Doccer
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Damn. Too generic. Any ideas?
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
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The Chosen One
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AKA Ken Ondaate. From Hellblazer.
Negotiations (part 3)
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Mr Zoat
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3rd August 2013
01:05 GMT
"…recorded at the reliquary itself, which means that we have a definite date for when Savage was up and about again."
Darkstar Click Click-Click makes a slow and steady series of clicks, which my ring helpfully informs me is a sign of bewilderment rather than actual speech. "He survived having his body torn apart, and those parts being exposed to vacuum and falling through the atmosphere to your planet's surface."
Jade and I nod together. "Yes. " / "Uh-huh."
"How?"
"Based on what Klarion said, he may be able to regrow his entire body from his amygdala with no or very limited memory loss. Presumably, he uses some sort of non-standard memory storage and has access to some form of exotic energy to fuel his regeneration, but that's speculative. And, yes, people have tried burning him to death before to try and destroy him completely so there wouldn't be anything for him to regenerate from… It didn't work."
Larksh nervously licks her eyes. "How will we kill him?"
Jade shakes her head. "You won't." She then calls up his file on their holodisplay. "We don't carry weapons that could do the job. The important part is that he isn't invulnerable. He isn't much tougher than a normal humanoid, though he is a lot more determined. Since he knows that he'll recover from any injury he takes, he will keep going until he physically can't."
She looks pointedly at me.
"If you encounter him and can get a message out, notify me, or if you can't get hold of me one of the other Orange Lanterns. Even if physical destruction can't kill him I'd like to give assimilation a go. Failing that… Dump his brain in acid, in such a way that we can replace the acid on a regular basis. Thread barbed wire though the regrowing mass so that he gets brain damaged. Throw his remains into a sun or a black hole. Dump him somewhere in deep space and then lose the coordinates."
Calpri shimmers, indicating a desire to ask a question. I nod. "Which would you prefer?"
"Assimilation. Absorbing fifty thousand years worth of memories won't be much fun, but it will give me vital knowledge of his recent activities. Lantern Son of Great Mother could probably handle that part more easily. And obviously, don't put yourselves at risk unnecessarily. I'll be perfectly happy if he gets to spend the next five billion years working on his tan. It might be interesting to talk to him afterwards."
Jade nods. "How does this affect our priorities?"
"Up to you. If you think the best use of your time is to head to Daxam and investigate there, then do so. If you think that it's not, then don't. I don't know enough to set priorities."
"But you're most worried about Batman."
"I am, but that doesn't mean that I'm weighing things properly. If he's actually mind controlled and Savage is involved, following up with Savage might be the best thing to do."
"Is that likely?"
"I wouldn't have thought so, but last week I would have said the same about Superman and he nearly killed me." Jade nods. "Anything any of you need from me right now?"
Negative gestures from everyone except Jade, who nods. "I have a personal query."
Her eyes flick in the direction of the teleportarium. I nod, and gesture to the corridor with my right hand. She leads the way and I follow-.
I accelerate, matching her pace and reaching out to catch her left hand in my right. She gives me a slightly surprised look, but graciously tolerates the imposition.
"I've missed you, too."
"If I could go back in time and kill Mannheim before he could tie me to Earth for so long, I would."
She smiles faintly. "You mean you can't?"
"No, we're on Dragonball Zee rules now. All going back in time would do is create an alternate timeline unless I got the Time Trapper onside first."
"Isn't she a version of me?"
"A version of you who never met me before that whole mess happened. Unless she's already been replaced…" Ah… "Though 'already' isn't.. really…"
She nods. "I understand."
We reach the teleportarium and she turns to face me as the door closes. Her eyes drift down to where I'm still holding her hand, and then back up to my face.
I nod, raise her hand slightly and take hold of it in my left hand as well.
She makes a quiet but amused-sounding snort.
"It's not flowers, but-"
I fabricate an inordinate quantity of flowers and deposit them around us.
"-it's-." She takes a moment to take in the flowers, her head still but her eyes absorbing everything. "Nice."
"So, what's the question?"
"Am I stuck on Venus for the whole investigation, or can I actually tell Mom that I'm here?"
"As long as you don't mind using your accrued leave time. I doubt that anyone is going to check up on you too closely."
"And the rest of my squad?"
"I can set up a zeta tube to Ungara. The weather's lovely this time of year, and there's no travel between Ungara and Earth."
"What if they need to go to Earth?"
"They can tell people that they're un-men. Or weird biological experiments." I shrug. "Or just say they woke up like that one day. People will probably believe that. It'll only be a problem if their exo-mantles get seen."
"Because Batman knows what exo-mantles look like."
"I'm not.. sure, but the Green Lantern Corps certainly does and he can just ask them. What time zone are you on?"
"I think it's somewhere in the Pacific. I'll be back to Eastern Standard in a couple of days." She smiles. "Taking me somewhere nice?"
"All of you is nice." She snorts quietly. "But I certainly intend to. Um. Your apartment."
"Is it on fire?"
"No, it's-."
"Was it on fire?"
"It just… It doesn't smell of you any more, and I've been living in Bir Tawil… I just wondered if you'd given any thought to what you wanted to do with it."
She thinks for a moment. "What's the Gotham property market like?"
"Pretty bad, but the few companies with ready cash have been buying up job lots. Historically, this sort of thing usually causes a baby boom. And if the fiscal forecasts I've been reading are correct, Mannheim might have saved government pensions schemes."
"How?"
"They're effectively pyramid schemes, but since old people died disproportionally often their liabilities dropped a lot. We're nearly solvent enough to afford new old people."
She winces theatrically, but can't quite stop herself smiling. "That's awful."
"I try. Now, if you'll excuse me-" I raise her hand to my lips and kiss it. "I have to go and buttonhole Lex Luthor."
01:05 GMT
"…recorded at the reliquary itself, which means that we have a definite date for when Savage was up and about again."
Darkstar Click Click-Click makes a slow and steady series of clicks, which my ring helpfully informs me is a sign of bewilderment rather than actual speech. "He survived having his body torn apart, and those parts being exposed to vacuum and falling through the atmosphere to your planet's surface."
Jade and I nod together. "Yes. " / "Uh-huh."
"How?"
"Based on what Klarion said, he may be able to regrow his entire body from his amygdala with no or very limited memory loss. Presumably, he uses some sort of non-standard memory storage and has access to some form of exotic energy to fuel his regeneration, but that's speculative. And, yes, people have tried burning him to death before to try and destroy him completely so there wouldn't be anything for him to regenerate from… It didn't work."
Larksh nervously licks her eyes. "How will we kill him?"
Jade shakes her head. "You won't." She then calls up his file on their holodisplay. "We don't carry weapons that could do the job. The important part is that he isn't invulnerable. He isn't much tougher than a normal humanoid, though he is a lot more determined. Since he knows that he'll recover from any injury he takes, he will keep going until he physically can't."
She looks pointedly at me.
"If you encounter him and can get a message out, notify me, or if you can't get hold of me one of the other Orange Lanterns. Even if physical destruction can't kill him I'd like to give assimilation a go. Failing that… Dump his brain in acid, in such a way that we can replace the acid on a regular basis. Thread barbed wire though the regrowing mass so that he gets brain damaged. Throw his remains into a sun or a black hole. Dump him somewhere in deep space and then lose the coordinates."
Calpri shimmers, indicating a desire to ask a question. I nod. "Which would you prefer?"
"Assimilation. Absorbing fifty thousand years worth of memories won't be much fun, but it will give me vital knowledge of his recent activities. Lantern Son of Great Mother could probably handle that part more easily. And obviously, don't put yourselves at risk unnecessarily. I'll be perfectly happy if he gets to spend the next five billion years working on his tan. It might be interesting to talk to him afterwards."
Jade nods. "How does this affect our priorities?"
"Up to you. If you think the best use of your time is to head to Daxam and investigate there, then do so. If you think that it's not, then don't. I don't know enough to set priorities."
"But you're most worried about Batman."
"I am, but that doesn't mean that I'm weighing things properly. If he's actually mind controlled and Savage is involved, following up with Savage might be the best thing to do."
"Is that likely?"
"I wouldn't have thought so, but last week I would have said the same about Superman and he nearly killed me." Jade nods. "Anything any of you need from me right now?"
Negative gestures from everyone except Jade, who nods. "I have a personal query."
Her eyes flick in the direction of the teleportarium. I nod, and gesture to the corridor with my right hand. She leads the way and I follow-.
I accelerate, matching her pace and reaching out to catch her left hand in my right. She gives me a slightly surprised look, but graciously tolerates the imposition.
"I've missed you, too."
"If I could go back in time and kill Mannheim before he could tie me to Earth for so long, I would."
She smiles faintly. "You mean you can't?"
"No, we're on Dragonball Zee rules now. All going back in time would do is create an alternate timeline unless I got the Time Trapper onside first."
"Isn't she a version of me?"
"A version of you who never met me before that whole mess happened. Unless she's already been replaced…" Ah… "Though 'already' isn't.. really…"
She nods. "I understand."
We reach the teleportarium and she turns to face me as the door closes. Her eyes drift down to where I'm still holding her hand, and then back up to my face.
I nod, raise her hand slightly and take hold of it in my left hand as well.
She makes a quiet but amused-sounding snort.
"It's not flowers, but-"
I fabricate an inordinate quantity of flowers and deposit them around us.
"-it's-." She takes a moment to take in the flowers, her head still but her eyes absorbing everything. "Nice."
"So, what's the question?"
"Am I stuck on Venus for the whole investigation, or can I actually tell Mom that I'm here?"
"As long as you don't mind using your accrued leave time. I doubt that anyone is going to check up on you too closely."
"And the rest of my squad?"
"I can set up a zeta tube to Ungara. The weather's lovely this time of year, and there's no travel between Ungara and Earth."
"What if they need to go to Earth?"
"They can tell people that they're un-men. Or weird biological experiments." I shrug. "Or just say they woke up like that one day. People will probably believe that. It'll only be a problem if their exo-mantles get seen."
"Because Batman knows what exo-mantles look like."
"I'm not.. sure, but the Green Lantern Corps certainly does and he can just ask them. What time zone are you on?"
"I think it's somewhere in the Pacific. I'll be back to Eastern Standard in a couple of days." She smiles. "Taking me somewhere nice?"
"All of you is nice." She snorts quietly. "But I certainly intend to. Um. Your apartment."
"Is it on fire?"
"No, it's-."
"Was it on fire?"
"It just… It doesn't smell of you any more, and I've been living in Bir Tawil… I just wondered if you'd given any thought to what you wanted to do with it."
She thinks for a moment. "What's the Gotham property market like?"
"Pretty bad, but the few companies with ready cash have been buying up job lots. Historically, this sort of thing usually causes a baby boom. And if the fiscal forecasts I've been reading are correct, Mannheim might have saved government pensions schemes."
"How?"
"They're effectively pyramid schemes, but since old people died disproportionally often their liabilities dropped a lot. We're nearly solvent enough to afford new old people."
She winces theatrically, but can't quite stop herself smiling. "That's awful."
"I try. Now, if you'll excuse me-" I raise her hand to my lips and kiss it. "I have to go and buttonhole Lex Luthor."
Signaller
Not too sore, are you?
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When the four League members who were caught up in that event got back and reported to Batman 12, did he then consider it as a possible explanation for Wynne's meta-knowledge? Or will Terry find the record snd suggest it at some point?
Chojin Patriarch
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Yes, hardly the most impressive death he's suffered. But it's probably in his top ten of interesting experiences. I'm loving their reactions to Earth Bullshit™. That stunned disbelief that someone could heal from being tossed at a planet from orbit...
Earth Bullshit™. Humans are a strange and adaptable species. Those with just the right genes can develop superhuman powers from exotic exposures, rather than something normal like cancer.
And if he had any sense, he'd keep fresh bits of himself hidden away before any action with a risk of total physical destruction. Sadly, he probably needed his Light colleagues to suggest that one.
He's also much stronger than the average man, what with being able to push his muscles harder in bursts to the point of destruction. Hurts like hell, I bet, but he and pain are old friends by now.
We know from the Renegade that Assimilation is a pretty likely hard counter for his tricks, though...
...Yeah, you'd have to see every murder he's committed from a first-person perspective, for a start. EDIT: Well, any he remembered well enough.
Though there's probably some he remembers clearly due to pride or something...Giving them a lot of leeway in their mission, I see. Better than micromanaging. They know how to do their jobs, no need to watch them.
Or ruling it out, if that's a possibility.
I suppose staying hands-off that way also helps with plausible deniability. "No, Batman, I only let them stay in my base. I have no idea what they've been up to otherwise."
No doubt to the amused but well-hidden smiles of her team.
A rare chance for her to be so open. I'm guessing she's felt the need to keep a tight lid on her emotions around her fellow operatives.
Hey, don't joke about that. He's fully capable of managing time travel if he's properly motivated, after all.
...Last time OL looked, anyway. It's basically a game of musical chairs as to who's wearing the robe.
Time travel grammar, always messing with temporal clauses.
She may make a show of huffing about it, but you can tell she's enjoying the attention.
A frivolous use of Ring power, but a fine show of love. I suspect the Violet Lantern Ghi'ata would approve.
Do remember to clean that up before you go, though.
Honestly, why wouldn't she visit family if she's on vacation, after all?
Though I imagine they'd want to steer clear of any immigration concerns.
...Yeah, that flies. Depending on the location, people have seen weirder, after all.
Because jet lag is still an issue for her, of course.
Heh, wasting no time, I see.
To be fair, between Gotham and the Anti-Life, that would have been a minor concern, yes. Though OL's upgrades have probably made it basically fireproof.
True, no real need to keep it up these days.
And if they pull the usual sort of tricks, Gotham's skyline could have some new buildings in a few years, eh?
Aw. Wouldn't rather spend a few hours with your lady first?
From one fun interaction to another. It'll be interesting to see if we get any Jade time this episode, and what OL plans to poke Lex with this time. I'm also sure her squad will be able to keep themselves busy on Earth. Who know, perhaps they'll end up finding themselves mistaken for superheroes, given their biological advantages. Wouldn't be the first time, given the comics' history.
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Signaller
Not too sore, are you?
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The amygdala is apparently about 1.24 to 1.63 cubic centimetres, about the size of a peanut. So you'd need a very fine mesh to guarantee it.
The other possibility is that Savage can regrow from any part, e.g. hair follicles, but he just prefers the amygdala because it's somehow faster/easier.
BR549
This is filth! FILTH!!
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Hm, does Paul remember the JL two-parter "Hereafter" and its far-future, regretfully repentant Savage?
I hear Operation Babelfish is working on the problem.
Mr Zoat
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Not really. Most of the things that Wynne has shown himself to know can in fact be learned from publically available sources, and the easiest way for him to learn the rest is people in the community making referrals.
Yes, but at that point Terry would have seen a recording of his meeting with the Controller, so it's a little more obvious.
No he wouldn't. In the comics, even Vandal Savage doesn't remember everything he ever did. In this, the Renegade got random flashes of recollection that were very far from everything.
No, he meant that they could mess up the formation of the rest of the brain. If Savage's reasoning functions can't grow properly then he's a lot less dangerous.
Yes.
Duke Long
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Dragonball Zed, you mean.
Mr Zoat
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It's a name, so it's alright to pronounce it incorrectly.
mastermenthe
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This phrasing sounds like the setup for a very british sitcom gag.
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TFTwink
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Do you mind if I sig this?
Mr Zoat
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You might not be aware of this, but every time someone asks that sort of question I refuse, on the grounds that I have no control over anything I write after I post it and that asking me when I didn't ask DC is ridiculous.
So, no, you can't. Absolutely not. Fie on you.
BR549
This is filth! FILTH!!
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Mr Zoat
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The cow didn't do anything wrong.
Negotiations (part 4)
New
Mr Zoat
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3rd August 2013
20:12 GMT -5
"Orange Lantern." Lex presses a button on his desk and the window slides open. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I float into his office. "Poor work-life balance? I thought you'd be in your apartment, or… Out somewhere, at this time of the evening."
"Metropolis nightlife has taken something of a hit lately. And Superman's exploits in Texas have caused me a good deal of extra work."
"Yeah-." Oh dear. "Has someone thought to explain to you what that was about?"
"I was told that I'm not getting my ship back."
"Darn it. Ah-."
He stands up from behind his desk, heading towards his minibar. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Do you have any mango juice?"
He freezes for a moment. "Ah-?" He checks. "Yes, actually. With vodka?"
"No, just the juice, please. I don't drink alcohol."
Through the gap between his right arm and his back I see him contemplate the… Mixer-sized bottles of mango juice. Oh, whoops. He twists the lid off the first couple and pours them into a tumbler, then uses tongs to add a few ice cubes… Then adds a few more, and a third bottle, and appears to give up. Then he pours himself a finger of whiskey in another tumbler, adds two ice cubes and then turns back to me, gesturing towards the seating area with his whiskey hand.
"Please, take a seat."
"Thank you."
I head over to the expensive-looking chair that would probably convey a wealth of information to someone from the right social set, but to me just indicates that just because it's expensive doesn't mean that it isn't slightly uncomfortable to sit in.
Lex puts my mango juice (which I'm going to need to drink within the next minute or it's going to get too dilute to really taste) down in front of me and then sits back, taking a sip of his whiskey.
"So. Superman's uncharacteristically direct behaviour. I take it that the ship was kryptonian, then?"
"Yes. It's called the Doomsday and used to be their flagship, prior to them becoming isolationist. The bit you found was only part of it: for some reason Admiral Dru-Zod decided to break it into parts before hiding them."
"Oh?" He smiles faintly. "Are you off on a quest to reunite the missing pieces?"
"No, that's already done and the ship's been brought to near-ready status."
"'Near' ready?"
"The one member of the kryptonian stellar navy I knew the location of left Earth over a year ago, which means that the local kryptonians are having to learn how to operate the greatest warship their people ever built from scratch. It's like a farmer from rural Kentucky being put in charge of an aircraft carrier, only more so."
"Surely Supergirl or the other one have some familiarity with kryptonian systems?"
"And that Kentucky farmer may have a boat for catching crayfish; it won't help with the aircraft carrier."
"So the ship has gone from being studied by the Earth's greatest experts in alien technology to a metaphorical Kentuckian agronomist."
"It's a warship; we don't really need it right now."
"We might. I know that an alien vessel entered our system unannounced a few days ago."
"And they were escorted out without much difficulty. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be nice to be able to control it, I'm just saying that it's not high-urgency. A small attack can be beaten off by Earth's Lanterns. A large attack isn't going to be disrupted by one more ship."
"Perhaps. But please let Superman know that my people are available to help."
"I will."
"Now, about his behavior…"
"That was-."
"Mind control? There's a.. pool running in Security."
"Kind of?"
Lex looks thoughtful. "I think that was.. Jenkins…"
"A member of Superman's family a lot of generations back was an arsehole called Kem-El. He… Basically, isolationism wasn't a new ideology when the Science Council mandated it, but Kem-El was some sort of ultra-puritan. I'm sure that I missed a lot of the cultural context, but he dosed some people who wanted to establish a primitivist commune off Krypton with a retrovirus that messed up their photoreceptors, and also used them to conceal a last resort A.I. system called the Eradicator Program. It was designed to load itself into the brain of any kryptonian exposed to it and cause them to share Kem-El's attitudes."
Lex raises his eyebrows. "Which in practice means..?"
"Recreating Kem-El's vision of Kryptonian society. I'm not entirely sure what that was, but it started with killing Kon-El and Match."
"I hadn't realised that Krypton had such strong anti-miscegenation laws."
"As far as I know, they didn't. Kem-El appears to have been… Uniquely unpleasant."
"What did he plan to do with me?"
I take a sip of mango juice, using a small construct to hold the ice out of the way. "Nothing."
"Oh?"
"He didn't mention you while he was under the influence. If you've got any kryptonian technology I suspect that he'd have sent Eradicator androids to recover it, but his intent was to recreate Krypton elsewhere. As I understand your… Problem with Superman, him permanently removing himself from Earth would have resulted in you ceasing to care about him."
He nods slowly. "I see."
Because that would actually have been a pretty good deal for him. I doubt that he's strongly attached to Conner or Mitchell, and while losing the ship would be expensive, getting rid of Superman is priceless.
"How was the unnatural mental influence undone?"
"Arsenal smashed the base unit. Overwriting someone's mind is a very difficult technical feat; the existing thoughts constantly try to reassert themselves. Once it lost the ability to reinsert itself, he went back to normal fairly quickly."
"Was that the only instance of the Eradicator Program?"
"As far as I know. But if the mechanism to bypass a kryptonian's judgement exists, it can exist in other places. He's going to be a bit more careful with his exploring from now on."
"That sounds like it may be wise." He takes a sip of whiskey. "Why is it that you're telling me this?"
"Because I don't want you to think that this was Superman showing his true colours or that the League had an army of kryptonian robots and I suspected that no one else had bothered having this conversation with you."
He smiles wryly. "An astute surmise on your part."
"And.. I.. thought that being sociable wouldn't hurt. How is your work in Chong-Mai going?"
20:12 GMT -5
"Orange Lantern." Lex presses a button on his desk and the window slides open. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I float into his office. "Poor work-life balance? I thought you'd be in your apartment, or… Out somewhere, at this time of the evening."
"Metropolis nightlife has taken something of a hit lately. And Superman's exploits in Texas have caused me a good deal of extra work."
"Yeah-." Oh dear. "Has someone thought to explain to you what that was about?"
"I was told that I'm not getting my ship back."
"Darn it. Ah-."
He stands up from behind his desk, heading towards his minibar. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Do you have any mango juice?"
He freezes for a moment. "Ah-?" He checks. "Yes, actually. With vodka?"
"No, just the juice, please. I don't drink alcohol."
Through the gap between his right arm and his back I see him contemplate the… Mixer-sized bottles of mango juice. Oh, whoops. He twists the lid off the first couple and pours them into a tumbler, then uses tongs to add a few ice cubes… Then adds a few more, and a third bottle, and appears to give up. Then he pours himself a finger of whiskey in another tumbler, adds two ice cubes and then turns back to me, gesturing towards the seating area with his whiskey hand.
"Please, take a seat."
"Thank you."
I head over to the expensive-looking chair that would probably convey a wealth of information to someone from the right social set, but to me just indicates that just because it's expensive doesn't mean that it isn't slightly uncomfortable to sit in.
Lex puts my mango juice (which I'm going to need to drink within the next minute or it's going to get too dilute to really taste) down in front of me and then sits back, taking a sip of his whiskey.
"So. Superman's uncharacteristically direct behaviour. I take it that the ship was kryptonian, then?"
"Yes. It's called the Doomsday and used to be their flagship, prior to them becoming isolationist. The bit you found was only part of it: for some reason Admiral Dru-Zod decided to break it into parts before hiding them."
"Oh?" He smiles faintly. "Are you off on a quest to reunite the missing pieces?"
"No, that's already done and the ship's been brought to near-ready status."
"'Near' ready?"
"The one member of the kryptonian stellar navy I knew the location of left Earth over a year ago, which means that the local kryptonians are having to learn how to operate the greatest warship their people ever built from scratch. It's like a farmer from rural Kentucky being put in charge of an aircraft carrier, only more so."
"Surely Supergirl or the other one have some familiarity with kryptonian systems?"
"And that Kentucky farmer may have a boat for catching crayfish; it won't help with the aircraft carrier."
"So the ship has gone from being studied by the Earth's greatest experts in alien technology to a metaphorical Kentuckian agronomist."
"It's a warship; we don't really need it right now."
"We might. I know that an alien vessel entered our system unannounced a few days ago."
"And they were escorted out without much difficulty. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be nice to be able to control it, I'm just saying that it's not high-urgency. A small attack can be beaten off by Earth's Lanterns. A large attack isn't going to be disrupted by one more ship."
"Perhaps. But please let Superman know that my people are available to help."
"I will."
"Now, about his behavior…"
"That was-."
"Mind control? There's a.. pool running in Security."
"Kind of?"
Lex looks thoughtful. "I think that was.. Jenkins…"
"A member of Superman's family a lot of generations back was an arsehole called Kem-El. He… Basically, isolationism wasn't a new ideology when the Science Council mandated it, but Kem-El was some sort of ultra-puritan. I'm sure that I missed a lot of the cultural context, but he dosed some people who wanted to establish a primitivist commune off Krypton with a retrovirus that messed up their photoreceptors, and also used them to conceal a last resort A.I. system called the Eradicator Program. It was designed to load itself into the brain of any kryptonian exposed to it and cause them to share Kem-El's attitudes."
Lex raises his eyebrows. "Which in practice means..?"
"Recreating Kem-El's vision of Kryptonian society. I'm not entirely sure what that was, but it started with killing Kon-El and Match."
"I hadn't realised that Krypton had such strong anti-miscegenation laws."
"As far as I know, they didn't. Kem-El appears to have been… Uniquely unpleasant."
"What did he plan to do with me?"
I take a sip of mango juice, using a small construct to hold the ice out of the way. "Nothing."
"Oh?"
"He didn't mention you while he was under the influence. If you've got any kryptonian technology I suspect that he'd have sent Eradicator androids to recover it, but his intent was to recreate Krypton elsewhere. As I understand your… Problem with Superman, him permanently removing himself from Earth would have resulted in you ceasing to care about him."
He nods slowly. "I see."
Because that would actually have been a pretty good deal for him. I doubt that he's strongly attached to Conner or Mitchell, and while losing the ship would be expensive, getting rid of Superman is priceless.
"How was the unnatural mental influence undone?"
"Arsenal smashed the base unit. Overwriting someone's mind is a very difficult technical feat; the existing thoughts constantly try to reassert themselves. Once it lost the ability to reinsert itself, he went back to normal fairly quickly."
"Was that the only instance of the Eradicator Program?"
"As far as I know. But if the mechanism to bypass a kryptonian's judgement exists, it can exist in other places. He's going to be a bit more careful with his exploring from now on."
"That sounds like it may be wise." He takes a sip of whiskey. "Why is it that you're telling me this?"
"Because I don't want you to think that this was Superman showing his true colours or that the League had an army of kryptonian robots and I suspected that no one else had bothered having this conversation with you."
He smiles wryly. "An astute surmise on your part."
"And.. I.. thought that being sociable wouldn't hurt. How is your work in Chong-Mai going?"
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AmericanNumbers
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Sigh. it's actually kinda funny that Paul was able to get the Sivana's nominally on his side but not Lex who he likes.
Darko
Connoisseur.
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Remove the line in front of "That"
Neruz
HISSSSSS!
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Only one non-evil Lex Luthor is allowed to exist in the DC multiverse, and even that tends to be temporary.
Mr Zoat
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Thank you, corrected.
Chojin Patriarch
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Lex seems to sort of man to consider sleep an annoyance he tries to avoid, putting only a bare minimum to stay fresh and alert. Kind of like Batman in that respect, but without the exotic mental training to use meditation...
He'd find out sooner or later regardless, but this way, he might not grab the wrong end of the stick and try to stab someone with it.
It was never really his ship, mind. He might well have been minding it for a while, but the second a Kryptonian learned about it...
Heh. Lex might have to go to the kitchen for that one, unless he's got a really well-stocked collection.
It does seem to be something of a popular cocktail. Probably contrasting the sweetness of the mango with the natural taste of the vodka. Not a drinker myself - raspberry Fanta is my most exotic flavour taste...
Mixer-sized being less than a hundred millilitres apiece, I guess? About half the size of a small can. And I bet they're expensive.
Lex's is probably wonderfully comfortable. Another sort of powerplay, naturally.
I'm sure he knew that already, just from the crystal-based technology. Wonder if his science teams managed to loot anything of it?
And it says a lot about Kryptonian tech that he could do that without reducing any part of it to scrap.
Ah, I can see Lex sweating internally at hearing that. A warship in the hands of the naive heroes and the Alien? Possibly up there among his worst nightmares.
Though in that case, there'd also be a crew to help manage it. No, this is more like them having to learn to manage the whole thing by themselves.
An apt analogy. There's a big difference between a tinnie he goes out in on the river with on weekends and a battleship.
Besides, Lex should know the heroes don't trust him not to abuse what he learns of the technology he 'borrowed'.
And if the attack is big enough for the Doomsday to be needed, it's probably going to have Green and Orange Lanterns rushing to their defence anyway. Among other space allies.
Not that Clark's going to listen, of course.
I honestly can't tell if Lex doesn't already know, or if he's genuinely curious. Wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have a couple of bucks in there himself. Via a proxy, of course.
Someone actually took 'kind of mind control' as an option? Hedging their bets a little, isn't it?
Of course, if Lex knows what Savage has been up to out there, he already knows about the Eradicator. But he'll feign surprise anyway.
And would likely have eventually involved removing the Daxamites as a concern, but Lex doesn't need to know that.
'Arsehole' is underselling him a lot, I imagine.
Supes, you mean? Lex probably expected him to come crashing through the window and pull him apart like a fly. It's probably what he'd do if he had that kind of power.
...Honestly, an evil Superman leaving after causing havoc would probably give Lex a great target to direct Earth's ire against in his manipulations to gain control.
Indeed...
Which leaves Lex with the knowledge that sort of control can be easily undone. No doubt he'd want to create something more permanently effective.
In other words, Lex will assume he can't set any traps for him as easily.
Definitely a thing to get on top of before he can get carried away. After all, Rumour propagates faster than Truth.
That's it, OL. Keep at it. Maybe someday you can raise your diplomacy values with Lex high enough to try and start rehabilitating him... Someday.
Honestly, making sure Lex has a version of the facts with a positive spin will head off any paranoid planning he's probably been working on as it is. Not that it'll stop him planning, but at least now he's maybe less likely to start from the concept of 'evil Superman'... Not much less likely, but hey, baby steps. Hopefully one day he can work as an ally without the massive trauma the comics versions usually suffer.
BR549
This is filth! FILTH!!
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thebishop8
Umm, ackchyually...
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Did Savage tell the Eradicator Program that a piece of the Doomsday was on Earth? I wonder if he warned Lex about it in any way.
PJ739
Know what you're doing yet?
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He is blinded by his potential, he can't change him but he also can't acept to waste his mind
Mr Zoat
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Thank you, corrected.
WereDragon
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It hurts your credibility with pretty much every other Earth-based individual you interact with. Fraternising with Lex flipping Luthor comes with significant costs even if he doesn't take advantage of it directly.
lancelot
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Maybe also let him know this entire set of bullshit was set off by Vandal Savage, And after that he sent a team to mess with a being whose reason to exist is to end the universe. So if he ever has the idea of what rock the little Neanderthal is hiding under maybe he could make a call before he kills us all in his megalomania?
SirKaid
Know what you're doing yet?
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Who among the heroes hasn't had a crush on a villain before?
Admittedly, most crushes aren't on A-list supervillains, but OL has always been kind of a freak.