[30th November 2010]
[Military Encampment, Portal Command, United Kingdom]
Honestly I was surprised by how fast the initial building had gone up in our 'brief' absence from the planet...dimension...as I sat on the cheaply made fold up chair and drank from the paper cup full of wonderfully warm coffee. Debriefings were always long, tiring, drawn out affairs I found; especially one had to maintain privacy wards and ensure a good chunk of the reports were prepared in written format for sealed files, or on the enchanted laptops to prevent hyper-tech and magical snoopers. Kent Nelson and Doctor Fate being the exception to our rule of non-SHIELD, or allied, forces of course since he had helped create the magical protections (and much of the construction itself) for the Gate Fortress building.
Fun really to have the meeting here, considering that there were apparently Guardians of Oa not too many miles away, but the Bosses didn't want anyone heading back to the hidden HQ till...well, secrecy had to be maintained of course. Such as the fact of me, and the team we'd sent through the Gate, had just spent a veritable fortune on recovering the captive Green Lantern and the two power rings along with ensuring dear Squidy died a painful death by Githyanki. Considering the fact none of us had died, were shattered physically/mentally, or had ended up in random dimensions I counted this one major success all in all, costs of millions upon millions pounds and valuable knowledge traded for it. Such as the array of weapons laid out on the metal tables within the room after coming out of my bags of holding.
"A rather impressive collection young man, worrisome too perhaps, but impressive indeed to bring back such things from beyond the void between dimensions" Kent Nelson said in a mixture of sadness and joy as he rested on his own chair, hands upon the cane-wand resting upon the rune covered, but uncarpeted, concrete floor. It was a bit strange of course, but the collection of people allowed to attend the debriefing was rather larger than I had expected with the Americans and British represented along with people from SHIELD. It seemed much had changed, or maybe just expanded, in the fortnight we'd been gone. Of course between here and the Red Lantern Central Power Battery down in Glastonbury I really shouldn't have been surprised now should I?
"Considering the cost involved it appears...adequate, though testing of these devices will prove the entirety of their worth over time"
I shrugged tiredly in response to Mr. Nelson, and the more rotund figure of Amanda Waller's, comments as two of the military officers inspected the gear and made notes "Best I could do with the two Lanterns and League members looming over my shoulders, and, being honest, the original purchases were from the point of view of what was available and help fight a mind flayer or its thralls. Much of the rest was getting work done to satisfy bribing those feckers in the Great Foundry, and that was...well, in cooperation with the Green Lantern Corps"
'That and I didn't want to bring back too much in the way of outright lethal alien weaponry to earth' I left unsaid as I took a bite out of the sandwich there. All the official parts were done, in detail, and now it we were unto the more unofficial 'friendly conversation' stage with the rather tired and hungry returnee team that was me, myself, and I. Artemis, M'gann and Connor had been a bit...unhappy? irritated?...maybe at my not returning with them to the United States, and the now unfortunately public Mountain, but work was to be done. And in truth...I was not technically part of said Team, while I was very much part of SHIELD and there was still work to be done. So much work with the world drawing together yet also still in chaos from that damned alien starfish.
"Understandable, and it is a minor cost to pay for the safety of this world and securing the location of the portal to the City of Doors" Doctor Fate, also slightly stranger than when I left, answered lifting upon a selection of metals, cloths, and jewels of what I knew to have magical effect with his powers "...and your request for aid in confirming your proposed design for use of some of these items is most prudent. Several of these items have a strong mystic signature and could indeed be utilised in the creation of artefacts similar to the Ace of Winchester"
"Yeah, we could do with a few of those as the incident that revealed the location of this place..." Brendan Finn, looking thinner, and honestly a bit healthier than before I'd left, muttered glancing over at official rep, team-leader, from SHIELD in the shape of Mrs. McDonald from the diplomatic side of SHIELD. At least Constantine wasn't here yet, so that was a good thing I suppose...and the fact nothing utterly horrifying had happened thanks to him in my absence. For the here and now he was investigating some strange, likely paranormal, murders down in Liverpool apparently "...damned fae and vampires. Oh, and really? Hiring demons for yer legal team...ye been around Constantine too long mate"
I snorted in amusement and resisted rolling my eyes "Worked didn't it, and unlike some I didn't sell my soul in the process either"
"Touché" he chuckled back resting back against the wall "...twas some fine auld wine though. Totally worth it, and I'll wiggle my way out don't ya worry"
"I'm sure you will Brendan, already on the road I know well enough" I replied glancing at the darker skinned and more feminine Doctor Fate than I recalled upon leaving Earth for Sigil. Brendan being one of those sharing the 'Host' role would hide his presence for a period of time should he die in battle, and he only needed to be masked till midnight of the day he died to wiggle out of his fate. Letter of the agreement, so I wasn't one to argue with that merry little plan "...but again it worked, and terms were very much agreed in straight forward and binding manners unlike John does when he tried the idiocy on the fly. I did learn something about what not to do from him after all in such agreements, hard earned knowledge on his part"
Not entirely true of course, as while I had learned/heard alot on such dealings from Constantine I'd already had a grounding in 'what not to do' in such negotiations from a past life. But it was going to be an issue for SHIELD going forward, Demonic Contracts 101 education, because based on magic suddenly being proven real and people being people...there was always idiots who just signed without reading the small print. It seemed there had been a major surge in searches on such subjects on ye auld Interwebs right after having the Childnapping World Magic attempt, but...
Alien invasion, and now alien diplomats and Guardians of all bloody things running about distracted from that, while also reducing this incident to back-pages outside of the papers with UK and Ireland, but soon enough it'd start I'd expect. It looked like I was going to be doing alot of typing to help write up PSA's for the government...governments potentially. Hmm...I should try get royalties from any book I wrote, I had a company and island nation now after all, technically.
"Yes, and hiring an extensive and well trained legal team will be a priority of SHIELD in the future, and I expect our American colleagues have such an opinion?" Mrs. McDonald queried glancing at Waller and her aide and getting a curt nod from the former Warden of Belle Reve, and now likely head of SHIELD's likely soon to form US equivalent.
"Of course, though collecting literature of adequate reliability has been an issue. As I would imagine it has been for your own services"
"Lord above yeah, too much to sort through online and the vast majority of it is dross with a few nuggets of truth..." Brendan Finn muttered unhappily "...and that's enough to get folk in trouble, an' you've no idea how bad it feels to break the hearts of wee childer when ah tell'em that real life Tinkerbelle wants to murder mammy and daddy while they trick ya inta bad things. Snort. Fun times dat"
I sighed, nodding tiredly in agreement at the thought. Not that I'd seen any of it, but the brief information I'd gotten so far indicated a million things were happening in the world right now and this just added to the oft depressing parts of the news. I'd have to get back to training Gemma, and young Cassandra too, and likely have to have the 'and fairies are amoral sociopathic psychopaths not like in the cartoons' talk with them too. Maybe I could tell her mother Helena the details and have her give the girl 'the talk'...though that was unfair after the whole 'your daddy is Zeus, who's a giant dick' conversation. Then I could escape and see Ma and Da for a while...
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[30th November 2010]
[Mount Justice, Happy Harbour, Rhode Island]
Zatanna Zatara was enthralled hearing of this strange and mystical place that her teammates had ventured off to in the far outer realms of the Bleed. Dad was, thankfully, busy and unable to drag her away from those telling the stories in the now magically protected halls of the Mountain; it was a real shame Fortune wasn't here and she could get more information from a fellow mage. Though considering how tired they all seemed it'd probably be tomorrow before they'd be more awake, she'd be able to persuade them to give more detail on the story; and when it was more than only herself, and Aqualad here to greet them.
'And that's probably only because Dad thought it another day or two before they'd be back' she thought to herself sipping her soder and trying to figure out how the 'ring of protection' Artemis had brought back worked, or how she could get one. Sadly all her teammates seemed to know was that it worked like brief energy shield of some sort, and then Superboy decided to leave to get some rest while M'gann was called away to join her uncle a few minutes later. Zatanna resisted huffing in annoyance as their small little party dispersed, Aqualad off back to the computers and communications and Artemis into her room as she herself just watched the reporter on the television covering the recovery efforts in the north-east, and talk of possible impeachment of the President.
"Hey, where are you sneaking off too?" she asked turning around to kneel-sit on the couch with arms on the back of it as Artemis reappeared dressed in her civilian clothes "weren't you off to bed?"
"Uhhh...no, just going to use the Zeta Tube and chat to Skulls now he's out of his big fancy debriefing" she answered with a shrug "...we're going talk about giving me a magic bow...ur, do you want to come?"
'Dad will be sooooo mad, especially if his scruffy mentor is there' Zatanna thought from her perch upon the couch "Do I? Sure, but isn't it night time over there now?"
"Errr, yes a few hours ahead...so ten or eleven maybe?"
'New knowledge here I come' she cheered internally but keeping a less interested look on her face hopefully as she spoke "Hey maybe we can have a night on the town, I've been cooped up here for..."
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