Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: So I was watching Scorpion this past week-ish and I've got feelings about it all. So I'm working them out in the way I typically do: writing yet another multi-chapter crossover.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 13); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Shabbat Habit; Neurodivergent; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Rian- Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Zed Era; New Fandom Smell; Wheels Up; In a Flash
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 13 – Post-Term
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [526](Navy Blue); 365 [87](Enormous); Days of the Year [Jan 1st (2)](The beginning of something); Black History Month [04](Someone who might be considered "the greatest" at something); National Weddings Month [12](White); Crochet Week [01](Basic); Penguin Awareness (13)["I'm very much..."]; Colours [11](Frost White); Flowers [01]("You can't be serious."); Crystals & Gemstones [13](Stressed); Tarot Reading [05](Picking up the pieces of one's life & moving on); But Can You Spell It? [A](Always)
Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [1C](Hot Beverage); Set [2A](London);WiB [5E](Bag/Sack); Vocab [2C](Burst);Hunt [Wi WD](Jewish)/[Fa Set](London)/[Fa Items](Jar/Bottle)/[Fa Con](Water)/[Wi Con](Hot Beverage); Chim [Karma](Copper); Fire [Hard](Bearing the Crossover); Garden [Plant Types](Coworkers); Hang [03](Nontraditional Family)
Representation(s): Sylvester Dodd & Ralph Dineen; Centipede as Family
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Mermaid; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Mother Hen; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Muck & Slime; Hot Apple; Queen Bee; Under the Bridge); Chorus (Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; Turtle-Duck; Call Me Dantes; Jet Fuel)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Thimble); SN (Rail; Spare); O3 (Ox); ShoE (Terse); TY (Avasa; Enfant); Share (Ameliorate; Augur)
Word Count: 823

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After the Cyclone
Chapter 01: Tele-Swarm
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"You can't be serious. You have to check out the sights while you're there," Patty insisted. Even over the five thousand some-odd miles between Los Angeles and London, Sylvester could feel her judgment weighing on him. Ralph shifted beside him, probably feeling it just as much. Patty's gaze squinted at them suspiciously before she sighed in the same deep way that Paige always used when any of them missed the basic point of something. Most of the time that sigh had been directed at Walter, but that was a thought that Sylvester didn't want to follow right then. "I am sending you a list to check off. You two cannot be trusted to be appropriately tourist-like on your own. I expect to see ticket stubs—physical ones, not digital ones—and at least one souvenir."

"Do you know how many germs tourist traps have?" Sylvester burst out in shock. Patty shifted her attention towards Ralph, seemingly ignoring him. Ralph fidgeted with the bottle of water he had brought from Los Angeles.

"Make sure you get video of him at the Tower of London," she ordered. "He is sure to give an impromptu lecture on the birds which will be good for both stills and raw footage. Campaign videos do not make themselves, and I cannot bake a cake without ingredients."

"Yes, ma'am," Ralph agreed before Sylvester voice a counter-argument. "I'll make sure I get everything you could want. Sylvester may be too busy with the job to go many places, though."

"I have every faith that you will find the time," Patty declared as she shuffled papers on her end and turned to look at something off screen. "Now I have to head to an interview with another applicant for the new host of Whiz Kids. I have a good feeling about this one."

"I thought I told you that I would take care of that—"

"You did," Patty interrupted, "and I've elected to ignore that. Besides, at the rate that Centipede is taking jobs, I estimate that it would be another month before you have the free time to do so. At which point, we would have missed the council's deadline for finding a host, and they may reallocate the funds for the show. After all the effort to make sure my tardy record is intact, would you really want that?"

"No, ma'am," Sylvester agreed. He smoothed his navy blue sweater vest nervously. "You'll be safe about it, won't you? I don't know how I feel about you meeting with random strangers—"

"I'm very much capable of handling myself, thank you," Patty interrupted again, only a bit peevish as she slipped the folder with her papers into a satchel bag and picked up a travel coffee cup that was frost white with a copper straw sticking out of it. "I'm going to log off now. Remember to visit the Tower before boarding the plane back."

"Patty—" Sylvester started before the video window went black. He turned to Ralph, not quite certain what he had done wrong. "I have a bad feeling about this. Do you have a bad feeling about this?"

"I think Mom would worry about that, too," Ralph said as he scooted his chair away from the hotel desk. At least he wasn't sharing with his mom on this trip or Happy and Toby. "Patty does know how to handle herself, though, and she seemed mad that you implied you didn't trust that."

"Maybe we should tell Paige about it," Sylvester suggested as he closed the laptop. They weren't meeting their contact with the British Ministry until tomorrow morning, but they would be meeting the others in about a half hour in order to go out for dinner. They had only gone to their separate hotel rooms in order to regroup from the ten hour flight from Los Angeles to London.

"Mom has enough on her mind," Ralph countered. Sylvester had to admit that was true. Paige had been focused on building Centipede in the last few weeks, just like all of them had been, but it was clear that the break with Walter was still hurting her as much as it was any of them. "I think we should talk to Toby first."

"That's not a horrible idea," he agreed cautiously, not trusting the words even as he said them. It was still a bit of an adjustment to Toby being all paternal, even though he had been making the shift for well over a year. When Happy and him had decided to adopt instead of pursuing fertility options, that shift had just seemed to ramp up. Along with everything else in their lives, the change felt more enormous than it probably was in reality.

"You think it's weird, too?"

"Yeah."

At least he wasn't the only one who thought so.

He still couldn't shake the feeling that something big was about to happen.

(^^)

To Be Continued
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