2011

Gaolbreak

1st January
04:23 GMT

"Recognised, Batman, zero two, Robin, B zero one."

Robin waves back at us as he disappears. They should just about have time to get to Mayor Skowcroft's New Year's party in their civilian identities before the local New Year. Pretty much everyone else on the team has already left, and a good chunk of the Justice League too. After a short stop off in Atlantis to recover my personal lantern I've been dual wielding my way through the Watchtower's repairs. Usually this sort of thing would be Lantern Stewart's job but apparently new rings take a few days at least to forge and that will only start after our Greenies have gone to Oa for a full debriefing.

That database… I don't have the Green Lantern Corps' full database. Just what was loaded onto Stewart's ring at the time I took it. Thing is, that's a lot more than it might have been. It turns out that the Guardians usually only recruit from interstellar civilisations. When they need to recruit from primitives like us -such as when one of their veterans falls in combat and has to recruit a replacement as quickly as possible- they load up their rings with everything they need to know about technologies commonly used by starfaring species so that they can interact with them intelligently. I've basically got an Idiot's Guide to Uplift here.

And I don't know where to start.

I could.. build a starship. An actual FTL capable starship with.. shields and artificial gravity and my choice of about thirty different types of energy projector.. or kinetic or.. heck, there's even the design for a sort of psionic amplification array! And yes, all I've got on some of the fancier weapons is a quick summary of their effects with no technical detail but I'd hardly need it!

I could build what is basically a stargate. A matter replicator. A weather control network. I even have a file on antimatter and its ADHD little brother qwa matter. I could… There's so much! I'm going to need to spend some time thinking about how to implement this. A new power plant for my Ice Fortress seems like a good place to start. Maybe.. move out of the mountain? If we keep expanding the team's membership as we have been doing we might end up getting a little pushed for space. No, I'd.. rather stay, but my inner Space Warlord is crying out for a flying Doom Fortress.

i CaN mAkE dOoM fOrTrEsSeS nOw!

"Is something funny?" I look around as Diana, Kon and Donna walk in. Diana is looking at me with curiosity. I was giggling, wasn't I? Yes, yes I was.

"Um, Lantern Stewart's ring. I now have all of the data on it and I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by all the possible applications."

Kon grins. "What, you can make alien cakes now?"

"No! Well, yes, there's a few.. recipes humanoids might be able to eat, but I was mostly thinking of the technology." The glorious glorious tech-. I'm giggling again.

I think Diana's getting concerned. "Are you alright holding two rings? I've never seen a Green Lantern try that before."

"That's probably because it's inefficient. All having a second ring does is extend my total power reserves, it doesn't make my constructs any more powerful. Psychological effects… I don't think there'll be any problem. That was just excited giggling, not mad giggling."

She doesn't look entirely convinced. "I wanted to tell you that in light of what happened today I've moved our visit to Themyscira to next Saturday." I nod. I was expecting something like that. "I want to remain on monitor duty in case any of the League's enemies try to capitalise on our vulnerability."

"Finished tracking your movements yet?"

She sighs. "No. We can't account for the movements of the founders for the twelve hour period shortly after we were infected."

Donna shakes her head. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about. If they were trying to.. I don't know, damage your reputation by making you carry out an attack or a robbery on somewhere, we'd have heard about it on the news."

"Incoming priority communication." A holographic image of the words 'incoming priority communication' appear on the main display.

Donna takes a step backwards. "That wasn't me."

Diana takes a step towards it. "Source."

"Washington DC, Department of Metahuman Affairs."

"Answer."

Amanda Waller's face appears on the screen. She looks surprised for a second and then her expression turns to one of relief. "Thank God."

"Ms Waller, what-?"

"It's Belle Reve. I don't know what the hell's happened down there but we've got a mass break out in progress. Phone line's down, satellite link's down and some of the nastiest supervillains in the country are on the loose two hours from Houma."

"They escaped?"

"Satellite images shows that the walls are intact. Beyond that I've got no idea what's happening. I'm trying to get the Louisiana State Guard to form roadblocks but I can hardly get hold of anyone 'cause it's New Year!"

Shit, who do we actually have available? With Klarion puppeting them unrelentingly for an entire day most League members were showing definite signs of tiredness. Guy's still here, Alan's… Not coming, whatever he says. Red Tornado, Danni and the Hawks are still about along with a whole herd of flying horses but everyone else has gone home and probably to sleep.

"We'll have a task force on the ground within an hour. Wonder Woman out." The holo screen deactivates as she turns to me. "How much charge do you have left in your rings?"

"I'm fresh off my post-rebuild recharge. Two hundred percent normal maximum power."

"Orange Lantern, Superboy, Troia. Head to Belle Reve Penitentiary as quickly as possible. I need you to assess the situation there and report back while I find out who's available to deal with the breakout. If you can subdue the prisoners or free any prison workers without endangering yourselves, do so. The zeta tube in-."

"Baton Rouge." I make eye contact with Kon and Donna. "Ready?" Two nods and the three of us fly into the zeta tube on the far side of the room.

"Recognised, Superboy, B zero four, Orange Lantern, B zero six, Troia, B one two."

31st December 2010
22:36 GMT -6

The Baton Rouge zeta tube is located inside a storm drain so the three of us remain airborne when we rematerialise. I used to think that it was strange how a zeta tube could be large like the ones in the mountain and small like the hidden units but it turns out that the smaller 'tubes' are just focusing arrays and security systems for the actual full sized tube somewhere else in the city. That's why the terminals can be moved relatively easily if they get discovered.

"Ring, Belle Reve. Show me somewhere we can land without being spotted."

Orange images of the prison I've got to know so well during my frequent visits flash before my eyes. The main bunker gate of the prison proper is wide open while the outer gate has been smashed down. By an armoured lorry or by someone like Mister Flinders I really couldn't say. One of the guard towers looks like it's taken a battering but those things are designed to survive metahuman attack. Heck. Kadabra can look after himself but I'm worried that Thomas might have done something ill-advised. The prison itself… The image flickers and fizzles out. That's new. They scry warded it?

"We can get into one of the guard towers. It should have a dedicated hard line to the prison. My attempts to scan the prison-."

Kon nods. "Wards. They didn't have those before. Are there any wizards being held in Belle Reve?"

"Not according to their most recent records, and it's not really designed for holding them anyway. Strange might have had it added, but I can't think why." Except, supervillain. Damn it.

Donna nods. "You know the prison better than I do."

"Alright, that's where we're going. Transitioning in two, one,-"

31st December
22:37 GMT -6

"-now."

Belle Reve guard towers are a little tougher than the conventional sort. Steel reinforced concrete towers fifteen metres high, decorated only with automated turrets ten metres up and pivot mounted heavy machine guns around the manned section at the top. The glass between the platform around the guardroom and the guardroom itself is heavily reinforced and the only entrance is a heavily armoured door. It's even fully CBRN protected, which is why I can't transition us directly inside.

Kon looks over the side wall. "I can't see anyone."

"I can't see anything."

"Oh, right, sorry." I take a pair of night vision goggles out of subspace and pass them to her.

She shakes her head. "No, just give me a sec." She takes a small jar out of her pocket and unscrews the lid. Oh-kay… I send the goggles back to subspace and do a full scan of the swampland that makes up the grounds of Belle Reve. Some muddy footprints but nothing I could definitively link to one person. Someone appears to have frozen a section on one side of the road but there are several people who could have done that. "Hail Nyx, goddess of night. I humbly ask that you accept my offering and grant me your blessing." For a moment I smell something sweet.. honey, and then it's gone. "There." She looks at me and smiles, her eyes completely black. "How do I look?"

"I did not know you could do that."

"What did you do? I'm seeing in infrared here."

I walk over to the door and extend filaments into it. Usually opening it requires confirmation by the off-site facility but it's just metal. "Her eyes went completely black."

Donna nods. "Which is what happens when the Olympian goddess of night lets you see in the dark."

"You can just ask them for stuff?"

"Some. You have to go to their temple and make an offering. You know, establish a connection. Nyx has a bit of a sweet tooth." The door clanks open. The lights inside start to come on but I shut them off. "That's probably part of why Diana wants to take you to Themyscira."

"I read up on some of the mythology. The Greek gods just sounded like huge jerks to me."

We enter the guard tower. No one's here. No signs of violence, so that's something. Quick scan… No signs that metahuman powers have been employed.

"Well… Some of them are. They didn't become gods by being nice, they just have powers over things. Nyx has always liked me, Athena's trustworthy, Aphrodite's easy to get along with-."

"Unless you're married to her." I raise the ring… The ring on my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. We're at Belle Reve. No one between the exterior fence and the central keep. Some signs that a lot of people have moved through, but I'm not detecting anyone in the vicinity of the prison. The prison itself has been warded. Were we informed that was going to happen?"

There's a short pause. "No, we weren't."

"Do you want us to try and follow those who have left, or get into the prison?"

Kon frowns. "What if they left by boat?"

"Then they've gone." I shrug. "They've had plenty of time to get into cover or get picked up by someone else. Once we take a roll call we can work out who's still missing."

"Can you gain access to the prison?"

"Front door's open. Can't scan inside to tell you about the interior doors."

"Proceed, with caution. The safety of the prison workers is your top priority. Superman and Lantern Jordan will start sweeping the surrounding area shortly. Keep me apprised."

"Sir." I take my left hand away from my ear and close it, breaking the connection. "Either of you have a preference on how we approach it?"

"If they're in lock down, those walls are supposed to be Superman proof." There's a clank as Kon smacks his right fist into his left hand. "You think they're Nth metal proof?"

"Punching steel and concrete is quite an energy intensive way to try and get through it."

Donna looks at the phone on the wall. "Why don't we try calling them?"

"Because we don't know who's on the other end."

"The prison's full of cameras, right? If someone's in the warden's office they'll know we're here as soon as we get inside."

"Be my guest then. This is tower Interior Two."

She picks up the receiver and presses the 'call' button. "This is Tower Interior Two?" She stiffens slightly as she hears a reply, then returns the receiver to the cradle. "What's 'Kali Yuga'?"

Ooooooh poop. He's here, isn't he? "Literally, 'The Age of Vice'. In Hinduism, it's part of the cycle of gradual moral degradation which leads to regeneration. In our line of work, if someone says 'Faith to Kali Yuga' then they're probably a Kobra Cultist. I mean, it's worth checking, just in case they're a real guru or something… But probably not."

"Kobra?" Kon remembers the name. "Jeffrey Burr's inside Belle Reve!"

"Yep. Or at least he was. And Kobra has magic users working for it, which might explain how they knew how to ward the place."

Donna takes a look through the glass at the prison. "Are the inmates going to be armed?"

"Special equipment is kept off site, but they'll have access to any of the guards’ weapons that they haven't smashed as well as their own metahuman abilities."

Kon raises his eyebrows. "They got any guns that can hurt us?"

"You'd feel a plasma weapon's shot, if it were at maximum power. Super power attacks are more of a threat and I'm still more worried about the civilians than us."

Donna shakes her head. "Hate to say it, but if they were going to kill them they've probably done it already."

Ritual sacrifice being a good way to jump start a spell. Wonderful. "Front door then? I know from the plans where all the cameras are. I can just destroy them before we enter." Kon and Donna look at each other, then nod. "Probably best if we fly there. Less orange glow."

Donna leads the way back out onto the balcony then floats upwards. I don my helmet, turn down my environmental shield to minimum and follow her using my armour's integrated flight belt. Donna's black with white pinpricks armour isn't ideal for stealth but it isn't as if she's had time to change. I'll have to check the ring database for armour styles and materials suitable for super strong people. Or maybe I can sort something out with Io next week?

We come in high towards the front entrance. Below us the telephone poles on either side of the road lie smashed and on their sides, the wires ripped in several places. The lights which usually shine from the prison battlements and watchtowers are off and there's clearly no one on watch. No damage I can see to the exterior so whatever happened it probably wasn't an external assault, which was just about the only conventional attack I didn't think Belle Reve could handle. There are no shouts of alarm as we reach the wall and I extend a filament down the wall through the very top of the front door's opening. No one immediately inside, though the security cameras are still active. I could take control of what they're seeing, but that would require me maintaining a constant connection and some of the people in here are dangerous enough that I might not be able to do that. With a thought my filaments extrude Arrows of Unmaking and stab them into the walls in which the cameras are mounted, destroying them utterly. That done, I drop down and fly inside.

31st December
22:41 GMT -6

The emergency lighting is on and there's no one around. Again, I can't see any obvious damage to the building. The ultra-strength internal security doors haven't been deployed…

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Any word from the off-site control room?"

"Currently unmanned. Warden Strange gave the people who were supposed to be manning it the evening off."

"Bit late now."

There were machine gun positions by the main door but it looks like they've been removed. Not destroyed by the escapees; there's paint on the ground and it's newer than what is next to it. Strange had been encouraging me to use the staff entrance on my visits. Said something about me being part of the rehabilitation team.

"Entry's clear, no sign of damage. Proceeding into prisoner areas."

"Understood. Orange Lantern, the Flash isn't mission fit and it would be extremely helpful if we had someone with super speed available. How reliable is Rush Hour?"

I hold out my right hand and experimentally use Lantern Stewart's old ring to send a filament to open the armoured interior door to the next section. It doesn't feel any different to using the original one. "Rush Hour?" The ring-. The rings prompt me with his file but I can remember it easily enough. Aavai Singh, seventy one, British national of Punjabi origin. Not quite Flash fast but a bystander probably wouldn't notice the difference. "He's getting on a bit, but he's capable enough. Wouldn't Jesse Tyler be better?"

"She's not answering her phone. Would you recommend the younger two Rush Hours instead?"

I kill the camera on the far side and then the three of us walk into the short access corridor which leads to the visitor room. "They won't leave him behind, but yes."

"Hey, Orange Lantern? Can you scan anyone yet?"

I look back to Kon as the rings start on the inner door. "No, the walls are blocking me. Can you see through them?"

He shakes his head. "Too well insulated. D-? Troia? Any of your gods feel like helping out?"

"I haven't really had anything to do with Hecate yet. She's a bit.. strange."

The door opens and after I destroy the cameras on the far side we proceed into the visiting room. Aside from the main lights being off and the door to the guard part of the prison being open there's nothing out of the ordinary again. Starting to get a Mary Celeste vibe from the place.

"So, do you.. actually worship them? The gods, I mean?"

"I.. don't know. It isn't like going to church, and I haven't done that for years. Amazon relationships with the Olympians are usually much more direct and personal. I've been to most of the temples on Themyscira and prayed to most of the gods at some point. Not Ares, for obvious reasons."

The corridor is empty. Guard station or break room? Armoury or cell block? Best to stay in the outer part of the prison until we have a better idea about what's going on. I take the turning to the left, towards the break room. The doors in this part of the prison are still armoured and can be locked remotely but there's less hassle about getting through them during normal operation. No lights, no sign of anyone.

"Yeah, Mom told me about him. She's got me reading Amazon historical records at the-." His head jerks up. "Someone in the next room. They're.. watching TV."

Only one door between us and there. I run my filaments throughout the door and eliminate the friction between every moving part before carefully opening it. Once there's a gap between it and the frame I create a sound deadening field on the far side before swinging it the rest of the way open. The three of us float through into the antechamber. Mess hall through to the right, male and female showers and locker rooms further on towards the staff entrance... I can hear the television now myself. I can scan this whole section now and for the first time I see something amiss. Several tables and chairs are either knocked flying or smashed apart. Someone big and strong went through there. Not picking up a significant amount of blood…

Kon taps me on the shoulder and raises his eyebrows. I point towards the break area and he leads the way.

"-bad way to spend New Year. Sure, Crystal's frigid and that cute shrink's gonna get her sweet head beat in, but I suppose shouldn't look a gift beer in the mouth. Cap. Whatever."

How..? Why is he here? At least he won't be any trouble to subdue.

"Call Zoe or not? Well, con, I get an earful from Michelle. She might not even be up…"

The three of us come into the room at more or less the same time. Mister Lawton straightens slightly. He's sprawled on a sofa facing away from us and towards a wide screen television with three empty bottles by his feet and another in his left hand. There's a handgun on the seat next to him but he doesn't reach for it. Ah, there's a mirror on the table in front of him.

"Took you long enough." He takes a swig and uses his right hand to pick up the control box and lower the volume. Looks like he was watching GBS's coverage of the New York celebrations. "The Justice League had a bit much New Year cheer or were you tryin' to raid the fridge?" He half looks around and waves the bottle at us. "'Cause if you were, you're too late. I've already had the good stuff."

"Mister Lawton, good evening."

"Think there's still some cooking liquor."

"Mister Lawton, this will go considerably easier on you if you cooperate."

"Thirty nine, Gemini, parents were Lutheran but I've never practiced, divorced father of one, not much of a social life recently-"

"Mister Lawton."

"-but when I get the chance I like ballroom dancing, horse riding and darts." He looks away for a moment. "Can't believe there wasn't a dartboard back here."

Donna looks confused. "Who is this guy?"

He gestures with the beer bottle again. "Okay, now, imagine-" He makes a circle with his right hand and holds it over his right eye. "-white mask, red armor, black coat..?"

Donna looks at me. "Who is this guy?"

"Floyd Lawton, aka 'Dead Shot'."

"Nono. One word. Deadshot."

"Mister Lawton, please tell me what has happened in this prison."

"What's in it fer me?"

"Um. I have… Better beer?" I fan out my hands.

"Not sure I'd really appreciate-."

Kon lands, stomps over to him and hauls him out of his seat by the scruff of his neck. "Tell us what happened!"

Mister Lawton blinks at him. "Do I know you from someplace?"

Rings, sobriety.

Orange light flares out from me and he jerks like he's been slapped. "Oh, just when I had a good buzz going."

I remove a box of twelve British craft beers from subspace. "Either you get helpful or I employ force. I don't do torture but I think I could justify mind control."

He rolls his eyes. "Okay, fine. The guards disappeared and the prisoners rioted when they realized there wasn't anyone to stop them. Most of them have left but that Burr guy's still around. Him and his creepy cultists."

Donna frowns. "Why are you still here?"

"The only reason I haven't been executed yet is I've got fifteen states suing over the right to be the ones pushing the button. I don't wanna give them more motivation to move things along. Besides, how long are they actually going to be free? Way I see it, might as well get some beer inside me, instead of wasting time wading through a swamp with the Justice League on my tail."

"You mentioned Doctor Quinzel?"

"Oh, yeah, some of the staff barricaded themselves in the offices. The Kobras are tryin' to get them out. You should probably hurry up and give me the beer."

Kon tosses him back onto the settee and I set the beer down on the table. "Thank you for your help, Mister Lawton. Most appreciated."

Then I ShockCrown him.

31st December
22:46 GMT -6

We head to the offices in fits and starts. The internal security doors are designed so that they can't all be opened at once which is bloody annoying at times like this. I transition to the next and get to work opening it while Kon and Donna fly after me. I wish I knew better what was going on, I've.. really got used to being the one in the know. The only way I could go faster would be lashing out and Crumbling everything. Tempting as that is, I can't even tell that there's no one on the other side of these doors before opening them! That and they're not exactly quiet. Still no response to our presence. Still don't really know how many inmates decided-.

"Uuuhhg…"

I transition past the slowly opening door onto the walkway overlooking the prisoner gymnasium. Someone's punched a hole clear through the partition between the male and female sections, and from the meltwater I'm going to assume it was frozen by someone first. Cameras don't point at this bit so I take a second to destroy the ones watching the floor below. Gun turrets look dead… There! I transition down next to the prisoner below. He's managed to crawl over to the wall and prop himself up but from the way the right side of his chest has been crushed I don't think he's going much further. His external wounds are superficial but even without a ring scan I can tell from the blood running from his mouth that his internal injuries might well end up being fatal.

He struggles to look up as I crouch down in front of him. "Mister Walker. You've seen better days." No sense restoring him fully, but… He's only got another two years on his sentence. Heck, he only got sent to Belle Reve instead of Blackgate due to that ridiculous Moth costume. I repair his lung and ribcage as Donna and Kon fly down behind me.

He just about manages to focus on me, and seems to recognise me. "Fucking… You. Shoulda know that bastard.. would…" He slumps sideways, unconscious. Blood loss and shock.

The gym doors aren't fortified, a preventative measure against the inmates trying to barricade themselves inside. That might explain why they're smashed off their hinges. More injured prisoners, minor or no powers from the looks of things. One of the more coherent ones tries to build up an electrical blast and gets a ShockCrown for his trouble. What the heck happened?

"Donna, you don't have a truth lasso, do you?"

"No, that's one of a kind."

I generate construct armour around us as we come out into an open section of hallway. Guard station up to the offices is deserted and the security door's been torn through by someone with super strength.

Kon's head jerks up. "People ahead."

"…to break down a fucking barricade!"

An electrical crackling sound. "It's wood! What am I supposed-?"

"Kobra'll have our hearts if we can't-."

"Get out the way." Heavy footsteps and then a crash.

"You made the wrong choice, Terror!"

Line of sight established. Doctor Zuel has grown to about twice her normal size and is stepping back from the door she just shoulder charged. Having seen Klarion that size recently she just isn't that scary, especially as she has to pause in order to redeploy her ersatz halter top due to her prison uniform not expanding with her body. Some long haired blonde guy the ring identifies as a Mister Bailey is also watching the door intently while Miss Wasserman and Mister Hato are more focused on their argument. Flames billow from Zara's hands as she takes a crack at it. The ring helps me identify the others but they aren't a threat without their equipment. Or in the case of Mister Weiss, to anyone, ever, except himself.

The orange glow attracts their attention as soon as I come into view. Mister Hato's fastest to respond but I easily counter his electrical blast with a construct shield as Donna and Kon surge past me. Doctor Zuel instinctively grows and promptly jams herself between the walls and ceiling. Mister Hato manages one more shot at Kon which is easily turned aside by his armour before Kon punches him in the diaphragm then the head, stunning him. Zara and Mister Bailey try elemental blasts at the same time but his wind pulls apart her fireball and Kon downs him before he can get enough power behind it to trouble us.

I weave a network of filaments around Miss Wasserman's head and give her a dose of knockout gas. Can't risk a normal stun not taking her telepathic abilities out of action. Her unusual neural architecture means that it still isn't as reliable as I'd like so I'll have to keep monitoring her until we can get the power suppression system working again. Mister Merkyn's got a guard issue rifle from somewhere. He kneels, sights and opens fire on Donna as she bursts through Zara's fire to punch her out. Donna crouches, deflecting the shots away with her bracers as I ShockCrown him and send his gun into subspace.

"Damn it!" Doctor Zuel manages to lie down and expand further, grabbing for Kon with her giant right hand. He punches her ring finger and I hear the proximal phalanges snap. "Aagh!" She tries pulling the hand back but her elbow is stuck between her body and the walls. She really didn't think this through. Think she's lost what was left of her clothes-. You know what? ShockCrown.

Kon gets amongst the other gun armed prisoners and violently disarms them. By some miracle they go down without managing to shoot each other first.

"Got you!" Mister Weiss looks inordinately excited about getting a lasso around Donna. She looks more nonplussed. "Faith to Kali Yuga! Hail the Naga Naga! Now you-" He tugs on the rope and she doesn't move. He tries again. "-will-" And again. "-come-!" Donna gets a two handed grip on the rope and yanks it. He's pulled off his feet and into the air where she meets his head with her right fist. He drops to the floor in a stupor and I gas him into unconsciousness.

"Troia, any idea how to get Doctor Zuel to shrink back down when she's unconscious?"

She looks up at the fallen giantess as she unknots Mister Weiss' rope. "No, it has to be voluntary. Diana and I usually have to get a lowboy to tow her away."

"A what?"

"You know, a truck with a flat trailer." I nod as she coils the rope up and slings it over her shoulder.

"Brand." Doctor Zuel's eyes flicker as a filament plugs into her forehead and an orange sigil shimmers into being. "Doctor Zuel, you want to shrink down to normal size." Nothing happens for a moment and then the space around her starts to grow as her volume reduces. Since she's naked but for rags I put a straightjacket on her as soon as she reaches the proper size. Fix her finger, tie up the straps and then remove the brand. Job done.

I walk over to the blackened and cracked door and knock delicately on it with my right hand. "Okay, they're down." Nothing. "Thomas? Are you in there?"

"You ain't foolin' me lahk that agehn!" Heavy office furniture has been pushed up against the other side of the door and the twins are braced against it. Nothing there aren't a dozen ways for us to force our way past but I can see the yellow and red; they aren't thinking rationally at the moment. Going in heavy could ruin all the work I've put into rehabilitating them. Well, him anyway.

Kon looks at me. "Want me to break it down?"

I shake my head and step away from the door. I need information from someone who I can trust to be honest and volunteer things and unless I want to try tracking down Kadabra that's Thomas. I walk past Doctor Zuel and around the corner of the corridor before taking four Arrows of Unmaking out of subspace and pointing them at the side wall of Doctor Quinzel's office. Cut down the radius a little… Then stab them forwards. Four neat circles are cut through the wall causing the rest to crumble away.

"Ah'll kill ya'll anyway!" Thomas and Tuppence charge out of the gap, she slamming Kon into the wall behind us and he smashing his right fist into my chestplate.

"Thomas, calm down!" A one two combination to my construct faceplate fractures it and I send my helmet into subspace. "Thomas, it's me!"

"Whu-?" He pauses his fourth swing and takes a closer look at me. I know he hasn't seen me in this armour but weren't the glowing sigils a give away? "Paul?"

"No, the other Orange Lantern." He blinks in confusion. "Yes of course it's me!"

"Oh. Ah." He backs off a little, looking ever so slightly sheepish. "How ya'll been, man?"

"Hey, you think-" Kon's grabbed both of Tuppence's wrists and is holding them away but she's perfectly happy to knee him in the chest instead. "-you could call her off?"

And then a short blonde woman charges out and hits Donna with a giant mallet.

31st December
22:50 GMT -6

"Get-"

Poof!

The head of the hammer strikes her directly on the forehead but doesn't seem to-.

"-back-"

Poof!

Donna's too surprised to really react as the hammer comes around again. The texture doesn't-?

"-you ungrateful-."

Poof!

That's an inflatable hammer. Why would why would what?

Donna grabs hold of the head of the hammer as it comes around again. She squeezes and there's a bang as she pops the outer plastic. The head flattens almost immediately and Donna steps back and assumes a defensive posture, clearly a little behind events. Who the heck would attack..?

Oh.

Doctor Quinzel stares wide eyed and hyperventilating at Donna as her wilting novelty deflates to the ground. She's got her hair up in bunches and is wearing a red turtleneck pullover with a short black skirt and white lab coat. Why is she wearing a lab coat?

Thomas puts his right hand on her shoulder. "Doc, y'c'n knock it off. They're on our sahd." She keeps staring and starts to back away, tripping over the recumbent form of Zara and falling onto her bum. She tries to scrabble to her feet but one of her heels has snapped off and-. No, no, we have a mission.

I connect a filament to her and cover her in a flight aura, pulling her back towards me. "Doctor Quinzel, we're here to rescue you. Please try to calm down."

From her pupil dilation and storm of yellow within I'm going to guess that she isn't hearing me. Rings, reduce her adrenaline level to normal and slowly lower her heart rate.

Compliance. / Involuntary alteration of the vital processes of another life form is a violation-.

Stewart-ring, if I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it. Left ring has priority. Confirm command.

Command accepted.

Doctor Quinzel appears to calm down a little, her breathing slowing. She's still scared but she's actually aware of her environment now. Tuppence stopped attacking Kon while they both watched and now she pulls her arms out of his grip with a scowl.

"Feeling better, Doctor?"

A couple of deep breaths and she quickly checks herself over. "Ye-eah, I think so."

"Alright then." I lower her to the ground and she stumbles into Thomas, who catches hold of her to support her.

"Thomas, what the heck happened here?"

He shrugs. "Ah don' rightly know. Gaht woken up bah mah cell door openin'. Mah powers were workin' so ah figured someone wuz doin' a break out again, only this tahm there weren't no guards around an' tha blast doors weren't closin'. Ah wuz jus' gonna stay put 'til ah heard tha Doc screamin' fer help."

"Yeah, my hero. There were, like, twen'y guys and he was just like... Pow!" She throws a mock punch.

"I.. saw. Thomas, Tuppence, while I very much approve of what you've done you do understand that you're not going to be safe-."

And Tuppence is right up in my face. "If it weren't fer you fillin' mah brother's head with this stuff we could be halfway across tha state bah now!"

"They'd find you, Tuppence. It wouldn't even take that long."

"Our chances would be bettah out there than they are in here! Come on, Tommy. Orange boy gaht theus." She tries pulling on Thomas' right arm but he doesn't move.

He looks uncomfortably at me and then at her. "Uh, Tuppy? Ah don' think-."

She looks back at him and for a split second I see her aggression and anger at everything vanish from her face. Then the shields go back up. "Fiahn! You c'n go play with yer heero buddy. Ah'm gett'n gahwn while the goin's good."

I stride forwards and put my hand on her shoulder. "No, I'm fed up with this. You're going to tell me what your bloody problem with me is, right now!"

She shakes herself free. "What mah problem is!? You got tha last person you trahd t'help killed!"

I shake my head in incomprehension. "What?"

"My cellmate tole me! She took a shot fer that Martian girl last tahm this happened an' gaht froze to deyath!"

She thinks Jade's… That makes sense. "Your cellmate. This would be.. Crystal Frost."

"Yeah, an' she-!"

"The sociopathic, manipulative, lying, remorseless serial killer, Crystal Frost?" Who should never have been put in a cell with an emotionally vulnerable eighteen year old?

She calms down a little. "Whut you try'na say?"

"Jade isn't dead. She was badly frostbitten when we got back to the prison but still alive. I-" I raise the rings and cause them to glow a little brighter. "-healed her."

"Then where tha hell is she!?"

"The Gloria McDonald prison in Rhode Island. She spent a few days staying in medical because she wouldn't have been safe mixing with the general population and then Warden Waller was able to arrange the transfer."

She seems a little taken aback while Thomas smiles at her. "Ah tole you he wouldn' let that happen."

"Is that seriously why you haven't been willing to speak to me?"

"Prove it."

"What?"

"Prove that's whut happened."

"Um… Okay." I have the ring generate an image of how Jade was when she was in medical with Paula before I got to her. I show the injuries being healed and Jade sitting up. The next image is of me watching her being loaded onto a prison lorry and being driven away from Belle Reve. Another of her being driven into the arrivals area at Gloria McDonald. A fourth of her working in their kitchens, which she's pretty much taken over now since the League of Shadows did cookery tuition as part of their physical discipline program. She's made them go all vegetarian but good veg is so much cheaper than poor meat that there haven't been many complaints. Another of her doing the Tai Chi class. "Happy?"

"You could just've made awl thayt up."

"I'm not flying you there to check in person, she's probably in bed. Tuppence, you've got seven years and four months in here to look forward to. If you run, they will add to it. If you help me, I'll see what I can do about getting it reduced. Is that a deal you are interested in?"

"How much reduced?"

That didn't take long. "I'll ask Warden Waller. I can't promise anything and we can't hang about. Doctor Quinzel, do you know how many other members of staff were still on site?"

She shakes her head. "No, no, I was just… I think I saw two of the guys bein' carried off…"

"Right. We can't let you run for it because the whole region is teeming with escaped supervillains. There's nowhere safe in here because: supervillains. You'll have to come with us. Thomas, we're heading for Kadabra's cell next-."

"Hey! Ah ain't said ah'm helpin' yew!"

I look at Tuppence. "Then.. don't. I'm not going to keep arguing with you about this. Stay, or leave." She looks like she wants to tear me in half, but one more shared look with her brother appears to convince her. She gives a slight and very grudging nod. "Right then. Superboy, lead the way."

Earth -14
Lunar Watchtower
1st January
04:51 GMT

"…Mayhem, B zero five."

And that's everyone. I take a moment to look at the still form of the late and probably unlamented Emperor Rickard. Really, I'm more than a little surprised that he's been the first man I've murdered since coming here. I don't feel bad about it exactly, just… Hollow would be the word I suppose. It should be a big deal but the emotion I might have expected just isn't materialising. Still, with him dead…

"Ambient hope detected. Charging. Charge: two percent."

I clench my right fist around the ring. Just what I wanted to hear. On the other side of the room the first squad of US Space Marines takes aim at me from just inside the hole in the wall. "Freeze!" I give a jaunty wave as I step backwards into the zeta tube.

"Recognised, Power Ring, Made Man of Ultraman."

Earth -14
Happy Mountain
31st December
23:52 GMT -5

"Recognized, Power Ring, Made Man of Ultraman."

“…you possibly think that went well!?” And as usual Talon's the one starting the argument. Not that the others look much happier. “It's barely been three months and we already lost one member of the new Management!”

Before the Decapitation Jonathan would have put Mister Todd in his place immediately. But since we confirmed Ultraman's death he's become much less incisive than he used to be. Still, he's only six months old and the whole reason the Syndicate put me here was to keep adolescent tempers in check. "Talon, that fight went as well as it could."

Talon's eyes narrow at me while Mary Mayhem sneers. "Went well? The only one who died was on our side!"

I look down and shake my head sadly. "He was taken prisoner by our enemies. Realistically speaking, the chance of us-."

Talon takes a step towards me. "And how exactly-?"

"That's enough." Jonathan -his Ultraboy persona fully in place- takes a moment to make eye contact with each member of the group, myself included. "I ain't exactly happy about where we are either, but Power Ring's right. That was the best way it coulda gone down. Guys, we nearly had a repeat of the Decapitation on our hands. Have you all forgotten what that was like? The Management gone, President Slade's people everywhere and all those stupid pointless turf wars as Made Men who shoulda known better tried carving out their own little slices of nothing?" His eyes do another tour and I'm not the only one nodding. That.. was not fun.

"That. Did not. Happen. Today. And the reason it didn't happen today, the reason every Made Man out there owes us, is because we stepped up. The Emperor died. It happens." He looks at Zorina. "But Doctor Chaos?" Talon. "The Answer?" At me. "Capo Scott?" At Lamprey. "Barracuda? They're still here, not mind controlled, not luring the rest of the Syndicate into a trap. Things could have gone a lot worse.”

Jackie Quick shakes his head. “Should have gone better.”

“It should have.” Lamprey agreed. “However, we have foiled the Justice Underground's plot to destroy us today. We blinded the Mirror Man, broke the Clock Knight's arms, purged the 'miraculous vitamin' from Paladín's system, and forced Newcastle Black to order a retreat. Our temporary weakness has made the Justice Underground bold of late. It will be some time before they are so bold again.”

Ambient hope detected. Charging. Charge: three percent.

Thank you, Lamprey.

“And that calls for a celebration!” Arrowette cheers. “Power Ring! Go buy us something that'd get a Kryptonian drunk! I wanna do shots off Jackie's abs!”

Oh, the joy of babysitting delinquents. “I'm sorry Arrowette, but this ring's still out of power.” Bloody Emperor Rickard. I gesture to the faintly glowing blue ring on my right ring finger. "I don't even have enough power to fly at the moment. Why don't-?"

"Hey, no worries babe. I got this." Jackie pulls Arrowette close and the two of them lock lips more passionately and for longer than I'm really comfortable watching. After a good fifteen seconds he pulls away, looking inordinately pleased with himself. "I'll knock someplace over and be back before you know it." A rush of displaced air and he zooms off in the direction of the surface exit.

M'gavv converts her right arm into a tentacle and winds it around Jonathan's body, pulling him in the direction of the zeta tube. He grins and allows himself to be dragged along after her. "Hey, don't you guys wait up for us, alright?"

"Recognised, Ultraboy, B zero one, Mistress Martian, B zero three."

"Hey Zorina?" Arrowette's taken hold of a mildly irritated Mary's hand and pulled her over to Zorina and Mister Todd. "Can you take us to the kitchen real quick?"

Zorina frowns for a moment before raising her hands to chest height. "Tropsnart eht ruof fo su ot eht nehctik."

They disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving me in the training room. I do not like the sound of that.

"I believe that I will head out as well." I look around as Lamprey walks towards the other zeta tube. "Tritonians do not celebrate New Year at this time of the year and I wish to consult with my shogun."

"I'll pass that on. Try to relax, though. That was a major mission the team went through."

He nods politely and then walks into the tube.

"Recognised, Lamprey, B zero eight."

And now I'm rushing to the kitchens. I've tried using the nanotech I took off Mister Pocus to monitor the whole of the Mountain but it just doesn't have the longevity. Not to mention that the team find it irritating. I make it to the corridor immediately adjoining the lounge area before I can clearly hear their voices. Time to eavesdrop.

“…a rather stimulating form of magic that allows a person to divine their next year's fortune in a New Year's kiss?” Zorina sighs. “What is it that has you so wound up?”

“I'm telling you, he's up to something!” Arrowette's voice is quiet, barely above a whisper.

“We're all up to something, Arrowette. We're supervillains.” I know Zorina's got my back, but if the rest are concerned enough to openly complain about my conduct this could get very nasty.

“But he's up to something… Something heroic!” Arrowette growls. “You know he was there when Emperor Rickard died! I bet he's working with the Justice Underground! He's infiltrated our ranks, and now he's taking us out one by one!”

I hear a sigh. “Arrowette, that's just paranoid.”

"Hey babe." I hear a jangle as Jackie puts some bottles down on the kitchen table. If I have to clean up their vomit again…

“Hey. Look, I know how deep cover operations go. When did he ever steal something he didn't have to? When has he seriously hurt someone?”

“That's.. just.. the way he operates. He's polite, and organized, and different from the rest of us. That helps him pull off jobs any one of us would have trouble with, even if we had power rings. We all have virtues. His is keeping things quiet.”

“I bet he's listening in right now.” Oh, that's not-. The corridor blurs and oh fiddlesticks I'm handcuffed to a chair, a smug looking Jackie smiling down at me. “See?” Arrowette gestures to me. “I told you! He was spying on us!”

“Ah…” As I fumble around for any sort of excuse. Nanotech caches in my armour can eat through the metal easily enough but I need to talk my way out of this one. Mary, Mister Todd and Arrowette are glaring at me while Jackie is more interested in lining up shot glasses.

“Ah.” Zorina gives a small sigh. “I suppose you may have a point. Arrowette, Talon, Mary, Jackie? Peels.” The four of them collapse to the floor. She glances at the corner of the room, then at me. “After Father warded the place, I can't affect the cameras anymore.”

“I'll deal with it.” Editing the recording isn't exactly hard with a power ring. I rattle my handcuffs. "Would you mind?"

She looks at me levelly. “No, you can stay there for now. Llet em eht hturt.”

I feel the compulsion take hold. How much leeway is there? "Of course."

“Are you an agent of the Justice Underground?”

“No." What's she doing? “I have.. approached a few of them, tried to establish some sort of dialogue. But, at best we're acquaintances. Not friends. I've never given them any information they could use against the Syndicate." I roll my right shoulder, remembering what happened when I tried to set up a meeting with Sir Solomon. "Most of them are too fanatical to give me the time of day anyway.”

Zorina taps her chin. “Were you responsible for today's attack?”

“No.”

“Did you know it was coming?”

“No.”

“But you did take advantage of it to kill Emperor Rickard?”

Agh. “Yes. Killing the Emperor completed the mission. Even if all the other Heads were killed, without him the empathic network would have been useless.”

Her eyes narrow slightly. "And the fact that his hope manipulation nullified your power ring?"

"It was a factor, but if he'd been reliably on our side I wouldn't have killed him." She nods solemnly. "You don't exactly seem broken up about it."

"Emperor Rickard wanted to do away with the oligarchical meritocracy that gives the Syndicate its stability. The very system we've built our power on." She shakes her head in frustration. "Honestly. A few problems with the White House and they go crying to the first political strong man who offers to take care of their problems for them. No. If being in his presence was enough to drain your power ring's energy I hate to imagine what the world he would have created would be like."

"You don't seem all that surprised about it either."

She smiles. “This happens sometimes. Two of our own have goals that don't align. We usually solve disputes like that rationally, but sometimes it comes to blows and when that happens you choose what side you're on. When Owlman and Superwoman decided to blow up the world, the rest of the Syndicate fought against them. When Doctor Chaos took over my father… Well. The Syndicate made its choice." She looks at me curiously. "What do you think about that situation?"

"Doctor Chaos may be powerful, but he's causing more trouble than he's worth. I also don't think Boss Giovanni fully appreciated what he was letting himself in for when he put the Helmet on."

She eyes me suspiciously. "Alan Scott didn't seem to have a problem with it."

"Alan's… Practical. Doctor Chaos is what he has to work with."

Her eyebrows raise. "And if that were to change?"

"As I said, practical."

“Hmm.” She paces a short distance across the room and then turns back to me. "Then getting rid of Doctor Chaos serves both our interests. You get your less aggressive Syndicate… And I get my father back."

Possibly interesting. "True…"

"Then start being open with me. You disappeared for several minutes. It can't have just been to kill the Emperor."

No compulsion. She made a statement rather than asking a question. "I.. tried to access the Syndicate's secure database. I'll need time to go through it before I'll know whether I got anything useful or not."

"Clever. And not something any of the others thought about."

"I think they assume that Talon's got it all anyway."

"As if Owlman ever trusted anyone with anything." She kneels over Jackie Quick. “Ekaw pu, tegrof touba siht… Dna hctef azzip. Morf Silopaennim." He groggily pushes himself to his feet and zooms away.

"Can I get up now?"

“No.” Zorina places her hands on the sides of Arrowette's head. “Tegrof ruoy snuoicipsus fo Rewop Gnir.” Whaw. I know Boss Giovanni sometimes altered people's minds a la Identity Crisis, but I didn't know Zorina would be willing to cast a spell like that on her best friend.

She looks up. “Just to be clear, I never make decisions lightly. If you fail to live up to my expectations? If you betray me? Then Zauriel the Fallen will let you live just long enough to be very, very sorry about it.”

Ah, threats I've grown used to. “I understand. Don't worry, I'm committed.”

“I hope you are.” Her gaze softens slightly and she walks back over to me. Hopefully with a key for the handcuffs. "Now, seeing as we're going to be spending a great deal of time working together on this, I think a little prescience is in order."

"Um, alright? What do you need me-?" She sits down on my lap, placing her arms on my shoulders. "Um?"

A clock appears on the sideboard, showing us flip over into the new year. "Happy New Year Young Offenders."

"Just in time."

31st December
22:56 GMT -6

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman?" Donna glances down at me from the second level as I listen to the silence. No, nothing. Not sure if she's busy or if whatever magic's running through this place is blocking me. Stewart's ring provides me with the designs for four different forms of communication system that would probably bypass it, but they all need receiver stations. Oh, so that's what a Bleed Fracture-Pulse receiver really looks like. I wasn't even sure that was a thing…

"This here's his cell, but Abra's lowg gawn." Thomas gestures and the cell is indeed empty. "Kind'a a shame. You know he'd bin tutorin' me?"

"I think you mentioned it." Of course, the fact that we can't see him doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't there. Kon and Donna are making a quick visual inspection of the other cells just in case someone's done something clever while Tuppence glowers at my back with her arms crossed. The heavy machinegun that's usually on overwatch over this cellblock has been removed -neatly- and the guard post is abandoned. That gun could hurt Thomas and Tuppence, maybe seriously with sustained fire or if the shooter got lucky. I start flicking through Stewart's ring's armour designs as I scan Kadabra's cell. Hm. I put my right hand into the apparent opening between the bars at the front of the cell and the open door. The illusion ripples, and for a moment I see the real door, firmly closed.

Thomas' eyes widen as he sees it too. "Hay! I thought all'a his gear got confiscated!"

"Abra Kadabra is a very clever and cunning man." Rings, scan… Ooh, I have new scanning options! I don't even know what some of that stuff is! "His unusual abilities come from technology from the future-."

"That was trew?" Doctor Quinzel shrinks back as we look at her. "When he said that in one of our sessions I thawt it was just, y'know, self aggrandisement or somethin'."

"No, he genuinely comes from the future. Rings, decloak." Orange light strobes out and covers the cell interior. The device obscuring the cell door fails first, revealing the firmly locked cell door which I open with a filament. Inside the centre of the cell itself a shadowy humanoid outline appears, flickering in black as the rings detect the tiny space-time distortions Kadabra's phase cloak generates. The spectral form appears to look in my direction and then gradually becomes more and more real as Kadabra precipitates out of the air.

He takes a moment to get his breath back and then nods at me. "I hoped it would be you. I was a little worried one of Kobra's people might notice my.. hiding place."

"Mister Kadabra, do you have a better idea about what's going on than we do?"

"Probably. Kobra's been making.. converts-" His lip curls. "-ever since he got here. Once Waller left he became even more brazen about it." He shakes his head. "I've got data infections throughout the prison but my implants are still off. They can transmit but I can't receive."

Thomas frowns. "Power supresser's nawt workin' no more."

"My implants run on conventional thirty ninth century technology, not 'super powers'. Orange Lantern deactivated them after my sentencing."

I take his wand out of my subspace pocket and let it float in front of me. "Do I need to make clear what will happen if you cross me on this?"

His eyes flick between the wand and my face. "No, you were quite clear when we spoke in Central City."

"Right then." I extend my left palm towards him. "Ring, reactivate Mister Kadabra's implants."

"Compliance."

Another strobe, this time focused on his head. He recoils only slightly, then unfocuses his eyes and blinks heavily as the implants remesh with his organic brain. Nervously, he holds out his right hand and I relinquish control of his wand, which leaps into his hand. He risks a narrow smile before changing his stance to that of a stage magician. "And for my first trick?" He taps the wand against the air over his own head and a quick blast of ionised vapour later he's back in his open collared shirt and black trousers.

"Wouldn't armour be more sensible?"

"My clothes are reinforced with carbon nanotubes and-" Another wand wave and they get a little shinier. "-a personal force field."

"Right, what can you tell us?"

"Kobra and his old followers have occupied Warden Strange's office. They've also looted the armoury. The rest of the guards are being held in the women's mess hall, except…" He trails off.

"Yes?"

He shakes his head. "It's a little hard to tell which are alive and which are dead. How is it that you can't simply scan them yourself?"

"Some sort of ward. I'm assuming it's Mister Burr's doing, though I don't suppose it really matters." I look at him for a moment. "Mister Kadabra, are you willing to assist us?" He visibly cringes. "I'm not.. demanding. If you want to just stay in your cell, that's fine. However, if you agree to help, I'll leave your implant's data store active and load up a copy of An Introduction to Basic Thaumaturgy before I go. Sound fair?"

From the way the orange and blue lights in his soul are churning I'd say that it's all he can do to prevent himself from whooping for joy. His facial expression on the other hand barely shifts from polite curiosity. "That…" He nods. "Is a fair offer." I step back from the door as he walks out.

"Then c'n we go already?" Tuppence makes a gesture of appeal as Donna and Kon drop down to our level.

Kon shakes his head. "No one hiding up there." He looks over Mister Kadabra and then turns to me with his eyebrows raised. "Wait, Kadabra too?"

"I'm receiving compensation for my services. Now." He holds his wand's pointy end up and moves it in a circle, creating a holographic map of the prison. "We're here-" A blue dot in the male cells. "-Lord 'Snake Snake' is here-" A green dot. "-and the remaining guards are here." A red dot.

Donna looks at the image. "Can you tell if Warden Strange is there as well?"

Mister Kadabra shakes his head. "There was limited space for facial recognition programming and at the time I didn't think the prison psychiatrist was worth recognising."

"Do you think Strange could have been involved with this?"

"Hey!" Doctor Quinzel pokes me in the chest. "Don't stawt blamin' the victim for this! I'm sheuwer Doc Strange was just as surprised as everyone else."

"Someone knew it was going to happen." Kadabra waves the wand again and expands the canteen. The hologram shows people but doesn't give any definition. I'm guessing that the ones sitting down with armed people around them are the guards and that the ones not identified as having weapons have combat usable superpowers but I'm not going to assume anything. "Belle Reve has a minimum of forty six guards on duty at any one time, as well as the Warden and support staff. From the look of it they've only got eleven prisoners in there."

Her eyes widen. "You don't think they killed them awul?"

"No, there aren't enough bodies. Even counting the ones by the prison gym-."

"Those were inmates-."

Thomas looks horrified. "They weren't dead when ah left!"

"They're lying on the ground and not moving."

"They're not dead, I checked on the way through." I take a copy of the hologram into the rings, just in case. "First priority is freeing the guards. Second is getting them to safety."

Kon nods. "Then we go after Kobra?"

I shake my head. "Why? He's already in prison and it doesn't look like he wants to go anywhere. No, after that we contact Wonder Woman and ask where she wants us. If the escapees are running rampant she'll probably want us out there rather than in here. Right. We need a better idea about who's in there and I'm pretty sure we'd all be recognised. Mister Kadabra, how exactly does your communications implant work?"

31st December
23:02 GMT -6

I don't suck at stealth quite as badly as I used to. With power armour I don't feel the same need to have my environmental shield on and with the flight belt I don't need to glow in order to fly. The Kobra affiliated prisoners were intelligent enough to have someone on guard duty but Otto Fisher doesn't appear to be the most alert fellow. It's a little surprising that he's involved, actually. His psychological profile suggests that aside from a desire to get revenge on Lantern Jordan for something he didn't actually do Mister Fisher's supposed to be reasonably together, mentally speaking. I wouldn't trust Strange's report but it's been confirmed by both the police psychologist who was called in to look at him when the police saw that costume and by Doctor Quinzel. What I can see in his soul rather backs that up: none of the weird orange, yellow and violet mix associated with a devoted follower. If anything I'd say that he doesn't want to be involved at all.

Happy to oblige. I use filaments to check that no one is in line of sight -optical scans as I'm still having trouble with more advanced stuff- extend a sound nullifying zone around him and hoik him into the air. He drops his gun in shock as he rises into the air but I catch it with another filament before it can hit the ground. Just a shotgun. Hmm.

He takes a moment to take in my armour -particularly the sigil emblazoned on the front- and appears to calm down. In fact he looks almost.. relieved. Ring, two way communication is authorised.

Compliance.

"Good morning Mister Fisher."

"Are you here with the Justice League? Is it finally over?"

"I work for the League, certainly. I'm surprised that you're happy about us being here."

"Are you kidding?" His hands go to his face. "I didn't want anything to do with the crazy snake heads, but when the guards disappeared I didn't have a choice!"

"You could have fled the prison."

"I've got a parole board hearing in a couple of months. My lawyer says I've got…" His head droops a little. "I had a good chance to get out of here, try to put my life back together. I don't want to escape at all but if I tried just staying in my cell they'd have killed me!"

"Alright then, I'll make you a deal. You help me, and I talk to the authorities about not counting this against you."

He stares at me for a moment before nodding. "What do you need?"

"Aside from the cafeteria, are they keeping guards anywhere else?"

"I don't… I don't think so? Kobra took Strange with him and… Oh God."

"Mister Fisher?"

"I think… I think they killed a couple of them. I-I overheard one of the cultists saying something about rounding up all the guards but.. the number they said they had… It was two more than the number they brought into the food hall."

Looks like they did a ritual after all. "How many inmates are there in the cafeteria?"

"Fifteen." Matches Kadabra's scan. "Only five real cultists and ten other guys."

"Any of them have superpowers?"

"Some of the cultists have this drug, makes them stronger and faster. I think one of the other prisoners can control magnetic fields, but… You're a Lantern, right?" I nod. "I tried fighting Green Lantern once. I don't think any of them except Dillon would really be a threat to you."

Roscoe Dillon, aka The Fucking Top. Wonderful, a telepathic speedster. A mental case telepathic speedster. Better here than in Houma I suppose. What do I know about him? His range for hearing what someone's thinking is supposed to be point blank only. On the other hand I seem to remember him reprogramming people's brains in the comics and.. I don't think I'm that resilient. "Thank you for the information. One last thing for you to do."

"You don't want me to.. fight them, do you? I-I'm just a circus performer."

"No, of course not. What I need you to do is walk through the cafeteria doors."

He looks at me for a moment. "That's it?"

"They've done something that makes it impossible for me to scan through the prison's walls and doors. As soon as the door's open I'll be able to get an accurate scan of what's going on inside and I'll be able to protect the prison guards."

"C-can't you just charge in yourself?"

"If they didn't have a speedster, maybe. But if I went in there without knowing what was inside I'd risk someone being faster on the trigger than I am with a power ring. There's nothing here I can't beat-" Probably. That the six of us can't beat, certainly. "-in a fight but I can't risk the hostages like that."

"And.. you'd be protecting me too, right?"

"Of course. From what I can tell you're genuine about wanting a new start. That makes you a very rare and valuable commodity in a place like Belle Reve. Here." His prison overalls expand slightly. "Body armour. Should protect you against small arms fire."

"One of the Kobra's’ got a machine gun."

"You'll only be exposed for a second or two. When I say 'now', drop to the floor. It shouldn't take long, I'll be shielding you and they won't be aiming at you. Heh, that's why we wear these symbols on our chests: so we make better targets."

"Okay… Just walk in then get down?" I nod. "Okay. I c.. I can do that."

"I'm going to put you down now-."

"And you'll put in a good word with the parole board?"

"Of course. Look, you do realise… It wasn't Green Lantern, right? He didn't kill her. Even if he'd wanted to his ring wouldn't let-."

"I know." He squeezes his eyes shut. "I know." He opens them again. "After she died I just wanted someone to blame. Someone I could lash out at and hurt. That.. new Doctor? Quinzel? Strange just wanted me to keep going on and on about what it was like when it happened, but she's… She's really helped me put the whole thing in perspective." He looks at the floor. "Okay, okay, let me down. Let's do this."

I check the corridors once again. No one's come looking for him. I lower him gently to the ground and hand him back the shotgun. "One moment." I raise the left ring to my ear. "Everyone ready?"

"We're all ready over here." Kadabra's with Kon, Thomas and Tuppence, ready to come in on the far side. Radios would be a risk but the ring can communicate directly with Kadabra's implanted quantum entanglement communicator. There are guards outside the door on their side so I'm going to assume that there are on this side as well. I'm going to have to use accelerated perception and I.. I just don't like that function. Even if it doesn't hurt anymore. Especially as it doesn't hurt anymore. I glance around and see Donna nod at me.

"I'll transmit an image of the room's interior as soon as I have it, but you're pretty much going to have to dive in right away." I take a few vertigo inducers out of subspace. That should put paid to organised resistance. "Mister Fisher? You're up."

31st December
23:08 GMT -6

I watch via an optic filament as Mister Fisher strolls past the inmates on guard duty with barely a murmur. The rougher looking one slaps him on the shoulder but it's just an automatic attempt at intimidation and not an indication of suspicion. I wince as he nearly looks in my direction, a near invisible filament waiting next to him for him to open the door. I tried just shoving it through the doors but it started fading away as I sent it towards the gap. Need to get Sephtian to take a look at the arrangement Mister Burr used to pull this off. If it was actually him.

Mister Fisher checks the safety on his shotgun before pushing through the door.

Accelerated perception. Scan.

A triple barrelled rotary cannon from the cellblock has been set up on the serving counter. It's manned by inmates wearing Kobra hoods. Were those sent in, or did they run them up themselves? The tables were screwed into the floor but the ferrokinetic inmate is hard at work undoing the bolts and shoving them to the sides of the room. Some of the prisoners have dragged a couple of the liberated tables over to the wall mounted television and seven of them are sitting, watching nationwide New Year celebrations. The other inmates are standing in armed huddles around the prison staff but I note that with one exception they're staying away from the Kobra clique. Mister Dillon appears to have no such reservation, though it looks like the cultists would rather that he did. The guards and.. looks like a caretaker or cleaner? It doesn't look like any of them are critically injured, though I can see blood on more than a few uniforms. Five cameras mounted on the walls that will need to go first.

I'm transmitting the layout of the room to Kadabra even as I attach filaments to the guards outside the door, ShockCrown and gas them and start lowering them gently to the ground. I'm not sure exactly how fast I'm thinking now but in the brief moment between them losing control of their legs and them starting to fall it felt like they were going very slowly. My eyes… My eyes are dragging as I try to turn them to look at my first two targets. Even closing them so that I can focus better on the input from the rings is too slow. Ignore it. Can't transition into the room because Dillon might react faster than me. Plot flight path. Filaments in position to shield.

"Down!"

Mister Fisher starts to duck. There's no noticeable reaction from any of the inmates but Dillon's glanced around! Execute! The ring tells me that I'll be through the doors in little over a second but it still feels like I'm drifting like a dandelion spore in a breeze. Mini railgun rounds destroy cameras, construct armour coats Mister Fisher and a shield bubble appears around the prison staff. That provokes a reaction. Eyes widen, people start to turn and the guard on the turret starts to swing it towards my door.

And Dillon grins. He hasn't slowed down at all.

I drop a vertigo inducer near each inmate concentration even as the prison-orange blur he's becoming starts to pirouette across the room. Shots are fired as fingers clamp down on unsafed triggers in shock. Two rifle rounds and a smattering of shotgun pellets are absorbed by the shield around the prison staff as the inmates start to fall, hands clasped over their ears. The doors on the far side explode inwards as Kon and Thomas throw themselves inwards at full speed while behind them I see Tuppence punch out one inmate and a flash of blue-white as Kadabra electrocutes another.

Mister Dillon twists sideways in the air as he reaches Mister Fisher, grabs hold of his ankle and throws him up at me! I try catching him with a construct but he's got far more kinetic force than he should have! I'm sent backwards in the air as Kon flies at Dillon and Thomas heads for the rotary turret. I won't hit the wall for a few subjective seconds so I take the time to ShockCrown the more active looking inmates, Mister Plazchek especially as he gets it together enough to send a table flying into Kon. Kon smashes it aside without slowing as Mister Plazchek goes limp.

I feel the pressure as my back hits the wall but the construct armour can easily take it. Kon swings his right fist at the space occupied by Mister Dillon only for Dillon to spin aside and… Somehow he just accelerated Kon into the cafeteria floor. He didn't even touch him! Thomas' earplugs appear to be working as he crumples the rotary cannon and grabs as many of the guns on the floor as he can. Making sure to keep Tuppence between him and any potential attacker Kadabra fires nerve janglers at the disorientated inmates. Kon doesn't bother getting to his feet but instead flies at Dillon from his prone position and tries to grapple. Another spinning sidestep from Dillon and Kon is launched across the room into Tuppence. They both hit the wall and go down.

I push Mister Fisher towards the ground and try surrounding Mister Dillon with a filament cage, Lantern Kreon style. Try spinning your way out of-! Oh. The filaments reach his blurred form and bend away. I try to bring them back around only for him to dance aside, deflecting faster than I can correct. I try spraying gas at him but his demented spinning forms air currents too strong to let it settle around him.

Then Donna dives past me and takes his legs out. He spins laterally on his axis seven times at super speed before landing on the floor on his back. "Guh!" Donna lunges down at him, aiming for his diaphragm with her fists. Dillon manages to half push himself up and turns slightly, the space around him bending in response to his motion. Donna's lunge misses but she sticks out her leg as she goes past, knocking him flying towards the serving counter- "Aagh!" -and.. yep, that's a broken hip. Thomas hauls him up by his jumpsuit collar before he can do anything else and bear hugs him. Dillon shimmers as he tries to shake his way free but his distraction and relative stillness allow me to stick two Tesla coil constructs to either side of his head and shock him. "Yeahghghgh!" He jerks in Thomas' arms and then flops so I turn it off in order to ShockCrown and gas him properly.

Thomas releases his hold and Dillon collapses to the floor as the vertigo inducers cut out. A couple of the inmates near the prison staff try reaching for their weapons only to find Tuppence standing over them. She folds her arms across her chest and shakes her head. They get the message. Okay, now I need to start slowing down…

"Naga Naga!" Two of the cultists try jumping Thomas but I intercept them with Badger constructs, pinning them to the wall before ShockCrowning… Oh, right, Americans. Probably don't know what a Badger even is.

Another cultist tries attacking Thomas, only for him to stick out his right arm and catch hold of her by the front of her robe, lifting her off her feet. "What you try'an t'do? Ah got super strength."

"Welcome to my world." I ShockCrown and gas her before dumping her with the others. Would there be some sort of call in system? The other two cultists seem a little more hesitant. I send filaments to their foreheads and apply brands to them as Kon and Tuppence shove the inmates who have retained motor control over to one side. Mister Fisher gets up and goes to stand near Thomas. "Gentlemen, you really want to tell me what Mister Burr has going on."

Their eyes and brands glow orange as they hear in my words the ultimate purpose of their existences. Too much power? "Lord Kobra ordered us to-." / "We are to hold the infidels-."

"One at a time. You." I point to the one on my left. "Is he expecting you to call in?"

"Radio contact every five minutes." He pulls a guard walkie-talkie out from under his robes and holds it out to me, a mildly deranged grin on his face.

"No, you keep it. Your job is now to confirm that everything is fine here." I pause for a moment, considering what I just said. "In accordance with how he wants it to be, not how it is."

"I can do that, no problem at all!" He clutches the device to his face, fingers hovering over the activation button. I let him go and he crouches down next to the serving counter, staring at the walkie-talkie, utterly enthralled by the possibility of needing to use it.

I wonder if there's a way to make branded people less obviously mental?

"Hey." One of the guards… It's Bendemann! Kind of nice to know that he.. probably wasn't anything to do with this. He's knocking on the inside of the shield bubble. "We got injured here. You going to let us out of this any time soon?"

Donna and Kon look at me. We could, but we still don't really know how this happened. If it was an inside job… Nothing obvious in their souls to suggest they had anything to do with it. Damn, having M'gann here right now would be useful. "I'm sorry Deputy Assistant Warden, but I don't think that's a good idea." His face tightens. "This was clearly an inside job to at least some extent. I'd like to be able to trust you and your people but I can't. Not until you've been properly questioned and I just don't have time to do that now."

"You're trusting Kadabra and the Terrors more than us?"

"I know them. I know what motivates them and I'm bribing them. I don't really know you, not well enough."

He thinks for a moment before nodding. "I… I'm not happy about it, but I suppose it makes sense."

"We'll treat the injured, but until Warden Waller or the Louisiana State Militia people get here I can't risk that some of you are working for the bad guys."

"So what do you plan on doing with us in the meanwhile?"

31st December
23:16 GMT -6

More than a few of the guards are glaring at me as I close the last cell door. The rest are too busy staring at the Praexis Demons hovering in the air in the middle of the cellblock. Hopefully this will only be for an hour or so. Didn't Lord Vetinari say something about never building a prison you'd mind spending time in yourself? The various inmates we've rounded up are in the cells on the lower level while the guards, caretaker, Doctor Quinzel and Mister Fisher are on the upper level directly above them. I treated broken bones, serious cuts, burns and concussions with the ring and Kon fetched a couple of first aid kits. They'll just have to put up with the rest.

I only have ten power suppression collars in subspace and they all lack the Belle Reve shock feature. I put them around the necks of the most dangerous metahuman inmates and then put those inmates in cells on their own at least one empty cell away from anyone who might be able to help pull the collars off or break them. They're also gassed, though that won't keep them out indefinitely. In fact, even with this formulation it would be rather dangerous to try.

I fly up and over the railing and down towards the control room where the others are waiting. Neither Donna nor Kon are particularly happy about this course of action, though they appear to accept my justification. Tuppence on the other hand is struggling to contain her mirth, though she does appear to be trying to lurk out of sight. Pointless as far as concealing the fact that she helped us is concerned; they clearly saw her and the gas doesn't harm long term memory. Hang up over ingroup betrayal guilt? Thomas doesn't seem to care much either way.

And 'Chief Trustee' Kadabra's too busy to have an opinion. I'll leave the Praexis Demons on guard duty but I'm not confident that they'll work for low lethality suppression if I'm not here to direct them individually. Their instinctive mode of attack is to try to eat their target and they aren't intelligent enough to understand an instruction to do something else instead. I'd trust Teekl to keep them in line but she's still in Poseidonis.

"I conjure ye anew."

I'm still a little worried that if I gave him anything significant he'd leg it.

"Constrained and commanded by my seal and by this wand of artifice."

But by combining his existing knowledge of plasma physics and his wand's electron induction capacity-

"Flesh of plasma!"

-and the most basic lightning elemental summoning rite I could find in the books Mister Nelson gave me-

"Nerves of lightning!"

-we should be able to get some easily controlled help. The simple summoning circle sketched out with a circuit pen is glowing brilliantly and Kadabra's soul is a vibrant orange and blue combination.

"Heed my command and come forth!"

The gathered electrical energy funnels up from the design towards the centre of the design before shooting up to a point about a metre and a half above the ground.

"Come forth!"

A glowing ball of purple gas contains the roiling electrical charge, its outline slowly expanding.

"I command you to come forth!"

The ball bursts, electrical energy and purple gas surge out to fill an invisible outline. What I can see of its head is vaguely frog like, hanging down slightly from the plasma ball located where its arms and neck attach to its spine. The arms are long and thin, terminating in three fingered hands that trail on the ground, tiny sparks jumping up to them from the summoning circle below it. The spine trails away into a thin tail which curves down and then out behind it. Radiating out from the back wisps of plasma suggest the formation of wings. The purple gasses making up its body shift like clouds around the crackling electricity but the magnetic fields and magic prevent them from simply floating away.

Kadabra stares up at his creation in wonder. "I did it."

"Congratulations. Earth's first Plasma Elemental."

"I…." He tears his eyes away for a moment to make eye contact with me. "It worked." His eyes grow vacant as he consults the data in his quantum wafer. "But it isn't a Plasma Elemental, it's a Lightning Elemental binding a plasma field. A true Plasma Elemental would be far stronger."

"Are yew done yet?" Tuppence clearly isn't impressed. "We got things t'dew."

Kadabra returns his attention to the Elemental and raises his wand high. A thick electrical discharge leaps from the tip to the Elemental's head. Its eyes brighten slightly and then it flows through the air and the reinforced glass into the lower part of the cell block.

Yeah. No one's going to go anywhere now.

"Heh. Heh. Heh." Kadabra leans against the wall, breathing hard and still unable to take his eyes off it.

"Yew want a paper bag t' breathe in or somethang?"

"You have no idea."

"Alright, show's over. Kadabra-."

"Abra." He looks around and shrugs. "You may as well use my first name."

"Alright, Abra. Stay here and keep watch." I recall a couple of Praexis Demons to watch his back. "I don't think you'll get any trouble but don't hesitate to administer a few electric shocks if you do. Everyone else, our target is the laundry and what is probably the ritual site. As far as we know the only people left on Mister Burr's side are hardcore Kobra cultists. They have plasma weapons, at least one magic user, some sort of combat drug and they've somehow destroyed Abra's data infections in that part of the prison. At this point I'm assuming they know that someone's in the prison but they shouldn't know who we are. The only hostage they've got is Professor Strange."

"It's him though, ain't it? The one who set alla this urp?" Thomas shrugs. "'Else, why they keepin' him away from tha rest a' them?"

"Could be a power thing for Mister Burr, wanting to be seen to be in control of the man who was running Belle Reve. Or you could be right. If we run into them our new top priority becomes keeping him alive and getting him away safely. We can always have one of the Martians probe his mind afterwards." I generate a construct image of the laundry room. Strange gave me a tour during one of my previous visits and I doubt the Kobra people have bothered lugging heavy machinery around to change the layout. "Two internal entrances, one from the guard side and another from the prison side. Before they were destroyed, Abra's devices showed what were probably two corpses here, just next to the workshop area. That's probably the focal point for the ritual and I'll be targeting it as soon as we get inside. Thomas, please lead the way."

He nods and heads out of the door. "Hey, how come ah don't get no code name?"

"Because you don't have a secret identity."

"Neither do you. Yer name's Pawl. Y'all bin tellin' anyone who asks."

Kon, Donna and Tuppence all smirk. Then Tuppence spots that Donna's smirking and stops, scowling.

"I'm referred to as Orange Lantern because I'm a member of the Orange Lantern Corps." Thomas stops at the first door and looks at me. Since they're bound to know that we're here I don't have much of a reason not to use indirect scanning techniques any more. I generate four ultrasound constructs and hold them up to the door. Within a centimetre of it they start getting disrupted so I pull back a little and fire a quick burst. Sound return says nothing unexpected on the far side. I nod and he pushes it open. "What would you want to be called, anyway?"

Tuppence tosses her head. "Ah liked 'Terror' jus' fiahn."

"Try not to say that to Waller when she gets here."

Thomas reaches a turn and stops. "Uh?" On the ground blocking our route is a glowing white line with a shimmering translucent barrier projecting upwards. On the far side I see 'Reject the Unworthy' written in Devanagari script.

"How far do we have to go?"

"Down t' tha end, double duwers, take a left. 'Bout sixty feet."

I generate a railgun construct and load a Mageslayer, pointing it directly at the barrier. "Get ready to run."

31st December
23:20 GMT -6

I fire and the barrier shatters, gouging a furrow in the floor, walls and ceiling where it intersected with them. My companions race ahead as I try to scan -denied- and send out optic sensor constructs. A Crumbler round destroys the double doors just before Kon and Donna reach them. I'm not sure that their cross country speed is any greater than that of the Beresfords but corridors aren't a great place for super strength bounding. There's another arcane barrier blocking the entrance to the laundry room and my Mageslayer destroys it just as easily as the first. Between that and Klarion I'm going to have to try and get Sephtian to make me some more. I'm not at emergency levels yet but I don't want to risk running out in the middle of a fight.

With the barrier and doorway gone I can get a clear look at the laundry room. I can see where the wall was patched over after Kon punched his way through during the failed escape attempt three and a half months ago. Of course, since M'gann had already downed Miss Frost their timetable was up the spout anyway… There are three robed and tattooed cultists kneeling equidistantly apart inside a large circle in the empty area of the floor, more or less where I thought it would be. The two guards have been.. posed somehow, standing straight facing each other with their arms pointing forwards, forming an arc. I don't know enough about Indian magic traditions to even attempt to analyse the design.

Several washer dryers have been overturned to provide a degree of cover for two rotary guns and the seven cultists providing protection to the ritual site. They open fire as soon as they see a target. Kon pulls ahead slightly so that he can take the shots on his armour but I wince in sympathy as several rounds strike Donna's more lightweight protective gear. Thomas and Tuppence's position at ground level and further back prevents them from drawing fire immediately as I extend a filament to try to strike the guns. It fizzles out on the outer line of the warding circle. I try using a Vertigo Inducer as well only for the cultists to completely ignore it.

The magicians don't look around as my team mates charge in but their chanting does get a little louder. Sounds like some sort of evocation, but I heard the names Shesha and Manasa in there so I doubt they're asking someone to put in a personal appearance. Might just be a mantra prayer to aid their focus with.. whatever they're doing. Kon and Donna take evasive action as Tuppence picks up the washer dryer she was standing behind and hurls it at the closest gun nest. I transition into position next to her and send a Mageslayer round ahead of it, nullifying the ward barrier a moment before it strikes.

"Agh!" / "AIEEGH!"

Oh. They were completely faithful that the barrier would protect them and so didn't bother pulling back. The gun's crushed but… They're not dead at least. Two cultists were manning the gun and while the man bracing it got away with a mere compound fracture of his left arm the woman firing the thing had the full weight of the machine land on her arms before rolling onto her legs and abdomen. I see her hyperventilate, trying to use her ruined arms to push it off. That could well be a fatal injury if we don't get this finished quickly. She's already losing consciousness.

I generate a heavy construct shield as the second rotary gun crew turn their attention to us, while in the air Kon and Donna make brute force strikes on the ward shield. It shimmers, strains and then collapses as the rounds striking my shield rip chips out of the far side. Immediately the crew abandon the gun and retreat behind the next ward. Ablative shield wards? A decent delaying tactic I suppose and if those are all separate wards I'm not sure I have enough Mageslayers to shoot through all of them, but they don't have anything like enough here to stop Team Fist just punching through.

The cultist with the fractured arm scrambles to his feet and tries to follow his compatriots over the ward line. Fortunately for me he's not wearing a personal ward. ShockCrown, gas and he can live with the arm. I shove him out of the way. Next comes the crippled gunner. Medical scan… Mashed forearms and hands, crushed pelvis and right thigh, squished intestine and right kidney… Right. My team mates start going to town on the next layer of the ward as I close the blood vessels next to the affected areas and lift the washer dryer off her. She's unconscious and her breathing is extremely shallow and.. I'm having motivational problems. The chance of her ever being rehabilitated is just so low that as I see it her getting better would just present new problems.

A flare as the next ward fails and the cultists retreat again. But if she dies it'll be the first person Tuppence has killed. Random violence is one thing but I don't want her internalising 'killing is okay'. I think I might have an opening with her now and I know from Doctor Munro that she isn't a lost cause just yet. Okay, mend the spine, leave the hips. Repair and reattach the severed muscle tissue. Organs next and these are a little more complicated.

The side door to the prison staff part of the prison is pushed open and four more cultists charge out! Bolts from their plasma rifles strike Kon and Thomas. Kon is knocked backwards in the air while Thomas is knocked from his feet, clothes burned from his chest and the flesh beneath blackened and charred.

"Tommy!"

Donna turns aside a couple of bolts sent at her with her bracers. They don't have the force field effect thing that Diana's enchanted versions do but they're thicker than the rest of her armour and can take a few hits. I grab Thomas and float him back behind my construct shield. He groans and tries to sit up. Right, Danner regeneration. I'm not seeing anything life threatening but that probably hurts quite a lot. I suppress his nervous activity in the burned area and then excise the dead tissue. It destroyed a chunk of his skin but failed to penetrate the muscle.

Tuppence throws herself at the barrier between her and the firing cultists while Donna and Kon go evasive. Before she can get her fool self killed I stick construct armour around her and fire another Mageslayer at the last layer of ward between the doorway and us. It goes down in a flash and Tuppence is on them. The first is smacked into the far wall.. with broken ribs and concussion, nothing life threatening. The other three scatter as someone else comes through the door and Tuppence swings at him instead.

Jeffrey Burr turns her arm aside and executes a flawless throw, sending her flying past him. "Oh, how exciting." He takes a second to assess as Donna and Kon swoop down on two of the cultists who hit the floor to avoid Tuppence and steps into the warded area a heartbeat before I can get a filament to him. Tuppence recovers and leaps at him but the ward absorbs her impact. As she falls back he reaches through and grabs her right ankle, causing her to flip over and land on her face. "I see a few familiar faces have turned up to see us off." Okay, yes, he's a highly skilled martial artist. He's still not strong enough to actually hurt any of us. Kon proved that on Santa Prisca.

He steps back apparently unconcerned as Kon and Donna come in again, downing another barrier. I could use another Mageslayer but I'd rather conserve them in the event that something turns up I actually need them for. Right, they can deal with that. Kidney.. done. Intestine next-. Wait, if Burr's here, where's Strange? Ah, I can find him after the scan ward is down. Intestine.. done.

"Did you know that the Cult of the Kobra has branches in nearly every country on Earth?" Another backwards step. "It's amazing how many different cultures revere the serpent. Take the people of Benin for example. I have no time for Christianity or Islam but the Vodunists there have preserved some rather interesting rituals." He glances at the corpse arc. "And since my allies appear to be indisposed…" The three wizards fall on their faces in supplication as I finish work on the cultist's small intestine. Heartbeat.. irregular, but that should stabilise now that her organs are all in place. Burr raises his hands to the ceiling. "Gbi, Li, Liwui, Fa. Grant your fellow snake god your power."

Thomas rises to a crouch as I start firing Mageslayers at the last warded barrier. Too late! Burr's skin grows noticeably scaly and his eyes flash sickly green as some elemental creatures I've never heard of grant him their favour. This apparently is the sign the rest of the cultists have been waiting for as they take out needles of some sort of unhealthy looking red/orange substance and inject it into their arms. Not too sure what that is but-. Muscles bulging: it was Venom. Unfortunate but manageable, they're still far weaker than the other four and a little weaker than my power armour. I aim another Mageslayer at the last ward layer as Kon and Donna back away in anticipation of a rush.

Burr blurs into my scope as I fire, sticks his right hand through the barrier, catches the round and tosses it aside. Snake god of speed? The Mageslayers only activate when they strike head on, catching it around the sides does work to bypass the drain effect. He makes eye contact with me and offers me a cold smile. "I don't believe that we met on Santa Prisca. I am Kobra, incarnate god and herald of the inevitable return to the glories of the age of Satya Yuga through the destruction of this corrupt and decadent era."

Monologuers, got to love them. Squashed cultist is now fixed enough that I can shove her to the side of the room before expanding my shield construct into something that surrounds Thomas and I completely. "Hey Jeff." I think his face hardens slightly. The scales make it a bit hard to tell. "I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four. Nice to meet you. Sorry for not introducing myself on Santa Prisca, I was a bit busy drowning Mister Flinders." I frown. "Actually, where is he?"

"Mammoth is busy taking part in the distraction. My liberation is the primary goal of this entire exercise."

"Oh, is that what they told you." He straightens slightly. "Can't help but notice that neither Truggs nor Crock are still here. Now, I'd very much appreciate it if you could surrender."

His eyes narrow slightly. "Take them."

31st December
23:24 GMT -6

The five remaining cultists blur into movement! Not just Venom, they must have mixed Velocity 9 in as well! I reinforce my personal barrier as Kon, Donna and Tuppence are shoved back against the walls and blows start raining down on the bubble barrier around myself and Thomas. I… Wait. Velocity 9 should be making them Flash fast, at least temporarily. He doesn't quite hit at force equals mass times acceleration but he joined Guy and me for our training session a month or so back and I know what having him punch my barriers feels like. This is… This is far weaker.

Tuppence gets over her initial surprise fastest and swings her right arm across the space occupied by the cultist who doesn't see it coming and is sent flying. Kon just flies straight up to get away while Donna attempts a clinch hold. Thomas looks at me for an idea as very faint cracks start to appear in my barrier. We're over thinking this. If the combination of drugs doesn't kill them they still aren't-. Kon's attacker wall runs and lands a punch on his face. He turns his head with the blow and doesn't seem noticeably injured.

All cultists outside the wards? Good. I extend filaments in all directions and deposit six Vertigo Inducers onto the floor, maximum intensity. Tuppence's first target -broken right arm, collarbone, ribs and dislocated right shoulder- gives up trying to get up, shakes and then vomits across the floor. One of the two who were half way up the wall trying to get at Kon falls to the ground, spasming as 'down' is suddenly in twenty directions at once. The other misses her jump and slams into a wall at near super speed, leaving a crater and being rendered unconscious. Donna finds herself supporting her opponent's weight as he more or less collapses on top of her. She's already kneed him in the diaphragm before working out what happened… Ew. I'll clean her armour later.

The two pounding on my bubble careen out of control, trip and collapse, their momentum causing them to bounce and roll some distance. Maybe six Inducers was overkill? I connect filaments to the fallen cultists. I'm not sure exactly what that drug combination would do, but I can purge each individually. And once the protective effect of the Venom is gone, ShockCrowning and gassing them is simplicity itself.

Thomas rises to his feet. Aside from an angry red patch his injury is mostly healed. I remove the bubble shield and put construct armour around him as my team resume their ready stance. "Would you be prepared to surrender now?"

Burr looks over his fallen subordinates. "Disappointing. Still, bringing about the new era is my sacred r-" He's in my face, his fingers jammed through my construct face plate! "-ole." Thomas swings at him but Burr turns his arm aside, holds it and hits him in the construct faceplate with his left. "The speed of Fa." Thomas takes it and tries to jab with his left. It hits Burr's face, snapping his head back… Then he straightens his neck and looks at Thomas with a faint smile. "The vitality of Gbi." His hand blurs as he hammers punches into his trapped opponent. The construct armour's just about holding but Thomas can't strike back effectively!

Tuppence lunges at Burr to protect her brother and he moves aside with a quiet chuckle. I reseal my construct armour and extend a filament cloud at him. He steps forward and strikes Tuppence in the throat with the blade of his hand as my filaments fail to find purchase. "The protection of Li." Tuppence falls, choking, as Kon and Donna move to surround Burr. I put a filament to Tuppence's throat and undo the damage as Burr effortlessly steps around his attackers, striking at their pressure points. Less effect than he was looking for as their armour proves to be up to the task. I try gassing him but he doesn't stay still long enough and I don't want to risk overdosing the fallen cultists by just pumping the stuff out.

He's keeping moving around my team mates as they try to hit him but doesn't seem to be moving around the space much. Point blank grenade? Point blank grenade. Two detonations cover the area in shrapnel and smoke. He's not hurt but his momentary surprise allows Kon to get a solid shot to the centre of his chest, forcing him back. He stabilises a moment later with no visible injury. "And, most interestingly of all-" I'm being stupid, the gate is still there. Railgun. "-water control from Liwui." He points at me and.. nothing happens. Guess Liwui can't see me either.

Kon and Donna fly at him as I fire the railgun twice, battering down the last two barriers around the foul gateway. "No!" He tries to interpose himself but one of the other things I learned practising against Mister Allen was the value of area denial. I create a construct barrier along my line of fire and shoot a Mageslayer directly at the arcane vortex. I take a moment to process the image of fractures appearing along the barrier as he chases after the round as it heads towards its target. He fails to get at it. It hits and oh thank goodness I can scan again!

Burr looks for an exit as his scales start to recede. Exit not found. Thomas hits him first, a solid right hook to the face which sends him flying backwards. He recovers but he's now even more trapped than before. The wizards appear to be content just to watch the fight but I train a maser construct on each of them anyway. Burr goes for Donna, shoving aside her defence and managing a palm strike to her face before Kon punches him in the side.

He's thrown away from the attack but doesn't look seriously hurt. And that's why super strength versus super strength brawls shouldn't be conducted with striking attacks. On the other hand with his power fading away they just need to keep him off balance and his skill level is still probably higher than theirs.

Tuppence and Thomas run at him. He slides between them, striking at their abdomens. His blows hit but they aren't strong enough to do lasting damage any more and he left himself open to Donna, who gladly takes the clear shot to the back of his head. He stumbles and the siblings turn and punch him hard enough in the stomach to knock him over to me.

"You know-" He leaps up and punches impotently at my construct armour before jumping back. "-my power comes from a snake too. Ophidian the Temptress, Embodiment of Avarice."

Through the rings I can dimly feel the connection to my personal lantern and to the Embodiment within. I feel her awareness extending in my direction. I suppose I shouldn't leave her out. I create a construct body for her just behind me. A large one, about fifteen metres of coils. This room's big enough. I feel my control of it slip away as she takes hold and stares down at the stunned cult leader.

"What's the matter, Kobra god? You were talking yourself up a moment ago. Come on. Muster your cultists. Call up your gods." I float towards him, orange aura at full intensity. He backs away, not even noticing the filament at his ankles before it trips him. "Hit us!" The Ophidian leans over me and smells him with her tongue. "Fight us!" The Ophidian rears up as I tilt my head slightly to the left. "Give us a hug."

For a moment he looks bewildered, then the Ophidian lunges down, her mouth wide open! "Nooooo!"

"Ah, hey!" Thomas and Tuppence both look more than a little freaked out by the giant snake manifestation, but only Thomas is looking at me.

"Oh, don't worry." The Ophidian construct melts away, revealing Mister Burr on his knees with a glowing orange brand on his forehead. "The Ophidian's not that desperate for servants. Anyone seriously hurt?"

"What the fuck was that fucking thang!?" Tuppence might not have been offended by me apparently killing someone but I suppose a giant snake will put a dampener on anyone's day.

Kon pauses in checking over his armour. "The Ophidian. A giant snake spirit thing that lives in his lantern." He looks at me. "Was that really her?"

"No, just a construct she was remote controlling. Right, you three-" I turn to look at the wizards. "-do you intend to come quietly or do you want a beating first?"

The two at the side look at the one in the middle. "Can Lord Kobra understand us in his current state?"

"Not what I asked."

"We have a message for him. We will surrender peacefully once it is delivered."

I start loading the fallen up onto stretcher constructs. "Oh, go crazy."

His eyes roll back in his head and when he speaks again his voice is different. The pitch is higher and the accent is changed. "Jeffrey Franklin Burr. Compounding your earlier failure to secure an alliance with the Light you have once more been defeated. Even with every advantage at your command you were unable to extricate yourself from the American prison. The only conclusion I can draw is that I was mistaken in my reading of the scriptures, and in identifying you as our saviour. Fortunately there is another who fits the description. Your titles are hereby revoked. You are no longer worthy of the role of Kobra."

He twitches slightly, but I'm careful to dampen down any desires he starts to feel as his body starts to shrivel and his skin darken from his normal green-tinted cream to a more Caucasian hue. Fascinating. I knew that he didn't originally look like that but I had no idea how the change occurred. He shakes as his reversion completes. He looks a great deal more like his brother like this.

I turn my attention back to the wizard. "Who exactly is speaking?"

The wizard turns his sightless eyes on me. "I cannot see you, but I hear your voice. I am the high priestess of the Cult of the Kobra. You may call me… Lady Eve. You will be hearing from me... From the Cult of the Kobra, again."

31st December
23:31 GMT -6

I fly above the armoured prison lorry as it heads for the outer gate at full speed. Smiling, I blink and the rings show me Tuppence and Thomas escorting the remaining prisoners to the mens’ side cells. There were a few inmates we'd missed but Kon and Donna will have winkled them out before too long. Certainly before the National Guard or anyone like that get here.

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Belle Reve is secure, though it'll need some rebuilding work. No fatalities in the process, but two guards had been killed by the time we arrived and there are quite a few injuries."

There's some sort of background noise.. and sirens, I think? "Well done. Have you -uhhf- found Strange?"

I look down at the lorry. Mister Crock took the time to find a reasonably well fitting guard uniform before abandoning prison. I can't scan him but the lorry was a bit of a giveaway that someone was somewhere they shouldn't be. Given how dark it is and the fact that I'm flying using the belt I don't think he's spotted me. Thinking about it, there's no reason to suppose that he knows I'm here at all. Strange is in the passenger seat next to him, looking quite nervous. Kidnapped or retreating in the face of superior force? His fears are further from the surface than I'd have thought they would be if he were unwilling; he knows how dangerous Mister Crock is to other squishy people. But, that might just mean that he has good self control.

"Yes." Worth seeing where he's going? No, I shouldn't hang about, I might be needed elsewhere. "I'm about to recover him. How's the fighting going?"

"Haah!" For a moment I hear heavy breathing. "Well. We have blocked their movement towards Houma and taken many of the escapees into custody. The rest appear to have scattered."

"Did you end up calling in the Rush Hours?"

"Yes. They have impressed me." I hear a rush of displaced air as she takes off, then the sound filter compensates. "I note that the younger is on your list of possible recruits for the team."

Vasi Kaur, seventeen years of age. Can't imagine why Diana was most interested in the female member of the trio. "Yes, but to be honest I wouldn't recommend approaching her at the moment. She's in the same situation Troia's in with her exams…"

"Perhaps she could spend some time in the mountain over the summer?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Has Nabu had any luck overcoming the scry wards?"

She exhales in frustration. "I haven't been able to reach him. It's unlike him to be-."

"Um." Bollocks. "Did you check secure storeroom B?"

"Why? Was he trying to catalogue objects Savage and the Nazis might have stolen?"

Double bollocks. "Noo sir. You see, I wasn't really sure how long those chains would hold Klarion… I mean, if he really put effort into breaking them. And.. since Nabu was already chained up.. and is the most similar thing to Klarion I had on hand… I left him there." Seems a lot less funny now.

"You… You left him there?"

"Y-eaaah. It will be a very thorough test.. but I appreciate that it's probably not the most efficient use of his time at the moment. Sorry."

I hear a sigh. "We'll talk about it later. How can he be released?"

"Just a simple mechanical lock. The chain's supposed to be immune to direct magic manipulation and it'll use the wearer's magic to resist brute force attacks." Silence. "That's actually a new feature with this version, I was actually rather pleased-. I'll just get Strange, shall I?"

"That would be for the best. I will have Kid Flash free Fate."

"Orange Lantern out."

Damn it. I mean, massively warded prison. He might actually have been useful here. I'd rather have John but he's going to be busy either resting or preparing. I still can't touch the corpses making the arch safely. And I felt so good when I shoved Nabu in there too. That's my mellow thoroughly harshed.

I point both hands down at the lorry below me, extrude a couple of filaments and put a flight aura around it, lifting it off the ground. Mister Crock goes for his shotgun immediately while Strange just tenses in surprise. I raise the lorry up higher and turn it around to face me before waving through the front windscreen at the alleged master mercenary. He sticks his shotgun out of the side window one-handed and takes aim at me.

I tilt my head to the left a little and shrug in a 'what-exactly-do-you-think-that's-going-to-do' sort of way. Ah, may as well have a little fun while I still have functioning ears. "Hi, Casey Jones! How you been?"

He sticks out his right arm, loops it around Doctor Strange's neck and reorientates the shotgun so it points at his head. "How much do you want the Doctor alive, cake boy?" I hold my right hand out flat in front of me and wiggle it back and forth. He tries to stare me down. Did… Did he seriously not learn anything from last time? "Well you better make a decision, because if I-."

"Is that an antimatter shotgun?" Just in case, ring? Is it? No, not an antimatter shotgun. Just a regular shotgun with buckshot.

He shoves the gun into the side of the now very scared Doctor Strange's head. "Doesn't need to be antimatter to blow-."

A filament connects me to Doctor Strange and I transition him into the air beside me. "Look! No hands!"

"Whu-?" Doctor Strange flails around in confusion as he tries to work out what just happened.

"Couple of messages, Casey Jones-."

"What did you call me?"

"Casey Jones, because you fight people while wearing a hockey mask and armed with sports equipment. I told Jade about it, she found it hilarious." Boom! The shotgun's pointing out of the window again and he fires at me either on pure optimism or pure spite. I let the pellets cause small indents in the orange construct barrier protecting Strange and myself. "Your mum says 'hi', your dad's going to carry on pretending you don't exist-."

"Um, that sort of taunting is not likely to be helpful to Lawrence's recovery."

I turn my head to where he floats beside me at a slight forward tilt. "Doctor Strange, I can see people's souls. Trust me when I say that there is no way that he is ever going to be rehabilitated." He really isn't. Solid green structures with orange decoration. I ShockCrown him and transition him to the air on the other side of me.

"Your daughters' comments vary from 'fuck off' to 'fuck off and die'. I think Jade's actually going to make a go of going straight this time." There's a tiny sliver of red but it isn't even slightly close to breaking free and influencing his behaviour. "Paula's healed up nicely… Not that she's going to be visiting you. Ever."

It's larger than the sort of object I usually do this to, but the lorry is just about small enough that I can put it into subspace.

"I-I really don't think-."

A flicker of blue as I continue to ignore him. "You should really watch that hope, Doctor. It's suspicious."

"Whatever do you mean by that?"

"The League's been focusing on the supervillains, but they'll be turning their attention to the disappearing guards soon enough. And since Wonder Woman's on the case, they'll be truth lassoed. And so will you. Something to think about while you're waiting for Waller to get here to witness it."

31st December
23:43 GMT -6

"Now you stay there, Casey Jones, and you think about what you've done." I slide shut the cell door behind Mister Crock and dismiss the heavy restraint constructs before turning to Doctor Strange.

"Why ever have you put my staff in the cells?"

"Because this situation reeks of inside involvement and I can't tell exactly who was involved."

"That is completely unnecessary. While you may be right about.. the involvement of some members of staff, surely they would have fled as soon as the break out started?"

"Unless they wanted us to think that." Still, with the wards in the prison non-functional and with them not wearing scry protection themselves… I look over to the control room and nod at Abra. "Abra, open the doors to the staff cells."

He nods and there's a clunk as their doors disengage. Doctor Strange looks at him and grimaces. "And putting prisoners in charge. I know you've been meeting with Abra and Thomas, but what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking, 'isn't it odd how all but one of the staff still here were Warden Waller's original hires while none of the ones who absented themselves are?'."

"That's… Highly circumstantial."

I nod. "True. But at the very least it suggests there's been a fairly major problem with your vetting processes." The staff start to leave their cells. Bendemann regards me levelly for a moment then his eyes narrow when he sees his boss. A couple of the guards take a moment to get a better look at the not-a-plasma-elemental while Doctor Quinzel-

"Doc!"

-beelines directly for Doctor Strange, a broad smile on her face.

"Doctor Quinzel, I'm so glad that you-." She throws her arms around him and puts her head on his shoulder. For a moment he looks as though he doesn't know what to do, starting to return the hug only as she starts to pull back.

"I thawt Kobra were gonna kill you fer shuwer."

"Fortunately, Jeffrey wanted me alive as a hostage."

I look down at the ground floor as Donna and Kon drag in the last few holdouts and lead them to their cells. Jeffrey hasn't moved since I put him in the cell and removed the brand. I tried asking him a few questions but it looks like yanking the 'Kobraness' out of him has messed up his head to the point where he can't respond even if he wants to. How much of what he did was actually him? I barely remember him from the comics at all, except that he got killed by Adom's group before they took Kahndaq by force. Was he a cult leader with super powers or just some guy that 'Lady Eve' woman thought fit the requirements of their holy texts? Did she ensorce him, or did the physical alterations come with the job?

"Hey, ah, Paul?" I look around as Thomas comes up the steps. "Not that ah'm eager or anythang, but… Looks lahk y'all about finished here. You need me an' Tuppy to git back in our cells?"

Doctor Strange nods. "Thank you Thomas, I really think that might be for the b-."

"No." Strange jerks his head in my direction before looking down and exhaling slightly. "I'll need you on hand when the Justice League and the National Guard start bringing the escapees back here."

"Orange Lantern, may I remind you that I am the Warden of this facility. Thomas, Tuppence and Abra have-."

"I have a signed executive order that says otherwise." I shrug. "Sorry Doctor Strange, but when something like this happens the person in charge has to be removed while the investigation takes place. You remember, like what happened with Warden Waller."

"Well, I… Yes, I thought I might have time to…" He shakes his head to clear it. "Who..? Is in charge of Belle Reve now?"

"Waller's restoration to her former role is being expedited, but at the moment the senior member of staff on site is Assistant Deputy Warden Bendemann."

Bendemann looks around when he hears his name and starts walking over. "Does that mean you're likely to listen to me?"

"Up to a point, yes. If there's anything you want to say that might encourage me to accept your innocence..?"

He holds my gaze for a moment and then nods. "I've been keeping in touch with Waller. She should be able to vouch for me."

Strange's eyes widen. "William, that was completely unprofessional! Not to mention a-a criminal offence! I strongly recommend that you don't say anything else until you've spoken to a lawyer."

"Two of my guys are dead, Strange. Screw lawyers."

"They were my people too! Do you think I don't care?"

"Bendemann, I will have to testify to anything I hear."

"Charley DuPrit and Abel Ardoin. The two guys I had getting close to your new hires."

"Well… I… Clearly, some of the people I…" Doctor Quinzel pulls away from him. "Oh, for all we know they drove my people away to use as hostages later."

"They told me they saw snake tattoos on at least three of them."

More accusing eyes are turned in Strange's direction. He takes in the hostility and goes to speak before deciding better of it. He takes a moment to collect himself. "You've clearly made up your mind. I'm not going to say anything else until I've spoken with counsel."

Kon and Donna float back up to our level and take in the scene. Diana's busy so an immediate truth lassoing is out of the question. Branding's even less likely to result in something we can use in court. Heck, even I wouldn't want to rely on it like that and I'm the bloke who does it. But if we still have time to stop whatever's left of this plan we really need any information we can get. "Yes, because superheroes are known for their conformity with the niceties of due process. Abra! Have you got to the section on Atlantean witness testimony procedures?"

He smiles slightly and raises his wand, teleporting himself across the short distance from the guard station to the landing. "I think I could come up with something."

Strange is trying to back away but there really isn't anywhere for him to go. "This is a violation of my rights! And it will certainly prevent any court hearing any charges you may wish to bring in the future!"

"Actually, it doesn't. Magic derived testimony is only legally equivalent to hearsay evidence in the US, even if actual juries tend to treat it as being more important. Neither Abra nor I are police officers or prison wardens. As long as I have reasonable suspicion that you're involved in something likely to endanger Human life there's a surprising amount of leeway in what courts will accept." Orange manacles attach to his legs and arms, locking him in place. "Abra, quite a lot is riding on you getting this right."

"Oh, please." He points his wand at the floor of the landing. "The Atlanteans have refined this spell to near perfection." Pulses of a diffuse blue plasma drop from the tip of his wand and burn the required sigils and markings into the metal. "Even a neophyte such as I could hardly miscast it. I take it that you have also studied the rules concerning witness questioning?"

"Of course. Ready?" Abra nods. Strange is visibly sweating now and tries to pull against his bonds. "First question. Doctor Hugo Strange: were you willingly and actively involved in assisting inmates in escaping Belle Reve Penitentiary?"

He's shaking, his mouth shuddering as he tries to prevent himself from speaking. An Atlantean jury would probably convict on that alone. "Yes." His eyes widen, then dart to the prison workers he's betrayed.

"Second question. Doctor Hugo Strange: did you attempt to encourage prison officers to leave Belle Reve so that you could replace them with people willing to assist you in activity relating to the first question?"

"Yes."

"Third question. Doctor Hugo Strange: to the best of your knowledge, what was the purpose of the ritual Kobra's magicians were performing?"

"It was s-s-supposed to be a long range transportation spell of some kind. It also created a protective effect over the whole of the prison."

"Fourth question. Doctor Hugo Strange: to the best of your knowledge, why didn't the transportation effect work?"

"Someone was supposed to be on the other end to complete the circuit. For some reason that didn't happen."

"Fifth question. Doctor Hugo Strange: to the best of your knowledge, who was that person?"

His mouth goldfishes, the inscriptions in the circle starting to shine to increase the force of the compulsion. "Klarion."

From the looks of the guards I'd say that he didn't so much sign his own death warrant as build his own scaffold. And most of the prisoners listening below don't look a lot happier about it. "Thank you, Doctor Strange. That will be all."

1st January
00:01 GMT -6

"And that, Mister Phillips, is why we don't pick fights with anyone with an 'S' on their chest."

He sits up a little straighter and tries wiggling the fingers of his newly repaired right hand. "Yeah, I think I'll remember that. And yet still not as tough a crowd as the eight year olds on Coney Island."

"You know, if you're interested, I could probably find a buyer for that xenotech cache you and your wife found."

He looks puzzled. "Ah, I don't get it."

"Get what?"

He leans forwards and makes a circling motion with his right hand. "You know. The punch line? Why is Jewelee and I selling out to you funny?"

Rapidly losing hope… "How's about 'unrepentant supervillain makes pile of money from someone else's work and retires in a cloud of smug'?"

He exhales slowly as he thinks about it. Then he shakes his head. "Nahhh… It's missing something."

Well, I tried. "I don't have your comedic expertise. Maybe you could work on it?"

"Sure. I mean, there's definitely some potential there. Maybe if we sold the same thing to different people..?"

I step back and wave my right hand to close the cell door. Xenotechnology advanced enough to make joke weapons a serious threat and no one knows where they got it from or who the original owner was. They're clearly not in it for the money but… Oh well. Jewelee gave pretty much the same answer when I asked her. At least he didn't try cupping me. My power armour meant that I didn't feel anything and I only noticed when the inmates on the other side of the cellblock started jeering. My frantic back-pedalling actually got a laugh out of Tuppence so at least the humiliation wasn't completely pointless.

One last person to talk to before Waller gets here and he's in the next cell along with Doctor Ojo. Ojo's still here because the destruction of the power suppression system apparently damaged his cybernetics at the same time and he didn't fancy trying to navigate the bayou in the dark with his vision glitching in and out. Ojo doesn't bother looking around as I appear in front of their cell door but the man I'm here to see looks around and sneers at me. "What? I know STAR Labs got my stuff."

"I know. That's where I came across it. Thing is, Mister Tuttle… I'm a huge fan."

"Fuck you."

"No, seriously. I've been using Crumble based equipment since early September. It works great. I mean-" I take a Crumbler railgun round out of subspace and hold it up. "-I use these with my railgun constructs, they destroy pretty much anything. I made these-" I take an Arrow of Unmaking out as well and have it float in front of the cell doors. "-for my bow-using colleagues. Your Crumble gear is shockingly underutilised-."

He leaps to his feet and lunges at the bars. "You stole my designs!"

"No, the courts confiscat-."

"You total shit! Do you know what I went through to make that stuff work!?"

Um. Not sure why he's… "Doctor Quinzel did give me some id-."

"You! You! You! I'll KILL YOU!" I take a couple of steps back. "You and the green one and all of the fucking Arrows!" He's now shaking on the bars in a determined attempt to bring the bars down. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Nullify sound.

Doctor Quinzel walks up beside me. "Coulda told you that would happen."

"I knew he was a bit temperamental, but…"

"You know about him and his dad, roight?" I nod. "His whole ego's tied up in his invention bein' good fer somethin'-"

"But I.. proved that it is?"

"-but at the same time he's gotta be the one provin' it. You showed him his tech was good, but because it was you, you made it look t' him like he was the problem."

I look at Mister Tuttle where he's still silently screaming at me. Ojo's covered his ears with his hands. "He.. sort of is."

"Weeeell…" She looks at him and then half turns away. "Maybe. He was actually on the borderline for goin' to a secuwah hospital insteada here. But straight up tellin' them don't really help none."

Mister Tuttle appears to give up and with one last snarl at me throws himself back down to where he'd been sitting on the floor. "Yeah. Guess I'd got used to it being a bit easy."

"Ahhh… Oh! I wanted to ask you somethin'."

"Yes?"

"Well, durin' our sessions Tommy and Tuppy both mentioned being in contact with a 'Doctor Munro'?" I nod. "They both seemed to be respondin' really well t' him but I noticed that his name was only on the visitor register that one time. You think there's any chance he could come in fer another visit?"

"He lives and works in India… I suppose I could bring him over here if he had time. He'd definitely be up for some sort of video conference though." She nods and smiles. "I'll talk to him. How.. are you holding up?"

She looks away and takes a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "Oh, y'know. My mentor, the guy who got me the job in Arkham and then specifically asked fer me when he took over here turns out to be a massive stoopid criminal jerk who's working with the largest mass murderer on the face of the Earth and it turns out that he only gowt me the job because he thinks I'm 'easily manipulated by powerful and charismatic male authority figures'."

She's starting to tear up. I cautiously put my right hand on her left shoulder. "Okay, well-."

"I mean, what is this, the fifties? An' the guards don't say anythin' t' me but even though I'm the only one of his new people who didn't run when it all stawted, they all think I was in on it. I liked Charley, I thoughwt we were friends, an' it turns out he was only tawkin' t' me to get the scoop on the Doc." She bows her head slightly and wipes her eyes with her right hand before pulling herself together and raising her head to look back at me. "But other than that, pretty good."

"Um..."

"I think you made a real breakthrough with Tuppy tonight." She looks up at where Tuppence and Thomas are leaning on the landing banister. "She's actually been tawkin' t' me and she usually hates doin' that." She pauses. "Well, she said a couple a' words, anyway."

"And what do you think about Abra?"

She looks up at where the Elemental is still floating over our heads. "Couldn't be happier. I think he's actually looking forward t' getting back to his cell so he can go through that database." For a second her smile reappears. "You think Waller will really be okay with his implants stayin' own?"

"I don't really know." Comic Waller wouldn't be. This one? Maybe. Depends on how she's feeling about my assistance. "Maybe if we-."

There's a blinding flash of golden light! Coming from an ankh shape. Wonderful. Nabu appears on the landing near the control room, along with Waller and a squad of heavily armed people in full tactical armour. Waller herself has a flak jacket and a pistol. Nabu appears to just be gazing forwards but numerous golden sigils float around him. I record them as he points his arms forwards and fires a stream of golden ankhs into the Elemental, destroying it completely as Abra has his wand snatched and his arms forced behind his back by a couple of the soldiers.

Bendemann starts heading towards Waller and gets a rifle shoved in his face for his trouble. He raises his hands and makes a silent appeal to his boss. She nods and the gun gets lowered. She then looks down at me and makes a sideways motion with her head. Right. Better get this sorted out then.

1st January
00:11 GMT -6

Waller picks up the nameplate with Doctor Strange's name on it from the Warden's desk and looks at it for a moment. "Hmpf." She then walks around the side of the desk and negligently tosses it into the bin on her way to her newly reclaimed seat. Two of the soldiers she brought with her have taken up station on either side and another two are standing outside the door to the office. Nabu didn't bother saying anything to me about his stay in the storage vault. He just did something to bind the Bestowed -apparently that's the proper name for Kobra wizards- and then headed off to deal with the macabre gate thing. The last thing we need is Klarion using it to come here.

Bendemann's standing on my left and looking mildly pleased with the situation. "What's next, Warden?"

"The first truckload of escaped prisoners should be here in about an hour, hour and a half. How much of the prison can we have safe by then?"

He and I look at each other for a moment. "I can have all the internal walls fixed… Probably the power suppression system."

"We're going to be mighty short-staffed, sir."

She waves her right hand. "I've got a mess of DC pencil pushers tracking down everyone who worked for me before Strange took over. Should get a whole heap of them back by this time tomorrow. In the meantime, liaise with Major Gadison for whatever you need. After a stunt like this they can't complain about being kept in their cells all day." Bendemann nods.

"Warden Waller, my Praexis… Constructs are just about clever enough to obey simple instructions. And they can't die. Might be worth assigning them to the soldiers."

She nods. "At the Major's discretion." I close my eyes for a moment as I reach out through the orange light to Fatty and his offspring, instructing them to follow the soldiers around. "Now. Quinzel."

"Far as I can tell she's completely genuine. Everyone else Strange hired is gone."

Waller raises her eyebrows slightly and looks to Bendemann for confirmation.

"I… It's suspicious as hell, but we never got anything on her." He shrugs.

Waller nods at me. "You're probably right." She takes hold of the radio attached to front of her shoulder and presses the 'talk' button. "You can let Quinzel out of the cell but she stays inside of Belle Reve."

"Yes, Warden."

I thought that putting her back in a cell was a little harsh, but I suppose I can see where Waller was coming from. At least she didn't follow through on her initial impulse to stick her in one of the isolation cells along with Burr and Strange.

Waller makes eye contact with the two of us. "Does she have a future here?"

Bendemann tilts his head to the side. "Even if she wasn't in on it, I don't know how comfortable I'd be keeping her around anyway."

"How many other people are you going to get applying for the job now? Particularly with a relevant background."

"When Strange applied he was one of three I thought were worth interviewing. Now… You're probably right. She can stay for now, I'll think on it later."

"Warden, can we talk about-?"

"Kadabra and the Terrors." She locks onto me with steely eyes. "What exactly did you think you were doing giving convicts free range in my prison?"

"They already had free range. The Beresfords used that freedom to take down nine other inmates and protect a member of staff and Kadabra was also quite helpful in securing the place. Mister Fisher made himself useful as well. At the very least they're going to need to be housed separately from the other prisoners."

"Are you really trying to tell me that you couldn't have taken care of business without them?"

"The three of us.. probably could have done. But the risks would have been greater, especially for the remaining guards. And Quinzel would almost certainly have been killed."

Bendemann nods. "Strange was trying to get the kids transferred out of here and they were both engaging with the education program. And he's right about them mixing with the other prisoners, there's no way that would be safe."

Waller leans forwards slightly, puts her elbows on the desk and massages her forehead with her right hand. "You just love making work for me, don't you? And Kadabra? From the way Fate reacted I'm guessing that was a real live magic creature and not one of his usual holograms."

"That was the deal I made for his cooperation."

"You know Belle Reve isn't set up to handle magic users! Hell, you pointed it out when we met in DC! I'm going to have to talk to the Atlantean ambassador about getting those Kobra wizards transferred as it is!"

"Kadabra's been a model prisoner for as long as he's been here. And.. we might be able to improve your facilities so you can handle them; I'll need to talk to my Atlantean contacts first."

"We aren't going to have time for them to mess around putting spells on the whole building. I'm not even sure that's legal."

"In Louisiana? Er, religious blessings and evocations aren't. But we've developed a type of chain that drains and confines magic power and I don't.. think it breaks any laws. They'd have to wear it all the time but I think that would be covered by the exemption you already have for the collars."

"You got one here now?"

"Sorry, no. Mine's in use-" I don't know where the one Kon put on Nabu ended up, though I wouldn't put it past him to have destroyed it as soon as he was freed. Adom wasn't carrying his with him when he left but that might be just about anywhere by now. "-but the League might have a couple they could spare."

"That's it? Three?"

"They're a recent development and.. quite resource intensive to produce. There's… There are lesser versions but they're not exactly easy to move around in."

"Look at my face and ask if that worries me."

It appears that it doesn't. I nod. "Rightyoh. Is there anything else?"

"One last thing. Apparently Strange said that he was working with Klarion. Do you have some way to stop him if he comes looking for his partner in crime?"

"Klarion's been… Stopped. For the moment at least."

She straightens up. "What? Why hasn't the League shouted it out to the world?"

"It happened about six hours ago and we're still not sure exactly what happened to him. We wouldn't want to announce his death only for him to turn up a few months later."

"I suppose not." She waves her left hand at us. "Okay, dismissed. I need Belle Reve up and running as soon as possible."

Bendemann and I turn to leave but before we reach the door Nabu pushes it open from the other side. His helmet orientates on me. "You."

"Nabu. Have you cleared up the mess in the laundry room?"

"It has been made safe. The bodies may now be removed." I nod. "Wonder Woman has told me that you designed the chains as a way of confining Klarion. I did not believe that to be possible but you have surprised me before. I trust that you have all of the experimental data that you need. I have no interest in taking part in another test."

"Unless you know where I can find another Lord of Chaos, that's about as tested as I can make it. I appreciate your cooperation."

Mister Zatara's stolen eyes narrow at me through the Helmet's vision slits. "The first group of prisoners will arrive shortly. I suggest that you attend to your work."

1st January
07:17 GMT -6

I smile as Deva slams into the asphalt just in front of me. She tries to raise her head then slumps back to the ground, unmoving. In my own arms Doctor Desmond redoubles his efforts to escape my own hold, and I respond by pushing harder.

"GAAAAAGHH!"

With a cracking sound his right thumb snaps and he suddenly seems less inclined to flee. I turn to look at Barda as she walks towards her fallen opponent. "See? Isn't this more fun than the two of us duking it out in some tiny, sweaty gym?" "Tell me you're not enjoying this."

"It certainly does less harm to their insurance premiums." "It has a.. certain satisfying quality to it."

Doctor Desmond tries to push himself up again. I know that he's feeling pain; he wouldn't be crying out if he wasn't. Why on Earth is he continuing to fight me when he's so clearly lost? I shift my hold and apply pressure, bending his right wrist sideways and-

"YYAAAGH!"

-snapping several bones. This is a fascinating study in leverage, actually. He's quite a bit larger than I was at my largest and has much greater reach. Confining myself to physical attacks -because there'd be no challenge at all to it otherwise- I had trouble getting within grappling range. Heh, as an unfortunate Chevrolet bore witness when it cushioned my landing. The blow didn't hurt at all but it was easily strong enough to overcome the friction between my feet and the road surface. Note to self: next time don't let the sister-in-law bait you into a 'no weapons' playthrough.

"Just knock him out." "Torturing a defeated enemy isn't very heroic."

"It's not that easy." "Different strokes…"

"RAAARH!"

"I can't shift my hold without risking him knocking me away again, and even if I could he's got basically no neck. I'd have to crush a good chunk of his upper chest to throttle him. I don't think he feels pain like a normal human so that's out. I said no weapons so gas is out. I suppose I could gouge out his eyes-"

"AAAAGHH!"

"-or something but I'm not sure even that would work."

"You've already taken longer than I did."

"I haven't focused on hand-to-hand combat training, alright? This is your strongest skill set and my weakest. See how well you get on with a flipping power ring."

This is getting embarrassing. A crowd who really should know better than to hang around at the edge of a super fight are creeping back into the periphery of my vision and, ahhgh, they're taking their phones out to record it. And it looks like I'm torturing a beaten man. Come on, how can I… Ah, of course! Fire hydrant, one of those convenient American ones that stick out of the ground. Destruction of public property… Oh, they live in a swamp. They can't be short of water.

I stamp down heavily on Doctor Desmond's left little toe-

"rrRRRRHH!"

-and move my left arm to grab his right thigh and lift him up onto my shoulders. Excellent. Any move he tries to make will result in him trying to use bits I've already dislocated or broken. Or both. There's no way, ehh, he can bring enough force to bear to break free and.. if I.. walk closer to the hydrant.. shift my grip and swing him around by his leg like the proverbial cat…

"DAHH!"

Hydrant upright damaged and highly pressurised water spurting forth. Slam Desmond into the ground, move my hold to his right shoulder where the compound fracture is-

"EHHGblgblgblgblg."

-and force his mouth and nose into the stream. Whatever chemical changes have taken place in his body he certainly still needs to breathe.

"Creative."

I shake my head and shove him forwards a bit further. "Hardly." His free arm flails around but his own bulk is working against him.

"Who's next on the list?"

"Snart. Hardly requires both of us, I'd be astonished if he's had the time or resources to throw a cold gun together yet."

"Do you have his location?"

Ring? "Yes, he's in…" Oh, come on!

"Where?"

"Conn's Home Plus, which stocks an extensive range of home electronic equipment. Alright, he's got a cold gun." From the way Desmond is jerking I'd guess that he's run out of air. His lungs have quite a decent volume but he burns through it faster than a normal Human and had no chance to take a breath before I thrust him into the stream. A few moments more…

Behind us I hear the collection lorry pull up. With the main power suppression unit destroyed they're reduced to using the stand alone collars and their limited battery life. I have a couple in subspace but using them would invalidate the challenge. Barda slings Deva over her shoulder and carries her over to them for transport back to Belle Reve. Desmond's starting to go limp. Ordinarily I'd judge this by scanning his brain with the ring. As it is I'm forced to utilise my sadly neglected 'god sense'. Grayven… I'm the God of Conquest. Is Desmond conquered yet? Feels like… Yes. I haul him back out of the water and drag him in the direction of the transport vehicle. One of the soldiers holds out an extra large collar and I take it with my right hand and affix it to where Doctor Desmond's neck used to be before slinging him through the lorry's open rear door.

The corporal nods at me. "Thank you, sir, ma'am. We'll get these two back to Belle Reve as quick as we can."

"Good show. Carry on." He nods and turns away to get in the drivers seat as one of his colleagues closes the rear door. Maybe Lantern Stewart will have the place usable by the time they get there. In a rather amusing turn of events with much of the League not fully fit a good deal of the work of chasing down runners has been left to our team while they attacked and made safe the prison. Jeffrey Burr, aka 'Kobra' escaped with a group of cultists through some sort of magic portal shortly before they arrived and the rest of the inmates had a good go at wrecking the place when they realised that they weren't on the 'approved for escape' list. From the grim tone of Diana's voice I'm going to assume that there were fatalities amongst the staff.

I restore the hydrant as Barda takes out her Mega Rod and puts her thumb to the activator. Really wish she'd let me tweak that recalcitrant Mother Box of hers a little. Just.. open its mind a little bit. Connect it to the Sphere… Agh, should have thought of that before! The Sphere should be able to talk it around! Shaking my head in frustration at my own mental sloth I walk over to Barda and put my hands on her shoulders for transport. Turns out New Gods are much less touch shy than Englishmen but since this does actually require a physical connection I've compromised this far. There's a blast of light as we vanish and reappear in the Conn's car park. The front doors have been smashed in and I see that the car carrying the police first responders has been hit by an ice gun, the two police officers taking cover behind it. Their heads jerk up as we stride past.

"Do you think he will try to fight?"

I nod. "Almost certainly."

"Can his weapon harm us?" I stop just in front of the doors and take a close look at the brickwork and the thin line of frost that runs around the floor, walls and ceiling of the antechamber. Clever. From the amused curl on Barda's lips I'm going to guess that she hasn't spotted it. "Are you that worried?"

"Justifiably cautious." I crouch down and pick up a piece of debris, then stand and toss it over the threshold. There's a flash of white as the freeze trap triggers, water vapour from the air turning to ice and the brickwork I threw flash-freezing before landing hard and shattering. "They're not all stupid."

1st January
07:22 GMT -5

Joy of joys, she decided that I could lead the way. Bedroom furniture to the right of me, living room furniture to the left. Electronics is.. left and onwards a bit?

"I understand that he developed the technique to fight the Flash. Reduce molecular vibration in a particular area to zero.. or close enough. The Flash runs through it and suddenly he isn't moving at superspeed any more."

Can't see anyone from here. Would he run? No, doesn't fit his profile. Not if he could lure either Mister Allen or Wallace out.

"He can build such a device using parts taken from household appliances?"

"He's a very intelligent man. No formal higher education either. He worked out the operating principles by personal study, stole the components and built his first cold gun himself."

"Surely such a technology is worth more than he can steal with it?" "Does he use it to destroy because that is his god-role?"

"Dear sister-in-law, I realise that you've only been on Earth for nine years, but one thing you'll come to understand is that there are people here who are shockingly brilliant at their chosen field -near equals of any New God- who are nonetheless completely rubbish at applying that brilliance in a rational way." Televisions, no… Ah, a gutted microwave. Getting closer, though it looks like it was torn apart. Odd. He's usually more careful than that. "Leonard Snart, genius cryonics physicist and engineer, uses his cold gun to rob banks. Robbing a bank is a poor enough prospect when the heist is well planned. Running in through the front doors in an easy to identify costume, a novelty weapon and no escape route?" I shake my head. "And he's hardly the only one. Where Gotham has insanity, Central City has really stupid geniuses. I'd call them idiot savants were it not for the fact that many of them have quite good social skills." "You may be on to something there, but if so it isn't built in to his soul. It's in the structures of his mind that the idea he must be a certain way exists."

"A strange way to exist."

"Hmm." "Welcome to the Fifth World."

That gets a look. "You mean to say-?"

"Werl look what we got here, Tuppy!" Thomas Beresford strolls out from the computer games section and cracks his knuckles. "I wuz gettin' t' thinkin' we'd be here all day 'fore anyone showed up."

Looks like he's taken the time to change his clothes from prison orange to something a little more like his 'costume'. Black combat trousers and a white t-shirt. He appears to have foregone his signature padlock around the neck and I guess Conn's don't stock braces. Or maybe he just got bored looking at clothes and the possibilities of having a power supply and top of the range games machines on hand just got too appealing.

Tuppence walks in from the around the side of the outer display stands, slush puppy in hand, cold and hard eyes scanning us as she takes a slurp. "I dunno Tommy. I don't recognize 'em. You sure they're heroes?"

Oh goodness me, it's going to be like fighting Team Rocket. "I think I ate a hero once."

This appears to throw Thomas off his stride. "Wait, fer real? We're kinda new at this."

"Of course for real. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." "And sometimes just stupid stupid."

He screws up his face. "Aw man, that's gross! What tha hell you do that fower?"

"It's a quote, Tommy. That creepy British guy says it in Silence o' tha Lambs." She takes another slurp, realises that it's empty and tosses it aside. No manners at all. "An' I do recognize him. He wuz helpin' out Wonder Woman aftah that thing with the kids disappearin'."

"No good deed ever goes unpunished. Why are you hanging out with Mister Snart?"

"He's takin' us under his wing. Helpin' us make connections with other supervillains." Thomas actually looks happy about the situation. Really. Even Mahkent Senior… Even Brickwell would have been a better choice of role model. At least they run organisations.

Barda crouches slightly. "Why are we still talking?"

Thomas looks at her and then at me. "You brung yer sister along too?"

I shake my head and wave my right hand dismissively. "Sister-in-law. My brother was busy." Ring, scan for medical purposes.

By your command.

Oh, that's interesting. Some sort of chemical in every living cell in their bodies. I.. don't recognise it, but the situation suggests that it's the source of their unusual vitality. I'll add it to the research slate. "They, dear Barda, are still talking because Snart's up to something. I'm still talking because-" I tap the left bracer of my armour to activate the Garrick infuser. "-I want-" There's a slight hiss as it takes effect. "-to-" I cross the space between myself and Thomas at what feels like a jogging pace while around me everything slows to a crawl. At glacial speed Tuppence starts to raise her hands to a simple guard. I can watch in slow motion as Thomas' eyelids come down in a blink that probably takes him only a fraction of a second.

And then his right arm's bent up behind his back with my right hand at his wrist and my left around his neck and squeezing. "-catch them off guard."

"H-!?"

"Tommy!"

He bends his legs to try to jump and I respond by lifting him off the ground by his own neck. Tuppence dives at us but gets punched right in the diaphragm by Barda. She folds up around the blow, a look of total shock on her face for a moment. Barda pulls back, grabs the back of Tuppence's head with her right hand and slams her face into her oncoming left fist. Ah, ambidexterity. Tuppence blearily tries to focus on her attacker so Barda repeats the blow. Thomas is striking my armour with his legs and left arm but it's far easier to prevent a man sized target from getting leverage and my armour can takes this easily.

"I didn't know you could move like that."

"Short bursts only." And that's true. I tried dosing myself with it but it turns out that after a few seconds my New God physiology just reverts any changes. Great for short bursts but useless for strategic purposes. "Hey, Thomas? You know what's funny?"

"Khkhkhkhkhkh."

"Didn't actually know you were here. Plus, there's an amusing symmetry between your upbringing and Mister Snart's. Your father left permanently when you were… Nine, wasn't it? His mother left when he was the same age. Of course, in his case that was because his father was beating her-."

A sizzling sound and I swivel to interpose Thomas between myself and the freeze ray. Behind his goggles Mister Snart scowls at me. "That's about enough of that." As expected, he started with temperatures that would be painful but not lethal to a baseline Human. Thomas' chest gets coated with ice before the beam from the rifle-sized weapon cuts off. "Human shield. Classy." Snart pulls some sort of lever so I reach aside, pick up a display stand and throw it at him. He dodges, but the freeze trap he set up is wasted. Another thrown stand and he has to dive for the floor, allowing me to score a direct and disarming hit with a thrown Thomas. The ice covering him shatters on impact but he was barely conscious anyway. Snart just about manages to keep hold of his weapon with one hand but I'm already moving towards him before he can bring it to bear. "Vertigo, now!"

The sensation of nausea which follows is far weaker than what I detected him using in the bayou. I may not have the ring's protection at present but divine aura and the divine protective fortifications of my Apokoliptian armour reduce it to far below the level it would need to be at to disable me. I grab a widescreen plasma television from a wall stand and thrust it forwards to block a hastily aimed freeze ray then I jab my hand into Snart's stomach.

"Bowagh!"

Supervillain number four has done his best with Conn's wares to match his preferred classy apparel but fell somewhat short. He's now backing away from me slowly while frantically trying to retune his cobbled together Vertigo Inducer to a wavelength that will affect me. "Give it up, Vertigo."

With a barely suppressed snarl he lowers his hands to his side. "That's Count Vertigo, peasant."

"No it isn't. Didn't you hear? Your title's been revoked. Cancelled. Made extinct and invalid. And… Not that I'm one for nepotism, but I am the son of the ruler of the planet Apokolips. My name is Prince Grayven…" I appear to consider for a moment. "Peasant. But you may address me as Your Highness."

1st January
Uuuuuughh

Alert!

Huh, what? I jerk awake and start trying to pull my arms free of the duvet.

Connection made to monitored telephone line.

I stop, sagging back under the duvet.

Location: second public telephone, BP, Happy Harbour branch.

Oh, for goodness sake. I've had… Ring, time?

Twelve twenty two GMT minus five.

Four and a half hours' sleep. All of my friends are asleep as well… Oh. Okay, Zatanna isn't, and Holly and Karon aren't… Need to talk to Zatanna about that. I wiggle up into an upright position. Still wearing my old pyjamas. Nice thing about the ring: it keeps me at a comfortable temperature no matter what duvet I have on. I find it much easier to sleep with something heavy on top of me and now I can have a thick winter duvet in the middle of summer. Or in a climate controlled mountain base.

And now I'm awake, darn it.

"Ring, who is it?"

"Speaker has identified themselves as Nylor Tr-"

I'm yanking back sheets and hurrying to get off the bed! "Track him!"

-uggs. Unable to comply."

I just manage to get my feet on the floor without falling over before stopping to stare at the obstinate jewellery. "Why the heck not?"

"Trace terminates at a junction box in Metropolis." I get an image of the box in question. Wires, more wires and.. a space I can't see. "Unable to follow further." Something magical. I can tell it's there because it's interrupting my sight of the things around it. Ugh, I'll pick whatever it is up later but there's not a lot to be gained by rushing.

I hold out my right hand and call the Stewart-ring from the dressing table. "You got anything to add?"

"Analysis of the area surrounding the target shows several other probable locations for communication relays utilising similar stealth technology."

I do not need this right now! What does he even want to talk to me about? I know he got away! He knows I know! I sigh, then hold the left ring up to my ear. "Answer."

"-what it is yer doing now. So, aaaanyway-"

Some sort of birdsong in the background… No, the ring says it's a recording.

"-I wanted to ask-."

"Truggs, I was asleep. If you're going to be a criminal you could at least try not being an arsehole."

"Oh, hey Paul. I was wondering-."

"What? What? What do you want?"

"Hey, I don't know what you've got to complain about. I had to swim two hundred kilometres out into the Gulf of Mexico today."

"Please don't tell me that was all about you."

"Hey, some people value my contribution. Was.. sort of... expecting.. Kobra to be joining me… Hey, was that you?"

Nothing to stop his people sending someone to visit a prisoner later. "It was a team effort."

"I gotta admit: I thought you'd go fer the mob heading to Houma. Thought they'd send.. I don't know, Robin or someone into the prison. If you even survived the Watchtower."

"Truggs-."

"Crock and me tossed for who got to do the swim…"

"I'm hanging up."

"Oh, come on. Don't be that guy. I just.. called to say… Well done. I honestly thought the Nazis would get yeh. Or at least hold you up a bit. Far as I can see you people just blitzed straight through."

"And you know that how?"

"Satellite mounted camera pointed at the Watchtower's windows. Didn't.. see how it ended. Hey, I know it's a bit of an ask, but could yeh tell me what happened t' Klarion? I… Heh, I don't like it when I can't see where he is."

I put my right hand to my forehead. "How did you even get this number?"

"A really pissed off GBS intern."

Ughh. I asked them not to fire her. "Why should I tell you? What's in it for me?"

"Future knowledge? Aaaah? I got a problem, I don't mind coming at it from multiple angles."

"What problem?"

"You remember I said my future was 'crummy'? Thing that makes it like that? Noooot all that far away."

"Uhh, fine. He went through a portal into what was probably Valhalla." In the background the birdsong quietens and is steadily replaced by whale song. "Captain Nazi, Krieger and bits of Savage too. I don't know where they are now."

"Huh. Wonder what the spread on that was."

"Can I go back to sleep now?"

"No, you get a little story first. Aah, what's that sport you British people invented that you're really bad at now?"

"Most of them?"

"Huh. I guess. Llllet's go with Cricket. Earth in my time is kinda like you people and cricket. I mean, you look around now and… We've got technology that can go toe to toe with the best in the universe. I mean, you've seen that, right?" I 'mm' noncommittally. "We got superheroes -most places don't have those- and most importantly? Isolation. And then… We didn't. About a decade from now, Earth gets hit hard. Orbital bombardment, billions dead." Shiiit. I can't.. take that as gospel. Should be able to check with Abra… "You know, with the bombardment and the slavery and the vivisection and that... The deportations, even by my time there's only about a tenth as many people on Earth as there are now? And that's after we recovered."

"Who was it?"

"They're called 'The Reach', but let's be honest here: it could have been Khundians or Apokoliptians or.. any of a hundred civilisations." Don't really remember much about the Reach in the comics. Didn't that Mexican Blue Beetle boy have one of their scarab armour things? "You get weak… People take advantage."

"But why does it matter to you? You… You said you're from after that happened?"

"You like losing at Cricket to everyone who can throw a team together? All the places you used to rule?" He exhales. "It's like… You train really hard at somethin'… Hundred metre sprint. You go to the Olympics. You win yer heat, you win yer semi and you come second in the final. What do you remember?"

Supervillain answer? "Not getting gold?"

"Bin-go. Earth coulda been a contender, not some damn Thanagarian protectorate. I can't even hate them. If they hadn't swung by we wouldn't have.. anything. Our history was just gone with our data networks."

"I can't believe that the Justice League just... What, all died?"

"I can't either but I don't know. Records 'r pretty good up to… Y'know. Then there's a huge blank."

"That doesn't justify what you're doing. If you're really that concerned -and it sounds like you've got reason to be- then-."

"Wanna know somethin' really interesting? Guess who wears an orange power ring and isn't in the database."

"I'm not a League member."

"No, I got mission reports. Things like that. I know who was workin' with the League. You weren't listed at all. You weren't in that timeline. Which.. says to me… You're the only other guy that can fix this. You're doin' the kinda things I would, sorta. And you're workin' with the League."

"Yes. I still believe they can be taught. Truggs, you can-."

The sounds cuts off. He's hung up. I lower the ring to my side.

What now? I raise my right hand to chest height. "Stewart-ring. Talk to me about The Reach."