Code White Incident

As requested by Big Dawg.

To summarize, Ironeye and Korg have a private little chat in early S2. Later on, Hikari is on the verge of going burny wind, Korg announces "Code White" (which everyone hears, but only Ironeye has a clue what it means), Ironeye pulls the gun on Hikari, hesitates, finally decides to pull the trigger. Fortunately, arks has gone over to administer a Cooldown Hug, and it works. A relieved Ironeye doesn't have the presence of mind to put away the gun, and some of the team notices and puts two and two together.

In the aftermath, Kara and Korg have an argument, people have varying opinions on the Code White incident, aaaaand... stuff happens?

That's great. Now...can we move all the relevant posts from the other thread to this one?

Alright, here are the events of the Code White incident.

• Backstory
  • The main team joins TV Tropes. Ironeye delivers a report to Korgmeister about the nature of the team's powers (to the best of his knowledge—he had been performing experiments with his friends).
  • Korg freaks out over the possibility of Hikari using the full Wind of Light in uncontrolled conditions, primarily due to the Knight Templar personality that results, and becomes The Unfettered with regards to Hikari as a result of this fear. He begins to overestimate the destructiveness of the Wind in his paranoia.
  • Korg has a private talk with Ironeye about preparing for the (almost inevitable) time when Hikari unintentionally (or against orders) uses the Wind. When Korg declares a Code White, Ironeye is to immediately subdue Hikari by any reasonable means up to and including putting a bullet between his eyes if no means of immediately inducing unconsciousness is available.
• The Code White incident
  • While in combat, Hikari starts to seriously lose control to the demon for the first time since joining TV Tropes. Someone (probably Hikari or Ironeye) announces this over the radio.
  • Korg declares Code White
  • Ironeye draws his pistol and tries to talk Hikari down.
  • When it becomes clear that Hikari hasn't regained control, Ironeye aims the gun at Hikari's head and quietly begs him to keep control of himself (as a successful lock against the demon and a refusal to use his powers is enough to bring Hikari back into the safe zone). Korg berates Ironeye over the radio for talking instead of shooting.
  • Hikari gets himself under control. Ironeye's arms drop, leaving the gun still in his hands, but pointed at the ground.
  • Everyone puts two and two together and realize that Ironeye had secret orders to shoot Hikari on Korg's command. (It is not immediately apparent that Ironeye was to use non-lethal means if they were available.)
• The aftermath
  • Kara immediately goes to see Korg after the mission is over. "We need to talk. Now." Then she socks him in the jaw. They argue.
  • As they're arguing, Ironeye arrives in Korg's control room. After Kara stalks out, threatening to leave and take her original team with her, Ironeye and Korg argue. During that argument, Ironeye ends up freezing Korg's drink.
  • Kara and Ironeye argue about him going behind her back.
  • Hikari has a Heroic BSoD

One of our goals with this is to have the key players have good points yet also have major problems with their positions. I have tried to divide each person's arguments to in  ^{The Good}

• Kara
  • The Good
    • Korg really should have come to her ahead of time. While she wouldn't have agreed to his plan (and he still would have enacted it), it would at least have shown that he respects her as the team leader.
    • While a pissed-off team is better than a vaporized one, Korg treating everyone like pawns is going to leave him without any subordinates.
  • The Bad
    • Using the teammate she is closest to as an assassin is insulting
  • The Ugly
    • Kara's idea to inflict a non-lethal bullet wound (allowing her to heal Hikari) would have most likely backfired horribly.
• Ironeye
  • The Good
    • Had anyone else (namely, Matrix, who is the third member of Ironeye's "Triad") known what the code phrase meant, they could have interfered and ruined everything.
    • Korg shouldn't let his paranoia about Hikari cloud his judgment, particularly with regards to declaring Code White too early and overestimating the capabilities of the Wind.
    • Korg (or pretty much anyone else, for that matter) doesn't know Hikari or his power as well as Ironeye does, so Ironeye should be the one making the final call.
  • The Bad
    • Korg is too sure of himself—he's being a hypocrite about Hikari.
    • Ironeye is the only good choice for a gunman in that situation—he knows what must be done, but cares enough about Hikari that he won't be too hasty.
  • The Ugly
    • He couldn't pull the trigger immediately after he thought that it was too risky to continue.
    • Pointing his gun at Hikari without firing further jeopardized everything.
• Korg
  • The Good
    • There had to be a contingency plan in place for the eventuality that Hikari lost control.
    • Kara's proposed alternate contingency plan was a really bad idea.
    • Ironeye should have pulled the trigger instead of pleading with Hikari—he's lucky that no one got killed due to his hesitation. Ironeye is too emotionally involved for this task.
    • Going behind (almost) everyone's backs wasn't personal.
  • The Bad
    • Being smug about Hikari becoming more cynical.
    • Refusing to admit to anyone that he made a mistake because then they'd all start to question his orders.
  • The Ugly
    • Ironeye should have shot Hikari the moment the order was given.
    • Hikari might as well be a walking tacnuke
    • The team should accept that manipulating them is required to do his job properly.
    • Everyone should obey Korg's orders immediately and without question.
• Hikari
  • The Good
    • Hikari got control of the Wind
  • The Bad
    • "It's all my fault for putting one of my best friends in the position of having to shoot me."
  • The Ugly
    • Thinking that there was no way he could lose control to the demon after the first time.

The final thoughts:

• Hikari: It's all my fault!
• Matrix: I'm flabbergasted, and I'm going to stay away from Korg and Ironeye for a while.
• Korg: It's a shame that there was no one better than Ironeye for this task. Kara shouldn't get angry at me for me doing my job. At least Hikari isn't such an idealistic idiot any more.
• Ironeye: I can't let my emotions get the better of me again like that.
• Kara: What Ironeye and Korg did was wrong, and they shouldn't go behind my back like that again.

edited 5th Mar '10 11:18:06 PM by Ironeye

Alright, I tried to add everything I could think of.

Who else is present? Do we need to establish the reactions of the rest of the team (none of whom are likely to be happy with Korg, I'd imagine)?

edited 5th Mar '10 5:18:42 PM by BobbyG

Well, for everything to work, arks would have to not be present (or otherwise occupied), so I'm guessing this goes back to Kara having her team and Ironeye having his team (Hikari, Matrix, and later Gabriel) close by doing something else mission-relevant.

And, yes, we'll need to figure out how everyone else will react.

All right, well. Starting with the character I know best: Cody would be disturbed by Korg's apparent readiness to kill a member of the team, especially one with Hikari's personality. He has never liked Korg (or Ironeye, for that matter), and therefore would side with Kara. Although he has never liked Hikari, he's come to think of him as an innocent and idealistic individual, and therefore attempting to kill him is a serious Kick the Dog moment from his perspective.

I think it's a reasonable assumption that Jinxed, Gabriel and Murky will all be extremely unhappy with Korg, right?

Kara's contingency plan was a really bad idea.

This wasn't really a contingency plan she had in mind before the Code White incident. She brings it up during the fight as an example of an alternate, less murderous plan they could have come up with had she been consulted. She didn't actually have a contingency plan; she was putting faith in Hikari's self-control. Given that he managed to rein in the Wind of Light even with a gun pointed at his head, it's going to be very hard to convince her she was wrong.

edited 7th Mar '10 8:45:44 AM by Karalora

Re: Gabriel

Personal opinion: It's unfortunate that the plan had to include the possibility of one team member being on the receiving end of a headshot. But if the Wind of Light threatens to cause a number of casualties, especially on the part of the team (not to mention the collateral damage it could cause), then Code White becomes a necessary evil. Not that it's any less unpleasant to think about, but what else can you do?

Apparent reaction: "If you don't mind, I'd rather stay out of this one..." (uninvolved observer mode-ing)

(I'm assuming this is early enough in the series that Gabriel isn't the type to go all "assistant Team Mom" on the other characters?)

@Ironeye. That's a pretty good summary, actually. I fully endorse it.

@Kara. Korg maintains an attitude that faith is something you place in God and nothing else, certainly not the ability of mortals to act rationally.

I'd love to know if the resident mad scientist or gadgeteer genius can come up with some sort of method to sedate Hikari by remote control. It's only marginally less risky than assassinating him.

Other things to add to the scene:

• After Kara makes it clear she's not going to heal Korg's jaw, he injects himself with a synringe of morphine he keeps on his person. He says "I need to wait for this to kick in. I don't handle pain well". He doesn't say this in a stoic, badass tone of voice.
• Korg has unusually poor pain resistance, even mild physical discomfort will make him almost completely unable to function. In the event he was ever physically tortured, he would pretty much sing like a canary.
• At the end of the argument Korg says "Don't make a habit of doing this. I fit the psychological profile for opiate addiction". (I'm quite aware of the overtones of emotional blackmail. The point is to show vulnerability while also being extremely nasty and manipulative)

edited 6th Mar '10 3:00:50 AM by Korgmeister

To which Kara's response would likely fall somewhere on the spectrum between:

"Or you could learn to suck it up like an adult."

and

"Yeah, no kidding, I just watched you shoot up over a little tap on the jaw."