Episode 103: Summer's End
Takes place approximately a billion years in the future.
This is a primarily Renegade episode.
Short version
The Renegade and Artemis arrive a billion years in the future, conquer the Sheeda (over an unspecified but very long period of time), and kill the energy-draining being that made the Harrowings necessary, before returning to the present.
Longer version
The Renegade and Artemis land in the far future, with his power rings drained and mundane materials and technology rapidly decaying away. It turns out that they have reached the point where the Sheeda launched their Harrowing fleet, but since it was defeated and the Castle Revolving destroyed, the remaining Sheeda are now facing a spiral of decay as they attempt to recycle all available biomass but gradually lose ground.
The Renegade subdues some of the local rulers, and with their help, investigates near-Earth space, finding to his astonishment that the universe has shrunk and the Source Wall is now closer than the prior orbit of Jupiter.
Civil war breaks out on the surface, and he sets out to conquer the entire planet in order to permanently end the fighting and conserve resources for fixing or evacuating the universe. After an uncertain but quite long time (much more than 13 years per word of author), he and Artemis succeed, imposing order and bringing about urban renewal and innovation, including enhancing the usual Sheeda magic with New God components.
Eventually they reach a point where they're ready to properly investigate the Vampire Sun; it turns out to be Starbreaker, an energy-draining being who was afflicted with insatiable hunger and consumed almost all of the universe, even the fabric of space itself. The Renegade offers to cure his hunger by killing and reincarnating him with the Sword of the Fallen, rather than letting him kill all the Sheeda and then starve. Starbreaker decides to turn down the offer and wait for a better one, but Artemis sneak attacks him and stabs him anyway.
Melmoth, former king of the Sheeda, is automatically notified of Starbreaker's death, and returns from the past in hopes of reclaiming control of the Sheeda. However, after hearing Melmoth's violent and greedy plans, the Renegade kills him and uses his time drive to open a portal back to the present for himself and Artemis, leaving behind a stable and grateful Sheeda civilisation with plans to rebuild the universe.
The title refers to the time period that the Sheeda live in, where all resources are running out and "the age of Autumn" looms.
- Apocalypse How: A Class X-4. Starbreaker has consumed almost the entire universe, even the fabric of space, leaving only the Earth (due to a deal with Melmoth so he can continue to slowly feed on the Sheeda's despair). The Renegade hopes to use the knowledge of how he did it, combined with unlimited energy from the Bleed, to start rebuilding.
- Brick Joke: A Gate chapter early in the episode includes Paul describing basic power ring functions to his new Lantern, and cautioning him to take it off before excreting. "It's uncomfortable. Though extremely hygienic." At the end of the episode, another instalment shows a terrified but tenacious Prince Diabo using the ring to Mind Control a dragon and ride it right up to the Japanese forces, shrugging off a barrage of assorted bullets including depleted uranium shells.Diabo: You were right.
Paul: Oh?
Diabo: Yes. It is very hygienic. - Crossover: A new storyline appears, not exactly with an alternate Paul, but in the current Paul's far future, where he has seemingly retired or taken leave from the Orange Lantern Corps, and inhabits Larfleeze's original ring in the Gate world. He is effectively a minor deity, and recruits Prince Diabo el Caesar as a Lantern in order to alter the outcome of the war with Japan. He also mentions that Azula, from Avatar, is the new clarissi of the OLC when he left.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Even Starbreaker isn't immune to the Sword of the Fallen, and apparently his energy draining abilities don't give him super senses; Artemis is able to surprise him.
- Earth That Was: The planet isn't completely empty in the future but it's seemingly all grey rock.
- The Extremist Was Right: After they meet up and end the war, the Renegade and Artemis compare notes on her more diplomacy-based leadership vs his kill-dissenters-until-the-rest-wise-up approach. Their conclusion is that it's impossible to be sure whether his methods were really necessary, or whether hers would have succeeded, but she's also hesitant to criticise his summary executions when she knows from experience that any breakdown in discipline leads to mass deaths. The result of their combined efforts, in any case, is more or less a utopia, with the world achieving peace and prosperity and technological advancement — by means of the two of them becoming absolute rulers.
- Eye Beams: Starbreaker's avatar uses these when the Renegade attacks him, but only succeeds in removing the Renegade's thumbs before his eyes are crushed and the beams cut out.
- Healing Factor: The Renegade already had this, but regenerating lost body parts was usually a slow process unless he could get an infusion of magic from somewhere. After conquering the entire Earth, though, in a series of face-to-face battles, his divine nature is significantly strengthened; after he grapples and kills Starbreaker's avatar to defend the Earth, he's able to rapidly regenerate lost thumbs with no further intervention.
- In the Back: Or possibly, as the Renegade put it, "About six inches into your primary body's right ear." When Starbreaker turns down the deal of reincarnating him without powers via the Sword of the Fallen, it becomes a matter of self-defence to enforce it on him, and the only way to pull it off is for Artemis to surprise him.
- Organic Technology: By necessity, the Sheeda are masters of this. Rather than being purely technological, though, they rely on magic to shape things. After conquering the planet, the Renegade and Artemis work to establish city-wide blood networks to feed technology, and a planetary nervous system for better communications.
- Our Zombies Are Different: A cluster of zombie children attacks the Renegade and Artemis, but they're unlike any zombies the Renegade knows about. They're idle and apparently mindless until they attack, then quickly give up when the attack is futile, and proceed to regenerate by eating the severed parts of their own wounded. Then go back to standing around idle. It turns out that they're part of the Sheeda recycling system, intended to collect and retrieve any biological material they find.
- Out of Time, Out of Mind:
- At least partially averted; Artemis, in particular, finds the prospect of returning to their home time to be mixed, and requests a leave of absence from Batman when they arrive. Her old house doesn't feel like home any more, and she finds the Renegade's mountain more familiar because its New God technology lets her sense his presence.
- The Renegade copes better; he has to adjust to his home and children again, but feels less dissociation than the time that Darkseid implanted a fragment of anti-life in him.
- Some amount of changelessness is also partially justified by the fact that as New Gods, their memories are better than regular humans and they don't physically age.
- Poor Communication Kills: The Renegade's conquest of the planet is hindered by the increasing unification of the holdouts — behind Artemis, as it turns out, who thought he was dead and knew only that someone was rampaging around attacking everyone. As soon as they meet face to face, they're glad to see each other and tell both sides to stand down.
- Save the World: The reason the Renegade wants to conquer the planet is so that he can end the pointless waste of resources being funnelled into civil war, and turn everyone's energies toward solving the problem of the Vampire Sun and the looming depletion of Earth's resources. After decades of his rule, Sheeda society is stable and prosperous.
- Take Over the World: Artemis is initially skeptical of their ability to do this, but the Renegade pulls it off, starting by intimidating one city into following him, and then leveraging their resources — combined with his own divine nature, which reinforces the abilities of his followers and gives them an edge over others — to snowball into an alliance big enough to dominate everywhere. It's exactly what his soul was designed for, too, and he gets a significant magical boost from it.
- True Companions: It's unclear exactly how long the Renegade and Artemis spent in the future together, but it was at least decades. They weren't romantically involved, but by the time they finally return to the present, his soul recognises her as his other half. Could possibly count as Platonic Life-Partners, except that they both have romantic relationships they plan to go back to.
- Vampiric Draining: In an inversion of the usual draining of life energy, the Vampire Sun rapidly drains and destroys anything that isn't alive (or magically protected). All Sheeda equipment and technology is biological; even their clothes are alive. It turns out that it's not merely life, but Sheeda life, which contains genetic markers based on Starbreaker himself that protect it from his draining effect.
- Wrecked Weapon: Due to the strange properties of sunlight in that time period, Artemis' arrows decay, necessitating temporary replacements. Fortunately, the bow itself is of New God make and is thus resistant.
