Episode 116: Sungate, Part 1
Takes place 11 September 2012.
Short version
Paul visits the planet Minosyss, home to the Titan Rhea's children, to decommission and remove the Sun Eaters stored there, but while he's there, the Titans are attacked by their cousin Sparta.
Longer version
Paul meets with Green Lantern Vode-M, who wants to destroy the cannibalistic Spider Guild, but cannot do so under the Green Lantern Corps rules of engagement. She eventually decides not to take up an orange ring instead, but does appreciate the opportunity to reflect on her own motivations and values.
Paul later learns from Hinon that the Titans have taken over the planet Minosyss, and wish to make contact with the Controllers. She tasks Paul with meeting with them, and advises him to bring a staff, so he reaches out to Melinoë, and her attendant minor goddesses Gaudia and Aporia. The Titans prove to be hospitable, and ask for help in decommissioning and removing the Maltusians' abandoned weapon factories on Minosyss, so that they will no longer be a threat.
Paul attempts to interact with the factory, but is unable to do much without a Maltusian present. While he is there, however, one of the Titans, Phoebe, is attacked and rendered brain-dead. Aporia reports having heard a boom tube opening, but when a fleet approaches the planet, they turn out to be led by Sparta, a granddaughter of the Titan Rhea — who does, nonetheless, have boom tube access somehow, and uses them to launch an assault.
The title likely refers to the dimensional travel nexus at Minosyss.
- Alternate Universe:
- A new instance of Paul is introduced, who apparently found himself in Earth's far distant past, and became a part of indigenous Australian mythology.
- Mandated!Paul appears again. This time, he is acting as the temporary librarian of a magic library and provides advice to a version of Doctor Strange.
- Power Ring Blue shows up and discusses with Ultraboy on how the Young Offenders will operate moving forward.
- Green Lantern Jade Scott has collated medical records from the many Pauls she encountered in Duplication to treat Guy Gardner's brain injury. The results are mixed.
- Beard of Evil: On Earth -14, during the Syndicate's relocation, Ultraboy grows a goatee. Power Ring Blue thinks it doesn't suit him, but lets him be.
- Blasphemous Boast: Paul asserts that Gaudia and Aporia don't have anything he wants, and that he's already more powerful than them. Since they're only minor gods, servants to Hades, he may be right, but they're still offended by his attitude.
- Blunt "No": This is Paul's response to two Greek goddesses propositioning him in exchange for power rings — because they were mostly interested in slacking off and getting away from their jobs. When he examines their souls more closely, however, he does start to reconsider them as Lantern candidates.
- Grandfather Paradox: Mandated!Paul gives Doctor Strange some advice on how to work around this when trying to go back in time and save someone from dying. What he needs to do is convincingly fake the death, or alter his younger self's mind to believe she died, so that he still sets out to revive her, thus forming a Stable Time Loop.
- Hypocrite: Coeus is incensed to learn that Zeus ate Metis, since that behaviour from Cronus was Zeus' stated cause for rallying the younger gods and overthrowing the Titans in the first place. Paul reassures him that Zeus doesn't rule the Earth, or even get a notable amount of worship any more.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: Paul says as such when the Titans suspect him of being involved in the attack on one of their members. If he wanted to attack them, he'd either do it on sight or with thorough planning, and he would choose a higher profile target like Hyperion, rather than Phoebe. Oh, and it would be against his current orders.
- Tsundere: Melinoë is constantly dismissive and critical toward Paul, but she keeps making time for him and quite likes how he's connected her with more people in the modern world. And has to blank her face sometimes to stop herself from smiling around him. Not that she'll stop calling him "idiot" any time soon.
- Violence Really Is the Answer: Paul and Vode-M are unable to identify any solution to the Spider Guild's depredations except to kill most of them and confiscate or destroy most of their infrastructure. They don't have noteworthy internal dissension, their neighbours wouldn't be willing to invest the time and effort in occupying their worlds, and any Guilders arrested for specific crimes would be swiftly replaced by others just as bad. Since that would get her kicked out of the Green Lantern Corps, Vode-M eventually decides against committing genocide, but she doesn't have another way to fix the problem.
