Through the Grapevine (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Up in the sky, a flight of half-a-dozen giant bees were waiting for Victory, each of them buzzing around and smacking into each other like eager frat boys punching themselves on the arm. "ALL RIGHT, MAN!" called the leader, who he recognized as Beearthur when he got up there, "LETZ GET PHYZICAL IN THIZ HIZICAL!" And with that, the bees all took off with roar of frantically flapping wings. They were, of course, much slower than Victory in flight, but they had to be approaching Mach 1 at least; not bad for bees bigger than jet fighters! Meanwhile, it was easy enough for Stesha to make her way back to her house, accompanied by a sociable Beeatrizz.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory makes sure his on-board navigation system remembers just the right way to go with Fleur's advice. Fortunately, since this is still physically Earth, the directions are all the same, making it easy to adapt.

"That's very reassuring, thank you. I shouldn't be too long, but if I run into trouble, I'll make sure to contact you."

Once she was a safe distance away, Victory smirked up at the bees, letting them get a bit ahead. Once he thought they had a good distance, he took of. With his launch, the air around his chosen path seemed to bend, and an incredibly loud roar followed him. Before the bees could even see where he was going, he was already faaaaaaaaaaar off in the distance, floating there, looking back at the bees. He called over to them, fairly certain they should be able to hear.

"Hey! I thought you guys were gonna show me how fast you were!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"WOAAAH!" The bees all looked very impressed with Victory's speed, punching each other on the arm gleefully, then swatting at him with giant limbs to do the same. "THATZ ZOME FAZT FLYING MAN! YOU'RE OK IN MY BOOK, EVEN IF YOU ZTILL BETTER ZTAY AWAY FROM OUR FEMALEZ!" Given the way they all broke into a hideous chorus of buzzing roars at that which might have been apian masculine laughter, it sounded like they were teasing him good-naturedly. It was more comforting to think so, anyway. The ocean was not an entirely pleasant sight for Victory flying overhead, even with the jocular company: the color of the water was browner than he remembered, as if undersea beds had been stirred up distantly and never settled down, and he noticed a distinct lack of fish. Things really weren't that great this far from where Fleur had made a home for the bees. Eventually, the rust-brown island that was the carrier came into view, and the bees pointed "YEAH THERE IT IZ MAN. IZ NOT A GOOD PLAZE."

[JackgarPrime]

Of course, Victory isn't particularly interested with females of the bee persuasion, but he plays along, waving it off a bit.

"Nah, don't worry about that. I know when something's off-limits"

At least he hoped they'd get it. Either way, he puts his attention back on the task at hand. He kept his speed at the same level as the bees, as jetting ahead would do no good, since they need to guide him. But as they got closer to the target, Victory's face became grim. There is, or at least was, a lot more going on here than just some nuclear waste. Something even worse had happened, but he can only guess as to what.

Upon seeing the rust of the carrier, Victory nods, and holds a hand up, to tell them to stay.

"I'll go on in. I don't know how much of it is safely contained, so it's best if you kept as much distance as you can. This far should be alright, but try not to go any closer in, okay?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Whatever had killed the carrier had happened many years earlier: Victory wasn't a Navy man, but he knew years of water-borne corrosion when he saw it. The flight deck was pitted with holes brought about by sea and spray, but other larger ones, with corrosion around the edges, showed him evidence of bomb blasts, areas where the metal had been blasted aside many years earlier. His armor's senses clicked warily as he made his landing; whatever had happened in this carrier had definitely left it radioactive. Maybe it wasn't on the surface, but what might happen below the decks? He was just heading towards the gap over the area where he judged the reactor was likely to be when his eyes focused on an oddly-familiar shape in the rotting rubble on deck.

Amid the broken remains of American military hardware, organic debris long since decayed, lay a single alien but oddly familiar sight: the curved, wickedly sharp chassis of a Grue landing craft!

[JackgarPrime]

Victory's curiosity led him to look around a bit more than just to find the reactor. Something happened here. Something very bad. And he wanted to know what, if just to settle his own mind.

And once he sees the craft remains, he gets a very good idea what it was that ruined the rest of this version of Earth so much. This one wasn't as lucky as his own. But why just this Grue craft, but no evidence of Grue still on the planet? Perhaps they were repelled, but the cost of doing so was so great that it destroyed everything else as well? Perhaps, without heroes to protect it, did they have to resort to WMD's?

Whatever the answer, he'd have to think on it later. He records some images for later examination, , taking a moment to look the craft over and see if there was anything else to learn before moving on.

[Avenger Assembled]

The Grue ship was old and busted, as decayed and battered as the carrier itself. That was reassuring, at least, it meant that the Grue had come and gone long ago. Indeed, as old as the ruins hereabouts were, perhaps they'd come and gone in a time that had nothing to do with the carrier's destruction. Down below, it was easy to see what had happened and what the bees must have seen: whatever had torn away most of the flight deck had gone all the way down to the reactor vessel, leaving the containment shield open to the air and the radiative symbol clearly visible. He was quickly able to determine that the reactor itself hadn't broken, leaving him with just the challenge of getting it free and into space!

[JackgarPrime]

Upon seeing the reactor still intact and undamaged, Victory breathed a huge sigh of relief. It looked like there was very little danger here. The containment shield hadn't even been breached. Which is somewhat impressive, considering the condition of the rest of the ship.

Still, it'd be best to remove this thing before something does happen to it. He'd have to be careful, though. He wouldn't want any of this leaking out by accident. Checking the attachments closely, he tries to find the best way to separate the reactor from the ship without damaging it, so he can carry it with him.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory finishes his examination, and figures out where to detach the reactor from. He takes his time, being as careful as possible. Once he gets it out, he finds his way out of the metal labyrinth. It took some time to get back out of there without damaging the reactor, but he manages it with careful maneuvering. Once he's outside, though, he kicks the speed up.

Rocketing into the air, the bit of lead around the reactor kept it intact. As he flew up, he kept one eye on it, to make sure there's no breach.

Once he finally achieves escape velocity, Victory finds himself out in space. Normally, he'd take a moment to take it all in, but there was a job to do! Spinning like a shotputter, Victory's onboard computers calculate the angle he'd need to ensure that it goes right for the sun, and he finally lets go, sending the nuclear reactor well on its way into the heart of the star.

His job done, he does take a moment to look out over the sea of stars, and smiles. He'll be up here more one day. He's sure of it.

And with that, he rockets back to Earth, making his way back to where he told the bees to wait.

[Avenger Assembled]

The bees were full of congratulations for Victory, offering him "BROFIZTZ!" that would have seriously threatened the structural integrity of a lesser man. They kept humming his praises on the way back, roaring like jet engines as they shouted back and forth their admiration for him. "HEY MAN THAT WAZ TOTALLY GREAT! YOU ZHOULD RIP THINGZ OUT OF THINGZ MORE MAN AND REALLY ZHOW THEM ALL!" They laughed as one and said, "ZERIOZOUZLY THOUGH, THAT WAZ GREAT. ARE WE ZAFE FROM THAT THING NOW?" They made a good pace in the air, and soon the green landscape was visible below.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory cautiously reciprocates the....brofists....being careful both of his own arm and the limbs of the bees. He isn't quite sure exactly how strong they are in relation to his own strength, but he'd rather err on the side of caution.

"Eh, it was nothing, really. There wasn't as much risk as I first thought,thankfully. But do be careful. Don't go in that area unless you have to. Things definitely won't get any worse, but there will still be some radiation left over for some time. Although I have no idea how long that thing was there. The longer, the better, though, since radiation eventually starts to fade over time."

Victory goes for more of a smirk after.

"And hey, if you wanna see me ripping things out of things, you should join me on patrol sometime."

[Electra]

Several of the worker bees were buzzing near Fleur's cottage when the disposal party came back. One of them (they all pretty much looked the same to an untrained eye) held a conversation with Beearthur in the buzzing, humming language of the bees, then flew off towards the hive, while the others descended alongside Victory. Fleur walked out of the cottage at all the commotion, waving to Victory and the others. "Did it work?" she called. "Are you all okay?"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory smiled reassuringly as he landed, casually taking a few steps toward and waving.

"Yup. Everything's fine. Fortunately, the worst of it was that the shielding leading to a reactor was busted open. The reactor itself was fine, so there wasn't really any leaking. I wouldn't go back there immediately, but I don't think it'll actually do any harm."

Victory cricked his shoulder, still a little stiff from the coldness of space.

"But just to be safe, I threw it into the Sun. The ship it was in looked to be in really bad shape, so it could've all collapsed any day and broken the reactor open. Then you would've had a problem. But for now, it's all good!"

[Electra]

Stesha breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much!" she told him effusively. "I don't know what I would've done without your help. I really appreciate it. And all of you as well!" she added to the bees, raising her voice and looking upward.

"HOW ABOUT ZZOME REWARDZZ?" Beearthur suggested coyly. "WE DID ZZOME GOOD ZZTUFF, RIGHT?"

That drew a laugh from Stesha. "Of course!" she agreed. "I think this calls for a flower party in the Bee Meadow tomorrow. Tell the others, won't you?" She turned back to Victory. "And I'll just have to redouble my offer of homemade food for you, since I don't imagine you're interested in tulips the size of silos."

[JackgarPrime]

Victory shakes his head, trying to go the whole "humility" route.

"Nah, it's nothing, really. Honestly, things probably would've been okay as long as no one smashed the ship up any further or anything. Just think of this as an ounce of prevention, since you can never be entirely sure what's going to happen."

A flower party? Sounds like it'll be...quite a sight, with all those gigantic bees around. Although he doesn't really wanna think of how they're going to party after hanging around the gigantic flying frat boys.

"Food sounds good to me. And besides, tupils have been known to ruin the economy of entire countries! I can only imagine what gigantic ones would do."

[Electra]

"Untrue, entirely slander!" Stesha protested with a laugh. "Tulip flowers never hurt anyone, it was speculation in tulip bulbs that were never even grown that ruined the Dutch economy! If they'd just planted all those bulbs and let them grow instead of thinking they were going to continue becoming more valuable forever, they'd have had many more flowers and far less trouble. But mostly what these gigantic tulips will do is provide a great deal of nectar, which is the great bee social lubricant. You're welcome to stay and watch if you like, but it does get a little loud, and the aerobatics are a little wild."

[JackgarPrime]

The thought of the "great ocial lubricant" for the kinds of personalities the male bees have gives Victory (whose skin is normally unaffected by things like cold) shudders for a moment. He certainly knows what she meant, but he has an idea what "social" might mean to some of these bees,too.

"Well, I might drop by if I have a break in my patrol. I usually don't even get this much time off, since this is a specially arranged meeting. If I were able, how would I go about contacting you? I don't exactly have the ability to send messages through plants like you do or anything."

[Electra]

"My cell phone is just fine," Fleur assured him, blithely oblivious to Victory's concerns. "Even if you don't get hold of me right away, I check my messages frequently, even when I'm here. I imagine things will get started, oh, around five thirty or so, so give me a call if you'd like to drop in. In the meantime, why don't I send some fresh bread and some soup home with you? I'll never finish eating all of it myself," she offered, leading the way back into the cottage.

[JackgarPrime]

How her cell may or may not work here, Victory has no clue. Maybe one of her more super-science-inclined friends managed it somehow? Hard to tell.

"Well I'll certainly help you take some of that off your hands. What with your non-eating fiance and all. If you're ever worried some food might go to waste, just let me know and I'll be there in seconds to help take it off your hands!"

Victory pats his stomach, then follows her back in. He needs LOTS of energy to keep up the movement he does, so his stomach is practically a bottomless (or at least often-emptied) pit! Especially for homemade food, which he doesn't get much of these days.