Victor Stone had resigned himself to the fact that he was completely alone in the world. He had comrades, but they were completely organic. He had people he'd consider calling 'friend', but they were organic as well. They had secret identities. They...
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It wasn't long after Harper's admission of guilt that Batman had arrived and moved her to the holding cell's within the Watchtower. There she waited as a crowd of Justice League members gathered around her; all equally confused and concerned about the survival of the algorithm.
"Diana used the lasso on her, right?" Booster Gold huffed from somewhere near the exit. Clearly, he thought this entire meeting was a waste of time. "Then she's guilty. What kinda idiot's gonna argue otherwise?"
Victor stepped forward with a grimace, silently answering the rhetorical question.
"Oh, come on..." The arrogant hero groaned. "You can't be serious. I know she's your little playmate and all, but the lasso doesn't lie...besides, this wouldn't be her first time betraying the League."
"True, we have a precedent here." The Flash added. He was closer to her cell than the others...perhaps because he was so fast that being grabbed my an inmate simply wasn't a possibility. "She's never lied about it though. Not even when it meant potential jail time...so if she says that she doesn't remember doing it, then we should at least consider that she's telling the truth."
"It doesn't matter whether she was aware of it or not." Batman interjected. "She still copied that algorithm and allowed it to be taken."
The holographic form of Hal Jordan, Earth's first Green Lantern Corps officer, shifted as Batman's words exited his mouth. He was currently on duty elsewhere in the sector, Victor recalled him saying something about warring political factions. "That's a load of bullshit, Bruce. It really does matter if she was aware. This is obviously a thirty twenty-nine." Said the Green Lantern.
Most people in the room seemed a little confused by that random chain of numbers, but not Victor. In the Green Lantern Corps' case classification system, a Code 3029 denoted a situation where a suspect was forced to partake in illegal activities without consenting to it. In layman's terms, they were victims of mind control.
To Victor, it made sense...
"If she wasn't in control, she isn't guilty of anything. Hell, if you even try to persecute her, I'm going to have to arrest you." Hal added.
Batman shook his head. "Control..." He muttered to himself. "Reid. You have a neural implant installed in your cerebellum. Is it capable of receiving data?"
Harper answered without hesitation. "Yeah. I need to be able to know where my machines are if I'm operating them remotely."
"Who installed it?" Bruce pressed.
"Me... I mean, The Progenitor."
Victor huffed, somewhat relieved that Bruce arrived at that conclusion. Having had close contact with Harper's implant and its functions, Victor knew that it had to be the source of all the League's current trouble.
Booster Gold scratched the back of his neck. "Who the heck is that?"
Flash looked as if he was going to try to explain Harper's oddly convoluted life, then opted not to seeing as the aloof Booster probably wouldn't have understood a single word anyway. Instead, he said, "Then it's worth investigating at the very least. To see if it's possible that Harper's brain signals have been manipulated by her neural implant."
