The Lasso's Truth Powers

[WonderScott]

WonderScott raises some interesting takes, but there is another factor that's been used by a few writers: that of purifying fire. As such, it can dispell illusions, force out daemons, remove impurities of body, and so on (from a classical Greek standpoint, I can see a lie being interpreted as an impurity of mind). Fontana used some of that in her "Heart of the Amazon" storyline.

Now, how would the lasso work against someone who believes in their own lies? I'm not really sure.

I like the factor that it can dispel illusions (burning away falseness) and Perez occasionally used it as a way to protect others in a purifying or purity sense. In the early beginnings of the Circe tale I recall Diana using the lasso to create a protective ring on the ground that protected Nessie from the marauding Beastiamorphs by the blazing fires of Hestia.

I quite like those two powers, along with the truth-telling abilities. Add in that it can only be untied by a god and I'm happy with that short list of the lasso abilities. (That's powerful enough for me, given all of Diana's other awesome abilities and strengths.)

As for believing one's own lies, that's a bit of a conundrum. I lean toward they ensnared tells it like they see it to Diana or through the bond in the lasso Diana sees a shrouded "layer of truth" that the subject has so deeply subverted that Diana can only see it's there, but not necessarily understand what it is.

Or, if the lasso's power is absolute, any deeply hidden truths come down to a battle between the wills of Diana and the "lassoed." With his tele-powers, I kind of see it going down this way between Diana and Doctor Psycho...who I'd estimate might be one of the strongest and most ferocious opponents of the fires of Hestia. (With good reason too.)

[DrNewGod]

One thing I kind of like to see is the Super friend version that Diana can control it with her minded. Maybe the lasso can have more of bond with Diana.

I like that approach too. I love the idea that WW's gear (lasso/tiara/bracelets, even the plane) are all essentially mystical/technological instruments to optimize An Amazon's psionic abilities.

[AmiMizuno]

I think no God should be able to get out of the lasso. If it was made by a God it should also hate them has well.

[marhawkman]

Here's a little something I wrote out because I started imagining how it'd work in practice. Rossa Trinsk is an OC as is, well, her entire back story.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Wonder Woman suddenly looked over as a news report suddenly flashed onto the Justice League Watchtower's screen. A US military base in the desert had just been blown apart by a massive explosion and several US military vehicles had been blown to pieces in the aftermath. Mr. Terrific was mumbling something about energy signatures when he got interrupted by a radio transmission. "Watchtower, this is Lt. Rossa Trinsk, incoming with 8." Mr. Terrific barely had time to say "Who is this?" before there was a green flash and four people appeared on the teleporter pad. The man and two of the women Wonder Woman could identify as Kryptonian criminals affiliated with General Zod, though she didn't remember their names. Each of them had an unfamiliar device attached to their chest. They were carrying several objects in their arms but Wonder Woman couldn't see exactly what. The other, though, was a muscular woman with emerald green skin and tomato-red hair in a red and white body suit.

As soon as the unknown woman stepped off the teleporter pad, Wonder Woman grabbed her with her magic lasso. "Who and what are you?" she demanded of the mysterious figure.

The woman briefly tried to remove the lasso but when she failed she said "I am Lt. Rossa Trinsk. I am a warrior of Reglavorkon, and member of the Doomdozers, Praetor Borgouneis's personal team of elite commandos." The last part she said with pride as if it was a rare honor, but no one in the room had any idea what she was talking about.

When Wonder Woman gave her a confused stare, Mr. Terrific spoke up. "So where is Reglavorkon? I've never heard of it before."

Lt. Trinsk got a pleased look when he correctly deduced that Reglavorkon was a place. "It is an artificial planet orbiting a re-engineered star in another universe. It is not the homeworld of my race but a world my distant ancestors constructed to act as a capital." As she said this an image formed in Wonder Woman's mind of an unnaturally massive yellow star with an enormous planet shaped like a hollow bead orbiting it.

Wonder Woman's confusion became a bit more angry. "You're not even from this UNIVERSE?!?!? Why were you even here?"

Lt. Trinsk got a nervous look as if she didn't want to answer but had no choice. "Recently people in my universe discovered how to shift to other universes. I've been exploring to see what the various other universes are like."

Wonder Woman's eyebrow arched in curiosity. "And how has that been working out? I hope this isn't normal for you."

Lt. Trinsk got an amused look on her face. "The results have been rather varied." Wonder Woman saw a bewildering array of images as she said that. One of her sitting in a park talking to some school teachers, but with a normal human complexion. Then one of several alien-looking teenagers wandering around a western town. Then a young woman with bronze skin and golden clothes engaged in a mid-air brawl against an army of robots in the skies above, and sometimes between and inside, skyscrapers in a city made out of skyscrapers. "I'm not the only one either. It's inevitable that you'll meet others." She ended with a bemused smile.

Just then Green Lantern arrived on the teleporter pad. "I just took a quick look around." Lt. Trinsk turned to look at him with a vaguely interested look. "What the heck did you do to those guys?"

"Various things, some I used unarmed melee strikes, others my sword, many I disabled with precisely targeted energy beams, there are a few where I dismantled their cybernetics and equipment with Molecular Disassociation." She said matter-of-factly as if reciting an inventory sheet.

"One of those guys, you turned his upper arm to dust!" Green Lantern said angrily.

"It was mechanical, they can just attach a new one." she said with apathy.

"And you did all of this to rescue several Kryptonian CRIMINALS?" Batman said angrily.

"Well, I started out trying to sneak out, that would have been a lot easier. I didn't need to rip the facility to pieces when it was just the three of them." Lt. Trinsk replied as Wonder Woman started to sense some sort of deep, red-hot rage deep inside Lt. Trinsk's mind.

"And you were rescuing them because?" Batman angrily said again.

"As you know, Nadira and Az-rel were captured because they were running amok. Car-vex found out they hadn't been imprisoned, but rather had been taken to a secret medical research facility. I believe that Mr. Stewart got a good look at what's left of it." she said while gesturing at Green Lantern. As she said this, Wonder Woman started to feel the rage simmering in the back of her mind get a little bit hotter, but couldn't see why.

"There wasn't much left of it." Green Lantern replied. "It seems you used that Molecular Disassociation trick on most of their lab equipment." As he said this Wonder Woman saw an image of a woman in a lab coat being pushed to the side then the piece of equipment she'd been standing in front of disintegrated with a touch and a burst of green light.

"Oh right." Lt. Trinsk said with a slightly embarrassed look. "I didn't want them to be able to repeat their experiments. So I destroyed the equipment they were using." As she said this Wonder Woman felt the angry bubble in the back of her mind change shape, as if there was more than one reason she was enraged, but one far worse than the others.

"What was so horrible about it?" Mr. Terrific asked with curiosity.

"They decided they wanted to create a bioweapon to kill Kryptonians." Lt. Trinsk said with an angry snarl. Wonder Woman felt the bubble of rage start writhing like a dog trying to break it's leash. Mr. Terrific looked like he was about to ask a follow-up question but she cut him off with an answer before the question was asked. "They decided they didn't want to risk killing the only two Kryptonians they'd managed to acquire as research subjects, so they decided to make more."

Mr. Terrific didn't wait his turn this time. "I thought CADMUS failed at cloning Kryptonians!"

Lt. Trinsk's face flashed through looks of annoyance and amusement, but Wonder Woman could feel the rage inside her, burning and shaking. "These weren't clones." Lt. Trinsk said with a tinge of anger marring an otherwise matter-of-fact delivery. "Instead they extracted egg cells from Nadira's ovaries, and added whatever Kryptonian DNA sequences they had on file to finish it." Wonder Woman could feel the heat boiling inside Lt. Trinsk and wondered what it was. "Then they used accelerated growth in artificial wombs to create infants they could infect with their experimental plague strains."

"Wait, how many?" Mr. Terrific asked in shock.

"I.. I..." Lt. Trinsk was visibly shaking and Wonder Woman could feel the rage boiling inside her. But instead of yelling she spoke with a quiet voice. "I don't know. I don't know what 'batch 225b' means, I stopped reading when I got to the part of the database where it listed test results for over two dozen plague strains. I... I stopped counting at two dozen." Lt. Trinsk suddenly fell to her knees and started sobbing.

"What's wrong?" Wonder Woman asked as she felt something cause the rage in Lt. Trinsk's mind to twist around in a way that was tinged with deep sadness.

"There were dozens or hundreds, I... I only managed to save 4."

"Wait, that's what you meant by 'incoming with 8'?" Mr. Terrific said as he looked over at where Nadira and Az-rel were standing. Each of them was holding two infant-sized cloth bundles.

Before Lt. Trinsk had a chance to answer Batman spoke up in an angry voice. "That's it? That's why you killed so many people?" Wonder Woman's eyes grew wide in shock as she felt the chains binding Lt. Trinsk's rage in her heart suddenly shatter. The sheer force of it startled her so much she dropped her magic lasso. Before Wonder Woman had time to blink there was a green flash and Lt. Trinsk reappeared holding Batman in the air by the chest piece of his body armor.

Batman could feel her arm shaking with rage even before she started speaking. "There's a special place in hell for people who treat children like that." She yelled in rage. "I don't care who he was, General Lane bought his own ticket, all I did was punch it."

"And his men?" Batman asked as she lowered him to the floor.

"Most of them are still alive." she said somewhat glibly. "I wasn't really making an effort to kill them, although it sometimes happened. More so, I didn't chase them down, if they ran away I let them go. I only fought the ones who chose to try to stop me from leaving."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Um, yeah incomplete story, but I don't feel like writing a book.

[brettc1]

Looks like the direct line to the soul power is back as of next issue

[WonderScott]

Looks like the direct line to the soul power is back as of next issue

And I'm happy to see it. It definitely adds a new dimension and, in the right hands, some questions about the use of the power.

[AmiMizuno]

I always kind of wonder what happens if the lasso changes slightly depending on the user? That while it's purpose is to tell the truth but the question would be whose truth is it telling.

[marhawkman]

I always kind of wonder what happens if the lasso changes slightly depending on the user? That while it's purpose is to tell the truth but the question would be whose truth is it telling.

Well, there is the idea that the effect of using it depends on what the user wants to do with it.

so how accurate do you think my story was in terms of how the lasso works?

[brettc1]

Well, there is the idea that the effect of using it depends on what the user wants to do with it.

so how accurate do you think my story was in terms of how the lasso works?

I think ultimately how the lasso works is the same kind of question as wondering in Star Trek "How fast can the Enterprise go?" Regardless of technical manuals, the answer is "As fast as it needs to to get there in the nick of time."