[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

16th June 2012
19:43 EST

Rachel points at the drinks table and then swings her arm forwards, and the table flies off-.

Are we really going to do this?

"Um." Kitty come up alongside me as Aaron's… Weird extendo-limbs undulate around the thrown table. "You're dating a robot? Did Forge-?"

Aaron points his fingers and there's a pff noise, and then Rachel's eyes widen and her hands come up as a bunch of… Darts? Stop in the air in front of her.

"No, he got built in some government place. My Dad knows his dad. Probably some kinda superhero thang."

"Alright, that's enough." Mr. Summers walks forwards. His fists are clenched, but his hands aren't going anywhere near his visor. "Rachel, stand down now. Aaron, those better have been tranquilisers."

"And we're not dating… Exactly. He's just one of, like, two guys mah age in the whole world ah c'n touch."

Rachel's glaring at Mr. Summers something fierce. I don't know what Aaron's supposed to have done in her messed up future, but it looks like it stuck in her head real hard. "He was the first infiltrator Trask designed! Apocalypse liked them so much-."

I lay my hand on her neck, and there's a quiet sort of gasp-shudder at my power takes hold. And then-.

Uh. I've got better at this. Not that I want to. Using my power always gave me a look at what sort of person I was draining. Like it copied everything they were thinking about right onto my brain. Sometimes I couldn't remember who I was, whatever they were thinking about making me do exactly what they were planning on doing. But I know Rachel's anger at her Dad for being a fool or the Sentinel prototype for existing-

I take my hand off her, and Mr. Summers catches her as she collapses. "Thank you, Anna Marie."

-aren't mine, so I try forcing my body to stay in calm-mode instead of going into anger-mode like it wants to. And I don't see what Rachel saw, but I can remember the jury-rigged robots the Human Liberation Front sent after any mutants they could find because they didn't differentiate between Apocalypse's followers and the mutants fighting against him. I remember that there were robots who were intelligent, robots who organised and directed the others…

Several of them looked like Aaron.

Hand-!

I jerk my head around as Kitty lays her hand on my shoulder, because she knows that I don't like using my power, and what happens when I use it. I'm just glad that Rachel's mostly telekinetic; getting everyone else's thoughts as well as hers would be too much.

Aaron's walking over, his arms and legs retracting back to normal size. Looks like he's not getting his tuxedo deposit back-.

"So is he..?" Kitty leans in closer. "'Feature-complete'?"

"Huh?" What does she-? Oh. "Ah-! Ah don't know that!"

Kitty smirks. "Let me know when you find out."

"Ah might not-." Aaron stops near Mr. Scott. "Hey Aaron." I step away from Kitty, who's obviously trying to be a bad influence "You okay?"

He.. does a sort of half-smile thing, and I'm worried that his face got damaged or something. "It is nothing that half an hour with a buffing wheel won't fix. And, yes."

He is-?

He turns to Mr. Summers, who's manoeuvring Rachel into a bridal carry position so he can take her out and dump her somewhere. "They were sedatives."

"Good. I'm.. sorry about her behavior. She had a rough childhood."

He tilts his head slightly to the side. "She mentioned 'Trask'. Would that be Mister Bolivar Trask?"

"Yes. According to her, he's working on a plan to build giant mutant-killing robots. Do you know him?"

"I met him yesterday. He was quite eager to learn about my design. I have not received any 'Sentinel'-related updates, but it is not impossible that he could create his own variant of my own X series as part of his anti-mutant force. Fortunately, other than myself, all other X series androids so far produced have been insanely violent. Using them in that manner would be ill-advised, at best."

"That's… Good to know."

"And in any case, he may be reconsidering his trajectory. I am not an expert in human behavior, but it appeared that Orange Lantern was quite persuasive when he attempted to convince him to take another approach. Would you like me to help you with Rachel?"

"No, that's part of my job. What do you mean, 'another approach'?"

"He pointed out that none of Kang the Conqueror's followers had the x-gene, and as such any fears about a future x-gene aristocracy oppressing humans without the x-gene were unfounded."

"That's… Interesting, but the sort of person who builds giant anti-mutant robots tends not to be all that rational about it."

"Yes." Aaron nods. "Building a multifunction robot is far more rational, and there is little that can be achieved by a giant robot that can't be achieved by a human-sized robot with an aerial drone."

"Ah, if you say so." Mr. Summers looks at the mess Rachel made. "Would you mind-?"

Aaron nods. "I will tidy up. Anna Marie?"

"Ah, yeah." I follow him over to the table, which like a lot of the furniture in the mansion looks old. And solid.

Aaron reaches down and turns it over like it weighs nothing. "I understand that having drained Rachel Summers, you have temporarily acquired her power."

"Yeah, but ah ain't bin trained how to use it. Ah don't wanna make more of a mess."

"That is probably wise." He.. extends his arms again and picks up the table, twisting it right side up before walking it back to where it started. "How well do you think that I handled that situation?"

"Pretty good. No way y'all coulda known Rachel wuz gunna go psycho on you."

"I had considered that I might experience hostility for being a robot. I did not predict that I might experience hostility for-" He sets the table down, and looks at the punch covering the floor. "-the actions of a completely different type of robot. Do you know where the janitor's closet is?"

"Y'all don't have a built in mop?"

"I was built for combat and infiltration, not sanitation. I only know how to clean at all because Father makes me clean my quarters."

"Hey, ah, dude?" Calvin comes over-. His face is still hanging off.

"X-Fifty? You are far calmer than you were during our last meeting. I approve of your new attitude, particularly given how our motherboards are identical and your insult made no sense."

"No, my name's Mim-. Calvin. Ah. I copied your powers, and now I can't get my face back on."

"Ah. There's a trick to it." Aaron raises his hands towards Calvin. "With your permission?"

"Sure."

Aaron pushes Calvin's face back into place, then sort of shoves it up until there's a click, then takes his hands away. This time it stays there.

"Ah. You are not X-Fifty."

"No. And thanks. Now I'm going to get as far away from you as possible so that I can stop using your power." He steps back, looking really awkward. "You.. guys.. have a good night."

Well, this was weird. But I guess we're learning about each other.

I gesture down the hall. "Closet's this way."

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st September 2013
15:43 GMT -6

"…fine, as far as I can tell." Katar looks up from the thanagarian diagnostic scanner's control console. "But I'm afraid that our equipment isn't reliable when it comes to magic."

Shayera is silently leaning against the wall at the side of the room, mace in hand and eyes locked on me.

Bleez raises her head up slightly. "I feel fine? Is this a real problem? 'cause I've had managers pull their feathers out about my health before? But I'm kinda getting stressed out over how freaked out Paul is."

"Bleez, I'm not freaked out. I'm worried about you."

"It sounds like you're freaked out."

"If I were freaked out, we wouldn't have come here."

"Oh yeah? Where would we have gone?"

"Nowhere. I'd have performed an emergency brain transplant on you right then and there."

"You.. wh-at?"

"Which would be a problem, because I don't have any Nth metal. You'd be unable to fly until I could get hold of an uncontaminated source. And then I'd have to go through your newly rehoused brain with a fine toothed comb, draining any energies I didn't recognise, which might cause other problems because we don't have great records on what happens when thanagarians are exposed to magic beyond the fact that you're somewhat compatible, Thasaro-cultists and their Blessed Ones notwithstanding."

"That's not going to happen." She looks at Katar. "That's not, right?"

"I can't think of any reason why it would. Shayera and I have both been exposed to different forms of magic before, including demon magic. Though… I'll.. admit that I haven't consumed an untested alchemical potion before."

"I didn't know that's what it was! I just thought it was some kind of recreational thing."

"Um."

Katar turns to me. "You have a question?"

"I never asked what thanagarian attitudes towards narcotics in general were. But to a hu-. Ah, me, that.. statement makes me think that I should."

He turns back to the console. "Alcohol is a narcotic. As is tobacco. As is caffeine. I've heard of worlds where refined sugar is illegal. I thought you were better travelled than this."

"I generally stick to consuming readily identifiable food substances with as few psychoactive properties as I can manage."

Bleez looks puzzled. "You've seen me drink alcohol before."

"And coffee, yes, but we're on Earth and I know Earth-drugs. I also know that Katar and Shayera have drunk both of those before without extra ill effects. You've been using something novel."

Bleez's wings brush up against the scanner arms as they spread a little into a 'I can swoop at you if I have to' pose. "I didn't know that. I know some narcotics are super-dangerous and I haven't touched them, but I saw people using this and nothing much happened so I thought it was okay."

"Bleez…" I walk up to the scanner, kneeling down so that our heads are on a level and looking her directly in the eyes. Then reach past the sensor arms and take hold of her hands,. "Please be a little more careful. Earth might look normal a lot of the time, but things can go sideways very quickly and with no warning. If you don't know what a weird mind-altering substance is, please check with someone first."

Her wings relax a little, and she nods. "Okay. Okay."

"Thank you." I take a U.K.-recipe Dairy Milk bar out of subspace and offer it to her. "Have a properly tested narcotic instead."

"Ooh, have you got one of the caramel ones?"

"Ah." I swap the Dairy Milk for a Caramel bar. "Sure?"

"Thanks." She opens the wrapped and chomps the end off the bar. "H-h-h-h-h, refined sugar."

I stand up and step back, rolling my eyes. "But seriously, no sign of adverse effects?"

Katar shakes his head. "None. Are you expecting some?"

"Report's not in the system yet. The magic which makes the patches work went badly wrong for one of the people who took it and we don't know why yet. Could be that it can't happen to aliens, could be that it's more likely, we don't know."

He thinks for a moment. "I thought that lifeforms who did not originate on Earth would be less susceptible to some types of magic effect."

"Yes, but that usually doesn't work out in their favour. Let me guess…"

I fabricate a piece of paper with 'Less intense but lasts longer.' written on it, fold it in half and pass it to Katar.

"Bleez, did you compare the effect of the narcotic on you to the effect it had on the humans you saw using it?"

"Kind of? I wasn't doing an experiment or anything? I don't think it had quite as much for me as it did for them? But I kept feeling happy for the whole day, but for them it was about an hour?"

I flap my right forefinger at Katar. He opens the folded paper and nods. "The connection is weaker, because we are not bound up in this world as you are. But it lasts longer, because we cannot resist it in the way that you can."

"That's my best guess. But if it can work at all, then you can still die of acute thaumacology."

Bleez pulls her wings in tight and opens her hands. "No more! Honest!"

"Okay. Katar, thank you for your help. I-."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh?"

Katar and I orientate on Bleez.

"You know how I send information to the Thanagarian government..?"

"No."

She looks confused. "Is that sarcasm or did I not tell you? I thought I did-."

"I read ahead. You sent samples back, didn't you?"

"I thought it was low risk! Everywhere has narcotics! And how would we even use magic?"

"Seven Devil cultists. Plus, Vulcan's cultists, I assume."

"No." Oh my goodness, Shayera spoke to me. "Doctor Mist checked. We don't have any more magical ability than Superman."

"But the cultists do-. Did. Which means that there's a way to induce-. Sorry, off-topic. Thank you for your help, I'll let you know what happens. Bleez, take me to your dealer."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th June 2012
20:01 GMT -5

"You-?" Henry actually turns away from his work station to stare at me. "You actually did it?"

I tilt my head slightly to the left. "Yes..? I did say that was the next step."

"Well… Sure, but I didn't think you'd actually…" He shakes his head. "How did Tony take it?"

"Phlegmatically. He's still trying to work out how I talked Ronan the Accuser down." I shrug. "I asked him if he wanted me to go in disguise…" I shake my head. "He told me not to bother. According to him, he's got a bet with Doctor Richards going on how long it takes to blow up in my face."

"Don't let them put you off. Victor is an amazing man. Some of the designs he's come up with could put human civilization forward a century."

I nod. "I'm more interested in utility than raw sophistication, but I doubt that his pride would let him work like that."

He frowns curiously. "Like what?"

"A way to extract microplastics from the environment? A way to remove feminising hormones from the water supply? A way to erase radioactivity? Energy teleportation so that we could fuel the Earth using solar panels around the sun? Virus-hunting nanobots?"

"Ah-."

I shake my head, waving my right hand back and forth. "Okay, not nanobots, there's no way that would end well."

"No. No, that's-." He shudders a very small shudder. "No."

"Right. It's-. Building a faster than light drive would be an amazing technical achievement, but it wouldn't really fix any of the problems we have at the moment." I look over at his work station… And I have no idea what that is. "What are you working on?"

"Infrasonics. Are you familiar with the subject?"

I shake my head. "I know some sound frequencies produce feelings of unease, but I can't say I've studied it in any detail."

He nods. "I'm hoping that I can find a frequency that does the opposite."

I nod sympathetically. "Prisoner rehabilitation?"

"Maybe if they were calmer they'd actually listen to the people trying to help them." He shrugs. "It wouldn't be a permanent solution, obviously. Even if I found the exact frequency, they'd still have to process their traumas and learn how to do something productive with their skills, but it would be a start."

"How about colour?"

"Color?"

"I'm guessing that The Raft was grey on the inside? With fluorescent lighting?"

"Huh." His eyes grow distant. "Not throughout the entire building, but in a lot of places. I'll look into it."

"I'd suggest therapeutic gardening, but-"

"We tried that, the sharp-"

"-gardening tools-."

"-objects-. Yeah." He smiles ruefully for a moment. "So what's Anna Marie doing?"

"School prom, actually."

"I…" He frowns. "Thought she wasn't going."

"Yeah, and Janet talked to her about that, and it brought up the whole 'touching people' thing-."

"Ah. Look, I-. I know the.. suit wasn't really-."

"Nonono, the suit was an improvement. Not perfect, but it would have been ridiculous to expect a solution to a problem like that right away."

"Maybe you could as Doom about it."

Ah… "I-. Don't-. Think that would be a good idea. That gives him too much leverage. When it comes to Anna Marie I want someone I trust working on the problem."

It looks like that made him feel worse. "And I'm playing around with the world's biggest sound system. So, she went?"

"Yeah."

"Going stag, or..?"

"I located a young masculine humanoid by the name of Aaron Stack. His skin's synthetic, so her power doesn't register it as being 'alive'."

"'Masculine humanoid'? He's an alien?"

"Android. Though I think he prefers 'robot', which… Legally, is probably correct."

Because he's probably not legally a person. Or… It might be that he would be if it was up to the courts, but at the moment he's firmly in the hands of a government research facility with military ties, and while they're not going to be dicks about things now that they've got an X-series robot that actually works, they're not going to be happy if he starts wanting to go to college, vote in elections or foreswear violence and take a job in a petting zoo.

Henry nods. "Steve not tracked down Jim Hammond yet?"

I shake my head. "Trail went dead in Nevada, and since I have no idea what Horton Cells look like, I can't just 'completely violate the unwarranted searches amendment' and do a general scan for him."

"I'm pretty sure Tony was joking when he said that."

"Oh yes, and if I knew what I saw looking for I'd do it anyway, but…" I shrug. "I don't. And none of the old pictures are good enough for facial recognition scans, so that's out too."

"I suppose finding him would be like finding a needle in a haystack." He thinks for a moment. "And you're okay with him dating Anna Marie?"

"He seemed like a well-mannered lad. And… I think that Anna Marie and I are both realistic about.. things. Even if you made her some sort of energy field that let her touch people enough for normal social interactions, intimate interactions represent another level of challenge. Maybe they'll hit it off, maybe this is a one-off thing, I don't know. I'm sure that Janet's going to grill her when she gets back, and I'll just stand in the background looking stoical. Unless she's visibly upset, in which case…"

A construct shotgun forms in my hand. I hold it up for a moment in an attempt to get a smile… But he's not looking, so I let is dissipate.

"Yeah, Janet's… Really taken to her. What was it..? Made you decide to.. involve her?"

"I needed someone who could cover female-specific issues. Janet was one hundred percent of the women I knew at the time; I hadn't been on this Earth for long, and my.. mother and my sister are back on my original Earth. Honestly, she's…" I briefly run through the women I've met since in my mind. "Still the woman I'd ask."

"You know, we… Never really talked about it." I raise my eyebrows interrogatively. "Having kids. And then, we-. The Avengers… Happened…"

"Are you..? Having some sort of problem..? Between the two of you?"

"At this point…" He turns back towards his work station. "I honestly think she'd be happier dating you."

"A-uh?"

"She's the mother of-"

"Elder sister."

"-your daughter, you actually… Like fighting. And I-. I can't. I just… Can't relate to that-. I… I.. j-. I don't think we're… Right, for each other."

"Aah. Uh-huh. Ah. This is… A surprise to me. Um. I'm… Just going to go and… Speak to her..?"

"Yeah. You… Do that."