Mandated

22nd October
06:13 GMT +8

I feel a moment of disorientation-.

"…intervention of the Chinese army under General Wu in the Autumn of sixteen fifty seven, the war shifted decisively in favour of crown prince Shukoh Dara, so preventing…"

I open my eyes, reaching out across the bed for-. No, a warm patch, but she's already up. I blink a couple of times, then push myself upwards into a sitting pos-.

"I don't know how you sleep through that."

Jade is -naturally- already dressed, a towel around her hair showing that she's showered as well. She glances at me as she pulls her tunic's right sleeve over one of her concealed knives. Green tunic with the gold pagoda emblem of the Imperial Security Agency… That explains why the alarm went off at all.

"I.. thought that you.. weren't working today."

"I'm not, but I have a training course for my next promotion." Satisfied with the positioning, she drops her right arm to test the movement of the material. "It would be unwise for me not to attend."

I turn and shuffle to the edge of our bed before lowering my legs to the floor. "You need a better union." I stand, trying to work out what I should wear. Lantern Fang's message made it sound like an informal event, but I know for a fact that his ideas of 'informal' and mine are a rather long way apart. I stroll over to the wardrobe and pull open the door. Let's.. go with.. black tunic suit with orange-.

"Unless someone died, I don't recommend it."

I close my eyes for a moment. She probably-. No, certainly knows better than me, but I can't just let that go. "Yes Madam Controller. What would Madam Controller suggest?"

"Hm." She walks up behind me, looking at my selection around my left side. "The red tunic with the blue trousers. The style shows that you've thought to dress formally and so respect his position, and the colours indicate your relative inexperience and desire to grow."

As good as anything else, I suppose. I'm still not.. entirely comfortable with these sorts of.. intense colour in a formal setting, but… When in Datong… I lift out the tunic and trousers and a.. simple white shirt, and then turn to lay them on our bed while I take off my pyjamas. I get a momentary look at myself in our bedroom mirror as I pull my pyjama top over my head, and use a burst of orange light to tidy myself up. Jade was heading for the kitchen, but turns back at the doorway with a small smile on her face to watch me dress.

"Would you like me to make the alarm louder?"

"No, I just-" I push my right arm through the shirt's sleeve. "-haven't got used to this time zone yet. I'll adapt, and I don't want to drive you-" I leave the shirt open to display my chest as I slide off my bottoms. "-out of bed."

"Didn't you used to use your ring for that?"

"I couldn't drive you out of bed with my ring, Jade. I'd have to want to."

She rolls her eyes. "That isn't what I meant. You've been using your ring for fewer things since you got back."

Alas, this is now a pants on conversation. "Yess. When I was on.. Maltus, I got a full explanation of what orange light exposure could do to a person. And.. when I met Larfleeze I.. got a.. very good look at the end result. I wouldn't hesitate in an actual fight, but… I'm going to be cutting back a bit."

Her eyes dip very slightly as she considers the ramifications. "You'll need to tell Lord Fang."

"That's what back to work interviews are all about." I button the last button on my tunic and follow Jade as she leads the way into the kitchen. She opens the microwave as I bend down to take my oat porridge and her rice porridge out of the fridge and pass them to her. "That and sparring. That's the one thing about me that Lantern Fang actually likes. And I'm sure that First Lantern Sinestro has told him about our encounter."

Weird as this continuity is, I'm rather glad that their Sinestro is still on the strait and narrow. He's.. quite a bit better than me with a power ring. And was more than happy to prove it when I showed my face in his Sector.

"That's not the only thing Lord Fang likes about you. It's just the only thing he's told you that he likes about you. He has the authority to call you in for sparring whenever he likes; he wouldn't choose to operate with someone he didn't get on with."

I nod. I suspected, but given the very real conflicts we've had… "Is your.. training going to be all day?"

"No, until mid-afternoon. I'll be back this afternoon." Something occurs to her. "Mother wants to know when we can visit my parents for dinner."

"That.. depends on what assignment Lantern Fang gives me. Unless he says 'thanks, but no thanks', in which case my schedule is open until Dox calls me." She nods. "The.. Colonel.. isn't going to try and put me through one of his 'training exercises' this time, is he?"

Ah, the Colonel. Former nationalist terrorist and currently the highest ranking Zero Team field officer. Zero Teams are called that due to the odds of members surviving their first mission. They're not actually zero now, but for a period of time during the Durlan War it was pretty close to that and even a veteran wouldn't have high odds of surviving more than three missions. How their members are selected is a fairly novel concept that I was only familiar with from the imperial guard: they recruit criminals with military backgrounds. If they survive a certain number of missions, they get a pardon. If they die, their debt to society is considered paid and they get an honourable funeral. Sort of like the canaries or a less secret Suicide Squad.

In theory it makes sense: high powered super functionaries are thin on the ground. On the other hand, violent criminals are common. In the event of a super powered attack, it's more likely that violent criminals will be close to it than a super functionary who would stand a realistic chance of stopping it. And if they can't, the super functionary following them in will be better informed of the nature of the threat.

Committing a violent assault while a serving member of the military might result in a survivable tariff of one or two missions. The Colonel… Lawrence Crock, was given a 'die with honour' tariff of thirty missions, and by a combination of skill and tenacity actually lived through them. And after he was released he came right back and put in for officer training because he'd found those fights more fulfilling than anything he'd ever done before.

I think he's mental. And so does most of the military. He thinks I'm a bit of a wuss. And by his standards he's almost certainly right.

"Mother spoke with him about that, and he won't."

"Thank you. And I'll.. thank her as well."

"You shouldn't let him intimidate you so much."

"Everyone gets intimidated by the Colonel."

"I don't-." Her jaw clenches, and I notice as a half-second later she realises that she snapped at me. Her eyes move aside and she shuffles her left leg-.

I walk up to her, bend slightly and kiss her lightly on the lips. Then I pull back slightly and smile affectionately down at her, prompting her to exhale with a sort of pleased irritation.

"Actually…" She looks me in the eye. "That reminds me."

"Clearly I need to kiss you more often, then."

"Will Lady Yifei be at your 'return to work' interview?"

"I.. don't know. I haven't seen her since I got back. I'm not even sure if she's on Earth. I mean, I'll.. ask after her-."

"She got back to Earth yesterday." She smiles. "Now is the perfect time to ask her out."

22nd October
06:18 GMT +8

"…like learning about the history of seventeenth century India, if only to learn why it's different from the history I know." No Bangladesh or Pakistan, for a start. "I just don't see how it makes sense to have it running first thing in the morning when anyone listening is going to be half asleep."

Jade raises her eyebrows. "What should be on at first thing in the morning?"

"A news summary. Headlines and a brief description of the contents. That way, the listener will hear any item which particularly interests them and can ignore the rest."

Surprising what you notice. America colonised from the west coast by China? I never visited anywhere in the United States, so even when I go there it doesn't really strike me. Japanese Australia? Same thing.

"If you want someone to record a summary of daily notices, just send an e-mail to Intelligence."

"I can't do that." I scrape up the last of my porridge. "That would be misuse of official resources."

"Keeping super functionaries informed is literally Intelligence's job. They prepare daily notices anyway, they won't mind having someone record it for you."

"And broadcast it?"

"And e-mail it to you each morning so the apartment control system can play it."

"That can't be secure."

She rolls her eyes. "It's as secure as a broadcast. Or if that really bothers you, you can have them send it in text form and have the control system use a text to speech program."

"Ooh, that could work. Plenty of super functionaries get those e-mailed to them. Yeah, I'll put in a request today. If.. Lantern Fang approves my reactivation."

"He's going to approve your reactivation. Now can we talk about Lady Yifei?"

"Ah…"

"I know that Europeans are usually monogamous, but you told me that you weren't Christian or Jewish."

"I… No, but I grew up in a Christian society and.. tend to have the same cultural norms."

She frowns curiously. "You've never tried to insist I wear a headscarf in public."

I wince. "Yes… But that's because I come from a parallel Earth where Europe is a.. little more… Enlightened than it is on this one. My Nan wore a shawl, but that's because she had a perm in Gloucestershire. And there was this.. one slightly odd woman I met in university who was a bit of a back to basics Christian who wore one… But I haven't even met anyone else who does. If you started wearing one I'd find it weird."

Which is a good part of why -despite it being the only place on this Earth that speaks the same language as me- I don't spend much time in Britain. It's like someone lifted all of the culture from nineteenth century Britain and dropped it into the modern state. No British Empire plus no World Wars -not ones in Europe anyway- meant no mass immigration or switch to higher female participation in the workforce. And those sorts of social trends are so associated with Qing China that they're opposed in many quarters as 'cultural imperialism'. That sort of thing's sad when it happens to someone else's country but it's downright disturbing when it happens to yours. It's also why I've tried to have as little to do with Ambassador Alfred Clayton as possible.

"You do.. like her?"

The woman who was my tutor, and who unlike Lantern Fang was liberal enough to make allowances for our vastly different cultural backgrounds? "Yes, of course I do."

"You find her attractive?"

"Ah-. Dh-Jh-yes..?"

"You understand that wherever you grew up, she and I grew up in a Neo-Confucianism state where polygamy is perfectly normal?"

"Except.. it.. isn't, is it? Where it occurs it's virtually always one man -usually a rich man- and two or more women. The reverse hardly ever occurs. I mean, it's basically… Some Tibetans? And even then it's only the really traditional ones."

She stares at me. Her eyes narrow slightly, then she blinks as she tries to work out why I'm saying the clearly nonsensical things that I'm saying. "So… The reason you're not going to ask Lady Yifei out is-"

"You know.. she-"

"-because you want to ask out a.. man..?"

"-doesn't like friends calling her that in private? Not like.. most of the others."

Which is probably why she seems so personable. Technically, every member of the Heavenly Guardians should be referred to as Lord or Lady by anyone who isn't either a member or the Emperor of China. Even in private, even when they're not around. Sure, it's only a slap on the wrist offence outside of the security services but it's considered a major social faux pas and it's seriously weird. And Yifei Jade finds it weird as well, which was a mercy when she was assigned as my tutor because I'd have found that really hard going.

"And no, I don't want to ask out a man."

"Do you.. want.. me to?"

"No, not.. particularly. Do you.. want to?"

"N-." She squeezes her eyes shut and makes a frustrated exhalation. "Why do you think I want to?"

"I don't think you want to. But.. I believe in the rightness of gender equality. If I have the option then you should as well."

"Okay. I do, legally, have that option. I just don't want to exercise it because there isn't anyone I'm interested in like that."

"And… Because… Me..?"

She rolls her eyes. "Obviously I'd talk to you about it first."

"Oh-. Good."

"The whole idea clearly makes you uncomfortable, so I'd have to think very carefully about it. But it doesn't make me uncomfortable, so if you're interested then you should go for it."

I sort of shake my head in confusion. "Have.. you.. talked to her about this?"

"No, of course not. I'm not the one who's going to be involved with her."

"You're-. Sorry, I'm.. still not really clear what-. How it works."

"How.. dating.. works..?"

"N-. I.. muddled through that with you, but I'm not an expert. I mean, dating more than one person."

"Mostly the same, but it's not always the same person? It's not that complicated."

"But not.. the three of us.. together?"

"I-. Maybe? Our schedules might make if difficult to make it a regular thing. Why?"

"I think-. In the European context, the only.. thing I've got to compare this to is either bigamy, or.. a wife plus a mistress, and in either case I associate it with dishonesty. I think.. the only way I could.. be alright with.. including 'Other Jade'-"

"Don't call her that."

"-would be if the relationship was… Omnidirectional."

Her eyes widen slightly. "Oh."

"I don't know how you feel about-."

"I.. don't… It's.. been a while. So that's another European taboo you don't have?"

"Yep."

"Because I read a magazine article which said that some Europeans fetishise homosexual relationships due to them being taboo in their own culture." She raises her eyebrows. "Do you want to see Lady Yifei and I together?"

"Iaaaahhh… The idea has some appeal, but it's mostly that I prefer to have a single home, with my… Family all in one place. Even if our work schedules mean that we're not actually all in one place at the same time all that often."

"Hm. I don't have a problem with that. But I think that's something we should speak with her about before making any decisions."

"Alright… I'll.. phone you when your course is over."

Because I'm sure the conversation with her won't be any harder than that was.

5th July 2010
Mid day

I have no idea what is going on.

The power ring I could understand. I've read enough comics to know what that is. And waking up in orbit with an artefact of power… Sure. I've read enough of Hiver's work to understand the.. situation, even if I never thought it could possibly really happen. But…

What happened to Earth?

Why is the ring telling me there were nuclear strikes all over eastern China and Japan? Why can't I hear any English language radio? Why are there space ships? Did I go forward in time or something? I don't remember that happening in any DC-owned setting… Or any other setting. Which means that once the ring-.

I plummet through the air, cold biting my skin through my pyjamas! Okay, I-. Ugh, not easy to breathe. I'm high enough up that the fact that I'm falling isn't an immediate problem. Calm. Calm.

I want to fly.

And the environmental shield is back and I'm… Okay, I'm still falling, but the rate at which I'm falling is decreasing.

Once the ring runs out of power I'm stuffed. The ring has a universal translator, but I don't speak any languages other than English. Which is fine when English is the world's dominant language, but a bit of a problem when the dominant language is… Ring?

Language self-identifies as 'Mandarin Chinese'.

Chinese? How am I supposed to learn Chinese? It doesn't even have letters!

No! No. Calm. Want.

Want.

Okay. I can grab a bigger pile of gold and set up a life for myself in.. this version of Britain. Just accept not having a ring. I can head for an alien planet… No, where would even have a way to charge a power ring? Oa? No. Okaara? Larfleeze would kill me. If it even exists. Qward? Even if I could get there, I'd have to get very lucky. Ring, I… Are there any.. unused personal lanterns down there?

…

Ring? Agh, right. Ring. Find personal lanterns.

Three found.

I don't suppose any of them are… Spare? Are they?

Local news broadcasts show only two local Lanterns as active.

Who?

Fang Zhifu and Yifei Jade.

Who?

Lantern names are Fang Zhifu and Yifei Jade.

I have no idea who they-. No, wait. Wasn't.. August General in Iron's name Fang? Okay, he was… Ring, what does he look like?

An image of a.. athletic, militant looking Asian man appears in my mind. Not that tall and certainly not possessing iron skin. Pre-Durlan, or… Given how different things are, that might not have happened. And… Jade?

That's not.. Alan Scott's daughter.

Where the.. hell am I..?

Ring, the third?

Sunao Souma. Japanese national. Presumed retired. Eighty six years of age.

Wh-? No, I just have to accept that I'm not going to recognise anyone. He's retired and he's left his lantern.

!Get the lantern! NEED IT!

That's my one chance of having any say over what happens to me. And he's not using it. Ring, mark location.

A crosshair rather like the ones which marked mission locations in Tiberian Sun appears in my field of view. Elevated radiation levels, not somewhere I'd want to grow food… But I've got an environmental shield. Magnify. Hm. Looks like a park. Of course, so does the area around Chernobyl… Then again, I remember a documentary which demonstrated that slightly raised radiation levels actually deceased cancer rates by causing anti-cancer genes to express themselves, so… It could be safe?

Anyone around?

Hm. No. There's a medium sized army base not too far away, but no security on site.

Okay, so-.

!Get lantern!

Uh. I want to get the lantern. Negotiating would be good. I can.. try to buy it. But ultimately it doesn't matter. I need it. And I've got no real ties to this Earth; once I have a lantern I can just fly off to anywhere. Of course.. if there's no one down there…

I twist in the air until I'm pointing face down towards my target. And then I accelerate. Huh. The ring's showing me how fast I'm going but I'm still so high up that it's not really… Oh. Okay, getting bigger. It's most noticeable in the horizon; now I can look left or right and see blue sky rather than black space. And then the planet's around me rather than beneath me.

Oh. I'm not exactly sure what Mount Fuji looked like back on my home Earth, but I think this one's been in the wars. The lower parts are green, but the land beneath is cratered and radioactive. Why would someone nuke a mountain? Even if they wanted to destroy it, nuclear bombs aren't particularly effective anti-mountain weapons.

Getting closer. I can see larger roads, urban areas and individual woodlands. Not as many of the latter as I would have expected, but I suppose if their major urban areas got nuked… There's only so much land in the Home Islands. Maybe maintaining high-density habitation wasn't practical?

Ring. Any sign of aircraft?

Yes. However, none are moving to intercept.

Good show. Any green other than the lantern?

None detected.

Well… If he is retired, I suppose there'd be no reason to hang around. But I'm on a time limit. I can just… Leave a pile of gold.

Individual trees and slow…

I come to a stop just above a lawn. There's a gazebo and a bench… Some tended flower beds. And a sort of plinth…

!Get lantern!

Which is where the lantern is. No one around…

"Hello?" I look around as I drift towards the plinth. "Anyone using this?" … "No?"

I give any watchers a moment.

"Okay, I'm just going to borrow this?"

Another moment. Good show. I come to a halt facing the plinth and hold out my arms to the side.

!Get lantern!

Ring, get me the lantern.

Compliance.

Orange light flickers between my hands and the space the subspace pocket occupies, and a moment later the green personal lantern materialises. I lower my hands. Ye-.

And then the green fist hits me in the side!

5th July 2010
Mid day

Ouwgh!

The lawn flashes past my eyes and then agh!

I'm.. folded around a tree. Urg, what? OW! Fix. Ah. Turn around and.. shield..?

Lantern Sunao walks lightly across the lawn, glowing ring on the middle finger of his right hand. He raises it, and a glowing green hand reaches out and takes his lantern from the plinth and brings it to him. Lantern Sunao is clean shaven and bald, but his musculature is solid and his gestures certain. The lantern in his hand, he takes a moment to check it over before regarding me carefully.

And then just stands there, green light spilling from his ring.

Okay?

The ring isn't a simple circular sigil attached to a circle of… Whatever power rings are made of. It looks like a small carriage lantern attached to a ring. The glow is constant, but now I'm looking at it I can see the faint green aura all around him. It's.. not stable in the way mine is. Rather, it's.. like a flame, billowing around him. I frown slightly as I look at my own left hand. Is it.. supposed to do that? I'd say not, but-. Wait. That's what Alan Scott's ring did, isn't it?

"And who might you be?"

"I'm-."

I stagger, my construct shield flickering for a moment.

He raises his eyebrows, smiling politely. "Are you unwell?"

"I-. No, I…" I frown. "I'm-."

I'm on my knees, propping myself up with both hands on the grass. I.. can't say my name? That's ridiculous. P-.

I shudder, but I don't collapse this time. Great, I can't think my name either.

"Are you having difficulty remembering?"

I rise to a crouch, frowning. "No. I remember, but if I think about it too directly…"

"I see." He nods. "And do you know who I am?"

"Yes. Green Lantern Sunao Souma."

He nods. "And do you know where you are?"

"A.. park? I came here because this is where the-. Where your personal lantern is."

"And before that?"

"The sky above it, then space."

"And before that?"

"Aaaah… Not.. clearly? I think I was at home in bed-." I stand. "I'd very much like your lantern."

He nods. "I had gathered that from your attempt to steal it."

I flick my right hand to the side. "I didn't think you were using it. Heck, I didn't think you were even here. Ring, why did you tell me he wasn't here?"

"Subject not detectable by standard scan."

"Tremendously helpful. So, yes, since you don't appear to be using it I would very much like it. I've.. got no idea what currency is used around here, but if you'll name a figure.. I can probably work something out."

He blinks. "You would offer to buy the lantern of Jong Li from me?"

"Yes..? It was just in the middle of nowhere, the ring couldn't find any recent records of you being active and I couldn't detect you. For all I knew you were dead or something. But since you're not, yes."

His eyes fix on my left hand. "Where did you get that ring?"

"I-. I don't know, it was just there."

He nods. "Had you heard of me before you decided to take my lantern?"

"No." Ah. "Ah, hang on. Ring, anything I'm not remembering?"

A series of images flicker through my mind, too fast for me to really perceive them individually. Weirdly, that's actually easier to cope with than trying to think my own name. I just shake my head.

"And my fellow Heavenly Guardians?"

I shake my head. "Is that a Japanese superhero team?"

He appears to find that very slightly amusing. "No. No, it is not. Have you noticed any things which… Seem strange to you? Facets of the world which are different to how you think they should be?"

"Yes. Why would anyone fire a nuclear weapon at Mount Fuji? In fact, why are there so many nuclear blast points in Japan and China?" I point upwards with my right forefinger. "And there were actual space ships up there."

"Hm." He nods. "Then I have two possibilities in mind. But I wonder; what would you do if I refused to relinquish my lantern?"

"Um."

!Get lantern!

My environmental shield flares and I take a step towards him. He doesn't really react… What.. would I do..? "I'd… Ah, ask you why?"

"You know nothing of my character." He waves his left hand. "Assume that all reasonable avenues have been exhausted."

"Then…" I don't like it, but… "I'd.. try and take it from you. Using.. the minimum amount of force."

"I see." He nods. "That is generous of you, considering my age."

"I-. Yes, I'm not exactly feeling proud of myself, but I.. do need it."

"You don't get to make that decision."

Lantern Sunao and I look up as a woman -yes, that's very definitely a woman- glowing with the power of a green power ring flies over the clearing, construct dragons hovering to either side of her. That's a bit stereotypical, isn't it? Her eyes are solid green in colour -some sort of visual enhancement?- and she's got small construct lanterns placed over her ears.

Lantern Yifei. Problematic.

Ah, ring? Can I go faster than light from a standing start?

Affirmative.

"Lantern Yifei, I feel this young man is somewhat confused. Until he takes directly aggressive action-."

"All he's guilty of is trespass and theft? And dealing with whoever gave him that cheap power ring knockoff?"

Oh no you didn't.

Orange plate materialises around my body as I match her height. "I assure you, Lantern Yifei, this is very much a power ring." Hm. Dragons are obvious, but… "What's that you're doing with your eyes? Some sort of.. expanded visual field..? I'm using a heads up display myself but I haven't had time to experiment yet."

"What?"

"As I said, Lantern Yifei, he is confused. He does not know who we are."

She doesn't turn her head. "How can he not know..? Is he from one of those crazy European monastic community things?"

I frown. "No."

"Possibly. I was endeavouring to find out. I really do think that a less confrontational approach is called for."

"Alright. No, I'm not doing anything with my visual field. I'm blind. They just.. glow like this when I'm wearing my ring."

Huh. I'd have thought that the Guardians could have fixed that. Or they'd have cloned eyes or cybernetics or something like that. Odd.

!Perfect!.

On the other hand, given what the ring did to my body, it shouldn't be too hard…

I smile, raising my left hand. "Let me help you with that."

"Hu-?"

Orange light flashes from the ring, punching through her environmental shield and striking the upper portion of her face. The eyeballs themselves are basically fine, but there's damage to the optic nerve and.. visual cortex. Nasty, but perfectly fixable. Change that change that good-good-.

And then the giant sumo wrestler construct slams me head first into the soil.

"Jade. Are you injured?"

And it's holding me here and I'm really not sure that my armour can take this. What's going on?

In my mind's eye I see Lantern Yifei pick herself off the ground, blinking as she does so. Lantern Sunao comes forward to cover her. Her constructs fail and her environmental shield dims as she stares at her hands with her fully healed eyes.

"No, I-. I can.. see."

"Are you certain that is all that occurred?"

"Ah." She turns to face him, pointing at her eyes. "Yeah."

"I see." He waves his hand and the pressure vanishes with the sumo wrestler.

I pick myself out of the hole and turn to face him as he looks me over carefully.

"Young man, would you care for some tea?"

22nd October
07:17 GMT +8

"So… What do you think?"

The Harmonious One tilts his hat back slightly, the mandala surrounding him oscillating as he does so. "You have the sort of problems most men would kill for."

I look away as a particularly bright conjugation appears in his aura, turning to look at the space dock where the last dockside checks are being made to the Zheng He before its scheduled launch later this week. Something else that makes this version of Earth different from every version of DC Earth I remember: it's a lot more technologically advanced-.

I glance down towards the clouds covering Europe.

In most places it's more technologically advanced. China, Japan, India, Persia and the Songhai Empire all maintain space fleets. They're… Not exactly advanced by the standards of the wider universe, and the schizo tech I'd expect from a DC universe is almost entirely absent… Or at least I think it is. Given how advanced everything else is, I might just not notice it.

"Killing I understand. Modern Chinese culture is… I still haven't adapted to it."

He carefully lifts his hat from his head and pulls out a copy of the Book of Rites before returning his hat to his head and thumbing through the book. "There are good Confucian reasons for refusing. Since you do not come from a society where polygamy is normal and she comes from a society where monogamy is one of the normal relationship structures, your relationship would be rendered more stable by not deviating from that model. I can quote…" I shake my head. "No?"

"I've read Confucius' work because it was a set text. I'm not a devotee. I can hardly claim that defence."

"Very well." He tosses the book aside, sending it drifting through the void. "And what does Harriet Taylor say on the subject?"

"She was against political or economic marriages, but that's.. not really relevant. Both Jades have their own careers… I wouldn't expect them to comply with any restrictions which I wasn't complying with myself…"

The Harmonious One looks shocked. "Do you mean to say that you married Ms Nguyen without telling me? That was jolly rude."

"No, wh-? No, of course not. It's just that a lot of 'traditional' scholars-."

"I would hardly call someone who wrote less than two hundred years ago 'traditional'."

"You know what I mean. Extended monogamous cohabitation wasn't really a thing back then. Or at least it didn't get written about. Though Harriet would probably have approved of people learning what marriage entailed by experience, at least where children weren't involved."

"Ah." He nods. "You are treating your present arrangement as equivalent to marriage, gaining the restrictions but not the benefits."

"I suppose?"

"And even with the power of avarice on your finger. Truly, you are a virtuous prince among men."

"Larfleeze made it very clear to me how important virtue is. Also… I like to think that I'd behave… You know, appropriately to anyone I was involved with anyway."

"Hm. Speaking as a long time observer of Chinese culture, I imagine that Lady Yifei is the best person to tell you how practical such an arrangement would be." He frowns. "Un.. less she's got no more idea than you do, having not been in a serious relationship since she acquired her power ring and everyone would just sort of be muddling through with no one miraculously having-"

"Yes, thank you."

"-all of the answers." He smiles brightly. "Glad I could help." He looks up at the Zheng He and gestures grandly towards it with his right arm. "Tell me, what would your China governed by drug-addled Levellers-"

"They're not-"

"-make of this?"

"-drug addled, and they're not even really Levellers any more."

"You said they were communistic?"

"No, I said-. Political ideologies and political realities are often very different things. They actually-"

"And just like that, communistics are not communistical. It must have been very confusing for everyone involved."

"I try to judge people by what they actually do, not by what they say they do. And to answer your actual question, I think they'd be thrilled that there was an Earth where China was the most powerful nation on Earth. And then they'd steal the designs and start copying them." He bows his head, smiling. "What do they have you up here for, anyway?"

"Just.. in case." He shrugs grandly. "The Zheng He is rather expensive, and is protected against most predictable forms of attack. And -as was pointed out- I am quite skilled at reacting to unpredicted forms of attack. I'm sure that it has absolutely nothing to do with Lord Lord Fate replenishing the wards around Chengdu and wanting me out of the way."

Ah, yes. The antipathy which the longest serving member of the Heavenly Guardians feels for my chaos magic using friend is certainly not something which he would ever allow to interfere with the conduct of his offices. No. Another problem with the.. frankly toadying that happens with some of the Guardians. Or maybe I'm just being 'perniciously individualistic' again. Lord Nabu tolerates other magic users but… Well, there have only been a couple of chaos magic users in the support tier ever. And none have ever received the Mandate and actually joined the Heavenly Guardians. Harmonious One himself hasn't actually complained in my hearing, but he does make sarcastic quips at Lord Nabu's expense.

"Have they found you a new partner yet?"

"No, no. With Khyber dead, I'm afraid that they have 'sent me to Liao' literally."

I frown. "What did you do to deserve that?"

"It's technically a promotion, so I can't complain." He turns his head to look at me. "And I do mean that."

"That it's a promotion?"

"That I can't complain. The super criminals are few, the weather fair and I'll have plenty of time to work on applying chaos magic to stochastic analytics…"

"It's a waste of your talents."

He shrugs. "We are but functionaries, yoked to the great destiny of our nation. And so on and so on and so forth."

"If you're interested in transferring, I can put in a word with Dox. We don't have any magic users in the Corps at the moment."

"Now that does interest me. Might I assume that wearing a ring is not required?"

"You can assume that."

"But would I be right?"

"The Darkstars don't wear them and the fleet won't either. I'm sure that you'll be offered one."

"Mmmmmmmn. I don't think that the hat would approve. I'll give it some thought, see how things pan out. But." He raises his hat once more. "I thank you for the offer. Most generous."

"It serves our needs too. The Reach can counter Lanterns."

"Oh, I wasn't expecting a free ride." He returns his hat to its proper station. "When are you meeting Lord Fang?"

"A few minutes."

He momentarily covers his face with his hat, and when he moves it away he's borrowed Lord Fang's face. "Would you like me to growl at you a few times to reacquaint you with the sensation?"

22nd October
07:22 GMT +8

Chengdu. Largest city in the world, and capital of China since Beijing was reduced to radioactive vapour during China's last war with Japan. As well as containing the Imperial Palace and the head offices of more companies and government branches than I can easily call to mind it's also the home of the Imperial Security Agency. Much like how -back on Earth Prime- British stamps didn't have their country of issue on them, the Imperial Security Agency doesn't consider it necessary to state who the lucky Imperium is. If you have to ask, then you're probably not a threat to world security and can safely be ignored.

My ring pings me a dozen notifications as radar and lidar stations politely point out that they can see me. This place is routinely staffed by half a dozen high powered super functionaries in addition to any of the Heavenly Guardians who are using its facilities, and if Lord Nabu is down there that inevitably means that thirty or so of his acolytes are in town as well. Easily enough force to hard stop me if they had to. I wave for the benefit of whoever the camera operators are, then head towards one of the building's upper entrances. I touch down, then walk into the upper lobby. If I wasn't on record I'd have been intercepted before I got anywhere near the building. As it is -I raise my hands and stop walking as the security team head towards me- I'm still going to have to put up with them scanning me in detail to confirm my identity.

The ISA… It's not the CIA. And despite what its -mostly European- critics seem to believe it's not the Authority. China's territorial ambitions end with its borders, and it values stability even more than it values dominating its trade partners. And it values trade more than it values… Shall we say… 'Moral convergence'. While the Heavenly Guardians -most of whom used to work for the ISA- are considered to be above such things, those of us who work for the ISA are state employees and are obliged to toe the government line.

One of the members of the security detail is a Persian woman with an ankh tattooed under her right eye. It shimmers gold for a moment as she holds her right hand out towards my forehead, then returns to normal as she steps back with a nod. One of Lord Nabu's acolytes; it makes sense that they'd be giving the local magicians a day off if they're in town. I've met Lord Nabu… Twice, and quite aside from the somewhat creepy possession aspect of how he works he has quite an abrasive personality. But… I have to say that I admire the infrastructure that he's built up and the efficiency with which he works. If you can only act upon the mortal world through hosts, it makes sense to have a few hundred training to take up the job at any one time. And since they're all training to be order magic users, they can accomplish a great deal even when not doing duty as hat racks. The really good ones only take up his helmet at times of planetary crisis; it's just not efficient for them to do so the rest of the time because it stops them using their own magics.

The ISA gathers intelligence from hundreds of thousands of sources, and uses that information to advise government ministers. Its remit includes gathering intelligence both on criminals acting within China and those acting outside of it. That was the part which I worked for, and where most super functionaries the government admits to employing work. Having us work for a conventionally military organisation or for a more interventionist intelligence agency would risk increasing international tensions, so it's careful to keep us nice and visible so that the world can be suitably impressed by China's largess.

Security check and 'welcome back, sir's complete, I stride into the building proper and head in the general direction of the office which Lantern Fang is using. Flying and teleporting around the building is 'officially discouraged' and to be fair the Heavenly Guardians are pretty good about following the rules they set for others. I get a few respectful nods from the office workers I pass, and I make sure to return them. Another thing that I was politely told was officially discouraged was plundering every database I come across and as such I genuinely couldn't say who a lot of these people are.

I've been somewhat impressed about how open-handedly the ISA shares the information it collects with states that the government doesn't have a good relationship with; it was explained to me that China benefits so much from the established world order that it would be foolish not to. And getting large parts of eastern China incinerated by Japan gave the Chinese government a useful reminder about the wisdom of 'shaming barbarians into submission' by setting the best possible example rather than confronting them directly.

After they returned the favour.

The ISA also gathers political intelligence, though unlike back home they don't go in for blatant industrial espionage. If only because there isn't really anyone advanced enough for the risks to outweigh the benefits. I… They haven't asked me to involve myself in the 'normal' spying part.

Jade was kind enough to inform me -after I turned up for my first meeting with Lantern Fang about half an hour early- that he prefers it when the other party arrives either exactly on time or a few minutes later. His justification is -apparently is; he wouldn't tell me himself- that if you were hanging around like that you clearly didn't have anything better to do, and anyone important enough to meet with him should have something better to do. Except the point of this meeting is that I don't, so… Maybe I'll get away with it?

I come to a halt outside the door of his audience chamber. Yes, not a mere 'office' or 'board room', this is a full-on stately chamber. There'll be intricately painted wall panels, ornamental pillars, gravel flooring and stepped dais and… I think this one even has ornamental fountains. Minimalist design exists on this Earth, but it's considered to be a Japanese thing and hasn't ever caught on amongst the ISA's decorators. Quick self-check… Yes, everything's in order. I step up to the door of his audience chamber and knock hard, twice.

"Enter."

Lantern Fang's voice. I firmly push open the door and step through, marching-.

I hesitate for a split second when I see who else is seated on the dais, then I blank my face, recover, and continue my march up the central pathway.

Lantern Fang is up there, but he doesn't have the central position. That is occupied by Lord Nabu by virtue of his seniority. Lantern Fang is to his left, while at his right sits Souma-. Lantern Sunao. Again, he might be retired but the only way to stop being a Heavenly Guardian is to die. His ring glows dimly; the last dregs of its power from the charge he got from Jade's lantern before the final battle with Khyber. Lantern Sunao doesn't smile at me, but I've long since learned that no one keeps a poker face like an elderly Japanese man. Lantern Yifei on the other hand -safe in her position on the side and slightly back from her senior colleagues- can't stop herself flashing me a smile. On the far right, the woman in the minimalist costume is Warrior Maiden. Anywhere else, having five Heavenly Guardians in one place would be a sign of the apocalypse; they'd be there to prevent it. I'm.. not sure why they're here.

I march until I reach a spot just before the foot of the dais and then bow from the waist until my torso is parallel to the ground.

And I don't say anything. This.. whole.. complex formal behavioural thing was rather hard for me to get my head around, and I'm sure that's why Lord Nabu doesn't immediately tell me to rise. They want to make sure that I can play the part of a well behaved super functionary operative.

"Rise, Operative."

I come erect at once, hands clasped behind my back and my eyes trained deferentially at Lord Nabu's feet.

As well as posture, when to speak and when not to are also important. Saying 'reporting as requested' would be completely wrong. Obviously I'm reporting as requested; the alternative is that I just happened to wander into the right room at the right time by complete fluke.

"You have requested to return to active duty. When you left the Imperial Security Agency, you indicated that you intended to found an Orange Lantern Corps. I had assumed that you would remain with it."

He stops, which is an invitation to explain myself. "While I am skilled in the use of the orange light, I lack the organisational skills which the task required. After I located a man who possessed such skills, I passed the responsibility on to him. When he informed me that he felt that my ongoing presence undermined his authority, I offered to return to Earth until he had established himself."

Whatever happened to change Earth's history from the DC history I am familiar with, it didn't to anything very much to the wider universe. Dox was where I thought he'd be, as was Vega.

"Why did you return here and not Tamaran?"

I don't look at Lantern Fang. He almost certainly passed on what the Green Lantern Corps knows about what I did, so I don't need to describe that.

"In Tamaranian culture, personal achievement is essential for achieving political power. Given the.. impact I'd already had, I felt it best to avoid taking further action there myself when the princesses are perfectly capable of dealing with matters themselves. If my presence is required, they can contact me by ring. Also, as an Orange Lantern I have found that having a stable social group is helpful for avoiding the adverse psychological effects of orange light use."

"You have no desire for personal glory?"

Odd.. question… "I do not care about personal glory, saving that possessing it makes it easier to achieve my objectives. I think that the universe should work a certain way, and I work as best I can into making it work like that."

"Acceptable." He looks right and then left. "Do my colleagues have any questions?"

22nd October
07:41 GMT +8

"…applying myself to wider scale problems is simply a more efficient use of my abilities. Stealing a million fen results in the same amount of money being acquired as stealing ten thousand yuan, and is far harder for conventional authorities to detect."

Darna doesn't precisely seem happy about my answer, but she doesn't press the issue. Traditionally, Marte natives prefer the direct and violent approach to heroing. It's clear that she doesn't believe that the month and a half I spent investigating tax fraud was an appropriate use of my abilities. Nabu on the other hand actually nods approvingly. Distort well ordered systems for your personal gain at your peril when a Lord of Order is around.

"I also have concerns about your stated desire to acquire examples of Khyber's technology, particularly when I consider that you were present when his.. research centres were breached."

"Lady Darna, learning how our enemies' weapons work-."

"I understand the advantage. But you believe that such knowledge is valuable enough that you were willing to take significant risks in penetrating his facilities rather than destroying them at a distance?"

"While I could not know for certain in advance, I felt that that was a possibility."

"And you were not at all motivated by your desire to acquire Khyber's secrets for yourself?"

Of course I wanted them. Not that they did me a lot of good. I don't study alchemy and while I could use the cybernetic stuff… I'd rather not. On the other hand, plenty of other people across the world can pick over what we acquired and won't have to undertake the dangerous work of dissecting existing specimens or interrogating the few surviving members of Khyber's inner circle. Khyber's own life extension techniques and cyber chirurgeries will probably make their way into the mainstream, given time.

"In part, yes. Finding better uses for the technologies of the malevolent is an aspect of my work which I find particularly satisfying. But I still believe that it was the correct strategic decision, a belief that was supported by my superiors at the time."

"Did the sight of their inner workings not horrify you?"

"I would say 'disgusted' more than 'horrified'. Based on initial studies of the remains of those cybernetic organisms which we had already encountered, I already had a fairly good idea how they were made. Seeing it.. was… Deeply unpleasant. Particularly the.. rendering machines. But it was an evil I could understand."

She regards me for a moment, then leans back in her seat. "I have no further questions."

Nabu nods, then raises his hands. Golden ankhs shimmer-.

The universe seems to skip for a moment. The room is more or less the same, but the faint air currents in the room have left the tapestries at slightly different points in their wafting. The splash of water doesn't quite line up, and the Heavenly Guardians are sitting in slightly different positions. Except Nabu. He's in exactly the same position. Some sort of.. time bending effect? I'm not really sure why they didn't just send me out of the r-.

"Orange Lantern." Nabu stands, waving his right hand in a glowing arc and summoning a small wooden chest into existence. "We have reached a decision regarding your future."

"My Lords, I am ready to serve."

I'm not sure I was supposed to respond-. No, it's Nabu. If I wasn't, he'd have said something. There's a faint golden glow as the lid of the chest opens-.

I genuflect, my head bowing as my right knee hits the ground. I was not expecting that, though it does explain why Souma is here. The scroll currently floating out of the chest is a Mandate of Heaven.

Sort of. The Mandate of Heaven is China's more capricious version of the Divine Right of Kings. 'Capricious' because rather than simply saying that the king rules because God says that he should, it's more of a franchise arrangement. Dynasties which are cast down are considered to have had the Mandate withdrawn, and as such the incoming dynasty is perfectly righteous in taking care of the merely temporal matter of booting them out of the palace. If 'Heaven' permits it, then clearly it was meant to happen.

Ever since Jong Li put his adopted son on the throne of China, however, there's been a… Tradition of the reigning Emperor or Empress licensing certain individuals to act in his or her name, outside the bounds of normal government structures. Extending the Mandate to people outside of the imperial dynasty. Jong Li didn't want future Emperors to rule at the convenience of people with super powers, and after the defeat of Yalun Gar he had a healthy appreciation of the damage super powered people could do. But at the same time, he wanted good people to have the power to cause change without needing to refer to Emperors who might be corrupt or incompetent.

Back in the old days, it was the Green Lantern and perhaps a couple of other individuals. Then a Persian archaeological expedition found Nabu's temple and.. things expanded. 'Heavenly Guardians' is the modern name given to the group of people who have all made the grade and become a full part of the Earth's leading superhero team.

And… Apparently… I've made that grade.

"This quorum of the Heavenly Guardians finds that your deeds and righteousness make you a worthy addition to our number. Kneel no more, and accept this honour."

And he isn't joking. In China at least this gives me authority equal to that of the Emperor; I don't even have to give him more than a respectful nod. And he has to nod back. How it works in other places… Varies. Though I doubt that my friend Caliph Kassam al-Rashid would expect me to bow to him.

I lift my head, hands outstretched to take the scroll representing my new authority into my hands. Nabu for his part puts it into my hands with his own, rather than levitating it there. The vellum feels softer than paper, and the pagoda seal is printed in the wax holding it shut. I create a small blade construct and slice through it, standing as I unroll the scroll.

Oh. The text inside is written in Chinese -obviously- but they've also included an English translation. Not that they need to, I wear a universal translator whenever I'm on active duty. And I doubt that anyone will actually ask to see this; my membership will be widely publicised. Still, it's a surprising-

A faint golden light flows from the open scroll and into me as the identification spell triggers.

-concession. I roll up the scroll and send it into subspace. "Thank you, honoured colleagues. I will strive to be worthy of this responsibility."

"Good." Nabu's eyes flare faintly. "That is the necessary attitude to possess."

"Is there.. an area of the world which presently needs my particular attention?"

"No. Your formal audience with the Emperor will be tomorrow. Until then, I suggest that you spend your time updating yourself with ISA intelligence reports."

I nod. "Sound advice." And it is just advice. While Nabu has seniority he can't actually give me orders any longer. "I will also read up on the customs relating to the audience. I.. wasn't expecting this."

Nabu nods, then walks past me towards the exit. Darna follows him a moment later, leaving me with my fellow Lanterns.

"Lantern Fang. I.. am a little surprised that you consider me to be ready for this."

He nods. "I would have preferred to wait a year or two. But your conduct has been good, and having your rank on Earth be so at odds with your rank in the Orange Lantern Corps would be foolish. I would not have given my approval if you were unworthy."

I close my eyes as I nod back. "Thank you. I will prove you right."

He looks me over, then glances back at our two colleagues who are clearly waiting for-. He gets the message, and heads for the door at a march.

I watch him go as Jade and Souma come down off the dais to stand next to me. But I wait until the door is firmly shut before turning to them.

Jade is grinning, while Souma's smile is far more restrained but just as genuine. My eyes are wide as I shake my head in visible disbelief. Then I lunge forward and wrap my arms around the old man's chest.

"Hah!" He hugs back for a moment before pushing me away. "Off, you excessively emotional barbarian!"

I comply, grinning. "Thank you, oh ancient and venerable master."

He shakes his head. "You have earned this, and I am proud that you are my acolyte."

"Thank you." I turn to Jade. This.. might make things a little easier. "Jade."

"What, I don't get a hug?" She puts her right hand on her right hip. "After all the time I put into training you?"

"Thank you, oh sagacious and cunning tutor who totally knew that construct coilguns were a thing before I shot her with one."

"I totally did." I lean down slightly as I wrap my arms around her shoulders. She hugs back without any of Souma's reservation. "So are you really-" She pulls back slightly, hands on my arms. "-going to spend the day reading intelligence reports? Right after getting mandated?"

"Not.. all day. I.. was hoping that you'd join Jade and I for dinner this evening."

"Oh?" She tilts her head back slightly, glancing momentarily at Souma. "Do I get to bring a date too?"

"I.. spoke to Jade this morning, and… Ah." Do it. "We're the dates." She raises her eyebrows. "Assuming that you're interested."

"Ohh." She looks me over a little more closely, a saucy smile on her lips. "I.. might be. If you've got time for a prac-." She blinks. "Both of you?"

"I said I was only interested in a love triangle if the triangle was equilateral."

"I'll try most things once." She floats up to bring her head level with mine. "But maybe we could practise with a line first?"

Souma blinks slightly as Jade and I lean towards one another.. "Ah. How… Modern."

22nd October
08:37 GMT +8

Still…

Those intelligence reports weren't going to keep forever.

It looks like -to the surprise of absolutely no one- the Dream Thieves are trying to acquire Khyber-derived cybernetic technologies, and whoever wrote this isn't shy about laying the blame firmly at the feet of Harun al-Rashid in what I consider a frankly unhelpful distraction from actually giving the reader information-.

Wait a moment. I just received a Mandate.

Check the source identification code… Don't want to be too harsh…

'While I appreciate your efforts in assembling this report, it is not necessary to repeatedly remind the reader of Harun al-Rashid's actions in creating the Dreamers. Unless information has been uncovered suggesting that he gave specific instructions for a situation, their nature is background reading not appropriate for a bulletin.'

And.. send.

It's going to my head already, isn't it? Ugk, I know that I was right; I've read the SOP on writing intelligence bulletins five times and my ring gives me perfect memory. Should I have.. e-mailed the author's superior instead? I still don't really understand how normal Chinese people actually think about Heavenly Guardians. I mean, sure, they'd show deference, but-.

Incoming communication.

Oh? I straighten up slightly. Let's hear it.

"Hey Paul." I frown. "Sorry this took s' long. Guess that purple guy dropped us both in it, huh?"

My frown deepens. Ring, trace.

Compliance.

"I'm sorry; who are you?"

"Oh, come on. You gunna play it that way? You an' me are about the only guys who remember how history's supposed ta be. We need ta put our heads t'gether before they track us down."

"No, seriously. I've got no idea who you are. Let alone how you managed to contact my ring. You know cold calling on government communication channels is illegal, right?"

Ring, do you have a location yet?

Unclear. An unidentified form of obfuscation is being employed.

Probably magic. Do I think I can keep him on the line long enough for a magic user to back hack him?

"Ah no. It got you too?"

"What got me? Look, if this is something dangerous it's my job to help. And knowledge of how to block ring communication back tracking-."

"Sorry! Think I got a wrong number. I'll ah… I'll see you whenever-."

"No-. Look, I'm not annoyed-."

Connection lost.

That was.. strange. Ring, access intelligence voice print archives. Any matches?

None found.

"Any evidence of vocal distortion in the incoming communication?"

None found.

"Background noise?"

None found.

None? So he's.. in some sort of sound filtered environment..? But hasn't bothered to disguise his voice? Does he.. not know that China is a surveillance state? Ring, create a voice print file, list whoever that was as a 'person of interest, unknown risk'.

Which might result in whoever that was getting shot.

Ah, add 'report contact to Orange Lantern before engaging'.

Compliance.

Create standard format report file for miscellaneous contact.

Compliance.

Contents… Analysis… What language was that?

Subject spoke English. Unable to determine origin of accent or dialect.

I frown. Really?

Accent appears to have characteristics of the form of American English spoken in the United States of America.

Aah. With Zheng He's voyages of discovery happening about fifty years before the start of European settlement of the Americas, the USA is a rather different affair to what it was back home on Earth Prime. China didn't start shipping people over until the start of the sixteenth century, but the result was that post-independence USA didn't really have the option of westward expansion. The Sinoistic Provinces of America were already there. A few wars with the world's most powerful country later and the young country more or less fragmented… It's all a bit of a mess.

Can you narrow it down further?

Accent appears to have characteristics of the form of American English spoken in the United States of America on Earth Prime. The accents do not exist on Earth Sixteen.

What?

This ring has access to your memories. Those they do not contain a complete analysis of available accents, two have close matches.

My ring plays.. snatches, of Loyd Grossman and Heath Ledger's Joker talking, matching parts of their speech to.. whoever that was. I don't know what parts of the United States either of them come from, but.. I suppose that you wouldn't have to change history much to change a culture enough to change accents. Especially given the greater roles of Far Eastern languages in world communications.

Huh.

Okay. 'Purple guy'. Nothing comes to mind. I mean, there was that Italian terrorist organisation where the leaders wore purple… But I wouldn't call any of them 'purple guys' and I didn't.. get the impression that whoever that was was trying to deceive me. There are plenty of super functionaries who have purple in their costume somewhere, but only a few where it's a major component. And I don't have anything in common…

Kassam had a purple cloak. He was wearing it before the assault on Khyber's last redoubt at Alamut. There were.. cameras…

No, no, no. It doesn't fit. He expected me to recognise him. Okay, possibilities. He's a nutter, one of the highly skilled ones. He just thought he knew me, and my not responding the way he expected me to threw him off. Like Edward Nygma with Bruce Wayne in the novelisation of Batman Forever. I actually have forgotten. I can't forget things due to conventional means as long as I wear this ring, but I can get memories erased by telepathy. Simple enough to check; just pop along to the Martian embassy. Or get one of the local telepaths to look me over. Ditto with magic.

What does that leave?

Parallel universes and alternate time lines, those old standbys for when nothing makes sense. I've only travelled between parallel universes once and I haven't ever travelled through time. I.. think I'll leave trying to investigate those until I'm eliminated the more likely options.

22nd October
19:23 GMT +8

I look up at the restaurant's frontage. Yifei Jade smirks as she watches my face for my reaction, while Nguyen Jade is carefully keeping her face blank.

"Oooooh, very funny."

Before I came here, I'd eaten Chinese food in a restaurant… Twice, I think? Once for an office pre-Christmas gathering and again with my family. On neither occasion was I exactly impressed. But; okay, restaurant eating isn't 'normal' eating. Maybe being completely surrounded by Chinese culture for a year would help me get into it?

Nope.

I abuse my barbarian status ruthlessly in order to use a fork and a knife whenever I go out to eat. It took months for Jade to stop giving me the evils when she found out. I can use chopsticks, even without using a power ring to grip the blasted things. But why would I when a fork does the job better? If I'm picking the restaurant I generally choose somewhere Indian. As Britain had far less success confronting a unified India than it did a divided one the cultural exchange that resulted in the curry I know never really happened, but they're still far closer to what I'm used to than anything else on this world.

But tonight Jade has decided that we're going for an English.

The grinning pie merchant on the sign is wearing chef whites. Which are French. With no imperial-age competition relations between Britain and France are pretty good, far better than I would have expected given how they were when British culture was as it.. is.. now. In addition to the chef's hat he's wearing a crown and a golden chain. The place is called Aethelred's Pie Emporium and -ring?- it's written in English with a Chinese approximation underneath.

I'm feeling decidedly nervous about this.

"Is it… Any good..?"

Yifei Jade shrugs. "I've never been here before. I thought we could experience the-" She holds up a leaflet. "-'wonders of traditional English cookery' together for the first time."

Nguyen Jade already has her personal organiser out. "Reviews are generally favourable. Though apparently we should avoid the 'Star Gaze Pie."

"You can just cut the heads off, it's not really that weird." I look around-. We've already drawn something of a crowd, though Yifei Jade's status means that they aren't asking us for autographs or anything. Though given what Yifei Jade is wearing they might just want a look. Nguyen Jade dressed surprisingly conservatively, though she is wearing more makeup than I'm used to. I'm wearing an Earth-Prime style suit of a kind which doesn't exactly exist here. But again, being a barbarian has its advantages. "How did you get a reservation this quick-" Yifei Jade starts to laugh again, while Nguyen Jade appears to be trying to work out whether I'm serious or not. "-ly?"

Yifei Jade leans into my right hand side, reaching across to pat my chest with her right hand. "It wasn't a problem. Shall we?"

Jade and I let Jade take the lead-. Oh, I need to come up with pet names or something. This is silly. Maybe I can just refer to them both as 'Miss'… Which would work until we actually get married.

Miss Nguyen and I let Miss Yifei take the lead as she pushes through the front door and into-. Oh, what the heck? The interior decoration isn't bad, though with that much bare stone it will probably be expensive to heat during the winter. But the miniskirted pseudo-Beefeater waitresses are throwing me off, as are the… Ugh, the longswords and claymores which decorate the walls, lending the interior a surprisingly martial.. castley theme. The staff are mostly European, and someone whom I assume is the manager is already bowing to Miss Yifei and gesturing to a windowside table in the corner of the room.

Miss Nguyen sidles up to me on my left. "How cringe worthy is it?"

"It could be wor-." I spot a waiter dressed as a Morris Dancer, including bells and handkerchiefs. "I'll live."

Miss Yifei has been given the place facing the door and with the best views of the restaurant interior. I hesitate for a moment, then Miss Nguyen flickers her eyes at the next seat and I take my cue and sit down. Miss Nguyen has barely sat down on my left before the manager -not quite running but certainly hurrying- returns with our menus.

I smile at him. "Thank you."

He bows, a full right angle from the waist job. "You are welcome, sir."

Oh… Right. I've got that to look forward to. The downside to being important enough that I don't have to bow to anyone is that a lot of them are going to feel obliged to bow to me.

Miss Yifei is already looking over the drinks menu. "I don't know these tea blends." She gives a small shrug and then looks at me. "Which do you think is best?"

"Ahhhh." I… Don't know anything about tea. Britain is still a nation of tea-drinkers here, but for obvious reasons British tea brands don't get sold to China. I'm.. assuming that these are sourced locally based on blends popular in Britain… "I think.. Earl Grey is.. generally well regarded?"

Miss Nguyen looks for a moment as if she wants to interject before my horrible taste in boiled leaves ruins everything. Miss Yifei just nods and raises her eyebrows slightly. "What do you suggest?"

"I'm going to be drinking apple juice. British craft beer is pretty good… But…"

"You don't drink alcohol so can't point anything out."

"Yes. British-" I notice the manager giving me a slightly odd look. Why-? I'm not deferring or calling her 'my lady'. "-wine isn't great, but the Spanish and French varieties are probably perfectly palatable. Though again, I can't really…"

I shrug and she nods. "Two.. apple juices, then. Jade?"

"I'll just have.. sour plum juice."

"Oh, come on! The whole point of coming to a foreign restaurant is to try new things. You can't just drink what you'd drink normal-. Normally."

Miss Nguyen is already doing a sort of sitting bow. "Of course, my-"

"No, I didn't-"

"-lady."

"-mean it like, I-."

I look directly at the manager and lean slightly forwards. "Two apple juice, one sour plum juice and don't rush back."

"Yes sir." He bows again, turns and strides away from the table.

Miss Nguyen is clearly tense, rigidly sitting straight up. Miss Yifei on the other hand is slightly slumped, her eyes avoiding both of us. I take a privacy filter out of subspace, set it to two metres and then set it in the centre of the table. The restaurant noise drops to nothing immediately, neatly taking care of the 'public disrespect' angle.

"Jade." I lay my right hand on Miss Yifei's left. "Jade isn't used to you yet. Please -for now- try to avoid giving instructions that she feels obliged to defer to."

"Yeah, I-" She looks across to Miss Nguyen. "-didn't mean it like that. I just meant that it's... That I think it's boring to go somewhere new and then.. do what you'd have done anyway. I wasn't ordering you to drink something else."

Miss Nguyen nods stiffly. "I apologise. I should have realised."

"No, don't-." Miss Yifei sighs. "This is-."

I nod. "That's not really something you want in your personal life. Jade,-" I put my left hand on Miss Nguyen's right shoulder and give her a small shake in an attempt to encourage her to become less stiff. "-do you think you can do that?"

"I-." She nods, looking Miss Yifei directly in the eye. "Yes. I will. I'm-."

"Oh no, don't apologise. This… I've tried to have relationships before, and they always… Since I've been Mandated, whoever I'm with just starts doing that and... And then I found out that Captain Marvel was really twelve, and…"

I nod. "You stopped trying."

"And that's why-" She rotates her left hand so that we're holding hands. "-I want this to work. You.. never have and-" She stands and leans across the table, holding her right hand out to Miss Nguyen. "-I really hope you don't feel you have to."

Some of the tension leaves Miss Nguyen. She also stands and extends her right arm, clasping hands in a barbarian handshake. "Thank you, Jade. I will try."

I smile as they sit back down. "Great! Now what pies do people want?"

23rd October
08:30 -6

I smile at Ms Kimble as she enters the living room, escorted by a smiling Miss Amane. "Miss Kimble, thank you for joining us."

"Like I had a choice." She glances back at her escort, who closes her eyes and smiles at her. "Am I getting out of here now?"

"Perhaps. Please." I gesture to the chair across from me with my right hand. "Be seated."

Bit quicker on the uptake than some, this one; she does a quick scan of the room and then takes the seat I've offered her. Miss Amane takes up position a little way behind her, pole arm in hand.

"First, a quick update for you. The rest of Persuader's recruits have been taken into custody by the Department of Metahuman Affairs and their equipment confiscated. Their training area is being occupied and picked apart by forensic investigators and any interesting technology will be passed to their research teams. You have the thanks of a grateful nation. Even Kal-El asked me to thank you on his behalf."

"Great. So I can go now?"

My eyes narrow slightly. "Do you really want to go home?"

"Beats being locked in a room here." She smiles viciously. "Or are you going to make me an offer?"

I lean back slightly, and nod. "Something like that. As you can tell from Miss Amane's presence, I do recruit people with useful skills. And in return for their work, I both pay them and.. help them in certain ways. In your case, locating your father was a simple matter and you're now old enough to request that you be transferred into his care regardless of your mother's wishes."

"You found D-?!"

She bites down her wave of excitement, most likely realising how much it weakens her negotiating position. Stuart Kimble didn't exactly impress me, but as far as I can tell he's just about the only person Miss Kimble actually cares about and I believe that it's best to steer clear of recruiting outright sociopaths.

"To forestall your next question, when he and your mother separated she told him that if he attempted to gain custody of you she would go to the police and claim that he had been assaulting her for the duration of their marriage. And since I've had telepaths studying her mind for the past few days, I think I can write that one up as a believable threat. One which she will not have access to any longer. Your father has indicated that he is very much interested in getting custody, so if you'll give it the nod we can get started on that."

She nods.

"Having looked over your school records-."

"Those are private."

"I'm a Federal Agent investigating a supervillain. I can get access to all sorts of things." Legally, even. "Your grades range from C to D in every subject save P-." Ugh. "Save gym class. Not helped by the fact that you stabbed your maths teacher to death."

"What the fuck! No I d-!"

"Oh, don't even. One stab through the neck with a serrated blade which you kept. Though I was mildly amused by the fact that one of your classmates apparently paid you for the hit." I slouch back in my seat. "To be honest, that surprised me more than the fact that you killed him."

"I wanna talk to a la-."

"No you don't. You want this to go away. You want to have a tearful reunion with your father, change school and put the whole thing behind you." I raise my eyebrows. "Don't you? Because the rules concerning evidence gathering while investigating supervillains are fairly generous. If you insist on talking to a lawyer, I have to stop talking to you. But you will be convicted of the vicious murder of a loving husband and father and spend the next forty years in prison. So: think carefully before insisting on exercising your legal rights."

She glares at me for a moment.

"What do you want?"

"Assuming that you remain at large… Where do you see yourself in a few years' time?" She doesn't reply. "Now, be honest. I already know you're a murderer, it's not going to make me think any less of you." Still nothing. "You see, one thing I noticed about his body was the lack of bruising. You didn't assault him first, you just… Snuck up behind him and stabbed. The level of missing persons reports in your home town are fairly normal so I'm guessing that you haven't been practising… Did you plan to continue that sort of work? Because without some very particular connections it isn't easy to get work as a freelance assassin. Did you plan to join the military?"

"I dunno. Yeah?"

"Not a terrible choice, but I think you would have found being constantly shouted at by the drill instructors uncomfortable. And of course there's the chance that someone might have found out about the murder... Though… They're not exactly thorough about background checking, you might have gotten away with it, and.. some people respond better to that sort of physical discipline than they do a classroom…"

"Are you actually going to make me an offer at some point?"

"I've employed people with.. shady pasts before. To flat out kill someone like that, at your age and without formal training, takes a very particular mental state and I'm sure that I could find a use for you. My problem in your case is the potential for blowback if anyone else works out that you killed your teacher. But, you brought my attention to the Persuader and I'm loath to simply hand you over to the police. So here's your choice. You can move in with your father and make the best life for yourself that you are able. Or, you can enter my employ."

"Do I get my axe back?"

"If you work for me, yes."

She eyes me cautiously. "What does it pay?"

"During your apprenticeship, you get expenses. You also get a telepathically implanted education to replace the one you didn't bother paying attention to at school, superior equipment, physical augmentations that will allow you to survive the rigors of super powered combat and training in how to use them. Once you are ready, your pay will be proportionate to the tasks I set you."

She nods cautiously. "Is.. that it..?"

"That's it." There's a boom as a tube opens to my right, and I gesture to it with my right hand. "You are free to go. I will be in touch in a week for your decision."

She waits for a moment, presumably to see if there's another shoe coming down. I lean forward and wiggle my hand a little. "You can go."

She gets up and strides through the tube, which shuts down as she passes. Hm. I'd say there's a seventy percent chance of her accepting. Getting her out of a toxic environment might lead to her reforming on her own… But I rather doubt it.

"Master?" Miss Amane pointedly glances at the door, then nods her head towards it.

Again? I get up and walk over to the door, kneeling down before I open it.

Ten year old Cassandra looks up at me, then down, then all around as she tries to make sense of my body language. I bring my hands up to where she can easily see them as her G-Gnome escort scampers up behind her.

"Hello, Quiet Girl." I sign as I speak, and since there isn't a sign for 'Cassandra' I settled on that as the name least likely to get confused with anyone else. "Were you looking for me?"

She doesn't actually understand sign language any more than she does spoken or written language, but the G-Gnomes think it should be easier for her to learn it. They can't implant language without completely messing up her existing neural pathways, and from what Jean was saying I got the impression that wouldn't just cost her her combat skills as it did in the comics. The less violent way is to nudge her brain to increase its plasticity so that it becomes easier for her to learn languages the normal way, and that's what we're doing. She does have concepts of things, just not concrete labels for them.

She raises her hands and signs 'Hello Gray hello Man hello'.

"Just one 'hello'. At the beginning."

She just blinks, then signs 'play now play now now'.

I nod. "Yes." I stand and step back into the living room. "Fast Girl, could you fetch the Frustration board, please?"

23rd October
21:37 GMT +2

"What was it like for you?"

About the same, probably. The ritual's been the same since the Heavenly Guardians came into existence. Jade pauses. Your-? Ah, the ambassador..?

"Was there, tried to make a speech of some kind. We're not even from the same country!"

Except that… You literally are.

Ugh. "I hope one day to be able to take you and.. Jade…"

Don't even think about calling us One and Two.

"Back to Earth Prime. Show you what Britain's supposed to be."

I'd like that too, but he's the Britain you have to deal with while you're here.

I nod, focusing my attention on our target. Just because Khyber's dead, that didn't suddenly mean that his underlings all vanished. Picking up spies and traitors was simply a matter of subjecting everyone in critical areas or roles to basic telepathic scans, but those who'd actually undergone augmentation are a trickier business. Ghostwolves are a pain; hiding to avoid detection but still operating, still attacking.

We're still not exactly sure what Khyber's ultimate goal was. And given how thoroughly my fellow Heavenly Guardian He Who Follows killed him, I doubt that we'll ever find out. But he had cybernetically enhanced operatives sneaking around the world for decades, if not centuries. They're far more accustomed to irregular action than to direct combat. This is a return to normalcy for them.

Ophidian's Gaze.

My normal vision disappears, being replaced by swirling traces of want and need. Ghostwolves usually have spiritual training in addition to their cybernetics, but this close to an objective…

There. The image is.. distorted, but there's someone who very much wishes to be inside the military dockyard where a relatively small quantity of the cyberware taken from other cyborgs killed during the war is being stored. I can't tell whether the individual is following the last orders they received in the least crazy way they can, trying to get parts for their own repairs or getting parts to make more like them.

"Spotted… One."

There's never-

Just one. / -just one.

I feel a momentary itch on the left side of my chest. Purely psychosomatic, but if someone punches holes in you hard enough it's very difficult to forget. I… Despite its obvious utility, I don't like using my ring this way. It's.. too.. distracting. And… Though there was a.. sort of amnesty for Khyber's followers immediately after the war, that deadline has come and gone. Anyone we take alive will be interrogated until the ISA has learned everything they know, then if they're still alive they'll be executed. Using the Ophidian's Gaze I see people's most fundamental desires, and.. to an extent, experience them myself. I'm… Still not comfortable enough with killing to.. be entirely happy about.. directly experiencing the personhood of someone I'm about to kill.

Still. Needs must where Khyber drives.

…homeeatrest…

Pretty typical. Routines are habit forming, and even doing something you enjoy gets wearing after a while.

…homeawayavoid…

And not everyone's fortunate enough to have a job they tolerate.

…hornycompany…

Ah, not that one. Most of the Ghostwolves examined so far kept their reproductive systems, but often the neurochemical or hormonal modifications they had made them rather disinterested in sex. Strangely, that appears not to be a problem Khyber himself had. Or maybe he just lay forwards and thought of Persia.

U-uhh.

…sustainrevengemachine…

Aaaaaand there we go.

"Found another one." The chador does have the advantage of looking quite a lot like the red robes the Ghostwolves prefer to wear when in uniform. "Marking target. You got anything?"

No unusual activity amongst the personnel, no unusual bank transfers and no one requesting access to materials without a good explanation.

"How about that musical.. thing Rot Lop Fan and you do?"

Ghostwolves have vibration nullification fields. They don't sound any different to anyone else until they go active.

"Do the locals have any sort of idea how many there actually are around here?"

No. No one knows who the original Dream King's spymaster was, so they're even more limited in that regard than we are.

I remember well the comic in which Harun al-Rashid moved all of the glory of his kingdom into the Dreaming. I can't imagine what that must have been like, having your whole world vanish because your king desired eternity more than his people's happiness. But the thing about the Dreaming is that people in the real world can access it. Bits that used to be part of the material world are even more accessible, particularly to people who live in the region affected. So when enough people started dreaming of a glorious city, some of the more experimental type of magic user started investigating the subject. Long story short, it looks like the particularity of the people affected stayed on Earth, but the idea of them was taken into the Dream. Connect to that idea when you're awake, and all sorts of strange things happen.

As Dream Prince, Karram was able to channel the core concepts of the ideal Crown Prince. He gained strength, resilience, skill with weapons and enhanced charisma at the cost of partially becoming someone else for a large chunk of the time. As Dream King… Well, that happened while I was off Earth. But the point is, other Dreamers can also gain supernatural levels of ability in a field if they can make a connection to the skills of the person who did that job for Harun al-Rashid in the Dreaming.

It was quite a scandal when they learned that he had both male and female concubines. Which is not to say that people don't try to channel those skills.

Gonow!

The chameleon systems employed by Ghostwolves are highly effective, as are the magics they employ to encourage people to ignore and avoid them. Fortunately for me they only work against conventional vision.

"They're moving. Do we take them now, or wait for them to breach the perimeter?"

There are fewer civilians inside. Plus, I put an EMP mine in each of the crates.

"Earth-EMP mine or the good stuff?"

If anyone asks, it's an Earth mine.

I grin. Ghostwolves are hardened against Earth's EMP devices… Well, the infantry grade ones. Artillery scale ones are a different matter. But the Green Lantern Corps under Sinestro has become a good deal more 'open minded' about sharing low lethality weapons amongst its members. Given how comic-Sinestro started his own Corps in order to force the Guardians to relax the 'no killing' rule, I'm a little concerned about how long he'll be satisfied with keeping it to 'low'. But for now…

The patches of orange beneath us move, passing through the outer fence and heading for the wall-.

They just went through the fence. They still haven't fixed the electrical induction problem with their phase shifters.

I blink back into normal vision-. She's right. The steel of the fence now has a weak magnetic charge where they went through.

"Fighting an omniscient foe would be a little tricky." I blink again as the Ghostwolves go up the wall with impressive speed. "Attack as they land, or wait for them to penetrate further?"

Two Lanterns against two Ghostwolves? I don't see the point in waiting.

"Agreed. Three, two, now."

We drop through the cloud cover energy pulses firing!

23rd October
21:41 GMT +2

And shield, because-

Two beams of pale green lance through the air and impact on the construct plate protecting me as the Ghostwolf firing them dodges aside in a wild momentum defying leap to evade my shots.

-they can do that. Ghostwolves are cyborgs, so it came as an unpleasant surprise to everyone that their ocular weapons are actually technomantic rather than plasma or laser based. My construct shield withers and dies, so I let it fade before replacing it with another. Unless they've upgraded, there should be a short delay before that Ghostwolf can fire again.

A flash of pale green to my left shows me that the other Ghostwolf has tried the same thing with Jade. Firing at me would have been a better choice, but if these two haven't had cogitation upgrades they might not have the perfect synchronicity some of their kind possess-.

I dodge left as a glowing knife flies past me, the Ghostwolf who threw it tumbling between rows of shipping containers in a way that would throw off shots from conventional weapons. Hm, if it's just the two I can take a risk…

Ring, evasive flight pattern.

Compliance.

Laser. Track, predict, and fire when the target is in phase.

Compliance.

A small turret appears on my right forearm. The wraith form of the Ghostwolves makes them extremely frustrating to fight. A single Ghostwolf can fight an unlimited number of conventional soldiers armed with nothing more than a phase sword, entirely proof against their weapons and still capable of inflicting damage themselves. Phase disruptor weapons can make them phase in… If the insane agility the mist form grants them doesn't stop you hitting them. But they're very clumsy fliers and the sword only works within arm's reach, which means that against fliers-.

The Ghostwolf I'm pursuing flips, throws a pair of daggers and then goes to turn for their landing. Unfortunately for them, my ring predicted the throw based on their movements immediately prior and fires my laser construct. The beam of ruby red light strikes them during the instant they're completely in phase for the throw, causing their robes to flare with flame where it passes. It also -yes!- hits the external circuitry of their armour. The ghostly green glow being emitted by it flickers and the Ghostwolf tumbles as their weight suddenly increases. They're well trained though, and turn the tumble into a roll as they hit the concrete. They're on their feet a moment later, sword in hand to parry the two orange bolts I throw at them. Another laser shot to the face, but this time the air around them shimmers as the beam is split and diffused over their face and upper torso. Their robes start burning in earnest, before being tossed aside as the Ghostwolf adopts a guard pose.

I stay a safe distance away, dismissing my laser construct and creating an amplifier. "Ghostwolf. The war is over. Khyber is dead. Surrender and you will live."

"Still your tongue, dead man. The master will live again. She will herald his rebirth."

"A fanatic, t-" There's an explosion of emerald green off to my right, and I smile. "-hen. I don't think there's a single piece of Khyber bigger than a raisin left whole and Lord Fate warded the entire planet against the possibility of his soul returning in a new body. He's gone."

The Ghostwolf crouches slightly, a faint glow around their lower legs giving me all of the notice I need to yank myself aside just in time to dodge their sword stroke as they shoot into the air! That's an upgrade! I evade again as they try to press the attack, then generate a coilgun construct and take a couple of shots. Their armour trembles but holds and I'm shield!

The twin green beams from the Ghostwolf's eyes strike my shield as they surge forward again, sword outstretched! The rushed shield construct rots and my environmental shield bgruuuh. Heal and catch!

A construct arm grabs the Ghostwolf's right forearm and tugs it aside, pulling their charge off target as the ring gets on with healing my necrotising flesh. Next, I generate a pneumatic ram construct above them and slam it down with all possible force.

They twist in the air and punch it, the circuitry on their arm glowing as the construct breaks and fades.

Another upgrade. Irritating.

I generate another pneumatic ram and slam it into their side, armour cracking and flaking as they go sailing out to sea. Not the most efficient sort of strike, but now the sea can absorb any excess force.

Coilgun. Dial it up.

Compliance.

I can hear the hum as the coils charge, and the projectile leaves a blue trail in its wake as it flies through the air and strikes the Ghostwolf in the back. Their force diffusion field activates again, but all that does is cause all of the armour facing me to explode rather than just what was covering the point of impact. I drop the coilgun and accelerate towards what's left of the corpse, gripping what's left of it with a construct crate. Just in case their usually anaemic self destruct systems have been upgraded as well I keep it a little way away from me as I turn and head back towards the quayside. Can't.. see any green glows…

"Jade, are you finished as well?"

There's a green blur and then she's next to me. "Yes. And I managed it without getting shot." She sighs. "You asked yours to surrender, didn't you?"

"Yes."

She shakes her head disappointedly. "You need to try learning sonic constructs again. And stop being so nice to the people trying to commit genocide."

'Nice'. I had thought that my willingness to kill sufficiently bad people would mark me out as unusual amongst superheroes. And it might have done, but super functionaries are ISA or military and they were quite surprised that I thought that taking the target in alive was the objective.

"Yours..?"

She holds up her still-glowing ring. "My EMP grenade shut down something vital." And hence no automatic ring shut down for killing, as she was trying something she genuinely thought would disable them. "Did yours say anything useful?"

"They seemed to believe that Khyber would return."

"Pfw." She looks down at the docks for a moment. "We both saw what was left of his body. He isn't coming back from that."

"Cloning, maybe?"

"Even if they had a tissue sample somewhere, that wouldn't be Khyber." She drifts back down towards the dock and I follow on behind her. "It would just be some unfortunate boy. He wouldn't have the knowledge they require."

"A mental download?"

"It-. Possible, but we didn't recover any records of them having anything like that technology. Usually, these 'immortal overlord' types get to a certain age and assume that nothing is going to kill them."

Yes. Reading what one of Jong Li's earlier heirs did to Vandal Savage when he tried taking over China did make me smile. I can only wonder at the malice it must have taken to fly to the sun without an AI, and the self control it must have taken to maintain the focus on will and not hate.

Still…

"I.. think I'm going to talk to Kassam. Find out if one of his seers has picked up anything."

She halts in the air as a support team of base personnel fan out across the dock.

"It can't hurt. When do you plan on us going?"

24th October
10:12 GMT +4:30

The Royal Palace of the Persian Empire is an astonishing structure of marble and magic, the result of a Dreamer Architect's attempt to realise in the real world the building he saw in his mind every night and which increasingly plagued his thoughts. I'm.. given to understand that he wasn't entirely successful, and… Later generations added modern amenities like electricity, running water and flushing toilets, which purists claim distract from the purity of the original vision. Still, it's a blooming impressive building.

It's also in Baghdad, because that's where Harun al-Rashid had his capital. Virtually every Dream King has -having learned from the example of Emperor Wei- instead maintained a somewhat modest home in the administrative centre of the Empire, in Tehran. It makes it just a little bit harder to nuke, though Kassam did tell me that a good part of the reason is that -grateful as they may be for the supernatural wisdom that comes with the position- no Dream King wants to be entirely subsumed by their role.

The Royal Residence in Tehran is a building on the model of Medinat az-Zahrat, a series of low-built buildings separated by gardens and surrounded by public parklands. Though any Dreamer can claim the right to reside in the Royal Palace, many of the full time residents of the Residence are Dreamers themselves. Since their abilities both make them exceptionally skilled in their chosen field and tend to make them extremely loyal to the current Dream King, it isn't hard to understand why that happens.

On the other hand, that very skill means that quite a lot choose not to. The three hundred or so Dream Soldiers generally regard hanging around the Residence to be a total waste of their time. Dream Concubines… Well, social attitudes change. Kassam told me that he was monogamous last time I asked, and that he intended to pension off his predecessor's harem. Demand for that particular skill set is high enough that I doubt they'll suffer for his decision. A lot of Dream Cooks choose to run their own restaurants, Dream Merchants tend to prefer to live in private apartments even if they work for the government…

On the other hand, Dream Groundskeepers tend to stay put and Dream Sorcerers seem to appreciate the 'neutral ground' the palace represents, as well as the advantage of having their sovereign around to break up any arguments before things get out of hand.

Caliph Kassam al-Rashid, the Dream King, is already walking across the garden as Jade and I descend towards the designated landing zone. He's dressed in white with gold embroidery, including a turban of the sort he used to make snide comments about. Are we.. disrupting a diplomatic reception of some kind?

A little way behind Kassam himself are his Grand Vizier Muhamed al-Tikriti and his chief and only wife Aairah. Never met the Vizier, though ISA reports say that he's quite capable. Aairah had a job with.. some sort of financial services firm, though I don't know if she still does it. Muhamed is a Dreamer, though he dreamt of one of Caliph Harun's ministers and not Vizier Jafar. That's actually pretty normal; while Jafar was perfectly competent at a job which appears to have consisted of getting the Caliph functioning again when he was in one of his moods, he wasn't actually all that good at organising a government. On the one occasion I asked whether she had any interest in Dreaming, Aairah made it very clear that she had no interest in channelling Zubaidah. Which is a bit of a problem for female Dreamers; virtually all of the powerful positions in Harun's court were held by men and while possible it's far harder to channel wrong-sex archetypes.

Kassam raises his arms as Jade and I set down on the paved landing area. "My friends! Welcome to my humble home!"

"We thank you-." / "It's good to see-."

Jade and I look at each other while Kassam just smiles. "My Dreaming brothers and I used to toss a coin to determine precedence. Maybe you could try that?"

I graciously bow to Jade, right arm across my chest and left extended towards our host. "Lantern Yifei, you have seniority."

Kassam frowns in an amused sort of way. "With your recent elevation, I don't think you're supposed to bow any longer."

"No, it's okay." I stand. "I checked, and it's perfectly fine to bow sarcastically."

Jade steps towards him. "Caliph Kassam al-Rashid, the Heavenly Guardians thank you for your hospitality."

"Lady Yifei, it is always an honour to work with the Guardians. Particularly when they spent the previous evening fighting Ghostwolves."

They loosely embrace, then kiss three times on alternate cheeks before Jade moves down the line to kiss Vizier Muhamed. Kassam smiles at me. "Lord Nameless! In virtue of the fact that you come from a barbarian land I.. will of course simply offer you my hand."

He holds out his left hand. Technically that's an insult; in Islam, the left hand is for wiping your arse and that's about it. But I know why he's doing it. When he asked about my Britain I made the mistake of telling him about the Scouting Association. Finding out that there was an organisation that shook hands with their left so that they could keep hold of a weapon in their right was something which he found utterly hilarious.

"Caliph Kassam." I reach out with my left to take his hand, then use the grip to pull him closer so that I can kiss him. Right-left-right don't get it confused because kissing the lips of a straight man channelling the skills of a bisexual is awkward for both parties. "Kissing a bearded man. Just the way to start the day."

"Surely it is better than kissing a bearded woman?" He turns to his left. "I don't believe that you've met my Grand Vizier?"

Muhamed nods politely. "My Lord Lantern."

"Grand Vizier." Him I don't grab, my political training having made it clear that a miss-kiss is perfectly acceptable for people you don't actually know well. Sadly even an acceptably near miss results in me getting beard oil on my lips, the vizier wearing his in the long and straight Chinese sage style as opposed to Kassam's neatly trimmed short style..

"And my Queen, Aairah."

I nod. "I believe that I have had the pleasure of meeting Her Majesty before."

"Before she was queen; it's an entirely different matter now."

Aairah looks my face over carefully. "And you hadn't received a Mandate. I believe that you are the first European to receive one?"

I nod awkwardly. "More significantly, I'm the first person from a parallel universe to receive one." I lean down slightly to lightly kiss her cheeks.

She responds with good grace. "Are you disowning the continent?"

"Your majesty, I never owned it."

I take a step back as the party turns to face Kassam, who claps his hands together. "I understand that you want to speak to my seers?"

Jade and I look at one another, and I bow my head slightly. She turns back to Kassam. "One of the Ghostwolves claimed that they were working to resurrect Khyber. It would be helpful to know if they'd seen anything relating to a disaster like that."

"Or if they could identify the man who managed to directly contact me via my power ring."

He nods, and turns away to march in the direction of the closest palace buildings. We all follow on behind him. "I can think of no reason to refuse you. Though as ever I would caution you that any warning they can give will likely be approximate at best."

I shrug. "We just need to know if there is anything to it."

"They might be able to manage that." He drops back for a moment, letting Jade come alongside him and glancing mischievously at me. "Am I to understand that congratulations are in order?"

"Ah-? Not.. yet."

"But the two of you are together?"

"The three of us have been on a couple of dates…" She glances at me. "It's… I think it's working."

He raises his eyebrows. "That's a bit 'traditional' for you, isn't it?"

"I… Thought.. it was..? That it would be? But when it's people you.. actually know… You're dealing with a reality rather than an abstract idea." She shrugs. "I don't think someone should avoid doing something just because it's traditional, even if tradition isn't for everyone. Maybe it won't work out and we'll.. carry on being friends. But at the moment it… Yeah."

"I can't say I'm surprised. Given the way you two were with one another the first time I saw you together."

"That wasn't-."

1st December 2010
07:28 GMT +5:00

Jade shakes her head. "It's no good; I still can't fight properly like this. Blindfold me."

I look around in mock astonishment as she turns away from me. "Ah… In.. public..?"

She freezes, and Prince Kassam bursts out laughing.

24th October
10:19 GMT +4:30

"I was a little surprised to hear that you'd become Dream King while I was gone."

Kassam shrugs. "My predecessor's ill-health was hardly a state secret."

"No, I mean that you'd become Dream King."

"Oh?" Kassam glances at me as we proceed down a corridor towards the seers' workshop. "Do you not think I'm up to the task?"

"No, no, I-. I thought that the… That it was unusual for Dream Princes to become Dream King, because of the way the bond worked."

"Mm." He nods. "al-Mu'tasim did become Caliph in his own right as well."

"But that's the historical version, not the.. pre-Dream version. I doubt that the original Harun al-Rashid was quite that cavalier about his succession arrangements."

"Actually, the impression I get is that he was." He exhales sharply through his nose. "Concerned about today, concerned about eternity… But for the decade after his death? A five minute conversation and treaty not worth the parchment it was written on."

"I take it you-."

"Haven't mysteriously gained a new appreciation for the man since bonding with his conceptual framework?" He shakes his head. "Hardly. If anything, it simply brings his failures more into focus." He tilts his head back slightly. "And the criticism does.. help me keep him slightly at bay when I'm trying to be.. myself."

"Is it.. more difficult than it was..?"

"The hours are longer. But it's an evolution of the role which I occupied before, and thanks to Harun the official parts are second nature."

"No, I meant… Maintaining the separation."

He smiles, looks right and extends his right arm. Aairah smiles back and walks over to him, wrapping her left arm around his waist as he wraps his right arm around hers. "I haven't felt a greater compulsion to build a harem or become a pederast than I did before. Aairah is still the only woman whom I desire."

She makes an expression of mock-offence. "Good."

Jade nods. "How is that going down with your people?"

"What, could the-" He pats Aairah's left hand with his own left. "-ISA not furnish you with their analysis? I'm sure they've made one."

"Kassam, you're my friend. If you're having any sort of problem-."

He shakes his head. "As frustrating as I.. find it that sizeable proportions of my empire feel that they need not consider the Prophet's -peace be upon him- intent as they obey his words, I have made it clear that I do not intend to enforce my interpretations in law. Which is not to say that certain mechanisms will not be.. readjusted."

That.. could be interesting. Kassam's particular brand of Islam is of the opinion that polygamy is fine, just as long as you're marrying your late brother's wife to ensure that his family isn't left destitute. Or marrying a war widow for the same reason. They treat four as the absolute limit, not the target. They also regard some of Mohammed's social rules as being.. not entirely relevant to modern society. More conservative strains of Islam have had a habit of decrying them… At the same time as lauding a group of magic using superheroes as a bulwark against Chinese domination.

Kassam's retort was 'I may be a heretic but at least I'm consistently heretical'.

Two guards bow, then pull open the doors to the seers' chambers.

"Shahryar! Zand! Dan-oh."

Seven richly dressed people are kneeling faces down on the floor in an inward-facing circle. From the-. That's blood, and from the pattern-.

Armour.

Jade steps forward, but Kassam sticks out his left hand to stop her. "No. Listen. No moaning or crying, but they're still breathing. They aren't about to die. Don't get closer until a magician ensures that it is safe to do so." Jade nods and steps back while Kassam pointedly looks at me. "And don't scan them either." I nod. "Muhamed?"

The Grand Vizier takes a few steps forward, his hands raised and his lips in motion as he mutters an incantation while Jade forms a suit of armour and a shield in case this is some sort of trap. Weakly coloured purple mist appears around the collected seers, forming a segmented circle. "No hostile magic that my command of the craft can detect, your majesty. It appears that they were performing some form of ritual."

"This was from some form of feedback?"

Muhamed walks closer, careful not to cross the outer band of purple mist, then bends down to get a better look at the participants. "The blood is from their eyes, oh Caliph. In the cases of the most intense visions, it is not unknown. Still…" He stands and looks at the room's walls. "The room's wards are still active, and your seers know their craft. It is strange to see such a result from what was clearly a planned event." He turns to the guards who followed us in. "You! Did you see or hear anything?"

"No, my lord. Not.. beyond the normal sounds of the seers at their work."

Muhamed nods unhappily. "You." He points at the guard who didn't answer. "Fetch Lady Tolon. They will need new eyes before we press them for answers."

"Yes lord."

The guard nods his head, and then turns and dashes away. Lady Tolon is the court's archmage and has overall responsibility for magic in the Persian Empire. She also refuses to carry a radio or a phone, a problem long since been bypassed by trapping minor djinn in bottles and using them as bound messengers. She'll be here shortly.

Jade walks closer, though staying behind the Vizier. "Should we move them? Paul and I can do it without touching them directly."

"No." He turns back to continue his study of the injured seers. "It is a kind offer, but whatever spell they were working is still going. I would not risk disrupting it without a better idea of what it is. My king..?"

Kassam shakes his head. "I felt nothing. And they did not inform me of any major working."

I turn away, rising off the ground as I sweep the rest of the room. The Persian Empire has a distinct preference for anything relating to magic being placed in book form so that protective enchantments can be placed upon it. That, combined with some of the equipment in use here makes it look like something from centuries ago… Right up until you see the half-concealed computer terminals and see the laser projectors they use for drawing out arcane diagrams. But they'd still write on enchanted paper…

Queen Aairah has followed me to their desks. The few papers on them are.. forms and personal correspondences. She notices that a moment after I do, then puts her right hand on the secure storage unit. There's a click as she does so, and its door opens. She pulls the documents contained there out and spreads them across the available surface. Looks like… "They were making preparations for seeing an obscured event in the past. A little bit more sophisticated than the version used in criminal investigation, but nothing too strange. Nothing that should have caused this sort of damage."

"There are dream records here as well." Aairah begins flipping through a notebook. "Several members of the group were seeing images of a figure in a purple robe. The rest of the imagery was too confused to interpret."

Kassam frowns. "The purple figure was from the past? Was it Khyber? Does he have some sort of doomsday device we need to be wary of?"

I shrug. "There's no picture here. But I don't remember Khyber wearing pur-ple..."

That.. guy on the phone. Was it-?

There's a sudden inhalation from the circle of seers, then a series of yelps of pain. Muhamed's mists dissipate and the seers either roll on the floor clutching their empty eye sockets or stagger to their feet!

"Gentlemen!" Kassam raises his hands as he channels his dream partner's authority. "Help is on the way."

"My king!" Grand Seer Shahryar orientates on his monarch, dried blood forming tear tracks down his cheeks. "Oh my king! Everything is wrong!"

Kassam walks over to him and puts both hands on the man's shoulders. "There is no problem which we cannot overcome."

"No, my king! We are the problem."

24th October
10:53 GMT +4:30

"There." Lady Tolon removes her hands from Mister Shahryar's face, and he blinks as his newly restored eyes react to the daylight. "Can you see clearly?"

He nods. "Yes. Thank you."

She takes a step back, her right hand resting on the hilt of the Scimitar of Suleiman. "What went wrong?"

"Nothing…" He shakes his head. "Nothing went wrong. We were protected from hostile magic; indeed, I do not think that we encountered any."

"Your own spells were overloaded?" He nods. "Whatever did you see?"

"Ah-I-." Kassam pushes a cup of tea across the table to him. "Thank you, my king. Hha." He picks up the cup and takes a sip to steady his nerves. "It was… Mm. You saw our notes. When a seer dreams… Particularly those of us who already have a connection to the Dreaming… It is worthy of note."

Kassam nods. "I haven't forgotten why I employ you."

"The figure in purple was the focus of each of the dreams, though the peripheral details were different in each case. Less.. direct methods merely indicated that the figure was linked to an event in the past, so… We worked together to look into the past."

"Um." I raise my right hand. "Did any of you contact me about this two days ago?"

Shahryar frowns, shaking his head. "No, no, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"I had a rather puzzling conversation with someone two days ago. They contacted me by ring, and mentioned a 'guy in purple'. I couldn't think of anyone they might have been referring to, and they broke off the conversation without explaining it."

"What did they.. say about this person?"

"That they'd.. dropped us both in and, that we were the only people who remembered how history was supposed to be. Given.. that parts of the history of my world have entered the public domain, I wasn't sure what they were getting at…"

"No-. Ah, yes, that makes a degree of sense. Based on what we saw…" He takes another sip, his hands shaking.

Kassam leans forward. "Don't keep us in suspense; what did you see?"

"The Night of Stone Blades."

Kassam frowns. "An unpleasant business, but I am unsure how it could cause all of the seers to be blinded."

"It is because we did not see what we should have seen. Lady Yifei, I am sure that you know China's history better than I do. What happened on that day in fourteen fifteen?"

Jade frowns. "Lao Yuqi's automata reactivated. They broke out of the First Emperor's tomb, travelled covertly to Beijing and murdered hundreds of Confucian courtiers and officials before either being destroyed or.. breaking down."

"Yes. And then?"

"The.. death of so many civilian administrators resulted in the military taking an increased role in civil administration, and… Since Prince Zhu Gaochi and his son were killed, it also changed the succession in favour of Prince Zhu Gaoxu."

The Zhànzhēng Emperor. Even bloodthirstier than his father, which when you consider what he did to become Emperor was something of an achievement. He was a large part of why the later voyages of Zheng He and his successors were further roaming and more aggressive than they were in earlier days.

Shahryar exhales sharply. "Did it?"

"Ah… I'm not an expert on history." She shrugs. "There were probably a lot of other things going on as well, but, yes."

He nods. "When we looked back, we saw what you described. We saw nothing not accounted for in written history, so we turned our eyes away and tried to see something new: why the automata had become active in the first place."

She shrugs. "Because they were programmed to."

"Why would the First Emperor have the guardians of his tomb programmed to murder his distant successor's courtiers?"

"I.. don't know?"

"Neither did we. But since our vision was centred on that period, we thought that we would examine the tomb itself. And we saw…" He winces, raising his right hand to his head. "We saw the empty tomb, and so we tried to look back further, to when Lao Yuqi was entombed. We saw him plead with the Emperor's undertaker. We saw him entombed with the corpse of his master. And then we saw a portal open, and a man step through into the great mausoleum. He knew who Lao was, he greeted him warmly and asked him to alter the programming which he gave to the automata. He said that in return he would remove him from the tomb."

Kassam nods. "Was this man a wizard?"

"He may have been, but I do not think so. When Lao asked who he was, he laughed and gave several names. I recognised three: Khafre, Brutus and Vandal Savage."

"Khafre? Hm." Kassam settles back into his chair. "Well, we knew that he was long lived. I hadn't known that he had spent time in China, but it is hardly astonishing."

"My king, he had a mechanical watch of European design. And a mobile phone. I believe that he travelled backwards in time."

There's a sharp intake of breath from both Jade and me. Vandal Savage! I always thought that he regenerated from his body; that throwing him into the sun would do the job. Does he just..? Reappear? Okay, in this era he'd be more a nuisance than anything else… Time travel notwithstanding, with modern surveillance and communications, but it's still a shock.

Kassam raises his eyebrows and rather pointedly looks at us. "Have our honourable friends been keeping secrets from us?"

Ring, check?

No contradictory data found in Heavenly Guardian records.

I shake my head. "Souma was always pretty definite about it with me, and the Guardians don't have anything to contradict it. Picked up, thrown into the sun. If that was him… He could have regenerated from a hair follicle or.. blood or something, and just kept his head down."

"And the time travel?"

Jade shakes her head. "Time travel is banned in China, and I don't think anyone is seriously working on it."

Kassam nods again, then returns his attention to Shahryar. "What happened next?"

"Lao agreed, and set to work on his automata. Khafre simply watched him at first, then joined in. We did not watch the entirety of their work, but instead came forward until they finished. Khafre reopened his portal and then led Lao through. Some of us-" His hands shake again and he presses them against the arms of his chair to still them. "-followed them through, and found ourselves in some manner of laboratory. There was a partially disassembled golden mechanical automaton in the form of a woman plugged into machinery whose purpose we could only guess at. What drew our attention was a screen upon one wall, and the figure in a purple robe whom we all recognised upon it. Khafre told him that his part was done, and the figure agreed but said that he had to check on a few things before fulfilling their bargain. I flew from the room to try to discover where they were, but all around was desert. When I finally reached a settlement, it was inhabited mostly by Europeans and Africans. Several houses showed a flag… I think it was the one used by the European colonies in North America after they claimed their independence."

"This?"

He looks at the construct flag, then shakes his head. "No, there were more stars in the corner."

!

"This?"

"Yes." He nods. "Yes, that is what it looked like."

Kassam raises his eyebrows at me. "I know the flag of the United States, and it did not look like that. Do you recognise it?"

I nod. "It's the flag of the United States of America. From my world."

24th October
10:58 GMT +4:30

Kassam gives me a blank look. "Remind me?"

I dismiss the flag and create a map. "The country covering the northernmost part is Canada. The next one down is the United States of America. They're probably the most powerful nation on the planet."

"I thought that your world did not have the technology to shift between parallel universes."

"If someone did, they didn't tell me about it. We certainly don't have super functionaries and I don't think that we have a Vandal Savage. Just because a United States exists, that doesn't mean that it was my United States. Any America that started with thirteen states and currently has fifty would use the same one."

He nods. "True." He turns his head towards Shahryar. "Please, continue."

"No.. super functionaries?" He shakes his head. "I.. do not think it can have been your world, then. I definitely saw images of such people."

"We have them in fiction. Did you see drawings or.. actors?"

He shrugs, shaking his head again. "They appeared to be real, but… I was not there long enough to tell for certain. The technology seemed.. outdated, but beyond that..?" He shakes his head again. "I saw no place names that I recognised, and my colleagues called me back to the laboratory before much time had passed. When I returned, things were much the same as they had been. The figure in purple said that things were in accordance with his plan, and that 'corrections' would only take a moment. Khafre nodded and activated a device which appeared to freeze him and Lao in place. Then…"

He bows his head slightly.

"Things changed… I could feel chains of events snap, the flow of history contradict itself. I saw cities built, unbuilt, changed, erased, their people changing, vanishing, reappearing and finally being unmade by what was happening. As seers, we train ourselves to be sensitive to the links between times and places-."

Lady Tolon nods. "You are lucky that you just lost your eyes."

"I am certain that if we were seeing it as it happened instead of merely sensing it in the aftermath, the cost to us would have been far greater. The only point of stability was the.. 'bubble' around Khafre and Lao. We.. desperately clung to it to anchor ourselves, but even then I could feel it as those inside came adrift from the world around them. I saw Lao alone in the First Emperor's tomb, using his last days to reprogram one robot where I had seen him in company reprogramming them all. I saw him cut his wrist and bleed to death rather than let starvation claim him, even as he stood alive and well before me. I saw some small part of Khafre's life in double vision, then saw him doing two separate things at the same time in different corners of the world. It was too much."

Oh dear. "You mean they altered history? Savage went back in time to that point to change things."

Shahryar nods. "I believe that you are correct, Orange Lantern. His device kept the change from affecting him and Lao, but the rest of the world was realigned to match the new history."

Kassam looks thoughtful. "But if he is dead..?"

Jade gets it. "In the original time line, he wasn't dead. He was alive now, and that version of him avoided being changed by using time manipulation technology."

Kassam nods. "So while he was indeed thrown into the sun in the new time line, the one we know, that version was not. And as he was shielded from changes in his personal history, he would once again be alive." He hesitates. "Or rather, never died."

"Indeed, my king."

But.. that's.. not the important thing, is it? "Did his time travel equipment survive?"

"No, it did not. I-. Our spell ended as time stabilised once more, but I saw his equipment be replaced by solid rock."

Okay, good. "Could you find the location?"

He nods cautiously. "I believe so. If you have a map..?"

I take one out of subspace and float in it front of him.

"A moment." We all look at Queen Aairah. "When did this happen?"

"I.. am.. not certain that that question makes sense, my queen. Since the time in which it occurred no longer exists-."

"But he appeared in the new time line. Which we are assuming is our time line."

"That.. is true. I.. do not know, and discovering that will be harder than finding the location." He looks at Kassam. "My king?"

"I would prefer not to test you until you were better rested. But if this man has the ability to manipulate time then we cannot wait. The location first, then the time. And then rest."

Shahryar nods again, then pulls from his pocket a metal disc with a hole in the middle, suspended on a length of string. He holds it up to the map. "This will be but the work of a moment."

The disc rises, gently tugging the string towards the western part of the Sinoistic Provinces of America. Though formerly they were effectively a separate state from China, the Imperium War and improved communication technologies resulted in them becoming more closely tied to the central government. Though in the case of the war that was largely because they could still produce food that wasn't radioactive, and that made them enough money that there weren't that many complaints.

Thinking about it, maybe the lack of democracy explains the lack of separatist movements? I mean, no one paid the Scottish Nationalist Party any attention until devolved government came in, and now most of the Scottish constituencies return SNP MPs. Whereas in Imperial China, civil servants run the government and are promoted mostly meritocratically. They might have all sorts of political beliefs going in, but there's basically no space for them to do anything about them.

"Here." String hanging from it, the metal disc is floating over an area in… Would that have been Texas? North Mexico? I'm not sure. A moment later a tiny point of light appears on the map in the centre of the hole. "This is where it… Was located. I doubt that you will find anything other than a hole in the ground now, but it may aid you in locating Khafre and Lao."

The disc is steady… Ring, acquire location.

Location acquired. Location is approximate to within thirty kilometres.

Hm. "Just a moment." I alter the map, expanding the area under the pendant while dismissing the rest. "Could you-?"

The pendant moves slightly. "Here."

I repeat the process, and the pendant moves again and again… Right.

I dismiss the construct with a nod. "Jade?"

"Co-ordinates locked, and I've informed local authorities that we're on our way."

I turn to Kassam. "We'll be there in a few hours. We'll keep you updated."

He rises to his feet, walking towards me with his right hand extended. "Good hunting."

I take his hand for a moment, then step back and armour myself before turning away and striding out of the room. Jade's already in the air ahead of me and I'm hot on her heels as we leave the building and head out into the open air.

For obvious reasons, faster than light travel is prevented near to Earth. The Persian Empire keeps its end of the bargain up using magic. It literally won't work here. Which means we're doing this the mundane way. Jade and I head upwards, generating scramjet constructs as we reach a safe height and turning into a parabolic arc that will take us to America.

24th October
02:28 GMT -6

"…just buy something from Ma Yu Ching's Bucket Chicken House next time."

Ah, long distance self-powered flight. Geo-Force was right on the money about how boring it is. I have no idea how Thundermind copes. I'm sure that I'd go peculiar if I had to go everywhere at a mere five times the speed of sound.

"I haven't been to a Ma Yu for years."

"Really? It was one of the first places I went, even if I had to explain to them what chips are. Are you..? Do you not like it?"

"ISA catering is really good. And before, I was a sports fanatic. I tried to avoid greasy take away food like that."

"So the pie restaurant was..?"

"I just… You found it awkward, so I thought eating… British food-"

"Hahahaha!"

"-might-. Yes, okay."

"I mean I -hah!- appreciate the thought, but-. They had zweihänder Morris dancing, for goodness sake!"

"Aaaaaand?"

"Morris dancing doesn't involve zweihänders. Handkerchiefs, stout sticks and arming swords, certainly, but I'm sure the only reason they were using those huge.. things is that weird cultural obsession some parts of China have with Europeans using huge swords."

"Oh. Is it..? Does it.. bother you? Did you.. actually do… 'Proper' Morris dancing?"

"Hah! Oh, no. Um, one of my dad's friends was a member of the local troupe and… When I was younger we used to.. go down to the seafront once a year to watch the maypole dancing on May Day. So I know what it's meant to look like and that was kind of it, but they'd clearly had to innovate to work those ridiculous swords into it."

"So was that a 'no, you didn't do it', or a 'no, it doesn't bother you'?"

"It bothers me because they're doing it wrong. If you want to see what it's meant to look like I can take you to see an actual troupe doing it next year."

"So it's.. not the cultural appropriation thing?"

"The c-? HAH! Um, no." We both begin decelerating as we get closer to our destination. "It's just daft. It's like… Imagine that every character in Chinese popular fiction carried a changdao everywhere. Li the Talking Zither from Adventures in Music? Changdao. Hides it in his board in case An-An ever needs it. Doctor Chang from the Diaries of Doctor Chang, Mild Mannered Country Doctor? He's now Doctor Changdao and if gentle persuasion doesn't work he's got a huge-"

"No!"

"-sword to back it up. Wang Hien from that Garden Beauticians program Harmonious One likes to watch?"

"Changdao." / "Changdao."

"Because she really hates ornamental hedges."

Through the green glow of her construct armour I see her smiling at the idea. "I'd actually watch Doctor Changdao. 'Why do you drink and bring shame upon your family? Rah!'."

"I.. think there'd be complaints." We come to a halt, desert as far as the eye can see. "Was anyone going to meet us here?"

"I didn't see the point. It's in the middle of nowhere and they'd probably get here after us. And if we can't find anything-."

"Then the next step would be a magic user."

"I was going to say that there's probably nothing here to find, but there might be a shaman around here the local office could get hold of." She points her right hand at the desert below us. "Shall we?"

"If you insist." Ring, scan.

Compliance.

"I suppose we could come all this way and then just go home again."

Show me what's there. "Oh, heck no. It's got to be dinner time by now."

"It's five o'clock."

"And by the time we flew back it would be dinner time. We could pick up some Mexican food-."

Results available.

We lower our rings. As Shahryar said, there's a sphere.. missing, from the rock. It's partially filled in, partially where dust from the surrounding environment has blown in and partially from where someone dug their way out with a plasma gun. Given the heat that would generate, it was a bit of a risk. On the other hand, Vandal Savage would have assumed that he'd eventually regenerate, and… I doubt that he cared much about Lao. The rock is cold and there aren't any tracks, so whenever they left it wasn't recent. No technological artefacts or spatial anomalies detected. There's a-.

Ah! A hair, wedged under a rock.

"Got a genetic sample."

Partial match on available caveman samples.

"It's Savage. Submitting to local ISA office."

"Any matches?"

"Not yet, but something's bound to come up."

No credit cards from a 'normal' time line would work here, precious metal would require a background check including a genetic sample… Kassam will be getting his people to provide a sketch as soon as they've recovered so we'll know what to look for… Hm. Don't know enough about USA road networks to guess how the ones here differ.

I turn to Jade. "He's not here and he's not wandering the desert. Where do you think he went?"

She creates a construct map of the area. "When did Europeans settle this part of America on your world?"

"I'm.. not sure. I suppose… The oldest cities east of here might be in the same place, but I'm not sure he could reach them quickly. I don't think any west coast cities are in the same place."

"He is on record as being a cannibal. Maybe he brought Lao along so that he could eat him if it took too long?"

"Seems a bit odd to me that he had a time machine but not a personal teleporter."

She frowns. "Wait." A hand construct extends downwards and picks up a piece of plasma-melted rock before pulling it back up.

"What about it?"

She generates an automaton construct and has it grip… Its fingers fit perfectly grooves melted into the rock. "He couldn't guarantee any sort of help in the new time line, but they had all the time they wanted to work on the automata. They could just program them to walk here and wait. They don't need water or food and won't be affected by heat."

I nod. "He could just order them to carry him to the coast, or pass on information about what they'd seen."

"I'll contact local police. We need to find them as soon as possible."

24th October
02:35 GMT -6

The golden glowing ankh appears in the air before us, and one of Nabu's monks strides through. "Honoured Lanterns, please enter at once."

He steps back and Jade and I fly through the opening into their temple complex in Shiraz.

24th October
13:05 GMT +4:30

I know for a fact that those ankh portals aren't easy for mortal wizards to open, and even less to transport people who are not strongly order-aligned. This one shuts down immediately as the monk who greeted us comes back through, the monks holding it open on this side slumping with relief as they let the spell fade away. Okay, either Nabu or the abbot wanted us back in a hurry-.

"Honoured Lanterns." Jade and I look up as the abbot enters the ritual chamber, guardian Lamassu at his side. Abadun is a heavily built black man with his greying hair and beard bound in dreadlocks. He'd look like a pirate if not for the complete calm with which he conducts himself. "We have heard disturbing tidings from Caliph Kassam; his seers convinced that our whole world is based upon the actions of a time travelling criminal. Is this true?"

I reluctantly nod. "There's a certain amount of circumstantial evidence which implies that may be the case." Those monks who are still mobile rise to leave, while their more exhausted colleagues are helped out by novices. The moment the last of them are out a new group file in, chanting prayers as they come. "Why did you call us back? We'd barely started searching America for them."

"If Khafre were not protected against detection by your rings, you would have found him in moments. Since he is not in your custody, Lord Nabu felt that the task of examining surveillance was best left to Ultimon while he unbinds Khafre's protective spells himself."

Jade and I glance at each other, then nod. He's right. Heck, we don't even know if Savage stayed in this time period.

Abadun smiles slightly. "Do you have Khafre's hair?" Jade nods and holds it out. "Excellent." Another novice comes forward with a small, ankh inscribed jewellery box. "Please, put it in there."

Jade frowns slightly, but complies. "Are you going to try scrying for Khafre with it?"

"Oh, no." The novice closes the box and it vanishes in a flare of golden light. "As I said, that is Lord Nabu's task. Our task is far easier." He gestures to the circle of monks behind us. "Orange Lantern, you told Caliph Kassam that you were contacted by someone who spoke to you through your ring. Having listened to what he said, I have reached the conclusion that it is likely that he knows something about the events which have taken place. It is him whom we shall be searching for. That is why we need you to be here." He gestures to the centre of the ritual space with his right hand. "Please?"

"All of me, or just my ring?"

"All of you, please. He implied that there was an existing relationship between the two of you which you no longer remember. That will-" I nod, turn away and walk to the centre of the ritual space. "-make things easier."

Jade frowns. "What am I here for?"

"Once this ritual is complete, we will open another portal to his location. Since we have no idea what level of resistance to expect, you and I will advance alongside Orange Lantern."

She nods as I reach the indicated space. "Do I just stand here?"

The monks bow their heads, golden strands of light dancing through the air around me. Abadun nods. "Yes, that is quite sufficient. Please focus your mind on your recollections of the conversation."

Ah. Alright? It wasn't a long conversation, so… 'Hey, P-.' Agh, name. But he definitely sounded like he knew me. 'Sorry this took s' long. Guess that purple guy dropped us both in it, huh?' The vernacular 'dropped us in it' is something that doesn't exist in the lexicon of this world. The 'purple guy' did something to both of us-. Wait. I came from a parallel universe anyway. My personal history wasn't affected before my arrival point. But he knows-. He knew the me from that other, non-Savaged time line. He knew how to contact my ring. They might.. even have been friends.

I suppose I can.. understand him not wanting to talk to me. It must be more than a little dis-.

The golden light around me shines brilliantly! For a moment I get a clear view of a middle aged European with short orange hair and a moustache. Can't.. clearly see his environment…

"There! We have him! Open the gateway!"

Right, we'll just-. No, I can't move. Or.. feel my body. That's a.. bit of a worry. My only point of awareness is the man who prank called me, and he's… Feeling for his necklace and.. standing up… Looks… Worried..?

And-.

Ugh. The lights have dimmed, the monks are slumping once more and Jade's holding the man from my vision in construct cables. He looks around at the interior of the monastery, not scared exactly but certainly concerned.

"Heya, everyone. Nice place y'got here. What is that, sixteenth century?"

I walk out of the circle, power ring glowing. "Sir, we have a bit of a situation and we have reason to suspect that you-" He turns his head my way, wincing as he does so. "-have pertinent information. We would very much appreciate it-."

"Hey, Paul. How 're you finding bizarre world?"

"It's treating me pretty well. You do know me, then?"

"Then, now, sure, whatever. We know-knew each other."

I glance at Abadun and Jade, but they seem content to let me do the talking. "In what way?"

"Ahhhh." His face takes on a downcast expression. "Coulda had some fun with this… If things were a little different." He sighs. "Yah know about the time line changing, right?"

"Yes. Vandal Savage went back in time to reprogram the terracotta warriors, resulting in the time line being changed, from.. whatever it was before to this."

"I don't get what happened to Kal-El. Shouldn't he still a' got sent here?"

Ah… I wouldn't know who Kal-El was if I hadn't seen him in the comics, would I? "What's your name?"

"Truggs. Nylor Truggs." He glares contemptuously at Jade. "Which means Nylor is my personal name." His head turns slowly back in my direction. "And you're Paul, yah can't say yer own name without fainting and yah founded the Orange Lantern Corps. Funny how yah still got together with a woman named Jade." He frowns. "You sure you don't remember anything about… The Legion? The Time Trapper?"

Flat out lying in an order-temple would be unwise. "What legion would that be?"

He exhales sharply. "The Legion of Superheroes? From the.. future..?" My face doesn't move, so he checks Jade and Abadun to see if there's a reaction there. "Well, on the plus side, I kinda think we found out how their future got erased. On the negative side, it kinda wiped out ours as well."

"I really.. don't remember this."

"You don't remember merging with the Ophidian?"

"Merge with-? That would be insane!"

"Yeaah, good times. Alright. Far as I know? Savage wan'ed some kinda temporal… Thing, an' I somehow built it. Except that was future me, 'cause the Legion showed up and dragged me off t' Vanishing Point. While I was swinging my heels, some guy called Jason Goldstein time travelled back t' try an' stop some.. assassin group… The Justice League… They're a superhero team… They shut 'em down, then you got picked up 'cause the Legion don't really know what they're doing an' thought you might be th' source of th' time changes." He slumps back in the chains. "I still can't work out how this is supposed t' be my fault."

"How did you end up back here?"

"The Time Trapper. Guy in a purple robe. I'd heard a' him before… Never seen him until he threw you an' me back into the time stream. You sure you don't remember-?"

"No. But why do you?"

"If you really don't, I'd guess it's because my personal time line doesn't work any more. But yours does, 'cause a' how you come from a parallel universe. You just slot right in, I stand right out."

"Do you know where Savage is now?"

"No. But I.. do know where some a' his safe houses are. And I'll tell yah… But I gotta ask: you're gunna fix things. Right?"

24th October
13:12 GMT +4:30

Jade shakes her head. "All the rest are covered, but we don't have anyone in Europe who can get there quickly enough."

I look at Abadun. "I don't suppose that you could teleport us?"

"Could we? Yes. But we are keeping ourselves for high urgency tasks. There are not an unlimited number of monks here."

Jade sighs. "We'll just have to fly there ourselves." She turns away to start towards the exit. "Come on. The sooner we start-" She rises into the air with me hot on her heels. "-the sooner we finish."

"That sounds like defeatist talk to me. Ring, call Harmonious One."

"Calling."

Jade glances back as we negotiate the corridors at speed, heading for the open air. "Harmonious One? You can't bring him here!"

"We'll be out of Persian air space by the time he can respond."

Brrrrring!

I generate a phone construct and raise it to my head. "Orange Lantern to Harmonious One."

"Oh exalted one, My Lord Lantern! How gracious of you-"

"Can we not?"

"-to remember that this… Humble functionary-"

"Do you want to help or not?"

"-is your most obedient-"

"We might lose the last six hundred years."

"-s-. Ah. Should I come to you?"

"Yes please. Meet us at the Persia/Europe border."

"Oh, yes. It's only a few hundred miles long. It won't be hard at all to spot a single man-sized object. When you say 'lose the last six hundred-"

Jade's scramjets fire with deafening force as we get far enough away from the monastery to use them.

"-years', what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Are you on your way?"

"Yes. It just takes a moment or two for the hat to get big enough."

"A Vandal Savage from an alternate time line created this timeline six hundred years ago by travelling back in time and causing the Night of Stone Knives. Now he's back in this present and we don't know where he is or what he's doing."

"Oh. Ah. Wait a moment." I trigger my scramjets while he thinks about it. "Ah… The hat… It's.. talking to me."

"Is it talking about how to get us to Europe faster?"

"It's.. talking.. about time. Ooooh, it's all so beautiful."

I accelerate to catch up with Jade. Of course, Nabu's anti-chaos magic user sentiment might not be entirely unjustified. I once saw the Harmonious One spend four hours staring at a plasma ball, and the hat itself talking is.. not a good omen as far as productivity is concern-.

A red slash tears across the sky, and Jade and I fly straight into it!

24th October
11:18 GMT +3

And out of it-! And… We're here? I decelerate as the countryside of Wallachia flashes past. The Heavenly Guardians have an… Understanding with King Vlad, which means that he shouldn't take umbrage at this violation of his territory. And as the number one cause of the Persian Empire not expanding into Europe he also has one with the rest of the continent, including the parts that would ideally like to see him staked at a crossroad. The holiday home which Mr Truggs fingered as having an auxiliary function as Savage's getaway is rapidly approaching, a translucent dancing dragon circling around it suggesting that Harmonious One got here ahead of us.

Jade smiles at me as she loses altitude. "If he was that efficient normally I'd actually try getting him promoted."

"I don't think the hat paying attention to current events is likely to be a good thing."

The Harmonious One himself is near the front door, gesticulating at.. a couple of figures in cloth-swathed armour. Vampire knights of the Order of the Dragon. Overcast sky? Yes. Vulnerability to sunlight becomes much less important when your elite can control the weather. Screaming face tabard means… Scream Queen, and the Cross of St George with a blood droplet means.. Andrew Bennett.

He looks up as we approach. "Lanterns. What brings you here?"

Jade lands just in front of him. "According to an informant, this is one of Vandal Savage's hideouts."

"Vandal Savage? I thought that I recognised the scent from somewhere."

I land next to Jade. "If you're not here for him..?"

Scream Queen turns her helmeted head towards the manor. "Blood. It's officially a collection of holiday flats, but now it reeks of blood. About… Thirty different sources, which are as many people as are registered as staying here. Local police opened the door, saw the bodies and then called us."

None of us make a joke of it. The Order test the self control of aspirants extremely harshly before letting them join, and the penalty for a knight who loses control on active duty is to be impaled and left in sunlight. It's not as quick as some films make it look.

Jade nods, then gestures towards the door. "It's your country. But we need any clues on Savage's current whereabouts."

Mr Bennett nods. "Of course. Do you have an accurate plan of the-?"

Scan and map.

A three dimensional model of the manor's interior appears before me. It's divided into apartments with some common areas… Mr Truggs said that only a handful were ever occupied at any one time, with the rest being reserved for Savage or his guests. Mr Bennett and Scream Queen look it over and then move, their bodies and armour partially transformed into mist to enable them to run at superhuman speed and flow around obstacles.

I monitor their progress through the manor as Jade waves her right hand in front of Harmonious One's unresponsive face. "Harmonious One?"

"Something's very wrong, you know." He.. sort of manages to focus on her. "Destiny is not so flexible as to allow time to be mistaken."

"The only 'mistake' is that Savage is free."

"No… No, you don't akgh." He winces, pulls the hat from his head and then fans himself with it. "A history that has already happened has a momentum to it, a presence that continues even when the history ends. For little shifts it can be lost in the background… Correct itself. But for major changes energy has to come from somewhere. Sustaining… Us, for six hundred years… The hat isn't sure how it could be done. But then I thought… Were we here for six hundred years last week? Because if we weren't, then the equation starts to look a lot more possible."

That sounds like something I should worry about. "What happens when the power runs out?"

"The hat doesn't know, but at a rough guess? The universe makes itself as much like what it should be in the most efficient way possible. That… Probably isn't survivable for us."

24th October
11:26 GMT +3

Jade pulls me away from Harmonious One. "How much.. faith are we putting in a talking hat?"

"That's a slightly harsh way of talking about Lord Nabu."

"I'd believe Lord Nabu. Harmonious One is talking about our whole world ceasing to exist because 'time' says so."

"No, he said we could prevent that happening by finding a sufficiently large power source to make up the energy debt." She blinks. "I don't want our history to be destroyed any more than you do."

"You'd still exist."

"No, some other guy with my name, face and ring would still exist. Some.. lunatic who thinks that bonding with the Embodiment of Avarice is a clever idea. Without my history, my memories… Without you or Jade…" I shake my head. "But that isn't Harmonious-."

She nods. "Harmonious One's fault."

"I can hear you, you know." We turn to look at him as he holds the hat to his right ear. "If I seem distracted it's because the hat and I are trying to come up with a solution."

"Would you be affected?"

"Probably. Almost certainly. Though the hat might remember me, whether it ever mentioned me to anyone or not."

"Do you have any way to track down Savage?"

He taps his chin with the brim of his hat. "Assuming that Lord Nabu is doing his level best to brute force the issue and so it isn't worth my while attempting that approach, a more indirect divination would rely on Savage actively involving himself in the society around him. Since he almost certainly hasn't been doing that…" He holds his hat out to arm's length with the brim up, then turns it over. A series of sticks… Yarrow stalks, fall out and land on the ground. He looks at them for a few moments, then solemnly returns the hat to his head. "Not a clue."

Hm. "How does magic interact with time travel?"

"Apparently, your eyes explode."

"That wasn't-."

"In theory, more esoteric magic effects should ignore it while more physical ones would be almost completely nullified. You might have a point, though. If Savage is hiding himself using temporal distortion technology rather than magic…"

A cloud of mist blasts out of the manor, precipitating into Mr Bennett. "Thirty three dead, no survivors. The deaths were inflicted by axe and short sword. All exits save the front door were barred so that none could escape, though from the location of many of the bodies it appears that the attack happened while they were in bed. To begin with, at least. The fallen were finished where they fell, then left in place."

Jade nods. "Did you find a workshop or an office?"

"There's what looks like a panic room. From the general construction I'd say that it's designed to be 'vampire proof'-" For some reason a number of tourism companies consider those to be de rigueur in Wallachia. "-and it's air tight. We could break in with brute force, but if you wouldn't mind assisting..?"

Jade nods, rising into the air to follow him as he turns back into mist to lead the way inside.

Ah... "Do you think it will have occurred to Nabu to watch for temporal distortions?"

"It should. If it occurred to me then it should occur to someone thousands of years old. But then again, I've never met him."

I frown. "Doesn't he assess all magic users promoted beyond-?"

Harmonious One shakes his head. "One of his acolytes did the actual testing. He signed off on it… Maybe he just didn't trust himself where the hat and I are concerned?"

Doesn't sound likely. I'd honestly expect him to do the job fairly, regardless of his personal biases. But perhaps-.

My ring blinks and I raise it to my left ear. "Yes?"

"Four automata, no longer functioning. There's a modern electronics workshop, used recently. Savage isn't here but he can't have gone far."

"And the gynoid? Mister Lao?"

"Some of the left over parts might have come from her. Lao isn't here. I've already notified the rest of the Guardians and Scream Queen is in the middle of reporting to King Vlad."

Progress, of a sort. "Do you think it's worth bringing Mister Truggs here?"

"No. I've planted a remote observation device. He and Artificer will have to make do."

I nod. The alternative would be removing the anti-FTL ward, and that is legally rather tricky without a.. smoking gun. People have to meet, and the handful of us actually affected by the thing have to explain why saving a few hours is vital to the wellbeing of the planet.

"General broadcast detected. Speaker identifies as 'Vandal Savage'."

"Play!"

"…remember me. I had hoped that the alterations I made to the time line would have resulted in my temporal duplicate becoming Emperor."

Ring, where's that coming from?

"Instead, he was thrown into the sun by the predecessor of one of your greatest heroes."

Broadcast emanates from 'everywhere'. However, an earlier part of the broadcast stated that his location was in Japan.

"The man now lying at my feet."

I'm a mile up before I can even form a coherent thought and I'm still moving as it occurs to me that there's absolutely no way I can get there fast enough for it to make any difference. But I can't imagine not trying. I warp space, the pale golden glow of the ward appearing at once to try and stop what it thinks could be a FTL torpedo.

"A little under a century ago the two greatest military powers on this planet went to war with one another over control of a thin strip of land of minimal economic value."

But unlike a simple mechanical device I can push back against magic, even feed on it. I'm moving fast, but it's still too slow-.

"The craters from where it escalated into an atomic exchange are still visible on the landscape today."

I increase the size of my construct engine, cycling through alien designs until I find something that might be powerful enough.

"Ninety-three years are all that separate the Japanese Home Islands from atomic desolation."

The ward finally wins but I'm coming around the corner of the world now, laser constructs at the ready.

"A mere ninety-three years."

Brilliant flashes of light appear in the Sea of Japan.

"To a man as old as I am, ninety three years is nothing."

The flashes, the.. mushroom clouds… I start to slow down as my growing horror starts to eclipse my single-minded drive.

Ring, is that..?

Every nuclear detonation which occurred on the Japanese Home Islands during the entire Imperium War has occurred again.

"My alternate self could not become Emperor. But I think you will find me a rather tougher prospect. I am at the top of Mount Fuji, and when I have slain the Heavenly Guardians the world will bow its head to me."

24th October
17:31 GMT +9

Laser constructs. And if Souma is still alive, find him.

Compliance.

Three five-metre long laser cannons appear alongside me, and images of different parts of Japan flick through my mind. The heavy anti-air defences and fighter screens both China and Japan used during the war made it extremely hard for nuclear bombers to get through. The remains I detected when I first arrived were from impacts which occurred weeks or months apart. Now…

The Home Islands hadn't really been the centre of the Japanese government since the Imperium War -that's in New Tokyo in.. where Peru would be-, and they've never had the same population density as they once did. But there are-. There were a good thirty million people down there. And the centre of Japan's magic education and research program. The shockwaves and heat from the simultaneous blasts have… It's.. just gone. Heck, the winds are visibly tearing at my construct armour even up here. I don't… Think that the place is going to come back from this one.

But I can scan through the clouds.

Target located.

Beams of focused ultra-violet light shimmer through the air between myself and Vandal Savage, burni-.

He turns to look upward at me as my beams vanish entirely about a metre from him.

"Ah, the Orange Lantern. I did think that you would be the first to arrive, though I had assumed that it would take you a little longer."

There's no way that his voice could be heard through the hurricane winds presently levelling what's left of the Home Islands. His voice is at conversational volume, but it sounds like it's coming from everywhere at once. Okay, beams vanishing. Switch to visible light.

"In a way, it is fitting that you and I have time to converse-" Visible light doesn't have a greater effect. I spread my laser constructs out to see if his shield has a limited arc of coverage. It appears not to. "-before the final confrontation. I had doubted that the version of your origin which you put into the public domain was accurate, but your presence here indicates that you were being honest all along."

I try scanning him to get a better idea of how his shield is working. Usually, the shield being invisible means that visible light lasers should go through unobstructed but that's clearly not what's happening here. No, I… The scans I'm getting are distorted. The winds and nearby nuclear detonations make it hard to tell, but I don't think that my lasers are increasing the local temperature. If that's true, they aren't hitting any sort of barrier that I'm familiar with. Energy isn't being absorbed or shunted.

Savage.. floats upwards, rising through the dust clouds without any difficulty at all. Rather than any of the historical aristocrat clothing I'm used to comic and television versions of him wearing, this one has gone for… Some sort of hard body armour and a.. cloak, which is strangely still even in the high winds.

Ring, anything alive in the vicinity of Mount Fuji?

None detected. However, be advised that scans are currently unreliable due to environmental conditions and novel technology.

Understood.

I dismiss the lasers and switch to plasma. Shimmering purple-white ions leap from the gun and.. fade out just before they reach him. Okay, I know there's nothing wrong with the shot. The clouds it passed through were affected appropriately. I dismiss the plasma cannon-

"Please! Take all the shots you want! I can think of no better way to show how utterly ineffectual they are!"

-and generate a beam singularity gun.

"Orange Lantern to all allies. I am about to use a singularity weapon. Stay back."

"A reasonable choice. Still, I am afraid to say that-"

Firing.

The universe.. skips, light being distorted as the beam fires. The dust clouds are sucked inwards, clearing a path where a moment later I can see Savage himself… Entirely unaffected once more.

"A sound choice again. I think you may have just inadvertently caused the Toba catastrophe."

The airborne dust is rapidly refilling the hole I created, but I finally get a clear look at him. Purple robes over golden armour. The armour appears to be of a similar design to what the gynoid had as her outer surface. He's a good deal larger than her, so he clearly hasn't just stripped off her outer casing. Purple robes… Was he making a stable time loop and telling his past self how to do this?

"Given all the history I have seen, it feels a little strange to mention an extinction event I did not personally witness. Of course… Now." He clenches his fist and the ash cloud is gone. "That's hardly a concern."

Ash cloud gone. Teleportation? Not that my ring detected. Transmutation? No, there was no increase or decrease of local temperatures. Volume for volume, ash-filled air has a lot more mass than normal air. Around the.. edge of his cleared zone the air is trying to break back in. I can clearly see the air currents as different textures in the ash, and they're… Just vanishing before they get within one hundred metres.

"And now a small group of third century farmers are wondering why there is a single black cloud in the sky. And will shortly be suffering the first cases of radiation sickness in human history." He looks up at me as he continues to rise. "Do you see, Lantern, what I can now accomplish with a mere wave of my hand?"

Third century-? He sent it backwards it time, bringing the equivalent volume of air forwards. That's… The bombs, they-. No, there weren't any reports of them having only half the expected yield or anything. He can make time repeat as well as transpose it.

Um.

"You really have no recollection of our past conflicts, do you?"

There are ways to take advantage of that, but none that are readily accessible to me. Ugh.

"Where's Souma?"

"Dead. Given his many years of honourable service, I felt it only just to kill him swiftly and painlessly. It's so rare to find that level of dedication in this.. modern era. He didn't even moan when I stuck the knife in."

Kill. Him.

"I see so few familiar faces in this new world. In a way, we-."

ASSIMILATE!

The sky turns orange, Savage's hundred metre exclusion zone battered back centimetre by centimetre as the orange light seizes whatever exotic process he's using to do this. MORE! GET HIM!

"Ah, of course. A fearsome attack in most circumstances. I imagine that you would very much like to make me your puppet in revenge. Sadly for you-" The assimilation effect has covered nearly half the distance now, YES! "-even this is inadequate."

He waves his right hand and-. The orange glow appears to contract. It now stops two metres away from me in all directions. Push harder!

"I have surrounded you in a tiny sphere of the past. Your orange light is reaching past it perfectly well. It simply isn't coming anywhere near me." He comes closer, smiling smugly. "I realise that this iteration of you is not the one who confronted me aboard the Justice League's Watchtower. Intellectually, I understand that the you responsible for me spending two months being continually eaten by hyenas has gone, along with the rest of that troublesome time line. Still, I think I will derive no small measure of satisfaction from killing all of your new allies while you watch."

He turns his head away slightly. I can't hear anything from outside but him, but it looks like a sound has caught his attention.

"And here they come now."

24th October
17:36 GMT +9

Artificer's combat drones come first, firing as they make their initial approach. Each is patterned after a different action figure; some are members of the Heavenly Guardians, others figures from comics or animated series. As many of them as possible have 'show accurate' weapons, but he gets a lot of mileage out of multicoloured plasma. Beams, rockets and bullets fill the air around Savage and me… 'Around' in the sense of 'in all directions'. Not one comes within a hundred metres.

The closest drone -Lupo the Friendly Shark- is the first to reach Savage's exclusion zone and dives right in.

"Hmm."

He lets it come on for a few seconds, until I can clearly see the faint shimmer of its disruption field coated teeth with my unaided eyes.

"Did you know that the god Susanoo first fell to earth not far from here? I was too far away to witness it happen. But now…"

The formerly calm air vanishes in an instant, replaced by a swirling roaring mass of lightning-wreathed water. Dimly through the deluge I see a humanoid outline plummeting towards the sea below us, electricity leaping and burning through every drone in the area. Savage smiles, slowly clapping his hands as if to a mildly amusing circus performance, and the torrent is once more replaced by clear skies. There are plenty of drones left, but they appear to be the observational type and are keeping well back.

Ah… Who else would be on duty? Despite Souma's efforts, I don't really know that many of the Japanese members of the Heavenly Guardians all that well. The Home Islands have never needed to bring in talent from outside, and I've mostly been assigned to mainland Asia. Warrior Maiden should be in the general area, and a few wizards… Though they might have all been killed in the atomic conflagration. That leaves-.

"Hukk." Savage stares down at the sword piercing his chest from the rear as the ethereal figure I recognise as Snow Man partially transfers himself back into the material world behind him. Savage's skin swiftly whitens as his flesh freezes solid, Snow Man's magic reducing his body to zero degrees Kelvin. "Hur."

Savage vanishes, and Snow Man stares around to try and spot him. I see his mouth moving, but no sound is reaching me in my time bubble.

"Of course, storms are not the best way to fight everything. Why don't we wind the clock back a little, to before your first meeting with the Goddess of Ice Ages."

Snow Man tries to fade out. He almost makes it, then with a slight flicker he suddenly becomes fully corporeal instead and instantly begins falling towards the distant ground. A couple of drones beneath us turn away from their observations and accelerate to match velocities with him. Without his elemental partner he's even less dangerous than a conventional soldier, but if they catch him he's got a good chance of surviv-.

Savage reappears, entirely unhurt from his brush with absolute zero. He raises his right hand and shoots Snow Man's falling body with a dull red energy beam. It strikes him in the back of the head, flash-frying the rear portion of his skull and the brain beneath. Snow Man's aimed fall turns into an uncontrolled tumble as carbonised fragments of his head fall away.

"Clever." Savage lowers his right hand. "But insufficient. I had assumed that an area of time predating the fall of Atlantis would be sufficient to guard against coddled modern wizards. But I can see that I should have reached back further." The air around us shimmers for a moment, my ring telling me that the oxygen atmosphere of modern Earth has been replaced by something richer in sulphur dioxide and methane. "There. Now only the most primal magics will function."

"This won't save you."

"Lantern, I am immortal." He tilts slightly in the air, looking down below us. "Ah, an invisibility system. Unfortunately for the warriors using it, I can look back from when they reveal themselves."

"An expert I spoke to earlier said that the change you made to time resulted in an unstable-."

"Unstable time line. Yes, I am aware."

He waves his left hand and a large passenger plane appears from nowhere, smashes into an apparently empty point in the sky and begins to crumple. That-. I recognise the identification number. That plane went down twenty years ago in circumstances that were never-!

The holographic disguise protecting one of Artificer's transport aircraft flickers and fails even as the vehicle itself tries to pull itself free of the tumbling wreckage it's intermeshed with. Warrior Maiden punches through the outer hull and tries to push them apart. Metal curls in her grip, then Savage gestures and… Her intestines fall from her chest as she suddenly finds that the lower part of her body has been returned to a prior location without taking the top part with her.

"Interesting."

Even reduced to a crippled torso she tries weakly pulling herself back to the transport aircraft with her hands. Savage gestures again and her head vanishes, her upper body following her lower body as it falls towards the ground.

"You see, Lantern, there are so many different ways I could kill all of you. And only a handful who are a real threat. Would it better demonstrate my supremacy-" His smile widens slightly, and Warrior Maiden reappears whole and well in the air beneath us. She looks around for a moment in wonder, then screams as her body is cut vertically in three!

"-if I toyed with you? It is a simplistic way to use my command of time, but it makes a most excellent cutting tool."

"But if the time line is unstable, then none of this matters! Kill all of us, you'll be destroyed as well! And we'd have been erased in a little while anyway!"

He glances back at me. "Hardly. Even without this equipment, if even a single cell of my body survived, I would eventually regenerate with all of my memories intact. With it, the very act of chronal collapse will only serve to empower me more fully." His eyes narrow. "I will have control over the world which emerges from the temporal confusion. It will not be too difficult to create one where I rule supreme." He smiles cruelly. "True, I will not be able to prevent your arrival. But since I now know precisely where and when you appear, killing you in those first confusing moments before you learned how to use your ring should not be overly difficult." He turns away. "They appear to be trying something new."

Okay, I know what he's planning. There's basically nothing I can do to stop him from here aside-. Aside from trying to merge with the Ophidian. And I don't believe that a world run by Vandal Savage would be a worse place than one where she'd converted everyone into constructs for her own amusement. I don't know exactly when he's sending the orange light I'm hitting him with-

Savage's hair is mildly ruffled as asteroids from Earth's distant past fly past us and obliterate… I.. don't know who those were.

-is going, but it's going somewhen. Who could detect it, almost regardless of when it was? The Guardians go back a long way… And I know that our rings' communication systems are at least somewhat compatible. Ring, attempt to contact the Guardians. Or any Green Lanterns in that era.

The sky around us lights up, though as ever Savage's area of effect proves utterly immune. He looks upwards, blinking at the light. "Mass produced space craft. Those, I will keep. But the design will need to be improved upon with technologies not found in this time line. And these particular ships-"

He raises both hands. From here I can't really see what happens.

"-can be done away with."

But I can guess.

No response detected.

Fine, be like that. Maximum broadcast power.

Compliance.

A human named Vandal Savage has acquired temporal distortion weaponry and is attempting to create a chronal collapse.

"I know full well that you're trying something. You should know that it is futile. I received instructions on how to win from a future version of myself."

I was right, then. I thought the Time Trapper was a version of Superboy Prime? "One who won?"

"No. One who wished to ensure that I did not repeat the mistakes that led him to become trapped at Vanishing Point." He looks even smugger. "He also told me how to become him, so that I in turn can advise an earlier version of us both. So even if I somehow fail to fulfil my primary objective, I can simply try again."

Green Lantern Jade Yifei is working on a counter, but needs additional data. My observations of his abilities are included. Prepare yourselves.

24th October
17:43 GMT +9

I stare deeply into Savage, trying to comprehend in full his desires and drives. I may not like doing this with most people, but Savage is reassuringly monstrous on the inside as well. His desire to rule the world is literally just a continuation of his original self's drive to dominate his tribe and their neighbours. Were I a more enlightened Lantern I might respect the fact that he is so at peace with himself. As it is, it just makes my desire to destroy him grow stronger.

Savage looks around us distractedly. "I wonder what could be keeping them?"

"You've demonstrated the ability to destroy or-" I gesture to the sphere of alternate time surrounding me. "-disable a wide variety of opponents. There's no point engaging you until they come up with an approach which might actually work."

"Ah. A pity."

"Why do you even care?! You're going to erase them all anyway?!"

"Some may have histories which make their existences possible within my new world. Since I suspect that I can make them as loyal to me as they are to their existing sovereigns, I would like to know how they react to their own mortality." He watches me for a moment. "What is this? No protest that they would never work for me?"

"No, I'm sure with control of time you could probably generate versions of them who were loyal to your empire and to morals whose nature you would dictate."

"But not you."

"You're welcome to try travelling to Earth Prime at your convenience."

Again, if I were a more enlightened Lantern, I might find the fact that his confidence isn't a cover for any sort of insecurity interesting. He genuinely finds it a sort of bizarrely exasperating amusement that the world doesn't kneel to him. I'm still disgusted by it.

"I'm not sure that it has anything worth taking. Your description made it sound somewhat bland."

"We both know that you'll try anyway."

"True. But not personally. Once my empire stands triumphant in this system and its armies are mine to control, I can consider expanding into other territories."

How much of this stuff won't work on Earth Prime? Infantry equipment would probably work… I'm not really sure if their power packs use 'comic' technology or make conventional sense. It's the same with the spacecraft; I think they'd keep working if a portal back could be created.

Still. Just one more reason to stop him.

Quell desires.

I am not good at this sort of borderline magic use of the orange light. Orange light wants things to want things. Cutting it off, using my own desires to quell it… It's not just a matter of brute force, you have to understand… Almost relate to what you're stopping. Okay, seems to be holding…

Savage isn't being hurt, he just doesn't really want anything. The barrier of altered time around me… I float forwards and press my right hand intoaghr! I pull back my hand, the tips of my fingers… Burned off? The ends aren't.. really bleeding, and I can't spare the focus to fix them. Savage watches my injury, but that's more because it's the only thing happening in his immediate environment than out of any real interest.

But there's no attack, which suggests that my message didn't get through. He's effectively disabled like this, but the temporal alterations which he has already made are still in effect. So I'm still stuck, and.. attacks from outside his area of time control will still be blocked. I could in theory assimilate him like this, except… I'm barely holding his desires down as it is. I can't combine the two. So this basically achieves nothing.

I really want to kill him and the best I can do is stun-lock him until I run out of ring power… Which is going to be when?

At current power consumption rates, this ring will be fully discharged in fourteen minutes.

Fourteen minutes for the other Heavenly Guardians to come up with something. That should be-.

"My Lord Lantern?"

Harm-? "Harmonious One?"

"Have you won?"

"No. I'm just suppressing his desires. If you attack him now-."

"He'd revert to a pre-attack state and cut us to pieces."

Ah. "So… Is there a plan?"

"Sort of. It's a bit of a work in progress. How long will it take after you stop suppressing him for him to start caring about things again?"

"It.. varies. He'll revert pretty much immediately, but people don't tend to reflect on their own thought processes. He'll probably justify his lack of interest in me to himself rather than be immediately alarmed. On the other hand, I don't understand why he hasn't killed me already. He might just decide to.. immediately change time so that I'm back here because… Why not?"

"We -which is to say the Guardians- have a plan. And due to the unusual temporal arrangements you and Mr Truggs are the only people who can carry it out."

"What is it?"

"Go back in time and prevent Vandal Savage returning to the present. As long as the Night of Stone Knives still happens, our history should still occur. We may even be able to return you to the present."

"You have a time machine?"

"No, but… We think we can reopen the passage Savage used. And-."

"Don't worry about bringing me back. I can just put myself in suspended animation." Or get off Earth. Not like I was planning on dying ever anyway.

"That isn't the problem. Once Savage is dealt with we will have effectively unlimited time to work on the problem. The problem is our chronal collapse. Is Savage aware of it?"

"Yes. He told me that he thinks his armour will allow him to control how the time lines merge while keeping him as he is. He also said that the purple figure-."

"Was a future version of him. Yes, we worked that out. Okay, look: I don't understand everything that the hat told me. Controlling the merger.. might work, depending on exactly what the armour does. But part of why it might work is because after.. being violently altered, time is… More accepting of smaller changes. And pretty much anything is smaller than what happened."

"So as long as Savage makes it more like how it was, it might be stable?"

"At this point we're pretty much throwing temporal mechanics at the wall to see what sticks. Maybe? The hat seems to think that living things are more important to time than unliving molecules, which doesn't seem to make much sense rationally…"

"So just switching in a new atmosphere and planetary core isn't an option."

"Probably not. Our best guess is that since both you and Truggs existed in the original time line, you'll be less disruptive, temporally speaking. Truggs has already been fully briefed. Are you ready?"

I take a deep breath. "Ready."

"Then by the power vested in me by the Lords of Chaos… Substitute."

24th October
11:43 GMT +3

And I'm back in the lab-

"Go! Go!"

-with Jade shouting at me and gesturing to a glowing and fluctuating purple portal. I fly for it, Truggs lunging through it just ahead of me.

24th October
11:44 GMT +3

I pass through the portal and out into-

Not sure
Don't know
Hopefully, 210 BC

-a large unlit chamber. Immediately, I dim my environmental shield and drop to the ground. The tomb is.. actually quite well-lit. For a tomb. I remember being taught during my 'cultural acclimatisation' classes that they used slow burning tallow candles in order to keep the place looking like an actual court for as long as possible after the First Emperor's death.

"Yah know, I've never actually done this before."

Mister Truggs is standing a couple of terracotta warriors over, and nods companionably to me when I look around. Then he unslings some sort of equipment harness and begins slotting parts together.

"Done what? Travelled in time?"

He glances up, a small frown on his face. "Don't take this the wrong way? You're a whole lot easier for me to work with than old-you, but I kinda miss him."

"Of course you do. He's the me you're used to. It would be strange if you didn't. Were.. the… Were you friends?" He shifts awkwardly as he makes a few final checks on his device. "Rivals?"

"We, ah… Both kinda want the same things… But we had… Kinda… Our 'red lines were in different p-."

"You're a supervillain."

"Technically, just a 'villain'. Hey, can you-" He holds his device up. "-power this up for me? It needs one point two one jigawatts of electrical energy."

Ring?

Device function not recognised.

I narrow my eyes slightly. "I'm going to need an explanation as to what that does. From the self-confessed criminal."

"It's… Just about the most badly built chroniton destabiliser it's possible to build. Guess Savage figured he didn't need it, with time collapsing anyway. Should keep him from seeing us from the future."

I nod and create a generator construct. "Is a 'jigawatt' the same as a gigawatt-?"

"Modern English is my sixth language. Excuse me if pronunciations have changed in the last eight hundred years."

I plug my construct in, and his device starts to glow purple and aquamarine as our entry portal evaporates. "Eight hundred years?"

"Yeah. Not my first time travelling in time. First time-" He checks a few things on the device and then nods, apparently satisfied. "-I came back to try an' prevent an alien invasion. Billions of people died so, I didn't think it mattered all that much that I was wiping everyone in that future out when I did it."

"I don't see anything wrong with preventing an alien invasion." I point at the destabiliser. "Is it working?"

"We're not back in the future, so I guess so." He sets the device down. "Now we gotta find Savage and Lao."

Ring, scan? Oh.. dear. "Lao is checking the walls for a way out. Savage isn't here yet. Do we need to turn that off?"

"If we do Super Savage gets us before we even turn it on."

"But won't.. your Savage realise that we're using that and just.. not come here?"

"It doesn't really matter if he does. Lao is the only guy who knows how to program the warriors. Savage has to get here before he dies, or this doesn't work. An' I don't think his equipment is good enough to detect it. And if he doesn't come back?" He shrugs. "I win by default."

"We're not here to erase my future, Mister Truggs."

"Ye-ah, we kinda are. See-."

"No. Everyone I know, everyone I love who.. isn't on Earth Prime is in that future. I can understand you-"

"It. Won't. Work."

"-wanting to bring back the version you know. And I'm sorry. There's no moral right here, but I'm the guy with the power ring and I'm not abandoning my future."

"IT WON'T WORK!" He takes a step back, then turns around, gesticulating with both arms. "Time WILL NOT SUSTAIN your future! The ONLY THING that hat could come up with was some kinda crazy guess-"

"That's not-"

"-about taking you-"

"-what they told me."

"-out of time. And of course they didn't tell you, you're an Orange Lantern." He pulls out a scroll bearing Jade's seal. "Here."

I hesitate for a moment, then take it from him and open it.

"Hello? Is there someone else in here?"

Oh… This was really the best we could..?

I feel Truggs pat me on the right shoulder as I stare at the letter. "The hat thought it was the only chance you got."

"I just…" Well. What is there to say? "I suppose there really isn't any choice. It was just… Wishful thinking."

Truggs shrugs. "I don't know you, but the other guy was a real terrier when it came to things like this. If you're him-."

"Hello?" Mr Lao comes around the corner and spots us. He starts slightly, but I can practically see the moment he decides that men who have been buried alive can't be choosers. "Were you part of the digging team?"

Temporal aperture detected.

"Mr Lao, I'm very sorry." I attach a filament to Mr Truggs and transition us both to Savage's time portal.

"Who-?"

Disintegrate.

The orange energy bolt hits him in the centre of his chest and spreads outwards, destroying every cell of his body as it does so. That won't guarantee that he's dead permanently, but if throwing him into the sun worked for my Savage I imagine that it will work for now.

Then Truggs and I walk through the portal.

Ring, time and date?

19th October
09:12 GMT -6

"You are not Savage."

Truggs immediately goes over to the machine's control system and begins pressing buttons. I just look up at the purple robed figure staring down at me.

"I'm not."

"He failed, then. Just as I remember it."

"You've probably cost me everything. Even if this was the only way…"

"It was." The figure reaches into his robes and pulls out a duplicate-. No, the same scroll as the one I'm still carrying. "And I assure you, I hate it just as much as you do." Then he pushes back his hood and I'm not surprised by who I see. "I suppose we're our own worst enemy." He looks away from me. "Mister Truggs, you'll need the chronal suspension system."

A short 'time' later

From this point of view, it's painfully clear.

"You know me?"

Jevek Jos Jar studied temporal manipulation, and somehow cut himself off from his own past. In doing so he became the Time Trapper, and after 'I' recognised him he decided to try and improve Earth's technology in order to try and increase his -and the other Controllers'- power during my era.

In doing so, he created a time line where Savage cut himself off from his own past and became the Time Trapper. He contacted his past self to increase his power. Whether he created himself or not was immaterial as he'd win either way.

Except that we managed to replace him with me. So now, I was the one who passed temporal manipulation technology to Savage. And I did it because it was the only way to have even the slightest chance to save my time line.

Creating time lines is expensive. Creating closed time loops is cheap.

"Yes?" My other-self inclines his head slightly. "We met on Maltus. Though that may not have happened in your personal timeline. I suppose that if anyone was going to survive the collapse of time it would be the people who beat the Anti-Mon-."

I raise my arms, pointing them at his cell. "Return!"

My arms pointing don't actually have anything to do with my new abilities. It's more the fact that I don't have my own… Place in time, combined with the fact that I'm in a place that doesn't either. I can push on time, but it can't push back. He goes back to his time line.

"Ah, hey-."

I gesture again and Truggs goes back into my time line. His future self has already returned to an earlier point in the original time line in order to give my alternate self the information he needs to get this far. There will be two Truggs for a little while, but the one who experienced four days of my Earth remembers enough to avoid himself. And he'll send copies of anything he learns about temporal manipulation to me.

"Where did you send them?"

Dox isn't panicking, but he's more than a little peeved. Savage Trapper never interacted with him… I think. I'm still having a little trouble getting my head around how this works. Jevek Trapper dealt with him because it allowed him to pretend he wasn't the one causing the problem. And watching a level twelve intellect in action is often informative.

I could respond with something ominous and portentous, but out of all of the iterations of the Time Trapper who are now all me, none of them had that sort of relationship with the Legion. The Time Trapper is not a figure of respect. And for very good reasons.

"I have resolved the anomaly and undone the alterations Vandal Savage made to the time line. Your present is largely restored. You may return to your time sphere."

Dox's jaw tenses. "If you knew what the cause of the disruption was, why did you not simply tell us when we arrived?"

"I thought that perhaps seeing you flail around in ignorance might provide me with some amusement." I turn away. "I overestimated your intelligence. Do not trouble me again."

"Now hold on-."

I move myself to the exterior of Vanishing Point and stare out into the time stream. Its ebbs and flows are the only things which make my cloak move, causing it to waft around my legs. I reach up and pull my hood a little tighter around my head. The Legion should be leaving shortly and it would be rather embarrassing if they looked back and saw my face.

Then I reach across to my left hand with my right, pull off my power ring and send it back into the past. One less contradiction. And… Yes, I feel time become a little more flexible.

I hold out my right hand and summon back my universe. Four days. Maintaining a cycle of four days… It continues to exist on a permanent loop, cut off from the regular flow of time. Until I.. run out of flexibility, or find a better solution.

There'll be leakages, of course. I don't know exactly how 'long' it will take, but people all across that universe will gradually begin to experience flashes of déjà vu from the constant repetition. And they'll try to change things. And that will consume more power. I've got a definite limit to the amount of time I have to fix this problem. And though I can interact with time in ways which make it possible for me to communicate with others, I can't physically leave Vanishing Point myself. If I do, I'd have to pay the cost for my own broken time line or I'd… Heh, turn out not to have been me after all.

And like some sort of time travelling pyramid scheme, the only way to create temporal flexibility is to create alternate time lines and then revert them. I'm going to have to create and then render nonexistent entire universes of people. And if any of my agents realise what I'm doing, they might switch sides and I might turn out not to have been me all along. Does the fact that I'm here, now, thinking about this mean that I win, or is it..?

Hopefully the fact that I won't have to interact with those time lines to any significant degree will mean that I won't-.

…

Dox will have left monitoring equipment of some sort. I'll pretend that I don't know it's there. Having offended him, he'll work extra hard to revert any changes I make, allowing me to realise their value without spending flexibility to act in two places at once. A man who will come to think of himself as the only thing between me and a universe of temporal anarchy I'm creating for my own amusement will in fact be my greatest asset.

In the universe swirling over my left hand, Jade looks back at my still-sleeping temporal echo and then walks towards the shower. On the other side of the planet Jade twitches in her sleep, combat stress from a mission working itself out in her dreams. Harmonious One sleeps on his ceiling, his hat tipping itself to me as I look.

In Vega, Commodore Amalak puts his Tamaranian recruits through their paces while the Citadelians pull back to their fortifications. On Oa, the Guardians studiously avoid indicating their awareness of my presence as they once again review my message. On Urrigen, the provisional government continues its production of orbital defences. On Maltus, the recruits train under Hinon's watchful eyes.

It's not better or worse than any other timeline.

But it's mine. And this…

It's all I can do.

22nd October
01:30 GMT -5

Yeah, there's no point in hanging around. For once I'm reasonably in agreement with the League 'don't interfere' policy. I don't have anything special to add and every time I try and get my head around time travel I just end up thinking in circles. I pass out through the outer wall of the Hall of Justice and come to a-.

Uwwough.

To a stop. Ugh, what was-?

I look across the plaza at the cluster of four-.

Oh. No one there. Could have sworn...

Never mind. Must be more tired and stressed than I thought if I'm hallucinating and getting dizzy. And faster than light travel and unclear thought processes don't mix. 'Home' is Alan's house, but it's half one in the morning. He wouldn't have waited up, would he? I'd have said 'not', but I thought that about my parents once and they started phoning the hospital and police to find out if my body had been handed in at accident and emergency. I activate my armour's flight system and rise higher, turning in the direction of the nearest intact zeta tube. My interview is tomorrow evening and I'm.. going to need to have the ring reset my circadian rhythms if I'm going to get any sleep. And then Ms Colbert's practice session tomorrow afternoon -assuming that she isn't busy explaining this mess- and I need to speak to Angelica…

But for now, home and sleep.