Bindings

11th May
13:58 GMT

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

Guy looks around from his place on the far side of the Justice League's meeting table as Diana and I walk towards it. "Hey Orange. Welcome t'the club."

I.. slow slightly, but continue my approach as Diana walks over to her place near the table's head. "Club?"

Superman nods. "I suppose you could put it like that."

Batman's here, as are the other Lanterns, Major Adams, William Batson, Mister Freeman, Mister Yao, King Orin and.. Nabu. If Mister Allen and Mister J'onzz were here I'd make a comment about this being the League's top tier. For a moment I worry that my talk last month resulted in half of the League getting fired.

Batman looks up from his datapad for a moment. "Take a seat."

That makes me stop. On the near side the occupied seat furthest from the head of the table is occupied by Nabu. Fortunately, there are more empty places on the far side. Giving Nabu a wide berth, I walk around the open end of the 'U' and pull out the seat next to Guy before looking into the League members' faces and trying to work out what's going on. Diana orders me somewhere, I go there, but a little more information would have been helpful.

"Orange Lantern." Batman presses a button and a blue holographic globe appears in the middle of the 'U', rotating slowly on its axis. There are a large number of markers on it, some green, some yellow and a few red. "Do you know what these represent?"

Ring? Hm. Some are military bases, some I can't scan... Those could be secure government sites of some kind. Countries marked are the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Britain...

"Are they nuclear weapon launch sites?"

Batman inclines his head slightly. "This is a list of the locations of every launch-capable nuclear warhead on Earth which we have been able to discover."

"Do their owners know that you know this?"

Superman tilts his head to his left for a moment. "We haven't told them, but that doesn't mean that they don't suspect that we know."

Diana smiles faintly as she looks at me. "The reason I asked you here today-."

And it clicks into place. "Is that in the event of a nuclear war it's our job to stop them."

This time Batman nods. "Essentially, yes. Intercepting-" The globe moves and various military vehicles and missiles appear. "-aircraft and missiles requires a very particular power set, including but not limited to supersonic flight and the ability to absorb and inflict significant damage." I glance across at King Orin, then back at Batman. "The Atlantean military monitors all sea-based nuclear launch platforms."

"It's a little more than that, Batman." Orin turns to me. "We also have battle mages on hand who could disable or sink them at short notice." A wry smiles plays over his lips. "A job which the recent popularity of anti-scrying wards hasn't made any easier."

"Sorry, sir."

"It's not your fault. Something like this was inevitable, eventually. I won't really start to worry until they start using wards strong enough to actually keep us out."

Superman nods. "I can sympathise. It surprised me quite how quickly the army took advantage of the fact that I can't see through lead."

I remember that in the comic which featured Fernus the Burning they had to intercept a group of nuclear missiles launched by the American military. They missed one, but that was with a seven person League and zero notice. I turn to my left. "I thought you Greenies weren't allowed-?"

Jordan scowls. "What, you really think we prioritize being in the Corps over all life on Earth?"

John nods. "We checked, and we think we'd have about half an hour before our rings were deactivated. Short range nuclear miss'les only take minutes to reach their targets. Even Salaak can't revoke our status that fast."

Guy rolls his eyes. "Oh, good job, now you said it out loud."

Then... I can't help but look over at Major Adams. I'm not sure exactly what rules he's acting under these days, but to my inexpert ears this is starting to sound a bit.. treasony.

He notices. "I'm not about to see millions of Americans die if I can prevent it. And they can only arrest me if there's still a government left."

"Ah, alright, well, I'm in. Haven't really... Thought about this much. Do we.. each have a.. sector, or..?"

Batman shakes his head. "Given how quickly we predict that events would occur, that just isn't practical. Since most League members are based in the US-" The globe stops rotating and icons showing the 'home locations' of the League members present appear. "-we would most likely be relying on Doctor Fate and the Lanterns to cover the rest of the world. Realistically, I doubt that even under favorable conditions we would be able to stop all of the missiles, but every one destroyed en route or prevented from launching will spare the lives of tens of thousands of people."

I nod. "Have you discussed more... Aggressive action against launch sites? It would be... Far faster to destroy them than to disable them."

William takes a steadying breath. He really doesn't look comfortable. "Have you ever seen the film 'War Games'?"

"Not all the way through, but.. I'm... Assuming you're referring to the opening scene where the launch operator wasn't prepared to fire despite receiving valid orders."

"So..." He shrugs. "How do you know the guy who's been ordered to fire is actually gunna do it? And if we don't stop all of them, well... We're gunna have to do a lot of work... Afterwards. People probably expect us to try and stop the missiles, but if we actually attack someplace then people might start seeing us as the enemy."

He does have a point. I could probably tell whether or not the people in a particular silo or onboard a particular plane would actually do it, but not from a great distance and not quickly enough to go from place to place for each of the thousands of sites worldwide. Personally, I think it would be more sensible to just do it, but... No, if this happens we'd have to start immediately. A limited exchange wouldn't necessarily result in all out war. Unless someone started destroying their launch sites. And by the time everywhere got their go-codes...

Batman nods again. "In the event of all out war, if even one percent of the nuclear powers' devices reached their targets-"

The world hologram changes, showing arcs representing nuclear weapons flying from their points of origin. First strike weapons like ICBMs and fighter-mounted missiles streak ahead. Ninety nine in every hundred wink out... A hundred and fifty are left. I remember that belligerent powers generally don't target population centres. The UK does because Trident's got poor accuracy, but the US and Russia generally point theirs at military and government targets. Of course, those are usually located in cities. Looks like the League think that India and Pakistan have the same lack of precision.

"-the immediate death toll might well be in the region of one billion people. In the aftermath, as the only active Lantern on Earth we would be relying on you to do what you could to minimise the effects of the dust clouds. A nuclear winter which destroyed that year's harvest would kill even more people than the initial nuclear exchange."

"You know, if... " I glance left. "If you'd be out of the Corps anyway... There's really no reason not to let Alan recharge himself. I mean, I could do the whole planet eventually but this is something that needs to be done as quickly as possible."

Guy and Jordan nod. Stewart glances at Jordan first, then nods as well. Jordan leans forwards to make eye contact with me. "Not sure how much time we'd have, but sure. We can try doing that." His jaw moves slightly to the left and his eyes drop to the table for a moment. "Look, I've never been 'okay' with the way that the Guardians insisted on freezing Alan out. It just wasn't my call to make."

I shake my head. "Never thought it was."

Batman waits a moment to see if we want to say anything else, then presses on. "You will be required to memorize the locations displayed on the screen, though given that you have eidetic memory that shouldn't prove too difficult. We meet here once a month to go over any changes in our target locations. Since we started these meetings the world hasn't come close to a nuclear exchange. In the event that it did, we would meet more frequently. It should go without saying that you are not to tell anyone about this."

"Thank you for not phrasing it as an order, sir, but yes. I realised." Do I ask? "Sir, there are things I could do to make it easier to stop an exchange. Laser drones placed along likely flight paths, that sort of thing? Do you want me to look into it?"

"No. I do not believe that a nuclear exchange is likely to occur in the immediate future, and the damage that would be caused to both the League and to international relations if your efforts were discovered makes it too much of a risk."

Major Adams nods. "He's right. Remember how the Russians acted when President Phillips tried restarting the Strategic Defense Initiative?"

I nod. Not 'Phillips' of course, but I do. "Very well, sir. Thank you for trusting me with this. If the worst happens, you won't find me wanting."

{red}12th May
11:47 GMT -6{/}

My maternal grandparents lived in a house in the village of Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire. They ate most of their meals on the kitchen table, but during periods when they had guests in the house they ate in the actual dining room, which would otherwise remain closed and unused. I suppose that the table was a bit big for the two of them, but... I'd never seen that particular arrangement anywhere else. Until now.

I look out through the hush tube into the home of retired Detective Chief-Inspector Geoffrey Talbot. His wife killed herself twelve years ago and his daughter and her family live in Australia. I suppose that he doesn't think it's worth keeping the dining room open just for himself. In fact, from the look of the kitchen area I'm going to assume that he usually eats out. There aren't any food stains but there's a small amount of dust in places which suggests that he hasn't thought to include them in his cleaning rituals.

I am mildly annoyed that Chester and Vera want me to meet him without actually telling me why. I suppose a degree of interpersonal difficulty is inevitable if I want to continue working with Chester. And I can't claim to be above creating unnecessary difficulty for my own amusement so it would be hypocritical for me to complain when he does it. I did a little research on the man and it seems that he retired under somewhat confusing circumstances. Twenty nine years on the force, then he was carrying out a corruption investigation into officers in the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. He was at it for a couple of months and then was suspended himself. I've checked the newspapers of the period and I can't find mention of a specific allegation, then... He took retirement and whatever case was going to be brought was dropped. I know that happens sometimes. I generally regard it as unfortunate, but probably more cash-efficient in complex cases than taking it to trial. Still, Chester will have had a look around his mind by now and given how seriously he's taking this I doubt that he'd involve me if it was going to be a waste of my time.

Miss Amane is sitting in his living room in full costume, war scythe propped up against the side of his chair. Chester is standing just behind her and Vera is lurking invisibly on the pavement outside. Miss Amane was delighted to take an assignment in Britain, though I suspect that she's been happy to take an assignment from me to just about anywhere. She'll be learning spycraft from my two more experienced employees, plus her natural face and body language aren't known to anyone. When we actually move into the active phase-.

There's a clatter as Mister Talbot opens his front door and steps inside, pushing it closed behind him. He takes his coat off and hangs it up on the coat stand. It's not raining in London at the moment but there's a chill in the air. There's a good deal more grey in his hair these days than there was in the older pictures. His hairline has receded a little further and I think he's lost a little weight. As he turns towards his shoe rack he hesitates for a moment, as if something just occurred to him. Then he appears to shrug it off, removing his shoes and donning his slippers. Next, he picks up his briefcase in his right hand and ambles in the direction of his living room.

He pushes the door open with his left hand and takes a moment to look at his uninvited guests. He doesn't look worried or angry. A little annoyed, perhaps. As if he now has a minor chore to attend to that he'd rather he didn't have to.

"Wondered how long it would take you bastards." He stays standing in the doorway for a moment. "Well? Here I am. What's the bloody holdup?"

Chester grins. "Got us all wrong, dibbler. Not 'ere t'shiv yeh."

"Chester Black. I didn't realise that I warranted your personal attention." Miss Amane gets a small frown and then a mental dismissal. I suppose that if he knows who Chester is then he's got no reason to suppose that anyone else with him is more dangerous than he is. "I don't intend to cooperate with you taking me somewhere else, so you'd best do it here."

"Like I said, all wrong, cock. I'm a private agent these days."

Mister Talbot frowns slightly. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is so. Reckon my new boss 'd be dead keen on meeting you. If yer up for it."

"And if I say 'no'?"

Chester shrugs. "Sod yeh, then."

Mister Talbot's frown deepens. "Alright. I'll need my briefcase."

"Jest a sec. Vera love, you got the windows?" The living room window shimmers as Vera activates the hologram projector. "Magic."

I step through the hush tube, closing it behind me.

{red}12th May
17:50 GMT{/}

"Mister Talbot. Chester has convinced me that meeting you is worth my time."

Mister Talbot looks up at my face, puffs out his cheeks slightly and slowly exhales. "You're that Grayven chap who killed that little shit Klarion. Hmm. Well, since you're here I suppose we might as well talk about it. Put the kettle on, would you, Black?"

Chester narrows his right eye, preparing for a 'y'wot?' I give him a level gaze as Mister Talbot sits down and he acquiesces, heading out the door towards the kitchen.

"So. What exactly is it that you want with me?"

"Me and mine have run smack into evidence suggesting that the British establishment is corrupt and 'evil' to an almost farcical degree." He hunches down slightly, eyes narrowing as if to bore into my soul. "We're starting doing the work which will eventually lead to us dealing with the problem."

"What do you mean by 'dealing with'?"

"Killing the worst offenders, trying and imprisoning the rest."

"Need a bloody big prison."

"I have a bloody big prison." Well. I've started building one. It'll be ready by the time we need it. "I take it that you ran into.. some of the same things that we have."

"Something like that. One moment. Don't think I'll be needing this." He tightens his right hand and... Presses a button on his briefcase.

{yellow}What exactly{/}-? It's a bomb. "Why do you have a briefcase bomb?"

"Last time the bastards got me, they bundled me into the back of a van with four other blokes. They got slaughtered like pigs. I only made it out because our gaolers went mad and the armed response unit that got sent in after them recognised me."

Ah. I approve. "You decided that if they came for you again you'd take a few of them with you. Admirable. How exactly did this come about?"

He shakes his head. "Never really got to the bottom of it. When I was investigating the Avon and Somerset mob, I nearly ran into one of their Masonic death squads. That was enough to provoke them into trumping up charges and leaning on my superiors until they suspended me. Kept poking around, of course. Didn't find a bloody thing until I ran into John Constantine."

"Oh. Hard luck."

"Not his fault." He smiles, and there's no joy in it. "Though I've thought about walking up to him and giving a good thumping on many an occasion since. No, that death squad had been sending me hate mail since I was taken off the investigation. Didn't matter to me, but they were posting them through the door when Joanie was there on her own..." He sighs. "Silly cow."

I nod. Never really understood why that sort of thing could drive someone to kill themselves. I mean, why not just bin the things after reading the first few lines?

"So, she killed herself, I joined up with Constantine, a journalist called Hughes and a Russian FIS agent agent named Sergei. Only the death squad got a kill order and rounded the lot of us up almost immediately. Except Constantine, who was out at the shops at the time. We all got hauled off to a place called Geotroniks. The bloody Masons were using it for some sort of.. magic research. Still not sure how seriously to take that part of it."

"Oh, fairly seriously."

"I am well aware that magic exists, I just didn't expect to run into it in a place like that." He rubs his chin with his right hand. "Part of the ritual involved killing us. They got most of us. Throttled a few of their people myself. Armed response shot the rest. Constantine walked away from it all, of course. Apparently, he does that a lot."

"Then what?"

"Police took my statement, wrote it off as gibberish and let me go. Sat around the house for a couple of days feeling sorry for myself, then gave myself a stern talking to and got up off my arse. I started volunteering at the local citizen's advice so there would be something to keep my brain ticking over. Then one of my old chums from the force paid me a visit. Seems that all the pressure they'd had on them to get rid of me had suddenly disappeared."

"They weren't seriously asking you back, were they?"

"No, but they'd give me early retirement with no fuss. I said that I'd think about it. None of the Geotroniks employees could have had the authority to order Scotland Yard to get rid of me, and that meant that the ones ultimately responsible were still at large. People died, and they were just going to walk away from the whole thing. As I hope you can appreciate, that made me rather angry."

"Is that when you bought the bomb?"

"Not quite, but it wasn't much later. No, I knew that if I was going to get them, the people who were really behind things, I'd have to do it intelligently. Gather evidence until I knew exactly who did what. I need to get all of them in one fell swoop. So I started making contacts. Poked around a bit, kept my ear to the ground. Learned a thing or two you might be interested in."

"You might well be right there."

"But there's a price." I raise my eyebrows. "I want to be there when you take them. I want to see them when you drag them off to wherever you're planning on taking them. If it's the last thing I do, I want to see it happen. I want to see my country cleansed of this filth."

I smile, nodding. "Mister Talbot, I do believe that we can come to terms."

12th May
14:37 GMT -5

"I hereby declare, and solemnly affirm, that I absolutely-"

I lean back in my wooden seat, trying to look like I'm giving the stage my full attention and trying to ignore the man to my immediate right.

"-and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty-"

It's a big day. We nearly had a bit of a misstep when Red Tornado tried using the version of the Oath from the nineteen forties, but Justice Stevens just stopped him and pointed out his mistake. Not really sure what the point of him bearing arms would be, but I suppose there has to be one rule for everyone where these things are concerned.

"-of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States-"

Danni has her right hand raised while she recites the Oath, having assured Justice Stevens that she knows the words for the modern version. Her face is serious but not blank in the way it would be if she didn't have her emotional simulation program active.

"-of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear-"

I can't really blame whoever it was who came up with the seating arrangement for putting me next to Lex Luthor. We both campaigned to make this happen, and… Yeah, it was reasonable to put us front and centre. I suppose that I was lucky, really. A little further down the row is a man who is either an actor or Uncle Sam.

"-true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf-"

I mean, really. Red and white striped trousers. I came in suit. I'll give him a pass on the blue waistcoat and tailcoat. The hair and the beard even manage to look distinguished.

"-of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the-"

But the hat currently resting on his lap kills it. A top hat is dubious anyway, the red and white stripes are a big no-no and the ring of stars makes him look like a flag cosplayer. Did Captain Nazi dress like a Prussian officer? No, he did not.

"-Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I-"

Of course, it might just not have been noticeable with Captain Nazi. The Nazis were dressed by Hugo Boss. He'd have thrown up all over his jackboots if the embodiment of fascism tried dressing like that. Apparently there wasn't any advanced notice that he was planning on turning up. I had thought about investigating him earlier but his last public appearance was in the seventies and I couldn't find any recent trails. I suppose this change to citizenship procedures was enough to bring him out of hiding. Is finding out what he's been up to worth the mental anguish of actually talking to him? No, probably not.

"-will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that-"

Goodness me this Oath thing is a bit militant, isn't it? What happened to the ideology? Where's liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Bah, I found the idea of something like this unsettling and I still think that the modern British version is better. Not that I -as a loyal citizen of Themyscira- am affected much either way.

"-I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion."

Danni lowers her right hand to shake hands with Justice Stevens, then with President Horne. He's the one I've got to thank for the fact that we couldn't Truth Lasso The Demon Constantine. Aahhh, I shouldn't complain, not about having to follow a law I broadly regard as being a good thing. Apparently, something happened in Congress, the final vote happened sooner than anyone really expected and Horne wanted to get it signed and in force as soon as possible. Originally, it was going to be signed at the start of this ceremony. Would have made it a better performance piece…

I join in with the polite applause, though to my left Marie Logan is a little more enthusiastic. No more cross-border intrusions these days; the Bialyan military is far too busy fighting itself or defecting to make a nuisance of themselves. They did take in a few civilian refugees, but they weren't really set up for hosting them long term. I spot the new ring on Marie's left hand and smile. Turns out that one of the refugees was a judge from a town on the Bialyan side of the border. Danni took the initiative; a short trip over to the Bialyan side took them to the only Middle Eastern country where gay marriage is a thing. I'd like to have been there, but apparently Danni decided that haste was the order of the day.

In the chair to her left, Garfield mostly just looks bored.

Dubbilex has already had his turn and Doctor Lockhart is still firmly in denial. Mister Dukeston is up next. Technically, he isn't a prisoner, since at the time his crimes were committed he wasn't legally a person. Red Tornado has been spending a good deal of time with him in the interim and apparently he's… More or less adjusted to his new life. Not that we were stupid enough to give him a replacement combat body or anything. From what Red Tornado told me, he's perfectly happy to be able to regain control of his business and has no intention of wasting any more of his time as a 'no-good low down supervillain, nosireebob'.

Ah, good luck to him. It's not as if there are a great many robot assassins in the country, and we control the only places he can go for anything more than cursory maintenance. I'd be astonished if he's on anything other than best behaviour… Quick check? No, emotional connections say normalcy and lawful money making.

"I hereby declare, on oath, that…"

I tune him out. These four will be the first, but they hope that other beings who don't fit the conventional definition of Human will be able to come forwards and claim citizenship. They'll have to make do with doing so in the normal manner, rather than on the White House lawns. The legal structures for Dubbilex to take formal control of Cadmus are already in place, though it won't change what he's up to on a day to day basis.

You know, this legal change is going to have a larger impact on my work. When I'm in the US, I'm going to have to exercise the same forbearance on the use of lethal force on Demons and the undead that I do on living organic people. Of course, that only applies to the US. The Azerbaijani authorities were rather annoyed that we didn't kill The Demon Constantine right then and there, and British law positively incentivises the slaying of 'unrighteous revenants'. Or would, if anyone but me remembered that the law existed. It's one of those old 'no sunset clause and still technically on the books' laws that no one is sure if they are actually still in force.

Ah, I love my old country.

The President shakes Mister Dukeston's hand and ushers his guests to the front of the stage for a photo opportunity. Photographers and camera crews out to the front of the seating area, and several of the people around me get to their feet. I give it a moment to make sure that that is what we're supposed to be doing, then push myself off my chair.

Lex is already upright, and Miss Graves has reappeared from wherever she was lurking. He looks up at the stage with a faint smile on his lips then turns to me. "I thought that went rather well."

"No Enginehead, Lex?"

He gives his head a small shake. "I offered, but he wasn't interested. It's hard to get him to abandon his datasets."

"I suppose there's no reason to assume that AIs would have the same range of interests as organic beings. Or-" I glance at up the robots on the stage. "-AIs patterned after organic beings."

"No. Still, the protections of the law still apply to him even without this ceremony. My personnel department is trying to work out exactly what his services are worth to us so that we can determine what we're supposed to pay him. It wouldn't do at all for me to be seen as abusing our relationship."

'Seen as', I note. "I assume that he has access to counsel?"

"Naturally."

He's probably being honest. Lex does tend to treat his employees -at least those he directly employs in the various Lex-businesses- fairly well.

"I am curious as to why my son isn't here. Legally speaking, he was a US citizen before he became a Themysciran citizen."

The actual answer is that Prince Kon doesn't identify with the US. Conner Kent on the other hand is already a US citizen, though not through normal processes of application. "He's happy as he is. A diplomatic passport gives him all the legal protection he needs, and I'm fairly confident that he never intends to run for president."

"Ah." Lex bows his head slightly. "I had thought -given that he spends most of his time here- that he might have developed a stronger feeling for this country. Still, I suppose it's his decision to make." He looks past me for a moment. "Excuse me, I need to go and thank Senator Jeffreys for his support."

I nod, and he heads off to gladhand.

13th May
20:17 GMT

Our host frowns at us from his place on the family settee. "Not as far as I know, but I do not mind introducing you to a few people who might know better than me."

There are only so many sources of super speed in the world, and without any other leads to go on I suggested that we find out exactly how broad our ignorance is. Which is why we're sitting in the Birmingham home of Mister Aavai Singh (aka Rush Hour 1) to try finding out how the heck a seventy one year old man from the Punjab acquired the ability to run faster than a speeding bullet. He also picked up super speed reflexes that are always on, though he can't move through solid objects or run on water. Thanks to me his son-in-law is on the League long list and I know that Diana is keeping in touch with his granddaughter.

Richard nods. "It would be a big help."

I was just going to do this on my own, but Richard said that he really wanted to be out of Wayne Manor this evening. With the wedding coming up tomorrow things are a bit manic. I suppose going from three people living there to four, five, and now the extended family of both parties and a lot more servants-. Is that the PC term? The help? Whatever. Wayne Manor is actually overcapacity for the first time in decades. Mostly the bride's family of course, but Bat-. But Bruce's Aunt Agatha is temporarily in residence, along with her nursing staff and a smattering of more distant relatives.

Mister Singh nods, then frowns at me. "What is this I hear about you using Demons?"

Um. "Technically, they aren't Demons."

"Technically?"

His accent is an odd mix of Punjabi and Brummie, with the first being predominant. "As I understand the process by which they are created, every bit of demonic magic is consumed in the assimilation process."

"And what is that?"

"What I do to make them. As I said, technically they're just Demony-looking constructs. They keep some of their original instincts, but that's because it's easier to give them broadly worded instructions than direct them every moment myself. I would be extremely reluctant to trust a Demon with anything."

"Ah." He nods. "I do not like it much, but-" I hear a key in the front door. "-I will trust that you know what you are doing."

"Papa?! Are you home?!"

Mister Singh turns his head in the direction of the door. "Living room, Dennis!"

Dennis Singh née Brown pushes open the door from the hallway. "Hello, lads." Something of a rarity, he's a white British man who converted to Sikhism while on a gap year in India. He's married to Mister Singh's-. To Aavai Singh's daughter Adish.

Ugh, it's awkward to talk about people when half of their entire religion has the same surname. Yes, the caste system needed to go but couldn't the Guru have come up with a less linguistically awkward fix?

"Are they really here?" His daughter Vasi enters the room on her father's heels. I'm on my feet before I really think about it, and Richard follows me before he realises that I'm just 'being English'. Her eyes widen excitedly as she spots us and then she's in front of us, beaming.

Her grandfather frowns at her back. "Vasi. Manners."

She ignores him and holds out a small book towards Richard. "Could you sign it?"

He smiles back at her. "Okay, sure. Got a pen?"

Dennis walks up to me, right hand extended. I take hold of it and we shake. I've actually spoken to him a few times before while assembling my long list and adding to the League's non-US database. "What brings you to Birmingham, mate?"

"We had an encounter with a speedster last week, and we couldn't work out how they were moving that fast." I shrug. "I thought I'd ask if you knew anything."

Vasi blurs to the closest chest of drawers and back, presenting Richard with a biro. He takes it. "So, do I make it out to Rush Hour or Vasi Kaur?"

Dennis shakes his head. "Papa taught me, and the only person I've taught is Vasi. Vasi, you haven't been training anyone, have you."

"What?" She looks away from Richard. "No, of course not, Dad."

"Papa? You taught anyone else?" He holds his hands up. "I promise I won't be jealous."

"I have already told them that I have not. My brother Tekbir knew, but he died without teaching anyone. Our father knew, but he taught only us."

Richard finishes signing his name and hands the book back to Vasi, who looks delighted with it. "It's something you can just learn?"

"Johnny Quick's technique is something you can just learn." I remember my own attempts to visualise exactly what the hell '3X2(9YZ)4A' actually looks like. "Apparently."

Aavai shakes his head. "The names of everyone my family has acknowledged teaching are a matter of record, and I do not think that there is anyone in my family who would have taught a criminal."

"Um. Are you allowed to tell.. us... What it is you do?"

Dennis and Vasi look at him as he ponders the question.

"What religion are you?"

"Hellenist. I worship Eris, Goddess of Chaos."

Vasi blinks in surprise. "Really?"

"You did realise that Wonder Woman-?"

"Yes. But... I didn't think other people did?"

"The proof of the physical reality of a god is quite a draw for many people."

"I'm Episcopalian." Richard looks over our hosts. "If it matters."

Aavai bows his head slightly. "It is not the answer which I was expecting, but I suppose that it does not matter. We swear only to never give information on the subject to Muslims. The source of our speed takes the form of a prayer. To receive it you must open your mind and spirit to God and to the one teaching you in just the right fashion. If you do this, someone who already has it may share it with you. It is not written down and there is no way it could be passed on accidentally." He glances at Dennis. "No matter what my son-in-law tries to tell me."

Vasi rolls her eyes. "Oh, don't start, granddad."

Richard looks at him with undisguised curiosity. "So where did it come from in the first place?"

"A Hindu teacher to whom one of my ancestors gave shelter from the forces of the Mughal Empire. The version of the story I was told by my grandfather was that he was displeased by the inability of his own disciples to master his teachings and so he attempted to instruct my ancestor, who learned it in a single night." He smiles, shaking his head. "That was probably not what actually happened, but I'm afraid that there is no written record and no one thought to remember where the Hindu got it from."

"I haven't seen any super speed Hindus running around the place, so they probably didn't teach anyone else."

Richard frowns. "Isn't that kinda weird? I mean, if it was a Hindu prayer..?"

Aavai opens his mouth slightly, then closes it with a sigh. "Dennis, I can feel you vibrating. If you want to explain it, then explain it."

He grins the grin of someone who isn't allowed to eloquate on the subject he loves anything like often enough, and has just received an unlimited licence. "At the time, Hindus and Sikhs were mostly allied against the Muslim Mughals. Sikhism is monotheistic, but it isn't Abrahamic and it actually has a lot more in common with Hinduism than with Islam or Christianity. All of the first generation Sikhs were Hindu converts, and for a long time a lot of Hindus regarded Sikhism as an odd sort of Hindu denomination that only saw God as one thing rather than lots of things that were also one thing. The particular way Hinduism was practised varied a lot from place to place, and which particular god or goddess had a big following in a particular area. As long as a Sikh didn't eat beef right in front of them, the fact that a Sikh considered themselves to be a Sikh and not a Hindu probably wouldn't have mattered much to them."

Ah, the zeal of the convert.

"Of course, things aren't anything like that friendly now." He jerks his head to the side. "Well, not in India or Pakistan. There's no real animosity here, not among people who've been in Britain for a generation or two."

Aavai nods. "We believe in reincarnation as they do and in the same sorts of virtues and vices. Unless a particular prayer absolutely needed to be addressed to one of the Hindu gods on an individual basis, it would be compatible with Sikh thought and spirituality."

Richard nods. "Are there any other sorts of prayer power that you know of?"

"Oh, heh." Aavai laughs. "I would say that a great many Hindu superheroes probably received their powers in a similar sort of way."

"So do people know how to make more prayer powers like that?"

That brings him up short. He and Dennis share a moment of eye contact, then he shrugs. "They may. If anyone does, they are keeping it very quiet. I certainly do not know how it could be done. If I had to guess, I would say that God granted it to the first holder. But I do not know." He frowns. "If you find out, be certain to let me know. That is going to bother me all day now."

13th May
17:22 GMT -5

Richard, Artemis and I stand well back from the orange and yellow blurs darting around the holographic table tennis table. As with Donna, school commitments make it impossible for Vasi to join the team. Still, Diana was happy to approve a visit to the Mountain and for her to meet with those team members in residence.

"Point, Rush Hour."

The two of them precipitate out of the air. Vasi is panting heavily, her uniform darkening with her sweat. Wallace slowly jogs over to where he stowed his towel then pulls his mask away from his face to mop his brow.

Artemis smirks in his direction. "Still feeling confident, Kid?"

He drops his towel and picks up his water bottle. "I'm just..." He drinks a slug and then tips some over his face. "I'm just.. warming up."

Vasi straightens up and stretches her arms over her head. "Your... Your service?"

"Yeah. Yeahokay." He wipes his face once more and then toddles back towards the table.

Richard glances at me as Wallace serves and the two of them disappear again. "Wanna change your bet?"

"No. Kid Flash has become a lot more mature since we first met. He'll get over his reluctance to steal her speed eventually."

Artemis raises her left eyebrow. "That's something he can just do now? You said Clariss could stop sound waves."

"Not exactly. He tried it out with the Flash. He can slow down someone else with super speed and make himself faster by the same amount. At the moment."

"Point, Kid Flash."

"Alright!"

"At the moment?"

"He said he wants to keep training with Max. Max taught Jay, and there's a lot he could learn."

Artemis nods, opens her mouth slightly and then closes it again. Then she frowns slightly. "Has he said anything about it.... Doing anything about his... Eating..?"

"It might end up helping with that, but it hasn't yet." Richard looks down slightly. "Nothing the Russians came up with really helped either. I mean, they gave us a whole lot of things that they found out didn't work..."

"Think we should suggest that he talk to Rush Hour Senior about maybe accessing their form of super speed?"

"Maybe. I dunno. I mean, we've got no idea what it would do to someone who already had super speed."

"We tried Johnny Quick's formula without knowing that."

"I don't really think that was a good idea either, Oh El."

"Point, Kid Flash."

"My serve!"

There's a noise behind us, and I half turn to see the Sphere roll in. It warbles briefly and then rolls up alongside us. Had to admit, I'm a little surprised that it didn't go back to New Genesis with the young New Gods. Canis hasn't said anything about it but its presence appears to be confusing him slightly as well. Though probably not for the same reasons.

"You two got your outfits picked out for tomorrow?"

Richard raises his eyebrows. "We're guys, and I have a butler. So, yeah, that was taken care of really quickly."

"Remind me again how Richard Grayson knows Orange Lantern?"

"You're representing KordTech's Future Technology project. WayneTech is very interested in the commercial potential of some of the things your think tank has been coming up with. Lucius will probably want to talk to you at some point."

"Seems a bit... Distant? Inviting potential business partners to your wedding?"

"Half the people there are going to be people we barely know. Including the bride's relatives." Richard shrugs. "I didn't even know I had cousins."

We watch the blurs for a few moments.

Artemis shifts position slightly. "I've.. never actually been to an actual church service before. I don't.. really know how I'm meant to act."

"Really? Never?"

"Supervillains aren't really big on God."

"You know, you're totally ruining my mental image of Americans here."

"You said you used to be an atheist! How many times have you been to church?"

"Church of England Primary School, so... Two or three times a year between the ages of five and eleven? Might have gone to chapel with my Nan a few times, but if I did I don't remember it. Never been inside a working cathedral, though. Actually..." I frown. "Saint Augustine's is Catholic, isn't it? You said you were Episcopalian."

"He's Catholic. When... When I was living with my parents, we weren't exactly regular churchgoers. But, whenever we went and we had a choice, we went to an Episcopalian church. Or whatever the local Anglican church was. After they died and I moved in, he switched over so I could keep going to the sorts of service I was used to."

"I suppose that Catholicism is a bit of an acquired taste." Huh. "I hadn't thought about it before, but... What religion is the bride?"

"Lapsed Zoroastrian."

I chuckle in surprise. "Really? That's a thing?"

"Those were the sorts of social rituals that Ra's brought her up with. I'm not sure how seriously she took it. She seems happy with the venue just because it's big and fancy."

"And I imagine.. it would be a bit tricky... Finding a Zoroastrian venue big enough.. in... America, actually." I frown. "Wait, Ra's was a Zoroastrian and he worked with a Chaos Lord?"

"I guess he wasn't practicing either."

"Point, Kid Flash."

"Only one more to go!"

"You'll never get it!"

"What are the rest of her family like?"

"Pretty normal, actually. Oh, and they don't know what her father actually did, just that Melisande married a guy from the Middle East."

"I should hope not. Just in case it comes up, what is the official line on his occupation?"

"Shipping. That's what most of her legitimate businesses do, so they shouldn't question it if it comes up. Though... You might not.. know.. that."

I nod. "Because there's no real reason for a superhero to know anything about a Middle Eastern shipping mogul, right."

Artemis looks down at him. "Are you gunna be able to pretend you don't know all of the people you know?"

"It won't be too bad. I know you from school, people have already seen me with Wally when we were both out of costume. The Wayne Foundation donates to one of Wonder Woman's charities so I've met her before, and if I know her people could believe that I met her son. I haven't 'met' M'gann but Kon can introduce me. Really, it's just Orange Lantern I have to pretend I don't know."

"You know, when I decided not to have a secret identity? This sort of thing never occurred to me. Oh, we might have met. I introduced Wallace West to the brain trust. Which means that he knows Orange Lantern and could conceivably have introduced us."

Richard thinks about it for a moment. "It's a bit of a stretch. He lives in Central City. There isn't much reason for the three of us to be together in one place."

"What sort of security are you having?" Richard raises his eyebrows at Artemis' question. "'Cause we both know there's a lot of crazy people in Gotham and there'll be a lot of rich people at the wedding. They don't know that Batman's not gunna be available, but that's never stopped them before."

"There'll be armed guards, and Superboy, Wonder Woman and Orange Lantern will be there openly. It shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Point, Rush Hour."

"Yes!"

14th May
08:17 GMT -5

"The fuck..?"

I… Could have planned this better. Surprising how often I end up thinking that, considering, y'know, power ring. I mean, scanning my environment for weapons and nothing else is probably the ethical option but it does lead to me getting blindsided by things I might otherwise have avoided. I knew that Jade was working as a bodyguard for Erminia Inzerillo but I also knew that due to traditional mob sexism she was only really involved in the legitimate parts of the family business. Jade's shift finishes… About now, so I said that since I was going to be in Gotham I'd give her a lift home. Erminia makes her home in a rather nice apartment building. I was waiting in the lobby and admiring the very nice floral arrangements decorating it, then who should stride through the doors but…

Jacopo Inzerillo looks at me in disbelief while his bodyguard -not either of the two I've seen before- appears to wince slightly. 'First offence' and a few favours called in resulted in him getting a fine and a suspended sentence. Oh, Commissioner Gordon knew a good thing when he saw it and added a few delays to the process. Jacopo spent some time in prison on remand, and the final plea was 'guilty' rather than the 'this never happened' that would have been the result only a decade ago. His younger bodyguard on the other hand is still in Blackgate for shooting me.

"Mister Inzerillo." I smile. "Good morning."

"I say it again: {red}the fuck{/}?"

My smile broadens. "If you could narrow it down a little..?"

Eyes flare, fists ball and he {red}steps forwards{/} a step before his bodyguard's meaty right hand plants itself on his left shoulder. He stops at once, his eyes reluctantly leaving my face and shifting to his escort. Once the bodyguard is certain that he's stopped, he releases his employer. "Sorry, Mister Inzerillo, but the boss said-."

"I know what Dad said." He {green}takes a moment{/} to get himself back under control, dramatically shaking and straightening out his suit jacket.

"Mister Inzerillo, you really should listen to your father."

He stare at me in aggrieved astonishment. "Awh, I don't fuckin' believe this! What makes you think you get t' tell me what to do?"

"I don't think I can tell you what to do. However, picking a fight with someone in a public venue isn't clever, not with Gordon in the Commissioner's office and not with someone with whom you have a history. You were lucky to get out of it without a custodial sentence last time. I suggest that you show a little wisdom here." And let's leave out the fact that I was beating you even without a power ring and I'm now wearing two. "There's a time for open confrontation and a time for keeping things calm."

"Did you fuckin' talk to Dad about this?" He points with his right index finger, then wiggles it back and forth. "Did the two of you set this up t' teach me a lesson?"

"Mister Inzerillo, your father was running your family when the Reaper was cutting a swath through the Five Families. Your grandfather was running it when Green Lantern still lived around here. You grew up in a city where a sufficiently powerful criminal could get away with whatever they wanted, but… That's not the Gotham you're living in at the moment."

"Word fa' {red}fuckin{/}' word!" He stomps in a small circle, arms spread out in an appeal to the universe. "I don't believe this shit!"

"There's no point taking a risk if there's no payoff. There's no benefit in fighting me. And I'm not really sure what you hoped to achieve at that restaurant, either." He comes back around, staring at me intently. "Not getting your temper under control is going to cost you and your family money. It's going to give the police leverage you don't want them to have." I hold out my right hand, palm upwards. "Now is the time for sensible men to be honest."

"I {red}ain't gunna{/}-!"

"Grow up ever, Jaco?" He transfers his glare to the stairs behind us and I take a step to the side to see who else has decided to join in. Erminia ignores her brother, preferring to look at me as she comes down the stairs. Jade and a blonde woman whom I don't recognise but who I assume is the day shift stay back slightly, hands unencumbered so that they can reach weapons quickly if they have to. Her eyes only return to him when she finishes the journey to the ground floor. "Our father tries to teach you, Uncle Marc tried to teach you… Even a superhero understands better than you do."

"Oh yeah? And what would you do?"

"Oh, it's not complicated. If fighting isn't getting you what you want, make peace." She walks up to me, a polite smile on her lips. "Orange Lantern, permit me to introduce myself." There's a slight pause before she continues. "I am Erminia Inzerillo."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Inzerillo." I take hold of her right hand in my own and raise it to my lips, lightly kissing her knuckles. "I am pleased to hear that your father's lessons weren't wasted on you."

The kiss gets a surprised blink, then her smile broadens before her head turns back to her brother. "You see, Jaco? That wasn't hard at all."

Satisfying as completely smashing Gotham's mobs would be, if it could be done by conventional investigation and conviction Batman would have done it by now. As with police corruption, going after the worst offenders and threatening the same to anyone who doesn't smarten up is far more likely to produce the desired end state with fewer casualties than open warfare. I don't think it likely that Jacopo is going to be amongst the winners, but him getting his head around the idea would make it a virtual certainty that the Inzerillo family would straighten itself out. Plus I've had a nagging fear since the restaurant that him or his might target Holly or Karon at some point.

So…

I step around Miss Inzerillo and take a few steps towards her brother. "Mister Inzerillo, we seem to have gotten off to a rough start." I hold out my right hand towards Jacopo. "I'd like to put that behind us."

Since I'm not a gangster, him refusing won't result in my whole family waging war with his on the Gotham streets. It won't even cost him money. On the other hand, he knows that this will get back to his father. If his bodyguard doesn't mention it when questioned, his sister certainly will.

And he knows it.

Staring into my eyes, he takes my hand and shakes it exactly once. "Yeah. Let's do that."

"Oh, that is nice to see."

Jacopo lets go and steps back. "Yeah, whatever. Erminia, we got business to discuss."

"I was heading out for breakfast." She walks past us both, blonde bodyguard following on behind. "We can talk shop at the restaurant."

"Right…" Jacopo doesn't glare at me this time, but for a moment he looks like he's trying to weigh me up. Then he shakes his head, dismissing me from his mind as he and his escort turn to go after his sister.

Jade pulls up alongside me. "That looked fun."

"I.. didn't just get you into any trouble, did I?"

"I doubt it. Erminia loves taking any chance she gets to make her brother feel stupid. And she already knows that I know you."

"Glad to hear it." I extend the crook of my left arm. "Shall we get going?"

She looks into my eyes, then at my proffered arm, then back up to my face. Her eyebrows rise a little and her head tilts slightly forwards in a posture of polite incredulity. Then she turns to face the door and threads her right arm through it. Together we head towards the exit.

"Who did you end up asking?"

"Well, you-."

"You asked me first? I'm flattered."

"Holly was working, Karon and I don't really have a going-to-weddings relationship, Selina's on villainwatch so can't attend… I thought that inviting Doctor Sivana to a wedding was a bit much for a second date."

"Probably."

A wave of orange pushes the doors open in front of us as we leave the building. "Kon and Zatanna are going anyway. Tuppence is still in prison-."

"Tuppence Terror. Really."

"Really." We turn and head towards where I've parked. "She'd almost certainly have said no, but asking would indicate that I wasn't looking at her as a project or victim but as a person."

"What would you have done if she'd said yes?"

"I'd have taken her… After assuring her brother that I would comport myself appropriately."

Jade doesn't quite bite her lip, but she does take a moment before replying. "Did you invite an Amazon?"

"Most of them wouldn't want to enter a Christian place of worship."

"You're not going on your own, are you?"

"No, the ole address book wasn't quite empty."

"Jade! Hey theeyah!"

Jade stops as my date waves at her from the window of my car, leaning over from the passenger side while trying not to crease her dress. "You invited Doctor Quinzel. The Belle Reve prison counsellor."

I shrug. "I've spent quite a lot of time with her, and she lived in Gotham for years. And I enjoy her company."

Her grip on my arm tightens. "Has she told you anything about my sessions?"

"Of course not. That would be completely inappropriate. She's delighted that you've gone straight, though. Not a lot of her patients do." I look at her for a moment. "Is this a problem?"

From the way she hesitates, I'd say that the answer is 'yes'.

"Look, it was her or your mother, so-."

"Doctor Quinzel!" Jade pulls away and strides towards my car. "How are you?"

14th May
08:23 GMT -5

Harleen leans forward slightly to peer at the dashboard. "Say, what sorta car is this, anyways?"

My eyes flick to her for a fraction of a second as we approach an intersection. Honestly, what's wrong with roundabouts? "It's a custom vehicle I created myself."

She turns her head towards me slightly. "F'real? Your insurance premiums must be nahsty."

"They're not that bad. I think they consider insuring superheroes to make their vehicles road legal to be a public service." Okay, we're going… Left, which means that the red light means red. In Britain where we use the red-can-mean-go convention we actually have a green curved arrow to indicate it.

Driving lessons in Happy Harbour didn't really prepare me for city driving.

She pulls open the glove compartment. "Where's the button fer tha miss'le launcher?"

"There isn't one." Gently accelerate, turning… "Missiles aren't space-efficient."

"So it's just, like, a car-car? Nuthin' special at all?" She looks around the front of the car. "That's kinda dissapoint'n'."

"The car has a force field and its own power plant. The Renault Racoon I patterned the body after could travel on water; mine can travel in space."

"Why would you-" I glance at the rear view mirror and see Jade's incredulity. "-design a car that would travel in space?"

"Well, I started designing a car that would be proof against chemical or biological attack, and since I had to make it airtight and.. that meant that it needed an atmosphere recycling system… Making it space capable didn't take much more work."

Harleen perks up. "It can fly."

"Ah, yes, but-."

"So how comes we're drivin' when we could be flyin'?"

"Because a flying car would risk drawing more attention to my friends' house than I really want. By the same token, I don't intend for us to fly to the wedding. Superheroes are going to be enough of a distraction without me actively seeking to draw attention to myself." I turn into the road upon which lies Holly and Karon's home. "And it's not really designed to be fast in space, and atmosphere flight is different to space flight."

"Why do you even have a car?"

I look up once more to meet Jade's eyes via the mirror. "Kon and M'gann were having driving lessons. I.. thought that it could be something we could do together. I had some lessons back on Earth Prime, but I never did pass my test." True, actually. I got the train to work and the shops were in easy walking distance. Of course, my lessons were a little further back than I'm implying.

"Are there lasers?"

"There's a laser communicator. I didn't design this as a combat vehicle. It wouldn't have a windscreen like this if I had."

Okay… And… Indicate…

I park the car at the side of the road just outside Holly and Karon's house. "And, we're here." I twist around in my seat. "Have a pleasant day's sleep."

One problem with the original Racoon design was the lack of individual doors. Not restricted by earthly building materials I was able to work around the problem. Jade presses the 'open door' button, which causes the car to check the chemistry of the air outside before opening. The 'glass' which makes up the roof and upper part of the side then liquefies and the body section slides out and then folds up out of the way. She then gets out and walks along the side of the car, then taps on my window. A simple motion of my hand causes a convenient conversation-sized hole to open, a motion mirrored by her car door oozing shut.

"Thanks for the lift."

"Not a problem at all."

She hesitates, then looks around the street for a moment. No one close by. She beckons, and I lean forwards. "You know, I was surprised to hear that Talia was getting married."

"Oh? Why's that?{orange}"
{/}
"We weren't close, but it wasn't a secret in the League that she was interested in Batman."

"So I'm told.{orange}"
{/}
"And less than a year after the League was destroyed, she's getting married to a man with a similar physique who moved back to Gotham just before Batman became active and who has an adopted son roughly the same age as Robin."

"I suppose that she is." I smile politely. "Maybe she has a type?{orange}"
{/}
"Yeah." She nods. "That's probably it." She takes a step backwards from the car. "Have fun at the wedding."

I nod as she turns away, then I close the window and turn my attention back to the road.

"Sheeeee freaked when she saw me, didn't she?"

"I wouldn't say… Freaked."

"Nah, you'd say somethin' like 'astonished'." Her New York accent is momentarily replaced with something closer to Received Pronunciation. "Or maybe 'flabbergasted'." 'Garsted', I note. Not 'gearsted'.

"She seemed concerned that you-" I press down on the accelerator and the car pulls away from the curb. "-might have discussed her sessions with me. Obviously, I told her that you hadn't."

Harleen frowns. "That'd be a complete breach of professional ethics."

"Not.. assuming.. anything about anything she may or may not have said-"

"Shuwer."

"-but you know what her upbringing was like, even if it's just from her files. Her reaction suggests that she actually did talk about something personal with you, rather than just doing what I assumed that she'd do and just sit silently in the chair until the time ran out. She'd hate the idea that that got out and she doesn't trust you in the same way she does me."

"I suppose. She seein' anyone now?"

"If so, she hasn't mentioned it. I'd guess not, but I try not to monitor her that closely."

"Yeyeah, that probably wouldn't turn out so well." She faces forwards, watching the road go by. "How exactly did'ja swing these invites?"

"It's a high society wedding. Neither Mister Wayne nor Ms Head are all that close to their extended family. Otherwise they might have gone in for a smaller event. One of my.. ongoing projects is helping people with revolutionary technology bring it to market. WayneTech have been sending feelers in our direction. Plus, celebrity value." Huh. It looks like Gotham City is cutting back on road and pavement repairs. I can see weeds poking through the tarmac and paving slabs in dozens of places. Might come back later and fix that myself.

"How long were yeh plannin' on us stayin' for?"

"Don't know, really. We're invited to the reception, and it's been a while since I've been to one of these things." Kon's generally Diana's escort at diplomatic functions these days. My other work is taking up the time I used to have to attend. "We can probably leave after a few hours if you get bored… Or stay until kicking out time. Up to you, really."

"I was… Wonderin'… Could we go flyin' later? Not in a plane, but, like, with yower ring or somethin'?" My eyes flick her way, left eyebrow raised. "I know that transition thing you do is fahster, but I always wondered what it was like. Y'know, jus' flyin' around the sky under yer own powah?"

I nod. "If you like… Sure. I enjoy it, but it's so inefficient. I can even lend you one of my spare kinetic belts, if you like."

"Rilly? That'd be amazin'!"

I smile. "No problem at all. You should probably change your clothes first, though. Flying and dresses don't mix."

14th May
08:48 GMT -5

"Alright, I give up."

"You can't give up." Harleen looks around to see if she can spot somewhere to park the car that I've missed. "We'll just have t' walk a bit further."

I raise my right eyebrow. "In those shoes? You'll break your neck."

She turns my way, smiling brightly. "You could always carry me."

The suggested time to arrive at the cathedral is nine o'clock, with the ceremony starting at half past. As a result, south east Gotham is gridlocked, normal Saturday morning traffic battling with the limousines of Bruce Wayne's wealthy friends and allies.

And we haven't moved significantly in the last four minutes. I can see the cathedral from here easily enough, but there's nowhere to park.

"No, giving up." I let go of the wheel and lean back against my seat. "Even if we did just walk from further away, we'd still need to get out of this morass first and we'll never manage that in twelve minutes. Let's get out."

I undo my safety belt -I was originally going to build this car with kinetic barriers instead of belts, but it was pointed out by Kon that the law in several places required belts- and then poke the appropriate button on the door, causing the driver side door to ooze open. Nice thing about it opening upwards is that I don't have to worry about scratching the car next to us, the driver of which is regarding me with some concern. Harleen gives me another concerned look and then decides to follow my lead, pressing the release on the passenger side door and getting out onto the pavement.

"You jus' plannin' on leavin' it here? Gotham ain't never gunna be that safe."

"No." I raise my right hand, a small fob construct appearing in my fingers. With a bleep, orange filaments flick out and deposit the decidedly non-magical car into subspace. I don't intend to leave it there -I rent a garage in Happy Harbour- but it'll be far less annoying than trying to find somewhere to park it now.

Harleen blinks in surprise. "Guess that works."

I jog across the now empty space, making it to the pavement just before the car behind us takes the initiative to move up. More than a few carfuls of people are just staring at me, and I give them all a quick wave with my right hand before using it to take hold of Harleen's left.

"Shall we?"

We start walking down the Gotham street, a map forming in my head. This is one of the nicer parts of Gotham. Even in the bad days these streets didn't get that bad. Not during the day, anyway. Crimes in these parts mostly happened behind closed doors. Huh.

"Is the decorative Ivy a Gotham thing? I don't think I've seen it before."

Harleen follows my gaze up at the wall of the building we're walking past. "Not unless they stawted afteh I left. Looks pretty." There's a brief flicker of concern. "Unless Poison Ivy's gotten outa Arkham."

"No, I checked. She's barely done anything since me and mine took down the Injustice League."

"That was you? I mean, I saw you on tha news with Ad-. Adom?" I nod. "But I don' rememba hearin' what happened to the rest of 'em."

"I'm afraid that I'm not supposed-."

"Yeah, yeah."

"But Doctor Isley ended up having her connection to plantlife removed. No more plant control, no more symbiotic plant microbes and no more-. Ah, no external pressure on her mind driving her mad."

Harleen nods, looking forwards as she thinks it over. "I tawked t' her a couple times, but that all happened afteh I went to Belle Reve."

"If you're interested, I could try and get an appointment with Doctor Young. See if there's been any progress."

The corners of her mouth turn down slightly. "Let's.. not do that."

"{indigo}Problem{/}?"

Harleen tosses her head. "She always hated me. Thawt I got int' Arkham by sleeping with Strange. Like gowin' t' Arkham's such a great career move."

"You said that the Trust paid for your studies?"

"Yeyeah, but…" She takes a deep breath and sighs it out. "Strange had me pegged from the stawt. Gave me access t' more interestin' patients. Didn't break the rules or nothin'…" Another breath. "But it made me feel like he was doin' me special favors while at tha same time makin' me nervous so I'd be lookin' t' him for protection."

"You.. know that for sure, or-?"

"You followin' his trial?"

"Can't say I was. I used to always follow up on people I arrested, then I arrested the entire League of Shadows. It stopped being practical."

"Defence entah'd a whole lotta his records int' evidence. Bearstad actually explained what he was doin' like… Like I was a study or somethin'."

At least that means that they're guaranteed to get a conviction, I suppose. I slide my right hand free and put it around her waist. Her left hand hangs for a moment before slipping under my jacket to reciprocate.

The cathedral looms large on our left, and I see a few members of the Gotham police force trying to bring order to the jam. We're not the only ones walking this way, and names and faces flicker in my vision as the rings try to link them to the guest list. Or the suspects list.

"So we're shuwer that Ivy ain't been redecoratin'."

"Even if she could, they aren't grappling passers-by or releasing poisonous spores. Just decorating doesn't fit her modus operandi."

"Huh."

We look left and right before crossing the zebra crossing to the pavement outside the cathedral. A few heads look around when they see that we're joining the party but as I've noticed before: if I'm not actually wearing my armour and the environmental shield is turned down I don't actually attract all that much attention.

"Oh, I forgot to ask: are you a Catholic?"

"I ain't been to church f' years."

"Um… Is that a yes? Or a no?"

"The few times I've evah been to church, I didn't rilly pay much attention t' who it belonged to."

"Fair enough. I've never actually been to a church wedding, but-."

"Paul!"

Our heads simultaneously jerk around as we hear Nyssa's voice. She's heading our way with…

…

Was not expecting that.

"I think that you already know Doctor Sivana."

Magnificus nods. And… My goodness, that's a very slight smile.

"And this is my-" She looks at the black haired man on her other side. "-great grandson Vasily Arketov." I recognise him from the pictures but this is the first time I've met him in person. I free my right hand from Harleen's side and take his hand. "His wife Polina." I nod as I shake her husband's hand. "And this is little Yuliya." Nyssa picks up a girl of four or five, to the child's obvious tolerance. "And who is this?"

"This is Doctor Harleen Quinzel." Nyssa deposits her great great granddaughter back next to her mother and then steps forward to kiss the momentarily surprised Harleen on the cheek. "Harleen, this is Nyssa Raatko, Talia Head's sister."

Harleen nods, now a little more up to speed. "Hi there."

Nyssa turns to her date. "Magnificus, I believe there was-."

He nods. "Yes yes. Quinzel, you're the one looking after… The other two. The proto-." He stops himself, closes his eyes and tries calming himself. "The Beresfords. I… Think it would behove me to offer my assistance in their rehabilitation. If.. you think it would help. I was… A bit of an ass when we first spoke, and…"

Harleen nods, smiling. "That's real nice a' yeh. Maybe y'c'n join in next time Doctor Munro tawks to 'em?"

Magnificus nods. "Yes. I think I'd appreciate that."

14th May
11:26 GMT -5

"I have to admit, Commissioner, that I spent virtually the entire ceremony braced for some sort of attack."

"Ye-ah." Commissioner Gordon looks down at his drink. "I wouldn't be surprised if just about everyone was."

But -in defiance of all convention- the event happened without any significant hitch I could detect. I think the decorators might have overdone the flowers a bit as there were more than a few frantically suppressed sneezes from those seated next to them, but no armed lunatics breaking in, no instances of poisoning or… I don't know, earthquakes or demonic possession or anything.

"I mean… No offence intended to your department or anyt-."

"No need to sugar coat it." He looks up. "Not like I don't know what the GCPD's reputation is like."

"Your officers appeared to be on the ball today."

"WayneTech has been generous enough to donate more than a few pieces of low-lethality defence equipment to us over the years. My guys know that they've got Wayne to thank every time a flak vest catches a bullet the police standard vest wouldn't or when they get to subdue a perp with a sonic stunner rather than a night stick." He nods, looking around the gardens. "Wayne's got a lot of good will from just about everybody. And it certainly doesn't hurt that all of the usual suspects are inside."

"Oh, did you find Garfield Lynns?"

The left side of his lip curls upwards. "Yeah. He's in Blackgate's medical wing, recovering from having most of a warehouse fall on him."

"Good work." He takes a sip from his champagne glass. Mister Pennyworth attracted quite an audience opening the bottles with a sabre. "Ah, if you don't mind me asking a.. slightly personal question..?"

He shrugs. "Go right ahead."

"What exactly attracted you to Gotham in the first place? I mean, Chicago isn't the most friendly city in the world, but… When you first arrived in Gotham, the place was…"

"In need of a good spring cleaning?" I nod. "Well, the first part is that I didn't know that at the time. I mean, I knew it was rough, but I really didn't appreciate quite how bad things were here. Second part was that it was a promotion and I had-." He cuts himself off, his eyes moving away for a moment. "Well, there was James Junior and my wife was pregnant with Babs. We certainly needed the money and turning down a promotion didn't sound like the smart thing to do."

I nod sympathetically. His marriage to Barbara Eileen Gordon ended fairly recently, and for some reason she got custody of their son while Barbara… Junior? Is that how it works with girls' names? Note to self, if you ever have children don't name them after either yourself or their mother and certainly don't name all of them like that. Anyway, he got custody of Batgirl-Barbara, who isn't currently Batgirl. I think I remember his ex-wife from Batman: Year One and the Nolan films, but she didn't have much presence other than being the one he went back to after ending his affair with the far better characterised Sarah Essen. With Chicago in Illinois and Gotham being in Connecticut, visiting can't be easy.

"And the third… Eh, there was an incident…"

"Um, when you say 'incident'-?"

"James! Good of you to come."

We turn away from one another as Bruce Wayne walks over, new wife on his arm. I can't quite resist doing a quick scan just in case there is some sort of mind control at work, but the only change I'm seeing from his normal resting mindset is the violet haze which presumably can be attributed to perfectly normal causes. Again, I'm impressed by the divide between Batman's body language and what I'm seeing as he and Commissioner Gordon shake hands. Even sticking a mental sheet over the parts of his face his cowl normally covers… I wouldn't think it was him.

"Bruce. Talia. Congratulations to you both."

Talia smiles in a way which demonstrates to me that she hasn't mastered the secret identity/public identity divide in quite the same way as her new husband. "Thank you, Commissioner."

Mister Wayne looks at me with expertly affected puzzlement for a moment. "And.. you must be.. the Orange Lantern."

I smile politely. "Yes, Mister Wayne."

We shake hands. "I almost didn't recognize you without your costume on."

"I'm not actually required to wear it at all times." I shift my eyes to Talia. "And Missus Way-. Oh, I'm sorry, is it just Missus Wayne, or are you hyphenating it?"

She meets my eyes imperiously. "I am Missus Wayne."

"Missus Wayne." I take her right hand and raise it to my lips, lightly kissing her knuckles in what Jade assured me is the correct fashion. "My most sincere congratulations."

Really, this is an achievement. With her father gone she's got further in her relationship with Bruce Wayne than any other iteration of Talia al Ghul. Comics, animated series, films? Never managed to have a normal healthy relationship with the man. She's beaten all of them. Heck, even Selina had a continuity where she and Bruce had a successful relationship. Though I suppose… The reader wasn't ever shown who Bruce Junior's mother was in Batman/Superman: Generations. I had assumed that it was Selina there too, but I don't think it was actually stated.

"Thank you, Orange Lantern." She pauses for a moment. "You came here unaccompanied?"

"No, but my companion is currently catching up with a college friend of hers." Actually, Harleen is hiding from someone from the Arkham Trust who 'always gave her the creeps', but I suppose that wouldn't be the polite thing to say.

Bruce smiles at Commissioner Gordon. "You bring Babs with you, James?"

"Yeah, she's…" He looks around us. "Somewhere around here. I doubt she'd-."

Bang!

There's a noise like a car backfiring. Not a gun noise; I know very well what guns sound like these days. The four of us look around, trying to locate the source of the noise. Odd, but I'm not-.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It's coming from the far side of the wall around Wayne Manor's gardens. Is someone letting off bangers or somet-?

Then the grass rises in a wave in the direction we're looking. No, not a wave, the earth is still. It's growing, starting from the wall and rapidly spreading outwards! There are brief yelps of astonishment as people suddenly find themselves surrounded by thick blades of grass, rising past their waists, their shoulders and then their heads! The trees lining the drive are affected a moment later, their trunks swelling and their roots erupting from the soil in thick woody vines. I see the tarmac of the drive cracked to pieces by the sudden burst of growth before the grass cuts off the view completely.

Commissioner Gordon blinks. "What in God's name is going on?"

I step forward, forming a globe shield around the four of us and lifting us all into the air. Ring, scan. No, looks like normal plant growth, just supercharged. The soil hasn't been entirely drained of nutrients or water to support the growth surge. Dead plant matter like the wood of the tables or the food in people's stomachs isn't affected. As we rise a little higher we get a clear view over the walls to the south.

It looks like someone's set off a forest bomb in Gotham. The Giordano Botanical Garden is a jungle, the dense foliage clearly visible across the Gotham River. From everywhere else, shades of green have replaced the grey stone as vines, lichen and moss race to cover every surface.

I'm sure that Bruce has worked it out, but Commissioner Gordon is the one who vocalises it. "Ivy? No, this is far more than she's ever managed to control."

Over on the far side of the garden I see Diana and Kon rise into the air and it looks like Richard has scaled one of the trees for a better view. Barbara Gordon, Wallace, Artemis and Zatanna are at the base. Zatanna could be useful, but we haven't been focusing on green-manipulation in the training and someone who could do this could do someone who doesn't know what they're doing a lot of no good. Plus, that's too many people the right size and shape in the same place.

"I can think of two beings who could do this so fast, and working out which it actually was is simple enough." I turn my head to face him. "Commissioner, please tell me that your people haven't arrested Abigail Holland?"

14th May
11:30 GMT -5

"Who?"

I generate a construct image. "Born in Romania in nineteen fifty five as Abigail Arcane. Emigrated to the US with her soon-to-be husband Matthew Cable in nineteen seventy four and since his death has become involved with…" I gesture to the visibly growing greenery with my right hand. "Swamp Thing. Who point blank rejects his own former name 'Alec Holland'."

"And he's the one doing this?"

"If Gaea was doing it, Diana wouldn't look so surprised. Jason Woodrue couldn't do it anything like this fast without a lot of help. There might be other floromancers out there who I've never heard of, but this level of power is hard to keep quiet. I'm going to assume that it's Swamp Thing until I have evidence to the contrary."

"Excuse me. Orange Lantern?" Whaw, it's weird having Batman talk to me like that. "My guests..?"

My eyes glow orange as I give the party area another scan. Below us the guests are trying to wade through the head height grass, people calling out in order to better locate one another. "Somewhat disturbed but all uninjured."

Commissioner Gordon's lip curls. "So he's the considerate kind of supervillain."

"He's the isolationist kind of superbeing. Nothing short of an oncoming apocalypse will get him to go further from the Louisiana bayou than Houma. Which means that someone must have done something very stupid to make him this angry."

Bruce makes a show of peering downwards onto his lawns. "Okay, but could you do something about that?"

"I can give it a go." Precision grass trimming isn't something power rings are really optimised for, but I generate a spinning blade construct over an empty area of the garden and slowly lower it into the grass. Clippings fly in all directions as I shave the lawn down to something a person can walk over. With nowhere to go the cut grass builds up in damp mounds on the lawn surface, but at least a person can now navigate the area without a machete. Okay, if I repeat that and put a few arrow constructs in the air where people can see them-.

The soil under my cleared circle heaves and bulges, then brambles erupt from the ground, filling the space and then curling around one another until they've created a solid mass of vines and thorns.

Right. Not doing that, then.

How about indoors? I know Swamp Thing is perfectly capable of resurrecting dead wood and using that, but has he? No, potted plants and window invasions aside the interior of Wayne Manor remains inviolate. I'd check the Cave, but I'm still under orders not to.

"Mister Wayne, I'm afraid that the plants don't seem to be cooperating. I suggest transferring the party inside. By your leave?"

He nods, the slightly shaky nod of an alpha male who finds his position suddenly uncertain. A masterful display of acting.

Right. How to go about this? I create arrow constructs across all occupied parts of the ground-. Really? Ugh, apart from that corner where a couple are having sex. Next, I create orange constructs that are a sort of cross between a wedge and a snowplough, creating furrows in the grass by shoving it aside. Should make getting through it a little easier. A good chunk of the population were already starting to head in that direction, but with pathways opening up and a clear indication that someone has some idea of what's going on most of the rest get moving as well.

But not all. Okay, Gotham, they're probably a little nervous about following the direction of strange floating arrows given the sorts of people liable to make things like that around here. I fly our bubble across the garden in the direction of Diana and Kon, dismissing the upper third of it as we arrive. I didn't know that Kon was planning on wearing his belt today, but I do admire his preparedness. His belt aside they're both wearing a chiton/himation combination accessorised by gold diadems. Huh. Sort of assumed that Diana would be wearing her bracers as well.

"Sir?" I generate a ribbon microphone construct just in front of her. "Could you please ask everyone to follow the arrows?"

She nods, taking the microphone in her right hand and holding it to her lips. "This is Wonder Woman of the Justice League. Would everyone please leave the garden and get inside Wayne Manor."

Commissioner Gordon gets out his mobile phone and presses a button before lifting it to his ear. "Gordon here. Find out if we've got someone in the cells called 'Abigail Holland'. Yeah, well, I'll try and find a ride. No, don't call a helicopter. Where would they even land the thing?"

I place a construct platform under where Richard is perched in a tree branch. A moment's consideration and he moves around it, extending his right hand downwards to give.. Barbara Gordon Junior a hand up. Together, they clamber aboard and I pull them gently in our direction.

Ah, okay, what next? My eyes unfocus as I scan the city with the rings. Hooray! No wards! Well, the plants aren't warded, at least. Swamp Thing isn't making any deliberate attempt to destroy buildings, though the roads are going to be a mess for a while after this. Haven't caught sight of his avatar body yet, but the thing about Swamp Thing is a) he doesn't actually need one and b) it looks like a pile of moss and vines, exactly the same things the buildings are now covered in.

Huh. Feel like I'm forgettin-Harleen! Ohdearymewhoops. I dismiss the microphone construct as Diana hands it back, then scan for Harleen and attach a filament to her and transition her up to us. She blinks in surprise. "Huh."

"Everyone, Doctor Harleen Quinzel. Harleen, Bruce and Talia Wayne, Richard Grayson, Diana and Kon-El of Themyscira and James and Barbara Gordon."

She raises her right hand in a slightly nervous fashion. "Hi?"

Kon nods to her. "Hey." Then he switches his attention to me. "This is Swamp Thing, right?"

"That's my working hypothesis." Now, I'm sure that Bruce would want to get involved in this, but he can't really abandon his own wedding reception. Not my decision to make, but I'm not sure how to-.

"My husband and I should probably see to our guests. Please convey us.. and our son, to the Manor."

Without thinking about it my eyes dart to Bruce's, but he's still in character. He hesitates for a moment, then nods. "That's probably for the best."

"Of course." I generate a new platform under their feet, merging it with the one which Richard and Barbara and standing on. "Commissioner?"

He moves his attention from me to Diana. "Wonder Woman, are you planning on going after this Swamp Thing guy?"

She nods. "I will be looking for him, certainly, though I would prefer to persuade him to leave peacefully rather than engage him in violent confrontation."

"Any chance I could get a lift to Police Central?"

"Certainly. Though you might prefer it if Orange Lantern conveyed you."

Recently divorced man? Doubt it.

"Okay then. Dick, look after Babs for me, would you?"

"Sure thing, Commissioner."

"Be careful, Dad."

I twirl my right hand and their platform heads towards the entrance to Wayne Manor. I note that Mister Pennyworth is already at the doors, welcoming everyone inside. Commissioner Gordon looks at Harleen for a moment and then frowns at me. "Ah..?"

"Doctor Quinzel used to work at Arkham. Her expertise in aberrant psychology may come in useful."

"Ma'am?"

Harleen nods her head to the side. "Suwre. Could get a great papah outa this."

I look at Diana. "Sir?"

"Take us to Gotham Police Central. Then we will attempt to locate Swamp Thing."

14th May
11:39 GMT -5

"Whooooohw."

Yeah, I think… Harleen speaks for all of us there. Swamp Thing's envelopment of the city hasn't stopped as we've been travelling. No sign of the man himself-. No, plenty of signs, but he hasn't put in a personal appearance yet. We were about a third of the way to Police Central when the roads started buckling and crumbling as he extended nature's wrath to the transportation infrastructure. People had already started abandoning their cars so hopefully the casualties will be minimal, but neither fire, ambulance or police will be able to respond to emergencies any longer. Would it occur to him to put out fires? Or would he regard them as a part of the natural world, a part of nature's way of replenishing itself? How long until he starts disrupting water, gas and electricity supplies? In the comic his ultimate aim if they didn't release Abigail was to turn Gotham into a jungle permanently. If he's heading in that direction here he'll want to break open the water supplies and block the other two.

Starvation I'm less worried about. I've already seen several plants bearing fruit which the ring tells me have all of the nutritional content required for healthy Human life. Thing is, I've also seen his detergent fruit and water gourds and I don't think that the people of Gotham will easily be able to tell the difference. That, and the way my rune stone is glowing indicates that there's quite a lot of green magic in both, and I know that Swamp Thing's fruits have hallucinogenic properties.

All the good he could do if he just got involved a bit…

Commissioner Gordon stares at what has become of his city and starts to raise his hands to his forehead before {green}getting a grip{/} on himself. "You still saying that he's not a bad guy?"

"A bad guy would have been using poisoned plants."

"That's not much of a recommendation."

"It takes a lot to provoke Swamp Thing to kill someone, but he doesn't like cities all that much."

Diana looks more awestruck than horrified. "In all my years I have never seen anything like it. It is as if Gaea herself had decided to smite your city."

"And if she did, I'd arrest her too. God." Diana raises an eyebrow at his choice of invective. "Can he get rid of all of this?"

"I.. think.. most of it is being sustained by his magic. If he leaves then most of it should die off. That won't repair the roads or.. anything like that."

"Great. There goes the city's budget for the next decade."

I'm not sure whether to be impressed by his practical attitude or dismayed by his inability to see this for the wonder that it is. I mean… Get a few floromancers in here and they could be the centre of a floro-arcane revolution. With a little magic the plants are perfectly capable of creating everything they need to live, and everything everyone around them needs to live as well. But, no. I doubt I could convince more than a handful of people to give that a try.

The entrance to Police Central is already covered by what I think is some sort of ivy grown far beyond its natural proportions. On the far side I see that the police have got the doors open and are attacking it with the sorts of mechanical saws usually used for cutting people out of wrecked cars. As I watch, one fat vine falls away, rousing a cheer from those on the inside. A moment later more vines explode through the remaining paving slabs, these one coated in thorns which ooze a paralysing agent. Not fatal to a Human, but getting stuck with it would cause pain and immobility in the body part stung.

One of the policewomen narrows her eyes at the new vine and raises her saw.

"Don't even think about it!" The police officers clustered around the entrance look up as Commissioner Gordon shouts down at them. "Every time they get attacked they grow back worse!"

They back away as we land on a section of surviving pavement that isn't entirely moss coated. Commissioner Gordon walks up to the vine wall and tries pulling away enough vines to get past. Realising what he's doing, Kon flies down and pulls an armful aside. Gordon nods. "Thanks."

"What the hell's going on, Commissioner?" Officer.. Santiago looks at her commanding officer with more than a little yellow at the forefront of her mind. I don't recognise any of the other officers as being people I've interacted with before. "Where'd all these plants come from?"

"We don't know yet." He shoulders his way through the opening, while Kon holds the vines back for the rest of us. Nice of him. "Who's got that information I wanted?"

"I do, Commish." Harvey Bullock walks out of the stairwell with a couple of files in hand. "You were right. Abigail Cable got picked up by a vice squad two days ago."

"What?" Gordon frowns, then glances back at me.

"It's kinda a funny story. She told the guys in Vice that she was just visiting. They figured it was the worst cover story they ever heard, but the other girls backed her up and she had a bus ticket. She actually was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were gunna let her go."

"Why didn't they?"

"She had an outstanding warrant from Louisiana. Jumped bail. She's due to get escorted back into their custody tomorrow."

"God dammit. What's she supposed to have done?"

"Aaaaah…" Harvey… He's actually looking uncomfortable, avoiding our eyes as he fiddles with the paperwork to find the charge sheet. "Minor fraud, not filing tax returns, pretty trivial stuff, really. Um."

"It's bestiality, isn't it?"

That earns me a few stares, but Harvey nods. "Yeah, kinda. Says here 'crime against nature', but… Yeah. There's also some stuff about child abuse… I mean, we aren't investigating the crime, but the warrant's valid…"

"Child abuse?"

"Raisin' a child in an unsafe environment, subjecting children to perverse… Ah, you get the idea."

"That.. would.. relate to her teaching?"

"Looks like they tried t' put her daughter in protective-."

"Are you telling me that you also have Tefé Holland in custody?"

"What, you know her?"

"No, though I'd very much like to. Do you?"

"N.. oh, just Abigail."

"Do the Louisiana authorities have her?"

"Doesn't look like it."

"Then it sounds like they tried to take her daughter away and she jumped bail to prevent that. Did it not occur to you that locating her should be a matter of priority?"

Harvey frowns at me. "Hey, ease off, alright? I got this file, like, five minutes ago."

I bow my head. "Sorry. Sorry. Just… Punch one of your Vice people for me, would you? No, no, let's be fair, picking her up was an honest mistake. Punch {red}flipping{/} Louisiana for me."

"Orange Lantern." I turn back to Diana. "Perhaps it would be best if you and Superboy began looking for Swamp Thing out in the city?"

I sigh. "Yess, it.. would. It's just-! I got the flipping law changed! We couldn't use truth compulsion magic on a flipping Demon because of it! Swamp Thing is exactly the sort of novel intelligence the Citizenship Recognition Act was designed to cope with! This is bullshit!" I march past Diana and the Commissioner, stopping next to Harleen. "Harleen, would you mind coming with us?"

"How dangerous is this guy?"

"He may well be the most dangerous person on the planet. But he's unlikely to be wantonly hostile."

"Then what'cha waitin' for? Let's go!"

I shove the vines aside once more with a construct, Harleen leading the way back outside with myself and Kon following after her.

14th May
11:51 GMT -5

"So at first he just thawt that tha chemicals had mutated him?"

"Yes. It wasn't until Woodrue dissected his original body that they found out for certain. As far as I know, Alec and Linda Holland's remains are still in the swamp somewhere."

Since we're pretty much reduced to watching for Swamp Thing by eye, Kon and I headed off in different directions. Harleen's with me. This is technically still a date, after all.

"Wasn't Woodrue the one who turned Poison Ivy into.. Poison Ivy?"

"His chemical treatments were at least partially responsible, though I don't remember anything about him using them on her against her will. Funny thing is, he wanted the connection to the Green that she ended up with. If the police had been slower, or if he'd realised how successful he'd been…"

Harleen shakes her head. "That ain't funny. I saw her medical rec'rds when I was at Arkham. He did a real number on her."

"Highly capable but impressionable student, charismatic and domineering teacher…"

She pokes me in the ribs, her right forefinger bending painfully as it encounters my armour. "Hey, I'm the analyst here, thank you very much." She puts her damaged finger against her stomach and covers it with her left hand. "Ow."

"I think Swamp Thing fixed the physiological alterations when he stripped her of her connection to the Green. It should be possible for her to recover now."

"Don't think they were havin' a whole lotta luck." She frowns. "Huh."

Around us, greenery-covered medium rise housing rises up from the Gotham streets. The plants are colonising the rooves in earnest to maximise their access to sunlight. I see a wash of medium yellow from the people inside, but just occasionally I see someone sticking their head out of their window and gazing in wonder at the newly landscaped world around them.

"What?"

"Jus'… Thinkin' about it. How many people get int' weird accidents or exposed to some kinda chemical.. and end up gettin' super powers outta it. Instead of.. y'know, cancer or chemical burns or whatevah."

"Oh, plenty of people get those. They just don't live long enough to put on silly costumes and make public nuisances of themselves."

"Still… It's kinda weird."

I smile, shaking my head. "Did I ever tell you how I ended up on this Earth?"

"Yeah, you said-." She nods in understanding. "Oh. Heh, yeah, I guess you'd kinda know awl aboud it."

"Something like that. Not 'why', but-." I frown. "Oh, got something."

Harleen turns away from me, following my gaze down onto the street. "Weyah?"

We accelerate as I flick my left hand and generate a construct-screen, showing a playground. "Notice something about the slide?"

"It's made of wood." She nods. "So Swamp Thing must have made it himself."

"Yep. With any luck he's keeping an eye on the place."

As we come into sight I see eight children and a cluster of nervous-looking adults in an area which used to be a major road intersection in the Gainsly area in the east of the city. The roads are dead, the few people foolish enough to still be driving their cars either crashing them or getting them helplessly stuck in the undergrowth. Unlike their caretakers the children appear to be accepting the sudden change in their circumstances uncritically, clambering over a wooden climbing frame, swinging on the vine-ropes and sliding down the smooth wooden slide.

Harleen and I descending from the sky gets most of them staring at us, but at least we're not making them more-

"It's the Cake Man!"

-alarmed. Sigh. Once we reach near-ground level I float us over to just in front of the largest group of adults.

"Good morning. I'm-."

"Orange Lantern." A black man with a slightly fluffy beard steps forwards. "Yeah, we know who you are, man."

"Ah. Right. This is going to sound like a strange question, but-."

"Dude made outta moss and vine and shit? Yeah, he was here." He turns his head away from me and towards the city. "He really do alla this?"

First positive confirmation I've had that he's really here. "Probably." Watch out for confirmation bias. "Did he look like this?"

I generate an image of Woodrue in his plantman mode. While Swamp Thing can make bodies out of whatever plant matter is convenient, he usually makes them in the same sort of way. I've seen enough abandoned bodies to know his type, and Woodrue is much slimmer and woodier.

The man I'm asking looks at it in puzzlement. "Nah, nah man. Bigger. Lumpier. And he had this like-" He raises his hands to his face, palms resting on either side of his nose. "-triangle nose thing."

I nod. "Like this?" I leave the Woodrue construct in place and add one made in the image of one of Swamp Thing's abandoned bodies.

That gets a nod of recognition. "Yeah man. That's the guy. Who is he?"

"Swamp Thing. Which way did he go?"

"Hey." A woman steps towards us. "Is this..? This is gunna go, right? You're gunna get rid a' the plants?"

"The jungle reacts to attempts to clear it by producing more dangerous plant forms. While I probably could kill off all plant life in Gotham chemically, you wouldn't want to live here afterwards."

"So… What? We're stuck with this until he decides to get rid of it?"

"Swamp Thing's doing this because the police arrested his wife on bullshit charges."

The black man exhales through his teeth. "Hear that."

"He hasn't made any demands yet, so I'm just going to ask him. Which way did he go?"

"That way." They point west, away from the riverfront.

"Thank you." I have the rings scan in that direction and… An abandoned Swamp Thing body. This is taking too long. I float Harleen and myself upwards and face a completely overgrown building. "Alec! Show yourself, or I go and fetch Constantine!"

Nothing happens.

"Hey, didn't you say you had a Dryad livin' with yah?"

"Yes, but she's in awe of him and more likely to encourage him than talk him down."

"Oh."

The vines explode into motion! The mass between us and the wall triples in thickness as new vines shoot forth in all directions. I catch a momentary glimpse of someone in one of the windows behind it {yellow}screaming in panic{/} as they lose daylight.

"That him?"

"I hope so, because I'd hate to think there are two people who can do this around here."

Gradually, the rough outline of a face appears. It's not even, not symmetrical, and it's quite flattened compared to what he usually uses, but when the eyes light up red I have no doubt about whose attention I've attracted.

"What?"

14th May
11:55 GMT -5

"What do you mean, 'what'?" I spread my arms out. "What do you think I'm talking about? You've turned Gotham City into a forest."

"It was… Deserved."

"Big face. That's a real big face."

"He has complete control of all plant life.{orange}"
{/}
"So it's, like, a projection?"

"Sort of. He's probably slightly more 'in' that face than he is anywhere else at the moment, but it's still just a pile of vines.{orange}"
{/}
"O-kay."

I return my attention to the wall-face. "Swamp Thing… Seven million people just had their homes turned into bushes. How many of them do you think actually had anything to do with what the State of Louisiana was trying to do to Abigail and Tefé?"

"Sufficient… For my… Purposes."

No way has he got working lungs in there. How the heck is he talking?

"American politicians are spoiling for a fight with a supernatural opponent. All this is going to do is encourage them to dig their heels in. If you'd spoken to Euanthe I could have sorted this all out with a couple of phone calls. Current Louisiana law is in contravention of national law. Give me some time-."

"No!" Hard wood and thorn covered vines extend across his cheeks. "My daughter is… Dangerous. Distraught. I will… Not pull back."

"Okay." I hold up my hands in a placatory gesture. "That's fine. Just… Keep the greenery at its current level, Wonder Woman can find the idiot from Louisiana and get him straightened out and the three of you can go back to the bayou. I don't want this to escalate… Particularly given that you're one of the few people I can't out-escalate."

I try giving him a winsome smile, but I don't think that he's in the mood for the niceties of Human social interaction. If he's even capable of that sort of subtlety any longer.

"Your… Allies will attend to… The legal aspect."

"If you agree not to increase the forestry, yes. Do we have an agreement?"

"Abby is in the… Police cells."

"I.. believe so." Scan? "No, they've actually moved her to the police canteen at the moment." White hair with a black streak. I remember from the preparatory reading I did before the Aberrance mission that it's a characteristic found in the Arcane womenfolk. She's had it cut short rather than long as I remember it being in the comics. And as it was last time I spoke to her in person last year. For a woman in her mid-fifties she actually looks pretty good. "Diana probably wanted her somewhere less oppressive while they-."

Swamp Face's eyes go out.

"Guess that means he's not home no more?"

Uuuuuuh. "He's not focusing on us, anyway." I raise my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Just had a word with Swamp Thing. He's in a mood, but appeared willing to negotiate."

"He just appeared."

"Oh. Do you-?"

"The commissioner and I will handle negotiations. Superboy is busy dealing with a street gang. I need you to report to St. Luke's Hospital. With the roads blocked, Gotham has no ambulance coverage."

"On it, sir. Orange Lantern out." I lower my hand. "I'm afraid that this next bit isn't going to be as exciting. Transition in two,-"

"Transwhat?"

"-one."

Our surroundings flicker, then we're outside the pile of vines climbing the walls of St Luke's Hospital. Patches of thorns near doorways indicate locations where they've already tried to clear space. Right, Zatanna's still at Wayne Manor, Euanthe will be near Mount Justice. Both of them should be able to moderate Swamp Thing's actions, though neither are strong enough to block him if he actually exerts himself.

Yep, I'm definitely going to have to talk to Medphyll once I leave Earth. But until then… I attach filaments to the thorn vines around the main entrance and inject auxins along their length. Almost immediately they begin bending out of the way, hospital workers backing away as they see the orange glow. Harleen and I descend from the sky to land on the lichen carpet which covers the ambulance bay.

"Don't attack the plants. They just-."

"Grow back stronger." A short, balding man in a suit nods at me. "Yeah, we worked that out. You here to make yourself useful?"

Ring?

{orange}Individual is Doctor Simon Simpson, Head of Medicine.{/}

I nod. "I can pick up and drop off. Just give me the addresses."

"I meant, can you get rid of the {red}damned plants{/}!?"

"Not in the short term, but it's being worked on. I can resupply you, but I'm going to be splitting my time between all of Gotham's hospitals and whatever else I need to do."

"We've been getting hundreds of calls about people getting poisoned by these thorns. What do you know-" Harleen's phone rings and she answers it, turning away and whispering into the handset. "-about the toxin?"

"It's a weak paralysing agent. Tell people not to touch the thorns and get them to put anyone affected somewhere safe. They won't require hospitalisation unless they have a particular reaction to it." And hopefully Swamp Thing is still intelligent enough to make sure that doesn't happen. "Some of the fruits are hallucinogenic, but again, they shouldn't cause any other complications."

He nods, rolling his eyes. "Great, a considerate supervillain. We can get a list of pick up locations together for you in a few minutes. You got a cell?"

C-? Mobile phone. "My trips will be instantaneous. Just have someone standing by in the entrance."

He frowns slightly, then shakes his head. "If you say so."

"Hey-. Orange Lantern." Harleen still has her phone in her hand. "That was Doctor Stoner up at Arkham. He says somethin's up with Isley. He wants someone who knows what's gowin' on t' check her out."

"Okay, we can-."

"Doctor!" A nurse jogs out of the entrance, a piece of printer paper in her hand. "Shooting in Murphy Avenue, we got no way to-" She sees me. "-get…"

Efficiency, that's the name of the game. Murphy Avenue is in Upper East Side. I narrow my eyes and have the rings show me the scene. A shop owner and a couple of police officers exchange fire with a group of youths in gang colours. Several people are on the ground, moving weakly if at all.

Flicker.

The youths collapse as I Shock Crown them, filaments tagging the fallen.

Flicker.

I deposit the wounded in reception.

"Next!"

14th May
13:39 GMT -5

"Hey." I look up as Harleen walks over to me, looking thoughtful. "Can I tawk t' you fer a minute?"

"Um..?" No one appears to be heading my way… "Probably?"

"Heh, yeyeah." She sits down next to me. "Been real busy, huh?"

"Oh, I'm the ultimate all-terrain vehicle, I am. Life doesn't stop just because someone with superpowers decides to take their problems out on everyone else."

"Kinda surprised Batman ain't showed up."

I shrug. "He can't be everywhere at once."

Richard sent me a message about that. He, Wallace, Zatanna and Artemis managed to get away from the reception, but the host and hostess don't have that sort of freedom. Bit of a shame, really. The comic version of this even ended with Batman giving a first rate ticking off to the fool who thought that picking a fight with a god's wife was a good idea. Oh, and Swamp Thing getting mystically blocked and then incinerated by napalm, but when the handover finally happens I'll be on hand to make sure that doesn't happen.

The mayor of Gotham went on television about an hour ago to make an announcement about what was going on. Since then, people have calmed down a little. No more idiots trying to set vines which cover an entire city on fire with petrol. Lucky that none of them ended up needing treatment for anything worse than first degree burns, really. I don't know how the negotiations are going.

"See, I was wonderin'-."

"Orange Lantern?" Nurse Grignon appears from around the corner. "Got another one for you. Stab wound in Filigree Street, in The Bowery."

My eyes unfocus as I see the scene. Knife through a boy's leg, wrapped in a blood soaked towel, his frantic mother on the telephone.

"Excuse me."

The hospital reception disappears and the vine-covered street appears. The infamous Park Row -better know as Crime Alley- is a little to the north of here. Window's open and with another flicker I'm inside.

"Aah!"

I ignore her and focus on the whimpering child. No, it's no good. I tried healing a few people the first couple of times, but I just don't feel proprietary enough to make it happen. I attach a tourniquet just above the site of the wound, tighten it in accordance with my team's medical training then attach filaments to both of them. "We'll appear at St Luke's in two, one."

Flicker.

The woman looks around in shock, mobile phone still in her hand, as I deposit her son onto the waiting gurney. The waiting paramedic gives me a nod before pushing it down the corridor towards casualty. "Hey there, kid. I'm…"

I look around for anyone who might have another pickup for me. "Anyone else?" Nurse Grignon shakes her head. "Okay." I walk back towards where my date is waiting. "Sorry, Harleen. Part of the job is always being on call."

"Guess every job's got its downside."

"Oh, it's not a downside. I find making the world work better quite satisfying. I just realise that it's rude to keep disappearing like this. You were.. saying? Something..?"

"Swamp Thing didn't actewally say it was him doin' this. Should we be worried?"

He didn't? I frown. I suppose… Not… I shrug. "He isn't chatty at the best of times. I'm not sure who else it could be."

"Has his dawteh got any superpowers?"

I shake my head. "I don't think he'd have called her 'dangerous' if the answer was 'no', but until today I didn't know that she existed." Spying on the Holland residence seemed like bad faith, but Tefé wasn't at home when I first visited their home last year. I seem to remember her having meat control in the one comic I ever read with her in it.

"'cause I was wonderin' if she mighta got real mad and done alla this. And not her Dad."

"Um. Plausible, but we don't know if she has the ability and the timelines wouldn't quite-."

"Lantern!" The chap manning the reception desk looks up. "Call from Arkham. They want you there right away."

"What for? Someone injured?"

"Whatever was up with Poison Ivy's still going on and they've gone from 'concerned' to 'seriously worried'. They want a superhero there in case things are gonna get.. crazier."

"Kid Flash-."

"Adult superhero."

I nod. "Right." Not really his.. bag, anyway. "Harleen, do you want to come? I haven't studied her in an asylum setting."

She nods. "Okay."

I step closer to her and attach a filament. "One stop first. Two, one." We appear atop Mount Justice. I tried stopping back here earlier and Euanthe wasn't around and my own scry wards seemed to be preventing me from finding her. "Euanthe! You around?!"

"Hey, those fruit are jus' like the ones Swamp Thing's growin' in Gotham."

"Yes, they come from the same place." I'll give her a mom-.

Euanthe steps out of a nearby tree smiling at me with a warm and only slightly creepy smile. After a brief discussion of Human social customs regarding clothing she's replaced her bark clothing… And also replaced her nudity, with a vine and leaf number which just about meets the requirements of local law while still managing to look borderline obscene. She looks far healthier here than she did the second time we met. Her skin is a pale green colour, her lips a strongly contrasting rose-pink and -yes- the grass grows more strongly around her feet.

"Pavlos." She walks over to me with her head tilted to the left and runs her right hand across my armoured chest before walking past me to get a better look at Harleen. "You're new."

"Yeyeah, I've never been-." Euanthe takes hold of Harleen's head and nuzzles her. "O-ohka-a-ay. Ah..?" Harleen looks at me for advice.

I give my head a tiny shake. "Euanthe, Swamp Thing has appeared in Gotham. I was hoping that you could come with us in order to help him."

Euanthe releases her hold on Harleen and turns back in my direction. I go to walk over to her in order to peel her off Harleen and then realise that there are vines training up my leg armour. "He is still there?"

Actually… We sort of lost contact after he-. No, the brambles aren't naturally growing like that. He must still be around. "As far as I can tell, yes."

She walks back towards me. I suppose that her outfit is being sustained in the same way as much of the growth enveloping Gotham, Green magic substituting for more conventional nutrients. I've got to have another go at persuading her to take students on. "Then we must go to him. Though I do not know what I can do for him that he cannot do on his own."

"Oh, don't sell yourself short." Harleen {yellow}notices{/} that the shoots are growing up her legs as well, an expression of {yellow}uncertain disquiet{/} appearing on her face. "Your social skills are at least as good as his are these days." And isn't that damning. "Ready?"

"Yes."

"Right then." I attach filaments to each of them, pushing through the small amount of resistance I feel from Euanthe. "Next stop, Arkham Asylum."

14th May
14:03 GMT -5

"She's through here." Doctor Benjamin Stoner leads the way through the corridors of Arkham Asylum.

Harleen looks at our surroundings in confusion. "This ain't tha secure wing."

Doctor Stoner shakes his head. "She doesn't need it. When Batman told us she was 'normalized'… Weeee were pretty sceptical."

"I'll bet."

Euanthe stares at the walls in fascination. I guess that in her newly empowered state she isn't as bothered by the lack of greenery in her immediate surroundings as she used to be. Or maybe the city is just so filled with Green magic at the moment that she hasn't even noticed. The guards were more than a little concerned when a green-skinned woman with plant control powers appeared with us, but after she gently cleared the entrances by 'asking' the plants to move, they appear to have decided to trust my judgement. Now we just have to transport her to every single other building in the city and get her to do the same thing, and Gotham might become somewhat functional again.

"But…" He waves his hands in an almost helpless sort of way. "She just.. sat there. She wasn't completely uncommunicative, she'd eat and.. talk to you if you asked her questions… Y'know, there was an experiment back in the seventies by a guy called Doctor Rosenhan, where people requested admission to a psychiatric hospital and then stopped showing symptoms to see how long it took the staff to work out that they weren't ill."

I think I remember studying that study during my psychology A Level. The follow up study -where they told hospitals they were sending people to them and didn't, resulting in them identifying dozens of 'volunteers'- made me smile at the time.

"Some of their volunteers were inside for two months! Now, I always figured I'd never let that happen to anyone I was working with. But… I think everyone says that. So I figured… Okay. She's not picking fights with the guards or the other prisoners anymore. She's not all that talkative, maybe that's… Because she's shut up in solitary confinement the whole time? So I reduced her medication, increased her, y'know, her privileges…"

"You could do that?"

"Eeeeaaah, there's a decision review process for our 'special' patients. One too many 'hopeful' discharges of people who really needed to be kept inside. And bribes and threats to family members-"

"Yeyeah, I remember."

"But Doctor Young approved it."

"An' she was doin' okay?"

He smiles. "No!" The he realises what he just said. "I mean, yes, compared to what she used to be like. But no, because she still remembers being Poison Ivy and all the crazy stuff she got up to. But that's on the level of something conventional therapy can handle. We moved her into the low risk wing. Honestly, I thought that she'd be out and ready to face the world in a few months."

Sounds like Jeremiah Arkham's blank blackboard can finally have that 'I' drawn on it.

"Then… Well, then this happened."

He pushes open the door to the common room and stands out of the way to allow us entry.

The first thing I notice is that I can hear the Gotham River.

The second thing I notice is that the reason I can hear the Gotham River is that there are some rather large holes in the far wall.

Made by the third thing I notice. All of the plants. The main hole appears to have been smashed through reinforced concrete by the trunk of an oak tree in a way that is quite contrary to its normal behaviour. Hickory trees have taken out the wire-reinforced glass from the room's windows, the more or less intact panes lying on the tiled floor. The trees have expanded into the room, leaves sprouting in a way which makes little sense given how little sunlight they'll get. The hickory trees are bearing fruit, the normal nuts replaced by Swamp Thing's custom jobs.

The fourth and fifth things I notice are Swamp Thing's former body standing in the middle of the room and the orange jumpsuit wearing Doctor Pamela Isley lounging in its arms, one of the fruit half eaten in her left hand and giggling.

Oh. Dear.

She runs her right hand down the side of his vacant head and sighs. Then she notices us watching her and straightens up slightly. "Oh, hello there."

Harleen takes a couple of steps forward. "Hey, Isley."

I notice Harleen tense at the same time as I do. No, no reaction. It looks like Doctor Isley is happy using her Human name. Scans say… None of the modifications Doctor Woodrue made to her body have reappeared. Good.

Isley straightens up a little to find a posture in which she can better look at us. "You're.. Doctor Quinzel, right."

"Uh-huh. You remember me okay?"

"I remember finding you…" She averts her eyes with a small shake of her head. "I wasn't… I found you annoying."

"Guess that explains tha time you tried to choke me t'death with my own hair."

"No." She swings her right leg. "I did that because I hated just about everyone. If you hadn't been there it would have been someone else. That's… Why I hurt a lot of people."

Harleen walks slowly across the room towards her. "And you don't feel like doin' that now?"

"No. I feel… Good." She leans into Swamp Thing's body. "Comforted."

"I didn't think that you and he were on particularly good terms?"

"You'd know." But I'm not seeing any real anger there. "He was in a bad mood, and.. I was clinically insane. And then I wasn't. He didn't just get rid of my connection to the Green, he changed back everything Woodrue did to my body to force me to have that connection. My brain was working properly for the first time in years."

"You shower you should be eat'n that?"

"{orange}Yes{/}."

"'Cause I'm thinkin' if it messed you up befowah-."

"My connection to the Green was the only thing that kept me coherent. And now-" She takes another bite. "-ry cn grut bck-" She swallows. "-some of that. I want to know what it's like when I'm not crazy."

"Why did Swamp Thing come to see you?"

"He wanted to give me this chance. The chance to see the Green the way he does. The healthy way."

"He broke into Arkham Asylum to do that?"

"He also wanted to know if I could find his daughter. He didn't really know what Gotham usually felt like and he thought that someone might be hiding her from him."

I frown. Swamp Thing, I feel your pain there, but was this really..? He's not intelligent. Maybe he couldn't get his head around the idea of asking the police or child services? Still… He's got awareness throughout all plant life. Isn't that like Ophidi-me with the construct eyes? Or maybe he doesn't get full awareness until he animates dead plant matter as well?

"So, okay. We need to find Tefé Holland and get the police to release Abigail. Did you give him any ideas?"

Doctor Isley shakes her head. "My connection to the Green is barely there. I'd have to eat hundreds of these things before I could tell him anything.. useful…" She stares in fascination. "Who is that?"

I half turn to see that Euanthe has entered the room. "This is Euanthe. She's a Dryad."

The look of wonder returns to Doctor Isley's eyes. "{orange}Oh God{/}."

Euanthe walks purposively towards Doctor Isley. "The Great Warrior wishes you to find his daughter? Then I will aid you."

14th May
14:12 GMT -5

"Is this how mosta your days go?"

I think for a moment as the Dryad and recovering mental patient feed each other fruit in front of us, clearly relishing the experience.

"Which.. part..?"

"Somethin' weird happens and you have t' fly all ovah the place t' sort it out."

"No, that's…" I frown. How many of these things have I done now? "Only about once a week. The world can be a pretty strange place, but usually I'm diving in strangeness because I find it fascinating rather than dire necessity."

"There's stuff you find strange?"

"I've been to Tartarus to visit a person made of stone hands. I built a toilet cubicle on the Moon."

She smiles incredulously. "No way."

"Yes way. I'm sure you know about the giant cake…"

"Everyone knows about tha giant cake."

"I've visited cities at the bottom of the sea, flown into Hell and emerged unscathed and a few weeks ago I dumped an unconscious god into a pigsty."

She stares at me for a moment, then shakes her head. "I can't even tell if youwa lyin'."

I chuckle. "I don't need to. I don't think I could make this stuff up."

She nods, eyes momentarily going to the floor. "That why you do it? Fly around, pick fights with guys in weird costumes… 'Cause y' like seein' things othah people don't?"

"No… I don't think it's that. I mean, I could do all of that stuff without the fighting."

She shrugs. "Y'don't need t'have some great big dark secret."

"Those are still fairly popular." Greenery extends itself from the intruding branches and gathers in an approximate circle around the two Green… I can't think of them as Greenies. Greenists? Around Euanthe and Isley. "But in my case it was more mercenary. I needed a personal lantern to charge the ring, the chap who had a spare wouldn't give it to me unless I was getting supervised."

"'Need it'? Wat'cha need it fowah?" She looks down at the rings for a moment. "Most people get buy jus' fine without 'em."

"Until someone turns their city into a forest."

"Okay, but statistically-."

"Yes, I know. Humans aren't good at judging risks, and I'm no exception to that rule. And the sort you have here are so much more flamboyant than we had back at home." I frown. "I don't think that I told you that I-."

"Came heyeh from another universe. No, but'cha told Dana Dearden an' I read her interview."

"Right." My frown deepens. "You know, it's only as I talk to you… I justified it to myself in various ways post-facto, but it… Never really occurred to me not to get it recharged."

"An' alla tha other stuff?"

"Reputation grinding. I wish to change the way Human society works, so I'm doing what I need to in order to ensure that, firstly, there's still a human society here and, secondly, so that people will be inclined to listen to my ideas. Or… At least, that's my current justification. Now you make me think about it, I'm not sure-."

"Wonder Woman to Orange Lantern."

I raise my left hand to my ear. "Orange Lantern here."

"What is your status?"

"Euanthe and…" I look at Doctor Isley for a fraction of a second. "I are attempting to locate Tefé Holland. Any progress at your end?"

"Swamp Thing has yet to reappear, and the Mayor appears set on enforcing the letter of the law."

"The letter of the law says that he's wrong. I made sure of that when it was written."

"The warrant is still valid. It was issued before the Citizenship Recognition Act was signed into law, and Louisiana law has not yet been modified to take it into account. When it goes to court in Louisiana Missus Holland can plead innocent on that basis."

"Yes, but that could take months -or years if she has to go to the state supreme court- and I rather imagine people are going to want Gotham in the meantime. Besides, it's {red}clearly bull{/}-!"

"Frustrating.. though it is, the Mayor and the State of Louisiana have the right to demand that it be followed."

"Then they're welcome to try enforcing it. Look, she's basically being arrested for jumping bail, right?"

"I believe that is why the warrant was issued, yes."

"Howsabout they just pretend that didn't happen? She and Tefé can go back to living in the swamp until the trial, I'll have Mister Tuckman conduct her defence in absentia-" And not do anything pointlessly vengeful like publicly attacking them for being morons. That is sufficient punishment by itself. "-and Swamp Thing can call off his plants."

"I have already suggested something similar. It was not well received."

"What do they think is going to happen?"

"They have requested that I call upon the services of Doctor Fate."

"Then I hope his robes are one hundred percent synthetic and that he hasn't eaten anything-. Does he eat?"

"I have never seen him do so."

"I assume that you've told them that if Swamp Thing decides to make a fight of it -and he would- he'd tear Gotham apart?"

"The phrase used was 'we do not negotiate with terrorists'."

I sigh and roll my eyes. "What's the process for starting a recall election for the Gotham mayorship?"

"Notifying the electors may prove somewhat difficult."

"Alright. I'll let you know if I find anything to-." The leaf circle shakes and rattles. "Oh, hang on. We might have-."

The leaves {black}brown{/} and {black}blacken{/} and {black}fall to the ground{/}. The branches themselves {black}wither{/} and {black}decay{/} and Euanthe and Doctor Isley both stare at them in horror. Euanthe recovers faster. "Pavlos! Burn the {yellow}infection{/}! Quickly!"

I raise my hands and orange light surrounds and disintegrates the dying plant matter. There's resistance of the sort I've learned to expect from an arcane target. I turn off the orange and… No, still some left. I scoop the wood that won't die up into a construct container and fire a Mage Slayer at it.

Okay, that appears to have worked.

"Problem?"

"Yes, Pavlos." Euanthe looks at the severed limbs of the plant I just amputated. "A great problem."

14th May
14:16 GMT -5

Doctor Isley flops back, her {yellow}breathing rapid and shallow{/}. "{yellow}What{/}..? {yellow}What was that{/}?"

"Are you injured?"

{yellow}She shudders, her breathing{/}-. I transition across the room, a paper bag emerging from subspace and covering her mouth.

"Breathe. Breathe." She gets her left hand up to take hold of the bag. "Euanthe, has the attack stopped?"

"Yes. I was not expecting such a backlash. I believe that someone created some manner of trap to try and slay anyone who attempted what we did."

"Was it Tefé?"

"No. No, it cannot be her. No one who has the connection to the Green that she has could create such a thing."

"Do you know what it was?"

"It felt like oblivion, like drowning in tar. It felt like every spark of life being extinguished and something repugnant continuing in a foul anti-existence."

"Demons or some kind of necromancy, right. Are you still being affected?"

"No. Pamela was the focus of the ritual and her connection to the Green was not strong enough for that.. corrupted magic to continue."

Doctor Isley removes the paper bag from her face. "Okay… Okay… That… That wasn't there before."

"Are you sure that Tefé is?"

"Yes." / "She was…"

Doctor Isley looks at Euanthe for some clue as to which of them is supposed to be answering. Euanthe's lack of Human-compatible body language appears to be throwing her. Hm. I wonder how Euanthe and Danni would get along? With no guidance, Doctor Isley turns to me. "We saw her. At least, I assume it was her."

"It was."

"Then the.. blackness… It came back through the channel."

"Right. Can I assume that you didn't have any sort of cut-out? You were just plugging yourself directly in to the local greenery?"

Euanthe looks almost offended. "Of course. How else should we have acted?"

"Human magic users tend to incorporate defensive measures into their rituals to prevent things like that happening. If you're interested, I can arrange for you to get lessons." My eyes dart to Doctor Isley. "You too, when you're released. Now, where are they keeping Tefé?"

"East, almost directly. Robbinsville, but… I think she was underground. I didn't see much. I could… Probably tell where it was if I got closer."

"Not to worry." I raise my left hand to my ear again. "Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman."

There's a short delay before she answers. "Wonder Woman here, go ahead."

"Tefé Holland located. There's at least one person with her who can use some sort of death magic. I suspect that she is being held against her will. Orders?"

"Good work. I will contact Doctor Fate and request his presence."

I almost suggest assembling my entire team instead… But -much as I hate to admit it- I don't think three barely graduated Atlantean battlemages and two haphazardly trained magicians are really well suited to this situation. I really need to put more effort into finding a magic user in the weight class who we can call on instead of him. I mean, after the seventh of July it won't matter so much and with a little luck I'll have a preferred candidate anyway… I'll ask John if he's got any ideas. Or maybe Eris has another devotee with an interest, or an Amazon who'd like to try Man's magic? Don't know. Problem for later.

"Understood. Should I support him or return to civil assistance?"

Curiously, due to the way the team is set up, my oath is the only thing compelling me to obey her in this situation. The League doesn't generally have the authority to give my team orders, only Batman does. Any other deference the rest of the League gets comes from personal respect and affection. I haven't drawn this to anyone's attention as I don't want it fixed in such a way that I find myself obliged to obey Nabu. Maybe something for my exit interview?

"The Gotham zeta tube is currently too overgrown to function. I understand that you have the ability to connect construct zeta tubes to our network?"

"Yes. Though to be honest, it won't be any harder for me to just fly over and pick him up. Wherever he is. Similarly, I can pick up and drop off my team mates if you think they've beaten the gangs into obedience. Or we can try telling Swamp Thing himself. In any case, I strongly recommend having someone more diplomatic than Nabu just in case this is some sort of strange misunderstanding."

"Do you have any assessment of the level of force that you would expect to encounter?"

"None as yet. And I only have an approximate location. I can perform reconnaissance first if you like."

"One moment."

The line goes dead. Okay, what next? I walk back to the common room door and push it open, ignoring the pistols which the guards point at my face. "Doctor Stoner?"

He pokes his head out from around a corner. "Ah, yeah? Any problems?"

"No, but I might need to borrow her for an hour or so, as part of efforts to pacify Swamp Thing. Is that likely to be a problem?"

"Are you going to bring her back afterwards?"

"Of course."

"I'm… Not sure this is really my decision? I mean…" He looks away. "I… Technically, I can approve someone in minimum security for day release, but only to someone who has already gone through vetting."

"I have… Excellent character references?"

"I.. um, I'm sure you do, but there's a little more to it than that. We have to make sure that no one's fallen under the influence of… Um."

"Rea-? No." I hold my palms toward him. If people were inclined towards rationality today wouldn't be happening. "Okay. Is anyone I know on the approved list?"

"Batman?"

"Busy." And how the heck did he pass a background check?

"Robin is as well, but I guess-."

"No, I can get Robin. And if I do, you can release her?"

"Oh yeah, that'll be fine. But we'll need her back by nine. Ah... That's when we go into lockdown."

"Either that'll be fine, or there won't be a city anymore. So no problem!"

"Okay! Well then… I'll get the forms, you get the Robin!" He smiles, nods, and turns away to hurry down the corridor.

Right. One problem dealt with. Now I just wait for Diana-.

There's a rumble from outside. Then another. And another, slightly fainter.

I'm hurrying back through the door even as the ring shows me Swamp Thing's colossal body stomping down the Schwartz Bypass. "Euanthe, any idea what Swamp Thing is doing?"

"Going to recover his daughter. Was aiding him in that endeavour not the purpose of our actions?"

14th May
14:20 GMT -5

…

"Yes. Yes. … Yes."

…

AAAAAGH!

My right hand massages my forehead. "But it was to get them back together in the way which best served his longer term objectives, rather than the one which resulted in him rampaging through a city and alienating everyone. Swamp Thing is a wonderful being, but he isn't very clever and sometimes he needs other people to deal with complicated situations for him."

"Your original explanation was unclear."

"Yes… Yes, I now realise that. We're going to try getting there ahead of him. If it turns out to be necessary, are you willing to confront the source of that death magic?"

"The Great Warrior freed me and allowed me to succour on his power. His purposes are mine."

Harleen raises her right eyebrow. "Maybe you shouldn't put it jus' like that when you meet his wife."

"Harleen, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here."

She shakes her head. "I ain't gunna argue. I know when I'm gettin' over my head."

"Right." Ring, location of Robin?

I get an image of Upper East Side. Looks like he and the others are doing a meet-and-greet. A sound move. Preventing panic and the break down of social rules that it leads to is every bit as important as fighting a gang at the moment. Kon's floating above the others still in his party frock, and from the way he's staring north I think I can assume that he's seen Swamp Thing's new body.

Transition.

I appear at ground level, Robin and Artemis immediately orientating to me. "Guys, we have a problem."

Kon drops through the air, landing a short distance from me. "Is that Swamp Thing?"

I wave my right hand and generate a construct image for those of my colleagues who can't fly. I add a scale, and Robin grimaces. "The Schwartz Bypass is already clear of motorists, so all he's doing is crushing cars. When he reaches his destination and tries using that body to fight with that will change."

Richard nods. "Where do you think he's heading?"

"Robbinsville. Euanthe and Doctor Isley were able to locate Tefé Holland there."

Artemis grimaces. "So he's just gunna kidnap his own daughter?"

"Someone near her is using death magic to counterattack scrying attempts. If they're also keeping him from sensing her I expect that he just wants to make sure that she's safe. Wonder Woman is getting hold of Nabu but we suddenly don't have as much planning time as I had been assuming."

Wallace walks closer, draping his right arm around Richard's shoulders. "Y'know, I can still remember a time when all Gotham had was freaks in bad suits. Whatever happened to them?"

"We beat them all. Giant Swamp Thing is our level now."

He nods approvingly. "I like the way you think."

"Everyone got their spell eaters?" Nods from Kon, Richard and Artemis. Wallace and Zatanna shake their heads. "Right. I've got one spare. Kid Flash-" I generate a zeta tube construct. "-go back to base and pick yours up. I'll open up the tube again when we reach our destination."

"Right."

He's gone in a blur of yellow and I shut down the construct, taking my spare spell eater out of subspace and handing it to Zatanna. She takes it a little reluctantly. "I can't cast spells while holding this."

"I know, but -and I say this with the greatest respect- anyone powerful enough to keep Tefé somewhere she doesn't want to be and to keep Swamp Thing out-."

She nods. "Would be more than I could handle anyway."

"Once the fighting starts, just drop it. Okay, we need to stop off at Arkham so Robin can sign Doctor Isley's day release form-."

Richard's eyes widen. "You wanna explain why we're letting a plant controlling supervillain out of Arkham, Oh El?"

"Because she's not insane anymore and she can feel where Tefé is. Finding her will be difficult without Doctor Isley's help." He looks sceptical. "Robin, you were there when Swamp Thing changed her back into a normal Human. It was the alterations that Doctor Woodrue made to her body that made Poison Ivy. Her desires are.. what you'd expect from a normal person who'd been through some fairly extreme experiences and really likes plants. And I doubt that she could wrench control away from Swamp Thing if she wanted to."

He deflates slightly. "I'm so gunna regret this."

"Okay, good. Everyone ready?" Nods all around.

Transition.

Back in the asylum common room Doctor Isley is back on her feet, paper bag neatly folded in one hand. I attach a filament to it and return it to subspace as the sound of Swamp Thing's thumping steps filters back into my consciousness.

Richard eyes Doctor Isley awkwardly and she in turns looks more than a little uncomfortable. "Robin. I.. realise that you're just one of a lot of people I hurt while I was Poison Ivy, but I… I want to apologi-."

The door swings open and Doctor Stoner walks through. "So I've got the forms ready whene.. ver…" He takes in the room's occupants. "Oh, you're already here. Okay, good." He holds out a clipboard in Richard's direction. "Just sign at the bottom."

Richard takes hold of the clipboard and picks up the attached pencil. "I really hope I don't regret this." He signs with a stylised 'R' before handing it back. "Okay, Oh El. Where now?"

Underground in Robbinsville. It's surrounded by sea on three sides. Assuming that I can't scan the target directly… Gotham has large utility tunnels and storm drains… Ring, match the plans with what we can scan. Let's hope our target hasn't been as clever as they think they have.

{orange}Discrepancy found.{/}

HAH! 'Oh, he'll never find me if I put up a scry ward'! Sucker!

"Transition in two, one."

We appear next to the main entrance to the Robbinsville utility tunnels. "There's an area in there that's warded against my scans. Doctor Isley?"

"Ah..?" She looks around for a moment, getting her bearings. "Down and…" She points north. "That way." I nod. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No. While I much prefer your current form to that of your alter ego, I doubt that you'll be much use in a fight. Seek cover." She nods gratefully and backs away.

Thump, thump. Swamp Thing is definitely getting closer. Zeta tube construct. "Orange Lantern to Kid-" He appears through the aperture, wiggling his spell eater pendant. "-Flash. Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. I'm in position. Is Nabu available?"

"Yes. Do you know why Swamp Thing is-?"

"Miscommunication with Euanthe. Zeta tube is open."

Another flash from the tube and Nabu floats through, {red}stolen eyes staring and unblinking{/}.

And immediately all of the greenery around us begins to {black}rot{/}.

14th May
14:25 GMT -5

Apparently tough bark crumbles away all around us, revealing dry and Moth-eaten wood. Or perhaps Woodlouse-eaten, given that a small horde of them appears to have materialised from somewhere to run over the surface of it, following the wave of death spreading out from our target.

"Vile necromancy!" Nabu's eye holes glow gold as the Lich rises a short distance into the air, a faint gold glow appearing in the air around us. Within the area of his spell the plant life either remains green or evaporates into golden flecks while outside it the plants continue to putrefy.

Hm. Presumably his necromancy is of the non-vile kind.

"Whow." Wallace looks around as the dying wood spontaneously sprouts great fronds of fungus. More insects appear, and I note several Millipedes of types not usually found in this part of America.

Euanthe has {yellow}moved to the exact centre of the shielded area and has her arms pulled tightly against her chest{/}. She stares around in horror, rather than the mystification the rest of us appear to be feeling. "Wrong. So very wrong."

"Okay." Artemis shrugs. "Creepy, but we kinda need all this plant stuff gone anyway."

"Artemis, that's ridiculously optimistic. No one is going to do something like this out of the goodness of their heart. We're just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Even as I say it, partially rotten vines and wood are pulled away from us and towards Aparo Expressway. Chunks fall away and some vines snap, but that's an awful lot of dead wood moving under its own power.

Richard looks thoughtful. "Euanthe, can Swamp Thing control dead wood?"

She doesn't respond, too {yellow}fearfully{/} focused on all of the dying plants around us.

"He can make dead wood alive again. He can't kill it and then control it. I've never heard of a necromancer controlling dead plants before-."

"This is more than necromancy, Lantern." Nabu's hands are glowing, small ankhs on his fingertips. Ah, it seems like he's picked up the 'many small spells are more efficient than one big one' lesson. "I sense a demonic agent at work."

More Demons, great. "Anyone you know?"

"My bestiary of earthly Demons is incomplete. None I know of are skilled in manipulating plants."

"Nabu, we're here to assist you. Undead demonic plants or freeing Tefé?"

"How can I know that this is not her doing? Your own reports state that her conception was tainted by demonic magic."

"No." Euanthe shakes her head emphatically. "No one who knows the Green could perform this abomination. Their own souls would curdle and die before they could twist themselves so much."

I think we've left Artemis behind. "Swamp Thing used Demon magic to have a daughter?"

"No, he borrowed John Constantine's body and John Constantine has some of Nergal's blood in him."

"So she's John Constantine's daughter. Right?"

Nabu {red}glows brilliant gold{/} and then shoots directly upwards into the sky, staring in the direction the necro-wood is moving. Great.

"It appears that we have a decision." I form a platform under my tea-. My squad, and lift us into the sky.

Oh, that's disgusting.

I can clearly see Swamp Thing's colossal form as it strides down the Schwartz Bypass. Preparing to meet his charge is a.. thing. Dull brown interspersed with dull yellow, a creature made of rotting and cankerous wood stands. Its head is a narrow oval, a lopsided mouth with teeth made of jagged pieces of bark and eye-like holes inhabited by nests of spiders. All around its body a swarm of flies hovers, more and more maggots digging out of its body to the fresh air outside. Down the front of its chest real demonic eyes swivel madly in all directions as the combined elements of the abomination take in their environment. Its lower body is a cross of insect and snake, with insectoid legs made of petrified wood and oozing demonic flesh. Blood, pus and liquids I don't want to try identifying drip from various orifices and Eris preserve me I think it's pregnant!

"Oh God. I think I'm gunna be sick."

Wallace says it, but I think we're all feeling it.

Zatanna gags. "Augh. Is that where the smell's coming from?"

"I hope so, because if it isn't, that means there's something worse smelling around here."

"SWAMP THING!"

And the sound. Damp but strong, rotting but vibrant. I know who it is even before Swamp Thing bellows back.

"Arcane!"

And I remember the Demon, his tormentor and later lover, whom their demonic overseers bonded him to after she enabled one of his escapes. Don't remember her name, but that does go some way to explain how he's back again. Bet Cranius and his mob will start shitting themselves if this gets back to Aberrance.

Kon glances at me. "You didn't bring the Ace of Winchesters, did you?"

"No. No I didn't." I form a railgun construct, load an Angel feather round and take aim. "But this is nearly as good."

Artemis draws her bow, an anti-magic arrow searching for a target. "Where do I even shoot that thing?"

"Shoot where I shoot!" Nabu thrusts his fists forward, the air around them glowing gold. "We will purge this abomination-."

"{black}No, you won't.{/}" A beam of ghostly white energy strikes him in the side and sends him reeling in the air for a moment before he teleports, then surrounds himself in a golden shield. I trace the beam back just in time to see Dark Druid stride out onto a rooftop. "{black}You'll die. Everyone in this city will die.{/}"

"Foul sorcerer!" Nabu charges his shot, ankhs floating around his forearms in a circle before a brilliant golden beam blasts at Dark Druid's position.

Where it's met by an ectoplasmic barrier. "{black}This is a place of unlife, Fate. Our domain. Inhabited by hundreds of the still living.{/}" Nabu blasts him again, this time making his barrier shudder. "{black}Arcane! Cull the living.{/}"

The abomination half turns, its arms flying outwards. From them, a horde of demonically mutated insects fly in all directionohshit.

Praexis Horde, get them!

Demonic constructs fly from the rings as I drop us to ground level. "Team, we're going after Tefé. No way can either of those monsters sustain a connection to the Green on their own."

Zatanna looks concerned. "We're abandoning Fate?"

"Dark Druid just surfaced for the first time since Roanoke. What just changed?"

Doctor Isley's eyes widen. "The Green. There's more Green magic in this city than anywhere there's ever been."

"Losing Nabu-" Like this. "-would be bad. Losing all plant life on the planet would be worse. We're going to disrupt his link to it." I transition upwards, target Arcane's womb and fire my Angel feather round before transitioning back down. "Now."

"RRRRAGGH!"

14th May
14:28 GMT -5

Demonic Wasps fly from Arcane's rotting body, meeting my Praexis Demons in a swirling melee in the air. The Demons are more numerous, grabbing and biting at their far more agile quarry. Still a few get through-

"Yfirup!"

-and in a puff of smoke hurtle out of control to the ground. They're still alive-ish, but the magic enhancing them is gone and they're stuck with giant insect bodies that can't get enough oxygen to function. I give Zatanna a nod as the rest of my team jogs towards the utility tunnel entrance.

"There's no way anyone down there doesn't know we're here, so we're doing this fast and not subtle." I take Zatanna's proffered spell eater, then create construct armour around everyone. "Robin and Zatanna, take the lead. Destroy any magic protections you encounter as you find them." They nod and speed up as Richard throws a crumbler-boomerang at the entrance, destroying it. The access tunnel is straight down, kinetic belts allowing them to just jump down without any concern. "Superboy, Euanthe, Isley, you're next. Superboy-" He glances back. "-look after them."

Euanthe is first to the hole, then hesitates. "I cannot make it grow to-."

Kon puts his right arm around her waist, his left around Doctor Isley and jumps.

Artemis puts an arrow through a demonic Stag Beetle that was running along the wall near us. "You know they're gunna follow us, right?"

Off in the sky above us there's a flare of golden light.

"Giant Demon-Insects in a narrow tunnel." Wallace nods. "Great. Now I wish I'd spent more time on magic insecticides."

I generate a pair of minigun constructs. "Go. I'll be along in a moment."

"Ah, Oh El? I didn't bring my belt-."

Artemis stows her bow, picks him up in a bridal carry and jumps down the hole.

Right. The miniguns open fire as the insect and arthropod swarm keeps coming. I hadn't reasoned it through the whole way when I took the shot, but railgun-aborting Arcane's foetus has done a reasonable job of persuading him to send his minions after us. A Black Sexton Beetle has its wings shredded by my constructs before taking shots to its head. The Praexis should be able to consume the rest before they get into the buildings. Okay, good.

"Hellwraith." The horrible thing shimmers into being next to me. "Consume the demonic magics in anything that tries to follow us."

{orange}"Yes, Master."{/}

There's a tremendous crash, and the rings show me Swamp Thing slam into Arcane, wood dust and demonic gunk spraying everywhere. Arcane is clearly damaged by the impact, but he's drawing more mass into him. Like a Nurgle Demon, ripping his flesh apart doesn't really do much to hurt him. Not in any important sense. And it probably doesn't even hurt significantly when compared to what he suffered in Hell. As they grapple I see demonically enhanced Ants scurrying across his body and onto Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing brushes the first wave off and stamps on them before smashing Arcane's head to dust with a haymaker.

He's got that. I fire off a last burst of fire before flying into the utility tunnel at full speed.

"Eb Edamnu!"

Protocol and role-comprehension. Not being expected to take any part in the fight -if any- at the end, Zatanna knows to put as much effort as is required into breaking down obstacles en route. Using her for face-punching duty is a waste. For more conventional obstacles -I see a white-red glow from down the tunnel as Richard sets off an incendiary- we have a super strong gadget user. Kind of interesting how different it works between solo work and team work. A solo artist has to be able to do some of everything and know when they're trying to operate in an area they literally can't handle. We can afford to have specialists for particular tasks and keep them in that role.

Up ahead I can see Wallace and Artemis. Between super strength and super speed everyone's making good time. Better yet, they're not bunching up. Glad that I'm not the only one who's learned a lot.

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Nabu's fighting Dark Druid and Swamp Thing's fighting Anton Arcane who's using a body made of rotting wood and Demon. I've deployed the Praexis Demons to fight demonically enhanced creepy crawlies and my team's trying to release Tefé."

"I'll be there in under a minute. Won-."

The sound of wind obscures the rest as she accelerates. Good. Much as I loathe Nabu on a personal level, Dark Druid is a foul offence to life and is thoroughly deserving of the worst beating the League members feel like delivering. Diana isn't as fast under her own power as Superman and I {yellow}experience{/} a momentary pang of fear as I note that she isn't wearing armour at the moment.

Wallace blurs into motion, shoving Artemis aside and lunging against the wall himself as a giant Mole Cricket falls down from a freshly dug hole in the roof. A half-second later its head is coated in smoke as… Yep, Essence of Vitriol. Bit surprised that he brought it to the wedding with him. Maybe he picked it up from the Mountain? The Mole Cricket collapses, shaking, as its head melts away. Artemis rolls to her feet, an arrow already on string. She launches it at the Cricket's entry hole. The arrow detonates and releases quick drying hard foam into the space, temporarily blocking it to any other insects.

Suddenly I feel my awareness of the local area expand, the last of Dark Druid's wards collapsing. Tefé Holland and some figures who only show up as black are in one of the sections which the plans say shouldn't be there. Richard and Kon are already in the room, a visibly tired Zatanna having dropped back a little.

"Double time."

I attach a filament to Artemis as Wallace dashes forwards and around the corner in the direction of the advanced party. I'm not risking a transition around unfamiliar magics, but we need to get there pronto. Killing Tefé will probably shut down whatever magic they're trying to do here… Although… If it happened here as it did in the comic… I'm painfully aware that Arcane briefly was Swamp Thing, back when he still thought that he was Alec Holland and Arcane offered to give him a Human body in exchange for his elemental one. He might still maintain enough of a connection to keep things going, at least.

I deposit Artemis near the entrance and create railgun constructs. At the far end of the room a young woman is chained to the wall with dying plants.. plugged into her skin. Just in front of her, seven corpses with plants growing around and through them stand in a rough circle around a single man in a priest's habit whose eyes glow with the same off-white light as Dark Druid's beams.

Richard recognises him. "Blackfire." The clearly dead man regards us with a good deal more intelligence than the shambling forms around him. "Can't keep a bad guy down."

{black}"Robin. I do God's work here."{/}

I load a Mage Slayer round and shoot him in the abdomen. It punches clean through his flesh and smashes into the concrete floor beyond. An incendiary arrow from Artemis hits the closest plant zombie, the chemical gel inside spreading out across its surface before igniting. No scream, not even an exhalation as the fire spreads and it and its fellows charge. There's a yellow blur and one begins smoking from Wallace's acid as he runs past to see to Tefé. Richard takes another with a white phosphorus bomb as Blackfire stands. The hole in his body glows the same off-white colour as his eyes and he grins as more of it manifests around his right fist.

"Superboy, get him."

"For Helios!" Kon surges through the air, Helios' pure light shining from him as he hits Blackfire in the chest with both fists and drives him into a wall. The man doesn't yelp or give any other indication that that actually hurt him.

A shambler charges at me, wooden claws shimmering with that same off-white light which I remember from the Invunche in Liverpool. I back up slightly, taking an x-ionised sword out of subspace and slicing off its reaching limbs before smashing it in the chest with a battering ram construct. It tries digging its foot claws into the rotten vegetation underfoot, but a pair of construct blades slice those off as well shortly before an unmaker takes its head.

And the rest of it keeps moving.

14th May
14:32 GMT -5

Awkward. Almost cheating.

"Head shots don't kill. Destroy them completely."

For a moment, every part of my opponent's body glows with orange light. Then not even ash remains.

Euanthe has joined Wallace in ministering to Tefé, pouring his acid… No, that's healing potion, pouring healing potion onto the vines stuck in her.

Richard backs away from his still-burning attacker before throwing a small explosive into its chest. The blast knocks it off its feet, but what's left of it still tries to rise. "They don't burn so well!"

Artemis looses two unmakers, the torso of the vine zombie closest to her vanishing completely and its arms, legs and head falling to the ground. "Disintegration works fine."

"I only brought-" Richard holds up a single boomerang. "-one!"

Kon headbutts the snarling Deacon Blackfire then turns his head back in my direction. "Can we kill undead?"

Blackfire gives up on trying to push Kon off and instead closes his hands around Kon's shoulders, passing through his construct armour as tainted white light flows across them. {black}"Your false god shall not protect you from-."{/}

Kon frees his right hand and punches Blackfire in the abdomen, his left lifting Blackfire up by the throat. The brilliant white light of Helios' blessing flickers for a moment, then pushes back against Blackfire's corruption.

"No, but you're perfectly free-" I push my hands towards another vine zombie and disintegrate it with a beam of orange light. "-to rip off his arms and legs, since they're weapons and his body isn't functioning-"

There's a tremendous crack and Blackfire's right arm sails past me. I stick out my right arm and disintegrate that as well.

"-biologically."

"Lortnoc daednu." I frown, looking around as Zatanna speaks. A vine zombie that had been closing in on her staggers a few steps, then her eyes glow with the same {black}ghostly white{/} as Blackfire! "{black}Ah-agh{/}!"

I {yellow}transition{/} to her side, another ring blast annihilating the zombie as I press her abandoned spell eater to her chest. She takes a gasping breath, blinking rapidly as her eyes return to normal.

"You alright?"

She grabs onto my hand holding the spell eater with both of hers, trying to get her breathing under control. "That was horrible."

"Energy field larger than your-?"

I get a glare and she shifts her hands from my hand to the spell eater itself. "That's not funny."

"Sounds like you've recovered."

I turn back to my colleagues as the de-limbed torso of Deacon Blackfire thumps down on the floor as Artemis and Richard destroy the last of the vine zombies. More of the off-white light twinkles in the dead flesh of the stumps but absolutely no liquid flows from the wound. He looks around, filled with {black}a desire to end us{/} but with no way to put it into effect.

I disintegrate his severed limbs. "Kid Flash, how's it coming?"

The parts of the vines directly attached to Tefé are momentarily alive once more and Euanthe is persuading them to leave her flesh. "Looking good, Oh El. We should have her out in a minute." He looks around to make eye contact for a moment. "Where exactly are we taking her?"

"The Mountain. I'll make a zeta tube construct. Euanthe, get her into the grove and try healing her. Kid Flash, help her."

"Right." Tefé comes loose, falling forwards into Wallace's waiting arms as the last few vines are pulled from her flesh. She looks.. a mess. Her wounds aren't bleeding much but there are clearly visible incisions into her flesh everywhere I can see.

"Anyone hurt?"

Kon rolls his right shoulder. "Aches where he touched me, but that's it."

My eyes pass around my team mates and they each shake their heads in turn. "Euanthe, any idea what that was doing?"

Euanthe steps away from Tefé's prison as the plants she temporarily resurrected die off once more. She peers at Tefé's injuries and then shakes her head. "She connected the death to the Green. I do not understand the magics involved."

"Right." I generate a zeta tube construct. "Get going."

They walk into the aperture and disappear as Doctor Isley nervously raises her right hand. "Should I go with them?"

"Grateful as I am for your help, you're not going inside secure Justice League facilities for a little while. Stick with us for the time being."

She looks longingly at the portal for a moment, then nods.

Kon walks slowly towards Blackfire's fallen form and lightly kicks it with his right foot. "What do we do with him?"

"Nabu can have him." I put construct clamps around the torso and send it floating back along the way we came. "Let's go. Superboy, take point. Doctor Isley, with me."

Kon nods and strides ahead as Isley comes up alongside me. "What are you going to do next?"

"Help Nabu and Wonder Woman if they need it, clean up the infestation and then talk Swamp Thing down."

Artemis follows Kon, and Robin turns his head my way. "Oh El, what's going on up top?"

I generate railgun constructs and set them to automatic before having the rings scan the combat zone. Bars of luminescent green energy surround Dark Druid as Nabu brings a golden ankh down on top of him. Druid's hood is either thrown back or burned away, his face snarling with hate as he raises his hands and tries to stop the ankh with his own necrotic magics.

The mass that is Arcane's current body shudders as Diana smashes through the front fists first and out of the back in the same way. His body looks smaller than it was before, dead wood sloughing away… He isn't regenerating. He and Swamp Thing are still grappling and from the looks of it the right side of Swamp Thing's body is starting to die off as well. Not fatal, as long as he has space to evacuate.

I watch a Millipede duck around a small group of Praexis Demons and charge through a doorway, only to be blasted back by a group of well-armed civilians. Shoot a demonic creepy crawly enough times and it still dies.

"Nabu has Dark Druid pinned and Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing are tearing chunks off Arcane. Unless something goes badly wrong, we've won."

"Um… Excuse me?" Isley makes eye contact with me for a moment before pushing her right hand through the dead vines running along the side of the tunnel. They come apart and fall to the ground. "I think the.. plants are dead. Properly dead, not undead-dead. They don't feel unnatural any more."

There's a twang from up ahead as Artemis puts a couple of point arrows through a mutated Spider.

"Good shot. Right, sweep and clear. I don't want a single bug escaping."

14th May
16:43 GMT -5

"I'll pass that on. Hold please."

I nod, letting my left hand drift a little further from my ear and returning my attention to the argument taking place in front of me. After Nabu sent Dark Druid back to… I'm not actually sure. Wherever he put the wizards after Roanoke Island. His tower, presumably. That caused the unlife to go out of the severed torso of Deacon Blackfire so I took a couple of pictures as proof and then disintegrated it. Anyway, he did that and my team went a-hunting while Swamp Thing and Diana battered what was left of Arcane into submission. Then Nabu blasted that down into a vaguely humanoid lump of meat and plant and sent it away to join his partner in crime.

And if he breaks the law on dealing with dangerous but defeated supervillains, that's his problem.

And now I'm in a room with Swamp Thing, Diana, Mayor Skowcroft, Commissioner Gordon and a group of distinctly uneasy looking members of the Gotham SWAT team while they try sorting out what the hell happens next, because the core issue of contention didn't get solved just by us stopping a couple of supervillains doing… Whatever it was they were doing.

"…don't care if you weren't responsible for the giant insects! Your plants still brought this city to a halt, and I intend to hold you responsible for every Gotham citizen who died!"

It's fascinating. I knew full well that Swamp Thing was capable of splitting his attention between multiple avatars but I hadn't realised that he could consciously animate them at once. There's an instance of him on top of Mount Justice ministering to Tefé right now, another down there being all impassive as Mayor Skowcroft shouts at him and there's at least one out in the city.

"How do you… Intend… To do that?"

I'm not even certain that more people died today than die on most days in Gotham. Let's see, the normal death rate is about 140 per day. Swamp Thing stopped ambulances and helicopters, but I was covering for emergencies pretty well and not everyone who calls an ambulance is going to survive. Regular appointments were cancelled, so there might be a few deaths there due to late identification of conditions. Eight people were mauled to death by Demon Insects, but he didn't create those and I'm not convinced that the police who were within their normal response time radius would have helped more than he did.

"You think we can't find out where you live!? How about we add Aiding and Abetting a Supervillain to Missus Cable's charge sheet? How would you like that?"

Gangs were mostly lying low and my more martially minded team mates jumped the few who weren't. There were a few fires, but supercharged by the Green the plants proved remarkably un-inflammable. In fact, there were reports that they would grow to smother fires above a certain size. If that's true then I need to see if I can get hold of one or two examples… But anyway, it will be very hard to link Swamp Thing to any one death that occurred today. Most of the obvious damage is financial, lost revenue and damage to city infrastructure.

"I am… Still capable of… Levelling this city."

Neither are behaving in a remotely sensible way, but one is a plant god and the other is a slightly overweight American of Italian-Scottish descent. The mayor has far less leverage than his opponent. Really, it should be obvious that Swamp Thing doesn't feel even slightly bad for what he's done. If the mayor had any sense he'd just set out what reparations he thought were reasonable and go from there.

Diana smiles pleasantly at both of them. "Perhaps if we could return to the matter at hand? Swamp Thing, do you know why Arcane and Dark Druid were here?"

"I… Do not. I felt the wave… Of death in the Green. I removed myself there to stop it and… To make repairs. When I… Returned to the physical world…" His eyes narrow. "My wife had… Been arrested. And had fled to Gotham."

"Now, that wasn't our doing! We didn't make her jump bail. If she'd just stayed in Louisiana, there wouldn't have been-."

Swamp Thing's body darkens as the green epidermis grows a layer of hardened bark. He glares at the mayor as the right hands of several police officers start drifting to their guns. "She should not… Have been threatened… In the first place! If I had… Not acted, it would have meant the… sickening of all plant life in the world! Your crops dead. Your ecosystems in ruins. And for this, my reward is… The persecution of my family! And for what?!"

"Swamp Thing." It takes a moment, but his face turns back towards Diana. Don't really know how he feels about the daughter of Gaea, but he does at least appear to be listening. And I know that Diana's accepted that he isn't prepared to wait for due process of law. "What happened to your daughter after Abigail was arrested?"

"She… Saw the police… Make the arrest. Waited at their… Hotel room for news. When there was none, she went to… Robinson Park. There, she was… Captured."

Commissioner Gordon tenses the left side of his mouth slightly, clearly not wanting to interject but feeling obliged to. "The paperwork we had from Houma said that Tefé might have been travelling with her. We had people out looking for her, but she wasn't cooperating."

"Why… Should she?"

"Because if we'd had Tefé in protective custody-."

"You believe that you could have… Kept her safe… From Arcane?"

Commissioner Gordon shakes his head. "Of course not, but he wouldn't have had to find out that we had her."

Diana nods to herself. "How did he find out that she was here?"

"I do not… Know for certain. Arcane may be able… To use magic in order… To trace his living… Relatives."

Commissioner Gordon frowns. "Relatives? That thing has relatives?"

"Anton Arcane used to be a Human. He's Abigail's uncle."

"I did not… Study her prison directly. But from the description… Provided, it seems that Dark Druid and Arcane were… Using her connection to the Green in order… To continue their work of poisoning plant life… Faster and over a wider area than before."

Diana makes pointed eye contact with Commissioner Gordon. "If you do not know when Arcane and Dark Druid began pursuing Tefé, could it not be that they fled Louisiana to avoid capture?"

He gestures upwards with his hands. "Then why didn't she say that when we interrogated her?"

"Was she obliged to?"

"Wfuj… No, but it would have been extremely helpful to know. Why?" He shakes his head, not following her reasoning. "Do you think that's what happened?"

"I think." Diana pauses to consider her exact words. "I think that if she had fled her uncle, and did not have the opportunity to inform the authorities in advance, then she has not violated the terms of her bail. She would not of course be expected to remain in a place where she could come to harm or where her daughter might be captured and used to destroy all of the world's plant life."

Commissioner Gordon looks blank for a moment, then nods. "That's certainly plausible."

Mayor Skowcroft screws up his face. "Oh, come on Jim. Obviously if that was the case it would have been the first thing she said!"

"Mister Mayor, are you familiar with the work of General Sunderland?"

"Not-. I mean, I've heard of him, but I don't see-."

"Swamp Thing was one of his victims. Him and his aren't inclined to trust authority."

Technically accurate, though Swamp Thing wasn't involved in the late General's work on the Un-Men. But that's the association Diana wants in his head.

Commissioner Gordon nods, warming to the idea. "And if that were the case, Abigail could be returned to Louisiana under her original bail conditions."

Diana nods. "Or placed in the care of the Justice League. In the event that further attacks of this nature were a possibility."

It's a reasonable face-saver. Mayor Skowcroft's clearly spotted what they're implying. Will he go for it?

"That still leaves all the greenery and the damage to the city."

"If my wife is… Free, then I am prepared to… Remove my plants and restore… Parts of the city which were… Significantly damaged." He leans forward. "Freed. Not transferred from one… Prison to another."

"I can't just clap my hands and make the original charges van-"

My ring blinks and I return it to my ear.

"-ish."

I generate a phone construct and hold it out to him. "Mister Mayor? President Horne for you."

14th May
21:53 GMT -6

"And you could jus' get tha President on tha phone."

Harleen and I walk down the main road of Montegut, Louisiana. We have our arms around each other's backs and she's leaning into me. We dropped Swamp Thing, Abigail and Tefé off twenty minutes ago and I am now escorting her back to her home. The right hand and the left hand -or perhaps, this being America, the right hand and the further right hand- are now talking to one another and with luck finding a non-stupid legal solution which doesn't involve picking a fight with the God of Plants. I was pleasantly surprised by how President Horne stayed polite and reasonable throughout the conversation.

"Yes. I mean, it wasn't exactly easy. I had to go through a number of intermediaries, but he told me when Mister Luthor and I were campaigning about the Citizenship Recognition Act that he agreed with what we were doing, and if we ever ran into any sort of trouble getting it enforced we should contact him."

"Rilly?"

I raise my right eyebrow, turning my head to look down at her. Street lighting around here isn't all that good, but I'm sharing the ring's ambient lighting enhancement. It makes her eyes look more than a little bit unsettling. I suppose that I'm used to seeing it in the mirror, but seeing it on someone else… "Why wouldn't he?"

"Jus' never rememba him gettin' excited about civil liberties befowah." She looks thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, I ain't sure what else he's actually done."

"I know he was the third head of state to send an ambassador to Kahndaq after Adom took over."

"I don't rememba hearin' nothin' abowd that."

"Probably didn't want to draw attention to it, given how sensitive America was -and still is- to supervillains. I mean, Adom's not, but that sort of distinction's lost on some-" Television channels. "-people."

"I know you said this sorta thing only happens once a week, but is this how it usually goes?"

"No. Usually our opponents are more violent or more secretive. Swamp Thing was just sort of sitting there and having a halfway reasonable grievance. And if there's any sort of dispute about who gets charged with what afterwards superheroes aren't usually involved."

"How come?"

"We're permitted because we're useful and… As you saw today, there are certain practical difficulties involved in stopping us."

She chuckles. "Yeyeah."

"But most of us don't have arrest authority. Justice League members do, but that's about it. The usual procedure is to hand suspects over to police and then let them handle it."

"You can't make arrests?"

I nod. "I can't make arrests."

She tugs slightly on my arm and we turn off the main road onto a smaller road lined on either side with bungalows. Bungalows on stilts. I suppose that it makes sense, given how low lying all the land is around here. If it floods, who cares? As long as it's less than two metres deep you just have to sit tight for a day or so.

"Lived here long?"

"I was just rentin'." She shrugs. "But, once Waller decided she was gonna keep me on, I decided I needed somethin' a bit more permanent." I nod. "A lotta guys an' gals from Belle Reve live around heyah. It's less than an hour's drive t' get t' work, prices are okay, crime rate's low… 'Course, havin' a buncha people from a supervillain prison livin' here probably helps with that."

"Bit quieter than New York or Gotham."

"I dunno. Gotham was pretty quiet today. An' tha flies can get real bad durin' summah. Oh, this is me."

She pulls away slightly, leading me up the solid wooden steps of her bungalow towards the door. There's a small electric light attached to the wall next to the door and I can see a couple of insects crawling over it in an attempt to reach the moon. I've never really been clear why Americans build houses that are this fragile. If I lived in a place that got hit by tornadoes a few times a year I'd want my home built of solid brick.

Harleen takes her key out of her handbag and slots it into the lock. "Nevah did get t' go flyin'."

"We can always do that some other time."

"Yeyeah, we could." She turns back towards me, then nods. "You… Um. You got any plans for tomorrow?"

"Batman's probably going to want to talk to me about the whole Swamp Thing thing at some point, but other than that, nothing that can't be put off. Haven't managed to put you off the whole superhero lifestyle, then?"

"Heck no. So…" Her eyes dart around, moving from me to our environment. I suppose that since she's not used to built in night vision it must be a little distracting. "I was {orange}wonderin{/}'-."

"Hello, Paul."

"Ah!" Oh dear. A hand appears over my right shoulder at the same time as I feel a head against my left arm. What the heck is Eris doing in Louisiana? Harleen stares at her. "Who are you?"

"Didn't he tell you?" Eris' right hand trails across my back to my left side, making only a brief stop off at my bottom and Eris walks forw-. What is she wearing? No, I can clearly see what she's wearing. It's a black leather corset which barely covers her breasts, coupled with black knickers, black leather thigh boots, black elbow length gloves and… And she's carrying a riding crop. "I'm his goddess."

Harleen blinks, backing up slightly. "Uuuuum. I… {yellow}Um{/}."

"And he recently called upon my services." Eris tilts her head slightly to the right, looking Harleen over and grinning. "Will you be joining us this evening?"

Harleen's mouth falls open, her eyes moving from Eris to me and then back again. She gulps. "Ah-h..?"

I sigh. "Harleen, she's my goddess in an entirely literal and not at all metaphorical -or sexual- way. Allow me to introduce my patron, Eris. The Olympian Goddess of Chaos."

"O-oh." She nods. "Because.. that's.. less.. scary."

"She's actually quite a pleasant woman." Eris brings the keeper of her crop to her lips and licks it lasciviously. "Mostly. Sometimes. Eris, are you actually here for something?"

She grins. "Oh, call me 'mistress'."

"I'm not calling you mistress."

She rolls her eyes. "Oh, fine. That thing you asked me about. I've got a lead."

"The thing…" Oh, the thing. "Rrright." I sigh, then focus my attention back on Harleen. "I'm terribly sorry, but I need to get on this."

Eris nods. "He really does."

"Ah. Okay! Well, I had-. Fun, today?" Her eyes dart to Eris again, who-. Shouldn't be doing that with a riding crop in public. "Ah…" She darts forward, puts her hands on my shoulders and pulls my head down to give me a quick peck on the left cheek. Then with another nervous glance at Eris she backs away, pushing open the door of her house and walking through. Then closing it in a fairly definitive way. I hear the lock turning.

Eris nods to herself. "She seemed nice."

"Eris, this wasn't the best time."

"I know. And you!" She turns my way, flicking me lightly in the chest with her right hand-.

Whow! I go flying through the air! Over the roof of the stilt bungalow opposite Harleen's house and I'm still going! Brakes, brakes? Okay. I stabilise, then transition back down to where Eris is now standing at the end of the road. "What was that for?"

"Sinning."

"What? Eris, you don't even have-."

"You were just going to drift into her bed. After all the nagging from me and after all your high-sounding rhetoric, you were just going to go with the flow." She peers at me suspiciously. "You.. did.. realise that she wanted-?"

"I didn't… Think she was going to proposition me… Now."

"You actually didn't, did you." Eris looks away for a moment. "Wrll. I'll let you off. But I expect you to make an actual decision." She comes a little closer, looking me directly in the eyes. "Take a hold of your destiny."

"Eris, that's my crotch."

"I've already got my destiny." She nods. "Now, come on. I think I've found a way to get that chaos focus you wanted."

14th May
22:02 GMT -6

"I'm not sure where you think we can walk to from here that has any chance of-."

The universe around us twists and bends, colours shading into one another as the paint of the universe runs and mixes, swirling in bizarre patterns that I can't quite make sense of. I close my eyes to-. They're still there. Okay, this might just-. No, it's just strange. I unfocus my eyes slightly, abandoning any attempt to follow any one part of what I'm seeing. Treat it like a magic eye picture. Huh. Now I do that it's almost relax-.

I fall face first onto the tarmac as I'm abruptly returned to reality. Ow! Wait, why does this -I push myself up and gingerly feel my nose with my right hand- hurt? My environmental shield should have protected me from a simple face plant. And my nose… No, it's not broken, but it still hurts and I've got dirt and gravel on my face and that.. shouldn't happen.

Eh. I brush the worst of it off with my right hand and look around for Eris-.

This isn't Louisiana. Ring, where am I?

14th May
23:02 GMT -5

{orange}Present location is Salem, Massachusetts. Precise location is the last recorded location of the-{/}

FUCKFUCKFUCK I recognise it!

{orange}-Tower of Fate.{/}

"He̸h͜eh͢ehé!"

I frantically look in the direction of the laughter. Eris is kneeling in front of a small child. Blonde and.. female, I'm assuming, though too young to have entered puberty. Her clothing is faded turquoise, and it's either a dress that has been cut down to her size or a long blouse or t-shirt that got that tatty through natural wear and tear. On her head is a green knitted bonnet with an orange bobble. The hair which juts out is cut in a haphazard manner, as if some time ago someone stabbed at it with scissors until they got bored and then called it a day. In her right hand she holds a string, and on the other end of that string is a lighter than air balloon in the shape of a fish. She smiles as she sees that I've noticed her and gives me a wave with her left hand.

Then she steps forwards and pats Eris on the head. Eris collapses.

"Hello? I don't think we've met. I'm-" I rise to my feet, fighting against a sudden feeling of dizziness as I do so. "-Orange... Ah. Orange Lantern two eight one four."

"͜Re̛ally̸?̀"͟

"Ah…" I frown. Am I-? Yes, of course I am, why was I-? "Yes." I nod. "Really."

I open my right hand, creating a simple kaleidoscope construct in the air next to me. No, the rings are working, so why does my face still hurt? And why couldn't I remember-?

An image appears in my mind. I'd just got out of the zeta tube in the Hall of Justice, I turned to my right and-.

"You-. You were both there. At the Hall of Justice, before the thing with Kon and the Genomorphs."

"̶Y̧òu͝ ͠n͡ever g̡ave me͡ my c̸a̷k͠e̡."̵

"You never left your address." Eris rolls onto her side, staring at me wide-eyed as she shakes her head. "But I have some in subspace if you want some now?"

The girl beams and nods her head vigorously. Right, fruit and icing… I delete the kaleidoscope construct and turn my right hand palm upwards, fingers raised. A plate appears from subspace with a generous piece of Christmas cake resting on it. I crouch down and hold it out to her. "Here you are. Now…" I glance at Eris, but she seems to be spacing out. "What's your name?"

She lunges for the plate, her mouth w̷iden͞ing b̧eyo̶ńd t̴hé c҉on̡f̨ine̕s ̢ǫf̵ h͞er͘ ͞m͢ơu̕th,̡ ͠r͘i͡n̛gs o͜f̵ vici͘ous҉l҉y ̶sèrŗat̷e̵d ̨tee͘t͟h̸ undùla͠ti͏ng̕,̧ p̸oi͟śe͜d͡ ̡t̴o̶ redu͝c͏e a͡ǹy͟ ̕obje̸c͜t̛ ente̵ring ͘th͠at v̡a͠s̢t m͝a̴w to i͢ts ̨b͢as͠e ̕c̛omp҉o͢nent̵s͞. ͢ A ͏r̷ip̕p͢l̢e, ̶an̕d m͡y̧ ve҉r͘y ey͞e̛s̷ are d̨r̀a͞w̸ǹ ͡f̡u̶r̀t̸h̀er a͠nd furt̕he̡r ̕in̨, ̀p͜a̧s͟t̡ m̡o̢r͢e̵ ̢and m͠o͞r̶e̕ r̡i͏ngs ͡of ̵t̡ee͞th ͢un̷ti̸l̀ beyond̴ all o͞f ͠th͜e ̵teeth,̴ wh҉ere I ̨wơu͝ld̵ expect ̸t̸o͢ śęę ͝he͟r͝ gulle̴t...̵

I͡ ìn͞s̷teaḑ ̶seȩ ͟m͘ysel̵f ͡s̴t͝a̵r̸i͢n̶g ̨b̨ack.

I fall backwards, dropping the plate as I fall onto my arse. She steps forward and neatly catches it as it drops, staring down at me with amusement.

Then she raises the plate to her mouth and takes a perfectly normal bite out of the cake. Okay, using her hands would be more normal, but compared to the Chaos-Wurm…

"What are you?"

She tugs lightly on the string of her balloon, bringing the fish down to the level of my head as she continues to eat the cake. I look the fish in the eyes and the fish looks back.

"I ̶is Sh͏iveri͞n͟g͘ J̨e͏mmy̴ ̢o̵f ̸T̵h҉e̡ ̀Sh̢al͘l̨ow ͠Br͝i̸g̛a̶de̛,̵ ͢an͝d I͘ is a P͡rin̡cęs̷ş of͠ Chao̕s,҉ ̨ąnd͠ I is̷ ̢very ̧im҉p̡ortaņt."

"I'd have hesitated to give you cake if you weren't. Um." I glance at Eris. She just looks back blankly. "Okay? You-" I look up in the direction I know the Tower to be. "-are aware that the Tower of Fate-."

"̵It҉'s̴ ̵no͜t ͞he͝re҉ ̧m̷óḿent͟ari͜l͜y͡. ́ I̵'̡s w͏ant̡s̨ y̕o̡u ̡t҉o̶ t̕ell I͠ ͠w͘h̨at̢ y͘ou i҉s ̛doi̷ng͠.̨"̀

Okay, Eris thinks I can get a chaos focus from… Shivering Jemmy, a phrase which means 'A beggar who parades in rags and tatters in the hope of attracting greater sympathy'. Is a Princess of Chaos the same as a Lord of Chaos? I have no idea what I'm dealing with. But I need a focus from her, and I doubt that Eris would have brought me here for no reason.

I shrug. "I'm going to kill Klarion. I could.. just.. lure him somewhere and stab him with the Sword of the Fallen. But that isn't enough. The bit we've got walking around and making a nuisance of itself is disconnected from the greater part of the Lord of Chaos Klarion that exists in the Realm of Chaos itself." I look from the fish back to her for feedback. "Right? I mean, it seems like you'd know better than I do."

"̢Go̵ o̡n."͢

"But that mass could regrow his mind, or develop an intelligence of its own. And he could just get replaced by someone as bad, and while I'd probably feel a bit better about seeing him dead… That's not why I'm doing this. So I need to deal with that mass and I need to be sure that we get a Lord of Chaos who isn't like Klarion. So… My idea was to kill two birds with one stone. Get someone who could become a Lord of Chaos and use the Human-shaped bit of Klarion to force a connection."

Jemmy looks up from her plate, mouth slightly open, damp raisins and other pieces of cake stuck to her face.

"But to do that, I need a powerful focus of elemental Chaos magic. Eris told me that her apples wouldn't be enough. Which I assume is why she brought me before you."

"You i͝sn͠'̴t̀ very͝ ch͝aoti̸c̀.͢"͡

I nod. "I know. I'm not instinctively a particularly chaotic person. It's just that I look around, and… The existing order is so dysfunctional. It needs to change. The world needs more chaos, and if I'm the person in the right place…" I nod. "Then that's how it is."

"̵Ǹot͟ yo͜u͟ the͟n.̴ W̷ho?"̨

"Eris-" Who has pushed herself more or less upright. "-wasn't interested. So I asked John Constantine."

"Huuuurrrrhh-hahahah! Hehahahahah! RAAHHHAAHHHAAAHHAHHHAH! WOOOHHAHAHAAAHAHHHHAHAHAHH!"

Her body shifts as she continues laughing, childlike form replaced by something more obviously monstrous. Guffawing, she towers over the plaza as a titanic, misshapen figure. A child's clay model of a human brought to life. I've seen far uglier, but the sheer wrongness she now conveys puts her in the top ten things I don't want to see again.

And then the ogreish figure is gone and the girl has returned.

"̵Kl̸ar͝iòn ̢p͡u̸ll͏e͜d͝ ͜I's͟ ha͡i҉r and ̷p̛us͜he̵d͠ ͏I͠ of́f̧ th͞e̶ swi̷ng͡s̀.̷ ͏Yo͠u̸ ͞c̷a͘n hav͟e ͟I͢'̵s҉ fi̛sh҉."

She holds out the string towards me. I glance at Eris again, but she just pulls her head back slightly. Guess she doesn't want to involve herself further. I reach forward and take the string.

The fish deflates, falling to the ground.

"A҉ll ̵you'r̵es.̵ ͞A̕ll ̢doņe̷.̧"͡ She turns and starts walking away. "M҉ake śur͜e ̷you ͝şt̶a̸y͡ ̧iǹter͏e̷s͠t̕ing."

"I will certainly try, oh Princess of Cha-" And she's gone. "-os." I look down at the chaos fish balloon and then at Eris. And then at the place where the Tower of Fate should be. "Eris, can I assume that we need to go now?"

She struggles to her feet and lumbers in my direction. "Yes, yes we do."

I nod and transition us both away.