Dr Archeville Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Date: February 7th, 2011 (Monday). Early evening. Eli East had just finished his day's classes at Freedom College, and had returned to the Brownstone for a quick bite (leftovers of the big pot of chili Colt had made the night before), when he realized an unexpected figure was seated at the breakfast nook. "Ah, Eli, there you are!," Doktor Archeville greeted, waving him over to the table. He had been reviewing holographic projections of a calendar, notes, reports, news feeds, and other assorted items, all projected from the Electromangetic Screwdriver in his hands. "Do you have a few moments to spare? I would like to discuss a few things with you." I have never really sat down and talked with Eli. This must be rectified!
Geez3r Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 Eli for his part was quite taken aback to see the good Doctor there waiting for him apparently. Dr. Archeville was effectively his boss and he acted it most of the time. Sure he was a nice enough guy, and things would be quite amiss from time to time. It's just a jolt to see the guy effectively be waiting for your in your dorm room. Yeah technically he owned the building too, but it was a little weird. Still, not wanting to get on Dok's bad side, a side which was curiously missing recently, Eli slid into the chair across from Archeville as he shoveled the last bit of chilli into his mouth at high speed so he could give Dok his full attention. Once he was followed, he asked the obvious question "Ehhh, What's up Doc? Sorry, couldn't help it."
Dr Archeville Posted February 9, 2011 Author Posted February 9, 2011 "Ah, I am never going to not hear that, am I?," he replied, chuckling. Toon Gang! I wonder what they are up to? I would love to study them! "Nothing too big," he continued as he closed down the holographic displays. "I realized the other day that, since Erik and Lynn and Billy were the ones who recruited you for the team, not me, I never really had a chance to meet with you, get to know you. And since I am the one paying the bills for the place, well, I would like to remedy that. Besides," he smiled, "from what little we have talked, you seem rather bright, and interested in science, something I always wish to encourage!" For Science!
Geez3r Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 "Well to be fair, for the longest time, my only interest in science was in the field of "The Mythbusters blowing stuff up" but once I got my powers, I kind of felt obligated to do more science-y things, you know?" explained Eli. "I was never really that smart, and I'm really not that relatively smart even now. I just have the ability to beat my head against a problem until it makes sense." he said with a shrug. "I'm an open book Dok, what would you like to know?"
Dr Archeville Posted February 13, 2011 Author Posted February 13, 2011 "Well, the basics, to start with," he said, leaning back a bit. "What your powers are, how you got them. Why you decided to do what you do with them. How you met and joined up with the Interceptors. You do not have to tell me everything, of course-" Since I already know most of it! "just whatever you are comfortable with." Based on cross-checking of news reports, observations of Brownstone's security feeds, and consultation with Captain Thunder, Bolt, and Johnny Rocket: real name Eli East, student at Freedom College, gained super-speed and electricity-generating powers when struck by a lightning bolt from a thunderstorm generated by Dr. Stratos January 2010. Ironically, if struck by an electrical attack, his own speed goes into 'overdrive' where his Super-Speed is temporarily uncontrollably stuck in the 'fully on' position, and attempts to consciously 'push' his own abilities results in more strain than usual for Metahumans, resulting in random electrical discharges in his immediate area. Despite similarities in abilities, no known connections to Bolt since before his empowering. Has added numerous science courses, primarily physics, primarily to learn more about own abilities and how better to utilize and expand on them. And he is great fun at parties!
Geez3r Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 "Well, my main power is actually a form of energy conversion." began Eli, figuring "basic" for Dr. Archeville would have enough technical jargon to make the rest of the Interceptors flee from the room in horror. "Basically, I can manipulate and "absorb" friction. Don't ask me how it works," he adds quickly, throwing his hands up in a half shrug. "Because I have no idea what so ever. You know how when you stick your hand out the car window and the air has genuine substance? That's how it is for me all the time, no matter what speed I'm at. Only, I can kind of slice through it, or move it out of my way when I put my mind to it. Again, don't know how, it just happens. Some of the friction I move out of the way goes to my feet so I get better traction, and it keeps me glued to the ground or wall or what have you. The rest of it just gets converted into more "go fast". This is why, compared to other speedsters, I actually have a relatively slow acceleration. I have to build up a store of this friction energy. But as the air gets denser, I get exponentially faster. And as for the lighting, I think that's just how my body stores its energy now. I'd be far too massive if my energy was stored as matter in the cells. It also allows for immediate use, as far as I can tell. So while it sounds like I'm firing my life force off at people, it's really no where near that hazardous to my health. Relative to the amount of energy stored in my body, I can't fire off that much at once. And the energy I do fire off can quickly be replaced by running around." Eli paused to get himself a drink of water. "Anything you'd like to ask me at this point or should I keep on truckin'?"
Dr Archeville Posted February 27, 2011 Author Posted February 27, 2011 "I know you can run along walls, and the surface of liquids," he said as he ran two fingers up the wall beside him, then stopped halfway up the wall, "but have you tried altering friction while still so as to stand on a wall, or the ceiling?" He removed his fingers from the wall, and waved them around like conductor's baton (not like a magic wand. Not at all), "or tried to manipulate the friction of something unconnected to you? Not just making other go faster or slower, but moving things, like telekinesis?" I bet he would enjoy that! When Eli got up for a bottle of water, Archeville held out a hand, indicating he wanted one, too. "I have a theory on that, too, which goes along with the telekinesis idea. Friction is not a fundamental force, but occurs because of the electromagnetic forces between charged particles which make up the surfaces in contact. Rubbing dissimilar materials against one another -- such as an amber rod with a bit of wool, or glass with silk -- can cause a build-up of electrostatic charge, as the material with weakly bound electrons lose them to the materials with sparsely filled outer electron shells. In clouds, friction among the dust particles, ice crystals, and water droplets are part of how lightning is formed, so... your friction powers themselves may be what is generating the electricity. Should be able to do some magnetic tricks, too!" Science!
Geez3r Posted February 27, 2011 Posted February 27, 2011 Passing a glass of water to the good Doctor, Eli slid back into his seat as Archeville probed a little deeper. "Ah yes. I can actually do both of those things, and have done so before. However, they are what we refer to as awesome but impractical. Running over water or up a wall is far easier than simply trying to just stand on them. See unlike a lot of other speedsters, at least as far as I can tell, when I start getting to the really insane speeds running wise, my mind actually slows down. Well not really slows down, I just don't have as much resources to dedicate to thinking about a problem. Think of it this way: no matter how fast the computer, there is a limit to how much it can do at once. The more memory that a program takes up, the less there is for everything else. When I run at really, really high speeds, so much of my mind is focusing on generating energy to keep running and keeping me aware of my surroundings, I don't have that much time to think about my physics homework for instance. I can get both my thinking and doing up to really high speeds, but there comes a point where I have to start trading off between the two. Now what the heck does that have to do with sticking to walls? Basically, when I'm running at full tilt, I only have to get the energy output to be good enough to get me some traction for the smallest fraction of a second before I take my next step. There's a relatively wide margin of error there. The longer I need to stay in one spot, the more concentration and focus I'd need. Too little energy going out and I fall. Too much is how I figured out I could shoot lightning." related Eli. "Doing magnetic tricks and telekinesis sort of have the some problem. It requires a lot more focus than I currently have. Right now, the only thing I can manipulate with any certainty are steel marbles about the size of a quarter or other magnets. If I try to dedicate too much attention to a given task, the other ones kind of get unsupervised, which can be bad, as you can image."
Dr Archeville Posted March 5, 2011 Author Posted March 5, 2011 Archeville was silent, letting Eli explain things in his own words. Well, he may not be the best at explaining things, but he definitely has the basic concepts down. His grades indicate he will get the advanced ones down, too. And something I had anticipated based on my early observations of him, but not confirmed: a degree of timidity, not recklessness, when it comes to testing his powers, something rarely seen in speedsters! He was quiet for what seemed an eternity after Eli was done, though given how fast both their mental processes went, that seeming eternity was really not long at all. At last the Doktor spoke. "Hunh." He took a sip of water, "that sounds in keeping with my predictions for your current ability with doing magnetic tricks, but now I am more curious about your speed. Are you saying it requires a great deal of brainpower, of concentration, to maintain your higher speeds? That is fairly atypical; most speedsters I have worked with barely put any thought into it."
Geez3r Posted March 6, 2011 Posted March 6, 2011 "Well I'm an atypical speedster." said Eli with a shrug. "I can without any hubris that I am the fastest man alive. Full stop." Eli paused for a second as he considered how to word what he was thinking. "I don't know if you know this or not, but I've met up with Johnny Rocket once or twice. We haven't been on any missions together or anything like that. But there's always a sense of comradery with other speedsters; they know what your life is like and they have enough time in their day to sit back and relate what they know and talk to you. Now as near as I can tell, when I met up with Rocket, he was going just as fast as he could; both speed wise and mentally. But if I dedicated myself to just going as fast as I could, I'm several hundred times faster than he is. But it's when I start exceeding people like Johnny Rocket that I have to start slowing my mind down." explained Eli, hoping that giving a sense of scale to the speeds he was talking about would help illuminate the point. "But I know that's not the case for all speedsters capable of these extreme speeds. Or more precisely, the other speedster. I've never met her, but that Zephyr girl they've got running around is faster than me in every regard. And she's like a "standard" speedster because she can do both at those extreme speeds. Why that's the case, I couldn't even hazard a guess." ended Eli with a shrug.
Dr Archeville Posted March 19, 2011 Author Posted March 19, 2011 Archeville nodded, "I know of whom you are speaking, and I have been keeping an eye on her for some time." He took another sip of water, "her and her parents. Shame about what happened during last year's prom." ... oops! Well, might as well come clean! Besides, Eli here seems far more easygoing than Billy or Erik, so he would be the best one to tell first. He cleared his throat, "been keeping an eye on them for about a year, off and on, with some help from Lynn. Zephyr's superlative speed may well be due to her Terminus-infused nature, since Terminus energies have a nasty way of breaking quantum probabilities down to complete indeterminacy. My few scans of her have yet to point out anything concrete -- another aggravating aspect of Terminus-infused metahumans -- but my hypothesis is that she is in fact a chronomanipulator, albeit one working on a wholly subconscious level."
Geez3r Posted March 19, 2011 Posted March 19, 2011 "...Yeah..." said Eli slowly. "I know her name's Zephyr and she's really fast. Other than that, I don't know squat about her or her family, or her friends. But uhh... spying on high school kids? Not gonna lie there Dok, that's a little creepy." said Eli, not entirely liking the direction this conversation was starting to take. "And word to the wise, you might not want to have any pictures or videos of them on your computer. That could lead to a rather awkward conversation with the Feds and later Barbra Walters. Nothing erodes a good public image quicker than a documented obsession with little kids." said Eli trying to make a little joke of the situation he clearly felt uncomfortable in. He made a mental note to ask Lynn what the heck this was all about latter. Hoping to change the subject back to something more sciency he added "I figured she was manipulating time somehow. Makes sense if you think about it for a moment." he said with a shrug, hoping Dok would take the bait and tell him off for taking time travel lightly.
Dr Archeville Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 "The Feds have been looking after those two for many years already," the Doktor said simply, "I was merely continuing some prudent and cautionary observation, in as unobtrusive as manner as I could. You watched with us last June when Alex revealed her nature and her past, which I had known of for some time. I was not comfortable with what I did, but I did -- and still do -- feel it was the best option." I was not comfortable with the whole thing, sending Lynn in, but I still feel they are worth monitoring, and what I did was nothing compared to what my Other had wanted! ... shoot, I really did all but say 'I did what I had to'... Archeville was silent, and seemed to find the contents his glass of water endlessly fascinating.
Geez3r Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 "Wait... what?" said Eli, clearly not being caught up on the issue. "She's Zephyr's mother? How does that work, she's still in high school? Oh right, time travel stuff right?" said Eli as his brain caught up to the information and connected the dots. "That's gotta be weird." mused Eli. "But seriously Doc, don't beat yourself up to bad about it." said Eli noticing the Dok suddenly got a lot more quiet. "You can't be a scientist at the top of any field, let alone most of them without having to ask yourself some ethical questions and toe the line. And eventually you'll screw up, or at the very least, won't do as well as you would have liked. What separates good people from bad people is that the good people won't lower the bar for their behavior just because its an easier target to hit. They keep the bar where it is because they know it's a worthy goal." So you weren't proud of an event in your past. That's a single piece of evidence. It doesn't say anything about your character as a whole. If you want to be better, then be better. You're Dr. Archeville. The words "physically possible" get redefined when you walk into the room. Don't settle for anything less than the best of what you know you can achieve. It's the only way to be happy with yourself at the end of the day." finished Eli sagely. See mom, I do listen. thought Eli rather proud of himself.
Dr Archeville Posted April 23, 2011 Author Posted April 23, 2011 Archeville was silent through Eli's impromptu pep talk. He has been learning! And not just at the university! A short moment after Eli said his piece, a smile came to the Doktor's face. "Thank you for that, Eli," he said as he reached across and playfully punched the young speedster on the shoulder. "As for Zephyr, yes, from what little I have been able to gather, she is from some possible future, and her powers are some form of temporal manipulation. Which could explain why she is faster than you: she is even less bound by the 'Laws of Physics' than you are." He laughed at that, but there was just a hint of nervousness in it. Still worried about the implications of a 'Terminus Teen' with the ability to alter time itself... but, on the other hand, so much potential! "So," his tone lost all hint of nervousness, and was all smooth and easygoing once more, "tell me, how do you like the team? The Brownstone? Anything of which I should be aware?"
Geez3r Posted April 23, 2011 Posted April 23, 2011 "Oh everything's awesome here on the homefront. Minus all the domestic abuse." he said with a playful grin has he rubbed his shoulder. "Grim's got the whole den mother thing down pat. Colt's the silent type. He'll stand back and let you make mistakes, but he's always there to help you whenever you ask for it. And Jack's the older brother I never had, so that works out too. Jill's been a little cool to me, but she's been warming up to me bit by bit. Probably because I remind her so much of her brother she has to suppress the urge to hit me just on principle." he adds with a chuckle. "Fulcrum ain't around here too often, but I think you know more about that than I do."
Dr Archeville Posted May 7, 2011 Author Posted May 7, 2011 Archeville nodded, "Mona and I have both been somewhat conflicted on her role here. In addition to the usual 'new person coming into an established group' thing, there is also the 'the secret backer/founder of the group is also the man I am dating,' professional vs. personal issues to consider." Elena still cautions me about this, but things seem to be working out okay so far! He flashed Eli a smile, "well, that is really all I wanted to talk with you about, a bit of 'getting to know you.' Any plans for the evening? Have you had supper yet? I know several fine restaurants you should try out... assuming you are willing to run over to my homeland to try," he said with a wink.
Geez3r Posted May 7, 2011 Posted May 7, 2011 "Heh. Good talking with ya Dok. Don't be a stranger now." replied Eli as he got to his feet and gave a little stretch. "Yeah, the one problem with going abroad for lunch is that they get a little suspicious when you don't have a passport, plane ticket, or foreign currency on you; oh and you don't speak a word of their language. You can get around that by wearing brightly colored pajamas, but as you can imagine that creates its own set of problems. So uh, raincheck on that okay?" He held out his hand "We should do this again. It's been a pleasure Dr. Archeville." said Eli, trying to be formal while also feeling distinctly odd about doing so.
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