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

[thebishop8]

I also just remembered that Amalak used to employ a coluan, Gozzi. If Brainiac is involved then that's ironic in the sense that he's responsible for both of their species recent woes and that they didn't they had that connection.

 

[Vaermina]

But I seem to recall Amalak did allow for the fact that, if it could be proven Zod wasn't responsible somehow, that he would turn his ire to ensuring the true perpetrator was executed instead...

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Maybe.

But given he's a revenge obsessed Zealot I feel like its more likely he just "no true scotsmen"s it and claims whatever proof Orange Lantern digs up to be too inconclusive to count.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I made a typo when searching for mentions of Brainiac, and found Zoat made the same typo once, only a couple of days away from a full decade ago:

'Braniac' to 'Brainiac'

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Missing speech mark.
'suggests'

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"convince"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[CTrees]

We really have no idea what Timaron's legal system looks like, or if it has precedent covering claims of mind control, intelligence suppression, desire manipulation, and so on. "I was mind controlled" being a viable defense at trial causes all sorts of issues, and should hopefully require some reasonably firm proof beyond the word of the accused. But thinking about it from a real world, American legal perspective...

The intelligence suppression is really not much different to a defendant claiming involuntary intoxication. I.e., they did the crime, but they were unknowingly or unwillingly drugged by some third party, and they would not have committed the crime if they had not been drugged. The issues with Zod/Arnus using that as a defense are 1) proving Zod would not have otherwise done it, 2) proving his intelligence was suppressed for a long enough, ongoing basis for his genocide plan to be conducted, with no one noticing or stopping it (the intelligence suppression when he was released from the phantom zone is circumstantial evidence, but does not prove the effect was occurring before his capture), 3) proving that his intelligence was suppressed just enough to concoct his genocide plan but not so much that it would make him incapable of carrying it out on his scifi spaceship, which seems like a very narrow needle to thread, 4) showing who was behind the suppression and why.

 

[Frozen20XX]

Dunno about that. He looks good in orange.

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"Mongul of Warworld. You belong to the Orange Lantern Corps."

Heh. I doubt she'd even find any reason to bother Assimilating him. Perhaps bind him with a tailored 'it gets worse' Black Mercy (Black Anguish?) and let him rot in some hole on her surface...

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Which is more merciful? Death, Assimilation, or Black Mercied (Agurished?)?

 

[Lord Ernest]

Which is more merciful? Death, Assimilation, or Black Mercied (Agurished?)?

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If we are referring to Mother of Mercy's flowers, then Black Mercy. You will die eventually, but until then you get to experience a realistic dream where even your inner desires get fulfilled, even those you didn't know you wanted or wished for. I don't remember if I read the original comic, but from the example shown in the animated series, I don't think even Superman ever acknowledged that he just wished to live a simple farm life in an intact Krypton.

 

[Mr Zoat]

If we are referring to Mother of Mercy's flowers, then Black Mercy. You will die eventually, but until then you get to experience a realistic dream where even your inner desires get fulfilled, even those you didn't know you wanted or wished for. I don't remember if I read the original comic, but from the example shown in the animated series, I don't think even Superman ever acknowledged that he just wished to live a simple farm life in an intact Krypton.

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The original comic version was much less pleasant for him. Interestingly, they were rescued not by Batman but by Jason Todd, and it was the first time Superman or Wonder Woman had met him.

 

[Frozen20XX]

If we are referring to Mother of Mercy's flowers, then Black Mercy.

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Was referring to @Chojin Patriarch's idea of 'tailored it gets worse Black Mercy (Black Anguish?) and let him rot in some hole on her surface' not the comic one. Obviously, if it was the 'stuck in paradise' version, of course that's the most merciful option.

 

[Prince Charon]

The original comic version was much less pleasant for him. Interestingly, they were rescued not by Batman but by Jason Todd, and it was the first time Superman or Wonder Woman had met him.

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That comic being the origin of the "Think clean thoughts, chum," meme, IIRC.

 

[Mr Zoat]

12th August 2013
17:03 GMT

"So…"

Amalak gives me a decidedly disgruntled look. "What's the problem?"

"You know that briefing I gave you on Reach mental alteration technologies?"

"...yes..?"

"And I know that you've encountered telepaths before, I read your detection protocols."

He squints at me for a few moments. "Are you implying that Dru-Zod… Was being controlled by another?"

"There's a very small amount of circumstantial evidence… But the thing is, under Timaronian law, all parties need access to the interrogation and have the option to bring in their own experts. So while I had to relay my suspicions to Arnus -their defence lawyer- I also have to relay them to you, and point out that… This is going to delay things."

He relaxes slightly. "And that's all?"

"Uh. That's all-. Um. No."

He sags. "Out with it."

"Ursa Dou-Ka's pregnant. We couldn't find any reference in Timaronian law on how that gets handled, so I thought-."

"How?"

"Turns out that while birthing matrices existed, most kryptonians reproduced the traditional way."

He sighs, shaking his head. "It's unprofessional for a serving military officer. Didn't they have fertility regulators?"

"That's… A more personal question that I felt comfortably asking. The issue is that she didn't use it."

"And you want to defer her sentence until she's given birth."

"Ideally I'd like her potential sentence commuted to life imprisonment, but yes, at least a deferment. I… Do realise that this sounds like I'm.. trying to back out, I'm... Not."

He takes a moment to think things over. "I need to find a telepath, or rely on one provided by the defence?"

"I can… I know several telepaths, and you can pick one that suits you."

"These would be telepaths known to the defence."

"Not personally. Uh. I could probably find telepaths not known to the defence, but I wouldn't really be able to vouch for them personally either-." Oh. Would..? Mother of Mercy or Great Mother be able to..? "Ah, a couple of possibilities just occurred to me, but I'm not sure how… Viable they are."

"What happens if I don't?"

"Under Timaronian law, you'd be giving up the right to challenge the evidence. You could argue about the interpretation of the evidence, but that's it. I think… If you had a fully functional legal system this would be done by police and the prosecution or defence representation would be properly optional, but we don't.. have that."

"So who was it?"

"The telepaths?"

"If it wasn't Dru-Zod murdering my species for a distraction, who was it?"

"I have no idea. I have no leads, no clues, and almost every witness has been dead for forty years. Honestly, if we confirm that their minds were interfered with and are left with no idea who did it-"

I hold out my left hand, palm up, and precipitate out an orange ring.

"-I'll give this to your most dedicated investigator, because I… Don't know."

"Or you could turn out to be completely wrong."

"Yep. That would be a lot easier. It's not like Dru-Zod is any use to me."

"Unlike me."

"Precisely. But… I was six months into this job -hadn't even introduced myself to the controllers yet- when a group of criminals called The Light managed to mind control a group of my world's greatest heroes. That was not a fun fight, but I didn't hold it against them… Other than their somewhat lax security that allowed it to happen… Because they weren't the ones in control. If it was someone else… Even if they just nudged him into doing something he was going to do anyway-."

"Yes, it-." He nods. "Emotionally, it's not-. But yes, it would be their fault." … Telepaths. Who do you recommend?"

"Genomorphs. They're a synthetic species from my homeworld… Somewhat based on mutated kryptonian genetic samples. They're all telepathic, but they're also… Their subspecies are adapted for particular tasks. G-gnomes are excellent telepaths, g-lusca are organic supercomputers who can parse what they scan and analyse it for inconsistencies… Changes in texture that would indicate external influence. And a g-goblin can explain what they find to you in a humanoid-friendly manner."

"Are they expensive?"

"To hire? No, not really. It's more complicated, because they don't exactly have the normal desires that naturally evolving species do. You'd have to talk to their leader. They're probably want biological samples over money or materials."

"Alright. What else?"

"Martians. They're from one planet further from my specie's sun than I am. All telepathic, though skill and power levels vary. Two are affiliated to the Justice League, but there are plenty of others. Their entire species owes me, but they don't really have any strong attachment to either party in this trial."

"Anything else I should know about them?"

"They're all shapeshifters and they go a bit crazy if they're left on their own for very long. Oh, and there's a low-level race war happening in their civilisation but I doubt that will matter to an outsider."

"Shapeshifters are having a race war?"

"They're telepaths, so they always know. They used to all be one race, then the Guardians invaded to stop them being super murder monsters, and iterated their fixes, and they… Stuck."

"Super-? Perhaps not. Who else?"

"Lantern Mother of Mercy created these things called Black Mercies, which-."

"She created those… Things?"

"They were intended for use as emergency hospice care. Like euphoric painkillers, they got misused a lot."

"To put it mildly. Who else?"

"The techno-organic space-dweller Great Mother could probably analyse someone's mind, but I'm not sure she could do it without taking them apart. There are a small number of human telepaths, some more reliable than others."

"The genomorphs seem to be the superior choice." He sighs. "Let me speak to the others. You'll have our decision with the hour."