“Yeah, well — that’s the world we live in. You pick and choose where you take your stand, and you pick and choose where you compromise. Someone or something terrible’s going to be the backstory of every food, every good, every service — you name it. If you boycott it all, eventually you either starve to death or end up a hermit out in the woods living off the land. But sometimes, you really do have to shake your head and say ‘I’m not gonna buy that guy’s chicken.’”
"You know what, counselor? A lot of the public sees criminals or villains get off scot free after wanton destruction, and they don’t think ‘gosh, I’m glad they got a zealous defense.’ They think ‘Wow. Everyone’s corrupt and the system’s broken and our only hope are vigilante superheroes because the police and the courts and the prisons are all useless.’ How’s that helping your client?”
“Tell me if I’m crazy, but are you rebutting my request that you do your job better by telling me to stop doing my job so well? Because that’s what it sounds like, and gotta say? Not really in my nature to suck on purpose."
“…they told me there’d be a lawyer sent over. I’m not sure I should discuss this with you.”
“Right. Because you want to be loyal to the syndicate. I get it.” Mandy paused, for effect. “You realize that lawyer isn’t coming, right?”
“Fair,” the Jack said. “And commendable. I mean, you’re still an idiot, but if you’re going to be an idiot, go all the way, I say. Enjoy your idiocy! God knows most people do.”
“You people defend super villains. Criminals. World conquerors. Mass murderers. And you expect me to just let you walk in here—”
“We ‘people?’ Interesting phrasing, Detective Corporal. I’ll assume you mean ‘lawyers.’ And yes, my firm specializes in parahuman criminal defense, because some police officers and district attorneys forget that parahumans get the same rights every other criminal gets. Like — just to throw out an example? The right to a zealous defense. Not all police officers, of course. Not even most. Just some.”
Only then I discover this cur has telepathically leached off my pain and aesthetic might in an effort of purest chicanery!
“I’ve compromised their security system,” Nightstick said, quietly. “The feeds won’t show us in there, and Carter will be tied up in red tape for at least seventeen minutes. The door’s locked and I’ve set a secondary lock-seal on this side to reinforce it. This is our window.”
“Gotcha.” Paragon took a deep breath. “I’ll take bad cop,” he said, after a moment.
Nightstick turned to look at Paragon.
“What? You said it yourself. We’re low on time.”
The first full length, history-spanning (all four eras!) Justice Wing novel is here!
"My point is… every day I was confused, or scared, or didn’t know what was wrong with me. I felt ungrateful. So blessed with so much, and I couldn’t just live the life people expected from me. And then… then I started reading about you. Not just the pioneering aviator, or aeronautical engineer… but a woman who kept her own name after marriage. A woman who lived her life and when it was public may have been coy but she was also unashamed. I wanted that, so badly. I just wanted to be… me. And be happy. You helped me believe that was possible. And then… the Pentad made it real.” She took a deep breath. “And I believe you’re really the ghost of Amelia Earhart. I don’t know why, but I do. And it feels like this is my big chance say all this to you, and to thank you – for everything, as well as for the advice you’re giving me now.” She paused. “Even when that advice is full of crap.”
“Are you nuts!?” Orville shouted. “Are you seriously about to call down an orbital strike on yourself!?”
“Please,” Jetgirl muttered, kicking into full burn. “Sky-eye’s at ten thousand feet at the most. It’s hardly Low Earth Orbit. This is just a garden variety energy-weapon airstrike.”
Landing in his full grey tunic and uniform with the pink v-overlay, pink mask on his face, the man landed with arms spread wide. “I dare, Kitsune!” He moved into a fluid spelldance, protective fields spreading out to protect the civilians – he’d quietly warded them before, so Jetgirl knew these new ‘wards’ were just theatrics. “Last of my Order from a World that never was! Red Point of the Pentad of Guardians! Founding Excelsior and exemplar of life! I am the Heart and the Healing! I! Am! Hearth!”
“…oh God don’t do the catchphrase,” Jet muttered. “There are people here.”
As the world of Justice Wing fleshes out, some of the music native to that world needs to come with it. This is a song by the 'gloriously broken' Colton Pike off one of his earlier albums. It's called "Niagara Nights."
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