Resolution

12th September
18:13 GMT

Dox and I walk side by side along the upper gantry over Ranx's ventral docking bay. Below us, the dock crew are busy making ready our latest aid transport to Tillettit in Sector Four Nine Five. Most of them are Urrigen natives. Their new government is strongly anti-Reach, and leapt at the chance to join Dox's mutual defence pact. While I've been rushing around trying to make sure that the women I intervened to aid actually have something to look at once their sight is restored, Dox has been working on his war plans. Involving a world the Reach already made a run on is a bit of a risk, but historically the Reach have responded to temporary setbacks by holding off and watching carefully.

"In some ways, this is a useful test of our processes."

"That wasn't why I did it, and I do appreciate-."

"Your primary function here is to train new Lanterns in your methods, so that they remain sane and focused. You have now spent several days not doing that."

"I couldn't very well leave their country in turmoil."

"You did not have to create turmoil. Once you made your initial assessment, you should have realised that intervention would do more harm than good without the application of resources we are ill-disposed to provide in a location far from Reach space."

"They're late nineteenth century at most. It shouldn't require that much to-."

"I ran the social dynamics equations. Their society may not have technically been a theocracy, but it was strongly organised around their religious practices. And now that authority has gone. Violent crime will increase by between one hundred and eighty and two hundred and twenty percent, depending on precisely how well Lantern Coutara can take charge of the situation."

"And in the long term?"

He glares at me for a fraction of a second. "There are too many unknown variables to calculate with any accuracy." He heads towards the edge of the gantry and stands ramrod straight, hands behind his back. "This is a vast investment of time and effort which is unlikely to see any return within the foreseeable future. I do not want this repeated."

I walk up beside him and lean on the railing. "While I'll avoid setting out with the intention of doing something like this, I'm afraid this sort of thing will probably just come with running a Corps of Orange Lanterns. If you ask us to do something we don't want to-."

His eyes narrow slightly. "You will all disobey."

"Part of your job is finding out how to make sure that doesn't happen. I do realise that that won't come as easily as-."

"{orange}My Lord Illustres{/}!"

Lantern Coutara {orange}zips{/} up to our level and comes to a halt in the air in front of me, her eye sockets {orange}still glowing orange{/}. We have offered her replacement eyes, either cloned or cybernetic, but she's turned it down. Made some comment about not being able to get used to them after so long. Which could be a genuine medical thing; I seem to remember that phantom limb syndrome is a result of the brain repurposing bits of itself when areas of input vanish. Her brain would relearn to see eventually, but the ring can show her the world around her immediately.

"Lantern Coutara, I'm not a 'lord'."

She pauses for a moment, then nods. "As.. you say, Illustres. We are ready to depart. It.. seems that my {orange}desires relating to my homeland{/}-" Her {orange}environmental shield flares{/} as she says it. "-are still sufficiently strong that I am the best choice for creating the required spatial warp."

"Hardly surprising. Are you adjusting alright?"

"That…" She half turns in the air, looking down to where Lantern Taranna is laughing as one of Ratchet's people decides that she's looking down and therefore {orange}needs a hug{/}. "Doesn't matter. {violet}My daughter is{/}, {orange}and that does{/}."

"Have you..? Had a chance to look at the briefing material.. on-?"

"The Reach?" She turns back towards me and nods. "Yes."

"Please understand that our offer of help to your people is not conditional on-."

"No, I understand." She nods {orange}decisively{/}. "And once my country is stabilised in a way that {orange}is not evil{/}, I will return here to aid you." She smiles demurely. "My daughter is quite taken with the Princesses."

"I thought that they might serve as positive role models." I lean slightly to my left. "And she also appears to be quite taken with-."

Coutara's face sobers. "I will be chastising them both for behaving so in public momentarily."

"Alright, well, dismissed. The sooner you get home, the sooner things start getting fixed."

She performs her people's version of a salute, both hands rising to obscure her eye sockets. Then she {orange}flips in the air{/} and {orange}flies{/} back towards Lantern Taranna, whose cybernetic eyes widen as she tries to persuade her new friend to let her go in a hurry.

"And then there's that."

I wince. "I.. am her line manager. She does.. strictly speaking.. report to me."

"The entire Corps believes that I am your secretary. That is not what I agreed to."

"Alright. What would you like me to do about it?"

"Go home."

…

"Igd-? What?"

"You have explained your methodology. Lanterns Koriand'r and Komand'r are both perfectly capable practical instructors. Your interstellar teleportation ability means that in the event of an incident you can return here within a minuscule span of time. And I imagine that you will find things on Earth which will keep you occupied without causing me any further difficulty."

"Um. Yes..? What about the missing rings?"

"Controller Vosk Vit Vorlanni believes that he can remotely drain them using the Central Power Battery, or at the very least prevent their use. Construct-rings are apparently different enough from true rings that he can do so without affecting our operations at all."

"And the Ophidian? I was going to supervise putting her in the-?"

"I've already spoken to Hinon; she's ready at the Central Power Battery now." Dox has stopped looking at me. "I will call you when your return is required."

I stand up straight, come to attention and salute, letting my environmental shield flare just a little so that some of the people below will look this way and see me deferring to Dox's authority. "Sir. I will depart shortly."

"Good."

No salute back… Though to be fair, Coluans don't have an equivalent gesture.

Right then. I.. guess I'm going back to Earth.

12th September
18:19 GMT

I hold my personal lantern up to my face, staring into the scintillating orange flickers within. This time last year I was dealing with the fallout from my 'contest' with Artemis. Now look at me. Here I am, on the grandest planet in the universe-.

{orange}"Having trouble letting go?"{/}

I exhale, then lower my lantern to look at Hinon. "No. Just thinking.{orange}"

"Is it likely to take long? I realise that Clarissi Dox is supposed to be the brains of the outfit, but I do like to think that the number two man can spark a couple of neurons now and again."{/}

I huff, then step forward to plug my personal lantern into the indicated attachment point. "I just think there should be more ceremony to something like this. We're transferring the Embodiment of Avarice into our Central Power Battery. There should be a parade… Line of Lanterns hailing her…{orange}"

"You can have a parade once the Reach is destroyed. How about that?"{/} She {orange}waves her hands at the Central Power Battery{/}. {orange}"Control systems good, structure sound…"

"{/}That would be a parade of celebration. Being a Lantern-.{orange}"

"If it makes you feel any better, we didn't have one when we bottled Ion either."{/} She turns away from the Central Power Battery and looks up at me expectantly. {orange}"Mm?"{/}

I raise my left hand to my mouth. "Illustres to all Orange Lanterns and Controllers. The Ophidian is about to enter the Orange Central Power Battery. You shouldn't notice any ill effects, but if you do, report them immediately."

Ophidian.

{orange}Yes, my Agent?{/}

It's time. The Corps is ready. Not as big or as strong as it will become, but they're ready for you. The Central Power Battery is ready to receive you, and we made sure that you will be able to access our full data stores from inside.

{orange}Thank you, my Agent. I will delight in being able to feel every desire my Corps experiences!{/}

And I'm glad you will, but Dox is getting a bit shirty about people calling it anyone's Corps but his, so…

{orange}I will be mindful of his fragile ego. At least, I will be once I experience it from his perspective.

"{/}Alright then, I think we're about-."

"{orange}Wait{/}!" Hinon and I look around as Kalmin flies into the Central Power Battery Chamber, landing just behind us and holding out some sort of monitoring device. "And begin."

"Well, so long as it's convenient for you…"

He nods distractedly. "It is. Begin."

Ophidian.

I press the interlink button.

Now.

There's a momentary {orange}flare{/} in my lantern, then {orange}in the connection attachment{/} and then the {orange}lights being emitted{/} by the Central Power Battery itself {orange}oscillate for a moment{/} before {orange}settling down to a new, brighter and faster-pulsing level{/}.

I wait for a moment. "That it?{orange}"

"Yes."{/} / "Yes."

I flip the switch again, then lift my slightly duller lantern out of the slot. "Any problems?{orange}"

"No, of course not."{/} / "Not yet."

I sigh inwardly as I return my personal lantern to subspace. "Let me know if anything changes. Kalmin, is the item I asked for ready?"

He nods, and holds out a {blue}decorative box near-identical to the one which Alan used to keep his personal lantern in{/}. "I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to find a sufficiently strong source of hope to make the connection. Fortunately, those people you gave refuge to have no idea that you brought them here merely so I could study them."

I smile indulgently at him. "I knew that you'd need subjects…"

He holds the box out to me, grinning. "I've murdered a few religions in my time, but I've never had the devotees thank me for it! I knew that you were worth my attention!"

I take the box, my smile probably slightly more strained. "I had.. enthusiastic help."

"It's a curious approach, motivating people like that." He nods. "I never bothered while I laboured for the Anti-Monitor. But I think I like it."

"I'm.. glad it meets with your approval-.{orange}"

"What have you got there?"

"{/}A present for Alan. Kalmin, will it survive me teleporting? I wouldn't want to ruin your work."

"On its own, I would not recommend it. Not without a Central Power Battery providing additional stability. But I added protective systems to the box; it will endure."

Hinon raises her hands, and {orange}a sphere of orange light surrounds us{/}. {orange}"What have you lunatics done?"{/}

"Our Illustres taught me of the fearsome power of hope. I spent some time in repose and study, and then I built-."

Hinon regards the box with polite horror. {orange}"A blue personal lantern. Archor preserve me, you actually…"{/} She shudders, and drops the orange sphere. {orange}"Go!"

"{/}Hinon, what-?{orange}"

"Go!"{/} She makes a fanning motion with her hands. {orange}"Shoo! Shoo! Before you… Do anything else!"

"{/}Ah… Alright? See you when I see you." I raise my left index and middle finger to my forehead, Goku style, and then {orange}step out.

Alright, where's Alan? His desires were always a bit harder to see than most people's. All that green light, and the fact that they weren't a big part of his character.

Huh. That's… Odd. Can't… No, no, no… Ah. Can't feel him at all. Oh well, not as if I'm an expert at this yet. It's midday in New England, so no appearing right next to my friends… Probably shouldn't jump a League member, not when the last thing I did before leaving was kill one of them. Then where..?{/}

I step back into the universe inside a robotic laboratory.

12th September
19:19 GMT +1

Immediately, about thirty turrets pop out of the ceiling, walls and floor and aim at me and Thaddeus Sivana Junior's head appears from underneath some sort of flying vehicle. He takes one look at me and then turns his head in the direction of the doorway.

"DAAAAAD! THE TELEPORT JAMMER'S NOT WORKING!"

"You're perfectly capable of fixing it yourself, Junior!"

"BUT IT'S YOUR DESIGN!"

"I have every confidence that you can improve on it, my boy! Who was the intruder?!"

"THE ORANGE LANTERN!"

"Oh, that's a pity! I didn't think he was too bad! Still, if you can scrape up-!"

"HE'S NOT DEAD, DAD!"

That seems to give Sivana Senior pause. "The teleport jammer and the turrets? Oh dear me. Perhaps I should take a look at them."

12th September
19:32 GMT +1

"Keeping yourselves busy, then?"

Thaddeus Junior has gone back to his air car, but Georgia appears far more happy to see me-.

Ring, nothing's gone missing from my subspace pocket this time, right?

{orange}Subspace security remains in place. No objects detected as missing.{/}

"Oh, yes. In addition to all the work with creating working versions of the Sheeda technology which Father studied while in the future, I've been trying to model probable modifications we could make to Human society in order to better resist their next Harrowing. You see, we received an offer from-."

"SOFT SUBJECT!"

Georgia turns her nose up. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"Ah, I'm afraid that the only social scientist I know who might be able to help-."

She gives me a sharp look. "I don't need help."

"Alright, not.. 'help', but someone who could understand your work at your level and perhaps make pertinent observations. Thaddeus Junior has made his opinion known and I doubt that it's really your father's field."

Georgia considers for a moment, then nods. "No, it isn't. He tries to show an interest, but… You know him. Who did you have in mind?"

"My immediate superior in the Orange Lantern Corps is a genius by the name of Vril Dox the Second. I know that he's been studying social heuristic programming. If you've got a quantum entanglement communicator, or something else that can-"

She nods. "Yes."

"-commun-. Ah, okay. If you give it to me then I'll drop it off on his desk next time I go back."

She frowns. "It's a little big for that. But I can improve it. Give me… Two days."

"Okay. And there's a man in the Greek finance ministry, Professor Demetrios Prokopios. He's not a general genius, but-."

"Ooh, I've read his work!" She grins excitedly. "His secretary keeps screening me! And I could never persuade Thaddeus that we should kidnap him."

"Ah. Well, yes, don't kidnap him. I can either set up a meeting or arrange a phone call, whichever you would prefer."

"Probably a phone call. But I'd be grateful if you could get him to autograph a photograph for me." She.. blushes slightly. "After I read his dissertation of catastrophe theory I… Developed a slight attachment, and-."

"I will certainly ask. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to America."

"I would offer you our teleportation system, but if you've got your own…" She frowns, then pulls a not-tricorder out from her lab coat and points it at me. "Then where is it?"

"I'm afraid that it's an innate ability, but you're welcome to scan me when I use it."

She puts her hands on her hips. "As if you could stop me."

"Ready?" In lieu of a verbal answer she raises her scanner and presses a few buttons. Alright then, armour, invisibility, and {orange}step out. Now, aim for Alan's neighbour Mister Davis and step{/} in.

12th September
13:35 GMT -5

I appear in Inwood Hill Park, with Mister Davis walking his dog a short distance to my right. Still invisible? Looks like. Good. I drop to the ground, walk over to a large tree and then walk around it as I send my armour back into subspace. That way, anyone who wonders why they didn't see me will just assume that I was behind the tree last time they looked this way. Then-. I stop for a moment as I look over to Alan's house. It feels a bit… {violet}Home-y{/}. I mean, I have quarters on Ranx, but even after I decorated them, they didn't really…

I shrug, and start jogging down the path towards the road.

Ring, dial Alan.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

I hear it ringing as I check both ways and then cross the road, pulling my key out of subspace as I go. The gate to his drive is opening before I'm even on the pavement, and I jog up his drive to his front door and insert my key.

"Alan? Are you in?"

I can hear his phone ringing-. Ring, end call.

{orange}Compliance.{/}

The ringing stops.

I push the door open and step inside. I hope he wasn't taking a nap or something. "Alan?!"

I frown slightly as I walk through his house towards the kitchen. Not here, not in the garden… There's a small layer of dust on the windowsill. It evaporates as I see it, but it shouldn't have been there in the first place. Unlike pre-ring me, Alan's always very particular about his housekeeping. It's unusual for him not to be home at this time of day, but-.

{yellow}…

I transition back to Mister Davis{/}. "Excuse me Mister Davis, do you know-?"

He starts as he sees me. "Oh, hey Paul. How's Alan doin'?"

"I-I don't know. I've been away. {yellow}Where is he, what happened{/}?"

"Oh, ah… I'm not sure exactly. He.. kinda collapsed about two weeks ago? Ambulance took him to the hospital. I'm not on the contact list, so I don't really know-."

"{yellow}Thank you{/}." {yellow}Blow secrecy{/}. I transition directly to the foyer of the Allen Hospital, accelerating my perception as I dodge around a man pushing a boy in a wheelchair and run up to the front desk and why am I bothering? I turn my empathic vision up and look around there! Green! I transition again, coming to a halt outside his room before {yellow}shoving the door open{/}-.

Alan's lying on the bed, asleep and looking like death warmed up. {blue}But not actually dead{/}. Okay, {yellow}immediate panic over{/}. Get-get-get his ring.

I transition back to his house, appearing in his office with my right hand outstretched as I {green}focus my will{/}. Nothing, okay, that was a long shot. I tear open the safe and grab the small box withinyes. Not glowing much, but I didn't expect there to be much power left at this point. Transition back to the hospital.

"Ugh?"

{blue}Alan blinks blearily as I reappear, grabbing his right hand and shoving his ring{/}-.

{yellow}His hand's cold{/}.

"Oh. {blue}Paul{/}." He smiles weakly. "{blue}You're back{/}."

"Yes. {violet}I am{/}."

12th September
13:36 GMT -5

He weakly shakes his head and blinks, then pushes himself upright. "I was… Ugh." His arms shake and {yellow}I don't know whether to offer to help or not{/}. Reaching what he appears to think is an acceptable verticality, he leans back against the headboard. "I was a little worried that I wouldn't.. last… Long enough. So?" He smiles weakly. "How'd it go?"

His ring isn't… Doing anything. Out of power completely, I assume. But since I'm here, that's not really critical any longer. "Fairly well. The Orange Central Power Battery was recovered and transferred to Maltus. Controller Hinon improved it to the point that future Orange Lanterns shouldn't have quite the same problems with the…" I wave my right hand at the side of my head. "Mental effects. I've recruited a few good people, and our Clarissi is organising the whole thing into a military force that will -with a little time and a little luck- be able to hold off the expansion of the Reach."

Alan's head tilts back, his eyes closing. "{blue}I'm very glad to hear it{/}."

"We haven't finished building our infrastructure yet, so… Sorry, but building a statue of you had to get put on the back burner."

His smile widens slightly as he returns his full attention to me. "Heh. I don't… I don't need a statue. Just knowing it all worked out for you is plenty." He momentarily raises his right hand. "Sorry. I did follow your advice, but there isn't a drop of power left in it."

"Yes, I see. Um, Alan? I-."

"You meet any nice girls in space?"

"Ah… Yes? Actually, I think I recruited slightly more females than males. Or.. 'other's."

"No. I mean, good, but what I meant was-."

"No, I didn't meet anyone I was more interested in than Jade. And I'm not really a casual.. hook-ups kind of guy."

"J.. ade…" He frowns. "That was the… Asian girl?" His eyebrows rise slightly. "The assassin?"

"Former… Um. Person who was involved in an organisation that did occasionally-."

"I'm not a lawyer, Paul. I'm just.. a little concerned. Getting involved with a supervillain didn't work out too well for me."

"I'm happy to.. bring her round. You can get to know her, and if you still think it's a bad idea… We can talk about it."

Alan's eyes drop for a moment. "I.. doubt that I've got the time I'd need to-."

"I got you a present." I put Kalmin's box on the bedside-. I put Kalmin's box on the bed next to him so that he can reach it without stretching.

"Heh. Hope it's not a long book."

"It isn't a long book."

"Okay." He picks it up, and with visible effort puts it on his lap. "Let's take a look at-" He {blue}opens the long side{/}. "-this…" His eyes widen slightly as he looks at what is probably Universe 16's first blue personal lantern. "W-what is this?"

"The Guardians have you on the 'Do Not Recruit' list, no one else can make green personal lanterns without their permission and the only other place I know of with unused green personal lanterns is Apokolips. So that was out. But after I consulted with a few experts, we concluded that you would probably-."

"You-? You got me a blue lantern?"

"I had it made for you, yes. {violet}Did you really think I'd tolerate you dying, Alan{/}? {violet}I saw a problem, and I worked to fix it{/}."

"I-." His eyes move uncertainly from me to the lantern and then back again. "How does it… Work..?"

"You said I made you feel hope. So I got you a personal lantern that runs on the stuff."

"Paul, I'm…" He shakes his head. "Not getting out of this bed. I-."

"Yes you are. You remember when you tried to separate me from the Ophidian and I told you-."

"You said I was becoming.. living green light. That was why you couldn't heal me after I had that fall…"

"Fortunately, blue light isn't quite as antithetical to green light as orange light is. Literally all you have to do to be well again is point your ring at that lantern and… Hope."

"And… Then what? I…"

"Whatever you want. I can't spend all my time healing people because I can only get properly invested in a certain number of lives. A blue ring doesn't have that restriction. Or… You'll be physically fit enough to become a full time superhero again… If you want."

"I… I don't know what to say…"

"I think it went: 'I will spread my light over dark evil, for dark things-'."

"Did I ever tell you that I only ended up with that because I made a mistake with what I was meant to be saying, and I didn't know how to wipe it and start over?"

I blink. "No. What was it supposed to be?"

"The first part was supposed to be: 'I will spread my light over all things dark and evil', but I got… I don't know, distracted or something as I was saying it. I had to spend sixty years saying something that made no sense with a straight face."

My face creases up as I snort with laughter. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. It didn't come with a user manual. What was I supposed to do?"

"I-. I don't know… But right now you need to come up with a new one. I mean, you'll be fine after you use it, but at the moment you're still dying."

"Oh, {blue}I ain't dead yet, son{/}."

{blue}The lantern flares, and I stand back as the blue light pours into Alan{/}.

"Oh, not again."

{blue}"Connection established. Please stand by."{/}

"{blue}Ah{/}?" Alan raises his ring slightly and a {blue}pure blue beam connects it to the glowing core of his lantern{/}. "{blue}Is it supposed to feel{/}..?"

"Hopeful?"

"{blue}Ye-ah{/}."

{blue}"Restoring AI support structures. Updating database. Installing AI assistant. Copying communication protocols."

The undulating blue energy gives off a strangely musical noise as Kalmin's update system goes to work{/}.

{blue}"Establishing user interlink."{/}

For a second {blue}Alan's eyes flare blue{/}, and his skin…

{blue}"Restoring innate empathic spectrum energy."

His skin starts to swell as muscle and fat are added beneath it{/}. {blue}YES{/}!

{blue}"Final checks in progress. Stand by."

One last surge of blue light and the lantern dims back down to normal resting levels{/}. {blue}Alan's lantern-shaped ring is now glowing bright blue, and the man himself looks much as he did when I first met him{/}.

{blue}"Welcome back, Alan."{/}

"Thank you." He takes a moment to check his rejuvenated arms, then gingerly raises his hands to his face to check for wrinkles. He then exhales as he lowers them. "{blue}It's good to be back{/}."

12th September
14:12 GMT -5

I fly backwards across New York harbour with my arms folded across my chest as Alan tries to relearn flying with his upgraded ring. "Are you managing okay back there?"

Alan {green}grimaces{/}, then wobbles in the air for a moment before {blue}chuckling at his error{/} and stabilizing. "{blue}It's{/} taking a bit of getting used to."

"Get used to it quick. Lantern Stewart needs a new sparring partner."

"Oh, {blue}great{/}." He accelerates, coming alongside me and forcing me to turn in order to keep facing him. "Boot camp. You know that I'm ninety, right?"

"You're ninety four, but that's okay. {blue}Age-related memory loss is now a thing of the past{/}."

"Who did you rope into making this, anyway? I'll have to thank them." Another slight wobble, {blue}but he comes back under control immediately{/}. "Maybe wait until I've gotten a better grip on how to use it, though."

"His name is Kalmin, and I'm sure he'd love the chance to watch you use it. He was actually quite interested in how you function as well."

"Is he..? One of those Controller people?"

"No, a Qwardian. And before you say anything, he's going to do less damage on Maltus than he would on Qward."

Alan smiles in bemusement as he shakes his head. "Paul, I've got no idea what a Qwardian is."

Oh, right. Of course he wouldn't. "Then this is an excellent chance for you to learn to access your ring's database."

"Ah, I suppose it is. Okay then, ring." He holds his right fist just in front of his face in a way which I've really got to train him out of. "{blue}Why don't you tell me all about the 'Qwardians'{/}?"

{blue}"Certainly, Alan. Data burst in two, one-"{/}

"Ah, pardon me?"

{blue}"Zero."

A beam of brilliant blue blasts from his ring to his forehead, a shockwave of blue energy radiating away from his head{/}! Alan stops accelerating, going limp in the air.

{blue}"Data burst complete. Have a nice day."{/}

I stop too. What did Kalmin-?

"W-? Wh-?" He blinks, then raises his left hand to rub his forehead. "Someone get the number of that bus?"

"Are you alright?"

"Ahh. I think s-. Wait, that's who the Qwardians are?"

"As I said, less damage-."

"On Maltus than on Qward." He nods. "How do I know all of this?"

"Power rings can transfer data into the wearer's mind. Now that…"

He nods. "Mine's been repaired, so it can do that as well. That is going to take some getting used to." He frowns to himself. "{blue}Why{/} do I know what their poetry sounds like?"

{blue}"Data burst in two, one-."{/}

"No, {blue}you knock that off right now{/}."

{blue}"Certainly, Alan."{/}

"Mine just gives me information closely related to the topic. I think Kalmin decided that larger amounts of information made more sense. You might have to… Fiddle with the setting a little. Um. Until you get to a level you're comfortable with."

"I'm not complaining. Just… Take a little getting used to." He straightens up, looking around the harbour. "Were we headed anywhere in particular, or just doing a tour?"

"I was planning to see Diana at some point today. I'm not… I'm obviously not happy with how we left things, but there's no massive rush…"

"{blue}No, no{/}. I'm not doing anything I really need you watching me for." He turns, looking back towards the city. "In fact… Why don't we {blue}go there together{/}? I should probably let her know that I'm not at death's door any more."

"You should probably tell Jay, too."

Alan spreads his arms. "If you can find a pay phone before we hit the embassy." I hold my right hand next to my head and make an eighties mobile phone construct. "Oh. How do I do that?"

{blue}"Data burst in two-."{/}

"You, {blue}stop that{/}."

{blue}"Certainly, Alan."{/}

I dismiss my own construct. "You just.. sort of hope that a phone will appear. You don't need to picture it perfectly, just hold out your hand..."

Alan holds out his hand, {blue}his eyes unfocusing a little{/} as… Hah! As a {blue}circular dial-faced telephone construct{/} appears with the handset on a cradle on the top. It also has a handle on each side. Odd.

"Ah…"

"I don't think those work without wires. But maybe if you hope really hard..?"

"At least you didn't make a crack about my age."

"You… Sort of made that for me."

Alan {blue}reorientates himself in the direction of the Themysciran embassy{/}, then {blue}accelerates towards the land{/} while a {blue}filament of blue light works the phone's construct-dial{/}. I fly along after him. The last I heard from Wallace was that Jay had fully recovered from his possession, and if Alan didn't say anything then I'm going to assume that there's no update on that.

"It's ringing."

"Ah, the audacity of hope."

Alan lifts the handset to his ear, managing to metaphorically walk and chew gum in a way Jordan still struggles with. "You got any plans for the rest of the day?"

"I was planning to visit Jade... I'm not trying to blow you or.. Diana off or anything, but I… Was in space for two months." Huh. Felt like longer. "I want to… Um. Reregister my interest."

"Oh, it's not a problem. I've got plenty of time n-. Oh, {blue}hey Jay{/}. Yeah, I'm out of the hospital. No, no, they were right, but a new lantern fixed me up good as new."

Right. Diana. I'm not angry with her any more, though I am going to be looking for some indication that she wouldn't repeat… That whole thing if it happened again. Wouldn't behave in the same way if someone else got grabbed. People worked hard to split me and the Ophidian up and… The 'me' part of 'us' had far more agency-.

"No, I'd never ask them for something like that. {blue}Paul's back{/}. No, we're going to go see her right now."

Totally not still angry about it.

12th September
14:22 GMT -5

People back away as Alan and I land on the street outside the embassy, though I think it's more out of respect than fear. Cameras rise and I hear 'cake dude' in at least three different voices as I head for the open gates. At this time of day they're wide open, in what I've always thought was a fairly optimistic way. I wonder how many Amazons have been taking advantage of their ability to come here? I mean, I'm assuming that Diana's arranged some sort of culture shock classes by now…

"Think I should be worried about the whole… Mask thing..?"

"My opinion is that tiny-"

He nods like someone who's heard a point reiterated entirely too often. "Tiny masks are pointless."

"-masks are… Yes, pointless. They are. And.. if you do {blue}become active again{/}, people are going to spot that you look a lot like 'that Green Lantern from the thirties'."

"And forties and early fifties."

"Right." I press the buzzer. "Now, I'm happy to redesign your costume as fully enclosed armour that might actually preserve your anonymity, but… Do you really want to look like that?"

Alan considers for a moment. "No… I don't think I do. And.. I… Suppose that at my age a lot of the other reasons for having a secret identity don't really apply. I don't have a civilian job, and… Most of my friends are super heroes."

Alan does have family. His brothers both married, and most of their children are alive -if retired- today. I got introduced to one of his nieces once, and she definitely knew what Uncle Alan used to do in his spare time. But none of them live in New York. And… Well…

"And… I think everyone who might take a pop at your family already knows your secret identity. It was on the Justice League database…"

Alan looks down for a moment. "Mm."

"Who is it?"

Much as I enjoy trying to work out what Ms Candy is trying to say to me, things will go a bit quicker with Alana being on duty. "Alana, good afternoon. Is-?"

"Paul?"

"The.. very same. I sort of assumed that the orange glow and mutters of 'cake' that follow in my wake were a giveaway, but-."

There's a faint 'clunk' from the door as the lock releases.

"Come in, I'll.. see if Her Highness is available."

I smile towards the security camera, push the door and walk through, turning around on the far side to hold it open for Alan. He smiles bemusedly. "I can probably manage doors myself."

"You're welcome."

"Hello." A voice I recognise comes from a room adjacent to the reception area. "If you're here for the language class, it will be-" Mala walks through the doorway with a small pile of files in her hands. "-starting at-" She sees us. "-goddess!"

I stare at her for a moment, then pat my upper chest with both hands. "Not unless they've really relaxed the requirements."

Alan smiles. "{blue}Mala{/}. I didn't know Diana had you working here."

"Save for the princess, I am the best English-speaker Themyscira has to offer." She lays her folders down on the front desk before approaching us. "{blue}Alan, I was told that you were dying{/}. How..?"

He raises his right hand, {blue}ring glowing calmly{/}. "{blue}Not any more{/}. {blue}Right now, I'm feeling better than I have in{/}-" Mala walks past me to embrace him. "-{blue}years{/}."

There's a sound of footsteps as Alana comes down the stairs. "Paul, Her Highness is oh my God-!"

"For sufficiently low standards of god, yes. I-."

"Alan?"

"I'll just show myself up, shall I?"

"Ah-?" She drags her attention away from Alan for a moment. "Yes-. Yes, of course. How-?"

I transition myself up to the corridor just outside Diana's office, then step up to the door and knock.

"Paul, you can just come in."

I open the door.

Diana's in her preferred casual chiton-. No, she isn't. What she's wearing now has a good deal of ornamental embroidery that the one she actually likes doesn't have. And.. she's wearing her tiara. There have been a few additions since I was last here, and my eyes linger for a moment on the photograph of myself and Kon. I frown as I head towards her desk. "You having guests in?"

That appears to wrong-foot her slightly. "Yes, quite a few people have shown an interest in learning of Themysciran history and culture. It means that I am obliged to dress more like a princess."

"Could always just wear the bustier." I sit down opposite her. "I doubt that you'd get any complaints. Oh." I hold out my right hand to the side and take a sword and scabbard out of subspace. "I got this for you."

She reaches carefully across the desk between us. "Thank you. What is it?"

"A qwa-sword. Bit larger than standard to account for your strength. If an opponent can be killed with a mortal weapon, that will do it." I lean forward slightly and open my right palm in her direction in a warding gesture. "But really don't touch the blade to anything you don't want to kill."

She pulls it an inch out of the scabbard, notes the glow of the blade and then returns it to the scabbard and lays it down in front of her. "Was your.. time away from Earth successful?"

"You're looking at the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps, so yes." I lean back and smile ruefully. "All thirty three of them. And I didn't run into any problems I couldn't blast my way through."

Diana nods. "Lantern Gardner told us about your attack on Qward."

"Oh, that-" I point to the qwa-sword. "-wasn't a prize of war or anything. It was custom-made."

"Paul." Diana sighs. "{indigo}I need to talk to you about Alan{/}."

"Yeah, I… Just came from the hospital. That and a stop off to check up on the Sivanas is why I wasn't here an hour ago."

"Then… You know that he-."

"That he's fine, yeah. I really.. sort of wanted to talk to you about where I stand in relation to the League."

She looks at me sadly. "{indigo}Paul, Alan is dying{/}."

I roll my eyes. "Diana, it took me eight months to work out how to kill a Lord of Order. I had longer than that to work out how to keep Alan alive. Did you really think that I'd tolerate him dying? He's downstairs being stared at by Alana and Mala. He's fin-"

{blue}There's a roar of displaced air as Diana goes from a sitting start to maximum flight speed in less than a second, narrowly missing smashing through her desk and actually smashing through her office door in her hurry to get downstairs{/}.

"-e?"

And quietly I hear:

{blue}"Ambient hope detected. Charging. Charge: ninety eight percent."{/}

I lean back.

"I'll just… Sit here on my own, then."

{red}12th September
14:24 GMT -5{/}

"…staying with me for the time being."

I'm getting more than a few stares as I walk along the streets of Opal City, {yellow}construct phone gleaming in my right hand{/}. But no one's actually screaming or fleeing. I'm an oddity, but not cause for alarm.

I look down at my suit for a moment. I'd gotten so used to grey that the yellow-orange check pattern is making me feel strangely vulnerable. Heck, maybe that's why I'm getting stared at. People aren't used to seeing me out of my armour.

"I must admit, I'm surprised that you've been so effective." Diana being pleased with me is a novel experience, but a far from unpleasant one. "Whenever I fought her, I found her to be remarkably single-minded."

"She's not some criminal chancer you could talk into rethinking their life. You being alive threatened her core interests. The only way to change her would be to change that dynamic. So that's what I did."

"I did try-."

"Diana, listen. You threaten her core interests by existing. She would interpret anything you say as a ploy, no matter how sagacious. Because that's what she'd do. Only someone who didn't threaten her in that way could make a successful approach."

"And where did this insight into supervillain psychology come from, Grayven?"

I can hear her amusement. "Are you joking? Compared to Apokolips, this is a child's playground squabble. I can't imagine DeSaad becoming so accommodating just because I resurrected his pet Cat, and they're actually a pretty similar age."

"DeSaad had a Cat?"

"Sort of. Not an actual.. Earth-Cat. Kind of a… Purple Wallaby-Sabre-Tooth?" Objective in sight. Knights Past, place of work of antiquer, author and firmly retired superhero Jack Knight. It got rebuilt about three times when he was active, the first time on the day his brother was killed. After what Mister Swift did to the last demolisher, no one's tried since. I slow my pace. "Listen, I-."

"Kon was asking about whether you'd want to rejoin the team." Oohh. That I was.. not expecting. "I said that I'd talk to you about it, if I heard from you before they did."

"Yeah, sorry… You're right. I should have done more than just leave them a message."

"And?"

I stop in the street, my mouth twisting slightly. "Did you ever talk to Guy about why he stopped being a prisoner counsellor?"

"Lantern.. Gardner and I aren't.. particularly close. I think… Hal said something about the two of them being caught up in a prison riot. I could understand-."

"No, it wasn't that. Oh, there was a riot, and Guy laid out three guys when they came after him. Three big guys. Everyone else backed the hell off. Thing is… He liked helping them, even the ones who only saw him so they'd get paroled a little earlier. But hitting them, fighting them? That felt right to him. He told me during one of our anger management sessions that he was this close to just laying into the rest. He left because he couldn't take the risk of becoming that man."

"I.. {indigo}see{/}."

"I mean, at least Snart Senior was consistent. He didn't play favourites. So… Yeah… If you really need me? Call me. But I don't.. think regularly fighting people I'd be perfectly happy killing… While surrounded by impressionable teenagers… Is.. really a good idea." I shrug. "I'll tell Kon and Mitchell myself, naturally."

"As you wish."

"Anyway, the reason I phoned you is that I need a reference."

"What sort of reference?"

"The best way to keep Lex on the straight and narrow is to give him things to do. So I started looking around for underutilised technology that could benefit humanity, and I came across the Cosmic Rod."

"I remember you mentioning it during your appearance before the Defense Subcommittee. Do you think the Earth needs another weapon?"

"No. I think it needs a new way of generating electricity."

"I knew Theodore Knight, and I don't remember him using it for that."

"How long do you think it will take Lex Luthor to fix that wrinkle when he realises that it will give him exclusive control of the cheapest method for generating electricity on Earth?"

And then I actually get to hear Wonder Woman splutter. I have Found My Cow.

"I tried to do this months ago, but Jack Knight knew I'd had a falling out with the League and hung up on me. I was hoping..?"

"But why do you want to give it to Lex Luthor?"

"Because he needs something to do, just like Circe needs security. Because I can't watch him every moment of every day, and if I don't give him something to do he'll… Tear up the veranda with his teeth, metaphorically speaking. Plus, if we were able to adapt it, it would slash electricity bills everywhere we could put it into operation. To say nothing of slashing corruption and conflict in places selling oil."

"By undermining their main product."

"Plenty of places have perfectly functional economies without selling oil." I look both ways and then cross the road. "Well?"

"I will tell him that you were working for Batman during your time with the Light. Anything else is between the two of you."

"Fair enough." I push the door open and… Whaw, this is some bric-a-brac. Just looks like random detritus to me, but I seem to remember Jack and his writer knowing their stuff. Should probably pick up a souvenir… "Just a moment." I {yellow}put her on mute{/}. "Ahoy the shop!"

"Just a moment, buddy." I hear a rumble of metal rubbing against metal from the stockroom. "You here for something in particular, or just browsing?"

I actually don't think I'll fit between these shelves. "Yes, but I'd like to purchase a souvenir as well."

"Okay, well, I can-." I see the shadowy outline of Jack Knight as he gets a look at me. "Grayve-? I told you I-. What are you wearing?"

"I thought you liked old stuff." I {yellow}unmute{/} the phone and {yellow}send it his way{/}. "Phone for you."

He takes the phone as he steps out of the shadows. This Jack Knight is a lot older than the one I remember from the Starman comics. He's carrying more weight and more facial hair and there's more grey streaks in the untidy mess of hair on top of his head. But it's still recognisably him. "Who is-?" He blinks, standing a little straighter. "Ah, yeah, sure… I think we.- Right." His face creases up. "Batman? No, no, I can see it. Yeah, heh, yeah, he does. Okay, ah, yeah. Good to hear from you."

He hangs up, and I let the construct evaporate. "Huh." He looks up at me. "So, you want a look at Dad's journals and stuff?"

"It would be a start. I wouldn't mind… Actually getting a look at a gravity rod or a cosmic rod..?"

"Heh hah." He shakes his head. "It's funny, you asking about that. When I first started out as Starman, I made Dad promise he was going to work on that sort of thing."

I raise my eyebrows. "If he made any progress..?"

Jack Knight shrugs. "Handed it all over to a high tech development company before he died. If they ever made anything out of it they never told me about it."

I nod. A bit surprising, but I'm glad that I'm not the only one doing this. "If you could give me their contact details? I have.. resources not available to most people. Perhaps I can assist them."

He shrugs again. "Sure, I don't have any problem with that. I always wanted Dad's scientific work to have a bigger impact. But I'm kind of surprised that you're not asking about his starship."

…

I blink.

"{orange}Starship{/}?"

12th September
14:26 GMT -5

And she left the sword. A supervillain could make a decent career for themselves with a weapon like that. I stand, then lean across the desk slightly to take hold of it. Press down and activate the scabbard-lock, and… She has a safe in here, but it's too small for this sword. I settle for taking a nondeterministic transponder out of subspace and attaching it to the pommel.

I mean, she's had seventy years of seeing Alan walk around. I've been gone for two months after we had a fairly major falling out. Did she not think-? No, no, she honestly thought he was going to die. For some reason. I mean, you'd think after killing Nabu -and Klarion- they'd have stopped underestimating me like that.

Ugh. I leave the sword on her desk and then follow Diana through the door at a more sedate pace than the one she used. At the top of the landing I pause, half-turn towards the splintered remains of her office door and apply a little orange light to restore it to its pre-smashing state. Then I stroll down the stairs with my hands in my pockets.

"{blue}…as a fiddle, Diana{/}."

Looks like I missed seeing the Crown Princess of Themyscira tackle-hug Alan, but she still {blue}can't quite bear to take her hands off him{/}. {blue}Her right hand is on his left shoulder while her left is on the right side of his waist{/}.

"It's… {blue}Such a change{/}…"

"I did say."

Diana turns towards me, her left hand coming free while her right hand stays exactly where it is. "I apologize for doubting you."

"Not a problem. Just try not to do it again."

"That may be difficult."

"Princess?" Mala looks… A little smug, actually. Wonder what that's about? "Should I reschedule the language class? If you would like some time with Alan and your student?"

Diana's eyes dip for a moment as she considers. "Paul, are you on Earth for long?"

"For the foreseeable future."

Alan {blue}smiles{/} as Diana nods. "And Alan's change of health. Is it-?"

"Permanent, as long as he retains the capacity for hope and keeps his ring charged. His lifespan is indefinite, the same as mine and yours. Alan?"

"Yeah?"

"Try not to get shot in the head."

Alan chuckles. "I can't say I was planning to anyway, but sure."

"Then, no, Mala. I will still be able to attend. But if you-" Diana looks briefly at Alana to include her in the order. "-could give us some time now?" They nod deferentially, then Mala leads the way out of the room. Diana returns her attention to me. "And do you have any particular plans?"

"See Jade? Check out the place for good Orange Lantern recruits?" I sigh quietly. "Normalise my relationship with League members, but… I don't want to…" I stop. "We don't have to do that now…"

Diana sighs as well, then removes her remaining hand from Alan. "The League… Discussed the subject at some length."

I nod. "After Batman sent you all to your corners, Guy said."

"No, after that." She takes a breath. "We.. came to the decision that… We were too accommodating to Nabu. Certainly, we should have been looking for alternative hosts."

"At least." Alan starts to open his mouth, but closes it when Diana glances back at him. "And?"

"There wasn't any consensus on what to do about you. Some.. League members felt that having exhausted all reasonable measures, attempting to arrest Nabu was… If not sensible, at least reasonable."

"Do you intend to tell me who, or should I find out from them?"

"If… If you intend to keep working with the Justice League-."

"Heh." I smile. "Oh, I wasn't expecting my invitation to join to still be open or anything."

Diana takes another deep breath, then lets it out. "No. It isn't." I shrug. "Hawkman spoke in favor, and Major Atom and Red Arrow agreed with him. They believe that once you identified Nabu as an enemy, searching for ways to kill him and using them when he lashed out was a reasonable course of action."

"I guess I know who's getting Christmas cards from me this year, then." Alan winces. "And everyone else?"

"Several… Hadn't taken the time to read all of the briefing documents Batman prepared concerning Doctor Fate."

"They didn't read-? No… Okay, that's fair enough. They're busy people. Do you mean 'Doctor Fate' as in Nabu, or 'Doctor Fate' as in Mister Zatara."

"Nabu and his hosts."

I nod. "And what's the consensus there?"

"Once.. you made your particular interpretation of the facts clear, they… Were displeased with the way we had managed the situation. Though they by and large don't support your particular response, none of them feel that your actions warrant further sanction."

"Fair enough. Tell me who they are and I'll make a point to ask them how they would have handled it better."

"Plastic Man didn't even know that Zatara had been possessed. He-."

"Wait, what? How did he meet Justice League requirements for basic compet-?"

"Paul."

I close my eyes, tilt my head downwards slightly and raise my right hand with my palm towards her, breathing out audibly.

"Atom wasn't aware that Nabu was in full control of Zatara at all times. Icon hadn't realised that Nabu had.. blackmailed Zatara into accepting the position of host. I assume that Guy spoke to you concerning his reasons-."

"Actually, no. I was so focused on building an improved relationship between our Corps that I didn't ask him."

She nods. "Guy was unaware that the host found themselves in a featureless void while Nabu controlled them. He also hadn't realised that Nabu intended to keep Zatara as a host for the remainder of his life."

"You just…" I shake my head and look away. "You just say it like that and it {red}just reminds me why I still hate that bastard Lich{/}."

"Black Canary didn't believe that it was possible to free a host externally. And I think that Hawkwoman would have agreed with you if you had managed to avoid directly insulting her during your diatribe."

"And the rest?" I don't say 'including you', but she'd have to be far stupider than she is not to realise that I'm still wondering.

"For the most part, we feel that you should have communicated your intent to us and allowed us to attempt to persuade Nabu. Particularly given how your choice of Eris as a patron had already made him.. skeptical where you are concerned. Even if you did not believe that most of the League could help, Batman and I were your supervisors. You should have come to us."

"I may well have done so if you hadn't made Nabu a League member."

Diana gives me a shallow nod. "I suppose we'll never know for certain."

"No." I exhale. "But what I'm taking away from this is that no one actually misses Nabu, everyone's going to be reading their e-mails more carefully in future and no one is going to be able to get away with possessing anyone again. Would that be broadly correct?"

"It…" She nods. "Yes, I suppose that it would."

"Then.. I'm.. good." About as good as I could expect. I smile. "I should.. probably go and talk to Batman. Let you get back to work. Alan? See you this evening?"

He nods. "Sure. You don't want me to come along?"

"Ppppprobably best if I handle this myself."

Diana nods. "I believe that he is spending the day in Gotham, but-."

"Oh, don't worry. I've learned how to teleport." I raise my right index and middle fingers to my forehead and {orange}step out{/}.

12th September
14:31 GMT -5

"Intruder detected. Deploying-"

I don power armour and generate construct armour, then fold my arms.

"-countermeasures."

A laser turret to my right deploys and fires a weak beam at my helmet, aiming to blind me. Rubber bullets and beanbag rounds strike my construct armour to little effect. There's a quiet clang as gas and flashbang grenades land at my feet and a quiet hiss and not so quiet boom as they detonate.

"Batman?"

"Subject has metahuman durability. Escalating."

A metal rope bolas spins through the air and winds itself around me before flaring with electricity. Fortunately, constructs don't conduct electricity unless their user wants them to and it all arcs into the surrounding metalwork. Ooh, I would not want to have to repair that. Next come the low power plasma shots, causing weak ripples across my construct armour.

"Batman, I know you're there. I just came from seeing Di-."

I wince as the crumbler round triggers on my construct armour, destroying the outer layer. My return shot from a rapidly generated railgun smashes the turret responsible to pieces and penetrates the metal behind it, causing two of the nearby lights to go out.

"-ana seriously?!"

"Computer, stand down."

"Standing down."

I look around suspiciously for a moment, then deactivate my construct armour and float in the direction of Batman's work station. The man himself has his hood down… Which actually makes this the first time I've seen his face while he's wearing his costume. He's actually got noticeable mask-hair. It's off-puttingly humanising. It's.. not his Bruce Wayne persona, but I'm forced to relate to him as a person.

"I appreciate that we didn't part on particularly good terms, but I didn't think things were so bad that you were in a 'shooting on sight' kind of mood."

"The cave's defenses weren't set specifically to attack you. Until Diana notified me a moment ago, I didn't even know that you were on Earth."

I land and regard him for a moment. "That was a crumbler round."

"Crumbler rounds are highly effective against a wide variety of targets. As you know." His face remains remarkably expressionless. "I see that you've learned to teleport."

"Sort of."

"And found a way to bypass the wards protecting the cave."

"No, I-. Actually, I didn't try to scan for you. I just stepped out of the universe, looked for the patch of desires I know are you and then stepped back in. Since you're almost certainly only warded from other parts of the material universe, the only way to get around it would be to completely stop wanting things." We look at each other for a moment, though inside him I can see him starting to want a way to block that as well. "How have you been?"

"Busy. Crime didn't stop just because you left the planet."

Fair enough. I leave my armour on, but send my helmet back into subspace. "So… Diana gave me a summary of the League's feelings regarding the Nabu situation. Since your name wasn't specifically listed I'm going to assume you still aren't happy."

"You killed the League's magic expert without giving me any prior warning. Regardless of my feelings about your methodology, that created a major weakness in our ability to respond to magic threats."

"You've had eight years in which to find more magic users than the one you've been relying on. King Orin has dozens he could call upon, and I gave you a list last year. Did Diana speak to Doctor Tolon?"

"Doctor Tolon didn't feel that she could commit the time that League membership requires. The world wouldn't accept a Demon as a League member after the attack on Fawcett City, which makes Doctor Blood ineligible. And the Security Council has stated that they are reluctant to let the Justice League become 'an extension of the Atlantean military'."

"And the others?"

"They are proving somewhat difficult to locate. If you're interested, I would appreciate it if you could help us find a replacement."

"Were you not listening? Depending on one replacement is a bad idea. If you were planning on taking action against Nabu-"

"I was."

"-then-. Oh." I frown. "You didn't mention that."

"You have expressed an awareness of the fact that I have plans to counter the strengths of every League member." I nod. "Developing a method for combating Doctor Fate-. Nabu-"

"Nabu." Oh.

"-required knowledge well outside my normal area of expertise. In addition, I had to contend with the same need for secrecy that you did."

"I still managed it inside eight months."

"Yes. You did. Finding the right people or equipment to perform a task is something you've proven remarkably adept at."

Is he saying… That I out-Batmanned Batman? I guess that's a compliment.

"Okay, anyway… You need at least two. With a twenty one person Justice League four would be better, but…" Huh. She should be around… "I think I can.. get two within a reasonable timeframe. Neither are active superheroes, but they've got the magic skills you need."

"Is one of them the current owner of the Helmet of Fate?"

"Not unless things have gone seriously awry while I was away." Though I am going to need to speak to John… "I don't think… That person would be inclined to join the Justice League."

Batman looks at me, then his eyes narrow slightly. "John Constantine."

"I will neither confirm nor deny any guess-."

"He's a magic user you know well, believes himself to be in debt to Giovanni after the death of Sindella Zatara and has proven himself against stronger opponents on numerous occasions. What I'm not clear on is why he's keeping the Helmet. Or why -if the Helmet is intact- you claimed that Nabu was dead."

"Oh, Nabu's dead. Brain dead. If you read my full-."

"His consciousness was magic-based. Your mana batteries drained it when they overloaded."

"No, they deformatted it. Power still flows from the Plane of Order, but there's no mind present to do anything with it."

His face relaxes as he nods. "Except Constantine."

"I was gone two months. I don't know what he's doing with it now. But he was keeping hold of it when I left."

"Do you intend to return to active duty?"

"I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. I'm always on active duty. What you mean is: do I intend to work for you?"

"If you prefer."

"You asked me to find two magic users and I'm planning on doing it. So it sounds like the answer's 'yes'."

13th September
02:46 GMT +3

I walk across the bare earth surrounding Lalibela's famous cut-rock churches. At this hour just about everyone is asleep, but I tread lightly past pilgrims slumbering with their packs for pillows. I should-. Well. Maybe it isn't as important as it was before we killed Nabu, but I wonder if Zatanna would be interested in coming here? I'm not sure exactly what Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity thinks of magic, but there isn't any bar on female visitors. I'm sure that she'd get more out of it than I would.

Maybe she'd like seeing St Mary's as well? I've mostly tried to avoid the place where Westham isn't, but St Mary's still exists and it's nearly a thousand years old. I'll ask. I could understand her having an interest in the history of Christianity, and St Mary's has still just about spent longer as a Catholic church than as a Anglican church. But the point is, I've got no idea why the man I'm here to visit is anywhere near here. He certainly isn't Christian. Ah, not unless the information John gave me is really out of date. I mean, there's no reason why he couldn't have converted. It just strikes me as improbable.

Since I don't want him to just up and vanish as soon as he sees me, I've taken steps to make sure that he knows I'm coming. I'm unscryable, but my Praexis Demons aren't. I'm also.. making a point of lightly touching the desires of the sleeping pilgrims and tourists around me. Not doing anything to them, just making enough contact to ensure that anyone keeping an eye on them would be able to spot that it had happened. Hopefully. At the moment the only things watching me are the Rock Doves.

I mean, what does it say about my life that I can turn up in the Sivanas' lab and nothing much happens, but if I turn up in the Batcave I get shot? Shouldn't there have been some sort of warning? I mean, in other circumstances I'd applaud his preparedness but his computer had at least enough time to identify me after the initial volley-.

I stop.

That's a lot of Rock Doves. Silent, watchful Rock Doves. Like a very old man's Gimball drone. A simple yet intelligent way to bypass my ward. I guess you don't live eleven thousand years without learning to keep watch. Okay, I don't really want to raise my voice…

I head towards the closest tree and look upwards as the Doves carry on looking down.

"I'd like to speak to Doctor Balewa, if that's at all possible."

They blink unintelligently at me, and-.

I look down, seeing that the earth under my feet has rearranged itself so that a path of pressed earth now leads away from me and towards one of the nearby shacks. I suppose that's my invitation, then. I hear a flapping and look back to the tree as half of the Doves fly away and the rest twitch and compulsively preen.

"Thank you, Doctor."

I walk along the path a little faster than before. Nommo Balewa has been around for a very long time. John told me that he's a good guy, altruistic and certainly powerful… But on the two occasions the two of them met he told John that he'd rather never see him again.

John just has that effect on some people.

Mostly the people who've had to clean up one of his messes.

"Come in, young man. Come and speak to me."

I hesitate for a moment outside his door. His accent is a little hard to place; he's wandered all over the world before, though for the most part he has stayed in Africa. If the stories about 'Doctor Mist' are even slightly right then he came from somewhere called Kor, but… Given how old some of those stories are, that could be just about anywhere on the continent. His English is flawless, if a little slow.

"Having come so far, why do you hesitate now?"

I push open the door, seeing an old but still vital man sitting on a camping bed. He's got various tattoos across his arms and on his chest -a few whose purpose I can guess, the rest might be decoration or just.. something else- and a series of dots painted across his forehead. The combat trousers and heavy boots seem a little at odds with his legend, but I suppose there's really no reason for him to have to wear robes all of the time.

"Doctor." I bow. "I hesitate because this meeting is important, and I cannot read you as I do most people."

He nods. "It is not wise to become so dependent upon your supernatural abilities that you lose your capacity to make judgements without them."

I nod. "I like to think that I'm not there yet, but it does take me a little longer."

He nods, then gestures to a camping chair opposite him with his right hand. I sit, leaning forwards with my hands on my lap.

"What can an old man such as I do for a young superhero such as yourself?"

"Normally, I'd… Try to build up to it… But last time I did that my target punched me in the face."

"I am not much given to committing acts of violence against my fellow men." He smiles, pearly white teeth gleaming in the dull light of the overhead lantern. "But I suppose I can understand."

"The Lord of Order Nabu is dead. I killed him."

He nods. "I felt his ending. What was your reason for killing him?"

"He required a host to function. When he takes them, he's in total control of their body. He extorted his most recent host's servitude by holding the man's daughter hostage. And then he refused to either accept my alternatives or submit to arrest. You can… Read my full report, if you want..." He nods. "But his death has left the Justice League without a magician."

He nods again. "And you wish to recruit me?"

"You and… One other. I thought that relying on any one person was a bad idea. Single point of failure…"

He leans back, regarding me carefully as he ruminates on the request. "If you had asked me last year, I would have refused. I have.. a great power." He holds out his left hand and purple not-lightning dances around it, seemingly distorting space as it does so. "And I do not believe that men such as myself should rule over mortal men. I do not like what you and Adom have done in Kahndaq."

"We improved the lives of millions of people."

"By making an immortal demigod their king. A 'single point of failure', as you say. No. Mortal men should rule over mortal men."

"The Justice League don't rule people."

"They go where they like, they do what they like. I do not mean to say that I think that they are bad people; I know that they are not. But they are too… Big, what they are doing is too big, too much. The effect which it has on society is not a good one."

"So… Is that a 'no'?"

He sighs, then sags slightly. "A year ago, it would mean 'no'. But, in a single year, Wotan attempted to block the sun, Klarion divided parents from children and a Titan attempted to drown the world. I have reached the conclusion that if I want there to be any world left for my descendants, then I must participate more in its affairs. So." He stands. "I will speak with the Justice League. And if we can reach an agreement, I will stand with them in the battles to come."

"Thank you, Doctor."

"Just so long as I do not have to work with that man Constantine. He brings misery and discord wherevah he goes. I cannot stend him."

I consider my response for a moment. "John Constantine is not a member of the Justice League."

12th September
19:02 GMT -5

Solstice Fitness is unusual in Gotham City in that despite having an ominous name, it actually isn't owned by a supervillain or secret society. The owner/manager is a member of the Gotham Business Association, the legitimate successor to the mob-owned Gotham Small Traders Association. A couple of the staff have criminal records, but since one of them is Paula Nguyen I'm not going to throw any stones. Selina and Holly come here too, though when last I asked Artemis didn't.

But Jade does.

Doctor Balewa said that he wanted to contact the Justice League on his own, so I took the hint and left the runner-up in the Oldest Living Human competition to get some sleep. That's the thing about using wards: while they do protect you from minor magics, from the point of view of an ancient magician all they do is shout 'there's something interesting here' really loudly. Doubly so if you're using one in a location where hardly anyone uses wards, like Gotham City. I assume that Batman…

Should I still be calling him that? He isn't my controller any longer. I mean, obviously I'd call him that when we're on duty or on a mission, but in a secure environment or in my own head… What should I call him? I guess.. 'Mister Wayne' being three syllables means that 'Batman' wins out over it. Calling him 'Bruce' would just be weird. Or is it? I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what Lex calls him and Lex has tried to kill him at least once. As Bruce Wayne. I wonder if he'd call Batman 'Bruce' to his face just to needle him? No, of course he would, but 'as a matter of course' or 'if it were useful in a specific case'? Oh, I'll just stick to calling him 'Batman'. I doubt that I'll be spending any time with him socially.

Anyway, Bruceman-.

…

Anyway, Batman has almost certainly realised that, and then gone on to realise that a magic user powerful enough to do that isn't going to find it all that hard to work out that Batman = Bruce Wayne anyway, so he might as well encourage them to teleport into somewhere with automated defences.

But enough of work. I'm here for something personal. Jade doesn't work Mondays, and at this time of day she's usually having a post-exercise massage, and.. she's there now. While her masseur is currently heading home early because an orange-glowing stranger offered him $2000 to go home early. After I got my ring to record his vocal cadence and the pattern of his footfalls.

This is either a really great idea, or a terrible idea.

I push open the door to the massage room. Jade {blue}doesn't even bother looking up{/}. I can barely imagine the Jade I first met not carefully watching the door of any room she found herself in. "Hi there, Jade."

"Hey Todd."

Or disarm hers-. No, she hasn't locked her locker and there's a knife-. Under the towel she's laying on. She's still wearing her knickers, but aside from them and the towel covering them she's naked.

My word, {violet}she's beautiful{/}.

"Anything in particular you want me to work today?"

"My neck."

"Sure, I can manage that." I stick my right hand under the spout of the industrial massage ointment bottle next to the bench and squirt a blob onto my fingers. Then I approach the right side of the massage bed, rubbing my hands together to spread it over both of them. "Tough workout session?"

"Too much time on the uneven bars."

Too much time parkouring across Gotham with Selina, more like. Rolling might deal with momentum without breaking your legs, but it doesn't do much for your spine. I lay my hands on her shoulders for a moment, then gently begin spreading-.

And there's a knife against my throat and Jade's glaring at me, towel held over her breasts. "{red}Did you th{/}-?!" She stills, staring into my eyes. "Paul?"

Ring, dismiss mimicry program.

{orange}Program dismissed.{/}

I smile, ignoring the knife. "Good evening."

"You're back."

"Yes, yes I am."

"What happened to Todd?"

"Went home early. I thought I'd surprise you. How'd I do?"

"Somewhat surprised." She lowers the knife. Slightly. "Todd's been my masseur for a while. Your hands feel different from his."

"I'll bear that in mind should I feel the need to masquerade as your masseur in the future."

She leans lack slightly, shifting her legs into a more comfortable sitting position and raising her eyebrows. "Did you want to surprise me, or did you just want an excuse to put your hands on my naked body?"

I smile. "Why can't it be both? I like to think that I've made no secret of my {violet}interest in you{/}, naked or otherwise."

"All finished in space?"

"More… I annoyed my boss so much that he sent me home. But I'm going to be able to stay on Earth for a while."

The ghost of a smile appears, which she does her best to conceal. "And all the green-skinned space girls could bear to let you go?"

"While I have met green humanoid females, I didn't.. become involved with any of them."

"Are you going to make me guess the colour?"

"One or two orange-skinned Tamaranians expressed an interest. I.. turned them down. Oh, and a blue-skinned Okaaran with a fairly impressive set of-" I make a curving gesture with both hands. "-tusks."

Jade tilts her head downwards slightly and raises her eyebrows. "Tusks?"

"And she was seven feet tall and five feet wide. I mean…" I shrug. "Perfectly attractive by Okaaran standards-" I lean towards her slightly. "-but not really my thing. How about you? Meet any nice Earth boys?"

"None worth more than two dates. Hm."

"What?"

"I just thought half the reason why you said 'no' before you left was so you could have some fun before you came back. And the other half was that you didn't know how long it would be. But you didn't, and it's only been two months."

"If I'd known it would only be two months…"

"You really didn't have any sex at all?"

Uum. I pull away slightly. "What..? Exactly counts?"

She raises her eyebrows. "If you have to ask, it probably counts."

"Uuugh." I look away for a moment. "Well it… It didn't… Do anything for me, but…"

"Now I'm curious." Jade looks amused by my discomfort. "What didn't do anything for you?"

I avert my eyes for a moment. "She said they were spiracles."

Jade blinks, then frowns. "Spiracles?"

"They're what.. insects breathe through. Spider Guilders don't really-. They're not exactly spiracles, but that was the closest translation. And… She needed anti-chafing cream applied-. And the back one was okay, because that actually was a spiracle-."

Jade's expression has sort of frozen. "Uh-huh."

"But then I got to the gap between her second and third sets of legs, and the hole looked a little different? But she didn't say anything?"

"Oh God."

"So I thought, 'okay, just carry on', and... Now all of Vega thinks I'm a macroarachnophile."

Jade's mouth sort of opens and closes a few times. "Oh-h…"

"But that was it, and like I said, it didn't do anything for me and I didn't even realise it was sexual at the time. Moving-"

She nods. "Yes."

"-swiftly on, I am a fully trained humanoid masseur, so would you like me to finish your session? And then.. we could.. go and have dinner somewhere?"

"Are you actually asking me out?"

{violet}I lean further forwards, and kiss her lightly on the lips{/}. "{violet}Yes{/}. I am. So?"

She puts her knife down, and twists so that she's lying face down again. "My neck could use some attention."

"Ok-."

"{orange}And my inner thighs{/}."

I grin. "{violet}Happy to be of service{/}."

13th September
Something's buzzing

I open my eyes, the blackout curtains covering the window of Jade's bedroom maintaining their dutiful watch against the encroachment of the day.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Jade's still dead to the world, face down in the pillows next to me. She doesn't appear to have curled up against me in her sleep, but she was pretty tired-.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

I lean up slightly and sight her phone on the bedside table, then transition out of bed, pick it up, and then transition into her kitchen.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

I look at the phone for a moment.

07:23 GMT -5

Artemis, right. I press the answer button and hold it to my ear.

"Good morning."

"Hey Jade. Arte wants-." There's a pause as Wallace's brain readjusts. "Oh El?"

"Wallace. Good morning."

"Ah, yeah, hi. How long have you been back?"

"A few hours short of a-"

"Is she ready yet?"

"-day. I was meaning to-."

"Hold on a sec. Artemis, Oh El's back."

"Why's he answeringohmyGod."

I look slightly nervously around the kitchen. Jade moved out of Holly and Karon's house shortly after I left. I suppose this is more convenient for work. "Um."

"Heh. Pretty smooth, Oh El."

"It's not like we hadn't been… I mean, we've spent a lot of time together during the past year."

"Oh, I wasn't trying to say you were easy or anythi-."

"Give me-! That!"

"Um."

"Hey Paul."

"Ow! Careful!"

"Good morning, Artemis. How have you been?"

"Ah, yeah, I'm good. Uh, so… You and Jade, huh?"

"Yes." I walk over to the closest cupboard and pull the door open. "You don't know what she eats for breakfast, do you?"

"Ahh-I think she just has a coffee before we go running. Is she.. there?"

"Yes, but-" I glance back towards her bedroom, sniffing the air. Probably.. should do a quick ring-clean of the place… "-she's still asleep and she was pretty tired-."

"Oh, ew!"

"Be.. cause we were out late… Cccatching up?"

"Yeah, that's not gunna stop me seeing-."

"Err…"

"Ask him if he's going to come 'round the mountain this afternoon."

"Wally wants to know if you're coming to the mountain this afternoon. Or.. at all, I guess."

"What? Why wouldn't he-? … O-kay."

"Um… Yes, I.. plan to. Batman's got me chasing down-."

"You've.. spoken to Batman? I mean, since you've been back?"

"Yes, and I've got the electrified anti-metahuman bolas to prove it."

"He shot you?"

"Batman shot Oh El? What's going on?"

"No, Batman's automated defences shot me after I teleported into the Batcave. There wasn't any specific malice."

"Oh, okay."

"What's okay about that? Gimme the phone b-."

"Ggh!"

"He wants me to find a couple of replacements for Nabu-. Um, as League magic users, I mean. I already knew about one but the second one's going to take a bit longer. I don't think it's really… I'm not going to be moving back in or anything at least until I've finished doing… Finding her." … "Are you still-?"

"Yeah! Still here."

"Totally unfair."

"So who'd you get?"

"Batman… Ah, and the rest of the League, they haven't approved it yet. But he's an African man called Nommo Balewa. He sometimes works under the name 'Doctor Mist'."

"I've… Never heard of him."

"How many African superheroes can you name?"

"Ah-. Ssseven?"

"Really?"

"Rocket did a lecture. She didn't mention him."

"Mention who?"

"Some African guy called Doctor Mist."

"Who? No, it's Oh El, there's no way I'm gunna have heard of them. I'm gunna go look him up."

"He's powerful and non-interventionist. And doesn't need a host-slave. And I think he's actually older than Nabu was. Ah… Maybe."

"'kay. Who's the other one?"

Yeah… "You remember Satanus, right?"

"Heh, the Devil Jizz guy?"

"Yeah, that's the one. He's the son of the wizard Shazam and a Succubus."

"Really?"

"Shazam spends all of his time on his own in a magic rock fortress. And if you're a powerful enough wizard to get away with it without getting your soul ripped out…"

"Okay, ew again, but so what?"

"He's got a sister. And they hate each other. And she was friends with Adom. So if Satanus has made new friends-."

"You think she might want new friends too. Huh. It's… Kinda twisted. But I can see you doing it."

"Thank you."

"So… Is she a superhero, or..?"

"Last I heard, she ran a nightclub and did some 'magic for hire' work. But… Guarantees about her behaviour can be part of our negotiation."

"Wait, is he talking about Blaze? Ask him if she's hot, because-."

"You better not be-!"

"I'll.. talk to you later?"

"O-okay. See yah."

I take a look at the phone to make sure it's off, then put it down on the work surface. That went okay, and it was nice to hear-.

There's a knock on the door.

Ah..? Oh, it's Paula. I walk over and open the door. She blinks at me in mild surprise. "Good morning, Paula."

"Hello, Paul. Are you joining us for our morning run?"

"Run?"

She nods, and I notice that she's wearing tight-fitting sportswear. I do good work.

"Yes. Artemis, Jade and I have been running together-."

"Oh, Jade's still asleep." I point my right forefinger in the direction of her bedroom. "I don't think-" Paula raises her eyebrows. "-she's going to be…"

I look at her.

She inclines her head slightly and raises her eyebrows a little more.

"I shouldn't have said that, should I?"

13th September
08:11 GMT -5

"Of course." I find myself nodding, even though there's no way that the man on the other end of the construct phone can see me. "That's fine. Teth Adom is a busy man."

"In your case, if it is an emergency, I can-."

"No, it's not. I'm just trying to get into contact with a friend of his and hoped that he could point me in the right direction. It isn't urgent. Just… Pass that on when the meeting's over."

"Of course, sir. Um, would you like to give me the friend's name?"

I wonder if he realises exactly how few friends Adom has in this era? Particularly ones I wouldn't know how to find. "Probably best if I don't. No offence intended, but the fewer people who know…"

"Not a problem, sir. I understand completely."

"Thank you. Have a nice-" A dressing gown-clad Jade walks awkwardly into the kitchen. "-day."

"Thank you, sir. You as well."

I dismiss the construct and {violet}rise to my feet, arms wide{/}. "{violet}Good morning, oh{/}-!"

"Just-." Jade raises her right hand in a warding gesture. "Just give me a minute."

"Um." She walks over to a cupboard and opens it, pulling out a mug and a jar of instant coffee. "Okay?" Next, she switches on the kettle and opens a drawer to take out a teaspoon. I note that her arms aren't straying much from a folded, defensive position. In fact, she seems to be doing everything a bit gingerly. "Jade..? Are you… Alright..?"

Two teaspoons of instant coffee go into the mug as the kettle comes to the boil. "Tired and.. sore. I wasn't expecting… Some of that."

"Oh." Um. "Ssorry?" I raise my left hand. "I can-."

"No." She half-turns my way. "No, that's… That's fine."

"Are you sure? Because you don't look fine. Um. Are we far enough into our relationship that I can say that and-?"

"I… Know how I look." She picks up the kettle and pours hot water into her mug, then puts the kettle down and gives the coffee a stir. "I wasn't…" She stops, looking down as she works out what she wants to say. Perhaps… Playing for time, she turns away again and awkwardly bends down to open the fridge door and pull out a small container of milk. She then straightens up and puts it down next to the cooking mug. Only then does she turn to full face me. "I… I didn't think you had much sexual experience. I think I assumed that I'd be taking the lead-."

"Oh, I don't."

She raises her eyebrows slightly. "Really?"

"Any, actually."

Her face falls slightly. "Any?"

"Well… Assuming that you don't count the.. Spider Queen." I nod. "That was my first time having sex. I mean, I'd done research, but-."

"Oh God."

"So..?" I wiggle my head side to side. "How'd I do? I didn't expect to get everything right first time, but I'm always willing to accept feedback."

Jade picks up her mug and holds it up to her nose, breathing in the scent for a moment. She closes her eyes and {green}controls her breathing{/}. "I wasn't expecting the power ring."

"Most people don't. I mean, for most of power ring history there were only Green Lanterns, and the level of mental focus they'd need means it isn't really practical for them to use it like that." Huh. "I mean, there are probably a few-."

"I meant-. I wasn't expecting what you did with it."

"Jade… The spirit is eager, but the flesh is that of a male humanoid. I couldn't have done most of that without-."

"And I don't remember you…" Her eyes widen slightly, not looking at me. "You didn't..?"

"Didn't what?"

She transfers her mug into her left hand and picks up her milk carton in her right. Then she… Twists her wrist so that milk splashes out into the coffee. Then she raises her eyebrows slightly in my direction. Then she spills another splash of milk into the coffee.

Why is sheoh.

"Um. No."

"Oh God."

"You see… You… Sort of..."

"Oh God."

"Stopped… Responding near the end of the second hour-"

She puts mug and milk down and brings her hands to her face. "Oh God."

"-and I don't really know the etiquette, but I thought… Carrying on wasn't really-."

"Oh God."

"Jade." I take a step towards her. "Jade, it's fine."

"Ohhhhh." She semi-flops against my chest as I gently put my arms around her waist. "Uuuugh."

"Too much?"

She takes a couple of breaths with her face against my chest. "Next time, you don't use your rings."

Next time. {blue}Which there will be{/}. {blue}Good-oh{/}. I nod. "I'm perfectly happy to not use my rings. And.. um… If you don't want me to deal with the… Soreness, with my rings, I have a purple healing ray?"

She manages a somewhat fragile smile. "Not going to offer to kiss it better?"

"My kisses don't have any particular healing properties. I'm happy to try, but… To be honest, that would probably just make the situation worse."

"Mpf." She pulls back slightly, and I release my hold to allow her to pick up her coffee. "Did Mom come by?"

"Sheeeee did."

She takes a sip, watching me over the rim of the mug. She's smiling as she swallows. "You told her I was still asleep, didn't you?"

"Yees, I did. And.. Artemis phoned."

"I wasn't planning on keeping this a secret, Paul. Mom and Artemis both like you. And you certainly weren't my first."

I nod my head to the side. "Anyone I need to worry about?"

"I wasn't with either of them for long." She walks around me and pulls out one of the chairs around the table. "And I haven't thought about them much, either. I suppose they're either dead or in prison after the League of Shadows was shut down. Given how I wasn't picked up, I think they'd probably come after me before you." She puts her mug down on the table and then carefully sits and jumps back to her feet a second later, her buttocks clenched. "I think I'll stand."

"The purple healing ray-." I take it out of subspace and put it down on the table next to her mug. "I'll just leave it here. Use it.. if you want."

She gives me a look of combined amusement and irritation. "Thank you."

"Um. Speaking about your mother… Is there a… Good time to introduce you to…"

She frowns slightly. "Your family?"

"No, my family is on Earth Prime. But there are.. people… I'm close to. Who I'd like you to meet."

"I'm drinking this, taking a shower and then going back to bed. But.. my next day off is next Sunday. I could meet them then?"

I walk up to her and {violet}kiss her gently on the forehead{/}. "{violet}That would be splendid{/}."

{red}13th September
08:17 GMT -6{/}

I press down on the writhing carapace of the horror beneath me, doing my best to keep my head away from its flailing raptorial forelegs. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this is that rather than chittering or screeching as I'd expected, the abomination is near completely silent as it tries to bring its natural weapons to-.

Gughuh! And it reminds me with a spray of toxic gunk from its spinnerets that it's anything but natural.

I turn to the observation window. "Do you need samples of this as well?!"

Cranius raises Otto's hand to his mouth. "If it is not too much trouble!"

I nod, taking a syringe in my right hand and doing my best to suck up the larger congealing pools. Insectoid Unmen. I have no idea what Arcane was thinking when he made these and frankly I'll be perfectly happy if I never do gain that sort of insight. This poor bastard used to be Corporal Frank Cruz before his disastrous assignment to General Sutherland's research project. Real zombies don't have infectious bites. In fact, they usually won't bite at all, lacking the animating spirit from which normal people derive motivation. These things on the other hand are totally infectious, symbiotic cells in their blood, digestive systems and venom glands straining with all their might to turn any animal they come into contact with into more Insectoid Unmen.

I turn my head aside and spit, a wad of transformed Unphlegm flying from my mouth. It has.. veins growing on it, the mass twitching as it attempts to develop a heart beat. My divine resistance is enough to prevent my body being transformed, but anything else…

I slide the syringe back into my armoured holdall, then take out another. This one is a bit tricky, and there's next to no chance that the creature itself will cooperate. Extreme option, then. I lift my hand from its thorax, braced for it to start writhing again. There's a token wriggle, but I think even its animal intelligence has worked out that it can't throw me from this position. Okay, step two. I slam my fist forward, striking it directly on the vertex. Nothing like a full strength hit, but hopefully… Yes, its eyes aren't focusing on me. I shove the needle into its mouth, piercing its venom gland and sucking a syringeful out.

Okay, done. I activate my aero-discs and rise off its body, forelegs swiping at me instinctively but being harmlessly turned aside by my armour. Well, that was revolting. I {orange}send a wave of orange light over myself{/} to {orange}burn away any lingering goop{/}. Mother Box, boom tube.

BOOM!

I slide the venom syringe into my satchel as I fly through, shutting the tube down as I land on the observation platform.

Cranius turns around on Otto's shoulders to grin at me. "Excellent work, my boy! Usually taking samples from zhe insectoids takes us weeks and costs us a great deal in equipment."

I unclamp the satchel from my armour and hold it out. "Happy to help, Cranius."

"Unt… You are not suffering any… Ill effects?"

Oh, my mouth is dry. Mother Box?

Ping.

{orange}Ring{/}?

{orange}No abnormalities detected beyond the usual.{/}

Huh. I think it might be learning bad habits from Sinestro.

"No, none that I can detect."

Otto turns around to face… To chest me and takes the satchel before walking in the direction of the stairs back into the main part of the Uncorporation headquarters. Cranius manoeuvres himself so that he can look back at me as Otto ascends. "I am very glad. You, I zhink, would be an even more troubling specimen zhen zhey are."

"I'd like to think so. What.. do you intend to.. use that for?"

"Eh, a back burner project of mine. I do not zhink zhat reversing zhe effects after zo long would… Be of use to zhose poor unfortunates. But, if anyone were infected in zhe future, possessing a way to arrest zhe changes would be wizhout price."

"And it would serve to improve your understanding of Doctor Arcane's workings."

His face twitches slightly. "Even I would stop short of creating somezhing like zhat."

"Glad to hear it." We leave the insectoid vault proper and step into the airlock, an entirely sensible precaution against airborne toxins and transmutative agents. And people trying to come back through without knowing that they'd been infected. The inner door clanks closed behind us and Cranius hops onto his perch while Otto begins stripping himself of clothing. "And your work more generally?"

"Zhe next round of zhe implantation procedures begins on Wednesday, unt zhen I will be fully occupied with zhe testing." He strums three fingers. "I am… Finding it an adequate replacement for zhe uncreation." He looks me over. "But… Zhis is not a purely social visit, no? You want my answer."

"I want to give you the opportunity to ask any questions so that I could allay any remaining concerns you may have."

"I…" He looks down for a moment. "I will be honest wizh you: I am minded to accept wizhout furzher qualification." He looks up again. "For zhe work you have done for me, for us, and zhe opportunities you have provided for us… I owe you zhis. And I believe zhat it will benefit us to continue zhis relationship. However."

"Yes? Please, any reservations-."

"I have no knowledge of my own expiration date. I could drop dead tomorrow, or… I could still be as I am a century from now. If I am to devote myself fully to zhis great transformative work you would heff me perform… I need to know zhat my people can continue wizhout me. My… Students are capable unt my brozher Crassus is skilled… But zhey do not have my experience, my insight."

"If you need me to go looking for more of Arcane's books..?"

"No." His neck bulges briefly as he passes more air through it, sighing. "At zhis point, zhere is little more a written text could teach me. Razher… Zhere are two.. furzher… People, who might lend zheir efforts to my work. I know where one is unt where zhe ozher was, but zhey are both beyond my reach. If you could get zhem, persuade zhem to come here…." He nods. "Zhen I am your man."

"Alright. Who are they?"

Cranius smiles in satisfaction. "Many of zhose… Zhe papers call 'mad scientists', zheir work has no obvious predecessor. In science, we are always standing on giants' shoulders, but sometimes… Zhat freeze ray you are so fond of. It is contrary to everyzhing in heat physics. Mister Snart read some zhings und zhen 'poof', it just appears in his mind. Arcane… It was nearly zhe same, but! Zhere was one man whose research he sought after and acquired, one man who inspired him."

"Victor Frankenstein."

"Jah. Yes. Frankenstein himself had long since died in zhe arctic circle, unt he destroyed many of his own records… But in his creations lie zhe secrets of his work. Find zhe creature or zhe Bride, unt we will heff zhat. Zhe last record we heff for zhem is zhat zhey worked for zhe American government during zhe Second World War. Your contacts in zhet area are better zhan mine."

Looks like I'm going to have to talk to Katarina again… "Okay, I can probably manage that. Who else?"

"Doctor Arcane had no true friends or peers… But for several years, he had an assistant. An Englishman wizh whom he had a certain… Familiar relationship. He came to us in zhe fifties, stayed for several years. Zhey parted on good terms."

"That… Really?"

"He was a somewhat unusual man himself. His name was Grymleigh Gartside Fiendstein, unt he continued his work after he returned to England. He is currently in zhe special prison underneath zhe Tower of London."

Well, I was planning on overthrowing the British government anyway… "What was he convicted of?"

"Robbery, arson, murder unt gross indecency." I raise my eyebrows slightly. "What? You zhought a friend of Arcane's would be a 'nice man'?"

"Probably not. On the other hand, I doubt that an eighty year old is much of a threat to anyone. Are you sure that he's still alive?"

"No, but his crimes had a certain notoriety unt zhere has been no announcement. I hope."

I nod as the exterior door opens. "I can't make any promises, but I'll see what I can do."

13th September
08:32 GMT -6

Harleen looks at me with considerable scepticism. "You rilly wanna see him?"

I nod. "Yes, I really do."

"'Cause this ain't gunna be like with Kadabra or Tommy an' Tuppy. I don't think this guy's evah gunna change. I mean, I ain't givin' up or nothin'-."

"But he doesn't have the same sort of deep-seated psychological issues as the others, considers mercenary work a career in which he's had considerable success and has multiple life sentences so there's no reason for him to cooperate with prison authorities unless it gets him closer to pulling off an escape."

She looks thoughtful, then nods. "Yeyeah, you pretty much gawt it."

"I don't think I'm going to rehabilitate him either. It's just-" We turn the corner, and I see Warden Waller at the entrance to the interrogation room with a couple of armoured heavies. "-that there's one or two things I need to say to him."

Waller's eyes narrow slightly. "I hope you've got a better reason than that for wanting to talk to Sportsmaster." For a fraction of a second I consider telling her my actual reason. "And don't think I don't know he's your convict girlfriend's father."

"I'm not going to stab him, if that's what you're worried about."

She screws up her face. "What?"

"Warden, Jade hates him. If I helped him in any way, she'd dump me. If I did something that impacted on him adversely, she'd be gratef-." I catch sight of Harleen rhythmically poking the inside of her cheek with her tongue. She stops when she notices me noticing. "Be grateful."

"'least you're not trying to pretend you're not involved with her any more."

"That's a.. recent thing, actually. So… Are you letting me in, or..?"

"You know what I found out about five minutes ago?" Oh dear. "I found out your Justice League permit got cancelled." She looks.. mildly satisfied. "Which means you can't just demand to talk to prisoners whenever you feel like it."

I nod. "That's… True. However, I was under the impression that you.. didn't have a problem with my scheduled visits."

"No, I don't have a problem with your scheduled visits. Prisoners who behave themselves are entitled to those. I have a problem when you turn up and expect to be able to see the most dangerous man in Belle Reve with half an hour's notice."

Most..? Ah, yes. With the power suppression on he probably is. Not just for his physical abilities and combat experience, but for the fact that I'm sure he has every aspect of Belle Reve operation memorised. "I.. can see that I've rather taken advantage of your hospitality, and I apologise." She looks.. mildly less disgruntled. Mildly gruntled? Huh, actually yes, that is the correct usage. "If you'd rather I didn't speak to him, then I can… Just leave. Has he caused you any trouble?"

"He's getting the inmates organised. Watching my guards, recording shift patterns. And we only found out thanks to a random cell check. And unlike the rest of them-."

I nod. "He knows how to fight without super powers. But nothing… Overt?"

"Not yet."

"If it helps, my empathic abilities might give me a clue about what's going on." I smile at her.

"He's trained to resist telepathy."

"Perhaps, but I doubt that he's trained to resist empathy. I won't be reading his mind, I'll be taking a look at his soul. It can be remarkably informative."

She nods. "Okay."

"You know… In future, if you want me to do things for you, you can just ask?"

"I'll bear that in mind." She steps aside, turning to the guards as she does so. "Open it up."

The outer door is armoured -though not to 'Superman-proof' standards- and is designed to resist prolonged assault by someone hopped up on regular Venom. Someone on Venom Buster or the original Blockbuster wouldn't fit in the passageway. I stand still and wait for the heavy metal locking mechanism to clamp into place, then the inner door swings open.

Mister Crock is thoroughly chained to the floor-bolted and welded seat set in the centre of the room. He regards me with mild disinterest, though he does make a point of keeping his eyes constantly trained on mine in an {yellow}attempt to unnerve me{/}. Fortunately, I can tweak my awareness so that I just register a sort of blur where his eyes are, and as a result the usual instinctive nervous response just doesn't trigger. I could just tweak my brain to achieve a similar result… But I'm still trying to cut down on that sort of thing.

"Good morning, Mister Crock. How have you been?"

There's another seat for the interrogator, as well as a clearly painted 'DO NOT CROSS' line around the prisoner seat. I walk across it, generate a construct chair within arm's reach of him and sit down.

"Biding my time."

"No offence meant, but I am a little surprised they haven't executed you. Given the plethora of capital crimes you've committed."

He graces me with a small smile. "Prove it."

Ring? Oh, seriously? Now I get the whole 'no witnesses' thing. It's not just professionalism, is it? No one alive to bear witness means no one who can be called to the stand to prove you did something. Sure, prosecutors know he was there when people died, but proving he killed any particular person within US jurisdiction… And I doubt Paula's going to give testimony.

Ah, what the heck. Short of a small war, he's not getting out of here before his death anyway. I narrow my eyes slightly and gaze deep inside him. Given the.. {green}green{/}, I suspect that he's doing the whole counter-telepathy mental exercise thing. Not that he'd think I could-. Oh, of course; a telepath in the observation room adjacent to this one would be a risk. Okay, from what I'm seeing he doesn't have a specific escape plan, just a way of keeping everyone organised to take advantage of any opportunities that emerge. Fine, I'll tell Waller.

I take a holocube out of subspace and toss it behind me, blue strobes flashing out as it scans the room and then projects a false image to anyone watching. Next, I have my rings start lying to the electronic monitoring systems.

Mister Crock watches with mild interest. "What, you planning on working me over, kid? You think you're Batman now?"

"Don't be absurd, Mister Crock. I never do anything by half. It's simply that the information that I wish to relay to you is of a personal nature. Jade and I are romantically involved, and no, because I'm sure you're about to make a comment, I'm not asking your permission or anything stupid like that. You see, I don't really care about you one way or the other, but Jade really hates you. So I thought I'd say from the outset, that if you become involved in the life of your natural family -or with me- in any way, I will kill you." He doesn't look impressed. "Nothing exciting; you'll just go to sleep one evening, develop a series of air bubbles in the arteries of your brain and.. not wake up." I shrug, a sociable smile upon my face. "That means your parents, brother, nephews, sister in law, ex-wife and daughters. No communication or skulduggery of any kind."

He looks at me for a moment, apparently as at ease as a man chained to a chair can be. "Do you seriously expect me to believe you'd carry that threat out?"

I raise my right index finger. "I thought you might say that. I thought you might say that." I nod. "You know, I was thinking a little while ago: what Human has killed the largest number of people in history? A lot of people would say Hitler or Stalin, but their-" I shake my head and wave my right hand dismissively. "-governments killed people for them, their armies killed people. I mean, personally. What individual has personally killed the greatest number? If you ignore really long-lived people like Vandal Savage, I reckon until a couple of months ago it was Thomas Ferebee. You know, the man who dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima? That was at least ninety thousand people, plus… The rest of his war record. Sound about right? I mean, there might have been some sort of.. extermination camp operator who really put in the overtime who beats that, but-" I shake my head. "-probably not.{orange}"

"{/}Now… I'm beating him. I mean, I killed a few people before I left Earth, but it was a handful. That was because Human society is essentially well-ordered. But when I got out-" I gesture towards the ceiling with my right hand. "-into space, I came across places that weren't like that. Murderous rampaging pirates, slavers, and, memorably, a religion that blinded all its womenfolk. So I killed them. Not all; I'm not a professional killer, some of them ran away. But quite a lot. I'm really not sure what my total is… I mean, when you drop a space station on a factory complex, who's counting exactly how many people got crushed? But it's a lot more than ninety thousand.{orange}"

"{/}Now, I know I'm not going to scare you or intimidate you by saying this. That's.. not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to save your life. Because if you disobey me, I will kill you. I will not feel happy or sad about it, but I will not hesitate, and I will not lose any sleep over it. I will simply consider it necessary and do it." I rise from my chair. "Goodbye, Mister Crock. I hope I never see you again."

13th September
10:13 GMT -5

"…reunion went better than expected?"

I turn the phone handset away from my mouth a little as I sigh, and try to distract myself from the amused tone in Alan's voice by studying the burned out remains of 'Blaze's' on Van Lew Street in the New Troy borough of Metropolis. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the idea that a Demon would want to turn a former church into a nightclub, but I am surprised that a church in a major American city could get so starved of funds that it would sell up like that. Far less surprising was the fact that it got torn apart by people hopped up on Devil Jizz a little over a month ago. Kal-El dealt with the Jizzers before they could destroy much else, but their presence nicely ties it to Satanus.

"It was… Yes. Sorry for not phoning you, but… By the time I knew I wouldn't be heading to-."

"That's fine. I was young once, y' know." A quiet chuckle. "So when do I get to meet her?"

I've got a small team of Praexis Demon constructs going over the site now while Detectives Leocadio and Jase of the Special Crimes Units look on. The owner, 'Angelica Blaze', disappeared in the aftermath and as a result the police's first thought was fraud. Except no one ever claimed on it. Beyond that, their investigation hit a dead end. Oh, they picked up a few conventional drug dealers and users while their investigation went on, but any actual cause for the place being targeted? Nothing. When Ms Blaze didn't reappear they actually upgraded it to a murder investigation, which I most sincerely hope it isn't. The next highest magic user on my list is quite a step down from her.

"Is it alright if I bring her around for dinner on Sunday? Her work schedule is pretty unsociable, but she has a day off and I do want to introduce her to… You."

"I think I can manage one more guest. So do you actually need my spare room, or what?"

"She's.. used to having her own space, she works different hours to me and… I don't want to crowd her. So, yes, please."

"Not a problem. I'll be cleaning up the place today."

"I can.. help with-."

"No, no. This'll give me a chance to learn to use my new ring for regular things. I want to make sure I don't make a fool of myself when we start training for real. So, ah… How'd it go with Batman?"

"I'm doing a job for him now. Once that's done, relations… Normalised. With him, anyway."

"Oh? What's that?"

"The League needs a replacement magic user. I found one yesterday and now I'm trying to find a second."

"Anyone I'd know?"

"Maybe? Did you spend any time in Africa during the Second World War?"

"I spent a couple of weeks in Palestine while they worked out whether they wanted to send me to Italy or Greece, but after what happened to Al Fiske the All-Star Squadron were kind of nervous about sending us to places still being affected by the Spear of Destiny."

Ah, yes. Unlike we comic book readers, the Allies didn't know that the Nazis planned to counter their superheroes with magic. They knew that the Society of Thule existed, but it was common knowledge in government circles at the time that magic was a real thing and the Thulists were only unusual in how well connected they were. And while the fact that people like Captain Falcon, Gougeman and White Eagle were quite happy to work with the Nazis was known, it certainly wasn't unthinkable that they were ideological converts to fascism. Or at least considered Germany less bad than the Soviet Union.

The young Master Man's sudden conversion was what finally clued them in to the fact that something more extreme was going on after his brilliant 'why don't I just run up through Spain and deck Hitler in the snozz' plan came a cropper. Later, they found out that while Franco wasn't quite prepared to declare war on the Allies, he had no objection to High Magister Krieger popping over to Madrid to extend the Spear's influence across Spain. Baron Reiter held Master Man off just long enough for the effect to take hold, and then…

Bloody good job that Rommel wouldn't have anything to do with Thule, otherwise they might have got Doctor Balewa as well. Now there's a scary thought.

"Probably not, then. He's an African chap, about eleven thousand years old. He operates under the name 'Doctor Mist'. I've got no idea what Batman plans to do for an interview process, but he isn't really in a position to be picky."

"Eleven thousand..? However did he manage that?"

"There are ways to extend Human life a great deal. Just look at Savage." Doctor Balewa had white light dancing around inside him in a way vaguely reminiscent of Clarice's strange black and white combination. Whether the Life Entity decided to grant him immortality or whether his own sorcerous abilities were sufficient I don't know.

"Well, sure, but eleven thousand years is a very long time. And Savage isn't a great example of how people should behave. I'd be impressed if someone that old could still get along with normal people."

"I suppose that in eleven thousand years you and I will find out what it's like ourselves."

The phone goes silent.

"Alan?"

"Oh! Sorry, I was just… Two days ago I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the end of the week. Now you're saying I could still be here in eleven thousand years. I can't even imagine what that's going to be like."

"Good show. Novel experiences are supposed to get more infrequent as you get older, so you should be glad that you can't imagine it."

"I'm not… I'm not sure that follows."

"It shows that you've already found something novel, and you've only known about it for a couple of minutes. You have a literal universe of possibilities; more, if we can get a planar portal to work. Don't worry about having something to do."

"Heh, I suppose you're right. Mala.. wanted me to visit Themyscira with her, see what they've done with the place since the prison shut down."

I consider coming back with a witticism along the lines of 'Sounds like I'm not the only one whose reunion went better than expected', but I… I don't really think that's appropriate here. I mean, there's no reason for Alan not to pursue a romantic relationship now, but I suppose that's an adjustment for another year. "I got the impression that they thought pretty highly of you there. I'd appreciate it if you could persuade a few more Amazons to visit the US. I'm trying to encourage them to get more involved in the modern world. Oh, and you noticed that your ring has a universal translator now, right?"

"I-. Huh. Well that explains… So I can talk to them, the ones who don't speak English?"

"Yep." I note that the Praexis Demons have stopped sniffing around in a purposive way and appear to just be trying to look busy. "Okay, time for me to get back to work, I'm afraid."

"Alright, I'll leave you to it. I'll see you this evening."

I close my left hand, dismissing the phone construct. Then I hold out my left arm in the direction of the building site and pull the Praexis Demons back into my ring. A confusing mishmash of images flit through my mind as the memories of what they tasted become mine. Okay, that's what Blaze's magic tastes like.

"You get anything?"

Corporal Jase is noticeably less fazed by what I did than his partner, who's trying to hide her expression of disturbed surprise.

"Not much yet." I rise slightly into the air. "I'll let you know what I find."

13th September
11:45 GMT -5

Ah, looks like my complete lack of respect for privacy has paid off again. Ms Blaze might have been able to conceal the link between 'Angelica Blaze' and other public faces of the sort that a demonic magic user would find it easy to set up, but in a wave of ring-based forensic accountancy and CCTV checking I can see people who had been leaving traces of themselves suddenly stop at the moment her club was destroyed. Some I can account for as employees, but I suspect that some-.

"Orange Lantern." I open my eyes to be greeted by the sight of Kal-El floating a couple of metres in front of me. We're a couple of miles above Metropolis here, clouds obscuring us from the ground below. "Captain Sawyer told me you were looking into the attack on Blaze's nightclub. Anything I should know about?"

Hm. While I think I know which camp he fits into on the Nabu matter, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he'll have something useful to contribute. "Good morning, Kal-El. And that depends; are you wearing your ward?"

"Yes." He taps one of his belt pouches with his right hand. "That came in pretty handy when the attack happened."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"You think Satanus is behind it?"

"Almost certainly. I forget: do you have a go-to person for magic related things, or do you just fall back on your own abilities?"

"Not a lot of wizards in Metropolis. But, no, I don't."

I nod, then take a hologram generator out of subspace. "Did you mention the case to Captain Marvel?"

"Not that I remember."

"Exhibit one." I generate a hologram of the woman the police are looking for. "Angelica Blaze, surprisingly wealthy small business owner and Metropolis resident for at least eight years. Exhibit two-" A second image joins the first. "-Blaze, daughter of Jebediah of Canaan, aka the wizard Shazam, and a Succubus whose name I don't know. Given the demonic magic my Praexis Demons tasted on what's left of her club and the fact that Satanus is her brother, I believe that the two are one and the same person."

Kal-El considers the images for a moment. "Seems a bit much for sibling rivalry. Are you sure they're the same person?"

"Not completely. Ideally, I'd check an artefact that I knew for certain was infused with power by Blaze and compare the two. Unfortunately, my demonic magic contact has gone to ground, and the only person I know who knew Blaze socially is busy running a country. And confirming that won't help me track her down; finding Angelica Blaze is an end in itself."

He nods. "So what's your next step?"

"Data analysis suggests that she was using a number of aliases while in Metropolis. I was planning on checking whether any of them turned up anywhere else, but… Five different plane tickets, all seats occupied by women who vanished shortly after arriving at their destinations. Which probably means that none of them were her. So…" So I should have brought Doctor Balewa with me so he can track her. "I either need to search out every trace of demonic magic on the planet, or…" Huh. Well, I did need to see them anyway. "Or I get someone to summon a Succubus, bribe her to tell me who Blaze's mother is, summon her-."

"I don't think that summoning Demons is such a good idea."

"Okay, well, I only know of one Succubus who's out in the wild, and I sort of lost track of her after we turned her into a Love Elemental."

He smiles, ducking his head slightly. "You know, if you were anyone else, I'd say you were spinning a tale. How did you pull that one off?"

"The Star Sapphire. Then… We could just ask Jebediah. I'm sure he'd remember, but he might not want to talk to me about it."

"Or we could do both. Why don't you talk to Zatanna once she gets out of school while I talk to Shazam?"

I think for a moment. "Because Batman set me the task, and I'm not sure if using League resources invalidates the challenge or not."

Kal-El folds his arms across his 'S'. "This crime happened in my city. I think I'm allowed to investigate it."

"Okay, well… Good luck with Jebediah. I'll try tracking Chantinelle down myself, see if I can get it done before the end of school. I'd go with you, but I doubt being seen in my company would help you plead your case."

He nods. "That's probably true." He begins floating backwards, waving with his right hand as he goes. "Good luck!"

Hm. Luck. Alright, not really sure what a Love Elemental looks like or if her copy of the wards tattooed on my skin would defeat my empathic vision, but I'll try most things once. I open up my empathic vision all the way and look out across the world. U-uh. Yeah, there's no way I'm going to be able to find her like this. If I can see her then I doubt that I'd be able to pick her out from more than a few miles away. I could try a few places at random just in case, but… No, hang on, she said that she was going to go and fix broken relationships. And she mentioned Danita Wright, the woman John was involved with. A relationship she ended by getting in bed with John shortly before Ms Wright arrived back in their home while John was asleep.

Ring, where does Danita Wright work now?

{orange}Danita Wright is currently employed by the Roche City Gazette.{/}

Right. Marvellous. Present location..? Ah, nowhere near the Hawks or their residence, good. And transition.

13th September
10:48 GMT -6

I ignore the starts and gasps around me as I appear next to Ms Wright's desk. "Excuse me, Ms Wright?"

She keeps looking at her monitor for a moment. "Missus Daniels actually. What is-" She turns towards me. "-it Orange Lantern?"

"Yes. I'm trying to track down an acquaintance of mine, and I believe that she might have made contact with you. Bat wings, glowing violet, name of Chantinelle? You once walked in on her in bed with John Con-."

"Constantine." Her jaw tightens. "Yes, I know who you mean. She came to see me months ago, but I haven't seen her since. I thought she was some crazy woman. And.. that was years ago. Why, who was she?"

"She was a Succubus turned Love-Elemental. I'm trying to track her down. I don't suppose she told you where she was going, did she?"

"What? No." Missus Daniels shakes her head. "She.. told me she posed John just so I'd break up with him and that she was.. really sorry about it. Was that true?"

"Yes. They'd had a professional falling out and she was trying to alienate all of his friends. John's done a lot of dodgy things, but he didn't cheat on you." I consider that for a moment. "To the best of my knowledge."

"Oh." She frowns as she thinks about that. "I.. probably owe him an apology."

"I'd be happy to relay it to him just as soon as I see him. Excuse me."

Sigh. Indiana it is, then.

13th September
12:25 GMT -5

I step around the custard smooshed across the pavement and the overweight man being swarmed by squirrels, then push my way through the cluster of rubberneckers watching through the bar's doorway and into the bar itself. My target is facing the bar, shoulders hunched as he nurses his whiskey.

"Excuse me." I stride across the intervening space as the chittering from outside reaches a crescendo. "I'm looking for Ambrose Bierce?"

"Ambrose Bierce?!" He wheels around none too steadily, glaring at me from under a messy mop of blonde hair that Boris Johnson would envy and.. probably attempt to emulate. "That clown?! You impertinent-." He cuts himself off and blinks. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

His diction's better than John's, that's for certain. The cigarettes in the ash tray next to him are roll your owns, rather than Silk Cuts, his coat is a little shorter and his face… They don't look anything alike.

"I said: I'm looking for Ambrose Bierce?"

"Ooooh, right. Sorry, got into a bit of a habit, there. What is it you want?"

"Selina told me you were the man to talk to about street level magic."

"Selin-? Catwoman?"

"Yes? She's a friend of mine. Can I..-" I point to his drink as I take a seat next to him. "-get you a top up while we talk?"

He nods. "Don't mind if you do."

I wave my right hand at the barwoman, then point it at Mr Bierce. "Whatever he's drinking?"

"I'm a bit surprised, you coming to me. I thought you were connected to the Atlanteans."

"I was. Then I royally pissed off King Orin and left the planet for two months." The barwoman puts a new whiskey down in front of Mr Bierce, and I pass her a twenty dollar bill. "Besides, they need a royal warrant to study Demons without it being a death penalty offence."

"You're connected to the Justice League, aren't you? What about Zatara? I heard he came off his leave of absence a couple of months ago."

I raise my eyebrows. "Are you interested in buying a bridge?"

He nods. "Thought it might be something like that." Then he turns in his seat to face me, looking at me sceptically as he does so. "And you didn't-?" He cuts himself off. "No. You know what?" He takes a sip of his whiskey. "I'm not questioning it. What can I do for you?"

"A while ago I and.. a couple of friends turned a Succubus by the name of Chantinelle into a Love Elemental. Now I'd like to track her down. Unfortunately, she's totally immune to scrying. And multifunction power ring scans. So it's a bit tricky." He looks at me in incredulous astonishment, his cigarette drooping and then falling from his open mouth. "Failing that, I need to know who Blaze's mother is."

"'Blaze' being..?"

"You remember when the Hawks and I fought a large Demon in front of the Hall of Justice?" He nods. "That was Satanus. His sister. He's attacking her holdings and I'd like to find her before he does."

He frowns. "Demons only have siblings metaphorically."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that. What happens if a Succubus possesses a Human woman, gets pregnant, then returns bodily to hell for the pregnancy and delivery?"

"Fucked if I know."

"I mean, they wouldn't be able to build a soul out of Earthly magics like happens with normal foetuses. So if they developed at all-."

He stares off into the distance as he thinks it through. "No, you're right. All that's left is Hell magic. Huh. Obvious, when you think about it. So she's a Human with a Demon for a soul who's also her."

"Just a working hypothesis. Superman's going to try and talk to her father, but I'd like to find out where she is before he does."

He frowns. "So what's Chantinelle got to do with any of that?"

"She's the only Succubus I know who might know the information I want and be prepared to give it to me."

"But you don't need-need her."

"No. Just Blaze. She's in hiding, and her scry defences won't be as good as Chantinelle's. But they're probably more aggressive."

"Well, standard thing there is to get something they own and use that to scry for them."

"I can get anything she left in Metropolis when she fled out of the police's evidence locker. I also had my Praexis Demons sniff around the remains of her club and I'm pretty sure I've got her magic resonance pattern."

"Whaw. You're a lot better prepared than most people who come to me with stuff like this." He knocks back what's left of his first whiskey and picks up the second. "So, you just need me to do a bit of scrying for you, is that it?"

"I was sort of hoping that you might have a lead on Chantinelle's location, but if you think that's the best approach… Yes."

"A bunch of people I usually use for that sort of thing went a bit peculiar recently. Divination pendulums spinning three sixty, flames made of water, dogs and cats living together, rains of cheese, the Black Squirrel being seen as far afield as Luton…" Another sip. "It's going to be a while before they've got anything sensible to say for themselves."

I frown. "That sounds like something that should concern me. When did it start?"

"Beginning of July, actually. Something big happened, and the.. shockwaves are still radiating out around Earth's magic systems. I'd guessed it was something to do with the Justice league fighting that Titan, but-" He leans slightly closer to me. "-I can see from your face it was you. So what happened?"

"I'm afraid it would invalidate assurances I've given to various people if I were to tell you. The best I can do is to say that large amounts of order and chaos magic found themselves in the same place."

"Because the Chinese got Klarion, and… No one's seen Doctor Fate-"

"{red}Nabu{/}."

"-for a couple of…" He {yellow}looks{/} at me, downs his whiskey and then slams his glass down, coughing and wheezing. "A-grrah. Okay. Decided I don't want to know about that either." He flops back slightly on his stool. "At least I know that's all above John bloody Constantine's level as well." He looks at my face for a moment. "Oh, fuck off."

"Sorry."

He sags further. "Don't know why I'm surprised. So why isn't he helping you with this?"

"He's indisposed."

"Dead?"

"Indisposed."

"Dead's pretty bloody indisposed. Though if anyone could weasel out of it…" He gets up and straightens his coat. "Alright then, your place or mine?"

13th September
16:11 GMT -2

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, Ambrose Bierce."

"Welcome to Ice Fortress Two. Sorry about the dust."

Mister Bierce looks around a little uncomfortably as he follows me along the corridor, hands wedged into his pockets. "What dust?"

"Any dust the Russian secret services might have tramped in while I was away. I have cleaning robots, but none of them have rug-shampooing attachments."

"R..ight. Have you got some sort of ritual room in here, then?"

"No." I take a left turn and head towards the exterior access hatch. No frozen bodies, that's a good sign. "Most of the interior space is given over to flight, power generation and cold guns. Then you add in computers, environmental controls and living quarters, and there really wasn't space for it."

"So whereabouts were you expecting me to do the scrying?"

"The South Atlantic." I send a signal to the Fortress's computer, and the power to the anti-gravity system increases to push us higher into the air. "We can use the cold guns to draw out the symbols on the ocean in ice. That would work, right? Doing it on the ocean isn't a problem?"

"The ocean? No, of course there's no problem using magic on the ocean." He sniffs. "Fire magic, maybe. Scrying? Might even make it easier."

"Might?"

"Probably will. I don't really know. For some reason it doesn't come up very much. What sort of precision can those freeze rays do?"

"Fine as a Human hair, wide as you want. Do you think freezing an area would be better, or just leave it liquid and draw on top of it?"

"Did you do this sort of thing with John?"

"What, this specifically?" The inner hatch closes behind us, clanking sealed just before the outer hatch swings open. "No, as far as I know you'll be the first person to do this."

I stride out onto the observation deck, Mister Bierce hesitating slightly before following me. Rain lashes the defence screen around us, granting us a wonderful view of the interior of the storm while leaving us dry enough to appreciate it.

"Bloody hellfire."

"Let's hope not." Another mental command and the cold guns deploy from the dorsal surface of the Fortress. A flicking gesture with my left hand and a swarm of Praexis Demons fly outwards, passing through momentarily-appearing holes in the screen to take position over the ocean. "Now, if I remember correctly, a scrying diagram should look like-" I take a datapad out of subspace and copy out a standard Atlantean diagram. "-this."

"Errr… Basically. Can I just-? Right."

"There's a stylus on the side, and it's got a built-in inscription-assistance tool."

"Nifty."

Lances of blue-white light flash out from beneath us, rain converting to hail as they punch through the storm and strike the ocean surface below us. Mister Bierce's eyes flare and he starts stabbing the pad with the stylus in an effort to-. "That wasn't you. I'm just-"

"Oh. Right."

"-drawing the outer circle."

"You know what her father's strongest magical influence was?"

"Order. Probably.. followed by divinity?"

"What, was he an angel or something?"

"No, he was blessed by a prehistoric pantheon, then became a Lord of Order. I.. don't know the names of the gods involved."

"No, that's fine. Order's simple enough. I'm going with 'order', 'hell' and 'mankind' as the three strongest magic influences. Father, Mother and-.

"Holy Spirit?"

"Heh. Probably not. But the correspondence might help. Lesser influences… Fire, Demons, conflict… Mystic squiggles…"

"You can leave those out. I'm not a tourist."

"They help me, alright? Here." He passes the pad back.

Uum, yeah, looks like something that should work. "Are you sure you can make this work?"

"How badly would it mess up the planet's weather if I didn't?"

"A tiny bit, if I didn't fix it first. Which I will." Ah… "Unless Blaze's countermeasures do something to it, but that's what I've got mage slayers for." He raises his eyebrows as I send the complete design to the targeting computers before putting the pad back into subspace. I take a round out of subspace and hold it out to him. "Built in magic draining enchantment fired from a railgun." He nods uncertainly. I'm.. going to have to dump a lot of information on him to bring him up to speed if I'm going to use him again. Probably worth doing just in case…

I wave my right hand, a construct appearing on the ground at our feet displaying the progress being made by the cold guns. "Do you want cash for this, or would you prefer payment in kind? I've built up quite a library of Atlantean arcana, the Complete Annotated Book of Truth…"

"Ten large, a couple of books of basic Atlantean stuff and a phone number."

"Not that you're unattractive-" He is unattractive. "-but I'm already seeing someone."

He rolls his eyes. "Another thing that separates me from John is that I'm straight. But I can't have a working relationship with someone I can't contact."

"Alright, done. And…" The symbol below us completes. "Done."

"Alright." Mister Bierce shakes himself out, rubs his hands together and then closes his eyes. "This will take a minute or two. I'll be able to get you range and direction, maybe a mental image of the place."

"Go for it."

I nod, then form a construct seat and sit down. Depending on the defences being employed, this may well not take all that long. The Ice Fortress itself has basic wards in case of counter-scrying attempts… I bring the exterior defence cold guns online and generate some point defence constructs. Targeted summoning is a perfectly viable counterattack tactic for-.

A sheet of flame explodes over the exterior defence screen, blood red and purple flames biting into the super stable plasma making it up! The screen fails in a couple of places and I immediately fire mage slayers at the fire, punching holes in it and beating it back.

"GGGGGRAAAAAHHH!" Mister Bierce staggers, blood dripping from between his closed eyelids and down his cheeks. "Got her! Got the bitch! North East! Eight thousand miles, North Africa somewhere!"

Oh dear. "Hold still."

"It's one of those 'struck blind' curses." He waves his right hand and blinks-. His eyes are ruins. "They usually wear off after a day or two. Don't worry about it."

"Right. Let's.. see if I can't take a little off that." Orange light shines from my rings… Ah, good, no resistance. His eyeballs reappear and I clean the blood from his cheeks as an added bonus. "There we go."

He blinks, looks around and then nods. "Thanks. So, I reckon… Israel… Maybe Libya?"

"Or Kahndaq."

"Yeah, could be. I got a pretty good feeling for the place. When we get a bit closer, I'll be able to direct you."

"No, I mean… I think I know where she is."

He looks annoyed for a moment, then puts his hands in his pockets and shrugs. "Whatever. I'm getting paid either way." He frowns slightly. "Right?"

13th September
20:19 GMT +2

Mister Bierce staggers as we appear on the rock near to the dig site where -at the end of April- we created the Ace of Chaos. Churned earth around us marks the passage of military vehicles, and the khaki tents and sandbag walls set up around the main temple clearly demonstrate the site's new function.

"Bloody hell."

"Oh, don't worry. I'm a national hero. They won't shoot me."

"No, I mean…" He raises his hands to his face and drags them downwards. "What we just did to get here. What does it do?"

"Transfers most of everything about us to the Plane of Avarice then moves a.. sort of.. marker in the material universe from point A to point B before bringing us back in." I frown curiously. "You shouldn't really have experienced anything."

"Listen, buddy. I'm a magician. That means I'm a bit sensitive to what the world around me is doing, and when I get a sudden mix of where we were and where we are and just a hint of where we were between, it puts me off my stroke a bit."

"Ah. Sorry." I consider that for a moment. "I wondered why John mostly wanted me to use zeta tubes. He didn't say anything-."

He crosses his arms and turns his nose up slightly. "I could cover it up just as well as he can. I just didn't, alright?"

"Hey, it's useful to know. Could save a valuable few seconds somewhere along the line." I point my right index finger at the encampment. "Is that the place?"

He bends his neck, peering in that direction. "Yep. Unless they've been very clever, she's in there. And that felt more like a 'kill 'em all' defense than a 'clever deflection' defense."

"I tend to agree. And I-."

There's an almighty whoosh of air as Teth Adom lands at speed in front of us. Mister Bierce gets a momentary curious glance before being dismissed. I on the other hand get a genuine smile. "Orange Lantern. It is good to see you again, but I fear that you have come at an inopportune time. The wards protecting the former temple were overcome moments ago by sorcerers loyal to Satanus. Even now, his-."

"Ah." I raise my right hand. "Sorry, no. Unless there's been a really weird timing coincidence, that was us."

He now gives Mister Bierce a somewhat harder look. "I did not know that Constantine had a brother, particularly not one who shared his vocation."

"He doesn't." Mister Bierce takes a couple of steps towards him. "We don't even look that similar."

"John strangled his brother in the womb, and his sister avoids magic like the plague."

"Still, it seems strange to me that you were able to find a magician who looks so similar and was powerful enough to disrupt my wards."

"We used a scrying diagram a few miles across. Once Mister Bierce connected it to the world's magic systems, it could build up far more power than a small chalk drawing. The system doesn't actually require the caster to be particularly powerful."

Mister Bierce glances at me as he pulls a packet of tobacco out of his coat pocket. "Oh, thanks."

Teth Adom's expression grows a little vacant for a moment, then he nods. "Yes, Lord Zehuti says that is possible. But why did you do that? Do you know whom it is that I have given my protection?"

"Angelica Blaze, aka Blaze, daughter of Jebediah of Canaan, aka the wizard Shazam. I want a word with her. I didn't know in advance that she was here, and if I have offended Lord Zehuti by harming his temple then I apologise and will make recompense."

Adom bows his head slightly, then.. pulls a radio from a pouch on his right leg. That's new. "Captain, stand down. The Demons are not coming quite yet."

"Understood, Mighty One."

Adom lowers the radio. "Why do you wish to speak with Blaze? I am not.. unaware of the crimes she has committed, but I have offered her sanctuary. If there is any threat to her, I must answer it."

"With Nabu gone, the League need new magic users. She was my second choice."

Adom looks doubtful. "I protect her in memory of our friendship during my first life. It would surprise me if the League were willing to overlook her corrupting and binding men's souls."

"Yes, so she'll need to give that up… Could I please have this conversation with her, face to face? I swear that I will not attempt to compel her."

Adom gives me a shallow nod, then turns away to fly towards the entrance of the temple. I stick a flight aura around Mister Bierce and fly us both after him. As we pass over the camp I see soldiers {blue}glowing with relief{/} that they're not about to have to fight Demons as they fall out, leaving the barricades to the sentries as they head back to their tents. Mister Bierce looks around at everything, taking the whole place in without showing particular interest in any one thing. The scaffolding around the entrance wasn't here last time, and I think that more of the structure has been dug out.

Adom drops to just above ground level, nodding to the saluting soldiers before flying inside. The soldiers then.. salute me. Ah. I come to attention in mid-air and salute back before flying after Adom, and Mister Bierce throws a jaunty salute of his own at them as we pass.

"{yellow}Is he here{/}?"

"No. It was the Orange Lantern, and his new serf-wizard."

"Serf-wizard?!"

"Do you want Blaze to take more notice of you?"

For a moment, it looks a bit like he does. Then he shakes his head. "Fine, serf it is."

I bring us to ground level, then stride towards the inner sanctum. Blaze shrinks back behind Adom as she sees me. She's.. actually not all that impressive in person. Skinny, short, and.. frankly emaciated. Even her clearly underwear-free semi-robe.. thing doesn't make her look appealing, just… Wrong. Ill, frankly. And the horns sticking out of her forehead are far too large to be aesthetically appealing. Now Melinoë, there's a woman who can pull off horns.

"Ms Blaze, a pleasure to meet you. Sorry about the wards."

She straightens slightly, and… Hah, that wasn't even enough to warm up my spell eater. "Lantern."

"I have an offer for you. Hah." I bow my head slightly. "Novel as I imagine that it is for you to be on that side of this conversation, I really do suggest that you accept."

She looks like she finds the very idea distasteful. "What is it?"

"Your brother… I assume you're hiding from him, and that he is the one responsible for the attacks on your holdings?" She nods. "Your brother has joined a supervillain alliance called 'The Light'. I don't like them very much. And neither does the Justice League. The League needs expert magic users, and… You are that. Having someone capable of countering him would be useful."

She nods. "I could be quite usef-."

"The problem is, you can't." I had enough of that with Nabu the Klarion non-counter. "If you could stand up to him, you wouldn't be in this situation. You couldn't do it when you had all your infrastructure… You certainly can't do it now. Besides." I shake my head. "There's no way the Justice League could take a Demon."

Her eyes narrow and her voice deadens. "Did you come here simply to mock me? Why are you here?"

I lean forward, hands clasped at my chest. "Have you ever tried… Not being a Demon?"

13th September
20:24 GMT +2

She actually twitches, then throws an accusing glance at Adom. His expression remains impassive. "Yes. And as much as I enjoyed being weak and powerless, I'd rather take my chances with {red}Satanus{/}-" She pronounces it the normal way. "-than become totally dependent on your good will."

"Ah, good; you don't need to corrupt souls to live, then."

"Heah. No, just to live for any length of time."

O-kay. I didn't know that was why she did it, but it was a reasonable suspicion. And one that works in my favour. "I ran into a Succubus called Chantinelle a little while ago, and she confirmed something I'd heard about Demons, but.. wasn't sure about. That they care about power but don't much care what form that power takes. She gladly accepted us turning her from a Demon of middle rank to a more powerful Elemental, even knowing that doing so would change her outlook quite considerably. But… You're Human as well." I smile. "And I know we Humans can be stubborn, spiteful bastards."

She regards me cautiously. "You want to offer me power of another sort?"

"The Justice League could not take a Demon. They need someone who can hard-counter Satanus when he's the de facto ruler of Hell. Other than conquering Hell for you, there's nothing I can do to make you that powerful using your current power source. And if I could conquer Hell-" Within a reasonable timeframe. "-then I wouldn't need you."

"The only power that would allow me to so completely defeat my brother would be that of the Silver City."

"Correct."

She rolls her eyes. "Foolish Human, they would never accept me."

I nod. "True. I doubt they'd accept me, and I'm far nicer than you are. But…"

I take an Angel feather round out of subspace and toss it to Adom. Blaze snatches it out of the air with her right hand before it reaches him- "Gaagh!" -and drops it at once, her hand visibly smoking. {red}She glares at me, nursing her hand and crouching as if to lunge{/}.

"I threw that to Teth Adom. If you caught it-" She grimaces, but calms herself. "-you've only yourself to blame."

Adom bends slightly and picks the round up. "This is what you used in Fawcett City."

"Yep. I try to keep them in reserve; Demons are the only target they excel against."

"Angel magic." Blaze takes a deep breath. "Powerful Angel magic. How did you come by it?"

"I'm friends with John Constantine. All sorts of things happen when he's around." She nods, rolling her eyes. "A few years ago, he went to an Angel to beg for healing. He had lung cancer, and that's a nasty way to die. The Angel told him that he was getting what he deserved, which… Wasn't a very New Testament attitude. So John remembered that, and when he thought that he could benefit from having an Angel on-call… The Angel in question had a bit of an accident involving a Succubus and a chainsaw."

"Gabriel."

"Unfortunately, John isn't quite as clever as he thinks he is. The First tracked down Gabriel's heart and destroyed it, sending him to Hell." I smile. "Minus…"

Her eyes widen slightly. "His wings."

"Yep. Want them?" I attach a filament to the round Adom's holding and send it back into subspace. "They're still.. sort of alive, and I've only taken a couple of feathers for my ammunition. The League couldn't take a Demon…"

"But they could take an Angel. Is that even possible?"

"My.. somewhat hazy knowledge of thaumaturgy says 'yes'. You would have to weaken your demonic aspect as much as possible, but your-" I smile. "-Human aspect was after all 'made in God's image'. We know that Humans can use divine theurgy. We just have to work out how to replace the structures of your soul with a form of energy that's totally hostile to what's there now. Assuming you're up for it."

She gazes off into the distance. "I {orange}would gain Gabriel's power{/}."

"Possibly. At least some of it."

Her eyes narrow at me. "Why? Why would you offer this to me?"

"I square things with Batman, the League gets a magic user who can reliably trump Satanus, you become safe… And all those souls you have bound to your little demi-Hell get to leave, because there's no way you'll be able to combine those energies. And we get everything you know about Satanus." I nod my head to the side. "Or… Something goes wrong, you die and a thoroughly repugnant woman is expunged from the world." I smile. "So I come out ahead whatever happens. Really, I've got no reason not to make this offer."

"I could turn you down."

"Enjoy living in this room for the rest of your natural life. Because while I'm sure Teth Adom is willing to shelter you, I doubt that he'll feed you the souls you'd need to become strong enough to be safe under your own power."

Adom looks at her sternly. "You are correct in that assumption."

"And Satanus -and his allies- probably are going to get stronger. Good as this temple's defences are-"

Mister Bierce smirks. "Were."

"-they aren't perfect and Satanus will work out a way around them eventually. I did, and I can't even use magic myself. So you've got a decidedly limited amount of time to make a decision, and… Only one realistic option."

"Throw myself upon the mercy of the Justice League."

"Whether they accept you or not, the wings would give you the power to resist Satanus. And I don't need them to approve me giving you the wings."

She looks down as she considers. "Adom? Do you trust him?"

"Yes. Orange Lantern has a particular relationship with the concept of greed. He would not make you this offer if he did not believe that it would serve everyone's interests. And to Lord Zehuti's ears… It is a good trade for you."

She pauses for a couple of breaths, then raises her head. "Then I accept. How soon may we begin?"

"Working out exactly how to attach the wings to you will probably take a while. That's why I brought Mister Bierce with me. If the two of you can't work it out together, you can tell me what extra resources you need and I can procure them."

She nods, then fixes her eyes on me. "Do you have somewhere to hide me while we study how to perform the.. attachment?"

13th September
15:33 GMT -5

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B Zero Six, Angelica Blaze, A Four Three."

I grin at my friends, my arms spread wide as I walk across the Mountain's training area to embrace them. "Guess who's baaaaaack?!"