Doppelgängered (part 13)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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4th February
20:48 GMT -5
Gotham City -14 appears to be a buzzing centre of industrial activity. More buildings are being demolished, built and rebuilt than in any city I can name back on Earth 16. Collateral.. damage as they finished off Owlman's faction? With Wayne Industries definitely not being the force for social improvement that it is back home, I can only suppose that someone is trying to make good on three decades of neglect in record time. Most of it appears to be… EnigmaTech? Yes, I remember from Trinity that one version of Quizmaster started calling himself that. I didn't read enough of it to find out exactly what triggered the rebranding or the siding with villains, but since this planet clearly hasn't been attacked by a Qwardian dreadnaught I can't be confident that the same situation applies.
But if it is him… A rational superhero. Working on the economy, because a strong legitimate economy is the best way to prevent the re-emergence of a strong illegitimate economy.
Why can't I work with people like that? I wonder if he'd consider mentoring our Edward Nyg-.
"Gotham Economic Boom Continues'." Zatanna turns the page of her newspaper as I emerge from my data trawl.
We're in a somewhat empty café near Grant Park, having walked through an oddly cheerful city. Richard might be right about headline crime being down, but there's still a certain undercurrent of nervousness in Gotham 16. Probably will be for years to come as people readjust. Here, people were wishing us a good evening as we passed them. Even the soldiers on both of the checkpoints we walked past were polite enough.
"Reading between the lines, it looks like they're adapting technology seized from the Syndicate for civilian purposes. Once we're done with this whole thing, I'd-."
Zatanna's eyes widen in shock. "Oh."
"What?"
She folds the paper back on itself, then in half, then turns it around. Showing me a picture of the mayor shaking hands with a heavily scarred man named Edward Nashton. Okay, what'sohhhhh.
The mayor Thomas Wayne. Ring, check obituaries.
Compliance.
"Martha and Bruce Wayne died in Crime Alley. Thomases Senior and Junior survived."
I seem to remember Thomas Wayne Senior going rather off the deep end in the comic. Here, he… Yes, the files I can access suggest that he's doing a good job. Although… Mister Scott's files on Talon suggest that he's still at large. But he was more 'the test subject that survived' than 'foster grandson', and while Wayne Senior isn't going quite so crazy as his comic counterpart he is an enthusiastic supporter of President Wilson.
"Oh." She turns the paper back towards her. "Should we.. tell… You know."
"We can include it in our report. But… That's not… His father. They were similar once, but-."
The door jingles as a squad of armed soldiers enter. The first has his gun at the ready, though not quite pointed at anyone. The second has a scanner of.. some kind, and the third also has a gun at the ready. The woman with the scanner takes a look around, tenses her jaw for a moment and then steps forward.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We've detected an illegal holographic device on the premises. Would the person using it please stand up?"
That would be legally tricky if the country was actually following normal legal processes, but the emergency laws make it quite legitimate for those soldiers to 'scan and shoot'. She's asking because she's not stupid enough to fire into a restaurant without direct provocation, regardless of what the law says.
And likewise I'd feel kind of bad if I got a group of innocent civilians killed. I sheepishly raise my right hand and then stand up. The two soldiers with guns immediately fan out to cover me, though they don't raise their guns quite yet.
"Sir? Would you mind explaining?"
"I'm-. I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was quite this illegal. Um."
She relaxes slightly at the sound of my very clearly foreign accent.
"How-? How big a problem is this? I mean, I knew things were.. a bit tense here, but… Ah…"
"Sir, I'm going to need an explanation."
"I keep getting mistaken for this guy, and after the third time I got detained for an hour at a checkpoint I thought, you know, wear a facial mask…"
"Why were you stopped?"
"I look like a guy on the Syndicate list. I mean, I'm not him, but we do look a bit similar…"
She nods sympathetically, and the guns droop a little further. "Sir, I know it's frustrating, but the law exists for a reason. We're fighting a major civil insurgency. Please deactivate your disguise immediately so that we can verify your identity."
"Okay, but so long as we're clear that I'm not him."
No direct acknowledgement, but I tap the hologram projector on my cravat anyway. The holographic mask I've been using to walk around with fades away immediately. No intakes of breath, I notice. And the corporal with the scanner is frowning slightly. Looks like Blue-me isn't that well known by people in general.
The corporal waves her scanner at me again. "You're a close match for Power Ring, but you're too young and your body shape isn't quite the same. You're in the clear, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate the device."
I nod sheepishly and take it off my cravat and hold it out. She attaches her scanner to her waist and steps forwards to take it from me.
"Am I in… Any other trouble?"
She puts the hologram projector in a utility pouch.
"I'm willing to let this go, but please be aware that using holographic disguises in public is illegal."
"Right, yes, sorry."
The two armed soldiers step back, and the corporal leads the way out of the restaurant.
Hm.
I sit back down and generate a sound-deadening field. "Interesting."
Zatanna nods. "They could detect your holographic disguise, but not my magic or your power rings. And either Star Sapphire hasn't reported in, or whoever she reported to hasn't added you to the system yet."
"The checkpoints didn't detect the hologram, but those soldiers only had mundane equipment. Holographic displays are fairly common on Earth Sixteen… Even if they've been banned for a while, people could still have projectors. The detectors are rare, either expensive or hard to make, and they're used to getting false alarms."
"But she didn't arrest you. Which.. means that they're not just interning everyone, even if they technically violate the emergency orders." She looks at me for a moment. "Do you think Mister Scott was lying about what President Wilson is doing?"
"That's the problem, isn't it? Some of these emergency orders are pretty draconian, but if they're using sound judgement and only actually applying them when they need to… That's not necessarily a problem. It still leaves the.. practical issue of how to bring down the Syndicate without causing massive widespread destruction, but I am revising down my estimates on how many innocent people are being affected by the current level of government action."
"Does that change anything? If we're trying to avoid a fight we're still going to have to help the Syndicate anyway."
"It does make me think that President Wilson might be more rational than they've been trying to convince me he is. Which means that we might be able to persuade him to go along with it."
"If that's true, why were they trying to make him look like the bad guy?"
"Not sure. Maybe so they could claim that they got the president removed to strengthen their position with the Made Men?" I shrug. "Not sure."
She nods. "So what's our next step?"
"Find people protesting against the emergency laws who aren't sponsored by the Syndicate and request more details. But we can probably leave that until tomorrow."
20:48 GMT -5
Gotham City -14 appears to be a buzzing centre of industrial activity. More buildings are being demolished, built and rebuilt than in any city I can name back on Earth 16. Collateral.. damage as they finished off Owlman's faction? With Wayne Industries definitely not being the force for social improvement that it is back home, I can only suppose that someone is trying to make good on three decades of neglect in record time. Most of it appears to be… EnigmaTech? Yes, I remember from Trinity that one version of Quizmaster started calling himself that. I didn't read enough of it to find out exactly what triggered the rebranding or the siding with villains, but since this planet clearly hasn't been attacked by a Qwardian dreadnaught I can't be confident that the same situation applies.
But if it is him… A rational superhero. Working on the economy, because a strong legitimate economy is the best way to prevent the re-emergence of a strong illegitimate economy.
Why can't I work with people like that? I wonder if he'd consider mentoring our Edward Nyg-.
"Gotham Economic Boom Continues'." Zatanna turns the page of her newspaper as I emerge from my data trawl.
We're in a somewhat empty café near Grant Park, having walked through an oddly cheerful city. Richard might be right about headline crime being down, but there's still a certain undercurrent of nervousness in Gotham 16. Probably will be for years to come as people readjust. Here, people were wishing us a good evening as we passed them. Even the soldiers on both of the checkpoints we walked past were polite enough.
"Reading between the lines, it looks like they're adapting technology seized from the Syndicate for civilian purposes. Once we're done with this whole thing, I'd-."
Zatanna's eyes widen in shock. "Oh."
"What?"
She folds the paper back on itself, then in half, then turns it around. Showing me a picture of the mayor shaking hands with a heavily scarred man named Edward Nashton. Okay, what'sohhhhh.
The mayor Thomas Wayne. Ring, check obituaries.
Compliance.
"Martha and Bruce Wayne died in Crime Alley. Thomases Senior and Junior survived."
I seem to remember Thomas Wayne Senior going rather off the deep end in the comic. Here, he… Yes, the files I can access suggest that he's doing a good job. Although… Mister Scott's files on Talon suggest that he's still at large. But he was more 'the test subject that survived' than 'foster grandson', and while Wayne Senior isn't going quite so crazy as his comic counterpart he is an enthusiastic supporter of President Wilson.
"Oh." She turns the paper back towards her. "Should we.. tell… You know."
"We can include it in our report. But… That's not… His father. They were similar once, but-."
The door jingles as a squad of armed soldiers enter. The first has his gun at the ready, though not quite pointed at anyone. The second has a scanner of.. some kind, and the third also has a gun at the ready. The woman with the scanner takes a look around, tenses her jaw for a moment and then steps forward.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We've detected an illegal holographic device on the premises. Would the person using it please stand up?"
That would be legally tricky if the country was actually following normal legal processes, but the emergency laws make it quite legitimate for those soldiers to 'scan and shoot'. She's asking because she's not stupid enough to fire into a restaurant without direct provocation, regardless of what the law says.
And likewise I'd feel kind of bad if I got a group of innocent civilians killed. I sheepishly raise my right hand and then stand up. The two soldiers with guns immediately fan out to cover me, though they don't raise their guns quite yet.
"Sir? Would you mind explaining?"
"I'm-. I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was quite this illegal. Um."
She relaxes slightly at the sound of my very clearly foreign accent.
"How-? How big a problem is this? I mean, I knew things were.. a bit tense here, but… Ah…"
"Sir, I'm going to need an explanation."
"I keep getting mistaken for this guy, and after the third time I got detained for an hour at a checkpoint I thought, you know, wear a facial mask…"
"Why were you stopped?"
"I look like a guy on the Syndicate list. I mean, I'm not him, but we do look a bit similar…"
She nods sympathetically, and the guns droop a little further. "Sir, I know it's frustrating, but the law exists for a reason. We're fighting a major civil insurgency. Please deactivate your disguise immediately so that we can verify your identity."
"Okay, but so long as we're clear that I'm not him."
No direct acknowledgement, but I tap the hologram projector on my cravat anyway. The holographic mask I've been using to walk around with fades away immediately. No intakes of breath, I notice. And the corporal with the scanner is frowning slightly. Looks like Blue-me isn't that well known by people in general.
The corporal waves her scanner at me again. "You're a close match for Power Ring, but you're too young and your body shape isn't quite the same. You're in the clear, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate the device."
I nod sheepishly and take it off my cravat and hold it out. She attaches her scanner to her waist and steps forwards to take it from me.
"Am I in… Any other trouble?"
She puts the hologram projector in a utility pouch.
"I'm willing to let this go, but please be aware that using holographic disguises in public is illegal."
"Right, yes, sorry."
The two armed soldiers step back, and the corporal leads the way out of the restaurant.
Hm.
I sit back down and generate a sound-deadening field. "Interesting."
Zatanna nods. "They could detect your holographic disguise, but not my magic or your power rings. And either Star Sapphire hasn't reported in, or whoever she reported to hasn't added you to the system yet."
"The checkpoints didn't detect the hologram, but those soldiers only had mundane equipment. Holographic displays are fairly common on Earth Sixteen… Even if they've been banned for a while, people could still have projectors. The detectors are rare, either expensive or hard to make, and they're used to getting false alarms."
"But she didn't arrest you. Which.. means that they're not just interning everyone, even if they technically violate the emergency orders." She looks at me for a moment. "Do you think Mister Scott was lying about what President Wilson is doing?"
"That's the problem, isn't it? Some of these emergency orders are pretty draconian, but if they're using sound judgement and only actually applying them when they need to… That's not necessarily a problem. It still leaves the.. practical issue of how to bring down the Syndicate without causing massive widespread destruction, but I am revising down my estimates on how many innocent people are being affected by the current level of government action."
"Does that change anything? If we're trying to avoid a fight we're still going to have to help the Syndicate anyway."
"It does make me think that President Wilson might be more rational than they've been trying to convince me he is. Which means that we might be able to persuade him to go along with it."
"If that's true, why were they trying to make him look like the bad guy?"
"Not sure. Maybe so they could claim that they got the president removed to strengthen their position with the Made Men?" I shrug. "Not sure."
She nods. "So what's our next step?"
"Find people protesting against the emergency laws who aren't sponsored by the Syndicate and request more details. But we can probably leave that until tomorrow."
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