Location: Justice League Mothership
Time: Close to 7:30 PM in France.
The suggestions I offered were hashed out into codes of engagement after some discussion. From simple capture of the minor villain in question to A Class events which allowed for lethal solutions, provided two other members also agreed this was necessary as a last resort. S Class being completely when the gloves come off and everyone goes all out.
I also pushed out the suggestion that while this was currently just a loose confederation of like minded people, in the future it could potentially be a recognised peace keeping force. To this end I suggested that if it reached that stage we should invest in human resources and a program for training and inducting ordinary people with skill sets we need such as doctors and investigators into the fold. Or simply the usefulness of trained backup with military grade equipment for arrests. We could also introduce a formal training for everyone already involved, including but not limited to emergency medicine and explosives training.
I also suggested a danger rating system and more thorough investigation of powers and tactics of criminals we have encountered. I hesitate to use the Worm classification system for powers due to the sheer variety in DC, so it would need work and entirely new systems for dealing with people like the Joker and wizards.
Still the scale they used was adequate: a range of 1-10 for normal levels of powers and skills. Above for emphasis that they surpassed the League's members or indeed even extreme examples of metahumanity. Potential use of zeroes for possessing powers or skills that were low grade/mundane but significantly dangerous. Such as persuasive ability or creative thinking, for example.
So I pushed forward different classifications than the ones the PRT from Worm used.
Intellect: for geniuses and detectives.
Body: for strength, grace and durability.
Skills: for talents and extreme mastery of technical abilities.
Resources: This can fluctuate, but essentially the individual's demonstrated stock pile of equipment, friends or thugs.
Mystical: the individual's magical resources. I consider this similar to Trump, in that it represents flexible powers. Magic is dangerous.
Control: for minions or remote manipulation abilities, I am an example.
Shadow: for stealth or related abilities.
Mover: One of the two PRT classifications to survive the cut. Flash is the best example.
Mental: Psychic powers and manipulation. Senses. Myself or J'onn are the best examples but Superman with his hearing and sight counts.
Blaster: The other PRT classification, long ranged powers.
Melee: Short ranged powers/touch based.
Defence: As the name states. Protection in all forms.
SCIENCE!: Because Flash can't be serious. And inventors.
Transform: personal or ranged abilities to manipulate biology or materials into new forms.
Environmental: control of an area or material type. I count, so would May with her vegetation control.
So to illustrate I would be sorted into:
Control, Defence, Mental, Mover, Transform and Environmental categories with the potential for Mystical ratings and a high Resource rating from my personal contacts and French intervention.
Batman as another example would be:
Intellect, Skills, Shadow, SCIENCE! And extreme Resource ratings. With a zero in Body to indicate extreme physical prowess for a normal human. Zero to one in Blaster for mundane ranged weaponry and exotic gadgets. Explosive Batarangs anyone?
As a trial run I sorted a few villains into the system to satisfy Flash.
Captain Cold:
SCIENCE!, Blaster, Skills and Environmental. None particularly high due to his tight focus on ice based weapons.
Parasite:
Melee, Body and Defence with the potential to steal other ratings through his powers and scaling his existing ones through the roof.
Scarecrow:
SCIENCE!, Intellect, Skills and modest resources in the form of a gang. Potential for high level Environmental interaction with his fear toxins in gas form.
The scale would need to be assessed, before giving the individuals a scale, there would also need to be sub ratings for features of the powers, to avoid people being splattered by Superman punching too hard because they have Body and Defence ratings without actual physical durability. Say strength and mental defences for example.
I also proposed adapting some encrypted communications systems for dedicated use by the league and regular scans using the sensors of the Mothership to scan for major anomalies on Earth, Mars and within the Solar System.
Checking for alien intrusion and refugees or simple dinosaur killer asteroids was both important and common sense. Some members of the League wanted to disarm the vessel, but simply pointing out the difficulties we had capturing it then suggesting we extend that to a fleet of invaders was enough to get the point across: that we needed space based weapons to deal with military grade alien invasion vessels effectively, particularly if they came in bulk. Captain Atom agreed with me, as did Aquaman. J'onn too, reluctantly. Apparently Mars already had some military patrol vessels, but they barely registered as Corvette class in terms of firepower and size.
We did agree to only use the Mothership weaponry as a discouragement and never against a planetary surface unless it was a high S Rank scenario. One that would end the Earth or a large chunk of it.
We began to hammer out codes of conduct for members and inducting new members when an alarm began to go off. Apparently the vessel detected some kind of event.
So, everyone headed toward the bridge section, which was quite spacious I found. Enough that all of us could mill around waiting for J'onn and Batman to identify the issue.
What it turned out to be was a vessel on an intercept course with us.
Not alien, but Russian.
Yep, they couldn't keep their sticky hands off the prize literally hanging just out of reach and tried to board our ship. Or at least they would in several days. Space is big.
Well at least this was easily handled.
A quick visit to the teleporter room and the Russian cosmonauts were on Earth again, standing sheepishly in front of the UN building. Superman dropped off their ship a few minutes later with the warning not to try again. Despite the outside of the space ship being 'primitive' the internals included a jury rigged alien power generator and the same kind of propulsion the small fighters used. It seemed Russia was using alien captives to adapt existing tech to human purposes.
I wouldn't be surprised if most nations invaded weren't doing the same. Like Operation Paperclip from World War two. Absorbing enemy scientists, technical experts and engineers, despite shady origins.
It seemed we might be looking at a resurgence of the Cold War. With alien tech to spur the aggression.
Marvelous.
Since we were already blindsided by this development the Mothership was used to scan local space and shortly afterwards we came across a signal.
A hailing band.
From a certain alien.
Abin Sur.
Who was broadcasting a mayday signal.
Eyes went to me as Batman recognised that I knew the name and asked about it.
I shrugged.
All I replied was he was a Green Lantern. The alien police version. If he was fatally wounded, which I suspected… he would be looking for his successor, Hal Jordan or perhaps one of the other potentials. Another member would be in the cards for the League it seemed.
Unless we changed things.
We currently had a medical bay, for alien biology right here. So it seemed a rescue mission was in the cards.