Fox

Mara hunched a little bit as she came back out into the sun, slinging her worn but sturdy cloth messenger back back over her shoulders. "Yes, fine," she replied, though there wasn't much of the implied sourness in her voice. "Admitting defeat on that point. A good movie, and a good theater. A little too crowded during this time of day, but otherwise enjoyable. The sun is...." She paused, glancing upward and squinting. "....merely a necessary evil." Not that she'd admit it, but her mood was considerably better than normal; usually when she went out to treat herself she did so alone, and typically late at night - it was nice to spend time around people, for once. probably heathier - social skills won't improve themselves - would usually follow up with nice dinner - suggestion may seem inappropriate given company? - mmh "Not sure. Not used to being out at this time of day. Any suggestions?"

About the same, Dragonfly sent back, making her way along the road on her motorcycle. Keeping my distance, should be not far ahead of you. He's off-road, nearing the coast...not many places they could be headed now. Really, it was times like these that she wished she had a better knowledge of the layout of the city - or at least kept a map of it on her phone. This was, for her, clear on the other side of town - she didn't have the faintest clue where they were going or what likely places they could hide out in. With a frown, she sped up and started to close the distance a little, just in case, though not enough to be in sight....

Dragonfly scowled, but didn't slow down. "Minimum minute and a--" She growled, pulling a melted hunk of plastic out of the wall and letting it join the mess of useless wires. "Two minutes. At least. Will help if I have to but it would only delay things." She glanced up at the pair, frowning. "Do wish you luck. For all our sakes."

Tarrant just chuckled, shaking the hand and grinning. "Yes, something like that - a friend of the bride's, from Freedom City. I'm Tarrant; it's a pleasure to meet you." He glanced around at the sudden gathering, and chuckled, giving Lynn a half-bow almost out of reflex. "All of you! I guess that makes us the early crowd, hm?" One kinda has to wonder how many are just friends of the family, and how many are...well, I suppose herodom doesn't really stop one from making friends, does it? His grin got a little wider at the thought. Still. It makes me very curious....

Dragonfly sighed. "Not entirely on my own. But yes. Will keep it in mind. Suppose it's only fair...mmh." She patted her pouches for a moment before coming up with a couple scraps of paper, both with a phone number on them. "Mine. Not for social calls, but dial if you need something. Can't promise much, but may be able to help."

Dragonfly didn't reply right away, making sure she'd gotten every last scrap and shard of armor she could find, including bits of that blown-out screen - she wasn't sure what the suit would have done with that thing tucked away inside, but she was pretty sure it wouldn't have deployed correctly. idiots - applies to me too - need to watch my temper - he just - ugh - mmh Some zip-ties got pulled out of a pouch as she bound the villains, shaking her head. "Life isn't easy, anyone who says otherwise is lying. No. Things to do...suits to dispose of. Will stay long enough to report to the police. Will pass on coffee. And...thank you. I suppose. Almost evens things up for trying to crack my skull open."

Dragonfly tilted her head at the girl, but figured that if she couldn't find comfort in the arms of Mrs. Claus, of all people, she couldn't find it anywhere. note to self - research 'Mr. Infamy' - keep tabs on the girl - appears to be local "Could certainly help with the sleigh," she offered, turning her attention back to the rest of the group...and raising an eyebrow at Miss Americana's antics. very odd - mmh - didn't show up on my visor either.... "Or try. Will get it up and running, certainly, between myself and Miss Americana...when...she's able. Might not hurt to have a third set of hands to help, even. Unless it's too 'sidekick-y'." That last bit was directed at Jill, along with something that almost - almost, in the right light - looked like a flicker of a grin.

Prompted by Flare! A message from a very bad man. Oh, you're too much fun to write, Very Bad Man.

"Do not really need the help," Dragonfly grumped, making her way back into the building and connecting to the other suits to trigger their transformations back into suitcases. "....am glad to have had the help taking them down, however. Damage isn't concerning as long as I can find all the pieces. Will be destroyed anyway, in short order. Saves me some minor troub--" She was cut off by the woman's suit, which had folded back up into a suitcase...with an open panel, a screen folding up into the air and playing a fuzzy recording of a man in a suit; any other details were lost to what looked like an intentional static effect. The voice was awfully clear, though: The screen exploded, Dragonfly lowering her arm as her gauntlet cooled back down. Her face was completely unreadable as she set about collecting the remaining suits and pulling them into her dimensional storage.

Dragonfly nodded, letting 'science mode' take over and eclipse her worries, for now. "Did have some thoughts there. Signal modulation - can bring in the basic theory from sound engineering, extend it to more general signals. Interpret and normalize, filter out pain if possible - or better, translate into another signal...." She brought up some data of her own, mostly signal graphs and equations, taking a better look at the setup and how it all came together as they started in on their collaborating.

Gaian Knight blinked as the temple came into view, his rocks pulled along behind him as he himself was pulled along behind Fusion. They built their temple on a divergent boundary out of...oh, that's beautiful. This should be fun. As soon as he had a chance he unwound himself from the aquatic heroine's tentacles, holding up a hand and taking off through the water on his platform, headed not for the temple but for the nearest piece of ocean bed he could find. He didn't even slow down - if anything, he sped up as the earth silently split open to allow him passage. Time to smack the beehive. In very short order, though he couldn't be seen, the whole temple started to shift on its foundation, tipping and becoming unstable in places as the earthmover burrowed around and around beneath it. When he finally popped back into the water - close to where he'd entered the ocean floor in the first place - Gaian Kight admired his handywork for only a moment before sweeping two glowing hands upward. Two very important constructions put themselves together: first, and likely less appreciated by the heroes outside, nearly every large room in the temple suddenly sprouted a human hand out of its floor, every hand a fist with a single index finger pointing straight up in silent warning. Second, and certainly not something any temple-dwellers were going to appreciate in a few moments, rubble and raw stone came together from across the trench to form a massive, building-sized construct of spiked rock. It hung there for a moment, a giant earthen Sword of Damocles, before beginning its decent through the water toward the roof of the already partially-collapsing temple.

Dragonfly, rather inadvisedly considering the villain that's hanging around, readies an action. The moment Mr. Infamy makes a move to attack (or grab, or disappear with, or in general suspiciously act upon) the girl, Dragonfly wishes to Heroic Feat the following - Teleport 9 (Extras: Attack (+0), Range [Ranged], Flaws: Anchor [Dragonfly herself]) [18pp] - and use it on the Ice Queen (Ice...Princess?) to try to yank her down to where the heroes can (likely fail to) protect her.

The grinding of Dragonfly's teeth was practically audible as she glanced back and forth between the girl and the man in black, and it was something of a miracle of self-control that she didn't go ahead and try to shoot the man out of the sky right then and there. girl comes first - then worry about other things "Why can't you have a Christmas?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm. "Didn't really have one myself until recently. Don't...really have parents myself, but did it anyway - friends, coworkers. Friendly strangers. Could certainly find that here of all places." She tilted her head, scowling at Mr. Infamy and running some calculations on the Ice Queen's location. "Can't have much Christmas without this place, I suppose, regardless. Destroying your own hopes. Have to ask: how much of this was your idea? Highly suspect that the only thing between you and Christmas right now...is him."

Since we're out of combat, I'm gonna go ahead and cheat to do this in more than one round's worth of time, because...well, because I'm a cheating cheater. Still, shouldn't take more than two or three rounds, total, depending on how far away they are. Smack me if I overstep reasonable hand-wavey bounds, and I'll retcon! Starting as soon as he gets to solid or semi-solid ground, GK dives into the ocean floor and starts burrowing at his crazy speed (as edits are still pending, horray!), chewing whatever the temple has that passes for a foundation full of holes. That done, and clear of the place, he uses Create Object either once or twice, depending on the limits on whether or not objects can be made simultaneously - first he fills most of the big rooms of the temple with fingers pointing upward, and then he creates a nice huge spiked mass of rock (as big and as tough as he can manage without having it get stuck on the way down) in the water a decent way overhead...without Stationary. Bombs away! IC pending on whether or not AA smacks me upside the head. EDIT: and posted!

She frowned, letting the image disappear and firing up a very special cleaning program wipe every trace off it off the Lab's computers. "Why? Why do you need it? This one thing, specifically? Always other options - helmet modification to read brainwaves, or...but tapping into your spine? Not the safest place to...mmh." She pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. "Fine. Fine...don't like it. Personal experiences, maybe...but if you're determined, will help you. Can't stand by, one way or the other - would rather help you see it done right than abandon you."

"Subject's brain, image dated roughly two years ago toward the end of active alteration schedule," she started, her voice completely flat and almost clinical. "Subject, while intelligent, was not deemed intelligent enough and underwent a variety of chemical, technological, and psychic treatments to boost performance and control. Treatments administered in a controlled environment over the course of many years, utilizing cutting-edge techniques and a minimum of invasive procedures to lessen risk. Later review finds that the subject narrowly avoided multiple instances of complete brain failure or aneurysm, any one of which could have resulted in functional lobotimization or coma or, most likely, death." She brought some clinical and anonymous notes and records up alongside what was once probably a healthy organ, documenting herself as she went on. "Experiments largely deemed a success given the goal - subject became smarter, analytical functions increased severalfold. Side-effects were considered minimal given the survived risks, but include chronic migraine, sleep loss, and due to the low age of the subject at start, slightly muted growth. Active treatments have since stopped, though passive treatments continue to circulate through the subject's system and cause minor changes over time. Subject's health is being monitored privately, and seems stable, against odds." She tilted her head, looking at the picture the same way she'd looked at it a hundred times before. Her picture. "This is my brain. Was, anyway. Should get an updated imaging for comparison; reason to suspect it's changed at least slightly since."

Dragonfly crossed arms, leaning back against her desk and doing her best to be unmoved...which wasn't very easy. It didn't help any that the combination of concern and the hard stance she'd taken made her feel like someone's mother. fine - try something else Lights danced behind her eyes as she set up a secure connection to her warehouse computer, pulling out some files from so far behind her security walls that most people wouldn't know they were there at all. As soon as they were ready, she waved a hand and brought them up onto their mutual 'screen', pulling the other diagrams to the side for the moment. It was a brain, but it wasn't...right; anyone who'd ever glanced at a brain in a textbook would be able to tell that. Whole areas were completely uneven in wrinkling or size, right down to having an extra lobe or two; the labels and notes accompanying the image described further, unseen differences like absurd connectivity between the hemispheres and redundant pathways in major thought centers. She didn't comment for a while, just leaving it up there and studying it with cold detachment.

"Me? I didn't do any of what--mmh. You meant the warping engines." She glanced at her desk, where a hypercube was floating above a little stand, constantly folding around itself without ever actually changing its shape. "....point, but would not equate the danger there. Did not alter my body to accommodate them. Body modification is dangerous. Look at all the cases of people who got powers by accident or dangerous science. Side-effects, mental instabilities, weak points, physical deformities, unforseen consequences, quality of...." She gestured, futilely. "Believe me. Never works as well as intended. Barely worth the risk when heavily tested and necessary."

Well, that was...concerning. Dragonfly bit her lip, trying to figure out how to phrase things in a way that would express her fears but not be too blunt. It was times like this that she was painfully aware of the limits of her social skills, and couldn't come up with much. screw it "You're insane." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sorry. Not...insane. Exactly. But...exceedingly dangerous. Surgery, problems with rejection, problems with feedback, can't even count problems that occur when you allow a direct external tap into your own nervous system.... Not...mmh." She sighed, looking at her friend - or at least the image of her friend. "Don't mean to be unsupportive. Admit I may have some prejudice in the area. But have you thought this through?"

The little GPS - purchased just for such an occasion - was awfully confused. Were the little computer smart enough to interpret its data in any meaningful way, it would be even more confused - according to its location and the way its user was travelling, it was in a car being driven at a very high speed in a straight line right across the countryside and straight through city blocks - or rather, straight UNDER blocks, because the infrequent loss of signal could only be explained by being too far underground. Where there were no tunnels. Were it in any way intelligent the poor machine would be nursing a headache and wishing for swift deactivation. Intelligent or not, it at least got the second of these things as Tarrant slowed to a halt under a patch of dirt not far from the church. Turning the GPS off and tucking it into a pocket of his coat, he waited until he could feel no movement overhead and came up into the light, blinking as his eyes adjusted and the ground closed up seamlessly under his feet. Normally his goggles would have saved his eyes the discomfort, but there were no goggles today - today was a day for a nice suit, vest, and an overcoat. Even the dirt that was (on any other day) more than happy to cling to him seemed to agree - unbidden, it either fell away to the ground or collected in the nearest coat pocket as a small piece of stone. He tapped some last bits of clinging mud off his sneakers (no event short of a funeral was too formal for sneakers - they were, however, new, nice, and now perfectly clean) and set off for the last block or so to the church, humming to himself and enjoying the winter air.

Dragonfly's mind was practically split in two - the part that was always building and optimizing had already run away from her, churning out equations to interpret and normalize sensory data. The rest of her brain was...somewhat less taken with the idea, and that was the part that won out in the end, due to concern for her friend if nothing else. "You..." she tilted her head again, still wiping her hands with the grease rag. "...you want to implant machinery next to your spine? Into your nervous system?"

Pulling her hands out of the device and wiping them on a grease rag, Dragonfly turned to regard the picture, frowning. "Nervous system is...touchy. Not really a biologist, but problems usually stem from what signals the nerves in question expect to get, versus what they do get. Other difficulties...options usually boil down to cancellation via clever engineering or computer-driven monitoring system. Feedback would certainly be uncomfortable, can at least...give it...." She tilted her head. that's not - but this would have to be - can't possibly function on only surface - what? Her frown deepened a little, and without moving a grease-covered hand brought the cone up to almost her own height to study it. "....not really sure what this...this would either require implanting, or interfacing with something that was implanted." She glanced over at the skeleton. "....what are you working on?"

The suite buzzed and pulsed for a good ten seconds before Dragonfly even noticed, even then not bothering to turn around - instead, lights danced behind her eyes as she accepted the call, her image popping up on camera not behind the desk but bent over it, literally shoulder-deep in a device like a small platform that...couldn't have possibly accommodated her arm, standing only a few short inches off the desk surface. Her gauntlets lay on top of each other nearby, as she'd apparently removed them before starting on what looked like a cross between building something and a stage trick. "What?" She'd apparently been working on making her greetings a little more cordial.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Dragonfly had covered her ears - or, at least, put her hands over the ear mounts her visor was held up by. She knew full well what Miss Americana had planned, and while the precaution deprived her of an excellent singing voice, it did keep her from succumbing to a nice rest in the snow herself. When it was safe, and when the protective group of yetis had fallen to expose their icy leader, Dragonfly removed her hands and aimed a charging gauntlet at the villainess...and paused. She wasn't entirely sure why - goodness knows it wasn't the most tactically-sound choice when faced with a powerful and angry villain - but there was something in the tears and the voice and the hopeless rage that was entirely too familiar. She lowered her hand, frowning. going to regret asking - don't know if I should even - mmh "....why?"

Dragonfly had never really gotten why anyone found traffic that bad around the south end of the city - she certainly never had any problems. Of course, she blatantly cheated, every traffic light turning green just in time for her to zoom through the intersection on her bike, weaving around cars in a way that wasn't very difficult but probably wasn't very legal, either. At least the police were forgiving about such things when they noticed that you were clearly a hero - she didn't have the driving skill to want to push her luck in a car chase, and couldn't afford to get stopped right now. Bit by bit she was catching up to the signal she was tracking, heading east but maintaining a more than decent distance so as not to tip anyone off.