ic Hours in the Day [IC]

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Might make crazy thing more likely,"[/bg] Dragonfly noted, tilting her head; she'd expected an actual counter-attack. not used to resistance? [bg=#555555]"Royal families; heavy inbreeding, I think. Not good for mental stability."[/bg]

The young heroine settled back a little, putting one foot back a little to brace herself as she raised her hands and gave Lady Lunar both proverbial barrels, a rapid series of shockwaves clawing and spinning their way through the air toward the malevolent monarch. [bg=#555555]"Anyway. Not really in the habit of holding my tongue for anybody. Certainly not you - interrupted what was supposed to be a nice moment."[/bg]

[Gizmo]

Lady Lunar, for her part had evidently regained enough of the composure she'd lost with the abrupt appearance of the two young women to have marshaled her defenses in earnest. While the spatial sawblades passed effortlessly though Jill's barrier with the medic's blessing, the Farsider flicked her wrist imperiously at each rapid impact of Dragonfly's attack, her force field flashing brightly as she reinforced it against the shockwaves. A sneer was the only response she seemed to think was merited.

"Well, nertz," Jill muttered under her breath. Mara hadn't been holding back with that volley, she knew, and the momentum of the battle seemed ready to swing in their opponents favour. Steeling her will to strengthen the barrier of bioelectricity she'd raised, the metamagi realized that their psionic foe had been doing the same thing, shifting her mental focus and the toughness of her shield along with it. Time to set up the sucker punch, then, she decided. "Huah!" With a guttural shout, the young woman punched the air in front of her. Simultaneously, a column of crackling blue energy budded from her protective wall and rocketed toward Lady Lunar. The villainess was able to bring her telekenesis to bear almost effortlessly to knock the telegraphed attack aside, but in doing so she had let her attention leave her other side.

[Fox]

Dragonfly knew a set-up when she saw one - both from fighting alongside Jill and from having them used on her more often than she'd have liked to admit. As her girlfriend launched the obvious jab the engineer settled back into her stance, bringing both hands together to build a single, heavy distortion. It licked and clawed at the air around her hands, and when she let it go - when the moment was right, and not a second before - it tore through the air toward Lady Lunar like an awful, hungry thing bent on devouring everything in its path.

[Gizmo]

The spatial warp found its mark, smashing against the thinned side of Lady Lunar's telekinetic protection like a multidimensional cannonball. The deposed Farsider monarch shrieked in disbelief, hastily reinforcing her barrier and breathing heavily as a single strand of knee-length platinum blonde hair fell from its place to hand over her furrowed brow. "Savage Earthling scum!" she spat in between gasps. "Our mental powers far outstrip any paltry tricks your pitiful, primitive technology or backward magics could produce! You will not find Our shield weakened again!"

"Hey! Say what you want about magic," Jill called back, frustrated that the combination attack had only worn the villainess down rather than taking her out altogether, "but don't you ever talk smack about 'Fly's tech!" Inwardly, the young woman's mind was racing, trying to come up with an idea. Tired as they both were after that day's improbably series of fights, the chances of battering through Lady Lunar's formidable defenses seemed slim. The medic's eyes lit up, however, as she realized that a powerful force field could cut both ways.

Raising both hands, digits wreathed in blue light, she turned the concave barrier protecting herself and Dragonfly convex, then pushed it forward toward Lady Lunar like the scoop of a runaway snowplow. As the bioelectric construct connected with the bubble of willpower surrounding the Farsider, it bent further, wrapping around in a second sphere then constricting, forcing the two force fields tighter and tighter around the willowy royal.

"I-impossible! You cannot--!" Lady Lunar began, sputtering with effort as she attempted to push back against the enveloping energy.

"Actually," Jill interrupted with a dainty sniff that belied the beads of sweat forming behind her crimson bandana mask, "shut up about magic, too." The bubbles abruptly collapsed, leaving her foe pinned by a skintight layer of crackling power that pinned her arms to her sides and held her in place despite her enraged scream.

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Prefer magic and technology to 'mental tricks', anyway,"[/bg] Dragonfly grimly offered, advancing on Lady Lunar. Her right gauntlet flexed a bit, a long, glowing blade twisting into being about an inch off the knuckles of her closed fist. Every so often a little twitch or stutter would run down its length, the insubstantial weapon seeming a bit more insubstantial than normal. [bg=#555555]"Also, her magic? Impressive. My technology? Advanced. Your psychic powers? Not nearly enough to save you. But think you've figured that out already."[/bg]

[Gizmo]

Lady Lunar attempted to make some response, but by that point Jill had gotten a tight enough hold on the thrumming force field around the Farsider that her pale, narrow jaw was held shut as surely as her arms were held against her sides. After a moment more of struggle, she ceased, simply narrowing her eyes and giving the advancing technopath an impressively scathing glare considering her less than ideal position. "Send this cow over the moon, muñequita," Jill encouraged, her voice a little strained but holding strong.

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"You heard her. Goodnight."[/bg]

Dragonfly walked straight up to Lady Lunar and shoved her sword through the villainess' torso, the blade twitching and stuttering as it hit the surface of the force fields, apparently completely disregarding them - or, at the very least, disregarding Jill's - on its way. Her weapon left no visible wound, but it wasn't really designed for cutting things, anyway. Which isn't to say that it wasn't perfectly capable of doing - albeit nonlethal - damage....

[Gizmo]

With a last glare that gave the impression that she wanted to say something condescending about Dragonfly's technique with a blade, Lady Lunar's features went lax, the Farsider villain slipping into unconsciousness as her body reacted in shock to the trauma of the spatial disruption. The flickering blade didn't leave any permanent damage, or indeed even a mark, but the sensation of the laws of physics briefly being rewritten in ones innards was evidently something a nervous system thought it best to stop and contemplate for a while.

Setting their defeated for down on the moon's surface, Jill let the force field crackle away into nothingness, letting out a ragged breath as she surveyed the unconscious forms of the crater apes and bizarre oxygen generators around them. "Whoo. Okay, well, I guess now we can..." Trailing off she rubbed her eyes through her bandana mask with the heel of her glove hand. "I actually have no idea what this was even about."

[Fox]

Dragonfly let her blade unravel back into normal space, blinking under her helmet as she turned to get a better, less ire-filled look around them. [bg=#555555]"I...don't....know?"[/bg]

She frowned, her suit's computer sizing up the air machines and her brain mentally pulling them apart and making guesses at their construction. [bg=#555555]"Didn't really stop to ask, I guess. Don't know if she would have told us. ....guess she was...making breathable atmosphere on the moon? Actually seems kind of...helpful."[/bg] She glanced down at the unconscious villainess, wondering whether or not she should feel guilty right now. She was pretty sure she didn't feel guilty regardless. [bg=#555555]"Sure seemed upset enough, like we'd interrupted some kind of plot. And usually a bad sign when it involves giant monkeys."[/bg]

[Gizmo]

"Well, if nothing else, she ordered them to attack us first," Jill reasoned with a halfhearted shrug. Poking an unresponsive crater ape with one foot, the medic sighed. "Granted we showed up unannounced, but she was a real jerk about it. I'm just hoping she's not really a princess or whatever; starting a war with the Moon would be really embarrassing." Stepping over a furry blue arm, she moved next to Dragonfly and leaned wearily against the slightly shorter but armored young woman. "I dunno. I guess... we could just leave her here? Unless you know the number to call the moon police."

[Fox]

Dragonfly wrapped an arm around her tired girlfriend's shoulder, frowning. [bg=#555555]"No...don't have contacts in Farsiders. Do have numbers for people who would, though. Daedalus, maybe. Will make sure somebody knows something."[/bg]

She sighed a little, squeezing Jill. [bg=#555555]"Not really how I'd hoped the day would go. Moon was a last resort idea, and novelty's probably kind of spoiled by unconscious idiots."[/bg] She turned her head up, tilting it to look at the big blue marble floating off in the distance. [bg=#555555]"...good view, though."[/bg]

[Gizmo]

Bending her arm upward at the elbow to take the hand Dragonfly was draping over her shoulder, looking out at the massive blue and white marble hanging in the inky black overhead. "...yeah. Good view." As her heart rate returned to normal after the exertion of the fight, the vista took on a timeless quality, the realization of just where she was standing and what she was looking at slowly washing over her. Not that it was quite perfect, unfortunately. "You've got a point about the ambiance lacking a certain something," she agreed, grimacing in the direction of an unconscious crater ape with its tongue lolling out of its maw. "Let's go home."

[Fox]

Dragonfly sent the appropriate command back along her connection to her warehouse computer; the pair had a few final seconds to admire the view as equipment a literal world away spun up and performed the numerous calculations necessary to convince reality there there and here were actually the same place.

And then they were back, the platform powering down under their feet and the apartment looking just as they'd left it. Mara reluctantly let go of her girlfriend so that she could let her armor disappear in a wash of distorted space, reaching up behind her neck as the choker it was replaced with released its hidden clasp at some unseen command. She rubbed her neck, tossing the thing onto a chair. "Home. Probably for the best - don't think the platform had many more trips in it. Might have to improve the design if I use it again...."

[Gizmo]

Ellie slid her crimson jacket from her shoulders and left in unceremoniously on the apartment's floor next to the couch, quickly followed by her bandana mask and gloves with her messenger bag resting atop the pile. With a soft exhalation she raised her arms far above her head, stretching from her toes up her back all the way to her fingers. "Marbar, you put together something in your living room that allows instant travel to anywhere within Earth's orbit. Bask if your awesome for a minute." Taking a look over at the clock to reorient herself to Freedom City's time zone, she let her shoulders slump slightly. Between all the distractions and running around, they'd managed to burn through the better part of the day they'd set aside for each other. "That didn't go quite as planned, admittedly."

[Fox]

Mara followed Ellie's gaze to the clock, and frowned a bit. "....no, it didn't. Very unlikely series of events. Almost expected at least one...criminal interruption, but several in a row? The moon? Odds are just...."

She made a slightly frustrated gesture, but didn't really have the motivation to follow through; let one hand drop as the other went back to idly rubbing at her neck where the choker usually rested. "Guess we did some good. Idiot with the sword was a genuine danger. Suppose we don't know what the rest would have done if left alone. Maybe."

[Gizmo]

Stepping up behind Mara while the inventor was still focused on the clock, Ellie laid her hands across her girlfriend's shoulders and neck, massaging the tense muscles there with gentle but firm pressure. The metamagi let just a trickle of her restorative powers seep from her fingers, the faint blue glow and subtle warmth barely noticeable and just enough to mend a strain here and a crick there. "I think we can feel pretty good about slapping down the international terrorists and the maniacal moon witch," she advised with an echo of a laugh in her voice. "C'mon," she continued, gradually leading the way over the couch while still moving her hands in deep, circular motions, "I want to show you something. You're not the only one who thought we should have a contingency plan."

[Fox]

Mara initially responded with something that was less a series of words and more "Mmmhahmmhm hmm?", falling as easy prey to Ellie's clever massage. Her second try was a little better, though, as she let herself get led over to the couch. "Can never have too many contingency plans," she insisted, dropping her own hand and brushing her hair over her shoulder to give Ellie as much access as possible. "Sometimes things happen and you always need one more. Didn't have to go to too much trouble, though."

[Gizmo]

Smirking at Mara's inarticulate response, Ellie sat her down on the couch and followed suit, facing the blonde engineer by sitting cross-legged sideways on the long piece of furniture before twisting about the retrieve her messenger bag and rummage about inside for a moment. The transparent cylinder she pulled out was about as wide around as a can of hairspray but shorter. Within its confines, rippling bolts of electricity danced between intricate mechanisms, leaping from point to point one moment and gradually moving up and down in a high voltage traveling arc. Capped by an equally clear lid was a conspicuous red button. "Okay, so, you remember Dynamo? The electric speedster? Before he went to pursue research pretty much full-time, he gave each of us on the team one of these." Carefully removing the cap, she held the device halfway between them and reached for Mara's hand. "Here, hold on to it, too."

[Fox]

what is - interesting! Mara blinked, lowering her head a bit to look at the little device. Her brain was trying to mentally pull it apart into pieces, but every piece seemed to have sub-pieces that were linked to other bits, and there was just so much inside that shape that she couldn't see and what do you suppose the power source was to sustain those arcs without damaging the--

"Mmh! ...right. Sorry." She coughed, putting her hand around the device as well, as instructed. "Got...distracted. Looks...interesting. Clearly need to investigate Dynamo's research."

[Gizmo]

Ellie grinned broadly, clearly having anticipated Mara's reaction to seeing the cylinder. "I figured you'd like the physics-breakiness involved," she noted, taking a quiet breath as she raised her free hand. With a soft hum, a translucent blue force field wavered into being along the walls, floor and ceiling of the apartment, creating a sealed space around them. "Okay, this was really only supposed to be for quick jolts for one person, so fingers crossed..." Flicking off the cap with the thumb of the hand around the device, she hesitated for a split second then pressed the red button.

Immediately the lightning contained in the cylinder leapt forth, rippling across the girls' linked fingers with a warm tingle and jumping off to ricochet about the room, contained by Ellie's bioelectric barrier. In the next split second, bolts continued to stream forth well outside of any probable energy storage unit's ability to supply them until the entire apartment went red-tinged white with power. Then, just as abruptly, they stopped.

As the brilliant flash of light faded, it took a moment for Ellie's eyes to readjust. As they did, she saw that the cylinder had been emptied of power, leaving the mechanical components intact but no longer surrounded by arcs of electricity. The fine hairs of the back of her neck still standing on end, she set the device aside and let the force field around them drop. At first, nothing seemed to have actually changed. Looking out the window, however, revealed a bird with wings outstretched hanging motionlessly in the air as though suspended in a viscous liquid. "Haha, it worked!" she cheered in delight, bounding to her feet and clapping her hands once. "Zip actually knew what he was talking about!"

[Fox]

It took Mara a moment, as the lion's share of her considerable - if usually heavily fractured - attention span had turned to trying to analyze the entire room at once when the lightshow started. She was still processing when Ellie cheered, so she lagged behind by just a few seconds before realizing what Ellie was looking at it.

And then she was on her feet too, scuttering over to lean against the window without a shred of dignity or grace and peering, wide-eyed, at the bird. And then up at at her girlfriend. "It- but it can't - raw power and temporal mechanics to slow isolated sections of time are enormous - can't just stop time in a localized area - guess you could - but how - it...."

She gestured, clearly not able to get her mouth to make any sense out of her rapidly-shifting, multi-threaded brain. "That's incredible," she finally managed.

[Gizmo]

"Well, it didn't exactly stop time," Ellie clarified, her smile widening even further at Mara's flabbergasted reaction. It wasn't often she was the one who got to explain something to her genius girlfriend and not the other way around. "It's more like everything in the apartment is moving really, really fast, if I did that right!" Indeed, looking at the suspended bird long enough revealed that it was still moving, just so slowly as to be nearly imperceptible. "Dynamo basically bottled a little bit of the juice that lets him run around so fast - and no, I have no idea about the 'how' on any of that, sorry - and gave everybody on the team one for Christmas, the day after we met, actually. He figured if there aren't enough hours in the day, electrocute physics until it coughs up more hours." It was very much an Interceptors style solution but one she suspected Mara would appreciate as well. "I'd been saving it for something important, and I figured if it was electricity he generated biologically and my force fields are based on my bioelectric field... ta da!"

[Fox]

"Time dilation!" Mara tapped a finger against the glass, watching the bird for fine movement. "Did some research into the area but never really...probably more intuitive for someone with super-speed. Always too many concerns with things like structural fatigue. But speed up a whole area...."

She looked back up at Ellie, pushing herself off the glass to wrap her arms around her girlfriend and steal a quick, soft kiss. "You used something like this for us? It- ...thank you. It's wonderful."

[Gizmo]

Her gleeful grin softening into a contented smile, Ellie placed her hands on Mara's hips and leaned down enough so that their noses brushed against each other. "Well, I just asked myself, if I literally had spare time, how would I want to spend it? Answer was pretty obvious," she told the shorter girl matter-of-factly. Any frustrations left from the day's distractions and annoyances evaporated away as she slid a little closer into her partner's embrace. "I said we were going to get a whole day just for us and it'd take a lot more than blue gorillas to stop it. Happy Birthday, Marbar."

[Fox]

"Guaranteed peace and quiet at home with my favorite person? Best birthday present ever," Mara insisted, stealing another quick kiss. "Can't even be interrupted by idiot villains. Am sure we can find ways to make good use of the time," she added, with a suspiciously innocent tone in her voice. "Have some movies here, board games. Will just have to find ways to entertain ourselves."

Her innocent assertions were somewhat undercut by where her hands were slipping as she held Ellie, but she stole one final kiss and pulled away. "But food first," the young woman said with a rare and genuine smile. "Too much fighting today. Hungry. Think I have supplies for spaghetti or something around here somewhere...."