"-conducted on your Earth, they didn't happen here."
"No, the negros were not purged. They were expelled from Europe-. I have not… Interacted with one before." She looks a little unsettled. "They are allowed to occupy positions of authority here?"
Oh, honey, you have
no idea...
"In a meritocratic society, if you can do the job then you can get the job. On this Earth, restricted someone on the grounds of their ethnic background is considered inappropriate."
"They're just-. Allowed-." She shudders, swallowing, then nods. "I understand."
Yeah, this is not going to be easy for her. It'll be like all of her worst nightmares, in a political sense, come true.
I'm morbidly curious about how the Nazis put their racial policies into affect, but… Given that whatever I hear there's next to no chance that I'll head over to her Earth to remonstrate with the locals, I… There isn't much point in me enquiring.
"The Justice League has several black members. Their foremost magic user is a multi-millennial African named Nomo Balewa, and if those portals are magical in nature he's your best hope of going home." She nods slowly in acknowledgement. "We don't segregate. There's-."
Man, things are going to get difficult with her, aren't they? I hope Doctor Mist has some sort of interdimensional travel spell, if only by reverse-engineering the Earth -14 Zatara's techniques...l
"Why not?" She frowns. "The British Empire segregated before the war. America had anti-miscegenation laws before the war…" She stills as she works it out. "The war."
Yes, you see it now, don't you?
"There's nothing quite like liberating a death camp full of starving people to make a person reconsider their racial attitudes. And if you're a black man who's spent years fighting and killing in the service of your country and then they try to make you sit at the back of the bus or tell you to your marriage to the woman you met on campaign isn't valid…"
I shrug.
"It was quite the thing back in the sixties. I should dig up a textbook or two for you.
"
"Fascism is as unpopular here as.. I imagine Jews are where you're from."
Her mouth opens slightly, then closes again.
"I'm.. not Italian."
Ha, Just like
Mr Zoat said she would...
I like that it took him a moment to understand..
"Fascism has become generic term for your particular brand of violent entho-nationalism. There's basically nowhere on this Earth you can go where you can guarantee not to encounter black people. I'll ask again: can I trust you to keep yourself under control?"
"I would rather not-." … "Yes."
Basically, if she wants out of this lab, she's got to exercise some self-control...
"Glad to hear it. Ring, please add Overgirl to the network."
"Overgirl added as A Six One."
No restricted access mode? No 'access only with another registered user's permission' setting? Boy, their security needs a little work.
"This way please."
I lift myself off the floor and fly out of the medical ward. She follows-. She can fly. Interesting. Have to talk to Jor-El about what combination of human and kryptonian enables that ability, along with the heat vision.
!Empower Kon!
"Do you have teleporters?"
"No, zeta tubes. The infrastructure requirements-" She's looking around very carefully, though these walls can switch between kryptonian-transparent and kryptonian-opaque and I know that Jor-El's set it to the latter. "-for the first few were less, and it was easier to keep building them than it was to get approval for the satellite network a teleportation system would require. I'm gradually persuading them to switch to a magic-based system. What do your people use?"
Really, OL, do you have to tell her so much? I mean, the Zeta Tube's inventor probably got purged, but still, they might be advanced enough to work it out...
"Assault transport ships."
Hm. Well, if they've had kryptonian technology for sixty years… And cleared the air between their launch point and their destination, an atmospheric craft… It would be slower than a zeta tube in places that actually have tubes, but otherwise could give them a faster response time. I'd rather dismissed the idea because.. teleporters are just better, but perhaps I was wrong not to at least present a few prototypes to the League?
So, Assault Transport are basically giant, troop-carrying bullets?
And I'm amazed he hasn't though of encouraging the development of something like the DCAU's Javelins.
I land just in front of the tube.
"Just through here."
I step-
"Recognized, Orange Lantern, B Zero Six."
And what guarantee would you have she'd follow you, OL, beside her curiosity?
14th March
20:42 GMT +1
-though to the outskirts of Budapest and take a moment to check our surroundings. Pretty sure that Batman has recording devices on these things…
Time for a private chat with his on-call super-scientists.
"Ring, sound baffle. And call the Sivanas."
"Compliance."
"Recognized, Overgirl, A Six One."
Ah, I was half-expecting her to try to stay in the fortress. I suppose Jor-El could engage the internal security systems...
Overgirl strides out of the tube-. No, marches out, and it's a mercy that she's not goose-stepping. At least she's not checking her body parts like I did. She stops and looks around for a moment as I rise into the air, then follows me as I ascend.
"Ah. Budapest."
"I hesitate to ask..?"
Well, it's either 'shelled into oblivion' or...
"On my Earth this is all part of Germania. The older parts of the city are much the same. The Fuhrer was a great admirer of the civic architecture."
... 'captured peacefully without much damage.' Blitzkrieg for the win?
"The Fatherland must be bigger. I take it that Germania is the part of the world that the Reich directly administers?
"
"Yes." She smiles. "It covers most of central and Eastern Europe, including what was once the eastern part of Russia. The Fatherland has never been bigger!"
"And the former inhabitants have no further use for their territory?
"
Those that survived...
"Those who were genetically pure had their property restored once the war in Europe was over."
A million or so people living in Budapest at the start of the war. 'Genetically pure' meaning no more than one great grandparent who was a gypsy, Jew or Slav. Which.. means…
No, I don't-. I've got idea what genetic markers they were looking for, or whether or not the crazy Nazi eugenicists considered Hungarians to be Slavs or not.
Honestly, Who knows? The Nazi Leadership seemed a bit scattered at times...
"Orange Lantern!" Ah. Papa Sivana. "Delighted to hear from you, my boy! Found something interesting for me?"
Overgirl is looking down, using her enhanced vision to examine the city and its people.
"A Nazi superhero from a parallel universe."
"...And there's a phrase I never expected to ever say anytime soon.
"
"Earth Ten? Yes, I met my
alter-ego from there once. He's a businessman. National Socialism was
not good for the scientific community. And neither was cribbing all of their technology from alien databases."
Heh, I'm guessing a lot of human science development has been sidetracked or flat-out abandoned?
"We have a visitor from there. A portal opened in near-Earth space. Could you teleport us to you so we can discuss it?"
"Certainly."
Space… Cubes-.
Ah. Is it anything like being
drunk? And before you ask why that would be bad, consider it from the
drink's point of view.
Notvomitingnotvomiting-.
And I appear in Sivana's laboratory while Overgirl appears in a containment chamber, energy saws poised to dissect her!
I take it that's a feature, not a bug. Unfortunately, they do need her alive...
