The Heros are NEAR (IC)

[Supercape]

31st January

Supercape stood in the uppermost level of the Lab, above him only the hanger's where air vehicles and satellites were being worked on. He was listening in on a video conference about NEAR... the united nations programme of Near-Earth-Asteroid Removals. The plans that had been worked in seemed painfully inadequate if something ever did happen.

"Thankyou for your time" he said to the delegate on the VR "I think the projects need a little working through... *ahem*... and development. We can devote some of the Lab's resources to run through various options. In my opinion we need something more robust if we ever did face a threat like that..."

Fortunately, his own quantum powers would allow him to scan the solar system quite well. He couldn't scan everything, of course, but he should be able to catch large events. Thank goodness he never had! there was no reason to panic. None at all.

Meanwhile

The strange time-space anomaly just off from Pluto pulsed slightly. It didn't exist in conventional space-time, and had been remarkably good at blocking and shielding itself from Supercape's powers previously.

Slowly, and without much applause, it belched forth a rock. More than a rock. It would dwarf any city, and cover most of a state. It span at a leisurely pace and hurtled towards the centre of the solar system at an extraordinary velocity, as ice and silicon crystals splintered off its shell and scattered behind it...

[JackgarPrime]

With a crash, one of the burglars hit the wall outside the national bank. Yet another group of would-be bank robbers. Why do they even try? If guys in power suits couldn't do it, what makes the common crook think they can?

As the police came to pick them up, Victory got a call on his emergency line.

"V! You gotta get back here! I think we got something you're gonna want to see!"

Unfortunately, it didn't sound like the good sort of "gonna want to see", so Victory gave little more than an "On my way",before he rocketed out of sight, headin gback to base.

[Quinn]

It had been a slow day at the L.A.I.R, and Push had just finished up filling in the ledgers for the week's take. While he didn't enjoy the hold AEGIS had on him, the fact that they'd gone so far as to purchase this building for him as a headquarters did show they'd appreciated his efforts so far. If he wasn't so cynical about the whole thing, he might have been touched. He flipped the book closed and put it in the drawer in the office, stretching himself and trooping out to the trapdoor.

Hmm...sandwich, I think. Beef, or pork? Or maybe both? Yeah, both is good. With lots of cheese. Tasty hoagie...

He flipped the trapdoor open and went downstairs. Another hour before he'd go on his usual patrol of Midtown...maybe he'd take a flyover of the City Centre. He always did like flying. Push walked over and flipped open the fridge door, leastways today'd been a quiet day so far.

[quotemyname]

*Bzzt!* One of the circuits in the board Rachel was working on blew a fuse and zapped her. "Ah! Ooh." She shook her right hand, trying to regain the feeling in her numbed fingers. "Damn. Bad resistor. Again? Can't be math. My math's never wrong. I checked it. 27,000 times." She reached up to a shelf next to her with her left hand, rummaged for a second, and plucked up another resistor. In a manner of minutes she'd had the faulty part replaced.

Soon, her new invention would be up and running. She'd named it SUREST. Super Ultra Radio Emitter for Stimulus Telecommunication. It was a working title.

Sitting in a room not much larger than a closet, she constructed most of her inventions. It had been a closet at one point, in fact. She couldn't spare much more room in her tiny apartment. Her stool balanced between three work benches and countless shelves in what was once a walk in closet. Here she was safe. Here she could concentrate. Here she could do work, help people, improve lives. Here, she could actually feel good about herself.

Slowly, she placed the helmet (if you could call it that) on her head. It was constructed of three strips of metal, joined at the front and back, one stretching over the top, and two around the sides. Wires ran from her head to the SUREST. She held her hand over the exposed circuits of her prototype. Her hand shaking, whether from nervousness, or the recent electrical shock, she wasn't sure. Flick.

---

After the fires were all put out, she immediately sat down on her stool again. She moved an old HAM radio into position, held an earpiece up to her head, plugged in a microphone and flicked the device on. "B9 to Dr. Archeville. B9 to Dr. Archeville." There was no response. "Dr. Archeville. I know you're listening. I know you monitor this frequency. You always do. It's easy to see once you do the math and add the-" She stopped herself, "No. No time." She drew something in the air with one of her fingers. "84 seconds. That's how long until your alerts start going off. Big problem. You'll need me. Call back when I'm right." She pressed the button to mute the microphone. She unplugged the headphones so that the sound could play over the built in speaker the unit had. It crackled away with static.

She reached over to her side to grab another invention. She could tinker with something in the time it took him to contact her. *Bzzt!* something else shocked her. She jumped, and arms flailing, tipped over in her seat. She went down with a crash amidst a pile of scrap, wires, springs, and more. "Oww." She groaned.

"I should really clean this place up..."

[Dr Archeville]

Location: ArcheStern, the ArcheTech satellite research facility.

22,000 miles above the Galápagos Islands

Archeville walked down the corridors of ArcheStern, breathing in all the science going on about him. The station had by far been one of ArcheTech's most successful (and lucrative) ventures, the former due to all his staff had done here, the latter due to all the space he had rented out to other companies seeking to take advantage of the unique microgravity environment and the views of the cosmos unobstructed by planetary atmosphere. He was on his way to the Core when his Electromagnetic Screwdriver picked up Blueshift's message.

"What the- B9? B9, come in! I- blast!" The call ended before he could respond.

84 seconds.... not long!

Archeville flew the rest of the way to the Core, "status report, now!"

The baker's dozen of technicians nearly fell upon themselves in reporting to Archeville, but none had any truly pressing news. It had been a fairly quiet day -- studying storms, migration patterns, and anomalies in Earth's magnetic field. A few scanners were trained out, but for today, many had been tasked with monitoring Earth-based phenomena.

Then the alarms sounded.

"83.9 seconds," he muttered, the commanded in a louder, clearer voice, "what is going on, people? Show me!"

Oh, I hope it is nothing too bad! Oh, maybe it is a new friendly extraterrestrial visitor! Surely there must be some out there who are not all conquer-this, dominate-that!

[Supercape]

GM Post

The readouts greeting Herr Doktor were not at all encouraging.

After compensating for the gravity wells of the gas giants and Mars, it looked almost certain that the mysterious asteroid would collide directly with earth, landing in the middle of the Atlantic. There was little cause for relief at its oceanic landing. Its mass and speed would release devastating megatsunami's across the globe and cover the world in ash for years.

It was, in short, an extinction event on the scale that had wiped the dinosaurs from the face of the Earth millions of years ago.

There was a vague hope that as the meteor crossed the path of the asteroid belt, it might get deflected slightly. It was hard to calculate the odds, but they were slim at best. And only a half chance of being slim at best.

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville's eyes went wide as the data began streaming in.

Yikes!

"Lighthouse, come in," he aid in a forced calm tone via the Freedom League communicator. "Pseudo, are you there? This is Archeville."

"I am here," the Leaguer replied solemnly. "What is troubling you, Doktor?"

"Did you and Daedalus finish the latest upgrades to the Lightohuse's sensors? ArcheStern has picked up something... bad, near Neptune, and I would like confirmation."

"A moment......... hrm."

Archeville's first hope was dashed. "So you see it, too?"

"Indeed. Calculating trajectory now."

"You will be getting the same result we got: it will be slingshotting around Neptune and Uranus, straight to Jupiter. We are still running simulations on how it will interact with the asteroid belt-"

Oh noes!

Archeville restrained himself from consciously thinking about his secret base in the asteroid belt, knowing any stray surface thoughts might be picked up by the Grue Leaguer.

"-but all signs point to it ploughing throw, passing between the orbits of Mars and Mercury. It will go around Venus and the Earth, back towards the Sun... then slingshot back around, between the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and slam into the middle of the Atlantic ocean. What the tidal waves do not get, the airborne debris will, after choking out the sunlight."

Fun Fact: The planet really were aligned in almost a perfect 'S' shape on January 31st, 2011! Check it out

here and here and here!

The super-scientist exhaled slowly, "preliminary analyses indicate it is too dense for either of our station's weaponry to significantly damage it for the short time it would be in range, so a team will need to go to it and set charges. But-"

"But the rest of the League is either off-world or in another dimension."

"Indeed." Archeville drummed his fingers on the console, going through his metal files on superhumans he had worked with, met, or even merely heard of, and who would be appropriate for such a mission. "Okay, recruiting time. Victory, for piloting skills to get us to it. Supercape and Push, for the power needed to deflect or crack into it. Blueshift, a fast thinker, and she somehow got wind of this before me. And myself. We will need a Pegasus-class space plane; I will contact the others and begin work on the explosives and on getting more data about this rock."

Archeville began sending out calls.

[Supercape]

"What's that you say?" answered Supercape, as he turned down the Classical Music playing in the background. He had just popped into the Lab on a whim, for the view more than anything else, and to quickly check up on the vaccuum decay of a lattice of Quantum Material.

And he had a good detective book he had left in his quarters. He had actually been nodding off when Archeville's call came through.

When the super-scientist explained the situation to him - peppering the explanation with maths and physics that hurt even his Brain, the horrible reality sunk in.

"Oh dear" he commented.

"Let me see if I can pick it up..." he asked, begging Victor for a few minutes. But he could pick up nothing... other than the fact that something was blocking his normally omniscient ability to peek into the heavens. An anomaly, like the one off Pluto.

"...nothing" he said, dejectedly. "Which means I can't travel there. Nevertheless, Earth is in danger and I will do what I can. I guess its travelling there by conventional means. You need hardly ask for my help, and I need hardly reply. Count me in!"

[JackgarPrime]

The call had come in while out on patrol, and Victory was soon back at base, when he got the briefing.

"So I was asked for specifically? I mean I suppose I'm a pilot and all, but I don't know about whatever sort of vehicle we're going to be using here..."

The agent shrugged his shoulders. "We were told it'd be no issue for you. Presumably, it isn't entirely unlike the jets you used to fly."

"Well, I'm not one to refuse. If it means the world, then there's no answer except yes, is there? So, where am I meeting them...?"

Once he was given the details, Victory was gone in a whoosh, faster than any normal eye could hope to follow, as always.

[Quinn]

The sandwich was about an inch away from his mouth when his commlink beeped. Push started in surprise. The sandwich was now an inch away from his foot. A great deal of sandwich-related profanity could be heard through the commlink and outside of the L.A.I.R before the kineticist finally let the speaker get a word in edgewise. And then he promptly dropped his jaw in surprise. From both the speaker ("Doktor Archeville? THE Doktor Archeville? As in ArcheTech Archeville? Dr. Never-Failed-A-Math-Or-Science-Test-In-His-Life Archeville? The Doktor Archeville Mike never shut up about? THAT Doktor Archeville?!") and the nature of the call. For a moment, his brain shut down, and he almost ran on autopilot as the various insundri implications of what was going on crashed into his mind.

Giant meteor.

Space.

Being asked for help by Doktor Frakking Archeville.

Mike'd be doing cartwheels.

Indeed.

Am I awake?

Yes.

Have I finally cracked?

Most likely.

Right. Work under that assumption.

Okay.

He blinked, taking the commlink out of his ear and staring at it briefly with a dumbfounded look before putting it back in and speaking in a still-somewhat astonished tone of voice.

"Normally I'd be asking how the hell you got this 'link channel, or how you know who I am...or frankly, why you'd even pick me, but this might not be the best time for it. And I probably wouldn't like the answer anyway. Yeah, skip it. Assuming I'm not hallucinating from hunger and am dreaming all of this, where exactly should I be going right now?"

Within the space of a few minutes (along with a mental note to collect an autograph from the good Doktor for Mike back home, the poor guy'd have a heart attack!), Push was in costume, on his bike, and racing through the streets at breakneck speeds, heading towards the rendevouz point.

[quotemyname]

Blueshift went racing through the streets of Freedom City. The miniature jets on her boots made her look like she was rollerblading, or ice skating across the asphalt network of streets. Dr. Archeville. Asking for my help. He should be. He'll need it. Besides. I saw it first!

Blueshift arrived at the ArcheTech facility in Hanover within minutes. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic. As she neared the building she had a strange thought. Actually, Bee, I want this one. Rachel saw it. Rachel called Doc. Rachel gets credit. Make a name. Without the visor. Good for me. She turned to a nearby alleyway and briefly considered changing out of costume. No. Serious problem. Must be handled. Appropriate agents. Sorry Rachel. Blueshift's job. Why else HAVE the visor?

Blueshift jetted across the street to the ArcheTech building in her gadget infused suit. Quickly analyzing the directories, she proceeded to the teleportation facility, entered the pass code she'd been given, the coordinates, and vanished from the earth. Seconds later, she was in a similar facility on Dr. Archeville's space station. Emerging from the teleportation room, she took a few slow steps into what was likely one of the larger receiving rooms in the station. Starstruck, stared at her surroundings. She almost forgot the presence of the crew. Almost. She twinged a little with unease as she glanced around. So. Much. Cool. Stuff! Her brain quickly analyzing everything she saw as she absentmindedly drew a small capsule out of the pouch on her belt where she kept a few spare prescription pills, and swallowed it.

Then, her eyes fell on Dr. Archeville himself. Then she did forget about the crew. Like a kid in a candy store, she rushed forward. She seized his hand and began shaking it, "Omigod. Dr. Archeville. Hi. Hihihi. I'm Blue. Eh Blueshift. Heard so much. Good to meet you. This is. Omigod. You're my hero. Well. One of. There's Einstein. Bell. Franklin. The usuals." Suddenly she realized that she hadn't stopped shaking his hand. "Eep." She quickly shoved her hands behind her back, "Anyway. Thank you. For the invite. My estimation. About your sensors. Not to far off? I rounded. A little." She seemed ashamed to admit it, "Needed to save time. Here to help. Also... Talking too much..." Her speech finally slowed. "Right! Important work. Time sensitive. Situation? Go!" Revealing her hands again, she thrust her open palms at Archeville, offering him the floor.

[Quinn]

Push followed hot on her heels into the ArcheTech building, speaking to a (rather rattled) employee about a...teleportation facility?

Needless to say, the sudden appearance of two individuals looking as if hell was right at their heels, one dressed in an obvious costume with a giant hammer across his back, did not make for a pleasant workday. The secretary mutely pointed, and as Quinn left, the employee made a mental note to cut back on the coffee.

Giant meteor's about to impact Earth, I'm running through the corridors of one of the largest corporations on the planet, about to meet Mike's personal hero, and I haven't even had lunch. Why couldn't Wyrd have done his experiment when I WASN'T walking by that bloody factory?!

He arrived in the teleportation room just as a (rather nice-looking, come to think about it ) young lady vanished in the chamber. A few seconds of waiting, followed by tapping in a long code of numbers and coordinates, and Push was stepping out slightly disoriented into...he looked out a nearby window. Yep. A space station. He was back in the black.

"Hooo...wish 'cape was here to see this. Or Kraken. Well...maybe not Kraken. He'd probably try to pinch the lot."

Push looked about, slightly gobsmacked as he admired the tech. Granted, he was no slouch when it came to fixing things or souping up cars...but this was on a whole other level. Way beyond what he could do. Although his hammer didn't look that much out of place, in his old longcoat and scarf amongst all these spotless uniforms and futuristic equipment...well, he suddenly felt very much out of place.

[Supercape]

Supercape pulled up a Map of the World on his computer, and homed in on Doktor Archevilles headquarters. It was as good a place as any to plan saving the world.

"I'm coming right over, Doctor..."

For a few seconds the space-time continuum around him blurred, wobbled, and bent, and then he was gone...

...to blink into existence at the side of the Doktor, in his headquarters. "" he said - somehow he felt obliged to speak in German to the Doktor when alone. It was probably his German accent - it made him unconsciously prone to flip into the German tounge.

"

Of course, German didn't quite capture some of his own English quirks. He had to flip back to his mother tounge.

"It's a sticky wicket, and no mistake!"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory had already long since arrived before the other heroes (except for the teleporting Supercape, of course), and had given his jets time to cool off in the meantime. He hadn't actually been in Archetech proper, but his appearance was well-known enough that he was let in without any hassle.

Once he arrived at the main meeting room, Victory gave the Doctor his greetings with a nod. He generally didn't salute with other hero types. They tend to have some sort of weird aversion to it. Makes them uncomfortable? Maybe. He'd certainly understand that.

"Greetings, Archeville. I understand there's an emergency? One involving a very large rock?"

He's assured that he'll get a full explanation when the whole crew arrives. As he waits, he also sees Supercape, who he'd been allied with before.

"Ah, hello there. Glad to see I'm not the only one called in for this. I imagine it should be quite a task."

Some time later, he watched the others arrive. They seemed most interested in fawning over the Doctor, which seems like the usual thing. He must be even more famous that he thought. Or maybe it's just a thing with scientists? Which would explain why they react so strongly compared to when he had met Archeville.

He does notice, however, a particular familiar face in Push. He had heard Push was let out on some sort of deal, but he was unaware of the specifics. He stayed quiet, though. Sitting in his assigned seat, he waits until a better time to properly greet the others, as time is of the essence.

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville was not at all surprised that Supercape was the first to arrive. "" he replied in his mother tongue, shaking the fellow scientist's hand, ""

We must succeed!

"Ah, Lieutenant, always a pleasure," he replied to Victory, "though I of course wish the situation was not so grim. Yes, a large asteroid is headed our way; it will be quite the task, but one I am confident we can achieve."

We can do it!

Archeville almost toppled over when Rachel ran into him.

Is this Blueshift? I had sent the call out to their heroics identities... perhaps the stress of the situation has caused her to abandon it?

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Geist!," he replied, smiling at the gobsmacked woman. "I am flattered you- oh, I am not sure I would go that far in comparing me to- ah, yes, flattery and accolades can come later. Now, there is one more..." He scanned the corridors, expecting Push to come out any moment, and soon enough he saw the star-eyed youth. He waved him over, "ah, there he is!"

The gang is all here! Huzzah!

"This way, please, there is much to go over." He lead them to a large table over which a holographic image of the Earth rotated lazily. His fingers flew over a control panel, and the image pulled back to show the solar system. A red dot pulsed near Pluto. "There it is, folks: a doomsday asteroid." A small pop-up window appeared next to it, listing statistics:

Length: 240 km (150 miles)

Width: 110km (70 miles)

Mass: 5.13179 x 10¹⁴ kg / 513,179,158.5 gigatonnes (estimated)

Speed: 25 km/s / 90,000 kph (55,920 mph)

Distance from Earth: 31.852 AU / 4.7 x 10⁹ km (8.8 x 10¹⁰ miles)

Estimated Time to Impact: 6 years 20 days 12 hours 5 minutes

[quotemyname]

When the figures displayed on the screen, Blueshift whistled. Immediately, she began running the numbers in her head. "Force equals mass times acceleration. Acceleration being the derivative of velocity. Then, hypothetically: Diameter and depth of Crater: Two hundred eleven miles. Seventy five miles. Earthquake magnitude: 11.8. Previously unheard of. Effective Earthquake Zone: Continental United states. Assuming impact point on the eastern seaboard. Even Freedom City would be decimated." Blueshift frowned. She didn't like bad news. She liked giving it even less.

She quickly took a few steps forward, and began typing away at the keyboard. As an afterthought, she added "If I may, Doctor." Her fingers were already flying over the keys, opening programs, finding files, utilizing systems she couldn't have known existed. It was like she was learning his entire computer system in the blink of an eye. And she was. There was no stopping her now, she was on automatic. Problems had to be solved. "Trajectory... Velocity... Position of celestial bodies..." The one program she never bothered opening was any sort of calculator.

She pulled back from the keyboard, and gazed up at the big screen. "Given the current position of the planets, their respective gravity fields, and the initial vector of the rock," There was less than a second's hesitation, "Won't hit us. Freedom City. Point of impact: Atlantic Ocean: 30.145127,-42.890625." now she hesitated. No. Could be worse. Than hitting land. Sea floor crater. Still massive. No. Wouldn't need to hit us. We'd burn anyway. Just from the heat. Almost immediately. No worries." She sighed. "Tidal waves." She made a motion like a wave with one of her hands, crashing it into her other. "Quenched."

Blueshift felt a knot form in her stomach. It was daunting, knowing one's own doom. "Ah!" She let out a sharp gasp, and her hand went to her head. Stuck with the sudden headache. Wincing she glanced up at Dr. Archeville. "Have you...Calculated density? Material? Can we crack and split it?" She looked up at the rest of the heroes assembled. Though her headache was subsiding, she suddenly realized that there was more than one gaping mouth there. Her sails quickly lost wind. "You...I mean... Everyone here seen Armageddon?" she finished weakly.

[Quinn]

Push, to his credit, kept quite a straight face. Not that he understood all the numbers, but upon the mention of the disaster movie he nodded.

"Though not to put too fine a point on it, but didn't several crew members die during that? I'd rather avoid that if possible. Not to mention all the websites pointing holes in the storyline."

He rubbed his chin as he looked at the various equations, then shrugged and looked between Rachel and the good Doktor.

"I'm not going to pretend I understand half of this, but is leeching the kinetic energy from it a possible solution? I've never handled anything that large before, though..."

[Supercape]

Supercape shooke hands with Victory, who he remembered from their Bank-robbery-busting caper.

"Good show! nice to have you with us. I'm sure there is no finer pilot to take us to the damned thing!"

He shook hands with Push enthusiastically, and equally enthusiastically introduced himself to Blueshift.

"Pleased to meet you, madam! The name's Supercape, on account of my, er, magnificent Cape!" as always, he subconsciously shifted his cape to become even larger, brighter, and more sparkly when he said so.

When the computer revealed the extent of the threat, he whistled.

"That looks... like... well, the end of civilisation as we know it. Maybe the end of all life on earth. Unless we stop it. " He peered at the numbers more closely "at least we have time on our side, chaps" he said, with a wan smile, his face as white as a sheet.

He paused, closing his eyes for several seconds, before opening them, his face even whiter than before.

His voice had a distinct tremor and he gulped. "I...er...something very odd here folks. It...um...the quantum entanglement is...err...well. To be honest, I don't know. " he looked ashamed, the facade broken. "But to add to the misery, I cant sense it, and I can teleport there..."

He banged his fist on a table in a quite uncharacteristic show of frustration "Blast! I can travel anywhere in the multiverse but to that damn rock!"

[JackgarPrime]

"Yeah, I saw that movie. Never cared for it."

Although the others (who, admittedly, had much more knowledge of what all these numbers actually meant) seemed to be...almost panicking, Victory seemed surprisingly calm. Standing up from his seat, his arms were folded over his chest, one of his hands reached up slightly to stroke his chin.

"Well....as far as we know, it's just a big rock, right? And it's not being pulled in by any gravity yet? Can't we just...well...push the thing out of the way?"

Victory unfolded his arms, one hand resting on his hip, as the other moved along with how he spoke.

"It seems a simple enough solution, right? Since it's not being pulled by gravity yet, I bet I could just nudge the thing out of the way, put it on a different course. Maybe send the thing right into the sun where it'd be dealt with for good? How fast did you say it was moving?"

His question, of course, was to any number of those present.

[Supercape]

"Nudge, yes... in principle..." answered Supercape "I haven't done math here, but the problem is how to apply the Nudge. And the force needed to apply the Nudge. Either you need a massive amount of energy in one big push, like a nuclear explosion. Or you need a lower level of energy over years, like putting a solar sail on the asteroid - and a big one at that. The problem is - this asteroid is huge... its got mass... its got momentum. And it takes a hell of a nudge to get it off track".

"And whatever we do, we have to be on it, to do it."

[quotemyname]

"Pleased to meet you, madam! The name's Supercape, on account of my, er, magnificent Cape!" as always, he subconsciously shifted his cape to become even larger, brighter, and more sparkly when he said so.

"Right." Blueshift regarded him awkwardly for a moment. She wasn't sure if he wanted to shake hands or simply display his cape. "Madam?" She eyed him suspiciously, "No. Not madam. Not old enough. Miss. If you must. Blueshift works. Or Blue. Don't "madam" me. Please." She shook her head and waved her hands.

One at a time, Blue. You can do this. Shame Dr. Hamen can't see this. She addressed Victory, "Right. Armageddon. Scientifically inaccurate. Not the point. Refer to the strategy. "Cracking". She emphasized the word with finger quotes, "Drill deep. Plant bomb. Compromise structure. Split large pieces. Eliminate danger. Just idea one."

"Nudge, yes... in principle..." answered Supercape "I haven't done math here, but the problem is how to apply the Nudge. And the force needed to apply the Nudge. Either you need a massive amount of energy in one big push, like a nuclear explosion. Or you need a lower level of energy over years, like putting a solar sail on the asteroid - and a big one at that. The problem is - this asteroid is huge... its got mass... its got momentum. And it takes a hell of a nudge to get it off track".

"And whatever we do, we have to be on it, to do it."

"Pushing..." Blueshift turned to inspect the screens again considering the option. "Good explanation, 'Cape. More technically. Application of Force: Single versus continued. Same end result. Too difficult to reverse force. Must redirect. Vector addition. Velocity equals distance divided by time. Simple process: 'Push it sideways'. Basic stuff. In Theory." She quickly sat right where she was in the center of the floor facing the screens. She crossed her legs and stared up at them. "Difficult part: Predicting behavior. After the 'nudge'. Push may be better. Allows control. After initial vector alteration." She used finger quotes again. "Shame. Nudging is easier. Would work great for spherical asteroids in an empty vacuum." She really hoped that the science oriented crowd would understand the joke.

[Quinn]

Push sat down, quietly pondering as the heroes started looking more at the idea of a "push", and gave a blank look at her joke before cracking one of his own.

"Keep saying my name, you'll wear it out. I can see where Cape and Blueshift are coming from with the idea of a push...though, and this is just a thought, could it be possible to tow the thing out of the way? A pull instead of a push? It'd permit us more control over the direction it's going, rather than bursts from the sides."

[Supercape]

Supercape studied the asteroid readouts carefully. "What do you think, Victor?" he asked the super-scientist, tapping his own chin thoughtfully. "Nudge or Push?"

"We could of course fly there prepared for both, and use whichever we think most appropriate given our survey of the situation. However, eventually we have to commit to one course or the other. "

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville was silent as the group talked amongst itself.

Good to see they are coming to some of the same conclusions I did!

"First off," he began, "let me preface what I am about to say by reminding you all that while we do have time on our side, this is not a project on which we can procrastinate. Especially if anything we do winds up, somehow, making the situation worse. Supercape and Blueshift are both right: should this hit, even in the middle of the Atlantic, it will be an extinction-level event. The impact would create a fireball about 900 km in diameter. It will last for five hours, and from Freedom City would appear 70 times bigger than and 600 times brighter than the Sun. Assuming they could see it, as the heat from this thing would be so great that Freedom City and everything in it would ignite one minute after impact. The entire United States would be hit by a magnitude 12.0 earthquake -- Freedom City ten minutes after impact, Seattle, Washington 30 minutes after. 2.5 hours after impact, Freedom City will be hit with a 309 psi overpressure blast, with wind speeds of 1,160 m/s and a sound intensity of 127 dB. Four hours after impact, the tsunami waves hit, and those waves will average 650 meters high. Six hours after impact, Seattle, Washington will be hit by a 47.9 psi overpressure blast, with winds at 403 m/s and a sound intensity of 111 dB. And that is just the short-term effects: the dust and debris tossed up into the atmosphere would block out the Sun."

Doom! DOOOOOOMMM!!!

"But none of that is going to happen," he said firmly. "We are going to stop it, and hopefully do so with no one on Earth learning of it. Because that is what heroes do: protect others, from threats known and unknown."

We are Men of Science! Well, except Blueshift, she is a Woman of Science. And Push, he is... something. But we are all heroes, and that is what matters!

"Fortunately, this task will be made considerably easier by the Pegasus-class Space-Plane I have obtained from the Lighthouse; it can take use there in about ten minutes. So no worries on not being able to teleport us all there, old bean," he said with a wink to Supercape. He then turned to Victory, "and you will be flying it, Major Victory, a task for which I am certain you are qualified. Now, to answer your question about the density of the asteroid, I must confess we are not yet able to determine that, so the current model assumes a midway point between porous and dense rock. Presuming it is no more than twice as dense as that, drilling should not be a problem, should that be a tactic we use. And, fortunately for us, should it come to that, many of the logical flaws in that movie had to do with things that will not concern us, as the asteroid is so far out. Now, as I said, drilling should be an option, and I have been working on a series of explosives we could plants at key points that will break it up into many smaller pieces and disperse them so they pose no threat. But moving it," he tapped some controls for the display, and showed a close up of the asteroid, and glanced over at Push, "is an idea worth exploring. Unfortunately, I am not sure even we have the power to do so -- it's mass and speed are such that an immense force would be required to divert it either to a direct course into the Sun, or onto a course that would carry it sufficiently far from us."

[Quinn]

Push did his best to keep a poker face as Herr Doktor glanced over, and he looked at the asteroid. It was a big hunk of rock, and from what had just been detailed, would really screw up buisness if it hit. The kineticist rapidly came to the conclusion that he was in way over his head, but logged that thought away. He'd been in worse and still muddled through. Upon Archeville's mention of an avenue worth exploring, Push simply shrugged.

"Eh, keep the option open. The explosives seem more likely to work, though we'll need powerful charges. More than military grade, any road. Can ArcheTech acquire those?"

The kineticist briefly pondered if he could move the thing himself, but inwardly shook his head. Something of that size would require way more "oomph" than he could manage, and what he'd have to do to get said oomph...no, explosives would be better. Still, a small link between the in-transit spaceship and himself to recharge would provide him with a whole pile of extra energy, and you never knew when that could come in handy.