Flesh and Bone

[Supercape]

Enthused, and with mock affront, Supercape brandished his rock. "Do you mean to tell me you don't know the rules of Cricket, my dear lady? The gentleman's sport?"

Distracted, pacing, he proceeded to deliver his lecture with great relish and a broad grin.

"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!"

He gave a massive smile and a wink. "There! Simple!"

He hurled the rock at the giant mitt.

[Gizmo]

A few lines into Supercape's enthusiastic explanation, Jill created a pair of glowing headphones over her ears, roughly the shape of those worn by safety personnel on an airport runway. Their permeable nature didn't actually block out much sound and the gesture was more an exercise in experimenting with her powers, but it did help her tune out the lengthy explanation. As the rock hurtled toward her, the teen refocused, closing the dish shaped force field into a smaller full sphere around the stone, suspending it midair.

[Supercape]

"HOWZAT!" yelled Supercape, without much rhyme or reason. "Well caught!"

Noticing the earphones, he gave a disgruntled "hmph", but refrained from any comment. Petulance appears to be compulsory amongst youth today. Kids...Still, it does display a modicum of ingenuity and wit, even if its not quite "Oscar".

"Excellent work. Malleable, adaptable, resilient. Overall, a useful talent, my dear girl!" he proclaimed. "Perhaps we should wake up the owner of the planet? I don't think there is much more I can say about your energy constructs. Although I can always take a look in a lab for further analysis - which may be valuable. "

[Gizmo]

Moving the sphere of to one side, Jill let is disappear along with her headphone construct, the caught rock dropping back down to the ground with a dull thud. "Yeah, good call," she agreed following Supercape back in the direction of the cottage. Pausing for a silent moment, the teen sighed softly then added, "So, y'know, thanks for coming out to give me some pointers and all. Didn't have to or anything, so."

[Supercape]

"No no, my pleasure!" replied Supercape. He found the whole caper rather enjoyable. "I'm sure you would help out a fellow hero if the need came eh? No doubt I will crack a rib one day fighting Dr. Simian or some other nonsense, and perhaps you could patch me up? I'm not as young as I once was. Don't back so easy these days. Not like you virile youths!"

As if to emphasise the point, upon entering Stesha's hut, he called out in a polite voice "any more tea going, dear?"

[Electra]

Stesha had apparently not gone back to sleep after being so rudely awakened, as when they came in she was over in the kitchenette, arranging cookies on a tray. "There's more water that can be heated up," she told him, "and you can toss the spent leaves from the strainer on the compost heap in back." She carried the cookies over to the coffee table and adjusted the space heater, turning it down a little to keep the house comfortable. "How's progress on the creation going?" she asked.

[Supercape]

"Very successful!" commented Supercape "we even played a spot of cricket! I can still bowl fairly decently, if I say so myself!"

He started to work on the tea, heating the water with a pulse of microwaves that he created with the raise of an eyebrow.

"Although I am not entirely sure my young friend here understands the rules... I would be happy to explain them again, of course..."

He gave Jill a wink.

[Gizmo]

"Tell you what, how about I just accept that grievous gap in my knowledge and use the shame to grow as a person?" Jill drawled, brushing a few insistent bags off he forehead before crossing her arms. Leaning against one of the organic cottage's walls, she turned to Stesha. "Went pretty well, I guess. I hadn't experimented much with different shapes, so that's something to think about."

[Supercape]

"Different sizes eh?" Supercape scratched his head. "Good idea, should have thought of that. "

Half consciously he formed a sphere, a cube, and a pyramid of quantum matter, all no more than palm sized, in front of him. They all bobbed in mid-air.

"Yes, good exercise. Although... your mastery of earphones during my riveting lecture on the rules of cricket seemed quite competent, if you ask me..."

[Electra]

"Now now, let's not fight," Stesha chided teasingly, laying the refreshments out on the coffee table. "I'm sure cricket is a fascinating game, but it's probably not exactly what Jill was hoping to learn today. I did want to ask you though, Supercape, if you might be able to make me up some windows. The dome looks so amazing, and all I've got for windows now is plastic sheeting. It looks tacky, and it doesn't insulate very well," she admitted. "I've been playing with translucent leaves, but it just isn't the same."

[Supercape]

"Why of course my dear" replied Supercape, beaming. He studied the dimensions of the windows.

"First, out with the old..." he muttered, and without so much as a whisper, the leaves and tarpaulins that acted as the current windows crumbled away into dust and blew away in the wind.

"...might need a dustpan and brush, sorry about that..." he said, apologetically.

"and now.. in with the new..." he continued. And with a slight hazy preamble, the window frames gave birth to the crystalline quantum matter, sparkling, shiny, transparent, and glistening with a slight blue tinge.

"HOWZAT?" he smiled.