Family Day

{red}21st April
21:03 GMT -5{/}

"This is yah last warning, Tetch! Come out with your hands up or we come in an' drag you out!"

I've no idea how he managed it, but the deranged criminal somehow built a giant teacup in a disused warehouse along the Gotham waterfront. Gas fired flames lick the bottom, heating the cup and the tea therein to scalding temperatures. Around the edge are the bound girls who were nearly but not quite what the crazed man's madness said that he needs in order for the world to start making sense. He used his hat to mind control them here-. Well, not mind control exactly. It turns out that his hats just make people very suggestible rather than flat out controlling them. Whatever. Hat-persuaded the girls to come here, bound them and then turned it off.

Naturally, they all screamed up a storm and he stumbled off in confusion to find someone else.

"But we're all having such a delightful tea party. No Humpty Dumpty allowed!"

"They never take it." Detective Bullock draws his revolver before holding his phone up to his cheek. "Montoya, you in place yet?"

"Excuse me, Detective."

Bullock glances at Miss Shimmer, who has left the small cluster of people watching the unfolding confrontation. Her hair gets a flicker of a frown but she doesn't look enough like an Alice in Wonderland character to attract actual alarm so he ignores her. "Yeah? I dunno. Because there's a camera on the door and if I have them kill the power-. Yeah, well he's not here, so I guess the police are gunna-."

Miss Shimmer reaches the end of her patience and pokes him in his considerable gut with her right forefinger.

"{red}What{/}! No, not you, some kid. Hang on." He lowers the phone. "The only reason I'm not bustin' you for interferin' with an investigation is I got eight little girls to rescue from a nut job an' that takes priority."

"Oh. Well, is there any way I can help?"

"You live around here? You got any idea how I could sneak inside and put a couple a' rounds through that sicko's head?"

"No. But-" She opens her guitar case and takes out the contents. "I do have a sniper gun that can shoot through walls. Would that help?"

Bullocks eye widen. "Holy Mother of God. Where the hell did you get that?"

"Grayven. And I have a concealed carry permit."

"Grayven?" He makes the connection. "The guy who-." He looks the gun over. "You know how to use that thing?"

"Not really." She holds it out to him. "Do you?"

"Uhh…" He takes hold of it, resting the stock against his shoulder and peering into the target scanner. He then turns it in the direction of the warehouse. Having designed the weapon myself, I know that the scanner will immediately detect and highlight life forms in the direction it's pointed in. Actual marksmanship isn't required, the barrel only exists to let the coilgun round build up speed. It's the teleport function which makes the projectile hit the target. "Okay. One guy moving around-."

"If you press that button you can hear what he's saying."

Bullock frowns slightly, then presses the button.

"-above the world you fly,
Like a tea tray in the sky!"

He shifts the phone to his shoulder. "Montoya, I got a shot." He hesitates.

"Is there a problem?"

"Huh, guess I just got used t' the Bat handlin' these."

Miss Shimmer frowns. "So… Are you.. not a police officer, or something? I thought your job was to keep people safe, but if you're completely dependent on a man who dresses up like a bat-."

There's a sudden crack, and inside the warehouse Tetch crumples and falls back into his own tea vat.

Bullock lowers his gun. "I get by." He holds the gun out to Miss Shimmer. "Thanks."

"Oh no. You can keep it. In fact-" She holds out a business card. "-please give this to the Commissioner. Just in case he's interested in getting more like it."

Behind me, I hear a soft sound as someone who thinks that he's silent lands on the roof.

"I'll keep that in mind." Bullock looks at her, as if he suspects that there's something else going on but can't quite work out what it is. Then he shakes his head and hurries in the direction of the warehouse.

"Grayven."

"Batman. Nice night for it."

"You're using children as arms dealers."

I turn, smiling. "Oh, you of all people don't get to rag on me about that. Miss Shimmer is better equipped, better protected, older and engaged in less dangerous work than Richard was when you first took him out with you."

He walks closer, taking a moment to look at the people gathered below. "Is Tetch dead?"

"Hmm." {yellow}Sinestro{/}? Ah, I see. "Wait for it, wait for-. Yes."

"He was a sick man."

"Yes." I nod. "Yes he was."

"He was off his medication. I could have taken him in alive."

"Was he off his medication last time as well?" He glares. "And the time before that? Seven deaths total, all young girls. Maybe you should stop thinking of the medicated version of him as being the real him and recognise him for the deranged murderer he really is." I tilt my head to the side for a second. "Was. Anyway, Detective Bullock identified himself as an armed police officer and had a reasonable belief that innocents were in danger. No crime happened on my side."

"You could have stopped him even easier than I could."

"I can't be everywhere. Time the Gotham police learned to stand on their own two feet, far as I'm concerned. They carry guns, I'm giving them better, more precise guns. But hey! You're doing better than Aquaman. He'd have punched me in the face by now."

"Don't think I'm not tempted."

"Don't recommend it. But if you've got time to moan at me over a perfectly legal police action-."

"Is that what Darfur was?"

"No, but as I said to Guy, the government was okay with genocide so I don't consider their laws to be binding. And I didn't see you coming up with anything better and it did both stop the fighting and punish the guilty. But enough of something we're never going to agree on." I smile. "I have a story for you."

I give him a moment, but he doesn't appear to want to interject.

"One day a man named Jack Napier goes on holiday to the great city of Metropolis, taking a few of his closest friends with him."

"The Jack Napier you crippled. You did that intentionally, didn't you?"

"Rather than splitting him in half? Yes, pulling my punches was intentional. Anyway, he goes to Metropolis and pays a visit to a famous tourist landmark: the Daily Planet building. And while he's there, he connects drums full of Smilex to the ventilation system and sets it off! Lois Lane dies with a smile on her face. Perry White, same thing. James Olsen, Steven Lombard, William McCalman… All dead. Some guy called Clark Kent was out on assignment at the time, but everyone else? Gone. Mister Napier goes into hiding, pursued by your good self, Superman, and some new guy called Magog. Magog was Superman-level strong and tough and he had this laser.. trident.. thing."

"And for once? It's the police who find the criminal first. Heck, they even capture him without any fatalities, which was a near miracle. So, the three superheroes stand there watching them drag him off, and? Magog raises his trident and with a snarl incinerates him. Then he hands his trident to your good self and surrenders to the police. The case goes to trial quickly and he pleads not guilty. When the prosecutor puts him on the stand to query that, he says 'I'm glad I did it'."

I raise my eyebrows.

"Wanna guess how the story ends?"

Batman's jaw tenses. "The jury agreed with him and he was acquitted."

"No." I shake my head. "No. Oh, they acquitted him alright. But that's very much not how the story ends."

{red}21st April
21:08 GMT -5{/}

"Magog walks free of the courthouse and to the assembled journalists makes a speech about how the establishment has been far too soft on career murderers. To their cheers he announces that he will be forming a taskforce with like-minded individuals and hunting down others like Mister Napier." I dab at the air with my right finger. "And here's where things start to go wrong. Superman is so horrified by the deaths of his friends and with the reactions of his home city to someone he regards as a murderer that he ups and leaves. Floats around for a bit before isolating himself in the Fortress of Solitude on a semi-permanent basis. You try to hold things together, but the up-and-coming generation of superheroes seem to agree with Magog's approach. All across the country superheroes ratchet up the violence and the criminals follow suit. The veneer of civilisation across Gotham was only thinly coated at the best of times and the sudden wave of violence that came from the fighting between gangs and vigilante mobs meant you had to abandon your other duties and stay on site full time."

"Thing about the vigilantes is that while Magog himself conducts proper criminal investigations and requires both serious crimes and virtual certainties of guilt before he's willing to kill the perpetrator, those who claim to have been inspired by him don't. Police had to be a little flexible with powerful superheroes anyway, but now everyone has that attitude. Before long the whole country's going the way of the wild west. And Magog? He doesn't like that. When someone asks him, he says that anyone who feels inspired by him should cooperate with law enforcement where reasonably practical. But… The fact that he's usually saying this with some costumed serial killer's head on his trident rather undermines his message."

"Ten years of gradual societal decay pass. Things finally come to a head when Magog and his crew track down the Parasite in Kansas. Parasite's past his best at that point and tries to run. When he can't escape, he tries to surrender." I solemnly shake my head. "Then he tries to fight. Unfortunately for the world, Magog's not all that fast and the first person on his team to make it into contact was a chap called Breach. Similar powers to Captain Adams, but… Not quite as stable. That, combined with Parasite trying to use his own powers while injured, resulted in a nuclear explosion which scoured all life from Kansas and devastated its neighbouring states. Then come the radioactive dust clouds and rain. In addition to the horrible tragedy of all those deaths, America's main farmlands were destroyed. Food became a strategic resource, a secure road the difference between survival and starvation for entire cities."

"With the nation on the verge of collapse Wonder Woman decides to have one last go at winkling Superman out of his hidey-hole. After throwing some fairly harsh home truths at him she's finally successful. As the nation's infrastructure is in no position to offer substantial assistance, the Justice League is reformed and anyone who is prepared to agree with its code of conduct permitted to join. Painfully aware of the failures of superhuman containment that have occurred in the past, they build their own prison and then begin targeting the most violent criminal groups. Those which are redeemable are permitted to integrate and those which are not are locked up for the duration of the crisis. Superman himself isn't entirely comfortable with the level of interference he's having to have, but it's working and they can sort out the balance of power issues later. Right?"

"They're just about getting things back under control when Wonder Woman tracks down Magog himself. He survived the explosion and for some reason he's still in Kansas. So -with the country more or less functioning again- Superman flies down to hear what he's got to say for himself. When he first sees him, Magog's got a plough strapped to his back and he's pulling it through the burned and irradiated soil, making furrows for seeds. It's obvious to anyone watching that nothing is ever going to grow there, so… What's he doing?"

"It takes Superman a few seconds to get his attention, but once Magog realises that he's really there, he starts… Ranting, about how he was trying to deal with the problems Superman hid away from. 'You can't let a serial killer be sent to a prison he's already escaped from dozens of times!' He didn't want Superman to just disappear for a decade. He didn't want the country to pick him over Superman. He was only trying to do what he thought best and now he's responsible for more deaths than any of those he slew. He begs to be punished. Imprisoned, killed, he doesn't care. Anything to dim the absolute horror he feels for his own failings. So Superman puts him in prison with the rest. In a secure cell, because he's worried that if he doesn't Magog might kill himself."

I smile. "So, what do we learn from this? Magog tried to do the right thing and epically failed. Superman thought his narrow-minded principles were more important than the lives of those he protected and lost nearly everyone he cared about. Then he went off in a huff for a decade and -surprise surprise- that didn't work either. Hundreds of people who could have acted differently didn't because they had a particular idea in their heads of how they should behave."

"And that point of that story was?"

"Mmm. Just passing the time. And letting Bullock and Montoya remind themselves that they're perfectly capable of dealing with these lunatics without you." I turn away from him and look down to where Bullock is leading the girls out towards the waiting ambulances. "The League has you doing organisation stuff. Did you ever think about all the good you could do in Gotham if you focused your energies on that rather than this whole Bat-thing? Goodness knows why the police are turning to me for weapon upgrades."

No response from him, then I hear booted feet walking across the rooftop. "Who are you talking to?"

I turn. Sunset Shimmer and no Batman. I put my right hand to my mouth. "It's not clever, you know! It's just rude!"

"Did Batman pay you a visit?"

"Yes. Not that it really mattered. He can't be everywhere at once any more than I can. There would have been another opportunity, sooner or later."

She looks off to the side. Looks like something's bothering her. I wait patiently for her to get her thoughts in order.

"Grayven… Are you evil?"

I take a moment to give the question the consideration it deserves. "No. Anything else?"

"That's not the most convincing argument I've ever heard."

"I am by turns harsh and brutal, when I feel it necessary. I don't cause pain to others purely for my own pleasure and I aim for my actions ultimately to benefit those around me. Is there something I've done that particularly bothers you?"

"You set the three of us the task of stopping the war in Darfur."

"Yes. It was a task well within your abilities."

"You knew that we would kill people. I-{yellow}I'm not{/}…" She takes a deep breath. "I'm not sure what you think you know about Equestria? But it's a peaceful country. I'd never even seen someone killed violently before you.. showed us that. And you sent us there knowing that we'd have to go along with it!"

"No I didn't."

"You-! {red}Did.. too{/}!"

"Miss Shimmer, do you know what is meant by 'reflective equilibrium'?" She shakes her head. "It is what happens when you realise that there is a contradiction between your beliefs and actions. Or between one belief and another. If you are honest with yourself, you will alter your actions or your beliefs until they no longer contradict one another. We went through your moral beliefs together during the lesson and I know that the three of you kept talking about it afterwards. I told you that I wasn't setting you a deadline. You could have chosen to do nothing. You could have chosen to kill no one."

"{red}You knew we wouldn't do that{/}. Misa would do anything she thought you wanted… Lynne's.. just.. cold." She looks away, her fists bunched up.

"I let you make the choice. So, tell me. Reflect upon your thoughts and actions. Why did you use lethal force?"

"Because it was the only thing that would work!" She covers her eyes with her right hand. "We tried working out what would happen if we just disarmed everyone, and… And they'd just go back to killing each other again as soon as they would rearm! And they might not even have waited that long!"

"I know."

"Then why us?"

"I understand that part of the reason why you left your former mentor was that you believed that she was holding you back." Miss Shimmer nods uncertainly. "This is 'not being held back'. This is confronting the world in all its horror and misery and it being your responsibility to fix it. This is not being able to pass the buck because you can see what happens when you do that. See it as.. not on a report on a scroll or on edited pictures on a television screen, but see it in the flesh. Celestia would lecture you on this subject and you would ignore her. You do not appear to be ignoring me."

She gulps.

"You came to the conclusion -with your mind heavily weighted against the idea- that killing a limited number of people was the only way to fix the situation in the medium term. And now you feel bad." I make a shrugging gesture with my hands. "Okay. Reflect on your beliefs and on this feeling. Where lies the contradiction?"

"I… {yellow}Celestia always{/}…"

"Celestia had a thousand years to get the country running exactly as she liked it, and she only had to deal with… What, a few million Ponies? You don't. Where is the contradiction?"

"I.. act as if I don't think killing is bad. And I know that's wrong."

"If you actually thought that then you wouldn't have stuttered. Miss Amane has no problem with killing. You do. You think it's bad. Your problem is that you want to think 'bad' means that it's something only evil people do, while in fact you merely assign it a heavy utility value. In this situation you believe that it was necessary and you're feeling bad because that clashes with a belief you have about yourself and the beliefs you have about people who believe what you now know that you believe."

Her gaze grows distant as she thinks it over.

"Come on. Let's go home. You should probably talk to Doctor Robbins about this, get an alternate perspective."

"Are we..? Going to have to do something like that again?"

I shake my head as the hush tube reopens. "No. Not any time soon. I'm not trying to shock you into submission, and that's all sending you somewhere like that again would achieve. Think on what happened, and if you want to talk to me some more I'm always available."

23rd April
19:23 GMT +3

Donna shakes her head, looking contemplative. "No, I can't really say I've given it much thought."

"Really? Because I've got to say-" We touch down just outside Hades' temple. "-it was one of the first things I started thinking about when I got here. I mean, what religion are your parents?"

"Episcopalian."

"That's.. Anglican, right?" She nods as we head towards the entrance. "Remind me what current church teachings on magic are?"

"That it's just another skill, and no more evil than any other." She hesitates. "Though that's just the branch of the church we belong to. The evangelical wing has a.. slightly less liberal viewpoint."

"At least Anglicans Sixteen are arguing about something that actually has spiritual significance."

I lead the way into the outer part of the temple. Thana doesn't appear to be around.

"What do you mean by that?"

"We learned from the Young Offenders that this parallel is parallel sixteen. So, I refer to its Anglican inhabitants-."

"As Anglicans Sixteen." She nods. "But what do you mean about arguing about something important?"

"Back on Earth Prime the Anglican Communion is fracturing over homosexual ordination. I mean, magic involves rearranging the universe using your soul. I understand why that would be contentious."

"Homosexuality is an issue, too."

"But I can guess which is a bigger problem for you." Now, should I scan for Thana, or-?

"What?" I turn. Donna's stopped a little way behind me.

"Well, you're an innately magical being." We stare at each other for a moment. "Aren't you?"

"Yess." She looks away. "Ugh, sorry."

"What?"

"You know… How Amazons-?"

"Homonormative, right."

"Homo-? Huh, yeah, that actually fits."

"So?"

"A lot of people assume that Diana's gay, because of where she grew up? And then I showed up working with her?"

Oh. "But you're American."

"Right, but they didn't know that. And when Diana first brought me here the Amazons assumed the same thing."

"Oh." I try and suppress my smirk. "Um. She is a bit older than you…"

"Apparently that's how they.. used to.. do things."

Suppression attempt failed. "Hey, I offered you a chance to assert your heterosexuality after the play."

"Oh, don't." She looks away. "And they were all so happy about it…"

"Can I assume that Donna Troy is a known heterosexual?"

She goes to answer, then hesitates. "When you say 'known'-?"

"Pavlos!" Thana walks up the stairs out of the literally stygian depths of the Temple. "And Donna, who certainly is not the Princess' erômena."

Donna rolls her eyes. "Hey Thana."

I transition right in front of Thana just as she reaches the top of the stairs. She starts, and I use that as an opening to wrap my arms around her back and pull her into a hug, pressing my forehead against hers. She remains stiff for a second, then relaxes slightly. "Is Eris so easily pleased that 'surprise hugs' are a devotional act?"

"No, she pretty much wanted me to pin you against a wall and… 'Express my fondness'."

"I see." Her facial expression is one of equanimity. This close I can feel her exhalations on the skin of my face. "And do you intend to do that?"

"She may just have been trying to wind me up. Though I do note that you've been isolating yourself again. Despite what that did to Lord Hades' original priestesses."

"That simply isn't true-."

"I looked everywhere during the festival." I nuzzle her left cheek. "Guess who I didn't see."

"I… Attended."

I lean forwards slightly, my mouth right next to her left ear. "Really?"

"S-some of it."

"Someone isn't embracing chaos."

"Chaos appears to be embracing me well enough for both of us."

I move my head so that we're face to face again. "As my mistress taught me: the more you fall behind, the more I chivvy you along."

"An expression of fondness?"

"A trip to Fawcett City. Melinoë needs a chaperone."

"Ah…"

"I warned you." I kiss her lightly on the lips, then release her and step back. "Donna and I are heading down to talk to Lord Hades. Would you be so good as to let him know that we're coming?"

"I…" She looks more than a little lost. "I.. can do that."

"Thank you." I step around her and start down the stairs. "Donna?"

I'm nearly to the end of the first flight before I hear her rapid footsteps as she hurries to catch up with me. I stop as she approaches. "What was that?"

"What? You've had jobs from Athena before." I start walking again. "And besides, Melinoë does need a chaperone."

"Thana has trouble talking to other Amazons, and you're taking her to a city."

"Yes. Daemonic invasions not withstanding, Fawcett City is the friendliest city in America. Um, in the United States. The Marvels said they'd see if they could join us… Seems like a good place to start. Is this a bigger problem than I think it is?"

"And kissing her? What about Euanthe?"

"Oh, she doesn't like cities."

"Did you..?" She realises something. "No, wait, Artemis warned me about this. Where did the strange fruit in the Temple of Demeter come from?"

"I fabricated the seeds with the ring and Euanthe connected them to the Green to make them grow. Why?"

"Oh, the island thinks you're a botanophile."

"No, Dad was always more into gardening than I-."

Oh.

…

Huh.

23rd April
19:31 GMT +3

"…can't get over you not picking up on that." Donna makes another snort of laughter as we emerge from the tunnel and land on the platform marking the start of Erebos proper.

"Euanthe did.. seem to be 'up for it'… I just thought…"

"How would that even work? Isn't she.. basically a plant?"

"She's definitely on the plant-that-looks-Human side of the Dryad spectrum, but she can control the shape and texture of the plant matter making up her body. And she's got a better eye for Human aesthetics than Alec Holland." Donna gives me a small frown. "Swamp Thing." She nods in understanding. "As I understand it, she doesn't literally have generative organs, but she can do this sort of soul-link thing that-."

"I-" She holds up her right hand. "-don't need that much information."

"Really? Because it's a fascinating area. Like Asari, our children would be-."

"I thought Melinoë was going to meet us here."

"No, that was a first time only thing. Have you ever been down here before?"

She nods. "A few times with Diana. Only once on my own."

I rise into the air and she follows, getting above the height of the orchard trees before we level out and head for the palace. "If you.. don't mind me asking..?"

"My superpowers are Olympian. I wanted to know if my birth parents were down here."

"Were they?"

"If they are, they didn't identify themselves when I asked."

"Is.. that.. something.. you want me to look into?"

She smiles. "What, and take time away from your 'secret mission'?"

"Yeah, okay, unless you needed a kidney or something-"

"Huh!"

"-I wouldn't be prioritising it, but I don't mind asking around."

"Um." She reaches up to brush her wind-blown hair out of her face. "Alright. Yes. It's not that big a deal for me, but I would be interested to find out. I think a few Amazons have money riding on it."

"I suppose I'd have a conflict of interest if I put money on it myself. Any idea where I should start looking?"

"I'm nearly as physically strong as Diana is. So whoever my divine parent was, whether they sired or carried me naturally or just imbued something with their power, they'd have to be powerful. Zeus isn't exactly shy about acknowledging his bastards, especially now that he's divorced."

"So not Zeus?"

"Probably not. And as far as I know, Hades has never cheated on Persephone. And I don't have any particular skill with water or horses, which means that Poseidon is probably out."

Below us, the dead farmers pull the carts containing the day's produce towards the palace. Erebos is a Human-only afterlife. A few of them look up at us, but I suppose they've all seen stranger things. They look… A little pale, but aside from that more or less as I imagine they would have in life. While Homer was almost certainly right about the decay of their strength and wits before Hades bound small amounts of Erebos' power to each of them, he would clearly be wrong now. No, there's clearly nothing much to fear about death if this is where you end up.

"When we visited Themyscira with Kon, you asked me what I thought about the Titans."

"It's the obvious alternative. The Titans respond when I ask." She looks down for a moment, studying the forest. "The most obvious candidate for my biological father is Cronos. Or maybe even Uranus. They're not answering prayers so much as doing what their princess tells them to."

"If we're heading to Tartarus, we could ask about talking to the inmates."

"If I am their daughter, do you really think Hades will let me?"

"If he doesn't know, why not?"

"Greeks were a bit bigger on family loyalty then we are. And I can't lie to him about it."

"But you don't know. Not for certain. If he asks you can honestly say that you suspect that you have an Olympian mythos-."

"Othrysian."

"Huh?"

"The Titans were supposed to hold court on Mount Othrys."

"Oh. Right. Well, wherever, a father or mother from the same mythic family, but you don't know for certain. If they want to chuck you out if you get it confirmed, then so be it. You haven't had any contact with them beforehand, whoever they are."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask."

"Right then. Oh, semi-related matter. I'll need a blood sample from you."

"I thought your ring could scan someone's genes."

"It can, but you're an arcane life form. If you were made in the same sort of way Diana was you might not share genetic material with your parent. I'm going to need Sephtian to analyse your precise arcane signature, and then compare it with that of the other Olympic or Othric beings. Just a.. final confirmation." I was planning on asking him to do that to a piece of Cottus. And it will preserve secrecy if I give Donna's parentage as the reason.

"Okay. If it'll help." She looks down at the palace. "Wait, where are you heading?"

"Towards the throne room?"

"Since he didn't know we were coming I doubt he'll be there."

"Oh. Where do you think he'll be?"

"His dining room, the garden or his study, probably. Come on, the garden's closest."

She accelerates Horn-and-Ivory-wards and I follow her. "Hades has a garden?"

"His palace has a garden. Queen Persephone made it. Unlike the orchard it's fuelled by the Green rather than by Erebos itself, so it tends to die back when she's not here."

"And it's.. April, so she's not here?"

"Didn't you see her last time you came here?"

I shake my head as we descend towards a glade on the edge of the gardens. "No. I saw Hades and the Three Judges, but no Persephone. I wasn't actually in the palace grounds all that long…"

"That's a shame. She's nice." We step out of the trees and onto the grass, and at once I can see the royal picnic.

Melinoë makes eye contact with me, and sighs.

23rd April
19:36 GMT +3

"Ah, Orange Lantern. Good to know that we didn't scare you off completely." Hades smiles as he says it, then chuckles quietly.

He's sitting on a small wooden seat while other members of his court either stand in discussion with one another or seat themselves on blankets on the ground.

"Your majesty, I can only offer my apologies for whatever it was I did which so enraged Cottus."

"Think naught of it. Melinoë-" Whose eyes dart to her father with pupils like daggers. "-spoke quite eloquently on your behalf after you left." I give her a winsome, eye-roll-earning smile while Hades looks thoughtful. "It was curiously out of character behaviour on his part, and my daughter was clear that you did nothing to provoke him. Might I assume that this means that you were on to something in your investigation?"

"It's really too early to say, majesty."

"And Troy Girl! A pleasure, as always. I don't suppose that you've given any thought to abandoning your Jewish carpenter for us in the interregnum?"

"Ahh…" Donna seems to be wrong footed. I hadn't realised that she was actually a practising Christian. Or maybe she just said that to head off an argument.

I should try covering for her. "Actually, majesty, as I understand it? 'Architect' is probably a better translation of his job title."

"Oh?"

"The Bible had passed through several languages and thousands of scribes and editors before we arrived at the modern version."

He nods. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised. Very few people who knew it well from the early days ended up here, of course."

"Actually..? There was something I wanted to ask… About that?"

"Oh, I'm not the jealous sort of god. As long as your conversion is genuine and heartfelt I won't expect any great display of devotion."

"A-hah… No, I…" She glances at me. "Orange Lantern had an idea for trying to track down whoever my divine parent was."

"Does it involve pestering my staff and nearly getting my youngest daughter crushed to death by an enraged Hekatonkheir?"

"No and, well, I hope not. He has an.. associate, who can analyse magic signatures in great detail. I intend to give him a sample of my own blood to work from."

"You must trust him greatly to part with that. I hope that I am not the first to warn you of the fell magics which may be wrought with a sample of someone's blood."

"I… Well, I trust Paul and he trusts him."

"Sephtian has extremely high ethical standards, majesty, and we have worked together on numerous profitable enterprises already."

"Very well. I am not certain as to what input you require from me on the subject."

"The process works not by just analysing me, but by comparing me to other samples." A slight frown from Hades at the implication. "I do not believe for a moment that you would have sired me, but the more we know of the magics of the Olympians the better able we are to narrow our search."

Hades nods sombrely. "Think you that I will need to have words with my son Zagreus?"

"Probably not. Gods and goddesses born in Erebos have certain.. traits in common."

"Hmm." Hades raises his fists to his mouth as he contemplates the request. "I have no objection to your quest, but am strongly minded to refuse your request. Instincts ingrained by the war against the Titans weigh heavily on my thoughts."

"If I may suggest, majesty?" He waves his right hand in a 'carry on' motion. "As Twilight Sparkle says: Don't dabble with blood magic. If you must, see that the blood is consumed in the spell, and have the spell cast in front of you. While having you travel physically to Poseidonis for this is beneath your dignity, I was.. planning on asking Princess Melinoë to accompany me on an outing today."

"Oh?" He glances at where his daughter is staring at me in puzzlement.. and possibly disgust. "So bold."

"You could release a vial of blood into her care, and she can ensure that it is utilised properly and destroyed promptly before we carry on to our eventual destination. So long as it is never out of her sight and she is provided with a copy of the results, you shouldn't have any need to be concerned."

"Daughter? Do you have anything to say on the subject?{black}"

"{/}Where exactly were you expecting to take me?"

"Fawcett City. A friendly sort of place, aside from that demonic invasion they had a few months back. Captain Marvel -Champion of Shazam- lives there."

"And what makes you think I would want to go there with you?"

"The joy you took in my offerings during my last visit. I assure you that you will find Fawcett's shops most appealing. And social interaction with the living. Oh, and-" I turn back to Hades. "-Thana has agreed to act as her chaperone."

"Do they lay demonic invasions on for the visitors?"

"It was really more of a one-off thing, your majesty." Forty three dead from the attack, and about one and a half times that again in sacrifices. Plenty more injured, but most of them were incidental. Demons can tell when a wounded person finally dies and usually don't stop attacking until that point is reached.

"Then I have no objection. Daughter?" Pointedly not looking at me, she gives her father a sort of sideways half nod. "Then so shall it be. Will you depart at once?"

"I'd like to pop back into Tartarus first, if that's at all possible." Melinoë perks up a little. "I thought that I might try speaking with one of Cottus' brothers, see if I can find out what I did wrong. And.. possibly acquire a small part of their body for resonance testing."

He seems to find the idea amusing. "It would take a passionate woman indeed to love a Hekatonkheir in such a way that they could beget a daughter."

"And… If it could be done safely… Cronus as well?"

Hades shakes his head definitively. "No. I mean no slight against your honour, but Zeus has commanded that all he, myself and our brother Poseidon must be in agreement before anyone interacts with our father or grandfather. Do you believe that such interaction is absolutely essential?"

"No, I… I wasn't sure whether approaching him would be dangerous."

"Nothing involving him is not dangerous. Even bound in Tartarus, I would not take the chance save for dire necessity."

I nod. "I should probably be able to get a reading on his magic from Deva. Assuming that she's willing to cooperate. That won't be a problem, will it?"

"No, his youngest daughter lacks the arcane skill to take advantage of your efforts." He turns to Melinoë. "Well, daughter. It seems that you must escort this young hero to the gates of Tartarus once more.{black}"

"{/}Fine." She perks up a little as she walks away from his throne towards me. "See if you can manage being inside him for more than three minutes this time."

23rd April
19:52 GMT +3

"So, just to make sure that I understand completely-."

"I doubt that you'll ever manage that."

Tartarus hasn't become any less relentlessly pitch black since my last visit, but this time I'm expecting it. Donna and I have construct visors on showing us the landscape as revealed by the rings' sonic pings. I remember her saying that she could just ask Tartarus to let her see but that doesn't seem politic with Melinoë right there. We took a sharp right just inside the gate and haven't seen hide nor hand of Cottus.

"The gods of many pantheons get into a huge fight with their forebears and eventually cast them down. Tartarus -some sort of primeval darkness Titan- got bound and used as a maximum security prison. Erebos… Who was also some sort of primeval darkness Titan..?"

There's a pause and I'm going to assume that Melinoë is rolling her eyes. My sonic pings aren't that precise. "Darkness isn't just darkness, Human."

"Of course. How silly of me." I pause to give her a chance to respond, but nothing is forthcoming. "Erebos gets bound and anchored to several different points with the four gates: one for regular dead folk, one for mortals particularly favoured by the gods, another to the Dreaming and the fourth to Tartarus. Hades also hooks himself up to Erebos, making him much more powerful than most of the other Olympians."

"Except Uncle Zeus and Uncle Poseidon, yes."

"Alright. First question: are you tied to Erebos in the same way?"

"No. Well. Sort of."

"Thank you for that wonderfully clear and helpful answer."

Our heads whip around as we both hear Donna giggle.

"I'm not tied to Erebos in the same way Father is. But he had so much of Erebos' magic in him when he.. sired me, that my own magic is… Similar. Sort of."

"I thought that everyone down here was-."

"I'm not dead! I don't need to have my vital breath replaced with bits of Titan!"

"Rightyho. Is Erebos still alive?"

"We think so. Obviously he doesn't talk to us, but the magic flows inside his body are too.. organic, for it to be completely determined by Father pulling it around."

"And Tartarus?"

"Probably."

"Because if something squirrelly happened here, asking the prison would be a good way to-."

"Hah! How could you possibly trust anything he said?"

"We could see if other sources corroborate his version of events, but okay. Is Hades tied to his magics as well?"

"No. Every bit of spare power Tartarus has goes into the bindings keeping the Titans trapped. And the other punishments going."

"Other punishments?"

"Sometimes some stupid mortal does something that gets Zeus so angry he sends them here as well."

"I thought that Hades had released-."

"He released the ones in the Punishment Fields. He can't overrule Zeus. These ones are staying put."

Makes sense I suppose. Alright, so Hades is powered by Erebos. That might throw off whatever results I could get from his blood sample. But his brothers are as powerful as he is. So… Poseidon… Oceanus? Don't know who Zeus could be using. Probably not polite to ask… I mean, I'm guessing Cronus himself, but I imagine that Zeus is already fairly angry with me and since the answer might well be 'all of the rest' I'm not going to push my luck.

"What exactly are we looking for?" I stop, frowning at Donna. Was that inten-? "I mean, where are we going?"

"Gyges, hopefully. Are we close enough?"

"Probably."

"Right then." I generate a pile driver construct and slam it into the ground. Pause, look around… Nothing. I retract the piston and slam it down ag-.

Earth cascades upwards as giant… I'm going to guess hands, it's a bit soon to tell with any certainty. Giant hands pull themselves free of the Tartarian ground. Unlike those belonging to his brother, these are thin-fingered, each disproportionately thin digit having at least eight points of articulation. Four point 'forwards' and a further two point in the opposite direction. No arms, just strange floating hands. As with Cottus there are a vast array of different sizes and.. shapes. I didn't notice with Cottus but some of these are armoured and others look smoother and softer.

And he hasn't thrown anything yet, which is hopeful.

As we watch, hands come together, fingers wrapping around other fingers to build a structure. Golly… Gosh. That's big. Oh, I see. No messing around making faces here, he's just making a massive humanoid.

Really massive. Cake massive.

"Princess and guests." His voice is decidedly odd, accompanied by a constant sound of hard surfaces banging and scraping against one another. "Welcome to my bailiwick. Do you wish to inspect the prisoners?"

"No. I know that you're keeping watch. My…" His huge head swings towards me. "Guest, has a few questions about your brother Cottus."

"I will not betray his confidences, but otherwise I will speak."

"Last time I came to Tartarus, it was to speak to him. He attacked me and I fled. Do you know why?"

"No."

I get ready to fly rapidly away, just in case. "I mentioned something about a living woman being made from clay."

The giant face has no real expression, just makes more clicks as the hands move around one another. "I do not know this magic."

"Does your mother? "

"Yes. Certainly."

"Does Cottus?"

"If he does, I have never seen him use it."

Fair enough. "If Cronus has been trapped here, how is it that he was able to create Deva?"

The hand man… I think that's supposed to be a glare. "He bound some of what little power is left to him to his own blood and spilled it on the ground to prevent it from being drained. We have already been chastised for this failure in our watch."

"Enough to create a whole person? A demigoddess in her own right?"

There's a pause and I'm mentally preparing to run again. "No. That power was stolen from our mother."

I frown, though I doubt that he can see it. "How?"

"Sympathetic magic."

"What did he use as the focus?"

"A small and stolen part of my brother's flesh."

I close my right hand around the small chip of Cottus I found near the entrance where my railguns hit him during my last visit. And suddenly everything starts to make a little more sense.

23rd April
15:18 GMT -2

"No, it's quite impossible!"

The overweight fish-tailed Atlantean in front of me puffs up -metaphorically- and takes a slightly higher position in the water. I've never met Onesimus before and I can't say that he's making the best first impression. He's one of the experts in his field who're supposed to be helping Sephtian move into mass production. As I understand it, this was a bit of a step down for him. Like that.. Industrialisation era drama my class watched back in Primary School. A master weaver going to work in a factory because he can't possibly hope to keep up with the volume of cloth it can produce. I made everything he knows about arcane design wrong-. No, worse. Irrelevant.

"Which part of-?"

"We can't just drop everything we're working on to devote thaumatorium time to your…" He gulps water for a moment. "Frankly ludicrous request!"

Melinoë looks up from the arcane analytic equipment she was staring at. I'm not sure exactly what magic she's using to get around down here but when I offered her an environmental shield I got a rather haughty sniff. Thana elected to remain on Themyscira while we dealt with the Atlantean part of the 'quest'. Donna is next to me, breathing as easily as any Pureblood.

"What's ludicrous about it?"

"Have you got any idea how busy we are here? Just-!"

"Yes, I know exactly how busy you are." That seems to take some of the wind out of his air bladders. "I see Sephtian every week and I still make blanks for him… Though I understand that the rune printing system is just about out of prototyping."

He nods, reluctantly. "Then perhaps you can appreciate that we don't have the time to waste."

"If you need me to make the device-."

"And who could enchant it? And who could operate it, once it was finished?" He holds up his hands, palms forward, then brings them together in front of his chin. "Are you aware of exactly how complex a procedure is involved in analysing an arcane signature?"

I shake my head. "No."

"Let us say that we have an object strongly connected to a magic user's 'soul self'. And let us further assume that they have made no active attempt at duplicity, which a mage involved in some manner of crime certainly would."

Donna frowns. "I'm.. not sure that making me was a crime."

"It would be in Atlantis." Ooh, this guy just wants to be on my shit list, doesn't he. "A particular spell will have a near-identical formation regardless of who cast it. To analyse an object in enough detail to be able to tell with any certainty that it was cast by the one whose object we are analysing, we must examine it in the most minute detail. Do you know how complex the soul is? How many influences it may pick up, especially in a place as thaumically active as Poseidonis?"

"Nnnnno?"

"And these new devices don't help in the slightest. Before, any reading measurable by a device was so approximate that it was barely worth performing. Now! Now just tabulating the results takes months! For normal magicians! And for a god? And I can barely believe that I'm taking the suggestion seriously-."

"Why wouldn't you?"

I'm not sure that he realises that Melinoë's appearance is in any way unusual. Certainly he hasn't recognised who she is. As for what she is… I'm assuming not. He's got to be sensitive enough to magic to realise that she's not just another surface dweller, but the link between 'strange magic user named Melinoë' and 'Greek Goddess of Nightmares and Madness' hasn't formed in his mind. I don't think that Orcus has children, the Roman habit of appropriating Greek myths not having any bearing on the gods' actual lives.

"Because it's patently absurd! Gods having blood that could be subject to analysis, indeed! And even if that were the case, it would be orders of magnitude more complex than that of a mortal mage, which I've already said we couldn't do even if we wanted to. Which we don't."

Melinoë's eyes narrow. "How would you like to-?"

"Could you do something simpler?"

Onesimus shakes his head. "Like what?"

"Could you… Identify the strongest magic… Frequencies-"

"Resonances."

"-in an object?" Donna tenses her left cheek. "Does that make sense?"

"Well… That's… That's easier, of course. I'm not sure what use it would be."

"We're perfectly happy to accept that getting a precise mote by mote analysis is beyond the capacity of our current thaumic technology. We just want to see how similar the magics of several objects are to one another."

"I'd still need to-."

"Roughly how similar."

Onesimus thinks for a moment, his eyes unfocused. "If.. I.. could get the time… I…"

"I'm sure that I can talk Queen Mera into making an opening."

"How many samples did you have in mind?"

"Twelve."

"Fine." He waves his right hand dismissively. "Leave them in Dry Room One. I'll let Sephtian know that they're there when he gets baa{yellow}aaaah-ah{/}."

"You really are a louse." Melinoë's eyes are fixed on him as she stalks across the room. "You will perform the analysis yourself and you will do it now. Or you will keep seeing what you are seeing now for the rest of your life." She thinks for a moment. "And I will tell Uncle Orcus how unhelpful you were."

"{yellow}Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh{/}…" His eyes have gone totally black. Oh dear.

"Melinoë, that's.. a bit…" A bit assault on a chap who doesn't deserve it in a way which is rather seriously illegal. "Irritating as Mister Onesimus has been, I do rather need him to both perform the analysis and continue his work on this project. Would you please let him go?"

"You let him go too far. I didn't think you were that weak. I'll teach him his place and then let him go."

I move closer to her. Maybe disrupting her line of sight..? No. Ah. "Melinoë, you catch more wasps with honey than with vinegar. In the life of an immortal, what are a few minutes? Compared to the wonder of my goal, what are a few mean spirited words?" Donna looks genuinely worried. I can't really judge how much this is affecting him… I bend down slightly so that my head is level with hers. "I could try forcibly breaking your connection-" Her eyes narrow slightly. "-but I'm sure that you'd appreciate-" My hands go to the rear of her lower horns, fingertips pushing her head forwards as her eyes blink in astonishment. "-a different approach-" I give her what I hope is an affectionate smile. "-more."

She blinks, then I lean forward and kiss her. I don't linger, just press our lips together for a moment, but for the split second we're touching I can feel the location and texture of shadow in the room. There's a {yellow}gasp{/} from behind me as I pull back slightly, Melinoë staring at me in wide-eyed astonishment.

"Are you alright?"

"{yellow}Melainia, she's Melainia oh gods preserve me{/}."

"There, you see-."

She plants her hands on my chest and shoves me across the room! "Get off me, idiot!"

23rd April
12:27 GMT -6

Donna looks around with a smile as I walk into the… Female… Accessory.. shop. Ugh, it's just like Claire's back on Earth Prime whenever I went there to get a birthday present for someone or for hair bands; I can feel my testosterone evaporating to shield me from the femininity of the place. Melinoë's eyes dart in my direction then return to the.. thing Mary Marvel née Bromfield is showing her the second she realises that I'm looking back.

"Any news?" Thana's a little closer to the door, most likely not feeling comfortable having all the weird things at closer quarters.

"Ms Deva didn't really care. She actually found the idea of someone suing Cronus for paternity amusing." She's very much not in my reform class and.. I.. don't really have the time to spend rehabilitating someone created as an instrument of vengeance by a bound and bitter Titan.

"Did you have any difficulty in persuading the Atlanteans to aid you?"

Now, think it through. Thana's speaking Themysciran Greek, but the other patrons and the shop assistants can't understand that or differentiate between it and Modern Greek. True, they're mostly staring at Melinoë's amazing cosplay but we are -sort of- here incognitoish. I don't want to risk anyone overhearing anything which blatantly says 'super person'.

Ring, switch to Themysciran Greek.

{orange}Compliance.

"{/}Not really. I ended up speaking to a fish-tailed Atlantean called Onesimus." Who wised up pretty fast when he realised that the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness was standing in the same room as him. Apparently they still… Not 'worship', but certainly acknowledge her in Atlantis. "After being flabbergasted, telling me that even if it was possible it would take centuries and flat out refusing to look into it for me. But, we were able to persuade him."

"I'm sure that I wouldn't be able to understand the technical aspects..?"

"Normally when they analyse an arcane artefact they do a complete analysis. It would be…" A bit morbid, but so is she. "Like examining every part of the body of a murder victim in detail so that you don't miss even the slightest thing that might lead to the culprit."

She nods hesitantly. "Only.. the.. murder victim.. is a god?"

"Sorry, bad metaphor. What they normally do provides much more information than I need." Um. "Than I probably need, and if a simpler examination doesn't give me what I'll need then I'm going to have to work out how to improve their equipment before I do anything else."

"Ah." She nods. "So you would merely be comparing their domains, rather than the whole of their magics."

"Right. And they can do that."

So by Monday I should have a rough idea of the arcane relatedness of Euanthe (daughter by magic of Gaea and Uranus), Diana (daughter by magic of Gaea and blessed by the Six), Hades (natural son of Cronus and Rhea), Melinoë (natural daughter of Hades and Persephone), Ares (natural son of Zeus and Hera), Hera (natural daughter of Cronus and Rhea), Hippolyta (natural daughter of Otrera and Ares), Cottus (natural -I think- son of Gaea and Uranus), Deva (daughter by magic of Cronus and blessed by the Titans), Donna Troy (not really sure), Tartarus (really not sure) and -just for a giggle- Orange Lantern 2814, who incidentally is the only one not related to all of the others.

I mean, you joke about them all being more inbred than the Habsburgs, but think about it for a moment. Gaea is Zeus' grandmother and grandmother in law, being the grandmother of his wife and mother of both of his parents. Euanthe is Diana's.. half sister, at least. Hades is Diana's nephew, though maybe 'created by magic' and 'naturally borne' changes that a little. Melinoë is Diana's great niece and Deva is her niece. Hippolyta, her adopted mother, is her great great niece. It's a bit strange that Euanthe is so much weaker than the others… Or was, anyway, since I'm not completely sure how strong she is now. Maybe if Diana's creation hadn't been blessed she'd be more like Golden Age Wonder Woman, extremely capable but not really super powered. Or… I don't know, maybe Euanthe only has Uranus' magic innately and learned how to use the Green. I don't really know enough about Uranus' magic to comment. Gaea was supposed to create them using his blood, right?

"Is there some sort of Amazon betting pool I'll need to notify?"

Thana shakes her head. "When she first arrived, it was so widely assumed that she was sired by Zeus that no one was interested in placing such a bet. Now it will merely be a matter of curiosity."

"Melinoë getting on alright?"

"I was surprised by how muted the reaction to her was."

"How is she reacting to them?"

"She.. hasn't cursed anyone to endure eternal nightmares-" I cover up a nervous expression with my right fist. "-which is something that it is well within her power to do." She frowns. "Miss Mary said something about it being hard to get makeup for someone of her complexion."

"Well… Yes."

"One youth asked if she was 'cosplaying'-" That word must have been in English. "-as.. some sort of Elf."

"A Dark Elf?"

"It may have been. I only know because Miss Mary was kind enough to translate it for me. Melinoë has no elfin heritage. She does not even look like an Elf. Why would they ask such a thing?"

"Elves are depicted in popular fiction as looking very different to how they really look. I'm not sure where Dark Elves started being shown as grey skinned… Might have been Dungeons and Dragons-." And I've lost her. "It's a role.. play.. game… It's not important. The fact is, it would seem far more likely to them that she was a normal Human in costume than literally being a goddess… That he probably wouldn't have heard of anyway."

Thana nods. "I suppose I can see why he might think that." She pauses, as if not quite sure how to address the next point. "But if he did not recognise her, why did he apologise and flee when told that his initial supposition was incorrect?"

"In our society, it's considered.. impolite… To draw attention to physical abnormalities. Once he was informed that it wasn't a costume…"

"He thought that he had been rude… To a normal woman who happened to look a little unusual?" I nod. "I see."

"How have you been coping with everything?"

"I keep my eyes focused firmly on the ground. I thought that I was used to large buildings… I have seen visions of Lord Hades' palace, and of the structures of Asphodelopolis which are bound together with Erebos' own magic. But this.. Fawcett City…" She shakes her head. "I looked up and it gave me vertigo. I should have listened more to what our wandering theatre troupe said of the outside world."

"And the colours? The noise? The men?"

"Those, I was more prepared for." She looks thoughtful. "I.. was not born in the Old City of Themyscira."

Oh. Goodness. "You're doing exceptionally well for someone born on the Island."

She shakes her head. "I believe that the town into which I was born was technically in Thracian territory. We moved into Themysciran territory during… I don't believe that the war ever received a name. The town had two storey buildings. Themyscira City -which I only saw after joining the priestesshood- had buildings as high as four storeys. Here… It is not so much the height of the very tall buildings which concerns me so much as the higher average height, I think."

I glance back at our shoppers. Mary is attempting to attach a gold chain to Melinoë's left forehorn. I catch Donna say the word 'piercing' and the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness jerks back in horror. "Would you like to go up one?"

"I think that I shall leave that to the rest of you."

"Oh, come on." I glance outside. "Once you're running this fast it's easier to keep-" Doctor Sivana ♀ walks past the window. "-going. Would you excuse me for just a moment? There's someone outside I should probably say hello to."

23rd April
14:01 GMT -6

Doctor Sivana ♀ looks at me a little sceptically as she takes a sip of her coffee. "And she's… Actually the Ancient Greek Goddess of Nightmares and Madness?"

Said Greek Goddess of Nightmares and Madness appears to be going through a pink phase. Pink skirt, pink leggings, pink t-shirt with a picture of Pink emblazoned across the chest and a pink denim jacket.

…

Maybe I should have let Donna help the multimillennial goddess instead of an eleven year old girl who currently isn't using the Wisdom of Solomon.

Eh, she seems happy enough.

"She's actually quite pleasant company. One of my ongoing projects is to encourage a link between ancient magic practices and modern society and technology."

Her eyebrows raise ever so slightly. "And you're recruiting gods?"

"Yes, Hephaestus has been a great help already."

"What about Vulcan?" Momentary frown. "Or are they not separate deities?"

"No, they're separate. But Vulcan's even more cut off from… His job, if you like."

"Smithing?"

"No. He still does… Well, I haven't met him, but I had a chat with Hephaestus-" And Hera. Never hurts to consult more than one source. "-about it. He still makes things, but he doesn't god, if you see what I mean. No one worships him, very few people worship his pantheon… He spends half his time in their workshop under Mount Etna making wonders no one will ever see and the other half in a garage in Rubiera in Italy."

"Really?"

I shrug. "He likes machinery."

She appears to be struggling with the idea. "So people can just walk in and say 'there's a light on my dash and I don't know what it means, could Vulcan take a look at it'?"

"No, he doesn't go by that name. And I doubt that they use him for things where it's just a matter of replacing a part or resetting the engine management computer. He's very good at what he does."

"Is that what all the ancient gods are doing now?"

"Not all of them. But quite a few, yes. They usually had their domains because they liked whatever it was they were patron of. Hera's a relationship advice columnist-."

"Heh. And what does Zeus think about that?"

"They're divorced."

"You honestly expect me to believe-."

"He is a serial philanderer and she can do much better." I don't think that Doctor Sivana ♀ is quite convinced. "I can introduce you if you like?"

"And… What about..?" She looks over at where the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness is experiencing her first ever brain freeze. Frederick Freeman appears to find it hilarious. "Hades? Or Pluto?"

"Hades rules the Olympian dead from the hollowed out body of the fallen Titan Erebos. They get a handful of new residents each year. Pluto is a cartoon dog owned by Disney. He lives with Mickey Mouse. I don't believe that he's real as well, but I suppose I could be wrong. If you're referring to Orcus, I assume that he's doing the same sort of thing. I've never met him."

"Do.. you worship them? I mean, it seems a little strange that you'd worship someone who works in a garage."

I grin. "I worship Eris."

"I thought.. she was.. one of the bad ones."

"Chaos is what makes the universe more than rocks moving in perfect circles around one another. Eris.. the person, will wheedle, cajole, prod and pry to try and make people different from how they are. But…" I turn my palms upwards in a shrugging motion. "Are you today the same person as you were yesterday? Or a year ago?"

"I thought you told everyone that Klarion was a Chaos God?"

"No, he's a Lord of Chaos. A mortal wizard who turned their own soul into a giant mass of chaos magic. Eris' soul is that of an Olympian, Earth magic core with a chaos magic outer. Also, he's a mass murdering shit and she isn't."

She nods. "So, chaos isn't the problem, it's about how you use it."

"Like anything else. Yes. A fundamentally unproductive system changing may be for the best. A perfect system changing would be bad… But I'm not sure those really exist."

She nods, finishing the last of her coffee. "Listen, I've got.. this… Thing…"

I smile. "Need to wash your hair already? Am I really that bad?"

"No, it…" She sighs. "Actually, you're the reason why I'm not at the hospital. We're on the purple healing ray trial."

"Oh yeah? How is that going?"

"Brilliantly. The ray works exactly as it's supposed to. The hospital wants me to take a sabbatical to try and work out why it works. KordTech haven't been particularly forthcoming."

"That's because we don't know. Baroness von Gunther's work was a bit out there." But I smell an opportunity to fix that. "I can get you copies of her notes if it would help?"

She nods. "That.. {blue}would be great{/}. I wouldn't give up working at the hospital for anything, but…" Another sigh. "My Dad.. wasn't a supervillain at home. He was the one helping me when I developed a strain of synthetic bacteria that destroys the rhinovirus. But now I'm working full time I haven't had time to get into a laboratory and do original research since…" She looks blank. "I'm not.. actually sure. God, it might be since I started my residency."

"That sounds like a waste of your talents."

"That's what the Chief of Medicine says as well." She looks uncertain. "It's just-."

"The results may help people but it takes far longer to get to the point where an actual person benefits than doing a shift in Accident and Emergency."

"Yeah, that. Magnificus doesn't care and the other two are nearly as bad as Dad. I sort of feel that I should be doing something like this? That's mostly why I went into medicine in the first place."

"To pay back some of the 'karmic debt'?" She nods. "I don't want to sound.. rude about your profession… But there are a lot of medical doctors and not very many… Um… 'Beneficent Geniuses'." That gets a burst of laughter. "I'm sure you can sort out a schedule that lets you spend some time on normal medicine if it means that much to you. But purple healing rays everywhere, that's…"

"Yeah." She doesn't sound completely convinced. "You're probably right. I guess ray guns just have a bad association for me." She sits back in her chair, looking me over. "I'd.. like to ask a favor."

"You can always ask, as my Dad used to say."

"Once a year, the Sivana family has a.. get together. I'd like you to come with me this year."

"When you say 'family'-?"

"Mom and my siblings. Dad's still.. wherever he ended up." She does a circular wave with her right hand. "I just like to bring someone along to make it bearable, and at this point it's you or Jack."

"Jack?"

"Daniels." She shrugs. "I'm a Danner enhancile, aren't I? It's almost impossible for me to get drunk, but if I down a bottle I can get tipsy enough to ignore Thaddeus and Georgia constantly bickering and Magnificus' inferiority complex. And I.. actually…" She looks away, smiling. "Would like to talk to you some more."

I smile back. "That sounds fascinating. When is it?"

25th April
07:56 GMT -6

"Now, remember:-" Doctor Sivana ♀ checks my tie for a second time. "-you're-"

"Not allowed to arrest your siblings." / "-not allowed to arrest anyone."

I put my hands on her shoulders, gently nudging her own hands off me to do so. "It's fine. I haven't forgotten anything you told me."

"Mom keeps the habitat on Central Time Zone Time-"

"Still haven't forgotten."

"-and.. I.. know that." She takes a deep breath and then slowly lets it out. "I really shouldn't be this wound up yet. The others won't be arriving for hours."

She's wearing a grey knee length skirt, a white blouse and a grey jacket, an ensemble which shouts 'camouflage'. An attempt ruined by the fact that the wearer is a gorgeous six foot tall blonde woman with super strength. I'm in a dark grey suit with orange pinstripes.

"You didn't say why we're going this early-."

"So I can catch up with Mom before everyone else arrives and she has to spend all her time 'Moming'."

"Is it.. really that bad?"

She flares her eyes as she nods. "Oh, you'll see."

"I do have one question, though." She nods, eyebrows slightly raised. "Is this a date?"

"Aaaahh…"

"I ask because I need to know what capacity I'm coming in. Is this a date, and if so how long are we supposed to have been dating? Because I doubt that you'll want to tell them that you.. grabbed me as an alternative to necking Jack Daniels until you could cope with them. Alternately, this is a fake date to demonstrate that you have a functioning social life, and if so-"

"Ou-ch."

"-same question. I can be vague about it if you want."

"Look, I have friends, I just-."

"Don't want them getting involved with the supervillainous part of the family. You're like Aimee Osbourne."

"Heh. Maybe. Only instead of swearing and shouting at each other they shout formulae and fire ray guns."

"I can use the rings defensively, right?"

"Ah, if things go badly enough that you're actually threatened, yes. But… I want to try and have a normal family day. Just once."

There's a beep from her jacket pocket. She looks down as she reaches into it with her right hand and pulls out her phone to look at the message.

"Bomb scare?"

"No, Magnificus wants me to make sure Mom has the right coordinates. Dad used to organise these things in hard-to-reach locations and make us work out how to get there ourselves. Mom's holding it on the Venus habitat because we can't turn it into a competition."

"I knew.. that your father had a teleportation system, but I don't know how it works."

"Oh, it isn't anything special, really. It works in more or less the same way as Doctor Erdel's original zeta tube. Dad always said that the fixed entry and exit point was a step backwards."

I frown. "Wait a moment. Wouldn't that mean that-"

There's a flare of blue-white light around us.

"-you have problems-" My brain catches up with my eyes, but my mouth presses on. "-with integrity.. loss..?"

"Hey Mom!" Doctor Sivana ♀ beams as she walks over towards the control booth, where a woman I'm going to assume is Doctor Sivana ♀… No, that's not going to work, especially if we're supposed to be dating. Beautia beams as she walks over to her mother and embraces her. I know the joke is that the older children took after their mother and the younger ones took after their father, but the resemblance is far from perfect. Venus is notably shorter than her daughter, and without the Danner Formula lacks the same muscle definition. She's also… How to put this? She isn't fat. I wouldn't even call her plump. But there's a little more body fat on her than there is on her elder daughter.

"Tia, honey! How have you been?"

Her accent is different as well. Transatlantic rather than Fawcettian. Okay, if this is a zeta radiation based system then… The four posts coming up from the platform must be the equivalent of our tubes. But that means…

"And who's this?"

"You fixed the problem with Doctor Erdel's original one-point system!" And curse not being allowed to scan any of this stuff!

Venus separates from her daughter and walks towards me. "No, that was Thaddeus. I'm an economist."

"Oh, right, sorry. "

"I can tell you how much it costs to build or run, if you like. And why that means that it's not practical for mass implementation." I step off the platform and she holds out her right hand. "Venus Sivana."

"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor." I bow, taking her right hand in mine and raising it to my lips. "Orange Lantern two eight one four at your service."

She smiles. "You probably shouldn't identify yourself with a number around here, in case Georgia or Junior get the idea that you're a robot." Her expression momentarily freezes. "Tia, he isn't-?"

"No Mom, he's not a robot."

"I only ask because last time-."

"Not a robot, Mom."

"Last time?"

Venus opens her mouth slightly, then closes it and turns to her daughter. "How long have you two been together?"

"We.. met back in February." Beautia comes around to my right side and winds her left arm around my right. "And we're going to be working together on reverse engineering the principles behind the purple healing ray."

Sophistry at its most off-the-cuff. Not a word of a lie but a strong implication that we've been together a while.

"Oh honey, that's wonderful! Your father's far less likely to claw his way back from whatever parallel universe he dumped himself in to wreak revenge if you're dating someone who isn't Captain Marvel."

I feel Beautia stiffen slightly. "Yeah, that's… Off the cards."

Hm. She's eighteen herself, so the age difference is only seven years and she's going to live for long enough that it isn't an absolute barrier unless she wants it to be. Maybe she prefers older men?

"It's probably for the best. So, Orange Lantern." Venus smiles at me warmly. "What do your friends call you?"

25th April
09:31 GMT -6

"It's really that good?"

Venus has got a bit into the 'make the potential son in law feel welcome' routine. Though… By what Beautia was saying, maybe she wants to get the warm feelings flowing before the rest of the clan turn up and try to scare me off.

Luckily for Beautia the photo albums are back in Venus' home on Earth.

"No resistance to electricity or heat at all. I've got a spool with me-."

She raises her right hand. "I think.. maybe, you should pretend you don't have that with you. Magnificus and my younger two would probably find it fascinating…"

I nod. "And having two young supervillains and a slightly older borderline case interested in something isn't necessarily a good thing."

Beautia nods. "Last time Georgia got jealous of me over one of my boyfriends… Well..."

"I'm.. going.. to need more than a 'well'."

Venus looks away for a moment, hands moving over her tea cup. "She transferred his mind into a Possum."

"She-. She what?"

"And then she wouldn't tell us where the switch was to turn them back…"

"But… A Possum? There's no way its neural structures are complex enough to contain a Human mind. Was… He alright?"

Beautia shakes her head. "Her machine didn't literally swap minds. It just rearranged the connections between mind and body. Justin's brain was still in his body, but it was getting sensory input from the Possum's body. And the same with the Possum."

"I don't think that's technically easier. Ah, also: are there any Possums-" The Sivana women cover their smiles. "-on Venus, because it sounds like that's something I need to worry about now."

Venus shakes her head. "I don't think so. Ah, Sivanadroid?"

One of the robots who apparently maintain the place trundles over. Its construction is a strange mix of heavy industrial looking metal and technical sophistication. The face is a simple piece of metal, with a glowing blue line to indicate the mouth. The upper body is similarly immobile, a humanoid torso attached to a metal oblong rising from a caterpillar tracked base unit. The thing it most puts me in mind of is Pneuman from the Tom Strong comics, only marginally less creepy. And the electronics inside are far more sophisticated than the exterior would suggest.

"Ready for command."

"Do we-? Uh. Information request. Are any Possums presently located within the habitat?"

"No member 'species: Possum' detected by internal sensors."

"Thank you. Um,-" She rolls her eyes. "-Sivanadroid, dismissed."

"Have a good day." There's a whir as its tracks pull it away.

Venus shakes her head again. "I don't know why he designed them like that."

"He probably kept them mentally simple so that they couldn't rebel against him."

"Or maybe he finds completely predictable interactions easier to cope with."

Venus sighs. "That does sound like him."

"Okay, I've… I've got to ask. How did the two of you end up together?"

"Oh, looks aren't everything. When he was younger, he was... Different."

"Oh, I don't mean because he's ugly and you're… Not." That gets an amused smile. "It's just… I spent days trying to get hold of the designs for some of his early work. I can easily understand how someone that brilliant, that passionate about what he was doing, could be attractive. I'm just… From what I've been able to read, his interpersonal skills were never particularly good."

"Oh, no, that's all…" She leans back in her seat. "A lot of what people who say they knew Thaddeus said after he… Became a criminal… It was all either nonsense or 'reinterpreted' in light of what he did later. Not that the newspapers thought to fact check when they had a hot new supervillain to demonise."

I glance at Beautia, but receive no guidance. "Well… I… Never met him. What was he really like?"

"Surprisingly charming. Before he came to college his parents told him that he needed to improve his interpersonal skills, so he read a book on etiquette and assumed that would do. I think it must have been from fifty or sixty years ago."

"So.. he's… Autistic?"

"He's definitely on the autistic spectrum, but I don't think he's got the full condition. But he can get upset when things don't go the way he thinks they will." She takes a sip of her tea, eyes gazing into the middle distance. "We first met when he asked me to take a look at some of his grant applications. I thought that some of his claims were a bit farfetched… So he took me back to his laboratory. It.. was…" She nods, more to herself than to me. "Amazing."

"I know."

"So.. we completed the proposal and I… Kept going back. I wanted to see what amazing thing he did next. And… He programmed a robot to cook us dinner, and…" She shrugs, smiling {violet}fondly{/}. "He wasn't good at people, but he did try. And… Later…"

"Information retrieved." One of the Sivanadroids trundles up, its chest opening to reveal a screen which flickers to life to show… My lecture back in February.

"But the thing that really got to me, the thing that reduced me to hissing, eye watering apoplexy? Doctor Thaddeus Sivana." The picture of him -which I now realise would have been from when he and Venus were courting- appears on the screen behind past-me. "You all know him as a supervillain who occasionally goes on the rampage in Fawcett City before Captain Marvel stops him. But he was actually a legitimate scientist for far longer than he's been a supervillain. Know what pushed him over the edge?" There's a pause, and Beautia shifts around so that she's got a better view. Incidentally pressing a little harder against my left side. "No, me neither. Pretty much the first thing he did as a supervillain was try and take revenge on those who rejected his ideas and destroy all publically accessible records of his work. But I've read the reports from the survivors. Smart viruses that could target and replace damaged DNA segments, economic hydrogen fuel cells… If he'd been a better businessman…"

The Sivanadroid's chest closes again and -job completed- it trundles off again.

Venus smiles at me again. "I'm a little impressed. Quite a risk you took, speaking well of someone like Thaddeus."

"I just wish I'd met him when you did."

"You were wrong, though. The business case was solid. I'm the one who wrote it."

I frown, shaking my head. "Then..?"

"Why the rejections?" She slumps slightly. "Honestly, I still don't know. Perhaps his claims just seemed so unbelievable that investors just didn't believe it. Or.. maybe.. larger companies didn't want the market disruption that he could have created. And the college wasn't happy about him trying to become more independent… And ego was definitely a factor, on all sides."

"You left the university in ninety one…"

"We certainly weren't short of work. Or money. But Thaddeus was always frustrated by the fact that he could only sell designs that were slight improvements on things that already existed, rather than anything truly revolutionary." She sighs again. "Lost opportunity doesn't even begin to cover it."

"At what point did you notice him starting to go… Off the rails?"

"I.. think it was when we first started talking seriously about children."

25th April
09:35 GMT -6

"I already heard part of that story from Magnificus."

Venus nods. "I didn't.. know about the test subjects.. at the time. Thaddeus had a lot of data on fetal development and.. I believed him when he said his techniques would ensure that our children had the best start in life they could get."

Beautia leans forward and pats her mother on the left arm with her right hand. "Mom, I started work in a hospital as a fully qualified MD at seventeen. I'd say it worked."

"There's.. more to life than how quickly you can start work. Your social skills may be better than your father's, but I still had to drag you out of your laboratory to go and make friends. And Paul's the first boyfriend you've ever brought home to meet the family."

"Mom."

I reach back with my left arm, putting it around her shoulder. "Do you know exactly what he did?"

"Thaddeus… He thought normal zygote selection techniques were wasteful. You have to fertilise a lot of eggs and then test them… So he did a full genetic work up of both of us and used that to calculate the optimal-" Mmmmmmmmmm! "-combination of genetic characteristics and womb conditions." She leans forward slightly. "And -let me tell you- I wasn't exactly flattered by that. Making a child is a very chemically complicated business, but Thaddeus was on top of it. I must have taken more dietary supplements during those nine months than the rest of my life put together."

"That sounds a bit…"

"He was.. trying to help. To do something good. And if anyone had actually been prepared to invest in the technology he developed we could have eliminated congenital deformity worldwide by now."

"And.. the Beresfords?"

"He never exactly said he was going to give our children super powers, just that they'd be as fit and healthy as humanly possible. I suppose he.. just had higher standards for Humans."

"I've certainly never had a problem with my strength."

Venus looks less certain. "You didn't have to breast feed two-" Beautia and I both cringe. "-super strong children." She notices our reaction and smiles. "Thaddeus ended up developing a sort of super resilient rubber nipple cover-" We cringe more as she mimes. "-which seemed to do the trick, but it still wasn't exactly comfortable. Fortunately, you both learned a degree of self control and spatial awareness before you did too much damage to our home. I don't know how the… How Missus Beresford managed with that."

"Breast pump and putting them on formula early. Please don't ask me how I know that." She was perfectly happy to talk, but her alcohol-lubricated ramblings were somewhat disjointed. Still, her children's rehabilitation is.. if not going well, then at least going. Magnificus has actually phoned them a few times, and his sheer condescension has spurred Tuppence into paying attention in class. "Their father used to take them out to an abandoned quarry where they could cut loose with their full strength." Which is almost certainly where the positive association with smashing comes from.

Beautia shrugs. "I never really cared about being strong. Dad.. emphasised intellectual development. I suppose I always thought that I was as strong as I'd ever need to be so I may as well focus on things that actually interested me."

"And.. Magnificus? I'd have thought.. at school…"

"We were always the youngest in our year. It wasn't such a big deal for me, but for him being shorter than the other guys.. did give him a few problems. And then he was.. too strong. If he got into a fight-"

Venus nods. "And that happened a few times."

"-he wouldn't just win, he'd mop the floor with them. He found it pretty hard to make friends."

"He was too clever for other children his age and too young for the other children in his classes." Two nods. "I suppose that.. in a way, Hugo Danner was luckier. He only outclassed the people around him physically."

Beautia rests her head on my arm. "I suppose that's why -despite everything- we've stayed so close as a family."

"Despite half of the family being supervillains?"

"Would you rather I leave Georgia and Thaddeus Junior with only their father for guidance? I'm not happy about the path they've chosen… But at least this way I can make sure that they're not doing anything too crazy."

"We're the only other people we all know who can understand what we're working on. Who can keep up with us when we start working on something beyond cutting edge."

"I've got the shade of Thomas Morrow on call. He's the only expert on thaumorobotics on the planet."

"I didn't say there weren't other people, just that we're the ones we know best. And there aren't many."

I nod. "Okay. Your father clearly had no illusions about his own physical attractiveness if he selected genes for appearance mostly from-" I indicate Venus with my right hand. "-you. Then why-?"

Venus raises her eyebrows. "Why do Thaddeus Junior and Georgia look like him with hair and him in drag respectively?"

"I wasn't going to put it quite that harshly, but… Yes, basically."

"That.. was.. when Thaddeus started to go more and more… Off. Our first children had the best of everything. With them… He said that if he compromised on some characteristics he could enhance certain others. Genes don't code for characteristics, they code for chemicals, so it seemed reasonable." Venus looks a little down, then perks up slightly. "Of course, since they didn't have super strength it was a lot easier on my-."

"Mom!"

"Thaddeus said that since intellectual ability was more useful for influencing the world than physical appearance he needed to do everything he could to maximise their intellectual development. Including discouraging them to have anything much to do with other children." She sighs again. "They both have better social awareness than he does, but otherwise… They have the same relentless, ruthless intellect that he has. Has now."

I frown. "But the Danner Formula wouldn't have made them less intelligent. It doesn't.. affect that at all. Unless he had some other alchemical formula for augmenting their brains."

"He said… And this wasn't until after the divorce. Because if he'd told me beforehand it would have caused the divorce. He said that that by denying them the ability to rely on their physical abilities, he was forcing them to rely on their intellect for everything. They weren't designed to be all that much more intelligent than Beautia and Magnificus, they were designed to be better motivated."

It makes a creepy kind of sense. "No one would give them anything, so they'd have to learn to take it." I frown. "That's-."

She nods. "Supervillain thinking. I've tried to encourage them to do other things… But.. it.. hasn't really worked. Particularly after the divorce. Thaddeus wanted to keep contact and.. he could help them with their projects more than I could. And then by the time he went full supervillain they were closer to him than ever." She looks pensive. "They sent me a message after Thaddeus disappeared to let me know they were alright, but this will be the first time I've seen them since then."

"Are they going to be alright with me being here?"

"I don't… They probably won't resent you more than they would resent anyone else." She takes a deep breath and then slowly exhales. "Okay, that's enough about my family. Why don't you tell me about yours?"

25th April
10:07 GMT -6

"So the ruddy Cat's just staring at me from the other side of the window, six metres off the ground above the concrete bit of our back garden. He sort of tries turning around, but loses his nerve part way through, because the window ledge isn't that wide." I mimic my cat's posture. "He looked a bit like he was thinking about trying to jump back through, but he was only a little Cat and I don't think either of us thought he could do it. So I ran downstairs and told my parents and Dad.. got a ladder out of the garage to go up from the outside and bring him down. And then a few days later he goes and does the same thing again. Only this time, before Dad can get the ladder up to him he jumps back through."

Odd to think about it, but this is the most I've talked about my family on Earth Prime since I got to Earth 16. Maybe it's… Sort of a taboo back in the mountain? They know that I've got no way to contact them so they don't bring it up? Don't know.

The travails of my family are a good deal less interesting than those of the Sivana family, but Venus has been politely nodding along. "We never really had pets in the house."

"What about those Crocodiles Magnificus had?"

"That was.. really more.. your father letting him help clean out his test subjects. They weren't supposed to be pets."

Beautia sighs. "Father ended up feeding them a mutagen and turning them into giant rampaging monsters. Poor little Herkimer. He was such a sweetheart when he was a hatchling."

"I imagine that Crocodiles are a bit more manageable when you have super strength. I'm afraid that I.. don't really have any stories that can hold a candle to that. Not from before I arrived on Earth Sixteen."

Beautia looks curious. "Earth Sixteen?"

"This parallel… Ah, the Earth of this parallel. We had an encounter with parallel universe versions of my team mates in February and they had some sort of numbering system."

She nods. "And let me guess: they were number one?"

"No, negative fourteen. I'm assuming it's a reference to some sort of constant, but I don't have any way to-"

There's a loud 'ping' from somewhere.

"-check." I take a moment to try and work out where it came from. There aren't any speakers, but… Ah, that's a sound induction wand! I didn't think anyone on Earth had those. Of course, with this being the pad of the Doctors Sivana, one of them probably independently developed it. "Is that important? "

Venus checks her watch. "Oh, that's probably Magnificus. He said that he might be coming up early." Beautia lets out an exhalation of frustration, earning her a warning look from her mother. "Be nice, Tia."

"Yes, Mom."

"Why don't the two of you go and fetch him while I check on the environmental systems."

"Is.. there a.. problem with them?"

"Not as such, but Thaddeus always thought it best to have Human eyes on vital systems every so often. And I've never been sure whether this base was one of the ones where he deliberately set the system to malfunction if you didn't or not."

…

What?

Beautia rises from her seat next to me, effortlessly pulling me up with her and then gently taking hold of my left hand and tugging me back in the direction of the zeta platform. I wait until we're out of earshot before asking.

"Deliberately malfunctioning environmental systems?"

"Dad.. sometimes.. liked to set us little.. practical tests. Oh, don't worry, even if it breaks down completely we'd still have hours of breathable air left. And Venus' gravity is approximately ninety percent of Earth's, so even without the artificial gravity we probably wouldn't notice the difference."

"I.. know, I'm just… How old were you when you were expected to do the eye-keeping for him?"

"Um… Six or seven? Crawling through the ducts was easier back then, but we had to use a step to check the control panels." She glances at my face and notices my stunned expression. "We knew what we were doing. Dad always said there was no point in getting an education if you weren't going to use it."

"Are we on.. Venus' surface here?"

She stops walking and closes her eyes for a moment, before starting forwards again. "Yes, I think so. There's usually a slight vibration when we're in the air."

"Can I assume that I don't need to draw attention to how amazing this place is and how valuable the technologies here could be to the Human species?"

"We have an agreement about not using each others' inventions without permission and.. Dad.. won't give anyone permission. Besides…" She looks around the corridor we're walking through. "There isn't anything here that humanity actually needs."

"Really? Because I imagine that a place like this has a pretty nifty power generator."

"Oh, it is. It generates power from something Dad calls the 'reality-Bleed membrane'. That's, ah…"

"I know what a Bleed Membrane Instability Generator is. It's on my xenotechnology database." I think for a moment. "How much trouble would I get into if I scan things around here?"

"I'm not sure. If Dad finds out that you used what you scanned to build something then he'll show up and destroy it. But I don't know if there are any actual automated anti-Lantern devices here. Dad hasn't really had anything to do with any of the Green ones."

"I.. note that you're referring to him in the present tense."

"Oh, he…" She flaps her left hand. "Might be dead. But I'm not going to assume anything. He's been declared dead, like… Five times, and there wasn't even a body this time." She releases my hand and heads towards the control console. I hover around just behind her, trying to make sense of the control system without actually scanning it. Just in case. "Seven.. relays… And…" She lowers a lever. "Activate."

There's a flicker of blue-white light from the platform, then a brighter flash as Doctor Magnificus Sivana appears. His hair is a little longer than last time I saw him and I think that he's put oil in it. He's wearing a white polo shirt and a fawn coloured leather jacket with a pair of blue jeans. I'm a little surprised, I hadn't thought of him as the dressing down type. He looks a little down, actually. "Good morning…" He catches sight of me and is momentarily nonplussed. "'Tia. And Orange Lantern." He steps off the platform, a slight frown wrinkling his brow. "You're.. looking… Well."

"Hello Magnificus. How's life treating you?"

"Oh, we.. finally got the go ahead for Human trials… On the Danner Formula, and one or two other things. I.. hadn't realised.. that the two of you…"

Beautia nods. "It's.. a little new, but I wanted him to meet the family early."

"Probably for the best." He's.. actually slouching. "I was.. going to invite Nyssa, but… She had.. a.. thing. Um… Have… Junior and Georgia turned up yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Uh-huh yet."

The three of us direct our attention to an apparently empty part of the room.

"We've been here for-" Whatever invisibility system Thaddeus Junior is using deactivates by increments, first revealing his face, then hands and arms, then torso and lastly his legs. "-nearly a week!"

"Hey Tia." Georgia's invisibility mantle fails in the same manner as her twin's. "Who's the hunk? And would it really be a problem if I cloned him?"

25th April
10:12 GMT -6

Magnificus looks pained. "A week?"

Thaddeus nods. "Yeah. See, we were trying to work out where Dad might have gone, and this was the only lab we hadn't checked out."

"But we're on Venus."

Thaddeus shrugs. "Yeah?"

Ow! I glance down and see Georgia looking disappointedly at the scalpel she just poked into my right arm. I might not be wearing armour but my environmental shield still works. Beautia snatches it out of her hand. "His name is Paul and yes, it would be a problem if you cloned him."

Georgia looks up at me, jaw set slightly to the left. "Are you sure? Because I could make some cosmetic modifications-?"

"Yes!"

Georgia tosses her head to the right and waves her left hand dismissively. "Fine."

"Not that I.. want to end up as a Possum or anything-."

Georgia scowls at me, and I suddenly get the 'Thaddeus Senior in drag' comment. "One time! And he deserved it! Stupid, deceitful-!"

"What exactly is he supposed to have done that justified-?"

"He only pretended to be nice to me to get close to her." Georgia points her right index finger aggressively at her sister.

"Ah. Well… That shouldn't be a problem, since I met her first."

She shakes her head. "Mom confiscated the Possumizer anyway."

"Hey, orange guy!" Thaddeus Junior waggles some sort of.. technological… "Where'd you get this?"

"That's an invisibility generator from one of Truggs' mercenaries. Are you working with him?"

"Nah, we stole it from your subspace pocket."

What? Ring, status of subspace storage.

"We were going for your lantern but I guess you left that at home."

{orange}Subspace pocket is currently empty.{/}

{yellow}What{/}?

Georgia nudges her sister with her right elbow as she reclaims her scalpel. "Did you know he can cook?"

{yellow}What{/}?

Thaddeus Junior grins. "Yeah, turns out? Guardians don't bother locking subspace pockets." He shrugs helplessly. "Eh, what you gunna do?"

Find out how to bloody quick. "I should probably warn you that in our testing-."

"Yeah yeah, mental instability in unshielded users. But let's be honest here: with us?" He smiles at me and, yep, Thaddeus Senior with hair. "Who'd notice?"

"I thought there was some sort of truce in effect..?"

He tosses the invisibility generator to me underarm. It doesn't quite travel the full distance and I have to step forward to grab it. Ring, sub… Space. I guess. I mean, I can't carry it around all day. It's just.. whaw, I stick everything in there. Okay, okay, he can't have hacked the ring itself so at worst he's got hold of a few weapons, and he's shown the ability to make more powerful ones than anything I put in storage. He couldn't fit in my armour…

"Where's the rest?"

"Storage warehouse seven. Nice armor, by the way."

"Thank you, Thaddeus." Georgia tilts her head up, eyes rolling back into her head. Magnificus gives me a puzzled look. What? "I would be.. perfectly happy to just.. talk about the technologies I use in future?"

"Where's the fun in that? C'mon, we should go say 'hi' to Mom."

Thaddeus leads the way, but his shorter legs mean that the rest of us have to slow to a crawl to avoid walking into him. Magnificus sidles towards me as we go. "You know, since our first encounter in Qurac… I admit that the Kryptonian was a better fighter than me."

"He is trained for that sort of fighting."

"If we fought again, it wouldn't go the same way. I've been studying Systema and Judo with the mercenaries Lex hired to protect our research center."

"Have you been sparring with other super strong people? Because super strength fights are very different to the normal strength fights most martial arts are developed to be used in."

"N-. No. I mean, Arnold once or twice, but…" He frowns. "And exactly how many doctorates does 'Kon-El' have?"

"None, but he isn't one year old yet."

"He's-? What?"

Thaddeus glances back. "Yeah, Magni, it was in 'People'. He got made in an exo-womb pod and they had these weird telepathic aliens teach him stuff while he was growing."

"Oh."

"When you say 'how many'-?"

Beautia exhales sharply. "One. Are we really going to-?"

"My second thesis is nearly ready for submission."

Thaddeus grins, his posture becoming slightly more upright. "Two."

Georgia smiles confidently. "Three."

Thaddeus brings his right hand up to his mouth. "Soft subjects."

Georgia grabs his left shoulder with her right hand and jerks him around to face her. "Social psychology is not a soft subject!"

"Oh yeah? Where's your control group?"

We come to a halt as the younger Sivanas ignore their surroundings in favour of squaring up to one another.

"My control group! You can't even measure quantum energy states without changing your results!"

"That's because it's not possible, not because the underlying methodology is flawed!"

I turn to the senior Sivanas. "Should we-?" They've both fished out hip flasks. Oh. "Ah. Um, what was that about finding your father?"

Magnificus waves his flask. "Father was always meticulous about taking notes. They've probably scoured the laboratory Father was using when he disappeared -and the police evidence locker- for every bit of information they could find on exactly what he did to create that portal." He eyes a nearby corridor speculatively. "He might have left something around here, but if they've really been here for a week-"

"We have!" / "We have!"

"-they'd probably have found it by now." He takes a slug. "Father will either turn up or he won't. Whatever he made, he knows more about it than anyone else."

Beautia sighs as her younger siblings return to their bickering session. "And wouldn't that be the perfect way to spend the day."

Hm. She is the one I came here with. "Beautia, darling." She lowers her flask in surprise, blinking at me as I take her left hand in both of mine and bring it to my lips. "I find myself in need of directions to warehouse seven. Which I assume is far away from here. Would you be so good as to escort me?"

25th April
10:21 GMT -6

"Thanks."

Beautia walks slightly ahead of me as we travel along a corridor away from the main facility. Through the transparent walls dark storm clouds crowd out the yellow sky and splatter a liquid I know to be high strength sulphuric acid against our corridor. It's seven hundred degrees outside due to the runaway greenhouse effect and inside it's a pleasant twenty. This place has been here for years at least and shows not the slightest sign of corrosion.

{red}People were turning this man down for grant money{/}! {red}Imbeciles{/}!

"You're welcome. Do Thaddeus and Georgia argue like that all of the time?"

"Not all the time. Just whenever they're not distracted with work."

Ring, passive monitoring. Is anyone watching us?

{orange}Minor increases in activity in local circuitry. Cannot determine precise cause without active scanning.

"{/}Magnificus seemed a bit down."

"Who exactly is 'Nissa'? Do you know her?"

"She's a daughter of the probably-late and largely unlamented Ra's al Ghul. She's been working with Magnificus.. and more than a few others now, in Lex Luthor's alchemical research centre in India."

"Alchemy?" I nod. "Maybe that's the problem. I doubt many universities award doctorates for alchemical research, no matter how original." He has a doctorate at eighteen and somehow still thinks that he's an underachiever. Bizarre. "Do you know what he's working on in particular?"

"Don't you?"

She shakes her head, eyes dropping to the floor for a moment. "Magnificus and I… We're.. very.. different people. You know how you said I wanted to be a medical doctor because of my family karmic debt?"

"I was half joking-" A brilliant bolt of lightning slams into the warehouse complex we're walking towards, momentarily lighting up the clouds. "-about that. I haven't found out whether karma is actually a thing or not."

"Let me know when you do." She smiles. "I'd like to find out how much overtime I need to put in."

"Or you could just convert to Hellenism. Hades is a very reasonable sort of God of the Dead." She snorts quietly. "But what's that got to do with Magnificus?"

"He doesn't care. I don't think he's committed any crimes exactly, but… His professional ethics-."

"When I first met him he was working for Queen Bee."

"There you go."

"Of course, now…"

"What?"

"He's working to understand the underlying principles of alchemy. And their first project is to get the Danner Formula licensed for mass use."

She stops right in front of the door, staring at me in astonishment. "Really!? But… That…" Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Everyone with super strength, super toughness and accelerated perfect healing. I… I have no idea what that society would look like."

"Good job you've got a sister who studies social science then, isn't it?"

She nods. "It kind of is a soft subject, but-" She turns to the armoured door's control panel and begins entering her code. "-that doesn't mean that it isn't useful. Where did Lex Luthor get his hands on that?"

"Some guy called Doctor Arnold Munro. He says he's Hugo Danner's son."

"Whaw, this is…" The door clanks, then opens with a slight hiss as the air pressure equalizes. "I've been wondering how long I could expect to live. How old is Doctor Munro?"

"Sixty two. Though I'd say that he looks about ten years younger. If he started using hair dye, maybe twenty years younger."

Beautia leads the way inside the storage complex's reception area. I suppose it had to be big enough for doom robots. "His hair's gone grey already?"

"I don't know, maybe he bleaches it. Or maybe the stuff they stick in cows in Brazil is so noxious that-" Beautia's eyes widen slightly as she slides forwards. "-they found something that overpowers Danner regeneration." Beautia 'lands' on the wall in front of us, then stands up at ninety degrees to me. Heh. "Artificial gravity on the blink?"

She lifts her right foot off the wall experimentally, then lowers it. "Apparently."

"Feeling any heavier?"

"I'd say.. about twice my normal weight." She lifts her foot up again. "Which is odd, because the artificial gravity system isn't designed to generate a gravitational field in this direction."

"Maybe one of your father's devices got turned on?"

"Oh, great. Well, 'down' appears to be-" She walks along the wall towards the door. "-in warehouse one, so at least I won't have to try the stairs like this."

I rise off the ground, orientate myself so that her down is my down and fly over to the opposite side of the reinforced doorway. "Should we wait and get Thaddeus and Georgia to have a look at it?"

"No, if it's only generating two g's then it's probably not that big a deal." She kneels down to enter a code in the door. "As long as the effect doesn't intensify, just disconnecting the power source should be enough to shut it down, and either of us-" She press the door open button. "-should be able to deal with it without any-" The door opens at speed. "-real difficulty."

We look inside, and a horned, three-eyed humanoid made of a black star-filled void stares back at us.

I blink. He's standing in the middle of an aisle. Around him, areas of the floor are marked out in yellow 'do not cross' lines. Within these areas are devices which I can't readily identify. Some are exposed, others are covered in shimmering force fields and a few just have tarpaulins draped over them. The tarpaulins are draped in such a way which suggests that he is now down.

"Is that one of your father's projects?"

"I.. don't.. think so..?" She kneels on the edge of the doorway. "Identify yourself."

The life form continues to stare. Ring, anything in the database about that?

{orange}Nearest match is Black Nebula of the Vanguard organisation.{/}

Is she a good match?

{orange}No.{/}

O.. kay…

"I am Beautia Sivana. Identify yourself."

"SIVANA." It begins walking towards us. "I AM HERE FOR THADDEUS BODOG SIVANA. YOU WILL TAKE ME TO HIM AND THEN YOU WILL DIE."

25th April
10:25 GMT -6

"But I can't-"

Humanoid made of space. DC don't own Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys which leaves…

"-take you to him-"

Sheeda. The Huntsman. I think I remember him killing a group of unpowered heroes and… Throwing them through time? I know he also got his arse kicked one on one against fricking Stargirl, so I wouldn't be too worried were it not for the fact that he's replacing local gravity with his own body.

"-because I don't know-"

But I am worried. Which is why I create construct armour around myself and Beautia just in time to intercept the luminous green energy beam fired from between his eyes.

"-agh!"

The armour is being abraded as I fly rapidly away from the doorway, pulling Beautia with me. The beam bends around the opening of the door, maintaining contact for a good half-second after she's out of his line of sight. Ring, local gravity?

{orange}Attraction to 'Huntsman' is now five times Earth gravity.{/}

Oh wonderfu-.

There's a tremendous bang as the wall to the store room crumples in on itself! Through the gap I see the material of the wall floating next to the Huntsman, falling to the floor with a crash as he lowers his right arm.

"SIVANA. WHERE IS HE?"

"I just told you-!"

Armour.

I don't have my armour! Gah! Railguns! And.. I don't have any ammunition. Errr… Quick, fabricate…

I fire a short volley of Crumblers and… Were the Sheeda like fairies as far as vulnerabilities go? I don't remember. I think that the Sheeda-Sheeda looked a bit like Dark Eldar, so even if they are I'm not sure it would apply to him. Ah, what the heck. Cold iron and silver tipped rounds are added to the volley and… Every single one is a negative impact.

"-he isn't here!"

"I don't think he's going to listen. Do you know if your father was storing any-" The Huntsman fires another bolt of luminous green as we fly towards the lift shaft. I interpose a construct shield which appears to hold. "-gravity manipulation devices?"

"I haven't been here since I was eleven!"

"Oh."

"Maybe if we could just explain that whatever my Father did-."

"Beautia, I've been doing this for a while now and sometimes? Supervillains just don't want to listen to the voice of rationality."

"Yeah, he's kinda got a point. I've been a supervillain for a while now myself-"

Beautia looks around. "Junior?"

"-and sometimes you just get total tunnel vision. Ah, yeah, we've got internal communications from the hab area. Do you know what that thing is?"

"Not completely sure. I don't suppose your father's work contained any reference to 'Sheeda' did it?"

"Ah… No. We think he was working on some kinda time travel. He wanted to go visit the future and-."

"How far into the future?"

We fly past the number '3' painted on the wall. Four more to go…

"If I coulda found that out, do you really think I wouldn't just have opened another portal?"

"Okay, but, a little way, or a long way?"

"Junior, give me that." There's a bang just off the microphone. "Hello again Orange Lantern. Doctor Sivana here."

"Georgia, there's no one here called 'Sivana' who isn't also a doctor."

"But I have more doctorates than anyone else. Therefore-. Hey!"

"Magnificus to Orange Lantern."

The '5' flies past. And then goes past again in the other direction. Huh? "Go ahead, Magnificus." I look down and the Huntsman looks up. Flecks of paint are cracking off the walls to orbit around him in a miniature dust cloud. I flick both hands out to the side and release the Praexis swarm, who immediately fall towards the bottom of the shaft.

{orange}"Waaaaaaahh!"{/}

A couple land on the Huntsman's head and scrabble to stay on.

Praexis Swarm.

The '4' goes past.

Consume.

{orange}"Yay! Foooooooood!"{/}

Beautia looks at me in alarm. "What are those?"

"Demons bound to my service. Magnificus?"

"Do you have anything that can affect that creature?"

I glance down. A couple of Praexis Demons are attempting to ingest his horns, though I'm not sure how much good that's doing. I can't tell what he's made of. "Pass."

"Father had some rather precise gravity measuring devices in warehouse three. If you can reactivate them we might be able to assist you. Otherwise… You're the superhero. If you want to just take a swing at.. whatever it is."

Beautia looks at me. She's not properly scared yet, but I can see the yellow worries bubbling up. "Then you can put me down somewhere safe first."

"No fear. If we're the only people around I'd rather get all the information I can before running in blind." Ring, list of gravity manipulation devices.

{orange}Compliance.

"{/}Dropping to level three. Beautia, get the door open." I shove the armour construct containing her into the doorway, then take up position in the middle of the shaft and create a gravity pulse projector construct. It's essentially a form of crowd control device designed to knock a group of people over. I target his chest just as he gets tired of the demonic assault and starts lashing out with his luminous face beam again. Three Demons shake and disintegrate before one gets to his face and starts sucking the beam at the source. Unlike when they sucked at his body this appears to be giving it a power it can use. The Demon begins to swell as I take aim and fire.

The Huntsman brings both of his hands up and grabs hold of the Demon slobbering at his forehead and there's a crack as space bends and the Praexis Demon is shredded. A moment later my pulse strikes the Huntsman in the chest. No noticeable effect, save that it's gone back to ignoring the Demons to focus on me. Okay, turn it up from crowd control to something a little more potent. My construct grows to anti-tank missile launcher size as I fire again. This time a thin cloud of blue wafts off his epidermis a fraction of a second before his green beam blasts through my construct barrier and pierces my construct gun, wrecking it.

"I'm in!"

"Go go go!"

Beautia charges through the doorway, running inside the warehouse. I try an orange energy pulse on the Huntsman (to no effect) before following her and hitting the door close button behind me.

And then I see the giant robot.

25th April
10:28 GMT -6

Beautia scrabbles across the walkway around the edge of the room as I take in the sight. I've seen pictures of the second Mister Atom before on the Justice League database. Still images and footage taken at -or rather, as far as possible away from- the scene. The threat he posed to Captain Marvel wasn't just his strength, his toughness or integrated armaments, his sheer size and weight made fighting him within a city extremely dangerous. One mistimed punch and he could easily fall and flatten a building full of people. One car underfoot and he could fall against a wall, crushing it and all of the rubberneckers behind it.

Two Praexis Demons fall out of my rings.

This one isn't quite as big, and in any case Captain Marvel destroyed that one so thoroughly that there wouldn't have been much point in Doctor Sivana recovering it. This one is smaller, no more than two storeys tall at most. He's standing on the floor of the room with his back to us, the bottom of his head level with the upper gantry.

"Hey!" Beautia waves at me from the far side of the… Let's call it a hangar. "I've found his workshop, but I don't know which of these are gravity detectors!"

I fly at best possible speed across the open space between us.

"Magnificus! You with us?"

"Yes, yes. You're looking for a graviton flux detector."

"Okay, and what do they look like?"

"You don't know? I thought your ring had all sorts of technical specifications on it."

"Certainly, and if by some complete fluke-" Beautia leads the way as we walk into the workshop. Looks like weapon prototypes to me. "-he's built one according to the standard specifications of any species known to the Green Lantern Corps-" No, no, no, no, no… "-then I can identify it. Otherwise-."

"He won't have done that, Magni."

"Thaddeus, I'm trying to work here."

"Well, you're being too slow! I fight giant monsters all the time! And some of them I didn't even create!"

"Boys!" Beautia stares at roughly where the voice is coming from. "We're trying to fight a gravity monster here! Focus!"

Another Praexis Demon falls out of the ring, and I send the three of them to lurk near the door on the off-chance that the Hunter will come through there.

"Give me the-. According to Father's records, you're looking for a grey cuboid about three hundred by twenty by twenty."

"Three hundred..? Feet? Inches?"

"What? No, millimeters, obviously. There should be.. seventeen of them in stock. If you can arrange them in a circle-."

"I'm not seeing them."

Beautia heads over to the far side of the room, frantically looking for something that matches the description.

"Well... Look harder, then."

"Can you narrow down the location? What floor are they on?"

"Three, I already-."

"We're in warehouse three, which of the subdivisions of warehouse three should it be on?"

Beautia shakes her head at me. "Not over here!"

"Ah-. The.. secure part?"

Beautia and I share a look of bewildered ignorance. "Could you be a little more precise?"

"We can't see what you're-."

"Sure we can."

"Georgia, where did you get that microphone?"

"I built it, Thaddeus. And I built this-" There's a loud whir and then a series of clanks behind me. "-so I can reactivate Mister Atom Mark Two, and then we can use this to see through his eyes."

Beautia leans slightly to the side, looking out across the hangar. "Ah, guys? Do you remember what Dad programmed as the Mark Two's behavioral baselines?"

Mister Atom's head turns in our direction and the robot takes a step forward out of the gantry surrounding it. "I, MISTER ATOM, AM MEANT TO BE THE EARTH'S RULER!"

"Never mind."

"It's okay! We can still see through his eyes! And Dad would never have programmed one of his robots to attack us."

"Okay, I've got the power supply schematics." Thank you, Magnificus. "The power network shows that there are additional force fields around the room two levels-" Beautia is already running towards the stairs. "-down."

"Thank you." I fly back out into the main hangar and then drop down two levels-.

"WHO DISTURBS ME IN MY HOME!?"

Darn it. The robot isn't actually pointing any weapons at me, but its stance suggests that that could change at a moment's notice.

"Sorry, Mister Atom. Just passing through." That appears to be inadequate. "It's family day. I'm.. here as Beautia's date?"

And then the entire Praexis Demon horde pours from the rings. Most take a moment to stabilise and then fly in the direction of the entrance while two tumble to the ground and then vomit up the next generation. Okay, looks like the Huntsman will be heading our way in a moment.

"BEAUTIA SIVANA. CHECKING LOGS."

"Wait, what?"

"Magnificus?"

"He's got super moderator access to the system! I don't have that!"

"I do." / "I do!"

"Oh, that's… Splendid."

"CONFIRMED. YOU ARE ORANGE LANTERN." Oh good. "SUPERHERO."

Yike-! The electrolaser shots from his eyes strike my construct armour and he strides towards me, hands rising to either grapple me or bring other weapons to bear. Right, barrier. A new construct shield appears in front of me. "Beautia, found them?"

"I think so? Are there any other grey cuboids in here?"

What look decidedly like a pair of proton cannons emerge from Mister Atom's shoulders.

"That force field. Is it up?"

"No, I took it down to get in here."

"Might want to put it-" Two brilliant orange beams leap from his shoulder mounts, joining his electrolaser in blasting my shield! "-back on, because-" The wall behind Mister Atom explodes outwards as the Hunter enters the hangar. "-I'll find it rather tricky to-" My construct shield begins to crack. "-keep them off you."

I hear heavy thumps behind me, then Beautia leaps over my shoulder and lands back up on the upper catwalk. "Just keep them occupied while I set these up!"

Oh. Sure.

Mister Atom takes another ponderous step forwards.

No problem.

25th April
10:31 GMT -6

The gantry above the Huntsman creaks, straining against its mooring as he exerts a far greater pull than it was designed to withstand just by walking past it. Beautia's having to anchor herself as down suddenly moves to the wrong direction. I think and her construct armour becomes sticky on the base of the feet. Great, now how to deal with Mister Atom? Ah. Maybe?

"Oh, what a relief! My leader, the Sheeda Huntsmaster is here! Surely he will save me from this robot!"

Immediately Mister Atom's hands drop and his head rotates to allow him to look at the new intruder.

"ORANGE LANTERN IS NO THREAT. NEW TARGET FILE NOT FOUND. BUT I HAVE NO INSTRUCTION TO LEAVE YOU ALIVE."

I dismiss my shield construct, then replace it with a fresh one. Okay, Mister Atom- He opens fire with proton cannons and electrolasers. -is occupied. Huntsman… He looks slightly irritated, maybe? That might just be because his increasing local gravity caused the Praexis Demons to get stuck to him again. Actually… I just gave Beautia non-magnetic magnetic boots and I can fly. Why hasn't Mister Atom fallen over? Mister Atom Mark One didn't have a flight system, but I suppose this fellow does? I'm not seeing any exhausts, magnetic field is about what I would expect-.

Gravity suddenly reverts to normal as the Praexis Demons are pancaked against his outer surface for a moment before dissolving. Ring, don't bother recreating them.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

Mister Atom plays the electrolaser over the Huntsman's face for a moment before shutting it down. The proton cannons hitting him in the chest on the other hand remain active. "CURIOUSLY RESILIENT. BUT NOTHING COMPARED TO THE POWER OF THE ATOM." The small red marking on his upper chest shines and then ah crap.

I fly as fast as possible to Beautia and stick a shield around both her and the graviton flux detectors as Mister Atom fires a beam of gamma radiation that makes the amount I used on Mister Hagen look trivial. He maintains the beam for a second, then switches to alpha radiation, followed by a blast of beta radiation. Ah, maybe I should give him a clue.

"Quick, master! Use your gravity powers on this foolish robot!"

"WHAT LUNACY IS THIS?"

"BETRAYED BY THE MOUTH OF YOUR OWN ASSISTANT. MY WEAPONS SYSTEM ALLOWS ME TO COUNTER ANY THREAT."

The Huntsman holds his right arm out to the side and a… A trident apparently made of the same material as the rest of him appears in his hand. Shapeshifting? Some sort of storage ability?

"YOU WERE MADE BY SIVANA. I RECOGNISE THE DESIGN. I KNOW ITS FLAWS."

"I HAVE NO FLAWS."

A plate on his crotch armour slides aside and a small ray projector extends itself, three circular fins whose purpose I can't immediately identify leading to a small bulb at the end. Then the fins light up in pale blue and a beam of bent space connects it to the Huntsman. He staggers, blue dust pouring off him.

"NONE WILL STAND BEFORE THE MIGHT OF MISTER ATOM."

"Is the radiation back down to normal?"

"Yes? Oh." I drop the bubble shield and Beautia thrusts five graviton flux detectors at me before hurrying along the gantry. It looks like she wants to get behind the Huntsman, though I'm not sure how much-.

The Huntsman raises his left hand and makes a fist, Mister Atom's crotch cannon crumpling in response. Okay then. Ring, closest weapon to that?

{orange}Based on appearance and observable effect, graviton nullifier is closest match.{/}

Edging towards concluding that he's a walking black hole here…

{orange}It is extremely unlikely that entity designated 'Sheeda Huntsman' is a 'walking black hole'. Peak output observed so far is two hundred thirty nine times normal Earth gravity over a small area. The gravitational pull of a black hole-.{/}

I'll take your word for it.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

Mister Atom takes a step back as the Huntsman strolls forwards, brings his left arm up over his head and then drops to a crouch, smashing the fist into the Huntsman!

"Magnificus, still with us?"

"Yes?"

"Exactly how do you want these sensors arranged?"

"Ah, the optimal disposition would be at variable known distances from the subject. Surrounding him in all directions if at all possible."

"Right." External surface looks fairly durable. I transmute a small amount of adhesive onto the wall and stick one of the sensors there. "Are you getting data from these?"

"Yeah, they've got a connection to the habitat's systems. I'm going over it now."

"We're going over it now."

"Soft subject."

Thaddeus Junior and Georgia on the case. I suppose that's a good thing. Considering the circumstances.

The Huntsman has been driven to his knees, hands on either side of the haft of his trident as he uses it to block Mister Atom's fist. Right, they're both fully occupied on that end of the hangar… I fly to the opposite end, near that storage area, and plant another sensor. "Do I need to tell you the distances, or-?"

"No, it's all automatic."

On the other side of the hangar I see Beautia toss one down the lift shaft before leaping over the wrecked gantry to the far side. I fly to the right side of the room, plant one on the wall and turn to check on the combatants. The Huntsman seems to be stuck-. No, he's sliding his left hand along the haft and there's a noise of tearing and crumpling metal as Mister Atom's left middle finger collapses in on itself. Next comes another bolt of green lightning from his forehead, but that skitters harmlessly across Mister Atom's armoured chassis, no more effective than Mister Atom's shots were. I create a construct hand and use it to reach to just behind Mister Atom, depositing another sensor.

"CURSE YOU." Mister Atom brings his right hand down in a chopping motion. The Huntsman has to compress to cope with the force of the impact, but almost immediately he starts to straighten again. Mister Atom points his left forearm at the Huntsman and-.

{orange}Alert! Anti-matter detected!{/}

{yellow}Oh dear{/}.

Beautia continues running around the side of the room as Mister Atom thumps his damaged left fist into the Huntsman's chest. Okay okay, it should just be an explosion, and that's if the anti-matter encounters matter. If his body isn't comprised of matter -which is what my Crumbler negative impacts suggest- then probably nothing will happen. Whatever, they're both fully occupied. I take hold of another sensor with a construct hand and have it carry it around the side of the room, depositing it behind the Huntsman.

Where else? The ceiling? Okay, but then I think we should be heading up to warehouse seven. I really don't feel comfortable with-.

There's a brilliant flash of light from the Huntsman! The rings react immediately to dim my vision as I frantically look for Beautia! She's up above me, no closer to the centre of the blast than I am. Okay, her armour construct should hold-.

"yAAAAAAAGH!"

It fails. I'm by her side in an instant, a bubble shield going up around both of us. Idiot! The filament connection wasn't tough enough. Okay, burns, doesn't.. look like anything she can't heal.

"Magnificus, I'm heading up to warehouse seven."

"It would be better if you could plant one or two more-."

"Beautia's hit. She should be okay, but we need to move."

"Of course, then. Let me know when you arrive."

25th April
10:34 GMT -6

I hold Beautia in my arms in a bridal carry as she taps the entry code to warehouse seven, leaving a smear of blood and liquefied fat on the keys from the burned scabs on her fingers.

"Are you really going to be okay?"

"The Danner Formula makes me very tough. And this isn't the worst I've ever been injured."

The door opens and I fly us inside. Ah, looks like Thaddeus and Georgia at least stored my belongings neatly.

"Really? What the heck happened to you?"

"I was learning not to play with-." She winces and shudders. "With necrotising fasciitis." She takes a couple of rapid breaths. "Danner." Another pained breath. "Doesn't make you immune. To disease." She shakes her head and takes a look at the closest shelves. "You. Cook?"

"Yes, well I make my own hours. Seems like the sort of skill-" And {blue}there's my armour{/}! "-a man should have."

"Put me. Down."

"Are you sure? Because you look like death.. at room temperature."

"Need food. To heal."

"Right." I haven't studied exactly how the Formula deals with heavily injured recipients, but assuming that it's already been triggered… I fly over to… I think they organised my meals by colour. Danner regeneration mostly uses protein, though she'll need other nutrients as well. What's the best fit-? Cassoulet! I land just in front of the ceramic tray I cooked it in and gently put her down. "Any go-"

Beautia staggers up to the shelving and sticks both hand into the bean and meat dish, grabbing what she can and shoving it into her mouth as fast as she can swallow.

"-od? I'm.. afraid.. It'll be… Cold."

"Orange Lantern, she'll be fine but it looks like Mister Atom is losing."

"Right, Magnificus." And my ammunition is in… That box. "Picking up my stuff now."

Filaments flicker out to touch everything vaguely technological looking. All of my ammunition-. No, it looks like the younger Sivanas took a little something for themselves. I'll have to get that back off them later. Or.. is it already too late? Never mind, my library and tools can stay here… Now, my armour. Never did work out how to make it something I could put on normally. I rise into the air, dismiss my construct armour and surround myself and it with orange light before experiencing a sort of heavy metal anime transformation sequence.

And now I'm actually dressed for a fight.

Ring, link up to internal communications.

{orange}Link established.{/}

Bleed tech is Bleed tech.

"Thaddeus, Georgia-."

"Busy working on a black hole gun!"

"Ah, Magnificus-."

"Is Beautia safe?"

"Safe-ish. She's gorging, as per the Surgeon General's recommendations for heavily injured Danner Enhanciles. And now the Huntsman is to blame-" Ring, run checks on the armour. "-for the wasting of a perfectly good cassoulet.{orange}"

Armour systems in perfect working order.{/}

"If it keeps my sister alive, then it isn't being wasted."

"That was… Pre-fight banter."

"Isn't that a bit flippant? You are about to fight an alien creature of extraordinary power with weapons which are very much not optimized for the encounter."

"It's a way of dealing with nerves, since I'm trying to ease up on using the rings-" I start walking back towards the lift shaft. "-to alter my mental state."

"Oh."

"How tough are these walls? The transparent stuff can take Venus surface conditions without getting even slightly abraded."

"Uh, look… Don't worry about it. Unless you completely destroy the interior, the building will remain-"

BOOM!

"-upright, and there are emergency force fields and repair automatons for the external walls. Georgia says that was Mister Atom's arm weapons being destroyed. Are you sure you're ready?"

"Yes. Shouldn't you think about evacuating?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"I'm a superhero. There's a hostile thingy near my homeworld. What's your excuse?"

"This is my family home. As much as anywhere is. And anything clever enough to break in here will be able to track us down on Earth easily enough."

I look down the lift shaft in time to see the remains of Mister Atom's head hit the far side with a tremendous CLANK before falling a short distance and then landing on the near side of the shaft. Looks like gravity is playing up again.

"How much progress have the junior Sivanas made?"

"Working!"

"Hard to say. They've taken apart most of the kitchen and a couple of Sivanadroids so I'm assuming that most of the design work is done."

"Right. I've got about thirty different gravity based weapons to try out."

There's a scraping sound of metal against hyper alloy. I generate construct armour around my power armour.

"Any guidance for me, or should I just go through them in alphabetical-?"

I'm shooting downwards, the floor collapsing around me! Gravity nullifier gravity nullifier! The construct takes effect and I'm left feeling an unusual weightlessness as rubble and debris that was once stored in my subspace pocket rains down towards the Huntsman. Huh. That works.

"LANTERNS. RELICS."

My construct shield is in place before his green forehead lightning leaves his face. It bows and cracks, but it can hold for the moment. A single Praexis Demon drops from the left ring with instructions to intercept.

{orange}"I go!"{/}

Next, I form a gravity nullifier ray. Bit of a novelty item rather than a weapon in most places, but I'm not going to moan as long as it works.

I point it straight at the Huntsman and fire.

25th April
10:39 GMT -6

I see a fraction of a second of the Huntsman under the beam's effect, not looking hurt so much as puzzled. Then the space between us is filled with debris, material he crushed or shoved aside flying back into the gap between us.

{orange}"Gahh!"{/}

The Praexis Demon I summoned is struck by Mister Atom's head and then smashed into a lump of floor. My shield is.. holding, but I don't have a clear point to shield against. None of the debris is moving particularly fast. There appear to be… Ring? Gravity has become a local phenomenon and I'm not totally sure how the form of phasing I use would interact with that.

Ugh. I don't remember much about this guy's arc in Seven Soldiers-.

Every bit of debris flies at me! The force isn't all that much, certainly not enough to break my construct armour, but it's more than a little distracting. The gravity nullifier effect doesn't actually extend all that far from my body and the mass is building up, pressing into me. Much more pressure and it'll be worth using the kinetic belt to deal with it. Okay, what now? I can still move… Oh, no I can't. Right, he wouldn't have done this if it wasn't advantageous to him so just staying here isn't a good idea. I take a small phase capable drone out of subspace into the thin gap between my construct armour and my actual armour and give it a nudge. It slips through the material surrounding me without apparent difficulty.

Guess that's as much indication as to the safety as I'm going to get. I activate the armour's phase system and the construct armour around my left shoulder buckles and fails, the prongs of the bladed weapon I saw the Huntsman using on Mister Atom slicing cleanly through the debris ball! It hits the surface of my armour and I'm already away just as fast as I can. I feel the armour shudder as it hits, as if the universe isn't entirely sure how the malleable physics employed in both my own phase generator and the Hunter's whole body are supposed to interact.

{orange}"Alert! Crushing gravity."{/}

And since I'm phased the gravity nullifier isn't working. That doesn't really bother me directly, but the mass around me is obeying local gravity again. The Hunter's blade is knocked aside as the mass falls free of me. My vision of my environment restored, I see the Huntsman land in a light crouch on the wall of the lift shaft. No significant mass superimposed on me? Right, drop phase.

Ring, graviton gun.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

I was astonished as anything to find that a weapon I first heard about from Games Workshop actually existed here. Doesn't have quite the same effect, the target usually being too smashed apart by the gravitational eddies to experience the immobility. But what the heck, seeing the name translated into English brought a smile to my face. Like a lot of these weapons, there's no real beam to see, though the air appears to shudder as the gravity jerks light around.

It hits home and there's a minor waft of blue before green lightning from his forehead destroys my construct.

And I don't even know for certain that blue wafts indicate a damaging hit! Certainly the crushing pull being generated from inside me doesn't appear to be weakening. My environmental shield is holding me together but I don't want to start relying on it. It really isn't all that strong against most deliberate attacks.

Ring, graviton trap.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

This one is a bit more promising, a device used by physicists amongst species with more intelligence than sense to study one of the fundamental building blocks of the physical universe. The cage-like construct crackles with black energy… For about a second before the Huntsman waves his trident around and tears it apart.

G-GUH! Gravity shear inside my body! I felt a chunk of my right torso slide sideways, bone tearing from sinew and organs being pulped! Okay, heh, phase out and dodge the gravity effect, move and phase in and try… High powered lasers to his face.

Not a lot appears to happen.

I think he's in the same situation I am. We're both tough, hard to injure in a way which -and the ring finishes repairing my body- disables us. But we're not really sure how to put our opponent out of the fight. Okay, gravity attacks don't appear to be the solution I hoped they would be. Let's try something a little more orange. I raise my gauntlets. "Brand."

I go for wide beams of light, it having been conclusively demonstrated by this point that filaments don't last around the Huntsman. He swings his trident through the oncoming mass of orange which bends around the attack, flowing through the air around his weapon to strike the surface of his body. For a moment his interior glows orange as the light precipitates through and tries to find something to latch onto. I pour it on. I can't really see any desires from him, but it wouldn't surprise me that the Sheeda have defences against that sort of thing.

"WRETCH."

There's got to be something in there, he's clearly purposive… Unless I'm not actually looking at a living being but at some sort of projection which would-.

His trident twitches and I've moved just far enough to avoid getting the blade in the face by the time it hits me, slicing though my restored construct armour and into the material beneath. My kinetic belt triggers automatically. It fails to stop the cutting edge but tries to grab the weapon by the flat of the blade. Too late to save my upper ribs. I feel the jerk as whatever gravitational weirdness made a blade on a stick make sense for a life form like this pulls and crushes bone and flesh free from the surrounding tissue.

Gragh! Graviton converter.

The blade hasn't even fully passed through me as the boxy construct takes shape to my left and fires almost straight into his face. This thing converts gravitational energy into kinetic energy, so if the Hunter's body works even slightly like I think it does then it might make him explode, fall apart or otherwise cease to be. Instead, he narrows his eyes slightly and he takes another swing with his trident. I'm already moving, keeping the beam of the device shining on him in the hope that it will end up doing something. Dust and other minor pieces of debris disintegrate as the pull of matter to matter stops mattering and gets converted to omnidirectional thrust. Looks like the Huntsman can't fly, but his gravitational control is good enough that with a chunk of wall under his feet he can do a passable Silver Surfer impression.

I fly backwards to avoid another swing, taking an x-ionised sword out of subspace. The continual beam from the graviton converter has made the Huntsman go a bit purple. Or maybe that's just how he looks when he's tired? Or injured? I suppose one way this sort of fight -I parry his trident with the sword, which holds for a moment then disintegrates- can go is to exhaustion. I hope he's getting injured, but his gravity effects seem just as strong as before. On the other hand, so are my constructs and I know that I'm using a good deal of power doing this.

Hm. Ring, exactly how much power do I have left?

{orange}Forty three percent power remaining.{/}

Oh dear. Another dodge and a neural chaff grenade… Which appears to do nothing.

{orange}Forty two percent power remaining.{/}

I have the ring transmit a break down into my mind as I try using construct manacles to hold the Huntsman in place. Yikes gravity manipulation weapons are power hogs.

{orange}Forty one percent power remaining.{/}

A chunk of power when I make one, then more to power the effect. Plus my injuries and the construct armour. The Huntsman takes another green lightning bolt shot at my weapon construct but the Praexis Demon has recovered enough to interpose itself.

"Orange Lantern to the Sivanas. Is there any chance-?"

"-because it's what I got my doctorate in! I invented this technology, Junior, and I know it better than anyone including you!"

"Did I call at a bad-" The Huntsman pulls fruitlessly at the manacles, then clenches and slices through them with intense gravity shears before lunging at me again. "-time?"

"Oh, just the boys sounding off, handsome. What can I do for you?"

"Georgia, are you anywhere near finished?"

"Uh, I usually think of myself as a 'work in progress', but I suppose-."

"Sorry, I meant the anti-Huntsman weapon you're working on?"

"Nearly. We're just trying to work out-."

"Right! I'm grabbing Beautia and heading your way. Try to be ready when I arrive."

25th April
10:42 GMT -6

"Before you go-" The Huntsman crouches slightly. It looks… Tired? Hard to tell. The purple has spread through its limbs to the point that the black is almost totally obscured. I manacle him again. "-could you possibly deactivate any anti-Lantern devices your father has installed?"

"Ahh… He didn't have any last time I checked." My left eye twitches just a little. "I mean, he might have put in stuff that works on Lanterns-."

"Thank you. Carry on."

Ring, full scan. And assimilate.

The construct manacles flare as I try assimilating him through them. No, it doesn't look like that's going to work. Full scan gives me… A whole lot of really complicated information which would no doubt be fascinating to the Sivanas but is basically gibberish to me.

{orange}Alert! Thirty percent power remaining.{/}

I scan Beautia's location. She's still eating, now looking slightly less roasted. Next, I abandon my assimilation efforts and try transitioning the Huntsman. Nothing. Try transitioning a piece of debris? That worked, but I still don't really want to risk it.

{orange}Alert! Twenty nine percent power remaining.{/}

Time to be gone. The manacles and gravity converter are gone in an instant, eight more Praexis Demons appearing from the rings and swarming the Huntsman once more. Next, I form ion engine constructs and blast myself upward, back into warehouse seven. I dismiss my construct armour and send a second group of Praexis Demons down the shaft towards the ground floor. If I'm lucky the Huntsman will see the orange glow and assume that it's me.

"Ready to go?"

She puts down the soup bowl and wipes her hands on her jacket. "How are we getting out?"

"This place is all made of the same material, yes?"

"Ah, the structure is, yes."

"It doesn't impede my phasing. We're going out through the wall."

"To the surface of Venus?"

"We'll be phased, so the temperature and atmosphere won't be problems. Grab on."

Her eyes flick over my armour as she looks for a handhold. I open my left arm slightly and she steps up to me, wrapping her right arm around my forearm and putting her left hand on my left shoulder. I pull her in closer and float us off the ground before phasing us both and flying full pelt at the far wall. I have tested phasing with an external object before, but this probably isn't something it's wise to keep up while on low power. We pass through the wall… Hadn't realised quite how thick it was. Doesn't take more than half a second, then we're out in the open air. I also didn't really appreciate how tall this building is from the ground. Not without a casual ring scan to give me the numbers. I wonder how Doctor Sivana managed to build it? Orbital construction, then lower it? Build it on Earth then teleport it? No idea. I'll ask later. Only a short flight to-.

There's a boom behind me as an explosion rips through the wall of the warehouse complex! Chunks of building material are sent flying, then the murky clouds surrounding us are sucked in by the lower pressure. For a moment I see the twinkling lights that mark the Huntsman's body, but all I can think is 'uagh, that's a perfectly good building ruined'. I reduce my glow to minimum and drop, more decoy Praexis Demons flying away as I aim for the corridor connecting the storage warehouse to the habitat.

Okay, between the clouds and the lights if his vision works based on visible light… Or infrared, due to the armour's insulation and my environmental shield, or.. actually, most things, then he can't see me. If he can't see me, why is he looking this way? One, he can see me perfectly well. Gravity sense? I do have mass, after all. I'm not drawing green lightning… Has he given up on that, or can he really not see me?

Through into the tunnel. Quick check, door at the far end still in one piece. End phase.

"-coming back any time soon, or do we have a few minutes?"

I open my left arm. "Beautia, go. Make sure they're set up."

She nods, then sprints towards the habitat end. Huh. No quick 'what about you'? I mean, just running was far more sensible… I suppose… Full body armour does rather… Discourage…

Eh.

"Sooner would be better, Georgia. You've got maybe a minute and I'd like it if it were less."

"You know..?"

Ring, remaining charge?

{orange}Twenty four percent remaining.{/}

Don't really want to light myself up. One thing about the Huntsman is that he doesn't seem to be in a hurry.

"Know what?"

"Just saying… 'Tia's not really one for exotic physics… She couldn't do what Junior and I are doing."

"I am fully cognisant of the virtues which you possess and which she does not. I also doubt that whatever happened with Justin was malicious on her part, while coming on to her boyfriend would be. Also, you're… What, fifteen?"

"Bet you wouldn't say that if I looked like her."

"I would, moral standards being a big part of the superhero thing. Look, shouldn't you be focusing on building.. whatever you're building?"

"I can work and talk at the same time. What do you want for one of those power rings?"

"I'm afraid those aren't for sale." Gravity based weapons had an effect… There is a beam singularity projector on file. But there are a lot of warning flags and I might want this power to run if the Sivanas' device doesn't work.

"You've got two. I could tell you how that zeta platform works."

"Okay, firstly, you wouldn't be able to recharge it without an orange personal lantern and I own the only one in existence. Secondly, if you really want one I'm happy to forward your application to the Controllers in two months' time. Thirdly, you stole my property while under the flag of truce. Fourthly… Georgia, you're an omnidisciplinary genius. If Beautia's appearance really bothers you that much, build an automatic plastic chirurgeon or something."

"Power ring would be easier. That's how you did you, right?"

"Tell you what. Deal with the Sheeda Huntsman and I'll see what-."

The tunnel in front of me implodes as the Huntsman falls through it, landing in a small crouch. Venus' atmosphere at once begins boiling in. I recreate the gravity converter and hurl my supply of neural chaff grenades even as I start flying backwards, shooting him before he is quite able to focus on me. Before I reach the habitat side I create a construct airlock and step though it. Ring, power?

{orange}Twenty two percent remaining.{/}

I toss twenty Praexis Demons through the gap, then open the door to the habitat and fly through, closing it behind me. Okay, that should buy a few more seconds. I turn-.

"Hey, Orange!" Thaddeus Junior waves at me from the control seat of a.. contraption. There's a.. gun… I think. And a platform built on what look like robot spider legs. And some sort of computer system and a.. power supply. And that's when I notice that the corridor has a shimmering force field across it and the Sivana children are all on the far side of it. "Clear the way!"

25th April
10:44 GMT -6

The black blade starts in the top left corner of the reinforced door, poking through tip first before sliding downwards and to the right. Its passage is marked by the intrusion of a dark high pressure stream of Venusian atmosphere, billowing out of the gash and expanding into the lower pressure Earthly air on the inside. It looks a little like the metal itself is bleeding. Really, it's a testament to whatever Doctor Sivana Senior made this place out of that the metal isn't bowing due to the pressure, especially now that it's been weakened in this way.

The second slice is faster, moving top right to bottom left before the blade is retracted. The murk has already reached the point that the additional bleed through of gas is barely noticeable. Next come four far faster cuts, along the top, bottom and sides, angled in such a way that the external pressure starts to push the free-standing mass inward before a sudden extra force is brought to bear. The mass leaps towards us before toppling onto the floor, revealing the Huntsman as he poses in the hole.

"NOW YOU WRETCHES WILL-."

A mass of blue/green rays bend around the barrel of Thaddeus Junior's gun before striking the Huntsman in the chest. The light appears to penetrate before vanishing deep within him.

"GHU?"

For a moment the light disappears. I'm.. a little concerned-. No, it's back and it looks like it set off a supernova deep inside him. The Huntsman shudders, arms and legs spasming and locking in place. His spear falls to the ground, embedding itself blade first into the floor.

Thaddeus' eyes are locked on the sight. "And… Any… Second…"

A colossal shudder runs through the Huntsman, then his body… It's hard to describe. Like his body is some sort of inflatable object and air is being sucked out of the middle, but not all the bits are getting deflated at the same rate. There's a movement and a piece of the left side of his torso has vanished, pulling his body to one side in a way which looks quite painful. His left thigh has also vanished, knee connecting to his torso in a way which puts me in mind of Thalidomide victims. Another sudden movement and his shoulders are nearly touching his hips. A third and his fingers are all that are left of his arms. The shape I believe to be his mouth is working but no sound is coming out.

One last surge and there's nothing left.

Georgia rubs her hands together excitedly, waving some sort of tricorder at her twin. "Exactly as predicted!"

"Mm." Thaddeus Junior checks one of the readouts on his ersatz weapon platform. "Hey, Magni. Guess you were right about the circuit's tolerances."

"Well." Magnificus leans slightly forward so that he can look over his brother's shoulder. "Yes. I would be."

"How were you able to put this all together so quickly?"

Both of the younger Sivanas look smug, and Georgia points to the blasted opening with her right forefinger. "You think you could do something about that first?"

"Oh. Certainly."

A wave of orange passes through the air in front of us, pushing back the Venusian air and forming a construct patch over the hole in the wall. Next, I pick up the fallen doorway and put it back into the gap. Now, that was tacit permission, wasn't it? Scan. Hm. Not exactly revolutionary, but it would be a very nice addition to the next generation construction mix. Oh well. A flare of orange and the wall and doorway are as good as new. Another and the damage to the interior caused by the local atmosphere's ingress is undone.

"Hm. Yeah, that'll do. Georgia and I had a lotta this stuff ready to go because we're trying to replicate Dad's portal."

"Some sort of gravity weapon?"

"No, we got a clue that wasn't the way to go when you kept trying and failing. No, see, Dad's portal works by-." He cuts himself off, staring at me. "Oh, right. You're a superhero. Let's say it uses hyper-compressed black holes to make portals in space-time."

"Really? Because that sounds insanely dangerous."

"No, but that's nearly what it does and since you're kinda… Y'know…" He glances back at where Magnificus is checking Beautia over. "Usually the enemy…"

I wave it off with my right hand. "Oh, don't worry."

"I'm not worried, I'm just saying."

Georgia rolls her eyes. "Captain Marvel intervened before Dad could test it properly. I don't think there was more than a point five percent chance of anything much going wrong."

"Anything much?"

"You know, the Earth getting destroyed, that sort of thing. So what we think happened was that Dad didn't get transported to a parallel universe, he ended up somewhere in this universe and somewhere else in history. I've been trying to read up on-."

"Soft subject."

Georgia scowls at her brother. Ring, review historical records for people matching the description of Thaddeus Bodog Sivana.

{orange}None found.{/}

"What I want to know-" Magnificus turns off the force field then looks at me. "-is how you knew what that thing was."

"If I'd known what it was I'd have done what you lot did."

"No." He frowns. "But you recognised it. You knew the name of its people."

Thaddeus looks momentarily thoughtful. "Hey, you did. What's with that?"

"That's something I'm not really prepared to tell the-" I bow slightly and hold out my right hand towards him and Georgia. "-loyal opposition."

Beautia's eyes move around the group, then get rolled. "Paul, we need to know if they could have left anything here. Any sort of monitoring devices, or anything like that."

"Okay, look, I don't know much about them. Sheeda usually look like bondage Elves-" Thaddeus sniggers. "-while some of them are-" I hold open my right index finger and thumb. "-much smaller. They stab special knives into the back of people's necks and use that to control them. Oh, and these sort of fat, non-corporeal gas cloud men who kill you by making you feel bad…" Can't remember much else from Seven Soldiers. "They're from the far future, descendants of-."

Magnificus turns to his brother, his right hand on the… Gun. Thing. "Can I borrow this?"

"Okay, but I'll want it back."

"Thank you." He lifts it off the cradle and flicks a few switches. "And… Good work."

"Oh." Thaddeus smiles. "Thanks."

Magnificus points the gun at an empty section of corridor and pulls the trigger! Blue light flares, and for a fraction of a second I see a humanoid cloud with six glowing eyes arranged in a circle around its head. "'{red}Inherently inadequate{/}' am I? Who's inadequate now!?"

Thaddeus and Georgia stare at the place the Misery unit disintegrated, then simultaneously reach for some sort of sensor. Beautia and I just look around nervously. "Can.. anyone else.. see one of those?"

Georgia shakes her head. "No, we're good. Ooh, is that vaporized suspendium?"

I walk over to Magnificus and pat him on the right shoulder with my left hand. "{indigo}How long had that been following you around{/}?"

He looks me in the face for a moment, then his eyes drop. "A while."

"Um." Beautia points to where the Huntsman disappeared. "I don't want to worry anyone unnecessarily, but…"

A tiny black fleck floats in the space where the Huntsman vanished. It wobbles for a moment, then opens outwards into a vertical black disc. Ah, crap! Magnificus brings the gun to bear while I create a construct railgun and the younger Sivanas raise their sensors, grinning excitedly at the prospect of gathering new data.

A short bald man in a tattered lab coat steps though, and the portal closes behind him.

"Hello children. And…"

Doctor Sivana Senior peers at me through glasses held together by tape.

"I don't think we've been introduced."

25th April
11:14 GMT -6

Doctor Sivana Senior slumps back slightly in his chair, hands steepled on his stomach as he looks at me. "I suppose it could have been worse. You could have been Captain Marvel."

"I'm just glad that you're taking this so well, sir."

"Oh, that's probably just a result of fighting for my life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with only what I could scavenge to eat, drink or build with for a year." He closes his eyes and rubs his forehead with his right hand for a moment. "What time are we eating?"

Venus leans against the wall closest to the kitchen. "I was planning a cold lunch for one o'clock, but under the circumstances I suppose that a sandwich wouldn't be out of the question."

"{violet}Thank you d{/}-." A very faint frown marks his forehead. "…Venus. I would appreciate that."

She stands up straight, looking him over carefully as she does so. I didn't pick up on it when he first came through but he's carrying a lot of minor injuries. I haven't wanted to scan him directly -since he's clearly not in any immediate danger and he has killed quite a lot of people- but I can see bruises and long thin scabs which suggest quite serious injuries which have only mostly healed since they were inflicted. "No problem." She turns and walks away.

"So…" Doctor Sivana Senior finds himself the focus of our attention, and for a moment he isn't sure how to deal with that. "Guess I'm going to need to rebuild the warehouse." Then he stops talking.

We all wait for a few moments, but nothing is forthcoming. Thaddeus Junior loses patience first. "Where did you go, Dad?"

"The future, Junior. A little bit further than I meant to." His eyes drift away from his youngest son. "The Big Red Cheese punching things he didn't understand must have overloaded the system. Next time-." His head comes up again. "Sivanadroid!"

The closest one stops and trundles over. "Ready for command."

"Memorandum. From now on, four circuit breakers, not three."

"Command prompt recognised."

"Sivanadroid, dismissed."

"Have a good day."

Thaddeus Junior shakes his head. "How far was too far?"

"I'm not sure. I know that the sun will start dying in about five billion years and be completely dead in ten, but I can't think of any natural phenomena that would make it look like it did then. The radiation output was all wrong, and I could almost… Feel it sucking the life out of me whenever I went outside."

"Doctor, are they preparing for a Harrowing?"

"Eh, maybe, maybe not. None of the ones I interrogated knew when it was scheduled, but we do seem to be ripening up nicely."

Beautia blinks. "Harrowing?"

"Yes. You see, 'Tia, they're a dying civilisation. Their Earth's worn down to nothing, their technology is advanced, but it isn't anything like as advanced as what a civilisation like theirs should have. Every so often they raid the distant past for what they need to keep going."

"You mean it's happened before?"

"Oh yes." He smiles. "Their ruler King Melmoth stole their first time machine from some sort of time travelling Neanderthal." He smiles crookedly to himself. "If I'd known about that in advance I'd have spent more time trying to go back in time and not forwards."

"It's not just Humans they've done it to. There was an aquatic race that used to dominate the Earth. Someone -probably the Sheeda- killed nearly all of them. The handful left are Atlantean citizens."

"Sounds plausible. The thing about time travel is that they can do harvests of different eras while for them it's only a few years apart. They don't even necessarily need to do them in order."

Doesn't look like that's the answer Beautia wanted. "Dad, are they going to be sending more of those things here?"

"Oh, no, don't worry about that. Some complete lunatic was firing a gravity converter back through the link between the Huntsman and their control center. Not much left of the place now." He smiles cruelly. "Completely flattened, with hundreds of their people dead."

Oh.

"Or... Not much left of it then, I should say. After all, it hasn't been built now. Anyway, they were using a sample of my blood to triangulate on my era and I took care of it before coming back through. If they weren't aiming for now before I got there then we've got nothing to worry about."

Magnificus frowns. "I'm not sure that I'd say 'nothing', Father. A race of future Humans with highly advanced technology and a proven track record of exterminating planet-spanning civilisations have a bone to pick with our family."

"But they're not here now. Magnificus, how long will it be before Humans have faster than light travel?"

Magnificus' frown deepens. "We have it now. You took me on a trip to Proxima Centauri for my tenth birthday."

"No, no. Not things I've built. Things… Things normal people could build."

"I don't know. Forty or fifty years, I suppose."

"So if they can't do it before that, we've got nothing to worry about. They'll be too late to reset Earth civilisation." He leans forwards slightly. "They're resource poor. They can't sustain large fleets or large populations. It won't be too long before current day Earth is strong enough to beat a Harrowing Fleet conventionally. All we have to do is make sure we don't get Harrowed before that."

Thaddeus and Georgia look at each other with what could be concern. "We?" / "We?"

Sivana Senior nods. "Children, I've been doing some thinking."

Their faces fall. Georgia shakes her head. "Dad, no."

Thaddeus Junior's eyes widen. "Say it isn't so."

"I think I've… We've… Been stuck in a rut, just throwing things at Marvel and the other children. What I saw in the future… The civilisation there is.. contemptible, beyond even the idiots who rejected my inventions in this era. I'm going to rest up for a few days, then I'm going to start building weapons."

They start smiling again.

"And save them for fighting the Sheeda."

And they stop smiling again.

"We've been fighting someone we know everything about for too long. Can you honestly tell me that you're really pushing yourselves because of him? We already decided not to kill him when he was in his mortal form-."

Beautia's eyes widen. "You knew about that?!"

A faint smile appears on her father's lips. "You made it clear that you didn't want me interfering with your life. Have you changed your mind?"

"I was hitting on a ten year old!"

Magnificus' face drops. "Wait, what?"

Thaddeus Junior looks at him as if he's said something truly bizarre. "You really didn't know? Captain Marvel is really a kid called William Joseph Batson. He gets older when he transforms."

Magnificus hesitates for a moment, then shakes his head. "Why would I care who he is? I've never had anything to do with the man. Boy."

Thaddeus Senior nods approvingly. "Good for you, Magnificus."

He blinks in surprise. "Oh. Um. Thank you, Father."

Thaddeus Senior returns his focus to his younger children. "The point is, we're not really learning anything new. Sure, we can test weapons on him, but there are dozens of places we could do that. He's not changing himself, he's just static. And yes, he's using his powers slightly better than he did when we first started fighting him. But so what? The Sheeda on the other hand are near complete unknowns. I lived on their world for nearly a year and I still can't tell you what they can do and how it works. Are you really telling me that studying them won't be more rewarding than picking a fight with Marvel for the umpteenth time?"

They think for a moment. Georgia nods her head to the side. "I… Guess…"

"Glad you agree, Georgia. Junior?" His son nods. "We'll get started tomorrow. But right now, I have a non-recycled sandwich to eat."

25th April
18:54 GMT -6

I knock on the door, but there's no immediate response.

"Doctor Sivana?"

I knock again, a little louder. Okay, he knows that I'm on a truce, and if he's serious about focusing on the Sheeda then I really don't have any reason to violate it. I take hold of the door handle and push open the door.

"Humpf?"

Doctor Sivana jerks awake in his chair, momentarily confused by his environment as he blearily looks around. His left hand goes to his glasses where they rest on his desk. His right is already holding an organic looking handgun. Fortunately for me it isn't pointed in my direction. In fact, his grip on it is loose. He must have been holding it when he went to sleep. It tightens as he sees me hovering by the door, then his glasses reach the bridge of his nose and he releases it completely.

"Come to get me for dinner?"

"Actually, Doctor, I was hoping to have a word with you?"

He squeezes his eyes shut, right thumb and forefinger massaging his brow. "I'm sorry. I haven't had a lot of opportunity for regular sleep lately. A lot of late nights are catching up with me."

"A year, you said."

"There aren't any safe places in Sheeda arcologies. I didn't understand their technology well enough to build watch drones. I had to make do with simple mechanical traps. Every time one went off I had to relocate."

I nod. "A year for us. How long was it for you?"

His eyes narrow slightly, but his mouth has a thin smile. "A little bit longer, if I counted it right. The good thing about going bald early -and looking like a Goblin- is that it makes it harder for people to tell exactly how old you are." For a moment he smiles properly, a completely unguarded response to his emotions. Then it's gone again as he shuffles his chair forwards and puts his elbows on his desk, hands clasped together. "Tell me, young man. How long have you and 'Tia really been together?"

"She asked me to attend this gathering two days ago. Prior to that, my only interaction with her was during a demonic invasion of Fawcett City."

He nods. "Are you planning to keep seeing her?"

"Yes. There's some technology developed by Baroness Paula von Gunther that I'm.. trying to get into wider circulation-."

The smile is gone, his fingers unlaced and his right hand sort of rubbing around his left. "Good luck with that."

"I'm in the advantageous position of not needing external investment. With these-" I hold up my palms. "-rings, I can tell exactly how well motivated everyone involved is… Aside from problems involved in licensing -which would exist for any novel technology- I don't think anyone will be able to do to me what they did to you."

"Hn." He notices his own hands, then lays them flat on his desk. "I meant, do you plan to continue seeing her in the romantic context?"

"I don't know. We're really in more of a 'feeling-one-another-out' stage. I like her, but I don't know how compatible we are."

He nods. "I suppose that's reasonable."

I risk a smile of my own. "Have to admit, I thought having this sort of conversation with a supervillain would involve more threats."

He shakes his head. "'Tia wouldn't want me to involve myself. And… {violet}Sometimes relationships don't work out{/}, no matter how much you want them to."

"Would you mind if I.. asked you a few questions about that? I mean… I've looked into your personal history-."

"Then you probably know everything already. What is there left to ask me about?"

"I know what, I don't know why. And I can only learn that from you. I can easily understand being angry with the people who rejected you. I'm not sure I can understand deliberately killing them. Or… I can't understand why they rejected you in the first place."

"You'd need better people skills than me to understand that." He wrinkles his nose. "Why did I kill them?"

"Given everything you could have done with your abilities… And that you'd put up with already… Why did you turn to supervillainy?"

His gaze grows a little distant. "I'm not sure I can exactly explain it. Science is my first love. One of the few vectors I have for interacting with people is sharing what I've learned. When I got turned down, I was honestly more annoyed about them rejecting Venus' business plan than them rejecting my technology."

"You killed them for being rude to her?"

"No. No. I killed them for being…" He looked puzzled for a moment, searching for the word he wants. "Wrong." That doesn't seem to quite be it. "It's like… If you want to get across a body of water, you could use a aeroplane or a boat… But you shouldn't use a dogsled. I got to a point where I just couldn't see a reason not to." He bows his head slightly. "I'm probably not explaining it very well. I've never really been one for introspection."

"Just… 'Why not kill them?'"

"I… Understood people… I mostly understood people, in terms of their roles. As a scientist, my job was to discover and invent, to work out how the universe works and how to make use of that. {violet}Venus{/}' role is to understand supply and demand, what people need and how to get it to them. The role of an investor is to make a rational judgement about risk and reward and then either put money in or not. But if the product is good and need is there and the risks low and the reward great, someone like that should invest. One or two people I could have understood. Dozens?"

He shakes his head. "I mean, look around us. I designed this. I didn't build it, but I built the robots who did. I could have done this for NASA or the ESA or CNSA. And I would have been happy to. The sort of person who turns this down has no grounds for complaint if someone like me decides to use them as a test subject."

"Test subjects?"

"Well… Okay. I was pretty annoyed with the first few, but… Yeah. I don't have any sort of personal grudge against Captain Marvel. I don't do this because I particularly want to hurt him. I've learned a lot from testing weapons and technologies against him." He nods. "That's what it's about."

"You're just making weapons-?"

"I'm not just making weapons, they're just the only things you see because they're the only things that require that sort of field testing."

"But to use your own justification-" If I can really call it that. "-a lot of the people who die during your fights with Captain Marvel might well be quite good at their jobs. Their.. social roles."

"But I'm not really part of society anymore, am I? I don't have henchmen, I have robots. I don't trade for things other people make, I use robot miners, farmers, construction units… Anything I want to learn, I learn myself. I don't go out of my way to kill people, but if they die.. then.. they die."

"But-?"

"I didn't think like this to start with. When Venus and I got together, I genuinely hoped… Okay, not hoped. Just 'assumed', really. I assumed that my technology would revolutionise the world. Heh." He looks down at his desk for a moment. "I wasn't like this to start with. But I am now. And I'm not going to change."

"I just wish I'd met you twenty years ago."

He nods again. "Twenty years ago I'd probably have wished the same thing. This… Research thing you've set up? Are you looking for people like me, or are you hoping they'll come to you?"

"We haven't really got that far. At the moment we're just bringing established people together and sharing abilities."

"Then on behalf of my younger self, I'm going to suggest that you reconsider that approach." He brightens slightly. "Oh! And in case you hadn't spotted it, well done for calling Junior 'Thaddeus'. He likes it when people do that, but around here it would just get confusing."

"You picked it."

"Nothing wrong with 'Junior'. I'm certainly not using my middle name around people. I'm a scientist, not a rap musician."

26th April
15:04 GMT +3

Donna waves as she sees me across the inner city plaza and jogs in my direction. I think I'll count the Senate agreeing to the presence of a Dolmen Gate here paired with one in the Themysciran Embassy as a minor victory. Saves me from having to ferry people here. Though not much use for Cassandra, it makes travel time for Donna about ten minutes and for Diana about two minutes.

And about twenty minutes for Io or any other Amazon who feels like sticking her toe into Man's World.

Donna comes to a halt in front of me and raises her eyebrows. "So? How was Sivana Day?"

"Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana returned from the far future, pursued by Apocalypse Elves."

Her eyes widen slightly. "Are you alright?"

"I was, once Guy explained how to secure my subspace pocket against subspace pickpockets." I gesture back towards the palace. "Can we?" She nods and we start walking. "Thaddeus Senior persuaded Thaddeus Junior and Georgia to focus their energies on preparing for the next Sheeda Harrowing, so we won't have to worry about super science attacks from that quarter for the foreseeable future."

"And the bad news is that we've got Sheeda Apocalypse Elves to look forward to?"

"Yes, but we probably had those anyway. At least this way we know about it. And the Sivanas are quite good at making weapons."

She nods, then glances at me. "And how'd it go with Beautia?"

A goodbye kiss and we're meeting up again the next time the brain trust gathers. "Is that really why you came here?"

She ducks her head slightly. "Do you..? Did the results come in? Do you know..?"

"Not for certain, but… Probably. And I've also finished the secret mission I was given by Queen Hippolyta."

"Since I don't know what it was about I don't really know what to say about that." We climb up the steps and start towards the main entrance, the guards on duty giving us a nod. "Well?"

"The two are… Related. And I've got this whole monologue planned..?"

She rolls her eyes. "Fine, I can wait for a minute."

We pass into the throne room and begin walking up the central aisle. Queen Hippolyta, Captain Philippus and Diana are seated at the far end, with Acantha and Menalippe hovering close at hand. Menalippe's cat is also hanging around. Odd. Maybe it's too hot outside for her? Conversation falls away as they watch our approach. Once I reach the start of the 'audience area' I place my right fist over my heart and genuflect to the throne.

"My Queen. Thank you for granting me this audience."

Queen Hippolyta leans forwards slightly. "Paul, is there a reason why you are behaving in this way?"

"Yes, it's because I've done something very clever and I'm feeling fairly smug about it and want to wring the maximum enjoyment from the build up." I look up. "Chaos, you know?"

She looks puzzled. "I do not think I see-" I send filaments out of the throne room and down. "-what is chaotic about-" Around the corridors… "-a sense of pride in-?"

Four orange flickers as the Circle appear in front of me. They aren't merely on their knees, they're on all fours, faces pressed against the floor. "My Queen, I-." Alkyone's voice is choked. She hasn't stopped crying since I explained to them what the results I got from Sephtian meant. "We… Humbly beg your pardon for our grievous error in judgement. For our treason and attempted regicide."

Hippolyta's mouth has fallen open. Philippus' hand stills with her sword half-drawn and the guards already have their spears levelled. Acantha has covered her mouth with her right hand while… Diana looks at me with a sort of maternal irritation and gives her head a slight shake. Donna just looks confused.

I stand, my arms snapping out to the side. "Chaos."

Hippolyta stands, half-staggering forwards a pace before recovering herself. "How did you manage this?"

"When you went into Gaea's temple to create the clay figure which became Princess Diana, Alkyone followed you and watched. For reasons I.. still don't fully understand, while you were doing it she saw the Hekatonkheir Cottus standing over you. Now, they'd never seen Cottus in person before, so didn't realise that if he were physically present -even allowing for the spatial distortion at work in the grove- he'd have been visible from the city. And quite possibly the mainland. If you're used to gods and goddesses who look more or less Human, a titanic individual like Cottus is more than a little disturbing to see. That, combined with the fact that you made no mention of him upon your return, led Alkyone to conclude that your mind was being altered in some way. Since no friendly divinity would do that, Cottus' cause must have been hostile, and since it resulted in a child being created she must have been a vector for his malevolence."

"And for that, they tried to murder Diana." Hippolyta shakes her head. "But Cottus wasn't there."

"Diana, would you mind..?"

She frowns, but her mother is already looking at her and nodding. She closes her eyes for a moment, then takes the Lasso of Truth from her belt and places the loop of the lasso in her mother's hand. Hippolyta puts her fingers through and firmly grips the rope.

"I testify that I saw nothing of Cottus on that day, nor have I on any day since."

"And I can combine that with the testimony of Lord Hades, Princess Melinoë, Akhlys, Briareos and Gyges. While none of them can account for his every movement, none of them are aware of him having left Tartarus since the end of the titanomachy. And they all gave him good character references. Diana, may I borrow the Lasso?" She nods, and I link a filament to it and float it over to me. I take hold of the coil with my right hand and lower the loop so that it lies on the floor next to Alkyone's right hand.

It takes a moment, but her eyes glance towards it and then she moves her hand to take a grip on it. "My Queen, I saw Cottus standing with you that day."

I frown. Hmm. That means that her memory hasn't been altered. Or reconstructed in her own mind from ambiguous stimuli, the Lasso burns through that sort of thing.

"I can't explain that." I tug the Lasso back from Alkyone. "If it turns out that it matters, a full analysis of the site might yield more information, but I'll understand if you're not keen. Just to make sure that Alkyone's concern was unfounded I had my colleague Sephtian compare thaumic signatures from a number of individuals. To spare you the technical details, all members of the Greek mythos share certain arcane characteristics and these are more similar if there is some immediate relationship between the individuals compared. Having seen the results I can confirm that Cottus isn't drawing any power from Tartarus, or any source other than himself. His signature is simply too similar to that of his brothers. Diana has both Titanic and Olympian elements, but nothing that is uniquely like that of Cottus. While I would need to fully analyse the Five and Gaea herself to establish the relationship beyond reasonable doubt, on the balance of probability the version of Diana's creation told by Queen Hippolyta is correct."

I turn to Donna. "But Cottus might have created you."

The sudden change of direction appears to catch her off guard. "What?"

"The similarity between your metaphysique and Diana's is very high. Higher even than that of Diana and Euanthe, who were both given life by Gaea. The differences have a strong similarity to Cottus' magic, though there are other components I can't readily identify. I would hypothesise that you were somehow created in a similar fashion to Diana rather than being naturally born, though I'm afraid that more than that I don't know."

Her eyes drop to the floor as she takes that in. "Oh."

I turn back to the throne. "Alkyone has psychological issues relating to children which may have affected her judgement, but that was the trigger. I'm afraid that I can't explain every event… The information just isn't there. On the other hand, I have completed the task that you set me."

There's a flash of blinding light behind me, as if someone set off a flashbang grenade. Construct goggles form over my eyes as I turn around, and as the light dies down a blonde man wearing only a kilt, sandals and a pair of leather bracers stands in the aisle. He smiles at us.

"Perhaps I might explain?"

26th April
15:09 GMT +3

There's a general bowing from my Amazon compatriots. At least, those not already face down on the floor. Even Donna gives him a politely reverential nod.

I cock my head to the right, and jab my right forefinger at him a little uncertainly. "Apollo, right?"

He grins broadly, throwing his golden-tanned arms out to the side. "I am indeed he! And you-" His right index describes an arc pointed in my general direction. "-must be Eris' little boytoy. Pavlova or something, isn't it?"

A college student compared to Zeus' university student, Apollo is second only to his father for putting it about, though it seems that before reaching the modern era he either grew up or learned to use contraception. Sustained Mage Slayer fire would probably hurt him, but Menalippe was quite clear that attacking the Olympians isn't on. Instead, I send a filament outside the palace, up the wall and further up into the sky, generating a large Discordian Chao in the sky.

Some jokes are only funny once.

I take a deep breath, and Hippolyta looks at me with growing concern. "Lord Apollo. Welcome to Themyscira."

He turns his full attention to her, walking past me and-. Oh, he actually shoulder-nudged me. He actually-. Oh, okay.

"My pleasure, dear niece. I believe I can explain the remaining facts which your investigator failed to uncover."

Hippolyta bow-nods. "Please do."

"Diana's creation is of course unblemished by any power beyond those you know. Grandmother Gaea, my aunts Hestia and Demeter and my sisters Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite. But even in his prison, Cronus-."

"Used a stolen part of Cottus' body to eavesdrop on what happened in Gaea's temple, and later used sympathetic magic to duplicate the ritual to create Donna."

"Ah." His head half-turns back to me, his grin a little less sure. "You knew."

"I wasn't certain, but I could see where you were going with that. I didn't say anything because I didn't have proof. And it didn't make any sense to me. What did he hope to gain? Where did he get the power from? And why didn't anyone spot what he was doing?"

"What he hoped to gain was a powerful demigoddess servitor. Obviously." He tosses his hair and returns his attention to the throne. "Cronus didn't merely duplicate the ritual, he altered the magics the goddesses employed so that they could not tell one nascent demigoddess from the other. They… Inadvertently empowered both."

Donna nods. "So it was Cronus."

Apollo turns to her. "He arranged things, certainly. But don't feel down. The same magics animate you.. that animate Diana." He turns back to the throne. "For the most part."

"But that was eighty six years ago. Donna's not eighty six."

He doesn't look around this time. "Cronus arranged for his new daughter to appear in the hands of a group of his cultists, who kept her in suspended animation while he worked out what to do with her."

Donna shakes her head. "What do you mean?"

"Can't you tell? You know how slavishly Devastation hangs on his every word, his every order. His intent was for you to be not the spirited young woman that you are, but rather for you to be as she is. He simply didn't understand the magics he had evoked, so desperate he was for any slight advantage."

"So… Why let me go? I mean, if he couldn't trust me…"

Apollo grins again. "Dumb luck. A gas main leaked and met a spark. The cultists looking after you were all killed and their spells of binding broken."

"And of course, if they'd just brought you up normally you'd probably have been happy to serve their cult." Donna glances at me, clearly unhappy that I said it but not able to honestly contradict me. "Just goes to show that a being can be ancient and powerful-" I smile at the back of Apollo's head. "-and still understand nothing."

"I'd say-" He looks Donna over with a lasciviousness that annoys me. "-that he knew exactly what he was doing. The error probably came from the cultists. Perhaps he tired himself out in the rite and then couldn't direct them in the next stage. Who can say?"

Donna nods slowly. "And I doubt that I'll ever be able to ask him in person. Not that I'd want to."

"I'm quite glad to hear it. I believe that he used what he learned from your creation to create Devastation, substituting the magics of the goddesses for that of the Titans, the fragment of Cottus for his own blood."

"So… Devastation is my… Sister?"

Apollo shrugs carelessly. "If you like. Though you are far more closely related to Diana."

Donna shifts her eyes from the god to her mentor, whose return gaze is filled with {violet}sororal affection{/}. "I'm… Not really sure… How I feel. About any of it."

"Of course." Apollo nods, then looks around the gathering once more. "Well, my work here is done. Donna, if you want to talk, you know where my shrine is." He turns around and starts walking back down the aisle towards the entrance to the palace.

As he draws level with me I stick out my left arm and plant my hand in the centre of his chest. "Couldn't help but notice that you didn't say why no one knew about it at the time." His eyes narrow slightly. "Or did anything about it. I mean, Cronus giving his cultists a demigoddess? That could have gone very badly." I nod my head to the right. "And you didn't explain how you know any of that."

"Providing mortals with insight of matters that are beyond them is part of my portfolio."

I nod. "Why did Alkyone see a vision of Cottus, oh God of Oracles?"

The skin around his mouth tenses, as if he just smelled something repugnant. "I thought that it was fairly clear. I've had complaints about heroes receiving ambiguous visions and omens before, so I sent one that was completely straightforward. A vision of the person whom the recipient was supposed to go to for further guidance. Cottus could have told her what Cronus had done, then she could go out into the world and recover the newly made demigoddess, and bring her back to Themyscira to be raised in an environment of love. Alkyone wanted a daughter and we gods wanted Cronus to be denied a pawn. It would have been perfect." He turns around. "How could I have known that she was so deluded as to believe that the gods wanted her to kill a newborn?"

Hippolyta {green}bites down{/} her initial response. I watch her getting herself {green}back under control{/}. "An… Unfortunate miscommunication, my lord."

I take a step to the right, getting out of his way. "And of course you couldn't just step in and tell her directly, could you?"

"We-" His head snaps around, smug smile finally gone completely. "-{red}don't{/}-."

Eris' fist catches him right on the underside of his jaw, snapping his head back and sending him crashing to the ground, where the back of his head takes the brunt of the impact.

"You got my-?"

"Eris signal." She nods. "Nice."

"Glad you approve." I turn my head to the mildly stunned Amazon elite. "To complete his sentence: We don't fix our own mistakes. When things don't go the way we thought they would we cut and run. We whistle and walk away and let the chips fall where they may. My Queen, there are no outstanding loose ends."

Hippolyta's eyes dip to the stunned Apollo. "No. I suppose there aren't. I will need some time to consider. Captain, escort the Circle to the guest quarters and post a guard. I will..."

"Oi." Eris pokes me in the arm. "I'll grab him under his arms, you get his legs. There's a pig farm just outside the walls. If we hurry, we can toss him in the sty before he wakes up."