Andrew listens to the ruling and nods to himself. It felt good knowing that he had supported the right choice. That said it felt better that the right choice had still lead to the correct punishment.

Michael smiles wanly, "Thank you all for your well wishes, it was a bit close there." He looks to Cody and nods saying aloud, "Yes, I think that is a fitting way for her to end and I am well enough to assist you." He looks as grim as Cody and follows as he is led down to the brig where Caroline the sphinx and serial killer is lying unconscious having been gassed with a light dose of sedative. Lorean makes a doorway and the two men enter.

Cody silently asks Michael to turn around and close his eyes, not understanding but trusting his partner he does. Removing his ever present glasses Cody allows the full effect of his disorienting gaze to wash over the prone form. Screaming in her own mind and through the maid's voice Caroline is effected deeply, her will slowing being eroded. After what seems like a long time to those watching on the recording, but is really only a couple minutes Cody reaches out and takes Michael's hand. Sensing that something is different with the prisoner's defenses he nods and waits for Cody to lead. Again the men assault the sphinx's will. They succeed and breach her defenses and their will becomes her command.

After Cody pronounces sentence a vaporous energy form flows out of the maid's mouth and hangs trembling in the air for a few moments before dissipating with a slightly audible sigh.

Afterwards, Lorean dropped the shields and sends over the link as audibly for Joani's sake, "Thank you. I was feeling a bit strained there at the end maintaining the shield. It is just a shame it came to this, but I think you all did the right thing."

Once Cody adjusts the maids memories to edit out what the sphinx did and the time in the brig etc, Morgan enters and heals her and takes her sleeping form back down to the hotel and places her in a bed where she will wake up later with no memory of what occurred.

Joani watched how Cody and Michael put an end to her former tormentor. She held her breath through the process and unconsciously reached for the Presidents hand - she needed something - someone to hold on to. As she realized the death of Caroline she knew that something else died with her. Mozarts requiem came to her mind and she closed her eyes. In her minds eye she saw the end of her former life and the birth of her new life amongst her brothers - her kin. She was afraid of what was still to come and if she could live up to everybodies expectations.

She opened her eyes and watched the last seconds of Caroline holding that picture fast in her memory. Her live would never be the same again...

"So, it has happened. The first execution of one of our kind ... by others of our kind. Not the last I'm afraid."

Ulric had studied the execution intently. It had not been what he had expected, but how could it. Would this be something more than a haunting footnote, or was this the foreshadowing of what was to come. If taint was really a century away from being curable ... and no means of imprisonment was developed ... this would continue. It had to continue of their world was to survive.

Ulric put a hand on Joani's shoulder.
"It is time to start anew, SuperGirl."

Sapped of Will and unable to posses anyone in the room, Cody opens up his hand and absorbs the cloud into himself, stripping the quantum energy away from the consciousness it fueled and adding power to his own matrix.

{{Q-leech, to replenish the juice spent on all his power use. Cody will absorb up to his maximum amount...The Maid and Harold still need work.}}

After it was done, Cody knelt over the maid. She was feverish. Before she had been fully sedated, the witch had tried to burn out her brain with encephalitis. Cody's armor retracted and he stroked her sweat matted hair tenderly.

*I will take away this terrible nightmare...*

When she was done he had implanted a fairly normal day at work. Explaining her disappearance to her family was trickier, but made much easier by the commotion that had been caused earlier. The police need to question her, and it took them awhile to get around to her. Unfortunately she was in a different part of the hotel. She heard the gunfire and an explosion and had gone to hide in an empty room until she was sure it was safe...

After seeing to her, and still more than primed with energy (In fact Cody seems to be almost glowing with his quantum infusion) he makes his way down to verify the information Caroline had given on Harold directly. And after that there was an entire list of baseline sleepers that needed "adjustment." It was turning out to be a hard day's night...

The execution itself was eerie. The sigh let out by Caroline, as she vanished, almost seemed like resignation and acceptance. Omar could not imagine what it felt like for her. He also felt as if he had comitted a sin. If only.

If only she had shown remorse. If only she had shown some sort of contrition. But the woman didn't. She showed that she did not want to work for the betterment of mankind. Her attitude was monstrous. She killed people. Deep inside though, Omar still felt dirty. She gave us no other option! His fists tightened until his hands turned white.

He needed to speak with a priest.

"My freind I hope you are wrong about that," Andrew says quietly from behind, having returned to the bridge. "We can hope that things get better, and that we never are put into a situation where a nova must consume another person's life in this way. Alas I fear that all may just be wishfull thinking." Andrew sits at one of the stations and stares at the screen as Cody "fixes" the maid.

Steve watches the execution without expression then comments,

"Caroline, the real Caroline, died a long time ago. She'd probably be horrified at what she became. This was both justice and mercy."

Steve says,

"If it makes you feel better, we didn't make the choices, subconscious or not, that led her to having this problem. It got dumped on our laps, and we and the world would have been poorer if we'd looked away and let her continue. This was her failure, not ours. Given the situation, I think we did all right."

"The only part that bothers me is we didn't have options that we should have. This was a wake up call."

Andrew nods, his face grim for a moment at the thought of the missed opportunities. Finally he turns to Steve, "I agree, we should have been working on both governing rules, not laws, they can't be laws until specials go public, for novas and psiads alike. Similarly I should have found a way to work on the null-field generator. My own discomfort at the very existance of that machine aside, it is an important piece of technology if we are ever to enforce law upon novas and imprison them without keeping them sedated or on a permanent mox drip."

Andrew rubs his face, it'd been a long day and an emotionally draining one. "Perhaps you and I and some of more technical members of the crew can setup a facility planetside to work on the device and get it working before we need it again.

"Toward the same goal perhaps Ulrich and Omar can begin law reforms that will lay the groundwork for when the specials do finally go public."

Steve replies,

"Agreed, fully. And you can add to that list a portable generator for the psi-screen, we had a hard time protecting Joani & Matt, and warding off Caroline. Bottom line, we got lucky."

"We'll need some waldos for that field for you..." Steve seems unusually hesitant for this next part, "...I'm willing to work directly on it, but only if there's someone who doesn't depend on quantum to pull me out. I don't *think* it would give me a heart attack, but until we find out I'm not working on it alone."

[quote=Ulric Reikspar
Ulric put a hand on Joani's shoulder.
"It is time to start anew, SuperGirl."[/quote]

Joani turned to face the President and said, "I don't know if I'm ready for this but I want to do it. I need to fill this emptiness Caroline has left and the sooner I act the less time I have to think about all that is lost."

She looked over to Omar, Steve and Andrew as they were having their own conversation about the execution.

"Do you think they'll accept your ideas? I barely know you all and no one really knows me..." she shook her head in frustration. Maybe she should just ask the others and get rid of her insecurities. Apologizing to the President she broke out of his presence and joined the others, her high heels clacking and announcing her approach.

"We didn't have much time to introduce ourselves... I'm Joani" she pronounced. A little nervous she waited for the others to answer. "Newborn...", she added lowly.

Steve gives her a smile and reaches over to shake her hand and even give her a hug if she'll let him and says,

"Hi Joani, I'm Steve Courier. Welcome to our world, it's been a rough few hours for you, but hopefully the future looks a lot brighter. Ah... you up for a talk about what we do?"

Lorean stood by Steve and Andrew listening to the talk in the room and nodded in satisfaction. Not being human in the same sense as the rest gave her a slightly different perspective. She felt empathy for those around her and even for the mass of humanity with whom she had never come in contact, but for Caroline there was no sympathy whatsoever. Becoming a monster like that was a choice as far as she was concerned and the world was better off without her and that was all there was to it. After Steve and Andrew had finished speaking she added, "I think you also need to accelerate your timetable for revealing the meta-humans. Caroline's plot failed, but if she noticed what you have been doing then others will as well sooner or later. Better to have the metas out in the open before another crisis like this comes up, we may not be so lucky a second time."

As Joani approached hesitantly and introduced herself officially, Lorean gave her a warm smile. "Be welcome among us Joani." She grinned and pulled out a small metal cylinder from her belt, "In fact now that the telepathic threat is gone, I have a link device for you that will allow you to communicate with us from anywhere on the planet." Raising it questioningly she waits for Joani's nod before placing the hypospray up to her neck and injecting the tiny link just behind her ear. Over the link, *Welcome Joani, you will always have a home among us.*

"Indeed, luckily even now the technology is coming along to make it less of a hassle, it was mostly our lack of foresight that lead to the device sitting and gathering dust. Something I will make a point to remedy. I don't claim to know a lot about how quantum works on the body I think you would be safe. I, on the other hand, I have no idea if I could survive. I think that this," he indicates himself, "Is just a subconscious 'reflex image' using my shapeshifting. Without quantum I might end up little more than a puddle of ... well whatever ..."



Andrew does his best to smile but finds that given the day and the recent events it comes hard, "I'm Andrew Murphy, I'm actually from a future where there were no novas, at least not publically. I erupted after joining the crew, so I've been through some similar kinds of ... trauma, I guess.

"I'm a shapeshifter, and what I did earlier," he points to his arm and mimics peeling back the skin, "That really was me, my eruption liquified my body, made it uniform. Umm, it's kinda hard to explain given the level of science you know about, I'll explain in detail later if you'd like."

"We discussed this earlier today. It will take a lot more work to make our thoughts a reality, but we are thinking on the subject. Like the rest of you, I was thinking we had more time, but now I am sure we don't. This is the first incident, but it won't be the last."

"I say we give ourselves a day or two to defuse then we vote on a schedule for revealing Specials to the world. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can have public tribunals and an open form of justice. We will no longer have to bear this burden."

Ulric thinks for a moment.
"Our ideas right now are two-fold. First we - I - want to create an International Police Force - INTERPOL. Somewhat like your world's INTERPOL, but with real police powers world-wide, responsible to the League of Nations, and staffed with a mixture of Specials and baselines. I think I can start this off almost immediately. I have Matthew Satterfield here," he points over the the out-of-place Englishman," as our first recruit. I'm already scheduling security talks with all the Union members."

"The second prong is the Freedom League. I want Joani here to head it up. We, with the help of the Aeon Society, can recruite like minded Specials who want to be Paragon's of Human behavior as members. We arrange for it to have truly independant financing, so that it is beholden to no other worldly power."

"I think the two agencies combined would be able to tackle any Special's threat to the Earth's security. INTERPOL can do the legwork, the legal work, and take people to trial. The Freedom League can go after the really powerful threats, huge natural disasters, and other such calamities."

"What do you think?" he asks the assembled novas.

"I would like to lend my abilities to the Freedom League. To do so, however, would mean that I would have to resign my position as President of the CAC. I don't know if I could moonlight, or if the people would support me after becoming part of the group. I could be wrong."

Omar shrugs his shoulders in resignation. "I fear however, that things are still too unstable in that region. I have Islamic sects that are fighting every reform I put forth to the people. These radical sects do not want to modernize. They see it as a threat to their power." He chuckles a little bit. "The fact that I am a Christian really drives them crazy."

"I will need time to think on it."

Steve sighs, not totally unexpected but still not desired, and says,

"Agreed. I'd hoped to do more about racism before this, but we do what we can."

Steve nods again,

"Agreed. If I had to bet money I'd say that's the way to bet. My life? For that I'd want a backup."Steve answers,

"Solid plans all. It's going to be a real effort to not let nationalism step on some of those ideas, but it is the way forward."

Joani relaxes visibly as she sees how well the others respond to her. Lorean remains a sweetheart and though she may be not really human her actions are more human than most citizens of earth.
Her eyes wander from Steve to Andrew to Omar as they all start to introduce themselves and share their thoughts with her.

Before she can add some of her own thoughts she hears the President speak out about the Freedom League and lets him finish the proposal and smiles a little as he mentions her as Leader of the Paragons.

"I agree with Steve that Caroline was a wake up call and I believe that we shouldn't lose time with much organisational laws and rules. Maybe we can find a good event in the near future to introduce me to the public and I will work out with the President a speech to set the first pillars of the Freedom League. Omar can join anytime he wants to. I must confess I'd really appreciate having him as first Lieutenant since he is more experienced than I am. We could make a good team - even so in public as we are obviously from different cultural backgrounds. This may prove useful in regards of prejudice against other nations. No one should be ashamed of his cultural heritage and background." she smiled confidently with an inner fire unseen before.

"I even have a costume ready!", barely finishing her sentence she swirls in blinding speed and stands with her hands resting on her hips wearing the classical Supergirl outfit with the S-Shield on her chest and cape.

To Omar,
"You might think about how much good you could do as a Paragon for your People instead of just a president. Your hands would no longer be tied by the backlash of some influencial Iman, or radical leader."

"I can bridge the gap between nationalities easier because of the Great War. I may be German and a Protestant, but I have an advantage. We all lost so much, and each of the major nations has plenty of veterans who support what the European Union stands for. Omar, you need to find someone who better matches the ethniticity and religion of your region. Maybe someone who was in the nascent Arab Nationalist movement who you could groom as your successor."



"I agree. That is why we need to bring this Freedom League together with Specials from America, the EU, the CAC, India - by way of the Commonwealth, and China. Maybe two or three Specials from each zone. We can add Africa, South America, and South East Asia when they are ready, willing, and able."

Looking at Joani's display and her resulting costume, he smiles saying,
"That's the spirit. We must have Paragons in Shape, Substance, and Manner."

Omar shudders at his statement. It was offensive and Omar tried his best not to grab the little man and knock him senseless. Instead, he would voice his displeasure.

"Better matches the ethnicity and religion of the region? What the hell is that supposed to mean!" Omar tried calming down. "I am Kurdish. I grew up in the city of Baghdad. I am QUITE familiar with the culture there! As for sharing the 'religion' of the region. Christians trace their heritage there too."

But what really pissed him off, he saved for last. "I have seen the nightmare of Arab Nationalism! I am working to PREVENT that from happening!" Omar slams his fist on the table. "I suggest you look up the Muslim Brotherhood, The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Ali Husseini), and Arab Socialism (Baathism). Lorien has plenty of records available!"

"I also suggest you look through Lorien's records and catch up with history! I will not have everything I am working on, ruined because someone is ignorant of the past...future... Bah! What's the difference anymore!"

Omar tossed his hands up into the air, cursing in Arabic. He stormed off the bridge towards his bedroom.

Joani looked concerned at Omars breakout and after nodding quietly to the President she quickly paced to follow Omar.

"Omar - please wait. We need you... The world out there needs you. If we can't overcome our own flaws how are we supposed to lead this world to a better tomorrow? I understand your passion and feel for you but for gods sake don't leave like this. We are all a little bit stressed because of the latest events. Don't let this rule your heart Please stay... besides that, I like your company." she tried to find his eyes and give him a sweet smile.

Omar didn't want to be disturbed. He avoided her gaze, moving his head to do so. After a few seconds, he pivots on his heels and heads down a different hallway. "I don't want company right now! I want to work out!"

Omar growled in Arabic as he walked away from Joani: "يمكن للعالم ان الاختناق عن نفسها! "

If anything could calm Omar down, it was a little sweat.

Steve mentally counts,

*3, 2, 1, right about... now.*Steve watches Omar storm off, followed by Joani, and comments,

"He has a point. The middle east was such a mess in our time it might not be possible for a baseline to deal with the various actors and interests."

"Also, we're going to go public soon. 6 months? 12? Something like that. When that happens, it might be a good thing to have a nova on the spot there."

Andrew watches as Omar storms off, "Actually all this talk of politics makes my head hurt after the disucssion from earlier, I think I'm going to get some rest or something."

Andrew wanders off on his own, he stops in the café and grabs some food before heading to his cabin. Once there he begins to start reading up on engineering and medical texts. There's a lot to learn before I can solve all these problems ...

Lorean sighs and nods to Steve and says quietly, "That was predictable." To the room at large, "I think it might be best if we all retire for the evening and get some rest, it has been a very trying day. Why don't you all join me for a late brunch in 10-forward tomorrow and we can discuss what our next step is." With that she very slowly begins to lower the lights on the bridge until everyone gets the point and heads to their own quarters for sleep, or planet-side as the case may be.

*******

After an evening's sleep with everyone as rested as they can be the gathering comes together over a typical nova-sized meal in 10-forward. Conversation does not begin to strike up again until nova appetites are appeased. Once people start looking like they are ready to talk Lorean clears her throat and speaks, "Thanks to Cody's work on Harold, I was able to send a couple of the crew members to pickup and dispose off all the pamphlets that Caroline had her henchman create." Hologram Lorean smiles at everyone and adds, "Thank you all for being patient with me yesterday, that is the first time I've ever felt so lacking. If only I had been prepared for such an emergency you would not have had to act in such a rush. I will make a point of working on extending my energy reserves in the years to come so that you will not be put in such a position again as well as developing various shielding technologies." With that the hologram Lorean disappears, leaving the floor open for others to speak.

What could Ulric say? He didn't share the poison of the Off-Worlder's experiences. He had read their histories, but from a detached perspective. This time, with his usual confidence, he thought that Omar was too close to the situation. He had seen Arab Nationalism twisted and abused by men greedy for power. The philosophy was what the CAC needed - any philosophy that all the disparate ethnic groups could rally behind. Before the age of European intervention and the Zionist movement, the Arab world had protected their Christian and Jewish minorities, but Omar had to realize that the majority of the people he was leading were Arab and Turkish, not Kurdish - Islamic, and not Christian - and this in a part of the world were such things really mattered.

Considering the hurtles Ulric had to go through convincing the French and British to work with their Great War rival, all as equals, Ulric felt he had a better hand on the actual politics of the current real world - well his real world - situation. Omar had been an oppressed minority, tortured, and singled out for the harshest glare of a totalitarian state. Still, from Ulric's point of view, Hussein's politics hadn't mattered. The man had been a Stalinist and a paranoid, narcisistic madman. Whatever party he claimed to head, or slogans he mouthed were false. Omar had to see this.

What mattered to Ulric was the results. Hell, he had used part of the Todt program from the Nazi playbook to get Germany back on her feet so fast. It had worked for those foul murders and it had worked for him. It didn't make him a Nazi. Ulric had made the Germans a proud people once more, and he had directed that pride toward the goal of unifying Europe. All across Europe, the various people considered the European Union 'theirs'. To a degree it was, and it was - Ulric was - working for them.

************

"I think I speak for everyone here, Lorean, when I say we were all taken by surprise by yesterday's events. I doubt anyone blames you for a situation none of us saw coming so soon."

"I would like to reitirate my three projects I'm working on. As head of the EU, I am going to start the creation of INTERPOL. I am going to be asking for the Aeon Society to help us recruit Special operatives to begin training for duty in this new law enforcement agency. I want this agency to graduate to the perview of the League of Nations. My initial program will include Europe, America, colonial Africa, India, and South East Asia."

"I think South America, Japan, and the CAC can come aboard when they are ready, but once the benefits of INTERPOL are evident, I think everyone will be joining. This will give the League some real legal clout world wide, so military solutions will be less necessary."

"My second project is the Freedom League, or as it has been suggested, The Paragons. I don't plan to join, but I hope to arrange the independent funding that allows the Paragons to be a totally independant group of Specials worldwide. Again, I will be asking the Aeon Society to help recruit the best, brightest, and most dedicated Specials to serve."

"Thirdly, I want to work with the British to bring in its various member colonies straight into the League of Nations. I also plan to include them in INTERPOL's recruitment, in order to make that a truly international body. I plan to include the various other European colonial powers in this plan."

"These are my plans for the next few years, anyway," he says with a calm sense of certainty.

Omar sits at the table with the others, looking a little ashamed. Joani was right. It had been a stressful day. He owed her an apology. He and Ulric needed to sit down and discuss things like civilized people. No smug European self-superiority from Ulric and no overly sensitive hostility from Omar.

He looked at the others and instead of telling them what he planned, he had written them down. Sometimes words had the habit of slipping through a person's ear. On it, were bulletpoints outlining his plans. Modernization, Liberalization, the Reformation of Islam, Women's Emancipation and Sufferage, and education.

After the rest look through his plans, he speaks.

"I apologize to everyone. But especially to Joani and Ulric for my outburst last night." Omar took a deep breath, it was obvious that apologies were not usual for Omar.

"I would also like to join the Paragons. However, I think it would be prudent if I led a Crisis Response Team of the Paragons. I don't want Joani's job as head of the paragon's. I am just saying that I have experience in crisis situations. Also, since that job would also be very public, I would be forced to wear my mask. Once a constitution is passed and ratified by the citizens of the CAC, I will resign and unmask."

Steve says,

"Feel free to drag me into investigations and the like, but I'm planning on spending a lot time managing our economic weight. Funding things and political types we like, buying more media, working with Andrew to start more companies, that sort of thing. With education I'm going to push hard for less ignorance in the scientific and economic fields."

"I think we'll be ready to go public with specials in about 6 months, a year at the latest. Andrew and I will move hard on that damping technology. We're going to need a jail shortly after going public. Ideally we'd wait another 10 years but that's just not going to happen. Personally I'm planning on staying in the closet for a while, maybe get really good at wearing age related make up."

"Socially I think civil rights and the voting rights act will be big issues over the next 10 years. It's going to be a big rock to move but we've already started pushing it slightly."

"All of this is neccessary, but I have to say much of the real work in the next decade or two will be in Law creation. I think the world of you public types who are going to manage it. It's you who are really going to be creating our society, but someone has to stay in the shadows and I think that's me."

"On a personal power development front I think we all need to work hard on creating mind shields. There's going to be a LOT more telepaths in this society and all of us know too much."