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

[Ngamer11]

"The Genomorph Entire could have. And then… Well. We'd probably treat the g-goblins are humans, and the other genomorph types as animals."

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That should say 'as'.

"Can you. do that?"

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That should either be a comma or an ellipsis.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

27th September 2013
15:34 GMT -6

"…even the sewers have never been cleaner." Mayor Fermin puts down the last report and sits back. "Honestly… Hub City has never had it so good."

"No problems at all? Nothing untoward happening? With the… Old crowd?"

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Ah, OL. Checking in on his investment in the city, I see. I would expect that the city has also never been less criminal at this point, with a superhero actively involved in the rebuilding of the town.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"The old crowd is dead." She shakes her head. "Or they ran so far they might as well be. The people who live here now… I mean, they're people. If Hub had stayed the same, they'd probably have joined in. But as long as we keep it clean, they'll stay clean too."

"Anything I can do to help with that?"

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Prevent the temptations that lead to crime, maybe. Keep folks happy, comfortable and well-fed, so you won't see as many coveting their neighbour's anything.

"I don't think-." She frowns. "Alright, I guess there is one thing. The genomorphs have been helping out with policing. Using g-gnomes saves a lot of time during interviews, and the g-elves are great at foot chases. The only issue is with actually talking to them. Dubbilex can't be here all the time."

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And the G-Gnomes don't exactly think in English. So you end up with the interviewers having to interpret their telepathic projections.

"What about the g-pooka?"

"They act like hyperactive children a lot of the time. I know that their psychic network is supposed to let them share skills, but the others can't talk and the g-pooka can't focus."

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They might seem hyper-active, but that could just be the collective directing them to where they're needed without any visible cause.

"The g-magtatangal can talk."

"But whenever it does, it reroutes the conversation towards surgery."

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If you asked them, they'd probably point out that 'It is what we were made for. Is it any surprise we focus on it?'

"Okay, I can bring it up with Dubbilex. There are enough other genomorph types that he can't really complain about being forced into a human-shaped hole."

"Human.. shaped hole?"

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Him, and any other G-Goblins he has created.

"Genomorphs aren't human. But more than that… They're not really Earth-creatures. G-pooka aren't humans with a fixation; they're entirely mentally healthy g-pooka. G-goblins can fake being human-like in a way the others can't, but they're… Not. And Dubbilex didn't want to genomorphs to be forced to become more human-like in exchange for recognition."

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Because that would be inefficient for those not suited to that purpose. Surely he gets tired of being the only 'face' of the collective, though...

"Because he-. He could have just grown more g-goblins whenever he wanted."

"The Genomorph Entire could have. And then… Well. We'd probably treat the g-goblins are humans, and the other genomorph types as animals."

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And that literally leads to them being dehumanised. People ignoring the members they're working with in favour of the obvious human-like one... Tres rude.

She nods. "Which they're not. So-."

My ring blinks, and I hold it up slightly. "Excuse me. Orange Lantern, go ahead."

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Ah, that'll be the rookies.

"We found a guy being mind controlled, but when we broke the control a load of other people who'd been acting suspicious ran off."

Fingers to forehead. "Excuse me again." I

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I imagine even OL had a moment of 'Seriously?' when he heard that.

step out, the desires of my students being easy enough to

distinguish from rest of the population. Ian lowers his communicator while Toni is looking down the road towards someone running away. She's.. got a g-gnome on her shoulder, which is a good show of initiative when dealing with mind control. She jerks her head towards me for a moment and thrusts a… Baseball cap towards me-? Ah, I see.

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Tetch, of course. Right, time to round up the hat guys, then.

"Looks like Mad Hatter's work." And yeah, there's the scry ward. Just on the technology, not on the hat or the wearer. "How many ran?"

Face shifts awkwardly. "Five that I saw, but if they're all being controlled then there might be others."

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Though the ubiquitous hats will help to narrow down the field...

"Right." I tether both of them and transition upwards. "Now, the wards mean that I can't scan for the mind control hat directly, but there are only so many people running away from where you were working."

Orange tendrils flash out, and then they're running in the air next to us, suspended in a flight aura.

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And once more, the age-old scry wards interfere with convenience.

"Mister Tetch, have your abilities grown to encompass long distance puppetting?"

His latest victims are flailing and trying to get away-. And I can see the fake drives overlying their natural ones.

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Not long-distance, pre-programmed. less flexible, but if their commands were to 'go get implanted with those symbionts' and 'avoid capture', that isn't too hard to adapt to any situation...

Toni frowns at me. "Shouldn't you just-?"

I remove the hats and float them closer to me, the flailing stopping almost immediately.

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Wonder if they're all generic local sports team hats? Easy enough to pick up in bulk and modify.

"Sirs and madams, I'm sorry to say that you've been acting under mental control. You are presently in Hub City in Illinois."

The initial panic of waking up fully clothed somewhere they don't recognise fading, they all manage to give me their attention.

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The orange glow holding them up probably also helps focus them on you.

"I'm going to drop you and Face off at the local police station, please give full reports to the interviewing officer."

And transition, and then I float Argent upwards. Hm. How best to go about this without causing panic?

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What, by grabbing the hats off every person he can find? That would be disruptive, certainly. Or try a mixed-media scan, see what gives any blank spots concerning headwear...

"Can you. do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just send them to the police station?"

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I mean, have they committed a crime yet? They're technically victims here, and letting them go over what they remember will be easier in a nice, safe place.

"Yes? There's an ongoing attack, and the local police have the skills to help them. If you mean, 'can I compel them to give testimony?', then no, but I'm afraid that U.S. law and practice is that as long as they don't flat out refuse I'm allowed to imply that they're obliged to assist me. Even if they're not mentally firing on all cylinders yet."

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Probably makes it easier, if anything. Plus, if they recognised you as a superhero, they'll be inclined to trust that you've got their best interests at heart.

"That's a bit…"

"You read the first victim's mind to find out whether he was being controlled or not?"

"Yeah?"

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Top marks for that, incidentally. A little intrusive, but with your training so far, it worked out well enough.

"In your opinion, could the same technique have been used to create an assassin?"

"Um. I don't-. Maybe?"

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Quite easily, really. Hell, they'd be more single-minded in their pursuit of their target than any fanatic from the League of Shadows, even if they aren't as skilled.

"And we don't know that it hasn't been used for that, just that the first six weren't programmed in that way. While there is a degree of disagreement amongst Justice League members and affiliates on how paranoid we're supposed to be, I believe that the majority would accept what I just did. Now." I halt our upwards travel. "How do you think we should deal with this?"

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After all, the rookie might have an idea crazy enough to work.

"Aaaaaah… Stop anyone using the portal so they can't get away, and… Get the police to check everyone?"

"Impractical. Hub City Police Department hasn't got enough trained officers for something like that. Honestly, I don't think anywhere in the country does. Not that they could spare."

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And even something like flying around asking folks to remove their hats for a moment would be... Certainly impractical, but quirky enough that no-one would question OL asking.

"Okay, then… What?"

"The ward prevents me from scanning for the mind control hat. It doesn't do anything to block my empathic abilities, and people who are having their minds altered stand out when I look for them."

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Ah, good. I bet Tetch didn't even consider that possibility when he set this up.

I stare downwards, looking for the unnaturally twisted desires that I saw in the hatted.

"And… How should I do it? Because I don't think I can do that."

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And I doubt you could manage 'fly about knocking hats off anyone acting suspicious.' without someone complaining very quickly...

"Calling me is an option, but failing that, genomorphs can do a similar thing if you spread the g-gnomes out across the city centre. Your new colleagues Hunter and Toyman could probably figure something out with magic or technology. If nothing better occurs to you, contact whoever's on console duty and ask for advice."

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Good, some very sensible advice. Especially if you have G-gnomes willing to assist as they were here.

And there they are, another six. None of them are fleeing, but they all show the same mental restrictions. Filaments flick out and bring them up to us before removing their hats.

"Now, let's see if this helps us actually find Mister Tetch."

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Hopefully they're transmitting some sort of signal back to Jervis. At the very least, they'd have to have some way to indicate 'mission complete, pickup requested'.

Somehow, i doubt it'll be as easy as anyone might think. The Illuminati have made themselves very hard to tack down, especially if they've got Hush Tubes to move around with. And if Jervis is actively monitoring the hat guys, he'll know OL has rumbled them and the group have already bugged out of whatever site they've been operating out of...

 

[boo600]

Because we don't want to make someone's visit to the park unpleasant. And that doesn't exactly apply here, but this is Orange Lantern's favorite city-.

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…people think Hub City is OL's favorite city?

 

[Mr Zoat]

"didn't want the"

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That should say 'as'.
That should either be a comma or an ellipsis.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[mastermenthe]

The initial panic of waking up fully clothed somewhere they don't recognise fading

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"Their panic of 'oh god i was mind controlled' was fading. Their panic of 'oh god I'm in detroit' was growing."

 

[Steelplaza]

The question is, what was all this about? Did Tetch's group want samples of the symbiotes so they could check what they're doing to people?

 

[LazySloth13]

Tetch and Anarky are still super paranoid about the League having control over the planet so symbiotes surgergically inserted into citizens probably seems crazy because they can't seem to understand the benefits outweigh the risks for those with medical issues. It's all the underlying issues to society they seem to forget about or ignore because it clashes with their whole world view, Anarky especially because he's every teen protester cliche in a character who's too smart for his own good, so rather than get a symbiote themselves they would rather mind control people instead.

 

[Ngamer11]

Tetch and Anarky are still super paranoid about the League having control over the planet so symbiotes surgergically inserted into citizens probably seems crazy because they can't seem to understand the benefits outweigh the risks for those with medical issues. It's all the underlying issues to society they seem to forget about or ignore because it clashes with their whole world view, Anarky especially because he's every teen protester cliche in a character who's too smart for his own good, so rather than get a symbiote themselves they would rather mind control people instead.

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I feel this is why Detective Chimp and Question are with them, to act as counterbalances so they don't go over the edge. Though I still hope the Illuminati's efforts ultimately blow up in their faces, even if they end up revealing some stuff that needs to be taken care of simply because in the process they mess up a lot more stuff that OL, the Team, and the JL have to clean up.

 

[hkim]

…people think Hub City is OL's favorite city?

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I mean it literally is, he's showing it favour that he hasn't shown to any other city. He's basically their patron god at this point

 

[mastermenthe]

He's basically their patron god at this point

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Prayers to him do have a noticable affect, in the forms of "stop praying to me" and "this could have been an email."

 

[Vaermina]

Tetch and Anarky are still super paranoid about the League having control over the planet so symbiotes surgergically inserted into citizens probably seems crazy because they can't seem to understand the benefits outweigh the risks for those with medical issues. It's all the underlying issues to society they seem to forget about or ignore because it clashes with their whole world view, Anarky especially because he's every teen protester cliche in a character who's too smart for his own good, so rather than get a symbiote themselves they would rather mind control people instead.

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No, it is crazy.

How many times has someone in DC used something like that to seize control of large amounts of the population? Too many to count. And just because OL thinks they're safe, doesn't mean they actually are. Remember the Justifiers that OL signed off on?