(THE LIVING PLANET, EARTH BET) CHAPTER TWO

The ability to overcome great fear came with a ring designed for humans, or at least for beings considerably smaller than a planet, but that was apparently all Earth Bet was getting.

There had been no instruction manual, no helpful explanation of what the ring was or how it worked, and certainly no convenient list of things it could do with it. One moment, the planet had been lamenting its inability to protect its humans, and the next, a strange voice had informed it that it possessed the ability to overcome great fear before sending a green ring hurtling toward its surface.

And that was it.

Still, Earth Bet was sure the ring was connected to its newfound ability to act upon the world rather than simply watch as it tore itself apart. It was also certain that the ring would allow it to help its humans. After all, it had appeared after all those desperate wishes, after all the years of listening to their suffering and wanting nothing more than to do something about it. The timing was difficult to interpret any other way.

Whether that meant it could stop the Endbringers, protect its cities or prevent the next cape with delusions of grandeur from turning a populated area into their personal playground remained to be seen.

At least it could feel some kind of power coursing through it, a strange, unfamiliar presence that seemed to have become part of its very being. Earth Bet had no idea how to control it, much less what it was supposed to do with it. The green band circling its body was the only indication of what had happened, and even that raised more questions than it answered. Whatever had sent the ring to it had apparently neglected to consider that its recipient was an entire planet.

Earth Bet wasn’t about to complain about the circumstances of its newfound power, though. For the time being, it would have to make do with what it had and try to figure things out as best it could.

It had spent its entire existence unable to do anything about the suffering of its inhabitants, so the possibility of actually doing something was almost difficult to comprehend. It had wanted to stop the suffering, to keep the next disaster from claiming more lives and to do something about the monsters that seemed determined to make its world a miserable place to live.

Now, for reasons it couldn’t begin to explain, it might actually be able to.

That was encouraging, at least.

Earth Bet would have to figure out how the ring worked eventually. There was little point getting ahead of itself when it didn’t even know where to begin, and it had a feeling that trial and error would only get it so far.

Still, things could have been worse. At least Leviathan had retreated into the ocean.

Earth Bet wasn’t entirely sure why, and it wasn’t particularly interested in questioning its good fortune. The Endbringer was gone, the immediate threat had passed, and for the moment, nobody was actively trying to destroy its inhabitants.

That didn’t mean the damage had disappeared with it. Even in the short time Leviathan had been there, it had inflicted considerable harm on Brockton Bay. Earth Bet could feel the broken buildings and flooded streets, the injured and the dying. It felt the grief of those who had lost family members, the fear of those searching for missing loved ones and the exhaustion of people who had spent the last few hours fighting to survive.

But given how the day had been going, Earth Bet was willing to take the win.

For the first time in a long while, Contessa found herself just as shocked and confused as everyone else on Earth Bet. An enormous green band had appeared around the planet, bearing a symbol nobody seemed to recognize, and nobody had any idea what it meant, let alone any explanation for what had happened.

She didn't need to visit PHO to know that people were already coming up with theories. Given the nature of the world they lived in, none would be particularly surprising. Some would insist it was a new parahuman ability, others would blame an alien invasion or some previously unknown Trump, and there would undoubtedly be a few who interpreted the whole thing as a sign of divine intervention. Meanwhile, Cauldron would be trying to determine whether the planet itself posed a threat, while ensuring the PRT followed its lead.

What interested Contessa was the possibility that none of them was correct. Or maybe, stranger still, that several of them were correct in ways nobody yet understood.

She had spent years searching for a way to defeat Scion, following one path after another until the answers she found led to dead ends, insurmountable obstacles or solutions that demanded sacrifices she couldn’t afford to make. She watched promising solutions fall apart under circumstances she couldn’t overcome. And though her ability had carried her further than anyone else could have hoped to go, even it had its limits. There were things it couldn’t account for, questions it couldn’t answer and obstacles that seemed to exist beyond the reach of any path she could follow.

Now, something had happened that she had never anticipated. But unlike everyone else, Contessa had a way of finding answers.

She could ask her power.

Path to victory: identify the lantern symbol and determine its significance.

The answer came as a series of instructions and information, filling in gaps she hadn't even known existed. Her power identified the symbol as that of a Green Lantern, a wielder of a ring capable of creating constructs from green energy, with its capabilities tied to the bearer's willpower. The details were unfamiliar, and the implications were difficult to ignore. Whatever had happened to Earth Bet, it had acquired something that should have been impossible by every measure she understood.

And somehow, that something was now part of the planet itself.

Contessa stared at the green band encircling the world, trying to reconcile what she was seeing with what her power had just told her. She had no way of knowing whether Earth Bet understood what had happened to it, whether it could control the ring, or whether its newfound abilities would amount to anything against the threats facing humanity.

The possibility was difficult to ignore, even if she had no reason to trust it yet.

Contessa had spent so long searching for a way to defeat Scion that hope had become a dangerous and painful thing to indulge, especially since she had so little reason to believe in it. Every promising lead had to be examined, every potential solution weighed against the cost of pursuing it. She had learned to keep moving because stopping to consider what failure would mean was a luxury she couldn’t afford.

Yet here was an entirely new variable, one she couldn't afford to ignore. If Earth Bet truly possessed the ability to act on its own behalf, then perhaps it could do something that no human, parahuman or organization had managed to accomplish.

Maybe it could help her defeat Scion.

There was only one way to find out.

Path to victory: defeat Scion.

Her agent responded immediately, processing the request and laying out a real-time sequence of steps designed to bring her closer to the desired outcome. The familiar stream of instructions began to take shape in her mind, each action leading to the next with the same precision and ease she had come to depend on.

The first step was simple enough.

Find a way to communicate with Earth Bet.