The Adventures Of Doctor Curlyhair, Girl Genius!

But is he in control of it? I never liked Tagg, and he gave off vibes similar to General Ross from Marvel.

He's most likely one of the people trying to claim she's a Parahuman. Then he can claim priority, since he has background in the military. Boom, free tinker.
I could see it either way really, but I think this fic is campy enough that he probably won't be that in this AU
 
I wonder if someone apart of Protectorate tries to force Lucy to join the wards. It would be funny to see them lose their shit when she doesn't have the tumors in her brain. I wonder if piggot is over her hate of bio tinkering or not. So the crash happened to Lucy instead of Annette?
 
Alternatively he's perfectly happy that the DoD / Government is actually getting something useful for once? I've always read him as more militaristic / hardliner against villains than a pro-PRT stooge. As long as the "good guys" are winning, who cares which alphabet soup is getting the credit?

Holy crap you're alive!

Ahem.


Anyway, the amount of fornicating around and finding out in this chapter is most excellent.
 
Hmm, 'Live and Let Die' as mood music while 'working", it's a Bond theme song, by Sir Paul, being played by a British soldier rescuing a little girl, in WH40 SM power armor.... 👍
 
Honestly the only reason working with the government is working here is because mc is too op. If you are not too op don't spread your tech or take massive risks giving it away to the government in worm, it wont end well for you.
 
Honestly the only reason working with the government is working here is because mc is too op. If you are not too op don't spread your tech or take massive risks giving it away to the government in worm, it wont end well for you.

One of the thing to understand is when it comes to government one of the tenets of sovereignty is the monopoly on violence, a sovereign government can only exist when they have the absolute power over an area, the moment that cease to be the case they lose effectively their sovereignty. Its why vigilantism is so poorly taken, because its an act of defiance on said monopoly, if people can take justice in their own hands it mean they actively take sovereignty over themselves, so governments hates vigilantism because of that, as its their desire to uphold their power over the masses. This would also be applicable to Earth Bet, its why vigilantes are consistently pursued by authorities, because the moment they let someone get away with it they lose power.

The lesson stated by Trek is actually applicable to real life, Earth is Earth no matter what specifics of that setting, the system is liable to work always exactly the same. But yea in this case Taylor is OP for the those in power to be able to go after her, she is an individual which has enough power effectively at her disposition that the US would effectively lose a major challenge on to their authority if they went after her, so they are dependant on her cooperation to retain and enhance their power and thus sustain their sovereignty.

Which make some of the aspects of this chapter ridiculous, it would be completely against the personal interests of those politicians to sell out the golden goose to a foreign power, they'd crave control over her, not giving it up entirely like the ploy would have it in this chapter, its a counter productive move for them to do that, if anything they'd try to have her mastered not send her away, even more so in the particular circumstances of Earth Bet, in a normal superhero world, such a move might have made some vague sense, but Earth Bet has something different, a death sentence, everyone at this point are aware that the sustainability of life on Earth Bet is at risk due to Endbringers, its a fundamental need for the survival of mankind to defeat them, getting rid or endangering any assets that could be liable to defeat Endbringers is effectively to take action against one own survival, which is something no one which isn't completely insane could do, its not like global warming which is a sorta vague threat we face in real life, its a very tangible threat that is undeniable and would be on their minds, so yea their is no way to achieve such a degree of denial on Earth Bet.
 
I get the impression that Frau Schmidt was giving access to her true constituents. I knew the second I saw that she was calling a foreign power that it was going to be "Corporation" (one of the translations for Gesselschaft)

So she's likely one of the Bundists left behind, whose parents probably moved from Yaphank, Long Island when the pressure started getting bad for them, and she went back to her old family name, I suspect.
 
While your analysis is, in my opinion, largely cogent, your final paragraph doesn't necessarily play out. I have to agree with Kinsfire there. There are two foreign "power at all costs" entities in the Earth Bet setting: The CUI and the neo-nazis. Given the large US following of the latter, it is not a stretch to think that Schmidt is a sufficient idealogue to want supremecy of the idealogy over national supremecy. After all, all the abilities will still be available, and if the US is radically shifted to nazi idealogy, then Schmidt doesn't necessarily lose anything and might gain greatly.

Even in the real world, a case could be made about a recently ousted The Squad member who seemed to have a distinct preference for an identity and idealogy over national sanctity or interest.
 
Lucy Nguyen reached up and stroked Smaug's head, reassuring the little dragon. "Okay. That doesn't explain." Why Smaug had tiny wings and was cooing at her? Why she was in a room that looked like it belonged on some Star Trek set? Where the guys and gals wearing World War II German knockoff uniforms went?
Another example where I didn't see a problem first time through. On second reading, it seems a bit awkward at "explain." Should probably be followed by an ellipsis (...) instead to show speach "trailing off."

Edit: I really did like the Congressional panic scene.
 
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"Why wait until international waters?" asked one of the Congressmen.

"Because if he killed a bunch of parahuman kidnappers in American territory, there could be legal repercussions. Since they are in international waters, the kidnapping attempt can't be waved off due to some technicality or jurisprudence conflict," said Danny.
It adds a layer of protection, but it's not a silver bullet. There are some situations where, even if you do X in international waters, you can face charges like, "conspiring to do X," for related activities that you do in national territory beforehand and afterwards.
 
It adds a layer of protection, but it's not a silver bullet. There are some situations where, even if you do X in international waters, you can face charges like, "conspiring to do X," for related activities that you do in national territory beforehand and afterwards.
Granted, but there are two points of interest involved in the way that was setup: 1) An assigned close protection agent who happens to be a foreign national is waiting to avoid the potential "murder" charges for dealing with the attackers of his assignee. 2) Once in international waters, the kidnapping becomes a matter of legally defined piracy where EVERYONE gets a chance to play whack-a-pirate.
 
From the beginning, the title of the chapter gave me curiosity, to read more thoroughly, understanding why, and although a certain congresswoman named extremely suspicious, with the same last name as a certain Marvel villain (Red Skull), she believes herself safe, but given what Danny and a certain general said, it makes believe that this audience also served, to clean the house, so to speak (get rid of a lot of corrupt people, such as said congresswoman)

As for Lucy, well, her new mutant status, and what Taylor does it to save her life, as well as upgrade to Smaug, that cements her as Taylor's new friend; and yes, not bad at all, make her the equivalent of Shadowcat, that and be curious if Smaug would also have the same powers as Lockheed

Of the Perks, of the first, since Taylor does not know about that technology, at least the chrysalis/Pod, it would serve as a preservation chamber?, until she can do something appropriate (that convenient, given what you mention that it will happen in the chapter 21, although I suppose not at the drastic levels of what happened in Canon, or Annette would become The Mom of Blades?)

From the other perk, well since everything Taylor does is pure technology, it is not a bad perk, although I wonder if it will have another function not so obvious in which it can be to used later

Good luck and keep it up
 
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Because that's a stupid violation of her bodily autonomy.
Yup. Building full-on shape-shifters, even with only a single alternate shape, is... non-trivial. So many things to juggle. If Taylor could do this it'd likely be a project, not a reasonably simple fix (and a pet upgrade). We can hope this is a hack, because, Lockheed.

BTW, odds are Lucy doesn't have the full-on Ninja Grand Master bits...
 
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While your analysis is, in my opinion, largely cogent, your final paragraph doesn't necessarily play out. I have to agree with Kinsfire there. There are two foreign "power at all costs" entities in the Earth Bet setting: The CUI and the neo-nazis. Given the large US following of the latter, it is not a stretch to think that Schmidt is a sufficient idealogue to want supremecy of the idealogy over national supremecy. After all, all the abilities will still be available, and if the US is radically shifted to nazi idealogy, then Schmidt doesn't necessarily lose anything and might gain greatly.

Even in the real world, a case could be made about a recently ousted The Squad member who seemed to have a distinct preference for an identity and idealogy over national sanctity or interest.

The problem is risk vs reward, the entire process of capture and extraction of Dr. Curlyhair pose inevitably a risk to her life, losing her would mean losing an asset able to end Endbringers, their is power at all cost and being willing to gamble on their own survival, see you point to the current US politics in this situation but its nowhere near the same, the US is just a shitshow right now and the consequences at worse would be the nation falling, while that may sound tragic to Americans realistically in the history of the world its been there done that, nothing new and we live on, on Earth Bet the survival of the human race is at stake, including those involved in the kidnapping, keeping oneself alive is a fundamental instinct, in the face of a threat like the Endbringers you'd have to be willing to gamble with your own life to be willing to pull that stunt.

Like I said if the lives of the politicians in the congress right now would be at stake you'd find that their identity and ideology politics would take a serious stop, because its all pretty much a game to them, their are little to no stake for them in the entire thing only potential rewards and failure wouldn't impact their life all that much, but if they were put in a scenario where their was an absolute risk to their life, you'd find them unwilling to continue their own shenanigans because surviving would take over primacy over the greed and hunger for power that is currently their driving force.

Earth Bet isn't our Earth imagining that the psychology of the people over there would be identical to our own would be foolish, they have an existential crisis at hand, not Global Warming vague crisis but a visible, very much impossible to ignore crisis, unlike in real life where the rich & politicians pretty much systematically ignore all those vague long term threats to the survival of the human race, its impossible on Earth Bet for them to ignore the Endbringers, because they are in your face and quite visible, all those politicians right now willfully ignoring reality are only capable of doing so because its not literally smashing them in the face, on Earth Bet you never know where the Endbringers will turn out and whatever you are rich or poor if you get caught you are doomed because no amount of money will allow one to escape that problem.
 
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no amount of money will allow one to escape that problem.

That's not true, running away is always an option. If you jump into a helicopter and get the fuck out of the target area you can save your own behind. You lose all assets in the place attacked, but that might be a minor setback if you are wealthy. The Simurgh and Leviathan approaching your position are kind of hard to miss. I do not know if Behemoth can sneak undetected from underground to his target area, but if you get airborne you should be able to save the most important person in the world - yourself. ;)
 
on Earth Bet you never know where the Endbringers will turn out and whatever you are rich or poor if you get caught you are doomed because no amount of money will allow one to escape that problem.

Ordinary people seems to have time to rush to the shelters once the Endbringer warning sounds, but it is unclear if it worked like this before Dragons observaton/prediction system was started.
If there were absolutely no warning I have a hard time seeing any country bothering to build shelters as anything more than 'Survival Theatre' before Dragon started sending out 5-30 minute warnings, but the shelters have clearly existed for quite some time by the time of Leviathan's attack on Brockton.

A business jet on 15 minute standby, a helicopter on 5 minute standby and armored all terrain limo on 1 minute standby would be enough to avoid an Endbringer attack, as long as the Endbringers stick to the powers they SO FAR HAS REVEALED: When the warning comes trust your bodyguards to trample anyone in the way to the limo, use the limo to link up with the helo, take the helo to the waiting plane and unass area at 400knots.

A quick estimation of costs would be 0.4 mil per day for four planes (backups, service, downtime), 0.4 mil per day for four helos, somewhere between 0.1 and 0.9 per day for 100 people to fly, drive, service, organize and bodyguard in shifts 24/7/365. That's 340 to 730 million dollars per year. Assuming they feel it is worth spending 10% of their net worth on this every year, according to Forbes thats still 400 people worldwide. And costs go down if they can manage to ride-share

And even if no Congresscritters are on the Forbes list, they didn't have to pay for transport to Greenbriar, Raven Rock etc during the Cold War out of their own pocket either. I'd expect them to use the 'national security', 'continuity of government' etc excuses to get the tax payers to pay on Earth Bet as well since compared to the Cold War the threat is both more obvious, and undeterrable: Russian love their children too, but the Simurg doesn't.
 
And even if no Congresscritters are on the Forbes list, they didn't have to pay for transport to Greenbriar, Raven Rock etc during the Cold War out of their own pocket either. I'd expect them to use the 'national security', 'continuity of government' etc excuses to get the tax payers to pay on Earth Bet as well since compared to the Cold War the threat is both more obvious, and undeterrable: Russian love their children too, but the Simurg doesn't.
True but I imagine most of said congressmen are still upset where there home gets destroyed even if they escaped. It is not like they have the time to take all there valuables with them so in that regard they are like everyone else. Hence, I suspect they would still be very interested in any means to stopping the endbringers especially if they can use it to win over voters by saying they aided them.
 
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