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

It is possible that this version of OL never fought Graviton in the first place and only showed up and joined the Avengers after his defeat like how paragon and renegade showed up after the events that formed the Team.
 
Earth's Orangest Hero
13th June
08:36 GMT -5
Earth 8096


I take a moment to look at myself in the hall's full length mirror. I bought this suit specifically for things like this. I've been to court more than once since I started working with-. Since I became an Avenger. Those escapees weren't going to testify against themselves, were they? But I haven't been-. Okay, family court isn't anything like that adversarial. This isn't even a trial. But still

I shift my weight awkwardly from my left foot to my right. No, it's no good. Anthony was right about the quality. I can't feel uncomfortable about this suit if I try. The cobbler was even able to realise my desire for trainers that look like dress shoes. The nerves are all me, all internal.

And I feel bad for a moment. Because I know at least one person feels worse about-.

"Big day today, huh?" I turn around at Anthony invites himself in, leaning against the dining room's door frame. "I had my people look up Judge McAlister's records. He's an okay guy. There shouldn't be any surprises."

"Yeah."

"Hey." He shrugs, frowning. "You know these things are basically formalities, right?"

I turn away from the mirror and face him. "Honestly, Anthony, I'll be pleased just to walk free from court."

"In that case… Don't punch the judge. I guess? Unless you really want to." He sees my reaction. "Ah. I.. really don't get why you're so worried about this."

"Because I'm a single adult man trying to adopt a teenage girl he's not related to." I shake my head and head for the door.

He steps back into the corridor as I approach and spreads his hands out. "Yeah, but there's extenuating circumstances. I should know; I proof-read the forms."

"Pardon me?"

I turn around as Cap-. Steven-. As Steve walks down the corridor toward us.

I smile. "Good morning, Steve."

"Are you worried about today?" I nod. "I thought Tony said it was just a formality."

Anthony nods. "Tony did say it was just a formality because it is just a formality. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that they reject your application and that's pretty unlikely. If the judge decides it looks suspicious he'll probably just ask for more evidence, and if her folks aren't… Aren't trying to get her back, that doesn't really change anything."

Steve frowns. "Is there a reason why this is so difficult? In my day, if someone wanted to adopt a child and their parents weren't able to take care of them, it was just a matter of signing a form."

Anthony rolls his eyes. "Orphan Trains kinda went out of fashion."

Steve pauses for a moment, which I've learned is a sign that Anthony's made an age-quip that has annoyed him but that he plans to rise above. "Orphan Trains went out of fashion in nineteen twenty nine. That's why I grew up in New York rather than Kansas."

And that expression means that Anthony knows that he said something that he shouldn't, doesn't plan on apologising for it and might well double down unless someone else says something. So I'd best say something.

"Steve, the problem is… Humans are instinctively bad at judging risk. Proportionally to the number of people who use them, planes are far safer than cars. But there'll be a major investigation after every plane crash while car crashes are… Pretty much regarded as the price of driving cars. Newspapers, radios and television news programs keeping everyone informed of the worst things that are happening don't really help. The result is that people.. passing laws are hypersensitive to things going wrong. For example, children sent to the aforementioned Kansas being used as cheap labour rather than being taken into a loving family as a new son or daughter."

Steve frowns. "Sure, it wouldn't be ideal, but I'm.. not sure that growing up as a farm laborer would be worse than growing up homeless on the streets in New York."

"But them growing up homeless on the streets of New York wouldn't have been specifically authorised and enabled by law."

"I see what you're saying, but I think that's a little cynical."

"Yes, yes it is, and as a man who earnestly desires to raise a young woman with.. no one else willing to care for her as his own daughter I'm experiencing that in a way I hadn't ever expected to. But that's.. what I meant about judging risk. People find out that a particular adoption went badly wrong, they demand that laws be passed to prevent it happening again, and… Mostly what that does is make life harder for good people. But it also stops a small number of… People who would abuse their charges. There's always balance to be struck between complexity and risk."

Anthony tilts his head to the right. "If you want really cynical, it's actually in some people's interests to cause those sorts of moral panics. Not that hard to get elected on a promise to fix a problem everyone's worried about, even if you have to make up the problem yourself."

Steve exhales involuntarily and looks away for a moment.

Anthony smirks subtly, then runs his eyes over me once more. "Not wearing your 'power ring'?"

"It's on a cord around my neck. I don't want to get accused of using an unnatural mental influence."

"Ah, don't worry." Anthony pats me on the back. "Only Mutants get accused of that."

Steve shakes his head. "Logan told me about anti-Mutant prejudice, but I still don't understand why it's so common. The fact that there aren't shops with 'no blacks or Irish' signs up front is my favorite thing about the future. It just seems so.. strange to me that Mutants are still victimized."

Anthony shrugs. "Hey, I'm not prejudiced myself. Y'know, I guess people are just.. put off by people who can do.. weird things."

"In the Second World War I fought alongside the King of Atlantis, a robotic man who spent most of the time on fire, a vampire, and a man who could run at the speed of sound. None of them aroused this sort of fear."

Anthony twitches slightly. "Okay, maybe it's because there's so many of them. I don't know."

"Hey guys!" Janet's wings buzz as she flies does the stairs and beaming as she does so. "All ready for the big day!?"

I seem to remember that in the main Marvel universe, her powers are the result of some sort of science experiment gone wrong while in the Ultimate Universe she says that they are while actually being an x-gene Mutant. One ring scan is all it took for me to find out that the latter is true here. That.. might be why she's been so willing to help me with Anna Marie. Or it might just be that she's that nice.

I shake my head. "No, but here we are anyway. Is Anna-?"

Anna steps self-consciously around the corner of the landing and starts down the stairs. It's really.. too hot for the layers that she's wearing, but between Henry's expertise in material science and Janet's skill as a fashion designer we've come up with something that looks… Nice? I think? While also preventing that accidental skin contact that would set off her life-drain power.

"Anna? All ready?"

She meets my eyes for a moment, then returns her gaze to the stairs. "Yeah."

Janet pointedly raises her eyebrows in my direction, but I'm already walking up the stairs and sticking my left hand inside my shirt to touch the ring. Just a touch to get an environmental shield, then I reach out with my right hand and gently hug Anna. We.. haven't been together long enough for me hugging her to be a normal thing, but she does understand that I'm not trying to… Take advantage of the situation of being the only person on the planet outside of her immediate family she can touch without putting them in a coma. She cautiously returns the gesture, her arms going around my chest and her right cheek touching mine for a moment. Still some work to go on convincing her not to completely avoid human touch, but… Better than when we first met.

I pull back, smiling at her in an attempt to reassure her. "You ready?"

She looks away to the left, shrugging helplessly.

"Anna, if you don't want to do this-."

"No, I-." She looks up at me. She isn't crying, but she looks very far from happy. "I just.. wish it.. didn't-."

"I know. I know."
 
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The Anthony thing is weird.
I know that Paul doesn't do nicknames, but Anthony Stark is Tony's dad.
Not in a 'Please, Mr Stark is my father, call me Tony' way, either. This is more like Johnathan and his son John.

Edit: Totally forgot that Tony's dad's name is Howard Stark, not Anthony Stark.
No idea what I was on about.
 
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And yet, we rarely, if ever, see Iron Man or any of the Avengers put a stop to any of the more extreme anti-mutant atrocities.

Just because he isn't prejudiced him self doesn't mean it bothers him enough to do anything about it. Historically the rich and powerful rarely directly persecute minority groups, mostly they tend to stand back and benefit from it. Also between running his company, being a billionaire playboy, being a Avenger and building new armors Tony has a lot on his plate.
 
Why is he adopting her, not Xavier?
Because shortly before I started writing this I read a comic which... Put a certain slant on her first meeting with Xavier. An Orange Lantern usually wants to deal with problems themselves anyway.
Isn't she already at his school?
At this point she probably is, because he didn't want her to miss any more school while he tried to resolve the situation.
And yet, we rarely, if ever, see Iron Man or any of the Avengers put a stop to any of the more extreme anti-mutant atrocities.
Yeah.
 
Beautiful.
She is going to have a power ring wielder as a father and a goddess of death as a mother, truly any boyfriend she brings home is going to be one brave one if he knows this.

Zoat does this version of the SI look like someone in his late teens or early twenties like the mainline version, or does he look a bit older?
I think you, or someone else said that he looks slightly older because his teammates are all adults and he changed to fit in?

Was Tony's reactions because of Sublime?
 
13th June
08:36 GMT -5
Earth 8096


I take a moment to look at myself in the hall's full length mirror. I bought this suit specifically for things like this. I've been to court more than once since I started working with-. Since I became an Avenger. Those escapees weren't going to testify against themselves, were they? But I haven't been-. Okay, family court isn't anything like that adversarial. This isn't even a trial. But still
No-one likes going to court. It's awkward and depending on the conditions, you're stuck up in front of several dozen strangers minimum like a turkey on display. That'd make anyone uncomfortable...

I shift my weight awkwardly from my left foot to my right. No, it's no good. Anthony was right about the quality. I can't feel uncomfortable about this suit if I try. The cobbler was even able to realise my desire for trainers that look like dress shoes. The nerves are all me, all internal.

And I feel bad for a moment. Because I know at least one person feels worse about-.
It's okay to be worried. You're concerned for someone else. Honestly, The amount of Compassion flying about I doubt you'd be able to use the Ring at all.

"Big day today, huh?" I turn around at Anthony invites himself in, leaning against the dining room's door frame. "I had my people look up Judge McAlister's records. He's an okay guy. There shouldn't be any surprises."

"Yeah."
Stop trying to help, Tony, you're only making the nerves worse...

"Hey." He shrugs, frowning. "You know these things are basically formalities, right?"

I turn away from the mirror and face him. "Honestly, Anthony, I'll be pleased just to walk free from court."
And he's not even on trial...

"In that case… Don't punch the judge. I guess? Unless you really want to." He sees my reaction. "Ah. I.. really don't get why you're so worried about this."

"Because I'm a single adult man trying to adopt a teenage girl he's not related to." I shake my head and head for the door.
Oof. Yeah, I can see people being concerned about that sort of thing. Especially a 'freaky glowing guy'...

He steps back into the corridor as I approach and spreads his hands out. "Yeah, but there's extenuating circumstances. I should know; I proof-read the forms."

"Pardon me?"
Ah, the voice of good sense.

I turn around as Cap-. Steven-. As Steve walks down the corridor toward us.

I smile. "Good morning, Steve."
So, how many times did he have to tell you to call him Steve before it started to feel natural?:p

"Are you worried about today?" I nod. "I thought Tony said it was just a formality."

Anthony nods. "Tony did say it was just a formality because it is just a formality. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that they reject your application and that's pretty unlikely. If the judge decides it looks suspicious he'll probably just ask for more evidence, and if her folks aren't… Aren't trying to get her back, that doesn't really change anything."
Given who we're talking about, I'd say they're glad she's gone from their lives.

Steve frowns. "Is there a reason why this is so difficult? In my day, if someone wanted to adopt a child and their parents weren't able to take care of them, it was just a matter of signing a form."

Anthony rolls his eyes. "Orphan Trains kinda went out of fashion."
Man, there are some messed up things in History...

Steve pauses for a moment, which I've learned is a sign that Anthony's made an age-quip that has annoyed him but that he plans to rise above. "Orphan Trains went out of fashion in nineteen twenty nine. That's why I grew up in New York rather than Kansas."

And that expression means that Anthony knows that he said something that he shouldn't, doesn't plan on apologising for it and might well double down unless someone else says something. So I'd best say something.
Yeah, Tony isn't good at the whole 'de-escalation' thing, in conversations or combat...

"Steve, the problem is… Humans are instinctively bad at judging risk. Proportionally to the number of people who use them, planes are far safer than cars. But there'll be a major investigation after every plane crash while car crashes are… Pretty much regarded as the price of driving cars. Newspapers, radios and television news programs keeping everyone informed of the worst things that are happening don't really help. The result is that people.. passing laws are hypersensitive to things going wrong. For example, children sent to the aforementioned Kansas being used as cheap labour rather than being taken into a loving family as a new son or daughter."
And that's why they're not a thing anymore...

Steve frowns. "Sure, it wouldn't be ideal, but I'm.. not sure that growing up as a farm laborer would be worse than growing up homeless on the streets in New York."

"But them growing up homeless on the streets of New York wouldn't have been specifically authorised and enabled by law."
And I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have become Captain America, either... Well, it'd be less likely...

"I see what you're saying, but I think that's a little cynical."

"Yes, yes it is, and as a man who earnestly desires to raise a young woman with.. no one else willing to care for her as his own daughter I'm experiencing that in a way I hadn't ever expected to. But that's.. what I meant about judging risk. People find out that a particular adoption went badly wrong, they demand that laws be passed to prevent it happening again, and… Mostly what that does it make life harder for good people. But it also stops a small number of… People who would abuse their charges. There's always balance to be struck between complexity and risk."
By nature, Tony is cynical, it's how he gets through life. As for the issues with adoptions, better to hamper one or two good ones than let the bad ones go unhindered...

Anthony tilts his head to the right. "If you want really cynical, it's actually in some people's interests to cause those sorts of moral panics. Not that hard to get elected on a promise to fix a problem everyone's worried about, even if you have to make up the problem yourself."

Steve exhales involuntarily and looks away for a moment.
Not really a new thing, is it?

Anthony smirks subtly, then runs his eyes over me once more. "Not wearing your 'power ring'?"

"It's on a cord around my neck. I don't want to get accused of using an unnatural mental influence."

"Ah, don't worry." Anthony pats me on the back. "Only Mutants get accused of that."
You could sound a little more concerned about that, you know...

Steve shakes his head. "Logan told me about anti-Mutant prejudice, but I still don't understand why it's so common. The fact that there aren't shops with 'no blacks or Irish' signs up front is my favorite thing about the future. It just seems so.. strange to me that Mutants are still victimized."

Anthony shrugs. "Hey, I'm not prejudiced myself. Y'know, I guess people are just.. put off by people who can do.. weird things."
And yet people like the Avengers are lauded, while Mutants and more ambiguous guys like Spiderman get hassled... The Marvel Universe humans are dumb... And it's not all to blame on the Sublime life-form.

"In the Second World War I fought alongside the King of Atlantis, a robotic man who spent most of the time on fire, a vampire, and a man who could run at the speed of sound. None of them aroused this sort of fear."

Anthony twitches slightly. "Okay, maybe it's because there's so many of them. I don't know."
It doesn't help that some of the most vocal, out-there mutants are terrorists who proclaim Mutant-kind's 'Destiny' is to supplant Humanity... Or the guys running around fighting them.

"Hey guys!" Janet's wings buzz as she flies does the stairs and beaming as she does so. "All ready for the big day!"

I seem to remember that in the main Marvel universe, her powers are the result of some sort of science experiment gone wrong while in the Ultimate Universe she says that they are while actually being an x-gene Mutant. One ring scan is all it took for me to find out that the latter is true here. That.. might be why she's been so willing to help me with Anna Marie. Or it might just be that she's that nice.
Huh. That must have been an awkward puberty for her...

I shake my head. "No, but here we are anyway. Is Anna-?"

Anna steps self-consciously around the corner of the landing and starts down the stairs. It's really.. too hot for the layers that she's wearing, but between Henry's expertise in material science and Janet's skill as a fashion designer we've come up with something that looks… Nice? I think? While also preventing that accidental skin contact that would set off her life-drain power.
Guessing she hasn't got any actual powers other than the life-draining yet.

"Anna? All ready?"

She meets my eyes for a moment, then returns her gaze to the stairs. "Yeah."
Yeah, hopefully she ends up in a better state of mind here, with someone who can handle her powers.

Janet pointedly raises her eyebrows in my direction, but I'm already walking up the stairs and sticking my left hand inside my shirt to touch the ring. Just a touch to get an environmental shield, then I reach out with my right hand and gently hug Anna. We.. haven't been together long enough for me hugging her to be a normal thing, but she does understand that I'm not trying to… Take advantage of the situation of being the only person on the planet outside of her immediate family she can touch without putting them in a coma. She cautiously returns the gesture, her arms going around my chest and her right cheek touching mine for a moment. Still some work to go on convincing her not to completely avoid human touch, but… Better than when we first met.
Presumably in this universe, Paul picked up the report on an unusual coma case, and intervened to protect Anna. I expect she spends most of her time studying at the Xavier Institute?
(And ninja'd by the author...)

I pull back, smiling at her in an attempt to reassure her. "You ready?"

She looks away to the left, shrugging helplessly.

"Anna, if you don't want to do this-."
Having a parental figure who doesn't hate her or want to use her powers for good or ill? Why would she be hesitant? I mean, I know she's probably nervous, but...

"No, I-." She looks up at me. She isn't crying, but she looks very far from happy. "I just.. wish it.. didn't-."

"I know. I know."
Have faith it'll turn out well, not fear that something will go wrong...

Admittedly, this could be more difficult if Paul here tweaked his body like most versions do. I imagine the public are confused as to why the late-teens guy is trying to adopt a girl of maybe fifteen.
 
Admittedly, this could be more difficult if Paul here tweaked his body like most versions do. I imagine the public are confused as to why the late-teens guy is trying to adopt a girl of maybe fifteen.

Ah, but he doesn't have any reason to lie about his age without a teenaged in-group.
 
So, adopting Rogue, huh? You big softy...

Although, now that I think about it... Is the expy aware of the Quantum Bands? (https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Quantum_Bands)
He's heard of them. That's about it.
Zoat does this version of the SI look like someone in his late teens or early twenties like the mainline version, or does he look a bit older?
I think you, or someone else said that he looks slightly older because his teammates are all adults and he changed to fit in?
A bit older.
Was Tony's reactions because of Sublime?
Every baseline human has their reactions to everything slightly shaded by Sublime.
 
Proportionally to the number of people who use them, planes are far safer than cars. But there'll be a major investigation after every plane crash while car crashes are… Pretty much regarded as the price of driving cars
Come to think of it, that's actually a relatively good reason to have a more serious investigation of plane crashes.
Yeah, that's not creepy at all. Paul's right to be worried that the court might refuse his application.
Care to elaborate on exactly what you think is creepy?
 
Guessing [Rogue] hasn't got any actual powers other than the life-draining yet.

Most of the other powers, as I recall, came from her having drained Carol Danvers at one point, right? In the EMH timeline that isn't possible yet; Carol doesn't get gifted powers by Mar-Vell until partway through Season 2...


Care to elaborate on exactly what you think is creepy?
Because one of the moral panics du jour is that an adult man can only look at an underage woman if he's sizing her up for sexual explotation, let alone if he's trying to adopt her.
 
Paul looks like a young adult in this universe.
I know Zoat said he looks a bit older, but probably looks like he is in his mid twenties at best.
A man that young adopting a teenage girl is going to become suspicious.

Zoat has this version of Paul already started dating Hela?
You said that it was unlikely he would stay in her realm if he had a daughter to look after?
 
Realistically speaking Paul would have absolutely zero chance of successfully adopting Rogue.

Let's look at the various disqualifying facts.

He has a high risk job.

His job will keep him away from home for days at a time.

He's both single and male.

He doesn't have US citizenship yet.

He has almost no history.
 
Realistically speaking Paul would have absolutely zero chance of successfully adopting Rogue.

Let's look at the various disqualifying facts.

He has a high risk job.

His job will keep him away from home for days at a time.

He's both single and male.

He doesn't have US citizenship yet.

He has almost no history.

He's also an Avenger and Tony's rich enough to toss as many lawyers at the problem as they need.
 
Realistically speaking Paul would have absolutely zero chance of successfully adopting Rogue.

Let's look at the various disqualifying facts.

He has a high risk job.

His job will keep him away from home for days at a time.

He's both single and male.

He doesn't have US citizenship yet.

He has almost no history.

He is a Superhero, a very rich and attractive Superhero, normal rules dont really apply here.
 
"Not wearing your 'power ring'?"
Mr Zoat, is there any particular reason for there to be quotation marks around the term power ring? Does Tony disagree with the term or something?

I seem to remember that in the main Marvel universe, her powers are the result of some sort of science experiment gone wrong while in the Ultimate Universe she says that they are while actually being an x-gene Mutant. One ring scan is all it took for me to find out that the latter is true here. That.. might be why she's been so willing to help me with Anna Marie. Or it might just be that she's that nice.
How many people actually know Wasp is a mutant? Was Paul the first one to figure it out? Did he get that confirmed by Professor X? Also, does that revelation change anything?
 
How many people actually know Wasp is a mutant? Was Paul the first one to figure it out? Did he get that confirmed by Professor X? Also, does that revelation change anything?
If it's like in Ultimates only Hank Pym knows, because he helped her cover her being a mutant up, by claiming her powers are a result of his shrinking/growth serum, when he actually based it on her.
 
This is happening before Paul reached out to Magneto right? Because otherwise I'd expect him to comment something about the weirdness surrounding normies reaction to mutants.
It was supposed to. I wrote it long enough ago that I don't remember the dates.
Mr Zoat, is there any particular reason for there to be quotation marks around the term power ring? Does Tony disagree with the term or something?
Anthony 'Iron Man' Stark thinks that it sounds silly.
How many people actually know Wasp is a mutant?
Henry Pym.
Was Paul the first one to figure it out?
'Figure it out' is a generous way to describe a ring scan.
Did he get that confirmed by Professor X?
No. Why would he?
Also, does that revelation change anything?
It would tank her career if it became more widely known. Also, it puts her in danger of getting outed.
 
Admittedly, this could be more difficult if Paul here tweaked his body like most versions do. I imagine the public are confused as to why the late-teens guy is trying to adopt a girl of maybe fifteen.
Actually why didn't he do that? I got the impression that it was automatic with Paul having a orange ring. It works off his wants not his will.
 

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