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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Who the fuck are those two?

I have no memory of these people.
As someone who's only read occasional snippets of this, I'm fortunate enough to have read the right snippets, they're Kalmin's students taken back from the antimatter universe after that incident where OL and Kalmin went to kill the reformist Weaponer who was selling Qwa matter to the Reach.
 
24th August 2012
14:03 GMT


"Huh."

Thaddeus uses a set of plasma construct tweezers to delicately pry apart an object on one of Kalmin's 'completed project' display racks. I thought about asking Kalmin if he minded us taking a look, but last time I asked he said that if I could both understand what I was looking at and survive his intruder countermeasures, then I'd earned the right.
Kalmin doesn't have the firmest grasp on workplace safety, though. Entirely appropriate for an omnicidal genius inventor, of course. Still, I expect Tad is taking all suitable precautions to delay the inevitable explosions...

"Oh. I'm disappointed. I thought you said this guy was building your whole…" He moves a few more parts, then waves his sensor at the artefact. "Fleet."

"No, we're not stupid enough to let a Weaponer just build whatever he likes. He was part of the design team, but we checked everything thoroughly before building anything. And if there's something broken or incomplete in here, then I'd assume that he's storing it here until the mood strikes him to work on it some more." I frown. "Are you at all familiar with Qwardian technology?"
Very sensible. I wonder if Kalmin feels slighted by that caution? :cool: Probably not, I suppose, since he'd have personally challenged the project leads if he had any complaints...

"I wouldn't say familiar. Father always said that copying other people's work was lazy, so we never really prioritised that sort of theft."

"Alright, but why didn't you pick something up while he was in the far future?"
Because he'd probably realised any significant change to their designs would have come from somewhere. Of course, there's a difference between copying.. and inspiration.

"Because he's right. That would be lazy."

"But you're looking at it now."
Inspiration, OL. Seeing a slightly different way of doing.. whatever it does.. should give him a few ideas.

"Yes?"

"Isn't that just as lazy?"

"Of course not. Georgia and I had to create a novel form of faster than light travel to come and look at this. Breaking into the sorts of places that the Air Force stores recovered alien technology is far more simple."
...Invent novel FTL? You made protective cages to allow you to ride along on someone else's method. :rolleyes:
"It still counts!"



"Thaddeus, given that you don't want to break in there and that you're nominally obeying the law now that you've been pardoned, would-?"
You know he almost certainly has. No need to dance around the question...

"Actually, only Father got pardoned. I'm still wanted in seventeen countries."

"Oh. Alright then. In the interest of getting a pardon, would you be willing-?"
He says it like it's a point of pride. I don't think he's interested...

"Who says I'm interested in getting a pardon?" He prods again. "Oh, heh, I see."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult your villainous pride. I just assumed that since you were still working with your father you were planning on following the same trajectory. Are there crimes you feel that you want to perform?"
Unless he's going for some manner of achievement checklist, I doubt he plans that far ahead...

"No, I'm just keeping my options open. I don't like being told what to do."

"I'm not sure that I follow."

"Laws. I've never followed them and I don't think I could learn to do so now."
To be fair, some laws are a little... odd. Mostly the little local laws that get put down on the books for one specific case, and no-one ever bother to enforce. But I get the feeling Tad doesn't mean those sort of laws...

"You… Are aware that most people don't consider whether or not they're breaking the law on a moment by moment basis, aren't you?"

He stops, then turns to look at me.
"Well, that sounds like a boring way to live."

"How does it work, then?"

"Well, most people -not you, obviously, but most people- have certain intuitions about the way people should behave in society. Not intentionally causing harm to others, not taking things that don't belong to them, trying to deal with disagreements calmly and rationally… Things like that. And they assume that the law provides an expensive brute force way to resolve disagreements that can't be resolved by the parties involved. Mostly, that's good enough, though in the case of peculiar laws it doesn't always work." I frown. "Didn't you go to a public school?"
Unfortunately, some people just aren't wired that way... The social outcasts, the habitual offenders, the oddballs and freaks that everyone else just find 'wrong'...

"Yes, Mother insisted, and Father said that even a really good private school wouldn't be able to challenge us."

"But surely you-."

"Intruders!"
Hmm? Has Kalmin turned up? Brace for explosions, lads, ladies and everyone in-between.

I turn around as The Test Subject Formerly Known As Daciya walks it, cybernetic arm glowing with golden light. I take a half-step back, but she's focusing her attention on Thaddeus.

Behind her, Nauca awkwardly raises his right hand in greeting. I nod back.
Ah, the graduates Kalmin and OL picked up during that little 'heresy' breakout a couple of episodes back. I see they're settling on fine.

"Get your filthy hands off my-"

"It doesn't even-"
...Oh, boy. I can already get an idea of where this is going...

"-work, you defective-"

"-work right, see-" He uses his construct to pick the device up and turn it around. "-you got this-"
They're either going to fall in love at first sight...

"-imbecile!"

"-turned." Thaddeus blinks three times rapidly behind his glasses. "Excuse me?"
...Or try to kill each other. Then again, Who knows how Qwardian romance works?

Oh, don't worry, OL. I'm sure they'll be fine.

Her mechanical hand twitches and a bolt of golden energy leaps at Thaddeus! I generate a construct shield-.

The bolt stops in mid-air about two thirds of the way to its target. Then a… The rectangle of space containing it changes to… Two dimensions, and rotates through 180 degrees before snapping back into three-.
...I can't even picture how that would work. I can't imagine how seeing it in person must be. It sounds like God's own Photoshop toolset...

The bolt strikes its mistress in the chest, sending her flying backwards with shredded robes and cracked armour. She strikes the side wall with a flare from her kinetic shield and attaches herself to it like a monkey, eyes flickering as she takes the time to scan Thaddeus Sivana Junior properly.

Who's looking at me in a decidedly disgruntled manner.
"Please don't tell me this is 'Kalmin'? I was expecting better..."

"I told you I had defensive equipment."

"I'm sorry, but I haven't seen you in the field before. I wasn't sure what you thought counted."
To be fair, when most of your friends on Earth consider tight faux-leather materials in bright colours to be 'defensive equipment', your scale can get a little skewed. At least until they get smacked around by a bad guy and accept the upgrades offered.

"Warn me if I run into someone more dangerous than Captain Marvel."

I look over to where Daciya arm is reconfiguring itself.
Handy. A whole armoury at her fingertips? And in the fingertips too. :V

"Captain Marvel doesn't try and kill you."

"Captain Marvel fights us in our laboratories. Solomon might have been wise, but he didn't have a PHD. That's how Father ended up in the future, remember."
To be fair, I doubt even Solomon could recognise some of the crimes against science that fill your labs. Even if he'd done some reading on modern discoveries.

"Who are you?"

Thaddeus pulls himself up slightly, plasma scalpel dissipating as he fiddles with his personal computer.

"I am Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, the most intelligent man on this planet."
o_O ...How old are you, again? Also, being the smartest human doesn't count for much when you're one of three present.

Not true, assuming that the male Controllers are still male enough to count as male. But Dox is in orbit, and… Thaddeus probably has a greater range than Kalmin.

"And your machine doesn't work. Why did you even put it here?"

"So that in a few years I could look back at it and laugh."
True, that is a sensible idea. After all, you might feel nostalgic, or have a moment of realisation about some other conundrum while poking at it. I mean, even Kalmin might have moments when he's stuck on some new death ray, goes to have a think about it while fiddling with an old fancy and goes, "Ah-ha!"
Also, as a wargaming enthusiast, I still have my oldest painted models in a box. Stuff painted without undercoat, or sprayed from a chrome rattle-can because teen me though it 'looked cool'...

Thaddeus smiles.

"Yes, I used to do that too, when I was six. Years. Old."
What, and these days, you recycle failures? Admirable, but where's the sense of history?

This time she fires two bolts. Thaddeus gets enough time to shake his head, space fracturing around them-. They explode, the energy consuming-.

Space fractures around Thaddeus, twisting around and depositing him across the room and out of the blast radius, a faintly crimson shield dealing with the remaining radiation.
Well, at least we're getting Explosions. :p

He smiles.

"Interesting. Here's my retort."
Oh, stop flirting and kiss, you too! Honestly, children!

Okay, we have Explosions. Now for the Science! Seriously, does anyone else get the feeling by the time we cut back tomorrow, they'll be closer to flirting about their weapons designs than actually trying to kill each other? Because this feels like the most violent form of a 'Meet-Cute' I've ever seen...

...backwards with shredded robes and cracked armour.
Double Space.
 
Inspiration, OL. Seeing a slightly different way of doing.. whatever it does.. should give him a few ideas.

A crazy Sivana with ideas.

A truly terrifying idea.

...Invent novel FTL? You made protective cages to allow you to ride along on someone else's method. :rolleyes:
"It still counts!"

He's a villain, of course he's going to make things sound better for him.

You know he almost certainly has. No need to dance around the question...

But Paul loves dancing.

They're either going to fall in love at first sight...

...Or try to kill each other. Then again, Who knows how Qwardian romance works?

I'm getting the feeling the two aren't so different in Qwardian culture.

rue, that is a sensible idea. After all, you might feel nostalgic, or have a moment of realisation about some other conundrum while poking at it. I mean, even Kalmin might have moments when he's stuck on some new death ray, goes to have a think about it while fiddling with an old fancy and goes, "Ah-ha!"

Or just look back and laugh at youthful mistakes.

Seriously, does anyone else get the feeling by the time we cut back tomorrow, they'll be closer to flirting about their weapons designs than actually trying to kill each other?

It may be both honestly.
 
It's always fun when a ship you never expected but are now super interested in appears in this story (relationship, not spaceship, which might be a necessary clarification in this story :p). I'm still a bit bummed about Canis Minor/Kaldur and Ted/Io not being anything. I don't know if there's any chance of Alan/Diana but those two have the time.
 
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I find it interesting how non-rebellious and imitative of his father Thaddeus Junior is. Like, I bet that there are plenty of rules he wouldn't dare to break, but even in the trivial or personal stuff he is willing to just do as he was taught to do even well into adulthood.

It makes me think that, given a different environment and some reason to mentally separate from his father, he might become a much more well adjusted individual. Senior has a hard time even amicably communicating with or understanding his own parallel selfs, but Junior evidently has no problem understanding, agreeing with or putting himself into the shoes of (some of) his family members. And he even listens to his Mom's rules, a person who is very different from him. Again, even as an adult.
 
I find it interesting how non-rebellious and imitative of his father Thaddeus Junior is. Like, I bet that there are plenty of rules he wouldn't dare to break, but even in the trivial or personal stuff he is willing to just do as he was taught to do even well into adulthood.

It makes me think that, given a different environment and some reason to mentally separate from his father, he might become a much more well adjusted individual. Senior has a hard time even amicably communicating with or understanding his own parallel selfs, but Junior evidently has no problem understanding, agreeing with or putting himself into the shoes of (some of) his family members. And he even listens to his Mom's rules, a person who is very different from him. Again, even as an adult.
Thaddeus Sivana Junior is... I think he's seventeen at this point.
Ph.D or PhD, the 'H' shouldn't be capitalized.
Thank you, corrected.
 
Seeing them together, its eerie how similar the Sivanas clan is to just baseline weaponeers in terms of logic.


I'm no longer certain the weaponeers are not the result of Sivanas engaging in time travel and making their own society. I know they aren't right... Canonically Qwad was'nt founded by time traveling Sivanas clan creating their own society?
 
I really like the Sivana's, even if they are (mostly) all pyschos, at least they can stand on their own.
 
Thaddeus Sivana Junior is... I think he's seventeen at this point.
Woah. I thought they were quite a bit older. If they are already better adjusted than their father at this age they might not even have inherited all that much of his particular neurodivergence.

How old are Magnificus and Beautia?
 
Onslaught (part 7)
24th August 2012
14:08 GMT


"So… How are you finding it on Maltus?"

Nauca hesitates a moment then-.

A roar echoes through the air and the ground shakes!

He hesitates a moment longer, making sure that there's not going to be a follow up. Then he uncringes. Slightly.

"So far, I like it. I'm a lot safer here than I was on Qward, I've got access to better materials to work with and… I don't know, I kind of like having an objective to work towards beyond 'do this and we don't kill you'."

"You don't get that from Kalmin?"

Nauca shakes his head as a little way away Orange Lanterns move in to cover the evacuation and warn people away from the combat zone.

"He's trying to work out how to teach Weaponers so that they'll turn out like he did, rather than the way most Weaponers did. We're trial runs. He won't kill us accidentally because even if we don't turn out how he wants us to, he still needs to understand what went wrong."

"You.. are aware that you don't need to stay with him, right? Maltus actually has a civilian economy, along with the organisations that make up N.E.M.O., and you're perfectly welcome to train for any position."

He nods.

"Thank you, but… I really like destroying things. I just want to know that I've achieved something by destroying those things, you know?"

"We need people like you in the Orange Lantern Corps."

"I know, but I think I should finish school first. And… I don't really like the idea of using a weapon an alien made."

I shrug. "It's your life."

He looks back towards the combat zone as golden lightning leaps skyward.

"Who was that human? I think I recognise the dimensional overlay defence he used, but I've never heard of a human with something that advanced."

"That's Thaddeus Sivana, and… A small proportion of humans are vastly more intelligent even than normal 'very clever' humans. He's one of them. He also… Tends to regard everyone and everything around him as a potential experimental subject."

"He's a Weaponer?"

"No, because human social structures don't have that title. He isn't part of our ruling elite, he doesn't make weapons for our soldiers, and I don't think he's old enough to qualify. And he's never used qwa matter."

"He's… That young?"

"Where we're from he can't legally drink alcohol or drive a motor vehicle."

"Who enforces that?"

I nod. "Yes."

"I see. Are there others like him?"

"His sister's on Maltus now, if you want to speak to her. She wanted to talk to the asylum wardens, but she's probably-."

My ring shimmers.

"Probably available. Excuse me." I raise my ring. "Illustres here."

Dox's face appears.

"It's time. Come to my office for briefing."

"With you momentarily. Ah, Georgia's on Maltus. Is-"

"I know."

"-it alright if she turns up?"

"If it wasn't, I would have told you the moment you appeared."

"I meant, comes with me to your office."

Dox frowns slightly. "Of course. I would value her input."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "Who are you, and what have you done with Vril Dox the Second?"

"That turn of phrase isn't as funny as humans seem to think it is. We have a complicated security protocol for dealing with shapeshifters and illusionists, and having reviewed the data on the damage they can cause I assure you it is no laughing matter."

"Right. Sorry."

"And neither is the fact that I like Georgia. Both Ratchet and Brande regard this as 'progress' on my part. Do you disagree?"

"No, just.. a surprise. A pleasant surprise. Good for you, both of you. I'll go and find her now."

"E-." Dox hesitates. "Thank you. End."

He disconnects, and I lower my ring.

"Is there any chance that Daciya will negotiate a ceasefire?"

"What's a ceasefire?"

"A temporary cessation of hostilities while both sides rearm."

"He was going through her equipment. I don't think she thinks she has anywhere else to go to in order to rearm."

"Then I suppose that I'll have to stop them. Excuse me."

I wrap myself in armour, construct armour and the stuff of desires and drives and fly at speed back to the vault. Fortunately, the building is designed to withstand quite a lot of force being directed at it, so it's unlikely that a Controller will feel the need to involve themselves. A stray plasma bomb detonates on my defences, but otherwise I'm able to convey myself through the somewhat-ravaged corridors into…

Daciya has recovered several of her abandoned projects and is hastily assembling them into something that's greater than the sum of their parts, a crackling golden bubble shield holding off some sort of flash-fabricated probe that Thaddeus is poking at it. There's some radiation, but it doesn't look that dangerous.

"Alright, knock it off. One-"

Golden energy arcs towards me and fails to penetrate my construct.

"-warning."

"She started it."

"I'm not your mother, Thaddeus. And this isn't a duelling arena."

"I don't duel with-. Actually-."

"Daciya, this is a draw."

"But I'm-." I glare at Thaddeus, who appears to recognise that he might have gone a bit far. "She still started it."

"And he's challenging you to a duel. You can fight him again later, somewhere where it won't inconvenience anyone else. Stand down, now."

Glaring, she twists a linkage into place, before nodding.

"Two days, in the southern duelling grounds."

Thaddeus nods. "Agreed. Try a little harder next time."
 
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Nauca hesitates me moment then-.

'hesitates a moment'

Nauca shakes his head as a little way away Orange Lanterns move in to cover the evacuation and warn people away from the combat zone.

The two love birds still going at it.

A small proportion of humans are vastly more intelligent even than normal 'very clever' humans.

'than even normal'

He's also… Tends to regard

'He also'

"Where we're from he can't legally drink alcohol or drive a motor vehicle."

But space ships and sci fi scooters that fly he can.

Dox frowns slightly. "Of course. I would value her input."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "Who are you, and what have you done with Vril Dox the Second?"

She is vastly more intelligent than you Paul, and Dox most likely values that.

"And neither is the fact that I like Georgia. Both Ratchet and Brande regard this as 'progress' on my part. Do you disagree?"

Love is in the air.

"Two days, in the southern duelling grounds."

Thaddeus nods. "Agreed. Try a little harder next time."

Oh, just shut up and do each other.
 
I raise my ring. "Illustres here."

Dox's face appears.

"It's time. Come to my office for briefing."

"With you momentarily. Ah, Georgia's on Maltus. Is-"

"I know."

"-it alright if she turns up?"

"If it wasn't, I would have told you the moment you appeared."

"I meant, comes with me to your office."

Dox frowns slightly. "Of course. I would value her input."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "Who are you, and what have you done with Vril Dox the Second?"

"That turn of phrase isn't as funny as humans seem to think it is. We have a complicated security protocol for dealing with shapeshifters and illusionists, and having reviewed the data on the damage the can cause I assure you it is no laughing matter."

"Right. Sorry."

"And neither is the fact that I like Georgia. Both Ratchet and Brande regard this as 'progress' on my part. Do you disagree?"

"No, just.. a surprise. A pleasant surprise. Good for you, both of you. I'll go and find her now."

"E-." Dox hesitates. "Thank you. End."
Now I'm interested in how that conversation went. Did Ratchet and Brande genuinely wonder if Dox was replaced when he admitted that he liked Georgia?
 
In a few sentences I like Dox vastly more than before, especially after the encounter with Grayven.

Oh, just shut up and do each other.

This probably is the way Weaponers (to be) do each other, or at least start the process. And it clearly works for (some of) the Sivanas too.
 
[Shipping Goggles]It's a date.[/Shipping Goggles]

The Shipping Lantern Corps, subdivision of the Star Sapphires

Oh, so they were on Maltus.

Yeah, please don't blow that one up guys.

Teddy is doing well so far, I think. Trying to kill each other at first sight is an accepted court ship ritual among the superhero/supervillain community.
 
The Shipping Lantern Corps, subdivision of the Star Sapphires

Oh, so they were on Maltus.

Yeah, please don't blow that one up guys.

Teddy is doing well so far, I think. Trying to kill each other at first sight is an accepted court ship ritual among the superhero/supervillain community.

I don't think they'll be destroying a planet, but more because no matter how smart he is, it's hard to jury-rig your way to beating thousands and thousands of years of prep from people on your level that can also alter matter at will with a thought (because Maltusians are busted and have a... I wanna say symbiote species they bound to? anyway, it granted them dynakinesis+telekinesis to an insane degree).
 

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