Yue

 24th January

03:29 GMT -8

"Hmm."

Hinon regards a construct-image of my opponent. Who hasn't arrived yet. He was heading this way. but whatever his faster than light speed is it isn't as fast as I can move. It's the middle of the night here in Coast City, and the orange light illuminates Ferris Air's airfield. Not really sure why she was here, but I'd guess that it was something to do with Ms Ferris herself.

"Was this.. something you were planning on telling me about..?"

She look up from her contemplations. "Oh, don't look at me. I'm an expert in glow manipulation technology. I didn't do this."

"So you didn't know that-."

"I thought that you understood, but let me make it very clear. I am a member of species of multi-millennial omni-disciplinary geniuses. I know what all of the Controllers working under me with the Orange Lantern Corps are doing for part of their time. But I don't know what they're doing all of the time. And I don't know what the rest are doing at all."

"He specifically said 'Controller'."

"Even if-."

"What did you do with the Martian I sent you?"

"If you remember, I was in a coma."

"Didn't you ask? I thought you were the Controller in charge of me-related shenanigans."

"Didn’t you ask?" She dismisses her construct. "If it bothers you so much-."

"I thought they'd just turn them into a modern martian. Or keep them in containment. Isn't there some sort of.. policy about letting other Controllers know when you're operating in their area?"

"Quite the opposite, actually. We usually don't get involved in one another's projects at all."

"Do you have a rule about not doing things liable to antagonise the Guardians? Because I'm fairly sure that hunting down and killing people is the sort of thing they're against."

"That.. varies, actually. If there was a warrant issued by a local stellar power, he could legitimately pursue it. There isn't any sort of collective licensing requirement in this region."

"So… We -as an organisation- don't actually-?"

"We are not an organisation. We Controllers are a collaboration. And until I know which of us it was-" A plume of fire appears in the air above us as he heads towards us. "-who worked on this fellow I can't really comment on their motivations."

Just in case he doesn't know where we are, I create a large orange pointer in the air above us. I rather got the impression from Lantern Jordan that the local authorities have developed pretty good policies for handling weird stuff happening. They've sort of had to. This shouldn't warrant a panic, though it would be polite-.

Ring, explanatory message to the local police chief.

Message sent.

The… No. I'm sure that someone considered this to be a strikingly memorable design, but this is a comic character of whom I have zero recollection. I can't blurt out either a personal name or code name I shouldn't know because I genuinely don't.

"Hey." He glances my way and then focuses his attention on Hinon. "Do I salute you or whatever?"

"You don't have to, but I won't stop you if you choose to." He raises his right hand to somewhere near his forehead and waves it. "I suppose that will do. Now, young man, who are you?"

"Effigy."

"I suppose it has the virtue of being short. And what were you doing?"

"Hunting pirates. The Controller who made me thought it would be a good way to field-test…" He clenches his right fist, and a gauntlet apparently made of fire covers it. "This."

"The Controller in question. Male? Female? Other? Did they give a name?

"He said you didn't really use names." His mask-face looks puzzled. "You.. have names?"

"Yes, yes we do. I am Hinon Hee Hannanan, and the whole 'no names' thing is an idiotic affectation which some of my juniors have adopted. Did he give you some way to contact him?"

"No, he just said that he'd check up on me in a couple of weeks."

"Tiresome. Give me a moment while I try and find out which of us it was."

He shrugs as orange lights speckle the air around her.

"Can you turn back?"

"What?"

"Can you turn back. I mean-" I wave my right hand in front of my face. "-are you.. stuck looking like that, or can you turn it off?" He stares at me. "You do know that your face-?"

"You think I want to turn this off?"

"It might make social interaction a little awkward."

"Nah, fuck it. I'm owning this. Being me wasn't so great anyway."

"You sure? I'm guessing that the mask follows the original contours of your face. I don't mind making you a holographic disguise."

"You shot me."

"We clearly had conflicting orders-"

"As if we ever gave you orders."

"-and while I'm not convinced what you were doing was the best way to go about it, there's a difference between that and 'some guy randomly attacking shipping', which is what I initially thought you were doing."

He smirks. "You going to apologize properly, then?"

"If you can show me details of the investigation you conducted and the evidence you gathered, I'll consider it."

"That ship was registered as being taken by pirates with the Zakkaria ship registry."

"Which doesn’t prove that the current owners had anything to do with that."

"So they trade with pirates." He shrugs. "That's how they make money-."

"There are plenty of ways to make a transaction appear legitimate which don't involve them saying 'yes, you're totally not pirates, wink wink'. And in any case, the Zakkaria ship registry isn't completely reliable. Quite aside from ships having a standard design and it being perfectly possible to change names and transponders, there are dozens of occasions when ships have been registered as 'taken by pirates' for insurance reasons or.. by people trying to get their rivals in legal trouble."

"So why didn't they say any of that?"

"Have you looked in a mirror recently? You don't exactly project the image of an officer of the law."

He looks himself over. "What? How is my costume different to what other superheroes wear?"

"Aliens don't really have super-."

"Aah."

We both turn to Hinon as a construct image of another Controller appears beside her.