18th July 12:41 GMT -5

Superboy is sitting on a bed with his back against the headboard. His legs are bent up and his arms are stretched around his knees. He appears to be staring at his feet, and doesn't look up when I walk in. The surly teenager image is somewhat thrown by the orange strands feeding from the ring into his head like some kind of set of science fiction headphones.

"Right. I think I've got a solution."

He fidgets, slightly.

"I don't, I'm sorry, but I don't know enough about your ears' original structure to recreate them, but the ring has picked up enough about Kryptonian genetics now that I should be able to create a copy of Superman's-"

He looks up, his expression neutral.

"-with your genetic markers. You might… You should probably avoid loud noises for a few days while you adjust."

"What'd you mean, genetic markers? I'm a clone of Superman. There shouldn't be any differences."

He doesn't know. What were the League thinking, not telling him? "Okay, look, while I was trying to work out how to fix this, I had to study the way your body works, the way his body works. I think I found out some things you apparently don't know. I don't think you're going to like them, so if you just want me to fix your ears then shut up, I'll do that."

He's gone back to looking away. "I wanna know."

"Alright." I pull up a chair and turn it to face the bed. I sit. "Do you want me to do that talk first, or should I repair your ears first?"

"Ears."

I nod. "I'm afraid that the first stage involves removing the constructs that I've currently got doing the job. I'll still be suppressing the nerves so you won't feel any pain, but you won't actually be able to hear anything until I've finished building the new parts. Once I've done that, I'll connect the nerves, with a construct to limit the volume so that the sound is bearable. Then, I'll slowly remove the construct. If it gets too loud, or starts to hurt, let me know and I'll stop, alright?"

"Mpf."

Ring, erase my mistake.

The ring is perfectly capable of transmuting the material it needs from the surrounding air. Probably wouldn't work for precious metals due to the density and high levels of avarice required, but for healing a team mate I injured? Easy. The inner ear components are literally just copies of Superman's. I don't understand how they work, but then I don't need to. Any idiot can copy and paste.

"Have you started yet?" The volume is a little loud, but at least he isn't shouting. He looks at me.

Time to test his hearing. "Everything is now in place. I have just stopped suppressing the auditory nerves."

His hands slam over his ears, an action which causes him more pain. "Ghuh!"

"They're super sensitive at the moment, but should basically adjust on their own in a few minutes. You coping?"

He nods slowly, clearly still in pain. This is reminding me of something. What is it?

"This reminds me of a story I heard about why Superman stopped going to chapel. Don't know if it's true or not…"

He's looking at me, and his hands are clamped a little less tightly.

"His super powers came in as he grew up. When he was in his mid-teens, his super hearing came in with a vengeance. He could cope with small groups of people, even loud noises once he'd had a moment to adjust. Lots of quiet conversations at once? It was too much."

"Then what..?" He winces again. "Then what happened?"

"No idea. As far as I can tell, he has much better control now."

I think it was from a comic? Something about a cult giving a guy superpowers, and a woman who decided that Superman was an angel. It was a while ago, and it wasn't that memorable.

"Anyway, your new ears. You'll have to be a bit careful navigating around, as sounds won't echo quite like you've gotten used to."

He nods. "Oh-" No wince, but a slight pause. "-okay."

"Now, the other stuff you wanted to know. How blunt do you want me to be?"

"Just, tell me!"

"Okay, ahm, you aren't a pure clone of Superman. About half of you is Kryptonian, maybe a bit more. The rest is Human, with a tiny bit of Genomorph added to make the whole thing work together."

He's slumped, and isn't making eye contact. "That's why I'm weak."

"Well… It's… It's why you don't have the full range of Kryptonian abilities, yes. I don't claim to understand exactly how they work, but it looks like some of the effects generated by your Kryptonian organelles don't propagate fully to the Human components of your body. I mean,-" I form constructs depicting parts his body to illustrate my point. "-those are clearly Kryptonian photoreceptive organelles. That's clearly a Human myelin sheath. Some of this other stuff… I don't know. I've no idea how they made it, and I haven't found anything similar to the Genomorphs. If I had to guess, I'd say they were entirely artificial. For you, they're bridging components to make the other parts work together."

"What does that mean?"

"I d-, I don-, I don't know? I'm not medically trained. Look, I can give this to the League, if you want. See what they can make of it."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why didn't they make me…" He crosses his arms across his chest. "Properly?"

"If you mean as a complete clone… I… I don't know. Maybe they couldn't?"

I feel a bit like I should complain on behalf of the Human species here, but I don't have the heart.

"I thought… I thought I'd get the rest. If I waited."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's going to happen."

He draws his legs up towards his chest. "If it had been Superman…"

"If what had been Superman?"

"Against Mister Twister. If it had been Superman. He wouldn't have gone down like I did."

"You know he's tough, rather than literally invulnerable, right? Sonic attacks are one of his few vulnerabilities as well."

"It doesn't… I should have done better!"

"None of us exactly covered ourselves in glory on that one." This isn't a productive avenue of discussion, as Aqualad would say. "Look, I'm pretty sure we're going to be doing actual teamwork practice from now on. And that orange armour construct I gave you? I can do that in every fight. You want to be stronger, tougher? I can do that."

"Can you make me fully Kryptonian?"

Can I? Should I? It might be possible, but I'm not happy with the idea of reconfiguring his brain like that. "I don't… I don't think so."

"Then don't bother." He swings his legs over the edge of the bed, steps on the floor and walks to the exit. When he reaches it, he pauses. "Thanks for… Fixing my ears."

"No problem."

He nods, and leaves the room.

I've taken to eating lunch on top of the mountain. With my environmental shield active the wind doesn't bother me or my food, and the view is really quite splendid. Superboy could probably do with some time away from me and with the others. And I need to do some thinking about how this is all going to work.

Once he got his head in the game, Aqualad was quite effective at organising the rest of us. I guess that means he'll probably end up in charge of our little coterie. I'll have to talk to him about team practice. I remember the obstacle course which the Teen Titans put Terra through in the cartoon. Don't think that anything like that actually exists here, and we wouldn't be ready for it even if it did. My current assessment would be that our effectiveness as a group is probably lower than our effectiveness as individuals, simply because we aren't used to the way each other performs under pressure. Maybe tactics training sessions? Or maybe just proper demonstrations of our abilities; I know I haven't shown all of the constructs I can create to anyone here. Likewise, I have no idea what Robin routinely keeps in his utility belt, or the range of Aqualad's Water-Bearers. I didn't even know that Wallace could create miniature tornados before today.

I need to get some notebooks. I'm getting used to using the ring for just about everything, but I find the act of writing things down helpful to my thought processes. I need to make time to check how much of my knowledge of Detective Comics applies here. The obvious low risk high reward choice would be trying to make contact with either Alec Holland or Swamp Thing, whichever version we'd be dealing with. We could fly down to Louisiana tomorrow, and narrow down the search by scanning for non-native plant life from the air. If he isn't there or -more likely- if he doesn't want to speak to us then there should still be evidence of his presence. Better yet, he might be alright about talking to us, if he actually exists here. One of my all time favourite comic book stories is of his attack on Gotham City after Abby gets arrested. The sheer raw power he can bring to bear if something antagonises him sufficiently is truly awesome.

Suppose it's worth checking if I can skip all that work, though. I lean over to a nearby tree and knock on the trunk.

"Doctor Holland, might I have a word?"

No response. I take a bite out of my baguette. Baked it myself yesterday, and added a cucumber filling. Back home I used a bread machine but was never quite able to get them right. Here, I have both the time to spend and the ring to do the boring bits. Leaving bread to rise for an hour, knead it a bit and then leave it for an hour again? Sure, why not, it breaks up the supervillain profile reading.

Happy Harbour doesn't exactly have chain stores. They're either genuinely local or franchisees instead. I've followed through on my idea of setting up a prepaid account at each one I use. Initially the owners found the whole thing quite confusing but now I think they just find me an amusing oddity. I usually drop round when I know the owner will be there but there won't be many other customers, either first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

So far as I can tell there hasn't been a noticeable decrease in the price of either gold or platinum as a result of my actions.

Alan has invited both myself and Diana for dinner next weekend. He'll probably want to hear about my first fight with a supervillain. Before getting cross examined I should really work out what else besides the obvious I should have done differently.

To start with, I should have begun by scanning Mister Twister. Not just a sweep with OrangeVision, but a full physical scan. That would have shown me his vulnerable points, as well as telling me that there wasn't anyone organic inside the armour. Complex AIs are people, but they can generally take having limbs ripped off better than organics can. Attacking his cables was also something I should have done. They were clearly vulnerable points; they were even a different colour from the rest of him to make it more obvious! I might have been able to do something to redirect his lightning bolts or disrupt his generating capacity, but that is probably a bit above my complexity level at present. I should also have dodged more. Stopping completely still during a fight was a bad idea, and I'm pretty sure I can get the ring to automate the process.

What did I do right? Hmm. I was mostly able to stop my team mates from being hurt. I didn't get myself hurt. I made the property damage Twister inflicted a little bit less. I managed to acquire enemy technical data which I've passed on to the League. I suggested to Red Tornado that he might like to use it to update his systems, but he didn't seem enthusiastic. Maybe there is a difference between an AI with a robotic avatar and an android, and he's more attached to his body? The armour I created around Superboy looked pretty sturdy. If it actually was as tough as mine then he might have briefly been tougher than his father. He didn't seem keen on the idea of me helping in that way. Hating needing someone else's help to get to where you think you should be anyway, I can relate to that.

I wonder if I can create similar armour constructs for the others as well? In theory it should be possible, and since the armour is basically weightless it shouldn't interfere with their combat abilities. I didn't specifically think 'armour' when Superboy was being threatened, the ring just acted when my desire to protect him reached a particular strength.

I wonder if the data could be used to create a weather control network, or at least some way to artificially break up major storms and natural tornados? I'll write something up and submit it to Batman. Does he ever monetise recovered supervillain gear? Can that be made to work, legally? Because if it can then the League might well be able to become self funding. Heck, FTL comms to Mars alone…

I've certainly learned that the theory and practice of this sort of combat are two radically different things, and that fighting a brawler like Diana in an open area is very different to fighting another ranged fighter somewhere where I'm supposed to be preventing collateral damage. Unless there is a natural hurricane or something collateral damage prevention isn't really something I can practise. I've learned that we need practice coordinating as a group, or to be assigned tasks that don't overlap so that we don't get in each other's way. If I'd confronted Mister Twister on my own I'd have been more aggressive, once I got it through my head that yes, this is a fight and I am supposed to hit the other guy. He wasn't a good match up for our brawler heavy line up. Perhaps I should ask M'gann about the extent of her telekinesis?

Another mouthful of baguette. The Pacific can wait, but I do need to finish my meditation. Where was I? No, no, after an event like that I should start from the beginning.

Physiological? No change. It took a while, but I've managed to mostly adapt to local time, and usually sleep better than I did. Had to replace my mattress with a harder one to match what I am used to.

Safety. Not sure how I feel about this now. I was able to prevent Mister Twister's attacks harming me, and if it happened again I could probably prevent myself throwing up by simply telling the ring to lock my inner ear. Now that I've had a chance to calm down, it's obvious that I am much more secure since coming here, even with the increased threat level. The fact that I can keep myself safe through my own power is particularly gratifying.

Belonging. Our first fight forced us to work together as an actual unit. I certainly feel more a part of the group than I did, and I think that Wallace at least is opening up to me a little. Maybe coming out here was the wrong thing to do? I thought it might be good for Superboy, but he usually just stomps off on his own when something annoys him. Communal eating is a big deal and I'm probably missing it. Alright, change that behaviour. I'll head down once I've finished this.

Superboy. Thinking about him being miserable makes me feel the same way it did when I inadvertently offended M'gann earlier. His wellbeing is more important to me now than it was this morning. Is that because I consider myself responsible for it in a broader sense than just undoing the harm I inflicted? He was pretty miserable, but he doesn't have M'gann's usual upbeat attitude. I don't really know what sort of things make him happy. I should try and find out, or at least come up with a novel activity which he can participate in. Maybe he'd feel better if he felt he was doing something useful?

Alright, bite the bullet. I feel closer to Superboy. Could I see myself being sexually intimate with him? Hmm. He's not unattractive, certainly. He definitely needs support, and I do like being needed. Cons, the age and experience difference is vast. Even greater than it would be if he was his actual physical age. With M'gann, if it came to it, as the younger party I feel I could say that I didn't care about the nineteen year gap. With Superboy… No, that would be wrong. He doesn't just need support while going through a rough patch, he needs serious help integrating the stuff that Cadmus stuck in his head, and learning how to function in society. Maybe.. that's something M'gann could help with? Can she telepathically build links between knowledge and information? Would he let her? Getting off the point. Bottom line, while I don't rule anything out completely, I generally prefer women. Superboy just isn't appealing enough a prospect to break my habits.

It's amazing how heteronormativity gets to you. I found even thinking about that rationally a little uncomfortable.

Esteem. Actually being able to fight is… New. I can ensure my own safety. Most people, even those in my home parallel, can't honestly say that. Some of the things I've seen power rings do in the comics suggests that I should be able to tank pretty much anything: nuclear strikes, eldritch weapons, medium sized gods… I had assumed that Diana just hadn't been giving it her all when she punched me during practice, but maybe I misunderstood. All told, having fixed Superboy's injury and acknowledging our obvious faults, I felt pretty good about our first supervillain fight. And about my role in it. I had been concerned that I lacked the necessary aggression to function in such a situation, but instead it seems that I have just about enough to fight without getting carried away. I think that the team's veteran members have more respect for me as well. Robin seemed rather impressed with my scan of Mister Twister's systems, though more in a 'that's cool' way than a 'let's revolutionise weather control' way. They seemed to regard deafening Superboy as unfortunate but not that stupid. I don't know what they think about him being up and about again.

Thinking about it, the Justice League don't have a medical professional amongst their ranks. Or on staff, since they don't have a staff. Does Mister Zatara use healing magic? I don't really remember much about his comic book alter ego, other than how he died. Zatanna exists here. Hm, wonder if she'll be joining us?

Self-actualisation. Even though it blew itself up I still think shielding the potentially self-aware robot from M'gann was the correct choice. I think what I said about telepathy not being a guide to personhood got through. I do need to start work on my big project, brainstorm who should exist here who might be able to handle an orange ring. Heck, we'll be a Lantern Corps. I can pick from anywhere in the galaxy.

Who can I remember that can channel their desires productively without being overwhelmed?

I hear a dull thump as something imbeds in a tree nearby. I look around and see Robin's grapple. Yeah, I guess this place is a bit hard to get to if you can't fly. I wonder what he wants. We haven't really spoken much since the team came together. Aside from both being trainee superheroes we don't really have anything in common, and then there's the age difference. I wonder if I should tell him I know who he is, and if so, should I say that I used the ring or suggest that I played Guess Who with Gotham notables until I came to an answer. I did that, just for fun, and you can pretty much work out who Batman is if you know what you're doing. The ring made getting the information necessary to make the eliminations easier, of course.

I hear a grunt as he pulls himself over the edge. "Need a hand?"

"Nah, I'm fine." He's upright, and pulls his grapple out of the wood.

"Did you come up for the view?" I take another bite of baguette. I think I left the yeast for just long enough this time.

And then he's kneeling beside me, one arm around my shoulder and the other in front of my face. His holographic computer is active, and a single name is showing. Aaron. I blink, trying to work out what is going on.

"Can I surmise that your intent is to scroll through names until I react?"

"You said you didn't mind us knowing."

"Quite the contrary; I'd like to have people call me by my name. But do you have them arranged alphabetically, or in order of popularity? I ask because while I believe my name is reasonably popular it isn't near the beginning of the alphabet."

"Oh. Huh." The arm around my shoulder is retracted for a moment as he rearranges the list. "Thinking about it, it probably makes sense to try and get the first letter before going after the rest of the name."

I still myself. Don't think the name, think the letter. Think about it in some other context. Parking sign! "P."

"That should make it easier." The arm and the screen return, and my name is showing. I can look at it, as long as I don't concentrate on it. But Robin's friendly arm can feel my reaction. "So it's 'Paul', then?"

"Yes."

"Huh." He stands up and walks forward to look at the view.

"What were you expecting?"

His face creases. "I don't know."

"Feel free to tell the others."

"You really can't say it?"

I suppose I might be able to say it now that someone knows. "Hello, I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four, but you can call me ugr ugh-."

Looks like I can't. Robin turns back to me as I try to relax my throat. He's grinning. "Okay. 'Ugr Ugh' it is."

I stare at him for a moment. Yep, that's annoying.

"Y'know, when you said that happened, kinda thought you were joking."

"'Fraid… Ah, I'm afraid not."

"Does that hurt?"

"It feels like a small blockage in my windpipe. Nothing major."

He's wearing sunglasses. Now that I think about it I don't think I've seen him without them. It is fairly bright today, but I'm not sure why he had them on inside. I know that his eyes are in perfect condition. I wave my right hand and an orange lounger forms. "Take a seat."

He walks alongside it and studies it for a moment, before flopping down on to the cushion, hands behind his head. "You planning on spending the day up here?"

"I didn't finish meditating earlier, so I needed to do that. I had been planning to spend most of the day over the Pacific. Now, I'm kind of off schedule. You have any plans?"

"Ugh, probably spend it filling in a report on the fight with Mister Twister."

"Mine took two minutes."

"Two minutes?!"

"I have a power ring. Power rings are awesome."

"Yeah, but, paperwork?"

"It's just an information transfer. Plus, the ring records pretty much everything that happens around me. Made the timeline easy."

"Huh." He leans back again, then his expression brightens. "I know. Why don't I just copy yours?"

"No."

"Come on. It was the same fight."

"Quite aside from the fact that there were bits you saw that I didn't, report writing is a valuable skill to learn."

"Phss. Oh, hey, I saw that Superboy's up and about."

"That wasn't as complicated as I thought it might be."

"You rebuilt his whole auditory canal."

"The ring handled the fiddly bits."

"Even so…"

"Wasn't like I was designing the thing from scratch."

"Sure, you were repairing him, but it's still-."

"No, I didn't know what his original looked like. I ended up copying and pasting Superman's."

"When'd you scan his?"

"About half an hour ago. I don't have to be close to do it if I want it enough."

He frowns. "Wait. Do you mean that his ears weren't the same as Superman's?"

Whoops. "I realise that I'm not a medical doctor, but I don't think I should talk about that without his permission."

"Ah, fine."

"What are the rest of you doing for lunch?"

"Kid Flash ordered pizza. I was going to ask what you wanted, but…" He gestures to the remains of my baguette. Mistake on my part.

"He's not getting them delivered here, is he?"

"No, he's picking up."

"Can he carry that many pizza boxes?"

"Yeah. He's had lots'a practice."

I can believe it. I get up. "I should probably head back down. Any plans once the report writing is finished?"

He gets off the lounger as I create a platform to float us down. He walks on board. "M'gann said something about Acapulco?"

Jan 30, 2019

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Mr Zoat

Mr Zoat

Dedicated ragequitter

Prod Zone

19th July

12:49 GMT -6

I peer into the desiccated face of what was once our target.

"Ye-ap. This one's not alive either."

After yesterday I thought it might be good for M'gann and Superboy to get out of the base on something that looked kind of like a mission. Which is why we're walking through the swamps of Louisiana in an attempt to track down either Doctor Alec Holland or, as I hope, Swamp Thing. Finding the weird mutant plant he nominally lives in was quite simple for the ring. Finding the Elemental himself is presently defeating us. This is the seventh abandoned Swamp Thing body we've come across.

Robin is helping Red Tornado investigate Mister Twister's remains. American summer holidays are really long, apparently. He wanted to come until I said that it was unlikely anything interesting was going to happen and Red Tornado made it clear that we were obliged to retreat in the event of a hostile reception. His orders may not be binding like Batman's or Diana's but I don't want to irritate him all the same.

Wallace is back in Central City doing… Something. Possibly washing his hair. Since Robin let everyone know my name Wallace decided it would be fair to share his. Apparently, not even his mother calls him Wallace and I'm on a list with his grandmother and his geography teacher.

Kaldur wanted to plan out team training activities. I also asked him about getting the base warded against arcane attack. He said that it was a bit beyond his abilities. Mentioned some Atlantean friends of his who might have been up to it. Someone named Tula -whose name sounded vaguely familiar from the comics- and Garth. Kaldur became Aquaman's aide after he and Garth aided him in combat against Ocean Master. Both were offered the position, but Garth chose to remain at the Conservatory of Sorcery instead in this timeline. Would he have chosen differently if Kaldur wasn't there? I don't remember his comic background well enough to know if that's how it happened there. Kaldur also said that my referring to him as Royal Champion was a bit premature. He doesn't actually have a formal court title as yet.

Superboy appears to be adjusting well to his new and improved ears. He's currently photographing and taking samples from different parts of the Swamp Thing modified plants that we've found so far. M'gann and I are doing a bit of exploring. Since none of us know which bits are safe to step on floating over the ground is really the best way to do it. Superboy looked a bit down at the whole 'can't join in because you can't fly' aspect of the thing, but as I told him, we need information. He perked up a little once M'gann offered to teach him to fly the Bio-Ship.

**Orange Lantern to Miss Martian.**

**It sounds weird when you think it.**

**I'm still not sold on the whole 'secret identity' thing. Makes even less sense for you.**

**My Earth name is similar to my Martian name.**

**Actual name.**

**Right. And my face is the same, just a different color. People might make the connection if they heard it.**

**Anyone on Earth capable of telepathic eavesdropping could already get your secret identity. I don't suppose you've heard anything from our target?**

**I don't know what a Plant Elemental's mind would sound like, but.. so far it's just swamp creatures.**

**Right. He's either not here or he's avoiding us. I'll do a ring scan and then I think we should break for lunch. Try a different approach in the afternoon. Superboy, you about done on your end?**

**Yeah.**

**Red Tornado say anything about the pictures?**

**He said he'd get someone to look at it.**

I smile. **Anyone know a super powered botanist other than Pamela Isley?**

**Who?** / **Who?**

Neither of them have heard of her? **Poison Ivy? Crazy Gotham plant woman? Feeds people to giant pitcher plants?**

Silence from Superboy.

**I.. think I remember Robin mentioning her.**

**Right, when we get back I'm sticking both of you in front of some case files. You need to know this stuff.** I get a sense of disgruntlement from Superboy. I'll snap him out of that. **You think Superman doesn't read up on potential threats? You think he hasn't invested a great deal of effort in finding out exactly how hard he has to hit someone to put them down quickly without causing permanent damage? Being strong isn't enough, you have to know how to use it.**

**Fine.**

Done it again. **Look, I was thinking about asking Diana to give you some hand to hand combat tuition. I'm not convinced that Black Canary's martial arts are going to be of much use to someone as strong as you. Is that something you'd be interested in?**

There's a brief pause. **I should be getting taught by Superman.**

Haven't seen him around, actually. **How are things between you and him anyway?** There's a flash of something from M'gann. Feels like… Panic? **What?**

**They're fine!**

**Okay, well, let me know if you're interested. I'll see you both back at the ship.** If the swamp were a bit dryer, I might find it pretty. As it is the mud and mosquitoes put me right off. "Ring, scan for any more piles of vines that used to be Swamp Thing."

Immediately I can feel their locations. Wanting something more precise I create a map construct with their locations. There's about forty, plus or minus seven for degrees of decay. No real pattern, other than there seem to be more around his home, and none of them are moving. Makes sense. I save the map and fly back towards the ship.

There's a shallow pool to one side of the.. tree..? Vine mound? I have no idea what to call the thing Swamp Thing lives in. Beautiful and quite alien. I doubt it would survive without his attention and upkeep. The Bio-Ship is hovering over the more solid ground on the other side, stealth disengaged. Superboy left a letter from us addressed to the owner, asking him to get in contact. I somehow doubt that he will.

I fly around to the rear entrance and enter the ship. Superboy's in the pilot's seat with M'gann standing over him, pointing out the basic controls. Superboy hunches slightly as I land. M'gann turns around and smiles nervously at me.

**This is just coming to you. Superman and Superboy… Well… Superman didn't take finding out that someone cloned him particularly well. I don't think they've spoken since the others got him out of Cadmus.**

**Fiddlesticks.** She frowns slightly. **Dah, okay, sorry. I'll try and fix it.**

She nods, and turns back to Superboy. "Okay Superboy, take us up."

His hands move over the controls and the ship rises above the canopy. I'm not worried about being seen. If the comics are anything to go by this whole area is inhabited only by crazy people who see far weirder stuff on a daily basis. If the comics aren't anything to go by then there's still nothing anywhere near here. I walk over to sit at the right forward seat. I know we brought packed lunches, but…

Idea!

I swivel the chair around to face them.

"How about we go and find a restaurant? There's got to be somewhere that does good food around here. My treat, if we can find somewhere that will take gold as payment."