About a dozen of the people in the room draw on me almost immediately.  Not that I really care anymore: Handheld firearms aren’t going to do jack squat to me without magical support.  “Who are you and how did you…” The soldier speaking in Arabic trails off, the blood draining from his face as he recognizes me.  I’m fairly distinctive, and men’s eyes tend to be drawn to one of my most distinctive features.  He doesn’t lower his weapon, though.

I sort of answer his question in Arabic myself, “Oh, I think you know who I am.”

“Foolish of you to come in person,” the man in the black hat rants, “FIRE!”

The men with the guns obey him, not that it helps.  It takes them three volleys to get a single hit in, which my DR and hardness soak handily.  There’s a reason I’m really not concerned about people pointing handheld weapons at me.  But it’s going to be hard to hold a conversation with active gunfire, so one quick Chained Telekinesis later, all the guns in the room are at my feet, while an Antilife Shell spell will keep them there.

"Witchcraft!" One shouts.

"Burning me at the stake isn't going to help, and you might want to check the exits… you're trapped."

They look at the doors, and see walls there. A few reach for phones and radios, but another Chained Telekinesis puts those at my feet as well.

"What do you want, witch?" The man in the black hat is not being polite. Odd choice.

You know, now that I'm here, I realize I haven't thought that far ahead, "Oh… let’s start with why you attacked my nation, and go from there."

"BECAUSE THERE IS BUT ONE LORD OF ALL AND YOU ARE NOT HIM!" The man in the black hat stands up as he shouts, his hands gripping the sides of his chair. I'm going to guess that this is the "Leader" referenced.

"I make no claim of being the Lord of All. And yet, you attack me. So I'm going to ..."

"YOU WILL DO NOTHING WITCH!" The old man in black really doesn't get it yet.

"Be quiet," I command, which is quite redundant with the Ranged, Chained, Persistent Bestow Curse I put upon them all, preventing them from using words, "In case you haven't figured it out, while I'm certainly not Lord of All, at the moment I have this city locked down. And you, I think, need a demotion…" I have the Schism power from my buff routine do a Chained Reach Telekinesis, to hold them all in place, while I use another to strip every item from him, leaving him naked.

"Now, I understand that in this culture, women cannot hold positions of authority… but what happens if someone is pushed across that line…" One Reverse Gender spell later, SHE starts to get it, "... like has just happened to you?"

She doesn't answer, just looking at me in terror. Oh, right. No words. Eh, whatever. He tried to nuke me.

"Right. You don't know, because it’s never happened before. I guess you get to be the first to find out.  But you won't be alone…" I look around the room, and repeat the strip and gender bend process on all the other physical males in the room, "You'll have plenty of support. And just for icing on the cake…" I walk around the room and drop a Mark of Justice on each, "If you ever willingly break your own religious law as it pertains to how you should act as women? The consequences will be dire." Simple vanilla 50% chance of not acting in any given round, which will seriously add up and make them do things really slow… and Celestia help them if they end up doing anything involving timing.

"I am taking this city, and everything in it, as reparations for your unprovoked attack on my nation and my people. Every male here will be demoted, and all the people will be expelled, distributed among the remaining cities of your nation. And I will bury this city in ice, such that none may ever rebuild it."

I pause. "Oh, and you may speak, now." A chained, Reach, Fleeting, Abeyance spell to suppress the "no talking" curse even makes it true. I look around the room, and every one of them is as pale as their olive skin tone allows.

"You can't…" the ex-leader seems surprised at her own voice, and stops there.

I have all the cheddar.  Also the gouda, the gorgonzola, and the provolone. I can get this place to arctic temperatures forever and maintain a constant state of precipitation. I'm sure the surrounding regions will love the ice sheet's run off. I can also outnumber the city if I need. So yes, yes I can.

"And why not? It sounds like an amusing afternoon."

"The world will…" Yeah, she's shaking.

"Will do nothing. I dismantled some of your ships before evaporating them. I have copies of the orders they were given, some of the weapons of war, including that nuclear drone you're not supposed to have," Well… in a few seconds when the existing Time Clone I just repurposed to the task disables it's engines gently and stows it for me, anyway, "I have everything I need to demonstrate to the world stage that you struck first.  Some won't believe me, I'm sure. Some will say I was far too harsh. Some will say I was far too lenient. There will be much shouting, and maybe some sanctions that I really don’t care about. But with this demonstration? No. One. Will. Act. Because nobody will want their capital city buried in ice." But hey, it might help with global warming. I may need to add a drain somewhere to the ocean for rising sea levels, though.

"How did you… why… what have I…" she breaks down, crying.

… maybe I went too far. Eh. No backing down now. If I don't do as I say, people will think I can't. And the attacks from the blood in the water would quickly become a major headache. Better to put a very decisive stop to things immediately.

"As fun as it is talking about revenge, I still need to make good on it…"

"Don't clap," I whisper to myself in Celestial as I cast a Conditional Favor Lesser Time Stop, and watch as everyone other than me freezes.

I then get to the very boring work of making time clones - ten thousand of them - and dismissing all of those Walls of Force and Persistent Images from earlier. I task the clones with making good on my promise about the people as I make them: they are to turn into medium-sized dragons, find other cities in Iran, strip the population of this city, turn all the men into women, and then teleport them to the other cities. With ten thousand of them, each merely needs to process about a thousand individuals. Once the city is empty, they're to dismiss themselves (which is very easy for them to do - they can bypass their own immunities, and any damage will dismiss them back to the timelines from which they came).

The setup takes a long, long time. Or no time at all, depending on your perspective. But when I clap and let the clock keep ticking? The city is empty in a few minutes. Once that's done, I stop the clock again, and set the city to be drowned in ice. The Climate and Climactic Shift options of the Weather Sphere in Spheres of Power do the job. Class five severity cold and class six precipitation is sufficient for my tastes; I could do six on both, but I don't want it to get that bad, and a permanent blizzard will do the job as is. Of course, even after Widen Spell makes it a four mile radius effect, that only covers about twenty-five square miles per casting, and the city proper is well over ten times that size. Add in the issue that I don't want to leave gaps, and the rough hex pattern means I need to hit that twenty minute casting time over a dozen times.

But hey, the clock isn’t ticking for anyone else.  And there is one room full of people that I wanted to handle personally….

I teleport back to the sealed tac room, and clap to let the clock keep ticking. As far as these frightened women are concerned, I vanished, and reappeared a few minutes later.

"There. The city is doomed. As for you LADIES…" I give them a little to process the sting of that one, "... you will share the fate of everyone else in this city. There's a nearby town that I'm sure could use some maids or something." They audibly sigh in relief as I use several options from the Warp sphere to send them all away.

No, I don't go with them to get them settled in. I don't go to watch how the Iranian people in that small village react to the sudden arrival of a bunch of naked older women by the village well. Honestly, while I know it hasn't truly taken long at all, I feel as though I have spent way too much time on this place, and just want to get this chapter behind me. I am sure there's going to be some consequences, but oh well.