I walk-.
"What-"
I wince-.
"-the-"
Raquel grabs me by the right arm and pulls me around.
"-fuck?!"
Yeah, she's very much
not happy about all of this.
"There's no point whispering. She'll hear us perfectly well if she concentrates."
"What that fuck?"
Okay, Rocket? Rocket. Contain the calamity that is your mammaries.
"Her culture has engineered a visceral revulsion at the idea of underemployment, she wanted a job and-."
"A Nazi?!"
Worst case, think of her as opposite-gender Kon.
"You know Canis is worse, right?"
She grimaces, shaking her head. "He's not a Nazi, he's just a.. weird.. art.. guy."
Someone hasn't been reading the briefing materials...
"Did you..? Miss the bit where he mentioned leading Apokoliptian armies? You've read the files on Apokolips, what did you think they were doing?"
"Fighting a war?"
Big old blind spot, clearly.
I don't laugh, even though that statement is ridiculous.
"The area around Apokolips is called 'The Waste', because whenever anyone tries settling there Apokoliptian armies go out, kill everyone and destroy everything. Canis personally led at least one campaign of outright extermination and sees nothing wrong with having done so, so, compared to that, the activities of someone who has mostly done the same sort of work as us but in the service of a far less pleasant society is less evil."
They're like interstellar Vikings, but without the redeeming qualities.
"So she is evil."
"Well that's an interesting philosophical-."
Not what he was saying, Rocket. Focus.
"Paul."
"No, it is! Let's assume that as a fully indoctrinated National Socialist-"
"Nazi."
It's weird seeing this from the other side.
"-she sees absolutely nothing wrong with killing someone from one of their scapegoat groups. However, as a result of frantic genocidal purging before her birth she's never met one. Jews are extinct, gypsies are extinct-."
She raises her eyebrows. "Niggers are extinct."
No, Africa is quite well populated...
"Actually, no, but I go the impression that Kaldur was the first black person she'd ever spoken to. The point is, though she would take part in a genocide if asked, she never has. Likewise, she hasn't ferreted disabled people out hiding to send them to the camps because there aren't any. She hasn't had the opportunity to do the evil she'd be willing to do. What she's actually done is crime fighting and disaster relief. So is she evil-"
"Yes."
Let him finish, girl.
"-or a good person working for an evil state?"
"Okay, kinda both. An evil person working for an evil state."
She is just stuck on the whole Nazi thing, isn't she?
"You know she did dinner-" Raquel grimaces. "-tonight, right? Look… Why do we arrest people?"
"Yeah, I don't think Little Miss-"
"She's thirty nine."
And taking her appearance at face value too...
"-Mz Nazi is gunna go join the Belle Reve Crew."
"Of course not. She hasn't committed a crime here yet."
Not really helping your point, OL.
Um. Except arguably wearing that red 's' symbol in Germany, where a very similar symbol was banned as part of post-war denazificiation and hasn't been unbanned. But fortunately America has much more broadly-phrased free speech laws.
Yeah, I wouldn't mention that, either to Rocket or to Overgirl.
"But we perform arrests rather than summary executions-"
"Because we're not Nazis."
"-because we try to rehabilitate people, Miss Breaking-and-Entering. We support a system in which people who break the rules are placed in confinement and gradually re-socialised. That is what I would like us to do for Angelika."
Because it's been working so well so far, OL?
"I'm cool with confining the bitch."
"You… Ah, you.. mouthing off to her might be a bit of a hard test of her willingness to play along right now."
"Well excuse me, masser!"
Stop that, you're far to sassy to play 'housemaid'.
I frown. "Oh, don't even. I'm not asking you to calm down a little because you're black, I'm asking you to do it because, firstly, her seeing you as a rational person undermines what she's been taught about black people, and second, because it means that if I've horribly misjudged the situation she's less likely to kill you."
I'd like to hear the chain of logic behind that... I'm sure it makes perfect sense to Mister Avarice Enlightenment...
"Oh, ah'm not going near her without a my kinetic barrier-."
"She has heat vision."
She frowns. "Superboy didn't have heat vision."
Different universe, different method.
"It's a different form of hybridisation. She can't match Superman's peak output but it'll still incinerate you."
She stands there for a moment with a decidedly disgruntled expression on her face.
Really, this whole situation is a big old stress-fest.
"Oh that's a great way to introduce her to the team."
"Not… What I wanted to lead with. But I don't need tell you not to make rude jokes about Darkseid in front of Canis despite the fact that-."
"Worse, yeah, I get it."
Just please don't go making Nazi Jokes to Overgirl, please...
"If you want to see what true evil looks like I've got a few thousand hours worth of recordings from Vega you can go through. Mid-firefight cannibalism is a high point, and the Citadelian slave-cages match anything the Nazis managed. Or heck, you ever watched a cowboys versus Indians film?"
"Yeah, but I never cheered the cavalry. Spotted that one."
Not quite what OL is going for, I think...
"What tribes used to live where Dakota City is now? You live there, work there, and I don't see you calling for the city to be demolished."
"I wouldn'a invaded their land and killed them. She would."
And how are you so sure? Have you been inside her head?
"Okay, look; you don't have to have anything to do with her. I'd appreciate it if you'd help, because at the moment you're one of two black people she's been introduced to and I think you disprove Nazi propaganda pretty hard."
"Gee, thanks."
Be nice, that's a compliment.
"You're welcome. But you don't have to, and she's probably only going to be here for a week or two anyway."
She sighs angrily.
"What's Superman sayin' about this, anyway?"
That... Is a
Very Good question. I mean, it's only been what, two or three days max, I'm sure he's taken a look over her case.