think Artemis is being transfixed by his teeth. "I thought all of the soldiers Poseidonis borrowed from Nanauve had gone back home?"

"Oh, they did. But High King Orin let anyone who wanted to stay on transfer over." He suddenly twists in the water. "Keep working, rock munchers! Just because I'm talking doesn't mean you can!" He keeps watching for a moment as they bend themselves to their task. "Hm." He turns back towards us at a more normal pace. "Probation oversight. Guess some parts of the job are the same whatever city you're in."

"What made you stay?"

"Spending time here made me realise that if King Blunt Brain can handle a school like this, then I can too. Blood mages back home are really picky about who they take on but here? After my probation's up in five months' time I can apply for arcane training. I mean, I'm never going to be like the High Queen or anything but I'll have more to offer than just another guy with a sword."

"Did a lot of Nanauvians stay on?"

"Not many. I mean, obviously Ceyx did… Be weird without him. But it was mostly officers looking for promotion rather than regular soldiers like us. Hey, hey, ah…" He points back at the prisoners. "Didn't you bring them in?"

I look past him. Oh. James, Steven and Richard, the formerly fearsome fish eaters. "How did they end up down here?"

"Ah, think they chose this over a surface prison. No, wait, hang on." He reaches down to his belt, pulls out an arcane tablet and touches one of the runes. "Oh, that's it. Their parents signed off on them coming here rather than going to a surface prison."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Apparently, your country doesn't have a prison for young.. meta.. humans..? So it was this or… The Tower? That might not be quite right. Sometimes name translations on these things don't work like they're meant to."

"No, that's right. The Tower of London."

Artemis appears to have recovered her wits. "I thought that was just a tourist place?"

"Some parts are, but there's an underground facility for housing special prisoners. It uses magic rather than power suppressors, so it works on all types. There just isn't much space and they don't really know how to make it bigger anymore." I shrug. "It would break the European Convention on Human Rights to put anyone who wasn't a supervillain in there."

Alkiphron tilts his head to the side. "That doesn't make sense. If their spells are still working anyone who knows anything about magic could work it out eventually, even if they couldn't cast it themselves."

"John Dee was a big believer in job security. It's not like Atlantis where there's books on magic in every street. Someone from his era on the surface would have had to spend years... Decades, doing research and hunting down manuscripts. He had to reinvent nearly everything from scratch, and then his library got vandalised while he was away… Now I think the government's just too worried about wrecking it to try anything creative."

Alkiphron thinks for a moment. "Couldn't we do that? I mean, there's plenty of researchers around here and the High King's trying to make friends with the surface?"

"How many would volunteer to spend months or years on the surface with only fresh water to swim in?"

Artemis frowns. "London's on the coast."

"Yes, and it's been on the coast for about twenty one hundred years. How polluted do you think that water is by now?" I turn to Alkiphron. "You would vomit through your gills."

"Ugh. Okay. You could still probably find a Pureblood who'd do it. Ahh, not the vomiting thing, but if it was interesting enough they'd probably put up with the dryness."

"I suppose it's something I could look into."

Alkiphron nods in a satisfied manner, then something occurs to him. "Oh, if you're looking for Professor Sephtian I think he went over to the Science Centre. Maybe. He's not here anyway."

"No, no, I was just showing Artemis around."

"Alright, I'll tell him you were here." He takes a closer look at Artemis' wetsuit. "Heeeey, is that shark scale?"

Her eyes widen, she blinks and looks down at her chest. "Um…"

He nods in satisfaction. "Cutting off people's hands and wearing the skin of your fallen enemies. You surface people are more like us than I thought!"

31st December
13:35 GMT -2

Looks like there's something exciting going on inside the palace's air room. My team mates and the other hangers on are gathered around a space while John is drawing something on the floor. And it appears to have Red Tornado in the centre of it. Oh, that's an alarm bell. I push my way back into the room and walk up behind Donna. "What's going on?"

She glances back at me before returning her attention to the circle. "Constantine's had an idea for detecting the Watchtower." A pensive and heavily pregnant looking Queen Mera is watching proceedings on the far side from us, flanked by Kaldur and Zatanna. "He thinks he should be able to detect the echo of the sympathetic link Klarion is using to control the Justice League by doing.. something involving Tornado, Teekl and some hair from someone called The Changing Man."

Teekl's lying down in a smaller circle surrounded by occult symbols and Enochian script, playing with something small and black. The Changing Man's hair, presumably. "The Changing Man's a Lord of Chaos, Teekl was Klarion's familiar and Tornado was under his control. I don't know much about magic but that sounds like it could work."

"I don't know much about magic either but, speaking as a demigoddess? That thing he's drawing on the floor is making me feel very uneasy. I don't think I can explain it properly-."

"If you're spending time around John Constantine it would be strange if you didn't feel like that."

"I'd got used to that. It just feels like something that really shouldn't exist." She frowns. "Why does he feel.. so..?"

"Cut his own soul in half then patched it up using whatever was on hand. He's actually got a demonic doppelganger around the place somewhere that grew out of the other half."

When she looks at me she doesn't waste time with disbelief and goes straight for horrified. "And… We're relying on this guy?"

"If I knew of someone better I'd have got them instead. Look, Queen Mera's given the design the once over. I doubt she'd let off something inside the palace that would doom us all."

"Alright!" John stands up, having finished the last inscription. "Think that's it." He carefully crosses the space and stands in what I recognise as the ritualist's space and carefully gives his design the once over. "Oh, hang on." Three careful steps and he bends down to draw what to me looks like a squiggle on one of the larger symbols. Another look around and he makes a shrugging gesture at Queen Mera.

She looks it over very carefully as well. "It seems to be complete. I would have liked to have taken longer to review it more carefully but time is not on our side." She looks directly at him. "Proceed."

"Right then." He tiptoes back to his circle before sitting down with his legs crossed and his hands palms upward on his knees. "Few pointers for the peanut gallery. First thing is: do not cross the outer circle." I generate an orange barrier twenty centimetres away from that edge and expand it, nudging several people away. John nods at me. "Nice to see you escaped bowgirl in one piece." Donna gives me an amusedly curious look. Does she still think I'm gay? I've rather lost track. "Second thing: do not cross the flamin' circle! You wouldn't believe the number of people I've seen killed doing something stupid they knew they shouldn't. Treat this whole thing like a live electric cable. Just 'cause you can't see anything dangerous doesn't mean it isn't there." He looks around to make sure we've got it, then reaches into his jacket and fishes out what looks like a series of astrology charts and a pendulum. The charts get spread out in front of him inside his circle and the pendulum gets held lightly in his right hand so it can swing freely.

"I'm not quite mental enough to try connecting to Klarion himself, but I should be able to follow the magic and get a good idea of where he is. Once the weight picks out a place on each picture we'll get another load of pictures for that general area and repeat the process again and again 'til we've narrowed it down to something you can land that Martian spaceship on. Since I'm not directly getting involved in Klarion's spell he shouldn't realise I'm there. But just in case, the edge of the circle's got the same hiding wards as I stuck on Paul's tattoos. Third thing, this isn't going to be particularly fast. I'm going to be raising power and feeling out the connection slowly, so don't feel you all need to keep staring at me. Fourthly, I'm going to be outside my body for most of it so don't be surprised if I'm not exactly talkative. Stepping over the circle 'cause it looks like I've died will just get us both killed. Fifthly, if something starts going wrong, refer to points one an' two. If Klarion spots what I'm doing I'll be shuttin' this whole thing down bloody quick. There'll be basically nothing you can do to help so don't distract me by puttin' yourself in danger. Everyone got it?" There's a general nodding. "Right then. Cat, stay where you are. Red, make yourself comfortable." John leans forwards slightly, holds the pendulum over the first picture and unfocuses his eyes.

I step away from the ring of people and walk around the outside until I come to Wallace and Robin. "Any news on the-?"

Wallace jerks around. "Shhh! He needs to concentrate."

"John could do this ritual in the middle of a Black Sabbath gig." I frown. "In fact, I think he did once. He wasn't joking about it taking a while and lots of background noise is better than just a little bit."

"Oh. Really?"

"That's.. what he told me. Not like I do it myself."

"Huh."

"So, Robin. I know Batman wasn't keen on me scanning Kryptonite with the ring, but we are actually going to have to fight Kal-El and I'd be much better at regulating dosage than natural exposure." Robin thinks for a moment, then nods and fishes a small lead lined box out of his utility belt. "You know, that stuff can cause cancer in Humans with prolonged exposure."

"It spends most of its time in a fortified vault lined with lead and concrete."

"Might want to add a force field."

"Superboy not back yet?"

"No. Artemis and I met up with them when we were out and they wanted to do more exploring." I create a semipermeable barrier around the box as he opens it. Glowing green crystal, maybe a tiny little bit darker than green constructs are. The ring gives me a summary of the radiation bandwidths it's emitting. I don't know enough about Kryptonian biology to understand why it has the effect that it does but I've.. still got my old scans of Kal-El and Kon on the ring. I.. should just be able to clone a small blood sample and record the results. My knowledge of Kryptonian physiology… No, my knowledge is fine, my understanding of Kryptonian physiology is sorely lacking. I nod and Robin closes the lid before returning the box to his utility belt. "Don't suppose you've got any other colours, have you?"

"Other colors?" He frowns. "What d'you mean?"

"You know, other radioactive lumps of Krypton, possibly emitting at different wavelengths. I mean, the lower lethality the better, right?"

"I don't.. think there are any other colors, Oh El."

"Oh well. Any plans for what to do when we find the Watchtower?"

Wallace shrugs. "Depends whether we've got a cure or not. I mean, if we get a cure first it might be better to try and lure them out."

"I've still got the design for Vertigo's Vertigo Inducer thing on file. I think most League members would be vulnerable to it."

"So why didn't-? Oh, right, Physician manipulates sound. What about those brain things we have in the mountain?"

"I'm a little uncomfortable using them when we don't know how they'll interact with the Starro-tech. I mean, Icon and…" I glance at Queen Mera. "The first thing Physician probably did was haul them away and fix them up. It's fairly short ranged and isn't necessarily immediately disabling. I'm.. more inclined to go for a power suppression system."

Robin shakes his head. "They have to be wearing the collars for them to work and they haven't been tested on the League members. For all we know aliens aren't affected. Did you manage to get hold of Oa?"

"No. I tried Clarissi Salaak and a couple of other Lanterns at random. I think my calls are being screened. I was briefly able to get hold of Director Jiang of the Chinese Standing Committee on Metahuman Affairs but he doesn't know me and I think I heard someone say 'cake' in the background. I did explain the situation to the man in charge of Russia's metaweapon development, but he just sort of grunted at me until I hung up."

Wallace nods. "Guess we're on our own then."

I look around the room. "Oh… I wouldn't say that."

31st December
15:47 GMT

Aaaaaand done. I step back with a smile on my face as the Watchtower's deep space sensors are restored to full functionality. A touch of a button later and the basic view of the solar system grudgingly granted us by the Guardians' cast off space station is replaced by a far more detailed view of nearly the entire space sector. Not quite up to the standard of an actual Sector House's scan; I don't have a spare green personal lantern to run it on and some of the advanced systems require that. Hmm. I don't want to do a half arsed job of this and I've been meaning to investigate those 'Guardian containment vessels' the ring detected when I first arrived here for some time. Worth prioritising in the new year? Maybe. I'll see how my talk with Batman goes first.

I turn to look at my audience. "Think they'll appreciate it?"

Mister Tawny looks around when I speak, grunts and then goes back to playing with the Sphere. I think he's annoyed with me for not bringing him with us during the attack. It's just that we were relying so much on precision and I'm still not sure exactly how intelligent he is. Besides, he'd have hated the headphones he'd have been forced to wear. That's odd, actually; I know full well that a power ring can translate animal noises into words but I've never heard him say anything. Tigers aren't the most vocal of animals but they're usually more vocal than he is. In any case the ring should be translating what I say into ideas he can understand.

"Mister Tawny, can you understand me?"

He shoves the Sphere backwards with his head, look at me, sniffs at the Sphere and then turns around to amble in my direction. When he gets up close he rears up, putting his forepaws on my shoulders. He's done that before when we've wrestled, but this time rather than trying to bite or headbutt me I can almost see him weighing me up.

Then he nods. Tigers don't nod. "Of course I can."

What?

"Though I hope you don't mind if we keep it between the two of us."

What?

No, seriously. What?

"Oh, come now. Surely you're not completely unfamiliar with the idea of a talking Tiger?"

"Nn-. No, not completely. I have heard animal speech before via the ring. Yours is just a little more advanced than I've become accustomed to."

"The BBC World Service really is a wonderful institution."

"Is that really all there is to it?"

"No." He pulls back slightly and drops back to the floor. He's a little more massive than me but a good deal shorter. "I learn quickly, but I grew up in a jungle in India. Inorganic environments still make me a little uncomfortable. Furthermore, as best as I have been able to determine, I am an unusually intelligent Tiger. Not a Tiger-shaped Human. My thought processes are different to theirs."

I nod. "Is there a reason why you've decided to break your silence now?"

"Because you had the cheek to leave me behind. And because you were becoming suspicious. What gave me away?"

"I've been studying Tiger behaviour. Your behaviour's been a little off for as long as I've known you. I wanted to be sure I wasn't.. mistreating you."

"If you had been, I assure you, you would have known about it."

"Do you intend to tell the others?"

"No. Without your ring to intercede on my behalf the quality of my English is appalling."

"You can actually speak-?"

His opens his mouth in a yawn and licks his fangs. "Not with these. I'm tentatively prepared to appreciate what The Brain did to me -on balance- but Venom Buster aside he left my form little changed. No lips and large fangs don't make for the most intelligible conversation."

"There might be a way around that. I had been thinking about it anyway…"

"Oh? Do tell."

"There's no particular reason why Divine Awakening shouldn't work on you. You're Earth-native, you have a spiritual presence. I can't be entirely sure what the result would be…"

"But you use it on your other friends without hesitation." He nuzzles his head against my left leg. "Do it. God me."

I reach down and lay my left hand on his head. That.. feels a little more weird than it did before he started talking to me. "Awaken." The orange light radiates out and I lift my hand away immediately once it finishes.

"What?" He sits down and looks me in the eye. "Ooh. I see. You must understand, Grayven: I'm not Human. My instinctive body language is quite different. If you become uncomfortable touching me in the way that you have been, then it will become psychologically uncomfortable for me to be around you."

"I should have realised." I reach forwards and rub the top of his head. "I apologise."

"Quite alright. I realise this requires a degree of adjustment."

"Justice League members approaching."

Mister Tawny glances over at the door. "Mum's the word." A last nuzzle of my hand and then he rises and charges at the Sphere.

I stand at ease as the door slides open, revealing Diana and Kal-El. I nod at my sponsor. "Wonder Woman. Good to see that you've recovered."

Diana looks me over. "Kon said that you were injured."

"Three green energy projectiles from Ghost Fox Killer." I point to where they struck me. "Not sure exactly what they were made of but they've faded since and there doesn't seem to have been any lasting damage."

Kal-El nods to me. "Grayven."

I smile. "Manman."

"Grayven."

"Sorry, Kal-El. Childish of me. I apologise."

He doesn't look much happier. "How long does it last?"

I make a show of carefully considering the question. "You understand… I was only able to test it on tissue samples. When I exposed Kon's blood to the crystalline form of gold kryptonite, half a second's exposure was enough to shut his photoreceptive organelles down for about two minutes. With prolonged exposure they start to die off… You had fairly intense exposure…"

Diana sets her face. "Grayven, direct-."

"Low blow, Wonder Woman. I don't know, okay? This isn't fully tested. I just knew that unlike the green stuff it couldn't kill you. Given what my scans are showing now, I'd say, you'll be back in full fighting form in… Two months."

His eyes widen. "Two months?!"

"Three at the outside. The organelles will repropagate, but you took an intense hit to the head and chest. If it happened any faster you'd risk your body pulling itself apart as the fully restored bits got stronger than the unrestored bits next to them." That's total bullshit -given how Kryptonian strength is based on a strong nuclear force manipulation field rather than organic strength- but from the barely contained horror on his face it doesn't look like he knows that. What exactly have he and Jor-El been talking about?

Diana turns to him and puts her right hand on his left shoulder. "It's only two months-"

"Or three!"

She glares me into silence. "Maybe a break from League work wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would give you time to focus on your.. other work."

"I… I guess."

"Ah, I'm just messing you about." Glares from both, though Kal-El's is deliciously brittle. "Oh, that was all true, but with your powers down to nearly nothing I can use the ring to fix you up the same way I did Kon and Match. Take twenty seconds." He doesn't immediately respond, trying to keep himself under control. "I don't have to if you don't want me to."

He grits his teeth. "Thank you, Grayven. I would appreciate that."

I hold out my left hand and with a little effort -I mean, it's not as if I like the guy- orange strobes flare out and recreate the microscopic structures within his cells while shielding him from the wavelengths that will cause them to reactivate before I'm finished. Nineteen seconds later I shut it down. "There you go. Half an hour sunbathing and you'd never know it ever happened." Except in your head.

He nods, then turns to leave the room while Diana gets into lecture mode. "Grayven, that was unnecessary."

"It was just a joke. This has been a fairly stressful day for us as well, you know." She appears to accept the answer. "Now, how about I show you some of the improvements I've made to the Watchtower." I hold out my right hand to the sensor display and she walks past me to get a better look.

She can only lip read if she can see my lips. "If you're listening, Kal-El, mark my words. I respect Batman and Wonder Woman but you? You're just that guy who made my closest friend feel worthless for two months. Doesn't feel nice, does it?"

31st December
16:01 GMT

"…really wanted to install railgun hardpoints to reduce the maintenance requirements buttttt… Those could theoretically be used against low flying aircraft."

I know that the League aren't hung over, but from the trouble most of them are having focusing the effect is really quite similar. Wonder Woman and Kal-El look fine, as do Mister J'onzz and William. Everyone else is having trouble focusing. Lantern Stewart in particular appears to be suffering, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing the bridge of his nose for the fourth time since Wonder Woman called everyone together. She was a little concerned after I showed her the full extent of the modifications I'd made while the League were in no position to argue.

"And I know how much you all want to avoid the Watchtower looking like an orbital supremacy platform."

Even though that's what it is. Even though it would make your job much easier.

Batman takes a deep breath. "How many laser turrets did you build?"

"I wasn't quite sure what the optimal number was, but I thought -to grant overlapping fields of fire and allowing some redundancy to mitigate the effect of losses due to enemy action- sixty eight would probably be sufficient."

Hung over and bewildered. Zatanna did say that she could purge the lingering effects, but I asked her to focus her efforts on creating defensive wards around the Watchtower itself instead. Essential, and something I can't deal with myself. Mister Zatara didn't want to risk doing anything while he was still suffering from the 'Klarion hangover' himself. The Great Ten have been quartered in the Watchtower until we've had a chance to fully check them for residual chaos magic. They were more willing to go along with that than I thought they'd be. Ghost Fox Killer even did a full apology bow for shooting me. I was so moved by her comportment that I constructed for her a device that can replicate the ring effect I used to bypass my formerly insensitive skin. Should work on the good Captain, and from how her pupils dilated slightly and from how quickly she hid the thing I think she got the idea. The exception from that reasonable arrangement was Gu Lao, who is currently in my newly constructed brig. I did offer to arrange for him to have died valiantly while fighting against Klarion but Captain Fang said that it wasn't his decision. Guardsman claimed that he was following legitimate orders… Well. He isn't my priority.

"Cool." William grins, notices the glares from his colleagues and then tries to serious it up. "I mean, they'd only be used if the Watchtower was attacked, right?"

"I set them up to intercept missiles, attack craft and boarding craft. They aren't enough to fend off a serious assault by an interstellar polity."

"I notice that you appear to have incorporated Martian technology into your Zeta tube quarantine units." Mister J'onzz is too tough for the petrol fire to have seriously hurt him but I made a point of healing his burns myself anyway. Any anger I still felt about his fucked up training exercise has faded to time and Guy's wise counsel. And after this it's not as if the rest of the League look any more competent. He seems to have dealt with the psychological effects of my attack well enough. M'gann wasn't entirely sanguine about what I did but she did understand the necessity. "From where did you acquire them?"

"Mars, of course. It isn't a restricted technology. In fact, the person I bought them from seemed to be implying that they were rather out of date. Still, they should be enough to detect unnatural mental influences of the telepathic variety. Don't worry, full mental shields the whole way. The seller didn't learn anything from me I didn't want them to."

Lantern Jordan looks like he wants to say something, then looks past me and thinks twice about it. Guy wasn't invited to participate but he created a chair construct just behind me and to my right anyway and he's been staring at Jordan with a grin on his face ever since. Jordan for his part has been avoiding looking at him. Even better, every few minutes he slides his ring off his finger and wipes it.

Batman calls up a holographic representation of the Watchtower in the middle of the table. "I understand that you've also added force field generators."

"Yes sir. I felt that with an entirely passive system there was no need to restrict myself. Even in the event of a violent de-orbit they'd actually serve to reduce the force of the impact."

"Apokoliptian technology."

"Yes sir, though it's hardly visible from the outside. It's based on the system that.. thing in Bialya had protecting it. The Zeta tube won't function while it's up but arcane teleportation should be unaffected."

Batman moves the diagram around a few times to get a better look. "How long can the Watchtower's fusion reactor power it for?"

"About half a second. That's why I tossed it." I point at the display. "May I?" He nods, and I expand the view of the power plant. "These are Bleed Membrane Instability Generators." The Hawks and Mister Freeman appear to relax a little while Kal-El and the Lanterns look even more concerned. "They should be more than enough to power-."

"They generate power using Bleed instability!?" Lantern Stewart, your ignorance is showing.

"Of course not. That would be insane. Rather, they take advantage of the fact that physical laws get a bit fuzzy in the membrane between our universe and the Bleed to generate power."

Hawkman nods. "Systems like that are used throughout Thanagarian space. They're almost completely safe because the first thing that happens if anything goes wrong is that the connection to the Bleed is lost. It's like generating power with a black hole; it sounds like it should be dangerous when in fact the most powerful safety feature is built in."

Doctor Palmer tries to get his head around the idea. "Physical laws get fuzzy?"

I nod. "It's a little difficult to explain. Essentially, a universe is delineated by a set of physical laws which make sense in terms of themselves. In the Bleed, there are no consistent laws… Except, when a universe forms and is protected by its own cohesion. But, in the membrane…"

"The rules apply only partially." He nods, more or less to himself. "That disproves entropy. It's not even about the size of the system being larger than just one universe. That could still mean that they were all winding down. If these things allow you to add energy without taking it from somewhere else…"

"One can equal two. Or turquoise. Or banana. Physical laws only apply in a given set of conditions, though as I understand it most alternate universes do have something like entropy within themselves. At least, most for which I've been able to see records."

Hawkwoman leans closer to the display. "Those six wouldn't be enough to power a warship."

"Quite right, sir. Six was pushing what the Watchtower's power distribution systems can handle and.. well. Laser turrets. Not exactly 'high draw'." She nods. "I could have built blasters oooor hyper blasters instead but I know that even this is going to be a hard sell."

Mister Allen shakes his head. "And.. why exactly do you think we need any of this?"

"Sir, today you all got your arses kicked. Twice. Firstly, by mind controlled Red Arrow and the Starro-tech." Mister Harper is.. not handling this situation well. I need to deflect his attention. "Secondly, by my team. Now, you couldn't reasonably have predicted Red Arrow turning on you, but you could have predicted League members encountering mind control. You didn't. You don't do routine screening for-" I count on my fingers. "-magic, telepathy, nanotech, parasites or cybernetic control implants. All of those are things you know to exist. No one got screened. You can't reduce the risk to zero, but you can get it a good deal lower than it is now." I make eye contact with Mister Zatara and then with King Orin. "The Watchtower is entirely unwarded, a gaping vulnerability. One Zatanna's busy fixing." My eyes tour the League. "No flak and.. frankly basic armour means that a few nuclear missiles launched from the planet's surface is all it would take to destroy this place." Stewart, then Jordan. "No long range deep space sensors or interdiction fields means that an invader can drop out of FTL right on top of you."

That gets Jordan to look at me. "You built an interdiction field?"

"No one in this system uses FTL except us Lanterns and we won't be affected."

"Ah?" Mister Queen waves his right hand. "For those of us without power rings?"

Lantern Stewart looks at him. "An interdiction field is a type of technology which prevents faster than light travel within an area. Usually you use it if you're attacking someone and want to prevent them from escaping."

I nod. "Now, anyone trying to enter the system with any of the more commonly used forms of FTL will drop out just inside the edge of the Oort cloud." I think for a moment. "Maybe Neptune orbital distance if they don't mind wrecking their engines. In either case, we get lots of warning. Full technical manuals and SOPs have been loaded into the Watchtower's database. Now, is there anything else you would like to ask before I take the Great Ten home?"

"Yes." Wonder Woman looks at me curiously. "What prompted you to incorporate these technologies in the Watchtower now?"

Kal-El's eyes narrow. "Without asking us."

"To answer you both, because I had been assuming that you could look after your own defences. Clearly, I misjudged." A few scowls. I shake my head and raise my right hand in a pacifying gesture. "That wasn't intended as an insult. I have a particular ability with regards to technological adaptation and reverse engineering. I don't expect Green Arrow to brawl with giant cyborg apes or Superman to run a strategic intelligence network. This happens to be what I have to offer. Make use of it, or this will not be the last time this happens."

31st December
20:47 GMT -2

Adom regards Robin with an air of disquiet. "You are fourteen? I had assumed that you were simply short." Wallace turns his snigger into a cough and turns his head away as Robin glares at him. "I do not mean to insult you by saying that. If anything, your youth means that your deeds do you even more credit."

"Thanks… I think."

With Adom having joined us everyone's here. John's laid out at the back of the room getting himself back together. His attempts at scrying eventually met with success, and with the location and a conceptual link he, Mister Free and Queen Mera were able to find a way to modify an experimental Dolmen Gate to bypass the defences. John doesn't think that Klarion noticed him, but he was fairly clear that we shouldn't assume that.

"If we could have your attention please?" Professor Vulko stands at one end of the room with Doctor Roquette and Dubbilex. Sephtian floats behind them in the water on the other side of the shield barrier. To their left are Kaldur and Queen Mera, along with two G-Dwarves and four G-Gnomes. The rest of us shuffle around until we're all facing them. "We believe we.. have something." He opens the case he brought with him, revealing what look like rows of tiny white circuit boards. "We have taken to calling it 'cure-tech'. Through a combination of magic absorption, nanotech disruption and telepathic stimulation it should neutralize the Starro-tech infection in any affected individuals."

Doctor Roquette glances back at Sephtian, who motions her forwards. She delicately slides one of the wafers out of its housing. "To use it, all you have to do is hold it against an infected person's skin for one second. That'll trigger it to start working. It will look like it's phasing through their skin but it's actually the nanotech components spreading out to attack the Starro-tech inside the host's body."

Dubbilex nods. "Furthermore, we strongly advise everyone here to make use of it before starting the attack. One application should be sufficient to render a person immune." He holds out his right arm to Doctor Roquette, who presses the white wafer against it. One second, then it starts to disappear around the edges, a process which is complete another second later.

Kaldur takes one from Vulko, who then comes forwards with the case and holds it out towards the front row. Mister Free takes one out and gives it a quick scan with his multi-cube before pulling back his left sleeve and applying it to his skin. Garth and Tula don't even bother checking it over before using it and Vulko continues moving down the line. "If you become infected this cure-tech should be sufficient to neutralise the infection almost immediately. Unfortunately, when applied to someone who is already infected it is more likely that they will be forced into a state of unconsciousness."

He reaches me and I take a wafer, give it a quick ring scan and then apply it to my forehead. A moment later there's a slight tingling but I don't otherwise notice anything. I then take three more and pass them down to Teekl and Fatty and.. um. Other Fatty. Robin and Wallace take theirs without complaint but Adom looks a little more unhappy about it. "Mighty One, the Starro-tech worked on Captain Marvel. You are vulnerable."

His eyes narrow slightly as he picks up a wafer. "Marvel is a good man, but is not wise in the ways of the gods. The power Lord Atum has granted me should be enough for me to resist this.. thing."

"Is it worth risking it unnecessarily?"

"I suppose not." He presses it again his left palm and we both watch as it disappears. "Your pardon, teacher Vulko. I did not mean to besmirch your work. I am simply unused to this manner of operating."

Vulko turns his head in our direction and Alan and Danni take theirs. "Free King Orin and we'll say no more about it."

The eleven G-Elves Dubbilex insisted we have join us reach out and take their wafers and Vulko walks back to the front of the room. The Genomorph warriors' claws were hard enough for the leading edge to take the x-ionisation process and since he won't be coming himself Dubbilex has assigned them to M'gann's control. Things could get a bit tricky if she gets hurt as the rest of us can't effectively communicate with them, but G-Elves are agile and vicious and I'm sure they'll be very useful.

At the front of the room Kaldur touches an illusory display and calls up a blue and white translucent image of the Watchtower. Time for the briefing proper then. "John Constantine was able to not merely locate the Watchtower, but also detect the number of League members still on board." Red dots appear. "Klarion is here, in the main hall. From the cluster here it seems likely that he has ordered League members under his control to steal technology from the League's storerooms. After the destruction of STAR Labs' San Francisco facility a large number of highly dangerous artifacts were transferred there."

Wallace slumps. "Aww, man. The Medusa Mask again?"

"As you can see, only fifteen League members are present. We have no information on who they are or where the others are. It is likely that wherever they are Klarion will call them to return as soon as he discovers that he is under attack. As such, most of us will travel to the Watchtower by means of the Bio-Ship. Once we are in position, Orange Lantern and Teth Adom will launch a diversionary attack on the main hall while we cut our way through the outer hull. Mister Miracle and Robin will access internal sensors while masking our presence from Klarion. We will then split up in order to ambush as many League members with the cure-tech in our first strike as possible. That will almost certainly cause Klarion to become aware of our presence and rally his defense."

He moves over to a nearby table and picks up a Spell Eater. "Orange Lantern and Professor Sephtian developed these to protect against attacks by magic. Everyone who does not already have one should take one before embarking." A little further along. "These chains should be able to bind even the most powerful magic user. We have three sets available. Teth Adom and Orange Lantern will take one each and attempt to use them to neutralize Klarion. Superboy will take the third in case it becomes necessary to forcibly restrain Doctor Fate." My eyes briefly meet Zatanna's. Or we could just do that anyway. Will we get the chance?

"Garth, Tula and I will be carrying miniature Dolmen Gates linked to the ocean. Not only will that make it far easier for us to use our spells in the Watchtower, but it will also fuel their protective equipment." Both of them are sporting what looks like brass jewellery. It's superficially similar to the shield design I made for Kaldur months ago, refined by someone -Sephtian- who actually knew what he was doing. The water membrane itself is now more precisely controlled and the protection it offers is massively increased. It will no-sell a lot of simple attacks including massive impact trauma and does so without obscuring their vision or mobility. In a prolonged fight the drain it puts on their mana reserves might be a problem, but we're not going to win a drawn out fight against the Justice League and Klarion.

"Everyone will be issued with four cure-tech wafers. Take care not to inadvertently use them on yourselves." I'll be loading mine into the ring. "It will be far easier to administer them by taking the League members by surprise than by beating them into submission. Precise co-ordination will be required. Do not simply rush on ahead." Robin and Wallace glance at each other. "Once we have control of internal sensors we can use them to give false readings in order to lure them into ambushes."

Robin shakes his head. "Batman's too smart to fall for a false sensor reading."

"Were he in his right mind I would agree with you. But with Klarion controlling him to the point where his very patterns of speech are altered I suspect that will no longer be true. In any case we do not know that Batman will be among those present on the Watchtower." He moves further along the table. "These sonic grenades will replicate the effect of Count Vertigo's headset within a radius of about three meters, or nearly ten feet. They can be set to the duration of your choice but only have a total of thirty seconds' continual activity each. The most effective tactic will be to use them for short bursts to disorientate your target before closing the range and using the cure-tech. To prevent you from being affected yourself you will need to be wearing your ear pieces. Be warned that opponents with ear protection, invulnerability or power rings will most likely prove immune to them."

"If it becomes necessary, Robin has a piece of Kryptonite and Orange Lantern has scanned it. The radiation it gives off is extremely painful to Kryptonians.. and I am told that prolonged exposure is unhealthy for Humans as well. If anyone sees opponents who are not League members they are to report on it at once. Does anyone have any questions?"

Alan smiles. "When do we start?"

Kaldur looks around the room. No one else has anything they want to ask. "Very well. Come to the front of the room to be issued with your equipment and then follow Miss Martian to the Bio-Ship." The people at the front of the room start drifting forwards. Garth and Tula have their armour inactive. Even in its current relatively close location it will still take them about a quarter of an hour in the Bio-Ship to reach the Watchtower.

Alan strolls in my direction, Danni close behind. "Looks like this is it, then."

I nod and pull his ring out of my left hip pouch before holding it out to him. "Remember what I said, please. Don't use it if you don't have to."

He takes it and holds it firmly in his right hand. "I'll ask Klarion nicely to lay off, shall I?"

I smile. "No, I'll do it for you."

He pulls me in for a hug. "Good luck Paul."

I try to avoid crushing him with my power armour as I return the hug. "Ah, we don't need it. I've prepared for this."

"Hm." He lets go and heads towards the table.

Danni watches him go for a moment before putting her arms around my chest. "I would be displeased if you were to die. Endeavor not to do so."

"I'll do my b-." She leans forward, kisses me on the lips and then pulls back, watching my face for a response for a moment before stepping away and donning her helmet. "Don't.. you die either." She stays looking at me a moment longer before turning to gather her remaining equipment.

Adom looks at me with his left eyebrow slightly raised. "I had not realised that you were so popular."

31st December
21:01 GMT -2

"She is an.. artificial life form?"

Apparently Adom's gods are curious about Danni so -since we didn't have anything else to do once the Dolmen gate was put into position- we've been talking about her. For the first time I'm uncertain if his gods really want to know or he's just disguising his own curiosity. From what I know about his character that seems unlikely, but I'm struggling to think why Montu would care about her.

"Yes. She was originally built by the criminal Thomas Morrow sixty eight years ago and was violently taken off line three years after that. An android duplicate of him repaired her a few months ago, though most of her current body was my work." I look down at my lantern. "Mine and the Ophidian's."

"And… She is alive? She has a soul?"

"That depends on exactly what you mean by those terms. She was originally built to just do what Doctor Morrow wanted but her mind has grown a great deal since then. As for a soul… She has an enduring arcane presence. Beyond that you'd need to talk to a specialist or a priest."

Vulko turns around, glowing communication stone in hand. "They're nearing the Watchtower now."

I nod, and Adom picks up his breathing mask. Since we can both fly, making a hull breach seems like it might end up being a sensible thing to do. Shu's stamina means that he doesn't need to breathe to live, but he does need air in his lungs to talk.

"One last thing, Mighty One." He raises his eyebrows slightly. "As I understand it, saying the wizard's name would cause you to revert to your mortal form. Is that correct?"

"Yes. I have not had cause to transform myself since the start of my second life but I can think of no reason why it would not still work in that fashion."

"What happens if Marvel grapples you and says it? The lightning strikes both of you..?"

He nods in understanding. "We would both transform, and I would be vulnerable."

"How would you feel about me augmenting your mortal form? Reducing that vulnerability."

He looks at his left hand for a moment, then nods. "The gods do not object. I am… It is a strange idea, that your alchemies can grant power as the gods can."

"Not quite that good, I'm afraid. You'd still be a lot weaker like that."

"I understand." He thinks for a moment. "You have my consent."

Ooh, this is going to be awkward. "Sorry, Mighty One, but Atum's power? Makes it very difficult to alter your body. You'd have to-."

His eyes narrow. "Say his name."

"Um. Yes. Sorry."

"You counselled me to master my hatred. If I cannot even speak his name to save a friend from slavery then I am unworthy of the gods' blessings. Shazam." Lightning comes from nowhere to crackle around him.

His appearance doesn't change much. His uniform is cut a little differently, presumably the version he's 'actually' wearing. Or since he hasn't changed back since Louisiana, perhaps the version Theodore was actually wearing. He's also slightly slimmer. He sags ever so slightly and grimaces. Given how I feel whenever I take the ring off I can empathise.

"One Danner Formula augmentation coming up." I hold out my left hand, palm of my gauntlet facing him. Orange light strobes out and I take the opportunity to scan for physiological abnormalities. More than a few scars and his deranged father's ear clipping, but other than that he's in perfect health. The strobe cuts out and I do a quick check scan. "Right, that should do-"

"Shazam."

Another flash and he's back to normal. "-it. Feel any different?"

"Should I?"

"I wasn't sure if Lord Heryshaf's blessing increased your strength to a particular amount, or by a particular amount. If it's by then you'll be a great deal stronger now."

He nods, then frowns. "Lord Heryshaf tells me that he does not know. It will be curious to find out." He thinks for a moment. "I understand the value of keeping criminals alive, and I have no wish to offend Princess Diana, but how much effort should I expend in preventing the death of Savage or the Witch Boy?"

"Savage is immortal. Killing him first thing makes sense, because it'll keep him out of the way and we know he'll get up again. Klarion…" I form a railgun construct and load Mageslayer rounds. "I don't want to try to claim to be a perfect judge of morals. I'm going to try doing everything to take him down and if that means that he dies, so be it. I don't think I'd.. kill him if he were powerless and my prisoner. The courts can do that. Anyone else, you should probably do everything you can to take them alive."

He nods, and we stare at the inactive Dolmen Gate for a few moments.

"You know, I used to come to Poseidonis quite regularly."

That gets Vulko's attention. "Really? I had heard that you had only recently been restored to life."

"That is true. I visited last during my first life as a guest of its queen." He looks out through the water barriers at the edge of the room. "I recognise the architecture, though it is strange to see it under water."

Vulko boggles and Queen Mera turns her attention his way as well. "Above water? What was the name of the queen whom you visited?"

"Gamemnae." He's not looking at them and so misses the looks of shock and horror her name provokes. Queen Mera is quick to school her features while Vulko just turns aside. "She and her consort Lord Rama Khan were among my closest allies and friends." He turns back to look at Queen Mera. "If records survive, I would be interested to learn-."

Vulko turns back. "They're in position now!"

Queen Mera raises her hands and tendrils of eldritch energy flow from her to the Gate. "Five seconds!"

I rise into the air and raise my construct armour while Adom attaches his mask and ear pieces. A moment passes and then a view of the interior of the Watchtower's main hall appears.

Accelerated perception.

Klarion floats in the air in front of the hall's main window, small holographic screens in the air around him. On the ground next to him Guy's kneeling. He's glowing brilliant green and appears to be shaking. Savage stands a little further away, talking to a large blonde man wearing black body armour with red are those swastikas!? And a figure in purple wizard robes decorated with gold thread and carrying a spear who is facing away from us.

Adom makes it through the portal just ahead of me as I bring my railgun construct to bear on Klarion.

31st December
23:04 GMT

"-integrated with-"

The railgun hums as Klarion spots me. A purple barrier appears.

"…to… To combat evil with all…"

Adom accelerates, diving into and through Vandal Savage, spraying bits of him everywhere.

The first Mageslayer round strikes the barrier, which holds for a second and then collapses. Klarion gasps and recoils.

Adom turns in the air and comes back around, aiming for the man in armour.

The second Mageslayer strikes Klarion on the right shoulder, tearing off his… Several arms and knocking him out of his perch.

The man in armour smiles savagely, moves to a guard stance and deflects Adom's attack before sending a counterpunch into his face which sends him reeling.

A third Mageslayer hits Klarion in the stomach, punching clean through. Purple mist flows from his wounds.

The figure in purple looks past me. His face is covered by a golden mask. "John Stewart. Hate."

31st December
23:05 GMT

"You!"

A green hammer construct strikes me from behind and I transition away before it can slam me into the floor. **Captain Nazi and some guy with the Medusa Mask spotted.**

Captain Nazi doesn't leave the ground as he goes for another punch, allowing Adom to grab his arm and strike the elbow with his knee. Adom doesn't go for submission holds but he has long since mastered both 'lock then strike' and integrating his ability to fly into his techniques. Somehow, Nazi's elbow doesn't snap.

Stewart goes for construct miniguns and I counter with a construct shield while sending another Mageslayer into Klarion. He'd managed to raise another shield but it goes down immediately and he's knocked onto his back.

"Orange Lantern. Love."

Stewart upgrades to some sort of missile launcher and fires glowing green rockets at me. I transition to evade and they home in on my new location.

"Enlightened? How frustrating. Black Adam. Fear."

Captain Nazi tanks a shot to the diaphragm in order to pull off a haymaker. Exactly the sort of blow Diana's been telling everyone not to bother with in super strength versus super strength fights. Adom allows it to push him back a few metres before stabilising in the air. "A weak effort, sorcerer."

**We got sensors!**

Nazi goes for a follow up, shooting upwards with his right fist extended. Adom grabs the wrist to turn it aside and slams his left elbow into Nazi's nose. "Blwg!"

I'm forced to transition away again as Stewart's missiles herd me towards what looks like a large mangle construct. Well, if being shot repeatedly hasn't stopped Klarion yet, maybe the system works on automatic? No other Leaguers in the hall, so prioritise Lantern Stewart.

"One people!" Nazi takes the elbow in his stride and powers into Adom, striking him on both sides of his head. "One empire!" He then grips Adom's head and stabs at his eyes with his thumbs. "One-!" Adom grips his wrists and spins back, slamming his right shin into Nazi's groin. He winces but keeps the pressure on, twisting his arms outwards to draw Adom closer before ramming his forehead into Adom's face. "Leader!"

Stewart has some sort of const- oh. That's an FTL jammer. Transition's out until I can deal with it.

Adom is momentarily stunned, which allows Nazi to free his right hand and slam his fist into Adom's face. The follow up punch also strikes home before Adom can get his guard up, knocking him towards the floor.

Orange filaments radiate out from me in an attempt to get a connection to Stewart which I can use to deliver the cure-tech. But he already has a bubble shield up. That needs to go-.

Flames envelop me as the robed figure points up at me with some sort of arcanotechnological gauntlet. The flame pattern reminds me of Danni's ability, though it's far less powerful than hers and far less hot than it would need to be in order to threaten me. He gives up as I fly out of the inferno to avoid Stewart's hammer constructs. Truggs was making stuff for the Nazis? I duck under another hammer construct that turns into a sword as it passes over me.

**Physician down.**

I plot-to-rapid-fly behind Stewart and am immediately forced to reinforce my armour as he surrounds me with a swarm of green construct blades. I try sending a filament at him but it gets severed almost immediately. Right, the stupid way. I form a standard broad construct connection and fire it at him just as hard as I can, wanting

baBUM

it through as hard as I can. Some sort of grinder construct forms around it, teeth spinning, but I'm able to reinforce it and push it up to his shield while maintaining my own FTL-jammer to prevent him from backing off. He creates clamps around my armour and shoves, spinning us both around the room. The ring keeps my inner ears from disorientating me and I try to keep my eyes on him. I make contact with his bubble shield

baBUM

and infect the area I touch with orange light. He slams me into the wall as I finally force a filament through his defence and slap a cure-tech wafer onto the left side of his neck. He jerks as it makes contact and fades into his skin, constructs fading around him.

"Not this time!" Klarion's Human form is consumed and superseded as a cloud of purple boils upwards and solidifies into an even larger version of the melee shape he used on me on Roanoke. I fire another Mageslayer round in his direction but it stops just before it hits him. Ah, indirect effects. Yes, that'll work. I grab Stewart and duck down as Klarion storms forwards and swings his right talon at me. "I'll swat you for good!"

**More Stormtroopers in corridor seven! And they're not being controlled!**

**Since when have Nazis needed to be mind controlled to be evil?**

**Power armor? Seriously!?**

Ring, assimilate! An orange beam flashes out from the ring only for Klarion to catch it with his right hand and pull-

Warning! Power drain-

I cut the power and the light in his hand fades away.

-detected.

He grabs at me with his left. I evade, then he turns his left palm towards me. "Remember this?" Grey dust swirls towards me and encrusts on my construct armour

baBUM

before exploding off and vaporising. With a snarl, Klarion blurs and ooof! Sends me hurtling across the room!

"Krieger! Do something about the other Lantern!"

The wizard looks at him, and then at where Stewart's fallen. "To use this spell on a lesser race…"

I send my nullification chain at Klarion and manage to wrap it around his left ring finger. He winces and then grabs it with his right hand. Why? The chain can't be oh he just tore his own finger off! I didn't take into account ridiculous changes in volume when I made them! Dodge! The finger he threw just misses me and embeds itself in the wall by the nail-claw. Right. Still need to keep him occupied and he seems to be coping with my attacks so far. How do I-?

Ah. I yank the chain-bound finger out of the wall, unbind the chain and bring Fatty and Chubby out of the ring, forcing their mouths open and shoving them both along the finger from opposite ends. Their stomachs bulge like those of the excessively penetrated female leads in pornographic manga and their eyes bulge wide as they get what I hope will be a massive injection of elemental magic.

"My finger!"

I apply pressure to the tops and bottoms of their jaws, cutting the finger in half with their construct teeth. They're both starting to look unwell. "Fatty, Chubbs, eat as much of him as you like."

"So… Much… Food…"

The man in the robes gestures at Stewart with his spear and he's briefly surrounded by a corona of white light. He pushes himself to his feet and blearily looks around. "Red.. Arrow..?"

"The might of the Aesir now flows through you, negro. Perhaps it will counteract your natural inferiority. Overwhelming hatred."

Stewart's back in the air and flying at me immediately. Right, that wizard guy needs to stop. I fire a Mageslayer round at his stomach only for him to somehow intercept it with his spear. What? How can ah! I'm forced to evade Stewart as Klarion grows an extra head and arms from his finger stump so he can manipulate screens again while staying on his guard. Adom and Nazi appear to have gone through one of the interior walls at some point. Come on guys-! Yes! Chubbs vomits forth his offspring first and it immediately charges Klarion. The Giant Witch Boy looks mildly disconcerted before firing a bolt of purple energy down at it. It catches the energy in its mouth, swallows and then vomits forth another Praexis Demon. Both of them grin evilly and then charge onwards again.

Klarion's eyes widen. "Krieger! Get him off the Watchtower NOW!"

"John Stewart, you want to leave."

And then Stewart's Redstone rocket construct ploughs into my chest armour.

31st December
23:08 GMT

Accelerated perception.

Rocket impact force negligible. Armour fine. Continual force being applied. Heading for main window. Everyone has vacuum protection except the Nazi wizard.

I fire three Crumbler rounds directly at the window.

I hear the howling of escaping air for a second and then the ring filters it out. Debris from the Watchtower and bits of Savage are sucked past me and into space and the wizard… Krieger, Klarion called him? Realises that the main hall's floor is completely flat and devoid of handholds and that robes make great sails. I'm already through the hole as he hits one of the pillars on the side of the middle window. He sets fire to his garment with his gauntlet and melts part of the pillar in an attempt to anchor himself in place. Shooting him now would kill him. No, harmless.

Then Earth and the Watchtower disappear and the stars skip. What-?

Alert! Involuntary FTL transition.

I look around. There's.. nothing… Ring, where are we?

Location unknown.

Well, fuck. Um. Okay, armour repair, ready in sixty four directions, prep Crumbler. Either Stewart is still under the Medusa Mask's hate effect in which case he'll probably come after me, or he isn't and hopefully he'll come and pick me up. Um. Ring, charge?

Eighty nine percent charge remaining.

Nice thing about using a railgun is that it barely consumes any power. Heck, a good part of that power use was probably from Klarion's energy drain and I imagine that the micro FTL hops account for most of the rest. Where is Stewart? Oh, I'm still accelerated. Agh, can't turn it off in case he appears while I'm distracted by the after effects. The ring pulses for a moment and one of my new Praexis Demons plops out into space. Painfully slowly it swings its head around to take in its new environment. Hang on. If I ratchet the acceleration down slowly…

"I'm going to call you Tubbs. How's the fight going, Tubbs?"

"Whaaaaaaat?"

Its voice is lower pitch than either of the other two. Or maybe that's a side effect of the remaining perception acceleration. Does it work like-?

Warning! Will detected!

I transition to Stewart's side as he prepares some sort of gun construct and slam the Crumbler into his chest at point blank range. His environmental shield evaporates and the air shoots out of his lungs as he's exposed to vacuum. His face spasms and he loses control of his weapon construct. ShockCrown. StunCrown. Ring off. Check his brain activity? Pfew, it worked. Extend environmental shield around him.

And now what?

Another lost Praexis Demon appears as I think about it. My team mates are fighting an unknown number of Nazi soldiers… can I call them soldiers? They're not going to be affiliated to any nation… Ugh, whatever. Given that we don't yet know where Truggs' production facility is they might well have power armour, invisibility, phasing -though fortunately Truggs' invisibility and phasing systems don't work together- and possibly elemental control systems if Krieger's gauntlet was anything to go by. Plus, the League and whoever else Savage got hold of. Ring, analyse nearby stars. Anything look familiar?

Location is within the Milky Way galaxy. Insufficient data for further analysis.

Aah! Why wasn't Guy allowed to transfer me a copy of his star charts! What did the blood.. dy… I look at Stewart's ring. I could try asking nicely… No, can't afford further delays. My team needs me too much.

baBUM

I grab it with my left hand and press it up against its orange counterpart. Ring, assimilate.

baBUM

Usurpation in progress. Orange light flares from my closed hand. Usurpation complete. Combined charge at one hundred forty seven percent normal maximum. Do you wish to merge databases?

Whow the Guardians are going to be pissed off with me.

Ring, copy database from the new ring to yourself.

Processing. Operation complete. Stellar navigation available.

I didn't get his personal lantern as well, did I?

Personal lantern tied to ring formerly designated Green two eight one four C not within ring's associated subspace pocket. Connection to remote subspace pockets lost due to usurpation.

Well, they might not send the Corpse after me. Maybe. I slip Stewart's ring onto my right ring finger, orange sigil inwards. And I know where we are. Not all that far, as these things go. He just jumped us a good long way towards the galactic west and down on the galactic plane. Transition.

The Earth reappears, as does the Watchtower. The armoured shutters have automatically deployed, covering the hull breach. Hang on. How am I going to get back in? Can I connect to the zeta tubes? Survey says.. yes. A tube construct forms in front of me and I fly myself and Stewart through it.

"Recognised, Green Lantern one four, Orange Lantern B zero six, Fatty C zero four, Fatty C zero four."

The two Praexis Demons fly off immediately to join in the orange pile in front of us. There must be thirty of so of the things, all frantically trying to bite the magic holding them back. Through their eyes I see Klarion and Krieger standing in the centre of some sort of magic circle. Klarion has a number of what look like bite injuries and he's lost most of his clothing. He's shrunk back down to twice his standard size and is frantically tapping on two floating screens. Off to my side Guy staggers to his feet, eyes glowing green and his aura the most intense I've ever seen it.

"Guy?"

"We're fine."

If he were under control Klarion would have him attack me, wouldn't he? I don't want to waste wafers. Focus on the primary target. The runes in the circle look vaguely Nordic but I don't recognise them or the design of the circle. John had a book on galdr but he said he just had it for reference and that he'd never really studied the field. Nazis had a thing about some parts of Norse mythology, didn't they? I know the Thule Society here was a serious magic research institute rather than the joke they were back home, but I doubt this Krieger's old enough to be an original member. He's far too spry.

I pull back a couple of the Praexis Demons and mentally instruct them to try eating through the floor and coming up from beneath. I feel a momentary resistance -Klarion's magic is just too tasty compared to dull metal, rock and concrete- but when I show them that it might get them past the barrier they nod in unison and start chewing. Railgun, Mageslayer rounds. I honestly had no idea the Praexis would be this effective but I'm not going to look a gift Demon in the mouth.

"Part."

I momentarily get an unobstructed view of my targets. Can't tell what Krieger's expression is under the mask but Klarion's definitely looking scared. His hands glow purple and he shoves them forwards as I fire. The first round stops two metres away and drops to the floor. The second makes it to within a metre and a half. The third just under a metre. Klarion grasps hold of the spear and funnels his purple aura into it as the fourth hits the barrier, which glows white as its power is absorbed. They tend to do worse against clever barriers than against raw power ones but that isn't a problem. I've got plenty.

Warning! Spell Eater approaching critical temperature.

Huh? There isn't any-. Within the circle I see Krieger stamp the butt of the spear down on two of the runes which respond by glowing purple. Wait. Spear? Nazis? I couldn't get a good picture of the Spear of Destiny but that thing used to be able to mind control anyone who entered Nazi territory. And there's Nazis all over the Watchtower. It's an area effect so being unscryable won't help! I load another Mageslayer and target Krieger and then.. my gun.. lowers itself.

"An old spell, but a good one I think."

"Knew there was a reason I brought you along. Now bring him over here so I can tear him apart!"

I can't look down but I feel my left foot move of its own accord. Ah hell. **Orange Lantern here. If anyone's free-?**

Klarion holds up some mush to Krieger. "Does this look like an amygdala to you? Savage'll get all pissy if we-."

"No." Guy points his hands forwards and green energy rockets towards the Praexis pile. The Demons are knocked flying and the shield beneath only manages a fraction of a second before falling. Klarion and Krieger are knocked clean across the room and as Krieger loses his grip on the spear I regain the ability to control my own movements. Quickly I swap out the blazing hot Spell Eater for a fresh one in subspace while Guy pins the magicians to glowing Green Lantern sigils. I look around and catch sight of the binding chain and grab hold of it. Hey, we could do this!

BOOM!

31st December
23:11 GMT

"Let's see how well you do against the Justice League!"

A series of brilliant golden concentric circles appears in the middle of the room. If the noise wasn't enough of a give away Stewart's ring identifies it as a boom tube and from whatever distant location they were sent I see the League's founding members charging down its length. I think Klarion's panicking, the air here's too thin for…

Flash makes it out first and I throw out filaments in all directions in a frantic attempt to make contact before he ahh! I think he's striking my armour at superspeed but he's too fast for me to see anything beyond a red blur. I try countering with solid constructs to deny him an area to attack but his impacts are too strong! How do I-? He collapses to the ground. Why-? Air! There's still barely any air in here. Do I-? Damn it, I've only got three wafers left, I can't do them all! I yank him inside my barrier, ShockCrown him and extend my environmental shield around him. **Orange Lantern to anyone, Savage down, Klarion trapped, Founding Seven approaching, requesting assistance.**

**Sorry, Oh El, got our hands full!**

The Praexis Demons get over their fear of the green light and charge forwards only for two beams of red light scythe to through them. Superman can hold his breath for a long time, right? He lunges straight into the mob and starts lashing out. Confused Praexis Demons tumble out of the left ring as he moves on to the sigil holding Klarion. Guy seems fixated on holding them there and isn't responding to the attack. I try distracting Superman with regular railgun rounds but he responds by accelerating and jinking, getting some distance before diving at the sigil while keeping the Demons back with heat vision. He's too quick and unpredictable to reliably tag but I know what he's planning. I extend a filament in Klarion's direction and create a broad beam Kryptonite radiation generator. "Grahh!" Superman drops out of the air, curling in on himself in a reflexive attempt to block the painful stimulus. Filament, wafer, grab and shield.

**Nazis. This takes me way back.**

The rest of the founders arrive together and I check my mental shields. Can they stand up to Manhunter? Damn, I'll have to try and get him first without crippling him. Diana and King Orin head towards me at a run while Jordan goes after Guy. Mister J'onzz must already be intangible. They're not going to give me time to work out where he is, are they?

**Garth, look out!**

I feel the oppressive force of Manhunter going for a mind crush as Diana lunges at me sword in hand and Jordan fires a boxing glove construct at Guy. I shift aside, turning away her sword arm while using a filament to tag her with a wafer as she goes past. She staggers a pace and then falls bonelessly to the ground. King Orin's slower, the lack of breathable air is clearly causing him difficulty. The boxing glove hits Guy right in the face only to stop dead and then blink out.

"You may not use our light."

Jordan's environmental shield disappears next and he falls from the air and starts gasping. I see his ring leave his hand and fly at full speed towards Guy, who catches it in his left hand. His eyes haven't left Klarion and Krieger. When I look at him I see green light and nothing else. I… That's not good long term.

**Captain Marvel's a child?**

I try shoving King Orin away as he leaps at me but my construct slides off his armour. Gripping manacles around his arms and legs works fine, though. He struggles against the constructs but at this point he's barely able to stay conscious. ShockCrown, dump him off. Next to Klarion I see Batman hit the sigil he's bound to with a batarang. Oh, that's a Crumbler! Imitation is the most annoying form of flattery! Klarion's free for a brief moment while Batman throws another at Krieger's sigil as well. I send one filament to ensnare the spear while a cluster of others speed towards Klarion carrying the binding chains. Batman dives for cover while throwing more Crumbler batarangs at my filaments. A metal plate from subspace intercepts a couple but the spear clatters to the floor as a near miss disrupts my hold. Krieger's head snaps around at the sound and he dives for it, just getting his right hand on the very end of the shaft.

As I go to grab both him and it he raises his left hand towards Klarion and rainbow light flares from his hand. When it clears a second later they're both gone.

And then Mister J'onzz sticks his hand through my chest. I let my armour fade as his hand moves upwards from the bottom of my lungs towards my heart. Flesh disruption's supposed to be hard, he's.. still under the floor. He's extended his arm up so I can't target him directly. Don't.. know what happens if I transition with his arm still inside me. Oh, there goes the spine. I pull myself away and up into the air, constructs bypassing melted nerves and keeping my still intact flesh alive. He tries to maintain the attack but after I get a few metres away he can't maintain his extension and his arm falls behind me. I turn, my empathic vision showing me exactly where he lies under the floor. I've no idea what happens to Martians who rematerialise while inside something so I can't risk something that might kill him.

Ah, heck. I take one of Trugg's phase shifters out of subspace while Guy grabs and disarms Batman. I press it against my chest armour, match frequencies, plot a route through Mister J'onzz's cover and execute. A moment of blackness and then I'm out with an invisible something in my gauntlets. Before he can respond and melt more of my organs I transition back, spray petrol into the air in his direction and set it alight with a maser pulse. He rematerialises in shock and I stick a filament on his head and wafer him. He shudders and then drops to the ground.

I take a look at the fallen Justice League members and re-establish my environmental shield over them. That's all of my wafers. I'll have to drag them to-.

"Klarion is still on board. We must find him." Guy heads for a hole in the wall that looks like it was made by Adom and Captain Nazi.

Ring?

One hundred eleven percent normal maximum power remaining.

That's going to be weird. I send the Praexis Demons outward through the Watchtower in all directions. Could he survive in space? There're still areas I can't scan inside the structure. "Guy, you'll need this!" I toss him the binding chain but he ignores it and accelerates out of the room, leaving me with the fallen League members. Right. I lift them and hold them in two clusters; Stewart, Kal-El, Diana and Mister J'onzz in one and Batman, King Orin, Mister Allen and Lantern Jordan in the other. Another cluster of filaments pick up the chain.

**League founders down, Klarion and a Nordic-themed wizard in flight somewhere in the Watchtower. Lantern Gardner's active and on our side. Anyone seen Adom?**

**Think him and Nazi went outside.** Wallace sounds serious but not worried. I guess we're either winning or we've won then. **Do they need to breathe?**

**Adom doesn't, don't know about Nazi. Got any spare wafers?**

**Yeah, give me a sec, we're just… Okay, think that's the last of the Nazis. I'll be right-** Wallace blurs into being in front of me. "-up. Whow. Uh…" His right hand goes to his throat and he looks a little worried. "Is it me or is it a little-?"

"Hull breach." I glance at the shutters. "If the security door was open the air pressure should nearly be normal now."

He nods and takes a couple of wafers out of a pouch. "I've only got two left. You think-?"

I move Mister Allen and King Orin over to him. One wafer goes on King Orin's neck, then he pulls up Mister Allen's cowl slightly to put the other on his chin.

**Aqualad to Orange Lantern. Lantern Gardner just blasted a hole in an interior wall and is heading for the arboretum. Is he still under the effect of the Starro-tech?**

**I'm not.. sure? I didn't wafer him if that's what-.**

**Miss Martian, go.**

**Be careful, he's extremely-!**

**He's down.**

**That leaves only Lantern Stewart unaccounted for.**

**No, don't worry, I already got him.** And his ring. I've got no idea how I'm going to handle that one. **Anyone see Klarion?**

**He's hiding behind some trees over in section four.** **Trying to escape the god of freedom. There's something uncomfortably poetic about that.**

**Anyone wounded?**

There's a moment of silence. **Lantern Scott, please remain with the prisoners. Everyone else, converge on Klarion's location. Do not attack until I give the word.**

31st December
23:14 GMT

As I hurry in Wallace's wake down the corridor I see Barda scoop up Guy and Ms Lance before rodding herself back to… Ring? Ah, medical.

Alan looks up at me. "You alright there, P-? Um, Orange Lantern?" He's got a series of hoop constructs holding the least injured prisoners where they are. My scan shows that the rest have been disarmed, shoved into lockable rooms and left there. Robin only has so many zip ties after all.

I nod and gently lay the League members I have with me down. "Got any wafers left?"

"Yeah, all four. Never was one for sneaking around." He eyes the League members for a moment before reaching into his hip pouch, fishing them out and passing them to me. One each for Batman and Jordan and then I deposit them on the floor away from the Nazis. The fascists’ armour looks like it was torn off. And it incorporated the same flame generating gauntlet as Krieger had. Adapted from Danni's design presumably. Wonder if they had air, water and rock versions, because fire would have got trumped hard by Danni and Atlantean water generation.

"Fucking Justice League." One of the Nazis spits at Batman, coming up well short. "Not so fucking tough now, are-?"

He slumps to the side as I ShockCrown him. His comrades in arms take one look at his recumbent body and decide not to push their luck any further. Shit, a bunch of Nazis knowing about the Watchtower. I'm not clear why the League are so keen on keeping this place secret, but Diana was fairly definite about the importance of it. Are M'gann and Mister J'onzz up to wiping that many memories?

I take a pile of manacles out of subspace. With ankle, wrist and neck rings and no keyhole to pick they're the most secure I could devise. "Put these on them and then stick them somewhere out the way." I give him a stern look and then glance at his ring. He rolls his eyes and then grudgingly nods. Predictably he's looking younger. Can't see any visible change in the ring yet but this has got to be taking power he can't afford to use.

There's a flash of light as Barda reappears. "Green Lan-." She cuts off as she sees me and the unconscious League members. "You were able to best them yourself?"

"Gardner got Jordan. Can you manage them?"

"Of course." Kal-El gets scooped up and dumped over her left shoulder. She then carefully picks up Diana in both arms before pressing her mega rod's activator.

Right. Where are we getting together?

I transition to the ground entry to arboretum section four. From here I can see the clouds of mist generated by the Atlanteans throwing water at the flaming Nazis. Oh, I am so not cleaning that up. Just about everyone's here, though the ring says that Donna, Rocket and Hardware along with a few of the G-Elves are still on the far side of the Watchtower. They're on their way but we can't really afford to wait. My Construct Demons are forming a rough circle around the 'sky' of the arboretum. **Aqualad, any sign of Adom?**

He turns away from John and Zatanna to acknowledge my presence. **He is still outside, and we have not been able to establish contact. Were your 'Mage Slayer' rounds effective against Klarion?** Wait, when'd John get up here? I.. suppose they could just have opened the Dolmen Gate again.

A few faces look around. We're on team chat here, though someone will have to tell Danni and Tornado the outcome. **Yes, to begin with. I scored several hits on his body which appeared to disrupt his physical presence. Unfortunately he came up with a counter which involved manipulating them indirectly. Similarly, he got around the chain by just growing too big to be properly bound by it. On the other hand, between them and the Praexis Demons it looks like he's lost a lot of power. Krieger had to teleport them out of the hall, and he only made it this far.**

**Krieger.** The last few members of our force fly in as Robin does a quick search on his arm computer. **Adolf Krieger was a leading member of the Thule Society in Nazi Germany. But if that's him…**

Wallace looks at the file on Robin's holographic display. **He'd be a hundred and thirty years old!**

Kaldur's eyes narrow slightly. **Whether it is him or not, our main target is Klarion. Zatanna, Mister Constantine, please repeat to everyone what you told me.**

The crowd parts slightly and I see that John and Zatanna are standing next to a chain bound Nabu. John looks around. **My turn, is it? Right. Klarion's still powerful despite not having a familiar anymore 'cause he's merged with Bedlam. Since we haven't got a bloody clue how powerful Bedlam is we've got no way to tell how much we'd need to drain to stop 'im. Best solution I've come up with is doing what Orange did the first time: break the link between the host and the witch. From how you described what happened on Roanoke it sounded like Bedlam wasn't exactly a willin' participant, an' there's ways to deal with spiritual entities if they kick up a fuss.**

**How can this be achieved?**

**This.** He holds up a quickly drawn magic circle on a piece of paper. **Klarion goes here, Nabu goes here an' acts as a counterweight. Constructs work just as well as chalk so it doesn't even need to be on the ground, you can just move it with him if he tries to run away.**

I do a quick scan with the ring. Nothing too difficult from the looks of it. "I should be able to do that. Should probably point out that Krieger has the Medusa Mask and the Spear of Destiny. Red Tornado, you ran into that once, didn't you?"

"Yes." He inclines his head slightly. "An extremely disconcerting experience. But the Watchtower is no longer under Nazi control. The area effect control spell should not still be in effect."

"He got me by just pointing it at me. He also got Lantern Stewart to attack me after I used the cure on him by commanding him to hate me." I do a quick sonic scan of our target and bring up a holographic image of the surrounding area. "I don't know what they're doing but I doubt it will take much longer."

Kaldur looks over everyone. "Brainwave, stay back. We need you to conceal our approach as best you can and defend us against telepathic attack. Tula, Garth, Red Tornado: you and I will strike with as much elemental force as we can manage to try to get them off balance. Orange Lantern, Zatanna, Cornwall Boy and Rocket will protect Constantine while he readies the spell. Everyone else, surround them and remain ready to react to whatever foul sorcery our foes employ." There's nodding from everyone except Mister King who's focusing his efforts on projecting an illusion of empty space. Would that even work on Klarion? No harm in trying I suppose and he's not all that much use in a brawl. "Move out."

Orange filaments connect me to everyone in my squad group, though it takes me two attempts to make one stick to Nabu. Plot course to-.

"Hey, Orange." Artemis makes eye contact then points to her depleted quiver. "Got any more-?" An orange strobe waves over her quiver and Mister Harper's, topping them up with anti-magic arrows. She nods in thanks before activating her flight belt and zooming off into a position to flank the target. Those arrows need a better name. Can't call them Mageslayer because even with her augmented strength they still don't hit quite as hard as railgun rounds-.

"Oi." John thrusts the paper at me and I have the ring scan it. Surprisingly good penmanship, considering. "You better make bloody sure you get this right. I don't want that little toe rag getting away."

I recognise some of that. " Can I assume this arrangement separates both subjects?"

"Not just a pretty face, am I? The arrangement's different enough from how Atlanteans do things that they didn't notice."

I nod, re-establish my links with the group and transition us into a concealed position behind a surprisingly large pile of rubble close to where Klarion and Krieger are working on.. something. The ring shows me everyone moving up and occupying concealed positions with ranged fighters a little further back and John's escort a little closer. I take a moment to make sure I have everyone's attention.

"We need Krieger out of the way for this to work. Let the Atlanteans hit them first. Rocket, shield John. It won't make any difference to his magic and he's a bit squishy."

"Hey." John blinks and rubs his head. "Oh."

"What?"

"Whatever they're doing, they're doing it now."

**Aqualad, we need-!**

Wind swirls from nowhere and hundreds of gallons of water spurt towards our enemy. I transition everyone to a solid looking section of broken corridor on top of the rubble. Without a better connection John's going to need line of sight.

"…loose the Einherjar!"

The scene before me decays into an insane underwater electrified hurricane as a hole opens in space and undead Viking warriors charge out with barrow blades drawn.

31st December
23:17 GMT

Runes of protection glow on their armour, allowing them to continue their charge regardless of the elemental effects raging around them. Plate armour such as only the richest Vikings would actually have been able to afford, I note. Their skin is a little pale but otherwise they look much as I imagine they would have in life. Their swords and axes glow a ghostly blue and I see one cut through a flying tree trunk with no effort at all.

Their summoners are not so well protected. Krieger cries out in pain as he's repeatedly electrocuted before being slammed into a still standing tree. Klarion does something that causes gaseous purple tendrils to flow from his hands into the ground but that's all that's keeping him from flying after his partner in crime. The air around Krieger calms for a moment and Wallace dashes in, punches him in the diaphragm, throws the spear and mask clear -ew, he looks those hundred and thirty years- and carries him away. Right, got my chain, Kon's is on Nabu and Adom's is… Shouldn't have given him one. Now how do I get it around Klarion without the Einherjar getting in the way?

Then the leading Einherjar takes an anti-magic arrow in the left eye. He doesn't drop immediately, but whatever magic allowed him to carry on after death is gradually eaten away. His body visibly rots as he desperately tries to pull the arrow free, skin and fat sloughing from his face. I fire a Mageslayer round at another. He takes it on his warded kite shield and gets thrown back by the force, shield reduced to splinters. How alive are they? I can't see their desires but with all those wards that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

"Abannan afol Beowulf. Daah!"

"Lios nrut ot dnaskciuq!" The Einherjar heading in our direction sink up to their waists in the now liquid soil. A little behind them the one who pulled the arrow out of his eye stabs his sword into the ground, runes glowing brilliantly. "Ah!" Zatanna shudders. "I felt that!"

The Einherjar points at us. "Seiðkona." Why aren't I getting a translation? He looks back towards the portal. "Ullrkarl!"

A blast of lightning from Kaldur's trident hits him but he completely ignores it. In fact, I think his injuries are regenerating. Looks like they don't need the wizards to be functional to maintain the portal. More arrows rain down and the Einherjar are forced to form a shield wall. "Ready John?"

"As I'm going to get."

I extend a filament to the space right next to Klarion and make a transition. By the time he's even aware I'm there the chain is tight around his arms and legs. Mageslayer railgun rounds shoot out the purple magics binding him to the ground and I yank him away, dodging sword strokes as I fly. I throw him to the ground next to the stone and steel rubble just in time to see a rank of Einherjar archers emerge from the portal and loose at everyone. I quickly form John's circle and shove Klarion and Nabu into their respective positions before sticking up a dome barrier.

**Cease elemental attacks. Red Tornado, disrupt their formation. Garth, Tula: try and work out how to close the portal.**

Klarion takes a quick look at the construct. "NO!" He struggles against the chains and becomes increasingly frantic as he gets nowhere. I really wasn't sure it would hold but it looks like it will.

I jerk back in the air as an arrow pierces the construct dome and hits the ground just in front of me. Construct penetrating, sure, why not? I create two minigun turrets and set them to shoot the arrows down.

"Sworra reev yawa dna ssim!"

A few of them wobble as they come in but most stay true and I'm forced to yank John out of the way. On the other side of their formation Artemis runs out of patience and goes for a full power shot, knocking the shield wall back into their own archers. My filaments lash out, grabbing dropped weapons and throwing one each to Kon and Donna before pulling a third back for Rob. Most of their archers redeploy to face Artemis' direction and three go down to anti magic arrows to the face. I grab an arrow off the ground next to me for later analysis before flying our group back over the rubble barrier.

"Cornwall, keep an eye out. Shout if they start loosing on us again." He nods and scrambles up the detritus, keeping his head down to stay out of sight as much as possible. Plonking Nabu and Klarion down again I re-establish John's pattern. Have to hope that stripping Klarion of what's left of his power does something about the Einherjar portal. I mean, really: do we look like Ice Giants?

**Fighting Vikings is kinda… Satisfying.** Glad Kon's enjoying himself.

"Right then. Let's get this started." John kneels down next to the outer edge of the circle and holds out his hands, palms facing the design. A moment later there's a slight shimmering inside it.

"It'll never work! You don't have the power!"

"That's what Nergal said, more or less. And The King of the Vampires. Think the First of the Fallen said it as well, though might be misremembering. I was a bit out of it when I fought him." There's a very fine purple haze surrounding Klarion now, and a golden one around Mister Zatara. "Thing about this spell? Pretty much runs itself. I just have to hold it in place and it'll get faster and faster as your power an' his push against each other stronger an' stronger. More complex than my usual stuff, but I've been back to school lately."

Klarion makes a concerted effort to burst his chains but all he manages to do is fall over. "Warriors of As-" I apply sound baffles and watch him try calling the Einherjar in our direction only to fail. He screams in silent rage before trying to escape by punching his containment circle. With his strength reduced to that of his Human form he doesn't stand a chance. As I watch the purple mist is drawn further into the design, moving around but never quite mixing with the gold. John doesn't seem to be finding it difficult to maintain the spell.

**Um, Orange Lantern?**

**They coming for us?**

**Not yet, but I can see Captain Nazi-** I look towards the external window which makes up virtually the entire external wall. Adom has Nazi pinned against it and is drawing back his fist. **-and-.**

The rest of his reply is lost as Nazi is punched clean through with enough force to pulverise the window behind him and send huge cracks across its entire surface. Nazi crashes to the ground as hurricane force winds pull everything not connected to the ground towards the rapidly growing hole to space. The League really need to armour this place better! I fly in the direction of the gaping hole and stick a construct barrier over it while on the other side Adom looks as if he was surprised by what just happened. Damn it, I thought Zehuti would be able to explain about space physics!

"Eloh ot ecaps, riaper-"

**Zatanna, no. I've got this. Focus on looking after John.**

**… Okay.**

We still have gravity, so with the winds no longer blowing debris falls back to the ground.

**We have a counter spell, but we need to get closer to use it!**

**Superboy, Troia, provide an escort.**

Ring, charge remaining?

Eighty seven percent of normal maximum power remaining.

I form a new railgun construct and aim it at the portal. Would brute force work?

**They've got horses!**

The ring shows me Einherjar on eight legged horses gallop out through the portal. Kon has to throw himself to the ground in order to avoid the leader's blade. Seeing dense terrain ahead the rider pulls on his reins and.. the horse canters into the sky!? I so call BS. I aim and fire the railgun at the rider, scoring a clean hit to his stomach and knocking him off his mount.

**Look out! Nazi's-!** I look down and see Wallace knocked aside as the heavily bleeding Captain Nazi grabs Krieger and the spear before flying towards nonono! I load Crumbler rounds and fire at him but he's jinking too much for me to hit at velocities I can use in close fire support! I feel a scalding pain as the spear slices through the filament connecting me to the circle confining Klarion! Okay, but he still can't escape. The only exit-.

With one of his accomplices under each arm he flies through the Einherjar's portal. A second later the portal collapses, the Einherjar themselves falling dead to the ground.

Damn.

31st December
23:38 GMT

I've patched up the holes in the outer surface of the Watchtower. There's still lingering water vapour from where Garth, Tula and Kaldur took them down by using their magic and minigates to flood the whole section. Now I'm starting on the largest piece of internal damage. Exactly how much-?

For a moment I'm speechless. I just stare at the new hallway which starts in corridor G seventeen and terminates in B three, four and five. The ring tells me that the metal and stone which made up the intervening space hasn't been vaporised. No, it was brutally shoved out and is even now resting in the crater it made in the arboretum. We were using it as cover earlier. Thought it looked a bit odd.

"Guy.. really did that?"

Mister King nods. "Wall glowed green for a moment then it just sort of whooshed on by."

Once Guy left the main hall he appears to have just blasted through everything that was directly between him and Klarion, though it doesn't look like he moved particularly fast himself. That's weird because an FTL transfer would have got him there far faster. "And M'gann could just walk up to him?"

"He didn't even notice until he fell over. I've got to tell you, I've never felt mental focus like that from anyone. Is he always like that?"

"No." It could have just been a result of his training combined with Klarion losing focus on him, but that wouldn't have resulted in him calling himself 'us'. The other obvious example of that sort of behaviour seems to suggest that he may just have been visited by Ion. On the plus side, the Green Whale of Will doesn't seem to have a problem with me. Bad news is, I've got no idea how to handle it if Guyon becomes a full time thing. Or how the Guardians would react if they knew. Assuming they don't already.

The man himself is already up and about, sitting at the end of the tunnel watching over the arboretum with his legs hanging over the edge. The forest will take a good deal of work before it returns to normal, and I think the birds are all hiding somewhere in the Watchtower tunnels. Heh, and when this place is sorted out they'll probably be joined by a small herd of eight legged flying horses. I'm not sure if they simply weren't drawing power through the portal or if unlike their former masters they're properly alive but the Sleipnir-looking things have adapted to the green indoor forest of the Watchtower without any fuss at all.

One of them is even now nuzzling Guy, who half-heartedly pushes it away. "Go on. I didn't bring any sugar lumps."

"Mister King, would you mind giving us a few minutes?"

He looks away from Guy and the horse and at me. "Sure thing. I'll.. go and check on the rest of the Justice League."

"Might be worth having a chat with Red Arrow as well. He's dour at the best of times and.. given what he just found out…"

He nods and turns away. I walk the rest of the way down the tunnel, taking care to walk heavily enough that Guy can hear me. The horse takes fright when it sees me and bolts for the arboretum floor. Its legs… It doesn't exactly have eight legs in the normal sense. There is clearly only one in each corner. Its equine musculature and bone structure wouldn't support any other arrangement. It's just that sometimes the legs are in more than one place at the same time.

Guy looks up. "How'd everyone make out?"

I think about it as I sit down next to him. Six months ago I wouldn't have dared do this. Heights and the risk of falling really scared me. Now, nothing. "A few minor cuts and plenty of bruises but no one on our side was seriously injured."

"That's.. good." He doesn't sound as confident as he usually does. Sounds odd. "You kids really pulled through, y'know that?"

"Yeah. Guy, we need to talk about-."

"Yeah, I…" He looks away for a moment. "I know. Ask."

"You were the only one who wasn't affected."

"I was. Red got me the same time he got everybody else. But, I'm trained to resist control. I guess.. between my Spell Eater, the resistance training I got from you and Kilowog and my own willpower-" He makes a fist with his right hand as his ring glows. "-it was enough."

"I think I heard you saying your oath."

"My mouth was just about the only thing I could move. The oath's a mantra, helps you focus. Long as I was doin' that, I wasn't doin' the stuff Klarion was puttin' in my head."

I nod. "You'll have to show Jordan and Stewart how to do it. And I'll get everyone on the League Spell Eaters." He's fidgeting more. He knows what I have to know. "Guy, something happened to you between Stewart kicking me off the Watchtower and me getting back. Guy, I need to-."

"I know, okay?" He sighs and rubs his face with his right hand. "I was just.. kneeling there. It was taking everything I had to keep resisting. Then.. you and that Adom guy fly in from nowhere and I realize: this is it. This is our rescue. And I'm trussed up like.. some kinda broad tied to the railroad tracks in an old western. I wasn't strong enough to get myself out."

I shrug. "What did you do?"

"I.. prayed. I mean, I guess my family's Catholic. Kind of. Weren't exactly regular churchgoers but Dad dragged us along for Christmas mass and stuff like that." He shakes his head. "I always figured that if Dad was into it then it was as full of shit as he was, but what did I have to lose? I'm sitting there watching Adom and Nazi beat seven kinds a'crap outta each other… I didn't just ask for a favor, I was reaching out for.. for anything… And then…" He's staring into the distance. "It was like when I charge my ring, only instead of goin' away it kept gettin' stronger an' stronger. I don't really… And then it was like there was nothin' in the whole universe 'cept for me an' Klarion and I knew I was gonna beat him down." He relaxes slightly. "So." He looks at me and manages a weak grin. "How long 'till I flip out completely and make with the giant cakes?"

"I don't think you will."

"That was it though, wasn't it? The Green Entity? Errr… Ion, right?"

"That's what it's called and I think it was. But if you're normal now I don't think you've got anything to worry about. I mean, I'd like to be on hand when you next recharge just in case, but Ion isn't the Ophidian. Less clingy."

"Didn't think I felt enlightened. That gonna happen again?"

"Not sure. On the one hand, you know the series of thoughts you need to have to get Ion's attention. If you don't want its attention, just don't think like that. On the other hand, it's been in you once. Maybe it knows where you live?"

"That's reassurin'."

I look into his soul for a moment. His fears relating to powerlessness are aroused but I can't see any structural changes or a lingering presence. "There's a limit to what I can say without lying, Guy. If you're worried, maybe we could get Constantine to contact Ion with magic so you could talk things out. Or you could just try it again in controlled conditions."

"Mmm. Think I'll pass on it fer now." He looks at me again, this time more thoughtfully. "I'm guessin' you don't think I should try talking about this with the Guardians?"

"I'd advise against it. I'm not sure they'd respond well to someone dominating their colour. You remember turning off Jordan's ring?" He nods. "Their protection against someone else pulling a Sinestro is their ability to do remote shutdowns. With Ion, not only would you be immune to that, you could do it to them. You really think they'd be okay with that?"

He looks thoughtful for a moment. "So, how 'bout them Vikings?"

"Is that an American Football reference?"

"No, it's a Nazi zombie reference."

"We don't actually know that they were Nazis."

"Looked like they were fighting fer Team Swastika to me."

"Fight. Vikings." He nods, conceding the point. "Nazis had a thing for Norse mythology and they've had decades to work out how much was myth and how much fact. And I don't think they actually coordinated with Krieger or Klarion once they arrived."

"The horses are fine but we can't just leave those guys’ bodies here."

"I'd like to hand their armour and weapons over to Atlantis, see if we can reverse engineer them. The Einherjar themselves… We could either try reopening the portal and sending them back or give them a funeral. But I'm happy to leave that decision up to the League."

31st December
23:46 GMT

We're holding the Nazi foot soldiers in the Watchtower's shuttle bay. It has heavy doors, a control room that looks out over the main area and if we really had to we could vent them into space. I don't think that will be necessary, though. The ones who aren't unconscious or heavily injured have enough sense not to start fights with superheroes while unarmed.

"Not so bad for an old man, huh?"

Alan pretty much just piled the Nazi soldiers’ armour in the corner of the control room. Mister Free and Construct Lantern Morrow are going through it. It seems to have the same design as the stuff Truggs’ people used, though the colour scheme has been modified to reflect their political beliefs. I'm not seeing any phasing or invisibility generators but most of them have the same sort of flame gauntlet thing Krieger had. And none of the wearers had a Starro-tech infection. You really don't need to mind control Nazis to make them evil.

"I haven't had a chance to go through the recordings yet. How much power-?" He winces slightly. "Al-an!"

He looks at his ring. "Down to about half of what I started with, I think." Six months, three eighths left? Is that enough? He holds his hands up defensively. "Now don't get all-."

I shake my head. "No, no, I knew you'd burn through power doing this. That was.. probably about the best I could have hoped for." That's true, and I really don't want to argue with him at this point. I walk over to the window and nod at the captured fascists beyond it. "Any idea what we're doing with them?"

Perversely -given the stated viewpoint of the man they were working for on 'Slavs and other animal men'- they seem to be mostly Russian. All men, all white and mostly members of the Russian Union of National Socialists. There are a few of the swastika and eagle tattoos I expected but a sort of crosshairs thing appears more common. I don't know if Captain Nazi or whoever just sent out a call to their Aryan brothers and these are the people who responded or whether there's an actual arrangement between the Light and the RUNS. If they're getting top end technology like this Russia could be in serious trouble. When we're finished here I'm going to have to send a warning to the Russian government.

His eyes drop for a second and he smiles faintly. The rejuvenating effect of using that much power is readily apparent. He could pass for my slightly older brother at this point. "Not a clue. Back in my day we'd just hand them over to the POW people."

"It's funny. I'm not sure they've actually committed a crime."

He frowns. "What d'you mean? Of course they have."

"Really?" I look around the control room. "What jurisdiction are we in?"

"Aah." He thinks for a moment. "Huh. The United Nations?"

"Good luck bringing charges against people who attacked a space station that officially doesn't exist. Everyone thinks the League operate out of the Hall of Justice, remember?"

"They can't just.. let them go."

I wave my left hand and overlay the window with a display showing the names, ages and criminal records of the men below. "Several have outstanding warrants in Russia and the Ukraine. They can just be handed over, but most don't have anything. The League can say they were seen working with Savage, Klarion and Captain Nazi -Russia still remembers him- but they can't say where or doing what."

"This is why honesty is the best policy. I can't see Diana being okay just letting Nazis go."

"I can't see any of them being okay with it. I imagine Mister J'onzz will give them the once over-" I tap the right side of my head. "-before they make any decision."

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern."

I hold the ring to my left ear. The original ring, that is. "Orange Lantern here."

"The Justice League have begun to wake up. Lantern Stewart is asking for you."

I feel the weight of his ring in my right leg pouch. "I'll be right there." I lower the ring. "Alan, you mind..?"

"I'm sure Scott won't mind keeping an old man company."

Mister Free glances around from the flame gauntlet he's probing with his multi-cube. "Actually, I'm nearly twice your age."

"Huh. Well if that don't beat all."

"Barda reaches her quarter millennium next year."

A flicker and I transition to the waiting room just outside the medical bay proper. William's looking a little unsteady on his feet as Adom lectures him. "…not merely resilience but also the capacity for healing. Focus your spirit on the part of the gods' blessing that comes from Lord Atlas as I do Lord Shu."

"Ah, okay?"

Adom's more than a little bruised from his encounter with Captain Nazi and most of the costume has been torn from his torso. He takes a breath then exhales slowly, his body shimmering slightly as he does so. His costume reknits, his bruises fade and the blood from his split lip and the swelling around his left eye vanish.

"Golly, that looks useful. So.. I just…" William doesn't manage it with quite the same dignity, but a moment later he's standing up straighter. "That feels pretty good. Oh, hey Paul."

I wave to him as Adom turns around. "Orange Lantern… Paul. I wish to apologise for endangering everyone's life as I did. If I had not-."

"No, I should have realised that you didn't know about air pressure-."

"But I did. It is… One of the gifts of Lord Montu is the capacity for a berserk rage. It makes me-." He glances at William. "Us, stronger, at the cost of mental acuity. I unleashed it upon Captain Nazi, and the result was what you saw."

"Why? I.. thought you were doing alright against him before that."

"He… Said something about Princess Diana. I will not repeat it, but rest assured that my pulverising his ribcage was a just retaliation."

I don't think I'll ask. "It's been thousands of years, Mighty One. You're bound to be a little rusty."

"Hey, you know… You could spar with me sometime. I mean, if you wanted…"

"Thank you Captain. I would appreciate that." He sighs. "Loathsome a man as he is, I will admit that I was impressed by Captain Nazi's mental fortitude. A weaker man would have admitted defeat. Or died. Yet, he was still aware enough to rescue his allies."

"If it's any consolation we're still scraping bits of Savage up off the meeting room floor. If he tries healing from any of the bits we've got, we'll have him."

"It is little consolation when the greater prize escapes." He pauses. "But I have tarried too long. I must return to Kahndaq."

"I've authorised you for zeta tube use. Just head down that corridor and back into the main hall."

"Thank you. Captain." Remaining upright he flies in the direction I indicated.

"He needs to learn to lighten up a bit."

"That's a long term project. Lantern Stewart was asking for me?"

"Oh, yeah, he's just through there."

I nod and walk into medical proper. Stewart's on his feet but everyone else is still out cold on either a gurney or a bed. Kon looks up from where he's sitting next to Diana and gives me a nod, a gesture mirrored by M'gann from Mister J'onzz's bedside. Robin left Batman a note before leaving to make sure the Watchtower isn't bugged or booby trapped, and stuck another note next to it ordering that no one remove his mask.

"Lantern Stewart. What can I do for you?"

"It's all kind of fuzzy, but I think you and me had a fight. I'm a bit surprised you're still standing."

"Yeah, um, you actually went down pretty easily? I'm going to be charitable and assume that Klarion or the mind control system was messing up your mental focus and tactical awareness."

He bows his head for a moment. "Okay, fine. With Krieger around I can understand you taking my ring away. But I'm my own man again now and I'd like it back."

"Yeahhhh… About that…"

He frowns, concerned. "What, did you destroy it?"

I reach down with my right hand, open the pouch and reach in to take it out. For a moment I hold it in my closed fist. "Not exactly." I hold my right fist out and then open it, his now orange ring resting on my palm.

His face drops.

"Sorry, but I didn't know where you'd dumped us and I couldn't risk Krieger's spell still being live… It's still your ring, you can have it back if you-."

He leans slightly away from it. "Keep it. You.. just.. keep it. I'll.. put in for a replacement from Salaak." He actually looks pained. I can relate to that. "Please tell me you didn't get my lantern as well?"

31st December
23:58 GMT

John peers out of the meeting room window at the Earth below. "How the other half live, eh?"

"Six billion below, about sixty people up here if we include the Nazis? It's a lot less than half."

He nods, then looks around as my team mates and our menagerie head in. Including Kon and M'gann so I'm going to assume… Yes, Diana and Mister J'onzz are up and about. "Time for me to be off. Think I could give Chas a bell?"

"I've entered you into the zeta tube system, though I've got a sneaky suspicion that Nabu will override it once someone finds and unchains him."

"Best not hang about then."

As he turns to go I gently put my right hand on his right arm to stop him. "About the.. Klarion matter. I think it's time to consult an expert. How soon can you get hold of him?"

His expression doesn't change significantly, though I do detect a mild curiosity. "Need to get some sleep, get some gear together. T-." He checks his watch. "Tomorrow evening good for you?" I nod. "Right then. Be seeing you." Hands in pockets he strolls over to the zeta tube. He stops to give the entrance an appraising look before walking in.

"Recognised, John Constantine, A two five."

Kaldur watches him go. "I was not aware that Batman had granted him access to the zeta system."

I shrug. "Batman was mind controlled then unconscious. Did you want him to walk home?"

"I suppose that would be somewhat time consuming. I -on the other hand- have spoken to Batman." The rest of us gather around in a semicircle. "Donna, Garth, Tula. Today marks the second occasion on which you have fought by our side. Though I appreciate that it will not be possible for you to work or train with us on a regular basis I would like to extend to you an invitation to join the team."

Donna nods almost immediately while Garth and Tula look at each other and try to have a silent conversation. After a moment Garth nods at her and then they turn back to face Kaldur. "We've got our field elective coming up. Given what's happened I.. think Queen Mera will be willing to let us spend it with your team."

Kaldur steps forwards and offers Garth his right hand. His smile's genuine but I can still see the violet image of Tula's face inside him. This is not going to be easy for him. Garth shakes it and then so does Tula.

"Welcome on board. You know, formally." Kon's already congratulating Donna and since I know her rather better than Tula or Garth I offer her my hand as well.

"Thanks. I'm really not going to be able to do much until summer though."

"Are you joining us for the Themyscira visit?"

"Yes. It's going to be so great seeing it again. Oh, and Diana's invited Cassandra and her mother along as well."

"Is that a good idea? Themyscira's blessed by Hera, and-."

The holo display generates a large clock showing 00:00 UTC. "Happy New Year, Justice League."

Tula frowns. "But the solstice was weeks ago."

I shake my head. "I know, the timing makes no sense. I don't really know why we have it here either, but-."

"Heeey." Artemis walks over to me, smiling. Jade has the same smile and.. now I'm nervous.

"Yes? How can I-?"

She reaches up to my armoured shoulder, pulls me forwards so I overbalance into her and kisses me on the lips. Um. I can't move away without risking-. She pushes me back up. I'm… What? "Um, okay. I'm…" Kon and M'gann appear to have also taken the clock's appearance as a signal to begin kissing. Garth and Tula shrug and follow suit and I see Raquel approach Kaldur. Wallace looks like he's thinking about trying his luck with Donna, who notices, rolls her eyes and gives him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Hey!" Zatanna gives Artemis a quick glare and then looks at me expectantly. I hesitate for a moment before bending down to a more kissable height. Honesty would indeed have been the best policy, I am too old to be-. Maybe I should have pretended to be gay? She puts her right arm around my shoulder and gently presses her lips against mine. If I feel tongue I'm confessing right now. No, that's not happening but she's maintaining the kiss. I'm feeling creepy but I can deal with that. Another.. eight seconds and she pulls away, smiling, a slight blush visible on her cheeks.

Artemis gives an amused smirk at my discomfort. "That not how they do New Year's in England?"

My eyes widen. "Rob, emergency Auld Lang Syne, now!"

He blinks. "Ah, er, okay mate. Um. S-sshould auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?"

There're more than a few smiles as everyone whose lips aren't otherwise occupied joins in.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."

The ring's feeding me the rest of the lyrics but I think that would just be showing off. Robin raises an eyebrow. "I thought that was a Scottish song?"

"Eh, we stole a lot of things from the Scottish. That song. Stone of Scone. Oil. Sobriety."

Wallace thinks for a moment. "Wait. The Watchtower's on UTC, right? It's not New Year in the US for another five hours."

Robin nods. "Technically it's New Year somewhere for the first time all day."

Zatanna pulls on my arm. "Can I.. talk to you for a minute? In private?" I feel Artemis pat me on the back as I nod. The balcony overlooking the arboretum is unoccupied.. and structurally sound. I transition us there. Zatanna looks down at the greenery for a moment and then up at me. "John was trying to get Nabu, wasn't he?" I nod and she sighs. "After I used the cure on him I tried removing the Helmet. Even with the chains on it still wouldn't come off."

"They're designed to drain active magic use, not drain reserves. We don't know exactly how the-" I flap my right hand at my head. "-bonding thing works. You know, it's just a first attempt. We will try again." She nods. "John's setting up.. that thing we talked about in London." She frowns, not quite getting it. "If you're free later I understand that Salem has a great New Year parade." Her eyes widen slightly as she gets it, then she nods. "And… Ugh. I… I don't think kissing me is appropriate."

"Oh." Her eyes widen slightly. "I didn't, um…"

"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."

"Oh. O-okay. I can.. respect that." She turns away from me. "I'm just going to go-."

"I can send you-."

"No, I've got it. Lacigam gniylf esroh, raeppa." One of the horses gallops up from under the balcony and Zatanna drops onto its back. It whinnies before taking off across the arboretum sky at a run.

"I thought you handled that well." I look back as Kal-El descends onto the balcony. "Fate had been expressing concerns about you two, but I see there was nothing to it."

"I still feel like a prize arse though. Something I can do for you, sir?"

"I.. need your advice. I-."

"Don't worry about it, sir. No one's ever been able to pull off the external underwear look."

An amused exhalation. "No, you made your feelings on my costume very clear. I wanted to talk to you about Superboy." Oh? "You're his closest friend. I've been thinking about what Batman and Diana said and I think.. I'd like to build some sort of relationship with him. I was wondering what you thought the best way would be to go about doing that."

Eh? Why would..?

"Sir, I… Look, I understand finding out he exists was a pretty unpleasant shock for you. And Batman and Diana putting pressure on you to assume responsibility made it worse and… Well, I was in the same mental place they were and that was unreasonable. He isn't your son. Really, there was no more reason for you to build a closer relationship with him than with.. someone completely random."

"I.. don't know that I'd go that far. I think it was mostly the idea that Luthor had been cloning-."

"Thing is sir, it's been six months. He has friends, a girlfriend and a mother who loves him and whom he loves in return. You opted out of his life -which is fine, fine, I understand why- and now there's no you shaped hole in it. He neither needs nor wants you, and all you trying to get involved now will do is.. mess him about. If you want to talk to him, he's just up there." I point up at the main hall. "But I'm not helping you patch things up when there's never been anything there to break."