The storm
"So why did you do it?" Charles said. "All you're doing is just sticking your thumbs in the bear's eye. By 'bear' I mean Colonel Armalin. You know that he watches video of these meetings."
"He's like Dawn Hall," Daria said. "One of the Busiest People on Earth, trademark. I'll bet you fifteen cents that he doesn't watch this at all. And no, he's not gotten back in touch with me."
"Daria," Charles said, "he's doing [i]you a favor[/i] by not getting in touch with you. Mack once had a chat with Armalin. Trust me, those are the kinds of chats that make you very uncomfortable."
"If you want to live your life in pants-wetting terror of Kyle Armalin, Chuck, be my guest," Daria said. "I'm made of sterner stuff. Therefore, I've passed the ball off to a neutral observer. [i]Jodie[/i] is going to give a report on hurricane rescue and the active measures we can take."
"So," Charles said, "you plan on doing an end run around Armalin by making rescue official Legion business."
Daria smiled. "We'll listen to what Jodie has to say. And after that...we'll make our own decisions, Armalin or no Armalin."
(* * *)
Jodie began her discussion, hoping that there would be no interruptions. Daria nodded for her to proceed.
"The problem with hurricanes is that there are a lot of people that will remain on the ground. These people remain on the ground for a lot of reasons and provide problems of their own.
So why didn't these people leave despite ample warning of a natural disaster? Several reasons.
There are financial reasons. They didn't have the money to leave. These people can be evacuated.
Reasons related to the home itself. Most people have a strong emotional connection to their home. Either that, or they have a lot of financial equity in their home."
Jodie was interrupted by Brittany. "I hope you don't mind the interruption," Brittany said, "but what is 'equity'?"
[i]A reminder[/i], Jodie thought glumly. [i]Make sure that a dictionary is always available at meetings.[/i])
"A brief explanation: it's how much a home is worth if you sell it on the open market, minus the amount of payments you have left on the home. It's the profit an owner would make selling the home. Brittany, I'll be glad to explain more after the talk."
Jodie then resumed her discussion.
"In any case, their home is their most prized possession. They'll resist being taken from it. They believe, for example, that cars from the insurance companies are coming with agents that are willing to sign big checks...and that [i]if they leave their homes, they'll be delayed in getting the money[/i].
Another fear of hangers on is that of looters. Now, I'll simply leave two questions with the Legion. The first is, 'why on earth would someone think that someone would loot their waterlogged furniture, moldy clothes and broken appliances'? The second is, 'who do they think is going to be doing the looting?' Unfortunately, as Mack and I both know, those questions tend to have the same answer. Some of these people tend to be armed, by the way. These people will violently resist being moved to certain hospitals or crisis centers in certain parts of town. Why? See the answers to the previous two questions.
The third, saddest case, is the case of someone remaining because they have someone with special needs who needs care. These people could be very old, very obese, very fragile due to medical conditions, could have intellectual challenges, etc. These are people who couldn't be moved easily even under optimal conditions. And even when you do move them, they're not going to go to a shelter. They'll want to decide where they want their loved one to be moved. And when you'll get there, you'll find off that they've put off that decision, the way that people put off horrible decisions until they absolutely have to. So you'll have to wait on them to make up their minds.
Even assuming that Daria can just mind-control the worst cases, what do you think that these people are going to do once the spell wears off and they just realize that they've acted [i]against[/i] their deepest convictions? It might not be pleasant.
Now, let's add another element - on the ground coordination. It is very important that an on-the-ground intervention team be thoroughly organized. Once Elm Street has been searched and evacuated, we don't need the police, or county sheriff or whomever going back and searching it again because the two offices forgot to divide their duties ahead of time. The American government is highly decentralized. We don't want certain parts of town being searched twice and others not at all because someone dropped the ball.
Unfortunately, you'll find that there is a lot of antagonism between officials on the ground. Anyone who works for a city police department can tell you about how things change when the FBI takes over a case. There's resentment. This resentment is caused by [i]territoriality[/i]. People want to be in charge of things, even when they can't handle all of the responsiblity or even when there are people with better information and resources to take over.
For the Legion to suddenly show up, either we'd have to be assigned somewhere, in which case we'd have to wait until the "order of things" was sufficiently permuted to allow us space to work. And even with our powers, I suspect the authorities would sit on their hands for a long time, because a mayor or a police chief wouldn't want to take responsibility if we're given something to do and we screw it up. The other case is that we work on our own, but then other agencies might decide, "but did they do it [i]right[/i]?" and then they'd send someone to check our homework, so to speak, taking resources away from another group of people that need them.
Now, I wish to remind the Legion of a final, highly unpredicable element. [i]Us.[/i] If we show up "naked", so to speak, then two things will happen, perhaps both at the same time.
Possiblity number one: people just freak out completely. You could even get shot at by the people you're coming to help. They might think you were sent by God, and by God, I mean the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Or maybe you're alien invaders. The police could start shooting at you; they don't know what you are but an officer on the ground, his mind overwhelmed, might conclude you are up to no good.
Possibility number two: people start to think that we can really do it all. So we're flooded with responsibility that we're not ready for. Every time we drop the ball, it's on us, and to have the entire planet watching, in awe of our powers - and then to have us [i]fail[/i]? I can't think of a worse outcome. The US Government will step in and they'll just literally take over the Legion. The Alliance would be the least of our problems. We'd have to fight to be forcibly disbanded."
Sandi interrupted. "Jodie, what do you think would actually happen?"
"Given that we went public and everything exploded? I'd say that the males would probably be drafted under the Selective Service Act, which would be the simplest solution. Trent, even you would end up drafted. If it took a special act of Congress to do it, they'd do it. As for we ladies, I'm not entirely certain. It would be strongly encouraged - your definition of that term might vary - that we enroll at USAES for college courses, after which we'd all be assigned government jobs. Karen would be reabsorbed back into UNCLE. The Legion would cease to exist. The National Legion would possibly suffer guilt by association. Having Russell Stark's influence behind the Legion is considered a black mark in some quarters, and I doubt it would ever be an effective organization. I'd give it a couple of years before it fell apart."
"What if we resisted?" Daria asked, glumly.
"I have a plan called Operation Snowglobe in place in case the United States government attempts to forcibly disband the Legion. Unfortunately, some young captain who probably graduated with honors from USAES has a similar plan somewhere in Washington to deal with the contingency where the United States government needs to use force to disband the Legion. I'm sure Julia would agree with me."
"I have no comment," Julia said, quietly. "I can't speculate. But if I ran the United States government, I'd be a fool not to have a plan like that in place."
"What [i]can[/i] we do then?" Charles said. "It's like you've not even read the plan I submitted to Armalin."
"On the contrary, Charles, I did," Jodie said. "Unfortunately, your plan made a lot of assumptions that just aren't true, the chief one being the operational scope that local authorities would grant the Legion. However, there are two areas where the Legion could be of major influence."
"The first one is assistance after the fact. There are all sorts of people who are willing to donate clothes, food, etc., but what the people need on the ground more than anything else is [i]money[/i]. Daria, Charles, I would direct the NL to collect actual cash instead of donated items. This money could be directed to those forces on the ground that know how to use it.
"The second is that there are a lot of predators out there that will try to take advantage of this. E-mail scams. Phone scams. Shady characters. People who make promises they have no intent on delivering on. We have the technology to deal with any criminal element. We can bust a lot of these guys up."
"So Jodie," Daria said. "Instead of providing actual help to people in need, you're suggesting that I take, say, Quinn, Jane and Charles and tell them to bust up a [i]phone bank[/i] run by Nigerians?"
"Like I said, Daria," Jodie said. "People need [i]money[/i]. You'd probably be doing more useful work."
"Money!" Quinn said. "I know what we can do! We can put on the [i]magic show[/i] again!"
"Oh, shit," Daria muttered.
"What is the 'magic show'?" Jamie asked.
"Back in the old days, Jane, Daria and I would put on a magic show for donors. That's part of how we became famous in the first place but we haven't done one in over a year! We should hit the road in a big way!"
"What, like Led Zeppelin?" Jane said.
"Yeah!" Quinn said. "We could probably raise millions of dollars!"
Sandi listened when she heard a voice in her head, interrupting her.
>>- Sandi, I'm going to interrupt and close this meeting. I need a second. I want you to second this. -<<
It was Daria. Sandi frowned. She answered back with a thought of her own.
(* Daria, there's still a lot we need to talk about. *)
>>- I can't think with all of this bullshit. Don't let me down, Sandi. I need you. -<<
(* Why? *)
>>- Just trust me. -<<
(* Why just trust you? *)
>>- Goddammit, I need you! Just follow my lead, for Christ's sake. -<<
(* Fine. This is not over Daria, but I'll do it. *)
As the other Legionnaires were tossing ideas back and forth, Daria called for order. "We have a lot of ideas and there's a lot for Legion leadership to think about. Therefore, I am calling for an immediate adjournment of the meeting."
There were protests from the other members, but Sandi stood up. "[i]I second the call for adjournment.[/i] We have to weigh the options."
"All in favor?" Daria counted the hands. Usually, it was unanimous, but now it wasn't. "Opposed?"
Quinn, Stacy, Brittany, Julia, Karen were opposed for reasons of their own. Even [i]Trent[/i] was opposed against his sister. It left Daria with a bare majority of supporters.
"The motion carries," Daria said, standing up and leaving the room. "[i]Meeting is adjourned[/i]."
Charles and Sandi practially bolted out of the room, faced with the added difficulty of trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. But Daria had beaten them to the elevator.
"He's like Dawn Hall," Daria said. "One of the Busiest People on Earth, trademark. I'll bet you fifteen cents that he doesn't watch this at all. And no, he's not gotten back in touch with me."
"Daria," Charles said, "he's doing [i]you a favor[/i] by not getting in touch with you. Mack once had a chat with Armalin. Trust me, those are the kinds of chats that make you very uncomfortable."
"If you want to live your life in pants-wetting terror of Kyle Armalin, Chuck, be my guest," Daria said. "I'm made of sterner stuff. Therefore, I've passed the ball off to a neutral observer. [i]Jodie[/i] is going to give a report on hurricane rescue and the active measures we can take."
"So," Charles said, "you plan on doing an end run around Armalin by making rescue official Legion business."
Daria smiled. "We'll listen to what Jodie has to say. And after that...we'll make our own decisions, Armalin or no Armalin."
(* * *)
Jodie began her discussion, hoping that there would be no interruptions. Daria nodded for her to proceed.
"The problem with hurricanes is that there are a lot of people that will remain on the ground. These people remain on the ground for a lot of reasons and provide problems of their own.
So why didn't these people leave despite ample warning of a natural disaster? Several reasons.
There are financial reasons. They didn't have the money to leave. These people can be evacuated.
Reasons related to the home itself. Most people have a strong emotional connection to their home. Either that, or they have a lot of financial equity in their home."
Jodie was interrupted by Brittany. "I hope you don't mind the interruption," Brittany said, "but what is 'equity'?"
[i]A reminder[/i], Jodie thought glumly. [i]Make sure that a dictionary is always available at meetings.[/i])
"A brief explanation: it's how much a home is worth if you sell it on the open market, minus the amount of payments you have left on the home. It's the profit an owner would make selling the home. Brittany, I'll be glad to explain more after the talk."
Jodie then resumed her discussion.
"In any case, their home is their most prized possession. They'll resist being taken from it. They believe, for example, that cars from the insurance companies are coming with agents that are willing to sign big checks...and that [i]if they leave their homes, they'll be delayed in getting the money[/i].
Another fear of hangers on is that of looters. Now, I'll simply leave two questions with the Legion. The first is, 'why on earth would someone think that someone would loot their waterlogged furniture, moldy clothes and broken appliances'? The second is, 'who do they think is going to be doing the looting?' Unfortunately, as Mack and I both know, those questions tend to have the same answer. Some of these people tend to be armed, by the way. These people will violently resist being moved to certain hospitals or crisis centers in certain parts of town. Why? See the answers to the previous two questions.
The third, saddest case, is the case of someone remaining because they have someone with special needs who needs care. These people could be very old, very obese, very fragile due to medical conditions, could have intellectual challenges, etc. These are people who couldn't be moved easily even under optimal conditions. And even when you do move them, they're not going to go to a shelter. They'll want to decide where they want their loved one to be moved. And when you'll get there, you'll find off that they've put off that decision, the way that people put off horrible decisions until they absolutely have to. So you'll have to wait on them to make up their minds.
Even assuming that Daria can just mind-control the worst cases, what do you think that these people are going to do once the spell wears off and they just realize that they've acted [i]against[/i] their deepest convictions? It might not be pleasant.
Now, let's add another element - on the ground coordination. It is very important that an on-the-ground intervention team be thoroughly organized. Once Elm Street has been searched and evacuated, we don't need the police, or county sheriff or whomever going back and searching it again because the two offices forgot to divide their duties ahead of time. The American government is highly decentralized. We don't want certain parts of town being searched twice and others not at all because someone dropped the ball.
Unfortunately, you'll find that there is a lot of antagonism between officials on the ground. Anyone who works for a city police department can tell you about how things change when the FBI takes over a case. There's resentment. This resentment is caused by [i]territoriality[/i]. People want to be in charge of things, even when they can't handle all of the responsiblity or even when there are people with better information and resources to take over.
For the Legion to suddenly show up, either we'd have to be assigned somewhere, in which case we'd have to wait until the "order of things" was sufficiently permuted to allow us space to work. And even with our powers, I suspect the authorities would sit on their hands for a long time, because a mayor or a police chief wouldn't want to take responsibility if we're given something to do and we screw it up. The other case is that we work on our own, but then other agencies might decide, "but did they do it [i]right[/i]?" and then they'd send someone to check our homework, so to speak, taking resources away from another group of people that need them.
Now, I wish to remind the Legion of a final, highly unpredicable element. [i]Us.[/i] If we show up "naked", so to speak, then two things will happen, perhaps both at the same time.
Possiblity number one: people just freak out completely. You could even get shot at by the people you're coming to help. They might think you were sent by God, and by God, I mean the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Or maybe you're alien invaders. The police could start shooting at you; they don't know what you are but an officer on the ground, his mind overwhelmed, might conclude you are up to no good.
Possibility number two: people start to think that we can really do it all. So we're flooded with responsibility that we're not ready for. Every time we drop the ball, it's on us, and to have the entire planet watching, in awe of our powers - and then to have us [i]fail[/i]? I can't think of a worse outcome. The US Government will step in and they'll just literally take over the Legion. The Alliance would be the least of our problems. We'd have to fight to be forcibly disbanded."
Sandi interrupted. "Jodie, what do you think would actually happen?"
"Given that we went public and everything exploded? I'd say that the males would probably be drafted under the Selective Service Act, which would be the simplest solution. Trent, even you would end up drafted. If it took a special act of Congress to do it, they'd do it. As for we ladies, I'm not entirely certain. It would be strongly encouraged - your definition of that term might vary - that we enroll at USAES for college courses, after which we'd all be assigned government jobs. Karen would be reabsorbed back into UNCLE. The Legion would cease to exist. The National Legion would possibly suffer guilt by association. Having Russell Stark's influence behind the Legion is considered a black mark in some quarters, and I doubt it would ever be an effective organization. I'd give it a couple of years before it fell apart."
"What if we resisted?" Daria asked, glumly.
"I have a plan called Operation Snowglobe in place in case the United States government attempts to forcibly disband the Legion. Unfortunately, some young captain who probably graduated with honors from USAES has a similar plan somewhere in Washington to deal with the contingency where the United States government needs to use force to disband the Legion. I'm sure Julia would agree with me."
"I have no comment," Julia said, quietly. "I can't speculate. But if I ran the United States government, I'd be a fool not to have a plan like that in place."
"What [i]can[/i] we do then?" Charles said. "It's like you've not even read the plan I submitted to Armalin."
"On the contrary, Charles, I did," Jodie said. "Unfortunately, your plan made a lot of assumptions that just aren't true, the chief one being the operational scope that local authorities would grant the Legion. However, there are two areas where the Legion could be of major influence."
"The first one is assistance after the fact. There are all sorts of people who are willing to donate clothes, food, etc., but what the people need on the ground more than anything else is [i]money[/i]. Daria, Charles, I would direct the NL to collect actual cash instead of donated items. This money could be directed to those forces on the ground that know how to use it.
"The second is that there are a lot of predators out there that will try to take advantage of this. E-mail scams. Phone scams. Shady characters. People who make promises they have no intent on delivering on. We have the technology to deal with any criminal element. We can bust a lot of these guys up."
"So Jodie," Daria said. "Instead of providing actual help to people in need, you're suggesting that I take, say, Quinn, Jane and Charles and tell them to bust up a [i]phone bank[/i] run by Nigerians?"
"Like I said, Daria," Jodie said. "People need [i]money[/i]. You'd probably be doing more useful work."
"Money!" Quinn said. "I know what we can do! We can put on the [i]magic show[/i] again!"
"Oh, shit," Daria muttered.
"What is the 'magic show'?" Jamie asked.
"Back in the old days, Jane, Daria and I would put on a magic show for donors. That's part of how we became famous in the first place but we haven't done one in over a year! We should hit the road in a big way!"
"What, like Led Zeppelin?" Jane said.
"Yeah!" Quinn said. "We could probably raise millions of dollars!"
Sandi listened when she heard a voice in her head, interrupting her.
>>- Sandi, I'm going to interrupt and close this meeting. I need a second. I want you to second this. -<<
It was Daria. Sandi frowned. She answered back with a thought of her own.
(* Daria, there's still a lot we need to talk about. *)
>>- I can't think with all of this bullshit. Don't let me down, Sandi. I need you. -<<
(* Why? *)
>>- Just trust me. -<<
(* Why just trust you? *)
>>- Goddammit, I need you! Just follow my lead, for Christ's sake. -<<
(* Fine. This is not over Daria, but I'll do it. *)
As the other Legionnaires were tossing ideas back and forth, Daria called for order. "We have a lot of ideas and there's a lot for Legion leadership to think about. Therefore, I am calling for an immediate adjournment of the meeting."
There were protests from the other members, but Sandi stood up. "[i]I second the call for adjournment.[/i] We have to weigh the options."
"All in favor?" Daria counted the hands. Usually, it was unanimous, but now it wasn't. "Opposed?"
Quinn, Stacy, Brittany, Julia, Karen were opposed for reasons of their own. Even [i]Trent[/i] was opposed against his sister. It left Daria with a bare majority of supporters.
"The motion carries," Daria said, standing up and leaving the room. "[i]Meeting is adjourned[/i]."
Charles and Sandi practially bolted out of the room, faced with the added difficulty of trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. But Daria had beaten them to the elevator.
So Jodie concurs with Armalin—guess he knows what he's talking about, then.
ReplyDeleteI love the way Jodie shows the consequences if they come out and do the superhero thing, too.
Jodie really needs to read the Bowman Acts.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I really like about this meeting is that it shows two things; how ready the Legion ISN'T to go into action on situations like this, and even with three years passed, just how green they really are as heroes.
If Julia were there, she'd just simply let them all talk and talk - especially Jodie - before saying 'Three things. First - what's your established protocol that the Legion has for operations in such a situation? You have those already written down, studied by all members and updated annually, right? Second - when was the last time you had a full-power training simulation to test the viability of that scenario, with emphasis on the use of your individual powers in a rescue scenario AND to ensure that none of you don't end up in a situation where you get in trouble and endanger others because they now need to rescue you? Third - instead of wondering about going down there and seeing what you can do with your powers... why not use the powers that you can use openly and that everyone expects you to use? Why aren't you all personally out doing fundraising efforts? Why haven't any of you done any television spots asking people to donate, give blood, and help people with sheltering and relocation efforts while this is going on? Daria - why haven't we seen you, Jane and Quinn on television donating at least two million to disaster relief in the Legion's name - and before you ask, Carlyle Shipping has donated five million, and Carlyle Medical Response units are situated to go into the area within two hours of the clear signal from the locals.'
Of course, Armalin would simply wait until Julia was finished, and then say 'Brittany was the only one of you to ever ask to be trained in medical or rescue duties. Your organization's motto is 'If you don't choose the future you want - you don't get the future you want.' This, right here, where you're not going into that area because you're not trained or equipped to help people who expect professionals to come in and help them... that's the future you got, because you didn't choose the future that would have allowed you to already be down there. If that's the future you want - then choose to get it and then work to make that choice of future a reality for next time... because there will be a 'next time'.
I don't know about any of the others, but Daria did get some basic training in water rescue and life saving techniques from Coach Buzzcut in her Highland days in the B&B episode "Water Safety".
Delete...as opposed to Zoey, who's a fully-trained U.S. Coast Guard 'rescue swimmer' and who has already seen active duty in major disasters like this (while she may not have been deployed for Harvey, she certainly was for Irma). The hazards of doing rescues in such an environment are far more than Daria is mentally or physically prepared for - in fact, I'd say that in terms of physical preparation to be in such an area, only Brittany, Jane, Mack and Jaime - the athletes - have the base physical and mental endurance to handle being there for the rescue work they'd need to do... with Trent and Sandi on the borderline (being able to do several hours on stage several days a week will test you mentally and physically, and while Sandi's personal training from Armalin certainly has toughened her up, she's not exactly there yet - and that's not the place to earn your spurs unless its absolutely necessary).
DeleteIf they want to be superheroes - as everyone expects them to be - then they need to start taking that part of it seriously... and that means starting to train towards that goal. It's not enough to learn self-defense and control over your powers; now, you have to learn how to use them in various situations AND learn how to interact as a team, so as to protect yourself, your teammates and the people you're trying to help. If The Alliance has one single problem with the Legionnaires, this - wanting to be seen as professionals and equals when they are most profusely not, and haven't started to try to be so - this would be it. Those people in danger need people who know what they're doing and are dedicated to putting it on the line to save them - and THAT was the Professor's reason for training The Alliance as he did: he wanted a team of government superheroes who could deploy to help people as well as engage threats. If the Legion wants to use their powers to help people... better start training to do that.
So what's the hold up? I mean, after Katrina, they should have started that kind of training right away, right? Hell, they should have started immediately after Sandi almost died trying to play fire/rescue worker! I mean, they should have been ready by now—they should know, when it comes to disasters, natural or man made, it's not a matter of if it will happen, but WHEN.
DeleteThe hold-up is that they simply haven't gotten to the point where they make the commitment 'en masse'. Daria has definitely made the leap, as have others like Tiffany, Sandi and Jaime; others like Jane and Mack, see the Legion as a stepping stone to a better life and may not be willing or able to do so. Still others such as Chuck simply have many opportunities and need to make a decision - and some like Fran came to the Legion because they needed help; perhaps the Legion is a place they may simply outgrow as they heal.
DeleteKaren, ironically, is one of the best suited for Legion membership when looking through this lens. she has the commitment, the drive, the solid control of her basic abilities that will allow her to train for different scenarios effectively. She's a 'maverick' - the government term for a previously-unknown yet trained metahuman individual with no seeming affiliations - so she's perfect for advanced metahuman small-unit tactical training or basic metahuman rescue operations (so named because rescue operations in differing areas - ocean, mountain, desert, arctic, etc. - require specialized training and equipment familiarization training).
Once they decide to take the bull by the horns and decide to train for combat and rescue - as a group - that's when the next phase begins.
When Julia first got there, she asked Armalin 'what was the Legion going to be'? Apparently, the Legionnaires still haven't decided exactly what they're going to be.
ReplyDelete