Through the Grapevine (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

The inside of the caverns was almost shockingly bright by infravision: it was very hot in there, much, much warmer than the chilly day outside. Within seconds of Fleur's shout, Victory heard, then felt, an enormous, deep basso vibration as if an aircraft was headed right for him! Seconds later, he picked out an infrared signature, a big one, closing fast right on his position! Fleur didn't seem bothered by the oncoming projectile, which turned out to be...a giant bee! Beearthur was a drone, and thus not very clever, but he was one of the more clever and articulate "boyzzz" Stesha had met in the hive. "HELLLLOOOOO! HOW NIZE TO ZEE YOU AGAIN FLEUR DE JOIE!" He gave Victory a sidelong look with an eye large enough to fit the cyborg's entire body in if he crouched down. "WHO IZ YOUR METAL FRIEND?"

[Electra]

"Hello, Beearthur!" Fleur said, holding up her lantern to get a better look at him. Identifying the bees by sight wasn't easy, but she was a florist and a biologist, and used to looking for subtle distinctions. At least there were many fewer of the males. "This is my friend Victory, he is visiting from Prime! He is a superhero like me, and he wanted to meet some of you. How are you liking the new hive? Is it comfortable for you?"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory's sensors give the gigantic bee a thorough scan as soon as he saw the insect's rapid approach. His scanning was checking to see if this really is an actual insect. And indeed it was. No metal or anything. Somehow, this Beekeeper fellow managed to create creatures at this size and still able to fly. And when it spoke..well....his eyes went wide in surprise there. He certainly didn't expect it to speak, let alone be articulate, other than the expected..let's call it a lisp.

Lance started to hesitantly put his hand out for a shake, as it's his usual habit when he meets someone. But, of course, bees don't have hands, so he switched it to a wave into that massive eye.

"It's.....it's good to meet you, Beearthur. I'm Victory. Or Lance, if you prefer."

He was trying to stay cordial, but he wasn't exactly conditioned on the proper procedure on meeting giant insects.

[Avenger Assembled]

"LANZE, HUH? IZ THAT BECAUZ OF YOUR-OH!" The drone scrubbed at his face with legs longer than Victory's body. "I AM ZORRY, I KNOW I ZHOULD NOT TALK TO HUMANIODZ ABOUT THAT. YEAH, THINGZ ARE PRETTY GOOD! ME AND DA BOYZ ARE HAVING IT PRETTY GOOD! WE ARE GETTING PRETTY CRUNK ON THE HONEY WE ARE ZTORING UP, AT LEAZT WHEN THE QUEEN IZ NOT LOOKING. AHAHAHA!" He laughed, and it made the air vibrate. "ZHE ZAYZ THAT IF ALL GOEZ WELL, MAYBE IN ZUMMER WE MAKE THE LITTLE BEEZ!"

[Electra]

"That's wonderful news!" Stesha said enthusiastically. "We'll hear the humming of little wings in the summer fields. I'm so happy for all of you. And I won't tell about the honey if you won't." She winked at the giant bee, an exaggerated gesture to give him the chance to see it at all, then turned to Victory. "This is all Gaian Knight's work. He did an amazing job building the hive, and insulating it. It's going to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Perfect for baby bees, and for big bees as well!"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory is caught even further off-guard at the way the bee speaks. He hadn't heard anyone talking like that since he was in flight school. And he could swear it just made....that sort of joke. What exactly were these bees taught? Must've been something they picked up with the Beekeeper, since he can't imagine they'd learn to talk like that around Fleur. The "making the little bees" part made a bit of a crawl go up his spine, or what's left of it.

"That sounds...like quite a time."

Victory was a bit relieved when Fleur spoke again, and turned back to her.

"It must've been quite an undertaking. With fellas this big, it must've been a job that'd make even Metropolis take pause. Do give him my compliments for undertaking such a job. Speaking of Gaian Knight, I haven't met him. What's he like?"

[Electra]

"Oh, he's great!" Fleur said enthusiastically. "You should've seen him when he was making this place. People with powers like his and mine don't always get a chance to really show off everything we can do, what with all the city and the civilians in the way. It's only here, where we've got so much empty space and so much raw material to work with that we can let ourselves shine. But I also worked with him earlier this year to contain a mudslide on the east side. He's clever with his powers, and very dedicated. You should meet him sometime."

[Avenger Assembled]

"IT'Z A GREAT HOUZE, MAN. HE REALLY BUILT TO LAZT." The gigantic bee loomed over the two of them, casting a great compound eye Victory's way. "DO YOU BUILD THINGZ TOO? BEECAUSE I ZAW A ZHOW IN THE OTHER WORLD WHERE THERE WAZ THIZ POOL FULL OF CHAMPAGNE AND HUMANOIDS ZWAM AROUND IN IT, AND THEY SAID IT WAS A 'VERY CLAZZY CRIB.' I'D LIKE TO GET ZOME CLAZZ AROUND HERE." He buzzed, and it was as if Victory had stuck his head up his own vents. "I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT CHAMPAGNE IZ, BUT I BET WE CAN MAKE IT OUT OF HONEY IF WE TRY. PEOPLE ARE CRAZY FOR HONEY." The giant bee seemed perfectly content to hover there and talk in a slow, lazy way about his plans for a champagne tub. "WE'D HAVE TO MAKE IT BIG ENOUGH FOR BEEZ, OF COURZE..."

[JackgarPrime]

"I definitely should. What's his power? Earth manipulation? Must be something similar, at least, if he can carve and shape like this. Perhaps I could find some way to be useful in his work here."

His thoughts are drowned out when the colossal bee speaks again. And, to be honest, lance couldn't help but wonder if someone actually could use honey in a champagne. it'd certainly be...interesting, that's for sure. However, his idea of what "class" is could use some...correcting.

"Well, if you mean humans in general, we make lots and lots of things. But me in particular...usually not. but I do keep people from destroying things that others have made, so there's that. And I don't really know where you learned about class, but trust me, something like that isn't class. It's just going overboard with your money. Although just drinking champagne is classy. Why not...I dunno....build statues or something instead? Can you solidify your honey enough for it to stay standing for a long time?"

Now Victory's the one being weird....

[Avenger Assembled]

"I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT MONEY IZ," the giant bee explained, "BUT ZTATUZ ARE NIZE. I COULD BUILD ONE OF THE QUEEN! OR OF ME! I AM THINKING ABOUT BUILDING ONE OUT OF ROCK THE WAY GAIAN KNIGHT DID. HE'Z A PRETTY COOL GUY, BUILDZ ROCKZ AND NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING." He bobbed slightly in the air. "ZO DID YOU WANT TO COME IN AND ALL?" The giant bee asked. "THERE ARE ZOME GUYZ JUZT HANGING OUT, AND THE GIRLZ ARE ZEEING IF THERE'Z ANYTHING WILD TO EAT. HEY! THAT REMINDZ ME! BEATRIZZ HAD A QUEZTION SHE WANTED ME TO AZK YOU IF I ZAW YOU, ZO THIZ IZ A GOOD TIME." Reaching out with a giant leg, the bee sketched a pattern as big as either of the two heroes in the dirt. "WHATZ THAT MEAN?"

[Electra]

"That's a symbol for radiation," Stesha told the giant bee, her face crinkling with concern. "It means danger, it means that there are very poisonous things in the area. You should stay far away from anywhere you see that symbol. Where did you see it?" She was hoping that the bees had found an old fallout shelter, but suspected that might be too fine a distinction for them to make. Better for them to simply stay away from all signs of radiation. They didn't need any more mutations!

[JackgarPrime]

When Victory saw the symbol, his eyes widened a bit. He had to actually stop himself from blasting his jets out of his clothes as a reaction to a clear danger. While Fleur explained it to the big bee calmly, Victory was trying to figure out where they could possibly take a container filled with any manner of radioactive products in a place like this, and really hopes Fleur has somewhere such a thing could be put.

"Tell me where she found it. It's very dangerous, but if there's a place around here such a thing could be disposed, I could bring it there without worrying about the effects. It's very, very important that you stay far away from it until it's gotten rid of, though."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I DUNNO, YOU'LL HAVE TO AZK THE GIRLZ. I DON'T GO OUT MUCH. ITZ DANGEROUZ!" Beearthur seemed determined to share his plans for interior decorating with the two heroes in lieu of explaining exactly what was going on with the radiation symbol nearby, but luckily a frost-rimed Beatrizz arrived back at that juncture to give more information: after pressing deeper into the hive for warmth.

"ITZ VERRY VERRY COLD OUT!" she explained, the bees having evidently tried to fly above the clouds on the way back only to have run into further problems. When she was alongside two of her sisters, and everyone deep inside the foyer of the giant rocky hive, the building lit only by what looked like an iridescent rock glowing on some of the walls, an exotic compound no doubt helpfully provided by the building's maker, Beatrizz explained as she warmed.

"ITZ UNDERGROUND AWAZAWAY ON A METAL ISLAND THING, OUT IN THE WATER. I FOUND IT WHEN I WAZ EXPLORING AND WANTED TO MAKE ZURE YOU HEARD. IZ A VERY DIZTURBEEING PLAZE, AND THERE ARE NOT MANY ANIMALZZZ AROUND THERE!"

[Electra]

"I imagine not," Stesha said ruefully, creating massive fuzzy leaves to help dry off the chilly bees. "That symbol is a sign of danger. It means there's poison in the air and ground and water around there. If you ever see it again, you should come and tell me right away, and stay far away from it. Now that you know it's there, you have to make sure that everyone avoids going to that place. If you stay far enough away, you should be all right." She still looked worried; she really didn't have much idea how to clean up radioactive waste, and in her condition, she certainly wasn't going to get too close!

[JackgarPrime]

Victory watched as more bees arrived. After speaking with Beearthur for a bit, seeing some more come by wasn't quite so surprising to him. His mind was more occupied with the radioactive material issue. Not only how to get rid of it, but what it was doing there in the first place. He thought this was some sort of stand alone dimension of hers. Apparently it wasn't. Or someone had gone there before for dumping.

He stroked his chin, his eyes glancing to the bees as they spoke. While Stesha was drying them off, he snaps his fingers as a thought hit him.

"If we had a place where there won't be any risk of anyone coming in contact with it, I could carry it there, myself. I was built in such a way that it doesn't affect me. I could rapidly carry it to wherever we could safely place it."

[Electra]

"I'm not sure," Stesha admitted, still studying the radiation symbol with some consternation. "The entire planet is uninhabited and uninhabitable save for this bubble that I've created. If this deposit is far enough out to sea, we could simply avoid it for the near future. But that's not really a sustainable solution. We could move it to a world that is even deader than this one, one with no vegetable or animal life, but that would require getting me getting close enough to teleport it, and I'm not willing to do that right now." She looked at the government hero. "Any ideas?"

[JackgarPrime]

Well, that wasn't an option, then. He thought a bit more, than seemed to come up with something else.

"I'll need lots of lead. Enough to put all of the material in. Lead makes a fantastic shield against radiation, to the point where not a single little drop of waste should get out, and the radiation itself would be unable to escape. From there, I could either bring the material somewhere that you can be, and we can dispose of it from there. Alternatively, if you're uneasy about even being near contained material, I could just go into space and chuck the whole thing towards this planet's star."

He makes a tossing motion with his hands, then dusts them off against each other.

"That way, there are only two things that could happen: Either the star is so far away that all the material will have degraded into complete safety by then, or all the material will have the same fate of anything else that gets close enough to a star."

[Electra]

"Well, this is Earth," Stesha said with a shrug, "the star is as far away as you'd expect it to be at this time of year, though I can't say I have any idea what that means as far as degrading the metals. But I don't have access to anything like that," she admitted. "If you leave this improved area and go poking around, you might find some in the ruins, perhaps of a hospital or lab that had a lead-lined room. I wouldn't know where to start, though, and it's not very pleasant to stay too long outside of this part of the world."

[JackgarPrime]

"Ah, yes. Of course. It's easy to forget that this is essentially the same planet, what with...well..."

He motions around with his hand.

"...All this. Anyway, I might be able to bring sufficient containment back from Freedom City, if you can make a portal big enough to allow me to go back and forth. Of course, that all depends on how much there is."

He thinks again, then remembers one of the details. He turned to the bee who gave them the news in the first place.

"You mentioned it was on a....metal island, of some sort? How big was it?" For all he knew, it could've all just been on a barge. If so, it wouldn't be too difficult to remove from the planet. But if it was a full-on island, there could be ways to deal with that,too...

[Avenger Assembled]

Sketching in the dirt with their massive limbs, the bees outlined where they'd seen the symbol: a rectangular metal island some miles offshore. "ITZ COVERED IN BIRDZ AND FIZH, ZO WE THOUGHT IT WAZ OK." The rectangle was surrounded by reefs and debris, apparently making it the center of an ecosystem. "LOOKED LIKE A PLAZE WHERE PEOPLE UZED TO BEE, BUT THEREZ NOTHING THERE NOW." The bees all shuddered; evidently a tomb was no more pleasant a place for bees than it was for human beeings! Listening to the bees' description, a light bulb went off over Victory's head: they were talking about an aircraft carrier! And the remains of a flotilla, too, if what he'd seen with deliberately sunken ships turned into reefs. Somewhere, the last remnant of a navy, maybe the American navy, was still at sea, but now it was a threat to the world it once had guarded.

[JackgarPrime]

A carrier. That could be a bit more of a problem than a barge. Even for his impressive strength, a carrier is a mighty heavy load. But there are ways to still deal with it. It'd just take longer than tossing the whole thing into space at once. He'd have to either do it in pieces, or with some sort of assistance.

"Hmmm...Sounds like an old carrier. If it's still floating out there, it's possible that it may strike larger sections of land at some point. We'd have to remove it as soon as possible."

Stroking his chin, Victory tried to think of how to deal with it. The easiest way would be to throw the actual nuclear material itself. But the carrier would still have some traces left.

"Could you show me where it is? Not the exact spot, since it's too dangerous for you to get close, but at least the general area?"

He turns back to Fleur for a moment. "Is that alright with you? I'm going to see if I can just throw the material right off the planet. If the carrier is still entirely intact, or at least mostly so, I may not even need a new container for it. I may be able to just wrap it all up in chunks of the ship and use that..."

[Electra]

"It sounds fine," Fleur said, though she sounded a little uncertain, "as long as you're sure it's not going to be dangerous for you or any of the bees. I can't come with you," she told him again, sounding very sure of herself on this one point. "I'm four months pregnant, and I'm not even supposed to be getting X-Rays. I can't take the risk of being exposed to leaking gamma radiation if the carrier is out there and emitting particles. I can watch you from here, though, I can see anywhere on the planet, from anywhere on the planet."

[Avenger Assembled]

The bees did their best to show Victory where they'd found the carrier, but it wasn't easy. For a man used to interpreting visually-oriented maps, understanding the gyrations and pheremone secretions of a sixty-foot honeybee and transforming that into useful information wasn't easy. Finally, the bees offered to provide Victory an escort to the carrier. "IF YOU THINK YOU CAN KEEP UP THAT IZ, HEH HEH," said one bee, buzzing around like a low-flying jet. "YOU THINK YOU CAN HANG WITH THE FAZTEZT BEEZ IN TOWN?"

Beatrizz furiously protested on Victory's behalf: "CMON GUYZ, YOU KNOW HOW FAZT ZUPERBIPEDZ GO! I BET HE'Z REAL FAZT!"

[JackgarPrime]

"Of course. They won't have to actually get near the thing, don't worry. They just need to show me the general area, and I'll be able to find it from there before they get anywhere close to the radiation. As for me....well...a little nuclear material's not going to bother me one little bit."

He grins and thumped his chest, making the sound of a metal clanging ring out. As the bees talk, he takes his time to once again remove his jacket. He rolls it up, and quickly offs his shirt as well, exposing the metal that most of his body is not made of. Particularly all along his back, from where his boosters flip out from. More metal forms out from his back, covering his torso and his other arm.

"Do you mind putting this somewhere for me? I really like this jacket, but I can't put these boosters out with it on."

His gaze moves up the bees, who he gives a sly grin. "I'll give you guys a demonstration once we're out of audible range from Fleur here. I wouldn't want to hurt her ears, especially with that baby."

[Electra]

Fleur took the clothing and tucked it under her arm. "You behave," she told the bees, only half-seriously. "No hotdogging, or I'll tell the queen on you!" She turned her attention to Victory. "I'll wait for your back at the house, it's only a few miles from here, almost exactly west. If you see the giant crystalline dome, you'll know you're very close. The bees can help, too. If you get into trouble, just say the word, and I'll do what I can to help. Even if I can't be there, this is my planet, in a way, and I have more power here than I do on Prime."