With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[WereDragon]

I exhale through my nose. "And one of the nice things about both options is that they allow the Justice League to get out of explaining why they sent literal children after serial killing supervillains."

Diana nods, her face hardening. "Yes, several members of the League are not entirely happy with that decision."

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The power of honest and open communication.

Interesting that Common Sense Paul likely has better relations with most of the League despite his more confrontational attitude. More little arguments, but no big fallouts.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

[

Given most Paul's are perfectly fine using the Orange Light even knowing what it does to a person I'm pretty sure they dont really consider those things a risks at all.

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Yeah, but remember that the whole point of Common Sense Paul is that he's wiser and more pragmatic than his counterparts.

Sybarite (demon-eater) is pretty serious about magic, IIRC.

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Yeah, but in his case, it's more that he has innate magical abilities rather than being an actual scholar or spellcaster.

 

[Mr Zoat]

And?

I'm not trying to be an asshole here, but making a decision with certain parameters doesn't mean you take it to its logical conclusion. If I am willing to break traffic laws in a back road where no one is around, it doesn't mean I'll go down a one way at 90 mph. Just because I'm willing to work on my own plumbing doesn't mean that I won't hire an electrician.

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Right, but your decision to hire one or not would be based on your assessment of your own competence, without reference to laws concerning who is allowed to do the work.

 

[Clell65619]

Eh.

That argument doesn't really hold much water to me.

Should the Joker be put down for the good of all? Absolutely.

Why is it Batman's sole responsibility?

Joker, baring any bullshit, is just a guy. Anyone could pull the trigger on him, metaphorically or otherwise. Batman hands him over to the authorities and they and the justice system eventually send his ass to Arkham. Bruce doesn't keep him in some special bat themed prison or anything. There's a ton of other people at numerous other levels who could do something else. They could put him in an actual prison or in some other facility that he hasn't proven entirely capable of escaping. They could choose to pursue the death penalty, or someone could see that he tragically falls down eight flights of stairs and breaks his everything.

Does Batman have some responsibility? Sure. But other people could also decide to do something and they don't.

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- I have long believed that in the real world, a psychotic like Joker would have assumed room temperature extremely early in his career. Real world Mass Murders, outside of governments, survive to kill again by being low profile. Joker all but took out billboards announcing his intentions, and come to think of it, he may have even done that.

- Batman wouldn't even need to be involved. An ODC (Ordinary Decent Criminal) would likely shiv the bastard in the showers at the first opportunity. Hell, once the Cops managed to dog pile him, he likely would have come down with a bad case of Resisting Arrest, considering how many Cops he's killed.

- No, the only reason Joker is still among the living is Plot Armor.

 

[Irked]

Huh, is this a different Common Sense lantern? Because i could of sworn the original was older, kept the ring in a safe (which Batman later stole) before he had a way to recharge it and was hiring former supervillains for a company and/or trying to rehabilitate them.

 

[Ngamer11]

Huh, is this a different Common Sense lantern? Because i could of sworn the original was older, kept the ring in a safe (which Batman later stole) before he had a way to recharge it and was hiring former supervillains for a company and/or trying to rehabilitate them.

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You're thinking of Peter Wynne, who ended up on Earth 12, aka the DCAU world.

 

[Steelplaza]

- I have long believed that in the real world, a psychotic like Joker would have assumed room temperature extremely early in his career. Real world Mass Murders, outside of governments, survive to kill again by being low profile. Joker all but took out billboards announcing his intentions, and come to think of it, he may have even done that.

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To be fair, even in the setting of "With This Ring" I think someone once explained that the Joker slowly escalated as the Smilex contamination in his brain demanded greater and greater stimulation to achieve the same 'high'. He didn't start out doing mass murders, and "early in his career" it probably seemed more reasonable to send him to an asylum.

If you really asked me to rationalize it in-world, I would try to explain it as a sort of "frog boiling" effect. We could assume the Joker's body count first started to rise among criminals willing to work with him in the first place, and the public felt like they were getting what they deserved. Then his stunts got more dangerous, but Batman kept stopping them before they really rolled over to mass civilian casualties and people weren't quite making the connection that, "Oh shit if this had actually been successful it would have been really bad." All the news outfits that treated the Joker as 'mostly harmless' at first feel compelled to double down on their initial position even as the evidence mounts.

It would be an unstable situation, but eh... trying to minimize the handwaving, not eliminate it entirely. If we assume a more gradual ramp-up, you can see why Batman would struggle more to draw a bright line of, "Okay now he's done enough. This specific thing was the break point."

 

[CrazyNoVa]

To be fair, even in the setting of "With This Ring" I think someone once explained that the Joker slowly escalated as the Smilex contamination in his brain demanded greater and greater stimulation to achieve the same 'high'. He didn't start out doing mass murders, and "early in his career" it probably seemed more reasonable to send him to an asylum.

If you really asked me to rationalize it in-world, I would try to explain it as a sort of "frog boiling" effect. We could assume the Joker's body count first started to rise among criminals willing to work with him in the first place, and the public felt like they were getting what they deserved. Then his stunts got more dangerous, but Batman kept stopping them before they really rolled over to mass civilian casualties and people weren't quite making the connection that, "Oh shit if this had actually been successful it would have been really bad." All the news outfits that treated the Joker as 'mostly harmless' at first feel compelled to double down on their initial position even as the evidence mounts.

It would be an unstable situation, but eh... trying to minimize the handwaving, not eliminate it entirely. If we assume a more gradual ramp-up, you can see why Batman would struggle more to draw a bright line of, "Okay now he's done enough. This specific thing was the break point."

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How would that explain the other Batman villains, then? Okay, maybe it could explain some of them like Harvey Dent or Selina Kyle, but what about those who were already engaging in murder or straight-up terrorism, like Scarecrow, Bane or Poison Ivy? What about serial killers or cannibals like Killer Croc, Victor Zsasz or Cornelius Stirk? What's the system's excuse for not executing them?

 

[Steelplaza]

How would that explain the other Batman villains, then? Okay, maybe it could explain some of them like Harvey Dent or Selina Kyle, but what about those who were already engaging in murder or straight-up terrorism, like Scarecrow, Bane or Poison Ivy? What about serial killers or cannibals like Killer Croc, Victor Zsasz or Cornelius Stirk? What's the system's excuse for not executing them?

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You're throwing me a long list of names here. My answer would be that I'd have to sit down and consider each one individually and craft a custom explanation for each specific person, charting their career and what they've actually done, what their legal status is, when or if they were ever actually in custody in the first place, and all of that. Most of that I'd be completely making shit up, because we haven't even gotten the brief explanation that With This Ring gave us on the Joker's career. For example when Bane appeared in Young Justice and in this fanfic, he is a warlord on an island Caribbean nation and it's unclear if he's ever even been to the United States much less its prison system.

Creating a custom explanation for each character would be a lot of work, and I don't know who I would be doing it for or who it would make happy, so I won't bother. Nevertheless, I'm sure I could come up with some specific story for each specific guy that passes at least comic book plausibility levels. What I won't do is try to offer some blanket explanation.

 

[AmericanNumbers]

"Why is putting down the Joker Batman's responsibility?"
Well even if we ignore the fact that he undertook his extra legal crusade to prevent people from suffering like he did, Bruce is also the richest person in Gotham and he has the most resources to solve problems. And I would think suffering the mass murdering savant clown to live would be the biggest obstacle to making his city safe from murder.

 

[Duke Long]

For example when Bane appeared in Young Justice and in this fanfic, he is a warlord on an island Caribbean nation and it's unclear if he's ever even been to the United States much less its prison system.

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We do know Bane has been in the United States. He was in Gotham that time he almost killed Oh El. But yeah, it's possible that he's never been to a US prison.

 

[Mr Zoat]

We do know Bane has been in the United States. He was in Gotham that time he almost killed Oh El. But yeah, it's possible that he's never been to a US prison.

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Never been to a Chinese prison, either.

 

[Lord Ernest]

So is that the take away? That the heroes are a bunch of idiots or cowards for not killing the villains with body counts? That because they have already decided on vigilantism they should just go full speed ahead and become the Punisher as well? At this point I'm genuinly curious.

I mean, doesn't it make "Common Sense" trying to prevent future events like what the Injustice League just did? Because if so, this Orange Lantern should be preparing his future raids and killing a few more individuals. Like those that can't be easily contained, always escape or avoid punishment somehow; Luthor comes to mind, for example.

 

[Ryumancer]

So is that the take away? That the heroes are a bunch of idiots or cowards for not killing the villains with body counts? That because they have already decided on vigilantism they should just go full speed ahead and become the Punisher as well? At this point I'm genuinly curious.

I mean, doesn't it make "Common Sense" trying to prevent future events like what the Injustice League just did? Because if so, this Orange Lantern should be preparing his future raids and killing a few more individuals. Like those that can't be easily contained, always escape or avoid punishment somehow; Luthor comes to mind, for example.

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To indulge your curiosity a bit...

Generally speaking? It seems like fairly common sentiment even outside of this fic that the methods used by superheroes in superhero settings do tend to cause more problems than they solve (and they solve very few problems, long-term). The genre is meant to be inspiring and/or entertaining, after all, not pragmatic. Common sense is indeed to ensure that criminals of that caliber need to be prevented from committing such crimes in the future... but while Life Imprisonment typically suffices irl, it doesn't typically suffice in most superhero fiction, due to how often villains simply escape. Killing them is a step more permanent... though frankly, even that isn't always enough in superhero fiction.

It's... actually a pretty cold take, by this point? People've been willing to acknowledge the impracticalities of superhero universes for decades, after all, and the entire point of Common Sense Paul is chaining him to pragmaticism rather than morality or genre conventions. Pragmaticism just isn't the reason why superhero fans are typically superhero fans.

It's also worth pointing out that the other ongoing storyline, involving the main Paul? Has already established it's own counterpoint to situations like Luthor. Can't just go around preemptively killing them for crimes they have yet to actually commit; they might be in one of the countless alternate realities where any specific villain isn't a villain.

It's also worth noting that Pauls typically do not retain metaknowledge of the timeline they've specifically ended up in, and that they typically aren't familiar with all comics ever, either. Even if a Paul went around preemptively murdering every villain he was aware of... It's legitimately not practical for him to get all the villains, and combined with the above problem regarding alternate realities, risks killing off innocents as well.

Frankly, the takeaway, as far as I'm concerned? Is that there really isn't a takeaway here, just a couple different lenses from which to draw your own conclusions.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th July 2013
21:45 GMT

"Recognized, Orange Lantern, B zero zix."

I step out into the interior of the Fortress of Solitude, a little… Wary of the reception that I might receive.

"Ahoy the... Fortress..?"

A hologram of Jor-El appears a short distance from me. "Orange Lantern. Kara is currently recovering from chirurgery."

"Am.. I allowed to visit?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't you be?"

"Kara has repeatedly stated her desire to avoid this sort of combat. I took a piece of Apokoliptian equipment to her place of work, and led the mission which saw her get-" I wave my right hand at the right side of my face. "-maimed."

He frowns faintly. "Kara doesn't blame you for that. Do you blame yourself?"

"No, not significantly. Maybe I could have acted against the whole… Global Peace Agency thing a bit more vigorously. I've had concerns from the first moment I heard about it. But that's about it, really. It's more that people who've had serious injuries are understandably prone to feel rather strongly about it."

"She was extremely distraught when she first arrived, but at the moment she's recovering psychologically rather than physically, and I think that seeing you would do her good."

I nod, smiling. "I'm glad to hear it. Has the other Kara paid you a visit?"

He shakes his head. "No, not at all. Was she injured?"

"Less severely. She.. might have decided to let her natural regeneration handle it."

I frown. I mean, joking aside she's a mature adult capable of making her own decisions. I don't usually bother to see a physician to check my work when I heal myself with my power ring. She had a sun lamp and a purple healing ray, and while those can't restore missing body parts they can almost completely fix tissue trauma.

I start walking further into the Fortress. "Is she in medical now?"

"No, the gallery."

"Thank you."

"These… Human Eradicator units. Are they anything I should warn Kal-El about?"

"Uh. He should be getting a briefing from Diana today. Clearly they can injure Kryptonians, but I don't believe that Kal-El is so careless as to allow that alone to get the better of him."

"Well, I'm allowed to worry."

"I.. should probably ask. You know that artificial intelligences have citizenship in the United States now?"

"I do."

"I know that by kryptonian standards you're not a person, but our standards are different. And I can transfer you into an organic body."

"I appreciate the offer, but that's not what I'm here for." He looks away for a moment. "Sometimes I think the real Jor-El shouldn't have made me. He didn't intend to try keeping kryptonian culture alive; a database would have done almost as good a job of educating Kal-El as I have. I'm worried that I'm being a distraction from Kal-El's relationship with his human father."

"I don't think either of them see it that way. But… If you're experiencing actual feelings about it them I think you're far beyond a recording."

"Perhaps I am. But as I said, Jor-El is dead. I'm only here to advise his son on subjects that he needs to learn about and that Earth cannot teach him. So long as I can do that, I'm satisfied." He smiles as he fades. "I'll let Kara know that you're here."

The gallery is a product of my second trip to Krypton. Despite the planet breaking up and the radiation, quite a few pieces of kryptonian artwork survived the death of the civilisation that created it and lasted until the present day. I grabbed a ringful of the more intact pieces, gift-wrapped them and gave them to Earth's kryptonians on Kara's last birthday. She put a couple of smaller pieces in her apartment but the larger ones ended up getting their own space here.

And the joke is that I don't know if they were the kryptonian equivalent of the Mona Lisa or just some sort of mass-produced junk. And she doesn't know because while she could have found out… She's an El. Art's not really their thing.

Or mine. Something I'm reminded of as I step into the gallery and stare at the… Giant… Purple… Crystal… Pineapple… Thing? Which takes up the first pit.

"Paul! Hey!"

Kara's wearing actual kryptonian robes, rather than hospital wear or Earth clothing. Looking at her face… I can't tell that she was injured. There's no mark, and no colour difference between the replacement flesh and the old. And her smile looks completely natural as she.. walks around the artwork on display to greet me.

"Good evening, Kara. How are you?"

"Great. Perfect, even." Her left hand comes up and touches her face. "I can't even tell it happened. And I checked with the hospital, and the guy I fought made it through okay. Oh, and I heard everything you said to Uncle Jor, and you're being ridiculous."

"I know that he couldn't be considered a person on Krypton, but for a long time Match wouldn't have been either."

She smiles, giggling. "You always do that. No, I meant about blaming you for getting injured. It was… Terrifying… But I did it. I fought like a superhero. And I'm actually proud of myself."

"Ah. Well, good news then: I convinced Kara Two to accept the name 'Superwoman'. So all you've got to do is-."

Her face falls. "You did?"

"Yes? I mean, she wasn't enthusiastic-."

"I was.. going to-. Take that."

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't realise." … "Megagirl is still available?"

She shakes her head. "That's no good, it doesn't start with an 'S'. Do you think you could talk her out of it?"

"Probably? Does this mean that you'll be joining us in the field more often?"

She shrugs. "I get the feeling that this kind of thing is part and parcel of living on Earth. I can't say I'm excited about it, but I think I… Should. You know?"

"Yes." I nod. "I really do. Ah…"

"What?"

"Well, you did better than Canis, but you could do with a little more training in case we have to fight those things again."

She hesitates for a moment, then nods firmly.

"I agree. Um. Are you available now?"

"Yep. I'm free until the League finish deciding what to do about the Peace Operatives. And then I'm.. probably going to be busy, so let's make the most of it."

 

[Darko]

Orange Lantern. Kara is currently recovering from chirurgery."

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Why does everyone use the word 'chirurgery' instead of the more common 'surgery'.

I get if it's a weird quirk of the SI, but not why others would do it unless they're from centuries in the past.

joking aside he's a mature adult capable of making her own decisions

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"she's a mature"

 

[Ngamer11]

"I was.. going to-. Take that."

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't realise." … "Megagirl is still available?"

She shakes her head. "That's no good, it doesn't start with an 'S'. Do you think you could talk her out of it?"

"Probably? Does this mean that you'll be joining us in the field more often?"

She shrugs. "I get the feeling that this kind of thing is part and parcel of living on Earth. I can't say I'm excited about it, but I think I… Should. You know?"

"Yes." I nod. "I really do. Ah…"

"What?"

"Well, you did better than Canis, but you could do with a little more training in case we have to fight those things again."

She hesitates for a moment, then nods firmly.

"I agree. Um. Are you available now?"

"Yep. I'm free until the League finish deciding what to do about the Peace Operatives. And then I'm.. probably going to be busy, so let's make the most of it."

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I'm glad Kara is going to be more active moving forward. I kinda wonder if this means she's closer to Paul than she is to Superman in some regards.

 

[Kurai]

Why does everyone use the word 'chirurgery' instead of the more common 'surgery'.

I get if it's a weird quirk of the SI, but not why others would do it unless they're from centuries in the past.

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I expect it's a British-ism, for lack of a better term - like "tyre" over "tire." I'm somewhat used to them, myself, but I can understand why it would bother you.

 

[The Chosen One]

Why does everyone use the word 'chirurgery' instead of the more common 'surgery'.

I get if it's a weird quirk of the SI, but not why others would do it unless they're from centuries in the past.

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The ring translates to his preferred version of english, especially when he's speaking with aliens who may or may not bother engaging their own translators around him.

 

[Darko]

The ring translates to his preferred version of english, especially when he's speaking with aliens who may or may not bother engaging their own translators around him.

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But even people who speak English and don't sound like his preferred version of it use the word.

 

[Vaermina]

But even people who speak English and don't sound like his preferred version of it use the word.

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Remember Orange Lantern is exceptionally petty, he probably has his ring translating anything that's not his preferred word for a thing even if it's already in english.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

20th July 2013
21:45 GMT

"Recognized, Orange Lantern, B zero zix."

I step out into the interior of the Fortress of Solitude, a little… Wary of the reception that I might receive.

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Checking in on Local Kara, eh? She did take a nasty hit back at Kord-tech. and while the Fortress' technology can handle the physical repairs, I have to wonder how her mind is after all that.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"Ahoy the... Fortress..?"

A hologram of Jor-El appears a short distance from me. "Orange Lantern. Kara is currently recovering from chirurgery."

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Well, at least he's welcome. The response would have been more unfriendly if he wasn't.

"Am.. I allowed to visit?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't you be?"

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Legitimate concern, I suspect.

"Kara has repeatedly stated her desire to avoid this sort of combat. I took a piece of Apokoliptian equipment to her place of work, and led the mission which saw her get-" I wave my right hand at the right side of my face. "-maimed."

He frowns faintly. "Kara doesn't blame you for that. Do you blame yourself?"

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OL does have a tendency to accept blame where it's not warranted when something goes awry. Often to give someone a target for their emotion, and someone to shout at to feel better...

"No, not significantly. Maybe I could have acted against the whole… Global Peace Agency thing a bit more vigorously. I've had concerns from the first moment I heard about it. But that's about it, really. It's more that people who've had serious injuries are understandably prone to feel rather strongly about it."

Click to shrink...

A lot of the creation process played out off-screen while he was off-world or busy. It's hard to blame him for not taking action. OL is probably just feeling a bit wounded that it happened, I bet.

"She was extremely distraught when she first arrived, but at the moment she's recovering psychologically rather than physically, and I think that seeing you would do her good."

I nod, smiling. "I'm glad to hear it. Has the other Kara paid you a visit?"

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Well, at least she got out of the numbness and shock of the initial wounding. She did seem a bit shell-shocked back at the hospital...

He shakes his head. "No, not at all. Was she injured?"

"Less severely. She.. might have decided to let her natural regeneration handle it."

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And to be fair, she might well have stronger regeneration too. Given that it seemed to repair her eye just fine...

I frown. I mean, joking aside she's a mature adult capable of making her own decisions. I don't usually bother to see a physician to check my work when I heal myself with my power ring. She had a sun lamp and a purple healing ray, and while those can't restore missing body parts they can almost completely fix tissue trauma.

Click to shrink...

Plus Kara-One didn't suffer as severe damage as Local Kara did. Even so, who knows how strong her regeneration even is? If it had been her with bone-damage, it might well have regrown.

I start walking further into the Fortress. "Is she in medical now?"

"No, the gallery."

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A better place to heal the mind than a lab, certainly.

"Thank you."

"These… Human Eradicator units. Are they anything I should warn Kal-El about?"

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Interesting that he'd call them that, too. I suppose the conceptual similarities fit.

"Uh. He should be getting a briefing from Diana today. Clearly they can injure Kryptonians, but I don't believe that Kal-El is so careless as to allow that alone to get the better of him."

"Well, I'm allowed to worry."

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Nice to see Jor.el's concern for his son carries through even in a complex mental replica.

"I.. should probably ask. You know that artificial intelligences have citizenship in the United States now?"

"I do."

"I know that by kryptonian standards you're not a person, but our standards are different. And I can transfer you into an organic body."

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I assume it would have to be a baseline human body for ease of construction. Also, there might be constraints about cloning Kryptonian tissue in Jor.El's code. Reconstructing damage fine, full bodies disallowed, that sort of thing.

"I appreciate the offer, but that's not what I'm here for." He looks away for a moment. "Sometimes I think the real Jor-El shouldn't have made me. He didn't intend to try keeping kryptonian culture alive; a database would have done almost as good a job of educating him as I have. I'm worried that I'm being a distraction from Kal-El's relationship with his human father."

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I doubt it. And perhaps Jor-El wanted something with more personality than a simply encyclopedia. Without a 'live' example of Kryptonian character, what if he'd found their culture cold and unfeeling?

"I don't think either of them see it that way. But… If you're experiencing actual feelings about it them I think you're far beyond a recording."

"Perhaps I am. But as I said, Jor-El is dead. I'm only here to advise his son on subjects that he needs to learn about and that Earth cannot teach him. So long as I can do that, I'm satisfied." He smiles as he fades. "I'll let Kara know that you're here."

Click to shrink...

At least he understands he's not a true synthetic mind, merely parts of one. And he's okay with that.

The gallery is a product of my second trip to Krypton. Despite the planet breaking up and the radiation, quite a few pieces of kryptonian artwork survived the death of the civilisation that created it and lasted until the present day. I grabbed a ringful of the more intact pieces, gift-wrapped them and gave them to Earth's kryptonians on Kara's last birthday. She put a couple of smaller pieces in her apartment but the larger ones ended up getting their own space here.

Click to shrink...

Of course, after scrubbing all radioactive material from them. Don't want to irradiate the last survivors.

And the joke is that I don't know if they were the kryptonian equivalent of the Mona Lisa or just some sort of mass-produced junk. And she doesn't know because while she could have found out… She's an El. Art's not really their thing.

Or mine. Something I'm reminded of as I step into the gallery and stare at the… Giant… Purple… Crystal… Pineapple… Thing? Which takes up the first pit.

"Paul! Hey!"

Click to shrink...

That would be amusing. treating something like a Funko Pop as a historical cultural artefact... That thing? Definitely sounds like some spiritual depiction.

Kara's wearing actual kryptonian robes, rather than hospital wear or Earth clothing. Looking at her face… I can't tell that she was injured. There's no mark, and no colour difference between the replacement flesh and the old. And her smile looks completely natural as she.. walks around the artwork on display to greet me.

Click to shrink...

Well, Jor.El does good work, at least. Wonder if she's walking just for comfort, or if it had to drain her reserves to more effectively treat her?

"Good evening, Kara. How are you?"

"Great. Perfect, even." Her left hand comes up and touches her face. "I can't even tell it happened. And I checked with the hospital, and the guy I fought made it through okay. Oh, and I heard everything you said to Uncle Jor, and you're being ridiculous."

Click to shrink...

Good news on that front, then.

"I know that he couldn't be considered a person on Krypton, but for a long time Match wouldn't have been either."

She smiles, giggling. "You always do that. No, I meant about blaming you for getting injured. It was… Terrifying… But I did it. I fought like a superhero. And I'm actually proud of myself."

Click to shrink...

Albeit after taking some damage. You'll definitely have to take some time training to avoid that next time.

"Ah. Well, good news then: I convinced Kara Two to accept the name 'Superwoman'. So all you've got to do is-."

Her face falls. "You did?"

Click to shrink...

...Don't tell me, you wanted that one. Hmm... Local Kara is slightly older, I think, but Kara-One claims to be more experienced... Let them work it out between them?

"Yes? I mean, she wasn't enthusiastic-."

"I was.. going to-. Take that."

Click to shrink...

There's always other names. Suprema, perhaps?

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't realise." … "Megagirl is still available?"

She shakes her head. "That's no good, it doesn't start with an 'S'. Do you think you could talk her out of it?"

Click to shrink...

Pity 'Power Girl' is off the table. But that's suited to a more mature Kara anyway.

"Probably? Does this mean that you'll be joining us in the field more often?"

She shrugs. "I get the feeling that this kind of thing is part and parcel of living on Earth. I can't say I'm excited about it, but I think I… Should. You know?"

Click to shrink...

If nothing else, you can be the 'super-smart' Superwoman. It'd offset Kara-One well enough.

"Yes." I nod. "I really do. Ah…"

"What?"

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Pity the Team isn't in a training phase right now. there's probably a new generation of young capes coming up out of the Anti-Life and White Light right now...

"Well, you did better than Canis, but you could do with a little more training in case we have to fight those things again."

She hesitates for a moment, then nods firmly.

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Certainly, against anything less than that, Kryptonian powers would be overkill.

"I agree. Um. Are you available now?"

"Yep. I'm free until the League finish deciding what to do about the Peace Operatives. And then I'm.. probably going to be busy, so let's make the most of it."

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Either working for the Agency, or helping with dismantling it, yes...

It's impressive how well Local Kara's bouncing back from this. You'd think she'd have been more upset about the 'my workplace got attacked and I got badly injured' thing. I guess she's just getting used to the idea that trouble will find her, whether she wants it or not. Better to get on top of the superhero thing before something else goes wrong...

 

[Mr Zoat]

Why does everyone use the word 'chirurgery' instead of the more common 'surgery'.

I get if it's a weird quirk of the SI, but not why others would do it unless they're from centuries in the past.

Click to shrink...

Same reason I spell sulphur 'sulphur' really.

"she's a mature"

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Thank you, corrected.

But even people who speak English and don't sound like his preferred version of it use the word.

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I don't think so. Jor-El is speaking Kryptonian here.

good a job of educating Kal-El as I have

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Change this when you get home.

 

[Bud-E]

@Mr Zoat What's going on with Penguin now that Paul healed his birth defect?

 

[Mr Zoat]

@Mr Zoat What's going on with Penguin now that Paul healed his birth defect?

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Physiotherapy.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

Remember Orange Lantern is exceptionally petty, he probably has his ring translating anything that's not his preferred word for a thing even if it's already in english.

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To be fair, he clearly doesn't mind people mocking him by calling him cake man over and over again, otherwise he would have asked the ring to censor it a while ago. So his ego clearly isn't that fragile.

 

[hkim]

To be fair, he clearly doesn't mind people mocking him by calling him cake man over and over again, otherwise he would have asked the ring to censor it a while ago. So his ego clearly isn't that fragile.

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That's different though, that one is because of something he actually did, and moreso it's because of a lapse in judgment. Maybe he feels like he's got it coming?
The other bits are more him being Remarkably British.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th July 2013
21:52 GMT

Kara looks around the arctic panorama. 24 hour sunlight, air temperature a balmy 1o​C and filled with intermittent sleet. Fortunately, my armour is sealed and Kara's robes are hydrophobic.

"Am I going to be shooting at targets again?"

Between my ring and her super senses, we have no difficulty communicating with one another. I scheduled almost all of our previous sessions during dry days… Possibly an oversight on my part, but at the time she was fairly clear about not intending to get into fights.

"No, that was an exercise to help you maintain control of your abilities when under stress. This is about how to actually fight."

"Ah-. Against you?"

"We will be sparring, but I think I'll start you off against something a little easier."

I fabricate… A basic humanoid robot frame, with a kinetic belt to let it fly, and… Basic combat programming. The O.M.A.C.s were probably more intelligent, but we can work up to that. Uh… Ah. Heat-resistant armour panels but leave the joints exposed, add a low-power plasma pulse gun to the head and… Weaker crumbler gauntlets to the hands. Enough to sting, not enough to actually disintegrate her.

And activate.

"You'll be fighting this thing."

"Did you have that in subspace?"

"No, I just built it. I'm not expecting-."

She holds up her right hand in a 'stop' gesture. "Wait a moment. You can just create a robot out of nothing?"

"Not out of nothing. I need ring power, and I'm not a technologist or programmer myself so I'm mostly copying other people's work."

"But you don't need raw materials or parts?"

"That reduces the cost, but no. Why?"

"There's been a few times lately where it might have been nice to have an army of robots."

"Alright. Do you know any A.I. programmers you would trust with programming their brains with the capacity to make the complexity of judgements that they would need? Because the best I could do would be a telepresence system or making them fully intelligent in their own right. And I don't really have time to be the father of a new machine species at the moment."

She frowns thoughtfully. "I could.. do it."

"Really? I thought you were focused on pure maths."

"Yes, but I could adapt the Eradicator program-."

"Noooo."

"Okay, the name's a bit misleading, but they were really just high quality security robots."

"Which need constant oversight and direction and whose evaluation matrix makes them a bit weird about kryptonian societal norms."

"I could change those!"

"You could, except that humans aren't a monoculture. There's no such thing as 'human cultural norms', and from what I remember about their value judgement system they need something in there in order to judge anything."

She exhales, eyes dipping as she thinks it over. "It should still be a solvable problem."

"Feel free to look into it. But this drone has basic combat programming and nothing else."

She nods. "And the dangerous parts are the hands an the face, just like the Operatives."

"It uses far less power, but you should act as if they were dangerous."

"But they're not?"

"A hit wouldn't be. If it could grab you for several minutes it would be, but I'd call it off if that was happening."

She nods. "What should I do?"

"To start with, evade it for a minute and then destroy it." I make a stopwatch construct behind me. "I'll lecture you while you're doing that as an additional distraction."

"Right." She nods, locking her eyes on the robot.

"Activate."

I release the robot and start the clock. It drops a little in the air before activating its kinetic belt, then checks its surroundings. Then it locks onto Kara and charges its plasma gun.

"Is it on easy mode?"

"You heard me say that I'm-" The robot takes a long ranged shot, which Kara effortlessly evades. "-not a programmer, right? There's an adaptive component, so it won't just-" It takes another shot which Kara evades again, and then starts flying towards her with its hands to its sides. "-keep taking long ranged shots forever. If it can't learn quickly enough, I'll make a few more and network-" Three shots in quick succession, and Kara has to actually put a little effort into dodging in the right direction to avoid all three. "-them together."

"Does it know that I only have to survive a minute?"

"Not in any meaningful sense. It will learn that you only attack after a minute, but it's not mentally complex enough to 'know' things. It doesn't have abstract reasoning."

The robot accelerates as Kara backs up. Since she has no particular reason to let it get close enough to punch her until the minute is up, it's going to have to pursue her. I might add a restriction after the first couple of bouts, but that's an intelligent thing to realise.

"One thing you should always-" The robot continues making shots, and-. Ah, it's realised that it can vary the speed at which they move. It tries a trio of faster shots, but all they do is increase Kara's focus. "-do is evaluate where the danger comes from, both to yourself and others. Sometimes, it's best to keep away-" I gesture to her and the robot. "-while in others it's better -or essential- to rush down the target as quickly as possible. If you encountered this robot in the wild you'd be better off attacking it the moment you realised that its weapons weren't dangerous to you, because they are more dangerous to other people."

She glances at the clock behind me, then dodges a cluster of shots the robot times to bracket her at the same time. She's forced to move upwards more, but that's about all it achieved.

"What if it's not obvious?"

"You can provisionally estimate it based on known factors, such as available power supply and any previous examples of weapons from the same villain. You can hold back and test it, for example by throwing things at it to see how it responds. Does it ignore things it doesn't consider threats, or dodge or deflect everything? Can it dodge? What's its peripheral vision like? And depending on what else is going on you might decide that it doesn't matter and just try to avoid getting hit."

Kara nods, watches the time run out and then fires her heat vision at the robot's neck. It melts through, head and body falling towards the arctic ground.

I catch both, and reattach them.

"Good. Again."

 

[Darko]

Yes, but I could adapt the Eradicator program-."

"Noooo."

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Yeah, they don't need any Nazi robots.

At least he's smarter about this than the Renegade.

 

[Ardy]

I know we joke about his attention span, but shouldn't he at least be looking into one of the many dangling plot threads still out there instead of teaching Kara? He has the team on speed dial, it's not like this needs him personally.