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It had been over two months since the Deep Night, and the space that had once been the United Nations plaza was now completely clear of the debris that had littered it. Instead, the space was now a mostly open and flat plaza made of concrete, along with whatever greenery that hadn't been torn up during the attack. It was still up in the air where the next permanent U.N. headquarters would end up (they were currently holding sessions in Switzerland), but it was agreed that the old grounds would be turned into a memorial for the Deep Night. Though with it being winter, it would probably be a bit before construction picked back up.

This meant I was pretty much alone as I sat on a nearby bench in civilian garb, taking a moment to just… sit and think. And for once it wasn't about the Titans or the Silver, or any of the usual things. Though I suppose it was related. You see, the Justice League was recruiting new members… and they had extended an offer to both me and Kori. And we had both turned them down.

It was almost surreal to think about. As far as I knew no one had ever turned down League membership, and I was sure that if they had offered it to me as soon as I got here I would have leapt at the chance. But given what had happened to me over the past six months and everything I've gained and become… there just wasn't much to be gained from joining them. I already had a team I trusted, I had plenty of support and resources to call on if needed, and I was on my way to getting international acceptance. And quite frankly, if there was a global incident that required my expertise, it wasn't like the League wouldn't call on me anyway.

Kori had much the same reasons for turning them down, though she emphasized the point I didn't voice: We helped make the Titans. We couldn't just leave them. They were our team.

With that thought, I sighed and resigned myself back to work, pulling a large envelope out of my coat pocket. And from that I pulled out a sheaf of papers, a compiled series of very dry intelligence reports. I wasn't entirely sure why Interpol had decided to send information via physical mail to my PO Box rather than digitally, though it likely was them not wanting to give a tech based hero anything I could trace back to them. Flipping through the packet, I was disappointed to find most of the info to be useless. The overall focus was Interpol's investigation into other agencies and their lack of action, but the information itself was just a bunch of circumstantial evidence and observations. Nothing I could really work with.

There was one thing that caught my eye though. In a section detailing parts of eastern Europe intelligence, there were mentions of higher than normal rates of human trafficking. There was no data on where those people were being sent to, but I had a hunch which made my metaphorical gut clench. Not this again, I thought wearily. The location of the countries put them relatively close to Bialya, who I knew had a habit of making Apokolipian cyborgs. I really hoped I was wrong, but I didn't have track record of being that lucky. It gave me half a mind to just gear up the Titans and go there ourselves, but…

"After what happened… I can't risk hurting you all again."

I… still felt a little bitter about what happened to M'gann. Yes, I knew that in this line of work things could go bad, that you couldn't control everything out in the field. And from what I've heard from J'onn, she was coming along in her training, both mentally and emotionally. But at the same time, I shouldn't have let it happen. It's a strange, almost egotistical thing, but I still considered my role on the Titans to be support. I was the one who was supposed to keep them strong, keep them safe. If I couldn't protect my teammates, what good was I?

I shook my head and stood up. Well, thoughts like that were useless at this point. All I could do is make sure I didn't make the same mistake twice. And besides, Kori wouldn't let me hear the end of it if she caught me brooding again. That reminds me, we really need to go on another proper date soon, I mulled as I started to walk. We were spending plenty of time together in general, but lately it seemed it had either been work related or just crashing at the end of the day. It'd be nice to have some time that was just the two of us.

I took a few moments to shred the papers in my hands and toss them into the back of a passing dump truck before I headed to one of the nearby buildings opposite the plaza. Many of them had been damaged during the attack to various degrees, and more than a few had ended up condemned. Which made them relatively easy to purchase, if you went through the right channels. Of course, that still left the task of actually fixing up the buildings. But I had that covered too.

I walked underneath the sign that had been hung over the building's second floor, one that read 'Under work by Paradigm Construction Inc.', and into the building proper. The worker lounging in front of the tarp covered entrance gave me a nod as I went in. As I walked through the gutted out floor, a few more workers noticed me and approached. "Hello, Avatar." The lead one said, built like a thickset man in his later years. "What's the update?"

"Nothing new. And I thought I told you that you don't have to call me that."

"Eh, I'm too old to update my drivers." The person said coyly.

The worker behind him said flatly "They've been like this ever since they've moved into that frame. It's insufferable."

That got a laugh out of me. The workers around me were androids. All of them were. They were some of the tech elementals that Vulcan had crafted just before he had come to New York, and they had taken up some infiltration bodies to work the Silver's construction company. Well, 'work' isn't quite accurate, most of the actual construction was done by more advanced means out of sight. No, these elementals were here to… experience being human.

It caught me off guard a little when I first learned about it. Sure, Dannette and Jim had plenty of human interest, but they had specifically been made to be infiltrators. I had sort of expected the first batch of tech elementals to be something closer to Calculus in temperament, affable and intelligent but a little bit off. Instead most of them had picked up on things like humor and empathy surprisingly fast. I could only guess that Vulcan had a few revelations during his nap just before he made them.

I stopped a few times to talk to a few more of them, both to be apprised of how things were going and to be approachable in general. For being it's Avatar, I spent most of my time away from the Silver, and I wanted to make sure that none of them thought I was disinterested in my own Kingdom.

Though, while most had gotten the hang of acting human, some hadn't quite mastered it yet. [Hey, boss man? Can we talk for a sec?]

I had been heading to a certain section of wall at the back of the construction site when the machine speak caused me to stop. I turned to see one of the workers walk up to me stiffly and awkwardly, like the man hadn't quite figured out how to move his legs right. This was Lambda, one of the more talkative androids that had been working here. Well, commutative at least, as he didn't really care for using audible communication. Bit of an odd one, relative to the others, but a decent guy.

I gave him a nod and responded in kind. [Sure, what's up?]

Lambda shifted his weight. [I… don't feel comfortable in this body. I'd like something else.]

And the odd one gets a bit odder, I thought. Sure a lot of the other machine elementals switched up bodies or returned to the servers from time to time, but I would have figured Lambda would be a bit more attached. He was one of the few who both preferred a physical body and identified with a gender (male). I suppose he's still feeling things out a bit. [Well, that's fine. This duty is volunteer only, after all. Though, why are you telling me and not Vulcan?]

[Vulcan's good at building android bodies, but what I want is something… special.] He made a vague gesture. [I know it's weird for me to come to the Avatar for this, but I figured you'd understand my reasons.]

I arched an eyebrow. [Alright, what did you have in mind?]

[Have you ever watched that cartoon Transformers?]

For a moment I was silent. Then I slowly steepled my fingers in front of me. [Go on.]

[Right, so, I want to have two different forms. A vehicle form and a… another one.] Lambda hesitated for a moment before he continued. [I want to be a trike… and a sphere. Like Rommie.]

There was a beat before I leaned on a nearby workbench, my chin propped up by my fist. [Oh yeah?]

[Yeah. It's an interesting set of forms, and I'd like to experience it. I think it would be a good fit for a number of reasons!]

A grin slowly worked its way onto my face. [...Oh yeah?]

[I mean, I think it would be an experience which could help out the Silver as a whole! Spending some time in the form another group of AI takes could lead to some great insights, and you're not buying any of this are you?] I shook my head, grin still plastered on my face. Lambda sighed. [Ok, fine, I'm interested in her, alright? But how can you blame me?! She's sweet, she has semi-modular configurations, she's fun to be around, and have you seen how deep her Infinite Regress Fractal Matrix is?! That thing can-!]

I had to hold back my laughter as I waved him down. [I get it, I get it. Really, I do.] Rommie spent a great deal of her time with the Silver when she wasn't at the Mountain, probably because it reminded her of home. The machine elementals had various levels of interest in her, but it looked like one had gone a little beyond mere interest.

Lambda calmed down a bit. [Well, I figured you would, considering you're dating an organic and all. So… you think you could do it?]

I stroked my chin. [Possibly. I'm confident I can give you the general functionality you're looking for… but I'm guessing you want 'full' functionality, right?] That would be a much taller order. I had learned it from an offhand comment from Motherbox back on New Genesis, but it seemed that not only were Super-Cycles gendered, but they were capable of sexual reproduction. I… really wasn't sure how that worked, but it looked like I might have to find out. Especially since Lambda had picked up on my implication and was nodding his head. [Well that's going to take a bit. I'm probably going to have to ask Motherbox for some specifications, and at the very least figure out dimensional folding. In the meantime, you should probably talk to Rommie about this first.]

[I kinda wanted it to be a surprise-]

I shook my head, cutting him off. [Look, I know that seems romantic and all, but trust me on this. Relationships require communication about big things, and changing your body to match hers, with the explicit intention of getting physical, is something you want to clear with her first.]

Lambda grumbled. [Alright, alright. It's just… I thought I'd have a better chance of her saying yes if I asked while I was shaped like her, you know?]

I shrugged. [Maybe, but it's hard to say. Rommie's a xeno-intelligence, and I haven't the faintest clue how Super-Cycles courtship works. So I recommend just being as open with your intentions as possible to start.]

Lambda considered my advice for a moment before he agreed, and after going over a few specific details of what he wanted he got back to work. Putting robo-sexual relations aside as a later problem, I turned back to the wall I had been moving towards. As I approached, part of it slid back and to the side, revealing an elevator cage. I stepped into the cage and the hidden door closed behind me as the cage smoothly descended. A few moments of darkness pass before the shaft opens up, and I can't help but smile at what I see.

Stretching out in front of me was a cavernous space that fit underneath the entire memorial site, held up by curved pillars made of carbon nanotubes. Drones of various models flew about the area, carrying equipment and raw materials to their respective destinations. Several of the walls were lined with plating, while others were still open to have wiring and other utilities installed in them. At the far ends I could see several tunnels in various states of construction, and I knew at least one of them connected to an abandoned subway station.

This was to be the new base of operations for the Silver, or at least part of it. Eventually we wanted to have something in the middle of Times Square, though it would take some time to acquire the real estate and account for the subways. For now we just keep our main servers hidden there, and all of our physical space needs were handled by the reconstruction efforts here on the east side. Walking through the area, I made note of the progress and what still had to be done. Taking over abandoned tunnels in the area had made things easier, but there were still a few ways that had to be dug out manually. But we had a solution for that.

Further down an unfinished tunnel, I saw a few of my MK. IV drones at work. Constructor drones were a good deal larger than the other models, about the size of a refrigerator and generally oblong in shape. They had most of the functionality of the Search and Rescue models, but their main function was to act as carriers and manager of their nanite payloads. Half of it was made up of the constructor nanites Serling and I had designed, and the other half were a modified version of her original Fog nanites. Much less range and more reliant on the main drone, but still very effective on tearing material apart.

I probably could combine the constructor and destructor nanites into a single pattern, if I wanted to. I really didn't want to though.

Of course, the entire base hadn't been built from scratch on site, a lot of the materials and equipment had been made back at Yellowstone first. And finally figuring out how to make my own Zeta Tubes certainly helped move said things discreetly into NYC. It took me longer than I would have liked to figure out the mechanics of a stable gate, but now we had an easy and covert way of transporting materials between locations. And the ones the Silver used were encoded to require Silver energy as a key for their use. It was very much skirting the edge of what was allowed by the U.N. (the League could use them, and so could the Titans by association), but that was a problem for later.

In the now, I made my way down one of the more complete tunnels until I came to a large lab, this one fully furnished with equipment. The centerpiece was a massive metal cylinder, hooked up with several intake and output pipes along with numerous cables. There were a few computers along the walls, but I knew this room could tap almost the full server network for resources.

This was one of my latest projects. And I was a little surprised at who I found standing in front of the machine. "Serling. What brings you here?"

The woman turned, her customary labcoat billowing out at the motion and showing her second skin partially covering her. "Calculus told me you were doing an experiment today, and I was curious."

[We told her that it didn't involve nanomachines, but she was interested regardless.] The AI remarked. Inside a Silver hold, the question of 'where' an AI is can be a bit nebulous, given all the servers and sensor systems. For our more corporal sake though a hologram popped up next to Serling, shaped into the cloudy humanoid form they favored.

Serling huffed. "Oh please, in spite of what you might think, I do have technological interests outside of nanomachines."

"Oh? Is our Serling broadening her horizons?" I asked. "What happened to that laser shape focus you were so proud of?"

Serling's face flushed, and she decided to ignore the question."So, why are we doing this here rather than back in Yellowstone?" She asked.

"Processing power, mostly." I replied, walking up next to her. "The number of servers we have here combined with our central access to the internet makes this spot a lot better for doing anything that generates a lot of data, such as scientific experimentation. Yellowstone is currently set up for manufacturing. And even then it's limited in its output due to the difficulties of being in a national park." There were some plans to make a better manufacturing lab after work in New York was done, though location was still up in the air. Still, the sooner we could get Silver made processors onto the market, the better.

[And Yellowstone had come under scrutiny.] Calculus remarked. [The intrusions have been getting more creative.]

The AI was referring to how bits of inexplicable plant matter kept tripping the perimeter sensors around the Yellowstone lab. Every time we had taken a closer look it was always just normal plants, but we could guess just what was putting them there. For as much as we were trying to hide, the Silver was getting stronger every day, and magical power has a tendency to send out ripples people could notice. "How have the shrine wards been holding up?" I asked.

[Adequately. Nothing has breached past the outer perimeter, but our ability to accurately detect these intrusions is spotty at best. We suspect we could get better feedback if the amount of faith in Hephaestus was greater.]

I hadn't been directly involved with Hephaestus's 'revival', but I was broadly aware of what he and Calculus had been up to. One of the benefits of the information age was that it was really easy to find groups of people with shared interests, and that included people who actively worshiped the Greek gods. They managed to get in contact with those that focused on the Forge God, and through some divinely blessed smartphones, managed to get them a more direct connection with their god. And wouldn't you know that most of them worked in technical fields.

This has resulted in a holy order/cult of repairmen and technicians, who espoused that praying to

Hephaestus can help with technical issues. And because of their divine apps, this actually worked a decent amount of the time. It was a little slow going, but it was picking up steam and Calculus was drawing up a marketing plan for when we were ready for a big push. And what we had was enough to put up consecrated shrines around the edges of our bases. Evidence showed it had been paying dividends in keeping other elementals out, too.

That said… "We're probably on the clock for getting discovered by one of the other Kingdoms." I reasoned. "Most likely this is one of the more intelligent plant elements poking around, and their persistence doesn't indicate they'll just forget about it."

Serling placed a hand on her hip. "Well, maybe revealing the Silver sooner rather than later could be a good thing. After all, I don't think people will look at us favorably if we come out of nowhere and tell them 'We control the internet now'."

[You have a point, but only one with regards to humans.] Calculus countered. [The Kingdoms have a more primal outlook on things. The stronger our position is when we reveal ourselves, the more likely we will be able to prevent conflicts from starting.]

"So that means we have a line to walk between endearing ourselves to humans and warding off the other Kingdoms." I pointed out. "And the more warnings we have for the latter making a move, the better. Do you think we could adjust the sensors on our satellite design to detect… Kingdom energy? I know you had some way of measuring it back before all this."

[Possibly, but it is indivisible. Such a redesign would both compromise the satellite's original function and take more time. And we shouldn't assume we have time.]

"Wait…" Serling spoke up. "We're launching a satellite now?"

I frown. "Well, yes, but it's for a different issue. Something that Green Lantern told me about. He saw a sensor blip at the edge of the solar system a few days ago, which instantly disappeared. Including from his sensor record. He thinks that there may be a spaceship in the system which can spoof his ring's sensors, which is a scary thought."

"A few days ago?" Serling asked. "And you still don't know?"

"It hasn't shown up since. Green Lantern's been looking, but still nothing. Which is why he wants some non-ring based scanners to double check." I sighed. "I tried using the scanners on my Psion ship, but that thing is a basic survey ship. It's equipment definitely isn't meant to deal with stealth systems. The Silver is throwing together the satellite with the best we can come up with, but range is going to be a problem. The solar system is a big place, and without knowing what we're looking for, I don't know if it will do anything. Which is a scary thought if an extrasolar unknown is lurking about." Especially if it did come from the Vega system.

Serling fell silent, and an odd expression crossed her face. She looked almost conflicted for a moment before she said "Well… I don't don't have anything that can help personally… but Ted mentioned he had a bit of technology he had been working on for a while."

"Ted's working on sensor tech."

She shook her head. "No, not like that, it's something much older. Something that was passed down to him by an old colleague that stumbled across it. He didn't go into a lot of detail, but he implied that it might be alien technology, and it's potential could be limitless."

I blinked. Had Ted told her about the Scarab? I had never found the opportunity to broach the subject with the man, and I certainly wasn't supposed to know that he had it, so I had decided that I would let him tell me about it when he felt he could. It wasn't lost on me that the Scarab could give me a significant boost to my abilities, but back in the early days I would have had to eat the thing. Which would probably kill Khaji Da, the AI of the Scarab (and if it didn't, things would get awkward).

Now though… my technomancy gave me ways to analyze technology without breaking it. And with the Silver expanding, bringing Khaji Da in would be a good way to give it purpose beyond it'd programming. This could be a good opportunity to solve a few problems at once. "You think you could convince him to have us take a look at it? Even if doesn't help us immediately, we could learn a lot from it."

"I think so."

I smiled. "Great, ask him when you get the chance, ok?"

Serling nodded, though she turned away from me quickly to digitally connect to the machine in front of us. "So, do you need me for anything with this?"

"Help keep an eye on the measurement stream, make sure any data noise stays within error margins." I said, and started up the machine with a loud hum.

With that, all three of us finally turned our full attention to the machine, a culmination of my work. It was my first functioning nuclear forge, capable of breaking down matter and recombining it into different elements. It was the next step in my study of Bleed technology after it's use in my fusion reactors (the perfected versions of which were powering the base). With this, we could convert any material into any basic elements we needed. It could only handle so much matter at a time, but it was a massive logistical boon.

But today we were trying to do something more than just transmuting elements, at least mundane ones.

"Test number 14 for Transmutation of Unique Elemental Isotopes," I said, recording for scientific posterity. "The goal is to use Bleed Fundamental Force manipulation to break down common matter and reassemble it into a new element. Sample material is 1 kilogram of metal, equal parts titanium and vanadium. Attempts to evenly fuse these into rhodium have failed due to lack of neutrons for stability. Rather than adding extra neutrons, this test will attempt to stabilize the resulting metal by altering the Strong Nuclear Force during recombination, to force matter together more closely before reasserting normal physics. The idea was gained from Hephaestus, as an anecdote of how he forged mundane metals into a new magical alloy. Beginning startup process."

The next minute or so was spent triple checking all systems, making sure that everything from containment to energy flow was stable. Then, after a short countdown I activated the forge, which ran for 7 seconds before shutting down. It was kind of underwhelming when looking at it from the outside, the machine only letting out a slightly louder hum along with a little light. Well, proper mad science required a grand goal to be working towards anyway, and this was more just throwing science at the wall and seeing what stuck. Still, I should get around to installing a knife switch in here at some point.

As the machine powered down I processed the results. "Sample is stable, mass has been reduced by 3.2 * 10-21 kg. Loss of mass is accounted for by release of alpha particles and free electrons, contentment is stable. Resulting element is…" I trailed off, my eyebrows raising. "A mixture of titanium, vanadium, and a third element. Which isn't actually there."

"What?" Serling looked at me. "What does that even mean?"

I took a few seconds to go over the data again, to make sure I understood what I was looking at. "It looks like some of the atoms are in states of superposition with each other. Enough that they, effectively, are functioning as a completely different element at the macro-scale." I leaned back, nonplussed. "This isn't just a new element, this is an entirely new form of alloy. And these material properties are completely unique."

[A… Superposition Alloy? Hephaestus will be very interested in these results.] Calculus remarked. [What is the third element? Rhodium? ]

"No, the superposition clusters are more dense than that. It looks like an isotope of…" I trailed off as I looked at the effective atomic number of the cluster, and blinked before I displayed it. The number wasn't particularly special, but the element itself… "Wow, really?"

[It is surprisingly apropos.] Calculus agreed after a moment.

I chuckled and had the new material moved from the central chamber to the exit hopper. The piece that fell out was a chunk of silvery metal, smooth to the touch as I picked it up and hefted it.

"We're going to have to tell the Hephaestus we've got a brand new kind of Promethium to play with."

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