The Marvels of Science (IC)

[Fox]

Dragonfly caught up, lightly panting and with some of her dirty-blonde hair sticking to her forehead. She brushed it aside, not that it helped her look any less tired. really - really work on wings

Glad, at least, to no longer truly be bringing up the rear she glanced at the electronic lock on the door further down. She couldn't even be bothered to open the thing normally - with a tired grumpy noise she glanced at it, lights dancing behind her eyes as she strongarmed the system - a feat made much easier by being one of the founders, and having helped install the security in the first place. She opened the door and gestured through it, wryly commenting, "More stairs. After you."

[Supercape]

Supercape was breathing heavy, but he was glad he kept in shape with his daily cycling. The adrenaline pumping round his system was helping of course.

Things probably weren't too serious, but the collider at the basement would be unpredictable if not controlled. It was causing a lot of interference to his acute and superhuman senses.

Puffing away, pausing only briefly, he pulled up outside Simulator Suite A.

"Here we are", he gasped, opening the door.

Inside, the forest programme continued to play, with zero gravity in full force. The stream had started to spray upwards, and leaves blew everywhere. Random glitches appeared in the background at various junctures.

"Now, we just have to find the source of the problem..."

[Aoiroo]

Following behind, Etain kept in step until they got to the door of the simulator which seemed to be in chaos as the gravity no longer functioned there. She was less then eager to actually enter considering how poorly she could control herself in the zero gravity,

"Is this room not controlled by an outside room that we may enter? It did not seem to have any of the things that the other wings had when it was not casting the illusion space."

[Supercape]

Supercape pushed a few buttons on the computer terminal outside the simulator suite. A lot of the screen was corrupted, full of garbage due to the malfunction.

"Looks like conduit 23c, other end of the suite has come loose. I'm not an expert on these things, but I can get us there. Madam, I know this wasn't exactly what you were expecting, but welcome to practical science 101. From the looks of things, you have a few handy talents..." my word, don't I know it he thought to himself, remembering her masterful handling of the demon that had been summoned in the sewers of the city "...and your assistance would be appreciated. The simulator suite is... chaotic...right now, and may prove hazardous"

As if to prove his point, an arc of purple electricity lanced across the suite.

Supercape activated his quantum forcefield, and held on to his companions, stepping into the zero gravity of the suite.

[Fox]

Sighing, Dragonfly brought her own force field back up and let herself be pulled into the horrible, nauseating room. "Always something small. Little things cascade into larger things...one of the major reasons this technology isn't commercial."

Both gauntlets were charged, just in case, little flicks and ripples in space appearing now and again as she carefully scanned the room for hazards or damage. "Need to think about building automated repair drones. Could repurpose some of the construction drones...would at least allow remote piloting for situations like this."

[Aoiroo]

Etain was still less then willing regardless simply because of the way her illusions worked,

""

Sighing, she took a few steps forward until she felt the weightlessness take effect. She kept her eyes peeled, she could probably run interferance for anything that might come for the other two since they're the ones who actually have any chance of fixing this.

[Supercape]

As Supercape floated towards the other side of the Simulator Suite, he noticed a build up of electricity in the system, similar to the arc that had lanced across the room before. He had little time to react, other than to mumble "oh dear", and, almost in a daze, watch as the giant bolt of electricity coursed through the air.

He let go of Dragonfly and Etain and reflexively curled up in a ball, for all the good it did him - the arc struck him straight and true and passed on to the other side. A flash of light and sparks of energy highlighted the collision of energy between the arc and Supercapes quantum field. A slighty singed and stung Supercape unfolded himself.

"Ouch!" he commented. "I do find pain most disagreeable"

[Fox]

Dragonfly winced, reflexively shielding her eyes from the arc as it passed. worse in here than I thought - a single coupler? - mmh "Seem alright. Lucky you aren't cooked - high-powered arcs. Speaks to the quality of your force field...should hurry."

Frowning, she managed to turn herself around to face the wall they'd been heading for...and disappeared, the world folding in around her. Simultaneously the world folded outward next to the wall, where she reappeared and reached out to grab hold of anything to keep her from floating off. Hand to her belt, she pulled out her multi-tool and flicked it open like a butterfly knife. Quickly prying off a panel - and wincing a little at the state of things - Dragonfly literally dug in up to her elbows and started working. broken - broken - repairable - bypass - broken - horrible - who did this maintenance? - need a stern talking to - that part shouldn't even BE here - this part's brilliant - broken - bypass - bypass - repairable - broken salvage for parts Little bits of burnt plastic and twisted metal made their way out of the hole as she removed or discarded them, floating off behind her in an asteroid cloud of ruined parts and broken inventions. Every once in a while there was a loud sparking sound and a choice word in Russian, but bit by bit progress was being made....

[Supercape]

"Error... Error" came the calm voice of the Simulator Suite, as the Forest Programme faded away.

Of course, the damn gravity dosen't come back on cursed Supercape.

"Simulator Programmes Contam...am...am...am...aminatatatatated... Commence holographic flush sequence"

With that, a sudden stream of light hit the whole suite, gaudy waves of horrible mish-mashed colours that washed this way and that, and, combined with the absent gravity, gave a horrible sense of plunging into infinity an in impossible directions.

Supercape closed his eyes as soon as the light hit him, on reflex alone. Even a second of the effect was enough to cause the bile to rise to his throat and he was glad he had witnessed no more. He doubted Dragonfly could cope with the repairs under such a barrage of visual stimulation, however - and, skilled as she was, he doubted she could do it blind.

With a moments focus, he created a bubble of quantum matter around the three heroes, enough to shield out the visual insults the flush sequence was treating them too.

"Nothing worse than bad art, eh?" he quipped, swallowing down the traces of vomit he had unconsciously thrown to his mouth.

[Fox]

Dragonfly muttered something, snapping her eyes shut the moment she saw reflected chaos on the metal in the wall. She scowled, but opened her eyes as soon as the bubble went up and got back to work. "Few good things come from 'flush sequences'," she dryly noted, tearing a whole section of tangled, melted wire out of the wall and letting it float free at her side. "Whose idea, and how soon can we make them spend time in it?"

She shook hair out from in front of her visor, reaching far into the wall to screw something in. "Working as fast as I can. Had to have happened in a way that would cause more trouble by just being shut down...never that lucky...."

[Aoiroo]

Etain had little time to react to what was happening, avoiding the sudden surge of lightning was luck, as was her shutting her eyes at the right time to avoid the dizzying effects of the flush but she was still rather sick herself. Looking at Dragonfly then at SC she fought against the lack of gravity to get to the injured guide. He looked absolutely terrible,

"Relax,"

Letting out a breath she placed a hand on his shoulder and the wounds and pains disappeared from his perception. They were not really gone, but it would be fair more comfortable.

[Supercape]

Supercape felt better, as the numbing effects of Etains Illusion hit him.

"Wha..?" he started, before his brain clicked into gear. "Oh!... Ah!!!! That feels better!". The stinging sensation over his chest didn't sting any more. The injuries were not particularly serious, but electrical burns - damn they could hurt. He looked over at Etain gratefully.

"Thanks my dear, I guess that was your doing".

As the nauseating lights continued to dance away, now dimmed by the bubble, he turned to Dragonfly. He had little idea about the ins and outs of the technology, but it looked the mechanical marvel was making good progress.

"Looks like we should get this sorted soon enough eh? Well done, chaps!"

[Fox]

"Soon enough," Dragonfly grumbled, elbow-deep again as she messed with the wiring in a piece of machinery that she had, apparently, opened with a very very sharp can opener-like doodad on her multitool. "Would go much FASTER if whoever had built this had been sane. Wiring is a mess. Parts are...quality but look commercial. Don't know why anyone bothered. Half the plastic's in one solid piece, the wiring's disorganized, the...what is this even...."

She yanked out something that looked like a big grapefruit covered in nodes and plugins. "This doesn't even need to be here," she judged with dismay and disdain, tossing it to the side in dismissal and revealing that the entire back end had blown outward. "Can just as easily wire this into...and that over here...make it balance itself without generating heat that gets sunk by...well this, but that's useless too now could repurpose the plating over here repair some damage I did repairing...."

[Aoiroo]

"Do not move so quickly, you are stilled injured even if you cannot feel it."

Turning to her other guide who seemed ingulfed in work and angry mumbling she positioned herself away from the throwing path of the debris she was removing from the hub.

"How long did it take to make this place? It was not here when I first arrived in the city."

[Supercape]

"Very quickly!" replied Supercape, keeping one eye on Dragonfly and another on the vast illuminated Simulator Suite. The flush programme had finished, at least. He wasn't ready to banish the quantum matter quite yet, however.

"Advanced architectural design, Archetech helped out, and we had some superpowered help too. With the will and the resources, these things can be built very quickly. Some of the brightest heroes in Freedom met up to discuss solutions to the problems of the world, and the Lab was one of the outcomes. Its where we can pool resources, thinking, and experience. Not just amongst ourselves but with the scientists around the world. "

"And of course, in the event of any catastrophe of science, we are here to sort it out."

[Fox]

Dragonfly shrugged. "Very quickly...for a building. Five months...no, maybe four. Planning took some time. General idea was finished quick-tsss!" That last bit was a pained hiss as something sparked. She said something foul-sounding Russian and shook a hand. "Insulation melted off some wires...general idea was finished quickly, but details took work. Security, what to put on what floor, how to use space. Pretty calm debate, actually. Was expecting more conflict."

She shook her head, leaning back in to work. "Came together for a good cause, I guess. Sped things up."

[Supercape]

"Hold on" said Supercape, a note of anxiety in his voice... "I think something's happening... remind me again what happened after the flush sequence?"

Holographic Flush Sequence Completed. Commence Vacuum Decontamination Intoned the calm, pleasant computer voice.

From all around the room, tiny nozzles appeared, and a quiet but effective hissing noise could be heard.

"Oh dear" whispered Supercape. "I remember now... they suck out all the air..."

[Fox]

Dragonfly, to her credit, managed to keep working. Barely. It didn't stop her from talking, though, as she tried to hurry up on the work. "They what? Need to have a talk with the decontamination designer. Almost reasonable as a fire-prevention system but the lack of regard for safety...."

She shook her head, trying to focus on getting this whole thing fixed. "Also need to have a talk with whoever did this wiring!" Another twisted rat's nest of melted copper and plastic joined the first, pulled right out of the wall for being unsalvageable or unnecessary.

[Aoiroo]

Understanding the situation when her guide in blue explained only made her more worried. She turned to the girl who seemed so singularly focused on the work at hand and decided to direct any panic to Supercape.

"This is no goo, not at all."

Thinking quietly she tried to think of a solution,

"There is air now, can you trap it for us to use? The material you are using seemed very durable for the shielding."

In fact it seemed sort of familiar, though panic offset her curiousity just a bit.

[Supercape]

Thr trouble was, the quantum material was not a complete bubble - it was only a half bubble with its edges resting against the walls and floor of the simulator suite. And it was far from airtight. As the vacuum increased in the main room, it had floated off.

It had provided a few seconds breathing space (literally), but that was it.

However, Etain may have been on the right track...

Straining with effort, Supercape summoned up his quantum lattice forcefield, and extended it around the three heroes, altering its composition. It was much, much thinner, but it would trap the remaining oxygen in the bubble for them to breathe. The pressure was still dangerously low, but it was better than nothing.

With considerable guilt, his own costume reformed with its characteristic glittering light. A 60's style space helmet bubble formed over his head. He could breathe normally. He wished he could afford that luxury to Etain and Dragonfly, but the thinned out air he had captured was the best he could do...

[Fox]

Dragonfly consciously popped her ears as she worked, forcing herself to not pay any attention to her burning lungs, or the obviously low pressure, or rapidly-diminishing supply of oxygen. Her world narrowed to the task at hand, the repairs that needed to be made, and the steps needed to complete the repairs. This part could be wired into that one to patch this problem and that part would be redundant; these wires were good only for the scrap heap but she could rearrange things to fit and salvage some wires from this part, which wouldn't need them anymore....

The low pressure was starting to hurt a little. would help if lungs were stronger - should have built the suit by now - would have saved my lungs the pain - never enough time - never ever ever enough time

[Aoiroo]

She watched in discomfort as Supercape costume changed while the field brought some air to them. Not much, and as the sucken continued she could only see less and less escaping the room. She tried to breath scarcely but it was just a bit painful and her lungs started to protest. Speaking did not seem a good use of air so she took her finger and wrote in the air a shimmering trail following her finger to let the message hang,

Will this continue for much longer?

[Supercape]

"I don't think so..." shouted Supercape, his voice weak through the thin air. He turned to Dragonfly, to see how the mechanical marvel was doing with the wires, which seemed to be breeding as far as he could determine. He could only assume, and hope, that within all the mess she was making some headway.

"...and yes, we really should take more care with the safety protocols!" he shouted, feeling sorry for his two comrades. He scanned the bleak simulator suite, wondering if he should detonate an atom here, and wreck the whole place. On second thoughts, that mike make things worse given the reactor on the sub levels below. Still, if things got really desperate...

[Aoiroo]

Etain coughed quietly in the thin air as she drifted trying to find a solution, but she quite literally could not think as to what would cause such a mess. Well actually she did have an idea, but it was hard to think such things would appear here. Hearing Supercape shout she nearly laughed at the horrible situation,

""

[Fox]

Dragonfly slumped a bit, the last traces of air sucked out of her lungs. Pull as she might, she just couldn't get any air BACK - there was nothing to breathe in, and her vision was starting to go a little fuzzy.

no - no - no no no - not like this - I'm so sorry to both of you for what this will do to your systems In desperation, she reached out for her gauntlets with her mind - the only part of her that seemed to still work without air, though even that wouldn't last long - and did something desperate. Lights danced behind her eyes for what felt like ages as she turned off nearly every safety she'd built into them - every failsafe, every guard, every 'are you seriously doing that?' warning. At long, long last she gave them one final command...and whipped a hand out to clamp down on Etain's nearest limb.

As soon as she'd done so, two very important things happened: first, a crackling, almost hap-hazard looking shield of twisted facets and not-quite-Euclidean shapes bent into being around them; no work of art this, it looked like it had been barely thrown together by a desperate person with a glue-gun and the world's strangest plastic (because it pretty much had), and was actually uncomfortable to look at directly as it bent and twisted in space. Second, and no less important, there was a violent and angry hissing noise from the young woman's gauntlets as air - precious, wonderful air - started venting out of them, through every crack and along every seam. The pressure equalized with ear-popping speed, but at a cost - the glass vacuum-tube looking bits on one gauntlet blew out completely, shattering into broken bits of glass and sputtering energy, the other gauntlet actually cracking a bit right in the middle of a solid piece of metal as if some hungry force was eating it from the other side.

The inventor gasped to fill her aching lungs, indicated in no uncertain terms that Etain should keep a hand on her at all times, and immediately turned back to her repairs.