ic Meanwhile, at Atomic Tower!

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

Atomic Tower, Midtown, Freedom City

Early March 2021

 

The Atomic Tower towered in the Freedom City skyline. After its recent expansion, it seemed almost like it stretched into the clouds, which it just might do. A modern marvel of super science, it held the newly opened Atom Academy, the Atom Family's newest gift to the city, inviting scientists, explorers, heroes and just curious regular people to join, to explore everything and anything!

 

Jay was late. Of course he was late. You'd think having super speed would have helped with that, but no. It just meant he had more time to do a ton of things and forget about appointments. He was a streak of black and grey moving through the city, running and rushing past everything. Black pants, running shoes, a grey jacket, currently hanging open to reveal his favorite white T-Shirt with a big black rocket on the front until.

 

He finally came to a stop right in front of Atomic Tower, a gust of wind catching up to him, his blonde hair a mess from the run as he stumbled a step or two to regain his footing and almost tumbled into the woman that was standing there before catching himself and moving around her in the blink of an eye.

 

"Sorry, sorry! Stopping's not always easy!"

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Melissa could quite believe that she was here at Atomic Tower, one of the biggest places to go if you wanted a career in super sciences. She’d looked at other places like ArchTech but they tended towards the more technological side of things, plus there was that weird fish related incident a good decade or so… That reminded her, did Deep Ones have unique enzyme combinations that could be applied to humans? Maybe she should see if she could get a sample of there enzymes, there was a few living in the city after al…

 

Lost in her rambling thoughts she didn’t noticing the speedster until the very last moment and, out of instinct more than anything else, shrunk to her bee size with a little crackle of electricity.

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

Wait, what just happened? Where did she go? She was there one moment, then gone when he zoomed around her, and... He didn't do that, did he? 

 

No, he could see the slight crack of electricity where she stood and... she was suddenly very small.

 

Jay really didn't know how to deal with that, so...

 

"Woah."

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Once safe Melissa returned to normal size, taking care to ground the electricity as sparks around her feet. She’d lost more cell phones that way before figuring that trick. For the moment that was her main concern but after grounding herself she finally realised what she’d done.

 

“You need to be careful, people could get hurt!” realising she’d changed size in public, she quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed

 

“I guess you’re here for the same reason as me?” after thinking she thrust out a hand and looked expectancy “I’m Melissa by the way, pleased to meet you!”

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

Jay stood there for a second as Melissa returned to normal. There was that electricity crackling around her again, but grounded towards the ground. That was... pretty smart. He kind of wondered if she'd shocked herself or something like that, before slowing down to normal speed.

 

"Sorry, sorry. I was in a hurry. Kind of a family thing, I guess."

 

Uncle Johnny had tried to help him with getting better at stopping, but... yeah. Hadn't really worked out entirely so far.

 

"Sounds like that might be it, if you're here for the academy too?" His words were coming faster now. Jay was getting nervous. He had to slow down. He took a deep breath and centered himself, then smiled and shook Melissa's hand. "Sorry, this is all just, a lot. I'm Jay."

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Melissa couldn’t help but give a little squee and do a little dance, she was so excited to both be here and meet a fellow hero going to the academy.

 

“Yes, yes I am! Isn’t it amazing? I’ve heard they got facilities for all the sciences, I’m hoping that they have a source of Dyne particles. I’m a chemists doing research into such things, hence why I can shrink. I’m hoping to study the electrical discharge problems, thing of all the things we could transport easily if I can solve that issue?”

 

It was most probably that only speedsters could follow as she rolled her sentences together in an excited stream of consciousness.

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

"Chemistry?" Jay was shifting a bit from foot to foot. He could keep up with Melissa's rapidly speeding words, it was easy. Nothing like when him and uncle Johhny talked a super speed or anything like that. If he tuned his perception juuust right it even sounded like she was talking normally. "I mean, I dabble (well, I kinda dabble in a lot of things I guess), but I'm more of a physics guy. Even before all, this." He gestured to himself.

 

Jay looked thoughtful for a brief second. "If you can't get rid of the discharge problem, then how about storing it? Use a lightning rod or something to catch it all, soak it up and use the power for something else? Win-win, you shrink stuff and you get free-ish energy?"

 

They were late, weren't they? He should probably get in there.

 

"So... wanna go in? I haven't been here before, I was interviewed back home, I'm kinda excited to see what it looks like."

 

He offered his arm. Be nice and polite, right? Just like uncle Johnny taught him.

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

“I have a suit that channels the charge to provide an electrical sting, as well as power a teeny tine pair of wings.” she made a little pair of wings with her hand and make it fly around.

 

“I’ve been on a tour a few times, but that doesn’t cover all the new stuff or the really high tech labs. I can’t wait to take a look at the equipment they have on hand, its probably the most advanced technology on the entire planet.” she waved her around around, her little winged form flying away in an excited waves of the arms

 

“Sorry I just get a little over enthusiastic! Lets go see what they have shall we?”

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

Jay felt like he should just place his foot in his mouth. Of course she'd already figured out some way of using that electricity discharge... and she'd been there already. Great, like he didn't feel like a newbie already. But alright, alright, he'd catch up.

 

"Hey, I get that. Look?" Jay held out his hand. It was almost vibrating at super speed. "See? I can barely stand still!" 

 

The doors opened. The pair was already being scanned and recorded by a probably staggering number of security devices. The lobby to the Atomic Tower seemed rather mundane, to be honest. Some chairs, some small tables with various, mainly science related, magazines in stacks. 

 

The receptionist was obviously not ordinary. An android with a digital screen for a face, dressed in a standard blue and black Atom Academy uniform. The face displayed a series of emoticons, currently showing a great big =D as Jay and Melissa approached.

 

"Greetings, true believers!"  the receptionist announced loudly, with a slighty synthesized voice. "Welcome to Atomic Tower, home to the Atom Family and the Atom Academy!" It paused for half a second, like it was running through some processes, before reaching for someting under the table and pulling out a pair of badges. Primarily white, one had the tri colored atomic symbol of the Atom Academy with a black bee in the middle, the other with a black rocket behind it. "Security scans have confirmed that you are Melissa Bowles and Jason Wade. Welcome to your first day at Atom Academy! These badges will give you all the access that you need! Please use the elevator to the right to reach the Academy!"

 

Jay picked up the badge and looked at it. A rocket? Yeah, alright, personalized badges were kind of cool. He looked at Melissa, then he was gone, standing by the elevator and waving his badge in front of the scanner on the door.

 

"C'mon, I thought you were in a hurry."

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

For a few minutes Melissa was lost in the amazing design of the robot, she wasn’t a roboticist by any means (more a dabbler really) but she loved technology of any kind. Finally she was came back to her senses when the badges were handed out, she followed along a short distance behind looking at the badge. It was cool and all, what with the personalised logo, that wasn’t what was taking up her attention.

 

“I wonder what kind of method they’re using to identify each badge? Do you think they’ll mind if I take it apart to find out how it worked?”

 

Obviously they tell her if she asked, but she always liked to find out for herself, that was just the way she liked to discover how thing working by herself.

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

"I think they'd approve." 

 

Jay studied the badge, turning it in his hand. Yeah, it probably wouldn't just be some kind of NFC or anything like that. That'd be too simple, and honestly, they were meant to explore everything here, right? So why not?

 

"I dunno. Quantum positional entanglement?" Yeah. No need for anything that advanced, but maybe?

 

The elevator opened, and Jay was inside like, well, a rocket. The different floors were marked with numbers for each floor, but the top was simple marked with a pair of golden letters: AA.

 

"Fancy, huh?" Jay quipped, before pressing the button once Melissa was inside.

 

The doors closed... and the elevator moved. It was fast. Far faster than any conventional elevator, up, up and then suddenly coming to a stop. With a loud *DING* the doors opened, revealing the Academy before them.

 

Everything was chaos inside the Atom Academy. A giant robotic t-rex, with a very iPod like design, was running amok, roaring as it smashed through the area. Maximus Atom, grown to giant height, was wrestling the machine while people scattered around it. Tesla Atom was standing a bit away, holding back the creature with a nucleonic energy force field, keeping some younger students safe.

 

She looked up once she saw Melissa and Jay. "Hey! Welcome to the Academy! We're just having some technical issues, don't worry, everything's completely safe!"

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Melissa did consider taking it apart but was distracted by the elevator and its fancy design, she’d never been that big on architecture but this was a whole different level.

 

“Yes this is very impressive, and I’ll imagine things are going to get even more impressive from this point on!”

 

And indeed she was blown away by the scene as the door open but it wasn’t what she expected in the slightest.

 

“We should help, can we help, we want to help?”she looked over at Rocket Thats right, right? Can we help?”

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

Jay's mouth hang open as he watched the scene unfolding before them, before slowly twisting into a grin.

 

"We gotta help!" 

 

Everything slowed down around Jay as he started to speed up. Full speed. This was it, right? His chance to show everyone he what he could do!

 

He was by Tesla Atom's side in less than a second. "So, what are we dealing with here? What's the issue? Some way to disable it, do we have to smash it?"

 

Time to prove he was his own man, not just uncle Johnny's nephew.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Tesla looked somewhat relieved when both Bee and Rocket made it clear that they wanted to help out. While the robotic dinosaur managed to throw Maximus back, she explained. 

 

"Science experiment gone wrong, obviously. One of the the other members wanted to build a giant robot. No issues there, of course, but turns out, he should put some more work into the AI instead of trying to make it super strong."

 

She created a force field to protect another member of the academy from the robot dinosaur's swinging tail.

 

"He forgot an off switch, of course. We can trash it if there's no other way around it, but II'm pretty sure he'd love to see it back in one piece."

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Melissa had only read a little around the subject but humans general desire to antromorphise still applied, even to geniuses making robot dinosaurs. As soon Bee got the nod she’d shrunk down and flew towards the robot. She’d though about warning the others but she realised her teeny voice wouldn’t carry well, she should talk with her uncle about that when she got a chance.

 

All the while she waiting to the right moment to fly into the maw of the robot, the best place to get to the robots brain she figured.

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

One piece? Right, one piece, sure, that was gonna be the important thing here. Taking the thing down and keeping it in one piece. 

 

"Mel!" 

 

She disappeared into the robot's maw. How? She was tiny, she could fit, wouldn't get chewed up, but why? 

 

Had to be some form of weakness.

 

Jay rocketed ahead, moving around the robot, out of the way before it even tried a clumsy attack, looking for anything, a weakness, something he could use.

 

"Mel! See if you can find some power couplings! I think that it's limbs can be powered down if we shut those down."

 

Then he moved again, avoiding a tail.

 

Looking back, Headmistress Atom didn't seem particularly bothered, like this was just an every day thing. Weird. Guess that was life now.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Tesla Atom put up another barrier as the robot swung it's tail. It bounced off the barrier, but that was all she seemed to be able to do to keep everything safe. She smiled as she saw Bee disappear into the creature's maw, while Rocket moved around it looking for weaknesses.

 

The robot sputtered and moved as the internal damage from Bee's attacks caused it to stutter for a second. Then, it swung it's tail down, hitting where Rocket had stood a second before.

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer

 

The Dreamer sat silently in her chair as the elevator went up, quietly glad that she didn't have to go up all those stairs. Her dreams thronged around the elevator, some were quiet like the small clockwork soldiers who stood diligently at the doors in neat little ranks while others chattered, like the squabbling small dragon and griffin at the back of her chair. She took a moment to look herself over again, nodding with pleasure as she took in the still pristine gold thread running throughout the stainless dress. Good, she didn't want to make a poor first impression beyond her late arrival.

 

She quickly arranged herself properly as the doors started to slide open, one of her dreams diligently nudging her wheelchair forwards to leave the elevator smoothly. "I apologise for my tardiness I'm afraid I was held u-"

 

Her words cut off as she took in the... mayhem inside. Quickly the clockwork soldiers formed protective ranks around her as a short man wearing a large top hat with a hatband reading "In this style 10/6" peered past the chair, holding a teapot.

 

"I see. I'm dreaming. Yes, that makes sense." Her right eyebrow started twitching as she reassured herself of the unreality of the scene before her.

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Electrocuting the brain didn’t seem to have much of an effect and Melissa wondered if like the real thing it had a backup brain. Or maybe not she’d have to check up on the current theories when the opportunity arose, for now she should really focus on the problem at hand. Luckily for her it seemed that the body of the beast was a great sound conductor.

 

Not able to tell the others, that comm system was moving up the list rapidly, she zipped through the inside of the monster her tiny form zipping between the internal components of the robot. She had to concentrate on not getting distracted by the amazing technology, she did peek at one or two of the systems and almost missed that she’d reached the point where the release point was located.

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

Jay was in front of the woman and her soldiers in a moment, quickly shaking his head. "Sorrybutyou'renot.Bigrobotdon'tworrywe'lldealwithit." Then he moved around again, all over the room. He was speeding up, picking up anything he could find and throwing it at the giant robot. Desks, rubble, some plants... burying the big giant thing, make it impossible for it to move so Mel could get time to work in there. It had to be easier for her if it didn't move.

 

By the seconds that passed when Jay was done, the robot was absolutely buried under all the bits and pieces he had been able to find.

 

He slid to a halt, placing both hands on the sides of his mouth and shouted: "Mel! I got it to slow down, but I don't know how long you got!"

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer 

 

Watching the combat unfold for a moment after the young man's... Rather fast words it was clear that he was talking to someone else. She gets to the Dreaming theory, but on the off chance they it wasn't...

 

The Carnifex roared into existence, a grin nearly taking in it's ears even as it's obsidian-like hair either independently. It took in the appearance of the robot for a moment as it was bound by the stranger before turning to The Dreamer, "Oh, you got me a present?" Unimpressed by the Dream Demon's antics, The Dreamer just glared at it until it sighed. 

 

"Alright, I'll destroy the robot monster, but I'm not leaving after. I want to meet your new team." With that, it leapt forwards, powerful limbs forcing it across the room in moments. To that end, it raised stoney fists high into the air before bringing them down on the creature in a final instant, metal cratering around them. The Carnifex and The Dreamer both watched as the machine gave off some last whines before shutting down. The Dream Demon made a noise of disappointment afterwards.

 

"Well, it was no Ultio Suit, but it was more fight than some pickpocket." The Dreamer ignored the creature and instead wheeled further into the workshop, silently. She hadn't decided if this was real yet, but if these really were the Atom Academy then she didn't want to mess things up more than The Carnifex already would. For now she'd probably stick to introductions.

 

Fixing her well practiced polite smile to her face, she started talking. "Now that the situation is handled I should probably introduce myself. My name is Adrianna Liddel, I am sorry about my tardiness, the city layout got the better of me." Behind her, The Carnifex was poking the fallen robot curiously.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Kaede Kimura

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The robotic dinosaur was brought low with a single blow from the Carnifex, falling, with Bee tumbling around inside it, tumbling around with little sense of what was up and down, before it came to a rest.

 

Tesla Atom stared at the Carnifex and the fallen robot for a moment, before she dropped her force field.

 

"Miss Liddell? While I'd like to applaud you for your friend's... quick handling of the situation... well..." 

 

Before she had a chance to finish, a young man came running up to the robot, falling to his knees by it. "No! My dinobot! It's... it's completely smashed!"

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

With a hiss of gas and a pop the tail portion of the robot dinosaur dropped to the ground for Melissa to climb out of and sit on the stump. She then returned to normal size, causing the bot to rock a little as she did so, fixing her hair as she did.

 

“I swear I almost had that sorted, before it all literally came crashing down on me!” she sounded a little dazed but rapidly recovered her composure.

 

“Oh hey another new person!” she waved at the newcomer “I assume this isn’t an everyday event, and if so can we go for something cool like giant bees?” she grinned.

[RocketLord]

  ROCKET  

 

"Woah." 

 

Jay rocketed to a halt, standing a few feet away from Adrianna and the Carnifex, in front of the smashed dinosaur.

 

"Mel!" 

 

Then he over by the dinobot, zipping around it before the tail dropped and Mel climbed out, returning to her normal size and... Yeah, alright, she was fine. 

 

He shook his head, calming down, slowing down... Yeah. He needed to slow down, back to normal speed, just for a moment. Jay looked at the young man crying over his dinobot and sighed. "How about an off-button next time, then?"

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer

 

The Dreamer winced slightly at the boy's cries over his robot, even as the Carnifex watched the heroes around it with interest, seemingly distracted from the destroyed machine.

 

"I must apologize, I did not realize the machine was property of the Atom Academy." She gave as much of a bow as she could from her wheelchair, which admittedly was not the largest amount. "If you wish I could resupply the materials lost due to my hasty actions."

 

The Carnifex on the other hand was busy talking at the fast one and the one who appeared from the robot, ignoring the caterwauling boy. "Oh, my Dreamer can make giant bees easily. What about you two? Any phenomenal cosmic powers?" It grinned with interest, although it was cut off after a moment as it glared at the short dream in the top hat before returning to focus on the heroes.