ic One Month Mission (IC)

[Ari]

Fourth of March, 2016,

 

The Gateway, Goodman Building, Freedom City

 

On its dais in the middle of the stark, open room, the circular Gate pulsed and rippled from the distortion of energy from an open channel to another world.

 

For once, the Gateway was crowded, both with people and luggage, crates and moving equipment, Tesla and Maximus at their control stations the only people with much room to maneuver. Chase and Victoria were mingling with the swell of twenty-odd chatting, nervous scientists wearing A.S.T.R.O. Labs insignia on their jackets and hats, while Cosmo was darting about the room in excitement. The Moon Monkey had to get his hands on anything and everything new or strange, which with a crowd of strangers really was anything. His gleeful shrieking and intrusively curious hands sometimes got him a stern psychic warning, and by now he was much less hyperactive than a quarter of an hour ago.

 

After the media circus outside, it was a pleasant and calming change of pace. The news that the famously secretive Atom Family and endlessly innovative Lab were making a joint ventire into a mysterious new universe had hardly been enough for the news agents and shouting reporters, but the fact that three superheroes were joining them, along with Freedom Cross biologist Tristan Delacroix and journalist Daphne Celeste, had packed the street outside the Goodman Building as fans and well-wishers screamed over each other to their idols.

 

More cynical heads had shouted accusingly that the list of supers was blatantly calculated for news-worthiness rather than "true" value to the expedition. Where, for example, was Daedalus? Dragonfly? Miss Americana or any of the other technically-able or routine dimensional travelers? 

 

That had been the point.

 

"People are easily frightened by the unknown, by choosing you" Chase had gestured simply to Terrifica, Velocity and Valerie Cain "we disassociate this expedition with the ideas people have that everywhere we go, there are our enemies."

 

The Gateway glared with red light. It would soon be ready for passage into the Infraverse. For the moment, there was little to do.

[Blarghy]

Tristan stood near his luggage, away from the more public heroes, his attention often straying to the Atoms; he'd been a fan since childhood, when his poster of Alexander Atom hung next to that of the Raven and others in his enormous bedroom of the family Lantern Hill mansion.  His fascination had him uncharacteristically nervous, as he often was around heroes (although today he avoided Terrifica for different reasons).  He tried to calm his nerves by focusing on the latest text from his older brother.

 

Bring back something good.

 

The lifeglow is a miracle beyond human comprehension, Tristan had replied.  If the Infraverse wasn't such a hell, it might make me believe in God.

 

Then bring back something good.  I put a lot of money into helping fund your little vacation. 

 

Will you settle for Tesla's autograph?

 

It isn't too late for me to cancel that last check.  Don't test me, Tristan.

 

Still just slightly stressful, but a familiar kind of stress. 

 

He put away his phone and fiddled with his silver cuff links, stamped with his initials.  They and the rest of his black silk suit and red tie were for the cameras; his luggage was packed with all kinds of survival outfits, well beyond what he'd probably need, but the last thing Tristan wanted was to be a burden on the sturdier heroes.  Leviathan wasn't an option, not when the rest of the crew knew very well who all was coming along.  Unless he could transform and claim to be a native of the Infraverse, and avoid suspicion as to where his civilian self had gone.  The possibility gave Tristan hope, and something to occupy his mind while he waited. 

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica was anxious, which wasn’t her style. She was also immensely excited. Arrangements had been made for a leave of absence from MIT. Stan would take care of the children. It was a wonderful opportunity, and she was very grateful for it. It was just…she was going to be away from everything she’d built. Everything she cared about. This trip was not one of her extensively researched and planned for outings. It was nerve wracking. Anything could happen, and she wouldn’t be prepared.

 

No. Stop it. She was a supergenius with a speed of thought that dwarfed virtually everyone on the planet. She’d made her gadget specifically for this trip. She performed a breathing exercise to calm down and took stock of the situation. Velocity, the Freedom League Auxiliary member and quite possibly the fastest person on the planet. Musician and reality star Wayward. The reporter, Miss Celeste. Suspiciously similar to a one hit wonder British pop duo. And Doctor Delacroix was avoiding her, which was very suspicious. There were plenty of other things to dwell on. She had her backpack, her big bag, and her invention. She was wearing her longcoat, Terrifi-Staff and fiber armor battlesuit. Everything would be fine.

[Ari]

GM

 

Suddenly, Terrifica felt a weight on her shoulder, and a long blue tail lashed in front of her eyes, replaced abruptly by the enormous eyes and curious face of the Moon Monkey, who stared at this stranger before losing interest and scurrying around to investigate their strange pelt. Within half a second, her new gadget, supposedly safely secured to her suit's modular hardpoint, was being turned over in Cosmo's sensitive paws. With a high-pitched shriek of joy he vanished with a 'fzap', appearing in a puff of blue on Chase Atom's shoulder as the young man talked rapidly and cheerfully with a bespectacled A.S.T.R.O. engineer, showing his master his prize with incredible pride. Chase's smile vanished, and glaring at the monkey he snatched it from the wilting primate's grip, excused himself and walked quickly over to Terrifica. 

 

"Please accept my, and Cosmo's apologies, ma'am," Chase frowned under his long dark bangs at the monkey perched miserably on his shoulder as he offered the small device back to its owner "normally he is well-behaved, but this much company is obviously not showing him at his best. I promise you, this will not happen again. Say sorry, Cosmo."

 

Looping his tail around Chase's neck, the Moon Monkey tentatively crept down the man's narrow chest and offered its paw, a look of almost human contrition on his face.

 

Noticing the others, Chase nodded politely, smiling in relief "Ah, you are all here, excellent. Daphne Celeste, Dr. Delacroix, Mz. Cain, Velocity, I am glad you could join us. I hope the media blitz out there didn't cause any nasty incidents, I could not keep an eye on the crowd this time. Feel free to mingle, the Gateway should be open very soon. Doctor," he abruptly focused his dark eyes, laser-like, on the biologist "did Freedom Cross get our samples of Infraversal cells and decayed 'glow parti-waves? Any preliminary theories? Tess just asked, she needs to know in case you think we need to make any adjustments to our equipment. She has done tests herself, but a few extra eyes always help." 

Edited January 26, 2016 by Ari

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica had too much on her mind to be annoyed. Additionally, it was a monkey. “I don’t expect animals to behave in any other way than their natures. There’s nothing he has to apologize for, even I do accept it.” She shook Cosmo’s paw. “I do, however, expect the master to have trained him better. Allowances can be made, but please do keep him from…borrowing…my things.” She stepped back and let Chase speak to the others. “I don’t work for Freedom Cross, but I could also take a look if you like.” She picked lint out of her sleeve. “I don’t claim mastery in any particular discipline, but my expertise is vast.”

[Blarghy]

"Ye-e-e-ess," Tristan answered slowly, collecting his thoughts at the excitement of speaking directly to one of the Atoms.  Get it together; this'll be a long, embarrassing trip otherwise.  "Fascinating samples; we appreciated them.  I cannot say for certain until I prove it in the field, but my preliminary experiments were in our favor.  It seems that the lifeglow, sustaining life in the desolate Infraverse as it does, has had the fortunate side effect of altering all local pathogens.  I at first feared this would be disastrous for both us and the natives; think of the mass desolation that resulted from unfamiliar diseases brought from Europe to the Americas hundreds of years ago.  Instead, however, I believe that Earth and Infraverse pathogens and our counterbalancing immune systems are so different that crossovers are nearly impossible.  We should have little to fear from them, nor they from us."

 

He swept his brown eyes across the wider audience, pitched his voice a bit louder, and added, "Having said that, please do inform me immediately if you begin to feel ill, or see signs of it in any living creatures we encounter.  The same incompatibility that protects us will probably also doom any natural autoimmunity defenses if a disease does manage to take hold."

 

Terrifica's addition brought only a small, vague nod of agreement, along with an evasive flicker of Tristan's eyes.  He put his hands in his jacket pockets without saying more. 

[Ari]

GM

 

Chase paused, something golden flickering in the depths of his eyes "Tess discovered similar results. That is good, as you can imagine it can be hard to corroborate findings like those. She wants to talk to you in the bio-lab once we leave." He smiled slightly, turning back to Terrifica as he scritched along the back of the blue monkey clinging to his shoulders, the animal curving impossibly and chattering appreciatively "Cosmo is coming along, so you will have plenty of time to show me how to manage the little guy. The labs aboard the Beagle's Endeavour have plenty of room, but we need to take it in shifts. I know you and Dr. Delacroix are very dedicated people, but burnout is not what this mission is about."

 

Chase turned and reached down for a large piece of luggage, part of a carefully-arranged(and tagged) assembly of the stuff being taken aboard the ship "Max is telling me the Gate should be opening in just a few minutes, so-GAH!" under his fingers, the carrying loop transformed into other, slimmer fingers, and in moments Victoria Atom was uncurling and shifting back into her usual shape, grinning evilly at her younger brother. "Boo!" she announced, one arm reaching back to fiddle with her hair, which was tied back into a series of colourful braids. Cosmo clapped gleefully, used by now to the bizarre things that he saw in the Atom Family.

 

"What'd you do with the bag that was there?!" Chase demanded, looking almost panicky "Dr. Brandtford had that, and-" Victoria's forefinger pressed against his lips "It's fine, little brother, I just put it in the back while you people were talking! Speaking of talking," Victoria pivoted, beaming at the arrivals "I'm Vicky Atom, call me V! Glad you could come with, Wayward, I'm a big fan!"

 

Chase raised an eyebrow, shoving the finger aside to ask "Since when?"

 

Thumb and forefinger pinched his lips together "Since always!" Victoria breezily shook the hands of the other superheroes, her left arm stretching like a rubber band as she moved away from Chase. She paused before the Freedom League member "Oh by the way, T wants to talk with you, Velocity, it's about making sure of the portal. Should be fine, but, just to be safe, you know." Her shoulders shrugging independent of any concept of skeleton or musculature, the green-clad Atom turned back to Wayward, nodding to the crew that had come along with her "You have any concerns or questions about your people helping us catalogue the Infraverse? We won't exactly be filming Earth or anything, but it'll require them being pretty close to unknown life-forms a lot of times."

 

Meanwhile, the Gate had begun to cycle down, the circular tunnel into another dimension beginning to clarify, the air shimmering in front of it as the picture in its spinning depths resolved into a vague, silvery something.

 

Edited January 31, 2016 by Ari

[Thevshi]

Velocity was rather at easy within the laboratory in the Nucleus, even though she was not nearly as scientifically inclined as most of the people in the room.  The yellow clad speedster had been an active hero in Freedom City for over a decade, and she had gotten to know the Atoms rather early in that time.  Chase and Victoria were only a couple years older than her. 

One month was a long time to be away from Robert and Lawrence, but it was an interesting opportunity.  A couple of years ago, it would have been all but impossible for Megan Howell to just disappear for a month (much less a week), but now her closest family knew her identity as Velocity.   

"Hey Cosmo, how you doing?"  The speedster asked as she scratched the monkey under his chin.  It was then that Victoria came over to her.  "Sure thing."  She replied, before she was gone in a blur yellow, appearing over next to Tess Atoms. 

"What’s up Tess?"

[Ari]

GM

 

Tesla Atom looked up from her console stationed a respectful distance from the Gateway and smiled at Velocity. Her normally loose shoulder-length brown hair was tied back into a bun, her red and grey morphic molecule uniform obviously bolstered and laden with small bits and pieces of technology that looked both complicated and useful, the second-oldest Atom was the total opposite of her casual sister and stark and spare younger brother. "Hi! Thanks for coming up, sorry to bother you with something like this before we've even begun, Velocity, but when the Gate stabilizes its quantum tunnel could you run back and forth from here to the Beagle's Endeavour?"

 

Raising a hand in reassurance(and forming a nucleonic replica to continue the fine tappings, turnings and slides the control panel needed), Tesla went on "Nothing should happen, but I want to be totally sure it will work not just once, but as many times as needed. We've usually gone to the Infraverse when Max shrunk too far trying to escape something, or when we get caught in a dimensional rift, which is more than I like to say. A hundred or so time should do it, and the Beagle's Endeavour has wonderful, grippy yet giving floors. If it opens in the right place, nothing should smack you in the face when you get to the other side either!"

[Tiffany Korta]

Daphne wasn’t quite sure why she had been chosen to be the missions reporter, but gosh darn if she wasn’t going to be the best reporter she could. She’d been following everyone around for most of the morning making copious note and taking pictures of everything going on around them.

She didn’t need her empathic powers to tell that people were quite nervous, though they certainly helped, but she was quite calm herself. It helped that she’d actually visited the teeny-tinyverse, or whatever the proper name was, before and had some idea of what to expect. Though it hadn’t needed quite so much preparation that time and was a lot more unexpected.

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica smiled at Chase, some of her anxiety falling away. He reminded her of some of her students. “I’m sure you can handle it, Mr. Atom. I have the utmost faith in you.” Her smile slipped into her customary smirk. “Not to worry, though. I may be an obsessive workaholic, but I both know and respect the value of sleep. Additionally, if I simply switch subjects, one gives me a rest from the other and I never become tired.” Her expression became thoughtful.  “Though, come to think of it, I don’t know what burnout feels like. I should, by now, but I don’t. Interesting.” It wasn’t a situation that particularly called for serious business, so the Atom family’s antics were amusing instead of annoying. I hope my children will be this at ease with each other when they’re older. She sighed. They do grow up so fast. It was just yesterday Lucas was learning to speak and Meilin was learning to crawl.

[Blarghy]

With a short nod, Tristan watched the conversation branch off, away from him.  He didn't mind; he took the time to wrestle with his nerves again.  Meeting Tesla Atom!  As the giants from his childhood swarmed around him, he felt more strongly the sense of accomplishment and moving forward than elitist schools or the FCI ever gave him. 

 

He had time before needing to visit the lab, though, so the doctor slipped away from the others and went to have a better look at the Gate.  The technology involved here was probably a bit beyond him, but he knew enough to feel appreciation--and anyone could marvel at a human-made hole in the universe, educated or not.  From a respectable distance and out of the way of any technicians, Tristan watched the silver swirls and smiled. 

[Thevshi]

Great, human lab rat, that's me.  Velocity thought to herself as Tess explained what she needed from the speedster.  But she just gave the older woman a small smile at the mention of nothing smacking her in the face if she ended up at the right place.  "That is always a plus."  

"But sure thing, no problem.  A little over a hundred trips through the gate, should only take a few moments.  Just let me know when the gate is ready."  The Freedom League member then added, standing upright and readying herself to make the high speed trips through the gateway.

[Ari]

GM

 

From behind, Tristan heard a familiar jovial voice. "Watch yourself, Dr. Delacroix, when she stablizes ther can be a bit of a backwash" a large, strong hand guided the biologist to a safer angle "but it's a pretty good show, I got to admit." Smiling proudly at the resolving shapes in the portal, Maximus Atom, wearing the usual blue outfit that hugged his brawny frame, nodded to his sister "My end's ready, Tess! Good to go when you are!"

 

"A little ahead of schedule, Max" Tesla commented with a frown that even Velocity's quick eyes barely caught "but I'm ready. On three. One..." Tilting a lever slowly forward, Tesla Atom watched the formulae scrolling by on a nearby screen "...two..." 

 

Something was changing in the air, its very texture suddenly noticeable subtly different. A faint howling sang at the edge of hearing, and the lights dimmed until they were struggling as if through a fog.

 

"Three!"

 

Tristan was more than close enough to see it happen, the moment when Earth-Prime was connected with the Infraverse. An invisible shockwave burst through the Gate, the faint howling rising to a roar that left the ears ringing even as the pressure differential sent a sheet of air right through the doctor's clothes. The previously faint and warped shapes of silver were now crystal clear as the twisting and muscle-like walls of a shining transport chamber in another dimension.

 

Recovering from the burst with aplomb and a clap on Delacroix's back, Max hoisted some of the luggage on his back "Alright! Great work, Tess, now let's get loading and ready to go! Everyone carry luggage and one piece of spare equipment, please! I'll show you where it goes!"

 

"Maximus!"

 

In her brilliant golden aura, Tesla darted from her console, barring the way between her brother and the Gate with a force field "Did you really forget a plan we'd been talking about two minutes ago? Nobody's going through that portal until we know it works on living people!"

 

Looking sheepish, the eldest Atom nodded and stepped back as he said "Oh, yeah. Sorry people! Sorry Tesla, got carried away."  

 

"No harm done." Shrugging off the false-start, Tesla Atom opened a circle in her wall to the Gate, gesturing to Velocity "When you're ready, go on in."

 

It looked like nothing more than going to another room. Rarely were looks ever more deceiving than in the Gateway.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Ari
Just terrible

[Thevshi]

Wow!  Way to make me feel that there is nothing to worry about here Tess.  Velocity thought to herself as she watched the scene between the two oldest Atoms play out in front of her.  But she could not help but smile slightly at interplay between the two. 

When Tess gave her the okay, the yellow clad speedster gave a small smile and a thumbs up.  "Sure thing, this should only take a couple seconds."  She stated, before she became a blur of yellow, running into the portal and too the area beyond and back again dozens of times before anyone could fully register that she had moved….

[EternalPhoenix]

Velocity thought that no one could see her move, and that wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Terrifica’s eyes were sharp and her mind faster than most peoples’, but even she could only catch a slight blurring as the speedster raced back and forth through the portal. One of these days I’ll have to build something that lets me do that. It is incredible. She hadn’t really moved far after entering the chamber, instead choosing to observe everything inside. It was the first time she’d been in the Atoms’ residence and laboratory combination, and she wanted to observe as much as possible about their experimental procedures, safety protocols, and general knowledge levels. What she saw…acceptable, although with room for improvement. Not that she would say so. She was confident she had not observed enough to be certain of her conclusions just yet. And besides, there was no imminent danger that she saw coming through careless work. No need to upset anyone with her preferences, as long as the minimum standard was being met.

[Blarghy]

"Room for improvement" described Tristan's reaction too, upon hearing that this was the first human trial--or perhaps even first organic trial, since the Atoms had made no mention of animal testing.  He'd rather risk the lives of mice before putting people through an unknown device, and he'd have done both prior to the day of the actual launch.  It'd be terribly embarrassing to have one's work fail in front of spectators.

 

Velocity would be able to see, slow-motion, the initial twist of surprise that came over his face, followed by each syllable that moved like a glacier, inching along during her many trips. 

 

"Ma...

 

"...y...

 

"...be...

 

"...we...

 

"...sh...

 

"...ou..."

 

He drifted off when his brain registered that the matter was already out of his hands.  Hopefully the doctor could respond with relief, rather than horror at some kind of bloody malfunction. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Daphne was in the process of working out how much she should stay undercover, a girl reporter shouldn’t be able to lift heavy weights even an intrepid one, when the problem was quickly taken out of everyone hands. That helpful left more time for her to consider other more important possible dangers to this mission.

 

“Erm exactly how much damage could it do any kind of organic matter? And what about electronic devices?”

She didn’t want herself of Mother Unit getting hurt by this thing, especially as neither of them were not exactly normal.

[Blue Rose]

The entire affair leaves Valerie speechless.  The crowds, the hype, those she could handle.  Those she can play to.  But this?  All these circuits and quantum whatsits and techy... things.  It would make just as much sense if a wizard came in, wiggled her fingers, and made a magic portal.  Heck, that would be easier to believe.

 

Even when Vicky talks to her, she's distracted and out of it.  She never treats a pretty girl like that!  Especially not a fan!  But all she can think is that she dropped out of high school at fourteen to play guitar in Central Park.  It sends her head swimming and everything seems to process a minute too slow.  But something strikes her as odd when they start talking to the pretty brunette.  Velocity?  Yeah, Velocity, Val's heard of her.

 

This is the first human trial?  She's a lab rat?

 

It isn't until Tesla Atom starts talking about Velocity like a thing rather than a person that the world snaps back to.  This, she understands.  People so lost in their work, their world, their selves that they forget people are people.

 

She clenches her first, but waits for Velocity to finish.  She doesn't know what Tesla's doing at that board.  It might not be safe to interrupt just yet.

 

But when Velocity stops?  Val starts walking, marching her way right up to Tesla.  She taps her on the shoulder and wham!  One right hook, right in the kisser.  "That is NOT how you talk to a lady!  She's putting her neck on the line to test your new toy and you can't even be bothered to notice she's a person?  What is wrong with you?  Someone steps up for you like that, you will treat them with some respect!  Now apologize to that poor woman for treating her like a lab rat."

 

With that, she turns and walks away, shaking her head, then takes a cleansing breath, blows a lock of hair out of her eyes that just falls right back, and returns to the group.  "I'm sorry you all had to see that."  Finally, she walks up to Velocity.  "And I'm very sorry I didn't step in sooner.  Are you okay?"

[Ari]

GM

 

The hundred-odd trips were, from Velocity's perspective, remarkably uneventful. Just a blur of the dark silver room of the glowship with its pulsating walls and red sky visible through a nearby eccentrically-shaped viewscreen, then the red-blue rush back to the stark Gateway. Then back to the ship, then back to the Gateway, then back, then forth.

 

Only once did something unusual happen, and it was during the brief trips back to Earth-Prime. She distinctly heard a man's voice say, very surprised "Bounce! What was-?" But then it was gone, and nothing else interrupted the lightning-fast commutes between dimensions. 

 

The last one took her back just in time to see Wayward walk up and punch Tesla Atom in the face. The other woman stumbled back, holding her mouth and looking in bafflement at the showbiz heroine as she sharply reprimanded her, then went to check on Velocity. The people from ASTRO Labs, shocked briefly into silence by Valerie's unexpected outrage, began muttering amongst each other dubiously.

 

The reaction from the Atoms was varied, but subdued. Maximus looked awkward, Victoria shrugged and headed quickly over to Wayward, while Chase raised his head sharply when the attack happened but after a rapid exchange of looks between he and Tesla went back to setting up the bags he was bringing along.

 

"Let's leave them to it, doctor." Maximus adivsed Tristan in a low voice. Louder he called "Let's get going, people!" Growing to twice his normal size, the Atom hefted his gear onto his back and shoulders, stepping through the Gate into the ship beyond. The technicians and researchers eagerly picked their things up and began to follow. A chiming sound echoed around the Gateway as each person marched through the portal, causing lights and shadows to flicker and distort almost as much as Victoria Atom's body as she swung over the procession of people and supplies to Wayward and Velocity, extending her legs and collapsing into them to "land" noiselessly beside the pair.

 

"Hey, uh..Mz. Caine?" Victoria said with a slight frown "If you think there's a problem, could you not hit me or my family over it? Tess would've stopped it at once if she knew you or Velocity or anyone was worried. And the Nuclo-Something isn't new, we-"

 

Tesla's voice cut in "We have gotten entirely too insular, Victoria." The woman was smearing something over her lips, which shrank the bruises, clotted the blood and sealed the cuts with remarkable speed. She handed three tubes of bluish goo to her sister "For when you poke something that makes your head swell up. Again. Go check on ALEX."

 

"Wayward, I am sorry," she went on, looking earnestly at Valerie "I had forgotten I wasn't just around family. The Infinite Fractal Gateway was my grandfather's work, and we've used it since we were children. What I was worried about was consistency. Opening into another dimension in the same general area is hard enough, making something that can withstand as many trips as I can imagine we'd make if we were gone a year instead of a month, onto a moving point with room for failure in only a few meters, is much more so. I admit, it was selfish and thoughtless to make her do so many. But Velocity was never in any danger I know of, at worst she'd have made only one round trip, and just gone to the other side of this room when she made the second attempt."

 

"I'm sorry to you too, and I'm very grateful you'd do that for me." Tesla added to Megan, though a flicker of curiosity sparked in her eyes "Did anything happen? Did you sense anything out of the ordinary?"

 

 

[Ari]

GM

 

"It does not do anything to organic matter." Chase explained briefly to Daphne as he shouldered his bag and glanced at his luggage, a flash of gold in his eyes bringing it floating to his side. "But sometimes sapient will can alter probability, like the probability something will or will not happen, like the probability that stepping into a portal will or will not take you somewhere else. Fiddly, but usually works out fine. Tesla worries too much. Maximus and Victoria do not listen very often to much but "not safe", either. Go-to stop phrase."

 

He glanced at the altercation between his sister and Wayward. Smiling faintly, he set out for the portal, motioning for Daphne and Terrifica to follow him as Cosmo clung and chattered exictedly to the boy's shoulder.

 

With a chime, he vanished, appearing on the other side and making his way down the corridor dimly visible through the Gate.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Ari

[Blarghy]

Displeased as he was about the lack of prior testing, Tristan was even less happy at Wayward's own reaction to it.  The punch made his eyes narrow and his mouth straighten into a thin line.  He'd never held a dislike for any superhero before, but he found himself on the edge of it now.  Protests, he could understand, and would've voiced himself if Velocity hadn't been so blindingly fast; assaulting someone over it, when the attack was out of vengeance rather than possible preventative measures, was another matter. 

 

He nonetheless obeyed Maximus. If Leviathan had been an option...well, that was irrelevant.

 

The doctor silently heaved a heavy backpack onto his narrow shoulders, struggled to find his balance under the weight, took the handles of his rolling luggage in both hands, and plodded toward the Gateway.

 

An auspicious start, he thought sarcastically to himself. 

[Thevshi]

For Velocity the scores of trips through the gateway quickly became a rather repetitive task that seemed to drag on just a bit too long, even when it lasted mere moments for everyone else.  The only thing that broke the monotony was the one return trip where she heard a man’s voice call out.  With her enhanced reflexes, the speedster had tried to slow down to see who it might be, but whatever it was gone. 

As she finished her trips, the yellow clad speedster was rather surprised to see Valerie Cain punch Tess.  Velocity just looked at the scene in slight shock, when Valerie came over toward her.  "Umm, I am fine."  She replied to Valerie.  "I appreciate the concern, but you know, I have been at this superhero thing for over a decade and have known Tess and her siblings for much of that.  I trust her not to put me in any serious danger, despite some poor choice of wording a bit ago." 

The Freedom League member then looked at Tess as she apologized and asked what had happened.  "No worries.  Everything seemed pretty ordinary, except for about the sixty-third of sixty-fourth time I was coming back, I heard a man's voice talking to someone almost as if he had somehow seen me.  But I did not see anything."

[Blue Rose]

Val rubs the back of her neck, feeling even more out of place than before, if that's possible.  After all, what do you say to, 'Please don't punch my family?'  The fact that the person she just clocked seems the most understanding just makes it weird.

 

"I'm sorry."  She meets Tess's eyes as she apologizes, "Things hit a little close to home, and I got out of control."  Meeting Vicky and Velocity's eyes is beyond her at the moment, so it's time to busy herself elsewhere.

 

She turns and calls back to her camera crew, "I want all footage of that deleted!  No need to air dirty laundry, and dueling PR departments aren't gonna help anybody."  She looks to the other camera crew, "That goes to you all, too."

 

Last but not least, she walks up to the plucky girl reporter.  "Hey, could you please keep quiet about that bit of unpleasantness?  Looks like we've sorted it out, and bringing it back up would really just be unnecessary grief for all involved."

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica didn’t object to Velocity’s treatment for two very specific reasons. One, she was a member of the Freedom League, a competent group if ever there was one. As such if Velocity had any objects she could very well voice them herself. Terrifica wasn’t her mother or any other blood relative. Not even so much as a friend. Two, hadn’t the Atoms been through this Gate several times on their own private expeditions? One would think that would be more than enough time to iron out any lethal problems with the technology. Therefore, when Wayward slugged Tesla Atom, it took her a fraction of a second longer than usual to understand why. First she was furious, but her train of though kept a movin’, and she understood where the musician must be coming from. She did not, however follow Maximus through the Gate and paid minimal attention to Chase’s beckoning. Instead, she sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her index and middle fingers. Why is it that everywhere I go there’s some overly emotional idiot around? I am tired of babysitting those who should know better. My children are better behaved, and they aren’t old enough for school yet. She sighed. She wanted to grab Wayward by the collar and lecture her for the next hour. What she settled for was an observational approach. There really is no escape from idiots, is there? I can’t let my guard down for one day.Sighing, Terrifica finally moved from her spot and through the Gate.