Yue

 Doppelgängered

1st February

12:52 GMT +1

"Oh." Thaddeus Junior lowers his… I don't actually know what that is, once he sees that it's just me. "You want something?"

"I need to talk to Georgia, actually." And this time I came in via the door rather than just teleporting to her. I don't for a moment doubt that the Sivanas have improved their anti-intrusion measures since my return to Earth. "Is she at home?"

He looks mildly confused. "No, she's in the workshop." His hands are already fiddling with the 'ray gun' in his hands as he steps back from the door. "Come in."

"Thank you."

He nods distractedly, taking some sort of matter sculpting tool out of his lab coat and using it on his ray gun. "Sure, whatever. This way."

The corridors… Have been slightly modified since my last visit. Someone has put some paint on them for a start, and there are pictures… There are variants of historically significant pictures with members of the Sivana family replacing their original focus. I actually stop and wince at the sight of the Sivanafied version of The Scream.

"Is your.. father branching out?"

"Huh?" Thaddeus had made it most of the way down the corridor without realising that I was no longer with him. He stops tinkering with his ray gun and walks back, trying to work out why I stopped. "Oh, that. It's his parallel universe life coach guy. He suggested that Dad try something expressive that.. wasn't a ray gun." He shakes his head. "I don't get it. Ray guns are plenty expressive, aren't they? But anyway, Dad wrote a computer algorithm and this… Well, these are the result."

"Huh."

"Yeah, that was what I said. Eh, I suppose it covers the turret hatch." He heads back down the corridor. "You coming?"

I.. take a step away from the painting, shrug slightly and then follow him.

"Hey, Georgia. You got a visitor."

With one false start, Georgia extracts herself from the interior of… Some sort of rocket? And pushes the welding mask up before looking around. She sees me and smiles warmly. "Ah, Orange Lantern! To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Georgia, I need help only you can provide."

"Well, natur-."

"Georgia!" Thaddeus glares at her. "We're not supposed to mind control him! Remember what Tia said!"

"I didn't mind control him." She preens, nose up and right hand on her chest. "He's simply seeking me out because he recognises my brilliance."

I tilt my head thirty degrees to the right. "She did not mind control me. I simply sought her out because I recognise her brilliance."

She regards me contemplatively. "Or… Did I-? No, no, that was humour."

I straighten up, smiling. "Well spotted."

She nods, satisfied. "We're not quite so bad as Dad. What is it you need my help for?"

"I need you to use your mad science powers for me."

"I'm afraid we're a little busy with this sheeda mess-."

"Hey!" Thaddeus glares at me. "What's so special about her mad science powers?! I'm a mad scientist too!"

"But I need a mad social scientist, and you-"

"It is a soft subject!"

"-were quite emphatic that you don't respect the discipline."

Georgia stalks towards her brother. "It's not a soft subject! Do you have any idea how hard it is to eliminate independent variables from a study of giant monster attacks!?"

Thaddeus gesticulates, apparently forgetting that he's holding a ray gun. "Not as hard as making giant monster attacks!"

Georgia and he square up to one another. "I couldn't use data from attacks I made, that would risk biasing the data!"

"Excuse me?"

"What?!" / "What?!"

"If we could take this back to my original enquiry?"

Thaddeus rolls his eyes. "Fine. I'll go and do some real science." He stamps towards one of the other doors. "Can't make strangle-broccoli with social science."

Georgia waits until the door is closed before relaxing her posture and shaking her head. "There's no talking to him when he's like that. So." She turns back to me, smiling winsomely. "Who are we experimenting on today?"

"Not experimenting. Putting into practice."

"Oooooooooooooh. I like the sound of this." She grins. "What are we doing?"

"Advanced technology does not propagate well through our society. Captain Cold robs banks rather than building freezers, despite the obvious financial incentives for him to do so. Superman sits on a treasure trove of alien technology that could revolutionise the way we live, but contents himself with inefficiently punching things rather than rendering that punching unnecessary in spite of his genuine desire to do good in the world."

"And you want to know why? I suppose that Dad's example-."

"No. It's not that I'm not curious, but I don't need to know 'why'. I need it to stop."

She raises her eyebrows. "To stop?"

"To stop. I don't know if it's psychological, something to do with our social structures, our evolutionary biology, our.. financial systems… But things aren't happening which -on the surface- it appears should be. And I need it to stop, so they can start. I don't…" I take a breath. "I'm pretty good at understanding the motivations of individuals, but… My empathic abilities don't work on groups. You're… Literally the only person I can think of who might be able to solve this for me."

"Hnm." She frowns thoughtfully. "It's a puzzle. But… We're supposed to be working on the sheeda problem."

"Your father and your brother are perfectly capable of making weapons. But the more widespread they are the better. It's nearly pointless if no one is prepared to use them."

Georgia glances guiltily at her rocket.. thing. "We weren't planning on handing them out. This is personal."

"But why? If the aim is just to beat the sheeda, shouldn't you want to maximise our chances? And it's not as if people haven't tried to kill your father or you before."

She frowns, her right hand stroking her chin and her gaze distant. "That… Is… Curious."

"If you can crack this, high value weapons created all over the world will suddenly become available en masse. And as I said, you're the only one who can do this. Mad social scientists don't come along very often at all."

"I… Suppose that it wouldn't hurt to take a look. And you're right; it would benefit from my particular insight. Have to…" She glances at her rocket again. "Finish this off first…"

"Thank you. I really appreciate it. Oh, and if you want to gather some first hand data I'm going to visit Captain Cold today. Do you want to tag along?"