Episode 104: Cold Iron
Takes place 25-28 June 2012.
Short version
The Sheeda Harrowing is beaten in the Paragon timeline.
Longer version
The team that travelled to Witch World gets back to Earth with three warlocks, the puritans accompanying them, and their spoils. However, they arrive in the middle of a Sheeda attack, as time moved slower in Witch World. While they were away, the Harrowing had already begun.
Contrary to Paul's expectations, the Sivana family has made only a very limited response to the Harrowing, preferring to study and test the Sheeda for educational purposes rather than simply annihilate them. However, Dr Sivana agrees to step up his efforts and defeat the Harrowing in exchange for global pardons for himself and his two criminal children.
While in the process of negotiating the pardons, Paul is attacked by a Sheeda high-born and captures her. The Justice League's magicians use her equipment, which has been on board the Castle Revolving, to open a portal to the Castle and land a strike force. They find that it's in the pocket dimension where Lord Malvolio lives, an old and immensely powerful Green Lantern who does not belong to the Corps and canonically fought Lantern Jordan.
Malvolio considers the Sheeda his guests, but is initially willing to negotiate, until the Flash angrily attacks the surviving Sheeda and kills the Queen, prompting Malvolio to attack them for slighting his honour. However, Wonder Woman is able to hold him off long enough for Paul to break the prison that surrounds his space sector, and they make their escape with the few surviving prisoners of the Sheeda, leaving the Castle Revolving depopulated and wrecked.
With the Castle and Queen gone, and Doctor Sivana becoming more active, the Harrowing is soon defeated and cleanup begins. However, large parts of the Earth have been depopulated, especially in South America and Africa.
The title presumably refers to the traditional fae vulnerability to iron, just as the Harrowing is vulnerable to Paul and to Dr Sivana.
The Renegade introduces Artemis to Luna; Luna is very unsettled by her presence and her closeness to the Renegade, but eventually accepts his assurance that he and Artemis are not romantically involved, just long acquainted.
- Alien Abduction: Parodied when Paul encounters an alien (well, nonhuman) woman who seems to harbour fantasies about being abducted by aliens, and he has no plans to do anything of the sort to her; he just has a few questions to ask her.
- Alternate Universe: We get a look at Warhammer 40K Paul with the Tau. In the first section he's talking to the Tau about picking a successor, in the second he's helping them clear a Chaos Cult from a former Imperial world... where he runs straight into CAIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!
- Beware the Nice Ones: Flash is usually an easy-going League member who keeps things from getting too intense and personal. This is evident in earlier situations like the Earth 12 League, where he tried to keep their "what did we all do wrong" discussion light-hearted, and on Earth 50, where the Flash's death led to the Justice Lords forming their totalitarian government. But this time, he's seen the Sheeda cause too much death and horror, and he doesn't intend to leave any of them alive.
- Charged Attack: A group of Congregation members gathers a glow around them for several seconds before launching a blast bright enough to blind attacking Sheeda.
- Draw Aggro: Paul draws a Sheeda Huntsman's attention away from Hal by firing a gravity converter at it — the same weapon that he used last year to no effect on the Huntsman but devastating effect on its control centre.
- Failed Attempt at Scaring: A Sheeda highborn warrior mistakes Paul for Harold Jordan, and tries to weaken him by intimidating him, then throws a magical spear through time and stabs him in the chest with it. However, with his ring keeping him together, Paul isn't seriously hurt, and with his past combat experience, he's not impressed either.Aeres: Do you fear me now?
Paul: Six months ago an angel shoved a burning sword through my skull, while I was in hell and defended by an army of demons. I'm sorry, but no matter what you do you're not going to get the emotional reaction you're looking for. - The Gloves Come Off:
- Batman assembles a strike team to hit the Castle Revolving, made up of Justice League members (plus Paul) who are willing to kill, and they do not intend to take prisoners. Paul even uses his avarice manipulation abilities, not for his usual Mind Control, but simply to shred the desire networks of hostiles.
- Most concerning of all, the Flash, who is normally fairly pacifist, dons a black suit for the mission instead of his usual red, and proves to be out for blood, interrupting diplomacy to assassinate the Sheeda Queen with a spray of too many relativistic projectiles to dodge.Flash: And I'm not even a little bit sorry.
- Large Ham: Lord Malvolio introduces himself rather verbosely and dramatically.
- Mistaken Identity: A Sheeda Highborn is attacking Paul while he's alone. However, she believes she is facing Harold Jordan, to Paul's chagrin.Paul: I'm going to pretend that you didn't say that.
Lady Aeres: Do you fear me? Does the knowledge that none of your vaulted skills will matter against me threaten to unman you less you block it from your mind?
Paul: No, it's just this thing where people from the future have no idea who I am. It's getting a bit annoying. - No-Sell: Lady Aeres' spear travels backward through time and appears in Paul's chest before she throws it. He's a bit puzzled at first by how she did it, but "a small hole in my chest isn't much of a problem these days."Aeres: Do you fear me now?
Paul: Six months ago an angel shoved a burning sword through my skull, while I was in hell and defended by an army of demons. I'm sorry, but no matter what you do you're not going to get the emotional reaction you're looking for. - "Not So Different" Remark: Played with by Mammon, who points out the Justice League's flaws, the many people that Wonder Woman and Captain Atom and Hawkwoman have killed, how Batman is full of anger, etc. When called out for using this trope, however, he freely acknowledges that they're quite different from him, simply because he kills without caring about it whereas they'll do it and then feel bad afterwards.Mammon: You don't get points for that, by the by.
- The Pardon: In exchange for his considerable resources to defeat the Sheeda, Dr. Sivana wants pardons for himself and his two younger children from every country on the planet.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: This isn't said explicitly, but before they properly talk through what Artemis means for their relationship, Luna kisses the Renegade unexpectedly and while visibly full of fear. She calms down a lot as their conversation confirms that she won't lose him nor have to (romantically) share him.
- Polyamory: Princess Luna's reaction to Artemis is to assume that Grayven wants to form a "herd" — and she isn't happy about the prospect, but is not so much jealous as she is uncertain of her own standing. Grayven assures her, however, that he and Artemis are merely Platonic Life-Partners.
- Rage Breaking Point: At the start of the strike mission, the Flash dresses in black and insists on taking part, despite usually being opposed to killing, because he saw firsthand what the Sheeda do. When he later hears Diana offer to allow the Sheeda to be exiled into Lord Malvolio's domain rather than brought to trial, he's had enough and takes matters into his own hands.
- Sacred Hospitality: Lord Malvolio is displeased that the strike force killed Sheeda who were his guests. Fortunately their diplomat is Wonder Woman, who knows Greek customs intimately. Until the Flash snaps and murders the Sheeda Queen right in front of Malvolio.
- Summon Bigger Fish: When he has some trouble fighting Lady Aeres, a Sheeda Highborn, Paul summons Mammon so that the demon can disarm his opponent, making it much easier for Paul to capture Lady Aeres.Mammon: Her magic isn't bad, but I've got more power than I know what to do with these days. Nearly.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: A year earlier, Paul fought a Sheeda Huntsman in the Sivanas' home on Venus, but couldn't meaningfully hurt it, only delay it, until the Sivanas cobbled together a mad science gun. Now, another Huntsman confronts him on the Castle Revolving, boasting of how Paul will be helpless without the Sivanas to assist him this time. But Paul has the designs of the gun that they used last time and zaps him without fanfare.Hal: Easy when you know how, huh?
- What the Hell, Hero?: Invoked by Hal when the Flash suddenly kills the Sheeda Queen.
- 40K Tau OL gives one to Caiaphas Cain for letting a genestealer cult get established in the Tau Empire, not just because that was a horrible thing to do, but because it means the Hive Fleets will approach the galaxy faster- and they wouldn't just hit Tau planets.
