ic Crystal History

[Heritage]

Much to her embarrassment, Casey actually squealed when the tiny creature leaped at her; it in no way actually hurt her, but the sudden darting action was not unlike a small mouse leaping at her, and well, she flew up into the air, stopping just short of hitting the ceiling.

 

"Oh my goodness! I feel so silly!" Miracle Girl then got a very determined look on her face as she dropped to the ground and in an impossibly fast move snatched up the miniature lizard and cupped it in her hands, much like she used to do with fireflies as a kid. "We need to find something to put him in, like a metal box!"

Edited June 13, 2017 by Heritage

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica came forward at Miracle Girl’s squeal, only to see her protégé holding the small crystal dino securely in her hands. “Ah. So you’re all right. That’s…good.” She said nothing at all about an infinitely brief moment of wondering if she’d sent Miracle Girl to her death. “Can you hold it steady? I’d like to take a look at it.” She came fully into the bathroom, and took an instant (a bit longer for her mind, but whatever) to appreciate the comedy in two women and miniature dinosaur sharing a bathroom. She smiled briefly, amused, and then reached into her belt for her tools. Only to pause and then leave them there. "No. This is an active crime scene. We should go. The Hanover Institute of Technology should have what we need. There was a box in the other room. Use that to carry him." She smiled slightly. "You may need your hands later."

Edited June 19, 2017 by EternalPhoenix

[Heritage]

"Oh, right, the fancy box he kept the crystals in!" Casey nodded vigorously and made ready to leave the room, but the stopped. "Oh, you might want to take a sample of that crystal on the wall; it looks like the little guy was making it somehow." The blonde heroine closed one eye and then fired a quick blast of her heat vision a few inches away from the crystal to mark it with a small scorch mark.  "Right there." She then floated into the previous room, and then with a burst of speed stuffed the dino into one of the padded compartments of the case and snapped the lid shut. Looking around the room, she muttered to herself. "Great, we're taking evidence from a crime scene. Maybe I should leave a note: 'IOU one wooden box'."

 

Finally she floated back to Terrifica, one eyebrow raised inquisitively. "Need a lift back out?"

[Raveled]

The pair of heroes exited the way they came in, cutting a wide berth around the Campbell estate before cutting back west above Hanover. They landed in HIT and easily got access to one of the upper-level labs; the university was quite used to superheroes showing up with something that needed to be examined or analyzed. Terrifica quickly determined that the crystals on the edge of the bathtub were the same sort and same color as the ones that Arthur Campbell had recorded in his notes.
 

The real surprised came when they opened the box. The dinosaur wasn't inside -- instead there was an egg of pure, deep purple crystal! It exactly fit the dimensions in Arthur Campbell's notes, and after chipping a tiny piece off Terrifica was able to examine it and see the same sort of hard angles in the crystalline structure. It seemed that for whatever reason, the dinosaur was able to turn at least the dripping water in Campbell's old bathtub into the same material as itself, and had reverted to some egg-state when placed inside the box.

[Heritage]

Casey just stood there and blinked for a few seconds "What the- ? Now that is just plain weird! Do you think it can switch back and forth at will?" She gingerly reached into the crate and pulled the egg back out and carefully placed it in front of her mentor for her examination.  "Wow; this adds a whole new dimension to the classic 'chick or the egg' debate, huh?"

 

...yeah, it sounded a lot funnier in her head.

 

No more 'yolks', Case; stick to bustin' heads!

Edited July 4, 2017 by Heritage

[EternalPhoenix]

“Possibly, yes.” Miracle Girl had known Terrifica long enough to be able to tell she’d raised an eyebrow under her mask. “It was the chicken, for the record. A proto-chicken. Before that, well…I’d be getting into the fossil record and we’d be here all night.” Yes, even a bad joke could be turned into a teachable moment. Terrifica even had opinions on the cavemen versus astronaut debate. It depended on what branch of the military the astronauts came from. Army and Marines had better combat training than the Navy and Air Force. With the exception of the SEALs and various special operations groups, of course.

 

…moving on, then… “Can you hand me that scanner, please? I’d like to see if it is actually inside the egg rather than shapeshifted.”

[Raveled]

Some quick scans confirmed that the dinosaur had not merely cocooned itself inside more crystal. The entire egg was uniform and unchanging  -- the dinosaur now was the crystal egg, somehow reverted back during the grip. That explained, at least, why there hadn't been any 'eggshells' in Arthur Campbell's study, but why had it changed back? And how?

[Heritage]

"This thing is too weird," stated Casey matter-of-factly as she shook her head and paced up and down, arms folded across her chest. "How can something shift between being living thing and an inanimate object? Where does its brain go, or any of it's organs? How can it stay alive underground for thousands of years under all that pressure? Is it even alive?"

 

That thought stopped the blonde teenager in her tracks. "Wait a minute; what if it only looks alive? What if it's, like, alien nanotech or molecular machines that can shift between states? Maybe it's just so advanced that it looks like its alive!"

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica tapped her foot. She had theories. She alwayshad theories. “So, it shapeshifted back into the egg form. A response being back in the case?” She spoke out loud for Miracle Girl’s benefit. “Very little is impossible at the moment, we’re still gathering data. There are more things on Heaven and Earth, Miracle Girl, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” She pointed at a butterfly design on the far wall. “Some species of caterpillars, once they cocoon, almost entirely dissolve inside before reforming into a butterfly. There are some profoundly odd species living by volcanically active vents on the ocean floor. It could very well be that it is a synthetic organism. However, until we have proof, we cannot rule out that it is living, at least in our Earth-centric definition of the term.”

[Raveled]

The question of the egg on the table was a conundrum that continued to evolve before their eyes. As they watched, the egg of crystal shivered and separated, legs and claws and tail and head becoming distinct and uncurling from the main body. In moments the egg had returned to the shape of the dinosaur, standing on the lab table. It looked up at Terrifica and Miracle Girl, squawked at them, and then leapt down lightly to the floor. The creature retreated from the heroes, its crystal toes making tiny click-clack-click sounds on the tile as it went.

[Heritage]

"Oh no you don't, mister," scolded Casey as she snatched the tiny creature back up in her hands. "We can't have you running loose around the lab!" Holding the miniature therapod once again, she thought back over the facts in the case so far; the scratch marks, this little guy playing with the water and turning it to crystal, Terrifica's mentioning of a 'strange death.' A distrurbing picture began to appear, and she found herself unconciously holding the creature at arm's length.

 

"You never said how the victim died. Was the fluid in his body somehow...turned to crystal?"

Edited August 27, 2017 by Heritage

[EternalPhoenix]

“Apparently.” Terrifica was both pleased and amused by her protégé’s vague alarm. “Some of his blood, at the very least. That was going to be my next stop. The morgue’s security is…rather lax, considering the importance of its contents.” She put away the tools they had been using, and then offered the open wooden box. “The next step, as I said, was to find out exactly how he died. Then, we find out where he got this box and the contents from. Finally, we make sure no one else can be killed in the same way by these creatures.” She paused, considering. “The methodology will have to be figured out as we go, but I do have a few ideas.” She held the box out. “Shall we?”