Summary:Ted, Amora, and Carol go into space to deal with the threat of robo-beetles Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It was the day they had arranged for their mission up into space. Ted had greeted his two comrades in the journey at Avengers' Mansion. He - and Carol if she wished - had escorted Amora up toward the roof, where the Bug waited. There, two space suits waited, one for him and one for Amora, to safeguard them against the rigours of space. Carol had, of course, declined one.
From his stammering and love-lorn looks, it was immediately obvious to anybody paying the least bit of attention that Ted had a bad case of the Amoras, though he was professional enough to mostly stay on task, to get things prepared for their launch and, then, to get them underway.
The Bug rapidly ascended through the atmosphere and soon enough shrugged off the last of earth's envelope. It soared through the heavens, Ted laying in a course for a a glittering array of floating debris in orbit. He was strapped into the pilot's seat, accustomed enough to zero gravity to show no ill effects. He narrated for his associates, "The old Molinya satellites, which were supposed to have fallen into the atmosphere, have been stashed in that space junk. They've been hidden in plain sight. Just a bit of tricky piloting to get there, but it shouldn't be a problem…"
Famous last words.
Carol looks pretty relaxed, but then space is old hat for her. The only real thing that makes her slightly twitchy is that someone else is doing the flying. She does, however, glance over at Amora, giving the other blonde a grin, "So, how often does an Asgardian get to outer space?" She might follow up with a comment, but then Ted makes the announcement about tricky piloting, causing her to glance towards him. She doesn't ask if he wants to let her take over, instead just looking a bit curiously at him instead.
Amora, for her part, has subtly encouraged Ted's infatuation with her shows of interest and praise, without ever overtly returning or even promising any of said feeling. It's hard to tell if she's just being polite or if she's toying with him. It could honestly be both. It could also just be habit on her part to stoke flames of this nature.
Amora accepts the suit - tailored and everything! That's… impressive, and possibly concerning! - as while her people are hardy, she's rather not test her ability to endure space travel right now - especially on Midgardian technology - and oxygen is still conceivably an issue.
She gives Carol a curious look, as though she'd not expected her to take interest in her, before giving an amused smile, "I fear my people have taken great pains to… 'skip' the space portion of travel." She grins slightly, "Though I've heard rumor of Prince Thor hurling himself into orbit more than once-" She stops with a surprised look when they leave the atmosphere, feeling the sudden weightlessness with surprise and delight. "Oh! Oh my…" Free levitation! That's novel! And she doesn't even have to lift herself with magic.
She merely smiles at Ted's warning, saying "I'm sure we're in good hands~" Though she grips the arm-rest just a BIT tighter.
Fortunately for Carol's nerves, Ted seems to be a good pilot. The early phase of the trip is easy for him, and he offers Amora an affectionate, puppydog sort of smile at her pleased exclamation. Still, soon enough they are getting to the hairy part of the trip and he needs to focus on the task at hand. Well, mostly. He manages to flush to Amora's comment and yet to brave giving a wink if he catches her eye. But then his lack of focus brings the Bug uncomfortably close to a spinning bit of debris, and he refocuses.
He navigates through the debris field without any other close shaves, until, as the target satellite begins looming larger before them, a cylindrical object with a red hammer and sickle on it may draw some notice. A red light atop the cylinder illuminates and a portion of the cylinder's covering retracts. A focused laser beam lances through space, scorching against the side of the Bug.
Ted banks hard to one side, rolling away from the laser blast. Elsewhere in the debris field, other red lights on other cylindrical objects flare into life. "Hey! Those weren't on the brochure!" he protests.
Carol looks at the interaction between Ted and Amora, and can't help but grin a bit. Then she blinks, "Okay, well, old school Soviet Union defenses. That's different."
At Ted's exclamation, she goes to mostly business, though doesn't look too concerned, "I'm going to hop out the airlock, shouldn't take too long." She gives Amora a bit of a wave, and hops into the airlock, closing it behind her so the air pressure seal is tight.
And she doesn't have a suit, either…
Amora winces sharply at the first close call, and determines that she should, perhaps, let the pilot drive undistracted, until the near their destination. Amora leans sideways in her seat to look out into the debrie field, her brow raising as the first red light flares to life. "… Is that normal-" She starts to ask before the first laser beam lances out towards the ship, prompting a sharp yelp of alarm.
Amora doesn't have a warrior's instincts, she does not snap into action, but she's alert enough that she's not panicking, and is able to process when her fellow passenger pitches herself into space. Staring wide-eyed, Amora says. "… Ted, I think your friend just… died?" She says, voice faint with pure confusion, before more and more beams of light begin to form. "… Hela." She mutters, reluctant looking towards the exit hatch. "Keep this ship in one piece." She says quickly before she follows after Carol, a green aura briefly flaring to life around her legs as she begins using her power to levitate.
It is… profoundly disorienting to realize that there is no longer any such thing as 'up or down' as she's grown ccustomed to, but she at least knows where the offending blasts are in relation to her, and grits her teeth as she manuevers her hands around each other in a slightly complex manner before hurling a green bolt of concussive force at the nearest target.
Ted glances back toward the airlock and then over toward Amora. "It's okay - she's… okay!" he assures the Asgardian. "And don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you!" It's one thing to pilot through the debris field - it's quite another to roll and bank to evade enemy fire in it. Still, Ted manages to avoid one laser sweep, and then another, while only smashing one of the Bug's legs against a piece of debris. The gash in the leg that is created fortunately has no implications for the hull - it is largely a decorative piece.
With the other two deployed out of the Bug, floating in the vacuum of space, they are confronted with six of the armed satellites, ringing the prize. Fire is mostly focused on the Bug, forcing Ted to withdraw to a greater distance. And yet one has turned its attention on Carol. Another panel slides open and a blast of microwave radiation lashes out at her!
Carol doesn't even try to dodge the microwave blast. However, it doesn't even phase her, as she just absorbs the radiation from the blast, then unleashes a blast from her fists to fry the satellite that shot at her.
With that, she launches into action, flying through space without any problem as she blasts another satellite that's shooting at the Bug, twirling nimbly to avoid additional blasts from the Russian DefSats. Leaving a trail of light in her wake as she definitely works at trying to get their attention.
Amora just… stares at this display, blinking once slowly. "… Oh." She says bluntly, watching Carol work, and looks away awkwardly. Suddenly it occurs to her that she may just be putting the structural integrity of her life preserving suit in danger. She glances askew at the retreating ship, and takes a deep calming breath, before her eyes give a flare of green light.
Oh well, in for a penny.
As Carol diverts their fire, Amora begins hurling bolts of magical force at the numerous offending sattellites, gravitating towards them at a slower but more controlled pace, as she directs herself through space rather than simply propelling forward, trying to destroy their attackers, hopefully, before they think to attack her or her ride home again.
The satellites explode with satisfying displays, though there is no sound to accompany the explosions. In the deathly silence of space, the woman and the Asgardian work. Carol obliterates two of the satellites and Amora's inital blast destroys a third.
Having drawn back slightly, the Bug whirls around on its central axis and emits a pulse of its own. There is no satisfying explosion with that one, though. The electromagnetic pulse is invisible and the satellite struck simply… stops working. The red light fades and a door that was sliding open simply hangs halfway drawn.
The other two satellites exhibit a change in tactics. From the open doors in their bodies bursts missles - four lancing through space, weaving at increasing speed through the debris field - not to strike any of the attackers, but to scuttle the satellite the DefSats had been protecting.
Captain Marvel blinks, "Oh no you don't…!" She flies forward, firing two blasts of energy to destroy two of the missiles, as she shouts on the comm, "Amora! Can you get the other two?" She rockets towards the satellite that is the goal of the team.
Amora's eyes go wide with alarm as the sattelites change tactics, and she moves to the main satellite as fast as her magic can propel her, having stayed closer to it while Carol was diverting attention. Moving her hands and fingers in an elaborate fashion, and breathing heavily, Amora replies with a strained call of "No need! Don't move!" Before she throws her arms out to either side of her, and a clear greenish dome of light appears around both women and the sattellite, intending to absorb the blasts of the oncoming missiles, a bead of sweat running down Amora's face fromt he effort involved.
The missles are powerful - each not quite as strong as a blow of divine origin, but the green forcefield shudders as Amora keeps the explosions abay from the satellite that now the heroes are forced to protect. Whether Amora could maintain the forcefield from another blow is a very uncertain question.
The Bug swings closer still, sweeping its face past one of the two remaining satellites. There is another silent discharge of electromagnetism - a scattering of metallic debris away from that path hinting at the invisible beam - and that satellite goes dark as well.
The last remaining satellite launches two more missles from its rack, these diverging to lance toward the prize at different angles of approach.
Carol smiles over at Amora, "Nice!" She grins and charges up… if the missiles do break the field, she's going to be ready to obliterate them. Hopefully, anyway. She does toss Amora a friendly wink, looking ready to do what needs to be done.
"Heh…" Amora gives a short strained chuckle in response to Carol, visibly tired by the effort, only to heave a sigh as the satellite fires again. "It *must* have a limited amount of these, surely…!" She half growls as she wheels around the the opposite side of the main satellite from Carol, looking to destroy one of the divergent missiles with a magic blast, leaving the other to Carol
The green blast of energy serves as an effective countermeasure, causing the missle to explode a distance from the satellite. The other? Carol waits to see if it brings down Amora's forcefield, and it does. The third missle strike rattles the projected energy of the Enchantress and leaves the communications satellite defenceless.
Fortunately, Ted is able to wheel the Bug around to face the last remaining satellite. Unless Carol beats him to it, the Bug unleashes a debris-repellant blast and the last guardian's red light goes dark. All is quiet and still in space now, save the rattling debris scattering outward into space. Meanwhile, the Bug swoops in toward Amora, the outer airlock door retracting, inviting a return to the ship.
If Amora lets her, Carol places a hand on her arm, "Good work. Seriously." She smiles at Amora, and gestures, "I'm fine out here, but we should probably get you back to the ship, okay? Sorry, I thought you knew what I could do…" A bit of a shrug at that, as she waves over at Ted with her other hand.
Amora offers Carol a genuine little smile and says "Thank you, mortal." with zero self awareness, nodding once as Carol goes on. "Yes, well. I'm fairly new to this realm. But you acquitted yourself admirably. She says, "But yes, I'd rather not test my phsyiology against space just yet." She agrees, and lets Carol lead her back into the ship, as right now she could probably only do the magical-levitation equivlanet of limping if she did it on her own. She may have to get more accostumed to using her magic under stress. She's usually had all the time in the world to weave her little miracles.
Ted watches the approach of the others, and how they mouth their words at one another - and Amora is brought into the airlock while Carol waits in the familiar vacuum of space. The airlock cycles and pressurizes before the inner door opens. And Amora gets quite an undignified greeting.
The spacesuits he made are better than those available to governments, but they're still quite thick. It at least makes for extra layers of buffering as the Asgardian finds herself confronted with Ted, impulsive in the wake of the intensity of combat. He seeks to drag her into a relieved hug, bumping face shields with her, as he asks, "Are you okay? You were *amazing*."
Outside of the Bug, Carol has no indication about the awkward display likely unfolding inside. Soon enough, they will get back to the mission. Probably.
Carol says, "Hey, Ted? Everything okay in there?" She flies around and takes point, since… well, if there's going to be ornery defense satellites from the Cold War out here, might as well give them a nice glowing target to shoot at.
Plus this gives her a chance to examine the satellite they were wanting to retrieve a little closer. She might not be the most adept science wiz, but she's got game. Just ask Fury about his pager.
Amora offers Carol a brief fingerwave before the hatch closes, then puts a hand to her chest with a little sigh. "Haaa. If this is typical of space travel, I can see why my people chose to-EEE!" She yelps slightly as Ted hugs her, giving an awkward smile that soon turns to an expertly practiced smile of warmth as she, nontheless-somewhat awkwardly pats Ted's shoulder. "Yes, well. Thank you, Ted." She smiles. "I'm fortunate I was able to focus under duress. I'm so rarely involved in such incidents. I-" Carol speaks to them then, and she chances a step back. "We're fine" She answers brightly, if a bite tiredly, "Is the satellite intact? I'd still like to get a look at it, if I can."
Ted draws back from the hug after a moment, touch lingering through the suits, but Carol drags him back to the here and now. Without broadcasting over the comms, he informs Amora, "I promise, no defense satellites on our space-date!" He offers a full, easy grin at that and then turns to head back to the controls, appearing in the yellow glass of the bug's left eye. He gets over the comm to say, "Satellite's all in one piece. Just gotta go on over…"
He pilots the Bug nearer. Robot arms unfurl from the underside and in short order the tools on the end of the arms open an access port to the old soviet-era technology. A brief trip through the airlock is enough to grant access to Amora and Ted, while Carol can make her own way inside easily enough.
The inside is perhaps of greater interest to a scientific mind than a mystical one. The place is cramped and economical in design, as a soviet satellite might be expected to be. There are blinking lights and printouts - it looks like a garden variety communications satellite. Whatever alterations have been done do not have a physical manifestation, at least to an initial assessment.
Carol hmms, gliding in through a side airlock to rejoin the others, floating easily in space as she seems to have no problems moving around in zero-G. "So, what exactly are we looking for… everything looks like it should be, as far as I can tell?" She glances at Ted, cocking her head a bit and trying not to grin as she's been noticing the looks Ted gives Amora.
Trying, however, is not the same as doing.
Amora's arms are crossed, curiosity tinged with disappointment as the initial once over reveals nothing she can interpret for the sake of their mission. That said, one does not install a laser defense system for nothing, but that could mean anything from 'the secrets here are Ted's domain alone' to 'Midgard politics are dangerous and baffling.' Still, she has at least one idea. "It's possible they've hidden it from plain sight. Hold on a moment." She says, sinking to one knee and tracing her fingers over the floor, leaving a trail of green light as she goes. "I may be able to draw out or at least… highlight anything of a magical nature here, if there's any to be found." She purses her lips. "I dare not make TOO powerful a spell for fear of… well." She gestures outward with a shrug, "Breaking anything." She speaks gingerly as she carefully finishes her work, "But… it's… worth… a… try." She smiles slightly, bringing two fingers to her lips… and encountering the dome of her helmet instead. "Hmm." She pushes as bit and brings her lips to the dome, seeming to ignite a green light on her finger tips, which she then presses to the middle of the circle. She stands up with a satisfied smile, and then blinks. "Mmm. Anyone with human eyes may want to avert their ga-" And then there's a brilliant flash of green light that seems to wash over the interior of the satellite, rippling outward in every direction.
Ted's goggle-glass isn't just for the fashion statement (and what a fashion statement they are!). He's able to continue looking despite the flash of mystical light that washes through the satellite… to no effect. If there was anything magical aboard, there would have been some indication for Amora, but all there is is the cold, indifferent hum of human machinery.
He watches before giving a faint, "Hm." at the lack of revelation. A hand moves to lightly pat Amora's shoulder. "Sorry," he relates. "I figured there'd be something of interest… but we couldn't have gotten into this place without you!" As far as he was concerned, this was all the Amora show, after all. Even if it was, more than anyone's, Carol's jam.
Ted drifts over toward a computer console and he hits a key. The screen flickers to monochrome life and he smiles beneath the dome of his mask. "It all seems to be just like it should be… but that's the point. The satellite's just been repurposed for use by these other beetles." He pulls a piece of computerized hardware from a pouch in his suit and then he sets to plugging it into the computer and attaching it via an adhesive to the panel. He keys in a few more strokes in the computer and he chuckles. "80s software encryption is so *cute*," he notes. Then smoothly but not really gracefully spinning around where he floats, he says, "Okay, I think we're mission complete here. I've got access!" He glances back and forth between the other two and arches his brows. "You both ready to go back?" he asks.
Carol grins, "Sure. I'll fly outside on the way down though, just in case there's any more surprises… not going to be able to do much from inside the Bug anyway." She chuckles, "See you both down on the ground!" And with that, she glides easily out of the satellite, flying around to hover near the Bug to keep watch.
Amora retains that pose for several seconds, pressing her lips very tightly together, and gradually seems to deflate. She grunts faintly as Ted pats her shoulder, and tries to pinch the bridge of her nose. She can't, though, she's wearing a spacesuit, and that just makes her more agitated.
How embarrassing.
"… Yes, of course." She answers, "Let us leave this dreadful place." and follows Ted back to the ship