So There's That Blasted Cow! (IC)

[Thevshi]

Midtown, Freedom City, New Jersey
The Goodman Building
Friday, February 7, 2014

Despite the recent heavy snow, it was business as usual this Friday morning in Freedom City. The roads had been cleared, and though there were still piles of snow scattered about, it was otherwise just a rather typical, cold, winter day in the busy city.

Mali Benjawan was driving a small white van through Midtown's busy streets. Normally, she would still be in classes at Claremont Academy over in Bayview Heights. But today she and a number of other students were departing for a rather unusual field trip that would last over the weekend.

Inside the van were four of Mali's fellow students. Sitting in the front passenger seat was the one Mali knew best, Elias Silvestri, and the second oldest present. Seated in back seats were Georgia Montgomery, William Cline, and then the student Mali knew the least, one of the school's newest, Ralf Steiner.

But Mali had little time to think about her fellow students riding in the van, as she maneuvered through the tight traffic along 40th Avenue. Then up ahead she saw their destination, the massive steel frame of the Goodman Building, its mirror-finished windows gleaming in the mid-morning sun. The top five floors of the Goodman Building was home to the famous Atom Family, one of whom would be acting as the chaperone and guide for the group of Claremont students on their outing.

[Thunder King]

Mali shook her head. The moon. This was an odd field trip, and one she definitely never expected. She occasionally had to stop herself from grinning stupidly at the prospect. She knew Elias well enough, and she'd met Will once, but the others were pretty much strangers to her. She approached the building and entered the parking garage downstairs.

 

She made sure everyone had the bags they were supposed to bring, and stepped out and towards the elevator. Exactly where she was told it would be. She took the key card in her hand and scanned it, revealing an elevator that would take them to where they needed to go. Which, ultimately, would lead to the moon.

 

This was going to be an interesting trip.

[GranspearZX]

Ralf did, indeed, have a bag packed. It was filled, however, with video games and probably more candy and chocolate than would be recommended for a normal person. Ralf Steiner, however, was not a normal person.
 
Actual clothes were still kind of a weird concept to him. He could, after all, just MAKE clothes, so why wear them? No one had been able to answer that question without turning all manner of red in the face, so it seemed like the right thing to do just to give in to the request. He tugged a bit at the collar of the black sweatshirt he was wearing--it just seemed like the thing to put on, and it really was a warmer option than just using his powers. Summer was going to be interesting.

 

The idea of going to the moon was too awesome to pass. The fact that he didn't even breathe and could survive without oxygen hadn't been lost on him, which meant that he could REALLY look at things. Plus, souvenirs! Always a plus. He wasn't 100% sure how the others would fare though... Most of them weren't even aware of what he was. 

 

Then again, neither was he. Not really.

 

"So wait a minute," he said, raising a hand as he spoke. "...this elevator. Is going to the moon. Right?" There was no shortage of skepticism in his voice, though that was mixed in with a hefty helping of enthusiasm. The concept was tough to wrap his head around... and he was prepared to ask all the questions. All the questions. He was mentally prepared for some sort of rocket or something but this seemed much, much cooler.

[KnightDisciple]

William Cline gave the Goodman Building a nervous glance before he dashed around to the back of the van and pulled out his big duffel bag. His mother had insisted he pack extra of everything, "just in case". Of course. At least he wasn't stuck with those kiddy flannel pajamas.

 

He worked the bag's strap onto his shoulder as he moved back to join the others. 

 

"I think the elevator's just taking us up to the room that has a teleporter or something in it. A Moon Elevator would be cool but I'm not sure I'd like to stay inside an elevator car that long."

 

He paused thoughtfully.

 

"Unless it's like the Willy Wonka elevator. That could be fun."

[Thevshi]

After the five teens clamored into the elevator with their bags, Mali found there were no buttons or other control panels, only a scanner located on the right hand side of the doors. Swiping the key card she had been provided in front of the scanner caused the doors to slide silently closed. The elevator then began to rise smoothly upward.

It was difficult to tell just how fast the elevator was going, so smooth was the acceleration, and then after only a few moments, the five teens could feel a shift in inertia as the elevator began to slow down once more. When the elevator came to a complete stop, the doors slid silently open once more.

The Claremont students found themselves in a large, brightly lit room. To the right hand side were large windows that faced east, looking out over the buildings of City Center. The room contained a number of sleek leather sofas and chairs, a few paintings of the walls of rather unusual landscapes. A couple of hallways and doors led off from the room in various directions.

And standing a short distance from the elevator was what was clearly a robot or android, dressed in a butler's uniform. "Greetings, welcome to the Nucleus." The android said in a very upper-class British accent. "Master Chase will be with you momentarily, so please make yourselves comfortable." It continued, indicating the nearby sofas and chairs.

"I am ALEX, please do not hesitate to inform me if there is anything you might need to help make your wait more pleasant."

[Aoiroo]

"Got any snacks?"
Georgia spoke up to the android as she adjusted her headphones. She had spent all of the trip like she spent most of her idle time at Claremont, wearing aviator headphones. Said headphones were connected to her phone that went into the pocket of her coat as she had more or less straggled behind with her duffle bag on her back. She would of been more excited if this entire thing had been more, well instantious. Going out in the cold, then waiting in a bus for an hour didn't much to calm her nerves. The brief conversation about the space elevator might of been interesting, but she didn't know the first thing about how that would go about so she didn't comment. So in truth the android was the most interesting part of this trip so far. She hadn't met a full scale robot before, and no AI that seemed to have functionality between basic interactions. Technology on the consumer scale was advancing, but her phone was about as portable and advanced as she'd ever really seen (or noticed really). Plus, he did say not to hesitate,

"Maybe some hot cocoa? It's flippin freezing out there."

[TheAbsurdist]

Elias was there, presumably off in his own world, headphones in his ears, presumably to drown out the intrusion of the emotions and people around him.  Or he just didn't want to have a conversation, which given the fact that his left eye had a rather magnificent shiner it was clear there was something to discuss.  As it wasn't something Mali gave him in one of their normal drills.  He had the hood of his sweater pulled over to obscure it, and he just evades questions the whole time until no one asked.

 

Once they were there, he had taken the headphones out and moved along with the rest of then, his expression skeptical, but then he wasn't sure why he was asked along to this field trip.  Adjusting the bag on his shoulders, he glanced to his fellow students, "Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea in 1895, though his was inspired by the Eiffel tower, and was a compression structure, rather than a tensile structure.  As long as the end point sits beyond thirty-eight thousand kilometers out... it could work?  I dunno."  Shrugs a bit, not too much of a physics guy, honestly.  He had just looked into things like this when they were told about their trip, and had hoped they would be getting some sort of astronaut training.  "Dr. Atom would be able to do it.  Morphic molecules borders on the impossible.  So yeah." 

 

And then he was looking at ALEX, and he suppressed a shiver, it was the lack of sensation from it that always threw him from a loop, able to feel the physical presence, but there was no psychic presence at all.

Edited February 14, 2014 by TheAbsurdist

[KnightDisciple]

The ride up had been mostly quiet, very smooth, and not really awkward. William had been thankful. 

And at first, the room at the top was pretty nifty. It was a great view, and he could appreciate people putting in couches instead of metal office chairs.

 

But then the robot butler or whatever talked, and he was reminded he was in Atom Territory. And Georgia was complaining about the cold.

 

"It's not that bad, Georgia. But, uh...ALEX...um. Some water would be nice."

 

Not scared, but definitely subdued. William moved to the far side of the room, settling into one of the single chairs for a moment, closing his eyes and seemingly slipping into a semi-meditative state, at least until the robo-butler got them their drinks. 

[GranspearZX]

"Snacks?"

 

Georgia had said the magic word. Instantly his hand was in his bag, and out came three candy bars, a different one between each finger. As excitable as Ralf seemed, he actually stayed quiet for the ride up, processing what had been said so that he could think of more questions to ask. Really, though, he didn't have any, leaving him completely free to enjoy the trip and the company.

 

"Morphic molecules, huh? Hm." Ralf considered the term; he was almost certain he'd heard it before, and couldn't help but think that it might apply to him. He had no idea, how though. Was Elias some kind of science guy? He was surprisingly comfortable around that sort of thing despite all the poking and prodding he'd had to endure. So when the robot appeared, he didn't so much as flinch, at least not as much as he did at William's request for water. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally take his real form.

 

Though the headlines about a random blob-like monster showing up in the ATOM building would be pretty funny.

 

"I'm good, thanks." Ralf gave a polite nod and a slight bow to ALEX. He removed his backpack, settling it between his ankles as he sat down on the nearest couch. "Sorry if I didn't introduce myself before. Name's Ralf! Nice to meet you all."

[Aoiroo]

If Georgia was quiet or hesitant around the boy, she was definitely not around the chocolate. She grabbed a milky way from his presentation of sweets and was already opening it when she said,

"Nice to meet ya Ralf."

She took a bite and chewed over the candy bar,

"And yeah it is that bad, been cold as the ninth circle all month, all last month too. Not to mention the snow, as little as I see of it where I'm from I think I'm just about sick of it now. Be nice if everything would just thaw out all ready."

She said all this between her next bite,

"Not that we have to worry bout that where we're going huh. Well the snow at least. Snow on the moon would be weird."

Edited February 12, 2014 by Aoiroo

[Thunder King]

"Nice to meet you, Ralf, Georgia." Mali said with a polite nod. "Some water, if that's okay, thanks." She said to ALEX. Mali had eaten a fair meal before leaving, and wasn't the least bit hungry. Thirsty was another matter.

"I've been to alternate dimensions, but not space." Mali said. "The moon should be fun though." She had only briefly met Will, but he was a memorable person. Flirtatious, bold, energetic. Almost a bit too much for her, but he seemed to be willing to back down if you made it clear you weren't interest.

[Thevshi]

"I would think that a good spot of tea would be just the thing for the cold." ALEX replied to Georgia's request for some cocoa. "But, I suppose a warm cup of cocoa would do the trick as well. Certainly did for Master Chase and his siblings when they were younger." The android added as it started off towards a side hallway to gather the requested refreshments.

A few short minutes later, ALEX returned, carrying a try on which there a number of glasses of water, several cups of hot cocoa, and some plates with an assortment of crackers and cheeses set out. ALEX set the tray on a coffee table in the center of the room. "Please help yourselves. I shall be attending to some other duties, but should you require anything else, there is an intercom on the wall with which you may call me."

[Thevshi]

With no additional requests for the moment, ALEX left the five teenagers to help themselves to refreshments that he had brought out for them, heading back down the hallway he had gone to retrieve the food and drinks. A quiet fell over the room as some of the gathered teens selected some of the arrayed refreshments, while others simply remained lost in thought, looking out the large windows at the city skyline beyond.

Nearly ten minutes had passed when a door to the right side of the room slide open, the faint sound drawing the attention of the gathered teens.

Standing in the doorway was a young man in his mid-twenties, with short black hair and rather intense brown eyes. Chase Atom was dressed in his familiar purple and black costume, the atomic symbol visible on the left side of his chest. He had a lean physique, but was clearly in very good shape. Sitting on his left shoulder was what looked like a blue furred spider monkey.

"Good morning. I am sorry to keep you all waiting, had a few things to attend to while I was done here on Earth." Chase said with a small smile, his eyes sweeping over the gathered teens, lingering on William perhaps a moment or two longer than the others. "So…unless anyone has any questions, we should be on our way."

[KnightDisciple]

Will had mostly kept to himself over to one side of the room, nursing a glass of water. He wasn't energetic enough to argue with Georgia about how cold it was or wasn't. Just didn't seem important to him right now. 
 
Then Chase Atom walked in...with the blasted space monkey. The one his mother had warned him about. He narrowed his eyes at the creature, and when Chase's gaze came to him, Will was standing up straight, shoulders back. He met the gaze of the scion of the Atoms without flinching.
 
"My only question is if we need to put on a space suit or something before we go up. Well, and how long the trip will take."

[Thevshi]

"Two very good questions William." Chase Atom replied with a small nod and a slight hint of a smile. "You will not be needing any space suits for the trip there, although there will be an opportunity to wear some if you wish to take a moonwalk outside Farside City."

"As for how long it is going to take us to get there, it will only be a few moments, courtesy of Cosmo here." Chase then added, indicating the blue spider monkey on his shoulder, which hopped right off to land on a sofa arm, letting out a small screech as it did so.

"So, unless there are any other questions, if you could all gather your things and move in closer to Cosmo, we will be on our way."

[Aoiroo]

Georgia set the mug of hot chocolate she had drank forgoing conversation to enjoy the taste until Chase brought the monkey around. The blue monkey, which she was now refering to mentally as the smurf monkey, it made sense in her head at least. So the smurfy monkey was there way to the moon, how the heck would it manage that? It was a question in her mind, but then, she didn't exactly want to appear stupid by asking it. She didn't really know how this worked, hell she didn't even know there was anything like a city on the moon. Given, if there was they probably didn't have much of a tourist industry. Gathering around she looked at the monkey then Chase, but otherwise held her tongue as she waited for the others to do the same. No point asking questions at this point, she saw weirder things before breakfast, partially from herself, partially from her roommate.

[TheAbsurdist]

Hands gripped tighter on the strap for his duffle as he looked at the room, and the refreshments.  All was well until he heard that they would be teleporting to the Moon.  He sighed, having considered this possibility, before he moved to get some water, and pull two pills out and bring them to his mouth.  He popped them in and swallowed them with a swig of water.  Giving it a second and then taking another mouthful of water and then moved close to the monkey.  A thought he never imagined applying into his life, but then... things were weird.

[KnightDisciple]

Will nodded at the answers. He didn't like the second one, but he'd signed up for this trip. Didn't mean he trusted the flea-bitten pile of blue fur, though. He remembered his mother's warnings.

 

William Cline gathered up his two bags, gripping them perhaps a bit tighter than strictly necessary, and stepped toward the blue simian that would be their trip to the moon. He would wait to see how close Chase and the others got, trying to avoid actually touching Cosmo if at all possible.

 

In all of this he would also be seeking to act as casually as possible, something that may or may not succeed. Elias at least would likely end up figuring something was up, but the other psychic was someone who likely wouldn't pry if Will didn't intentionally make a scene.

[GranspearZX]

"Space suit? Why would w-... oh. Oh..."

 

Ralf blinked a few times and grinned embarrassedly. It often slipped his mind that he didn't really breathe. Now that he thought about it though, and how utterly different he was... it really was sort of depressing. He didn't ask any other questions, eyeing the monkey with plenty of curiosity to take his mind off of his existential angst.

 

Gathering his things, Ralf simply chewed at his candy bar, still staring at the blue primate. He briefly pondered if he could change into something like that. Imitating and reading people was pretty easy; he'd been observing them his whole life, but animals... that was a challenge, and he could never quite get it right. Before he realized it, he was lost in thought and another, completely different candy bar was being worked on. The wrapper from the first had mysteriously vanished.

[Thunder King]

Mali cooperated with Chase's instructions easily and with clear understanding. She stepped near him and waited patiently. Still, she could sense that something was up with Will. Her training had extended to more than just punching, and she was pretty observant despite her tendency to hit first and ask questions later. Will's feelings did not seem to be outright hostility, but definitely a strong dose of distrust and nervousness. He was on edge.

 

It didn't take psychic powers to tell that his mood wasn't quite the jovial one he was used to. However, she assumed that his slightly off mood was due to going to the mood, and dismissed it as nerves. Still, she was going to keep an eye on him.

[Thevshi]

With no further questions and the group all gathered around, Chase looked down at the small blue monkey. "Okay Cosmo, you know where we are going."  Cosmo gave a small screech in reply and then there was a flash of light that enveloped the entire group.

 

It only took a moment for everyone's eyes to readjust, and when they did, the teens found that they were no longer in the brightly lit reception area of the Nucleus, but instead standing in the middle of what appeared to be a small plaza situated high in the air on a platform alongside a thin, towering building.  Around them other thin buildings rose up into the air, and as their eyes adjusted further to the dimmer lighting, the gathered Claremont students realized the buildings were built along sheer rocky cliff walls that continued upward even further until they eventually ended in the blackness of space.

 

There were soaring walkways here and there, connecting various buildings, and a few flying carlike vehicles that glided along among the open spaces.  Below the platform they were on, the city continued downward, getting more crowded with walkways and connected platforms as it went.

 

After giving the teens a few moments to acclimate to their sudden change in location and take in the sight of the city around them, Chase spoke up once more.  "Welcome to Farside City."  Glancing over toward him, Cosmo was back up on his shoulder, and the five teens realized for the first time that there were two other individuals standing nearby in the plaza, having moved a bit closer now.   Both were tall with thin builds, an elderly woman wearing long white and red robes standing just under six feet tall, and a young man wearing golden armor, a helmet cradled under one arm, who was a few inches taller than six feet.  Both had red eyes and silvery hair.

 

"Allow me to introduce some of your hosts," Chase continued, "Rulana, a member of the Farside Council," Chase indicated the elderly woman, "and Samot, Farside City's first homegrown superhero, Crater, who also happens to be a Claremont alumni," he finished indicating the young man in the golden armor.

 

Rulana stepped forward, giving a slight bow to the group, her expression a little formal.  "Greetings young heroes of Earth, welcome indeed.  We hope your visit to our city will be both memorable as well as enlightening."

 

Crater remained back for the moment, allowing the council representative to address the group, but he had a warm smile on his face as he gave them a nod in greeting.

[Aoiroo]

Georgia closed her eyes as the light flashed but when she opened them she nearly stepped back. She did a three sixty on her heel as she looked around shocked at the sight of the futuristic city. Looking up she could confirm they were in fact not under a normal atmosphere either. It was quite a revelation even if they were briefed on it before, and all she could say,

"Damn, how the hell did NASA miss this?"
For a second it took Georgia a second to see the other two, aliens? Well technically they were the aliens, space elves? They looked like space elves, this was farside, so farsiders, right that was right. She looked at the tallish woman bow to her and she lowered her head in response,

"Sup, this place in amazing. I wonder how it, oh wait."
She tested her feet a little bit. It was a bit springier here. Not that it mattered to her. Putting a little bit of weight on, she set her legs apart, made sure she wouldn't whack anybody and then pushed up. The high jump sent her a good fifty feet up, as she had anticipated, then much, much higher as she hadn't quite calculated. Not that it mattered. She looked down below her and marveled at the city as continued upward from her jump.

[Thevshi]

"Farsider technology is more advanced than ours on Earth."  Chase began in reply.  "When my great aunt sized control decades ago, she used that technology to conceal the city from our spacecraft and other sensors.  The Council has felt that for the time being it was best to keep Farside City something of a secret, although a number of major Earth governments have still know about it for some time."

 

When Georgia tested out the gravity in the city, Chase and the two Farsiders present watched her arch high into the air.  Crater gave a small chuckle as he put on his helmet.  "I'll go make sure she's okay and doesn't come down too hard on one of the platforms."  He replied before he soared up into the air after the teenager.

 

Chase looked back at the other teens. "Well, I was just about to say that while Farside City has artificial gravity generators, it's gravity is still a bit lower than Earth's.  So you might want to be careful until you are more accustomed to it."

[Aoiroo]

Georgia sort of put her hands on her chin her stomach facing down as she slowly floated downward towards Farside. She had reduced her weight to near nothing when she got to the apex of her jump for the simple fact that she knew she'd break something if she came down at full tilt. It really was pretty. She wished she'd brought her camera before she stopped and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She wasn't sure what the policy on photography was, but it wasn't like anybody would believe it was real if she put it on the internet. They'd think it was a fantastic photoshop, and probably get three million hits on an artsy website, but not real, she was adjusting the thing so the flash was off when the dude named Crater came up,

"Hey,"
She fiddled with her phone,

"Here to make sure I don't float away or break anything?"

[KnightDisciple]

William couldn't help but feel awed at the sight of Farside City. I mean, he was finally on the moon. A huge grin broke out on his face as he turned in place, taking it all in. Then he hopped in place very lightly, getting a feel for the gravity...

 

And then one of the Important People among the Farsiders was talking. He did his best to copy both the motion and depth of the bow given by Rulana.

 

"It's a genuine honor to be here, ma'am."

 

He raised an eyebrow at Georgia's antics. He was all for having fun, but it seemed a bit much to just jump away like that when you'd just met the equivalent of the President. Who at least was a nice lady! 

This was one of those times he was definitely going to listen to the pieces of advice his mother gave rather than his father.

 

Besides, he didn't have any Silly Putty or spray paint.