[video] The Reject Pile [closed to those that have signed up for this part of plot]

[atippleoftransparency]

cw: for child death/harm

[When Invisible Kid shows up on screen there's something wrong. He's got a grin so big it looks like it could split his face, and there's something wrong with his eyes. They're glowing with a yellow glow and he has strange, oblong, almost cat-like pupils.]

[When he speaks, there's something wrong with his voice, too. It doesn't sound like Lyle, the cadence and tone are off. If anything, it somehow sounds the same as the villain who'd bragged about wearing a meatsuit that'd tried to blow everyone up during the fight with the Legion of Supervillains.]

Well well well, you Legionnaires sure seem to be rallying in the face of disaster. Guess I'll have to ruin it for you! Lucky for me the Brainiacs finally decided to make a mess of things! I've been looking over Brainiac 8's shoulder for a while now, waiting for her to do part of my work for me.

It wasn't easy being patient. After that big metal idiot prevented me from blowing you all up during the fight with the Legion of Supervillains, I've been dying for a chance to kill you all again!

[The grin somehow widens, even though it shouldn't be possible.]

You're probably wondering who I am. The accursed, fetid, incomprehensible monster from outside of time and space that's forced me to work for him as his Herald calls me The Devil, but his obsession with archetypes and the Tarot is stupid anyway.

The name's Bill Cipher.

A few of you have probably heard of me because of Pine Tree. He even wrote everything about me in this little book of his, figuring you might need it to fight me!

[He holds up a red notebook filled with notes and pictures of aliens and creatures.]

But don't expect him to help you. [The book starts to burn in his hand. Then he picks up...a utility belt.]

To make sure he wouldn't interfere, I put a power inhibitor on him, took all his gear, and shoved him out an airlock!

[To prove he's not lying, he tosses the utility belt away and picks up...a very familiar hat, placing it on his -- on Lyle's -- head.]

Don't worry about how hard it'll be to find his asphyxiated, lifeless body in the unforgiving void, though -- you're all going to join him soon! This invisible moron has access to Brainiac 5's rejected experiment vault. It's filled to the brim with unholy horrors and failed experiments capable of bending space and time itself.

Two years ago, I used this meatsuit to sabotage Brainiac's device, but Norg here fixed it in time to send the Legionnaires to a pocket dimension instead of vaporizing them -- but not this time. Thanks to Brainiac 5, this time I'll turn you Legionnaires inside out, strip away the information that makes you exist as matter, and pluck out your hydrogen molecules. That's if the Unmolded Ones don't erase you out of existence first!

[With that, he laughs, and behind him, a vault door opens, releasing...things. Terrible things. Machines that hover and emit shrieking sounds that cause the metal around them to oxidize. Floating vortexes that invert the structure of anything they touch. Rotating devices, meant to repair structures with a special adhesive, that spread their spider web like material over anything they perceive as broken, to fix it -- that unfortunately think organic life is so broken that it needs to be knitted together with other organic material.]

[This is all the stuff that was so dangerous Brainy didn't even try to keep making it work. It's the stuff that made him go "Oh, sprock!" and hit a panic button of some kind. Since not all of them could be safely deconstructed easily -- or needed some time for their dimensional half-life to pass before they faced decohesion -- the vault is where they're consigned until they can safely be taken apart or fade away on their own.]

[The rejected machines, anomalies, and ideological biohazards -- pour out around Bill and he fades away from view, using Lyle's invisibility. Even though he fades, a laugh remains.]

AHAHAHAHAHA!

[ooc: This is locked to anyone that signed up for "The Reject Pile." (You can jump in right after you sign up, as long as sign ups are still open.) Other characters can be handwaved as off on missions.]

Comments

[thedreamisdead]

Dredd, stand down. You know torture's illegal. [Security of the City Act and Random Physical Abuse Tests aside.] They have psis, mages, and therapists on staff, that was part of their screening process for these two. They're not Psi Division, but they're... adequate. I was satisfied on seeing their results. My guess is that this 'Bill' wasn't riding Norg at the time or he would have been spotted.

Krinn, hypno-interrogation and truth drugs aren't torture. Let's not paint my world's methods with a wide brush just because Judge Dredd had a slip of the tongue. He's new to the streets and not used to this kind of betrayal from any sector. You've seen this kind of thing before if I've understood the mission logs correctly. You've got years more experience, so be an example rather than biting the new kid's head off and leaping off the slippery slope in your accusations.

[rokketmann]

[ There is nothing wrong with Cos' ears, and he knows that torture was explicitly mentioned as an option. However, this is an all-hands-on-deck scenario, and Rico Dredd is perfectly capable of helping. ]

You're right, Judge Beeny. I'm looking forward to the discussion we'll have about methods at the next team meeting. Until then, Kid Quantum's orders stand.

[truefaceofthelaw]

Of course. [Rico says, tone clipped.] A slip of the tongue. I'd meant "encouraged and incentivized confession". I was talking in the sense of SJS protocols. And you know what they do are excused from the usual.

[Grumble grumble. He hadn't expected her to call him out on it at all. He can't not back down, not after Beeny's ordered him to so publically, but her playing the 'he's new' card rankles, and he almost doesn't want to take the out. Ugh.]

PRIVATE - Justice Department channels

[thedreamisdead]

We both know that the Security of the City Act makes more sense, but I warned you about these people. We need to watch our step if we're going to be 'allowed' to make sure the universe doesn't implode.

[truefaceofthelaw]

You'd think they would take all the help they can get, but they'd let their moral hangups get in the way of what needs to be done? You warned me, but I didn't think you meant incompetent.

Beeny, this place is a mess. Just look at what just happened. At what is happening right now. How can you place any faith in them to do a single drokking thing right?

[thedreamisdead]

They're not dead yet. And they're our only choice if we want to make sure Mega-City One survives.

Besides. It's not like I can't say a compromised Judge or two has never drokked up the works on my end.

[truefaceofthelaw]

[...It's a little bit of a pause before he speaks again.]

Right. Mega-City One is in danger. [A terrible shame. Would that really be so bad?] But that they're not dead yet doesn't mean much. And they seem well on the way already, under the current circumstances. I don't put much stock in a leadership that can't guarantee I won't be sucking vac if the support systems fail in the next thirty seconds.

Those compromised Judges ever drokk up the works this bad? I doubt it.

[thedreamisdead]

If you're worried about taking a spacewalk, I'd suggest you get down to the planet and wrestle some techno-zombies instead. [It'd be a head start for him, at least.] Otherwise, keep your chin up and don't get yourself into a position where you've pissed off the people with laser eyes pointed at your back.

You'd be surprised. [Necropolis was... well. Before her time, but still a nightmare to read about in the history books. Kraken had a lot to answer for, before Dredd put an end to him.] Unfortunately, we're dealing with a superpowered juve gang that lived to adulthood, not a batch of Judges. Let's take what we can get and understand that there's no way to operate without lowering our standards.

[truefaceofthelaw]

Doesn't matter. I promise you they won't get very far. [Is it possible for contempt to physically manifest through vocal communication? Rico sure is trying.]

But that's a roj. I've been sitting around for too long anyway, might as well get my gloves dirty. If you expect me to work with paper pushers and juves with glorified stubbers, then fine. [Not fine.] Don't expect me to be too happy about it either. A juve gang shouldn't have the responsibility of saving the multiverse. I'll show them how it's done.