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

[Assblaster5000]

I mean, it really didn't perform impressively at all

The entire thing just felt like OL was flailing about in a heavy slab of metal that wasn't really helping at all outside of having crumblers in the gauntlets

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Which is about as well as someone not trained in actual military use of power-armour they mostly use as a back-up defense if all their other back-ups totally fail can be expected to do I'd reckon. Especially while functionally blinded by tangible, metaphysical shadows from before the universe existed.

 

[PDV]

I'm kinda curious where this world Paul is hiding. I mean, we have him in Young Justice, Teen Titans, DCAU, DCAU pilot, Arrowverse, Naziverse, Alignment swap verse.

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Showed up in the timeline that had the Trinity, currently as AWOL as Batman. Or that's my guess.

 

[mastermenthe]

tangible, metaphysical shadows from before the universe existed

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You. You get it. I like you.

 

[LZB1285]

Question about Paul's backup power armour. Was it operating as designed, or was it running on its backup systems? They're in a fairly serious power nullification field, it could have affected other systems then just blocking most of his sensors.

 

[Bramble Thorn]

I'm still weirded out that he didn't at least look for a possible copy in the Naziverse. In the Earth Hell practically anything could have happen, mostly bad, including the total incineration of his body. But I feel he kinda left his Naziverse doppelganger to dry for no reason, not even a thought.

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Um, he knows there is a version of himself in Naziverse.
When he went there, they thought he as that version of himself at first.
He was captured, the local batman expy wanted him killed just to be on the safes side but Overman said no.
Ring was confiscated. Is currently trying to work as a journalist IIRC.

No, the shitty thing was not offering his alternate version a ride out of Naziville.

 

[Windona]

Um, he knows there is a version of himself in Naziverse.
When he went there, they thought he as that version of himself at first.
He was captured, the local batman expy wanted him killed just to be on the safes side but Overman said no.
Ring was confiscated. Is currently trying to work as a journalist IIRC.

No, the shitty thing was not offering his alternate version a ride out of Naziville.

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Eh, he probably felt his alternate could make the Naziverse less Nazi. Same way Paul's been making efforts to deradicalize (Progressivize?) the New Reichsmen in general to make the Naziverse over all less evil.

 

[Cuchulin]

In general, yes. In that particular case, SI saved their world, and was on a good terms with Overman. Polite "I saved you world, can I relocate my other self" should be fine. Major inconvenience from the story perspective, sure, so I didn't think much about that. I don't t think JSI-timeline Paul cameo can hurt, though.

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Quite right, best to make a good impression on the local version of Superman so he will be favorably inclined tword the local Alternate.

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th October 2013
08:21 GMT -7

The squad in carbon fibre/ceramic armoured space suits spread out, spray guns at the ready. Behind them, their employer and a young American make their way slowly towards the centre of the room. The older man's armour is the same purple and grey colour as his soldiers' armour, while that worn by the adolescent is blue with the emblem of a stern red face on it.

"Do you like the armour?"

"It's.. okay."

"I'd have thought that you'd be happier to be back here, Jackson Prime."

"No! No, I totally am, I just-." He sighs the long suffering sign of a teenager who finds themselves at odds with the world. "I did some stupid things before they all left, and Arcee's only said a couple of words to me since we got here. What if she's still angry with me?"

"She's not. You know they're all disturbed by my implants."

"Ah, yeah?"

"Right before I spoke to you, I'd had a big talk with Arcee about how she felt-"

Jack suddenly gives Paul his full attention, turning away from the giant alien computer technology. Then immediately he tries to look like he didn't.

"-and as far as I can tell, coming from a species that doesn't reproduce sexually and has known nothing but war for millions of years doesn't actually result in you having particularly good social skills."

"Ah-? 'Millions'?"

"Oh yeah, she's a bit older than you. Apparently there's an Autobot team out there somewhere that have alt-modes based on dinosaurs."

"Found them, sir!"

Paul turns in the direction of the shout, looking over to where his men at arms have discovered a cluster of recumbent scraplets hiding under a peeled-back deck plate. "Good work, chaps! Advit, spray them down, but try not to get too much anywhere else."

The indicated squad leader nods and motions two of his men forwards. He'd been a sergeant in the Indian army until a shrapnel wound taken in Kashmir damaged the nerves in his legs too badly to continue. Now he was walking around on his own legs with nothing worse than a slightly odd feeling when the wires replacing the damaged nerves pulled awkwardly under his skin. In his opinion, the discomfort was well worth it, though he had firmly decided that he wouldn't ever choose the option a couple of the formerly paraplegic soldiers had and have his legs replaced with purely mechanical legs that wouldn't have the same problem.

The weird metal balls with mouths don't even stir as the gas sprayers turn them into glass statues. He waves Raghav and Kiaan forward to pull them out of the way so that they can check behind them. If the damned things act like normal insects they'll be crammed into the crevice as far as they can get. The other squad were already rappelling down the sides of the alien's metal bridge to spray anything lurking on the underside. He'd looked down when they walked across and he hadn't been able to see the bottom.

Their boss watches them rappel down and nods in satisfaction. While he was confident in the plan, it was always nice to see it work in practice as well as theory.

"I didn't know she was millions of years old."

"Does it change anything?"

"I knew she was older than me, I just thought…" He slumps slightly. "I don't know what I thought."

"If it helps, I don't know that she is millions of years old. Thinking about it, I've never heard her specifically mention a time before the war. Slipstream is millions of years old and we get on fine."

He looks the system over and then waves Jack forward. For some reason, the Thirteen designed their great database to be accessed by sliding what would for them be a tiny key into a slot in the floor, which would open the database and cause the keyhole to flip out of the floor to their chest height. The database would then load whatever the key was set to retrieve onto it and then shut down. Of course, if you didn't exactly know what you wanted or if it wasn't something that would mess around with a Prime's spark, things were a little simpler.

In theory.

Jack walks forward, wincing slightly as his eyes pick out the bite marks inflicted by the scraplets he fought off last time he was here. At the time, he thought of getting the data Optimus needed and tricking the scraplets into following the insecticon off the bridge as his proudest moment. He still did, actually, but the fact that he'd never come close to equalling it, and… Probably only got to do it in the first place because he wasn't going inside Unicron, made him feel like it…

It wasn't the proof that he was a part of Team Prime that he thought it was at the time. It wasn't the proof that he could be Arcee's partner that he wanted it to be.

He slides the key into the slot and then backs away as the access point starts glowing. Okay, clear damage there and there, but it looks like it has some sort of auto-repair system. The strange upright section that served as the download point pulled itself upright to a height convenient for an Autobot. Behind it, a metal iris opens in the ground and geometric holograms of brilliant blue and white light spring out of it.

Paul looks around cautiously, making sure that no surviving scraplets have decided to eat this sacred relic now that's it's been reactivated. When none appear, he activates his armour's gravity impeller and jumps, flying-.

He laughs inwardly. Or as Slipstream would put it 'falling with style' in an arc and landing on the crenulation just above the attachment point.

"Coming up?"

Jack checks his surroundings for obstacles and then triggers his own thruster, arcing upwards and managing to land directly on the download point.

"Can you see where you have to plug it in?"

Can he? It's not exactly obvious, and cybertron technology was designed for people a whole lot bigger than-.

"Heh!"

He looks up at Paul. "What?"

"I just realised. Alpha Trion, the transformer who sent all those archive pods to Earth, was chief archivist of Iacon, right?" Jack nods. "And he was Orion Pax's boss. We're below Kaon, on the other side of the planet from Iacon. Bosses don't fetch and carry for themselves. Which means that whenever he needed something from what is basically Primus's own memory banks, he'd have sent Orion. And Orion would have driven half way around the planet, snuck into Kaon because the location of the entrance is supposed to be a secret, dealt with this stupid interface it has instead of a normal console, then snuck out again and driven back halfway around the planet back to Iacon."

Jack frowns. That sounds like something his manager at KO Burger might do. It felt.. weird to think of Optimus Prime being in the same position.

And kinda funny.

"You found it yet?"

Ah-? "Yeah!" He reaches onto his harness and pulls out the first cable. It's big enough that it's awkward to manipulate with one hand, and Shockwave said that was as small as it could be made and still work. Slot it in there, and the second one goes there…

"They're in!"

Paul activates his radio. "We're plugged in. Shockwave?"

The lights behind the access point flicker and spin, going out for a moment before forming a face.

Jack stares at it, then glances down at the autobot symbol on his chest armour.

"Who's that?"

"The Last Autobot. I'd forgotten-."

Paul shakes his head.

"Yes, that would work. Shockwave, can you find out where he is?"

 

[Katillno]

Nice I forgot about him also I'm really liking this sidestory thank you for writing it

 

[Ngamer11]

Jack suddenly gives Paul his full attention, turning away from the giant alien computer technology. The immediately he tries to look like he didn't.

"-and as far as I can tell, coming from a species that doesn't reproduce sexually and has know nothing but war for millions of years doesn't actually result in you having particularly good social skills."

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I think that should be 'Then he immediately' and 'known'.

The lights behind the access point flicker and spin, going out for a moment before forming a face.

Jack stares at it, then glances down at the autobot symbol on his chest armour.

"Who's that?"

"The Last Autobot. I'd forgotten-."

Paul shakes his head.

"Yes, that would work. Shockwave, can you find out where he is?"

Click to shrink...

Assuming Paul is the one who said that, I'm curious as to how he's going to explain how he even knows that the Last Autobot even exists.

 

[Sockmonkey]

Nice touch how the spacesuits have a minimum of metal bits so the scraplets wouldn't be tempted to even nibble.
They're fueled by energon like every other cybertronian life-form, but they would still need to ingest metals for the raw materials used for growth and healing and stuff.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

25th October 2013
08:21 GMT -7

The squad in carbon fibre/ceramic armoured space suits spread out, spray guns at the ready. Behind them, their employer and a young American make their way slowly towards centre of the room. The older man's armour is the same purple and grey colour as his soldiers armour, while that worn by the adolescent is blue with the emblem of a stern red face on it.

Click to shrink...

Ah, back to Pull, eh? I can't imagine how much fast talking and promises he had to make to June Darby to get her permission for her son to come back to Cybertron. Probably involved threats of violence if Jack was injured. Whether it would be June or Arcee delivering the violence, I'm not sure.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"Do you like the armour?"

"It's.. okay."

Click to shrink...

And for the lulz, I'm imagining something akin to Kicker's combat suit from Transformers Energon. It's that or a Pretender shell-lookalike...

"I'd have thought that you'd be happier to be back here, Jackson Prime."

"No! No, I totally am, I just-." He sighs the long suffering sign of a teenager who finds themselves at odds with the world. "I did some stupid things before they all left, and Arcee's only said a couple of words to me since we got here. What if she's still angry with me?"

Click to shrink...

Son, you're a teenager. Most people expect you to do stupid things. I'm sure Cybertronians have an equivalent phase.

"She's not. You know they're all disturbed by my implants."

"Ah, yeah?"

Click to shrink...

Ah, poking the elephant in the room, eh? This will be amusing.

"Right before I spoke to you, I'd had a big talk with Arcee about how she felt-"

Jack suddenly gives Paul his full attention, turning away from the giant alien computer technology. The immediately he tries to look like he didn't.

Click to shrink...

Ah, yes, the 'I'm pretending not to listen, even though you have my full attention.' act.

"-and as far as I can tell, coming from a species that doesn't reproduce sexually and has know nothing but war for millions of years doesn't actually result in you having particularly good social skills."

"Ah-? 'Millions'?"

Click to shrink...

Eh, it varies by continuity. But with no natural life-span (in most cases, as some types of spark do age) and extremely durable physiology, Cybertronians can last a long, long time.

"Oh yeah, she's a bit older than you. Apparently there's an Autobot team out there somewhere that have alt-modes based on dinosaurs."

Click to shrink...

It's a pity they didn't do more with the Dinobots. Never mind what happened to poor Sludge...

"Found them, sir!"

Paul turns in the direction of the shout, looking over to where his men at arms have discovered a cluster of recumbent scraplets hiding under a peeled-back deck plate. "Good work, chaps! Advit, spray them down, but try not to get too much anywhere else."

Click to shrink...

Just be careful. Where there's one nest, there's bound to be more... Lots, lots more.

The indicated squad leader nods and motions two of his men forwards. He'd been a sergeant in the Indian army until a shrapnel wound taken in Kashmir damaged the nerves in his legs too badly to continue. Now he was walking around on his own legs with nothing worse than a slightly odd feeling when the wires replacing the damaged nerves pulled awkwardly under his skin. In his opinion, the discomfort was well worth it, though he had firmly decided that he wouldn't ever choose the option a couple of the formerly paraplegic soldiers had and have his legs replaced with purely mechanical legs that wouldn't have the same problem.

Click to shrink...

Heh. Putting that borrowed Cybertronian technology to good use, eh? I'm guessing the whole squad is comprised of Indian volunteer troops.

The weird metal balls with mouths don't even stir as the gas sprayers turn them into glass statues. He waves Raghav and Kiaan forward to pull them out of the way so that they can check behind them. If the damned things act like normal insects they'll be crammed into the crevice as far as they can get. The other squad were already rappelling down the sides of the alien's metal bridge to spray anything lurking on the underside. He'd looked down when they walked across and he hadn't been able to see the bottom.

Click to shrink...

It probably runs a hundred miles or more straight down. And no doubt there's not one handrail in sight. Then again, given the scale of Cybertronian construction, the lip of the walkway may be above waist height for a human.

Their boss watches them rappel down and nods in satisfaction. While he was confident in the plan, it was always nice to see it work in practice as well as theory.

"I didn't know she was millions of years old."

Click to shrink...

Hey, you never discuss a lady's age. Especially if it can be measured in Eons.

"Does it change anything?"

"I knew she was older than me, I just thought…" He slumps slightly. "I don't know what I thought."

Click to shrink...

Given the way Cybertronian brains can be tweaked, patched and modified, I'd hate to see her memory cache. Maybe that's that the Spark is useful for: Long-term storage.

"If it helps, I don't know that she is millions of years old. Thinking about it, I've never heard her specifically mention a time before the war. Slipstream is millions of years old and we get on fine."

He looks the system over and then waves Jack forward. For some reason, the Thirteen designed their great database to be accessed by sliding what would for them be a tiny key into a slot in the floor, which would open the database and cause the keyhole to flip out of the floor to their chest height. The database would then load whatever the key was set to retrieve onto it and then shut down. Of course, if you didn't exactly know what you wanted or if it wasn't something that would mess around with a Prime's spark, things were a little simpler.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, for a Prime, it would basically be a simple database look-up. Probably not even needing to plug in. The key was basically a security passcode for anyone else.

In theory.

Jack walks forward, wincing slightly as his eyes pick out the bite marks inflicted by the scraplets he fought off last time he was here. At the time, he thought of getting the data Optimus needed and tricking the scraplets into following the insecticon off the bridge as his proudest moment. He still did, actually, but the fact that he'd never come close to equalling it, and… Probably only got to do it in the first place because he wasn't going inside Unicron, made him feel like it…

Click to shrink...

It made him feel needed by the Autobots? Seems the sort of insecurity a teenage boy would have in this scenario.

It wasn't the proof that he was a part of Team Prime that he thought it was at the time. It wasn't the proof that he could be Arcee's partner that he wanted it to be.

He slides the key into the slot and then backs away as the access point starts glowing. Okay, clear damage there and there, but it looks like it has some sort of auto-repair system. The strange upright section that served as the download point pulled itself upright to a height convenient for a transformer. Behind it, a metal iris opens in the ground and geometric holograms of brilliant blue and white light spring out of it.

Click to shrink...

One thing the ancient Primes had? A sense of style. Anyone fooling around with this will certainly feel they're tapping into some ancient repository, all right...

Paul looks around cautiously, making sure that no surviving scraplets have decided to eat this sacred relic now that's it's been reactivated. When none appear, he activates his armour's gravity impeller and jumps, flying-.

He laughs inwardly. Or as Slipstream would put it 'falling with style' in an arc and landing on the crenulation just above the attachment point.

Click to shrink...

Because of course they never considered the needs of a mini-con or something similarly sized.

"Coming up?"

Jack checks his surroundings for obstacles and then triggers his own thruster, arcing upwards and managing to land directly on the download point.

Click to shrink...

I bet any other time, he'd be whooping his ass off with excitement.

"Can you see where you have to plug it in?"

Can he? It's not exactly obvious, and transformer technology was designed for people a whole lot bigger than-.

Click to shrink...

A problem every continuity has. Heck, in Beast Wars, the Maximals had trouble getting around the Ark, since they'd qualify as Micromasters back in the old days.

"Heh!"

He looks up at Paul. "What?"

Click to shrink...

Care to share, Pull? Or is this going to be a private joke?

"I just realised. Alpha Trion, the transformer who sent all those archive pods to Earth, was chief archivist of Iacon, right?" Jack nods. "And he was Orion Pax's boss. We're below Kaon, on the other side of the planet from Iacon. Bosses don't fetch and carry for themselves. Which means that whenever he needed something from what is basically Primus's own memory banks, he'd have sent Orion. And Orion would have driven half way around the planet, snuck into Kaon because the location of the entrance is supposed to be a secret, dealt with this stupid interface it has instead of a normal console, then snuck out again and driven back halfway around the planet back to Iacon."

Click to shrink...

...Bit of a day-trip, then. I bet he packed energon snacks regularly.

Jack frowns. That sounds like something his manager at KO Burger might do. It felt.. weird to think of Optimus Prime being in the same position.

And kinda funny.

Click to shrink...

Some things are universal. Like asshole bosses. I mean, Alpha Trion would probably claim he did it to make sure Orion would be proficient at long-distance travel and stealth, but deep down? Asshole.

"You found it yet?"

Ah-? "Yeah!" He reaches onto his harness and pulls out the first cable. It's big enough that it's awkward to manipulate with one hand, and Shockwave said that was as small as it could be made and still work. Slot it in there, and the second one goes there…

Click to shrink...

Be glad he managed to make it that small. Imagine if you had to haul something the size of a refrigerator down here?

"They're in!"

Paul activates his radio. "We're plugged in. Shockwave?"

Click to shrink...

I'm guessing it acts as a remote access terminal. Letting Shockwave poke around in the database without attracting scraplets with his big, tasty aft.

The lights behind the access point flicker and spin, going out for a moment before forming a face.

Jack stares at it, then glances down at the autobot symbol on his chest armour.

Click to shrink...

Yes, there is a bit of a resemblance, isn't there?

"Who's that?"

"The Last Autobot. I'd forgotten-."

Click to shrink...

Ah, yes. One of the most interesting aspects of Marvel's comics. Pity he showed up about 2 issues before the series was cancelled.

Paul shakes his head.

"Yes, that would work. Shockwave, can you find out where he is?"

Click to shrink...

It certainly makes sense that it would be able to fix damn near anything wrong with a Cybertronian, since it's supposedly one of the Thirteen Primes... And thus damn near a demigod.

So, what's the bet they have to travel into the deepest depths of Cybertron, through paths that no foot has walked in eons? Because the planet is not a small place, and so densely built over, under and through that you could hide anything there. Of course, given the database, they've probably got a detailed map with directions to his resting place... So, Road Trip II: Cybertronian Boogaloo!

---

...and a young American make their way slowly towards centre of the room.

Click to shrink...

...and a young American make their way slowly towards the centre of the room.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I think that should be 'Then he immediately' and 'known'.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

Assuming Paul is the one who said that, I'm curious as to how he's going to explain how he even knows that the Last Autobot even exists.

Click to shrink...

Given that comic Bludgeon knew of The Last Autobot, he could probably bluff it.

colour as his soldiers armour
...and a young American make their way slowly towards the centre of the room.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[BR549]

Assuming Paul is the one who said that, I'm curious as to how he's going to explain how he even knows that the Last Autobot even exists.

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure that's Shockwave's line.

Although one interesting thing is the implications of a being being named 'The Last Autobot'...

Eh, it varies by continuity. But with no natural life-span (in most cases, as some types of spark do age) and extremely durable physiology, Cybertronians can last a long, long time.

Click to shrink...

Reveant, given the continuity mix here, is that IDW2005 is one of those cases where Cybertronians can suffer the effects of old age. Or even die of it. The first known case of the latter? Ratchet.

Given the way Cybertronian brains can be tweaked, patched and modified, I'd hate to see her memory cache. Maybe that's that the Spark is useful for: Long-term storage.

Click to shrink...

Assuming, of course, that information creep doesn't set in.

Because of course they never considered the needs of a mini-con or something similarly sized.

Click to shrink...

...that would be one thing worth finding: the lab where Megatron was running his own personal experiments on Mini-Cons that resulted in the Weaponizers...

...Bit of a day-trip, then. I bet he packed energon snacks regularly.

Click to shrink...

Make sure you have a sufficient stash of K-juice before setting out!

It certainly makes sense that it would be able to fix damn near anything wrong with a Cybertronian, since it's supposedly one of the Thirteen Primes... And thus damn near a demigod.

Click to shrink...

In the Aligned continuity, 'Autonomous Maximus' isn't one of the Thirteen. But again, continuity wielding...

...which if bits of Cyberverse get welded in...

So, what's the bet they have to travel into the deepest depths of Cybertron, through paths that no foot has walked in eons? Because the planet is not a small place, and so densely built over, under and through that you could hide anything there.

Click to shrink...

...that could well result in a run-in with the Monsterbots.

(Although more useful, from that continuity stream, might be a certain friendly bartender with a canonically casual relationship with the flow of space and time...)

 

[Darko]

"I just realised. Alpha Trion, the transformer who sent all those archive pods to Earth, was chief archivist of Iacon, right?" Jack nods. "And he was Orion Pax's boss. We're below Kaon, on the other side of the planet from Iacon. Bosses don't fetch and carry for themselves. Which means that whenever he needed something from what is basically Primus's own memory banks, he'd have sent Orion. And Orion would have driven half way around the planet, snuck into Kaon because the location of the entrance is supposed to be a secret, dealt with this stupid interface it has instead of a normal console, then snuck out again and driven back halfway around the planet back to Iacon."

Jack frowns. That sounds like something his manager at KO Burger might do. It felt.. weird to think of Optimus Prime being in the same position.

Click to shrink...

A lot of jobs, no matter how important they seem and how different they are, share a lot of characteristics.

One of those characteristics is doing things for your boss in a convoluted and weird way.

 

[Darko]

So, Road Trip II: Cybertronian Boogaloo!

Click to shrink...

I thin you mean "Road Trip II: Energon Boogaloo!"

 

[Coda]

Although one interesting thing is the implications of a being being named 'The Last Autobot'...

Click to shrink...

I mean, they were completely intentional implications. The Last Autobot was created to carry on if the first Cybertronian couldn't.

 

[Ardy]

Hey Zoat, as someone who's never read the comic but is watching the show, what do you think of The Sandman?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Hey Zoat, as someone who's never read the comic but is watching the show, what do you think of The Sandman?

Click to shrink...

It's an entertaining read.

 

[Ardy]

It's an entertaining read.

Click to shrink...

i probably should have phrased that better, what do you think of the show?

 

[Mr Zoat]

i probably should have phrased that better, what do you think of the show?

Click to shrink...

I haven't watched it, though I suspect that I would dislike it.

 

[Ardy]

I haven't watched it, though I suspect that I would dislike it.

Click to shrink...

Huh. Well I'd recommend giving it a shot, everything that's happened so far fits with WTR canon endless, and I got a laugh showing my GF Hinon flipping out over a bunch of humans just stumbling across how to bind them.

 

[Windona]

Hmm, interesting. Methinks Jack will definitely be upgrading.

I haven't watched it, though I suspect that I would dislike it.

Click to shrink...

Honestly it's the most faithful adaptation I've seen. Why do you think you'd dislike it?

 

[Darko]

Honestly it's the most faithful adaptation I've seen. Why do you think you'd dislike it?

Click to shrink...

Zoat generally thinks that adaptations of comics or reboots of shows and movies will suck.

Huh. Well I'd recommend giving it a shot, everything that's happened so far fits with WTR canon endless, and I got a laugh showing my GF Hinon flipping out over a bunch of humans just stumbling across how to bind them.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Well she may be less annoyed with this one since the humans had some help from a Nightmare.

 

[Mr Zoat]

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.

 

[Prognostic Hannya]

Interceptor's face falls, and she looks at Commander Scott in horror.

Click to shrink...

Wait, Interceptor is surprised by this? She doesn't exactly strike me as a naïve idealist.

 

[BlueMangoAdea]

pyromantic

Click to shrink...

Pyrokinetic, unless her ability is actually magical.

 

[_The_Bomb]

I love that John just had his entire adventure completely offscreen and now just walks back in with the endgame reveal.

 

[Dragonhulk]

Oh, and now Paul gets to see what happens when someone slides down the slippery slope he wants others to walk.

 

[hance1986]

I get it, in a utilitarian kind of way. Handing over Earth incorrigibles to the Dominators. It was probably one of the things that made them leave, getting test subjects. Plus it gave Earth a rallying base 'Remember the Lost', and all that. The JSI seem to have made a more orderly world in the meantime. But then again, so did the Justice Lords.