The Heros are NEAR (IC)

[JackgarPrime]

Earlier, when Blueshift had mentioned that the system was complaining about the distance to the asteroids. "Yup, pretty close. I had to shut it up. It was either fly close, or fly into. Seems like an obvious choice."

As they got to the big hunk of what may very well be crystal, Victory's hand started going at a computer to the side of the controls, keeping one hand on the control itself.

"Yeah, just doing some quick trajectory calculation. We should be able to get on the thing alright. Just make sure you're good and strapped in. It might get a bit bumpy."

While he was doing the final adjustments, he smirked and spoke to Push.

"I'd say it'd be better if you do take what you can. This thing doesn't look like any ice I've ever seen. I'm sure there'd be something to find in there when we're done getting rid of the rock itself."

As he finished with that, he grabbed on securely to the controls, as the ship lurched forward, and it began to turn to try and match the calculated angle necessary to land.

[Supercape]

As the ship spun into a closer range to the meteor, the crew could see it in all its glory. It seemed to be more crystal than rock, with flashed of discharged energy arcing from one shard to another as it rotated swiftly on its own axis. A trail of microcrystals lay in its wake.

Razor sharp crystals, rapid rotation, unstable geology, arcing energy, and possibly erosive microfillaments in the vicinity.

The piloting skills of Victory could set them down, but they would be facing an inhospitable environment in depths of space...

[Dr Archeville]

"Ah, Mr. Push," Archeville called back, "would you be so kind as to come to the front here and assist Major Factor?"

This should be right up his alley!

"We need a cleared path for landing," he pointed out the forward window, and to the cloud of crystalline fragments before them, "but there is a bit of a hazard. Scanners indicate some are large and tough enough to puncture through the micrometeorite shielding, and this vessel is not equipped with any weapons to blast a way clear. Though, given those energy discharges, and these readings, simply blasting it would be inadvisable, as it might simply reflect the beams away, or right back at us."

He turned and faced the young man, and clapped one hand to his shoulder. "But if you can just... shove them off to the sides," he said, making a sweeping motion with his other hand.

I really hope these energy discharges do not interfere with my singularity device.

[quotemyname]

While Dr. Archeville and Push had been discussing their landing at the front of the ship, Blueshift had been staring down at her custom built scanning device. It looked like a small netbook sized laptop, but thinner than a Mac Book Air. It had no visible keys, but she was definitely doing some form of typing with it. She glanced up suddenly and called out, "Hold it!" Looking back down, she started prattling off some readings.

"Careful. With the kinetics. Whole rock's unstable." She looked up to make sure they were following, "There's more too. It's wrapped in a type of energy with no previous documentation. Due to the nature of the radiation, the orientation and vector of the rock, I'll call it 'Redshift Radiation'." Finger quotes, "Hold on..." She hesitated for a second, "Okay, patent pending. 'Cape. It's that radiation. Why you can't see it. The rock, I mean. But wait. There's more. Showing previously undocumented crystal structures. Calling it 'Quantum Crystal'. Also patent pending." There were more finger quotes, but no hesitation that time. "Funky behaviors. Probably why you can't warp there." She glanced up at Supercape. "More bad news. Environment's a vacuum. Also low radiation is constant. Suits will protect. But those Crystals. They're everywhere. Atmosphere's full of them. Cause drastic material degradation. Suits won't last long."

She held up a finger while staring at the screen and counting down, "Three. Two. One." *KRACK* A blazing streak of electricity arced between two of the crystalline peaks. "That. That's dangerous. Try not to look at it. Don't touch it. And certainly do not fly through it. Luckily, it's not random. Zeroing in on the pattern now..." Her voice trailed off amidst more typing. She was now utterly focused on her readouts.

[Supercape]

"Oh sterling!" groaned Supercape, somewhat dejected. "Like a day break to Brighton at the height of winter..."

"Mind you, forewarned is forearmed, good work" he added. And it was true. He had actually been very impressed by Blueshift's speed and clarity of mind. If anyone could do this, it was the accumulated brain power on board the space ship.

"and it solves why I can teleport there. Lots of fascinating stuff I am sure..." his mind started musing over the possibilities. Why, the research that could be done! the pioneering science! the practical applications!

He caught himself. The destruction of human civilisation as we know it... he added to himself. There was no discussion really - tempting as the rock might be, it was also the hammer that would wreck Earth unless they stopped it.

"Well, we shall have to be most careful drilling into the thing. Or whatever. Bomb is the good doctors department, I think. "

[Quinn]

Push didn't say anything as he stepped up, looking out the windows somewhat askance. His comment was succinct and to-the-point.

"Huh. Big."

He closed his eyes, and was nearly blinded by the amount of energy that was right in front of him. For his particular vision, it was as if he was staring into the sun. His face unconsciously twisted, as if it was indeed staring into a beacon of light. Focusing his mind, he extended his two hands to the side, speaking in a conversational tone.

"Nobody jostle me, please. Breaking concentration would be extremely hazardous. Not to mention the earful I'd give you in the afterlife."

The kinetic mutant reached out with his abilities, applying ever-so-subtle force to the hazards in front of them. Slowly, they began to shift aside, moving out of the way and discharging their energies harmlessly into the ether, providing a safe zone for the ship to descend through. For a moment, Push's eyelids fluttered open, and anyone looking would have seen the entire sockets completely subsumed by the warping energy he controlled, before they dissipated into his actual eyes.

"Leech-and-push loop's on the rocks. They'll keep moving until they reach a safe distance, then stop."

[Supercape]

The shards of crystal parted neatly, allowing a clear descent path for the Ship. The landing itself was hardly easy, but the combinatino of Victory at the controls, the clear descent path, and the superior engineering of the ship itself made it straightforward. A slight bump signalled the Ship had landed in the microgravity.

"Steady on!" joked Supercape. In fact, the Landing was textbook and once again he found himself marvelling at the Pilot's skill.

At least his uncanny senses operated locally. He could feel the mass of the meteor below him.

"Microgravity here. Have to be very careful. Ship might float off if we aren't careful, probably best to Tether it or something..." and fortunately, the Ship did have such an anchor, and the Meteor had plenty of nooks and crannies in which to attach it.

[JackgarPrime]

The landing itself went fine, but Victory wanted to be absolutely sure that they wouldn't be flying off at any point. Checking the level of their landing spot, he figures that there's no way they're going to get more than what they have, after Push cleared it out the best he could. And it was quite clear, he had to admit.

"Alright, I think we'll be good here. We should have enough room to get out without falling all over the rocks, to."

He flicks a few switches, and holds down on one particular lever for a few seconds. A whirring could be heard from another part of the ship, and stops with some clanking and a big thud. Turning back to the others, he dusts his hands off.

"Well then, we should be good. Who wants to go double-check the anchor and make sure it's good and in there? As a bonus, you get to be the first one to step foot on this rock."

[Dr Archeville]

The first to set foot on this strange rock! Er, crystal... but who? Checking the anchor is easy enough that any of us could do it...

"I think," the Doktor began, looking around the crew he'd assembled for this world-saving task, "that Push should have that honor. He is the least likely of us ever to be out this way again." He folded his arms over his chest, and looked to each person as he named them, "Supercape has been out here many times under his own power, and AEGIS may upgrade Victory to be able to do the same. I have used my tech to get out here on many occasions, and I foresee Blueshift doing the same in the near future."

He looked back to Push, then jerked his head towards the airlock, "well, go on!"

[quotemyname]

Blueshift shut her laptop - like device, finally, and stood with the rest of the crew amidst the cockpit of the ship. "Agreed. With Doc. Though I saw it first. I've already named plenty of strange space stuff. Least for one day. Push it is!" She held out her hand, indicating the telekinetic hero.

Blueshift donned the suit that had been given her, Mental note. Talk to AEGIS. Crude designs. Needs improvement. Tsk. See me after class. she thought as she admired it's basic design.

[Quinn]

The kineticist blinked, his impassive face actually looking completely nonplussed. His comment on the subject was also quite succinct.

"Uh..."

He rubbed the back of his head, or rather, helmet, somewhat absently. Push felt his cheeks start to burn, but he locked that down as fast as he could, before nodding in appreciation.

"I...thanks. Thank you. Very much." He coughed, a tad out of his element, and waddled (stupid oversized spacesuit!) to the airlock door, wishing he had the relieving weight of the hammer in his hands. Eh, he had a job to do. Might as well get to it.

[Supercape]

Supercape once again closed his eyes. He didn't strictly need to, but it kind of put him in the right frame of mind. In his mind's eye he could sense the spot outside the ship.

"Looks safe right now" he said to the crew. He was pretty sure he could pick up any energy discharges building up.

He strode to the airlock, and opened the inner lock. "May as well all go out..." he said to the crew. His own Supercape would for provide an easy, lightweight space suit. He felt for the others with the relatively cumbersome space suits.

The stairs extended out to the rock and crystal surface, awaiting the footsteps of Push.

[Quinn]

Deciding to do a little showboating, Push simply hopped off and over the steps, floating downwards towards the crystal asteroid. He felt a frisson of energy go up through his boots and into himself once he hit ground, the sheer level of kinetic energy that was driving this oversized rock forward was just...absolutely staggering.

Holy mother of...and I thought I might have a chance at stopping this thing by leeching it! That much energy'd fry me to a crisp before I'd make so much as a dent.

The kineticist realized he'd frozen the second he'd hit the rock, overwhelmed by the sensation of the energy beneath his feet, and he shuffled the weighted boots a bit. He padded around for a moment, getting the feel of the gravity on the rock, before looking over at the anchor, which had wedged itself quite nicely into the 'ground' directly beneath the ship. The voice of the mutant crackled in the various heroes' commlinks, his tone surprisingly quite relaxed.

"Well, lessee...no Grue ninjas, space pirates, or various and sundry space things-that-want-to-eat-your face about, and the anchor's in just fine. Mite pretty out here, actually. Anyone bring a picnic basket?"

[Supercape]

GM

Between the ships scanners, Blueshifts amazing gadget, and Supercapes extraordinary senses, it was relatively straight forward to find the ideal site for detonation.

A mere few hundred feet from where Push had set down, a large crevasse curled and twisted down to what was presumably the centre of the meteor. A detonation there would be more than enough to split the meteor, and hopefully divert it...

[quotemyname]

"Well. Found it!" Blueshift stared over the top of her computer screen at the seemingly endless cliff face. "Go, go, gadget picnic basket, right?" She grinned sheepishly at Push and the other heroes gathered around her and extending his earlier metaphor, "Seriously though. Not good with heights." She raised her hand, indicating she was talking about herself. "Doc's got the bomb. Anyone else going down there?"

"And I swear, if I hear any references to Star Wars and earthquakes in caves I'm going to flip." She pointed at the device in her hands, "This thing was built to detect minerals and solid non-living matter. Not biological masses, people. So if you do go, be careful, because even I'm not sure what could be down there!" She paused ranting for a second. "Although if I re-rout the power from..." She was typing away at the keyboard and pacing along the face of the cliff before any of them could even begin to follow her first thought processes.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory was a few steps behind the others, as he had to make sure to secure the ship. It had a very strong locking-in mechanism, so it should be able to stay attached as long as there's still something to be attached to. Once we was sure it was secured, firmly dug into place. He locked the controls and stood up.

Floating over to the airlock, he had noticed Archeville was the only other one left with him. Presumably, to do some last check or other. Looking back, Victory smirked.

"Well then, Doktor....shall we go make sure the kids play safe out there?"

In a flash, his grin was covered with a mask covering his mouth, and a glint of glass shifts over his eyes, sealing him from the cold vacuum outside.

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville looked up from the four cases of 'explosive' (technically 'implosives') he had created, smirked and nodded back at Victory. "I suppose we should." He touched a control on his Gravimetric Belt, and the familiar blue-gray glow of his force field enveloped him, and the Belt made a soft hiss as he hypercompressed tank in his belt filled the airtight force bubble with air. He exited the vehicle with two of the cases, one in each hand; when he exited the space-plane, the glow of his field intensified as it fought against the vacuum and cold of space.

He pauses a moment, drinking in the awesome sight before him. He had been out this far before, short jaunts taken with Dark Star or with a space travel module for his own Gravimetric Belt, but the sight was one that would likely not get old for many, many years.

Wheeee!!!

"Hey!," Archeville's voice came across the comm channel they were using "a little help getting the rest of the bomb out? The weight is not an issue, but I only have so many hands!"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory gets the comm message and responds not by sending a message back, but by heading right on over. Indeed, weight wouldn't be an issue out in space, but it's a whole lot of bomb to put together. In a flash, he was in and out of the spaceship again, with two more cases.

Going to the comm again as he stands by the Doktor, Victory also takes the chance to get a nice long look.

"So, have you figured out the exact spot we're putting this, or will we have to wait for the others to finish their own survey?"

Although he was outwardly focused on the mission, Victory can't help but be just a bit distracted by the scenery. Inwardly, he's a bit giddy. One day he'll be able to make this thing's flight look like a snail's crawl. He just knows it deep down. He used to think the sky was the limit. But lately, he's begun to realize that even the sky is just a launching point...

[quotemyname]

"So, have you figured out the exact spot we're putting this, or will we have to wait for the others to finish their own survey?"

Blueshift heard Victory's question over the radio and it jolted her out of her rambling tangent about her scanners, "Survey! Right. Job at hand, Blue. I'll find the spot. Need to be closer first. Problem? Don't fly." She looked around at the other heroes assembled. Doctor Archeville and Victory were still on their way back from the ship, "Need an escort. Push? 'Cape? One of you? Get me down there?" She turned her gaze back to the cavernous hole, and kept looking between the hole and her screens, "And quickly. Gotta finish scans. So Doc can 'set us up the bomb'." She smiled at her own reference to cult internet humor, "Fast too. Suit's degrading. You'll last out here. I won't." She typed a few more things into the small laptop like object she held, and looked up at the nearby heroes expectantly.

[Supercape]

"Sorry" shrugged Supercape "something in this crystal is blocking quantum entanglement". He pointed at a crystal shard that was poking out of the rock, eagerly awaiting something to impale. "It looks remarkably similar to the quantum matter I create, but not the same. It actually exists, for one thing. "

He flicked the shard with his finger. If there hadn't been a vacuum, the shard would probably have emitted some shrill note.

"Upshot is, I can't entangle two points. No teleportation, no remote viewing. At least not in the local vicinity. "

He hovered above the rock and drifted towards Blueshift. "So no shortcuts. Flight, however, is still possible. Its just a matter of creating a highly localised bending of time-space. Here, grab hold of the cape..."

As he spoke, his cape became thinner but longer, but just as shiny and sparkly. Like a slow motion whip, it trailed towards Bluecape.

[quotemyname]

Blueshift hesitated before, she reached out toward the cape, "Interesting. Large scale quantum powers. Won't work in this space. However, small scale. Still functional. Perhaps...Of course! The influence of these crystals becomes infinitesimally smaller as the limit of the outward influence of your power approaches zero and that function is much steeper, higher negative slope, than the strength of your power does. In fact your powers don't seem to decrease in strength at all when condensed to a confined space, they simply seem to behave differently. This is fascinating. It coul..." She stopped speaking when she noticed him holding the cape out for her all of a sudden. "Right. Rambling again. Sorry. Short version: This should work!" She quickly shut the laptop like device she was using and attached it to her belt, then reached out with both hands to grasp the end of the cape indicated by Supercape.

[Supercape]

"Yes, I agree!" replied Supercape confidently. He had understood most of what Blueshift was on about. And he was one of the worlds finest physicists. That woman had a razor-sharp brain, and no mistake.

Supercape floated off to the cave-hole, Blueshift in tow. Initially, the inertial forces on the cape strangle him a bit, until he reformed his costume to a more appropriate cut.

"Lots of energy discharges" he noted, peering down the hole with more than his eyes. "Not going to be easy..."

He erected his quantum force field to full strength. Unfortunately he had only ever constructed the field around his own body.

"How are you for supercharged bolts of energy coursing through your body?" he asked Blueshift, hoping that the woman had some nifty gadget or protective device.

[quotemyname]

"Actually!" Blueshift used her free hand to pluck a cylindrical object from her belt. It had blue bands around either end, and two angled pieces of metal coming from each end. "Solved that problem the other day."

She switched hands, using her gauntleted arm to hold onto his cape, and her free arm to handle the cylinder. She quickly affixed it to the back of the gauntlet itself, the two wires were attached near one of the blue power lines ran along her suit. "Whole suit's a conductor. Runs on liquid electricity. Real neat stuff, actually. Personal design. So I'm basically in circuit as is. This is a modulating resistor. It'll make sure that no power surges bring the running power of the suit above certain levels. Same token, won't respond to or limit baseline operational electricity levels."

Ensuring the resistor was affixed properly, she looked up at Supercape, "Okay, 'Cape! Juice me!" she gave him a wide excited smile, hoping her solution worked.

[Supercape]

"Hang on tight then!" replied Supercape.

Not too tight he added to himself, as he readjusted the cape. He wouldn't want to strangle himself with the thing.

He wasn't a particularly elegant flier, but the micro gravity made it relatively easy. He swooped down the hole, into the depths of the meteor.

As he flew down, he saw the crsytals light up and arc electricity between them, with what could only be described as preposterous power. The arcs criss crossed the hole, in a manner similar to a laser beam security device.

Fortunately, his reflexes were sound, perhaps the excitement and adrenaline pumping through his body and cranium had sharpened him. He swerved and rolled around the flashes of power, traversing deeper into the hole.

[quotemyname]

When the lightning in the crevasse arced through the alien atmosphere, Supercape dodged it with practiced ease. However, missing the first target in the confined space, it arced back toward Blueshift, more than likely due to the amount of electrical equipment she was carrying. Between the awkward position in which she was hanging, and the strange atmosphere of the asteroid, Blueshift was unable to avoid the powerful electricity. It struck her in the small of the back, and electricity seemed to rush through her suit as every circuit glowed an even brighter blue than usual. Suddenly, the resistor strapped to her arm glowed a bright orange color as it sucked in the electricity and diffused the power outwardly in the form of heat, which dissipated incredibly quickly in the cold of outer space. The orange glow lasted only a second before the unit returned to it's normal light blue coloring.

"Well!" Blueshift was shocked and excited all at the same time, "Glad that worked! First field test successful. 'Prototype' status repealed!" She said with a smile. Supercape only now realized that she'd put her trust into a device that she'd never even tested out before.