Yue

 5th February

21:03 GMT -5

Flash's-. Mr West's eyes blur as I scroll through pages and pages of information at super speed. Hawkwom-. Hawkgirl tried to keep up as he got up to speed, but had to look away as it picked up.

"How did you turn my powers off? It felt like kryptonite, but it didn't hurt as much."

"Kryptonite comes in a variety of different colours, each bypassing the kryptonian biological force field and having slightly different effects. Green causes radiation burns while gold kills off the organelles which give you your powers in the first place. The exposure I gave you will.. probably depower you for a couple of months, but they'll repropagate over time-. Ah, at that level of exposure. Sufficient exposure could remove your powers permanently."

I kneel down in front of him as Talon's knife pings off my environmental shield.

"Might I suggest that you invest in some sort of radiation shield? Kryptonite is the one relatively well known way of hurting you, and you don't appear to have ever worked out how to avoid it."

"I've got a lead-lined suit I sometimes wear."

"Then you're doing better than my Superman, but-." Wheelbarrow time. I hold out my right hand and use my rings to fabricate a radiation shield generator, then attach it to his belt. "That should protect against someone waving a crystal at you, but it won't stop a kryptonite laser so don't get careless."

Lantern Stewart snorts. "This your first time taking prisoners, kid?"

"I don't-. Look, I'm not really comfortable helping the Syndicate, I just think it's better than the alternative. I certainly don't bear you any particular malice."

Their Diana appears to realise something. "You knew our weaknesses because you've fought your Justice League before."

I nod. "Weekly sparring sessions with the Two Eight One Four Green Lanterns -our Lantern Stewart can do more than one construct at a time, by the way- occasional sparring sessions with Diana, Hawkwoman challenged me to a duel and there was the one time where they got mind controlled by Star Conquerors-."

"Uh…"

Hawkgirl looks at Mr West. "Flash."

He blinks, and I stop the display. "Ah… Guys? I don't.. feel…"

"Your brain can't hold all of the information you just took in any more than we could if we read it all at normal speed. But if you wouldn't mind sharing your conclusions?"

"I don't know. I guess…" He shakes his head. "He's got a video of President Wilson beating Ultraman to death."

"Superwoman and Power Ring Green were also murdered."

Hawkgirl narrows her eyes at me. "They were criminals."

"They weren't convicted. They were entirely at the President's mercy, and he didn't even give them a show trial, let alone actual due process. And everyone else in the Syndicate expects that if they get arrested, the same thing will happen to them. Being a 'good guy' isn't like picking a team jersey, it's about doing certain things and not doing certain others."

Mr West looks decidedly uncomfortable. "They've got martial law all across the country. And the Syndicate still has a lot of firepower. They-. Wilson sent the army after the Supers in Fawcett City, and-. And the city doesn't exist any more. I think… I don't like it, but… I think Orange Lantern might.. have a point."

Mister J'onzz's face is almost completely expressionless. "If Orange Lantern is providing us with accurate information."

"If I was flat out lying-" Talon moves towards the door and I send Duela to intercept him. "-then Talon would have jumped in to point it out."

Talon-.

Oh no, where's Batman?

"I don't suppose that you left Batman behind, did you?"

Diana smiles menacingly. "You really shouldn't underestimate him."

"And you shouldn't underestimate a magic house owned by a supervillain that's also full of supervillains." I crank-. No. I remove Diana's lasso from her belt, take the end in my right hand and put the noose around Superman's neck. "Did Batman come with you?"

Truth

His eyes glow for a sec-.

Truth

"Are you trying to trick us?"

Truth

"I'm trying to persuade you by any means I can, but genuinely regard direct conflict as contrary to the interests of this version of America. The information I gave the Flash was accurate, and only as slanted as what I've seen was slanted."

Wait, this version of the lasso compels truth at both ends? Darn it!

Truth

"Batman didn't come with us. He's hanging back until we secure an entry point for the rest of the Justice League."

I drop that lasso and carefully use constructs to wind it back up. "Happy now?"

Mr West shakes his head. "Were those..? Figures right? All the people who died in Wisconsin?"

"As.. far as I know, yes. Approximately three million deaths. Six sevenths of the population. No one knows exactly what happened because everyone anywhere near the city died, but that's basically what I don't want to see happen everywhere else as well. That's what.. happens when two heavily armed groups square off and no one blinks. I.. spoke to Enigma, the leader of the Justice Underground, and he said he was fine-."

I reach down and pick up the lasso again.

Truth

"That he was fine with the whole country suffering the same proportion of deaths if it meant that the Syndicate was exterminated. Are you?"

League members.. look at each other. Mr West appears genuinely distressed by what he just saw, and the others... I suppose that when you're used to solving your problems by punching them, it comes as a bit of a shock when you find out that not only can you not solve this one by punching it but you may have actually contributed to three million people dying.

Superman looks up at me. "So what exactly do you want us to do?"

"Go home." I send his chains back into subspace and he stands, glancing expectantly at his comrades. No, not just yet. "Let the Syndicate finish reorganising and disarming. If in a few years the emergency laws President Slade's using have been revoked and the Syndicate is still causing problems then feel free to have a crack at them but until then the risks just aren't worth it."

He rubs his wrists, then folds his arms across his chest. "Even if you're not lying, how do we know that the Syndicate isn't going to go right back to building giant bombs?"

"Because it didn't work, they don't have the resources and everyone who knew how to make that bomb is dead." Could we..? "Mister J'onzz, how good is your false mind technique?"

"It should withstand a brief inspection. I am surprised that you have heard of it."

"My parallel's Mars is still inhabited." His eyes.. sadden slightly. "There aren't that many telepaths in the building. If I take you around the building, you could do surface scans of a cross section of Made Men. See what they're planning. If you-."

The door opens. Duela is knocked forwards, but turns it into a tumbling roll and comes to her feet as-.

Ultraboy stares at the bound members of the Justice League. Then stares at Superman.

"Pa-?"

Then he stares at the 'S' and lunges!

"You're a dead man!"