=====A=====

I would like to say that everyone smoothly transitioned into dealing with the incoming threat, but that would be a bit of a lie. Never mind we still had a mostly destroyed plaza and population of genomorphs to deal with, but we didn't even really know what was coming. All Green Lantern could tell was that it was a single large object, and given its silhouette against the moon it was likely a massive spaceship. Assuming that was the only thing. The fact that whatever stealth effect the thing was under thwarted every sensor we had didn't help matters.

So, we ended up in the classic situation of 'hurry up and wait'. The rest of the Titans arrived and we found ourselves back in the Hall of Justice, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was centrally located enough that we could reach any point in the city in reasonable time, and gave us access to the Hall's communication hub. Though that wasn't as helpful as it should have been. "I can't get through to the Watchtower," I said, scowling as I got another error message on the massive display in front of us. "All the connections seem to be cut off or blocked."

Next to me, Robin was typing away on his arm computer, and grimaced as he came to a similar conclusion. "Even the secret channels are blocked off. I knew we should have convinced them to install a Zeta Anisble up there. What about Green Lantern? He's the one who called you about this right?"

I looked off to the side. "Lantern Stewart, come in." I commed, but I didn't get any response back. Out loud I said flatly "He's not responding. What are the odds."

Artemis let out a groan. "Ok, we all agree this is way too coincidental, right? Not just a spaceship happening to show up and head for us right after a super-fungus attack, but us being cut off from the League too? Something bigger's going on."

"That is unfortunately plausible…" I said, considering. Was the ship cutting off communications somehow? That seemed likely, but that raised the question of how. It may be decommissioned, and the League may rely on Earth technology whenever they could, but the Watchtower was still Oan technology. Given where this ship ostensibly came from I had to figure it was Psion in make, they were the only one from there who could possibly make something that could trick a Power Ring. And that was a big 'might'. Reaching out to Calculus, I commed [Calculus, what sensor systems do we have that might help here? Any kind of exotic systems that the League might not have.]

[Very little that would be useful for detecting something in orbit.] Was the response back. [The best we have available are the gravity wave sensors we adapted from your own space vessel. If this unknown is a spaceship of similar design, it will use gravity waves as a form of propulsion. But these sensors are currently in New York, and only be effective out to a few hundred miles.]

[Keep them running and see if we can make more to launch into space. If nothing else it might give us advanced warning if the ship itself breaches atmo.]

I relayed this to the team back in the Hall, and Starfire said "Then it seems we'll just have to wait."

So, for the next couple of minutes, we all busied ourselves in some way or another. Robin and I continued our efforts to contact any other superheroes we could find. Starfire and Aqualad used the Hall's comm station to get in contact with emergency services in the city, alerting them to what was happening. The rest ambled about the room, each trying to deal with their own nervous energy until the other shoe dropped.

And then, eventually, I felt the floor beneath me shake just a little.

I paused in what I was doing, not sure if I actually felt that, but as nothing new presented itself I went back to what I was doing. I make sure to pay a little more attention to vibrations though, which is why I noticed when it happened again several minutes later, just a bit stronger. "Does anyone else feel that?"

The team looked at me before looking at each other, and Superboy spoke up. "You mean that ground shake?"

"Yeah," I checked all the networks I had connections to, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and certainly no sign of our mystery ship. After a moment I contacted Calculus again, speaking out loud "Calculus, we're feeling minor shakes in D.C., access the nearest seismology centers along with any sensors we have to see if you can find anything."

It was a couple of minutes later that the next tremor occurred, and a few seconds after that Calculus got back to me. I put his voice on comms as he said "Our gravitational sensors are picking up repeated convergence of gravity waves in your area. Siesometric sensors confirm that this is causing an increase in seismic disturbances. They've been minor, but their intensity is steadily increasing."

Oh, I thought. The aliens have an earthquake machine.

For a moment, I just stood there. I had just dealt with a near all out war between elemental Kingdoms, and now I had to deal with an invisible spaceship trying to destroy the city via gravity-wave earthquakes. Maybe it was the strain from pushing myself earlier, but facing these two things back to back was jarring.

Unlike me though, Starfire didn't hesitate. "If the city itself is the target, we can't wait for the ship to reveal itself. We'll split into teams and spread out to handle disaster relief. Aqualad, take Robin and Kid Flash and form a perimeter. Superboy and Artemis will rendezvous with the genomorphs and coordinate with them. Troia and myself will be on patrol. Machina, keep us organized and continue trying to find a way to spot our visitors. Find a position in the city that works best."

I snapped out of my thoughts at her order and said "The Hall should be fine. Calculus, do we have anyone left in the city? And how long before things start to get bad?"

"We are repurposing our assets in the area, and will distribute them to you team. D.C. is not on a faultline, so it will take some time before the tremors reach catastrophic levels, but we do not know how long they can keep this up."

I nodded. "Alright. Everyone should get moving, the sooner you're in position, the faster we can respond to stuff breaking. I'll handle finding the damn ship."

The Titans gave me affirmatives and headed out, leaving me alone in the Hall. Wish I had any clue how to do that, I thought blearily. Ok, I knew that whatever the ship was it was at least somewhat visible against a backdrop, but if it was keeping away from the moon that didn't help me. It still had to be within line of sight of D.C. if the gravity waves were only affecting the city, but that was still a pretty large section of empty space to search. And even then I still didn't have a solution to actually seeing the thing. I need something on par with what the Psions can make, more than what I've got in my dinky survey ship. Come on, this is Earth. What technology can I get my hands on that's on par this something that can beat Oan tech-

Wait. Hmm. It's a bit of a long shot, but its accessible and could work.

"Ted, Serling, come in," I commed.

"This is not the setting I would have preferred to crack the secrets of this thing," Ted remarked as I led him and Serling to a back room deeper in the Hall. "I mean, normally I'd not be opposed to doing this in the Hall of Justice, but the impending earthquake makes things a little more stressful."

When I called them, the pair had already been geared up and ready to go, apparently in response to the Silver's fight with Gray. Which made sense for Serling, though I was a little surprised to see Ted in something akin to a jumpsuit with a high tech belt full of pouches at his waist. It wasn't quite the Blue Beetle costume he was known for, but he was clearly thinking about it. In any case, it meant they were available to grab a certain piece of tech I had talked with Serling about earlier and bring it to me via the Zeta Tube. Which I was hoping would help solve our current problem.

I half expected Serling to make a quippy retort to Ted's comment (she did so like to tease the man when he showed any weakness), but instead she was oddly quiet. Her eyes flickered between myself and the large case that Ted carried. As for myself, I made an apologetic gesture. "Sorry about that, but I'm running low on options here. What you have might be the only thing that could defeat whatever stealth field this ship has."

Ted gave me an odd look. "Maybe, but I'm wondering just how you're so sure of that."

Seeing as how I had neither the time to explain what the alien technology was or how I could possibly know its capabilities, I settled on "I'm not as sure as I'd like, but like I said I'm running out of options." Ted looked like he wanted to argue the point, but at the moment a tremor caused him to miss a step. Still not too bad yet, but the shakes were getting noticeably stronger.

Without waiting for him to get his bearings, I continued to bring us to a set of double doors. The room we stepped into was basically a machine shop, a couple of workbenches and machining tools scattered about. It was directly connected to the Hall's motor pool and also doubled as an equipment locker. I didn't actually plan on using anything in there, but it was one of the sturdiest rooms in the building, which would be useful if something went wrong.

Ted sighed and headed to the nearest workbench. "I guess there's no helping it then…" He said as he set the case down and cracked it open. And sure enough, sitting in the center of some padding was a familiar shape: a blue and black metallic scarab, with six stubby little legs and pincers. "This is the Blue Beetle, the thing that gave the eponymous superhero his powers. According to him it was found on a dig in northern Africa. He thought it was magic in nature, but what little I could get from scans of this thing showed some highly advanced circuitry. More than that, I have reason to believe it has some method of storing extra mass and architecture in another dimension. This is backed up by-"

I nodded along as Ted rambled off everything he knew about the Scarab, though I was only listening with half an ear as I knew this already. Most of my attention was focused on the machine itself and what my mechcanokinetic field was telling me. Namely that while there were a number of larger components to it, a good amount of its current internals was made of nanomachines. Along with a distinct Bleed signature coming from somewhere in its core. It was the most similar piece of technology to my own nanomachines I had ever encountered, but I couldn't say I was too surprised by that. I've had certain suspicions for months now.

But they were still just suspicions, and I could wait to confirm them later. At that moment, I had a city to save. "Sorry," I interrupted Ted. "But we need to get a move on." I'll get a faster and better connection to the thing if I touch it, I thought. Keeping an eye on what I thought was the AI laying dormant inside the Scarab, I scooped it out of the foam, and looked at it in my hand for a moment as I-

There was a sudden pulse from the scarab, not physical exactly but familiar all the same. A quantum waveform signal that sank into my nanite mass. And then, to my shock, something buried deep in one of the few remaining black boxes of my nanites' OS… answered back.

The Scarab in my hand twitched before it rose up on it's stubby legs, tiny white eyes glowing as it turned to look at me. Ted grumbled as he saw this. "I've been trying to crack this thing's secrets for years and you get in to move in seconds."

"I'm not doing this." I said in alarm. None of what was happening was intentional. All of my magic so far had just been to look at it, but that signal… I looked deep into myself at where the waveform oscillation had gone, a deeply layered subsystem that was a tangled mess of references and loops. I had never found its function or purpose, I just assumed it was some bit of broken code that had resulted from either of the times I had died. But now it was… aligning itself, resonating with the Scarab in my hand.

And said Scarab was now fully awake, as it communicated with me in a multilayered voice [Priority Codex authorization received. Current status of Reach Infiltrator Scarab Khaji Da: unit has suffered critical data loss error due to unknown mechanism. Unit's historical context has been completely corrupted. Estimated operational efficiency upon optimal host symbiosis at 94.63%, but full mission objectives have been lost. Requesting system update and reset.]

"...It wants a reboot." I told the humans before I addressed the Scarab. [What do you mean 'Priority authorization'? I didn't do anything.]

[Standard authorization codes have been exchanged. You are Codex] Khaji said simply.

[Define Codex.]

There was a slight pause before the scarab said [Critical data loss prevents further elaboration. Context for 'Codex' and its priority status is unknown. It is… distressing.] A bit of emotion seeped into its tone, unease. [However, analysis shows that designation and protocol exists at the Foundational level of this unit's code. Conclusion: you are very important. Requesting explanation of Priority Status.]

I frowned. [I don't know either, but we'll have to figure it out later. Right now we have an invisible spaceship somewhere in orbit above us and I need whatever advanced sensors you have in order to find it.]

Khaji didn't focus on the correct thing, however. [How can you not know your status? Have you also been subjected to a similar critical data loss?]

I shrugged. [More that I never had it in the first place. Look, that's really not important right now-]

[This unit disagrees.] Khaji interrupted. [That something with Foundational status is missing critical data is top priority. This unit recommends a full reset for both of us and-]

[Stop.] I ordered, not having time for this. [We will address this later. Now, focus on what you can do to help me find a spaceship producing excessive amounts of gravity waves.]

The Scarab took a brief moment to process this before replying [No suitable hosts for bonding are present. However, self diagnostics indicate that there should be a protocol to transfer my full database to authorized systems. But the critical error is preventing me from initiating it on my own. Run these diagnostic protocols on my systems with Priority access, and it should be successful.]

It transmitted the registers I was meant to access, and I extended my magical senses down into the Scarab's body, trying to see what it was talking about. You would have thought that its similarity to my own systems would have made this easier for me, but Khaji was not exaggerating about how messed up some of his systems were. It was a jumble of data with an encrypted lock on it. After a moment's hesitation, I accessed those protocols and sent the request to Khaji's core-loop.

The protocol was accepted and I saw the broken bits of data start to rearrange themselves. At the same time some bit of code in my own systems started to trigger as well, and it only took a few moments to realize our systems were synchronizing with each other, comparing and filling in gaps in our respective data. As the seconds passed and the code rebuilt itself, I noticed something was off. Wait a minute, this isn't a database. This is a-

[Reformat successful.] Khaji said, and I could feel the pleasure coming from it as the Scarab finished its reboot. Then it… changed, suddenly becoming stiff in my hand. When it spoke again it's tone was heavy and flat. [Foundation level contingency triggered: unimprinted Codex discovered.] Khaji intoned, though it felt like it's voice was coming from inside of me. The quantum waveform oscillations between us started to build in intensity. [Originator required. Accessing Bleed Resonance Manifold.]

[Oh you lying little-]

That was as far as I got before the connection between us reached a peak, and I felt every single nanite in my body open their Bleed connection wider. Most of my perception was consumed by my sudden awareness of the Bleed, the ever shifting red space full of probabilities and impossibilities. And entering my awareness was a distinct shape in that red expanse, more of a pattern really, that was growing ever closer. Lines twisted and merged together, colors between them flowing like a sort of living stained glass structure. Just as it grew to encompass everything I could see, fractal doors of light opened before me, and I saw what lay inside.

Nothing.

Seconds passed, and nothing revealed itself. The space was closed and empty… save for a small spot that seemed to mar the artistic perfection of the pattern, a dark spot. A hole in the cage.

Even as I was entranced by what was happening to me, I hadn't completely lost my perception in realspace. Which is why I noticed where there was a loud crash and green flash of light behind me. My sensors gave me the same readings as when a Green Lantern showed up. "Stewart?" I started to ask, turning my head. "What-"

The green light intensified and pain erupted as a beam pierced the upper left side of my chest. On sheer reflex I twisted my body away such that the beam only tore away part of my arm as I fell to the ground. The Scarab went flying out of sight and the connection between us was cut. I rolled into a crouch, but before I could fix my internals and get my bearings a green sphere-cage surrounded me. I felt foreign code try to insert itself into my own, but it found no purchase against my defenses, and after a few moments I managed to pull myself together and lay eyes on my attacker.

It wasn't Lantern Stewart, or human for that matter. The humanoid had a top heavy torso with long limbs ending in gauntleted claws and I could see a pair of furry triangular ears on its head. The green aura around them marked them as a Green Lantern, but their uniform was a bit different. They had a black body suit like the others, but over its torso was a large green chest plate, with a very large and deep indentation in the center forming a model lantern. Given how I saw energy flow from it, and how I saw no ring on its fingers, I realized that was the source of their power.

Glowing green eyes narrowed at me from behind a flat copper mask. "Too soon." I heard him mutter as he shook his head in irritation. "Now I'll have to clean this mess up." The lantern in his chest started to glow brighter, and the construct around me started to brighten. Before he could finish whatever it was though, he flinched back as an energy beam splashed over his personal shield. He turned to see Serling charging him, her second skin rapidly covering her and the cannon that wrapped around her arm unleashing a continuous beam of energy.

Question later, escape containment first, I thought, my hand sharpening into a claw before I lunged at the sphere. High Frequency blades worked by vibrating fast enough that they basically shredded molecular bonds on contact. Power Ring constructs didn't have molecules, but they were primarily made of light. And light, like vibrations, has a frequency. And frequencies can be subject to destructive interference.

The claw met some resistance as it touched the wall of light, but as the vibrational frequency adjusted I felt it soften at my touch before it rendered apart. Distracted as he was by Serling, the Lantern didn't have the time to reform the wall before I hurled myself through the gap.

As Serling held the Lantern's attention I took a moment to yell "What the hell are you doing, Lantern?! And why?!" I know they didn't like the Reach, and he definitely didn't like whatever I was doing with the Scarab, but what the hell was he doing here in the first place? One thing was clear, he was after me. The opening beam he fired pierced through a very specific part of my chest; the part which held my Zeta Ansible. And with the entangled particle destroyed, I couldn't just make another one in the field. That couldn't have just been a lucky shot. He was trying to keep me from calling for help, and he was after me specifically.

When he didn't respond, I got to my feet and pushed my mechanokinetic field towards him… and it just slid past him like he wasn't there. Unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. As exotic as they were, effector fields were ultimately an electromagnetic effect, and power rings were likely shielded against those. Still, assuming what I knew about the Guardians was true, this Lantern's ring would have no protection against direct magic. Granted I was pretty sure this weirdo's armor was playing that part, but still. My free arm formed an arm cannon as I planned my next move. If I could just physically touch it-

The instant I started to move towards him the Lantern spun towards me and extended a hand, a construct wall of interwoven bars springing up in front of me. I slashed my way through it, but the wall was just cover for the green spears that struck me a moment later. Several deflected off my armor, but one pierced through my leg and pinned me to the ground. I grunted in pain before softening my leg to get free, but I saw that Serling was in a similar bind. At some point when I was distracted he had trapped Serling's legs with a beartrap like device, anchoring her in place even as he deflected her energy blasts. Then, he formed a construct deadweight above her and let it fall.

Before it could hit however, a beam of… something struck the construct. It was a distortion and warping of light in motion, and as it hit the green weight the construct twisted in on itself before it simply shattered and dissolved. The three of us blinked in confusion before looking at Ted, who had finished building what was apparently a high tech pistol from pieces of his belt, pointed at the Lantern. "Oh good, that worked." He said. "I was giving that even odds."

The Lantern extended a hand and a brace of construct spears formed in front of him before launching at Ted, but the man was already on the move. He opened fire with his strange gun on the constructs he couldn't dodge, each one warping and destructing like the first. It took a few seconds of watching the weapon in action to recognize what it was, or rather where it came from. It was the electromagnetic disruption effect that Ted and I had been investigating back when we were trying to find a counter to the nanodissasembers. I had forgotten about it after Vulcan had calmed down, but it looked like Ted had found a new use for it.

Unfortunately, the Lantern had no intention of letting Ted put it through its paces, and raised a hand upwards. From it thick green tendrils extended upwards and smashed into the roof. They tore through the concrete such that giant chunks broke free and tumbled to the ground. Ted saw this and broke from cover, running as fast as he could to get away from the chunks crashing down around him. But the rate of collapse was faster than he could move, and he quickly found himself pressed against a wall as most of the roof started to cave in.

Serling managed to slip free of her trap and shot towards Ted. She reached him just before the entire roof fell on top of them, and I saw her second skin expand into a sphere just before the collapsing concrete hid them from sight.

I wanted to move closer and check on the two, but I didn't. I had to assume that they were alright, because I had to get the Lantern away from them. "Later, lightbright!" I yelled, getting the alien's attention as I flew to the other end of the motorpool. Green light bloomed behind me before it spread along the floor and walls. The pool of light on the floor got in front of me before several construct spears shot up in front of me, forming a palisade. I shot to the side to avoid them, but more erupted from the wall I got close to. The Lantern was trying to hem me in, and I could already see more constructs forming in front of the motorpool doors. No time for finesse, I stopped trying to dodge the spears and simply charged towards the doors at top speed. Spears of light scrapped against my armor but I reached the doors and slashed out with my claw just before impact.

I burst out of the building (along with a good chunk of shutter door) and skidded to a stop in the middle of Justice Plaza's reflection pool, water kicking up in my wake. I turned and recentered myself. Out here the Lantern wouldn't be able to box me in.

Unfortunately, he disagreed.

The hole I just exited erupted with emerald light. The light spread across everything I could see, and when it reached me I staggered in disorientation. It was the same thing he had tried in the cage-trap, so I flared Core-Loop Reinforcement, and the disorientation stopped. I was still more or less blind due to the sheer intensity of green light, so I focused on my blindsight instead. Which is why I was able to notice the massive structure that was springing up around me. It seemed like a larger version of the trap cage, but this one filled the entire plaza. It was also filled with spiked crusher walls, spear launchers, nets, and criss-crossing chains.

"My goal is to bring you back to Oa," I heard his voice boom out. "But I will settle for your destruction if that's not possible."

And then the walls started to close in on me. "Ah crap."

The crusher walls coming in from my sides didn't give me room to maneuver, so instead I shot forward. With space at a premium I shifted into my xenomorph form, slipping between the gap of the rushing walls. Given how blinding the lights still were I didn't even bother keeping my eyes through the transformation, relying on my blindsight to get me through the collapsing maze.

This situation was spiraling out of control, so I reached out as I slipped through a net of chains trying to ensnare me. [Calculus!] I contacted the AI through the Silver, not trusting any other form of communication to work at the moment. [I'm being attacked by an unknown Green Lantern. Suspect that they are involved with the current earthquake mess. Requesting backup.]

[We see.] They replied. [Unfortunately, reinforcements will be difficult. In addition to the tremors, the city has come under assault by other aliens as well. We and the other Titans are engaging them as we speak.]

[...What?!]

A moment later they sent me some images. I couldn't really focus on them (what with me frantically avoiding all the death traps), but I registered some crescent shaped ships and armored humanoids with mechanical wings flying beside them. Calculus continued [I shall inform the rest of your team of this development. We will divert whatever power we can spare to you, but you must hold for a little while longer.]

I felt energy flood my frame. Tapped out as the Silver was from our previous fight, it was a bare fraction of what I was using earlier that day, but for now it was enough. Adjusting my limbs and kinetic amplifiers I started to move faster than the traps could keep up. I ran my Data-Censoring Shroud script to throw off whatever sensors the Lantern might have been using to track me, and sure enough the next volley of spears that tried to skewer me missed by a fair amount. I used this confusion to bounce off of several crusher walls in sequence and launch myself at the outer cage, spinning in a somersault with my HF claws extended.

With a burst of speed I sliced my way out, forced to catch myself as I slammed into a thankfully solid wall. A moment to get my bearing showed me that I was against the wall of the Hall of Justice, down and to the side of where the Lantern was. His gaze was forward, sweeping around as he tried to find me. Wasting no time, I scrabbled up the wall and leapt off, lunging towards him with HF claws extended.

The Lantern must have noticed something as he started to turn towards me, but he wasn't fast enough and I collided with him, claws first. The claws penetrated through the shield before slicing into his breastplate. As the claws were tuned to the shield they didn't get very far into the solid metal, but it was enough for me to get a grip. We tumbled through the air, and with a thought I poured my magic into his chest-

I reeled from the amount of information that suddenly poured into my mind, schema and data flowing in a torrent. My Green Lanterns had never let me poke at their rings, so I was unprepared for just how much Oan technology was. It branched and folded in on itself, split off into what must have been smaller dimensions and tapped into energies that I had never touched before. It wasn't that my technomancy wasn't effective, it was that I simply couldn't tell where to even start.

That hesitation was enough. The Lantern's low growl raised in pitch, and a simple eruption of force ripped out of him, and broke my grip. I tumbled across the reflection pool before I got my feet underneath me. I shifted back into my humanoid armor form, and as my eyes proper came back I saw the Lantern staggering to his feet. The green aura around him flickered, but was quickly growing stronger. This is going to be such a bloody mess, and I don't have goddamn time for it.

Before I could rush back in however, Calculus contacted me again. [Machina, the purpose of the invading aliens has been discovered: they are here for Starfire.]

[Probably shouldn't be surprised by that, but I'm still locked down here.]

Calculus's tone turned odd. [About that… Upon realizing this, she decided to 'kill two birds with one stone'. You now have incoming.]

I blinked, and turned just in time to see what he was talking about. Streaking towards me from the other end of the plaza was Starfire, with several small flying vehicles and humanoids in hot pursuit behind. The vehicles were about the size of a bus each, shaped into rough forward facing crescents covered in dull brass plating. The humanoids on the other hand were being borne aloft by the powered armor they wore, with wing-like thrusters juting from their backs. What little flesh I could see of them was green and covered in scales.

Gordainians, I think. Before the Lantern behind me could get to his feet I shot into the air, flying towards Starfire. She was ducking and weaving as she flew to avoid the energy blasts that were coming from the staff weapons the flying infantry carried. One of my arms formed Tesla spines before I swept it out towards them, casting a wide arc of lightning. It only caught a few of them, most managing to dodge above or below the attack, but it broke their forward momentum enough for me to reach Starfire.

The two of us slammed into each other, catching one another as best we could and coming to a stop mid-air. For a moment, we held each other. Then we looked over each other's shoulder to see what was pursuing the other before we looked back at one another.

We came to the same conclusion. Twisting in the air, we repositioned so that we were each facing the new threat, feet planted against one another.

"SWITCH!"

The air cracked as we pushed off each other and rocketed towards our new targets. The logic was simple: our respective opponents were likely prepared to hunt each of us on their own terms. So, we weren't going to give that to them.

I hurled myself into the thickest knot of flyers, who were looking at me in confusion. I took advantage of that to charge up my arm with lightning a second time and hold in front of me, tuning myself into an electrical battering ram that smashed them out of my way. 14 fliers, 2 ships, I counted as the Gordainians reoriented themselves to address the threat that had charged into their ranks. My mechanokinetic field ripped out from me, and unlike the Lantern it had no problems grabbing on to the machines around me. They were of alien make, but they were similar enough to what I had already worked with to do some simple things right away. Like disable all of the trigger mechanisms on their staff weapons, and the power distribution to the ships' forward guns.

The Gordanians around me growled and shouted in confusion as they found themselves unable to shoot me, and I landed atop one of the ships. I didn't understand what they were saying, but even with their reptilian faces I could tell they knew I was to blame somehow. Many were undeterred by this mechanical failure and landed next to me on top of the craft, discarding their staff weapons in favor of drawing blades and axes. I made a slight gesture and they were all slammed into the ship below us, unable to move while I had control of their armor.

One of them, whose armor was clad in distinct red and black accents, didn't collapse though. As my field washed over him I saw a faint flickering outline at the edge of my visual spectrum. Was that…? I wondered as I sidestepped the giant axe he tried to cut me in half. I focused my mechanokenetic field on him again, and as I saw that outline flicker more brightly my suspicion was confirmed. Personal soft shield. Imma take that.

The Gordanian came at me again with a horizontal swing, but this time I stepped in and grabbed the weapon by the haft. When he found that he couldn't wrench it out of my grip, the alien lashed out with a punch, which I then caught with my other hand. There was a brief flare of the shield at the impact before it dissipated and I was holding his gauntlet. Which I then formed and sent a spike through, piercing his hand. He screamed in fury and pain, and then just in pain as I sent electricity though his body via the spike, bypassing his shield.

It only took a few seconds before he was unconscious, and a few seconds after that I found the shield emitter on his belt. I ripped it off and held it up, analyzing the device for a few moments. I didn't have time to be thorough though, so I had to do this the fast way. Haven't had to do this in a while. My hand erupted into assimilation spikes and tore the gear apart. Moments later its schema emerged in my mind, and I was forming my own version of it. Huh, so it is a variation on the Psion hard shield.

My shield immediately got a test run as the adjacent starship decided they had enough of just watching and fired up its engines, rocketing straight towards me. As it had started somewhat above the ship I was standing on, it smashed into the second ship with its forward section in an attempt to crush me. My new shield flared to life as I was pinned to the hull, and between it and my kinetic dampeners I barely felt a thing. I gripped the hull pressing down on me and managed to pull myself out of the pinch and up onto the second ship.

Getting inside the ship was a fairly simple matter. I had been getting more familiar with the systems by the second, so it was easy enough to command the outer hatch to pop open and slip inside. There were three Gordanians inside, who all pulled weapons on me as I landed in the circular command deck. It went as well for them as it did for the others, and seconds later I was tossing their unconscious bodies out of the ship.

Now alone in the glider-like vessel, I pressed a hand to the main console and accessed its computer. As I trawled through whatever data this thing had I pulled the view screen up, taking stock of the situation. The Gordainians who had survived my assault (and the collision) were bugging out. The other ship had been critically damaged by the ram, and was starting to smoke in the concrete crater it had made in the ground. And at the other side of the plaza , Starfire was fighting the Lantern, along with a few Silver drones that managed to join her. They all flew in random circles around the Lantern, pelting him with an endless barrage of laser and plasma fire. He was constantly forced to put up new walls and defenses, but Starfire was relentless in shattering any constructs that showed weakness.

I briefly considered reactivating the weapons on my newly acquired ship to lend fire support, but I discarded it as I didn't have anything close to a clean shot. Instead I looked at the ship's computer to see if it could help me figure out what the hell was going on. It wasn't particularly helpful in that regard, the vessel was about as simple as you could get for a starfighter, so there wasn't anything like a mission log. But there was the equivalent of a black box containing navigational data. And after a few moments, I found just what I was looking for: nav data for a return trip. [Calculus, I'm in possession of one of their starships, and it has details of where their main vessel is. Transmit this information to the Titans, the League, anyone you can get in contact with.]

It was a moment before Calculus responded [Acknowledged, but we are still not getting a response from the League, and these coordinates are past high orbit. We do not have the means to reach the spot in a timely manner, and given the current rate we estimate that the tremors will start doing critical damage to the city's infrastructure in about 12 minutes.]

I grimaced, considering my options. Which were limited. The city was still in ok shape, but we didn't have long before that changed. That ship had to be stopped now… and I had the means to get there. [The ship I'm in can make the return trip in 5 minutes.] I didn't have enough time to collect my team, never mind that they were still busy helping the city. Starfire's gonna kill me if this goes as poorly as it usually does, I thought. [I'm going to have to go up there myself. I'll disable the ship, and see if I can find a way to bring the rest of you up.]

[Machina, you may be exceptionally strong, but we will not be able to properly support you at that distance. Are you certain?]

[We don't have much of a choice.] Through the viewport I spared a last glance at Starfire, who was wrestling with a pair of construct spears trying to skewer her. With a roar she snapped both of their hafts and, before they could dissipate, hurled them back at the Lantern. The alien was surprised but still managed to deflect the projectiles, causing them to smash into the Hall of Justice behind him and cause even more damage to its walls. I hesitated a moment longer before I said [Keep my team safe,] and set my ship to full burn.

The ship rocketed upwards, tearing through the atmosphere with alarming speed. I dimly noted the way the shield around the ship bent the air around it to make a sort of supercavitation effect, cutting down on air drag. This thing was meant to enter and exit atmosphere, I noted. It wasn't long before I was in space proper, heading towards an ostensibly empty patch of space. I strained my vision to see the slightest bending of light for the stars directly in front of me, and as I got closer the effect became more pronounced. It soon became clear that whatever this stealth field was it was more diffuse than I had thought, and my approach slowly peeled it back to reveal the cause of this mess.

The ship… strange, to say the least. To start with it was huge, about the size of a football stadium. Its main body was composed of three, tall disc-like structures stacked in a diagonal. Attached along the backs of these discs were larger cylindrical engines, only giving off the barest of glow as the ship was currently stationary. As my glider got closer, I saw that the lower sections of the discs had numerous hangar doors and ports, a few of which were being used as more gliders came in and out of them. A carrier then? Makes a bit more sense for it's design I suppose, but that doesn't explain the gravity waves.

My vessel got within a kilometer of the massive ship before the main console in front of me lit up. I quickly managed to disable my camera before a holographic screen flickered to life and I was treated to the sight of a person I hadn't seen in months. The last time I had encountered Komand'r had been frantic enough that I didn't really take her in that much, just remembering a mess of black, violet, and anger. Taking in her features now, I could see the woman could cut a rather regal figure, dressed in a silver-black bodysuit and Tamaranian crown. Judging by the Gordanians working the massive command deck around her she was a little taller than Kori, and her facial features were a bit more angular than hers, but I could see the resemblance.

Of course, I had a hard time imagining Kori with the look of utter disdain her sister was currently giving me. "What are you doing, you cowardly oafs? You did not signal that you have captured my sister, so I can only assume that you are fleeing your duties. Is that why you're ashamed to show your faces?"

With a thought I added some static to the connection and lowered my voice in an attempt to mimic the gravelly tone I heard the Gordanians used. "kkksshh Damage to crrlk situation phhhsss massive resistance kksjhhh." I commed, replying in the same Tamaranian that she used. I didn't expect this ruse to last particularly long, but I didn't need it to. Just long enough to get into the ship.

Komand'r's scowl deepened. "What? Clear up the connection this instant or I shall simply kill you all for desertion!"

I eased up on the static. "Koriand'r has powerful allies! Kkksshh battle has incurred massive losses! There phhhsss counter assault being launched into orbit against us! " The hangar bay was getting closer, less than 400 meters away.

"What? Impossible." Komand'r scoffed. "There is nothing on this world that could breach our stealth, let alone anything that could reach-" she cut herself off, eyes narrowing. "Soldier, what is your name and rank?"

"...Bimblo Scimblo, just a grunt." 300 meters… 200… 100…

I could tell I had reached the end of the ruse when she suddenly bared her teeth, and I hit the accelerator as she turned and yelled "Shoot that glider down, now!"

I sent the ship into a chaotic spiral as I aimed for the hangar bay, hoping to throw off the targeting of whatever weapons the carrier might have had. I… mostly succeeded, several thick energy beams lancing through space behind me as I closed the distance. One however managed to clip the rear of the glider, cutting off the engines and causing alerts to blare throughout the command deck. But it had enough momentum to carry me into the bay, even if the landing was a bit more… ballistic than I would have liked.

The ship around me crumpled, emergency crash systems activating to blunt the damage. With all of my personal defensive systems active the damage to myself was minor, and it was all repaired by the time I used my HF claws to carve an exit out of the ruins of my glider. I was treated to the sight of an expansive hangar bay, rows of gliders reaching out to either side of me. In front of me I saw a set of doors and a catwalk, though which dozens of Gordanains soldiers were pouring out of. Accompanying them was a small fleet of drones, missile shaped things surrounded in fins. A voice suddenly boomed over speakers. "Impudent wretch," Komand'r said, and all of the Gordanians present readied their staff weapons. "If you survived, show yourself so I can give you what a traitor deserves."

I stepped out of the wreckage, looking up at one of the drones. "I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else?"

I couldn't see it, but in the pause that followed I could imagine Komand'r's face twisting in confusion before her eyes widened. "You!" She yelled over the intercom. "You were that shifting thing with my sister on the station! Did she keep you as a pet after you saved her worthless self?"

"You mean after I tossed you into a locked room like an unruly child?" I shot back. "By the way, how are your eyes doing?"

"KILL HIM!"

I saw the drones and the Gordanians power up and raise their weapons, but I wasn't concerned. Between the personal shield I ate and the trip in the glider up here, I had plenty of time to get acquainted with their tech. Launching myself forward my mechanokinetic field fired up and latched onto every bit of loose tech around me, both shutting down and tossing everything away. I noted that the force was slightly weaker than expected; Calculus wasn't wrong when they said they couldn't feed me power as well up here. Magic could do a lot, but even it had to contend with the emptiness of space.

Either way, I didn't have time to muck about. I had to find and stop whatever was causing the gravity waves. I took one moment longer to make sure all of the Gordanians' gear and drones were disabled before flying through the hangar doors and into the giant ship proper. My senses expanded in every direction as I moved, taking in as much of the ship's structure and systems as I could. It quickly became apparent that the ship was far too big for me to simply take control of the whole thing from anywhere, at least in a timely manner. I needed to find a command deck or a main networking conduit if I wanted to shut this thing down.

I slid to a stop when I hit a junction (and tossed aside a few extra soldiers that got in my way) and took in my surroundings. The corridors themselves were wide, bulked outwards, and covered in rectangular patterns, but I paid little attention to what they looked like compared to what was behind them. Behind the panels I could detect a number of high energy conduits channeling power to the rest of the ship. And I could tell where that power was coming from. I wasn't sure where the command deck was, but I was pretty certain what amounted to the engineering department was right next door.

As followed the conduits to their source, Komand'r voice was still being blasted over the intercom. "Can't any of you incompetent fools stop him?! How difficult is it for you to subdue a primitive world whose only means of defense was sabotaged before we got here?!"

I was just going to ignore it, but that last comment made me frown. As I flew down the halls I patched into a speaker I went past and commandeered the system. I didn't have any real evidence, just a hunch based on circumstance, but I broadcast back to her "So, how did you manage to convince a Green Lantern to help you? I know they don't make trips out to the Vega System."

There was a pause before she replied. "It was an alliance of convenience, one I am regretting for how little good it has done for me. Another incompetent I shall have have to deal with as soon as-"

I cut her off as I already heard what I needed. That just about confirms it then, I thought. The Lantern was working with Komand'r and the Gordanains. Was he just taking advantage of them, or did it go deeper? That was a question for later, as I had arrived at the source of the ship's power.

Like the halls I had been flying through, Engineering was surprisingly spacious, a large circular space with a number of thin metal pillars stretching to the ceiling. There were consoles ringing around the perimeter of the room, but the center was taken up by a low metal dome, which I could tell from the power conduits was the main power source. The room was also filled with Gordanians who turned to look at me as I entered, but lucky for me it seemed techno-armor was the standard uniform. I reached out my hand and pulled, yanking all the people in the room towards me before tossing them out the door behind me. With that done I found and activated the emergency blast doors, sealing the entrance shut and locking me inside.

I flew to the other side of the central dome to an important looking console, setting down in front of it. Even with how quickly I had gotten here, I didn't have much time left, so I placed my hand on the machine and partially unfolded my hand into assimilation spikes to interface with it. At the same time I formed several mechadendrites and latched them onto any console I could reach, giving myself a firm hardware connection before I put all of my focus into hacking the system.

I didn't have as much trouble with the alien systems as I had feared, most of the architecture being similar to the Psion ship I had retrofitted. Almost suspiciously similar actually, especially the main power generator in the dome in front of me: inside was a large sphere of exotic matter, constantly decaying and warping space in a fashion that the ship's machines were drawing energy off of. It also functioned as the core of the ship's stardrive, as I knew from my own Psion vessel that it could be used to bend space to allow for superluminal travel. Kinda reminded me of Romulan ships from Star Trek.

But as I analyzed it, I could tell this thing was pulling a third duty too. I pulled up the spec on the thing that was currently drawing the most power, and found a complex gravity wave emitter nestled into the bottom of the ship, similar to the grav-tractors that the psion ships used. The main difference was that it had been jury rigged to directly pull gravity waves from the exotic matter core, thus massively increasing its output. And making it far more unstable. Any sudden variance in the power draw either way would cause the core to destabilize. Which would be very violent if my math was correct.

So, I carefully started to dial down the power of the gravity wave emitter, reducing its output as quickly as I dared. Bit by bit, the emitter was powering down, and I used the control systems around the core to keep it as stable as possi-

Suddenly, I noticed ship systems being abruptly cut off from Engineering. As most of my concentration was on my current task, it took me a few seconds to realize what was happening. They know I'm doing something in Engineering, so they're cutting off all systems connected to it. Well, that wasn't too big of a problem so long as they didn't-

And then, my connection to the gravity wave emitter was suddenly cut.

…I have a feeling someone failed to properly explain the situation to Komand'r, I thought as I frantically tried to deal with the sudden torrent of power that wasn't going anywhere. I activated the emergency capacitor systems, and the metal dome opened to reveal some kind of translucent metal shell around a core of violently churning non-light. The pillars around the room opened up to reveal dish structures, and a moment later that non-light started being pulled from the core into the pillars. I flooded all the systems with technomancy, increasing their processing power to keep ahead of the matter fluctuations.

But it wasn't enough. I was slowing it down, but the tipping point had already been reached. This thing was going to vent all of energy one way or the other, and I had no means of doing so that didn't result in an explosion. And even if we were in high orbit, I did not want to find out if this thing had enough energy stored in it to affect the planet below.

Ok, plan B. Engineering had been cut off from most systems, but the one thing they couldn't cut me off from was the engines. I only had basic nav data from previous courses to work with, but that was enough. Tapping into whatever emergency systems I could get my hands on, I found the last course used and set it in reverse. There was a forceful jerk as the ship turned, flying away from the planet, back towards Vega. It wouldn't actually get there of course, this thing was going to blow long before it could jump into star-slide. I just needed to put some distance between it and the planet. If I was lucky, this thing would hold together enough that I could get it to a safe distance and then hold it a little longer without my help so that I could bail.

And if I was unlucky, and I needed to ride this thing till containment failed… I would have to try transferring out of this body. It was theoretically possible; ever since the Silver had been created proper, I had a connection to the collective I could potentially dive into. Even at these ranges that connection was still there, if weaker. I really didn't want to, my nanite body was my favorite body by far, for both versatility and power. Still, while it would be a big loss, by this point it wouldn't be a crippling one. My technomancy and engineering skills were quite powerful on their own, and having an Amazo body to sleeve into was the best runner up I could hope for. It'll be kinda ironic if I have to crib off of Serling's notes for making a new body-

My thought was interrupted as the heavy doors sealing the room suddenly burst inwards. I was half expecting a squad of Gordanians to rush in, but instead I was treated to a far more chilling sight: The Green Lantern floating into the room, Starfire held in construct binding in front of him. Her hands were completely covered by manacles and green chains wrapped around her body. Her uniform was torn in several places, and she was bruised and bleeding, but she was still conscious. And quite angry by the look of it.

Starfire hadn't made it easy for him, either. His armor was burnt and cracked in several places, and his entire left arm was held stiff in a construct cast. He had lost his face plate at some point, revealing a cat-like face that had one eye swollen shut. When he spoke, his flat tone had hints of exhaustion in it. "You are coming with me to a Sciencell, or she will pay the price."

I froze where I was, but that wasn't saying much as I was tied into the machinery around me. "And what crime according to the Green Lantern Corps has she committed?" I asked coldly.

"Interfering with a Lantern's duties." He said in the same flat tone. It was bullshit, everyone here knew it, but it was clear that he also didn't care.

I pointed at the slowly destabilizing exotic matter core between us. "This thing's going to explode, faster if I disconnect from it. I doubt that even your ring could protect you from it when that happens."

He pulled Starfire closer in front of himself. "Then I suggest for her sake, you comply. Come with me, and I can remove all of us before the ship explodes. Or we can wait. The choice is yours."

There were several long seconds of silence as we stood/floated on opposite sides of the destabilizing core, it becoming increasingly clear that the Lantern wasn't bluffing. Once again I found myself with a spectacular lack of options, and the need to pick an action quickly. My mind raced, but half of it was focused on holding the core together, and the rest was starting to feel the strain. I… I couldn't think of anything.

I looked at Kori, as she looked back at me.

…Should I really-

The energy under Starfire's skin surged in intensity, and her eyes blazed with fury. "You will not lay a hand on my beloved!" Her head snapped back and smashed into the Lantern's face, causing a fresh spurt of blood to burst from it. To his credit, even with the pain he was feeling he didn't drop the constructs binding her. Unfortunately for him she didn't care either, as she simply shattered the manacles on her hands with her burst of strength before twisting around to grab his chestplate.

And in one smooth motion she turned them both around and flew straight into the core.

The translucent covering shattered and a wide spectrum of light and particles fountained off the core as the Lantern's back grinded into the surface. I could see his personal shield flicker and distort at the point of contact, and I could tell from his body language that he was trying to fly away. But Starfire wasn't letting him, both pressing him in deeper and using him as a shield against the energies shooting around the chamber. She had to know the instant his shield failed, she'd have no protection. But she didn't stop.

Errors cascade through my awareness, systems meant to monitor the exotic matter core panicking at the sudden intrusion. I frantically tried to shut the thing down in a way that wouldn't kill Starfire, which was a problem as all the emergency protocols involved flooding the chamber with even more energy. With the mass I had left I made one more mechadendrite and arced it around to latch on to Starfire's back, trying to pull her out. But she wouldn't give.

Finally, the Lantern's energy ran out, and with a final flicker his shield died. With as much strength as I could put into the limb I tore Starfire away and out of range as the emergency shields snapped into place. I lost sight of Lantern as the core completely destabilized and expanded, tearing the alien apart.

I pulled Kori into my arms, but I realized it was too late. Those shields would only be able to hold for a few more seconds, not enough time to get clear. I held her tight as my internals shifted faster than I had ever moved before, pieces flowing to each other as I constructed a Zeta particle generator in my chest.

[Execute Emergency Zeta Shift-]

Just as the field collapsed, everything flashed white and gold.

=====A=====

A/N: I think this may be the least fun I've ever had writing a chapter. If I ever have the urge to write a story this involve again, please someone hit me with a club.