A Portal Without A Cube

[Ecalsneerg]

This thread is set chronologically after this thread, despite it being ongoing at the time of posting.

The Pitchoo hovered up in the sky over bay, Chris Kenzie sitting around in his costume without the mask on. Some Seether was playing in the background. He liked to listen to music while he flew around, usually loudly. But he twiddled a knob on the dashboard and pulled a lever, allowing the chair to swivel around while he took out his cell phone. That Darian guy had seemed pretty cool, maybe he should take him up on that answer.

Bloody voicemail! he cursed as the phone politely asked him to leave a message after the tone. God, he hated the tone. It seemed to be designed to annoy people. Who designed the tone for voicemail? Really? I'll go aft.... oh damn, I think it toned. "Hey, Darian? It's Chris. I'm just flying around just now, thought you might want to come take a ride? Call me back, thanks, bye"

He went to hang up, before thinking twice and bringing the mouthpiece back up. "Bring pizza." Reclining in his chair, he turned the music back up again. Very peaceful up here he thought, pulling a Coca-Cola out from a mini-fridge he'd plugged into the cigarette lighter and grabbing a set of blueprints he'd left on the floor. "Personal flight harness?Ooooh, the next wave in fashionable transport." Taking a sip, he began to go over the blueprints, suspended over the clear blue bay in his green flying machine.

[Sandman XI]

Darian picks up his PDA, "A missed message," he questions himself, "Have I been absent-minded today?" He goes into the rarely used voicemail section. there were three other times that he had missed messages with the service. "Chris Kenzie," he rattles the name for a split second and a picture of the gecko hero popped into his head. Pressing the accept button he hears silence for a second, then the familiar voice of the ship owner from Claremont. Awesome, he thinks, I could probably teach him a thing or two about those blueprints he mentioned at the school. Darian goes into the Quark Tech files of his PDA, hopefully the flying ship is close enough for his Computer Tracker to locate. Fortunately, it is. He locates the ship's GPS system and puts in coordinates near his house. He also leaves a note pointing to the exact location, Be there in an hour and a half, going to get pizza.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Gaaaaaah, dammit," swore Chris, as co-ordinates came up on the GPS and the autopilot kicked in. "Why didn't I remember to turn you off!" Quickly flicking a switch, the ship ceased moving causing him to fall over and hit his head off of the chair. "DAAAAAAAAAMMIT!"

A note had appeared on the computer screen. Aaaah, he replied with directions. And pizza. I like pizza. "now what to do for an hour and a half!" he said, pulling himself up from his knees in one quick jump.

And thus it came to be that a teenager in green spandex spent over an hour flying around, high over the city in a green flying machine before turning on the autopilot and landing near Darian's house.

Grabbing a jacket to throw on over his costume and stuffing his mask in the pocket, he wandered out of the exit hatch and sent to a parking position a few feet off the ground. There came a small beep as he turned on the central locking system.

[Sandman XI]

Pizza, Darian thinks, Mom is home. Dad is home. Are either of them busy? Last time I saw them they were making goo goo eyes at each other. That was two hours ago. I really hope they're not busy. He shudders at the thought as he steps out of his dimensional lair. Finally reaching the top of the stairs, he locates his parents in the living room. They both seem kicked-back and relaxed, sitting together on the sofa, talking quietly. When Darian enters the room they both stop their conversation and look to their child. Darian calmly addresses his parents as to not ruin their peaceful moment, "Mom, Dad, I will have a guest here in a hour and a half and I was wondering if we could et some pizza before he got here." The two adults look to each other and then back to their child. "Sure thing," the mother says as she pulls herself from the couch, "Anything specific?" "No, ma'am," Darian says walking outside with her. "OK, I will return with pizza," she says as she leaves. Darian returns to The Quark Lair via his wormhole technology. Exactly one hour later he steps back out of the same place, via the same way. His mother is home and his guest is early. "Well, your friend certainly knows how to make an entrance," she says handing Darian a stack of six pizza boxes, "You boys have fun," she quickly goes back in the house. Darian walks over to greet his guest, "Chris, welcome."

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris takes the top three pizza boxes. "Here, let me give you a hand," he says, "Thanks for calling back."

"So, you said you wanted a look at the Pitchoo?" he asked, sweeping a hand in gesture at the green ship floating a short distance off the ground.

[Sandman XI]

Darian nods, "Yes, but here is not the place," Darian moves his pizza boxes to his right arm and pulls a device out of the pocket of his slacks with his left. He presses a few buttons and aims the device skyward. A wall of quicksilver-like substance appears above the visitor's ship, lining itself up horizontally. "Can your ship do a standing takeoff?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris pulled out a remote, pressed a few buttons, and pulled back a joystick. The whole ship rose and disappeared into the silvery portal. "Voila?"

[Sandman XI]

Darian flinches at the sight of the ship going into the portal, "Well, I was hoping that we could ride in the ship up there." He sighs and releases the button he is pressing, making the quicksilver-esque wall disappear, "Hopefully it got into the tractor beam before it or the hangar got damage." He looks to Chris with a smile, "Glad you could make it."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Oooooooooooh.... sorry," says Chris, looking pensively upwards. "So, where did it just go? Simple teleport, or dimension travel?" Yeah, sounding real professional. Woot!

[Sandman XI]

"Well, sort of," Darian nods, "It is a wormhole, a connection of two places in spacetime." He aims the device to a spot in front of them and presses a single button this time. The quicksilver-ish wall appears again, this time about the size of a double-doorway. It shows a scene of the hangar with Chris's ship docked. Darian sighs with relief, "Good, nothing banged up." Pointing toward the passage, "Shall we," he says to his guest, with a tone of invitation.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Cool, let's go through," wandering through into Darian's hangar. "So... did you build this place yourself?" he said a little weakly.

[Sandman XI]

Stepping into the portal, Darian shakes his head, "No, this is my family's domain. It has been so for many generations. My great-great-great grandfather found it accidentally while exploring the probabilities of travel though the dimensional realms." He closes the passage behind him, "And now, here we are. It is not much but it is my home away from home."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Ah, so you're just following in the family footsteps with all this superscience? Cool." He wandered over and started looking at things. "You seem to be working on a load of stuff, how do you find the time?" What does that button do? Do not press the buttondonotpressdonotpressdonotpress...

[Sandman XI]

"Yes," Darian chuckles, "Super-science." He accompanies Chris around the hangar, noting his curiousity, "Though I am following in my family's footsteps in the loosest terms, I am more specialized in my work." He smiles, "I find the time because I have too much time. That is about to change though, I am applying for a job at Claremont Academy." he stops talking when he sees Chris eyeing the personal flight station, "Ah yes, this will be fun." Darian presses the button and a holographic image of a floating platform pops up between them two boys, "Care to try it?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"Ok... I just stand on it, right?" muttered Chris, stepping cautiously onto the thing to find it didn't budge. "Clever trick. How do you make it go?" I hope I can stick to this thing. Can I stick to hard light? How does that work? I hate superpowers, they're too damn vague in how they work. Maybe it's so stuff can be explained away more easily...

[Sandman XI]

Darian nods as Chris steps on to the platform, "Well, 'the trick' is that it is solidified light. That is, it's a 'hologram', a very real hologram." Darian pushes the button again and another floating platform appears. Stepping up on the platform, he leans forward slightly, "As for how to make it go, it work off your body's momentum and direction. Try it."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Like this?" said the green-clad hero, leaning forward quickly. The board shot forwards, shooting upwards as he leaned back and doing a quick loop in mid-air before returning to a level movement. "I think I just messed myself," grumbled Chris, doing some more experimental lunges forwards, wobbling unsteadily.

Recalling something he learned when he used to skate, he managed to flip the board around in a 180 degree spin, to face Darian. "How do you come up with brilliant stuff like this? Hell, why haven't you made a fortune from it yet? People'd queue up to buy this stuff!"

[Sandman XI]

Darian flinches as Chris does each of his aerial stunts. He breathes a sigh of relief when the flying gecko comes down, "Well, these are just prototypes. I do hope to have them mass-produced one day when they all the kinks are worked out. Also, with the current resources it takes to make them, one would have to be moderately wealthy to own one of these." With a slight lean to the left, Darian floats towards the pizza boxes, "Then again," he sighs, "that is the status of most of my projects."

[Ecalsneerg]

"So, how long do you reckon it'd take to get working hoverboards? I'd love to stash a couple in the Pitchoo, because that rope-ladder is convenient, but hitting the ground is quite painful. " He somehow manages to get over to the table on the board, pauses for a second then gets off of the board before grabbing a slice of pizza. "Mmmm... this is good," he manages to say between bites.

[Sandman XI]

Darian scratches his head, "Well, on top of getting it cost efficient, I would have to find someone who would finance the production them." He picks at the toppings on the pizza, "I am sure anybody with short-sighted get-rich-quick tendencies would look at them and see a marketing ploy from a movie that was made two decades ago, but I want them to be more than just a fad." He looks to Chris with a serious look, "I could put one of these on your ship, but I warn you: it is very experimental."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Hey, I fly that thing around not knowing how the engine works, how it's refuelled, if it is, and even if it has any fuel left in it. I'll risk one more thing likely to kill me. Come look around the ship first, if you want."

[Sandman XI]

Darian is awed at Chris's boasts, nodding at each one of them. "Alright, I'll take a look at your ship then. Let me grab a few things first." He takes a few moist towelettes with him to wipe his hands of the pizza grease. Floating over to a work station, he presses a few buttons and what looks like a technological toolbox floats out of it. He takes the toolbox and floats back over to Chris. "Ready when you are," he says a determined tone of voice.

[Ecalsneerg]

Pressing a button on the remote, the green walkway on the Pitchoo flipped down, revealing the interior strewn with clothes and CDs. "Erm... sorry about the mess?" he winced, climbing in and sitting down on his chair, spinning around to face the door. "Whaddya want to look at first? Weapons, engines, propulsion... ?"

[Sandman XI]

Darian steps off the disc and on to the ship trying to avoid stepping on the CDs. He looks around the ship, "Well, this is nice," he smiles with a look of eagerness. Placing the technological toolbox in front of him, it goes back to floating. A monitor slides out of the top of it. Darian take a light pen out of a compartment of the floating contraption and marks a few symbols on the screen. "I would love to take a look at everything, but first, where would you like the light flier station at?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"Well, there is an empty cupboard up back. Reckon it'd fit in there, the things quite large." He walks over, leaping over a seat in the process and pulls it open to confirm. "Looks quite big, was probably where all the emergency gear like extra parachutes and provisions are meant to be stored or something."