Supercape Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 "To answer your question, Supercape, we don't. Not yet anyway." Supercape gave the little robot a pat on its...well, he wasn't quite sure. But he gave it a pat anyway. "To be honest" he said to nobody in particular "that thing gives me the heebie-jeebies. And I've seen some awful stuff in my time. Not following it? well, that feels rather good, actually. My spine starts crawling just thinking of it. It's got too many dimensions, damn it..." He cracked his knuckles. "But, despite my dislike of the thing, I doubt its absence is any real consolation. In fact, probably the reverse. I wonder what if it made off with anything?...nothing good shall come of this, I'm sure...."
angrydurf Posted November 1, 2011 Author Posted November 1, 2011 Ace quirked a brow at the admonishment, "Yes well contrary to popular belief extra dimensional slime of unknown property is not really my bag." he replied sardonically as he pulled a kerchief from his pocket to clean the slime from his hand with a look of distaste. "Only other store houses of significance are under better guard than here regardless." he explained with a shrug, "Freedom Hall has some relics from thier encounters and the researchers on star Island as well but the league and Aegis have those under guard. the ones here were largely thought to be inert or artistic rather than useable or dangerous though its hard to say how particular that ... thing is." He began to wander back to the main room where so much destruction had already been wrought and nudged the now smoldering pile of wrecked artifacts with one Italian leather sheathed foot. "Looks like more residue here, and it seems to be eating away at the material more than it was the walls." he opined curiously.
Supercape Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 "Interesting" replied Supercape, peering closer where Ace had indicated. "You have the eyes of the eagle, sir!" he acknowledged "most odd...an acid? that selectively eats certain materials?" he mused to himself, stroking his chin as he did so. "There does not seem to be a sensible physical explanation to this. At least that I know of. I wouldn't know for sure, of course, until I took some samples back to the Lab for proper tests and examination. If it even can be examined. It will probably evaporate into some ectoplasmic vapour in sunlight, or something..." he continued. Anything magical stretched his brain out of his comfort zone.
quotemyname Posted November 9, 2011 Posted November 9, 2011 "True enough, Ace. But I still think it's worth noting, and bringing to the attention of both Aegis and The League." She typed away at the device on her wrist as they returned to the main room. "I'll just send them an email..." "Interesting" replied Supercape, peering closer where Ace had indicated. "You have the eyes of the eagle, sir!" he acknowledged "most odd...an acid? that selectively eats certain materials?" he mused to himself, stroking his chin as he did so. "Oh come on, 'Cape. It's not that unusual." Blueshift placed her hands on her hips as she observed the acid that was eating away at the artifact. "We've got things like that right here on earth. MAC, Hydrofluoric Acid: Scientific Entry." A small green light on the robot's Chassis flickered to life indicating that his hard drives were spinning away as he recounted the entry in his databases, "Hydrofluoric Acid attacks the silicon oxide in most types of glass. It also dissolves many metals (not nickel or its alloys, gold, platinum, or silver), and most plastics. Fluorocarbons such as Teflon (TFE and FEP), Chlorosulfonated Polyethylene Elastomers, natural rubber and neoprene all are resistant to hydrofluoric acid. Hydrofluoric acid is so corrosive because the fluorine ion is highly reactive. Even so, it is not a 'strong' acid because it does not completely dissociate in water." As the little robot talked, Blueshift extracted a pair of rubber gloves from her belt. Slipping them on, she began cleaning the acidic chemicals from the artifact that Ace had been observing. Once Mac was finished his report, she issued further instructions, "Mac, Hydrofluoric Acid: Trivia." The green light flickered on once more, "The ability of Hydrofluoric Acid to dissolve many types of metals, as well as other organic and inorganic materials makes it very useful in the disposal of incriminating evidence. Especially since a simple rubber container can be used to contain the acid without risk of damaging the container or surroundings. Though, the most well known method of dissolving the carcasses of farm animals or roadkill (with obvious extensions to victims of crime), is still the basic compound Sodium Hydroxide better know as the household chemical Lye. Additionally, one thing true of either compound is then intensely offensive smell produced during such chemical reactions." "Thank you Mac. Though I'm surprised," Blueshift commented as she used one of her gloved hands to gently waft a small amount of the chemical's fumes toward, but not into her nose, "I would have expected it to smell worse than this."
angrydurf Posted November 9, 2011 Author Posted November 9, 2011 Ace shrugged, "Well yes, but then again representatives of both are likely participating in the inevitable cordon around the museum." He said with a grin, "Speaking of which we really should see if we can get in touch with someone to shut down the security system, the responsible party it seems is unimpeded by even the strongest of walls." He blinked impassively as the little hover thingy spat forth far more information about hydroflouric acid than he really cared to know and looked between the pair of other heroes, "Yes well if this was a tailored creature to attack Atlantean artifacts then it would make sense that it is rather specific in what it melts..." he glanced at his hand in vague concern much after the fact, "Well on the plus side it seems to have no effect on flesh." he noted holding up an unblemished hand, "I suggest we collect samples and take them to the lab." he grinned wide quite pleased with himself, "always wanted a lab..." He mused under his breath.
Supercape Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 "always wanted a lab..." Later, at the Lab... "Welcome to the Lab!" said Supercape to Ace and Blueshift. He had an inkling that Ace was a fairly bright chap, and he knew Blueshift was one of the smartest on the planet. So he wouldn't need to explain everything in painstaking simplicity. He handed them both visitors ID badges, nodding to the reception staff on the ground level. "These grant access to the upper levels, the laboratories proper. I have arranged for guest quarters if need be, we have excellent rooms here, with a great view!" he added with a wink. Hopefully this would not take long, but a good night's sleep was always welcome. On the other hand, the beast they had encountered was unlikely to be resting... The laboratories of the lab where equally impressive, as Supercape took them to a chemical analysis and engineering facility. He sat himself down my one of the stations, and started the process of disecting out the molecular composition of the article, atom by atom...
quotemyname Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 Both Blueshift and her companion robot were stunned into speechlessness at the enormity of the Lab and all that being given access to it's upper floors entailed. "PleasePleasePleasePleeeeeease tell me these badges aren't just temporary passes?" Mac zipped around Supercape like an excited three-year-old, "Man, I hope I don't blow a fuse! This is so exciting!" "Mac!" Blueshift hissed, after being jolted out of her reverie, "Behave yourself, or they won't invite us back!" --- Once finally situated in the Lab, Blueshift went to work side by side Supercape. Both she and Mac were busy pouring over photographs of the break in and crime scene. Having always suffered from being able to think much faster than she could possibly write, Blueshift instead opted for linking her visor and other suit's systems directly to the Lab's database via a one-way connection at the approval of Supercape. There she uploaded all of her findings on both the situational analysis as well as what would equate to a small textbook on it's chemical compounds and physical behaviors. So fascinated was she that she didn't even realize how long she'd been working. Sadly, this was much more often the case than was reasonable or healthy for her. In short, she was used to it. When she finally pushed her visor up and leaned back in her chair, "Woh, how long was I out?" She sniffed at the inside of her visor and turned to Supercape, "Say, those rooms you told us about wouldn't happen to have showers, would they? I think I need a quick breather before we crunch the numbers on our findings. Besides, I've still got gunk on me..." She rubbed her fingers together in demonstration, unfortunately only succeeding in spreading the substance around further.
angrydurf Posted November 16, 2011 Author Posted November 16, 2011 "Ah most excellent accommodations." Ace said with a grin as they ascended into the Lab proper, "Always love a good Lab." he mused almost to himself as he poked and prodded absently at things he really most likely shouldn't be poking and prodding at. He watched with a bemused grin as the brains got started on the heavy lifting and moved on to avail himself of the facilities to remove the gunk remaining from his encounter with the creature as well as his somewhat more extended than intended stay in otherspace. Cleanliness achieved he set down at a terminal to go over what research and legends of Atlantis he could access and cross reference with his own experiences therein. As the more scientifically minded concluded their experiments he rubbed absently at his eyes and turned from the terminal blinking myopically, "Well that was more enlightening and less heartening than I might have hoped." he murmured mostly to himself, "So my fine fellows dare I hope you have something enlightening?" he asked curiously, "I found some legends that seem to match up but none particularly useful in finding the thing."
Supercape Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 Supercape nodded with enthusiasm. "Indeed! the molecular structure of the sample is most interesting. Chemistry is not my forte, of course..." he said, modestly (although his understanding of chemistry would humble any professional scientist, his particular area of expertise was quantum physics). "...but I do believe i have cracked it, so to speak. The acid is perfect, one might even speculate designed to specifically target certain ceramics. Very particular ceramics. The one with extreme molecular tensile psuedo-distortive properties that allow peak elastic hyper-string dissection across the collapsed wave function recombi..." He paused. "The ones which are very hard" he concluded, not losing his pace. "Very high grade stuff. I won't go into the quantum properties of it. But it's extremely interesting. And more pragmatically, unique. In other words, its very uniqueness could allow us to track it..."
angrydurf Posted December 1, 2011 Author Posted December 1, 2011 Ace nodded along sort of following the scientific hoo doo the man of a most super cape was laying down. "Well it seems all but tailor made to strike at the Atlanteans then." he said with a sigh, "Hopefully that will give us an edge as we are not..." he suggested hopefully and presented his own findings. "It seems to me that there were three of these creatures, the Atlanteans named them destroyers, unleashed during the war with lemuria." he explained and flipped through some of the accounts and pictograms of the events. "They would strike at the weak points in a structure and bring it down, destroy power conduits, otherwise sabotage the Atlanteans ahead of a lemurian attack." He brought up a map of some excavated ruins with distinct signs of sudden grievous assault, "The results were devastating." "It seems that they were also near unkillable." he says glumly, "One was destroyed or banished by an archmage but it cost the he and his elite cadre of guards their lives. Not from the creatures attacks but from the energies harnessed to cause real lasting harm." he brightens somewhat as he continues, "However, they managed to imprison both the others in self powered containment tubes!" he glossed over that the example they had was near destroyed and its function a mystery, "If we can figure that out it's only a matter of luring it out and trapping it!" he clapped his book shut and looked expectantly to the scientists waiting for them to do science.
Supercape Posted December 2, 2011 Posted December 2, 2011 "If we can figure that out it's only a matter of luring it out and trapping it!" he clapped his book shut and looked expectantly to the scientists waiting for them to do science. "Piece of cake, then!" replied Supercake rather glumly, leaning back on his chair and pressing his hands to his temples. "two of them you say. Well that is good news. I suppose our first friend is on his way to free the second. Unless there were two released in the first place. Well, in any case, it means double the headache. Damn, I could use an asprin right now..." He swept aside some clutter on the desk and scrabbled around for the first aid box, producing said remedy. "And, aside from the fact that the prospect of trapping in a containment tube - which we have no specs for by the way - is somewhat challenging...do we have the proverbial cheese for our extra-dimensional mouse? It seems to me we would need a large mass of said ceramics...I imagine that would be the red rag to the bull!"
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