ic Midnight City (IC)

[Gizmo]

Responding to the amused apology with a soft snort, Trevor let Erin's hand slide comfortably into his own. "Redbird would object, too." Having still been adjusting to her new imprint the previous October, the autonomic intelligence had been eager to learn more about about the holiday this year and had borrowed one of the spare vehicles in the extensive motor pool above to explore the various events around the city. Although staying reachable in case something came up, she'd projected a humanoid hologram long enough to wink meaningfully and suggest that she would likely be out quite late. Trevor had decided not to ask for any explanation.

"This deep is mostly storage," he noted presently, leading the way through a narrower section of tunnel that opened up into another larger cave. "Some parts had to be widened, bridged, reinforced. Convenient, though."

[Electra]

"If most people found themselves needing this kind of room for storage, they'd probably just have a garage sale," Erin joked, even as the increasing darkness and depth required more of her attention. Shadows seemed larger here, and sounds more deceptive, their own footsteps bouncing and rebounding off the walls to make it sound as though they were shadowing themselves. She knew the Hunters would not have neglected security even down in this part of the Manor, but it was hard not to fall back into old watchful habits. Really, given the line of work she was in, she'd often found it better not to fight those instincts, just to temper the part that tended to have her reacting to startlement with violence. "But I guess most people don't have spaceships in their basement. Have you ever thought about giving some of this stuff to the museum?"

[Gizmo]

"Did donate a lot," Trevor explained, offering Erin his hand as support as they traversed an uneven bit of cave floor. She really didn't need the help but there was the gesture's implications to consider. "When my father was young. Cleared out a lot of the safer items. Hard to explain, though." With a sweeping gesture, he encompassed what looked like one half of an outdated Atlantean craft, a stack of playing cards each the side of a barn door and an ornate two-handed axe that was floating under it's own power inside it's glass case. "Not things you find lying around." The young man stepped carefully over to the closest wall and a bank of switches to turn on the lights further into the cavern.

[Electra]

"Wow..." Erin said again, resisting the temptation to leave the central path through the basements and have a good look around. She'd never seen an Atlantean seacraft in good light except in pictures at school, but it seemed worthy of a good inspection, to say nothing of the other souvenirs and artifacts that littered the rooms. Only the lure of the long-awaited spaceship beckoned her onward. "I guess if it weren't for the safety issues, you could open your own museum with what you've got here. What's the story with the big cards?" she asked. "They look like stage decorations for a casino or something. Are they magic?"

[Gizmo]

"Hmh? Oh, no. Just... really big. Part of a death trap?" The young man shrugged, unable to recall all of the details about that particular stack of souvenirs. The best explanation he could offer was simply, "Theme villains."

Flicking a series of switches on the wall brought flood lights toward the back of the cavern to life one at a time, gradually revealing the reason they'd ventured down below. The saucer was massive enough to take up the better part of its corner of the cave, a disc of gleaming silver and burnished bronzes at least as wide at the center as a pair of semi trucks lined up end-to-end. The entire thing was resting at a tilted angle, pointing a translucent dome toward the pair. Modules around the outer edge caught the illumination from the flood lights and reflected it back in a glinting green.

[Electra]

Erin didn't bother with another wow, just let out a low whistle as she took in the entirety of the ship. She walked towards it to get a better few, her fingers still linked with Trevors', her white gown nearly brushing the dusty floor. "It's bigger than I thought it would be," she commented. "Like twice the size of a giant bee, but not as big as a space shuttle with all its parts." Crouching, she examined the green metallic surface of the craft, waving a hand cautiously a few inches over the surface. "Has it got any security we have to worry about?" she asked. "Hate to zap myself and get the white streak in my hair for real."

[Gizmo]

Trevor shook his head in the negative. "Dr. Tomorrow disabled anything like that before Gramps, Johnny Rocket and Envoy could use it to get on board the alt-Martian mothership," he explained, his usual matter-of-fact manner tinted with the pride that went along with his heroic heritage. Reaching up to grip one of the smaller modules protruding from the lowered edge of the saucer, he turned it clockwise then counter-clockwise then clockwise again in specific increments. In response a ramp lowered itself from the ship's underbelly to the ground with a hiss of compressed gas and the smell of stale, dry air that contrasted with the mild damp of the cool cave.

[Electra]

With Trevor's assurance, Erin hopped up onto the hull of the craft, climbing nimbly up the side to get a look rather than taking the more obvious ramp route. "This is so weird!" she declared with obvious pleasure, peering in through the top porthole and looking at the mysterious electrical doohickeys protruding from the saucer. "Must've been a nice shot that took it down, I don't see a lot of obvious damage." She resisted the temptation to slide down the side and risk damaging the equipment, instead leaping clear to land next to Trevor again. The edge of her dress caught the air and belled out as she landed, reminding her that discretion was the better part of costuming. Smoothing a hand down over her skirt, she peered up the ramp. "I should've brought a flashlight."

[Gizmo]

Trevor murmured in agreement but made no move to produce such a device, simply standing silently at the base of the ramp for a beat, then another before shrugging. "What? I see in the dark," he responded in an airy deadpan, the careful lack of inflection giving away to someone who knew him as well as Erin that he thought he was being particularly funny. Finally he relented, pulling a flattened rectangle with two rows of powerful LEDs lining one edge from his back pocket, passing it to the wig-wearing young woman and allowing himself a small smile. She'd known, of course, that he wouldn't have ever gone down into the deeper levels of the Manor without bringing some sort of portable illumination with him and equally how much he enjoyed pulling out just the right device as needed, having already anticipated a need.

[Electra]

Erin snatched the lamp from his hand and gave him a teasing hip bump. "You're a laugh riot," she told him, not quite suppressing a chuckle as she walked up the ramp into the ship. "Man, it's like a history museum from the future in here..." Exploring the strange interior and unfamiliar machinery of the flying saucer was enough project to occupy most of the night, with both of them eager to take apart various systems to see how they'd worked. Erin shed her wig early on when it got snagged in the latch on an access portal, with the flowy gown following later on when it got in her way on a ladder once too often. The basement was a little chilly for undershirt and shorts, but it didn't bother her, and made for much easier working conditions. And hell, it was more fun too, given the company.

"We could probably spend weeks just taking this thing apart," she decided eventually, her voice muffled as she worked with half her body wedged into a circuit cabinet. "But it seems like it could fly again, if we could scavenge the right parts. Wouldn't that be something?"

[Gizmo]

The jacket of Trevor's costume joined Erin's wig early on, along with the faux bolts affixed to his neck once one of them fell off of its own volition. He hadn't taken much time to really explore the saucer before; amazing as it was he'd just never gotten around to more than a cursory tour in the past and Erin was absolutely right about it being engrossing work. That didn't stop him from taking a moment to cast an admiring look at the half of her not concealed by Martian interior design, naturally, but he'd also managed to make good progress reconnecting the systems he'd discovered closer to the saucer's cockpit.

"Probably need to machine them," he agreed, closing the panel and waiting for the controls to light up with power. "Or make a trip to a hardware store one dimension over. Slide out of there for a second." Waiting until Erin had disentangled herself from the circuitry she was working on, he indicated the sliding lever to his right. "Artificial gravity. Including..." The young man pulled the lever into the lower half of its notched scale. As he did so, everything and everyone not mounted to the spacecraft itself floated gently into the air. "...artificial anti-gravity." He removed his hand from the lever somewhat reluctantly, crossing his arm and trying to maintain his weightless dignity as best he could.

[Electra]

"Whoa..." Erin chuckled as she floated into the air along with her tools, automatically righting herself before she thumped her head against the side of the cabinet. She quickly secured her work space, then pushed off with one foot to join Trevor in the cockpit. "That's a good sign for the internal circuitry being mostly intact... and it's fun, too." Putting her hands on his shoulders, she wrapped her legs around his and spun them both in a slow midair circle. "I wanted to try this last time we were in zero g, but it was too weird with the guys around," she admitted with a teasing grin.

[Gizmo]

Trevor let out a soft, wry breath as they began to spin, wrapping her arms around Erin's back and focusing on her face to shut out the mild discomfort that accompanied the suddenly arbitrary direction of 'down'. He didn't much care for weightlessness himself, but the auburn haired young woman had enjoyed their last trip to the Freedom League's space station and there was a lot he could put up with in exchange for seeing her smile. Besides, he was open to being persuaded to her way of thinking. "Hm? 'This'? Spinning about?" he asked with feigned obliviousness.

[Electra]

"You're the one who got me interested in dancing," she pointed out with a grin, sliding a hand up into his hair. "But I was thinking something that needs less of an audience." Leaning in, she brought her mouth to his in a gesture smooth enough to not add any new momentum to their lazy movement through the air. It was chilly down in the subbasement, but they were both plenty warm enough at the moment. "You taste like face paint," Erin murmured with a laugh, not seeming much put off as she hooked a foot around the control chair and stopped their spinning. "But I think the weightlessness adds to the whole experience."

[Gizmo]

"Important to encourage a talented partner," Trevor noted, tilting his head accommodatingly into Erin's fingers and returning the kiss. The tip of his nose left a thin line of faint green paint across her pale cheek and the dark haired young man brought a thumb up to carefully wipe it away with a small smile. Concern for their precarious, tangled balance made his movements even slower and more deliberate than usual, his other hand gradually tracing its way up the small of her back, pulling the hem of her undershirt along with it. "More enjoyable than last time in zero-gee," he admitted, "for some reason."

[Electra]

"I think you're getting used to it," Erin decided, acquiring a bit more green paint as she nibbled lightly along his jaw. "And making positive associations. That's important too." A careful flick of her foot levered them sideways till they were nearly horizontal in the air, her grinning down at him with a satisfied expression. Released from wig pins and gravity, her hair made a wavy auburn nimbus around her head, tickling his cheek as she leaned down to whisper in his ear. "It's way too late to get to that party by now, and your grandpa's been in bed for hours. Guess it's just the two of us celebrating for the rest of the night."

[Gizmo]

Any coy response Trevor might have had for that was forgotten as he looked up at the halo of red-tinted brown set against the dark of the cave outside the saucer's translucent, domed top and lit by the warm, hazy light of the instruments lining the cockpit. "...beautiful," he managed softly instead, ruby irises tracing the lines of her face with the painstaking intensity of someone committing what they saw to unerring memory. Finally he learned upward in their weightless balancing act to kiss Erin again, more slowly and impassioned by the need to communicate where words so typically failed him.

[Electra]

Erin's cheeks flushed a little under the long assessment, even as her eyes warmed. "Parties are boring anyway. Try not to hit the eject button or anything, kay?" She stifled her own chuckle with another kiss, and after that there wasn't need for a lot of talking. As it turned out, zero gravity was not so bad after all, especially for a couple of graceful and highly motivated people. And green facepaint was meant to be shared. It was about time, Erin thought later on, hazily, that the universe doled out treats for Halloween instead of yet another trick. Maybe this boded well for the holiday season to come.