Ethical Dilemmas (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin turned and looked at Koshiro, frustration and...sadness?...evident in his eyes.

"So instead we stand by, let the chimps overrun the castle, slaughter every gorilla here, including the noncombatants? Assuming they don't do worse to every female gorilla they find? And possibly some of the more loyal chimps, or any orangs and others here? What about the plane crew?

And how do you know this rebellion won't be crushed anyways? These things just end up breeding decades of filthy, deadly war; where violence doesn't kill people, starvation, disease, and maybe even plain old panic will."

He ran a hand through his suddenly exposed hair, having unconsciously disappeared his helmet.

"I mean, yes, the monarchy's not a very good government system, and it opresses the chimps. But until tonight, there was a modicum of social stability. That's gone. There's nothing good happening tonight, guys. I just...we're heroes, dampnare it! We're supposed to keep people from dying!"

He seemed genuinely convinced of the horrible implication of the night, as well as of the responsibility of the teens in doing...something.

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen put his hands on the stone window sill, only half-able to feel the rough work beneath his hands, the electronic projection as unreal in the simulation as he was outside in the 'real world'. This was an alien place, made more so by the strange simian beings below them, and he honestly wasn't sure what to do at first. He thought of Miss Americana, and tried to think how she'd handle this. "We need to get down where we can see what's going on, and talk to them if we can. If we fly in and monitor the situation, we can keep the revolution from turning bloody." He looked at the other two boys, trying to see if his words made sense. "We can't just sit up here while people are fighting and dying, but we can't take sides either. Right?"

[Electra]

"Social stability isn't worth crap if it's built on the backs of slaves," Koshiro shot back. "You think the gorillas don't rape and kill chimps? Until today, none of those chimps were combatants, and they couldn't even fight back. Revolutions cost in blood, and sometimes innocent people get hurt. You wouldn't have stopped the American revolution because the British governors had families, would you? And the worst that was happening to the Americans was that they had high taxes, they weren't being treated like subhuman property."

Koshiro broke off when Sharl offered his idea. "Yeah, I guess you could do that," he agreed. "There's gotta be a place where they keep the women and children and old folks around here. We'll go there and make sure nobody does anything too bad, but otherwise we'll stay out of it."

[KnightDisciple]

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind; just because one side did something, doesn't mean it's right for the other side.

As for the Revolution: I would have stopped the Americans from killing unarmed men and women with no means to fight back. I would not have defended their position of power, but I would have preserved their lives."

With a great effort, he turned away from the window.

"Which is what I'm going to do now. I will gather every non-combatant in this castle, and I will keep them from harm. If the king chooses to fight alongside his men, I will not defend him. But if he decides to abide by my protection, I will give it...Inasmuch as I will not let an unarmed person be killed. Maybe we can set an example for these people."

With that, Cobalt Templar began marching to the door, intent on enacting his plan as quickly as possible.

[Electra]

"Keeping the king alive is stupid, Corbin," Koshiro pointed out, even as he followed his teammate. Even as he spoke, the paper armor that would give him some protection from attack began unfolding over his uniform. "What do you hope to gain by that besides more bloodshed? If the king's alive, the rebels can't win. Either they have to come after us and try to take you down, which would be suicide, or the king is going to rally his side and keep the war going longer."

With the armor deployed, Koshiro crinkled slightly, but at least felt less naked heading into the fight. He continued the argument, even as he walked double-time just to keep up "You can maybe argue that the noncombatants are innocent even if they are part of the system and probably don't think twice about benefiting from it, but you damn well can't say that any of this blood is anywhere but on the king's hands or paws or whatever. He's the slaveowner, he's the one who's been using the whip and the noose as his weapons, whether or not he's willing to cower behind you now. He's not worthy of your help or your pity."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm not comfortable letting anyone die if we can help it," said Citizen uneasily. "If the king dies in the revolt, that's one thing; but if someone comes to us for help we've got to do something for them, even if it's just relocating them away from the fighting. I...hey, wait!" He slapped his forehead, hefting his projector. "You guys, the Pegasus crew!" They found the Pegasus crew in the rooms nearby, the civilians obviously frightened but willing to stick by the heroes. It was a little odd to have adults defer to their judgement, but after all they were 'playing' adult Freedom League members and so couldn't avoid using their age to get out of this situation. After that, they headed for the keep as the fighting in the courtyard raged on.

There was quite a melee going on at the gateway to the keep when they got there, chimpanzee and gorilla forces in the courtyard locked in a deadly struggle. The chimps had managed, by weight of sheer numbers and ferocity, to push the gorillas back against the heavy wooden doors, but things were looking grim all around: bodies littered the courtyard of both sides, and neither side was giving much quarter either way. Gorilla families were huddling behind what few noncombatant men were there, along with three very familiar faces: a wounded Sir Connor was there, his squire at his side yet, while King Fala was ranting through a window. "I am overlord of this demense! You will all pay for this blasphemy!"

[KnightDisciple]

"Anyone protected by us in that room will have no political power, as far as I'm concerned."

With that, he took off down the hall with the rest of them. He played rear-guard, his eyes vigilant for any threat, whatever shape it might take.

When they got to the room where the non-combatants were holed up, for just a moment his face was an expression of sadness.

'This country will know nothing but upheaval and violence for decades to come...'

The sadness burned away to anger when he saw the king ranting through a window. A king clearly in good enough shape he should be helping in the fight, if he was so angry.

"You're the overlord of nothing, Fala. And you're certainly not nearly deific enough that rebelling against you is blasphemy. Now, if you're not going to actually go out there and help the men fighting, bleeding, and dying for your sake, maybe you could sit yourself in a corner and be quiet?"

His gaze fell on Sir Connor, whom he walked over to and knelt next to.

"Glad to see the two of you are alive. Look. I...I can't in good conscience just help beat back the chimps. There's...there's too much that they've got a right to be angry about. But I won't let anyone in here be hurt, so long as they don't try to run out and fight. But...Is there someplace I can take all of you? Some neutral town or something? I have a feeling it would be best if we thought of someplace that would give you all sanctuary...but not active military support."

[Avenger Assembled]

Fala had a lot to say about that, something of a dissertation in fact on the divine right of kings and how it played out on this gorilla-dominated planet. He didn't do more than yell, though, and right now his kingly rage wasn't the most important thing in the room. Sir Connor, his lined face hard to read as he clutched an arrow-pierced leg, shook his head. "You would have to take us beyond the confines of the Empire," he said gravely. "In any land where gorilla law rules, news of a peasant revolt would bring armies marching from miles away. Especially with the king alive." He sounded sick of the whole matter, but of course in his half-donned armor and with his serious wound, there was nothing he could do about it.

"And if those armies march," said Bonda, looking from his wounded knight to the chimps outside with obviously divided loyalties, "their serfs will rise as well. The Empire is dead," he added, in a voice too quiet for the still-ranting monarch to hear, shooting a look of obvious venom at the king, who had turned his back on the unhelpful heroes to shout insults at the chimps down below. From the sounds on the first floor, the surviving gorilla warriors had barricaded the doors and were making preparations for a last stand.

[KnightDisciple]

"What is the closest border of the Empire that would provide a place all of you could comfortably survive? I'm not dumping everyone in the middle of the woods or anything like that."

The large man in blue didn't seem at all phased by the idea of moving this many people so far.

"Seriously. Papercut can make the, ah, "carriage". I seriously doubt it'll weigh so much I can't carry it. And I can fly pretty fast, all things considered. I bet I could have you at the best spot outside the Empire by sunrise, or shortly after. But if keeping you here means things would be worse than taking you, that's what's happening. I want to avoid as much death as possible."

He turned to the king again. He almost stood to grab him and toss him in the opposite corner, but figured that was probably not going to be helpful. He turned to face knight and squire again.

"I...I can't make anyone leave, I guess. But I'd really appreciate it if you guys could point me in the right direction, and then help me convince all these people to go along with my idea."

He frowned more deeply in thought.

'Biggest worry is dealing with the folks outside. Hm....'

[Electra]

"Man, screw you," Koshiro snapped as the king raved, taking a piece of paper from his backpack. A quick series of deft folds quickly turned the flat sheet into an elongated hexagon with pleated sides. He held it to his lips, puffed out his cheeks, and blew into it, still glaring at the king. The waterbomb inflated, first to normal size and then much larger, shooting across the room to engulf the king and muffle his shrieks. The translucent prison made the monkey monarch into an absurd shadow puppet, pleasing Koshiro immensely.

He turned back to Corbin. "Making something to hold so much weight would be tough," he said somewhat doubtfully, "but I could probably do it."

[KnightDisciple]

"Good call. I was tempted to do something less elegant."

He frowned at Koshiro's admittance of how stretched such a conveyance would be for him. He closed his eyes for a moment, his body actually pulsing with wisps of his blue flame for a moment, before he nodded and opened his eyes.

"It would take me a few moments, but I could help you. I could provide the "base" of the construct, and you could layer over it. No worrying about burning anything, either. Then I can just carry everything."

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl wasn't sure what to do here, so he defaulted to the others' judgement. If not for the lives that were already in peril, he'd have advocated simply taking their people, gathering up the space plane, and leaving these people to wallow in the misery they'd created for themselves. But he knew that was hardly very heroic, and besides there really were lives in peril. (Fictional ones, anyway!) He watched as the others went about building their construct to rescue the gorillas, noting that no one was doing a damn thing to rescue the trapped king. Evidently the gorillas, faced with a real crisis, were willing to let their king go too. As Koshiro and Corbin worked, Bonda, leaving his mentor aside, came over and approached Papercut.

"How long will the construction around Fala last?" he asked carefully, obviously very tense.

[Electra]

Koshiro was devoting most of his attention to planning the transportation device, bigger and stronger than anything he'd tried to build before, but theoretically possible with Corbin's help. The hard light construct underneath would bolster the paper structure and let it hold its integrity longer. Unless it started raining or a hard wind kicked up, it seemed like it should work fine. That wasn't quite the level of certainty he wanted, but at least it was just a simulation.

He looked over at Bonda, taking a moment to process the question. "Oh, the waterbomb? I dunno, till I take it apart or somebody manages to rip through it. It's pretty strong. Uh, don't worry," he added, "there's a hole in the bottom so he can breathe and stuff."

[Avenger Assembled]

"If you're leaving him here that long," said Bonda with great seriousness, "then you need to know that I will do my best to take his life when my people break through the doors. As a squire in the court of the king, I have standing to his throne, chimp or not. If the revolutionaries are going to succeed, then they need a king who has been replaced, even by a chimp with chimps at his side, not one who has been overthrown." He smiled thinly. "And if I fail, I die a traitor to one side or the other, so it seems only fair. But you must decide quickly," he added. "Time grows short below."

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl overheard the conversation between Bonda and the others and was left frankly uncertain about what to do. Even reminding himself that this was just a simulation, the potential gravity of their choice was still nagging at him. "...we get the gorilla civilians out of here, we come back for our people and the plane, and then we're done," he suggested tentatively. "We tell the League a civil war broke out, and we tried to minimize the bloodshed. Maybe they had good relations with the king, but they're superheroes, they're not going to be sorry to see him gone...probably?"

[Electra]

Koshiro looked towards the paper prison he'd created, then towards Corbin. "Cobalt Templar really wants to keep as many people alive as possible, on both sides," he told Bonda. "If the king were to, like, renounce his crown in front of everyone and say you're the winner, would that be enough for you to let him live and for things to be secure around here? Where we come from, it's not part of the rules of war to kill people after they've surrendered, most of the time. If he doesn't surrender, well, he's on his own then."

[KnightDisciple]

It wasn't a big room, and due to the need for Cobalt Templar and Papercut to cooperate in forming the construct they'd be leaving in, the large blue-clad boy wasn't very far away when Bonda talked of killing the king. Then Sharl suggested basically letting it happen. At least Koshiro had the decency to suggest an alternate path.

For many long moments, he stood there, opening and closing his fists in near-helpless frustration. Finally, he looked around the room, looked at the globe containing the impotent king, and glanced toward the battered door. Then he sighed, a sound that conveyed the horrible jumble of emotions writhing around inside his mind right now.

"What Papercut said. If the king renounces his title, can he be allowed to live, instead of being murdered in cold blood? Or must your new "paradise" be paved in the blood of the unarmed?"

It was clear he was still disgusted with the incredibly violent revolution they had going on.

"Either way, can you guarantee all the others will be safe?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I will fight him," replied Bonda to the teens, his voice steady and even, his ape face composed. "If he chooses for his life to end in that fight, it will end. If he is defeated in fair combat before the eyes of the world, the humilation will be enough that it will be as if he had died." As he spoke, a hasty force of gorillas poured into the room, sealing the doors with grim faces as whoops came up from below. The chimps had broken through below, time was running very short. He was quiet for a moment, then added frankly, "By proving myself as a warrior, I had hoped to be an example to gorilla and chimp both, and to prevent a day like today. But spilled blood has called to spilled blood. I can be an example, if not the one I had perhaps hoped. What do you say?"

[Electra]

Koshiro listened to the chimp, then nodded, looking around at the massed gorillas. "All right then, if that's how you're sure you've got to settle things. If the king surrenders or is killed, you win and the gorilla army stands down, but you have to let them and their families leave in peace, or settle terms with them. If the king wins, you go and tell the rebels it's over, and you all leave. Either way, nobody's slaughtering anybody, at least not today."

He looked around for agreement, then with a flick of his wrist unfolded the paper prison. "Somebody get the king a weapon."

[KnightDisciple]

For long moments, Cobalt Templar stared at Bonda, not speaking a word. Finally, he sighed and nodded.

"This seems to be the only way. I agree with papercut. And make no mistake."

He scowled and leaned forward, his natural bulk likely a bit intimidating.

"If anyone besides the king in this room, especially those that are not armed, are brought to harm, I will have words with you and the others. Very stern words."

Probably words back up by fire constructs. Cobalt Templar took a step back, the better to watch the room for action against the civilians.

"I suppose we can't stop this bit of bloodshed, at least."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen went with his friends, taking Sir Conor's sword (with the knight's permission) and throwing it to the king as Papercut's waterbomb prison fell away. As the heroes watched, the young chimp squire Bonda confronted Fala, his own blade in hand as he faced down the massive gorilla. "In the name of gorilla, orang, and the chimps that are my brothers and sisters, King Fala I pronounce unfit to rule and damned in the eyes of God! I challenge you to trial by combat!" And as the king roared defiance and charged, and as the chimps outside finally broke down the doors...suddenly the scenario faded away around them, the walls of the Doom Room going dark as the exercise came to an end.

"Aw, man, we don't even get to see the fight?" complained Citizen aloud as Mr. Archer walked in.

"You will," promised Mr. Archer, looking at all the boys, "but after I debrief you. I don't want to bias your answers if you know how the scenario played out. And it has played out," he added. "The computer has a pretty good idea of the most likely outcomes. What do you think about what happened, boys?"

With a glance at the others, Citizen spoke first. "I was surprised the Freedom League was allied to those, uh, people, given how savage their society was," he said out loud. "I thought primitive slavery and bondage wasn't something heroes approved of."

"Normally they don't," agreed Mr. Archer, "and you'll be glad to know the League no longer has a relationship with that kind of government. Contact with Earth-Apeknight was made back in the 1940s by the old Liberty League, and they were there to stop a Nazi incursion, not worry about the local government."

[Electra]

"Earth-Apeknight?" Koshiro repeated, his face set in derisive disbelief. "That place was actually real, and they named it that?." He shook his head. "Anyway, it was a crap situation, like it was supposed to be. We'd probably have been better off and completed our objective faster if we'd just gotten the ship and got out, but it probably wouldn't have been very heroic." He glanced at Corbin, shrugged. "Personally, I think they're screwed in the long run no matter what, because the chimps won't stop rebelling and the gorillas from the neighboring kingdoms or whatever can't let the chimps be in charge anywhere. But maybe for today we managed to save some lives, at least."

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin nodded grimly at Koshiro's answer.

"One only has to look at history to know it was not a good situation at all. I personally would estimate a century or more of bloody revolutions and counter-revolutions until some internal reformation occurred, or an outside catalyst forced them to rapidly change their societal structure. Perhaps during Bonda's lifespan things would have been better, had he won his fight with the king. We probably could have kept all those civilians alive, and quite probably they would have lived what was a natural lifespan for such a society. But I personally have little hope the nation as a whole would bloodlessly accept the situation.

It's understandable why there was initial contact, and why it was broken off.

Perhaps, in a century or more, that place would be genuinely better, and people's lives would have improved. But it's going to be a long, bloody road."

The news that this world actually existed only made the scenario weigh heavier on his mind. Corbin didn't like the taste of what some might call a no-win scenario. Not with lives on the line.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mr. Archer nodded, taking in what each boy had to say. "Interesting you should say that, because what happened in your scenario here is what happened in the real world. Here, I'll show you. Doom Room, play back Apeknight-Revolution recording," he said out loud, and in between the teacher and the students smaller versions of the scene they'd just seen began playing out before them: the recording was translucent and a little grainy; to Sharl it looked like a bad hologram playback, but the other two boys recognized something that had obviously been recorded sometime in the early 1970s.

As they watched, a likeness of Bonda and Fala dueled, slim and dexterous chimp versus huge and roaring gorilla, blades clashing against blades as they dueled before a roaring crowd of gorilla knights and chimpanzee revolutionaries. They could clearly see Hannibal in the lead of the crowd, the chimp peasant leader watching intently. "It's a grim sight, isn't it?" The 'camera' turned, evidently something someone had been wearing or carrying, and caught face to face with the speaker: even Sharl, who knw that face and what he'd done for Tronik, blinked at the sight of the Centurion himself.

"Justice will prevail, my friend," said a gravely voice just recognizable as a much younger Duncan Summers. He turned back to the fight, just in time for it to reach its finish. Finally, Bonda disarmed the king and laid him low, holding the sword to his neck and demanding he yield. Fala was defiant at first, until Bonda inquired, "It is the justice of your people...or of mine," boomed the former squire, and at those words Fala covered his eyes and wept in surrender. As the recording ended, first Bonda embraced Hannibal, his brother chimp and revolutionary, and then his wounded master Sir Conor, and a cheer came up as all stood together as the former king was dragged away by his late subjects.

"The League got away with their people and the Pegasus plane," said Archer as the recording tapered off. "And came back some months later to put in force field generators to stop the gorilla crusade that was being formed. King Bonda died some years ago, and his son, who's also Hannibal's grandson, by the way, is the current constitutional monarch of the Free City of Apedom." Archer actually smiled. "So you came up with the same solution that the Centurion did. Protect the people, protect innocent life, even if it's alien to you, but let them solve their own problems. Congratulations, boys: As for everybody."