Flagg: [Your last meal] was laced with explosive nanites. Any escape attempt and, well, you're going to look kinda funny trying to run away with no head.
Deadshot: That's a lot of trouble to go to just to keep little old me around. What do you want, exactly?
Flagg: You're going to do something patriotic, convict.
Deadshot: That's a lot of trouble to go to just to keep little old me around. What do you want, exactly?
Flagg: You're going to do something patriotic, convict.
— Justice League Unlimited, "Task Force X"
Your potential usefulness was marginally greater than the threat you present.
— Emiri Kimidori to Ryoko Asakura, The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya (First Part)
"Well, I'm a convict in a siege tank I ride."
— Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, "Terran Up the Night"
Michael Newman: So, first I'm arrested, right? Best LSD I ever made right down the drain. I figure this is it, man, twenty years in the can if I'm lucky. That was 1968... Next thing I know, I'm on Rikers Island. You ever been there, man? Well, suddenly they take me from my cell, okay, they throw me in a waiting room with, like, bank teller windows: four army colonels with medals up their asses are standing on the other side. They say to me, if I come to Vietnam for two years — no action, mind you, just work in a lab — they'll drop all the charges and wipe the record clean. I'd only been in jail for like thirteen hours, I thought 'Nam couldn't be any worse.
Jacob Singer: Shows how little you knew.
Michael Newman: Yeah, really. But they had me by the balls. Next thing I know, I'm in Saigon, and I'm working in a top-secret lab, isolating mind-altering drugs...
Jacob Singer: Shows how little you knew.
Michael Newman: Yeah, really. But they had me by the balls. Next thing I know, I'm in Saigon, and I'm working in a top-secret lab, isolating mind-altering drugs...
Shan-Pier: What are you doing here, anyway? Come to gloat, eyeing the victims of your miscarriages of justice?
Judge Vanderloo: That is always amusing. No, I want to make you a proposal. I heal you, make you thirty years old again, or twenty if you insist.
Shan-Pier: Cut the crap. I am worn out. Each and every bone is crumbling. You heard me coughing. My alveoli are just pockets stuffed with grit.
Judge Vanderloo: Our healers have grown so much more clever in recent years. They can reset the clock in your cells. White hair grows grey, then lack as pitch. Your bones re-knit themselves, wrinkles smooth out... if you pay them enough.
Shan-Pier: What should I do? Blow up the High Lords Seventeen in their council chamber?
Judge Vanderloo: No, nothing treasonable this time. Just the opposite. You get the chance to set things right again. Become a respectable citizen of our great community again...
Judge Vanderloo: That is always amusing. No, I want to make you a proposal. I heal you, make you thirty years old again, or twenty if you insist.
Shan-Pier: Cut the crap. I am worn out. Each and every bone is crumbling. You heard me coughing. My alveoli are just pockets stuffed with grit.
Judge Vanderloo: Our healers have grown so much more clever in recent years. They can reset the clock in your cells. White hair grows grey, then lack as pitch. Your bones re-knit themselves, wrinkles smooth out... if you pay them enough.
Shan-Pier: What should I do? Blow up the High Lords Seventeen in their council chamber?
Judge Vanderloo: No, nothing treasonable this time. Just the opposite. You get the chance to set things right again. Become a respectable citizen of our great community again...
— With Musket and Ducat, by Tais Teng
Aloth: <Do not fear me, little aristh. I am no danger to you. My crime was that I had no use for hypocrisy.>
Ax: <Hypocrisy is not illegal.>
Aloth: <Not all hypocrisy. If it were, what would we do for leaders? They would all be in jail. Now me, I was caught selling organs. Off the battlefield. They are of no use to the dead, right? Why should someone not make use of them? And why should I not receive something for my trouble? Yes, you see, Aristh Aximili, I am not a hero of the people. But at least I am not a coward.>
Ax: <Are you saying I am?>
Aloth: <You? No, I meant Gonrod. He was in the same prison as me, though he faced a lesser sentence. His crime was cowardice under fire. We were offered the promise of pardon if we successfully completed this mission.>
Ax: <Hypocrisy is not illegal.>
Aloth: <Not all hypocrisy. If it were, what would we do for leaders? They would all be in jail. Now me, I was caught selling organs. Off the battlefield. They are of no use to the dead, right? Why should someone not make use of them? And why should I not receive something for my trouble? Yes, you see, Aristh Aximili, I am not a hero of the people. But at least I am not a coward.>
Ax: <Are you saying I am?>
Aloth: <You? No, I meant Gonrod. He was in the same prison as me, though he faced a lesser sentence. His crime was cowardice under fire. We were offered the promise of pardon if we successfully completed this mission.>
— Animorphs #38: The Arrival
Lister: So what do you want with me?
Kazwa: The planet is finished. The new "innocent" gestalt is complete. We need to test that it is safe. We want you to volunteer to be one of the first to set foot on the planet. We have already sent one ship: it did not return. You will be a member of the second ship. Or, if you prefer, you can return to Cyberhell.
Kazwa: The planet is finished. The new "innocent" gestalt is complete. We need to test that it is safe. We want you to volunteer to be one of the first to set foot on the planet. We have already sent one ship: it did not return. You will be a member of the second ship. Or, if you prefer, you can return to Cyberhell.
— Red Dwarf: Last Human
"We've got quite a lot of counts on you. Do this job right, and we'll drop all charges against you."
— Captain Hubert Galeforce to Henry Stickmin, Infiltrating the Airship
There was a lad in Glesga town, Ramensky was his name,
Johnny didnae know it then but he was set for fame.
He did a wee bit job or two, he blew them open wide,
But they caught him and they tried him
And they bunged him right inside.
But when the war was raging the brass-hats had a plan;
Tae purloin some information, but they couldnae find a man.
So they nobbled John in prison, asked if he would take a chance,
Then they dropped him in a parachute beyond the coast of France.
And when the war was over, they shook him by the hand,
For stealing secret documents frae the German High Command.
So Johnny was rewarded for the job he did sae well;
They granted him a pardon frae the prison and the cell.
Johnny didnae know it then but he was set for fame.
He did a wee bit job or two, he blew them open wide,
But they caught him and they tried him
And they bunged him right inside.
But when the war was raging the brass-hats had a plan;
Tae purloin some information, but they couldnae find a man.
So they nobbled John in prison, asked if he would take a chance,
Then they dropped him in a parachute beyond the coast of France.
And when the war was over, they shook him by the hand,
For stealing secret documents frae the German High Command.
So Johnny was rewarded for the job he did sae well;
They granted him a pardon frae the prison and the cell.
— "Let Ramensky Go", ballad composed by Roddy McMillan about the real-life figure Johnny Ramensky
Gun Three of the Redguns, the Balam Group's AC squad.
A born con artist, no scheme was too underhanded for Wu Huahai during his days as a criminal mastermind, and exploitation of others was a byword for opportunity. However, his illicit Feng Shui Pharmacy operation was a fatal overstep, imperiling the health of Balam's economic sphere and leading to widespread disease.
It was Nile, now the deputy commander of the Redguns, who ultimately shut Wu Huahai down.
A born con artist, no scheme was too underhanded for Wu Huahai during his days as a criminal mastermind, and exploitation of others was a byword for opportunity. However, his illicit Feng Shui Pharmacy operation was a fatal overstep, imperiling the health of Balam's economic sphere and leading to widespread disease.
It was Nile, now the deputy commander of the Redguns, who ultimately shut Wu Huahai down.
— G3 Wu Huahai's Arena profile, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
"We were dock rats and cutpurses, dragged from the six-oak floors of Boston Harbor public houses...and pressed into service, under a mad rogue for whom murder was a pleasure."
— John Fletcher, The Sudbury Devil
