21st November 2012
15:02 GMT -5
I watch out of the window of the secure detainment facility's office as a woman is embraced by her tearful family after a fifteen year absence. Parents and sisters, in this case, people who had long since assumed that they'd never see her again. She has a relatively minor superhuman pyromantic ability that resulted in her getting abducted by the dominators when their snatch squads went through the local version of Gotham. She's not being let go yet; unlike most of the people we recovered she isn't being kept for fear that she'll return to a life of crime but rather because she hasn't finished going through 'decontamination' yet. That will involve checking her for implants, mind control effects and genetic alterations, as well as providing her with therapy and…
And working out how to integrate people back into society after a fifteen year gap.
"What do you plan to do with the former prisoners?
"
"Depends on what they were in prison for." Commander Scott is looking like his old self, though I've noticed that he's occasionally touching his ring in a way that he wasn't before. "Everyone who's served their sentence is being treated like a civilian. Everyone who was sentenced to more than fifteen years… I think a little leniency is in order, if they get with the program."
I nod.
"And Mister Rice?
"
Interceptor snorts. "We should leave him as he is."
Commander Scott doesn't show any particular emotion. I give him a moment to respond, but… Nothing. Alright then.
"Might I ask 'why'?
"
"Do you know what the cure rate for schizophrenia is?"
"As far as I know, it doesn't
get cured. Sufferers learn to cope with it, usually assisted by counselling and psychoactive drugs.
"
"Yeah. Because schizophrenia is the result of the human brain not making the right levels of neurotransmitters. It's not something you can fix with injections. You can't even reliably suppress it with drug injections, just reduce the impact. We've managed to properly cure a
handful of people using cybernetics-."
"That's great! Can I-? Would you mind giving me a copy of your records before we leave?
"
Interceptor frowns. "We had to take their brains out of their skulls and wire them into a pharmacy. It's a
functional solution, but it's not exactly something you can apply to a whole population."
"It's still an
option, and it's better than
nothing.
"
Commander Scott nods. "We can share medical technology if you don't mind reciprocating."
"Right, you don't have purple healing rays, do you.
"
I take one of my spares out of subspace and deposit on the meeting table, along with full documentation.
"We're still doing testing prior to mass implementation, but there haven't been any problems so far.
"
Commander Scott looks at it for a moment. "That's very kind of you. What does it 'heal'?"
"Any organic damage. It won't completely regrow missing parts, but anything short of that will knit back together.
"
Interceptor's posture relaxes slightly, though she still has a stern expression.
"My
point is that we can't cure his schizophrenia. Given how his physiology works, we can't use cybernetics, and give how powerful he is, we can't risk depending on drugs or therapy. It makes more sense to use him as a perfect power suppressor system at the new Slab than it does to try turning him back."
Whaw.
I agree with everything she just said, but completely disagree with her conclusion.
There
are magic means to treat mental illnesses, though none of them are reliable either. Given the risk he poses and the crimes he's already committed, it
isn't right to risk the lives of everyone on the planet by letting him out. And he is more reliably contained at the moment than the JSI could do with the resources at their disposal.
"Still, I think it's worth the risk. The dominators will have backups of their research, and right now he's the only superhuman that you know it won't effect.
" I look towards Commander Scott.
"You said that his reports said he was getting better.
Does he present a threat?
"
"He
didn't, before he was a prisoner of the Dominion for fifteen years."
"But you're talking about turning a person into an accessory. We had that in my parallel, when someone turned a telepath called Doctor Cizko into an intelligence suppressing machine. It
doesn't inspire confidence in people. There's a difference between 'this person is a clear and present danger' and 'this person's brain is a useful paperweight'.
"
Interceptor shrugs. "Then we don't
tell people. It's not like most people bother finding out what our actual rules of engagement are. If we turn up with a new power suppressor, no one's going to think anything of it."
I blink.
"This is what I sound like to other people, isn't it?
"
"Yeah mate." John Constantine plops himself down in the chair next to me. "It is."
Interceptor blinks. "How did-?"
"Wizard. Amazing where I can get, especially when people are all looking the other way. And I've been getting all sorts of places. Listening. Learning." He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a smooth black stone. "Know what this is?"
"The
Blackrock." Commander Scott
generates construct manacles and tries to
clamp them around John, only for the construct to decay into static before it reaches him. "Don't even
think about using that."
"Using it? No. Not my style. But it's a dead useful tool. Did you know that it records every single electromagnetic transmission on Earth? Has done ever since
Silverstone created it."
John leans forward, resting his chin on his hands.
"Funny how different the version of your chat with the dominators it recorded was compared to the version that got released to the public. You want to explain that, Commander?"
Commander Scott's eyes narrow slightly.
"I don't know what you
think you've found out from the tool of a well known supervillain, but if you think it's important then you might as well tell us."
John lifts his head off his hands, and glares at Commander Scott with
genuine anger in his eyes.
"You sold them out. The Slab, Basement One Oh One, all those other places I never heard of until I heard you tell
them about them. Every JSI-run prison, you handed the lot off to the Dominion."
Interceptor huffs. "We don't keep the locations of our prisons secret,
Wizard. The dominators were in orbit. I'm sure they could work out what was in the buildings with 'JSI PRISON KEEP OUT' written on the side on their own."
"Bloody convenient if they
could. Because there was an investigation going on, wasn't there. After a few too many prisoners in for minor offences got their brains mangled by your suppression system."
Commander Scott glares back. "That's
enough."
"Which got shut down right afterwards. Investigating the people keeping the world safe at a time like that? Just not
done. Plus all the evidence was on the other side of the galaxy. Do any of the ones we got back know, or is Brainwave going to give them a once-over first?"
"
No. We handed them over because it was best for
Earth."
Interceptor's face falls, and she looks at Commander Scott in horror.
