Beta Male

23rd September
05:16 GMT -5

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

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

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

{orange}!Must repair!{/}

“Lantern Stewart, would you mind?”

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

“What did that?”

“I made Artemis some arrows using Alexander Tuttle's ‘crumbler’ technology. That's a misfire.”

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

“Crumbler? Didn't he use gauntlets?”

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

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

I nod my head to the side.

”If you've got a power ring, anyway.”

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

“You been making a lot of things with your ring?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How exactly are they going to get that in here?”

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

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

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

{orange}!Assist!{/}

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

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

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

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

{orange}!Make better!{/}

Fretting doesn't help.

{orange}!Make better!{/}

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

“Hard at work already? ‘Cause I gotta be honest; you could both use the beauty sleep.”

{orange}!!!{/}

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

“Wohw! Easy there buddy.”

I relax slightly, dropping the armour.

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

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

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

“You finally got the hang of it!”

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

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

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

Lantern Stewart looks confused. “I thought you were training him.”

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

“Oh, that's it! On Saturday, we're doin’ {green}orbital bombardment practice{/}!”

23rd September
06:39 GMT -5

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

{orange}!Protect!{/}

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

“How many other Kryptonians do you know of?”

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

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

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

”Thanks, but no thanks.”

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

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

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

”Exactly.”

“Even so...”

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

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

“There weren't any. They were isolationists.”

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

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

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

“Where did you hear that?”

{orange}!No!{/}

Um.

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

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

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

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

“YOU KNEW!”

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

{orange}!Team must not fight!{/}

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

“That android and his maniac family nearly killed us all!”

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

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

{orange}!HelpNoBad!{/}

Oh dear. {orange}Transition{/}.

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

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

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

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

{orange}!Unify!{/}

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

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

“When?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

{orange}!Make better!{/}

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

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

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

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

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

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

23rd September
06:43 GMT -5

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

I wince, and flick my eyes to Kaldur.

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

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

Magic: it's a hell of a drug.

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

{orange}!Kon mine!{/}

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

“... No.”

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

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

{orange}!Kon mine!{/}

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

“What if they were connected? Ra's al Ghul's, like, a thousand year old. What if Morrow's been in cahoots with the Shadows all along?”

Kaldur steps toward him. “Then the attack by the other robots would still have taken us by surprise. Telling you would not have changed what happened.”

Probably true, and- Why is M'gann blushing?

“If you're all finished.”

I give M'gann a puzzled look which she avoids, then turn to face Batman. A moment later I remember to let go of Kon's hand. In the corner of my eye I see Artemis elbow M'gann in the ribs, and M'gann bat her away.

“With Red Tornado.. missing, the team will now be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift.”

We're being overseen by a ten year old. The ring shows me what it thinks he should look like; short, scrawny, and still in primary school. The League doesn't ‘officially’ know how old he is, and I can't help but wonder exactly how many of them know and pretend not to. Or how much of a difference the Wisdom of Solomon makes to his behaviour. I still remember the Justice Society comic where he started getting close to Stargirl and Jay pretty much called him a paedophile.

The big red cheese himself approaches, stopping next to Batman's right shoulder.

“I'm really looking forward to hanging with you guys.”

My knowledge of the modern American lexicon isn't quite what it could be, but that sounded odd, right? Or am I just projecting my own expectations? From the looks my team mates are giving each other, they seem to think something's off.

Kon crosses his arms. “What are we doing about Red Tornado?”

Batman's eyes narrow slightly. “Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League. That makes him a League responsibility.”

“Well, yeah, but-."

“I have another assignment for this team.”

He gestures with his right arm, and a holographic monitor appears showing the front page of the ‘News of the Planet’. The leading article is entitled ‘Gorilla Trades Bananas for Bullets’, and features a fuzzy photograph of what looks like a large ape carrying a minigun. So, Mallah and Brain, or one of Grod's henchapes. Should be doable without too much difficulty.

The screen shifts to a new -slightly lower brow- newspaper, the Gotham Truth Rag. Most of the front page is covered in a picture of a man named Hamilton Hill, the current mayor of Gotham. His head is bandaged and he has a cast and sling on his right arm.

“Gotham Mayor Attacked by Guerrilla Gorilla.”

Wallace reads the headline aloud, just in case the rest of us have forgotten how to read.

**Red Tornado's being held prisoner by Morrow, and they're trying to distract us with this?**

I think Kon just included myself and M'gann in that.

{orange}!Unify!
!Support!{/}

**[shrug] If it needs doing...**

Wallace is less restrained. “Monkeys with machine guns. It's a supermarket tabloid story!”

I roll my eyes. “Really. Apes with guns are a ridiculous impossibility, but a man made of asphalt makes perfect sense?”

“Ahh...”

“I've checked the sources. I've studied the patterns. Mayor Hill's encounter is only the latest in a series of incidents. Aqualad-" He turns to Kaldur. “-you and your team will depart for India and check this out.”

I remember nothing at all about DC India. Wait, Gorillas aren't native to India, are they? Kaldur nods, and the team begins to head off toward the bioship.

Oh, hang on.

“{orange}Ring, state remaining charge{/}.”

{orange}”Thirty seven percent remaining.”{/}

Ahh. That's what I get for repairing everything I could see last night. And I've got another five hours until I can recharge. Flight to India should take about that... Don't really want to hang around here then catch them up later...

Kaldur stops and turns back to face me. “Do you need to recharge?”

{orange}!Need team!{/}

“Can't. My personal lantern's capacitors won't be fully charged for another five hours.”

“If.. you are unable to participate..?”

“No, no, I'll bring it with us. Go on, I'll catch up with you.”

He nods, and then follows the others toward the exit.

23rd September
06:47 GMT -5

I {orange}transition{/} to my room. My decision to occupy a remote part of the base appears to have paid off. There was some water on the floor when I stumbled in here last night, but aside from the fact that the lights were on emergency power nothing else had been affected. Now, you couldn't tell that anything was ever wrong.

{orange}Ring, door{/}.

I originally reinforced the door because I liked the way the fortified version looks. Of course, when main power was down the door mechanism was out and I had to use the ring to get in. Okay, press the button, no point closing the door if I'm just popping in.

{orange}!Improve!{/}

Maybe I should put a narrow tube through the wall so I can transition in directly? No, I shouldn't compromise the structural integrity. I'm also giving serious thought to altering the air supply. Deep underground, air quality and heat build up are serious concerns. The few hours our power was out didn't make any difference, but we make quite a lot of use of air conditioning and purification systems. Should I build an isolated system for myself? Or my team mates? Doesn't having a centralised system add vulnerability? I'll ask Lantern Stewart later.

Right. Lantern. It's still in the presentation box I got from Alan. I pick up the box and put it under my right arm.

“Ring, {orange}time until first recharge{/}?”

{orange}"Five hours and thirty seven minutes remaining until a new ring charge is available.”{/}

Ugh. I asked Alan, and he said that he honestly couldn't ever remember running out of recharges. Out of ring power, sure, but he never had the lantern conk out on him. But it wasn't as if he could give me precise usage figures. The most he could clearly remember recharging it was twice in one day, which it can still do. Was it still connected to the Green Central Power Battery? I had been assuming that if it was connected then the Guardians would have sent someone -probably Abin Sur- to pick it up. Did I make it work worse by realigning it? Something else to ask the Controllers when I meet them.

I walk back out of my room, press the button to close the door, {orange}lock{/} it and then {orange}transition{/} back to the training area. The team's already left -can't see Captain Marvel either- and Batman, Black Canary and Green Arrow are clustered together for a chat. Lantern Stewart is still working on the plans, a glowing green model of some sort of vault door floating next to him. It's being projected directly from his ring, I notice. He looks up when I appear, and his eyes fix on the box.

“Is it in there?”

I walk over. “Yes.”

“Mind showing me?”

{orange}!MY LANTERN!{/}

I grip the box a little tighter. “Why?”

He makes a slight shrug. “Haven't seen one that wasn't green before.”

{orange}!Mine!{/}

I don't... I‘m not sure why I'm so reluctant. He isn't going to just grab it off me or anything.

{yellow}Is he{/}?

No, not with the others here. And not without quoting a lot of Guardian legal mumbo jumbo first. This is fine. I {orange}project{/} a table from a filament connected to my hip and put the box down on it. Rotate the circle of the sigil on the top surface, and that panel moves out slightly. I pick it up and set it aside, before reaching in and taking hold of the handles on its right side to pull out the dull lantern itself. I hadn't thought about it until the ring told me about the two-charge-capacity thing, but the lantern's illumination depends on how many charges it has stored. At the moment it looks more gray than orange, weak lines of colour running along its surfaces. The focal point at the front -the ‘eye’ I suppose- is particularly depressing. Rather than the brilliant orange glare I had rather become accustomed to, it's doing a bit of an orange lava lamp impression. At least the structure of the thing doesn't look so much like a carriage lamp anymore.

“Why don't you just stick it in subspace?”

“It's not connected to the Orange Central Power Battery. If I subspace it, it destabilises.”

“Jordan's lantern didn't look that drained after six Lanterns recharged their rings from it.”

{orange}!My lantern!{/}

I put the lantern back in the box. “Again, that's because it's not connected to the Central Power Battery. What did you think the Central Power Battery did, anyway?”

He frowns slightly. “I thought that it was where our power came from, and that our personal lanterns just acted as relays.”

“Then how do you explain Alan Scott? Or me, because I assure you, if Larfleeze knew I was here? He'd have sent someone to have a look by now.”

{orange}!Irrelevant!
!Team!{/}

The rest of the team are probably waiting for me. I put the box back under my arm. “If you want a better explanation, ask your ring. In fact, if you haven't done so already, you should probably get a full explanation of how rings function from your database.”

“Is that how you learned to do that thing you showed Gardner?”

“No, I got that from a fan website. You should read those, too. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm required in India.”

One {orange}transition{/} later and I'm looking at the side of the bioship. Down below I can see Diana talking to Guy. I cringe slightly. Guy had made certain observations in my presence about his appreciation for her preferred mode of dress, and I'm a little concerned that he's about to be put back into a coma. Oh well, it'd be his own silly fault.

“You can't come. You're a cat.”

Kon walks out the back of the bioship, holding Teekl by the scruff of the neck. He puts her down. She takes a couple of steps away with her tail raised, then turns and sits down facing him.

“You'd probably just get captured again.”

Teekl looks over to me. {orange}“Mrrrp?”{/}

Kon follows her gaze. “Paul, tell her she can't come.”

{orange}!Teekl!{/}

Um... “Has Kaldur said anything about it?”

Teekl floats upward until she's level with Kon's face then thrusts her head forward, sniffing at him.

He moves his head back slightly. “No.”

“Then I've got to be honest, Kon: I wouldn't mind having her along. Being able to see through her eyes is pretty useful. Plus, she's immortal.”

Teekl puts her right forepaw on Kon's nose. He stands his ground. “But I told the sphere it had to stay here.”

“The sphere doesn't have any weapons and can't fly. And I don't think either of us understand what it says well enough to get useful intelligence reports.”

“What weapons does Teekl have?”

I wince inwardly as Teekl rotates her head slightly to the side. Kon, you had to say it.

“Ow!”

23rd September
06:52 GMT -4

I follow Teekl and Kon into the bioship, Kon touching his face where Teekl clawed him to see whether or not she's drawn blood. I don't think she has. I didn't even know that Teekl could hurt someone as tough as Kon. I had sort of assumed that the reason I have trouble fighting him is because I like him so much, but it's interesting to have confirmation.

"Stupid cat.”

Kon plonks himself down in the rear left chair while Teekl flies up to... Captain Marvel?

“Hey kitty.” He rubs her head, and she closes her eyes in pleasure.

“Captain. I hadn't realized that you were going to be accompanying us.”

I try to make eye contact with someone who can give me a clue as to what's going on. Stupid seats facing away from the entrance... Mister.. no, Master Batson gives me a big smile.

“Oh yeah! I wanted to see how the team works, y'know, in the field.”

Maybe Solomon's Wisdom only works when babies are getting cut in half? The rear door oozes closed behind me. Still haven't really got used to the noise this ship makes. Artemis appears to have decided to try my quiver, and is fiddling with the arrow release mechanism. Robin and Wallace are looking at Robin's computer, presumably reading the full mission briefing. Kaldur's looking pensive. M'gann's taken up position in the pilot seat.

{orange}!Wellbeing!{/}

Wait. She and Kaldur were awake when I slouched off to sleep last night, and were still around when I got up. M'gann raises her hands over the control panels. I focus my mind on her.

**M'gann, one moment. Did you get any sleep last night?**

**Uh. No. I mean, with everything that was happening... Why?**

I expand the communication to Kaldur. **Aqualad, everyone on the team except me is running on very little sleep. I think it might be worth having me fly us to India while everyone else tries to get some rest in.**

**You have a concussion!**

**Had, Miss Martian. Not only did the ring repair my injuries, but according to Lantern Gardner a Human wearing a power ring can go without sleep for about two weeks without any detrimental effect. Martian concentration suffers as much as Human.**

**It would be better for every member of the team to be at their best when we arrive. Very well, Orange Lantern will fly us to our destination.**

**[Mildly reproachful affront.]**

I think that last bit was just sent to me. M'gann rises from the pilot's position and takes a seat on the right side of the ship. I walk around to the right past her as I head to the pilot seat.

**[{orange}!Mine!
!Protect!
!Nurture!
!Exalt!{/}
Friendly concern
{orange}!Mine!{/}]**

M'gann gives me a puzzled look as I take my seat. Did I send that wrongly? Oh well, I'm sure she'll tell me later if I did. I put the box containing my lantern down by my right leg and hold out my arms to the control nodes. First, I allow the ship's senses to connect to my mind. The ship has gravity sensors, broad electromagnetic spectrum detection and radar sensitive enough to let me ‘see’ patterns of air pressure. Learning to connect to the ship's mind is essential to pilot the ship, that and appreciating that the ship is a living creature and needs a degree of.. compassion? Collegiality? It's sort of a cross between a simple AI and a horse, I suppose. The ship seemed to start ‘liking’ me after I healed it following our first fight with Klarion, and we've been on the same wavelength ever since. Connecting to the ship lets me know that local airspace is clear enough for us to launch. Second step, camouflage mode. Third step...

{orange}Ring, doors{/}.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

The large external doors slide open.

{orange}!Improve!{/}

Have to see if we can get one of those optoelectronic camouflage systems for the external facing during the revisions. I hadn't bothered before because I still don't regard keeping this place secret as a realistic possibility. But I {orange}really don't want to go through another home invasion{/}. Or a tourist swimming around the bay at an inopportune moment.

{orange}Ring, access full mission brief{/}.

Batman's notes appear in my mind, and I use the destination to plot our flight path even as I coax the bioship smoothly into the air and into the general direction of the North Pole and the upper atmosphere. Depending on how things go, we're looking at about five hours and fifteen minutes of flying.

“What's in the box, Oh El?”

“Hm? Oh. My personal lantern.”

I take a look at the rest of the mission brief. Looks like we're heading to... Oh dear. The facility is licensed as a biotech research facility. Not sure how they got authorisation to build something like that in the Valmiki National Park... I honestly just thought that, didn't I? Okay, so a fairly hefty {orange}payment to someone{/}..? Huh, the payment was actually more or less above board. Exclusive use of a good chunk of the national park in exchange for quite a lot of money for schools and health centres. And some bribes, but on a contract that size in that part of India it isn't anything obscene. Alright, so, fair enough, but {orange}where did the money{/}..?

Oh dear.

“Can we have a look?”

Huh? “At what?”

“The lantern.”

“It's really not that interesting.”

“I think it's pretty interesting. Everyone else think it's interesting?”

I return my attention to the cabin and see that everyone is looking at me, nodding. Except Teekl, who has taken position on Batson's cape-side shoulder. Ugh. I {orange}float{/} the box up, {orange}open it{/} and {orange}extract{/} my lantern.

“Here.”

Artemis doesn't look impressed. “I thought it'd be brighter.”

“It's still recharging. Once it reaches maximum power -which probably won't be until Sunday now- it gets fairly bright.”

Wallace gets up to have a closer look.

Robin looks a little uncomfortable. “Is that safe?”

“Should be. If you're worried, don't touch it or stare at the core.”

“Okay.”

“And if the voices come back, just let me know and I'll hit you over the head with the banishment hammer.”

Wallace breathes in sharply, and takes a hurried step backward. I catch Artemis’ eye and we do a simultaneous snort-laugh.

He relaxes again. “Oh, hah hah. But seriously, that can't happen, right?”

“The Ophidian communicated to me exactly once, when I spoke the oath in front of the Lantern. It didn't say anything, and all I got was a general impression of where it was. I've spent a great deal of time around my lantern since A-."

No, wait, I know that Wallace knows who Alan is, but I shouldn't compromise his identity to the rest.

“Since my predecessor gave it to me. No serious ill effects that I've noticed.”

M'gann looks curious. “What's the Ophidian?”

“The Embodiment of Avarice. Giant snake elemental thing made of orange light. Very dangerous.”

Wallace squints with his right eye. “And.. it.. talks to you every time you say the oath?"

“Maybe. I haven't wanted to... Oh, no, I don't usually say the oath to recharge.”

“Well, what do you normally say?”

I set the bioship to follow the course and then stand, right arm extended with my right hand under the lantern. My team mates -and Captain Marvel- lean forward to get a better look. I hold my left back, take a deep breath, and bring the ring forward with great solemnity to tap it against the core.

“Recharge.”

They sag.

23rd September
07:11 GMT -5

Ordinarily the bioship is not a quiet environment. We might discuss the briefing materials, share information and ideas, or just talk about any old thing to relieve tension. Today, I don't know if it's last night's attack or the presence of Master Batson, but once everyone realised that my lantern isn't all that interesting the chatter pretty much dropped off. M'gann hasn't, but she is doing a Martian relaxation meditation thing that can probably sub in for it.

I asked the ship to make a seat for Captain Marvel at the front, and he's sitting there staring out the front window with every sign of being completely enthralled. We're flying over southern Canada at the moment, but at this height you can't really see any detail. I'm trying to remember what I was like at ten years old, and I'm drawing a blank. I would have been in class eight, wouldn't I? With Mister Ford? To be honest I'm having trouble remembering the names of most of my primary school teachers.

And shouldn't he be in school today? And the others? Or is this American half term? I don't really see the point of M'gann or Kon going to school if they don't want to and I realise this mission is more urgent, but if they're going to go, shouldn't they.. go? Two days off to go to prison, and now this? Robin could probably do that GED thing and then go to some sort of business school if he wanted to join Wayne Industries at management level, but Wallace really can't afford to bunk off like this. Is this worth mentioning to Batman?

{orange}!Support goal!{/}

It probably is. I'll send him a message when I submit my mission report.

Kaldur rises from his seat and walks over to me. I request that the ship generate him another and it bubbles up from the floor facing me. He sits. “Have you had a chance to read the briefing papers?”

I nod. “Yes. Well, I've had the ring tell me what's on them. Same difference.”

“Then you are aware of who owns the facility.”

I grimace for a moment. “Yeah. Thing is, the site is being rented completely legally, and if Hamilton Hill wandered over the boundary by mistake or just decided to ignore it, they haven't necessarily done anything illegal.”

“It would hardly be the first time a LexCorp subsidiary was involved in criminal wrongdoing.”

“Sure, if it were just a subsidiary. But I took a look at the corporate structure, and it isn't. Valmiki Biotech is owned by Alexander Luthor personally. That's... Weird. More weird than a Gorilla with a machine gun on the wrong continent to be honest with you.”

“He paid for it himself?”

“Nearly all of it, out of his own pocket.”

“Do you think it could be something he doesn't want to show up in company reports?”

I think for a moment. “No. If that was all it was he could find some other way to hide it. By owning it like this, anything we find is directly connected to him. That's a huge risk, and I just... It doesn't make sense! He knows the League's after him, and having an ape gun down the Mayor of Gotham is... Stupid. And Lex Luthor is not stupid.”

Kaldur looks down for a moment. “You do not think he might merely have become overconfident?”

It's not impossible... But I shake my head. “If that was likely to happen, it would have happened already.”

He nods. “You are most likely correct.”

“It's still worth investigating. Something's going on. We might have to actually be stealthy this time, though.”

He says nothing for a moment, and I take a look around. Artemis appears to be doing the sensible thing, equipment on the floor, leaning back into her chair with her eyes closed. Kon's staring at Teekl, who has abandoned Marvel to curl up on the floor against his leg. Robin's reading something on his personal computer while Wallace just looks bored.

“I have been meaning to ask: how are you coping with yesterday's events?”

“Oh, trying to stay busy. I wasn't the one stuck in a cage of fire.”

He shakes his head slightly. “Your injuries were more severe. I was concerned when you ran from the room after the Justice League arrived.”

“I had to get the ring back.” I draw my hands away from the interface and tap the ring with my right index finger. “No good to anyone without it. And I'm fine, now. Plus, I pretty much fixed the whole underbelly of the base after the Red Bonfire robot wrecked it.”

“I suppose. But that is not why I asked. How do you feel?”

“Getting your arse kicked is supposed to feel bad. Most productive thing I can do is work out how to stop it happening again. Spent the morning going over the design schematics with Lantern Stewart. I mean, it's supposed to be easy to be wise after the fact, so we'd look pretty silly if we didn't make it impossible for anyone else to do what the robots did.”

“I look forwards to seeing the outcome of your work.”

{orange}!Nurture!{/}

“Kaldur, were you awake all night as well?”

“I am responsible for the team. I could hardly leave to take a nap while the League was on site.”

“Alright, but we've {orange}got{/}... four hours and forty minutes before you need to do anything. You might want to think about it.”

“Thank you for your concern, but I will be fine.” He stands.

“Apropos of nothing, I can synthesise a tranquiliser that affects Atlanteans, you know.”

“That.. will not be necessary.”

“Alright.”

He walks back to his seat, and I tell the ship to reabsorb the one he just vacated. As he sits down, my communicator beeps. Odd. I tap the earpiece, and hear Artemis’ voice.

“Hey, I was wondering. Were you serious, when you said you could give people super powers?”

Looking over to her I can't even see her lips moving. If I'd been asked, I'd have said that she were most likely asleep. I try to respond in kind.

“Yes, completely. I haven't tried either formula on a baseline Human yet, but I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work. Interested?”

“Maybe. Fighting those robots would have been a lot easier if I was strong enough to punch them in half.”

{orange}!Enhance!{/}

“Well, um, I'll give you whatever information you need to make a decision. I'll need your mother to sign something before I do it, of course.”

“What's the downside?”

“You'd be barred from most professional sports. I don't know if you were planning to use your archery skills competitively? You might have trouble using a normal bow in combat.”

“I thought you didn't like the pointy stick launcher.”

{orange}!Exalt!{/}

“The Chinese superfunctionary Celestial Archer can put a pointy stick through a main battle tank with his bent stick. That's the sort of thing you could aim for. If you went for strength, we might be able to get someone on Themyscira to make one that you could use at that level of strength. If you're serious about this, I can start making enquiries.”

“I'm not... I'll think about it.”

23rd September
21:34 GMT +5:30

“We are now arriving at Valmiki National Park. Valmiki National Park, our final destination. All change please.”

Still in stealth mode, I bring the bioship in low over the trees. Kaldur's looking at a holographic map of the local topography for a good landing site. He wants to scout the perimeter on foot before we head to the main facility.

“Snrrkhuh. Ah!”

Wallace jerks awake and wipes the drool from his mouth as I direct the bioship to return his seat to the upright position. Robin smirks at him, then goes back to rereading the map on his arm computer. Everyone except Batson and I managed to sleep away part of the journey. Well, and Teekl too I suppose. Does she still sleep?

“Here.” Kaldur expands an area of the map and points to a small clearing.

“Right oh.” I accelerate the ship in the direction indicated. “Twenty seconds to landing zone.”

“Artemis. Robin.”

At Kaldur's direction they rise from their seats and walk to the back of the ship, attaching those bungee cord things to their belts. Since they are the sneakiest members of the team it really does make most sense for them to go down first.

{orange}!Protect!{/}

They are a bit squishy, though. Particularly if Mallah is hanging around with a machine gun. But, can't really give them armour without ruining the whole stealth thing. A quick {orange}scan{/} shows them both to be in perfect health. Hmm.

{orange}Ring, scan indicated drop point{/}.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

No, not a fat lot there. Various plants, none of them poisonous. My Dad would probably have loved this, actually. Maybe not in the dark, I suppose, but this would really be his thing during the day. I wonder how different the ‘normal’ plants on this world are to how they were back home? Purely academic interest, as aside from that time I went a bit overboard growing cress when I was at Secondary School I've never been one for plants. No large animals around, and no man made devices. I bring the ship directly over the drop zone and halt it there.

“Opening rear door now.”

The slime sound again, and from the outside I hear the noise of moving air. The smell of forest and the feel of the slightly higher humidity and temperature follow a moment later. There's little wind, and I can hear the sound of insects and... birds, I think? Or maybe Monkeys? Through the ship's senses I see Robin and Artemis hit the ground and ready weapons before doing a quick sweep of the jungle. A moment later Robin double taps his comm to signal all clear and I bring the ship down.

The rest of the team rise and walk toward the rear door, Captain Marvel leading the way. Wallace brings up the rear and takes a moment to stretch himself. Teekl sits on the ground behind them and cocks her head to the side, listening to the strange new sounds. I wonder if she's ever been to a proper forest before?

I'm walking softly through the great forest as strange things flap overhead. My witch-sight lets me see in the pitch black of the canopy, but I am far from the largest hunter here and I am a long way from safe-home.

Teekl turns her head to fix me with her eyes as I blink heavily. She hasn't shown me many memories since becoming a construct, and most of them have been of the farm on which she was born and grew up. I think she likes having a bit of stability with regard to her place of residence. Klarion seems to have been jumping all over the place. No sightings of him since the fight at Fate's tower.

My team mates step out. Kon still takes some sort of odd pleasure in hard landings, and M'gann floats out after him. Wallace and Kaldur walk out once the ship reaches ground level.

“Thank you ship. We'll be back in a bit. Keep your camouflage up and don't go anywhere.”

The bioship doesn't exactly respond, but I sort of feel a sort of sense of... acknowledgement? M'gann probably gets more precise feedback. I withdraw my hands and rise to my feet.

“Come along then Teekl. Best foot forward.”

{orange}"Foot?"{/}

She floats up into the air and heads out of the ship. Hah. I pick my lantern up in my right hand and head out into the dark. The others have already switched their uniforms into their stealth colorations. Odd, in a way; my uniform is the most stealth friendly by default, but the orange glow makes complete stealth impossible. At present, the sigils are glowing weakly but otherwise my environmental shield isn't glowing at all.

{orange}!Danger!{/}

Sort {orange}that{/} out quick enough. There, strong enough to take a rocket propelled grenade without flinching, not so bright as to broadcast our location. I doubt that much will happen between now and {orange}the{/}... eighteen? Eighteen minutes until I can recharge and it's not {orange}as if{/}... thirty five percent charge with a power ring isn't exactly bad.

“...Lantern is low on power, he will remain here with the ship and monitor the environment for hidden threats. Everyone else, pair off. Kid Flash, you and Robin take the western approach. Superboy, you and Miss Martian approach from the north-east. Artemis and I will come up from the south.”

I approach from the rear of the arc of my team as Kaldur hands out assignments. Wallace and Robin high five each other when they are assigned to work together. Having me stay back and observe is one of my standard roles, the other being hanging around Kaldur so that he can keep track of everything.

“Remember: we are here to gather information, and ideally should remain unseen. If you are unable to approach the complex without being spotted, pull back and wait for orders. Any questions?”

Wallace waves his left hand in the air. “So, what'd’you think Luthor's doing in there, anyway?”

Kaldur thinks for a moment. “We do not know for certain that anything untoward is happening at all. The injuries that have been reported could simply be the actions of an overly enthusiastic security detail.”

“Pff, yeah. But seriously. Killer robots? Hallucinogenic gas? Bioweapons?”

I decide to step in. “Pointless, he's already got it, too risky for too little reward.”

He turns his head to look at me. “Come on, Oh El. A secret base in the middle of a jungle-"

“A national park, and the research centre is public knowledge.”

“-full of creepy scientists-"

I spread my hands apart and {orange}create{/} an image of the main building. “Looks like two scientists, at the moment.”

“-and all of it funded by Lex Luthor!”

“You know he's never been convicted of anything, right?”

He crosses his arms at me for ruining his fun. “So you saved him from a missile attack, and suddenly you're best friends.”

“No, but he's not going to do something supervillainy where it would obviously be traced back to him. And if you damage anything on camera, he will come after you for compensation.”

Captain Marvel raises a hand. “Where do you want me?”

“Since we have not trained with you, and since your uniform lacks a stealth mode, I think it would be best if you remained here with Orange Lantern. We will contact you when we reach the facility. Miss Martian, please establish the telepathic link.”

23rd September
21:39 GMT +5:30

I wave my right hand and {orange}establish{/} the monitors as the others disappear into the bushes. The monitor can ‘see’ through solid objects, so keeping track of them even in quite dense foliage presents no difficulty. Scanning the whole forest doesn't bear thinking about. I mean, I'd try, but the fact is that keeping track of every potential source of danger in an area this size isn't something I could do for any length of time. I've {orange}told{/} the ring to draw my attention to anything that represents an immediate threat.

“Um, do you know why they didn't want me along?”

Captain Marvel looks a little dejected.

“I wouldn't take it personally, sir. Takes a little while to gel with a new group. Wasn't exactly Mister Popular myself when I turned up at the mountain unannounced.”

Thank you Batman. I've still got no idea why he didn't just tell them that there'd be a couple of extra members joining. Kon was fine with me after we went through that ridiculous telepathic hallucination courtesy of a G-Gnome, but I don't think Robin or Wallace fully accepted me until Santa Prisca. M'gann says that my ring generated telepathic baffles are now good enough that a G-Gnome shouldn't be able to do that again. I'm just glad that Kon didn't tell anyone about me trying to put an axe construct through the Joker's face.

Through Napier's face. Don't mythologise.

“You don't have to call me ‘sir’, you know.”

“As a League member, you outrank me. Teekl, could you...”

Oh, she's wandered off. I close my eyes and {orange}focus{/} for a moment. She's not far away.

{orange}Teekl, stay alert{/}. {orange}Warn me if anything approaches{/}.

I feel the amused contempt of her reply, but she keeps feeding me a little of what she's experiencing.

“Oh! Don't worry about that. You can call me by my name if you want.”

My team mates appear to be making reasonable progress. I {orange}bring up{/} an area map with our objective near the centre.

“Thank you William. My name's on file, feel free to use it.” I turn from the monitors to look directly at him. “I can't say it mys-.”

Captain Marvel's face is completely still, his mouth slightly open and eyes wide in surprise. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I've got as far as I can researching Black Adam and it's William's input I need now.

“Ah, my name's not ‘William’, it's 'Captain Marvel'.”

I guess Solomon wasn't much of an actor. “I can call you that if you want, but-"

{orange}Anyone or anything around{/}? No? Good.

“-your name is William Frederick Batson.”

He opens his mouth and closes it a couple of times. “Is not.”

Ah, why not? “Is too.”

He turns to the side, and does the worst impression of someone trying to look nonchalant I've ever seen.

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Your transformation doesn't change your genetic structure. Plus, your Captain Marvel form is basically a slightly more muscular version of your father. If it's any consolation, I know pretty much everybody's secret identity. Hard to keep secrets from a power ring.”

He turns back to me, looking as if I just caught him creeping in after curfew. He's slightly hunched, a noticeable contrast to his usual chest thrust out pose.

“You haven't told anyone, have you?”

“No, and I don't intend to. Most League members choose to keep their identities secret from each other. Really, it was quite impolite of me to pry, so, sorry about that.”

He recovers a little as the prospect of being found out by the adults retreats. Haven't really investigated his background, though I know a sixty five year old man by the name of Dudley Dudley is his legal guardian. I can only assume that the man had shockingly unimaginative parents.

“It's okay. So... how's the mission going?”

I {orange}expand{/} the screens and spin them around to face him. “Aqualad and Artemis are heading up the river. Making reasonable time.” I rotate to the next screen. “Superboy and Miss Martian are going over the grasslands, and Robin and Kid Flash are heading through the denser woodlands. Assuming they maintain their present pace, they should get to the research facility just before my lantern finishes charging.”

“Does it look like they'll need any help from me?”

“Couldn't say. I don't see any immediate threats. Um, listen, I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“What do you know about Black Adam's history?”

He thinks for a moment. “Black Adam? He used to have my job, until he turned evil and took over Kahndaq. Then, his gods-.“

“Can we assume that I know of the existence of the wizard Shazam?”

He's less shocked, but still surprised. “How do you know about him?”

“Research. I went to Black Adam's tomb. The hieroglyphs aren't flattering.”

Don't think I'll tell him that I've already read one version of events. Black Adam obviously had some loyal followers at that point, and the surviving images made it clear that they hated Shazam for what he did to their hero.

“Well, okay. About five thousand years ago the wizard found a man he thought was virtuous enough to use the power of Kahndaq's gods for good. He gave him the stamina of Shu, the strength of Hershef, the power of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti, the speed of Anpu and the courage of Menthu. Basically the same powers as I've got, but from different sources. But then rather than use them for good he used them to kill his pharaoh and take over the country, so the wizard took them away again.” He shrugs. “I don't know how he's still alive now, but all he seems to want to do is fight people. Me, usually.”

“May I ask where you heard that version?”

“From the wizard.” He frowns. “Wait. What do you mean, that version?”

“Have you checked it against other sources? I mean, I don't believe that people just ‘turn evil’.”

His frown deepens slightly, and then the boy is gone and the man returns. “Do you know something? Black Adam isn't someone you should play around with.”

I push the screens to one side. “When I {orange}scan{/} you, the ring detects you as you naturally are.”

I {orange}create{/} a model of William Batson in his standard apparel. I leave it a moment before waving it away.

“About a month ago I scanned Black Adam -from a very safe distance, I should add- and I saw {orange}this{/}.”

23rd September
21:44 GMT +5:30

The glowing orange figure of Theodore Adam sneers at us. He's wearing jeans and a short sleeved shirt, though that's an addition of mine based on the pictures I saw of the dig at which Clarence and Marilyn Batson were killed and he was ‘abducted by bandits, but managed to escape’. Officially, he's in the clear, as he was very definitely injured and some distance away from the dig site when the other members of the dig crew caught up with him. The ring can calculate his ‘correct’ appearance despite his magic induced change, but it's got no idea what he'd be wearing if he changed back.

“Now, if we add a little muscle...”

The Theodore Adam image swells. The chest expands, arms and legs grow and neck broadens. Pointy ears aside, the likeness is obvious. I look to Captain Marvel with my eyebrows raised as he continues to stare at the projection.

“Black.. Adam…”

“I always thought his skin was a bit pale for a Kahndaqi. Particularly one from his era.”

“That's Theodore Adam. He was on the dig with my parents when-." His eyes dip for a moment. “It was him. It wasn't thieves..!”

“Probably not, but we should check before-."

“Did..! Do you think the wizard knew about this?!”

His fists are balled, his muscles pulled tight. I think I should have planned this better. I wiggle my right index finger and the image of Mister Adam dissipates and the screens zip back in front of me.

“I've got no idea. He might, but I don't see what he would gain by keeping it from you. Not like it hurts him to give you more reason to want to beat Black Adam.”

A quick look shows that nothing much has changed with my team mates. Kaldur's moving down a slope at the side of a short waterfall while Artemis stands watch at the top, arrow on string. M'gann-.

**We've found the place where Mayor Hill was attacked.**

I increase magnification. Though any footprints would have long since been eroded by wind, monsoon rain, and the movements of other animals I can see bullet casings and dropped equipment. Which makes even less sense. If this was a Lex Luthor job, he would never have left physical evidence on site. Or survivors. I can only assume someone's either being very stupid, or panicked.

Kon bends down to pick up a slouch hat. It has several bullet holes. **Definitely a struggle here. Don't know if their attacker was a Monkey though.**

Aqualad pauses at the bottom of the slope, water bearers drawn as Artemis follows him down. We still haven't got the water armour to a stage where either of us would be comfortable taking it on a mission.

**Survey the area, and then proceed to the objective.”

M'gann's shapeshifting clothing makes carrying extra equipment rather difficult, but Kon's followed my lead in keeping a few useful bits and pieces on him. He pulls out a small camera to start recording, but then stops and straightens up.

**M'gann, do you hear something?**

Huh?

{orange}Ring, what exactly{/}-?

Ah, heck.

**Superboy, Miss Martian, two elephants heading your way. I'm reading thickened skin, augmented physique and flesh tears. It looks like someone's dosed them up on Venom Buster.**

I'm downplaying it. I didn't think that Venom Buster had existed for all that long, and yet the male Elephant has significantly altered tusks, with a second prong coming off about half way along. I sort of understand the whole thing becoming bigger, but shouldn't an additional structure have to grow from scratch? And aren't tusks basically teeth? That makes no sense. What makes even less sense is that both elephants have spines growing through their skin. Mister Flinders didn't show any significant dental anomalies or spine growth. Maybe the elephants are allergic or something? And I didn't think female elephants had tusks.

**Doesn't look so good for your buddy Luthor now, does it Oh El?**

**Well, we are trespassing.**

**Testing drugs on an endangered species?**

**I wouldn't want to try poaching something like that.** Ah, that's interesting. **Superboy, Miss Martian, be advised that the Elephants are wearing some sort of electronic collar. I can't tell exactly what it's doing, but-.**

Kon crouches as the first Elephant -the male- crashes its way through the trees at the edge of the forest. Seeing it there with Kon gives me a much better idea of size; it's grown a lot since getting injected. {orange}Is it{/}..? Yes, roughly in proportion to Mister Flinders' own growth. Kon leaps directly at its head, swinging his fist directly at its forehead before pushing off with both legs. Oh dear. Kon is a great deal stronger than Mister Flinders now, and if he isn't careful he could end up making Asian Elephants even more endangered. The Elephant staggers back a couple of paces, then recovers enough to grab Kon's leg with its trunk and swings him into a tree, which splinters on impact. The female Elephant chooses that moment to emerge from the woodland as well. M'gann takes to the air and presumably goes invisible as the female Elephant slows from lumbering charge to a trot, swinging her head from side to side as she searches for her target.

This is pretty out of character behaviour for Elephants.

**Miss Martian, do you require assistance?**

Kon pushes the fallen tree away and gets back to his feet. **We're fine, Aqualad.**

The male Elephant sees him and accelerates, trying to trample him. The female is still on the lookout for M'gann, who is now directly above her, just behind her head.

**Aqualad, I'm in position to destroy the collar.**

**Do it.**

She raises her arms. The collar buckles and shatters and its wearer stumbles to a halt. Right, that seems under control, what's happening with-.

{orange}!Kon!{/}

No, I should keep watching the fight in progress. They might need {orange}my help{/}. The male Elephant catches up with Kon and brings its right foreleg down hard. He catches it at the foot, and braces himself as the Elephant trumpets and leans forward, bringing as much weight to bear as it can. Kon strains, bending slightly, then turns and shoves the upper part of the Elephant's leg sideways. Already overextended, the Elephant falls to the side with a trumpeted cry of distress. Kon's on it as soon as it crashes down, sticking a hand through the material of the collar and tearing it off before jumping back. The male Elephant jerks and shakes his head for a moment, before rolling upright and climbing back onto his feet.

The Elephants look around, then at each other. Then they both turn and walk away. Kon watches them go.

**The collars are gone, and so are the Elephants. Guess they must have been controlling them somehow.**

Good good. Now, what's happening with-.

**Kaldur, watch out!**

A Venom Buster enhanced Crocodile explodes from the water next to Kaldur, its jaws wide!

23rd September
21:48 GMT +5:30

Kaldur reacts instantly, catching the jaws and straining to keep them apart! The sheer strength of the Crocodile pushes him back away from the water as Artemis draws her bow.

{orange}Ring, any other Croc{/}-?

Oh, poo.

**Artemis, another behind you! Move away-!**

She's already in motion as the second Crocodile erupts from the water straight up into the air. Even as it snaps at her she's lunging forward, twisting as she falls to land on her back and bring her bow to bear. As the Crocodile shoots upward she sights and looses, the explosive arrow hitting the monster of a reptile in the neck.

**Aqualad, it'll be easier to hold its jaws shut than keep them open.**

**If I were not... Between them... I would certainly.. heed.. your.. advice.**

Oh. Yeah.

Kaldur strains as the Crocodile tries to push forward. It's far more massive than he is but it doesn't look as though it's able to bring that force to bear efficiently in a straight up pushing contest.

**Do you want my help?**

I'd actually forgotten that Captain Marvel was there.

**Nah, we got this.**

Artemis rises to a crouch, aims, draws and looses at the first Crocodile. If she could hit the second Crocodile in the air while on her back a stationary target certainly presents no challenge. The blast breaks the collar and.. it's still attacking? Of course it's still attacking, it's a predator grappling with something mouth sized.

{orange}Ring, time to recharge{/}?

{orange}Six minutes remaining.

Current power level{/}?

{orange}Thirty four percent power remaining.{/}

**Looks like we got giant Vultures to go with the Elephants! Still think Luthor's not up to something?**

**How many Vultures?**

**Three. No, four!**

{orange}!Must help team must help team!{/}

I try and split my attention between the two screens. Robin and Wallace are running through the forest, pursued by four truly huge birds.

**I can be there in half a second.**

**Trying to work here, Oh El.**

**Artemis?**

**We got this!**

She sprints to just behind Kaldur and looses another arrow directly into the Crocodile's open throat. I see a plume of some sort of gas, and the shock spurs it into more aggressive action. It yanks its head violently from left to right, pulling Kaldur off the ground and flinging him aside. Before he can rise it charges forward again, only to be met by another gas arrow which strikes it directly between the eyes. It roars in confusion and then turns violently around, narrowly missing a rapidly retreating Artemis with its tail. It then scuttles forward, back into the water. Kaldur recovers his water bearers from where he dropped them when it first attacked and watches the water to make sure that it's gone.

**The Crocodiles have retreated. Robin, Kid Flash, status report.**

I watch on the monitor as Wallace dashes up a tree and then somehow spin dashes Sonic the Hedgehog style off the top to knock a Vulture out of the sky. I {orange}open{/} another screen on Robin as he ducks under a thick root, forcing the Vulture that was swooping down on him to evade.

**We can manage!**

{orange}!Bad match up!{/}

**Aqualad, they can't strike back effectively. I can get there, shoot the collars and get back without any trouble.**

A Vulture makes another dive at Robin, who jumps at the tree trunk, pushes off into a back flip and strikes the bird in the neck as it passes. A moment later a small detonation removes the collar.

**We can manage!**

Shadows moving through the trees. Furry-men! Surrounded! Run!

Teekl? {orange}Ring, apart from the Vultures, anything Venom Bustered up near my team mates{/}?

{orange}No threats in requested category detected{/}.

Oh, no. {orange}I'm not doing another poisoned lipstick{/}. Ring, {orange}any advanced weapons or augmented animals -including people- within-.{/}

Teekl bursts from the underbrush like a cat out of hell. Her fur's on end, her eyes are wide and I can feel her panic in the empathic feedback. She climbs up my left leg and my back with her claws extended and curls herself around my shoulders, shaking.

**Hate to be a bother, but I think Captain Marvel and myself are about to receive company. One moment.**

{orange}Ring{/}?

{orange}Standard scan detects no threats.

Infra red{/} oh hell.

Venom Buster enhanced Monkeys run in from all directions. Two leap straight from the trees and latch onto my chest as Teekl goes into a hissing spitting frenzy in my ear.

{orange}Armour{/}!

The plates form, but the Monkeys still hold on! One tries yanking my right arm, trying to either remove my lantern or the arm itself. The other tries to bite my face, and gets slashed by Teekl for its trouble.

{orange}!Safety!

Get away{/}! Two orange force beams strike them in the chests and shove them off, but the rest are getting closer. {orange}Height{/}! I fly directly upwards and I immediately feel grateful that they aren't flying Monkeys. I lost my monitor screens in my scramble to get away, but I'm sure the others can handle themselves for a moment.

{orange}Ring, turret autofire{/}. {orange}Aim for the collars only{/}.

I'm about twenty metres up as two Goldeneye-style gatling turrets materialise at the end of orange tethers attached to my hips. Immediately they swivel and begin firing off single shots. I see Monkeys drop as their collars are shot, then scrabble to their feet and flee from the noise. This turret design fires real ammunition from my subspace pocket, but with their enhancements the Monkeys should be able to withstand it without being harmed themselves.

I look over at Captain Marvel. The Monkeys seem to have focused on him. He's buried beneath them, arms pinned in place. I {orange}turn{/} a turret in his direction and two shots later his head is clear as the newly liberated primates throw themselves off. He takes a moment to look around, and then flies straight into the ground hard. Then he goes up, turns over and slams down again. Most Monkeys lose their grip at that point and he takes hold of the rest one by one and snaps off their collars. He remains low to the ground, baiting our remaining assailants. Without their full numbers and with no way to close the distance faster my turrets soon finish off all of the collars.

“Captain, are you injured?”

He checks himself over. “No.”

He bends down to pick up a broken collar with his right hand. He gives it a look over, then crushes it.

“What sort of person would do that to a defenseless Monkey?”

**Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Venom Buster enhanced Monkeys beaten off, no damage sustained. Resuming overwatch.**

23rd September
21:51 GMT +5:30

Kaldur and Artemis have resumed their journey. Kon and M'gann are finishing up their survey. Mayor Hill mentioned seeing some sort of trap stun a Tiger at the bottom of the hill, so they're going to have a look there once they're done. Robin and Wallace appear to have evaded the Vultures. The birds are flying around the general area, but they can't follow them into the denser foliage and have lost track of them.

Teekl has calmed down a bit, but she's still sticking close to me. I'm not really sure why she was so scared.

With nothing else to focus on, I {orange}float{/} one of the more intact collars over to me. I look on the inside and, yes, there it is. I'm getting bloody tired of seeing anti-scry wards on everything.

**Orange Lantern to Aqualad. I think we're rumbled.**

**Explain.**

**The collars the Monkeys were wearing had scry wards. The collars the other animals were wearing didn't. That suggests that the Monkeys were sent after me specifically.**

**It also means that we cannot guarantee that your scans are accurate with regard to potential threats.**

**Not at range, no. Close up I can just use infrared or optical scans.**

**How long until you are able to recharge?**

{orange}Ring{/}?

{orange}Four minutes remaining.{/}

**Four minutes. But I can just bring the lantern with me. It's not that fragile.**

**We will manage for four minutes. Are there any further threats in your immediate vicinity?**

{orange}Ring, full scan this time{/}.

It doesn't reply, but instead expands my senses. Nothing much. Looks like everything got scared away by the Monkeys.

**No.**

**Very well. Artemis and I will proceed to the research center. Kid Flash, Robin, have you successfully evaded the Vultures?**

I see Kid Flash put on his goggles and take a look around.

**Looks like.**

**Then proceed to the objective. Superboy, Miss Martian.**

**Ugh...**

{orange}!Kon!{/}

I'm rising into the air, but stop when Captain Marvel lays a hand on my shoulder.

“I.. thought.. Aqualad wanted you to stay here.”

“{orange}Kon's in tro{/}-.”

**We found the trap that caught the Tiger, but it was still active. Some sort of paralysis field. Miss Martian took it out with telekinesis.**

And I float back down. Of course. Kon and M'gann are probably the duo least in danger.

“Look, Orange Lantern, I know you wanna help-."

“Sorry Captain, one moment.” **Superboy, is the trap more or less intact?**

**Yeah?**

**And it just paralysed you?**

I bring a {orange}screen{/} to bear. I see three devices which look like miniature Tesla coils. One has been snapped off near the base, and the other two are inactive.

**I think so. Why?**

**Lantern Stewart was less than enthusiastic about my idea of using red sun plasma weapons for the mountain's internal defences. Could be he'll find something like that less objectionable.**

There's a moment of silence, then it isn't Kon who responds.

**You're building red sun plasma weapons?**

**Red sun is a bit of a misnomer, Robin, but basically yes.**

**Isn't red sunlight one of the only things that can hurt Kryptonians?**

**Well, it disrupts the functioning of Kryptonian photoreceptive organelles, it's not exactly... You know that white light thing I use on Superboy sometimes? Sort of the opposite of that. And, it's just as good as the green sort against other targets. I constructed them from the eyes of Ivo's MONQIs.**

**I thought you handed those over to the Metropolis PD?**

**I only handed over the green ones. Didn't think putting anti-Kryptonian weapons in Metropolis was a good idea. Wait, why is this a surprise? You all saw me using one in Bialya.**

**Didn't realize that's what it was.**

**Why do you have anti-Kryptonian weapons anyway?!**

Kon, it's not for you... **So the rest of you would have a chance if we were attacked by Kryptonians.**

**What Kryptonians!**

**I don't know! I don't know, but if it's even slightly possible that we might get attacked by them, I'm going to make {orange}bloody sure that{/}-!**

{green}No, no, calm down{/}.

**I'm going to make sure that we are capable of defending ourselves. I don't think such an attack is likely, but until yesterday I didn't think an attack by element controlling robots was particularly likely either. Kon, with your Danner formula augmentations you're less susceptible to them than a full blooded Kryptonian, but by my calculations someone like-** I don't know that General Zod exists here. **- like any other Kryptonian would go down hard.**

So long as the auto-tracking was good enough to hit him. I'm not sure exactly how good Superman's reactions are...

**The rest of us?**

**Artemis, I am perfectly capable of replicating the effect with the ring. Do you have a kryptonite gas arrow?**

**W-? No. You're being ridiculous.**

**If we'd had EMP emitters installed-!**

**This is not relevant to the mission.**

Kaldurs voice hits me like a cold damp flannel. On a mission. Deal with the mission. Don't get distracted. I should know this. I should know this.

**Orange Lantern, we will discuss your preparations at another time. Superboy and Miss Martian, continue on to the objective. We can recover the trap on the way back.**

23rd September
21:54 GMT +5:30

About a minute left before I can recharge. I've {orange}created{/} a small platform for the Lantern in the middle of the screens and I'm staring at it. I've seen it at each charge level, but I've never actually seen it go from no charges to one charge. Should be interesting.

I've already scouted out the route for my team mates to the research centre. Nothing much there that I can see. Even yanked a satellite just in case, but I couldn't really see much. Since I've got thirty three percent power to burn that'll just get wasted in a moment I mapped out the remaining trap locations and forwarded the map to each duo. Took another percentage point to get the designs of the trap components from here, but they're just too useful to ignore.

Teekl's gone back to the bioship.

“Um, are you okay?”

“Will be in a minute.”

“Kind of creepy, the way you're staring at it.”

I {orange}lower{/} the lantern and make eye contact with him. “Better?”

He smiles at me. “Look, I know it's hard when your team leader puts you on the bench. When I first joined the League, Batman had me just standing around the Watchtower a bunch of times while the others were out on missions. But you gotta trust that they know what they're doing, keeping you in reserve for when they most need you, or to cover for an attack they weren't expecting.”

“Captain, that's really not my problem. I mean, I think I'm being underutilised and I'm not really sure that Aqualad understands the strategic or tactical implications of FTL travel, but it's his decision to make and I respect that.”

“Okay, so, what is the problem?”

My eyes drop for a moment. “How d'you..? How do you know that you're using the powers the wizard gave you properly? I mean, in the most effective way?”

“When he first gave them to me, the wizard showed me statues of the Enemies of Man, and talked to me about how I'd overcome each of them. I guess he thinks that it's best to give powers to good people and then trust them to make the right choices.”

Not a bad way to go about it, as far as it goes. But... “Yeah, but he thought the same thing about Black Adam. How do you continue to know that you're worthy?”

“Well the wizard would probably tell me if I wasn't. I guess you can't know, not for sure. But you're doing okay, aren't you? Why are you worried about it?”

“Have you ever considered.. just.. not bothering to be Billy Batson? I mean, by every objective measure your Captain Marvel form is superior. It wouldn't be that hard for someone to set you up a fake civilian identity. Have you ever thought about what you could do for the world applying the Wisdom of Solomon to, I don't know, medical research?”

“Giving up being me?” He shakes his head slowly. ”No, I couldn't do that. I'd go crazy trying to be Captain Marvel all the time. Maybe I will end up using Solomon's Wisdom for more things. At the moment I'm just glad to do what I can.”

I'm feeling a little.. I don't know. Drained, maybe? “They weren't even particularly tough robots. If I'd bothered to create a single EMP gre-.”

The cracks on the surface of the lantern glow and pulse like a quickening heartbeat, growing brighter with each repetition. The pulses radiate away from the orange lava lamp core, where strands of white and different tones of orange twist and swirl faster and faster. Ah, {orange}here we go{/}! One last pulse, and the {orange}vibrant orange colour remains{/} throughout all of the cracks. Nothing else for a moment, and then the whole of the lantern begins to glow orange and the near-grey panels shift to dull orange. One last surge of orange light, and the core calms down at its new brighter power state.

{orange}”First capacitor charge complete. Ring recharge available.”{/}

It's {orange}beautiful{/}, really. Almost a shame to discharge it. {orange}Not that it'll stop me{/}. I raise it back up and hold out the ring. Certainly don't need the Ophidian's help with this mission, thank you very much.

{orange}Mine{/}.

I bring the ring forward to just in front of the core and hold it there for a moment, wispy strands of avaricious energy moving between the lantern, ring, and my hand. They're probably an indicator that the lantern is in a poor state of repair, but I find them even more entrancing than a proper plasma ball.

“{orange}Recharge{/}.”

The strobing arcs merge into a single beam and intensify, pouring {orange}all my wonderful power into the ring{/}. {orange}Oh YES{/}! By the time it finishes I'm actually shuddering. With relief? Pleasure? The removal of fear? I'm not really sure. Colour's drained from the lantern again. I take hold of it with my right hand, and flex my left.

{orange}”Ring charge at one hundred percent.”

!Yes!{/}

“That's what I like to hear. To quote Revolver Ocelot, {orange}I'm alive again{/}!”

“That was... Strange...”

“I'll just go and put this in the bioship. Don't go anywhere.”

I drop to the ground and walk over to where I know the ship to be. {orange}Don't want to waste power looking at it while it's cloaked, after all{/}. I lay my left hand on the hull and the doorway oozes open. I call the parts of the lantern's box over even as I start to walk in, and place it within. Teekl's curled up on the pilot's seat.

“Teekl, look after this.” She opens her eyes and stretches her legs and claws out as I put the box under the seat. Should I..? It's probably best practice, I suppose. “Lantern, {orange}occlude{/}.” The box fades from existence. I straighten up and give Teekl a quick head scratch with my right hand and then exit the ship again, the door flowing shut behind me. **Aqualad, I'm recharged and ready for action. Where do you want me?**

**We are still some distance from the research centre.**

**I can hunt down other collared animals if you want? Or fly high above the facility, make sure everything's where the plans say they should be? If no one spotted me on Santa Prisca there's no way anyone here's going to spot me. Or I could collect up all of the trap units? They're dangerous and they're evidence.**

“Are your eyes supposed to be doing that?”

“What? Oh, yes, it's a Lantern thing. Look at the Greenies' eyes when they're not wearing their rings sometimes.”

Marvel looks sceptical. I suppose he might just have assumed that Jordan had green eyes, but Stewart? Can black people even have green eyes?

...

Was that a massively racist thing to think? I didn't mean have as in 'permitted'...

“They don't usually look like that.”

**Can you not run scans from your current location?**

**Not reliably if they're using scry wards.**

**Very well. Take up position well above the research centre, but do not reveal your position and do not use faster than light travel to get there.**

**No problem.**

I remove my construct armour and dim my environmental shield. These days my minimum is much stronger than it was when I started out. Feels even stronger than it was yesterday, for some reason.

**Should I go with him, Aqualad?**

**No, Captain.** He sags a little. **It would be more helpful if you could recover the trap Superboy and Miss Martian destroyed and return the parts to the bioship. You can rejoin us when we start the main attack.**

23rd September
21:58 GMT +5:30

I think I'm flying faster, too. Maybe getting attacked like that has helped me focus on the important things? Was I getting complacent? Maybe I was trying to tech up too early and got Zergling rushed. Or maybe Dark Templar rushed. Those robots were probably too great a commitment of resources to be comparable to Zerglings.

{orange}!TeamNeedPosition!{/}

I'm not even glowing visibly as I pierce the canopy and rise into the clear Indian sky. This country has no central government organised metahuman program, so it's not as if I have to worry about someone local intercepting me and that's the only thing that could realistically interfere. Probably a few hedge wizards or mystics in the state, but though those can still be dangerous -ask anyone who's had a run in with John Constantine- the Spell Eater should keep me {orange}safe{/}.

From this height I can see the edges of the forest. I adopt what I realise is Per Degaton's flying stance. A bit like Black Adam's, but rather than folding your arms across your chest you clasp them behind your back. No swimming position here, {orange}no siree{/}. With nothing much to concentrate on I look toward the ground and quickly {orange}scan{/} for more Venom Buster enhanciles. Ooh, that's a nontrivial number. All collared as well.

**Captain, there's a Venom Buster enhanced Tiger in your vicinity. About thirty metres west south west from the trap.**

**Thanks for the heads up! I'll get that collar off the poor kitty.**

**Just remember, that won't necessarily stop it attacking.**

That should be high enough. I start moving forward, {orange}any air resistance utterly humbled by the power of the ring{/}.

**Robin, initiating transmission of the locations of all enhanced animals to you {orange}now{/}.**

**Thanks, Oh El.**

Hmm. Might be able to hit the Vultures' collars from here, but given the time to target and the need for concealment... I don't think that their necks would survive the force a railgun would exert. Ah well, once we've found out what's going on at the research station I can go back and remove the collars and Venom Buster both. I'm a completionist at heart.

Right, I've pretty much got line of sight to the research centre itself now. {orange}Accessing computers{/}. The two scientists I detected earlier are listed as Doctor Arnold Munro and Doctor Niang Guan Jun, and they're both wearing collars similar to those the animals are wearing. No other personnel present that I can detect, though internal computers have user profiles for several more researchers and security guards. No sign of them. Interesting. Oh, {orange}hang on{/}... No, not detecting any Human remains. That would have been a downer. Several areas of the base are warded and shielded. Not perfectly as far as the ring is concerned, but I can't get a perfect read on them. Some sort of animal pens? The facility itself is part top quality prefab and what looks like it was once a visitors' centre or a group of safari cabins? I recognise a ring of the paralysis trap things on the outskirts, but that won't be hard for me to shut down.

Wait. There's a Doctor Munro working at a place surrounded by mutant animals? Hah! Oh, he must have heard that one so many times. Don't recognise his name otherwise, or Doctor Niang's. They're in one of the cabins, a little way away from the main structure. I wonder why there's so much shielding... Superman. I haven't checked, but I suppose it would be quite in character for Mister Luthor to want to make his research centres as close to Superman-proof as possible. I can force the issue, but only by sending a construct down.

{orange}Scanning around{/}, I see a storage shed with a considerable number of sacks of what is labelled as Rat food. Venom Buster Rats? That wouldn't be fun. {orange}Are there{/}..? No, can't pick any up. Maybe they just did some early testing on them. They could be inside, but given how big and hard to manage they would be there can't be all that many. I try {orange}accessing{/} the original plans as well as LexCorp records, and they more or less match the buildings I'm seeing.

{orange}Quick check{/}? Yep, got a few minutes yet. Hmm. {orange}Personnel files{/}. According to her file, Mister Luthor poached Doctor Niang from Beijing Institute of Genomics where she worked on metahuman genetic sequencing. A little odd. I still don't really know what Mister Luthor was planning to do with this place. If the enhanced animals are intentional then I'm a bit surprised that the Chinese were willing to part with someone who had her expertise. Maybe Mister Luthor has some pull there, or offered to share information derived from her work here?

Doctor Munro is an American who has supposedly spent the last few years doing something in the private sector in Brazil, but I'm having trouble {orange}finding{/} anything to back that up. His field is the hormonal and chemical modification of farm animals. Altering growth rates, disease resistance, milk yields and behaviour. Put together, the two of them might have been able to recreate Venom Buster -or something sufficiently like it to fool me- from the descriptions that are now publically available. Maybe. I don't really know how much the conventional parts of their work would merge with the super powered parts.

If this was what Mister Luthor had in mind. If it wasn't... He does make charitable donations, both as a private citizen and on behalf of LexCorp. Not to nature charities. Art museums sometimes, but he seems to have a soft spot for museums of technology and science. So why would he bring these two scientists out here? I don't really see what he could have them do here that they couldn't more easily do somewhere else.

For a moment I consider the idea of simply phoning him and asking. It's not as if he could get someone on site fast enough to stop me finding out for myself, and it might save trouble later. Don't think Kaldur would agree with that idea, and I'm a little uncertain about it myself. It would basically be giving him proof that we were trespassing, and if we didn't find any proof of malfeasance down there things could get a bit uncomfortable.

Or maybe there's another option. It's nearly ten o'clock at night, local time. I don't see anything resembling a bed in the room both scientists are in. Or lab equipment. Looks like a kitchen unit. And the door's locked. Jolly odd. But it does have a phone.

{orange}Ring, dial the hut{/}.

I see the two of them look around as the phone rings, and after a few seconds Doctor Munro walks over and picks it up.

“What do you want now?”

Curious. “Do I have the pleasure of addressing Doctor Munro?”

His head jerks up. “Wh-? Who is this?”

“Orange Lantern two eight one four. May I ask who you were expecting?”

“Oh, thank God. I thought it was that Brain creature again.”

“Brain in a travel machine, accompanied by a Gorilla named Mallah who carries a machine gun?”

“Yeah, that's them. How did you know..?”

“The ape shot a tourist, but let him get away. Do they have any other assistants on site?”

“They've been giving some sort of mutagen to the animals-.”

“Yeah, we've met those. Apart from them? Anyone intelligent? Armed guards?”

“No. Um, not that I've seen. They might have, I don't know.”

“Is the Brain or the ape still on site?”

“I don't... They stuck us in this cabin when they arrived. I haven't seen them since this morning.”

“How long have they been here?”

“A little over six days now.”

“Thank you, Doctor. That's most helpful. Last question: what is this place actually supposed to do?”

“I'm not... I have a confidentiality agreement with Lex Luthor. I can't just-."

“Anything that might be dangerous to me and mine if we come in to rescue you. I'm not asking you for commercially sensitive information.”

He's silent for a moment.

“We're working on ways to augment things. Animals. Ultimately people, but we only got here ten days ago. Everything's in early stages.”

And we have a motive. Mister Luthor follows through on his transhumanistic instincts, and another supervillain helps himself.

“There's nothing here that the Brain.. thing.. can use right away. Even if he gets a copy of our database, we're years from anything viable.”

“Thank you, Doctor. Now sit tight. Your liberation is imminent.”

23rd September
22:17 GMT +5:30

None of the others encountered further resistance on their final approach. Robin and Wallace move around the perimeter to link up with Kaldur and Artemis, and I {orange}relay{/} my images to Robin's computer. Really need to see about getting the others something like that. I'm still high overhead as Kon and M'gann approach the research centre from the other direction. Captain Marvel will hopefully be joining us shortly, though he's being slowed by Kaldur's request that he fly under the level of the canopy.

I've been trying to remember anything about the Brain from the comics, and all I've come up with is that his condition was caused by Niles Caulder, leader and convener of the Doom Patrol. Bit unusual for a supervillain to have a reasonable grudge, but there we are. I remember him having a romantic relationship with Mallah, but I don't remember anything helpful like his standard armament or his real name. Without anything to work on checking which version we're dealing with in advance will be next to impossible. I'm a bit concerned about not being able to scan the interior of his travel machine, as I might not be able to identify in advance which bits are weaponry and which bits are part of the life support system.

**Miss Martian, are you able to read the minds of anyone inside the facility?**

**Just a moment...**

I feel a moment of disorientation, as if I'm looking down on the facility from the sky while simultaneously looking at each room and corridor from within.

**Sorry Aqualad. I'm just reading the two researchers.**

**Suppose if anyone was going to come up with telepathic shielding it would be a guy called the Brain.**

Apparently Wallace already knew about him. Have he and the Flash fought him before? I suppose I don't currently have any evidence that the Brain is male, any more than I have evidence of his personal history or intentions. Batman's documentation is rather light on what exactly those ‘patterns’ he was studying are. Might be worth asking when we get back.

**First, we will need to take out the force field.**

**I can do that. I've taken a look at the schematics, and I can easily hit every one of those projectors from here.**

**Or I can take the field down with an arrow since, y'know, giant orange beams are a bit of a giveaway.**

**If you'd prefer, I could use a railgun.** {orange}Ring, probable consequences{/}... Oh. **Sorry, forget the railgun idea. The ring says that the splash damage would be a bit excessive.**

To put it mildly.

**I do not think that we would be able to disguise our presence for any length of time once we make our move. And it would be best if they cannot tell which direction we are coming from.**

**Orange beams it is then.**

I had a quick go at working out how Brain... Should that be ‘The Brain?’ It's a bit like Flash, I'm still not sure if it should have a ‘the’ at the start. Let's just go with Brain, since I don't know his name. Working out how Brain and Mallah got here, but without knowing where they started from that's pretty much impossible. There's no landing pad here, so I assume they must have driven in. Hiding in a crate, then break out once the construction crew left? No idea. And I don't really know why they would still be here. Surely the sensible thing to do if stealth was impossible would be go in, grab the database and kill the residents in a way that couldn't be specifically traced back to them.

**Next, we must locate our adversaries. Orange Lantern, were the doctors able to give you any information?**

**Sorry. Doctor Munro said that unless they wanted them working on something, they tend to leave them locked up.**

**Guess it really wasn't Luthor.**

**First time for everything.**

Not Robin too. Have he and Batman been investigating Mister Luthor? I don't remember seeing anything in the files...

**I'm more worried about the fact that the Brain could be working with the League of Shadows.**

Wallace has a point. That is a bit of a worry. Luthor might have had Blockbuster on file, but Brain had to have got Venom Buster from somewhere. From Bane, via the Shadows? From Kobra? Directly from the Santa Priscan government?

**This guy's just a brain on an electric wheelchair, right? How hard is taking him down going to be?**

Kon is clearly not impressed. I'm undecided. I don't know enough about the limits of mad science here to know whether the concept is as stupid as it sounds or something brilliant. But if I don't see death rays, I'm calling him Brainitar.

**He's made weapons for every major criminal organization on the planet, including Blacksmith's Network in Central City. And now he's got Venom Buster, plus whatever Luthor had these guys working on. Oh El, can you see any internal defenses?**

**No, and I checked with the doctors; there shouldn't be any.**

**Aqualad, I can find him fastest. I'll keep him occupied until the rest of you can get there.**

**Orange Lantern, are there any animals inside the facility?**

**Rats, they said. For testing their formulae on.**

**Did they know whether or not the Brain used the Venom Buster formula on them?**

**No, sorry Aqualad. They actually said that they weren't working on Venom Buster.**

**Yeah, right. What have they been doing?**

**Kid Flash, you know how much work is involved in making sure that a new lab is properly sterile. Plus, they're team leads. They were sorting out the practical issues associated with working somewhere this isolated. They wanted everything up together when the rest of the research team gets here.**

**Where is everyone?**

**Not sure. The other researchers weren't expected to arrive for a few days yet, but security should have been here by now.**

**Good job they weren't.**

Really, Wallace? I like to think that anyone Lex Luthor employed to handle security on one of his personal projects would be competent enough to take a Gorilla and a brain in a jar. Plus, once they got up and running they could make their own defenders by dosing up guard dogs or something. And if Luthor found out about this before the League did, we'd get to find out whether a Monkey with a minigun could handle a Spetsnaz team.

**Orange Lantern, take out the force field on my signal then be ready to support Kid Flash. Kid Flash, we need a better idea of what is going on inside. If you meet with opposition, evade until the rest of us can reach you. Miss Martian and Superboy, your target is the animal holding pens. I do not want to have to deal with a swarm of Venom Buster enhanced Rats. Robin, anything you can acquire on the Brain's activities would be invaluable. Artemis, you're with me.**

No need to make this flashy I suppose. {orange}My team needs me to do this right{/}.

{orange}Ring, target all force field emitters{/}.

Orange target icons appear in my vision, hovering over each one. I think I'll just use beams. No need for anything fancy. **Ready on your mark Aqualad.**

**Aqualad, Superboy and I are as close to the force field as we can get.**

**Orange Lantern, go.**

23rd September
22:21 GMT +5:30

{orange}WarSphere, Eliminate{/}.

A dim orange sphere forms around me, and from it orange beams curve outwards and down to strike directly into the top of each of the force field projectors. The beams pierce them as if the field was not even there and force their way downward, wrecking their interiors and causing a shutdown.

{orange}Armour{/}.

Might help to keep the attention of anyone watching on me. Certainly can't hurt, and we can honestly tell Mister Luthor that we're attempting to rescue his staff and recover his property. For a split second I register Wallace cross the distance from the tree line and enter the main building.

{orange}Visual imaging{/}.

From the beams now surrounding the building probe lines project outwards, rapidly building up a picture of the shielded interior of the structure which I relay to Robin's computer. Everyone's moving now, Superboy taking the direct route through a wall with M'gann just behind. Artemis and Kaldur go in through the front entrance as Robin takes my map and shouts directions.

**Found the Brain!**

I hear gunfire.

{orange}!Help team mate!{/}

**We are coming!**

Kaldur and Artemis are running down the main corridor as Robin heads for the server room. Fighting remotely with constructs is possible, though it's surprising how much not being able to see the results of your action first hand reduces emotional investment. I {orange}send{/} a probe through a series of walls, near the ceiling so that I don't risk accidentally spiking anyone. I still can't see exactly where- Ah. Looks like this wasn't originally a lab. A large store room, maybe? It is now, and it's been refitted to be Brain travel machine friendly. The man himself is manipulating his equipment as Mallah keeps Wallace suppressed at the doorway with bursts of minigun fire. Wallace rolls frantically to the side as Mallah remembers that concealment does not equal cover and starts putting bullets through the weak interior wall.

{orange}No{/}.

I {orange}transition{/} along the probe tether into the room.

“Mallah!”

The Gorilla -wearing a lab coat for some reason- heeds his master's command and scampers back to the Brain. He moves awkwardly, keeping hold of his gun in his right hand while he uses his left to knuckle walk. The Brain rotates his travel machine in my direction as I {orange}hard scan{/} his chassis.

“Bzzkh.”

Mallah halts next to Brain, pulls something from a pouch and presses it to the ground. A shimmering aquamarine shield bubble forms over them and telemetry from my scan cuts off. I {orange}create{/} twin buzz saw constructs and swing them at it from either side. The shield stresses slightly but holds as I start {orange}looking{/} for the projector. Wallace dashes in and after taking a fraction of a second to catch up with events blurs up to the shield and begins punching at super speed.

{orange}Armour him{/}.

Don't want them dropping the shield for Mallah to perforate my team mate now, do I? I can't find an external emitter, and unlike Garth Brain has had the sense to extend the shield across the floor under him.

“Magic creates interesting challenges, no? So little research of any quality, and yet it is so observably potent.”

I {orange}zip{/} over to the barrier -on the opposite side to Wallace- and thrust my right hand at it. After a second I feel the mild warmth of the Spell Eater activating, and the area of the shield around it dims noticeably. Mallah growls at me with teeth bared, and starts to raise his gun in my direction.

“No, Mallah. Our work here is done. It is time to bid them goodbye.”

Wallace sneers. “Nowhere to go, Brain.”

Good luck getting past me. I didn't recognise all of his internal systems, but there aren't any teleport-.

Oh heck.

Plates on the surface of Brain's chassis more aside and armatures extend outward. They form brightly glowing vertical curves along his sides. Wallace stops attacking and backs up a little. I don't know what he's trying to do.

{orange}What{/}?

The ring picks out sigils being projected... The walls! He's projecting sigils onto the walls! The air shimmers and the barrier protecting them flattens. Shit!

{orange}Get them{/}!

I {orange}generate{/} a laser construct and fire it directly at the Brain's dome. I can see him, and therefore the barrier shouldn't stop visible light. Sadly, the protective magic of the barrier isn't playing by the normal rules. {orange}Plasma{/}? No. {orange}Sonic{/}? No. {orange}Electromagnetic flux{/}? Small electrical discharges dance around Brain's chassis but it doesn't seem to be interfering with him to any great extent.

**Kaldur, know anything about countering magic based teleportation?**

**A little. We may be delayed. Try to keep them occupied.**

Bit late for that. Brain's arms dim and fold back into his chassis, but the lights on the wall remain in place.

“Farewell, my friend. I do hope you enjoy the little gift I have left for you.”

The barrier flickers, and then leaps out to touch the runes glowing on the walls. Then things get a little strange. Space.. bends, Brain and ape being simultaneously close and far away. Around the edge of the affected area I see part of a completely different room.

Sod it. I hold out my right hand.

{orange}Assimilate{/}!

The beam flies from my right palm and shoots towards Brain, but as it reaches him it seems to slow. {orange}Come on{/}! It looks like it's at relative stop. The {red}bastard{/} thing begins to roll away into the other room. I see a man with white skin and wearing red armour on the far side, his arms glowing with ghostly light. I try running after them but the air turns to rubber around me. I can't make any headway! Then the portal area begins to evaporate from the sides of the room and I step back to avoid being inside the affected area.

{red}Aaaahh{/}!

There's a brief increase in air pressure as the portal collapses completely. I feel cheated. Wallace just looks mystified.

“What..? What just happened..?”

“Some sort of magic based spatial distortion, I think. Some of the shapes on the walls looked a little familiar.”

“The Brain's using magic? Since when?”

“I don't-! I don't know. Aagh!” A sudden shooting pain in my right arm. What?

**Brain and Mallah are gone. What's happening?**

**Paul, help!**

**M'gann, what's happening?**

**The rats! They're-!**

I get a momentary flash of the image of a giant snarling rodent, and then the connection disappears.

23rd September
22:24 GMT +5:30

“M'gann!”

Wallace dashes out of the room before I can think. Another painful stab, this time in the lower part of my right leg. It's not my pain I'm feeling.

“Miss Martian, report!”

Kaldur's voice on the radio. Why is he using the radio?

{orange}!Help team mate!{/}

**M'gann! Speak to me!**

I can't feel her! I nearly tell the ring to take me there, but I try to {green}clamp down{/} on the impulse. Should I should I should I-? {orange}Rats get the rats help M'gann get the rats{/}. The orange line along which I'm generating Wallace's armour is still there {orange}transition{/}.

He's standing in front of a sealed door, thumping it with his fists. There's a keypad next to it.

{orange}gOnE{/}!

“Oh El, do you know-?"

Orange light flows around him and strikes the door. Brickwork crumbles around it as I {orange}shove the door backwards out of its frame{/}.

“...or that works.”

The door hits something.

“Skreee skreee!”

A monstrous head lunges into the gap left by the door. The rat's face is bald and grey, and its eyes glow red as it frantically tries to reach us through the hole in the wall. It must have been given a dose of pure blockbuster formula, but it's grown far more than any other subject. Must be a metre and a half across at the shoulders. It backs up a little before lunging again, twisting and scrabbling with its paws as it does so.

The wall gives way, and it lunges forward and {orange}I'm wasting time{/}!

{orange}!Help M'gann!{/}

Wallace steps to the side and turns, bringing his right fist around at super speed and hitting it in the side of the head.

{orange}Railgun{/}.

The Rat doesn't seem to notice anything other than the fact that two targets in its field of vision have been reduced to one. It pushes off the floor and leaps at me.

I don't much like rats.

{orange}Target the brain and fire{/}.

The gun is shorter than the one I used on Ra's, but with a crack the Rat is knocked head over tail. Good, now let's-.

I've never heard a Rat snarl before. It rolls back onto its feet and fixes me with its glowing eyes. It's drooling. Alright.

{orange}Fire more{/}.

It braces against the first hit, and isn't fazed. The second knocks it back almost comically while in mid-leap.

“Oh El, can you handle-?"

“Yes. {orange}Go{/}!”

Wallace disappears into the room beyond as the Rat comes at me again. It might be big but it shouldn't be all that heavy. I {orange}clamp{/} its tail as I activate my radio.

“Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Kid Flash and I have encountered a Blockbuster Formula enhanced Rat.”

The Rat goes into a berserk frenzy, writhing from side to side and pulling with all its might against the clamp which.. breaks? What?

{orange}Oh, I'll take the answer from its cold dead corpse{/}. {orange}Gamma beam{/}.

The two ‘barrels’ of my revised gamma projection construct appear around the Rat's head. One emits the radiation and the other ‘catches’ it before it can go anywhere but the target. My understanding of radiology is now much better than it was when I baked Mister Hagen, and I know enough to make any radiological materials I generate safe. A {orange}ramming{/} construct lifts the Rat off the floor and pins it to a wall by its chest. It shouldn't be able to get much in the way of leverage in that pose {orange}while I cook its brain{/}. It struggles in a frenzy, screeching loudly. There's no way it should be this strong.

“Aqualad to team. We are.. likewise.. encountering.. resistance.”

{orange}!Team!{/}

The Rat jerks and then goes still, smoke rising from its head. I let it drop to the floor. {orange}Need to go{/}-. No. Find out what happened to make the Rat this strong first. We need to know what we're-.

The Rat twitches.

{orange}Scan{/}.

Oh. That isn't Blockbuster. I mean, something like Blockbuster's definitely in the mix, but... The Rat is healing itself from what should be ludicrous overkill. I can't leave it here but I can't stay here what do I-?

{orange}!TeamTeamTeamTeam!

Ring, fentanyl{/}.

I shove a tube construct into its throat as the ring shoves a large dose of Robin's preferred knockout gas into its lungs. Its full name is much longer than that and I was advised to be really careful about the dosage but if I'm trying to kill the target anyway... The Rat finally goes still.

“Aqualad, situation.”

“Artemis and I are in the cafeteria. We were attacked by thirty or so rats. They appear to have been given Venom, or something like it.”

“Do you need assistance?”

“No. When they began swarming around us Artemis was able to knock them out with a gas arrow. We are heading to relieve Robin now. Kid Flash, have you been able to locate Superboy and Miss Martian?”

“Not yet. This place is trashed. Looks like the Rats were hooked up to some sort of injection system.”

“We have encountered the results.”

“I'm heading to the next room. Oh El-"

{orange}Transition{/}.

“-oh. He's here, never mind.”

Wallace's right hand is blurring at the keypad, trying to guess the combination. I can hear screeching, probably coming from the rats on the other side. They really don't like trying to move through solid barriers. Leaving the door intact is probably a better idea.

“Miss Martian, Superboy report.”

The keypad chimes as Wallace gets the combination. A clunk, and the door slides aside. A large room, possibly some sort of large animal operating theatre? On my left the tile covered floor drops down to an external roller shutter door. Can't get an elephant through the corridors, of course. It's open. Kon and M'gann's point of entry? The main animal pens should be just through-.

The wall to my right explodes as Kon barges through it!

23rd September
22:28 GMT +5:30

Kon's bleeding from numerous puncture wounds. At least three rats are latched onto him by their mouths, {red}one on his right shoulder, one on his left calf and another on his right hand{/}. {orange}Everything slows{/}. {orange}Wallace moves to aid him as I create vitalising white light{/}.

“Yaaaagh!”

Kon hammers at the Rat on his right hand with his left fist while Wallace tries pulling the Rat off his shoulder. Both Rats.. are fine? What? How? {yellow}That shouldn't be possible{/}.

{orange}!Kon mine!{/}

I see two more scurry through the hole in the wall, and {orange}reinforce{/} the armour around Wallace. One leaps at him, easily clearing the distance to his face and bringing its teeth down on the glowing orange faceplate.

“Skreee!”

The plate cracks. Wallace freezes, eyes wide. “Ah!”

I {orange}grab{/} the Rat and pull it free. These ones are only a little larger than normal size, but bloody hell are they strong!

{orange}Railgun, autofire{/}. {orange}Keep them back{/}.

The gun forms over my right shoulder, and hits the Rat scurrying toward me full in the face. It's bowled over, but is otherwise unhurt and recovers quickly. Another {orange}construct tendril{/} grabs its tail and flings it back through the hole as the railgun tracks and fires. Kon gives up on hitting and presses his left thumb and index finger into the sides of its mouth, gradually forcing it open. With a jerk it leaves his flesh and he snarls as he uses his hold to pull its lower jaw right back with a quiet snap before hurling it away. Wallace takes a firm hold of the one on his shoulder and seems to blur as he vibrates back and forth on the spot. I remember Robin telling us that Wallace couldn't vibrate through solid objects but it looks like super speed shakes aren't Rat friendly. It comes loose and follows its partner out of the room.

Kon twists and takes hold of the one on his calf with both hands as the railgun begins firing with increasing speed. My eyes {orange}glow{/} as I look through the dark and dust into the room beyond and a lot of red eyes glow back. Oh dear. Why the hell were they making so many super rats here? Kon squeezes and seems to be trying to just rip it free. Not a terrible choice, since I can heal the resulting wound, but I have a better option.

{orange}Ring, fentanyl spray{/}.

Kon removes his hands as a spray can construct appears next to the remaining super Rat, and its head is enveloped in a translucent mist. That should... It's not letting go. What? {orange}Increase concentration{/}. Still no effect. But neither Blockbuster, Venom nor Venom Buster give poison resistance! I remove the spray can construct and Kon goes back to work. There's a snap as he breaks the Rat's jaw and tosses the bloody thing away.

{orange}!Help Kon!

Cleanse wound and heal{/}.

An orange strobe, and his flesh knits back together. A moment later I {orange}expand{/} the effect and remove the blood from his clothes as well. Kon rubs the sites of the injuries, and tries to get his breath back.

For a moment there's nothing but the hum of the railgun as Kon, Wallace and I stare at each other. Then I shakily raise my right hand to my radio earpiece.

“Kaldur, there's rats here strong enough to bite into Kon, and I couldn't tranquilise them. Be very careful.”

“Understood. Captain Marvel, please assist as soon as possible.”

“Hold on, I'll be there in a moment.”

{orange}!M'gann!{/}

Kon gestures behind him as I {orange}send{/} the railgun forward.

“M'gann's still in there!”

{orange}Armour him and send out probes{/}.

“Lead the way. Aqualad, if you're not too sorely pressed could Captain Marvel assist us in recovering Miss Martian?”

“Captain, please do so.”

Kon jogs back through the hole he made, and I keep the railgun just ahead of him. The probes are sending me images of every room in the area, but I don't know what shape M'gann's in.

“Hey, Oh El, found something on the server you should probably know about.”

A Rat dives down from the top of a filing cabinet at Kon's face. He meets it with his right fist and it {yellow}somehow{/} grabs onto the armour around his hand with its paws and bites down. Kon reacts by punching it with his left fist and the Rat flies into the floor hard enough to leave a crater.

“I hate Rats, and Monkeys.”

“What is it Robin?”

“You know that stuff you used on Superboy? The Danner Formula?”

“Yeah?”

I've scouted three rooms in every direction. If M'gann's here then she's not in humanoid form. I have detected plenty of rats, and most of them are heading our way. {orange}Extra railguns{/}. They're trying to keep out of sight but they're still coming, going for the surround.

“They were working on it here.”

What!?

“What?”

“The formula's not on the computer, but it's mentioned by name. And there's a shipping manifest which says they brought in pregnant lab rats. It's dated two days after you met Luthor in Taiwan.”

oH gOd.

Luthor actually got hold of it somehow. And now Brain has it too. That explains the chemical resistance. But it doesn't explain why they're attacking...

“Kon, any idea where M'gann is? We need to be gone.”

“We were this way.” He leads the way to an opening next to a broken door.

“The next step was going to be tests on dogs. Last entry's six days ago.”

{yellow}Dogs too{/}? No, hang on, that's when Brain got here, they probably never got started.

“Any idea how Luthor got the formula, Oh El?”

“No, none at all. There shouldn't be-."

Arnold Munro? Iron..? No. That can't be right. It was bullshit when they included him in the comics. There were tests! The formula isn't hereditary! I checked! I looked for him!

{orange}Ring, scan Doctor Arnold Munro{/}. {orange}Does he have Danner Formula enhancements{/}?

{orange}Confirmed. Danner Formula chemistry present.{/}

{yellow}How the hell did Mister Luthor find him when I couldn't{/}?

23rd September
22:32 GMT +5:30

A wave of Rats scurry down the corridor toward us, and my railguns begin breaking the mass up. {yellow}I still can't do general scans on this area, and I've got no idea why{/}.

“Do we have the slightest idea where we're going?”

Wallace seems about as worried as I feel. Anything that can bite into Kon would go through him or me like we were made of rice paper, and running full pelt through the building is a good way to get ratted.

“We came in near the cargo entrance. Rats swarmed us from all directions soon as we got into the main building.”

**M'gann!?**

**[dark enclosed {yellow}fear fear fear{/}]**

“Everyone hear that?”

Kon nods while Wallace just looks confused. “Hear what?”

“M'gann, I hope.”

I don't get any sense of her location, but now we have a starting point. {orange}Transition{/}.

A large room, open to the outside at one end. There are three slightly battered looking medium sized lorries parked in the centre of the room. I'm surprised that Mister Luthor didn't use something with a bit more polish, but it does seem like this was a bit of a rush job, and the roads around here probably aren't good enough for large lorries. Packing crates of varying sizes are stacked neatly near the loading dock and here come the rats!

Two of the large uberblockbuster rats -near identical to the one from earlier- lead the charging albino carpet, scurrying out of the entrance to the main building. {orange}Three railgun constructs{/} cut loose as I {orange}stick a platform{/} under us and {orange}lift{/} us into the air. I {orange}recreate{/} probes, and fortunately the rats ignore them. Still no idea where M'gann is.

And the rats start leaping.

“Skree!”

I {orange}raise a barrier{/}. Some rats slam into it and bounce off but more grab on and start gnawing. One of the Uber Rats clambers on top of a lorry and leaps, being met by Kon's fist and getting knocked flying. Wallace blurs around the flying orange enclosure, hitting the smaller rats off the barrier before they can gnaw through. Railguns are catching most in the air but I still have no way to really hurt them.

Okay, okay. Get it together. I can use fentanyl on the Uber Rats-.

“They're not wearing collars. Why are they attacking us?”

A-? Good question actually, Wallace. {orange}Ring{/}?

{orange}Airborne Venom derivative detected in local environment.{/}

“It's in the air! {orange}Ring, neutralise{/}!”

An orange strobe in all directions. Turning my head, I see that the area affected has spread a little outside the facility. I really hope it hasn't reached any more wildlife.

“Hey guys! What's happen-oh good lord!”

Captain Marvel flies under the roof and nearly lands on the Rat covered floor. He has a second or two while they remain fixated on us, and then they start throwing themselves at him.

{orange}More railgun{/}!

Marvel goes for height as the smaller rats are knocked from the air by iron slugs. An Uber Rat leaps, ignores the railgun fire and slams into his shoulder. He's forced to grapple with it, straining to keep its teeth from his face. More of the smaller rats turn to the softer target and one makes it through my barrage, biting into his side.

“Ow!” Marvel twists and-. “Shazam!”

A bolt of lightning shoots down from the sky and hits the Uber Rat dead centre. It spasms, and Captain Marvel throws it down. Alright, he's fine, why are they still attacking? The environmental shield's protecting us now, but if there's Venom in the air, why wasn't Kon affected earlier?

{orange}Armour Marvel{/}.

Captain Marvel pulls the Rat attacking him free and drops it down into the mass below, and orange armour forms around his body.

What's the difference between Kon and these Rats? Kryptonian physiology? Maybe, but he's been made human-compatible, hasn't he? What els- size! He's bigger! It would take a higher dose to affect him. The rats will calm down eventually. Probably. I mean, their neural physiology might have been permanently chang-. No, that doesn't help. The rats are berserking. I can't remove the Danner Formula, but I should be able to remove the Venom.

“{orange}Ring, purge rats{/}.”

The railguns reconfigure, and iron slugs are replaced with orange beams. I watch as one illuminates one of the smaller rats for five seconds, then cuts out and seeks a new target. The Rat stops where it stands on the floor, sniffs the air and then heads for somewhere better concealed.

Oh. Four other small Rats abandoned the attack on our position to mob their former comrade and they tear him apart in short order. Whatever instinct kept the Rats from turning on each other appears not to apply to Rats who are no longer affected. When the orange beams purify the system of a Rat it is immediately set upon by its neighbours. I need to get groups close together all at once.

“{orange}Clusterfire only{/}!”

With the rats distracted from our position Kon and Wallace watch in horror alongside me as the swarm below turns into a bloodbath. As the numbers start to thin out the ‘freed’ Rats stop being swarmed, but against an opponent who won't do what a wild Rat would and back off after being injured beyond a certain extent the damage is just as bad. It's just shared by both parties. The freed Rats certainly don't work together, and why should they?

I think about two thirds die before enough are purified that the remaining envenomed can't reach the freed Rats before they are targeted in turn. Blood and shredded fur coat the ground...

Wallace goes pale and covers his mouth with his right hand. “I think I'm gonna be sick.”

The smell... Burnt flesh from the Uber Rat who took the lightning bolt, Rat faeces and the blood...

{orange}!M'gann!{/}

“No, you're going to stay with it until we find M'gann.” I lower us to the flatbed of one of the lorries, away from the main area of carnage. **M'gann, where are you!**

**muuuha?**

Kon leaps off the lorry and back into the building. Wallace takes a couple of deep breaths and dashes after him. M'gann should be fine. Job. Captain Marvel drops down next to me, and he isn't looking much better than Wallace.

“Kaldur, we've just dealt with a major Rat attack. There's something.. Venom related, in the air. Robin and Artemis should switch to rebreathers.”

“Understood. Have you located M'gann yet?”

“No, but I'm leav-."

{orange}!Help M'gann!{/}

“I'll get right on it. Stand by.”

23rd September
22:47 GMT +5:30

M'gann sits shell shocked on the steps of the cabin in which the doctors were formerly imprisoned. When the Rats attacked and demonstrated that they could force themselves past her telekinesis she shifted to a smaller form in order to escape... Which made her more vulnerable to the airborne chemical. Apparently it doesn't cause Martians to go into a frenzy, but she was on a really bad trip when Kon found her hiding behind a couple of cryogenic storage tanks. She'd shifted into the form of some sort of serpentine thing and hissed angrily at us until I was able to run a ring purge on her system.

I've gathered up the now-docile Rats and deposited them in cages with familiar-smelling bedding and food. They could still fight me, but the fury's left them and they just want to return to normalcy. The five Uber Rats this place is housing turned out to not be immune to the paralysis trap, so we're leaving them between three emitters we found in one of the crates. Bloody horrible looking things. The one I fought earlier seems to have finally died, but I'm not taking any chances with it. I also fully cleansed the building of the airborne chemical. According to Doctor Niang the whole place is designed to be easy to gas in case of an animal escape. Clearly, the system could use work.

On the other hand, no one actually died. As supervillain operations involving mutant superanimals go, I suppose that means that it wasn't all that bad. Kon goes and sits down next to M'gann, putting an arm around her shoulder. She starts, then clings onto him and buries her face in his neck. Know how she feels. Once M'gann was safe I went looking for Kaldur, Artemis and Robin. They'd been forced to pull back to the roof, destroying the stairs to get away from the envenomed vermintide. Most of the Rats of Dawn focused on my group, which was a lucky thing really.

Hah.

As the most recognisable member of our group Captain Marvel is talking to the doctors. Kaldur's hovering near M'gann, while Artemis climbed onto the roof of the cabin to ‘keep watch’. I'm sitting on the steps of the main complex. I might still not be able to scan the whole thing, but I went through each room in enough detail to know that there's nothing at liberty behind me.

”We still need to ask.”

Wallace and Robin are standing together. They've been talking in quiet tones since we left the building. Wallace is looking a little better, though I'm not sure how much is keeping up appearances and how much is genuine recovery. Robin nods, and they turn and walk over to me.

“So Oh El, how exactly do you think Luthor got hold of the Danner Formula?”

Wallace crosses his arms. Robin turns his head slightly to the side, and I'm reminded for a moment of Teekl. I extend my right index finger, and wave it in Doctor Munro's direction.

“Him, probably.”

Robin's eyes narrow. “What makes you think that?”

“He's a Danner Formula enhancile. Don't know if he got the records of the process as part of the deal, or if he reverse engineered it from his own body.” I shrug. “I suppose it was a bit hopeful for us to think the Formula would just disappear. You know the Beresfords are the same, right?”

Wallace and Robin share a look. For a second, it's a flash of surprise. I did put that all in the report. Not sure why it's news. Hmm. Think I might have just failed a perception check, though I'm not sure what the result was supposed to be.

“Hugo Danner died.. sixty years ago, right?”

“His attempt to take over Brazil was stopped in nineteen fifty five. Don't really know what happened to him after that.”

I look over to Doctor Munro. He's dressed in safari shorts, short sleeved shirt and leather hiking boots. His hair is combed back and from the looks of things held in place with some sort of hairspray. He also wears a fairly substantial horseshoe moustache. Both are pale grey, but there's no sign that his hair is thinning and his skin looks comparatively youthful. If I had to guess his age I'd have said mid forties, but if you told me he was a prematurely grey thirty I wouldn't have argued it.

“You said the Danner Formula had to be administered in vitro, right? There's no way Doctor Munro's that old. Doesn't that mean that someone else is out there giving it to people?”

“I don't know, Robin. I..." I put my face in my hands for a moment, then look up again. “The Danner Formula enhances the human body. It doesn't just make you strong, you heal better as well. Doctor Munro could well be sixty. Or even older. I know the Beresfords are their apparent age because I could find records for them. Him, I've got no idea. And I haven't even tried to find out where the Beresfords got it from.” I need to talk to him. And I think I need to talk to Mister Luthor. I push myself to my feet. “I'm going to try and find out what's going on. Do either of you need me for anything?”

“How.. much.. older.?”

“No idea, Robin. Not enough human test subjects.”

“Yeah, but-."

“No, really no idea. I don't know what happened to Danner, the aboriginals he augmented either died or went into hiding. I'm not testing Rats back at home for fun, I'm doing it because no one really knows.”

Robin frowns, then nods thoughtfully. I make brief eye contact with each of them, and then head over to Captain Marvel and the doctors.

“-day's work. The main thing is that you're alright, and that the Brain won't be able to unleash super Rats on any innocent people.”

Marvel appears to be in full bombastic hero cheese mode. I realised almost immediately that there's nothing to stop Brain making more, and whatever magic he used on the place to disrupt my scans was a level above the sigils the League of Shadows uses. Oh. Of course, that's who the man at the other end of the gate spell was. Wotan. For some reason he was trying to put out the sun when Kaldur, Wallace and Robin first liberated Kon. I almost hope that it was all him, because if someone who's actually intelligent has got into magic... I thought we'd have longer before that sort of thing started happening. And I don't remember Wotan from the comics at all, so I've no sort of in with him.

“Excuse me, Doctor Munro, might I borrow you for a moment?”

He tears his attention away from Marvel and looks around. “Sure, son. Hey, you're the fella I spoke to on the phone.”

“Quite so, sir. Orange Lantern two eight one four. I'm sorry to trouble you, but in light of what happened I'm afraid that I have to ask: where exactly did you get hold of the Danner Formula?”

For a split second his eyes drop, then he looks over to Doctor Niang. Her face remains impassive. He exhales. “I didn't really... Hm, was hoping that I wouldn't have to spread this around. Guess you do need to know, though. I got it in a.. some papers my.. natural father left for me.”

“Sir, I'm sorry, but this is important. Who-?"

“Hugo Danner.” He shuffles slightly. “My birth certificate says that my father is John Munro, my mother's husband. Mom didn't tell me the truth until Dad needed a kidney transplant and I got a blood test to see if we were compatible.”

How did I miss him?

“I couldn't help but notice that the Formula was used on you. Did your mother..?”

“No, ah. Way she described it, it was really -heh- more of a hook up. I suppose I must have inherited it from Hugo.”

But that's not... It doesn't work like that! All the notes..! No, I don't know for sure, and if his mother got an injection and didn't tell him or if Danner himself injected her while she was asleep or something, there's no way he'd know. And no way for me to find out.

“Do you intend to stay on site?”

“Oh, hell no. Soon as everything here is locked down, June-" He nods to Doctor Niang. “-and I are heading to the nearest town. Luthor can sort out this mess.”

Yes. I rather imagine that he can.

23rd September
22:51 GMT +5:30

“One other matter, Doctor Munro. I understand that you were moving on to testing on Dogs next? Only, I didn't see any Dogs...”

Another look at Doctor Niang. “We.. had six.. Dogs... If they're not here, I guess they musta got out? Or the Rats could have eaten them, we hadn't started on the Dogs yet. They'd be easy prey.”

Or you're lying to me. Or Brain already transferred them. That totally doesn't sound like something that's going to bite us in the arse later. I smile and nod anyway. “Do you intend to run tests on Dogs in future?”

“Maybe? It's all up in the air at the moment.” He shakes his head. “Won't be doing anything else until security gets improved, I'll tell you that for nothing.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” I nod again, step back and then turn away. Should probably talk to Kaldur before phoning Lex, see how he wants to play it.

“Can I ask you something?”

I stop, and half turn. “Of course?”

“How do you know about the Danner Formula? It's kind of important to my life, but I didn't think it was widely known about.”

“I've an interest in human augmentation myself. The Formula has no known adverse effects... Seemed like a good place to start."

“You.. you actually know the formula? How?”

“Doctor Munro, my mentors are Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, both of whom were members of the All-Star Squadron. Quite aside from that, you're the fourth Danner Formula enhancile I've met recently.”

He boggles. “There are others? I-I thought I was the only one! Who!? Where!?”

I make a placatory gesture. “I'm sorry Doctor, but that's privileged information. If you really-." He starts to interrupt, so I pre-empt. “If you really want to meet them, I can ask them if they're okay with that. If they are, then I can put you in touch.”

For a moment he looks as if he is going to continue, but he thinks about it and reins in his enthusiasm. “Yeah, okay, that's fair. But please, let ‘em know as soon as you can.”

I nod, then turn away. Kaldur's talking to M'gann, and I walk toward them. She looks a little better. I think. I suppose it would be hard to tell, what with her being a shapeshifter. I'm going to need to pester Mister J'onzz for more information on Martian psychology.

“Aqualad, do you have a moment?” The three of them look around. “I had a thought about how to follow up on this mission.”

Kaldur's eyes flick back to Kon and M'gann. “Then it is something we should discuss as a team.”

Oh. Don't see why not...

“Alright.”

I turn my head over to Wallace and Robin, wait until Robin is looking at me and then beckon them over with my right hand.

**Artemis?** Nothing, though given the state M'gann's in, that isn't a surprise. "Artemis!” Her head appears over the roof. “Debrief. Get down here.”

Her head disappears, and is replaced by her feet as she lowers herself from the edge before dropping down. Wallace and Robin stroll over.

“{orange}Ring, privacy{/}.”

{orange}”Compliance.”{/}

A transparent orange bubble expands around us, cutting out ambient sound. I step back so that we form a rough circle.

“Alright, here's what I'm thinking. Nothing we saw today can be definitively linked to Mister Luthor. We accuse him of anything, he'll blame Brain, and we have no solid evidence to the contrary. Plus, the doctors over there are going to report our presence back to their employer.”

A thoughtful moment while everyone examines the ground.

“Best idea I've come up with is phoning him and asking about it.”

Robins shifts uncomfortably. Wallace stares, dumbfounded.

“Your plan is to ask him? He's not going to say something incriminating over the phone!”

“Probably not. Still, I'd be interested to watch his reaction and to hear the official reason for this place existing. Plus, wouldn't hurt to have him owe me another favour. Robin, get anything definitive from the computers?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing he couldn't talk his way out of.”

Kaldur frowns as he thinks. “How do you intend to watch him?”

“{orange}Ring{/}?”

A construct appears in the middle of our group, showing Mister Luthor sitting at his desk reading some sort of paperwork. I wave my right index finger and the image magnifies his face.

Artemis crinkles her nose. “Okay, that's creepy.”

I raise my left eyebrow. “Compared to super strength Rats?”

“Thought you said that wasn't him?”

“I said we couldn't prove anything. I think it would be out of character, but, who knows? Aqualad, am I doing this? You know Superman's just going to fly by his office tomorrow if I don't.”

“Your suggestion has merit.” He nods. “Do it.”

23rd September
22:55 GMT +5:30

I raise my left hand to my ear. Theatrical rather than necessary, but it feels appropriate. “{orange}Ring, phone Mister Luthor{/}.”

{orange}"Compliance."{/}

I pull the image out as a light on his desk phone comes on. He ignores it and keeps reading. Well, that's rude. After a moment he glances up, and I see Ms Graves reach across his desk and pick up the receiver.

“Lex Luthor's office.”

I think that's the first time I've heard her speak. “Good afternoon Ms Graves. It is afternoon there, isn't it? Orange Lantern two eight one four. Could you possibly put me through to Mister Luthor please?”

“We have a switchboard, you know.”

“You also have an office window. Besides, I think that Mister Luthor would probably rather keep this quiet, and since I can bypass normal traceable communication channels...”

She makes eye contact with her employer. “Hold please.”

I smile for the gallery. “Cheeky cow put me on hold.”

A nervous smile from Wallace and M'gann.

{orange}Ring, lip reading{/}.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

“-the Lantern. The orange one.”

Mister Luthor appears to think about it. “It's certainly more civilized than the alien's usual approach.”

He holds out his right hand, and Ms Graves hands the handset over. “Orange Lantern. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

I {orange}focus{/} the image on his face, with {orange}another{/}, smaller image showing the room as a whole.

“I'm standing in your research centre in the Valmiki National Park. Interesting place.”

“Mm, well, after you drew my attention to the existence of the Danner Formula I realized that I would be doing humanity a grave disservice if I allowed it to vanish from the face of the Earth. May I ask how you found out about the research center?”

“Are you familiar with the supervillain known as The Brain?”

He shifts a little on his chair. “I wouldn't say ‘familiar’, but I know of him, certainly.”

“He and his hench Gorilla -I know, don't laugh- occupied the place, and took your researchers prisoner.”

He sits up. “And the security personnel?”

“I was going to ask you about that, actually. There aren't any. What's up with that?”

He frowns. “They were supposed to arrive a week ago. I don't make a habit of leaving important projects undefended. I realize this may be a silly question, but are you sure they weren't driven off or killed?”

“No remains, no security vehicles and I didn't detect any other humans anywhere near here.”

“That is concerning. Are the doctors in good health?”

“As far as the ring can tell.”

“I'm glad to hear it. Doctor Niang is an expert in her field, and Doctor Munro's expertise may well be irreplaceable.”

“Couldn't help but notice that Doctor Munro is a Danner Formula enhancile himself.”

He leans back, with a narrow smile. “Enhancile? En-hance-ile. You know, I rather like that word. It fits the concept well. Yes, finding Doctor Munro so quickly was a stroke of luck. I was expecting to be forced to send people out into the Brazilian rainforest for years. Were you able to take the Brain into custody?”

“I'm afraid not. He teleported away when he realised the game was up.”

“Oh, I'm sure you did your best. I.. hesitate to ask, but the facility itself..?”

“Largely intact, but I'm afraid that Brain used enhanced animals as vengeance weapons. You'll probably need to replace a lot of stuff.”

“No, that hardly matters. It uses modular units we manufacture in bulk in Patna, though the delay will be a nuisance. Though as long as most of the lab equipment is intact..?”

I shrug. “I think so. I'm not an expert, but the Rats were mostly focused on other animals.”

“They didn't escape, did they? Valmiki National Park is an important nature reserve.”

“None of the Rats did, but the Brain intentionally released various enhanced animals. They're wearing control collars, so corralling them shouldn't be too hard. Mister Luthor, you understand that there's some questions that the Justice League will want to ask you about this place?”

“I have nothing to hide... Though I would rather this had remained low key. Some people -the League among them I'm afraid- are rather against this sort of work.”

“Were you intending to research anything other than the Danner Formula here?”

“Not in the short term. I made sure they had information on other work we've undertaken in the same area-" I look at Robin and raise my eyebrows. He nods. Score. “-and I may have decided to expand the facility eventually, but the results the Danner Formula has already shown make everything else seem rather ineffectual by comparison. I was mostly interested in supporting Doctor Munro discovering the mechanism by which it works.”

“Did... Do you have any particular commercial applications in mind?”

“Well, several possibilities do spring to mind. Super strong guard Dogs, for example. I think we're both.. open minded.. on the matter of human augmentation, but that would have to be a long term aim. And given the lead time I don't think it would ever be a major commercial enterprise.”

“Not planning on selling doses of the formula to pregnant women?”

“No. I plan to provide it at cost... Perhaps even for free. For me, sharing the ‘fire of the gods’ with the world is an ideological matter. As I understand it the formula isn't all that expensive to make, and I could hardly hold the resulting children in bondage to LexCorp. No, in the medium term I plan to try to create a market in animal enhancements. I'd like the project to be self financing, but I think the benefit to humanity outweighs the financial burden to me.”

I look over to the paralysed Uber Rats. Yes, I can well believe there'll be a market for things like that.

“Thank you for your time Mister Luthor. Someone will be in touch if we have any further questions.”

“No, thank you, Orange Lantern. Losing that facility and the researchers would have been a crippling setback. It appears that I am once again in your debt.”

“Oh, do you want me to hang around until your security people get here?”

“No, that shouldn't be necessary. I'll be lighting a fire under them just as soon as I get off the phone.”

“I won't keep you then. Keep up the good work.”

“Goodbye, Orange Lantern.”

The image of Mister Luthor lowers the phone, and I lower my hand.

“Balls.”

23rd September
20:47 GMT +1

”Shazam!”

I walk slowly away from the entrance to the tomb of Rameses the Second to where John's sitting on a rock, staring at an unlit cigarette. I stop about two metres away, staring past him out into the Kahndaqi desert.

“Well I feel like a giant shit. How about you?”

John exhales slowly, then fishes in his coat pocket for his lighter. “Yeah, well, he asked for it, didn't he?"

“And?”

He flicks the lighter on for a moment, then closes the lid. “Most days, mate, if I'm honest. Surprised it was that fresh. I mean, he's, what? Twenty five?”

“Would the fact that it was a ritual killing have made it more... Stick better?”

“Might do. I didn't recognise the ritual whatshisface... Theo Adam?” He looks back at me, and I nod. He looks away again. “Was using. Doesn't really mean much. Once you've got the basics sorted the ritual will work pretty much whatever. But, might make it easier to find out where he learned it.”

I don't reply. Captain Marvel wanted to be left alone for a few minutes, which under the circumstances is quite understandable. We were both pretty sure that Theodore Adam had murdered his parents to get at Teth Adam's power, but I'd had no idea that their ritual sacrifice was part of the actual process of acquiring it. And Marvel just watched alongside us as John's phantasms re-enacted the process. It's just a mercy that the psychic residue wasn't strong enough for us to clearly see their faces. He seemed to be holding up alright when I left, but that might have been more due to Achilles’ courage than anything else. And he just turned it off.

I actually don't know if Marvel's ever been here before. Didn't think to ask. John was surprisingly alright about coming out here at such short notice. He said it was because he needed the cash since all the local bookmakers have blacklisted him and everyone he could trust to place a bet on his behalf, but I suspect that the prospect of a magic based opponent in Black Adam's weight class might have had something to do with it.

Thinking about it, I don't think I learned anything much from the conversation with Mister Luthor. I mean, if I wasn't on his cool list before I almost certainly am now, but in terms of learning things that will help us cope with whatever Brain does with what he took from their servers, or getting evidence of Mister Luthor's involvement in anything criminal... The doctors checked the facility over once more after I got off the phone, then got into the most Rat giblet free lorry to drive to the closest town. And that's when Marvel asked to have a word in private, about coming here. I'd been thinking about involving necromancers in murder investigations for a while, so...

Good idea, subpar implementation, I guess.

The rest of the team are heading back to the mountain. I left my lantern onboard; I can easily pick it up when I get back. Teekl decided to come with me. She's back in the tomb at the moment. Hopefully William will find her as reassuring as I do. Or maybe she'll ignore him and start hunting Jerboas. Probably just as well she didn't come to the research centre; those Rats would probably have given her a complex. And if I'd assimilated any of them she'd never have spoken to me again.

John twists around on the rock so that he's facing me. “So, what's the next step?”

“What makes you think I know?” I make brief eye contact, then drop my eyes to the desert floor. “I was already pretty sure that Theodore Adam got hold of Teth Adam's power here somehow. I didn't know.. that.. happened. Don't suppose there's an easy way to undo it?”

He puffs out his cheeks and exhales, shaking his head. “Forget it. Far as I can tell, the ritual connected him to a source of power that already existed, and if he's ended up like Captain Marvel there? No. It's too... It's too tightly bound.. for a street magician like me to mess about with.”

“And if he dismissed it himself?”

“Then he's just as vulnerable as anyone else and there's all sorts of things I could do. Do you think he will?”

I've checked. Theo Adam basically dropped off the planet after getting back to the states. Guess that's a no then. I shake my head. Different approach.

“How about Teth Adam? Is his soul intact?”

“It was. I could feel it, the anger's ground into the walls. Don't know how coherent he'd be, if whatever bound him here survived the ritual.” He lights his cigarette and put it in his mouth. “Takes a real bastard to tie someone's soul to their own corpse like that. He have any family?”

“Yes. Uh-" I shake my head. “-I think so, it's hard to know.”

I remember him giving some of his late wife's jewellery to... Whatshername, the woman who became Isis. Don't remember any other family but he probably had some. But something else is bubbling at the back of my mind. Something about what Mister Luthor said. No. About the way he said it.

“If you know where Theo is, I could probably check that the original soul's still there. Simple bit of scrying.”

“Probably worth doing.” John stands up. “Whow! Not right now! Captain Marvel's still in there.”

He shrugs. “Your money. Just sit here and work on my tan then, shall I?”

As I understand it the formula isn't all that expensive to make. As I understand it. Why wouldn't he know?

“How's the soul binding research going?”

Another shrug. “It's going. Whether it'll work or not, no way to know. Not like we can give it a proper test. Got a friend of mine, Clarice, her name is, working on how to tattoo the spell onto you. Should have something for you in a few weeks.”

Why wouldn't he know? Would he gain anything by pretending ignorance?

“The full works? Permanent scry immunity?”

“Hell no. A couple of bindings and a power tap. I can't very well carve a spell on something you don't have, can I?”

“And what'll that do?”

“Bleed energy into you and force it to stay put. If the stuff in the Atlantean scrolls is right, with a bit of luck, that should cause it to bond to you and make you a ‘real boy’.”

He smirks, but I'm not really concentrating on what he's saying. He seems to have it in hand. I just transmute the reagents for the Danner Formula, but none of them are that expensive and neither's the process. If you can do it in the late 19th century, a modern lab should be able to recreate it easily. If Mister Luthor really cares about this -and he certainly seems to- he should know the price down to the penny.

“If it all goes well, I can probably do the other thing later. If it doesn't, well, you can just grow the skin back, right?”

Am I just reading too much into it? But if Mister Luthor doesn't know how much it costs, he probably doesn't know what's in it. Alright, back to basics. Who knows how to make it? I do, Mister Garrick and Wallace do. Alan might, but I got the impression he never read the stuff he gave me. Batman. I haven't told him but let's face it, he's Batman. Doctor Munro. Munro works for Luthor, so...

Wait.

Is Doctor Munro not sharing?