III)
One of the key qualities in all of my significant others has been a shared value system. Furthermore, when essential values were found to be in conflict, the relationship was over not long after that discovery. A core, non-negotiable value that I share with my wife is a sense of social benevolence. We approach it from different angles – she believing there’s no such thing as ‘altruism’ and I believing that altruism doesn’t merely exist in spite of her lack of belief but that I actively and enthusiastically engage knowingly and willingly in altruistic acts – but we both hold that value in high esteem and close to our hearts.
In short, she knows where I’m coming from; she knows my heart and mind.
If she was awake and able to communicate, she would assure me she knows what must be done and encourage me to do it. If she was unconcious for whatever reason, I truly believe she would understand and be forgiving (if not encouraging).
Like** begbert2** I would try to figure out a way to kill the villain and myself (and, unfortunately, my wife) at the same time. Ideally, that would be by cutting power to the suit while the jerk is in the stratosphere over the ocean. More likely, I’d have to concentrate on feeding the suit 4-hours worth of super-charge in half a picosecond, thereby making him explode and fizzle out like – well, like a lightning bolt. Yes, that will probably kill a handful of innocents, but it will also eliminate my captor/nemesis in a manner from which he won’t be able to return.
The real problem with my solution is that, to be certain get the bastard, I’m going to turn the entire robot and everything within probably twenty feet of it into char and slag. And then the thing is going to topple over. For all my efforts there would be casualties.
So yes, I get your point that I should just blast my way out, watch my loved one die in slow motion, and then methodically make my way to where the villain is and torture him until his heart explodes. And then, because I have a duty to protect civilization, live with the emotional agony of it until it hardens me into a true hero who, like BOB X, can shrug off murdered loved ones and keep punching.
The problem with this though is that, despite being fairly useful, my Lightning Lad powers in no way guarantee that I’ll even be able to get out of my locked chamber in the robot’s belly, much less make my way to the cockpit in time to catch the villain before he gets away. I mean, yes, I could probably arc-weld my way through one bulkhead at a time, possibly not igniting something explosive in the process, but that doesn’t sound particularly fast and there’s no way the villain didn’t plan for this eventuality. If I try plan A, he will get away, and will try it, or something else again - with even more casualties.
Forget that. Overkill for the win! Okay, sure, maybe he’s actually remote-controlling the robot and will be well clear of the damage, but the hypothetical says repeatedly that this is powered armor - he’s inside it. So I’m going to fill the entire space inside the suit with 1.21 gigawatts of power and send the bastard back to the stone age. Painless deaths for everyone! (Except the people the charred husk falls on. Sorry folks!)