Russian Reactors are Reliable (IC)

[Fox]

Dragonfly raised an eyebrow, looking Supercape up and down again. "Are you? Don't seem to be on your best footing. Don't know all the secrets of how you do your teleportation, but have suspicions and would...prefer not to be turned inside out, or transported to the inside of a wall." She could think of at least seven outcome scenarios for that, depending on the exact mechanics of the caped hero's powers; five were fatal, and two posed a worse threat than Hiroshima, even when he'd been feasting on reactors.

She frowned, bringing her force field up...just in case. "Suppose I'm as ready as I'll ever be. If you are."

[Supercape]

"Nonsense!" replies Supercape "I'll be fine... now then... Pi cubed to the root of c over ... what was it? carry the differential... um... what was I saying?"

He wobbled slightly.

"Well, I think I can do it..." he conceded. "Perhaps foot would be better, even if more exhausting..."

At that moment, alarms starting ringing over the complex.

"" screamed the Alarm, in Russian.

"That dosen't sound good. Lets foot it, unless you have some fancy anti-gravity belt I can use..."

[Fox]

"Don't even have an anti-gravity belt I can use," Dragonfly wryly countered, making her way out of the workshop and heading in the direction of what seemed to be increasing commotion as fast as she could without losing Supercape. "And no. Not good. Containment breach. Better if we moved faster."

[Supercape]

"Very well, although I am not sure precisely...."

The space-time dimensions (And others, no doubt) wobbled for a few seconds as they interconnected with another point. And then, in an instant, Supercape and Dragonfly appeared in the Reactor.

The air was hot - very hot, and Supercape could instantly tell the radiation level was sky high. His own costume would shield him - he wasn't sure about Dragonfly.

"Radiation level is critical... you will need shieaaahhh!" he yelped. They had materialised 20 feet over a reactor cooler, and gravity had kicked in...

[Supercape]

...with Horishima Shadow basking in the unleashed nuclear might of the reactor.

Spying the two heroes middair, he roared with laughter before setting his gaze on the coolant and realising a penetrating green beam from his eyes that hit the liquid causing it to glow with ghastly, and lethal, radiation.

Supercape stumbled straight into the coolant and gasped as he felt the full radioactive power poison his system...

[Fox]

Dragonfly swore, darting a hand out for a piece of railing before she could fall headlong into the freezing - and shortly thereafter, radioactive - coolant. She held her free hand out toward the tank, a twisted circle of space forming at her fingertips to ward off the worst of the latter; she was pretty sure her recent invention would protect her from the background radiation but villain-enhanced liquid coolant was probably something else entirely.

Scattering coolant and radiation made the shield streak and shimmer, but it held, and Dragonfly quickly hauled herself up onto the walkway. unpleasant - bad situation - controls controls controls - there Leaving Supercape to deal with the irradiated madman, she took off as fast as her legs would carry her for what seemed to be the control room. just have to keep him busy - good luck - likely going to need it....

[Supercape]

Supercape swore he could actually feel his blood cells melting down as bathed in the radioactive goo.

Have to get out of this he swore, as he concentrated and flew out of the coolant with his cape flapping wildly, droplets of glowing green coolant splattering the entire room.

This is going to be a nightmare to clean up...

He was sick, wounded, and facing a nuclear powered villain who had gone critical. This wasn't looking good. But with enough time, Dragonfly might be able to overload him.

I have to buy that time...

With a wave of his hand, a globe of quantum material sprung up around Hiroshima Shadow. The faintly blue, semi transparent material was stronger than steel and would last forever. As long as nobody clever examined it really hard. It neither existed not did-not exist, and careful scrutiny of its more esoteric properties caused it to collapse to a state of non-existence.

And that's a start... he nodded. Hopefully Hiroshima Shadow was not an expert on quantum mechanics, nor had the inclination to examine the material in much depth.

[Supercape]

Supercape saw Hiroshima Shadow glowing fiercely and stretching out his hand.

I cant take him down... he thought, through the pain. All I need to do is buy some time for Dragonfly.

He was feeling ill, every muscle in his body was hurting, and he had the mother of all headaches. He could even swear he was glowing slightly. But he was going to fight with every atom in his body.

Supercape glared at Hiroshima defiantly. "Hit me if you dare!" he whispered, and as the blue-green beam of radation streaked out from the villains hand, he stepped neatly to one side, the beam missing him entirely.

"And if you can!" he added with a smile.

[Fox]

Dragonfly skidded to a stop in front of the control console, trying to concentrate less on the madman in the reactor and more on the task at hand. It was a little easier said than done, but she scowled at the computers, muttering to herself. "Would need that - and those - and - have to be kidding. Don't have a switch for - mmh. Never that convenient."

The engineer reached for the multi-tool she kept on her belt, flicking it open like a switch-blade. "" she told the machine, unceremoniously starting to unscrew maintenance panels. ""

[Supercape]

Supercape could sense the reactor going into overdrive. He could also sense Hiroshima Shadow burning up with power, like the heart of a sun. It was almost getting painful to look at him.

"Carefully you don't gorge on that..." said Supercape, adrenaline and fear flooding his body and helping keep him upright. Anticipating the worst, he strained his mind and body, putting everything he had into reinforcing his quantum lattice force field.

"I can... take it!" shouted the villain, clearly in pain and discomfort. He focussed his eyes on Supercape, and let loose a stream of incredibly powerful radiation. It was closer this time, and if Supercape had not been on the alert, it would have stuck him down. Supercape gulped at the raw power of the blast. It hit the concrete wall behind him, superheating it to a plasma state instantly.

[Fox]

At the sound of concrete going to plasma Dragonfly poked her head up over the edge of the console, frowning at the ongoing fight. She'd had enough small engineering accidents in her warehouse to know that sound, and it wasn't exactly a good sign. better than flesh-to-plasma at least - blinking light - shouldn't be long now - blinking light - just have to hold on for a few more- - blinking light - what? - oh - @#$%

She ducked back under the console, giving a panel a swift smack with the butt of her multi-tool to shake loose some wires, which she promptly re-wired to stop the reactor from burning itself out too early. swear this thing is made from duct tape and tin foil

[Supercape]

Hiroshima Shadow, clearly in pain, flew to the centre of the podium and started to glow like a sun.

Here it comes... thought Supercape, swooping for cover as an Hiroshima Shadow erupted into an inferno.

The force of the blast spun Supercape in a full circle. And that was only the kinetic effect. The heat and radiation was overwhelming, enough to melt the concrete and metal of the building, and fire to burst forth from the holes in the facility and down its abandoned corridors.

His quantum field absorbed the force of the blast, and shone brightly. Even reinforced, it could not contain the incredible energies of Hiroshima shadow, and he felt his costume and hair singe and burn.

"Aaaargh!" he cried out, every once of his will concentrating on resisting the nuclear inferno Hiroshima had released...

[Fox]

Dragonfly took cover behind the console, throwing up both hands - a twisting, two-dimensional circle pulled itself into being at her fingertips just as the blast was unleashed, and most of the inferno arced up and over, cutting a deep line into the wall behind her where it was being shunted.

Most of the inferno, unfortunately, but not all. The last surge of the explosion threw her backwards, slamming her bodily into that same wall just under the plasma-worn groove. She stumbled, her shield disappearing and force field flickering, but by some miracle managed to stay on her feet; the young heroine shook her head to clear the stars and her force field came back in full force before its faltering could be taken advantage of.

[Supercape]

Supercape stood up from his knees, his nostrils flared with the smell of ozone and burning. He didn't like to think about what exactly was burning - although he did note that somehow even his costume, made of quantum molecules, appeared worse for the wear.

He didn't know how much more he could take. He was dead beat. But Dragonfly's work on the reactor seemed to have done the trick.

Casting around with eyes and his plethora of amazing senses, he could clearly detect huge levels of radiation in the vicinity, concentrated around the epicentre of the blast, where Hiroshima Shadow had been standing.

But of the villain, there was no trace. The overloading of the reactor had overloaded Hiroshima's powers and very being too. Supercape could vaguely detect some disturbance in the multiverse: a trail leading off somewhere... but it was impossible to say where or how.

[Fox]

Dragonfly went back to the console rubbing her head, wincing as she found a bump or two that hadn't been there a day ago. She used the back of her metal (and thankfully insulated) gauntlets to hit as many buttons and switches for radiation containment and absorption systems and fail-safes as she could find. These, she was satisfied to note, seemed to be properly constructed...more or less. She glanced around for the control-to-reactor intercom, less because Supercape wouldn't be able to hear her (what with the damaged walls and ruined windows) and more because she was entirely too tired to try to shout over machine noise. "Please tell me he's gone, or defeated, and not dead. Preferably without his stolen power."

[Supercape]

Supercape heard Dragonfly, but couldn't respond. The comm system was fried his end, and he was lucky to even hear the crackling, tinny voice of Dragonfly over the system.

He staggered into the control room, looking very worse for the wear, and collapsed against a wall, breathing hard. "He's gone" he croaked. Even his mouth tasted of soot.

"I don't know where, but it seemed all that excess energy has been discharged. As you no doubt felt. Good to see you still alive, by the way..."

He sank to his knees as he continued. "There was something in its wake... I presume he threw himself to some other location, or even dimension, with that nuclear blast. Can't say if he survived it, but he seems like a resilient chap, to say the least. Despite it all, I hope he is more at peace now he isn't overloaded. "

He collapsed to his hands and knees, and feebly crawled. "I think I would like some medical attention now..." he coughed.

[Fox]

Dragonfly had a lot to say about Supercape collapsing, but most of it was in Russian and almost all of it was extremely unladylike. "" she curtly noted over the building-wide comm system. "" She let go of the comm button, took a few steps toward Supercape...and then turned around, hitting the button again. ""

Now she made her way to the fallen caped hero, trying to figure out how she was supposed to get him...where? The Lab? East coast United States would be a heck of a trip, and that was his area of expertise. could do it - in theory - but would need some kind of... Her gaze landed on the reactor they'd both popped out into; the one that was still flooded with radiation. Math and mechanical designs flowed through her mind. that could work

She put a hand down on Supercape's shoulder, folding him away into storage - not the kindest thing to do to an injured man, but better than what she was about to do. Both gauntlets flared to life, visibly burning out parts or cracking glasswork as the world around her just...collapsed, nearby radiation spinning into an almost visible sinkhole that led into nothing. Or, in this case, led across the ocean to the medical floors of the Lab, where Dragonfly appeared in a (defanged and harmless) burst of radiation, ungracefully hitting the ground shoulder-first. She managed to get back on her feet before too many people saw her pratfall and, wearily and with smoking gauntlets, brought Supercape back out onto the nearest level surface she could find.

"Medic?"

[Supercape]

Supercape coughed again as he unfolded into the Lab.

"Interesting experience..." he mumbled, his eyes somewhat glazed. Despite his exhaustion and injuries, his mind had been rather stimulated by the trans-dimensional voyage.

"Nice jaunt" he commented at Dragonfly, his acute senses well aware of the sparks flying around the gauntlets. She pushed them to the limit...

He managed to crawl to the bed as one of the on-site nursing staff came to take a look at Supercape, with the aide of the infirmaries computer assisted medical programmes. The nurse tutted a bit, before he made a call for a more experienced physician.

"You have quite severe radiation poisoning, Sir. And some soft tissue damage, burns, and it looks like just plain exhaustion. I can give you something straight away to help with the poisoning and take away the pain.

"That would be awfully nice of you!" said Supercape.

He smiled at Dragonfly. "Nice work there, young lady. I see you haven't lost your touch with the spanner and screwdriver. Saved my life. "

[Fox]

Dragonfly snorted, sitting back in a chair before the last of the fight's adrenaline had a chance to flush out of her system and leave her with shaky legs. "Not that young. And would be difficult to argue I'm a 'lady'. But thank you. Didn't almost damage my lungs this time, at least."

One of her gauntlets unlatched itself - under protest, letting another spark loose as it powered down - and she pulled it off, shaking the freed hand and giving the damage a critical eye. "Was an...ungraceful 'jaunt'. Took advantage of the ambient radiation types. Not something I want to try again...without reactor and Hiroshima's...lingering presence, would have made it half as far, and probably torn holes in space. Try to avoid that. Difficult to clean up, invites very bad things to visit through the tears."

[Supercape]

The morphine started to kick in and Supercape's strained face evened out somewhat.

"Very bad things? You need to enlighten me one day. I don't want to go to places where very bad things are..."

He could feel his eyelids getting a little droopy.

"Well, in any case, our Russian friends should be moderately pleased with our work. A few explosions, cracks, and atomised equipment, but at least there wasn't a meltdown and we found out what the problem was. I guess they can still claim that Russian Reactors are Reliable..."

His voice trailed off as he sank into a morphine-induced sleep.

[Fox]

Dragonfly shook her head as Supercape trailed off, satisfied that at least he wasn't going to get himself into any more trouble. She stood back up, wincing as she felt the start of what was almost certainly going to be a bad headache. She needed sleep, a bath, to repair her gauntlets, and to make sure her radiation-shielding armbands were still functioning correctly, not necessarily in that order. Some of the items on that list were far more important than others.

By the time she'd made it back to the elevator she had her gauntlet's plating off, bits of wire and screws sticking out of her mouth as she started figuring out just how long a night it was going to be....