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

[Darko]

Which suggests the anti-scanning is fairly new, then

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Not really.

Several years ago it was mentioned that Luthor was apparently adding anti-scrying wards in the logos of his company's products.

Granted, that would protect just the products, not necessarily the whole structure, and Lonnie is unlikely to use LexCorp products.

Damn. Good thing they gave up, that could have been bad.

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I wonder if Reb was behind it.

Maybe after taking out Sam, he wanted to destroy the Heartland, but ran into the budget issue, or figured out that if the shady agents get access to the Heartlands then they may also get access to the Badland.

How did he manage to collect all that, anyway? I'm pretty sure electronics stores and supermarkets would take note of a ten-year-old boy by himself. Unless he's been raiding abandoned locations...

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After Anti-Life a lot of places are probably abandoned.

Heck, after Anti-Life it wouldn't be too strange if a lot of children are taking care of themselves.

 

[Darko]

S.H.A.D.E. build it in the

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"built"

 

[Sordid Snake]

Is the dog evil? Can dogs be evil?

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I'm more interested in "Can a dog be an anarchist? Or would that turn it into a cat?"

Edited to add:

Mr. Machin

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<insert "Rage against the Machin" joke here>

 

[Mr Zoat]

"built"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

Unless you're thinking of rebranding as the Handicapper General, isn't that a good thing?

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Huh, I remember a video short about that. Didn't know it was an old sci-fi story too. And the short had a diffrent ending than what the wiki says.

Is amazing how you even remember so much half forgotten things like this, and then use them well!

 

[Steelplaza]

"I've been to parallel universes. In some of them, certain personal stories are further along, and a matter of public knowledge. I'll take that address and then leave you in peace until I've given Batman a chance to explain what he's doing."

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Shouldn't OL ask about Enginehead, the AI that Lonnie kidnapped, and what that was about?

 

[Darko]

Shouldn't OL ask about Enginehead, the AI that Lonnie kidnapped, and what that was about?

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I think they got him back.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

I seriously hope OL at least applies some way to track Lonnie now that he's met him. I doubt simply pinging him via the Honden will be all that reliable, given how many ways Lonnie's used to hide his existence. And why leave him be at all, given how much trouble OL went through to find him? You know he'll be gone by the time OL comes looking again, if he's got any sense. Dangit, OL!

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That is going to come back to bite him.

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Honestly, it's probably a good thing that OL didn't arrest Lonnie, because that way, he will stay out of Batman's reach. There's no telling what Bruce might do to Lonnie for ratting him out to OL, especially in his mentally unstable state. He might decide to coerce, brainwash or blackmail Lonnie into working for him for the greater good, or maybe even mindwipe and lobotomize Lonnie altogether. And don't tell me it couldn't happen, because we've seen Bruce pull this sort of crap in other continuities.

 

[Vaermina]

And why leave him be at all, given how much trouble OL went through to find him?

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Because Orange Lantern is a goldfish.

He hunted Lonnie down because it annoyed him that he couldn't. And now that he has, he's going to fly off to whatever next catches his attention.

 

[Prince Charon]

Huh, I remember a video short about that. Didn't know it was an old sci-fi story too. And the short had a diffrent ending than what the wiki says.

Is amazing how you even remember so much half forgotten things like this, and then use them well!

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They made us read an illustrated version of it in high school, but probably completely missed the irony of doing that.

 

[Jirachi]

I do wonder about the implications for the reach war of this guy having the ability to make boom tube generators - it seems like at least the midcore of the reach can't effectively interdict boom tubes, at least as a matter of routine, so there's definitely a world where some sort of lantern and/or effigy strike force ends up doing skirmishing and/or scouting deeper within for a while. But I suppose that dox already knows how to do it and hasn't been onscreened as doing it quite yet, though I definitely think it's a reasonable path to go down trying to see if they can make it more practical, especially given they have a ship commanding godling on staff.
Wonder if Anarky would be interested in the chaos magic position - or just the rest of his magic files. He's so charmingly driven that I want to see him protected and flourish.
The wards really are awkward, sometimes, though they're rarely that that big a problem. Might be worth looking into seeing if Guy and/or Alan are ready to do quintessence waveform scans yet - seems like that'd open up some doors for superhero debugging work that sort of only the SI (and perhaps Doctor Mist and maybe theoretically angelica) are qualified for, and it'd probably help a lot in the sort of worldwide intrigue setting that the last justice league readiness test was all about.

 

[xSieg]

I hope Paul adopts Anarky, honestly. He'd be such a horrible dysfunctional role model to him that it'd be a nice contrast to Renegrayven.

 

[Vaermina]

I hope Paul adopts Anarky, honestly. He'd be such a horrible dysfunctional role model to him that it'd be a nice contrast to Renegrayven.

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Orange Lantern doesn't have the attention span to raise a kid sidekick.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th July 2013
10:21 GMT -5

"Ah…" Karon's reluctance to talk about it is obvious in her voice, but I also know that she's a responsible woman. "Okay. Okay. What do you need to know?"

"When you were… Mistress, did you sponsor any sort of technological research..? If you remember."

"I can remember just about everything. But I'm.. pretty sure I wasn't doing anything like that. Uh. That wasn't how I… How I ran things."

"And you didn't use devices like that were created by someone else?"

"Some… Weapons, and some of Joker's gas grenades. Nothing… Nothing sophisticated. Ah. What are you looking for?"

I carefully study the defunct bank below me. "Something which merges the left and right halves of someone's brain together."

"Doesn't the corpus callosum already do that?"

"It connects them, but they're still distinct units. Actually, did you know that there's a treatment for severe epilepsy which involves destroying the corpus callosum so that the seizure can't cross from one side to the other?"

"No? Does it work?"

"Yes, though there are some strange side-effects to cutting a brain in half. It-."

"Eh, you know, actually? Don't tell me. And… I don't need to know who build that or why they… Thought that was smart."

"I'm hoping that it can be used to undo traumatic brain injuries, but that's probably a bit hopeful. Thank you for your help."

"Sure. Any time you want me to tell you I don't know anything… You know where I am."

"Any how are you doing? Generally."

"Do you have..? Time to-."

"Yes, I absolutely have time for you. And I've.. run into enough anti-scan devices that I'm sending in robots to check the building first and I can't move in until they report back."

"Ah… Well… The travel company I used to work for is definitely gone. They found the new owner, but there's just… No demand. No one even wants to travel to other places in the U.S. anymore. On the other hand, working logistics isn't all that different. And who can say no to cheap chocolate?"

"Someone watching their figure?"

"Hey!"

"In general! In general." … "What did you think of the adverts?"

"The first time it was pretty funny, now it's just… Again? Really?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not a good enough writer to do more than a few."

"Those dogs were okay, right?"

"You have my personal guarantee that no dogs are harmed in the making of Cadbury's chocolate."

Incoming message.

"Yeah, but how about Hershey's?"

"You'd have to ask them. And I'm afraid that I'll have to cut this short. The robots confirmed all clear."

"Okay. Good luck with your weird brain merging gizmo. Uh, you're not going to use it yourself, right?"

"Of course not-"

"Good."

"-until I've tested it. Bye!"

Power armour humming and construct armour glowing, I drop down and push through the bank doors. They locked the doors when it was closed down, Blüdhaven not really being sophisticated or rich enough for banking scams to keep it afloat. The doors were forcibly unlocked during the Anti-Life period, and forced open again when a crew came through to remove the bodies.

And apparently Lonnie spent some time here. I'm not sure why he would have come in here… The vault might be safe, but it's not like there's much left in here. No food, not much to burn for warmth… The roof is solid, but that's about all I can say for it. I suppose that with a boom tube generator a locked vault might be secure enough…

And he found a brain-altering machine. That says 'supervillain', but I can't really think of any Gotham supervillains who do brain alterations. Not chirurgical ones anyway. I'd wonder if it was Sivana but his security would be better. I'll have to scan it thoroughly when I get inside.

The place is warded, but flicking out orange tendrils lets me pick up genetic samples directly. Mostly people whose bodies were identified, a few… Samples which I assume are from other Blüdhaven residents. No one I recognise as being… 'Significant' sounds harsh, but it's essentially true. No one who would have the ability to build this, no one who would have any reason to build this, no one where there would be a reason to use something like this on them.

I float around the service desk and head towards the vault.

Of course, the style of the design might give me a clue as to the identity of the creator. It would be out of character, but the Joker did work with the other members of the Injustice League. It's not impossible that they collaborated on other projects before the Smilex vines. I'll ask Dr. Isley.

The vault door is closed but… Not locked. Attach a construct to the rotor mechanism and turn it, and then swing the door open.

Some empty shelves, and…

Huh.

I float inwards. It looks a little like a sawn-off C.A.T. scanner. There's a 'bed', but the machine itself is only deep enough for the subject's head. The machine itself… It looks like it was made by a mid-range supervillain. They had the money for parts, but not to make it look like a unified device in the way that someone with serious money would; parts of the casing don't match the colour of the other parts, and in places the angles are off where something has been laid over innards that it wasn't originally build to contain. The custom parts would have been built here… Yes, there's the work bench and… What was once a clean room. A petrol-powered generator appears to have been the power source.

Prints?

Not found.

Wearing gloves the whole time? Perfectly possible. And unusually there's no sign of habitation; no discarded food containers, no chemical toilet or sleeping bag. So living somewhere else? Except this is a big project. For a single individual, this is what they'd have to be focusing on. They wouldn't want to commute. But it's a big building. Plenty of room in the offices upstairs.

Scan for genetic material.

Orange filaments flicker out, and… Find hairs.

Match found. Jarvis Tetch.

…

Oh.

I jam filaments into the machine, taking note of every part and component. Access the data storage components…

What..? Was he doing? And why?

 

[Whenever Possible]

Looking for Alice, presumably

 

[BR549]

Match found. Jarvis Tetch.

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Mad Hatter's given name is Jervis.

 

[Ngamer11]

"Eh, you know, actually? Don't tell me. And… I don't need to know who build that or why they… Thought that was smart."

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That should say 'built'.