Boy Genius

Guillermo’s first thought was that either the techies had sent him a very tall twelve year old or he was just getting old, but the general sweetness of the young man in front of him made him bite his tongue. Younger than his own daughter and with big puppy eyes? He’d have to put his sarcasm aside or he might scare the poor thing off. Besides, if he passed muster here he had to be sharp enough to be worth hiring. So he shook Jonah’s hand, a vague sense of familiarity that he couldn’t shake settling in the longer that he looked at him. “You’re braver than most of the new people I’ve been introduced to. I like that. Got too many interns skittering away from my resting bitch face.” He said, giving the young man a smile before he found himself an unattended computer chair at Jonah’s workstation to claim for his own.

“So you can call me Guillermo, or Mo if that’s too much of a mouthful. They tell you what you’re working with?” Well, it didn’t matter one way or another. He was going to have to show him regardless, but given his age it was only fair to give him some warning. So he slid a hand along the outer seam of his pant leg, dislodging the magnets that normally held them together up to his mid thigh. His cybernetic legs were something he was never fully satisfied with, always looking for ways to improve them and make them better suited to his line of work. Not everyone’s cup of tea, so either they were offloading on the newbie or they were busy, which he could believe. “Double below knee amputation, the brains that be here built me cybernetic replacements for the prosthetics I had been using before I started here. But the thing is, unless you’re the one using them on the daily, it’s not easy to figure out how to best improve them. So…” He slid a flash drive at the younger man and nodded towards it. “I’ve got notes, some drafting blueprints, but I’m not an expert on cybernetics. You might not be either, but I like you, Jonah. I’ll give you a chance.”

“Oh?” Jonah says, blinking up at the older man. He’d never been called brave much before--maybe by his nanny when he was 5 and had jumped into the swimming pool by himself, but never by a stranger. “Oh well, I um, don’t think you have a um...” He trails off his sentence as Guillermo finds himself a chair and sits. 

“Guillermo, got it.” He says with a little nod, feeling a slight flush on the back of his neck. He wasn’t used to calling adults by their first names. Sure, he’d basically grown up around adults, and yeah maybe he pretty much always was the smartest person in the room, but the ego’s of academics were astronomical, and they’d always made sure Jonah knew his place. Now, even though he was technically an adult himself, it still felt weird.

Shaking his head no, Jonah watches curiously as Mo moves a hand down his pant leg to reveal-- 

“Holy crap, wow.” Jonah’s eyes light up immediately in amazement, already dropping to a crouch so he could take a better look. “Sorry, wow it’s just that these are--wow. Incredible.” Jonah, having specialized in such things, was still amazed by the craftsmanship and the quality of the tech. He didn’t touch, but he kept himself in a crouch, eyes scanning over them, his brain already running at a hundred miles a second. “I am, I mean, I don’t know if I’d call myself an expert, but wow, yeah, I think we could definitely get some good upgrades going on these. Wow.” He says with continuous amazement and excitement, only catching himself as he looked up, blushing deeply. “Sorry.” He says, looking a little embarrassed at his own excitement as he stands up, brushing off his knees. “Do you have those notes with you? I’d love to see what you’ve got in mind.” 

There was a chance that Matty was not supposed to be in this part of the building. She was aware of that. Things had taken a turn for the scientific a couple of turns ago, and the guest pass pinned to her sweater was not exactly clearance, but, well, here was the thing–no one had stopped her. And it wasn’t like she was sneaking, either. She’d come looking for her Uncle Matt, and had stopped more than one person to ask if they’d seen him, and more than that–Matty wasn’t exactly subtle. Today’s outfit was a riot of color, her skirt shiny enough it would have made the cut for her Hologram gear if it hadn’t been bright red, and the transparent heels of her shoes were full of confetti that rattled with every step she took. 

So. She figured if it was really bad that she was here, someone would have stopped her. Which was why she didn’t feel bad about continuing to wander through the halls, peering through glass walls into labs in search of her uncle. It seemed sort of unlikely he’d be here, but she wasn’t in any hurry–sooner or later, she figured, she would find her way back to a more reasonable wing, but until then, at least the contents of the labs were interesting.

In the one she’d just passed, for example, there’d been a scientist examining some sort of goo that was the exact color Matty had been thinking of painting her nails, and in this one there was a young man considering a whiteboard with a sweater on fire behind him, and–

Matty stopped, took a step back, peered into that last lab again, taking a moment to consider the chances that the burning sweater was an experiment. Unlikely, she thought, given the complete lack of observation from the only person in the lab. She wasn’t a scientist, of course, but she was pretty sure you were supposed to pay attention to your experiments.

Rapping her knuckles against the door of the lab–which was, blessedly, open–Matty took a step inside and said, “Um, excuse me? Hi, sorry, you look really deep in thought, and I hate to interrupt that, cause I’m sure everyone down here is like, really smart, and you might be about to like, invent something really cool, or find a way to stop sour candy from making your mouth hurt after a while, but I just wanted to check–is that sweater supposed to be on fire?”

Fingers absently tap at his lips as Jonah looks at his whiteboard, eyes running through the scribbles he’d left there, his other hand coming up every so often to jot something down or scrub something off with the sleeve of his shirt. He didn’t hear the faint clicking of heels down the hall, or the small knock on the door. No, Jonah was lost in his own little world of problems and equations, so much so that he didn’t even hear the girl speak at first. His lips move silently, muttering things to himself, and it wasn’t until she reached the end of her statement that his mind clicked into the little hum that was her voice. Blinking, Jonah took another second to realize someone else was talking. 

Head turning, and tilting slightly, much like a dog, his eyes taking a second to take in everything that was going on behind him. The brightness of the other’s outfit distracted him, the word fire never making it to his ears, but the bright flames that had engulfed his sweater was enough to pull his attention away from her. 

“Oh crap! Crap, crap, crap, crap!” His eyes widen, taking another second to reach, the words coming out quick. Jumping into action, Jonah races across the room, grabbing the small fire extinguisher, fingers fumbling with it for a second, but he knew what he was doing. This had happened before. He knew he needed to be more careful--he’d almost burned down an entire lab back when he was at school. He knew better. 

In the next moment the white foam was spraying out over the counter, smothering his sweater and his surrounding papers and notes, a few that had caught fire as well. Jonah let the extinguisher go a few more seconds after the fire was out for good measure before just staring, the creeping sense of dread crawling up his back with a shiver. “Crap.” He says again, quietly, worried etched deep onto his features as he looks at the mess he made before quickly remembering there was someone else in there with him. 

His eyes drag over from the mess to the colourful figure standing there, and once again his words are caught in his throat. “I uh--thank you.” He says, flushing deeply, his neck and ears feeling hot. “I don’t um, I don’t suppose you um, would be able to pretend you didn’t just see that?” He asks, chewing on his lip nervously. 

The worst part about getting paid by a high end research facility was the expectation of productivity - and the frankly exorbitant cafeteria food, fifteen dollars for a sandwich?! Dude, two words: Wage. Slavery. There was also the fact that sometimes, only sometimes, “real science” meant sitting around, waiting for results. Nothing to zap, vivisect, nowhere to take a field trip to, and even during these times apparently it was “unprofessional” to play gameboy or tetris. There were “reports” to file. 

Boring.  They couldn’t have suspended him now? No. Of course not. Green eyes flicked above his shoes, which hey, may have been perched on said reports, sue him, to the countdown clock above the various tanks and coolers. Ten minutes. Ten minutes until show time. Ten minutes was plenty of time to psyche up. Springing out of his chair, he set the lab stereo to full blast, fingers drumming he found himself popping around the lab, bouncing on the balls of his feet as Greta van Fleet blared overhead as he pulled on the sterile gloves.

“- Got love in my heart For an army apart I am bLEEEDINNNGGGG -” Fuck yes, clock says five minutes to science time, baby, and here’s the guitar riff and - “Oh shit, fuck, shit!” He skidded to a stop at a knock on the door that nearly stopped his heart before turning around to see…a kid? Intern? Wow, C.A.R.M.A. was hiring them young. Maybe delivering samples? Was he getting new samples today? Had Christmas come early?!

With a slightly abashed laugh he skipped halfway over towards the door, turning the music down a notch or two, “Hey, sorry man, didn’t see you there, step on in to the den of biophysics. You here with the samples or - new intern? Don’t tell me they need me down in IT again, dude, I told them, I’m not a code monkey.”

Jonah can’t help the way that he stares. From the music, to the singing, to the swearing--it was like the room contained a man-sized hurricane and Jonah was nothing more than a deer in headlights for the moment. He wasn’t sure if he would consider himself someone to have heroes, grown ups had always been disappointing, but Dr. Balfour was someone that came close to that status. Thirty seconds into meeting him, he was already unlike any of the adults that Jonah had encountered in his life so far, and for a second the only thing Jonah could do was blink. 

“O-oh, um, no I’m not um--” Jonah swallows, his throat suddenly dry. He’d never been very good at talking to people. “I don’t have any samples--I’m not an intern.” Jonah’s brain runs on overdrive, too many things to make sense of, leaving him stuttering and feeling the little dip in his stomach. He was always the kid. The assistant. The intern. The errand boy that older scientists bossed around without a second thought. Swallowing again, Jonah straightens his back a little. “I actually just started here as one of the research scientists, I, uh, I’m Jonah. I’ve read a bunch of your papers and I just um, I wanted to say your work is incredible.” 

He finishes with a little smile, shutting his mouth quickly in fear he’d start rambling--people always seemed to hate that. “I--I could um, grab those samples, if you needed?” He adds before he can stop himself. As much as he hated being the errand boy, even he seemed to push himself into that role, having been raised to be accomodating to those around him. 

Jonah Wright || Future Event Bio 

Status: Alive (Metahuman)

Location: Washington, DC (2046) 

On the day that the majority of Pansaw was blimped into the future, Jonah happened to be on a short trip to Washington (a feeble attempt of his father’s assistant trying to give Jonah an actual visit with Winston). 

Today he was in the dining hall, battling one of the vending machines, trying to get a soda. He’d already fed it three extra dollars than he’d needed to, but the machine seemed hellbent on just taking his money. It was late, and the hall was mostly empty as Jonah nervously looked around, silently willing for the machine to give him his drink. A few tables down there was a woman, her head bent over some scattered papers and books, and Jonah kept glancing towards her. He’d started the conversation in his head about four times as he stood there, pressing the button a few more times as if it would finally decide to give his soda. 

Hesitating for another minute, Jonah swallowed, forcing himself to walk towards the other person. “Hi--” He stops, and even though he’d gone over what he would say in his head, his words suddenly disappeared out of his. “I um, I was wondering... see, the um, the vending machine over there, do you know if it works? I um, it keeps just eating my money.” His words come out scattered, realizing how stupid he sounds as he’s saying it. 

“Ow, crap!” Jonah hissed as he pulled the coffee mug away from his lips. He’d forgotten that he’d just gotten a piping hot fresh cup, and once again, his tongue was burned. The little whispered outburst caught the eyes of a couple others that were in the room--his new coworkers. Jonah had never been the best judge of how others were behaving, but he knew that his age did give a bit of a divide. Granted, he’d only been in Pansaw a few days, and had been far too intimidated to really go out of his way to make friends. It would come with time, he thought, or rather, he hoped. 

Jonah flashes a little embarrassed smile to the other’s as they turned away, looking more annoyed than anything. Glancing through his notebook, as he put the cup down, Jonah tapped his fingers gently against the counter, a nervous fidget that he carried with him most places. 

The noise of someone coming into the room had him looking up again, eyes landing on a new man walking into the tech lab. Jonah wasn’t sure if this was the. man he was supposed to be meeting, but he gave a small smile anyways. He’d been given a new project, one that was a little out of his own realm of experience, but they wanted him to expand his skills, which was much easier for him given his power. When the other came up to him, Jonah was sure this must be the person he was set to meet. 

“Mr. Ortega? Hi, I’m Jonah.” He says politely, sticking out a brave hand to shake. 

A few days into his new job and the nervous jitters hadn’t quite subsided. It didn’t help that he was significantly younger than most that worked at CARMA, and well, he wasn’t exactly the best at making friends. Before his power had emerged he’d had a few friends, just some of the other young boys he went to school with, but when he started surpassing them all, moving so quickly into graduation and college, any friends he’d had were lost in the whirlwind that was his mind. 

That day the lab he was working in was empty, other than for him. He was working at the whiteboard, thoroughly engrossed in his work, completely forgetting he’d left a bunsen burner on. The usual clutter that followed him was already scattered across much of the lab, including his sweater that he’d haphazardly tossed on the counter.  

So caught up in his thoughts, fingers tapping absently against his chin, Jonah didn’t smell the small billow of smoke that came from his sweater as it slowly caught light, and the attention of someone passing by. 

Jonah had been to America a few times before, mostly in his nanny’s attempt to try to get him to spend the holidays with his father, though there was only one Christmas that the man had even made a presence, and even then, he paid more attention to his phone than his son. But this time, Jonah was on his own. He’d never really been on his own before, but he’d been insistent about it, and while his nanny, a woman who was more like his very formal mother that only hugged him on special occasions, had tried to protest, Winston Wright thought it would be good for his son to get out into the world--to ‘man up’ as he put it. 

Jonah wasn’t so sure he was going to ‘man up’ as his father wanted him to, but he was excited to be left to his own devices for once. CARMA seemed like a chance of a lifetime, especially with the brilliant minds that were working there that Jonah was practically bursting to meet. 

One of those fascinating minds was Dr. Paxton Balfour. When he’d been given a tour of the facilities, he’d been hoping to catch a glimpse of the man, but didn’t have any luck. The CARMA Base was incredible, to say the least, and Jonah, as usual, found himself barely sleeping, up all hours of the night with excitement and ideas. 

As Jonah was heading to one of the labs where he was to meet someone that would help orient him into his new role, he found himself peeking into one of the other labs he passed, eyes catching the familiar face that he’d been so eager to meet. Freezing, his breath catching, Jonah stood in a suspended moment, his shyness stalling him. It only lasted for a couple seconds before, without thinking, he knocked on the side of the open door, clearing his throat in an anxious way. 

“Um, Dr. Balfour?” He says meekly, remaining in the doorway, should he need to make a quick get away. 

Hypercognition 

Jonah can instinctively or with little effort perform complex mental operations that are beyond the capability of a normal human mind, making his mental actions/process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses more powerful than an average person.

Applications 

Accelerated Thought Process: The ability to process information at an unnaturally fast rate.

Accelerated Development: The ability to develop skills, traits, and abilities faster and more effectively than should be possible.

Accelerated Probability: The power to predict what choices one could make and their potential outcomes, however, Jonah is limited to the information provided to him to be able to calculate such things, thus the outcomes can often be incorrect. 

Codification/Decodification: The power to codify and create complex systems for anything making it very complex and impossible to decipher, as well as the ability to solve or break codes of such complex systems.

Enhanced Memory: The power to remember and recall experiences and events inhumanly well (depending on how old or deeply rooted the memory, it could take Jonah time to retrieve it--Jonah does not have enhanced memories of those prior to his power manifesting).

Enhanced Reading: The power to read at an inhumanly fast level. 

Hypercompetence: The ability to be naturally skilled in various fields at unnatural levels.

Maximum Concentration Capacity: The ability to fully use 100% of one's concentration. 

Multifocus: The ability to focus on multiple things at once.

Weaknesses:

Learning: While Jonah is able to comprehend complex topics fairly easily, he still needs to learn them in order to have an understanding of them (he cannot just become an expert on a field just by thinking about a topic). While Jonah has incredible capabilities to learn, he also can still hit roadblocks, and be stuck on problems or information, especially those that defy the rules of logic. 

Turning it Off: Jonah often struggles to calm his mind down or turn it off. This leaves him often distracted, caught up in his own thoughts, and often keeps him from getting regular sleep.

Overwhelming Level of Thoughts: Sometimes, Jonah’s thoughts can become too much, and he is left overwhelmed by them, sometimes even to the point of a physical reaction, leaving him dizzy, nauseous, exhausted, and with headaches. 

Obsessive Thoughts: Sometimes thoughts or topics get stuck in Jonah’s head (especially if he cannot figure something out), he will find himself obsessing over it, and unable to let it go until he’s solved the problem or learned whatever he can on the topic. 

Harmful Hyperfocus: While Jonah has the ability to focus all of his attention on one thing, this leaves him vulnerable and ‘stuck’ in his own little bubble of thoughts. In this state, Jonah has very little sense of time that has passed, causing him to forget to eat, sleep and take care of himself (this is an ongoing issue for him).