Post-Mission Briefing [video]

[relativityspeaking]

[When Kid Q goes on the comms for the post-mission debrief, she is smiling. Smiling smiling smiling.]

I'm happy to report that both of the recent missions were a complete success. After we weakened Tsarista by breaking out of all her story scenarios, we managed to re-capture her in an omnicom. Some of our allies from Sorcerer's World have given us some assistance in providing better magical protections around her prison.

[Her smile widens slightly and goes mischievous.]

If anyone wants to see the pictures we got of Brainy turned into an adorable forest creature, Timber Wolf is making the rounds.

As for the mission against the Herald and the Council, War and the Council-members are currently in Science Police custody. After she's fast-tracked for trial, we've made arrangements for her detainment to be on Legion World, like the Joker, to prevent any possible corruption at Takron-Galtos from allowing her to escape. The recording equipment Brainy sent you into the mission with successfully captured video of War despite the surveillance-disrupting nature of her powers. We've provided all the evidence to the Science Police, and they've obtained warrants to pry into the Council-members' affairs. They're currently making dozens of arrests all over the UP, of various corrupt government officials, dirty cops, and other individuals responsible for colluding with Chronoblivion.

[She's beaming.]

Not only did you stop the Council-members themselves, you've made it so the Science Police have been able to uncover an entire web of individuals that they've been working with, significantly weakening Chronoblivion's ability to interfere in the UP government and Legion affairs.

We still have to worry about the Herald spying on Legion World, but we have some leads on ways to stop him and one of our next missions should give us the tools to do it.

Things are going to be different from now on. Now that we've gone on the offensive, we're not going to stop until we take Chronoblivion down.

In other news, the two hostages you rescued? They were two of our missing Legionnaires, Rokk Krinn, aka Cosmic Boy, and Lyle Norg, aka Invisible Kid. Brainy's scanned them thoroughly to verify their identities and they're the real deal. They've verified that the missing Legionnaires are alive, currently trapped in a pocket dimension with strange preservative properties that've made it so they haven't aged or needed things like food and water. This crystal dimension actually allowed them to view our universe -- so they've apparently been keeping an eye on the team, watching our fights. (They promised that they've only watched things we've done in public.)

Recently, they were able to work together to free Rokk and Lyle, and they've spent six months relative time wandering through the multiverse, through dimensions where time ran differently, trying to get back home. When they arrived back in this universe, they were unfortunately picked up by corrupt Science Police officers, and taken to the Council-members. Fortunately, they were able to resist telepathic interrogation.

If the Council-members had successfully made the hand-off, they probably would've been tortured and killed, and the information they knew about the missing Legionnaires could've potentially been used by Chronoblivion's forced to find and kill our missing friends.

Not only did you make it so two of our own came home safely, you may have saved the entire team that we lost. And now that they're here, Brainy has enough information to start working on bringing our missing friends home. It's going to take time -- weeks, months, maybe even a year -- but now we know for sure they're alive, rather than taking Joker's word for it, and we can start working on it. If we can get them home in time, we might be able to enlist their help before our final fight against Chronoblivion.

You all did something incredible today, and undertook actions that restored balance back to the UP government, protected the team from future sabotage and interference, saved two Legionnaires just trying to get home, and protected close to 20 missing team members.

I'm proud of you, Legionnaires.

Comments

[thedreamisdead]

If they were able to resist telepathic interrogation from the corrupt personnel there, why are we so certain they are who they actually say they are?

[Don't let America interrogate your veterans.]

[rokketmann]

I think the answer is because we trust Brainy when it comes science.

[ Cos thinks she's raising a valid point and wants to help with any doubts. ]

But since you asked, resisting a telepath is like trying not to hear someone talk. You have to make so much mental noise that finding anything useful is hard. It's obvious when someone's singing the same song in their head or picturing a steel wall to count the rivets. I have nothing to hide here.

[thedreamisdead]

Mm.

[Not exactly her favored answer, but she can't find a fault with Brainiac 5 when it comes to science. He's obviously her superior in pretty much every area involving that. Except maybe the sweet science.]

You people teach different psi-resistance methods than I'm used to hearing. Wonder if that's technique or a difference in how your telepaths work?

[rokketmann]

And Kid Quantum's always had good judgment. It’s how she got elected in the first place.

[ Trust was a lot to ask of someone you're meeting, which is why he suggested trusting sentients she knew. ]

I don’t know how you’re used to dealing with telepaths, and I’m not a telepath, so I’m not a good choice for the trickier questions.

[ Ordinarily, Rokk would direct her to Saturn Girl for more information. It doesn’t sit well that he’s back on Legion World, and she’s not. ]

If you’re really curious, you could ask Dreamer. She’s spent time on Titan. Or I can recommend you some articles on telepaths and the history of the Titanians.

[thedreamisdead]

[She bites her tongue. Not because she doubts Kid Quantum's judgement, but because she's supposed to have violently disagreed with the woman's judgement in public and it's best not to go to nodding right after that.

She hates political games. But there you go.]

I'll ask her about it. I appreciate the offer, but there's only so much that reading can tell you about how psi-powers function.

[rokketmann]

[ Cos nods at this. ]

I know. Books aren't as good as being able to actually train with a telepath, and VR hasn't gone that far yet. When we get the others back, you'll be able to work with the best telepath the United Planets has to offer.

[unrecovered]

Huh. Good to know.

[rokketmann]

You're welcome. It's Agent Washington, right?

[ He wants to hit the ground running with the new (to him) members, but hasn't had time to do more than look at names and images. ]

[unrecovered]

Yeah. Just Wash, if it's easier.

[Six words is all it takes for deep-seated inadequacy to come crawling from the pit of his stomach up his throat. Wash has been doing okay as a Legionnaire, for the most part, but he knows he's still just a fill-in for the real thing, and now the original team is starting to come back. These are the people who know what they're doing, the people that are enough of a threat that Chronoblivion tried to gut the team, and if half of what Wash has read is right, Cosmic Boy is one of the founding members. And here Wash is, just... trying.]

[He knows this isn't quite right - the majority of his track record here says he's been doing a pretty good job - but that doesn't prevent him from feeling like he just isn't enough. The last time he felt like this, he kept himself on the implant list and wound up with Epsilon. It's not a good place to be.]

[Fortunately, he should have some time to think and work his way through it, and it's all easy enough to hide behind a helmet in the meantime.]

[rokketmann]

[ Cos thinks that the abbreviated version has happened since Agent Washington arrived, and he smiles broadly. It's like a right of passage. ]

Oh, one of those. We're good at making nicknames out of whatever codename you or your planet have worked so hard on. Kid Q, Brainy. You can go ahead and call me Cos, too.

[googledox]

Affirmative. I've run extensive scans of Cosmic Boy and Invisible Kid, and by every possible metric -- DNA, power scans, even dimensional resonance -- there's a 100% match.

There are also more subtle, ah, behavioral cues that would be difficult for imposters to imitate.

[thedreamisdead]

[She glances down off her screen. That's right, Brainy, she just ran you through a lie detector.]

Well, that's reassuring. Do you have these for every one of us?

[googledox]

Yes. DNA scans, power scans, and dimensional resonance scans are all data gathered when you first arrive.

[thedreamisdead]

That's useful information to know.

Be careful with that DNA. That's Justice Department property.

[whyarewehere]

Clones?

[ Grif says it through a mouthful of spacefuture doritos. Super important questions here, guys. ]

[googledox]

Cloning leaves behind subtle genetic indicators, and even if the cloning method was exceptional enough to avoid that, the dimensional resonance scans wouldn't match.

[whyarewehere]

I'm gonna pretend I understood that and you just said "not clones".

[thedreamisdead]

Clones wouldn't carry the same behavioral patterns. They're different people, even if they look the same.

[whyarewehere]

Clones with good acting classes.

[unrecovered]

"Behavioral cues."

[He buys the science. What he can't quite figure out is why Brainy felt the need to add that on.]

Private

[thedreamisdead]

Give the man some privacy, Washington.

Private

[unrecovered]

He wouldn't have brought it up without a reason.

[googledox]

There are certain behavioral tics and knowledge they have that would be difficult to replicate.

[atippleoftransparency]

[Unmuffled snickering.]

Oh, is that what that was? Testing my 'subtle behavioral cues'?

[googledox]

[Grife. With Lyle being gone so long, he forgot that he could no longer get away with saying certain things without the requisite teasing and Lyle calling a spade and spade.]

[So he squeaks. Outright squeaks indignantly.]

I just meant that there are certain very subtle behaviors that would be difficult to telegraph unless someone took extremely detailed records of micro-expressions. There was also shared knowledge between Rokk and Jazmin, and between myself and you, that was kept very, very private. So short of a full replication of your thought patterns via cloning, which is easy to discount with genetic scans...